A note on the geomorphological environment of Çatal Hüyük, Turkey

It had previously been proposed (Cohen, 1970) that after large-scale Early Holocene alluviation, no post-occupational sediment accumulated around the neolithic site of Çatal Huyuk in south-central Anatolia. Data presented here, however, indicate that several metres of archaeological deposit at both east and west mounds are overlain by alluvium. This implies that the modern distribution of soil and water resources cannot be used directly to assess past agricultural potential in the vicinity of the site.     

Reviews

Freezing Assets: The USA and the Most Effective Economic Sanction , Mahvash Alerassool, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993, xii + 238 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Islamic Economic Systems , Farhad Nomani and Ali Rahnema, London: Zed Books, 1994, 222 pp., $25.00 paperback.

Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith , Norman R. C. Cohn, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993, x + 271 pp.

Indian Merchants and the Eurasian Trade ,1600–1750, Stephen Frederic Dale, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 162 pp.

Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection , Abolala Soudavar, with a contribution by Milo Cleveland Beach, New York: Rizzoli, 1992, 423 pp. and 474 color illustrations, $85.

Sakhtarha‐ye ejtema'i‐ye ‘ashayer‐e Būyir‐Ahmad, 1300–1364 , H. Ghaffari, Tehran: Ney, 1368 Sh./1989, 287 pp., map, diagrams, illustrations.

In the Eye of the Storm: Women In Post‐Revolutionary Iran , Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl, eds., Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994, 227 pp., $17.95 paperback.

Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia: Aspects of Administrative ,Economic and Social History, 11th‐14th Century, Ann K. S. Lambton, Bibliotheca Persica, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 2, Albany: SUNY Press, 1988, 351 pp., tables, maps, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Tribal Rugs: Nomadic and Village Weavings from the Near East and Central Asia , James Opie, Portland, Ore.: The Tolstoy Press, 1992, 328 pp., 356 illustrations, 291 in color and 12 maps, $ 75.00.

The Kitáb‐i‐Aqdas: The Most Holy Book , Baha’ Allah, Haifa: Baha'i World Center, 1992, pp. viii + 296.

Planning and Power in Iran: Ebtehaj and Economic Development under the Shah , Frances Bostock and Geoffrey Jones, London: Frank Cass and Co., 1989, 238 pp.

Autocracy, Modernization, and Revolution in Russia and Iran , Tim McDaniel, Princeton University Press, 1991, 239 pp.

Iran und die Reformbewegung im Osmanischen Reich: Persische Staatsmänner ,Reisende und Oppositionelle unter dent Einfluβ der Tanzimat, Anja Pistor‐Hatam, Berlin: Kl. Schwarz, 1992, 260 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Die revolutiondre Bewegung in Iran ,1905–1911: Sozialdemok‐ratie und russischer Einfluβ, Sabine Roschke‐Bugzel, Europäische Hoch‐schulschriften 3, Frankfurt, Bern, New York, Paris: Lang Verlag, 1991, x + 341 pp., Bibliography.

After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy , K. L. Afrasiabi, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1994, xii + 244 pp.

Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rūmi , Amin Ba‐nani, Richard Hovannisian, and Georges Sabagh, eds., Giorgio Levi Delia Vida Conference Proceedings 11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, ix + 204 pp., Index.

Islam, Iran, and World Stability , Hamid Zanganeh, ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, xii + 243 pp., Bibliography, Index, $49.95.     

Intergovernmental managerialism: Appropriating the universities

A number of recent writings from federalist scholars have been critical of the coordinate approach to Australian federalism adopted by Commonwealth and state authorities since the Special Premiers’ Conference of 1990. The likely outcome of a coordinate rather than concurrent stance, they suggest, is dominance by one government in a policy sphere and the attenuation of many of the positive and creative elements offered by a federal structure. This article involves a case study of higher education which supports the concerns of the federalists. It is argued that since the introduction of a coordinate framework in 1987–88, buttressed by managerialist principles, the Commonwealth has succeeded in gaining almost complete control over a policy arena that was previously shared with the states. One consequence of this outcome has been a deterioration in the quality of policy formulation and implementation.     

Debunking the Myth of Localized Agglomerations: The Development of a Regionalized Service Economy in South-East England

The central argument of this paper is that localized clusters of economic activity, or 'agglomerations', have been overemphasized in economic geography since the mid-1980s. In particular, such analyses are too manufacturing-biased, and place too much weight on the importance of local supply, market and partnership linkages. We will re-emphasize the service-based nature of growth in the core region of the UK economy, and will explore how a broad band of producer service activity is emerging in the Western Arc, owing largely to common locational logics, including back-office decentralization and the new firm-formation process. Such growth is both stimulated and supported by the high demand levels of the regional economy, but evidence suggests that the linkages of such firms extend well beyond the 'local', to cover at least the 'Greater South-East'. Furthermore, the international element in service growth needs to be recognized, as highlighted by the concentration of US foreign direct investment in the software industry along the M4 corridor. When areas outside the South-East are considered (such as Edinburgh, Tyne and Wear, Cheshire), the evidence appears to support Allen's (1992) notion of a 'regionalized mode of service growth' in the South-East.     

Investigating foetal and perinatal mortality in prehistoric skeletal samples: a case study from a 3000-year-old Pacific Island cemetery site

The Teouma skeletal sample from Vanuatu represents one of the few truly colonising populations in the Pacific Islands. Therefore, investigating the factors that may have affected foetal/infant mortality in this population is potentially important for understanding the success of settlement in this region of the world. We investigate whether stable isotope analyses of carbon and nitrogen in conjunction with skeletal ageing techniques, can aid in identifying whether the subadults from Teouma died before or after birth in an attempt to understand the potential threats to foetal and infant survival. Multiple skeletal ageing methods using diaphyseal lengths were used to age the young subadults (n = 7). Using regression-based skeletal ageing methods, four of the individuals were aged at around full-term gestation (37–42 weeks gestation), while the remaining three individuals died preterm. The isotope analyses did not assist in identifying the individuals that survived post-birth because none of the subadults displayed the 2–3‰ trophic increase in δ¹⁵N values expected for a breastfed infant, probably as a result of their young age. However, all of the foetal/perinatal individuals exhibited higher δ¹⁵N values in their bone collagen compared with the adult females of the sample, with two of the individuals demonstrating unusually high δ¹⁵N values. The δ¹³C values of the foetuses/perinates did not exhibit the same variation. We explore a number of possible explanations for this elevation of perinatal/foetal δ¹⁵N values and tentatively suggest that this is a result of in utero stress as a consequence of chronic maternal ill-health. The osteological and palaeodemographic evidence supports the assertion that females, foetuses and perinates were susceptible to environmental stress within this colonising population, resulting in early death of the perinatal individuals in addition to early terminations of pregnancy or premature birth possibly caused by infectious and/or metabolic diseases.     

Agents of casualization? The temporary staffing industry and labour market restructuring in Australia

This article presents a study of the Australian temporary staffingindustry. It explores how temporary staffing markets are manufacturedthrough the interactions between industrial relations and regulatorysystems, on the one hand, and the structures and strategiesof domestic and transnational temporary staffing agencies onthe other. The article draws on secondary datasets and semi-structuredinterviews with government departments, labour unions, staffingagencies and their trade bodies to analyse the size, structureand characteristics of the Australian temporary staffing market.It argues that the Australian market differs in important waysfrom those other ‘neoliberal’ labour market regimes—suchas those in Canada, UK and USA—with which it is oftencompared. The article argues for an approach that seeks to explorethe (often gradual) mutual transformation of temporary staffingorganizations and the institutional and regulatory systems inwhich they are embedded, rather than privileging one at theexpense of the other.     

The greying of resource communities in northern British Columbia: implications for health care delivery in already-underserviced communities

The delivery of 'rural' health care services has long confronted the geographic problems of distance, low user densities, low-order facilities and caregiver shortages. As a result, rural and remote communities across Canada have struggled with health care delivery. For rural and remote communities in resource hinterlands, population ageing driven by industrial restructuring presents a significant departure from past experience. Drawing on examples from northern British Columbia (BC), this paper examines this context of ageing in rural and remote locations with the purpose of highlighting impending challenges for health care service provision. In the first part of this paper, we provide a demographic overview of population change and ageing in northern BC. In the second part, we present data on the availability of services throughout the region to support seniors who age-in-place. Population ageing, in areas that have never dealt with this issue before, highlights not only important servicing questions but also important policy questions about how to provide for needs that the policy and community context are not presently equipped to meet.