Life in the Woods: Tree-throws, 'Settlement' and Forest Cognition

The deposition of Early Neolithic material within tree-throw hollows in described, and the possible role of fallen trunks as places of occupation, settlement foci and landscape markers is discussed. Having implications for the interpretation of ubiquitous later Mesolithic pit dwellings, the evidence suggests a continuity of forest 'identity'. Accordingly, patterns of clearances are also explored in relationship to modes of occupation, and the employment of 'big wood' in Neolithic monuments discussed.     

INTERRELATIONAL INCOME-DISTRIBUTION MULTIPLIERS FOR THE WEST VIRGINIA ECONOMY*

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a set of Miyazawa interrelational multipliers, which measure how direct changes in the income of each income bracket result in indirect and induced income changes in all other brackets. The multipliers have been calculated for a 9-by-9 pairing of income brackets for West Virginia in 1982. Their estimation is based on a combination of survey and nonsurvey data in three forms: a 1982 West Virginia input-output table, a multisector income-distribution matrix, and an income disaggregated consumption matrix. The paper illustrates the usefulness of the multipliers by showing how they provide insight into the viability of trickle-down theory and the incidence of regional development policy.     

PARALLELS AND DIVERGENCES BETWEEN WARLPIRI SIGN LANGUAGE AND SPOKEN WARLPIRI: ANALYSES OF SIGNED AND SPOKEN DISCOURSES

Among the Warlpiri, as among other central Australian Aborigines, older women use a complex sign language as an alternative to speech when, for ritual reasons, as in mourning, silence must be observed. As part of a study of the relationship between this sign language and spoken Warlpiri, a comparison is undertaken between a signed version and a spoken version of two traditional narratives, each told by the same woman out recorded on separate occasions. It is found that signs are ordered in the same way within signed discourse as are words in spoken discourse and a comparison between discourse units in the two versions dealing with the same content shows a close correspondence between the words and signs used; complex lexical items, such as preverb-verb formations in the spoken language are commonly matched by compound signs that correspond to the morphological structure of the spoken form. However, only lexical morphemes are represented in sign. Markers of case relations, tense, and cliticized pronouns are not signed. The findings are interpreted as supporting the view that these alternate sign languages, unlike sign language of the deaf, are not fully autonomous systems but are built up as gestural representations of the semantic units provided by the spoken language.     

TRANSBOUNDARY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FLOWS IN REGIONAL INPUT-OUTPUT MODELS*

ABSTRACT. Nearly all regional input-output models have been constructed without a proper accounting of inflows and outflows of personal income and personal consumption expenditures. Typically invoked is a no cross-payments assumption, analogous to the no cross-hauling assumption for commodities. We present a new accounting framework based on the classification of flows according to the location of income generation, receipt, and spending, and argue that only flows endogenous in all three respects should be part of a closed regional I-O model. We use the framework to compute the upward bias in multipliers in a typical regional I-O model. We also present several methods for estimating transboundary flows.     

The assumption of equilibrium in the analysis of migration and interregional differences: a review of some recent research

"This paper questions the plausibility of the assumption of interregional equilibrium in recent research into migration and the valuation of amenities in the United States. It is shown that it is difficult to develop a satisfactory explanation for continuing net migration which is compatible with the equilibrium assumption, and that recent relevant research generally fails to support the idea that the U.S. economy is in equilibrium. The association of higher rent levels with in-migration is explained as a short-run phenomenon. If the spatial economy is in disequilibrium, then the valuations of amenities assuming equilibrium will be biased, being probably too low in areas of net in-migration and too high in areas of net out-migration."