Explaining Global Patterns of Language Diversity

The six and a half thousand languages spoken by humankind are very unevenly distributed across the globe. Language diversity generally increases as one moves from the poles toward the equator and is very low in arid environments. Two belts of extremely high language diversity can be identified. One runs through West and Central Africa, while the other covers South and South-East Asia and the Pacific. Most of the world's languages are found in these two areas. This paper attempts to explain aspects of the global distribution of language diversity. It is proposed that a key factor influencing it has been climatic variability. Where the climate allows continuous food production throughout the year, small groups of people can be reliably self-sufficient and so populations fragment into many small languages. Where the variability of the climate is greater, the size of social network necessary for reliable subsistence is larger, and so languages tend to be more widespread. A regression analysis relating the number of languages spoken in the major tropical countries to the variability of their climates is performed and the results support the hypothesis. The geographical patterning of languages has, however, begun to be destroyed by the spread of Eurasian diseases, Eurasian people, and the world economy.     

土族农业生产中的科技和宗教--互助东沟乡大庄村调查记

东沟乡大庄村位于互助土族自治县东部,是一个典型的土族村落。全村总面积9.68平方公里,平均海拔2600米左右,年平均气温2—3摄氏度,年平均降水量550毫米左右。大庄村属于浅山地区,农业条件次于川水地区而优于脑山地区。该地区又宜于林业和牧业,且平大公路从村中通过,距县城仅5公里路,总体上是互助县经济发展状况比较好的村庄之一。其农业生产中的科技与宗教的状况对我们了解土族农村的相关问题是具有典型意义的。同时也可为学术界进行的关于科技和宗教关系的讨论提供一些个案支持。传统农业及相关的主要宗教习俗建国前,大庄种植的农作物主要…     

Exploring Diversity in Household Pottery Traditions in Crusader Greece: a Case Study from the City of Thebes,Boeotia

This paper provides new data on an under‐documented topic in Aegean archaeology, that of the impact of Latin–Greek cohabitation on craftsmanship, socio‐economic organization and household pottery traditions. The chosen approach is a petrographic study of the provenance and technology of 37 cooking pots, jugs, basins and storage jars from the city of Thebes, Boeotia. The ceramics span from the late 12th to the mid‐14th century and thereby cover the periods of Byzantine, Frankish and Catalan control over the city. The analysis indicates that most pottery products were not locally made during these periods. Pottery consumption at Thebes involved, in the 12th/13th century, regional products from northern Boeotia, while pottery supplies from Euboea that had developed under Byzantine rule continued into the 14th century, well after Boeotia and Euboea came into the hands of, respectively, Frankish and Venetian lords in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1204). The petrographic analysis also allows for the characterization of Byzantine and Latin tempering practices of the pottery fabrics. These results highlight phenomena of regional economic reliance in central Greece and provide rare evidence for the cross‐cultural diffusion of technological knowledge in the late medieval Mediterranean.     

Explaining stability and change of territorial identities

A significant body of work examines the presence and strength of territorial political identities (either subnational, national or supranational). A common assumption of this literature is that the presence and strength of these political identities are invariant over time. Given the importance of political identity, it is surprising that this assumption has not been empirically tested. We address this omission by testing this assumption through considering the question of who is most likely to exhibit variation in the reporting of territorial identities and why. We posit that one source of instability in territorially based political identity is rooted in cognitive dissonance which emerges through the interaction of partisanship and electoral outcomes. We explore these questions using panel data from the British Election Study (1997–2001), the Canadian Election Study (2004–2008). Results reveal that the territorial identities of Labour and Liberal partisans, in Britain and Canada respectively, are compatible with expectations.     

Explaining recent fertility increase in Central Asia

After a swift decline during the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, period fertility rates have either been stagnating or increasing in all countries of Central Asia. In this paper, I investigate the role of data artifacts, population composition effect, economic context and shifting tempo effect in explaining fertility changes in Central Asia. The analysis is primarily based on comparison of fertility data from the vital registration system with estimates from other data sources. The results show that the recent changes to be real and not a result of data artifact. The most plausible explanations are to be found in the three other non-exclusive factors (population composition effect, economic context and shifting tempo effect) that contributed jointly and simultaneously to push up the period fertility rates in the region.     

Explaining,and explaining with,economic nationalism

This article rejects the widely held view that economic nationalism is an anachronistic economic doctrine in the age of globalisation. Rather than being the opposite of economic liberalism, as the conventional view maintains, economic nationalism is better understood as a generic phenomenon that can accommodate almost any doctrinal content, including economic liberalism. Economic nationalism is not so much about the economy as it is about the nation, as illustrated by literature on economic nations and national economic cultures. Such a broader conception of economic nationalism is then placed in the context of a larger ‘nationalising mechanism’ that sheds new light on a variety of phenomena discussed in the globalisation debate, such as economic performance, state disintegration, or cultural conflict, and success or failure in post-communist systemic change.     

Beyond Typology: Looking for Processes and Diversity in the Study of Lithic Technology in the Brazilian Amazon

This article describes how the lithic industries of the Amazon have been studied in Brazilian archaeology, and presents a historical record of research in the region. The article then attempts to analyze the reasons for the relative paucity of work on this research theme. The record includes studies of lithic industries related to the presence of pottery-using (ceramist) groups as well as those related to occupation of areas by hunter–gatherers. It points to different factors that have contributed to the type and quantity of information currently available, notably the issues of changing environmental conditions relating to site preservation and visibility that necessarily interface with the disciplinary history of archaeology within the Amazon Basin region. The paper seeks to highlight the issues that have dominated the research field, contextualizing them and redefining them in order to indicate future prospects for work in relation to the lithic industries of the macro-region.     

Explaining Shell-Tempered Pottery in Prehistoric Eastern North America

Explanations for the rise in frequency of shell-tempered pottery in the Eastern United States have vacillated between historical and functional accounts. Using evolutionary theory, the historical records of first appearance and diffusion are woven with physical properties of shell-tempered pottery that may have led to its selection. An appreciation of the scale at which change occurs and the units of analysis most appropriate for understanding that change is necessary for an explanation that can account for the widespread use of shell-tempering and the more-or-less coincident rise in its frequency. A hypothesis with empirical consequences is offered as a starting point for understanding this phenomenon.     

Explaining the Rise of Rural Governance in Europe

This paper develops a new institutional economics account of the broad issues of governance in European rural development. It is argued that rural governance is determined by rural development stakeholders' property rights which in turn reflect their interests in rural development. On this basis, rural governance is explained in terms of the property rights structures reflecting the growing commonness of interests of rural development stakeholders.     

明清农业技术传播渠道及其效果探析

明清时期不同场域中的技术传播主体主导着多种农业技术传播渠道,并形成不同的传播载体。由于土地占有权及识字程度的不同,处于农业技术推广链末端的农户对农业技术推广的渠道和载体亦具有选择性。文章在考察农业技术推广过程及各种影响因素的基础上,与同是记载农业技术的日常类书和杂字相比较,推测得出农书通过40%左右的农业户丁数在75%左右的土地上传播农业技术,是除行政命令之外应用最为广泛的农业技术传播载体。     

Diversity and diplomacy

ABSTRACT

Diplomats are the face of their country abroad. One way that a country can represent and benefit from its diversity is through the diversity of its diplomatic representatives. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has made a sustained effort to increase the diversity of its workforce and has improved the representation of some groups: for example, the increased number of women in senior positions in recent decades. A case study of DFAT’s Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Strategy (2007–2015) identifies the following key factors needed for such efforts to succeed: sustained effort, high-level support, availability of peer support and a willingness to adapt programs over time. While there are challenges in implementing a diversity strategy, such as resource constraints and the broader organisational culture, the Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Strategy provides a positive model of how to increase diversity among a country’s diplomats.     

六朝碑刻词语考释

汉魏六朝石刻语料数量丰富。而且极具时代特色。在词汇研究上意义重大。考释其中的词语,有利于碑的疏通理解,可以弥补辞书用例的漏缺,对于汉语词汇史研究,甚至全面认识这一时期语言的全貌也有积极的作用。本选取汉魏六朝石刻若干词条,采用排比例证、词义溯源、结构分析等方法进行考释,希望能对前贤或辞书的成说有所补正。     

技术与思想：20世纪50年代中国农业机械化与社会主义新农民塑造

20世纪50年代中国农业机械化的进程,不仅是以农业机械为主的"技术下乡"的过程,也是改造农民传统思想、形塑与农业机械化相适应的新农民,进而完成"思想下乡"的意识形态社会化的过程。在农业机械化的实践中,国家将对新农民的塑造嵌入农业生产和农民生活中,以此整合农民思想观念、强化农民的集体观念、激发农民的主体观念、培养农民的科技观念,从而塑造了具有"高度社会主义觉悟的、有技术、有文化、有全面才能"的社会主义新农民。这一历史进程对"十四五"时期加强现代农业技术对农民思想的正向引导,以及对培育新型职业农民,均具有重要的历史借鉴意义。     

Explaining voting in the 2017 Australian same-sex marriage plebiscite

The 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey led to the adoption of same-sex marriage. Using ecological analysis, this paper tests five hypotheses to explain voting in the plebiscite. Social characteristics exerted a strong influence on the vote, with a higher ‘yes’ vote in more affluent and suburban electorates, and a higher ‘no’ vote in electorates with large numbers of traditional households. The strongest predictor of a ‘no’ vote was electorates with large proportions of newly arrived immigrants. Electorates that had larger proportions of female same-sex couples displayed a higher ‘yes’ vote. Higher turnout in the plebiscite benefitted the ‘yes’ vote. Finally, the views of the local MP on the issue were positively related to the result in their electorate.     

Look who perpetrates violence and where: Explaining variation in forced migration

Are the causes of refugee and IDPs flows the same? While existing studies examine the causes of displacement in general, there is limited research on different determinants of internal and external displacement. Factors might have varying impacts on the decision to move within the country and flee abroad. Here, I argue the effect of violence on displacement as a function of perpetrator and geography (i.e., how spread it is). Increases in government violence increase the number of refugees because to escape government violence, people may have to cross an international border as governments are generally effective everywhere within their borders. On the other hand, rebel group activities are limited to a certain area and by leaving the conflict zone, civilians can be free from rebel violence. However, the spread of violence determines the decision to flee. If it is limited to a small region, people can escape from that area within the country and rebel violence increases the number of IDPs. If it is widespread, civilians may not have many opportunities within the country and have to move abroad. Therefore, the effect of rebel violence on internal displacement follows a reverse U-shape. The analysis of refugee and IDPs flows between 1989 and 2017 supports the main arguments and the results are robust to different model specifications and additional checks. This study highlights the importance of distinguishing the causes of internal and external displacement.