Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias

In this paper, we expand upon a prior study [Surovell, T.A., Brantingham, P.J., 2007. A note on the use of temporal frequency distributions in studies of prehistoric demography. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 1868–1877.] that explored the problem of taphonomic bias. Taphonomic bias refers to the tendency for younger things to be over-represented relative to older things in the archaeological record due to the operation of destructive processes like erosion and weathering. Using a database of radiocarbon dated volcanic deposits from Bryson, R.U., Bryson, R.A., Ruter, A. [2006. A calibrated radiocarbon database of late Quaternary volcanic eruptions. Earth Discussions 1, 123–124.], we develop an empirical model of taphonomic bias. In contrast to our prior study in which we modeled taphonomic bias as an exponential function wherein the likelihood of site loss remains constant through time, we argue that the probability of site destruction actually decreases with site age. We further demonstrate how this model can be used to correct temporal frequency distributions and extract demographic histories. We illustrate this approach using databases of radiocarbon dates from rockshelter and open-air sites in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA, and mammoths and humans in Siberia, Russia.     

Approaches to Prehistoric Diet Breadth, Demography, and Prey Ranking Systems in Time and Space

Zooarchaeological data on small game use hold much potential for identifying and dating Paleolithic demographic pulses in time and space, such as those associated with modern human origins and the evolution of food-producing economies. Although small animals were important to human diets throughout the Middle, Upper, and Epi-Paleolithic periods in the Mediterranean Basin, the types of small prey emphasized by foragers shifted dramatically over the last 200,000 years. Slow-growing, slow-moving tortoises, and marine mollusks dominate the Middle Paleolithic record of small game exploitation. Later, agile, fast-maturing animals became increasingly important in human diets, first birds in the early Upper Paleolithic, and soon thereafter hares and rabbits. While the findings of this study are consistent with the main premise of Flannery's Broad Spectrum Revolution (BSR) hypothesis (Flannery, K. V. (1969). In Ucko, P. J., and Dimbleby, G. W. (eds.), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, pp. 73–100), it is now clear that human diet breadth began to expand much earlier than the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Ranking small prey in terms of work of capture (in the absence of special harvesting tools) proves far more effective in this investigation of human diet breadth than taxonomy-based diversity analyses published previously. Our analyses expose a major shift in human predator–prey dynamics involving small game animals by 50–40 KYA in the Mediterranean Basin, with earliest population growth pulses occurring in the Levant. In a separate application to the Natufian period (13–10 KYA), just prior to the rise of Neolithic societies in the Levant, great intensification is apparent from small game use. This effect is most pronounced at the onset of this short culture period, and is followed by an episode of local depopulation during the Younger Dryas, without further changes in the nature of Natufian hunting adaptations. An essential feature of the diachronic and synchronic approaches outlined here is controlling the potentially conflating effects of spatial (biogeographic) and temporal variation in the faunal data sets.     

The Pleistocene Later Stone Age south of the Limpopo River

The earliest Later Stone Age (LSA) industries from southern Africa are microlithic and unstandardized and include the bipolar technique. The dating of these industries is controversial and the earliest microlithic industry is said to occur at Border Cave at about 39,000 B.P. By 18,000 B.P. a bladelet tradition was established and this was replaced in many parts of southern Africa, at about 12,000 B.P., by a widespread and prolific nonmicrolithic industry, characterized by side-struck flakes. The late Pleistocene environment was colder than present, with particularly harsh conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), between about 20,000 and 18,000 B.P. Populations may have been isolated because archaeological visibility is low during the LGM and decreases further after the LGM. After 13,000 B.P. there is a dramatic increase in sites and this implies that there may have been widespread colonization of territory previously unoccupied for tens of thousands of years. By the end of the late Pleistocene there was a change in hunting patterns, in parts of southern Africa, from an emphasis on the capture of large, gregarious grazers to an emphasis on small, solitary browsers. Social complexity increased during the late Pleistocene, and by 12,000 B.P. it seems possible that Stone Age people were observing some social practices recorded historically among Bushmen (San).     

Veiqati Vaka Viti and the Fiji Islands Elections in 1999

ABSTRACT

The question of demographic decline in the Marquesas Islands is here reinvestigated through an integrated approach to the particular case of Ua Huka. We first attempt to propose a new population estimate for the period prior to European contact, thanks to an archaeologically based method that relies on the length of sleeping areas available in the housing structures recorded in the valleys. From this estimate, we then use ethnohistorical accounts to reassess local demographic evolution throughout the 19th century. This leads us to partly nuance the impact of Westerners, especially the introduction of diseases, which on Ua Huka appears to have been less critical than other factors such as sociopolitical conditions, including intense warfare, linked to unfavourable environmental conditions.     

One Hundred Members of the Association of British Neurologists: A Collective Biography for 1933–1960

This article draws a quantitative portrait of British neurology in the interwar and postwar periods through an analysis of the first 100 members of the Association of British Neurologists. Through its presentation of data, this article argues that the members of the Association of British Neurologists were extremely ambitious and as a whole had attained unusually high levels of social, professional, and civil distinction. It makes this argument through an examination of their social and educational backgrounds, the trajectory of their careers, and their achievements in the form of editorships of journals, professorships in medicine, positions in government, honorary degrees, and other indicators of merit. This collective study therefore offers an explanation for how the Association of British Neurologists transformed from an elite club in the 1930s into an organization that eventually came to represent clinical neurology across Britain.     

Geography and the civil engineer

EUROPE

The Settlements and Roads of Scotland: a Study in Human Geography. By Grace Meiklejohn, M. A. Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd, 1927. Price 12s. 6d.

The Faroe Islands. By G. H. Harris, M.A., Vicar of Acock's Green. Birmingham : Cornish Brothers Ltd., 1927. Price 4s. 6d. net.

Things seen in Norway. By S. C. Hammer, M.A., University of Oslo. London : Seeley, Service and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 3s. 6d.

Cities of Sicily. By Edward Hutton. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 10s. 6d. net

Franciscan Italy. By Harold Elsdale Goad. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 15s.

ASIA

A Year among the Persians. By Edward Granville Browne. With a Memoir by Sir E. Denison Ross. Cambridge : University Press, 1926. Price 25s. net.

China and the Nations. By Wong Ching‐Wai. Translated and edited by I‐Sen Teng and John Nind Smith. London : Martin Hopkinson and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 7s. 6d.

Ceylon: The Land of Eternal Charm. By Ali Foad Toubla. London : Hutchinson and Co., 1926. Price 21s.

Natural Man: A Record from Borneo. By Charles Hose, Hon. Sc.D. (Cantab.). London : Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 30s.

East of Siam. By Harry A. Franck. London : T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1926. Price 16s.

A Griffin in China: Fact and Legend in the Everyday Life of the Great Republic, By Genevieve Wimsatt. New York and London : Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1927. Price 12s. 6d.

AFRICA

The Cliff Dwellers of Kenya. By J. A. Massam, District Commissioner, Kenya. London : Seeley, Service and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 21s. net.

Denatured Africa. By Daniel W. Streeter. New York and London : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926. Price 10s. 6d.

Out in the Blue. By Vivienne de Watteville, F.R.G.S. With a Preface by the Hon. William Ormsby‐Gore, M.P., P.O. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1927. Price 18s. net.

AMERICA

Brazil after a Century of Independence. By Herman G. James. London : Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1925. Price 17s. net.

The Land of Magellan. By W. S. Barclay, F.R.G.S. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926. Price 12s. 6d. net.

AUSTRALASIA

Life and Laughter ‘midst the Cannibals. By Clifford W. Collinson, F.R.G.S. London : Hurst and Blackett Ltd., 1927. Price 18s.

GENERAL

The Pulse of Progress. By Ellsworth Huntington. New York and London : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. Price 21s. net.

EDUCATIONAL

Adventures of Exploration. Book V. Australia and New Zealand. By Sir John Scott Keltie, LL.D., and Samuel Carter Gilmour, F.R.G.S. London: George Philip and Son Ltd. Price 2s. 3d.     

Mapping Manila's Mega-Urban Region

The global rise of mega-urban regions (MUR) signifies the impending dominance of this new urban form. Focusing on Manila's MUR, this paper contributes by mapping the demographic landscape of the MUR to account for its spatial form, patterns and trajectories. Using a hotspot analysis of disaggregated barangay-level data, significant ‘local’ clusters of population growth and decline are calculated over two decades. When mapped, three local patterns are observed: (1) outward expansion of high- and low-growth clusters; (2) development of new growth nodes on the fringes; and (3) recent emergence of high-growth clusters in the core. The patterns illustrate the volatile and chameleon-like configurations of the MUR. The paper also demonstrates how calculated clusters may be used as contextual compasses to expose critical mega-urban processes. With local-level data on settlement histories, development projects and socio-political events, the paper historicises landuse change, demolitions and relocations to unveil site-specific dispossessions in the MUR.     

Sex ratios and life tables: Historical demography of the age at which women outnumber men in seven countries, 1850–2016

Abstract

The male/female sex ratio (SR) and its age-specific patterns vary considerably across time and place. The SR generally begins male-biased at birth and becomes female-biased later in life, but this relationship should respond to historical trends and events. Temporal trends in SRs remain largely unstudied and formal demographic relationships are not well defined. We (1) define SRs in a life table framework, (2) estimate the age at which the number of males and females achieves parity—the sex ratio crossover (SRX)—using basic life table methods, and (3) explore historical and international patterns in these trends. Using publicly-available data from the Human Mortality Database, we construct SR and SRX measures from period and cohort life tables. Analyses explore temporal patterns for seven countries in different global regions since 1850. Overall temporal trends show the SRX advancing to older ages. The SRX also appears to respond to historical events such as wars and epidemics. The measure is simple to construct from life table data, and provides additional insight into the historical context of gender dynamics.     

Marriage under occupation: Israel’s spousal visa restrictions in the West Bank

In the West Bank, hundreds of non-Palestinian women who are married to Palestinian men have recently been issued shortened visas with tightened restrictions. This means they are often prevented from working, their mobilities are severely reduced and they are placed in extremely precarious bureaucratic and procedural positions. The research in this article draws from fieldwork interviews with women affected by such restrictions to show how politically induced precarities produce gendered effects towards specific ends of the occupation of Palestine. We thus frame a discussion of the women’s experiences of visa regulations through precarity before giving an account of the profound effects on women’s roles in family and political life. We then broaden the focus to consider Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the demographic implications of the gendered effects of visa precarity. In doing so we make the argument that Israel’s spousal visa regulations contribute to the (re)production of uneven gender relations and the demographic objective of emptying out the West Bank.     

Nation and reproduction: immigrants and their children in population discourse in Italy

Italian society is undergoing significant demographic changes: on one hand, the widespread decrease in birth rates and extended life expectancies lead to a substantial aging of the population; on the other hand, rising immigration rates constitute an important factor behind the renewal and growth of young population segments. According to conventional disciplinary divisions, such changes are the established domain of demography; however, it mainly draws on ethno‐national categories to investigate them. In reference to the Italian context, this article specifically highlights the way national demography employs forecasts and value judgments derived from a qualitative and selective definition of population to address the marked increase in children born to foreign parents. By examining the reproductive behaviours of migrants in Italy, the article thus offers a wide‐ranging reflection on the social boundaries that shape the formation of an ‘other’ generation.