The Fremont Complex: A Behavioral Perspective

The Fremont complex is composed of farmers and foragers who occupied the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin region of western North America from about 2100 to 500 years ago. These people included both immigrants and indigenes who shared some material culture and symbolic attributes, but also varied in ways not captured by definitions of the Fremont as a shared cultural tradition. The complex reflects a mosaic of behaviors including full-time farmers, full-time foragers, part-time farmer/foragers who seasonally switched modes of production, farmers who switched to full-time foraging, and foragers who switched to full-time farming. Farming defines the Fremont, but only in the sense that it altered the matrix in which both farmers and foragers lived, a matrix which provided a variety of behavioral options to people pursuing an array of adaptive strategies. The mix of symbiotic and competitive relationships among farmers and between farmers and foragers presents challenges to detection in the archaeological record. Greater clarity results from use of a behavioral model which recognizes differing contexts of selection favoring one adaptive strategy over another. The Fremont is a case where the transition from foraging to farming is followed by a millennium of adaptive diversity and terminates with the abandonment of farming. As such, it serves as a potential comparison to other cases in the world during the early phases of the food producing transition.     

Round barrows and the harmonious landscape: placing Early Bronze Age burial monuments in south-east England

The distribution and siting of barrows within the landscape of south-east England is considered, and it is observed that clustering occurs on certain geological units and in specific topographical positions. A socio-economic explanation for the distribution of those in Sussex is possible, and the concentrations can even be considered in terms of territorial units. However, distribution across the south-east is nodal, and the clusters present on the South Downs are not matched on the North Downs, and it is necessary to consider other explanations. A cosmological approach provides a fresh insight into the siting of barrows and helps explain siting within cemeteries as well as within the wider landscape.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of Young Children's Mapping Abilities

The mapping abilities of four-year-old children in York, England, Durban, South Africa, Tehran, Iran, Mexico City, Mexico and Evanston, Illinois, USA were investigated, using a methodology involving air-photo identification and simulated navigation on an air photo. The results show that essential mapping abilities (perspective and scale transformations) are well developed by the age of four in these cultures, and provide some evidence in support of the hypothesis that mapping abilities emerge without training in very young children of all cultures.     

Book reviews

Fumio Itoh (ed.), China in the Twenty‐First Century: Politics, Economy, and Society. New York: United Nations University Press, 1997. xiv + 287 pp. $31.15.

David Lee and Christopher Waters (eds), Evatt to Evans: The Labor Tradition in Australian Foreign Policy. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, in association with the Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1997. ix + 257 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Richard Haass, The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1997. 148 pp. US$24.95 (cloth).

Mark McGillivray and Gary Smith (eds), Australia and Asia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. vii + 248 pp. No price given.

Geoffrey Edwards and Alfred Pijpers (eds), The Politics of European Treaty Reform, The 1996 Intergovernmental Conference and Beyond. London and Washington: Pinter, 1997. viii + 353 pp. No price given (paper).

John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. x + 425 pp. $75.00 (cloth).

Melvyn P. LeMer, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. xvii + 689 pp. US$25.00 (cloth).

Donatella Delia Porta and Yves Meny (eds), Democracy and Corruption in Europe. London: Pinter, 1997. viii + 208 pp. £45.00 (cloth), £13.99 (paper).

Rodney Gouttman, Bondi in the Sinai: Australia, the MFO and the Politics of Participation. Maryland: University of America, 1996. xiii + 202pp. US$29.50 (cloth).

James Cotton and John Ravenhill (eds), Seeking Asian Engagement: Australia in World Affairs, 1991–95. Melbourne: Oxford University Press with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1997. xiv + 362 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Godfrey Linge and Doug Porter (eds), No Place for Borders: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Development in Asia and the Pacific. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1997. xxii+ 191 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Aharon Levran, Israeli Strategy After Desert Storm: Lessons of the Second Gulf War. London: Frank Cass, 1997. ix+ 169 pp. £35.00 (cloth), £17.50 (paper).

Daniel Fineman, A Special Friendship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. viii + 357 pp. $70.00 (cloth).

The United Nations and Rwanda, 1993–1996. United Nations Blue Book Series, Volume X. New York: Department of Public Information, United Nations, 1996. 750 pp. US$29.95 (paper).

Edmond Keller and Donald Rothchild (eds), Africa in the New International Order: Rethinking State Sovereignty and Regional Security. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1996. ix + 253 pp. US$49.95 (cloth), US$19.95 (paper).     

Book reviews—Comptes Rendus

Themes in medieval history—Aspects de l'histoire du moyen âge

Dianne WATT ed., Medieval Women in their Communities University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1997 ISBN 0–7083–1369–8(Hardback) £30.00 ISBN 0–7083–1361–2(paperback) £14.95.

Chris GIVEN‐WILSON ed., An Illustrated History of Late Medieval England, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1996 xi + 292 pp. ISBN 0–7190–4152‐X £35.00

Themes in Eighteenth‐Century History—Aspects de l'histoire du dix‐huitième siècle

Jeremy BLACK ed., An Illustrated History of Eighteenth‐Century Britain 1688–1793 Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1996, xv + 244 pp. ISBN 0–7190–4267–4. £25.00.

Jeremy BLACK ed., Culture and Society in Britain 1660–1800 Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1997, viii + 199 pp. ISBN 0–7190–4947–4. £35.00.

Themes in Russian History—Aspects de l'histoire Russe

Lionel KOCHAN and John KEEP, The Making of Modern Russia: From Kiev Rus’ to the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Third Edn., Penguin, London, 1997, xii + 603 p., ISBN 0–14–015715–8. £9.99.

Wendy R. SALMOND, Arts and Crafts in Imperial Russia: Reviving the Kustar Art Industries, 1870–1917, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, xv + 270p., ill., ISBN 0–521–41576–4 £50.00.

Morgan Philips PRICE, Dispatches from the Revolution: Russia 1916–1918, Pluto Press, London, 1997, xii + 181 p., ISBN 0–7453–1210–1 £30.00.

John Lewis GADDIS, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997, x + 425p., ISBN 0–19–878070–2 £25.00.     

Training and Maritime Archaeology in a University Context

This paper draws on experience gained by Bournemouth University to consider undergraduate education in maritime archaeology. At Bournemouth maritime archaeology is taught firmly in the context of a broader archaeological education. Archaeological programmes vary with the institutions within which they are taught, each programme thus having an individual character that separates it from that of other institutions and further enriches the subject through the breadth of this education. At Bournemouth the value of teaching archaeology with a high component of practical experience has been long understood. This does not mean that archaeology is taught as a purely practical subject but as one within which experience in the field is seen as a worthwhile focus. Bournemouth’s programme therefore recognises the value of field research projects as learning environments for undergraduates studying maritime archaeology. The programme is subject to a number of constraints, notably the size of the archaeological employment market, levels of pay within that market, questions of ongoing professional development after graduation, and the requirements of other employment markets into which archaeological graduates enter. This paper argues that research project-based learning, and in particular, involvement with amateur groups, provides a way to balance these constraints and supports development of both technical and transferable ‘soft’ skills.

Leaving on a Jet Plane: Polarization,Foreign Travel,and Comity in Congress

No political observer, politician, or political scientist doubts that party polarization has weakened the social fabric of Congress. Measuring that effect, however, is exceedingly difficult. In this article, we operationalize the congressional social fabric by examining the foreign travel behavior of members of Congress over time. We evaluate the social disintegration in Congress by examining if and whether changes in member travel can explain why the social connectedness of members has waned. Using a unique dataset of foreign travel for House members from 1977 to 2012, we find that Republican House members, in particular, have altered their foreign travel patterns. Ideologically extreme members have always been less likely to take foreign trips, but extremely conservative Republican have become much more likely to travel only with co-partisans as polarization has increased in Congress. Ideologically moderate Republicans, while still traveling as members of bipartisan delegations, have also increased their willingness to travel only with fellow Republicans. Our results suggest that bipartisan foreign travel is a victim of the partisan war waging in Congress.