Producing Vancouver's (hetero)normative nightscape

The article argues, through an examination of Vancouver's entertainment district as an actively produced ‘civilizing’ space dominated by private enterprise, that it is important to understand the ‘mainstream’ as a grounded site which produces, maintains and reiterates the moral contours of heterosexuality (among other things) within the city. Nightclubs in particular, experienced as spaces of hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity, offer a prime example of how the union of governmentality, surveillance and private enterprise work together in the maintenance and regulation of social conformity. Drawing upon an ethnographic study from 2005 to 2006, I explore the entertainment district and highlight young adults' perceptions of its nightlife economy and how space, hegemonic sexuality and nightlife collide.     

Fighting for recognition: feminist geography in East-Central Europe

In East-Central Europe (ECE), the evolution of feminist geographies began after the end of state socialism. Aiming to identify individual and shared characteristics, this study outlines the development of gender/feminist geography in East-Central European countries. Providing a brief historical overview, the first part of the article substantiates the arguments that i) the evolution of feminist geography in ECE is linked to the post-socialist transition; although the fall of state socialism has removed the political, social and ideological obstacles that prevented its gaining ground, this approach is still considered to be relatively new; and ii) today, development is hindered mainly by conservative mainstream geography, which seems slower in transforming itself than in some related disciplines which have ‘embraced’ gender studies. The topics, methods and theories of feminist geography that have developed in ECE is significantly influenced by the resistance that advocates of feminist geography have to contend with from representatives of mainstream post-socialist geographies. The second part of the article presents the major characteristics of gender/feminist geography in Europe's post-socialist region, while providing an outline of the various methods used in an attempt to earn positive recognition for gender studies. The concluding section maps some lessons to be learnt on the relationship between the production of feminist geographical knowledge and post-socialism.     

The agricultural basis of Umm an-Nar society in the northern Oman peninsula (2500–2000 BC)

This paper argues that the agricultural aspect of the Umm an-Nar economy has been largely ignored by researchers, due to an overemphasis on copper production and trade. This is true at the level of the smallest rural settlements, villages and settlements whose primary focus was agricultural production.
The key social developments of this period have often been explained by linking them to the exploitation of copper ore and its trade with surrounding regions such as Mesopotamia and the Indus. However, this paper will argue — based on quantified pottery analysis — that it is during this time that we see the development, for the first time in the Oman peninsula, of widespread sedentary occupation that was based on small agricultural villages where there is no evidence of copper ore exploitation, thus suggesting that the economic basis of Umm an-Nar society was essentially agricultural.
Furthermore, it will be argued that, through the use of a new survey methodology, it is possible to locate such settlements, even where they have left no traces of monuments, such as tombs or round towers. The methodology allows preliminary comparisons to be made between the intensity of occupation in different periods. The paper also argues that the Umm an-Nar period was one of the most intensive periods of occupation in pre-Islamic history.     

1990年代以来广州城市涂鸦空间的形成与嬗变——基于空间生产的视角

改革开放后,涂鸦伴随后现代街头文化传入中国,逐渐发展成为融合中西方的文化景观。涂鸦作为以城市公共空间为载体的创作形式,兼具艺术内涵和反叛色彩的双重特性,因此也被视为城市管理的不稳定因素,使其空间的生产常充满了多元主体的冲突。本文运用实地调研和深度访谈的方法,通过探究广州城市涂鸦空间的形成演变,透视当代中国城市后现代文化空间的生产及其意义。研究发现,广州城市涂鸦的空间形成主要经历了三个阶段,呈现出以老城区为中心逐步向外围地区扩展的特点。涂鸦手通过建构创作空间、利用资本力量、与政府博弈等手段实现对城市空间的占据,并使涂鸦逐渐成为具有中国本土化特征的后现代文化空间的范例。本文通过广州案例的研究,希望为今后中国城市空间治理的实践及空间正义的相关讨论提供参考借鉴。     

Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda,Tanzania

The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted to rockshelters and special purpose sites. This paper presents results of surveys and excavations at Luxmanda, an open-air habitation site located farther south in Tanzania, and occupied many centuries earlier, than previously expected based upon prior models for the spread of herding. Technological and subsistence patterns demonstrate ties to northerly sites, suggesting that Luxmanda formed part of a network of early herders. The site is thus unlikely to stand alone, and further surveys are recommended to better understand the spread of herding into the region, and ultimately to southern Africa.     

Archaeomagnetic Dating of Pyrotechnological Contexts: a Case Study for Copper Smelting Sites in the Central Timna Valley,Israel

This study is focused on establishing age constraints for several copper slag deposits at the centre of the Timna Valley (Israel) via reconstruction of their ancient geomagnetic intensities as recorded by the individual slag samples at the time of their formation. The results show a correlation between the location of the slag deposits (labelled as individual ‘mounds’ in our survey) and their inferred ages, reflecting varying socio‐economic and political dynamics in the region. While the slag mounds found at the unprotected foothills represent a variety of dates (mostly Early Islamic), the slag mounds on the hilltops are chronologically constrained to the early Iron Age (late 11th to 10th centuries bce ), supporting the idea for a need for protection during this period. Furthermore, in comparing the new data with previous archaeomagnetic studies from Timna, we can assert the existence of simultaneous copper production at the archaeological Sites 30, 30a and 34. This gives further support to the claim of intense smelting in the central Timna Valley during the early Iron Age. Finally, this project demonstrates the potential of archaeomagnetic experiments to provide chronological insights, and their particular advantage in addressing pyrotechnology‐related cases.     

The stone quarry on Jiddah Island,Bahrain

The surface of the small island of Jiddah lying north‐west of Bahrain is covered in traces of stone quarrying, but although the island probably supplied the limestone ashlars for the second‐millennium BC Dilmun temples at Barbar, the sixteenth‐century AD Bahrain Fort and other eminent buildings, no study has ever been made of the ancient quarry. Information from a geological report and a few photographs may, it is hoped, inspire new research.     

Transnational Flows of E-Waste and Spatial Patterns of Recycling in China

Two geographers residing in Beijing discuss the inflows, processing, and consumption of electronic waste—a topic largely neglected in the current literature on globalization. Based on extensive interviews with electronics producers and recyclers in China, the paper explores the global flows of e-waste and concentration of related recycling in coastal China. The authors suggest that recycling activities (authorized as well as illegal) grew in tandem with the dramatic increase in electronics production during the last decade. They note that the country's recycling sector has played a significant role in rural industrialization and local economic development, albeit in conflict with the objectives of environmental protection. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F20, L63, O17, O19. 6 figures, 23 references.     

Locality,Mobility and Governmentality in Colonial/Postcolonial New Caledonia: The case of the Kouare tribe (xûâ Xârâgwii), Thio (Cöö)

The colonial history of New Caledonia has been one of dispossession, alienation, and racial segregation. Indigenous people did not experience a life of all‐embracing confinement and immobility. Instead, Kanak localities were historically shaped by the interplay of colonial projects, ideas, tensions, power relations, practices, representations, values, norms, and emotions. Based on the example of Thio, located on the south‐east coast of New Caledonia, this article explores these transformations, focusing on processes of localization and mobility in the colonial and postcolonial eras. The first section focuses on the encounter with and the interplay between different organisations in Thio: the missionary, mining, pastoral, and administrative frontiers. The second section explores the multilayered history of the landscape and settlement patterns in Xârâgwii/Kouare (a tribe located in the mountainous part of Thio), and the third section analyses the interplay of locality and mobility since World War II. The final section examines the ‘invention’ of the tribe as part of colonial governmental projects. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the meaning of this evolving dialectic in the current context of decolonization.     

A Fresh Look at the Egyptian Environment of the Pharaonic Period

Abstract

The article deals with the territorial history of the southern steppe areas of the Levant in the period between ca. 1050–750 BCE. In the early days of the Iron Age, until the mid-9^th century BCE, parts of them, were ruled by local desert entities: in the late Iron I a Moabite polity and in the early Iron IIA and the early years of the late Iron IIA the Tel Masos-Beer-Sheba-Negev Highlands Highlands entity. This situation changed in the later years of the Iron IIA as a result of Damascus' rise to hegemony in the Levant. In the second half of the 9^th century BCE Judah, under Damascene domination, expanded for the first time into the Beer-Sheba Valley. In the first half of the eighth century BCE, with the revival of Assyrian power in the days of Adad-nirari III, Damascene authority was replaced by north Israelite domination in the south.