Molding maize: the shaping of a crop diversity landscape in the western highlands of Guatemala

Today's domesticated plants not only embody past human–nature interactions, but also reflect social history. Human seed exchange, replacement and loss are important forces in shaping crop diversity. This essay explores regional history in relation to the shaping of maize diversity in the western highlands of Guatemala. This is an area of exceptional maize heterogeneity and a peripheral part of the region where maize was domesticated. Maize diversity seems to have developed through geographic isolation in networks of seed exchange that were generally very local in scope. However, recent studies on Mexican maize suggest otherwise. However, few studies have examined crop diversity or seed exchange from a historical perspective. A closer examination of regional history suggests which processes might be important for shaping the present geographical distribution of maize diversity. Seeds were occasionally transported over longer distances. As a consequence, maize diversity is geographically not characterised by sharp differences between farming communities; the main differences are to be found in regional occurrences. This challenges antimodern ideas of closed, local native ecologies. Consequently, the conservation of maize genetic resources is a challenge, but not entirely contradictory with its transforming socio-economic context.     

Land use and resource exploitation in the Norse western settlement in Greenland

Undersøgelsen af areal‐ og ressourceudnyttelsen omkring udvalgte mindre, marginalt beliggende nordbogårde i Vesterbygdens centrale del fokuserer især på gårdsanlæggenes vegetationsressourcer med henblik på beregning af deres bæreevne og foderværdi.

På grundlag af biomasseberegninger synes en kronologisk og/eller social betinget bebyggelsesekspansion fra “gode” områder mod mere marginale områder at kunne påvises.

Analyser af forholdet mellem græs‐ og husarealer tyder på, at gårde med begrænset græsareal i nærheden kompenserer herfor enten ved at holde flere får eller geder (fremfor køer), som kræver mindre græs som foder og som oftere huses i fritliggende udhuse, eller ved at have større udhuskapacitet til oplagring af hø høstet længere borte fra gårdene.

En veldokumenter et gård bliver brugt som eksempel til beregning af vegeta‐tionspotentialets bæreevne, det faktiske dyreholds størrelse og husstandens størrelse.

Desuden bliver udnyttelsen af højlandet søgt belyst i forbindelse med betragtninger over forekomsten af anlæg og ressourcer relateret til sæterdrift og rensdyrjagt.     

Archaeomagnetic research in the Andean highlands

Eleven archaeomagnetic samples were collected from several sites near Porco, Bolivia as part of the Proyecto Arqueológico Porco-Potosí. These samples were collected in order to 1) explore the availability of appropriate sample materials in the Bolivian Andes, and 2) assess the feasibility of pursuing reference curve research for this region. In addition, this research explored the archaeomagnetic dating application of reference curves constructed from the global geomagnetic field model gufm1 (Jackson et al., 2000), which covers the period from AD 1590–1990. This model is particularly applicable to our project, since many of the project sites are late prehispanic (pre-AD 1532) and early historic (ca. AD 1532–1825) in age. Of the 11 samples, three appeared to contain an insufficient amount of ferromagnetic minerals to provide reliable results, while eight samples produced acceptable-to-good results. The data from the eight good samples were compared to a reference curve for the period of AD 1600–2000 that was calculated for this project from the global field model, gufm1. The archaeomagnetic dates obtained for two of the samples agreed with archaeological expectations, while those for four other samples marginally or greatly postdated the archaeological age expectations. Two additional samples produced significantly different directions and could not be dated against the reference curve. It is likely that the age discrepancies for four of the samples stem from inaccuracies in the archaeomagnetic data, the archaeological age expectations, the calculated reference curve, or some combination of these factors.     

Ethnography and ethnogeography in the North Luzon highlands

Harold C. Conklin. Ethnographic Atlas of Ifugao: A Study of Environment, Culture, and Society in Northern Luzon. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980. viii + 116 pp. Tables, photographs, maps, line‐drawings, bibliography, indexes. $85.00.     

The forbidden sex in the New Guinea highlands

Meigs, Anna S. Food, Sex and Pollution: A New Guinea Religion. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1984. xix + 196 pp. including appendices, glossary, bibliography, and index. $22.50 cloth.     

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.     

Ecology,warfare, and politics in the New Guinea highlands

Mervyn Meggitt. Blood Is Their Argument: Warfare Among the Mae Enga Tribesmen of the New Guinea Highlands. Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1977. xii + 223 pp. Tables, figures, glossary, and index. $4.95, paper.     

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.