Citizen Participation,Process, and Transparency in Local Government: An Exploratory Study

This study had two purposes. First, it empirically examined the relationship between citizens' participation in administrative policymaking phases and their perception of government transparency. Second, it investigated how citizens' use of both offline and online participation channels and their involvement in different phases of policymaking (i.e., agenda setting, implementation, and evaluation) were related to their assessment of transparency in government. A 2009 survey of residents of Seoul, South Korea, was used to test the study hypotheses. Using two‐stage least squares estimate techniques, the study found that citizens involved in any citizen participation programs are more likely than those not involved to positively assess transparency in government. With regard to the relationship between participation channels and transparency, citizens who used offline participation channels were more likely than nonusers to perceive enhanced transparency in local government. However, their use of online participation channels had limited effect on perceptions of transparency. Finally, participation in two phases of the policy process, agenda setting and evaluation, positively affected citizens' assessment of transparency in government.     

Ballistically anomalous stone projectile points in Australia

The emergence of stone-tipped projectile weaponry was an important event in hominin evolution. A common archaeological approach to identifying projectile weapons is to extrapolate from optimal values of ballistically-relevant attributes as determined from ethnographic North American weapons and modern experiments. Among the most significant of these attributes is “tip cross-sectional area” (TCSA) because it determines a point's efficiency in penetrating an animal. The warranting argument for projecting these data onto prehistoric artefacts is that past “research and development” necessarily led to stone projectiles with optimal TCSA values for a given delivery system. However, our test of this warranting argument, involving analysis of 132 hafted ethnographic Australian stone projectile points and 102 hafted knives, demonstrates that Aborigines did not optimize TCSA values, thus offering a challenge to TCSA-based narratives about the first appearance of projectile weaponry. This illustrates the difficulty of inferring ancient stoneworkers' design intentions from narrowly-defined optimal values. Instead, tool designs should be considered in the context of the reduction sequences that produced them and the dynamics of transmission of those reduction sequences across generations.     

Tracking 800-year-old Shipments: An Archaeological Investigation of the Mado Shipwreck Cargo, Taean, Korea

This paper examines cargo from an 800-year-old shipwreck and discusses its implications in relation to the exchange networks and maritime transportation of the Goryeo period (A.D. 918–1392) in Korea. In 2007, two local fishermen fortuitously discovered porcelain vessels from a Goryeo-period shipwreck off the mid-western coast of the Korean peninsula. Underwater excavation conducted by the National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage (NRIMCH) revealed that the ship was carrying a myriad of cargoes destined for Gaegyeong, the capital of the Goryeo dynasty. Excavation indicates that the main body of the cargo was porcelain vessels produced in the southern part of the peninsula. Archaeobotanical investigation of the wreck deposits revealed that the ship was carrying crops such as rice (Oryza sativa L.), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.), and buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) bound for the capital. Among the recovered objects were 73 wooden cargo tags with Chinese letters. These tags, equivalent to the modern day air bill, contained detailed information about the senders, recipients, and shipped goods. These findings indicate that during the Goryeo period maritime transportation played an important role in the interpersonal exchange of products over long distances.     

Creating Prehistory: Druids,Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-War Britain

ALTERSKLASSEN UND MÄNNERBÜNDE, EINE DARSTELLUNG DER GRUNDFORMEN DER GESELLSCHAFT, von HEINRICH SCHURTZ. Berlin: G. Reimer. 1902. Pp. ix., 458. Price 8 M. Reviewed by N. W. Thomas.

DIE VOLKSKUNDE IN DEN JAHREN 1897–1902. BERICHTE UEBER NEUERSCHEINUNGEN. Von Dr. F. S. KRAUSS. Erlangen: F. Junge. 1903. Reviewed by Alfred Nutt.

DIE VOLKSKUNDE ALS WISSENSCHAFT. Von E. HOFFMANN-KRAYER. Zurich. 1902. Reviewed by Alfred Nutt.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OLD AND NEW WORLD CIVILISATIONS. A Comparative Research based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems. By Mrs. ZELIA NUTTALL. Cambridge, Mass. Peabody Museum. 1901. Reviewed by M. Gaster.

GUERNSEY FOLK LORE. From MSS, by the late Sir EDGAR MACCULLOCH, Bailiff of Guernsey. Edited by EDITH F. CAREY. London: Elliot Stock. Guernsey: F. Clarke, States Arcade. Large 8vo 616 pp., numerous illustrations. 1903. Price 12s. 6d. Reviewed by Charlotte S. Burne.

ROMANTIC TALES FROM THE PANJÂB: WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY NATIVE HANDS. Collected and edited from original sources by the REV. CHARLES SWYNNERTON, F.S.A. Constable. 21s. net. Reviewed by W. H. D. Rouse.

CONTES POPULAIRES D'AFRIQUE, PAR RENÉ BASSET. Paris. E. GUILMOTO. 1903. Reviewed by A. Werner.

LES PASTORALES BASQUES. Notice, Catalogue des Manuscrits et Questionnaire. Par G. HÉRELLE. Bayonne, 1903, in 80 de p. 86. 1. VENDETTA, RACCONTO CAMPAGNNOLO SICILIANO. By G. CRIMI LO GIUDICE. Aci Reale, Tipografia Umberto I., 1903, 30 pp. 2. MAGHERIA, o AMORE PER FORZA. Scene Popolari Siciliane in 2 alti. Idem. 48 pp Reviewed by J. B. Andrews.