A curious pair

Alland, Alexander, Jr. Human Nature: Darwin's View. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. x + 242 pp. including index. $25.00 cloth.

Greenwood, P. J., P. H. Harvey and M. Slatkin, eds. Evolution: Essays in Honour of John Maynard Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. vii + 328 pp. including chapter references, publications list and index. $49.50 cloth.     

A curious clinker

This paper investigates a substance found in some Anglo-Saxon cremation urns which has previously been described as “hair slag”. The results of a series of visual and physical examinations are described. These show that it is highly siliceous and, therefore, unlikely to be derived from human hair. A number of alternative sources are considered and the mechanisms operating within the pyre are discussed. The most abundant source of silica in the pyre environment is the sandy substrate which may have been combined with material from the pyre during combustion.     

Folklore from the Hebrides

THE WORSHIP OF NATURE. By Sir J. G. FRAZER. Vol. I. Macmillan &; Co., 1926. 8?″ x 5?″. Pp. xxvi + 672. 25s. Reviewed by H. J. Rose.

STERNGLAUBE UND STERNDEUTUNG. Die geschichte und das wesen der Astrologie. Von CARL BEZOLD und FRANZ BOLL. Dritte auflage von W. Gundel. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1926. Pp. xii+ 211. 8vo. Pl. 20 + 48 text ill. Map. 13s. 6d. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

THE CHARACTER OF KING ARTHUR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. Door Dr. E. VAN DER VEN-TEN BENSEL. Amsterdam: H. J. Paris, 1925. 9½″ x 6?″. Pp. iv + 215. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

THE DOCUMENTARY SOURCES OF GREEK HISTORY. By M. CARY. Oxford: Blackwell, 1927. Pp. xi + 140. 7¼″ x 4?″. 6s. Reviewed by H. J. Rose.

DIE TEUTSCHEN VOLKSBÜCHER. By JOSEPH GÖRRES. Berlin: Herbert Stubenrauch, 1925. Sm. 80. Pp. xvi.+352 6s. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

NORWEGIAN FAIRY TALES FROM THE COLLECTION OF ASBJÖRNSEN AND MOE. Trans. by HELEN and JOHN GADE. (Scandinavian Classics, vol. xxiv.). Oxford: University Press, 1924. 7¼″x4?″. Ill. Pp. xiv.+250. Ils. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

RELIGION AND FOLKLORE OF NORTHERN INDIA. By WILLIAM CROOKE. Prepared for the press by R. E. ENTHOVEN. Oxford: Univ. Press, 1926. 8?″x5?″. Pp. 471. 21s. Reviewed by H. A. Rose.

JAMAICA PROVERBS. Collected by M. W. BECKWITH. Publications of the Folk-Lore Foundation, Vassar College, N.Y., No. 6, 1925. 9″x6″. Pp. 137. Reviewed by W. Bonser.

Some Foreign Periodicals. Reviewed by W. R. Halliday.     

A chicken on every pot: curious avian ceramic vessels on the Gulf Coast

ABSTRACT

In a recent examination of bird effigy vessels from the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, one remarkable species identified appears to be Gallus gallus domesticus, or the chicken. Examples of small ceramic rooster heads sporting dramatic, single combs and short beaks may be indirect evidence of contact between native coastal peoples and Spanish explorers in the early decades of the AD 1500s. The particular socio-cultural conditions that would have made possible the introduction of these decidedly non-native birds into the repertoire of Native American potters in the protohistoric era are explored.     

丹巴古镇 传说中的女儿国

<正>丹巴古称章谷,藏语为岩石上的城市之意,故而又有"岩颠之城"及"大渡河畔第一城"之誉。由于丹巴地处高原,且又是诸多山脉、河流的汇聚及发源之地,因此,自古以来,丹巴是山顶积雪皑皑,山腰森林葱葱,山脚海子粼粼。     

Shoreline Change and Coastal Vulnerability Characterization with Landsat Imagery: A Case Study in the Outer Hebrides,Scotland

Abstract

Observation of cause–effect patterns of change in coastal environments provides insights into vulnerable areas and supports prediction and adaptation to flooding and erosion. Historic and periodic (6–8 year intervals) imagery from the Landsat archive is used to investigate transformations in the Atlantic coast of two Scottish islands over the period 1989–2011. Supervised classification of spectrally normalized images followed by change detection and spatial analysis reveals the patterns of change and the location of the most dynamic coastal areas. Quantitative measures of recent shifts and movement rates of relevant coastal lines, such as the lower limit of land-based vegetation, are assessed with the Digital Shoreline Analysis System. While very low rates are indicated for horizontal changes in the position of the lower limit of land-based vegetation (0.3?m?y^?1), specific areas have been subjected to high rates of coastal progradation as well as erosion (e.g. 2.5?m?y^?1 at Stilligarry). Information derived from satellite data supports the characterization of geomorphologically dynamic coasts at regional scales. With a rich and open access archive of imagery, a commitment to continuity, and compatibility with the Earth observation missions of other space programs, the Landsat mission offers useful and otherwise unavailable data for monitoring of coastal areas.     

Trinovantum — the evolution of a legend

One aspect of that legendary ‘British history’ which was accepted as fact almost without question by historical writers until the early seventeenth century, and in popular and literary tradition much longer, was the story of the foundation of London, as Trinovantum or ‘New Troy’, by a group of exiled Trojans, long before the Roman conquest of Britain. In considering the relevance of this medieval story to the problems of London's actual origin, this paper traces its sources and development. Ambiguities in the Latin of Julius Caesar and Orosius led later writers, including probably Bede, to assume that there had once existed a British city called Trinovantum. The British writers, represented by Nennius, invented a Trojan origin for their people on well-tried models. These two independent traditions were combined in the twelfth century by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who identified Trinovantum as Troia Nova, and made the further identification of this city with London. Later Londoners-were well aware of this ‘Trojan foundation’, and found in the story a source of pride and a reason for the pre-eminence of their city.     

黄帝族的迁徙及其神话传说的区域性

有关黄帝的历史事迹及其神话传说,大多显系后人将出自黄帝主族及其支族的糅合为一体了。本试图根据“黄帝四妃”与“黄帝之子十二姓”的所在区域,来离析这些历史事迹及神话传说,并推测出其产生之地,从而判断它们是出自黄帝主族还是其支族。     

Resisting Traditions: Ceramics, Identity, and Consumer Choice in the Outer Hebrides from 1800 to the Present

On a number of levels, peripheral status has been imposed on the Outer Hebrides (Scotland) since the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745. Drawing on a series of interviews with Hebridean families, this paper explores the changing meanings of ceramics imported into the islands from the early nineteenth century and displayed on wooden dressers. It is argued that in renegotiating their identity in the face of a series of externally generated economic changes, rural communities in the Hebrides have acted as thoughtful consumers, appropriating mainland material culture to their own ends. Throughout this process, imports have behaved ambiguously. This ambiguity is crucial to our understanding of the relationship—here characterized not as resistance but as resistant adaptation—between the Hebrides and the mainland.     

The possible role of humans in the early stages of machair evolution: palaeoenvironmental investigations in the Outer Hebrides,Scotland

Low altitude sandy plains (machair) are a distinctive feature of the Atlantic coasts of the Scottish Outer Hebrides. They formed as a result of shoreward movement of sediment consequent upon a rise in Holocene sea levels. During the long period over which machair has been forming, the earliest date proposed for their human occupation is the Neolithic. The natural origins of the machair are not disputed, but examination of deposits at sites in the islands of Benbecula and Grimsay encourages us to advance a possible anthropogenic role in the process of machair development, and also to suggest that human involvement may date from the Mesolithic period (pre-5000 BP [ca. 5730 cal BP]), a time for which archaeological evidence is lacking from the Outer Hebrides. The presence of charcoal might suggest that burning of the vegetation cover of the machair was an additional factor to the supposedly dominant marine and aeolian processes in sand mobility. Removal of shrub vegetation may also have left sand surfaces open to deflation. There remains a difficulty in separating natural from human causes in investigations of long-term coastal evolution.