Early Holocene palaeoseasonality inferred from the stable isotope composition of Unio shells from Çatalhöyük,Turkey

Seasonal δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O data are presented from 14 Unio sub-fossil shells unearthed at the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey, spanning the occupation period ca. 9150–8000 cal years BP. The shells likely lived in the small lakes/wetlands around the site before being gathered and taken to Çatalhöyük. Wet-dry seasonal cycles are clearly apparent in the δ¹⁸O_shell profiles with low winter values reflecting winter precipitation and high δ¹⁸O in the summer resulting from evaporation. The most striking trend in the δ¹⁸O data is the drop in maximum summer δ¹⁸O ca. 8300 years BP, which we infer as indicating lower summer evaporation and hence a reduction in seasonality. Previous palaeoclimate records from the area have suggested cooler and more arid conditions, with reduced precipitation, around this time. While the drop in summer δ¹⁸O values could be due to reduced summer temperatures reducing summer evaporation, but there was little change in winter δ¹⁸O, perhaps suggesting winter growth cessation or reduced influence of winter climate change on δ¹⁸O. This shift in seasonal climate could be linked to solar-forced climate change beginning ca. 8600 years BP, and enhanced by the regional expression of the 8·2k event. Changing water balance over the occupation period is likely an important contributory factor behind observed cultural changes at Çatalhöyük in the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic period. Our results might be considered to support the fission-fusion farming hypothesis as we provide additional evidence for wet winter/early spring conditions during the Early Holocene which likely caused flooding of the Çar?amba Fan. The changing water balance after ca. 8300 years BP (i.e. reduced seasonality and potentially reduced local summer evaporation) is also coincidental with the proposed end of this farming system due to multi-decadal drought.     

Ageing in remote and cyclone‐prone communities: geography,policy, and disaster relief

Focusing on the experience of independent‐living older adults, this study explored how those in regional Australian coastal communities have coped with repeated natural disasters. Using an exploratory, mixed‐method, and phenomenological approach, an array of non‐probability snowballing techniques was used to seek participation from residents aged 65 years or more, and from emergency services officers, disaster managers, and community health care providers located in regional communities affected by Cyclone Larry (2006) and Cyclone Yasi (2011). The research found that post‐disaster political decisions have had a negative long‐term impact on local economies, causing outmigration by those seeking employment, and resulting in many elderly residents facing a future without family support. As government policies encourage ageing‐in‐place by providing subsidised in situ care, increasingly older adults are remaining in exposed vulnerable locations, reliant on authorities for their survival both day‐to‐day and during an emergency. Findings also uncovered inconsistent disaster management policies between neighbouring local government councils and an unrealistic reliance on in situ care organisations by disaster managers during preparation and recovery stages of a natural hazard. These results highlight the need for those charged with emergency management to reassess both the future natural hazard adaptive capacities of ageing regional communities and policy responses to such challenges.     

Policy Feedback: The Comparison Effect and Small Business Procurement Policy

Federal programs to help small business obtain government contracts reflect a type of policy learning termed the comparison effect. In contrast with studies of learning focused on policy instruments, the comparison effect directs attention to a class of policy dissatisfaction that leads to a search for new policy and the translation of dissatisfaction into problem definitions that influence the agenda. In the comparison effect, policy fuels comparisons of government treatment of different groups or sectors that contribute to compensatory or offsetting programs for those deemed to be on the losing end of the comparison.     

The Fractal Theory of Central Place Geometry: A Diophantine Analysis of Fractal Generators for Arbitrary Löschian Numbers

We develop material to determine whether or not an arbitrary number is Löschian; the procedure embodied in the theorems achieves the desired result more swiftly than do previous solutions to this problem. The correspondence between a partition of the central place lattice and a quadratic form permits the rapid determination of the lattice coordinates of an arbitrary Löschian number and of the exact shape of a single fractal generator used to form an entire central place hierarchy associated with an arbitrary Löschian number. Central place hierarchies may be generated geometrically using a single shape applied initially to a hexagon and subsequently, scaled appropriately, to resultant polygons. Fractional dimensions of arbitrary central place hierarchies, measuring their “space-filling” characteristics, follow naturally from this general procedure.     

MISSIONARIES AND WAR LORDS: A STUDY OF CULTURAL INTERACTION ON ABAIANG AND TARAWA

Hiram Bingham Jr, Protestant missionary, landed at Abaiang in the Gilbert Islands in November 1857. He came not only with a distinct missionary policy but also with an inner vision based on his ideals and his own personal interpretation of the Protestant Christian message. Bingham envisaged a loving community which was made up of both ruler and the ruled, including men and women, young and old. For their part, Gilbertese on Abaiang did not share Bingham's view of God or the cosmos. They had their own spirits (Anti) and lived in a world punctuated by wars. Given their limited contact with Europeans, most Islanders on Abaiang and Tarawa saw little relevance in the particular type of Christianity that Bingham espoused and attempted to convey to them. Yet despite this dissonance, two war chiefs (uea) began a communication. This communication was meaningful to their side but was not shared by the other. Bingham was perceived in a way he would not have wanted and he, in turn, misinterpreted the entire situation in Abaiang and nearby Tarawa. The result was that the missionaries became embroiled in the wars and failed to usher in a reign of peace and benevolence.     

Book reviews

New Book Review policy

Australia

IDEALS AND FOREIGN POLICY

Henry S. Albinski

J. A. Camilleri, An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1973, pp. v + 137, $1.50; J. Camilleri and M. Teichmann, Security and Survival. The New Era in International Relations, Heinemann Educational Australia. Melbourne, 1973, pp. ix + 226, $3.75.

Peter Aimer, Politics, Power and Persuasion: the Liberals in Victoria, James Bennett, Melbourne. 1974. pp. lv + 243, $9.95.

Alan Richardson, British Immigrants and Australia: A Psycho‐social Inquiry, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, pp. 198, $8.95.

Bruce Juddery, At the Centre: The Australian Bureaucracy in the 1970s, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 272. Illustrated by Pickering. $4.95.

F. A. Larcombe, The Origin of Local Government in New South Wales 1831–58, Sydney University Press, in association with the Local Government Association of New South Wales and the Shires Association of New South Wales, 1973, pp. xv + 323, maps, $12.00.

H. G. Oxley, Mateship in Local Organization, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1974, pp. 240, $8.00.

H. Raysmith, J. Rimmer and D. Wookey, The Gee‐long Experiment in Social Planning, Geelong and District Community Chest Association, 1973, pp. 110, no price given.

C. A. Hughes and B. D. Graham, Voting for the Australian House of Representatives 1901–1964, ANU Press, Canberra, 1974, pp. xiv + 544 + xiii, $8.95.

International

URBAN POLITICS Martin Painter

Eugene Lewis, The Urban Political System, Dryden, Hinsdale, Illinois, 1973, $5.00.

Murray S. Stedman, Urban Politics, Winthrop, Cambridge, Mass., 1972, $7.50.

Kevin R. Cox, Conflict, Power and Politics in the City, McGraw‐Hill, N.Y., 1973, $4.50.

I. H. Burnley, ed., Urbanization in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1974, $13.50.

Rex Mortimer, ed., Showcase State: The Illusion of Indonesia's “Accelerated Modernisation”, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1973, pp. xiii + 163, $3.25, $5.95.

CHINA, RUSSIA, INDIA

S. P. Seth

Edward E. Rice, Mao's Way, University of California Press (Centre for Chinese Studies), Berkeley, 1972, pp. 596 + ix, $14.00.

Richard H. Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture, University of California Press (Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan), 1972 (paperback), pp. 604 + xix, $US5.95.

Geoffrey Jukes, The Soviet Union in Asia, Angus and Robertson (in association with The Australian Institute of International Affairs), Sydney, 1973, pp. 304 + vii, $7.50.

Alastair Lamb, The Sino‐Indian Border in Ladakh, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. 113 + xi, $6.00.

T. E. Smith, ed., The Politics of Family Planning in the Third World, Allen and Unwin, London, 1973, pp. 352, $14.00.

Ronald J. May, ed., Priorities in Melanesian Development: Papers Delivered at the Sixth Waigani Seminar, University of Papua and New Guinea, Port Moresby, and Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, ANU Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. xii + 470, $6.00.

J. Ayodele Langley, Pan‐Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa 1900–1945, Oxford University Press, London, 1973, pp. viii + 421, $12.00.

Robert C. Good, U.D.I.: The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion, Faber & Faber, London, 1973, pp. 368, $14.00.

Jack. Hayward, The One and Indivisible French Republic, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1973, pp. 306, $16.00 and $6.10.

Jean‐Jacques Salomon, Science and Politics, N. Lindsay, trans., MIT Press, Cambridge, 1973, pp. xxii + 277, $US 15.00.

M. Moroshima, Marx's Economics, Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp. viii + 198, £3.60.