Raw or Pre-Fired: Kiln Construction at Sawankhalok,North Central Thailand,as a Guide to Ceramic History

Sawankhalok, located in north central Thailand, was an early stoneware ceramic production site where the first kilns were dug cave-like into the natural ground, a method used in China for thousands of years. After a century or so, kilns at Sawankhalok began to be constructed of brick. It is suggested that if the bricks were pre-fired then an external influence may have been responsible. To the contrary, if raw unfired clay was used in the construction of the kilns the evolution was more likely a consequence of conceptual continuity.With the aid of chemical and mineralogical analyses it is shown that the kiln bricks were unfired at the time of kiln construction thereby suggesting that traditional conservatism, apparent in many aspects of the industry, caused processes to remain unaltered in the absence of a persuasive reason for change. These conclusions reflect on the degree of indigenous technology and artistic development associated with Sawankhalok ceramics as opposed to external influence.     

A History of Normative Theory in Americanist Archaeology

Efforts in the 1960s to demonstrate the value of the new archaeology involved showing that the competing culture-history paradigm was inferior. One allegedly weak plank in that paradigm had to do with how culture historians viewed culture—as a set of ideas transmitted in the form of ideal norms or mental templates. Lewis Binford referred to this view as normative theory. In archaeology that view was manifest in the equation of artifact types with prehistoric norms—an equation that, according to Binford, the culture historians had made so that they could track the flow of ideas through time and thus write culture history. Culture historians regularly subscribed to cultural transmission as the theoretical backdrop for their artifact-based chronometers such as seriation and the direct historical approach, but with few exceptions they perceived only a weak relationship between norms and artifact types. It was not until 1960, in a paper by James Gifford, that what Binford labeled as normative theory appeared in anything approaching a complete form. Ironically, the first applications of normative theory were products of the new archaeologists, not the culture historians.     

Voyages,mobilités,lumières

For a very long time and still today, travel stories have fascinated a vast public. It is important to debate their role and the model for intellectual and sensitive construction they propose. An essential link for the European elite's acculturation, they cannot for as much be separated from a much wider circulation which concerns society as a whole. In relation to the social morals of our past, the concept of mobility allows us to appreciate the totality of social practices and to confront the notions of movement and localization. The main cultural categories of space, time, sociability, social constraints and freedoms, are thus creating a structure for our understanding of change.     

LITERATURE REVIEW

SETTIING HATIOMALJPRJORITIES: A REVIEW ESSAY Charles L. Schultze, Setting National Priorities: The 1971 Budget Charles L. Schultze, Edward R. Fried, Alice M. Rivlin, and Nancy H. Teeters, Setting National Priorities: The 1972 Budget Charles L. Schultze, Edward R. Fried, Alice H. Rivlin, and Nancy H. Teeters, Setting Rational Priorities: The 1973 Budget Edward R. Fried, Alice M. Rivlin, Charles L. Schultze, and Nancy H. Teeters, Setting National Priorities: The 1974 Budget Barry M. Blechman, Edward M. Gramlich, and Robert W. Hartman, Setting National Priorities: The 1975 Budget Barry M. Blechman, Edward M. Gramlich, and Robert W. Hartman, Setting Rational Priorities: The 1976 Budget RECENT RELEVANT LITERATURE Thomas H. Tietenberg and Pierre Toureille, Energy Planning and Policy: The Political Economy of Project Independence Stanley D. Bachrack, The Committee of one Million: “China Lobby” Politics 1953–1971 Otis L. Graham, Toward a Planned Society: From Roosevelt to Nixon Judith Innes DeNuefville, Social Indicators and Public Policy: Interactive Processes of Design and Application Cole Blasier, The Hovering Giant: U.S. Response to Revolutionary Change in Latin America Richard L. Siegel and Leonard B. Weinberg, Comparing Public Policies; United States, Soviet Union, and Europe Richard D. Bingham, The Adoption of Innovation by Local Government Henry J, Pratt, The Gray Lobby BOOK NOTES Marc Karnis Landy, The Politics of Environmental Reform: Controlling Kentucky Strip Mining Allen C. Ornstein and Steven I. Miller, eds., Policy Issues in Education Colm A. O'Muircheartaigh and Clive Payne, eds., Exploring Data Structures Colm A. O'Muircheartaigh and clive Payne, eds., Model Fitting Rechard A. Posner, Antitrust Law: An Economic Perspective Lawrence L. Whetten, ed., The Future of Soviet Military Power THE PROS AND CONS OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS IN POLICY STUDIES A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SPECIFIC PROBLEM AREAS WITHIN POLICY STUDIES     

Explanation of the Pattern of P49a,f <Emphasis Type="Italic">Taq</Emphasis>I RFLP Y-Chromosome Variation in Egypt

The possible factors involved in the generation of the p49a,f TaqI Y-chromosome spatial diversity in Egypt are explored. The object is to consider explanations beyond those that emphasize gene flow mediated via military campaigns within the Nile corridor during the dynastic period. Current patterns of the most common variants (V, XI, IV) have been suggested to relate to Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom political actions in Nubia, including sometimes settler colonization, and the conquest of Egypt by Napata (in upper Nubia, northern Sudan) that initiated Dynasty XXV. Other events or processes have not been presented. However, a synthesis of evidence from archaeology, historical linguistics, texts, the distribution of haplotypes outside of Egypt, and some demographic considerations, lends greater support to the establishment, before the Middle Kingdom, of the observed distributions of the most prevalent haplotypes: V, XI, and IV. It is suggested that the pattern of diversity for these variants in the Egyptian Nile Valley, was largely the product of population events that occurred in the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene through Dynasty I, and was sustained by continuous smaller scale bi-directional migrations/interactions. The higher frequency of V in Ethiopia than in Nubia or upper (southern) Egypt, has to be taken into account in any discussion of variation in the Nile Valley, especially in the context of the findings of historical linguistics.Les facteurs possibles qui etaient parmi la generation de p49a,f TaqI Y-divers chromosome spatiale en Egypte, avaient ete explores. L’objectif etait de prendre en consideration les explications autour de celles qui mettaient l’accent sur le gene flow qui avait ete medie a partir des campagnes militaries dans le corridor du Nil, pendant la periode dynastique. Les modeles courants des varieties communes (V, XI, IV) avaient ete suggeres pour qu’ils soient en lien avec les actes politiques du Royaume Moyen et du Royaume Nouveau de Nubie, inclu quelques colonies, et la conquete de l’Egypte par Napta (en Haut Nubie, au Nord du Soudan), cela avait initie la 25eme dynastie. D’autres evenements ou procedures, n’avaient pas ete presentes. Ainsi, une synthese d’evidence de l’archeologie, de langues historiques, de textes, la distribution des haplotypes en dehors de l’Egypte, et quelques considerations demographiques avaient servi de grand support a l’etablissement, avant le Royaume Moyen, des distributions observees des varietes les plus prevalents: V, XI, and IV. Il est suggere que le modele de diversite pour ces varieties dans la Vallee du Nil Egyptien, etait largement le produit des evenements populaires qui s’etaient passes dans la derniere periode du Pleistocene au Moyen-Holocene jusqu’a la Premiere Dynastie, et etait soutenu par de petites echelles continue de demi-migrations/interactions directional. La plus grande frequence de V en Ethiopie qu’en Nubie ou plus haut, au Sud de l’Egypte, doit etre prise en considerartion dans n’importe quelle discussion de variation dans la Vallee du Nil, speciallement dans le contexte des decouvertes de langues historiques.