Correction to: Mobility and Social Change: Understanding the European Neolithic Period after the Archaeogenetic Revolution

Journal of Archaeological Research - In the original publication it was erroneously stated that the Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1a2 was found in Yamnaya burials, and that R1a was found in Majkop...     

英国前工业化时期的农业革命及其在社会转型中的作用

英国农业自16世纪始发生了一场深刻的革命,农业生产增长明显加快,农业劳动生产率也稳步提高,直接为工业革命铺平了道路。同时也使英国率先摆脱了传统社会周期性生存危机的困扰,孕育了近代乡村工业,为乡村人口流动和城市发展提供了动力,在英国由传统农业社会向近代工业社会的转型中扮演了重要的角色。     

Mobility and the diversity of Early Neolithic lives: Isotopic evidence from skeletons

Isotopic analyses of tooth enamel from early Neolithic skeletons in southern Germany adds diversity to the picture of the Neolithic transition in central Europe, which has often been described as a wholesale shift in diet and technology. Over the past decade, these isotopic studies have suggested some degree of immigration from nearby indigenous groups, as well as social differences within early Neolithic communities that correlate with immigration patterns. In general, there emerges pattern a pattern of patrilocal kinship that is consistent with independent genetic evidence, and anthropologically consistent with the potential identification of Neolithic ‘nuclear families’; and finally, specialisation of subsistence activities, such as livestock herding and cultivating, probably along hereditary lines.     

Climate Change and Socio-Political Crises: Some Cases from Neolithic Central Europe

Abstract

In recent years, data on an increasing number of violent conflicts within and between Central European Neolithic societies has come to light through both archaeological and physical anthropological studies. The spectrum of such evidence ranges from occasional incidents of healed trauma in otherwise 'ordinary' burial situations to mass burials of possibly tortured and certainly massacred villagers. There appears to be a temporal correlation between periods of increased violence/warfare and climatically unstable periods. Evidence is presented for three periods beginning with the so-called Initial Neolithic up to the earlier Eneolithic.     

Jiangzhai: Social and economic organization of a Middle Neolithic Chinese village

The Early Yangshao period (5000–4000 BC) village of Jiangzhai is the most completely excavated and reported of any early agricultural community in the middle reaches of northern China’s Yellow River Valley. This comprehensive dataset can better our understanding of early agricultural village societies and complex society development, especially the emergence of economic inequality. Analyses of Jiangzhai’s architectural remains and their arrangement; estimates of household population, storage capacity, and animal consumption; and analyses of household artifact assemblages are used to reconstruct the social and economic organization of this important Neolithic settlement. Our analyses suggest that differences in economic organization at the household level are responsible for patterns of intra-settlement economic differentiation previously attributed to higher-order “corporate” institutions. Rather than a segmental society composed of redundant homologous units, Jiangzhai displays substantial variability among residential sectors and constituent households in terms of activity emphases and surplus accumulation. Substantial intrasite variation in socioeconomic organization has previously been thought characteristic only of more complex Late Neolithic societies in the middle Yellow River Valley region.     

“文化大革命”时期日本人的文革论

中国化大革命,日本各界始终都十分关注。《朝日新闻》社等大众媒体的报道,知识分子的学术研究,由于观点和立场的不同,所表现出来的日本人的革观也是复杂多样的。有赞美支持,有批判否定,有理解的批判,也有指责中国理念变质。     

The provenancing of ochres from the Neolithic Temple Period in Malta

Ochres have played an important role in early human societies, and recent studies have shown that these pigments are important tools in establishing trade routes between countries as particular varieties of the material were sought for use by these ancient groups. This paper explores the provenancing of the ancient ochres used during the Neolithic Temple Period on the Maltese islands. Here ICP-AES was employed to establish geochemical trends and ‘signature’ elements present in ochre that had previously been thought to have been imported from mainland Europe. When coupled with statistical tests, data was used to link the archaeological pigments to a geological source. Results revealed a strong link between the Maltese archaeological pigments and local sources, which had never been studied prior to this project. These indicated that, contrary to popular belief, the Maltese archipelago was the most likely source for Neolithic ochre.     

清代汉水上游的水资源环境与社会变迁

本文选取清代汉水上游的汉中府辖区,以堰渠水利为切入点并将其置于当地自然、社会长期演变的大背景中去考察,探讨国家权力与地域社会之间的整合关系,揭示基层社会的演变趋势及其生态环境背景与财政经济根源。文章认为:清代中后期,汉中水资源环境明显恶化是多种因素共同作用的后果,与当地的地质地貌特征、气候变迁存在密切关系,而移民开发则诱发、加剧了这一恶化步伐。清代以来,当地民办水利勃兴,官办水利日益具有民间化趋势,这与自然环境演变、赋役财政改革、水利组织管理的变化是相辅相成的。这些相互关联的多重变动,反映了社会控制权的下移、官府对水利社会的控制更为间接。     

Social Media and Social Change

The growing impact of new media around the world has been the subject of study by scores of scientists in multidisciplinary fields. Satellite TV and the Internet have been viewed as instruments of social and political change — connecting communities, educating the youth, and creating social networks previously unaccounted for, like virtual groups. However, in the Arab World and the Middle East, such technological developments have been hailed as tools for the empowerment of marginalized communities such as women and the youth, also brought new opportunities that have resulted in the breaking of the communication monopoly by those in power and the creation of a new communication environment. Such environment has — as part of its manifestations — the current social transformations that the region is witnessing. Drawing on examples from social media networks used in Tunisia and Egypt, this article analyzes the extent to which new technologies have changed the rules of the game regarding public opinion construction and the communication flow traditionally monopolized by the hegemonic power structures in Arab society. This study not only reveals the decisiveness of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in the Arab Spring countries’ revolutions, but also the extent to which their availability served in a complex manner the democratic transition that Tunisia have been undergoing and the political turmoil that Egypt is witnessing. Furthermore this study argues that such online spheres of communication mark the emergence of the virtual yet vibrant space of political campaigning and social empowerment, especially for the youth and marginalized communities.     

The Neolithic Macro-(R)evolution: Macroevolutionary Theory and the Study of Culture Change

The macroevolutionary approach in archaeology represents the most recent example in a long tradition of applying principles of biological evolution to the study of culture change. Archaeologists working within this paradigm see macroevolutionary theory as an effective response to the shortcomings of neo-Darwinian biological evolution for studying cultural evolution. Rather than operating at the level of individual traits, macroevolutionary archaeologists emphasize the role of hierarchical processes in culture change. While neo-Darwinian archaeologists disavow any element of human intent in culture change, to macroevolutionary archaeologists human agency is a key component of cultural evolution that allows cultures to respond to pressures more quickly and with greater degree of flexibility and directedness than found in biological evolution. Major culture change, when it happens, is likely to be rapid, even revolutionary, with periods of rapid change separated by periods of relative stasis of actively maintained stability. The emergence of Neolithic cultures has long been recognized as one of two periods of major revolutionary culture change in human prehistory. Here I examine the record for the Near East, tracing the empirical record for the origin of agriculture in this region, as well as other demographic, social, and ideological components of Neolithic emergence. While the empirical record from the Near East subscribes in a general way to basic principles of macroevolutionary theory, cultural evolution cannot be understood through appeal to principles of biological evolution alone, whether based in macroevolutionary theory or neo-Darwinianism. Instead, the key role of human agency in culture change distinguishes cultural evolution from biological evolution and requires a more pluralistic and less doctrinaire appeal to multiple models of change based in both the biological and social sciences.     

Architectural Discourse and Social Transformation During the Early Neolithic of Southeast Anatolia

Within the Near Eastern research canon, the transition to more sedentary lifestyles during the Neolithic is often framed as an economic necessity, linked to plant and animal domestication, climatic change and population stress. In such a framework, an increasingly complex social structure, arising in response to the increasingly complex relations of agricultural production, is presumed. For example, some researchers would argue that feasting-based rituals became an arena of social control and an increasingly complex society began to emerge around ritual leadership and monumental ritual architecture. Yet the research projects conducted at many Near Eastern sites indicate neither that sedentism can be directly linked to the requirements of agriculture, nor that the presence of monumental architecture can be successfully associated with social control based on unequal redistribution of agricultural surplus. While ritual activity appears to be central during the Neolithic, two important questions remain to be explored: (1) what exactly did the rituals control, given that the societies under consideration are commonly perceived to have an ‘egalitarian’ ethos?; and (2) what happened to the ritual control in the second half of the PPNB, when ritual architecture completely disappears from the archaeological record at a time of increased reliance on agriculture? Through a critical review of the use of terms like ‘sedentism’, ‘egalitarianism’ and ‘ritual’, I argue that the architecture of the Early Neolithic is related to the management of social relationships through symbolic place-making activities. Based on a comparative review of burial activity, building continuity and the use of symbolic imagery, I examine the symbolic construction of some of the earliest examples of long-term occupational focus in southeast Anatolia, such as Hallan Çemi, Demirköy, Körtik Tepe, Hasankeyf Höyük, Gusir Höyük, Göbekli Tepe, Çayönü and Neval? Çori, in an attempt to understand the social factors behind the emergence and demise of Early Neolithic monumental architecture. The evidence from the above-mentioned sites suggests that Early Neolithic place-making reflects community formation at a variety of scales, at the center of which lay the continuous reinvention of kinship concepts. While some sites, with concentrations of burials, may have become the locus for construction of more intimate local place-based networks, other sites, such as Göbekli Tepe, may have integrated the extended networks. Arguably, the formation of large scale networks during the PPNA posed a threat to local groups. Thus, a focus on local group formation and close control of social exchanges may have begun during the early PPNB, and the places such as Göbekli Tepe may have fallen out of use during this process. In the context of the symbolism and figurine evidence, I further argue that sex and gender may have become important issues, both in the formation of place-communities during the late PPNA—early PPNB, and in the emergence of autonomous households during the later PPNB.     

甘青地区全新世环境变迁与新石器文化兴衰

我国北方大部分地区,距今8000年前后的降温事件之后,才真正意味着人类的全新世气候适宜期的开始.距今5500年前后降温以及由此带来的干旱,使甘青地区这一时期人口与资源之间的矛盾的激化,甘青地区葫芦河流域仰韶文化中晚期出现的社会复杂性,可能是在资源紧张状态下的一种人类文化行为的生态调整.甘青地区距今4500年气候转变可能首先促进或刺激了齐家文化的发展.但随着气候转变的幅度增加,环境条件渐趋恶劣并超过了当时人类所能承受的极限,西北地区史前农业体系不可避免的发生彻底地解体和衰落.长期的干旱环境可能是导致齐家文化的衰落以及齐家文化之后较长时间农业文化的低潮的重要原因之一.     

十年辛苦解疑谜——王雪涛文革期间作品考证

在中国现代花鸟画的领域里,王雪涛堪称一位领军人物。他的作品细腻生动,明丽典雅,融中西技法于一体,被范曾推为花鸟四杰（其余3人为李苦禅、潘天寿、郭味蕖）。但是收藏家发现,社会上流传的雪涛真迹,很少有其1965年到1972年文化大革命期间的作品,就连先后出版的几部权威王雪涛画集,也回避了雪涛文革10年的经历。