East Polynesian Islands as Models of Cultural Divergence: The Case of Rapa Nui and Rapa Iti

The diverse island societies of East Polynesia are well-suited as models for comparative evolutionary analysis. Settled ca. 750 BP by a common ancestral population, colonists of the remote corners of the Pacific shared a pool of cultural traits that included commensal species, language, technology, and other cultural practices. Following colonization however, island populations diverged in language, subsistence practices, degree of territoriality, settlement patterns, investment and forms of monumental architecture, and social organization. Driven by historical circumstances and varied environmental conditions, this divergence presents evolutionary case studies of alternative paths of cultural change. One explanatory approach to this evolutionary divergence involves isolating the critical ecological parameters that likely constrained and shaped the diverse history of island populations. Here, we offer a comparative evolutionary analysis that explores the divergent histories of two marginal East Polynesian islands: Rapa Nui and Rapa Iti.     

Evolution of marine mammal hunting: A view from the California and Oregon coasts

Marine mammals constitute … an integral part of the marine ecosystem usually as top predators. Hunting of cetaceans and pinnipeds for skins, meat and blubber has of course gone on from the earliest recorded times. At various periods … the hunting of them intensified to the point at which it caused serious depletion. Although accurate records are not available, there is little doubt that many marine mammal populations were reduced to a small fraction (perhaps no more than a tenth or so) of their former levels. Some like the sea otter, disappeared from parts of their range …     

The First two Language Academies in Spanish America

Abstract

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SOVEREIGNTY AND SOFTWARE

This article will critically appraise two approaches to cultural policy. The first focuses upon the need for a national cultural policy in order to establish a national “common culture” among its citizens, through measures to promote the arts and popular media sectors, and set limits to the flow of imported materials into the nation. This is what has been termed the “sovereignty” model, and has historically been the driver of cultural policy debates. The second approach, which is called the “software” approach, aims to create cultural infrastructure and other environmental factors to promote a creative economy, whether at local, regional, national or supra‐national levels. It questions the historical divides between “culture” and “industry”, and between “creativity” and “innovation”, and is focused upon the development of future ideas and creative concepts. It draws upon the very different conditions associated with the development of software to those of established arts and media sectors, and aims to extend the “software” model more widely into cultural and creative industries policy.     

Pig diet in medieval York: carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes

This study investigates bone stable isotopes from pigs from medieval York, to characterise the pigs' diet and to explore their contribution to isotopic values from contemporary human bones. Pig bones from the Swinegate (N?=?9) and Coppergate (N?=?14) sites were used for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis to test the hypothesis that the majority of pigs in medieval York were yard-kept and fed on scraps and fish waste, elevating their nitrogen ratios. The results show that the Swinegate and Coppergate pigs gave nitrogen isotope values similar to contemporary sheep and therefore that animal protein made little or no dietary contribution. One sample showed C and N results consistent with more animal protein in the diet, and we propose that this could have been a yard-kept pig consuming human refuse. The majority of the data indicate that the pigs were eating a largely herbivorous diet and that pigs in medieval York may have been raised in rural or woodland locations rather than in the city.     

How the Hands of Time Mould Planning Instruments: Iterative Adaptation Pushing Limits in Rural Areas

Apart from the concept of space being a main concern of spatial planning, the concept of time, too, has a role. Not only by setting time limits to substantive plans; planning is also subject to time and the implications of this are analysed in this paper. Planning instruments age and need cyclic maintenance for staying effective, a process referred to as iterative adaptation. But adaptation may not be sufficient when society has evolved too far away from the situation of the instrument's conception, whereby not only the content of plans should be considered (corresponding with substantive needs of society) but the intervention philosophy as well (corresponding with the image society has about the proper role of the government). In addition, each iterative adaptation takes time that may prove to be insufficient in a dynamic context. This paper refers to the rural planning instrument called land consolidation to demonstrate how time has moulded it and what the limitations for adaptation are.