From Nihewan to Zhoukoudian: Cultural Evolution Pattern in the Paleolithic Age of Northern China

Nihewan and Zhoukoudian are important areas where early humans and cultures originated and reproduced in northern China and even East Asia. Geologically, both site groups belong to the Haihe River valley; chronologically, the Nihewan sites date to ca. 1.7 million years ago, and the Zhoukoudian sites date to ca. 0.5 million years ago; and culturally, both are dominated by the small-flake-tool culture. Thus, it is speculated that the early culture in the Zhoukoudian sites came from the migrants from the Nihewan Basin who facilitated cultural diffusion in the area; in turn, it also affected the culture in the Nihewan area during the subsequent development. This paper proposes the development path of the Paleolithic culture in northern China, that is, early humans in this region roughly experienced three stages of subsistence from lake-dependent to cave-dependent and then to river-dependent.     

Recent Studies on Violence: What's In and What's Out

Focusing on four recent books about violence gives a reader an idea of what current anthropological wisdom is and what it tends to omit (peace, domestic violence). Since most studies deal not with direct observation of violence but with representations of it, questions of representation loom large in terms of how anthropologists represent violence in these books and elsewhere in the literature, and what possibilities of representation might round out readers' understanding.     

Pop Anthropology,With Little Anthropology or Pop

Unlike other scientific fields, anthropology popularizations are as likely as not to be written by scientists who are not themselves experts in the subject. This is because the subject, the scientific knowledge of our origin and patterns of bio-cultural diversity—or more broadly, who we are and where we come from—is the source of our culturally authoritative origin myths, and consequently of broad general interest in and of itself. But anthropology popularizations come with the responsibility not only to get the facts and theory correct, but as well to understand the history and embedded politics in the stories themselves.     

On Theme and Variation

Abstract

The ways in which the author, the sculptor Peter Randall-Page, has made use of the ideas of D’Arcy Thompson are described. How Thompson showed that commonalities of form and pattern exist across the biological and abiotic realms is described, and the implications that physical constraints limit and sometimes dominate the capabilities of evolutionary natural selection are explored. Since we evolved in a world shaped in this manner, the likelihood that this palette of forms is one that carries strong psychological meanings and associations is examined, and the ways in which these forms are a rich source of inspiration and allusion for visual artists are discussed, hinting at the play of opposing tendencies, the dance between order and randomness, and the ways in which nature can derive variations on a theme.     

A Compaignye of Sondry Folk: Mereology,Medieval Poetics and Contemporary Evolutionary Narrative in Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale

Abstract

Thus far, certainly in English, most engineering history has been based on the lives of engineers or the chronologies of particular enterprises, with the two often woven together. Much of this work, as conventional biography or narrative history, has been well done, in many cases is a good read, and frequently is valuable as a basis for further study. But its preoccupation with who, when and where too often leaves unaddressed questions of how and why. Attempting to understand the intellectual and creative components of engineering's history, especially its early history for which written records are rare or nonexistent, is exceptionally difficult. In this short survey the possibilities of retrospective analysis are discussed, and some of the potential pitfalls are identified by considering the particular case of cathedral building. Over the last twenty or thirty years cathedral studies have generated more publications in the field of retrospective analysis, in this case structural analysis, than possibly any other. Whether or not very much has been learned about the history of the engineering of cathedrals, however, is a good question, and is part of what follows.     

Morphological changes in domestic cattle in Gaul,from the second century BC to the fifth century AD: diversity of herds in the Seine valley (France) and northern Gaul

In Western Europe the transition from the Iron Age to the Roman period is the scene of a rapid economic and agro-pastoral evolution characterized in particular by a modification in the shape of the cattle. Understanding this phenomenon, its implementation mechanisms and development dynamics represents a major challenge in archaeozoology. In our study a local and regional approach of the evolution in cattle morphology is carried out first on the scale of the middle Seine valley, then of the northern Gaul. Its purpose is to observe and compare the evolution rates in domestic cattle between Middle La Tène and the fifth century AD, and with the help of a tight chronological and geographical grid, to estimate to what extent the shape of the cattle has been influenced by the indigenous cultures, the Roman economic pattern or even the environment. This osteometrical study is based on the Log Size Index method and on a measurement corpus of 12,969 bones collected on sites located on 117 communes in France (for most of them), Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The results we obtained show local specificities in terms of breeding methods and animal morphologies, observed on a very fine scale and taking place long before the Conquest. Moreover the growth patterns of the various herds happen to be different and to evolve under the impetus of the developing Roman economic pattern. This work thus points out an essential aspect of the agro-pastoral turmoil that took place in Gaul at the turning point of our era. The Roman pattern is not the cause of the morphological changes of the cattle, nor of the diversity in cattle shapes in Gaul, but it provokes a reshaping of the agricultural systems and a redefining of the breeding strategies which boost and completely change the cattle growth patterns.     

The Geography of Marriage

While some geographical surveys on marriage behaviour concern general marriage patterns and family systems, there are other discussions on regional variations in marriage within specific countries. This article belongs to the latter tradition, charting the regional differences in ages at marriage in Sweden from 1870 to 1900, and exploring potential determinants of the regional variation. The study builds on Sundbärg's division of Sweden into three main demographic regions, the subsequent Swedish research, and the historical-demographic studies on the determinants of marriage. The results do not fit perfectly into Sundbärg's geography but find a basic divide between the west and east/north of Sweden, mean ages at first marriage being one to one-and-a-half years higher in the west. Social norms and socioeconomic structure seem to have influenced the timing of marriage. At county level, family farming and crowding/competition over land and tenure were typically associated with later marriages, while commercial agriculture and a more diverse economy were correlated with a lower average marriage age. Also, in counties where real wages were higher, marriages usually took place earlier. Finally, results indicate that counties characterized by more secular and tolerant values were on average associated with earlier marriages.     

改革开放以来上海社会空间结构演化的特征与趋势

基于第三次和第五次全国人口普查数据,采用因子生态分析方法,对1982年和2000年的上海社会空间结构以及改革开放以来上海社会空间结构演化的特征与趋势进行了研究。结果显示,1982年上海社会空间结构模式相对简单,市区和郊区各自具有较强的同质性;2000年社会空间结构则趋于复杂,异质性特征明显增强,各类社会区间的圈层分布成为主导模式,并呈现指状空间扩散特征。在此基础上,论文从能动者和结构两个层面揭示了上海社会空间结构演化的内在机制。     

100年来东北地区经济地域格局的演变

东北地区经济地域格局的形成与发展受区域环境与经济成本的双重约束。基于100年来东北地区交通网络化过程分析,通过统计分析与现代GIS空间分析方法相结合,作者探讨不同时间序列东北地区的主要经济、社会发展特征,重点分析了37个城市区域的人口、经济等的空间集聚与边缘化特征以及土地利用变化、城市空间扩展等,揭示东北地区不同时期经济地域格局的演化机制,并预测其基本走向。     

成渝经济区县域经济差异的空间分析

借助ARCGIS软件中ESDA分析模块和统计功能,并与传统统计方法加权变异系数相结合,以县域为研究单元,以人均GDP和GDP为测度指标,初步探索了1999-2008年成渝经济区县域经济差异的空间格局变化。结果表明,成渝经济区县域经济总体差异呈逐渐扩大趋势,经济发展水平、经济增长能力和经济密度的空间特征三者的空间格局基本吻合,形成以成都市区和重庆市区为核心的圈状空间结构,且这种格局在不断的强化;高速公路发展轴经济带动作用不明显,广大地区经济仍处于落后状态;现发展阶段,核心区的极化作用占主导,区域经济发展极不平衡。