试析萧梁官班制度下的诸县分等

分析萧梁一代县官选任和调动案例可知,“县制七班”“大县六班”是当时客观存在的制度。但在制度的实际运行过程中,许多县官都会出现超班用人,即任职者官资超过县官对应内职班次的现象。正史所见高班大县全部位于扬、南徐二州境内,且主要隶属南朝国家腹心地区的丹阳、吴、吴兴、会稽等郡,这与史书记事的偏向性不无关系,但同时也是上述地区政治地理条件的直观反映。影响县官班次的最主要因素是人口,结合其他制度推测,等第最高的六班大县有可能是以领民满五千户为定等标准。探索县官班次,也可增进对当时人口地理的认知。     

Complex Contagions and the Diffusion of Innovations: Evidence from a Small-N Study

The recent literature on “complex contagions” challenges Granovetter’s classic hypothesis on the strength of weak ties and argues that, when the actors’ choice requires reinforcement from several sources, it is the structure of strong ties that really matters to sustain rapid and wide diffusion. The paper contributes to this debate by reporting on a small-N study that relies on a unique combination of ethnographic data, social network analysis, and computational models. In particular, we investigate two rural populations of Indian and Kenyan potters who have to decide whether to adopt new, objectively more efficient and economically more attractive, technical/stylistic options. Qualitative field data show that religious sub-communities within the Indian and Kenyan populations exhibit markedly different diffusion rates and speed over the last thirty years. To account for these differences, we first analyze empirically observed kinship networks and advice networks, and, then, we recreate the actual aggregate diffusion curves through a series of empirically calibrated agent-based simulations. Combining the two methods, we show that, while single exposure through heterophilious weak ties were sufficient to initiate the diffusion process, large bridges made of strong ties can in fact lead to faster or slower diffusion depending on the type of signals circulating in the network. We conclude that, even in presence of “complex contagions,” dense local ties cannot be regarded as a sufficient condition for faster diffusion.     

Charcoal reflectance measurements: implications for structural characterization and assessment of diagenetic alteration

Charcoal is a valuable source of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental proxy data. However growing evidence suggests that production conditions can strongly influence post-depositional alteration of charcoal. Consequently, both reconstruction of production temperature and understanding of the potential for diagenetic alteration are of great interest. Here, we use mean random reflectance (Ro_mean) in conjunction with other chemical characterization methods to address these questions. Ro_mean was obtained for a suite of modern analogue charcoal, produced under controlled conditions, and for a series of natural charcoal samples, obtained from archaeological and palaeoenvironmental deposits. Ro_mean proves to be a robust measure to assess formation temperature for samples produced at 400 °C and above, even after exposure to highly oxidizing conditions. Ro_mean is also useful for samples formed between 300 °C and 400 °C. However, if an assemblage of charcoals has been exposed to oxidizing conditions, lower temperature charcoals may be preferentially lost. It is apparent that charcoal produced at lower temperatures is more highly susceptible to chemical oxidation, and that there is a continuum in charcoal degradation potential, dependant upon fuel material and production conditions.