Envisioning Future Landscapes in the Environmentally Sensitive Areas of Scotland

Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) designated under EC Structure Regulation 797/85 now cover 1.4 million ha of the Scottish countryside and are likely to make a substantial contribution to the regulation of landscape change. Visual changes to landscapes with (policy on) and without (policy off) the ESA programme in two Scottish ESA areas, Breadalbane and the Machair, are predicted through impact-assessment procedures and computer manipulation of photographic images. The methodological requirements for such predictions are outlined and substantial differences in landscape characteristics under policy on/off scenarios are revealed. Such approaches to landscape change are an essential foundation for the development of environmental cost-benefit analyses and will contribute to public consultation processes.     

Poaceae phytoliths from the Niassa Rift,Mozambique

The most common grass phytoliths from “Zambezian” miombos are described here for the first time. Their potential for long term preservation in sediments makes them a useful tool in the reconstruction of ancient plant communities and plant/human interactions. We processed 60 plant samples (26 identified genera and species), with an average of 300 phytoliths counted per sample to a total of 18,586. Forty-seven morphotypes were described as per the International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature, with exceptions, including forty-five discreet shapes and two articulated forms, which can be used as comparative reference materials. We conducted three forms of statistical analyses: Discriminant Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Principal Component Analysis. The highest biomineral content was recorded among the Bambuseae and Paniceae, while the lowest silica production is detected in the Cynodonteae tribe. Typologically, the subfamily Panicoideae yielded 50% of the types reported here, 32% are from the Chloridoideae, 12% from the Bambusoideae, and 8% from the Arundinoideae sensu lato. Overall, the idealized Zambezian Poaceae phytolith spectrum is dominated by a small subset of Poaceae short cells, which include five morphotypes conventionally associated with Panicoid grasses (Bilobate concave outer margin long shaft, Bilobate concave outer margin short shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin long shaft, Bilobate convex outer margin short shaft, Cross), one morphotype commonly seen in Chloridoid taxa (saddle), and two types that appear across subfamily boundaries (tower, tower horned). The next logical step to take in regional phytolith research is the account of phytoliths deposited in soils underneath living plants, for they represent the interface between existing vegetation communities and the inevitably distorted fossil assemblages that the paleobotanist uses for environmental reconstruction.     

Fluid trapping at the brittle–ductile transition re-examined

The brittle–ductile transition has been suggested to provide a mechanical trap to deep crustal fluids. The mechanism was advanced as a way of reconciling the geophysical case for a wet lower crust, founded on the revelation of deep crustal electrical conductors and seismic reflectors, with the problem of maintaining interconnected, low‐density fluids in stable crust for geologically significant timescales. Although some deep crustal conductors are now attributed to graphite, the hypothesis of fluid trapping at the brittle–ductile transition has been widely adopted in electromagnetic literature, with no regard to tectonic regime, and in association with standardized temperatures of 300–450°C. Meanwhile, petrologists continue to argue that the lower crust is dry. This paper re‐examines the arguments on which the hypothesis of fluid trapping at the brittle–ductile transition has been founded, and concludes that there is a geophysical case for a dry lower crust based on electromagnetic studies. The magnetotelluric (MT) technique yields electrical conductances (conductivity–thickness products) that are direction dependent (or anisotropic). The necessity of considering direction‐dependent conductances, rather than a bulk conductance, is demonstrated using data from Saxothuringia, Germany. A quantitative model is developed to facilitate joint interpretation of the maximum conductance and the anisotropy of conductance (ratio of maximum to minimum conductance). The model yields quantitative arguments against fluids being the principal cause of deep crustal electrical conductivity, because unreasonably thick layers and unreasonably high porosities are required.     

The ruse of consent and the anatomy of ‘refusal’: cases from indigenous North America and Australia

This article takes the notion of ‘refusal’ to be an alternative to recognition politics in settler colonial society. This is argued as alternative with recourse to ethnographic examples that highlight the way in which ‘consent’ operates as a technique of recognition and simultaneous dispossession in historical cases from Indigenous North America and Australia. Attention is paid to the ways in which Indigenous life in these cases refused, did not consent to, and still refuses to be folded into a larger encompassing colonising and settler colonial narratives of acceptance, and in this, a governmental fait accompli. It is those narratives that inform the apprehension and at times, the ethnography and governance of Indigenous life and are pushed back upon in order to document, reread, theorise and enact ways out of the notion of a fixed past and settled present.     

Book Reviews

‘WE GATHER TOGETHER’: FOOD AND FESTIVAL IN AMERICAN LIFE. Edited by THEODORE H. HUMPHREY and LIN T. HUMPHREY. Utah State University Press, 1991. 289pp. $17.95 paper, ISBN 0-87421-155-7. Reviewed by Jennifer Chandler.

SPOKEN IN JEST. Edited by Gillian Bennett. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1992. ISBN 1850752575. 296pp., 3 plates, 22 figures. £25 (cloth). Reviewed by Susan Storrier.

WEDDING CAKES AND CULTURAL HISTORY by SIMON CHARSLEY. Routledge, London, 1992. 162pp. 4 illustrations. ISBN 0-415-02648-2 (hbk); 0-415-02649-0 (pbk). Reviewed by George Monger.

NORSE MYTHS. By R. I. PAGE. London: British Museum Press, 1990. 80pp. £5.95. ISBN 0 7141 2062 6. Reviewed by Carolyne Larrington.

DIE MAUS IM JUMBO-JET: NEUE SAGENHAFTE GESCHICHTEN VON HEUTE. By ROLF WILHELM BREDNICH, Beck'sche Reihe 435. München: Beck, 1991. 143 pp. Reviewed by W. F. H. Nicolaisen.

THE RISE OF MAGIC IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE by VALERIE J. FLINT. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. 452 pp. ISBN 0-19-820093-5. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

INTERNATIONAL PROVERB SCHOLARSHIP: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. SUPPLEMENT I (1800–1981). WOLFGANG MIEDER. Garland Publishing Inc., New York and London, 1990. 436 pp. Reviewed by Malcolm Jones.

THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF PROVERBS. Ed. JOHN SIMPSON and JENNIFER SPEAKE. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York (2nd ed.), 1992. 316 pp. ISBN 0-19-866177-0. Reviewed by Malcolm Jones.

A DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN PROVERBS. Ed. WOLFGANG MIEDER, S. A. KINGSBURY and K. B. HARDER. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1992. 710 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0-19-505399-0. Reviewed by Malcolm Jones.

ETHNIC MUSIC ON RECORDS. By RICHARD K. SPOTTSWOOD. University of Illinois Press, 1990. Volumes 1-7. Pp. 4,347. Illustrated. ISBN 0-252-01718-8 (set). Reviewed by Gordon Ashman.

DUNBAR THE MAKAR. By PRISCILLA BAWCUTT. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992. 196pp. £50. ISBN 0-19-812963-7. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

SIGNS FROM THE ANCESTORS by M. JANE YOUNG, 1990. Reviewed by Donald Taylor.

THE NIGHTWAY by JAMES C FARIS, 1990. Reviewed by Donald Taylor.

FORMS OF DEFORMITY. By LYNN HOLDEN. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 131. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991. 370pp. Appendix and bibliography. ISBN 1-85074-327-X. £40. Reviewed by Jennifer Chandler.

CITY, MARRIAGE, TOURNAMENT ARTS OF RULE IN LATE MEDIEVAL SCOTLAND. By LOUISE OLGA FRADENBURG. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. 390pp, ill. ISBN 0-299-12954-3. Reviewed by Sandra Billington.

GEORGE EWART EVANS. By GARETH WILLIAMS. Writers of Wales Series, University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1991. 93pp. £3.50. Reviewed by Trefor M. Owen.