Overdone overkill – the archaeological perspective on Tasmanian megafaunal extinctions

The reasons for megafaunal extinction in Australia have been hotly debated for over 30 years without any clear resolution. The proposed causes include human overkill, climate, anthropogenic induced habitat change or a combination of these. Most protagonists of the human overkill model suggest the impact was so swift, occurring within a few thousand years of human occupation of the continent, that archaeological evidence should be rare or non-existent. In Tasmania the presence of extinct megafauna has been known since the early twentieth century (74, 85 and 86) with earlier claims of human overlap being rejected because of poor chronology and equivocal stratigraphic associations. More recent archaeological research has not identified any megafauna from the earliest, exceptionally well-preserved late Pleistocene cultural sites. In 2008 however an argument for human induced megafaunal extinctions was proposed using the direct dates from a small sample of surface bone from two Tasmanian non-human caves and a museum sediment sample from an unknown location in a cave, since destroyed by quarrying (Turney et al., 2008). Turney et al. (2008) supplemented their data with published dates from other Tasmanian caves and open sites to argue for the survival of at least seven megafauna species from the last interglacial to the subsequent glacial stage.     

ACCULTURATION ALIMENTAIRE ET MUTATION URBAINE: LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DE L'INDUSTRIE DE LA RESTAURATION DANS L'AGGLOMÉRATION URBAINE DE QUÉBEC

Le développement récent de I'industrie de la restauration au Canada est représentatif de la transformation rapide des habitudes alimentaires de la population depuis trois décennies. De plus en plus industrialisée, la restauration se développe selon deux tendances principales: la nutrition (la restauration rapide - fast-food) et la convivialité (restauration gastronomique). Dans cet article, nous analysons le développement de I'industrie de la restauration dans la région métropolitaine de Québec au cours des trente dernières années, en faisant ressortir la dynami-que spatiale de la pénétration du secteur de la restauration de type 'fast-food' lors de I'expansion du tissu urbain et sa structuration par les voies rapides de transport automobile.
The recent development of the restaurant industry in Canada reflects the rapid transformation of the population's eating habits during the last thirty years. As it becomes more and more industrialized, the economic sector of the restaurant industry is developing according to two main tendencies: nutrition (fast-food restaurants) and conviviality (fine dining). In this paper, we look at the development of the restaurant industry in the metropolitan area of Quebec during the last three decades, showing the spatial dynamism of the fast-food sector since the beginning of rapid urban expansion and highway construction.     

Regional development and institutions in Hungary: past,present and future development

The author investigates what the transition from planned to market economy implies for regional development in Hungary. The focus is the role of institutional change to economic development of the regions. After 1989, new regional and local institutions were created, supported by the Poland and Hungary Action for Researching the Economy programme. The old three‐level regional administration was redefined, but resources are few and competences unclear. The new institutions’ ‘bottom‐up’ approach and their business‐orientation seem to match the conditions of the prosperous west, while they meet considerable difficulties in the depressed east. Alternatively, coordinated government action and cooperation between enterprises and administrators may represent a key to development.     

The Middle Stone Age south of the Limpopo River

Current interest in the origins of anatomically modernHomo sapiens has focused attention on early modern human remains and related archaeological materials associated with the southern African Middle Stone Age. While the anatomically modern status and a Last Interglacial or later age for the human fossils enjoy general support, issues related to the definition of the Middle Stone Age, its dating, and the interpretation of human behavior lack consensus. Available evidence suggests that the anatomically modern human skeleton appeared well before many aspects of the subsistence and symbolic behavior that characterize recent foragers and that Middle Stone Age technology persisted longer in southern Africa than its northern hemisphere counterpart.