Colonization and the Commodification of Nature

This paper explores some of the theoretical issues surrounding the commodification of nature and its value as a research topic. In particular it examines the relationship between European colonization, the rise of capitalism and the increased use of abstract space. An appeal is also made for adding environmental history to the research agenda of historical archaeology. Case studies from South Africa and Virginia illustrate the manner in which abstract notions of space and the environment contributed to the commodification of nature. The Virginia case study from Jamestown Island provides a particularly vivid example of how micro- and macro-level environmental changes can be linked to important political and economic events.     

Deglaciation and Colonization: Pioneer Settlements in Northern Fennoscandia

We present new data on Early Mesolithic settlements in northern Sweden and discuss the process of pioneer colonization. A new set of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites push deglaciation of northern Fennoscandia further back in time and demonstrate the rapid arrival of pioneer settlers. Environmental data reveal a highly productive early postglacial setting with plant communities unmatched in present ecosystems. The chronological and technological setting supports immigration from the north and northwest with pioneers relying on a long history of enculturating northern subarctic landscapes.     

Deglaciation and Human Colonization of Northern Europe

Few places worldwide experienced Late Glacial ecological shifts as drastic as those seen in the areas covered by, or adjacent to, the massive ice sheets that blanketed much of the northern hemisphere. Among the most heavily glaciated regions, northern Europe underwent substantial ecological shifts during and after the Last Glacial Maximum. The climatically unstable Pleistocene–Holocene transition repeatedly transformed far-northern Europe, placing it among the last regions to be colonized by Paleolithic societies. As such, it shares paleoenvironmental and archaeological analogues with other once glaciated areas where human populations, entrenched in periglacial environments prior to glacier retreat, spread into newly deglaciated territories. Perhaps most significant for northern Europeans were post-glacial effects of the Younger Dryas and Preboreal periods, as shifts in climate, plant, and animal communities elicited several adaptive responses including innovation, exploration, and the eventual settlement of once glaciated landscapes. This paper is a detailed review of existing archaeological and paleoecological evidence pertaining to the Late Upper Paleolithic of northern Europe, and offers theoretical observations on human colonization models and ecological responses to large-scale stadial and interstadial events.     

The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonization of Fuego-Patagonia

The main goal of this paper is to review the earliest archaeological evidence for the presence of humans in Fuego-Patagonia. The paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic framework is briefly introduced, followed by a discussion of its relevance to understanding the exploration and colonization of Fuego-Patagonia. Technological and faunal evidence from a number of sites from the southern extreme older than 10,000 B.P. is analyzed. This leads to the conclusion that an early entry, at least 12,000 years old, appears best to accommodate the available chronological evidence. On the other hand, data from the Northern fringes of Patagonia clearly suggest an earlier human colonization.     

Developmental cycles and commodity production in Africa

Okali, Christine. Cocoa and Kinship in Ghana: The Matrilineal Akan of Ghana. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983. xi+ 179 pp. including appendices and references. $15.00 paper.     

Global Patterns in Island Colonization during the Holocene

Journal of World Prehistory - Analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of global island colonization allows us to frame the extent of insular human cultural diversity, model the impact of...     

历史/结构——萨林斯关于南太平洋岛殖民遭遇的论述

上个世纪80年代以来,美国人类学家萨林斯(Marshall Sahlins)发表了一系列论文,从库克船长在夏威夷岛被杀的历史事实出发,论述有关世界体系在南太平洋地区遭遇的诸多事件。在这一系列论文中,萨林斯反思了“历史/结构”之间的关     

殖民文化与伪满洲国的“娱民电影”

本文从日方导演与中方导演的电影制作这样两个角度,勾勒了东北沦陷时期的“满洲映画协会”拍摄、放映的“娱民电影”的整体轮廓;意在通过影片的具象特征揭示日本殖民者对东北人民的思想和文化方面殖民统治的实质,阐明“娱民电影”的主旨并不在于娱乐,而是奴化东北人民的典型的殖民化影片。     

On the nature of the beast: Re-charting political geographies of the European Union

This review paper begins with the premise that since the European Union remains a process of construction with no agreed or pre‐designated end‐point, its power structure is open to a diverse range of interpretations. Moreover, the apparent novelty of the EU renders it hard to characterize according to familiar taxonomies. The novelty lies in part in the complex territorial configurations of authority in the EU. Different conceptualizations of the EU are varied readings of the structure, balance and scales of authority — which thereby invoke different actions and spaces of possibility.     

Producing Ottomans: Internal Colonization and Social Engineering in Ottoman Immigrant Settlement

In the past decade, historians of the Armenian Genocide have productively explored broader trends in Ottoman population politics to situate the genocide within the totality of Ottoman social engineering techniques and to highlight continuities between the Second Constitutional Period (1908–1918) and the Kemalist era (1919–1950). This article contributes to the effort to understand state building, internal colonization, and state-enacted violence across regimes by examining Ottoman archival documents related to immigrant settlement. Rather than focusing exclusively on the Young Turk period, this article traces Ottoman conceptions of its territory and population from the 1850s forward. In 1857, concerns about population density and population productivity inspired the Tanzimat High Council to issue a new set of migration regulations, which encouraged immigration by promising free land, tax exemption, and religious freedom for colonists from Europe and the United States. The issuing of the 1857 regulations occurred almost simultaneously with the initiation of a decades-long mass Muslim migration from the Crimean Peninsula, Caucasus, and Balkans into the shrinking territory of the Ottoman state. In 1860, the Empire established a centralized Immigrant Commission (Muhacirin Komisyonu) for receiving, categorizing, and settling the Muslim immigrants. Most immigrants did not meet the selection criteria established in the 1857 regulations. Nevertheless, immigrant settlement became a key component in nineteenth-century Ottoman internal colonization and social engineering. Ultimately, settlement policies and data generated about the population and territory allowed officials to enact assimilative and expulsive policies based not only on ethnic or religious characteristics but also on tropes of productivity and civilization. Examining immigrant settlement as internal colonization situates the Ottoman Empire within global patterns of state building and imperialism and reveals continuity in how officials conceived of population productivity and population removal, allowing historians to understand better political, infrastructural, and ideological precursors to the Armenian genocide.     

Land and man in highland Ethiopia

Allan Hoben. Land Tenure among the Amhara of Ethiopia: The Dynamics of Cognatic Descent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973. xiv + 273 pp. Maps, figures, appendix, glossary, bibliography, and index. $9.50.     

The First Mallorcans: Prehistoric Colonization in the Western Mediterranean

The paper aims to elucidate the first human colonization of the western Mediterranean island of Mallorca by answering such questions as: What was the cultural identity of the first archaeologically identifiable human settlers? What was the chronology of colonization? Where did the colonizers originate? And what were their contacts during the initial phase of settlement? It is based on recently acquired chronological data and on a review of the classical sources. A precise chronology for the first colonization event is proposed, supporting the idea that human settlement on Mallorca started within the period 2350–2150 cal BC. The coast of Languedoc, between the rivers Vidourle and Rhône, is the most probable source region. Whether the first settlers were derived from an Early Bronze Age or a Late Copper Age mainland culture remains unresolved. A rapid initial population growth following initial colonization is proposed. The available evidence points to the development of an essentially isolated population on Mallorca, developing an autochthonous culture with only limited contacts to mainland regions.     

Spatial Representations of Habitat in Competition‐Colonization Models

Ecological models with species differentiated by competition and colonization traits have shown that some extant species in remnants of habitat go extinct after a lag. These models have, however, analyzed landscape patterns in two phases: habitat and nonhabitat. Here, the consequences of representing landscape patterns as a continuous surface of habitat quality versus as two categories are examined. With a continuous representation, the amount of habitat is constant at 100 percent, but its quality can vary from 0 to 1; with a binary representation the amount of habitat varies. Continuous landscapes with mean habitat qualities of .8, .5, and .2 are compared to binary landscapes with the proportion of habitat at .8, .5, and .2. The model projections of the abundances of species differ substantially between the two‐phase and continuous representations. The effects of decreased habitat quality with no decrease in abundance exceed the effects of decreased habitat abundance. Differences between the projections for the two representations increase as the proportion of habitat and habitat quality decrease. Increases in the variance of habitat quality within the continuous representations decrease extinctions. The basic insight of earlier models, that superior competitors are at a long‐term disadvantage in remnant habitat, is magnified with a continuous representation. As in the binary models, the disadvantage is lessened if the spatial variation in habitat quality is smoother, but pattern matters less in continuous landscapes. The continuous representation shows that lagged extinction is relevant to cases of habitat deterioration.     

"六三法"的存废与台湾殖民地问题

“六三法”是日本殖民台湾时期的基本法,其本身存在只有十年,但其建构的殖民地法律模式,在台湾延续了50年。“六三法”最主要的特点就是委任立法。这种典型的殖民地立法程序,在明治宪政体制下是否违宪,曾引发日本朝野及学术界的热烈争论。有一些人为了美化日本的殖民统治,鼓吹说日本为在台湾实施宪法特意制定了“六三法”,而“六三法”是否违宪引起的争议,是围绕着“台湾是否是殖民地”而进行的,因此说台湾不是日本的殖民地。实质上“六三法”争议的真正本质,是有关新附领土统治政策之选择的政治性问题,而不是一般的法律问题。“六三法”争议的真正核心是谁有权来制定台湾的法律,其实质是为“六三法”的违宪性寻找法律依据,同时,也是政党势力与执政的军方势力就各自对台湾统治方针的妥协与斗争。