Plantation and village in coastal Guyana, 1887–1969: conflict or complementarity?

This study of livelihood patterns in a single rice village of coastal Guyana from 1887 to the present stresses economic and ecological linkages between the village and nearby sugar cane plantations. In the village of Bush Lot, typically populated by descendants of indentured plantation labourers from India, problems of maintaining drainage and irrigation canals have been compounded by a lack of village labour coordination. Varying yields from the community's ricefields have been affected by recurring drought and flood, so the villagers have never been full-time subsistence farmers. Rather, they have worked seasonally on the nearby plantations to supplement village farming activities. This part-time estate work has tended to inhibit social and political solidarity within Bush Lot. The plantations have coped better with water control than have villages. Nevertheless, the cane estates have depended upon nearby villages for seasonal labour. Although agricultural technology and scale of production have changed dramatically during the psst century, plantations and villages of the Guyanese coastal plain remain closely interlinked.     

The Wharram Research Project: Results to 1983

CONTINUING ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION of the church, manor house, parsonage and peasant homes of a deserted medieval village has widened into a multidisciplinary enquiry into the evolution of the total landscape of the two parishes bearing the name of Wharram which once contained six villages, now reduced to two. The microtopography of the medieval site is related to its antecedents, and the post-desertion settlement pattern to renewed arable farming on the Wolds without the re-creation of villages.     

乡村振兴视角下传统村落活态性特征及作用机制研究

基于传统村落活态性内涵,从村落人口、物质遗产以及非物质遗产3个方面构建传统村落活态性评价指标体系。通过访谈问卷、实地踏勘、文献查阅等方法获取数据,根据发展路径的差异划分传统村落类型,对分属旅游发展型、传统技艺型、综合开发型和生活服务型的湖南省永州市4个传统村落活态性进行测度。结果表明：①失活现象在各类型传统村落中较为普遍;②不同类型传统村落人口活态情况差异明显,其中旅游发展型村落人口活态性最好,生活服务型村落人口活态性最差;③不同类型传统村落物质遗产失活程度相对较轻;④不同类型传统村落非物质遗产失活程度整体较高。     

集体化时期农村人口流动剖析--以赣闽粤边区为例

学界一般认为,在长达20多年的集体化时期,农村人口难以流动,农村社会几乎是一个不流动的社会.通过对赣闽粤边区农村人口流动剖析后发现:集体化时期,农村社会仍然流淌着人口流动的涓涓细流;这些细流,既有城镇人口的下乡流,也有农村劳力的进城流,还有农村内部的人口迁移流.集体化时期很大程度上是一个由体制安排移民的时代;集体化时期的农村社会,很大程度上是一个人口向农村、向山区迁流的社会.     

The emergence of food production in Neolithic Japan

Chestnuts and walnuts, both sun-loving plants, were the most important food resources for sedentary villagers in Japan throughout the Jomon (Neolithic) period. Though morphologically these nuts were wild types, ecologically they were symbiotic with man. Given this ecological relationship, the following interrelation of Jomon period subsistence may be proposed: lowland, waterside villages, a generalized subsistence tradition comprising fishing, hunting, gathering, and farming lasted until the end of the Jomon period (ca. 2300 B.P.). In the Central Honshu Highland, specialized farming villages dependent on chestnuts and walnuts appeared in the late stage of the Early Jomon period (ca. 5500 B.P.) as an adaptation of the former tradition to this highland environment which lacks significant fish resources.     

贵州山地文化特征论

本认为：山地化是贵州地方化的重要组成部分,其表现形式有：立体农业经济模式;二元的人口素质结构;大杂居、小聚居的社会环境。认识清楚贵州化的特征,对重建贵州化有重要意义。     

人口的增殖流动与明清华北平原的村落发展

影响村落生长的因素主要是村落人口的自然增殖与流动。融入型人口流动改变了村庄的姓氏结构,它是多姓村落形成的主要原因,而寄居型人口流动不但在一定时段改变了村庄的姓氏构成,对村落的裂变以及村落数量的增加也具有很大的影响,它是村落裂变分化的主要原因之一。     

中国传统村落文化景观研究进展与展望

传统村落文化景观作为特定地域范围内具有乡土文化气息的自然与人文因素综合体，承载着中华农耕文明的精髓，具有“传统村落”和“文化景观”研究的双重价值，是中国乡村地理学探究的热点领域。通过定量与定性相结合的研究方法，以中国知网为基础数据库，深入剖析1990—2020年中国传统村落文化景观的研究内容及进展，评述前人研究成果并展望未来研究方向，以期为拓展传统村落文化景观研究维度提供重要参考。研究发现，近30年传统村落文化景观研究随时代的发展愈发细化，研究内容主要集中于传统村落文化景观特征与价值、形成与演化、保护与发展等3方面。但现有研究深度和广度还有待加强，传统村落文化景观多尺度研究还需深化、研究议题有待丰富、学科融合与方法集成仍需强化。今后应注重系统化的理论分析，拓宽传统村落文化景观的研究尺度；深化与拓展研究内容，挖掘传统村落文化景观的研究议题；强化学科融合与方法集成，完善传统村落文化景观的研究框架。     

The Retirement Village as a Residential Environment for the Third Age – The Example of Firhall,Scotland

Abstract

Retirement villages represent a recent addition to the range of residential options for older people in the UK. Research has focused on the development and nature of retirement housing in the public and voluntary sectors in England. Limited attention has been directed to the private retirement communities and, in particular, to the lived experience of residents in private sector retirement villages. This research, which is the first study of a private retirement village in Scotland, overcomes this information deficit by identifying the nature and growth of private retirement villages in the UK and exploring the lived experience of residents of the private retirement village of Firhall. The discussion is organised into four main parts. Part I examines the concept of the retirement village. Part II explains the growth and geography of retirement villages in the UK. Part III comprises the empirical analysis of the case study retirement village. The research identifies the social, economic and demographic characteristics of the village population and provides insight into lived experience of the residents in the study village. Finally, in part IV, the discussion identifies a number of key issues for further research, and the potential contribution of retirement villages for meeting the needs and preferences of the growing third age population of the UK.     

迁村并点理论与实践初探--以长安子午镇为例

迁村并点是解决三农问题、合理配置土地资源、消除城乡差别的重要手段,是实现区域空间整合的有效途径。本文对国内的迁村并点的研究现状进行了综述,以长安子午镇为例,通过对地域整体环境的把握,分析地域居民点之间的时空关系,提出区域整合的基本思路并对产业发展方向做了进一步的规划设想。     

山地传统村落空间系统风险研究——以重庆为例

选取风险源、风险受体状态、风险响应三个方面16个指标,以外部自然、人文因素、传统村落内部景观和建筑结构等为切入点,构建山地传统村落空间系统风险评价体系,分析重庆市110个传统村落空间系统风险,并针对性地提出保护建议。研究表明：(1)构建的风险评价体系能够综合反映山地传统村落空间系统外部压力和内部脆弱性,体现其空间差异。(2)重庆市传统村落空间系统风险属较高及以上等级的有42个,占村落总数的1/3以上,主要分布于渝东南武陵山中山地区,如酉阳、秀山等地。(3)风险等级较高及以上的传统村落,应提升主体风险防范能力,合理规划村落发展,避免城镇边界扩张挤压传统村落空间,导致其非自然性衰落。山地传统村落空间系统风险研究从宏观揭示风险驱动因子,识别风险胁迫大小,对传统村落精准保护具有重要意义。     

Social Change in An Urban-Rural Fringe: Marques,Brazil

Communities at the fringe of cities in southeastern Brazil are characterized by rapidly changing social values associated with elements of economic modernization. The economy of the small rural village of Marques, situated near Piracicaba, a city of 500,000 population, has been transformed from one based on local subsistence and cash crop farming to one of diversified urban employment. Migration to the city has been significant. Despite diminished economic output, family and institutional ties have kept many from moving away from Marques and draw former residents back for special occasions.     

Geographical Preplanning Studies of Economic Complexes in the South of Krasnoyarsk Kray

The planning of the Sayan economic complex, a major development region in the South of Krasnoyarsk Kray, is found to have focused mainly on the use of local resources without adequately considering the complex interplay of man-nature relationships. In particular, little work has been done on problems of landscape ecology, including a determination of landscape budgets and of the ecological functioning of geosystems. The results of relevant investigations are presented, focusing on the present distribution of production and settlement within the study region, the natural landscape and forest use, land and agroclimatic resources, types of farming and levels of farm equipment, and some aspects of human ecology. The study region is found to suffer from excessive concentration of production and settlement in the center of the Minusinsk Basin, a net out-migration exceeding natural increase of population, and an extensive type of farming that is less economical than the dairy economy and truck produce required for a growing urban population.     

Large game, agricultural land, and settlement pattern change in the eastern Mimbres area, southwest New Mexico

The 12th-century depopulation of large villages in the Mimbres region of the US Southwest has been attributed to a number of causes, including resource stress. This study combines archaeological evidence and models of environmental conditions in the eastern Mimbres area of southwest New Mexico to assess the magnitude and timing of food stress from a combination of a period of reduced precipitation and the effects of prolonged hunting and farming activities on the landscape. Results indicate that large game in the area was quite sensitive to hunting pressure, and was locally depleted long before settlement reorganization occurred. Access to arable land was somewhat reduced around the time of settlement reorganization, but productive land remained locally plentiful. Although the settlement reorganization did not improve access to large game or arable land, farmers’ perceptions of below-average conditions for agriculture relative to their expectations and past experience would have contributed to decisions to move.     

Modelling the effect of Mesolithic populations on the slowdown of the Neolithic transition

The expansion of the Neolithic transition in Europe took place gradually from the Near East across the whole continent. At Northern Europe, observations show a slowdown in the speed of the Neolithic front in comparison to other regions of the continent. It has been suggested that the presence of high population densities of hunter-gatherers at the North could have been the main cause for this slowdown. This proposal has recently been described by a mathematical model that takes into account: (i) the resistance opposed by the Mesolithic populations to the advance of Neolithic populations in their territory, and (ii) a limitation on the population growth dynamics due to the competition for space and resources. But these two effects are not equally responsible for the slowdown of the spread. Indeed, here we show that the limitation on the population growth dynamics seems to have been the main cause of the delay of the expansion of farming in Northern Europe.     

WATER, ANIMALS AND AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY: A STUDY OF SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN NEOLITHIC SOUTHERN GREECE

Summary. This study, based on evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations in southern Greece, demonstrates two major shifts in the subsistence economy during the Neolithic. In the EN and MN periods the presence of large villages in locations near reliable water-sources and permanently moist or seasonally flooded soils of high and sustained productivity illustrates a village farming economy concentrating on arable agriculture. The first economic shift occurred in the late MN-LN with occupation of highland caves and islands, indicating increased sheep/goat pastoralism, fishing, and perhaps hunting, with a reduced number of farming villages present in the plains. The second shift took place in the FN-EBA, when a dispersal of agricultural settlements into dry upland regions indicates expanding plough agriculture and pastoralism, important factors contributing to the development of the flourishing EBA economy. The expansion of settlement was most marked in southeastern Greece, and it is suggested here that the extensive grazing areas provided by the open vegetation and mountainous terrain of this dry region, and its relative scarcity of well-watered fertile lowlands, may have stimulated the LN-FN expansion of pastoralism.     

News and Short Contributions

Abstract

Temporal and spatial patterns of faunal, floral, and ceramic deposition reveal several aspects of household and village economy at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Hayyat was a modest farming hamlet (0.5 ha) with 100–150 inhabitants, which was occupied in six major phases between ca. 2100 and 1500 B.C. This timespan covers the entire Middle Bronze Age, commonly considered the heyday of early urbanism in the southern Levant. Ethnographic and ancient historical exa1nples of agrarian villages in SW Asia include settlements administered by crown or temple estates, held as private property by elite families or absentee landlords, or owned collectively by resident villagers. Data drawn from Tell el-Hayyat Phases 5,4, and 3 (dating to Middle Bronze IIA and IIB) suggest some changes toward a commercially-oriented rural economy, as might be anticipated for villages held by institutional or private estates. Most of the Hayyat data, however, suggest trends toward enhanced economic autonomy, as expected for a collectively owned community. Tell el-Hayyat exemplifies the economic resilience of Levantine villages in the face of developing Middle Bronze Age town and city life.     

Mesolithic domestic sheep in West Mediterranean Europe

Domestic ovicaprine specimens, some attributed specifically to Ovis aries L., have been recovered at two Mesolithic sites in the western Languedoc region of France, and two sites in southeastern France. The sites are typical late Mesolithic occupations, firmly dated between 7300 BP and 8000 BP, and stratigraphically precede the appearance of other domestic animals, cultivated plants, pottery, and the establishment of settled villages in their regions. They seem to represent early steps in the adoption of animal husbandry by hunter-gatherer societies in the western Mediterranean. Evidence from the Aude valley sites is presented for the gradual development of animal herding over a period of 1000 years or more, which spans the Mesolithic-Neolithic boundary. The evidence suggests that indigenous Mesolithic societies may have played a formative role in the development of settled farming communities in this area, and that the availability of domestic species may not have led rapidly to major changes in settlement, economy and society.     

Deserted medieval villages and fields in Germany,a survey of the literature with a select bibliography

In Germany research into deserted settlements developed into an important branch of settlement history. It was realized that the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, following on a period of high-medieval expansion of settlement and cultivated land, were themselves a time of great decline. The theoretical explanation for this development is the late-medieval agricultural crisis, a concomitant of the late-medieval fall in population. We must distinguish between a high-medieval phase of settlement desertion associated with a concentration of population into larger villages and towns without a drop in absolute population figures, and a late-medieval desertion period when settlements and fields contracted because of loss of life due to famines and the Black Death. Different research methods have been used to locate deserted settlement sites, both from documentary evidence (Rückschreibung) and by doing field-work. By mapping the relict features of deserted villages and fields our knowledge of the evolution of settlement- and field-patterns was increased. In particular, the evolution of the three-field-system has been explained as part of the concentration of population into larger settlements. A classification of the desertion process has helped with the terminological clarification of the subject, although there remain areas of dispute. The introduction of the desertion quotient made it possible to map the distribution of the deserted settlements. In the light of most recent research based on medieval archaeology this map needs corrections. It is now obvious that the late-medieval desertion quotient was not only high in areas of marginal land quality but also in fertile areas with a long history of settlement continuity. In those areas vestiges of earlier occupations were literally ploughed into the ground. This example illustrates that future research on deserted settlements must be of an interdisciplinary nature.     

The Impact of the Territorial and Sectoral Structure of Production on the Renewal of Population and Labor Resources

Significant indirect relationships are found to exist between the territorial-sectoral structure of the economy, the demographic structure and employment and the process of population renewal. A key element in these correlations is the male-female ratio in employment, which tends to vary with regional wage levels, the availability of services, and the age-sex structure of the population. In rural areas, the relationship between the structure of the economy and population reproduction is associated with three factors: (1) the settlement pattern, (2) the type of farming, and (3) the territorial organization of farming (for example, the functional type of rural places).