L'élargissement de 2004 au regard des précédents espagnol et portugais: un jeu de miroirs?

Le but de cet article est de mettre en perspective les principales conséquences qu'ont eues l'intégration de l'Espagne et du Portugal à la CEE dans ces Etats, et de se demander quel élément, de l'Europe ou des pays eux-mêmes, a été le plus actif dans la dynamique de changement, politique aussi bien qu'économique. Il a également pour propos de s'appuyer sur ce précédent afin d'en tirer quelques leçons qui pourraient s'appliquer aux pays de l'Est, concernant leurs propres processus d'entrée dans l'Union européenne. Il s'agira ainsi de voir les différences et les ressemblances qui caractérisent ces deux élargissements. Enfin, l'article s'intéresse aux conséquences que l'entrée des pays d'Europe centrale et orientale de 2004 a entraînées pour les Etats ibériques eux-mêmes, du point de vue des politiques communautaires comme celui de la place qu'occupent l'Espagne et le Portugal dans l'Union européenne élargie.     

De Gilles Groulx à Jean-Marc Vallée: Transnationalisme,Américanité et Territoire dans le Cinéma Québécois

As a recent phenomenon which strongly resonates with a transnationalism that can be understood as a desire to transcend both physical and cultural borders, the exile of Québécois filmmakers to Hollywood raises issues surrounding the notions of identity and territory that are relevant to Québec politics and cinema. This vast migration of successful filmmakers who are invading Hollywood with their Québécois imprint allows us to revisit the notions of Americanness (américanité) and territory, at a time where globalization and cultural diversification are blooming. In order to better explore those issues, we will retrace the evolution of the notion of Americanness in Québec films produced at various periods of time. Likewise, the study of the more recent works of Québécois director/auteur Jean-Marc Vallée will allow us to discover the director’s diversified representations of contemporary American dreams and landscapes.     

Burned bone in the Howieson’s Poort and post-Howieson’s Poort Middle Stone Age deposits at Sibudu (South Africa): behavioral and taphonomic implications

Despite a growing awareness of the wide range of information that can be provided by detailed analyses of burned bone from archaeological contexts, such analyses are still relatively uncommon. This paper focuses on the behavioral and taphonomic implications of burned bone from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Sibudu Cave (South Africa), reporting on the analysis of a large sample (>377,000 fragments) of bone recovered from the Howieson’s Poort (HP) and post-HP MSA deposits at the site. Faunal remains were initially sorted into burning categories based on changes in color; microscopic analyses focused on the optical properties of the bone matrix (degree of preservation of the bone structure, reflectance and fluorescence) indicated that the color is a valid indicator of thermally altered bone in the Sibudu assemblage. The association of burned bone with hearths, the intensity of burning damage, and the sheer quantity of thermally altered bone suggests that the bone was not burned primarily as a result of natural fires. We propose that the high incidence of burned bone primarily reflects two types of site maintenance activities: first, the discarding of bone into fire as a means of disposing of food waste (as also argued by Cain [2005, Using burned animal bone to look at Middle Stone Age occupation and behavior. J. Archaeol. Sci. 32, 873–884], for a smaller sample of material from the post-HP and late MSA deposits at the site), and second, the incidental burning of bone on/near the surface during the periodic burning of plant-based bedding. In considering the taphonomic implications of the burned bone, we demonstrate that calcined bone is in fact more heavily fragmented than unburnt or moderately burned bone. Furthermore, cortical preservation was negatively correlated with the intensity of burning damage, which has implications for the study of surface modifications. These results indicate the importance of conducting thorough taphonomic analyses prior to making comparisons between units that show differing degrees or intensities of burning damage.     

Cost-efficient Reserve Site Selection Favoring Persistence of Threatened and Endangered Species

This article formulates and tests set covering and related models with spatial characteristics for selecting sites that provide habitat for species that are identified as "critical" (e.g., typically threatened, endangered, or rare), thereby enhancing their persistence. The first two models presented require the creation of a core area for each critical species and a buffer zone surrounding the core, with and without being constrained to include at least one representation of each and every common (i.e., noncritical) species. The final model aims at minimizing costs of protecting predetermined numbers of common species while all critical species remain covered and buffered. These models are implemented for occurrence data of terrestrial mammals in Oregon. They enable, among other things, a comparison between the budgetary impacts of reserve networks with and without buffering rings for critical species, and a determination of the marginal cost of common species protection.     

The medieval iron market in Ariège (France). Multidisciplinary analytical approach and multivariate analyses

The medieval iron market in Ariège (French Pyrenees) is characterised by its complexity leading to many questions regarding the ore used in relation to the artefacts encountered in archaeological settings. Despite the conclusive study of the treaty that regulated iron vs. coal exchanges from the 14th to the 19th c. by Verna et al., many questions remain unanswered concerning provenance and circulation of ores and products. Based on a combination of trace elemental analysis and multivariate statistical methods (discriminant analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis), we propose to follow an elemental-based signature from ore to artefacts, suited to the direct iron process, to clarify provenance hypotheses. We define the chemical signature of the Ariège area and compare it to that of slag inclusions in artefacts uncovered in several main archaeological sites from the Ariège area but also outside of this region. The results from this study are consistent with prior knowledge from historical sources. In the Ariège region, results highlight the multiple origins of products encountered at Montréal-de-Sos, a site close to known trade routes, whereas the isolated Castel-Minier site primarily contained objects from local ores and most objects retrieved from the Mirabat castle (Couserans) are coming from outside Ariège, possibly an indirect consequence from the exchange treaty. The presence of pins made of Ariegean ores is also demonstrated in the far more distant Capestang collegiate (near Narbonne, outside Ariège). This opens the way to finer studies in the politico-economical control of the iron supply for the building of medieval monuments in Southern France.     

EVOLUTION OF URBAN SYSTEMS IN THE PARETO PLANE*

ABSTRACT Distributions of city sizes are usually characterized by their Pareto index. This, however, turns out to be a rather restrictive view, for the Pareto distribution is known to become singular whenever the Pareto index becomes smaller than one, a case which is fairly frequent in empirical distributions. We show that the introduction of finite Pareto distributions in which city sizes are bounded from above solves a number of difficulties encountered by the rank-size rule and by the unbounded Pareto distribution. Combined with the use of finite Pareto distributions, the green-belt model that has been introduced previously is reexamined. It implies definite constraints for the long-run evolution of urban systems; it is in the cases of countries experiencing a process of fast urbanization that these constraints are of greatest significance. The implications of the model are confronted with empirical evidence concerning the evolution of urban systems in major industrialized countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.     

History,memory and ‘lessons learnt’ for humanitarian practitioners

Abstract

This article concludes the special issue on the history of humanitarian aid by reflecting on the role of memory and history in relation to humanitarian aid. To address a special issue as a conclusion is to embrace the opportunity to reflect on its papers, aims and ambitions. It is also for us an opportunity to reflect on the role history has for a community of practice often forging ahead in response to the latest demands and emergencies. Historical thinking is now coming into greater salience for the world of humanitarian aid because, we argue, the ‘humanitarian sector’ has grown and aged – and professionalized and institutionalized.     

Impacts of Alexandria's Heptastadion on coastal hydro-sedimentary dynamics during the Hellenistic period: a numerical modelling approach

After its foundation in 331 BC, Alexandria was linked to the island of Pharos by the Heptastadion. The present study aims at understanding the impact of this building on the local water and sand dynamics. We used numerical models to compute the wind-induced currents and sediment re-suspension, comparatively without and in the presence of the Heptastadion. Results suggest that the Heptastadion was not only a link structure to reach the Pharos island, but a structure liable to reduce the sandy sediment dynamics in the eastern harbour, and then to protect the eastern harbour from infilling by the allochthonous sand drift.
© 2006 The Authors