Changing patterns of carnivore modification in a landscape bone assemblage, Amboseli Park, Kenya

This study compares the landscape-scale taphonomic signal of carnivore modification to the surficial bone assemblage in Amboseli Park, Kenya as it was in 1975 and 2002–2004. Change in predator abundances over time provides a means of assessing the taphonomic signal of carnivore-mediated bone consumption and destruction under differing ecological conditions and varying levels of conspecific competition for resources. The landscape assemblage indicates taxonomic variation in the patterning of carnivore modification to ungulates of different size classes as well as within equivalent size classes. Analyses of long bone elements indicate that the differential destruction of limb ends and the strength of the correlation between limb end abundance and bone mineral density provide an indication of the intensity of carnivore modification to a faunal assemblage. The ability to infer levels of carnivore modification based on limb elements can provide faunal analysts with the tools to determine whether the taphonomic signals in the fossil record relate to carnivore modification, hominin transport of appendicular elements, or both.     

Predicting the Fate of Artefacts in Energetic, Shallow Marine Environments: an Approach to Site Management

A poor understanding of the physical environment often hinders management of marine artefacts. A study was conducted of an early-18th-century shipwreck to test whether the wreckage could have settled through ∼3.5 m of substrate. Results indicate that the wreck could have settled via episodic scour processes driven by storms and tidal inlet migration. A numerical model, modified to include characteristics of the underlying geology, predicts continued scour under moderate waves. Scour processes appear to have been interrupted by an erosion-resistant underlying layer, so that the wreck now remains exposed, subject to degradation. A generalized approach to predict burial or exposure of other shallow-water artefacts is developed.
© 2006 The Authors     

Forum: Cultural Geography and Cultural Studies

This forum discusses linkages between cultural geography and allied ‘cultural’ disciplines. A symposium on this topic – held at the 2005 conference of the Institute of Australian Geographers in Armidale – was triggered by the targeted inclusion of geography in a cross‐disciplinary network funded by the Australian Research Council. Although non‐geographers in the network have articulated strong interest in and an enthusiasm for geography, their knowledge of, and everyday participation in its disciplinary travails have been limited. Given this, the papers in the forum review geography's long and dynamic consideration of the relations between place and culture, and raise a set of key issues for geographers to consider: how we might interact with other disciplinary debates about the ‘cultural’, retain distinctiveness as the home of intellectual inquiry around issues of space and place, and leverage opportunities to forge more permanent connections to geographers working not in our traditional institutional settings, but in a range of research centres, schools and disciplinary homes.     

Effects of distance from stone source on landscape-scale variation in Oldowan artifact assemblages in the Paleo-Olduvai Basin,Tanzania

Ongoing excavations at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, reveal tremendous variability among stone artifact assemblages across the Plio-Pleistocene Olduvai Lake Basin during Bed I and lower Bed II times. Theoretically, stone artifact traces of Oldowan hominin land use are determined by the distribution of larger mammal carcasses and arboreal refuge from predation as well as proximity to stone material sources.     

Bone frequencies: differential transport, in situ destruction,and the MGUI

Human transport of bones with high food values, and destruction of bones with low density values are the traditionally invoked explanations of the frequencies of bones in archeological contexts. The manner in which these two explanations have been used suggests archaeologists assume the explanations to be independent of one another. The transport explanation is operationalized as the modified general utility index (MGUI) of Binford, and the destruction explanation is operationalized with measures of bone density. Statistical correlation of the MGUI with bone density, while weak, indicates that many high utility bones have low density values while many low utility bones have high density values. Because low density bones tend to be destroyed more readily than high density bones, inferences of human utility strategies derived from bone frequencies and based on the MGUI may be inaccurate. The utility strategies suggested by three archaeofaunas are compared to bone density, and two of these faunas are shown to potentially be the result of differential destruction and not human transport as measured by the MGUI.     

Wild(er)ness: Reconfiguring the Geographies of Wildlife

Amidst millennial talk of the 'end of nature' ( McKibben 1989 ), this paper examines the precarious geographies of 'wildlife' in rather less apocalyptic terms. Animal (and plant) species designated wild are placed categorically outside the ambit of 'human society', confined to inhabiting the margins and interstices of the social world. Yet, we contend, such animals have long been routinely imagined and organized within multiple circuits of social power, which (re)configure them in important ways. These social orderings of animal life confound the moral geographies of wilderness, which presuppose an easy coincidence between the species and spaces of a pristine nature. In this paper, we employ the fluid spatial vocabulary of topology to map a more volatile and relational conception of the fabrics of wildlife. Our arguments are worked through glimpses of two historically very different social orderings of 'wild' animals – those associated with the military vernacular of the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, and the scientific vernacular of endangered species listing and conservation under CITES (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species). These 'foldings' of wildlife in distant time/space aim to disrupt the linear historical narratives of 'civilization' and 'evolution', which consign wildlife to marginal spaces with a teleological destiny of erasure.     

Performance and Risks of Salt-Accumulating Renders in Relation to Their Moisture Transport Properties

Salt-accumulating renders are usually applied in several layers with different specific properties of moisture transport. An extensive experimental programme was carried out to establish a relationship between those properties of individual layers and the performance of combined systems on a salt-laden substrate. Each of the 20 renders was characterized separately in absorption and drying tests, vacuum saturation tests, dry cup tests, mercury intrusion porosimetry, and ultrasound wave velocity measurements. Each of the 12 combined render systems was applied on a brick, which was then saturated with a concentrated NaCl solution by free capillary uptake. Subsequently the assembly was closed at the bottom and subjected to an accelerated drying test (50° C and 15% relative humidity). Moisture and salt profiles over the depth were taken regularly during 1 month. The results reveal very different degrees of effectiveness and levels of risk for the substrate, which are related to the moisture transport properties.     

30年来国际“贸易-交通-旅游”(3T)互动的统计分析

经济全球化背景下,国际"贸易-交通-旅游"(3T)互动日益增强。采用1982-2011年时间序列数据,分析国际贸易、交通和旅游总量的发展历程,从进、出口分量视角考察三者相关关系,运用最小二乘法构建回归方程。结果发现:①30年来国际贸易、交通和旅游的发展呈持续增长态势。国际贸易和旅游日益重要。②国际贸易、交通和旅游增长过程具有同步性,表现为波动周期同涨同落。③所构建的回归方程决断系数R²均在0.99以上,国际贸易、交通和旅游存在显著相关性。国际货运与国际贸易,国际客运与国际旅游之间具有确定、直接的因果关系;国际贸易与国际旅游的因果性尚待探究。     

微观视角下中国大城市家庭汽车拥有情况研究——以北京市为例

目前国内从微观角度对家庭汽车所有权的研究很少。本文试图基于对北京市的一项大型问卷调查数据,从微观视角分析中国大城市家庭汽车所有权的主要影响因素。结果显示,中国城市家庭汽车所有权主要受能力因素和需求因素两方面影响。具体而言,家庭收入越高、持有驾照的成员数越多、户主受教育程度越高、户主年龄越大、离地铁站越远,家庭拥有汽车的可能性越大。家庭规模、家庭内的孩子数及是否住在内城等在国外研究中较为重要的解释变量在国内并不显著。有车家庭的户主在日常通勤中对汽车的使用强度较高,说明居民购买汽车主要为满足实际需要,"炫耀性"消费的因素不多。     

Convergence space: process geographies of grassroots globalization networks

This paper considers grassroots globalization networks, which comprise a diversity of social movements working in association to engage in multi-scalar political action. Drawing upon David Harvey's notion of militant particularism (regarding the problems of effecting politics between different geographical scales), and recent research on networks and their relationship to places, the paper analyses People's Global Action, an international network of social movements opposing neoliberal globalization. From an analysis of the process geographies of People's Global Action, the paper proposes the notion of convergence space as a conceptual tool by which to understand and critique grassroots globalization networks. The paper argues that contested social relations emerge in such convergence spaces and considers the implications of these for theorizing such networks, and for political action.