Archaeological geology of two flow-banded spherulitic rhyolites in New England,USA: their history,exploitation and criteria for recognition

Artifacts of spherulitic rhyolite derived from two locations in northern New Hampshire are significant to minor components of numerous Paleoindian, Archaic and Woodland archaeological sites in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and easternmost Quebec. The two known sources of are a dike near the city of Berlin, New Hampshire, and blocks-in-till near the village of Jefferson, New Hampshire. The source near Berlin has been a known source for “Indian relics” since the middle of the nineteenth century. The second source near Jefferson New Hampshire was first recognized in 1997. Both sources are situated along prominent east–west routes between the east flowing Androscoggin River on the east and the south flowing Connecticut River on the west. Mount Jasper is located above the Dead River. The Dead River flows east and enters the Androscoggin River approximately 3 km from Mount Jasper. Passage between the Connecticut and Androscoggin Rivers would have taken the travelers directly beneath Mount Jasper. To the west, from the upper reaches of the Dead River, the portage to Head Pond is approximately 0.9 to 1.5 km. From Head Pond access to the Connecticut is by way of the North Branch Upper Ammonoosuc River. The Jefferson source is located on terraces on the northwest side of the modern Israel River. The Israel River flows west and north for approximately 25 km into the Connecticut River. To the east the Israel River rises to a divide which separates it from the east flowing Moose River, which empties into the Androscoggin. Attribution to source is based upon comparison with known outcrops which include the combined characteristics of gross lithology, weathering characteristics, and bulk mineralogy. Comparison of dike samples with artifacts also indicate that the thickness and continuity of the flow bands together with spherule characteristics, which include, size, shape, volume, microscopic structures and weathering character, further suggest a limited source.     

Renewing the purpose of geography education: Eco-anxiety,powerful knowledge,and pathways for transformation

Concerns about the decline in uptake of secondary geography education continue despite arguments supporting the value of geography education, the power of geographical thinking, and geography’s critical role in preparing students to deal with complex challenges. Already constrained by neoliberal politics of disadvantage, young people must plan and prepare for chaotic futures. Consequently, young people are becoming distressed and worried about their futures and feeling powerless as society fails to adequately address these issues. In this article, we ask what schools and universities can do as place-based public institutions to serve young people to effectively respond to eco-anxiety and build capacities to surf the unrelenting waves of change. We draw on journeys that brought three young doctoral candidates to study geography. From their stories, we sketch what a geographical education could offer in terms of relevance, practicality, and engagement with transformative system change. We think that under current world conditions, this is a moment to revive geography education and give it renewed purpose to encourage young people to develop skills and competences to tackle wicked problems.     

Representing Crisis: The Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation and the Project of Development in Post-Rana Nepal

Erik Eckholm is attributed with having popularized a theory of environmental crisis in the Nepal Himalaya. In his treatise Losing Ground (1976), he links population growth to contemporary upland deforestation and soil erosion, which are presumed to cause downstream flooding and silting. Since the 1980s, this theory has come under intense criticism on empirical, theoretical and ideological grounds, although it remains a sacred cow in the popular press. A historiography of the theory reveals that representations of and discourses on the nature and extent of environmental degradation have been an important dimension of three distinct aid regimes that shaped the post-World War II development project in Nepal. As such, within specific historical and institutional constellations, some conclusions have seemed more tenable than others, and certain interventions have become more legitimate. Moreover, the production of environmental interventions is intimately connected to the production of environmental knowledge, both of which are intrinsically bound up with power relations. Therefore, the facts about environmental deterioration have become subordinate to the broader debates on the politics of resource use and sustainable development.     

Reviews

My Uncle Napoleon, Iraj Pezeshkzad, trans. Dick Davis, Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1996, 512 pp., $29.95.

Les textes vieil‐avestiques, vol. I: Introduction, text et traduction, Jean Kellens and Eric Pirart, Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1988, 195 pp.

Reading Nasta^cliq: Persian and Urdu Hands from 1500 to the Present, William L. Hanaway and Brian Spooner, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1995, 278 pp.

Az Nima ta Ruzagar‐e Ma: Tarikh‐e Adab‐e Farsi‐ye Mo^caser (From Nima to Our Time: History of Contemporary Persian Letters), Yahya Arianpur, Tehran: Zavvar, 1374 (1995), 638 pp. + 48 pp. of photographs, title‐page reprints, etc.

The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz, trans. Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., with an Introduction by Daryush Shayegan, Ashland, Ore.: White Cloud Press, 1995, x + 170 pp.

The Hafez Poems of Gertrude Bell, with the original Persian on the facing page, Bethesda, Md.: Iranbooks, 1995, 176 pp.

Iran und Turfan: Beiträge Berliner Wissenschaftler, Werner Sunder‐mann zum 60. Geburtstaggewidmet, ed. Christiane Reck and Peter Zieme, Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1995, viii + 296 pp., photographs.

The History of al‐Tabari, vol. XXXIII: Storm and Stress Along the Northern Frontiers of the ^cAbbasid Caliphate, trans. and annot. C. E. Bosworth, Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies and Bibliotheca Persica, State University of New York Press, 1991.

Tales of Two Cities, Abbas Milani, Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1996, 263 pp., $24.95.

Avicenna and I: The Journey of Spirits, Manouchehr Parvin, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1996, 284 pp., $26.95 (cloth).

In A Voice of Their Own: A Collection of Stories by Iranian Women Written since the Revolution of 1979, trans. Franklin Lewis and Farzin Yazdanfar, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1996, 153 pp.     

A new model for royal penance? Helgaud of Fleury's Life of Robert the Pious

This article studies the theme of penance in writings about early medieval kingship through a case study: in his eleventh-century vita of Robert the Pious, Helgaud of Fleury described how the king did penance for his incestuous marriage in terms taken directly from Ambrose's Apologia David . This article, therefore, examines the influence which Ambrose had both on Helgaud and on earlier writers on kingship.     

Regulating Meaning, Appropriating Nature: The Codification of California Organic Agriculture

In California, conventional agro-food firms are beginning to appropriate the most lucrative aspects of organic food provision and to abandon the agronomic and marketing practices associated with organic agriculture's oppositional origins. Echoing the uneasy and complex dialectic between nature and capital in the American West, organic farming is becoming more akin to farming off of nature's image, as the idiom of a "purer" nature is deployed to sell what is increasingly commodified nature. The direction of organic agriculture in California can be understood as reflecting global trends in agro-food provision and regulation, but it is also uniquely grounded in the context of California's regional history: on the one hand, a product of the counterculture, bolstered by a strong climate of environmental regulation; on the other hand, a legacy of California's exceptional agriculture, characterized in part by the dominance of growers' organizations and a focus on high-value specialty crops. This paper also discusses three ways in which the political construction of the meaning of "organic" and its institutionalization in regulatory agencies such as private certification organizations have facilitated both the proliferation of agribusiness entrants and their adoption of questionably sustainable practices: first, certification agencies have their own institutional logic and are most beholden to their client-growers; second, regulation requires the definition of enforceable standards out of complicated ecological, economic, and even sociocultural concerns; third, the certification process, by conferring a legal right to market food as organic, has created distinct incentives that shape participation in the sector.