Interpretative scenarios emerging from plant micro- and macroremains in the Iron Age site of Salut,Sultanate of Oman

The archaeobotanical research carried out in the Iron Age site of Salut (north Oman) gives insights on various interpretative scenarios: the ancient vegetation surrounding the site, oasis farming, and possible ritual practices. The landscape was dominated by dry shrublands with, among others, acacia, jujube and tamarisk that were exploited for obtaining timber and firewood. Agricultural practices mainly consisted of date palm, cereal and sesame cultivation. By comparing the datasets it was possible to assess that the date palm had various uses in this site: one hypothesis involves its offering in ceremonial practices. This third scenario suggests a new way of interpreting some of the plant remains in an archaeological site as Salut, a multipurpose site including a possibly cultic function.     

Dairy Farming and Milk Marketing Relationships in the CIS

A team of Western and CIS agricultural economists presents the results of a cross-national survey of 916 dairy farms located in Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The focus on milk marketing and supply chain relationships reflects their importance as determinants of farmers' welfare. Survey findings cover herd sizes, milk yields, investment activities, prices, sales to processors, and relationships with and support from buyers. An analysis of farmer satisfaction based on use of an ordered probit model, highlights the significance of trust and support measures. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, P32, Q13. 8 tables, 37 references.     

New maps and charts

Note on The Lake‐Dwellings of Europe.

The Realm of Nature—An Outline of Physiography. By Hugh Robert Mill, D.Sc., Edin., F.R.S.E. London : John Murray, 1892. Price 5s.

Galloway in Ancient and Modern Times. By P. H. M'Kerlie. Edinburgh : William Blackwood and Sons, 1891. Price 7s. 6d.

The Trade Policy of Imperial Federation from an Economic Point of View. By Maurice H. Hervey, Principal of Illawarra College, New South Wales. London : Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1892. Pp. x. + 182. Price 2s. 6d.

Two Happy Years in Ceylon. By C. F. Gordon Cumming. Illustrated, in 2 vols. Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons, 1892. Price 30s.

Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656–1668. By François Bernier. Edited by Archibald Constable, M.As. Soc. Beng., F.S.A. Scot. Vol. I. of Constable's Oriental Miscellany. Westminster : Archibald Constable and Co., 1891. Pp. li + 498. Price 6s. net.

The Real Japan : Studies of Contemporary Japanese Manners, Morals, Administration, and Politics. By Henry Norman. London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1892.

Japanese Girls and Women. By Alice Mabel Bacon. London : Gay and Bird, 1891. Pp. 333. Price 5s.

Coomassie and Magdala. The Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa. By Henry M. Stanley. New Edition. Pp. x + 402. Price 3s. 6d

The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North‐West of America. By Colonel W. F. Butler, C.B., F.R.G.S. Fourteenth Edition. Pp. x + 386. Price 3s. 6d. London : Sampson Low, Marston, &; Company, Limited, 1891.

Untrodden Jamaica. By Herbert J. Thomas. Kingston : Aston W. Gardner and Co., 1890. Pp. 90.

The New Jamaica. By Edgar Mayhew Bacon and Eugene Murray Aaron, Ph.D. New York : Walbridge and Co. Kingston: Aston W. Gardner and Co., 1890. Pp. xi + 243.

The Statesman's Year‐Book, 1892. Edited by J. Scott Keltie, Assistant‐Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society. Pp. 1151. Price 10s. 6d.

The Northern Counties Red Book and Chronicle Almanac for 1892. Inverness: Northern Chronicle Office. Pp. 88. Price 3d.

Smith American Railways. Argentina and Uruguay. By J. K. Carter, F.G.S. London : Fred. C. Mathieson &; Sons, 1891. Pp. xii.+ 204. Price 2s. net.

Britannic Confederation : A Series of Papers by Sir John Colomb, Professor Edward A. Freeman, George G. Chisholm, Professor Shield Nicholson, Maurice H. Hervey, and the Bight Honourable Lord Thring. Edited, with an Introduction, by Arthur Silva White, Secretary and Editor, Eoyal Scottish Geographical Society. With a new map of the British Empire. London: George Philip and Son, 1892. Pp. 180. Price 3s. 6d.     

‘The Next Wave of Italians Has Come to America’: Italian Investments and Business in the United States, 1980-2013

Abstract

This article examines the economic and socio-cultural impact of Italian investments and business in the United Stated from the 1980s onwards. It investigates flows, networks and ideas that have cut national boundaries and politically-defined spaces. The article argues that the last three decades of Italian investments and business in the USA have re-defined the symbolic space held by Italy and Italians in the American imagination. It also argues that the distinctive Italian contribution to the American business environment lies in the so-called ‘fourth capitalism’ and in the family business aspects of Italian Capitalism.     

安阳新出隋《成氏故士孙夫人墓志》研读

隋开皇十一年(591年)《成氏故士孙夫人墓志》,新近出土于安阳,其不仅是研讨北朝后期胡汉民族融合与稀见姓族繁衍迁变的珍贵文献,也为探究邺城故地白素之地的历史地理沿革提供了重要依据。     

‘The final decision is with the patient’: reproductive modernity and preferences for non-hormonal and non-biomedical contraceptives among postpartum middle class women in Yogyakarta,Indonesia

In Indonesia fertility has plateaued for more than a decade. Over the same period Indonesian women have increasingly accessed contraception via the private sector. Our qualitative inquiry into the contraceptive preferences of middle class women in urban Yogyakarta revealed limited interest in and intent to use biomedical and hormonal contraceptive methods. Women’s justifications for their contraceptive choices were complex and manifold: most had concerns about safety and the side effects associated with hormonal and biomedical contraceptives; others were ideologically opposed to fertility control. We conclude that contraceptive choices were an embodiment of women’s reproductive modernity, which in turn underpinned their reproductive agency. We also problematise the extent to which women’s contraceptive choices were comprehensively informed. Women’s reproductive modernity was shaped by their socioeconomic status; access to modern communication technologies; understandings of their right to health and contraceptive choice; pious yet pragmatic religious identities; and negotiations within their marital relationships.     

Dysfunctional path dependence in mid‐century butterfat dairy farming on eastern Australia's subtropical coastlands: case studies at Moruya and Copmanhurst

The concept of path dependence is central to the current discourse on evolutionary approaches in regional transformations. Along the subtropical coastlands of eastern Australia, low‐input, low‐income, and labour‐intensive dairy farms were subject to prolonged dysfunction. Their creation and entrenchment serve as a potent case study of path dependence and lock‐in that were driven by mutually reinforcing attributes—behavioural, socio‐economic, cultural, political, and infrastructural. Functional rigidification and incipient dissolution were scrutinised in farm surveys undertaken from 1952 to 1954 in the Moruya and Copmanhurst districts of coastal New South Wales. At both locales, the dairy industry comprised a core of long‐term stable producers located mainly on the more accessible and productive alluvial soils, together with a fluctuating number of marginal producers motivated by a variable mix of personal, locational, and temporal influences. The demise of dairying was prolonged, in part by the industry's exceptional survival capabilities and in part by the lack of any viable alternative farming staple. The belated collapse of dairy farming in the 1960s and 1970s has facilitated the emergence and lock‐in of an alternative multifunctional pathway, driven primarily by consumption with subordinate production and protection values. The two case studies reveal synergies between the closely aligned path dependence and the multifunctional trajectory/transition concepts in yielding insights into the dynamics of rural change and in offering guidelines for further research within evolutionary economic geography.     

Nineteenth-century ceramics and consumer behavior among the “mountain folk” of the Upper Cumberland Plateau,Tennessee

The Massengale site near Rugby, Tennessee was the nineteenth-century residence of one of the earliest white settler families to the Upper Cumberland Plateau of north central Tennessee, the Massengales. Archaeological excavations at their home site and historical document research into the family provided an opportunity to study their lifeways in this remote region. Initially, the Massengale ceramic assemblage appeared unusual, as a vast majority of their ceramics were undecorated. This study includes a comparison of the Massengale’s ceramic assemblage with those from four nearby, contemporary sites. Results indicate that the Massengale’s ceramic assemblage was not as unique as originally believed, and is representative of Appalachian farming families in this part of the Cumberland Plateau. Rather than attributing the lack of decorated ceramics simply to socioeconomic status, this paper examines a number of other factors that likely influenced their choice of ceramics.     

Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain

Archaeologists disagree about how farming began in Britain. Some argue it was a result of indigenous groups adopting domesticates and cultigens via trade and exchange. Others contend it was the consequence of a migration of farmers from mainland Europe. To shed light on this debate, we used radiocarbon dates to estimate changes in population density between 8000 and 4000 cal BP. We found evidence for a marked and rapid increase in population density coincident with the appearance of cultigens around 6000 cal BP. We also found evidence that this increase occurred first in southern England and shortly afterwards in central Scotland. These findings are best explained by groups of farmers from the Continent independently colonizing England and Scotland, and therefore strongly support the migrant farmers hypothesis.     

‘Doing it with men’: feminist research practice and patriarchal inheritance practices in Welsh family farming

Internationally, the gender relations of the family farming ‘way of life’ have been shown to be stubbornly persistent in their adherence to patriarchal inheritance practices. This article demonstrates how such ‘agri-cultural’ practices are situated both within the subjective sphere of farming individuals’ and within global agri-economics, bringing new challenges to patrilineal farm survival. It is suggested here that the recent tendency for post-structuralist theorisation in rural studies has underestimated the existence and impact of patrilineal patterns in family farming. Such patterns mean that women are shown to largely occupy relational gender identities as the ‘helper’, whilst men are strongly identified as the ‘farmer’. Drawing on repeated life-history interviews conducted with farming men and women from Powys, Mid Wales, the aim of this article is to generate debate as to the extent to which men can be brought into feminist research practice in order to reveal patriarchy to a greater degree. The article begins by situating the near-exclusion of men from feminist research practice within theoretical developments in feminist geography. This discussion also assists in deriving issues of research methods, positionality and interpretive power which focus the integration of empirical material in the methodological reflections provided in section three. In section two, the rationale for the epistemological stance taken in the research is provided. The article provides an example of the successful integration of men into a feminist research frame, suggests avenues for theoretical development and identifies future research directions which can be informed by ‘doing it with men’.