Vegetation history at the multi-period prehistoric complex at Ballynahatty,Co. Down,Northern Ireland

Palaeoecological methods can provide an environmental context for archaeological sites, enabling the nature of past human activity to be explored from an indirect but alternative perspective. Through a palynological study of a small fen peatland located within the catchment of a multi-period prehistoric complex at Ballynahatty, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, we reconstruct the vegetation history of the area during the early prehistoric period. The pollen record reveals tentative evidence for Mesolithic activity in the area at 6410–6220 cal BC, with woodland disturbance identified during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transitional period ca. 4430–3890 cal BC. A more significant impact on the landscape is observed in the Early Neolithic from 3950 to 3700 cal BC, with an opening up of the forest and the establishment of a mixed agricultural economy. This activity precedes and continues to be evident through the Mid-Neolithic during which megalithic tombs and related burial sites were constructed at Ballynahatty. Due to chronological uncertainties and a possible hiatus in peat accumulation in the fen, the contemporary environment of the Ballynahatty timber circle complex (constructed and used ca. 3080–2490 cal BC) and henge (dating to the third millennium cal BC) cannot certainly be established. Nevertheless, the pollen record suggests that the landscape remained open through to the Bronze Age, implying a long continuity of human activity in the area. These findings support the idea that the Ballynahatty prehistoric complex was the product of a gradual and repeated restructuring of the ritual and ceremonial landscape whose significance continued to be recognised throughout the early prehistoric period.     

Spreading of Innovative Technical Traits and Cumulative Technical Evolution: Continuity or Discontinuity?

This paper questions the spreading of techniques considered as advantageous when measured in terms of energetic efficiency. A present-day case study, in which techniques do not spread, is used to highlight a transmission model that can be used to understand the spread of technical systems in terms of demic or cultural processes. The model is then applied to the spread of the potter’s wheel in the second and third millennium bc in the southern and northern Levant. Results show that both demic and cultural processes explain how the potter’s wheel became prevalent in the Levant. The selective forces are discussed by comparing the ceramic production contexts. We conclude that technical evolution is regulated by social mutations, i.e., major discontinuities.     

Soviet dilemmas

Archie Brown and Michael Kaser (eds), Soviet Policy for the 1980s, London, Macmillan, 1982, pp.282. £7.95 (paper)

David Childs, The GDR: Moscow's Ally, London, Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp.346. $19.95 (paper)

Ferenc Fehér and Agnes Heller, Hungary 1956 Revisited. The Message of a Revolution — a Quarter of a Century After, London, Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp.174. $29.95 (cloth)

Paul G. Lewis (ed.) Eastern Europe: Political Crisis and Legitimation, London & Sydney, Croom Helm, 1984, pp.202. $33.95 (cloth)

Borys Lewytzhyj, Politics and Society in Soviet Ukraine 1953–1980, Edmonton, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1984, pp.219. Can. $6.95 (paper)

Roy Medvedev, Khrushchev, Oxford, Blackwell, 1982, pp.292. $15.95 (paper)

Zhores Medvedev, Andropov: His Life and Death, Oxford, Blackwell, 1984, pp.255. $12.95 (paper)     

New Women's Writing in France

Recent years have been marked by the deaths of a number of central figures of French women's writing: Marguerite Duras (1996), Christiane Rochefort (1998), Nathalie Sarraute (1999), Marie Cardinal (2001). It is too soon to know which of the newer writers currently attracting interest on the French literary scene and beyond will achieve similar canonical status. None the less, the passing of one generation of authors has coincided with the rise of a new generation of particularly exciting writers, many of whom first published work during the 1990s. Names such as Christine Angot, Marie Darrieussecq, Régine Detambel, Camille Laurens, Linda Lê, Marie Ndiaye, Amélie Nothomb are joining those of already established writers such as Hélène Cixous, Annie Ernaux, Sylvie Germain, Marie Redonnet and Leila Sebbar in what is a thriving and vibrant field of study, examined in this article.     

Complex Contagions and the Diffusion of Innovations: Evidence from a Small-N Study

The recent literature on “complex contagions” challenges Granovetter’s classic hypothesis on the strength of weak ties and argues that, when the actors’ choice requires reinforcement from several sources, it is the structure of strong ties that really matters to sustain rapid and wide diffusion. The paper contributes to this debate by reporting on a small-N study that relies on a unique combination of ethnographic data, social network analysis, and computational models. In particular, we investigate two rural populations of Indian and Kenyan potters who have to decide whether to adopt new, objectively more efficient and economically more attractive, technical/stylistic options. Qualitative field data show that religious sub-communities within the Indian and Kenyan populations exhibit markedly different diffusion rates and speed over the last thirty years. To account for these differences, we first analyze empirically observed kinship networks and advice networks, and, then, we recreate the actual aggregate diffusion curves through a series of empirically calibrated agent-based simulations. Combining the two methods, we show that, while single exposure through heterophilious weak ties were sufficient to initiate the diffusion process, large bridges made of strong ties can in fact lead to faster or slower diffusion depending on the type of signals circulating in the network. We conclude that, even in presence of “complex contagions,” dense local ties cannot be regarded as a sufficient condition for faster diffusion.