Sprawl in Spain and Madrid: A Low Starting Point Growing Fast

This article comments upon the situation of sprawl in Spain and Madrid, especially residential sprawl. It does not appear to be a serious problem due to its low starting point, but artificial surface and residential sprawl is growing rapidly. For that reason, it may be an issue in the future. Between 2000 and 2006, urban residential land use grew 0.4% in Spain and 0.2% in Europe per year, land use of industrial and commercial areas grew 2.3% in Spain and 0.4% in Europe and total artificial surface grew 2.7% in Spain and 0.6% in Europe (EEA, 2010). Further, we will study the legislation on maximum and minimum urban density in Spain. The highest maximum urban density is established by the Basque Country, with 230 dwellings per hectare, and the highest minimum urban density is established by Catalonia, with 50 dwellings per hectare. In both cases, it is applied to only certain types of territories. Finally, we will analyse what happens in the Region of Madrid in relation to sprawl. It has very similar patterns compared with the rest of Spain, although more pronounced.     

An empirical test of the relative frequency of bipolar reduction in Beds VI,V, and III at Mumba Rockshelter,Tanzania: implications for the East African Middle to Late Stone Age transition

Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania, is the only East African site spanning a continuous record of more than 100,000 years, including the Middle Stone Age (MSA) to Late Stone Age (LSA) Transition. Rather than examine the presence or absence of traditional markers of “behavioral modernity”, we have endeavored here to respond to the calls of Shea (2011) and Basell (2008) by examining the proportional similarity of a trait present throughout the MSA–LSA sequence at Mumba Rockshelter: the bipolar technique of lithic reduction. We use a quantified, experimentally derived proxy to track the relative amount of bipolar percussion among Mumba's Beds VI, V, and III, namely, waste shatter. Our examination of Mehlman's previously unanalyzed collections from Mumba demonstrates that in terms of bipolar production Bed V is statistically indistinguishable from the Late Stone Age (LSA) Bed III, but significantly different from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) Bed VI. Given that Bed V dates to 56.9 ± 4.8 − 49.1 ± 4.3 ka cal BP, this result is consistent with other evidence that the origins of the LSA in East Africa began well before 40 kya, and that Mumba Bed V represents one of the earliest manifestations of the LSA in East Africa. We conclude with a discussion of factors that may have influenced the increased dependence of bipolar production at the site.     

Sir Ivor Jennings and the Malayan Constitution

This article examines the role of the British jurist, Sir Ivor Jennings, in the drafting of the Malayan independence constitution. Jennings was part of a five-man constitutional commission appointed in 1956 and led by the Scottish lord of appeal, Lord Reid. Unlike other such commissions, but at the request of Malaya's chief minister, its members were selected from a range of Commonwealth countries. The article discusses the principles which shaped the final document as well as the process of drafting, and argues that, while the constitution was the collective effort of five distinguished lawyers, Jennings' contributions were significantly greater. His working papers on governance served as the basis for the commission's discussion and his influence is most discernible in the provisions relating to the distribution of legislative and financial powers between the federal government and the states and in the section on fundamental liberties. This article concludes that Jennings not only provided the intellectual leadership for the Reid Commission but was also the master draftsman of the new constitution.     

The Introduction of Wheel-made Pottery in the Iberian Peninsula: Mycenaeans or Pre-orientalizing Contacts?

This paper describes wheel-made wares of the Late Bronze Age found in the Iberian Peninsula, including Mycenaean imports, and considers their origins and possible meaning for the introduction of the technology of wheel-turning. Such an innovation is documented in metal vessels and in jewellery of 'Villena-Estremoz' before the phase of Phoenician colonization in the eighth century BC.     

Poaceae phytoliths from the Niassa Rift,Mozambique

The most common grass phytoliths from “Zambezian” miombos are described here for the first time. Their potential for long term preservation in sediments makes them a useful tool in the reconstruction of ancient plant communities and plant/human interactions. We processed 60 plant samples (26 identified genera and species), with an average of 300 phytoliths counted per sample to a total of 18,586. Forty-seven morphotypes were described as per the International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature, with exceptions, including forty-five discreet shapes and two articulated forms, which can be used as comparative reference materials. We conducted three forms of statistical analyses: Discriminant Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Principal Component Analysis. The highest biomineral content was recorded among the Bambuseae and Paniceae, while the lowest silica production is detected in the Cynodonteae tribe. Typologically, the subfamily Panicoideae yielded 50% of the types reported here, 32% are from the Chloridoideae, 12% from the Bambusoideae, and 8% from the Arundinoideae sensu lato. Overall, the idealized Zambezian Poaceae phytolith spectrum is dominated by a small subset of Poaceae short cells, which include five morphotypes conventionally associated with Panicoid grasses (Bilobate concave outer margin long shaft, Bilobate concave outer margin short shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin long shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin short shaft, Cross), one morphotype commonly seen in Chloridoid taxa (saddle), and two types that appear across subfamily boundaries (tower, tower horned). The next logical step to take in regional phytolith research is the account of phytoliths deposited in soils underneath living plants, for they represent the interface between existing vegetation communities and the inevitably distorted fossil assemblages that the paleobotanist uses for environmental reconstruction.     

Anthropologie, psychhanalyse et «civilisation» du brésil dans l'entre-deux-guerres

This study concerns the moral regulation of the Person in Brazil from the twenties to the end of the forties, from the point of view of the intense academic relationship between anthropology and psychoanalysis. It deals with the conditions under which that dialogue took place: the general crusade for the «civilization» of the country, between the central State initiatives in the promotion of hygiene and education and the medical, intellectual debates about the «African» heritage and the possibility of surmounting cultural «backwardness».     

Urban Systems of Accumulation: Half a Century of Chilean Neoliberal Urban Policies

We analyse a half‐century of Chilean urban reforms to explain the introduction of a system of urban accumulation by dispossession of public resources and opportunities. Three stages have been conceptualised in the imposition of a neoliberal creative‐destructive process: proto‐neoliberalism, roll‐back and roll‐out periods. Empirical studies have traditionally analysed this process by examining a single urban policy's evolution over time. In this paper, we go beyond these types of studies by performing a systemic analysis of multiple urban policy reforms in Santiago, Chile. We use a genealogical thematic analysis to track changes in laws, government programmes and planning documents from between 1952 and 2014. Our analysis identifies different “urban systems of accumulation” by looking at the interplay of four urban policies: (1) urban planning deregulation; (2) social housing privatisation; (3) devolution of territorial taxes; and (4) decreased public service provision. Moreover, our multidimensional policy analysis in Santiago characterises a more radical, fourth expression in the creative destruction process of “accumulation by dismantling”. Consequently, we advocate for more multidimensional urban policy research that goes beyond a three‐period analysis in order to gain a deeper understanding of contemporary neoliberal creative‐destructive processes in variegated geographies.