A Speculative Model of Population Influences on Australian Ecology,Economy and Society

A lack of empirical data and sufficient conceptual frameworks precluded the 1994 national population inquiry from proposing demographic targets for the future ‘carrying capacity’ of Australia. A speculative model is proposed here of population impacts in the ecological, economic, social and relational domains. The model is ‘run’ under scenarios of growing and stable population so that key interactions can be explored and thereby advance debate about broader population policy in Australia.     

Between flesh and spirit: Joachite pattern and meaning in the Cronica of Fra Salimbene

Fra Salimbene's observation of society, spiritual and temporal, was colored by an interpretation of Joachim of Fiore's revolutionary scheme. As a chronicler, he found at times events explicable through and important to Biblical understanding which he articulated through a system of prefigurative connections. He followed a loose plan of exegetic explanatory speculation for present eschatological definition by attempting to classify the events of the apocalyptic Scriptures. The end result produced a chronicle which in part depicted a history of successive fulfillment in his present time. This paper explores four noticeable Joachite themes which are easily extracted from the Cronica: his view of the Order of Friars Minor as the novus ordo for the New Age, the Whore of Babylon, the Manifestations of Antichrist, and the Period of Tribulations.     

"No Flies on Bill": The Story of an Uncontrollable old Woman, My Grandmother, Ethel "Billie" Gammon

The family farm, once the mainstay of the state's economy, wasalready in decline in 1916 when Edith "Billie" Wilson was bornin south-central Maine to a family of Nova Scotian immigrants.Her father, a struggling farmer, encouraged his energetic teenagedaughter to strike out on her own: "There may be flies on Maand Pa, but there ain't no flies     

Bronze Age upland settlement decline in southwest England: testing the climate change hypothesis

The division of land on Dartmoor during the Bronze Age by the construction of moor-wide boundaries known as reaves represents a significant development in agricultural practice and land tenure. Previous research relating to the Dartmoor reaves suggests this way of life may have continued for no longer than 200–400 years. It has been suggested that their abandonment occurred as the result of a deteriorating climate, although there are no published palaeoclimatic reconstructions from the area. We therefore test the hypothesis that on Dartmoor, a marked climatic deterioration occurred in the late Bronze Age that can be linked to the abandonment of the reaves. A palaeoclimatic reconstruction derived from testate amoebae and peat humification analyses is presented from Tor Royal Bog, central Dartmoor, the first such record from southwest England. A major shift to a cooler and/or wetter climate is inferred from ca. 1395 to 1155 cal BC that is coincident with the period hypothesised as encompassing the abandonment. This climatic deterioration is replicated in sites in northern Britain, suggesting it was a widespread event. It is concluded that while the evidence supports a climatically forced retreat, there are a range of other socio-economic factors that must also be taken into consideration.     

Reconnaissance of the Hannibalic Route in the Upper Po Valley,Italy: Correlation with Biostratigraphic Historical Archaeological Evidence in the Upper Guil Valley,France

Controversy over the alpine route taken by the Hannibalic Army from the Rhône Basin into Italia in 218 bc (2168 cal bp ) has raged amongst classicists for over two millennia. Because Hannibal crossed the Alps, the significance for identifying the route taken by the Punic Army lies more in its potential for identifying sites of historical archaeological significance than a resolution of one of history's most enduring questions. While compelling stratigraphic, geochemical and microbiological evidence has been recovered from an alluvial floodplain mire in the upper Guil Valley, located below the Col de la Traversette (about 3000 masl) on the French–Italian border, it potentially identifies the invasion route as the one originally proposed by Sir Gavin de Beer in 1974. The dated layers in several sections, termed the MAD (mass animal deposition) beds based on disrupted/churned bedding and key/specialized biological components strongly supports de Beer's thesis that Hannibal chose the highest transit col into Italia. In addition to other physical evidence, we present here new physical, geomorphological and stratigraphic evidence, all calibrated by radiocarbon dating, that suggests Hannibal's imprint on the landscape exists in coalescing alluvial fans in the upper Po catchment of northern Italy.     

Justo Sierra O’Reilly and John L. Stephens: Translation,History, and Transnational Romanticisms in the Americas

In this article, I explore the crossroads that unite two important nineteenth-century travel writers from the Americas: John L. Stephens who traveled south from the U.S. to the Yucatán peninsula, and Justo Sierra O’Reilly who traveled north from the Yucatán to Washington D.C. By focusing on two writers from the Americas, my goal is to examine how Romantic aesthetics and ideologies took on new shapes through cultural exchange within the region. More specifically, I study how these two travel writers articulated and came to terms with what Stephen Bann has identified as two fundamental aspects of the Romantic period. The first is the ‘remarkable enhancement of the consciousness of history’ (Bann 1995 Bann, Stephen. 1995. Romanticism and the Rise of History. New York: Twayne. [Google Scholar], 4) evident in the importance of popular literary genres like the historical novel. The second is a new accessibility to texts and information that incorporated large groups of readers and made historical information more available. While Stephens demonstrates an at times romantic fascination with indigenous history constructed through the analysis of the ruins he visits, Sierra O’Reilly’s translation, at every turn, critically engages Stephens's historical conclusions, revealing interlocking and contested notions of history in the Americas.     

The Allocation of Excepted Political Positions: What and Whose Executive Priorities Do They Serve?

Abstract

Scholars have only begun to examine the roles played by non-career SES and Schedule C personnel in managing the bureaucracy. This, despite the fact that these individuals help to establish, communicate, and implement policy, and despite the broad discretion presidential administrations have in appointing them, defining their duties, and allocating their positions across the federal government. As an effort to redress this neglect, we first provide an overview of what lower-level political personnel do and of the processes and constraints that determine how they are distributed. We then examine how changes in presidential administration have affected the allocation of political SES and Schedule C positions across departments. Although dramatic infusions of these personnel into some agencies can be tied to policy objectives, they appear to be idiosyncratic and driven more by the preferences of agency leaders than by the White House. As such, they provide little support for positive theories that frame the administrative presidency in terms of centralized strategic planning.