A Multi-Method Approach to Reconstructing Occupational History and Activity Areas: A Case Study at the Formative Site of Tlalancaleca,Central Mexico

While surface collection constitutes an important component of field research at the site and regional levels, the association between surface and sub-surface materials needs to be examined through independent lines of evidence. This study employed manual bucket auger probing and soil geochemistry at the Formative site of Tlalancaleca, Central Mexico (800 b.c.–a.d. 250), to evaluate the results of surface collection and to understand the formation process of the anthropogenic landscape. The combined results at one of the largest architectural complexes at Tlalancaleca indicate that it was built during the Late Formative period (500–100 b.c.) and rebuilt during the subsequent Terminal Formative period (100 b.c.–a.d. 250), which is corroborated by radiocarbon dates. Moreover, the results suggest segregated uses of space such as cooking/storage, waste disposal, and craft production areas within the complex. Overall results demonstrate the effectiveness of this multi-method approach for reconstructing occupational history and activity areas.     

War and Foreign Affairs in China

EDWARD L. DREYER. China at War, 1901–1949. London and New York: Longman, 1995. Pp. x, 422. $114.95 (CDN);

ARTHUR WALDRON. From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, 1924–1925. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xix, 366. $39.95 (us);

MICHAEL H. HUNT. The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 343. $34.50 (us);

XIAOYUAN LIU. A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and Their Policies for the Postwar Disposition of the Japanese Empire, 1941–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xiii, 343. $59.95 (us).     

Australia and the challenges of order-building in the Indian Ocean region

This article considers the regional order-building challenges that Australia presently confronts in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). The author argues that while regional stability within the IOR constitutes an increasingly important Australian security interest, policy makers will struggle to translate the order-building strategies they have previously pursued in East Asia into an Indian Ocean context. In East Asia, Australia has historically pursued a ‘dual track’ order-building strategy centred on its participation in a US-dominated ‘hub and spokes’ alliance system alongside multilateral regional engagement. The absence of an equivalent alliance system or an established tradition of multilateral security diplomacy conversely precludes an extension of this strategy into the IOR. Growing tensions between the USA and China and between China and India, meanwhile, further complicate IOR security dynamics, while underscoring the urgent need for a more coherent approach to regional order-building. With these challenges in mind, the author concludes by proposing a range of bilateral, minilateral and multilateral initiatives that Australia should pursue to stimulate the emergence of a more cooperative IOR security environment.     

The Role of Spatial Scale in Geomorphic Systems

Geomorphic systems are characterized by numerous, complex interrelationships between system components, and by processes and controls which may operate over different spatial scales. Factors operating at any given spatial scale can be viewed as an abstracted subset of all relationships operating at all scales. The theory that relationships which operate over spatial scales an order of magnitude different are effectively independent of each other is formally stated in terms of abstracted systems. An example is given to illustrate the use of spatial statistics to determine what constitutes a significant spatial scale difference in controls over hydraulic geometry of a desert wash.     

Prehistory of Chihuahua and Sonora,Mexico

The North American Southwest includes much of Mexico as well as the southwestern United States. The area north of the international border has been studied intensively and its culture history is widely known; the portion south of the border has usually been ignored. This essay proposes a new term for the entire culture area, Northern Mexico, and provides a summary of local sequences for two states in the region, Chihuahua and Sonora. The general sequence in the U.S. Southwest (Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Ceramic periods) also holds in northwest Mexico. Preceramic occupations are poorly known. The Ceramic period saw the rise of a number of local cultures, which varied greatly in adaptation and social complexity. The basic culture pattern of Northern Mexico is derived from that of central Mexico, but direct Mesoamerican intervention in the region was apparently limited. While the issue of Mesoamerican-Northern Mexican relationships has dominated scholarly debate for decades, the greater need is to define and explain cultural variability within and between local sequences.     

Reviews

EUROPEAN UNIFICATION IN THE SIXTIES. FROM THE VETO TO THE CRISIS. Miriam Camps. London, Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 257. $5.80.

CONTEMPORARY SOVIET GOVERNMENT. L. G. Churchward. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968. Pp. xix + 366. $2.50.

SOUTH WEST AFRICA AND ITS HUMAN ISSUES. J. H. Wellington. Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. xriv + 461. $13.10.

ASIAN BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEMS EMERGENT FROM THE BRITISH IMPERIAL TRADITION. Ralph Braibanti (ed.). Duke University Press, 1966. Pp. xx + 733. U.S.$17.50.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN NEWER NATIONS. Harold F. Alderfer. Praeger, 1967. Pp. xii + 206. U.S.$12.50.

ISSUES OF POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. Charles W. Anderson, Fred R. von der Mehden, Crawford Young. Prentice‐Hall, 1967. Pp. viii ‐f 248. £Stg.1.12.0.

COMMUNISM IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE. A CONTEMPORARY SURVEY. Justus M. van der Kroef. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1967. Pp. viii + 268. Guilders 40.60.

INDIA'S QUEST FOR SECURITY: DEFENCE POLICIES, 1947–1965 Lorne J. Kavic. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1967. Pp. 263 + maps. $7.95 (U.S.).

DEMOCRACY AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN INDIA. George Rosen. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, Revised Edition 1967. Pp. xviii + 340. $2.25 (U.S.).

INDIA'S POLITICAL SYSTEM. Richard L. Park. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice‐Hall, Inc., Revised Edition 1967. Pp. ix + 116. $2.55.

CAN WE WIN IN VIETNAM? Frank E. Armbruster, Raymond D. Gastil, Herman Kahn, William Pfaff, Edmund Stillman. Pall Mall, 1968. Pp. xiv + 427. $10.10.

VIET‐NAM AND THE WEST. Ralph Smith. Heinemann Educational Books, 1968. Pp. ix + 206. $4.80.

THE CHINESE IN AUSTRALIA. Arthur Huck. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1968. Pp. x + 117. $4.50.

FROM ASSIMILATION TO GROUP SURVIVAL. A POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF AN AUSTRALIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY. P. Y. Medding. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1968. Pp. xxii + 300. $6.00.

ISAAC ISAACS. Zelman Cowen. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. 280. $6.00.

CONTEMPORARY CANADA. Richard H. Leach (ed.) Duke University, Commonwealth Studies Center. Pp. xii + 328. $10.00 (US).

AUSTRALIAN TRADE POLICY 1942–1966. A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY. J. G. Crawford, assisted by Nancy Anderson and Margery G. N. Morris. Canberra, A.N.U. Press, 1968. Pp. xxvii + 641. $10.50.