Australian geography: The next 10 years (and beyond)?

Geography: Shaping Australia's Future (2018) provides a ‘strategic plan’ for geography aligned with the national research priorities, as well other key areas where Australian geographers are addressing environmental and societal challenges. To provide context, we first describe the state of geography in Australian universities. We then articulate ways forward for strengthening Australian geography—both within the discipline and how we interact externally. We describe how geography may better contribute to policy agendas, capitalising on our unique perspectives of space, place and the environment, but also highlight how we might improve these contributions through a more unified approach across human and physical geography. Third, we discuss opportunities for geographers to build the reputation of the discipline and ways to advocate for its importance in the wider academy, school curricula and community. We conclude with some preliminary suggestions on how Australian geographers may better engage and contribute to the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.     

胶研水对几种传统纸张性能的影响

由明矾和胶料配制而成的胶矾水,是书画绘制、装裱和修复过程中经常使用的材料。胶矾水具有防腐、固色和增加机械力度等功能,但对纸质文物的耐久性有一定的影响。本研究选用宣纸、桑皮纸和连史纸等代表性的传统手工制纸,在它们的表面分别涂敷不同浓度的胶矾水,经干热老化后,对比分析它们的酸碱度、白度、耐折度和抗张强度的变化,揭示胶矾水对这几种手工纸张性能的影响,进而探讨其影响机理。研究结果表明,胶矾水将增加纸张的酸度、降低纸张的白度,明胶水能提升纸张的机械强度,而不同浓度明矾对纸张机械强度的影响存在差异。     

胡适与太平洋国际学会——兼论现代中国自由主义的两难处境

中国太平洋国际学会从1925年成立到1950年解散前后存在了25年.它是太平洋国际学会在中国的分会,同时又有一定的独立性.胡适曾于1931-1938,1946-1950年间两度出任中国太平洋国际学会执行委员会委员长,是中国太平洋国际学会的灵魂人物.在他的影响下,一批自由主义知识分子加入了学会,使中国太平洋国际学会从一个松散的、具有基督教色彩的组织转变为一个具有强烈自由主义色彩的知识分子团体.胡适在太平洋国际学会中的言论、思想和行动典型地反映了现代中国自由主义知识分子在面对民族危机时所遭遇的两难选择.     

From limestone caves to concrete graves: 3000 years of mortuary practice in the Palauan archipelago,Micronesia

Human skeletal remains have been discovered from a variety of contexts in the Palauan archipelago of western Micronesia. These include caves, rockshelters, earthen mounds, stone platforms, midden burials, crypts, sarcophagi, and historic period gravesites. Recent excavation of a prehistoric cemetery in a rockshelter on Orrak Island dating from ca 1000 BC–AD 200, combined with nearly contemporaneous surface finds in caves on both Orrak and other nearby islands, shed light on the earliest known burial practices in Palau. Interment in limestone caves and rockshelters was then replaced in succession by burial in earthwork terraces, beneath stone platforms, in middens, within limestone slab crypts and at least one known stone sarcophagus, and finally in Western or Asian‐style gravesites with headstones. Here we present the first major synthesis of mortuary patterns in Palau from the earliest periods of known settlement (ca. 1000 BC) to modern times. Understanding how these burial practices change over time provides valuable insight into changing sociocultural practices within Palauan society, including how contact with outsiders during the historical period drastically altered traditional mortuary behaviours. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

太平洋战事前后国民政府救济难侨的活动

太平洋战事爆发前后,大批旅居南洋一带的侨胞为躲避战乱纷纷撤退归国。国民政府在财政极端困难的情况下,对归国难侨给予了积极的救济。在整个救济归国难侨的过程中,粤、闽、滇、桂等省在中央的指导与支持下,对于归国难侨、侨生以及国内的侨眷采取了积极的救济措施。太平洋战事爆发前后各地救济归国难侨的活动反映了政府在处理紧急事件方面开始有了一定的经验,同时也是抗战期间中华民族共同抵御外侮的团结互助精神的集中体现。     

Identification of fragmentary bone from the Pacific

We explore bone microstructure for taxonomic identification of archaeological bones too fragmentary to permit secure identification on morphological grounds. Backscattered electron (BSE) imaging is used to observe bone tissue types and the arrangement of vascular canals, and to facilitate quantification of osteonal canal dimensions. Examination of known examples of relevant taxa (humans [n = 8], pigs [n = 4] and dogs [n = 4]) shows significant differences among them. When the results of this examination are applied to a blind test of modern and archaeological specimens (humans [n = 8], pigs [n = 2]), 100% of specimens are identified correctly. The approach is applied to 13 morphologically unidentifiable fragments from Hawai’i and Fiji to evaluate its potential for identifying bone tools and to increase the number of samples available for dietary analysis. Potential applications of the approach for other contexts are discussed.     

Mitochondrial DNA from 3000-year old chickens at the Teouma site,Vanuatu

Chickens were part of the Lapita cultural complex, transported into and through the Pacific by prehistoric colonists; as such they can be used as a proxy for tracking prehistoric migration and interaction. The Lapita site of Teouma in Vanuatu is well known for the recovery of complete dentate stamped pots and a cemetery containing the largest collection of Lapita period skeletons ever found. Chicken bones recovered from these excavations provide the first ancient DNA sequences from any commensal organism directly associated with a Lapita context. The ancient mtDNA sequences obtained from two Teouma chicken bones are compared with previously published archaeologically derived ancient DNA sequences to extend our understanding of the spread of chickens in Pacific prehistory. The results also show that the haplogroup E signature was present in very early populations of chickens transported into Remote Oceania. This study also adds to the suite of available data relating to isotopic signatures for commensal animals during the early settlement of Vanuatu and may reveal a different diet for Teouma chickens than those from other early prehistoric assemblages in the Pacific.     

3. EVOCATION, ANALYSIS, AND THE "CRISIS OF LIBERALISM"

In The Years of Extermination , the second volume of Nazi Germany and the Jews , Saul Friedländer attempts to write an "integrated" history of the Holocaust that captures the "convergence" of German decisions and policies, the reaction of the surrounding world, and the perceptions and experiences of the Jews. Although several historiographical issues are studied in detail (the role of Hitler, the evolution of Nazi anti-Jewish policy, and the role of the Christian churches), the most innovative aspect of the book is its extensive use of excerpts from over forty diaries of Jewish victims, which are interspersed among the statements of Nazi leaders and officials, Wehrmacht soldiers, churchmen, and various collaborators and bystanders in order to juxtapose "entirely different levels of reality." What ultimately holds the book together, despite its intentionally disrupted narrative and Friedländer's disclaimer that the history of the Holocaust can be encompassed within any "single conceptual framework," is the overarching theme of the "crisis of liberalism."     

The Capture and Curation of the Cannibal ‘Vendovi’: Reality and Representation of a Pacific Frontier

ABSTRACT

The United States Exploring Expedition into the Pacific launched in 1838 was marked, like the continental expansion westward, by violent encounters with Native peoples. By examining the record of the expedition's kidnapping of the Fijian Ro Veidovi, the fate of his body after death, and the ways his story came to be invoked in the official narrative of the expedition, the popular press, the ‘National Gallery’ and, more recently, the Fijian press, this paper demonstrates how violent contacts on the Pacific frontier were remembered, effaced, and reconceived. The changing story of Ro Veidovi permanently bridged distant locales in an emerging ‘Pacific World’, setting in motion transcultural negotiations that continue to this day.     

The Chinese Pacifics: A Brief Historical Review

ABSTRACT

This survey reviews the growing role and presence of China in the Island Pacific. As the late Professor Ron Crocombe remarked, in the Pacific a major transition is under way from a range of European to Asian influences. Many Western observers have viewed this rise of Asian, and specifically Chinese, influence with alarm, but Crocombe saw it as offering Pacific Islanders new opportunities. This paper first analyses the diversity that can be masked by terms such as ‘China’ and ‘the Pacific’. Then it surveys recent literature on China in the Pacific and scholarship concerned with longer Chinese histories in the region that most recent commentators ignore and which question a number of their assertions. Finally, it suggests possible future directions for historical research on this topic.