From Pleistocene Mariners to Complex Hunter-Gatherers: The Archaeology of the California Channel Islands

California’s Channel Islands were home to some of the most distinctive Native American peoples along the Pacific Coast. Never connected to the mainland during the Quaternary, the Channel Islands have an impoverished terrestrial flora and fauna, but some of the richest and most productive marine environments in the Americas, including diverse kelp forest, intertidal, and offshore marine habitats. Native Americans occupied the Channel Islands for roughly 13,000 calendar years until the early nineteenth century, providing one of the longest and best preserved records of maritime hunter-gatherers in the Americas. We provide an overview and analysis of Channel Islands archaeology, from the relatively mobile peoples who colonized the islands during the Late Pleistocene to the complex hunter-gatherers documented by early Spanish explorers. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of Channel Islands archaeology for enhancing knowledge on a number of broad anthropological issues, including coastal and aquatic adaptations, seafaring, cultural complexity, trade and exchange, and ancient human impacts on the environment.     

Campaign Finance Reform and the 1994 Congressional Elections

Based on partisan arguments regarding the likely effect of campaign finance reform on electoral competition, one might suspect that, had spending limits been in place prior to the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans would not have been able to gain control of the House of Representatives. To examine this proposition, we first create a regression model designed to explain the Democratic percentage of the vote as a function of candidate spending, incumbency, nonincumbent candidate quality, and the underlying partisan leanings of the congressional districts. We then use this regression model to simulate the likely effects of campaign finance reform on the outcome of the 1994 midterm elections. Our results indicate that while spending limits would have limited the number of seats gained by the Republican party, Republicans likely would have gained control of the House of Representatives even if spending limits had been in place prior to the 1994 elections. In addition, our results indicate that campaign finance reform that includes some form of public subsidy in addition to spending limits actually may have enhanced rather than diminished the Republican "earthquake" in 1994.     

ETHNICITY AND THE RURAL ECONOMY: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SOUTHERN MANITOBA, 1961–1971

V ariation in behaviour stemming from cultural differences has long been recognized as a possible key influence on attitudes towards economic development. The seminal work of Max Weber (1958) relating economic performance to religious allegiances is an obvious example. However, variations in the attitudes of economic actors may also derive from differences in endowments stemming from ethnic heritage. In Canada, for instance, the role of the British group in dominating corporate directorships has been well documented (Porter 1957) and is of special significance in a nation attempting to establish a balanced power situation between its Anglophone and Francophone elements. The problems of attaining cultural equality in Canada are, of course, compounded by the concentration of the Francophone element in Quebec and this spatial concern introduces new complexities in prescribing solutions.     

The Noble Traders: the Islamic Tradition of “Spiritual Chivalry” (futuwwa) in Bosnian Trade‐guilds (16th−19th centuries)

Abstract: Originally linked to the military associations of the Middle Ages, the Islamic tradition of futuwwa was with time inherited by artisanship associations. The Anatolian Akh?s of the 14^th century represent an important link in the evolution of the futuwwa tradition, and it was thanks to them that this tradition survived well into the Ottoman era, this time within the framework of the more centralized, professional trade‐guilds. Together with other Ottoman institutions, administrative, military and economic, Ottoman crafts and their trade‐guilds appeared in Bosnia soon after the final fall of the country to the Ottomans in 1463. Sources which provide information on the organization and activities of Bosnian guilds also give a picture of their religious character and, related to it, the presence of futuwwa tradition within them. The most important of these sources are those that originate from the guilds themselves, the guild defters and their statutes, which are often called fütüvetnames. A number of documents of this kind found in Bosnia illustrate a strong presence of different futuwwa traditions within Bosnian guilds from their establishment well into the 19^th century, while some also provide valuable information on the futuwwa tradition in Ottoman guilds in general.     

Gabriel Germinet and the ' Livre d'or du théâtre radiophonique français ' (1923-1935)

The Ecole de Brive represents one of the most successful examples of marketing literary texts in recent years. The Ecole consists of eight authors all of whom publish with Editions Robert Laffont and write novels that deal with the rural France of bygone eras. Laffont has grouped these writers together, created a ‘school’ and then marketed their work as a healthy alternative to the overly introspective fiction produced by Parisian intellectuals. With the Ecole de Brive Laffont has cleverly exploited the traditional tensions between the city and the country, the widespread dissatisfaction with the political and cultural status of contemporary France, and the perceived inaccessibility of currently fashionable literature, in order to sell novels that claim to renew average French peoples’ contacts with their putative roots in the quasi‐mythic world of la France profonde.     

Social groups,sport and political engagement in New Zealand

Many prominent social theorists contend that memberships in voluntary associations make major contributions to making citizens more engaged with democracy. Although substantial attention has been directed at the potential role of sports groups, previous studies using survey data have not found membership in sports groups to be associated with political activity. New Zealand presents an important context for testing this theory, given its high levels of public participation in sports groups. We find that membership in sports and other social groups is associated with higher levels of political engagement. We discuss how these findings advance our understanding of the role that specific group memberships may have in democratic societies.     

A note on the use of temporal frequency distributions in studies of prehistoric demography

Temporal frequency distributions of archaeological sites and radiocarbon dates are commonly used as proxies for prehistoric population levels based on the assumption that more people create a stronger archaeological signal. While this assumption is certainly correct, we question whether relative frequencies of sites or dates observed from prehistoric contexts are necessarily linked to human demography. In this paper, we demonstrate that the typical positive curvilinear frequency distributions observed in archaeological contexts also regularly occur in paleontological and geological contexts and are thus likely caused by the operation of time-dependent destructive processes, what we call “taphonomic bias.” Using a simple model, which assumes a constant rate of site loss over time, we show how taphonomic bias can produce positive curvilinear frequency distributions through time even in cases of population stasis, decline, and fluctuation. We conclude that caution must be used when attempting to infer demographic trends from frequency distributions alone.     

FEEDBACK BETWEEN REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS*

ABSTRACT This paper considers the implications of increasing land supply constraints in the United States on urban demand. First, because shifts in demand are now capitalized more into the price of land, house prices in some metropolitan areas have grown increasingly unaffordable to typical households. This might have an effect on the fundamental character of such cities. Second, the effect of home owners’ financial interests as landowners on their decisions about what regulations or investments in their communities to support may become stronger. Third, researchers may now be able to better use land prices to make inferences about urban demand. However, interpreting real estate prices still is tricky.