PERSPECTIVES ON ROMAN TECHNOLOGY

Summary. This paper considers the very different views on Roman technology expressed by K.D. White, O. Wikander and J.P. Oleson. The concept of Roman technology is explored in the light of recent archaeological research into boats, vehicles, water-lifting devices and water-mills. It is argued that the application of appropriate, evolving, and occasionally innovative technology can be detected in several spheres of civil and military engineering, such as water-supply and architecture. However, the application of technology is most impressive in the context of food production and transport. Whilst agreeing that the Roman empire was not fertile ground for an Industrial Revolution of the kind experienced in eighteenth-century England, I hope to demonstrate that this conclusion does not require a wholesale rejection of the possibility of technical innovation.     

PERSPECTIVES ON THE SAGEBRUSH REBELLION

The Sagebrush Rebellion began in the late 1970s with the objective of transferring various categories of federally owned lands to the states. The movement was centered in western “public lands” states, where nearly half the total land area is in federal ownership. Within a relatively short period of time this objective was changed to one of “privatizing” federal lands, of selling these land into private ownership. While the Sagebrush Rebellion has been highly political in its activities, the movement can be viewed in the perspective of historical land disposition policies in the U.S. These policies were changed near the turn of the century from alienating public lands into private ownership to their retention and management by the federal government. Confusion over the economics of building a free enterprise system based on private property rights, and the costs associated with building such as system, appear to have been major factors in changing land policies. Two important aras in which this occurred were the Homestead Act of 1862 and timber. The provisions of the Homestead Act imposed heavy costs on settlers, and these costs caused a reaction against the economic system that was being built.     

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGES IN RURAL AREAS

The author advances an interesting and somewhat controversial argument for the dismal state of affairs in central Russia's countryside. Programs addressing problems in the countryside should focus not on reversing the tide of outmigration and agricultural employment loss, but on reducing labor intensity in agriculture and recognizing social and other realities working to the disadvantage of remote rural areas. What is needed is not expensive and unfeasible “revitalization” of the countryside, but the regulated decline of its agricultural workforce and the selective introduction of new labor-saving technologies and alternative land uses. Translated by H. L. Haslett, Leamington Spa, UK from: Evolyutsiya rasseleniya v SSSR, Chast' I (Evolution of Settlement in the USSR, Part I), G. M. Lappo, Zh. A. Zayonchkovskaya, and P. M. Polyan, eds. Moscow: Akademiya Nauk SSSR and Pol'skaya Akademiya Nauk, 1989, pp. 43-59.     

论纳西族民族文化生态

纳西民族生态文化是纳西族与自然环境相互调适的结果。本文对纳西民族的天人感应、祭天民俗、白地圣地的环境优选及宗教信仰等文化生态现象进行了探讨。     

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

The basic elements of geographic education in American universities are considered, including the number of geography departments, number of students specializing in geography, and the number of teachers. The teacher-to-student ratio, the nature of geographic specialization, and some features of the educational process are outlined, using the Department of Geography of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign as an example. Some new trends in the development of American geography are brought out, such as the growing interest in physical geography and in research on domestic matters, and a greater emphasis on applied geography. (The translation is by R. Bruce Wood, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.)     

IMPACTS OF THE BRITISH NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY*

This paper tests for possible effects of the implementation of the British National Health Service (NHS) upon the health of the British population. Although analysis does reveal statistically significant improvements in Great Britain's infant mortality rate concurrent with the implementation of the NHS, a comparison with other western European nations reveals similar improvements simultaneously with the British policy intervention. Thus, we cannot conclude that the NHS had a significant effect upon British health. A more important result, however, is the demonstration of the utility of both the Box-Jenkins techniques and, in conjunction, the nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental design as important tools for performing policy evaluations.     

面向国家未来的中国人文地理学研究方向的思考

中国人文地理学经过近半个多世纪的复兴与发展,对国家经济社会发展做出了重大贡献。在新的时代背景下,中国人文地理学的发展仍要继续围绕人地关系地域系统这一核心,树立人地和谐的科学发展观,进一步深化人地关系理论及研究方法,把人地关系的研究向纵深层次推进,发展面向国家战略需求和实践应用的人文地理学,构建完善的中国特色人文地理学学科体系。突出新的实践形式,把全球化与本土化、全国化与地方化、工业化与城市化、一体化与同城化、中心化与空心化、信息化与可视化、生态化与低碳化、科学化与现代化作为中国人文地理学未来研究的8大方向。在人文地理学科建设过程中,敢于挑战经典理论,尤其是西方传统的经典理论,敢于直面现实,学会向权力讲授真理,敢于当科学勇士,倡导科学精神,不可变成官场的奴隶。