Restructuring of Beijing's Social Space

Four China-, U.S.-, and UK-based senior specialists on the urban geography of Beijing team up to present the results of their investigation of the change in the city's social landscape on the basis of restricted subdistrict-level data covering the period from 1982 to 2000. Adopting a factor ecology approach, the authors seek to identify the extent to which factors that shape urban social landscapes in Western countries have played a role in Beijing during a period of economic transition (e.g., from administrative toward market allocation of housing). Similarly, they investigate the relative strength of processes of social differentiation vis-à-vis mixing accruing from the restructuring of Beijing's physical space (e.g., housing cost differentiation and accelerated in-migration that lead to the emergence of concentrated areas inhabited by migrants and/or minorities, and of relatively low density suburbs) revealed by the 2000 Census. The paper includes a section on developments since 2000, citing data (through 2006) on population, scarcity of affordable housing, traffic congestion, and industrial and residential relocation, relating in part to the forthcoming Olympic Games in 2008. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: I31, O15, O18, P20. 6 figures, 7 tables, 93 references.     

The Effects of Inter-generational Support on the Mortality of Older People in Rural China

As inter-generational support is the primary source of support for the Chinese elderly in rural areas, such support is likely to affect their physical and psychological health. This paper investigates the effects of four types of inter-generational support on the mortality risk of the elderly in Anhui Province. Results showed that mortality risk was influenced significantly only by receiving household support. Financial support and personal care had no effect. Results also indicated that household and emotional support were effective in reducing mortality when delivered at closer proximity, suggesting that quality of support may be enhanced by co-residence and ready access to children. Conclusions about the health benefits of tangible forms of support need to be tempered by an understanding that poor health predisposes inter-generational co-residence, and that the quality of household assistance and emotional support may be sensitive to the geographic distance between older parents and their adult children in rural China.     

甘青地区史前用玉特征与进程

甘青地区是史前时期重要的用玉地区之一,其用玉进程表现为从前仰韶时期至马家窑时期,一直处于相对沉寂的状态,而大规模和较成体系用玉文化的兴起应始于齐家文化。齐家文化巫玉色彩浓重,玉器更多被用来祭祀。从用玉进程和用玉动机看,甘青地区用玉文化并非独立起源,而是从东部和中原引进与兴起,同时促进了甘青地区玉矿的开发与利用。     

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.     

16世纪至20世纪60年代滇池沿岸的 低田与深水稻种植

明清以降,滇池在岁修制度下常年疏浚海口,水域范围基本稳定,但受季风气候影响,其水位存在明显季节性变化,夏秋上涨,冬春下降,主要表现为沿岸低田在雨季即周期性被湖水淹没的特点。随着滇池流域坝田开发趋于饱和,滇池沿岸低田的深水稻“水涨谷”,在明清之际逐步系统种植,实现滨湖低田稻作与滇池水位季节性变化的生态耦合。这种局面到20世纪60年代末彻底改变,入滇河道上游大小水库的修建,使滨湖低田逐渐干田化,水涨谷生长的水域环境发生变化。观察滇池水域环境与稻作生态互动的关系,发现当区域环境呈现出长时段的规律性变化,就可能变“害”为“利”,这是人与自然相处中适应并利用自然的智慧展现。     

Ballistically anomalous stone projectile points in Australia

The emergence of stone-tipped projectile weaponry was an important event in hominin evolution. A common archaeological approach to identifying projectile weapons is to extrapolate from optimal values of ballistically-relevant attributes as determined from ethnographic North American weapons and modern experiments. Among the most significant of these attributes is “tip cross-sectional area” (TCSA) because it determines a point's efficiency in penetrating an animal. The warranting argument for projecting these data onto prehistoric artefacts is that past “research and development” necessarily led to stone projectiles with optimal TCSA values for a given delivery system. However, our test of this warranting argument, involving analysis of 132 hafted ethnographic Australian stone projectile points and 102 hafted knives, demonstrates that Aborigines did not optimize TCSA values, thus offering a challenge to TCSA-based narratives about the first appearance of projectile weaponry. This illustrates the difficulty of inferring ancient stoneworkers' design intentions from narrowly-defined optimal values. Instead, tool designs should be considered in the context of the reduction sequences that produced them and the dynamics of transmission of those reduction sequences across generations.     

Coastal heritage in touristic regional identity narratives: a comparison between the Norwegian region Sørlandet and the Dutch Wadden Sea area

ABSTRACT

Heritage plays a central role in narratives of coastal regions that promote them as places of leisure. This paper compares this role of heritage in Sørlandet (Norway) and the Dutch Wadden Sea area. Both regions have rich and related cultural histories, but at the same time exhibit striking differences in the role of cultural heritage and other aspects of heritage in regional identity narratives that are aimed at attracting tourists. We conclude that while the narratives of Sørlandet affirm a romantic, picturesque image of pre-industrial, societies, those in the Dutch Wadden Sea area frame this region as a pristine and timeless wilderness, in which human history has no place.     

广州大都市外围地区二元发展的矛盾及治理

结合广州案例选择界定研究范围,从空间形态、产业发展、土地利用、规划管理多方面分析大都市外围地区二元发展矛盾与特征,认为该地区承担了主城"自上而下"的空间外拓和外围撤市(县)设区后"自下而上"式的城镇蔓延。进而运用区域治理理论分析,指出其根源在于双轨城市化路径依赖下,现有规划编制与实施体系难以协调当前城乡二元土地管理制度下不同团体的利益冲突,认为广州应当从传统集权管理转向治理理念的协作方式,由此提出建立"发展需求管理、土地开发共同决策、发展利益分享"三个机制的对策研究。     

略论河南境内史前稻作农业

河南境内的丹江流域、淮河流域及黄河之滨史前文化遗址中,均发现有稻作遗存。有充分的证据证明,史前河南境内的稻是本地种植的。河南所处的黄淮地区是稻粟混作区。