Self-Organized Cultural Cycles and the Uncertainty of Archaeological Thought

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Contributing to the issue of complex relationship between social and cultural evolution, this paper aims to analyze repetitive patterns, or cycles, in...     

Dynamic Trajectories,Adaptive Cycles,and Complexity in Culture Change

Trends in interdisciplinary research over the last two decades have opened new perspectives and pushed forward our understanding of how complex social systems function. This study explores several theories of social change that have emerged from increasingly interdisciplinary perspectives in combination with complexity theory. Resilience theory and related concepts of adaptive cycles and panarchy are now being applied extensively to the study of a variety of human social systems. However, there is still the need to further explore the implications of how human systems differ from the ecologies of other species. A case study drawn from early polity formation in Inner Asia is used to assess the effectiveness of differing approaches. Certain theoretical gaps are described and a series of concepts within a theory of dynamic trajectories are proposed that focus on high-level patterns of social change. The basic elements of the theory include dynamics of the scope and scale of polities, the probability space in which change occurs, and the strands or bundles of social and cultural characteristics that represent the substance of trajectory. As the trajectory patterns manifest, they envelop constraints and opportunities influencing future patterns. Agent-based models are used to illustrate aspects of the dynamic trajectory theory, especially economic decision-making within specific landscapes and control hierarchies in the context of competing polities. Rather than repeating cycles, the results reveal reorganization modes highlighting the significance of continuity and opportunity in social change.     

A Typology of Regional Production Complexes

Soviet regional production complexes at the level of major economic regions are classified on the basis of a combination of two criteria: (a) regional specialization in terms of the energy-and-industry cycles proposed by N. N. Kolosovskiy (coke-based metallurgy, energy-intensive industries, etc.); (b) the developmental stage of the regional economy, in terms of five developmental phases (pioneering, the formation of industrial nodes, the formation of industrial cycles, a reconstruction phase, and achievement of a complex structure). The typological classification is viewed as a possible basis for more detailed breakdowns below the level of major economic regions.     

现代史学方法论视角下的人口循环理论

马尔萨斯理论在史学上被广泛应用。马尔萨斯认为人口的增长导致饥饿和社会危机,随之而来的是人口数量的减少、消费增加,随后人口数量又开始增加。人口数量的稳定波动就是人口循环周期。20世纪30年代俄国经济学家雅什诺夫在史学研究中第一次揭示了马尔萨斯人口循环理论。随后W.阿贝尔和M.波斯坦在欧洲史研究方面运用了该理论。20世纪下半叶人口循环理论得到了深入的研究,尤其受到法国年鉴派史学家布罗代尔等人的重视。随后,J.戈尔斯通的人口结构理论为人口循环理论的发展注入了新的活力。近几年以J.卡姆罗斯、P.图尔钦为代表的学者广泛采用数学模拟方法研究人口循环理论,运用这一方法可将人口循环周期分为增长阶段、紧缩阶段和生态危机阶段。此外,运用人口循环理论取得的研究成果有助于对社会和经济发展做出预测。     

Platinum Complexes for the Treatment of Cancer

Abstract

Some platinum coordination complexes are active anticancer drugs in animal and man. This new class of chemotherapeutics was discovered during the course of investigation of the electric field effect on bacterial growth. The platinum electrodes electrolyzed during the experiment, releasing a platinum complex which caused complete cessation of cell division in the bacterial rods. With this filamentation assay system, we were able to identify the specific chemical as cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II), a complex known since 1848. The bacterial studies with many such complexes suggested to us the generalizations that charged platinum complexes were bacteriocidal, while the neutral platinum complexes induced filamentation and, in lysogenic bacteria, lysis. The neutral complexes have ignificant activity against transplantable, virally induced, and chemically induced cancers in animals. They are synergistic with almost every other anticancer drug in current use. In man kidney toxicity is the dose limiting side effect but this is now completely ameliorated by simply hydrating the patient. The drug in combination therapy, has proven to be 'potentially curable' for all form of testicular cancer. Other cancers where the drug activity has begun to approach this are head and neck cancer, and ovarian cancer. Activity against the other major cancers is now being studied. The mechanism of action at a molecular level appear to depend upon a primary lesion formed on the cellular DNA by the platinum complex. This serendipitous discovery has led to a new class of anticancer agents, metal coordination complexes, which may prove to be of significant value.     

The Construction of Economic Models of Regional and Local Territorial-Production Complexes

A discussion of the use of economic models for the planning of new industrial enterprises or changing the specialization of existing enterprises within industrial complexes. Despite some differences in N. N. Kolosovskiy's definition of a territorial production complex and Walter Isard's definition of an industrial complex, Isard's method of building economic models is found applicable to Soviet conditions.     

On the Fundamental Differences between Capitalist and Socialist Regional Territorial-Production Complexes

The authors content that, contrary to the views of other Soviet geographers, territorial-production complexes can arise under capitalism [for example, in the Ruhr], but that the growth of such regional complexes is slowed by what Marxist philosophy regards as “contradictions” and “antagonisms” in the capitalist system.     

On Natural Aquatic Complexes of the World's Oceans

The author, an exponent of the Soviet landscape school, proceeds from the assumption that the earth's natural environment is organized in terms of natural complexes that need to be identified and delimited. Landscape geographers have thus far focused on terrestrial landscapes, which occupy only 29% of the earth's surface. There is equal need for analysis of natural aquatic complexes, accounting for the remaining 71%. Aquatic complexes cannot be characterized only in terms of the sea surface; they must be analyzed in terms of the underlying water masses and their physical-chemical characteristics and organisms. Geographers working in this new branch of natural geography would require appropriate training.     

Productive Forces and Productive Territorial Complexes in the Northeast of the USSR

The author analyzes the present spotty pattern of areal development of the Northeast around isolated mining districts extracting gold, tin, tungsten, diamonds, and other minerals, separated from one another by vast virtually uninhabited territories where fishing, reindeer raising, and trapping are the principal economic activities. The role of transport routes in regional development is stressed. Future prospects of industrial growth are linked to iron-steel, oil-gas, and chemical industries.     

Securing the Return: How Enhanced US Border Enforcement Fuels Cycles of Debt Migration

Expanded border enforcement has made unauthorised migration to the US more risky, costly, and prone to failure. Research on the material consequences of border enforcement for migrant‐sending households in Central America reveals that the economic hardships enforcement exacts on migrants at times diminishes enforcement's desired deterrent power. Heightened risks have driven up the cost of migration and pushed many to fund their trips through loans. Consequently, migrant detention, deportation, or death can result in poverty and privation for indebted households and the seizure of loan collateral, typically homes and land, in turn prompting crises in household reproduction. With a US wage the most viable means to ameliorate economic hardships, enforcement outcomes push some to return migration. Our findings suggest that US border enforcement efforts at times perpetuate the very unauthorised migration they seek to impede, while also helping to reproduce the border itself by deepening the marginalisation that drives migration decisions.     

Cluster Life Cycles,Path Dependency and Regional Economic Development: Insights from a Meta-Study on Basque Clusters

In this study, we aim at evaluating the role of path-dependent and past-dependent forces in the historical trajectory of clusters. For that purpose, we study the life cycles of four of the main industrial clusters in the Basque Country (paper-making, electronics and information and communication technology, maritime industries and aeronautics) and analyse the factors that account for the origin, development, maturity and, if so, decline of those clusters, considering factors related to both cluster dynamics and the regional environment. Our analysis shows that the existence of a life cycle does not imply a straightforward growth path. Clusters follow multiple growth patterns in their development. The heterogeneity of growth patterns may be, in some cases, due to different initial conditions. However, despite similar initial conditions and/or resource endowments and opportunities for development, we can observe heterogeneous evolutionary patterns. Clusters react differently to the same external shocks (e.g. international demand, global competition and technological change) and evolve differently according to their capabilities.     

A System of Natural Areal Complexes of the Earth

The tiered vertical structure of all the earth's landscapes is used as the basis for a typological classification of all natural areal complexes. Four basic landscape divisions are proposed: (1) terrestrial landscapes, consisting of an upper aerial layer and lower mineral layer, (2) aquatic landscapes, consisting of three tiers: air, water, mineral base, (3) glacial landscapes, consisting of three tiers (air, ice, mineral) on land, and of four tiers (air, ice, water, mineral) in oceans, (4) variable landscapes distinguished by a periodic succession of structures (terrestrial-aquatic, terrestrial-glacial, aquatic-glacial).     

The Development of new Areas and Economic Complexes in the West Siberian Plain

An economic-geographic model of the development of the new resource areas of the West Siberian plain envisages a hierachy of support bases providing equipment, food, and manpower for the areas. Effective economic development requires that much of the investment in the first phase of development be channeled into auxiliary activities and service facilities to provide the infrastructure of the new oil and gas complexes. Only in the second stage should most of the investment be directed into facilities for basic oil and gas production.     

The Significance and Role of Sectoral-Production Complexes in the Formation and Evolution of Economic Regions

Soviet economic regionalization has traditionally focused on the concept of the areal-production complex (or territorial-production complex), representing the aggregate of economic activities within a particular area. These complexes may range in scale from a local group of interrelated activities all the way to the national economic complex of the USSR. A Soviet economic geographer specializing in the Northern Caucasus now introduces the concept of the “sectoral-production complex” as a subdivision of the areal complex. The sectoral complex contains one or more sectors of production that are linked by a common resource base and common economic relations; for example, the agricultural complex, comprising farming and agricultural processing, rests on agricultural resources; the metallurgy and machine-building complex, combining metallurgy and metal fabrication, rests on a common ore-resource base. According to the author, the concept of a sectoral-production complex must be differentiated from N. N. Kolosovskiy's concept of “energy-and-production cycles” [see Journal of Regional Science, 3 (1961), pp. 1–25] on the ground that Kolosovskiy's cycles are based on a common basic technology, while the sectoral complex involves common resources and economic relations.     

Fish Bones in Odino Ritual Complexes at Preobrazhenka-6, Western Siberia

Fish bones from pits near Odino-type human burials at Preobrazhenka-6, the Baraba forest-steppe, are described with regard to methodological issues involved in the analysis of ichthyofauna from archaeological excavations. The bones are diagnosed in terms of age, species, number, and season of ?shing. Artifacts found in pits together with ?sh bones and the arrangement of pits suggest that ? sh were part of ritual practices of the Odino people.     

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.     

The Role of Economic Sectors in the Formation of Regional Production Complexes

A variety of approaches used in Soviet economic geography to define and measure the productive specialization of an economic region are reviewed. In the author's view, a regional activity qualifies as regional specialization if it helps shape the basic character of the regional economy. It is not sufficient for a regional activity merely to represent a major portion of a particular national sector of the economy. For example, the asbestos industry in the Urals represents the major portion of Soviet asbestos output, but asbestos does not shape the basic character of the Urals economy and is therefore not a principal specialization sector. Regional specialization derives from relationships among the various sectors of the regional economy, not from the significance of any particular commodity. A classification of economic sectors is proposed as an aid in analyzing the functioning of a regional economy: (1) the principal specialization sectors; (2) basic raw-material sectors; (3) associated sectors using the wastes and by-products of the principal sectors; (4) complementary specialization sectors, such as asbestos in the Urals; (5) auxiliary sectors, such as metallurgical fluxes for the iron and steel industry; (6) service sectors, including utilities, transportation, construction, trade; (7) local sectors, working for local consumption.