Explaining the monopoly in shell-bead production on the Channel Islands: drilling experiments with four lithic raw materials

Significant political and economic developments among the Chumash of southern California were catalyzed in part by the emergence of an intensive, specialist-driven shell-bead industry during the second millennium CE on the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. The production of millions of beads depended in turn on the availability of lithic microdrills of standardized form and materials. Channel Islanders quarried a particular stone type, a blocky Monterey Formation chert, from multiple outcrops situated close to the eastern shores of Santa Cruz Island. Rich archaeological assemblages document the lithic and shell byproducts of these intertwined production systems, each of which endured for several centuries (CE 1150–1819). Islanders invariably chose Island chert for making microdrills: hundreds of thousands of specimens recorded to date are of this material. Furthermore, nearly every microlith in all of Chumash territory (post CE 1150) was produced on the islands; the large populations on the mainland did not participate in microlith making or bead making after CE 1150–1200. We argue that this pattern had its roots not only in the patchiness of key resources and shifting regional social relationships, but also in the physical properties of available raw materials. Here we experimentally assess the properties of Santa Cruz Island chert alongside three important mainland raw materials—Grimes Canyon fused shale, Coso obsidian, and Vandenberg chert—that potentially could have been tapped to make microliths. We test the proposition that Island chert outperforms other lithic materials in drilling efficiency and drill use life. Our experimental results from 108 drilling trials reveal sharp distinctions in performance characteristics across the four materials. We infer that the process by which Islanders became the more-or-less exclusive manufacturers of shell-bead currency in southern California was facilitated by both the efficacy and physical properties of the Island cherts and the propitious locations of the outcrops.     

Cultural dynamics and ceramic resource use at Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Troy,northwestern Turkey

Changes in resource use over time can provide insight into technological choice and the extent of long-term stability in cultural practices. In this paper we re-evaluate the evidence for a marked demographic shift at the inception of the Early Iron Age at Troy by applying a robust macroscale analysis of changing ceramic resource use over the Late Bronze and Iron Age. We use a combination of new and legacy analytical datasets (NAA and XRF), from excavated ceramics, to evaluate the potential compositional range of local resources (based on comparisons with sediments from within a 10 km site radius). Results show a clear distinction between sediment-defined local and non-local ceramic compositional groups. Two discrete local ceramic resources have been previously identified and we confirm a third local resource for a major class of EIA handmade wares and cooking pots. This third source appears to derive from a residual resource on the Troy peninsula (rather than adjacent alluvial valleys). The presence of a group of large and heavy pithoi among the non-local groups raises questions about their regional or maritime origin.     

Accommodating ‘design’: introducing the Western concept into Soviet art theory in the 1950s–60s

This article investigates the background of Soviet industrial design in Soviet art theory. Instead of considering design's interconnection with technology and science, or with consumption and everyday life, the author traces its conceptualisation as a new artistic phenomenon. Using archival records of professional discussions, polemical articles in the art press and design projects, the author looks at how industrial design was incorporated into the Soviet order of things. She concludes that accommodation of the Western model was the way to reform the system of socialism from inside, typical for the Soviet intelligentsia of the 1960s.     

Social Dynamics and Pottery Distribution in the Faro Department, Northern Cameroon

Ethnoarchaeological studies have constantly emphasized the complexity of pottery distribution and its close ties with other aspects of social life. It is argued here that, among the Dowayo of northern Cameroon, pottery exchange is not regulated by preferential economic relationships between producers and consumers but rather by mechanisms such as fashion or the reputation of the artisans.De récentes études ethnoarchéologiques ont constamment mis en avant la complexité des processus de distribution de la poterie et les liens étroits que ceux-ci entretiennent avec les autres aspects de la vie sociale. Il est démontré dans cet article que, chez les Dowayo du Nord-Cameroun, les échanges de poterie sont structurés par une absence de lien privilégié entre producteurs et consommateurs et sont dès lors régulés par des mécanismes tels que la mode ou la réputation des artisans.     

Organizing European Labour: Governance, Production, Trade Unions and the Question of Scale

This paper addresses two main debates: the recent geographical literature on trade union strategy and structure, and contemporary accounts of European labour market governance. Geographers have begun to take notice of organized labour just as it has faced a series of unprecedented challenges, which are partly derived from ongoing changes in the organization of production. In interpreting these debates I focus on the process of scaling – the ways in which the politics of labour market governance are constituted in, and are at the same time constitutive of, one geographical scale or another. These issues are explored through two key recent developments: the changing status of the European Trade Union Confederation, and the creation of European Works Councils. The ETUC and EWCs are particularly significant because they pose a challenge to existing arrangements, and potentially enable a re-configuration of the relation between capital and labour at different scales. I conclude that further exploration of European labour geography could re-connect the diversity of forms of organization of production with the scope and potential of trade union strategy; and that thinking in terms of scale is useful because it highlights the significance of both political and relational issues.     

试论城镇人居环境中的生产环境

本文通过对人居环境概念的分析,指出生产环境是人居环境中不可分割的组成部分,认为城镇人居环境中的生产环境应是城镇中居民从事各种生产活动的直接环境和各种生产活动所营造的对居民有直接或间接影响的城镇环境。根据这一认识,作者对城镇人居环境中的生产环境所涉及的要素分内部和外部环境(包括生产性设施环境、生产性人口环境、生产性文化和制度环境、生产性污染和灾害环境、择业环境等)两个层面进行了多维度的分析,并指出城镇人居环境的持续发展必须加强对生产环境的研究。     

区域知识管理的目标、原则与方式研究

为了能动响应信息化、全球化带来的机遇与挑战,在动态市场中持续发展,以及解决区域内部知识生产、知识交换和知识分配等方面的问题,区域必须进行有效的知识管理。作为知识系统,区域知识管理目标应该是如何设计出一个适应系统,强化私人主体和公共机构的知识生产能力和知识价值实现能力,管理的核心在于激励私人创造知识的积极性和公共管理的核心在于激励私人的创造知识的积极性和公共知识流通与分配方面。区域知识管理必须遵循人本主义原则、遵循市场规律原则、区域性原则和制度学习原则,并相应采用多级管理模式。     

新疆扎滚鲁克、山普拉墓群出土(西周至东汉)毛织品的鉴定

为对一批出土的西周至东汉毛织品进行羊毛品种及编织方法进行研究,以鉴定羊毛品种和确定相关产地,应用扫描电镜分析羊毛毛纤维的组织结构、形态、纤维类型、细度,鉴定了羊毛品种。检验说明,扎滚鲁克和山普拉墓地出土毛织物主要是用新疆羊的羊毛织制的。     

论新时代中国世界历史学话语体系的构建

世界历史学的话语体系蕴含在世界史的研究、编撰和教学之中,其实质是中国学者如何认识中国与世界的关系,如何界定人类历史的性质,如何阐明对人类社会发展演变的基本观点和判断,体现的是中国学者将世界历史理论化的途径,目的则在于实现自身的学术话语权。新的时代必然要求不断发展的话语体系,这就需要在唯物史观基本原理和新时代中国特色社会主义思想的指导下,梳理世界史话语体系建设的发展历程,进一步提炼世界史研究的核心概念、表述框架和阐述方式,彰显中国世界史研究和编撰的当代理论视角。从生产和交往两个基本概念进一步分析世界历史演化的内在动力,显然是其中一种可行的研究思路。通过生产和交往两种基本动力构建的分析框架,可以清楚地看到,中国特色社会主义建设事业不仅是中国历史连续性的自然体现,而且也是人类社会发展规律的具体表现。