Advances in Morphometrics in Archaeobotany

ABSTRACT

Morphometric analysis offers an alternative or augmentation to traditional archaeobotanical methods to address differences within and between plant species and their remains, refining and enhancing taxonomic resolution. Morphometrics, the measurement of size and shape, and the multivariate statistical analysis of generated quantitative variables, have long played a major role in biological research, including plant taxonomy and systematics, although its application in archaeobotany is relatively recent. Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the use of morphometrics for analysing a varied range of archaeological plant materials (mainly seeds, pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains). In particular, morphometrics have contributed to the study of the domestication and spread of many cereals world-wide, as well as that of other taxa including legumes, underground storage organs (USO), and fruits (such as olives, grapes, and dates). This paper reviews current methodologies, recent applications, and advances in the use of morphometrics in archaeobotanical research, discusses its role in exploring major research questions, and suggests possible future directions for its use.     

杏开二月

已经是二月仲春了,大地柔软,天气慢慢热起来了。一场习习的春雨,浇得人心头酥酥的。我第一次注意到,家门前的杏树开了。枝干上,星星点点,挑着几朵白,轻盈得很,把薄薄的心打开,驻足美的枝头,观赏人间烟火。背后是灰灰的庭院,低矮的     

Geography in Higher Education in Australia

Within the last 30 years, geographical information systems (GIS) have been used increasingly in the training of geographers. On the basis of the philosophy of technology and instrumental genesis, we sketch how the use of instruments interacts with learning processes and outline how this can be studied. We empirically analyse students' learning processes and the influences of teaching practice in an introductory course in GIS. We show that students have different strategies for creating their personal instrument for spatial thinking and how teaching interacts with the students' learning processes. Finally, we discuss how GIS may gradually alter future professional development of geographers.     

America in Speech and in Deed

The author's primary aim in what follows is to fully articulate Chantal Delsol's critique of late modern universalism as an attempt to depoliticize the individual for the sake of replacing politics with morality. The result of this depoliticization is a quasi-pantheistic cosmopolitanism that not only effectively denies the significance of individuality, despite rhetorically lionizing it, but also undercuts the freedom of individual conscience that makes moral choice possible. Genuine political prudence and moral judgment are subsequently replaced by the rigid exactitude of a technocratic analysis that reintroduces the "clandestine ideology" it was, despite protestations to the contrary, intended to eliminate. The unhappy paradox produced by the attempt to replace the necessary limitations of political judgment with the universality of a priori moral decree is that a new set of culturally and historically idiosyncratic political attachments are surreptitiously introduced beyond the pale of reasonable debate and disagreement. Delsol's measured response is not a precipitous rejection of universalism as such but a rehabilitation of it that recaptures the Christian moral realism at its core.     

Tibetan-Inhabited Area in Deqen in Development

Deqen, honored as “Shangri La”,is located in the area where three rivers meet to form one in the Henduan Mountains straddling the borders of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. The Deqen Tibetan Ethnic Group Autonomous Prefecture, founded in September 1957, is the only Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Yunnan Province but one of 10 in the     

新疆棉田里的拾花工

8月,是新疆棉花成熟的季节.数万名陕西农民搭上专为他们开通的专列远赴新疆,去给农场摘棉花挣钱.年复一年,拾花工像候鸟一样,8月飞出,在冬天雪降大地之前又回到家乡.别井离乡有甜酸苦辣,却给了陕西农民改变生活的希望.     

以上海为例看晚清时期社会生活方式及观念的变迁

晚清时期,上海的商业化、城市化生活环境变化,引起了人们生活方式的变动,出现了如洋货流行、从商之风、尊卑失序、女子走上社会、追求享乐等新社会风尚,导致传统伦理衰坏,同时也孕育产生了近代市场意识、近代工商观念、社会平等观念、功利主义及肯定人欲、自由的近代伦理观念。反映出生活方式的变动是引起近代生活伦理观念变迁的中介和启动力量。     

Challenges in Archaeological Tourism in China

Worldwide archaeological tourism, or tourism to sites with archaeological significance, has been rapidly growing and has attracted increased academic attention in recent years. China is an outstanding case in this field. In fact, its government has been actively promoting tourism and archaeological tourism for the last three decades. The understanding of the challenges that Chinese archaeological tourism is currently facing is the focus of this article. Four aspects will guide the discussion: the dilemma between site preservation and economic profitability, unregulated tourism development, the influence of UNESCO World Heritage designation, and authorities’ sensitivity towards ethnic issues in archaeological tourism.     

20世纪90年代上海产业布局的发展变化

20世纪90年代,着眼于城市功能的重新定位,按照"三、二、一"产业发展新思路,上海的产业布局进行了重大的战略调整,逐步形成了中心城以三产为主、郊区以二产为主的大都市产业布局架构。在各类工业区建设的基础上,上海又突出发展形成了"东南西北"四大产业基地。由此,上海产业布局呈现出一个明显特征,就是第二产业立足于城市功能重塑、提高工业产业的竞争力,通过加强对重大产业项目的"政策聚焦",确立了空间发展的内环整合战略和"东西南北"发展战略,依托都市工业园区和城郊工业区,大大提高了产业聚集度。