Village Layout and Social Experience: A Comparative Study from the Northeast Woodlands

This paper examines the spatial configuration of two early fourteenth-century Woodland villages—one composed of longhouses (Nodwell) and one a ring-shaped arrangement of oval huts (Fort Hill). The contrasting spatial layouts of these sites are explored from the perspective of social interaction stress in early villages. Visibility Graph Analysis, a technique for analyzing the relational order of visual fields, is used to measure the properties of spatial integration and control in these settlements over the course of their distinctive occupation histories. Results reveal “top-down” vs. “bottom-up” dispositions toward spatial order that influenced the routine use of settlement space, the nature of village growth, and arguably, long-term trajectories of community development in regional longhouse and ring-shaped traditions.     

New World States and Empires: Politics, Religion, and Urbanism

The past decade has seen a veritable explosion in archaeological research on complex societies in Latin America. In 1993, Smith published an overview of research to that date; this article is one of two bringing that summary up to the present. Our first article, New World states and empires: Economic and social organization (Smith and Schreiber, 2005), dealt with issues regarding economic and social organization. The present article tackles political organization and dynamics, religion, urbanism, and settlement patterns. We also review recent research in the context of various theoretical perspectives, some traditional, some more contemporary, including approaches to history and process, cultural evolution, agency-based models, linguistic prehistory, migration theory, and the relationship between environmental change and cultural events. Our discussion blends empirical findings, methodological advances, and theoretical perspectives.     

Mid‐Holocene Development of Mangrove Communities Featuring Rhizophoraceae and Geomorphic Change in the Richmond River Estuary,New South Wales,Australia

This paper describes the hitherto unreported occurrence of mid‐Holocene mangrove deposits in the Richmond River estuary, southeastern Australia, thereby providing evidence for changes in the distribution and composition of mangrove communities within a subtropical estuarine system during the Holocene. Stratigraphic, radiocarbon and palynological evidence indicates that widespread development of mangrove communities took place in the upstream reaches of the Richmond River estuary during the period 7000 to 6000 years BP. These communities maintained their habitat through substrate aggradation under the conditions of a moderate sea‐level rise, in contrast to other estuaries within the region, which generally experienced the submergence of intertidal substrates. Mangrove species belonging to the family Rhizophoraceae, most likely Bruguiera gymnorrhiza and Rhizophora stylosa, dominated these communities, in strong contrast to contemporary communities, which are dominated by Avicennia marina. Moreover, these mid‐Holocene communities were located a considerable distance upstream of the contemporary occurrences of Rhizophoraceae species within the estuary. The changes in the spatial distribution and composition of mangrove communities parallel the large‐scale evolution of the estuary driven by sea‐level variation. Shallow, buried Pleistocene terraces probably contributed to the regionally unique aggradational response of the mangrove communities and their substrates to a sea‐level rise during mid‐Holocene times.     

唐宋地方监察体制变革初探

唐前期的地方监察体制由御史和诸道使臣组成,属于朝廷派出性质的单一型监察体制。安史之乱以后,伴随赋役制度的改革,出使郎官、转运使、巡院等新的监察体系出现,我国封建社会地方监察体制开始向固定型、多元化、多层面变革,宋代完成了这一变革。元、明、清各朝基本延续和发展了宋代多元化、多层面的地方监察体制。由此而论,唐宋地方监察体制变革是我国封建社会地方监察制度前后两期的分界线。     

当代中国军队的等级制度发展沿革概况

等级制度是军队建设的一项重要内容,对部队的正规化建设、制度化管理、调整军内各种人员之间的利益关系、调动广大官兵的积极性具有重要作用。我国从1952年全军统一评定“军队级别”开始,到目前实行的新军衔制度,先后在军内设置过的等级形式有11种,其中有的等级形式是军队专用的,有的是沿用了地方干部的级别。等级存在时间最长的为24年,寿命最短的只有2年。这些等级有的是在不同人员中设置,有的是在同类人员中重叠。目前人民解放军仍然有6种等级,即军衔等级、军官职务等级、文职级别、文职干部职务等级、专业技术等级、工资档次等级,是世界上等级最多的军队之一。     

Complexity science and human geography

Complexity science has attracted considerable attention in a number of disciplines. However, this perspective on scientific understanding remains ill defined. In this paper, ideas and approaches from complexity science are reviewed. It appears that complexity science fundamentally is driven by ontological decisions on the part of the investigator. This is a result of the epistemological approach fundamental to complexity as it is currently studied, which is based on the construction of computer simulation models of reality. This methodology requires that researchers decide what exists and is important enough to represent in a simulation, and also what to leave out. Although this points to serious difficulties with complexity science, it is argued that the approach nevertheless has much to offer human geography. Drawing on complexity science, renewed engagements between physical and human geography, and between both and geographical information science seem possible, based on clearly shared concerns with the representation of geographical phenomena. In conclusion, it is suggested that seeing models as a source of geographical narratives may be a useful way to promote constructive engagement between different perspectives in the discipline.     

The Whereabouts of Power: Politics, Government and Space

Abstract In a world where it has become almost commonplace to talk about power as centralised or distributed, concentrated or diffuse, deterritorialized or dispersed even, it is all too easy to miss the diverse geographies of power that put us in place. The binary talk that forces us to choose between a centred or a decentred view of power, or to shuffle between them in an effort to blur clearly demarcated scales, leaves little room to move beyond defined distances and settled proximities in relation to the exercise of power. In this paper, a more spatially‐curious dialogue of power is opened up which foregrounds associational as well as instrumental forms of power which can make a difference to how we act politically.     

试析金代中都路城市群的发展演变及其空间分布特征

:本文以金代中都路地区城市群作为研究对象,对区域城市群的发展演变和空间布局进行了深入的探讨分析。本文认为,金代是北京地区城市发展的重要转折时期,随着金代社会经济的进一步发展,中都路城市群不仅在数量上有所增加,同时,金中都地区政治格局的改变、社会经济的进步以及交通格局的改善也使中都路城市群在地域结构上出现新的变化。在空间布局上,区域城市群呈现出以交通道路为骨架,按照河流流域组团分布的格局。     

清代川东道的辖区与职能演变——兼论地方行政制度中道的性质

川东道是解读清代地方行政制度的典型范本。通过考察,再次证明了道由一种临时性的藩臬二司派出机构,逐渐演变成有固定辖区和治所的府以上省以下的地方行政区划和机构。因应时变、灵活性和敏感性,使得川东道在晚清被附加了很多原本不相关的职能。尽管它本身不是一个完全近代化的职官,但由于府以上省以下的空隙过大,这种中层地方机构,在中国历史上始终是需要的。