Core and Periphery in the Evolving Russian Economy: Integration or Isolation of the Far East?

An American social scientist explores the relations between core and periphery in the post-Soviet economy, using the Russian Far East as a case study. His analysis draws on Western and Russian conceptual literature on economic peripheries, as well as on the Russian periodical press and recent interviews with officials in the Far East (conducted during research in Primorskiy Kray in January-February 1996). A concluding section outlines policy options for regional development, either in concert with Moscow or through an independent course of action. 52 references. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O10, P2, R58.     

Gift-giving and books in the letters of St Boniface and Lul

The Anglo-Saxon missionary and archbishop St Boniface (d.754) and Lul, his protégé and successor in the see of Mainz (d.768), left behind a rich collection of letters that has become an invaluable source in our understanding of Boniface's mission. This article examines the letters in order to elucidate the customs of gift-giving that existed between those who were involved in the mission, whether directly or as external supporters. It begins with a brief overview of anthropological models of gift-giving, followed by a discussion of the portrayal of gift-giving in Anglo-Saxon literature. Two features of the letters of Boniface and Lul are then examined — the giving of gifts and the giving of books — and a crucial distinction between them revealed. Although particular customs of gift-giving between the missionaries and their supporters were well established, and indeed bore some resemblance to ‘secular’ gift-giving customs depicted in Anglo-Saxon poetry, books, while exchanged frequently, were consistently excluded from the ritualised structures of gift-giving. A dual explanation for this phenomenon is proposed: first, that books were of greater practical importance to the mission than other forms of gifts; second, that their status as sacred texts rendered them unsuitable for inclusion within rituals that depended upon the giver emphatically belittling the material worth of their own gift.     

Soil chemical identification of ten thousand years of prehistoric human activity areas at the Munsungun Lake Thoroughfare,Maine

Soils on a Palaeo-Indian to historic sequence in one Maine locale are analysed for chemical enrichment. To guide excavation of four discrete sites up to 4000 m², samples are collected in grid patterns and analysed for pH, Mg, P and Ca. Concentrations of Mg point to probable hearths to define some centres of human activity on each site. These correlate well with anomalies determined independently by magnetometric survey. Excavation of anomalies provides evidence of hearths, culturally diagnostic artifacts, but also features resulting from tree-throw and drainage variation. The P and Ca results develop definition and delimitation of activity areas thus refining directions for further excavation. Since P and Ca concentrations result from substantial or sustained human occupation, they show promise for preexcavation differentiation of habitation sites from limited and specialized activity sites such as lithic chipping stations. Soil chemical analysis provides both a synchronic and diachronic preview of site perimeters, size and activity areas. The consistent site definition at the Munsungun Lake thoroughfare is useful for explaining patterns as well as locating them.     

WHAT DOES MORTUARY VARIABILITY IN THE OHIO VALLEY MIDDLE WOODLAND MEAN? AGENCY,ITS PROJECTS,AND INTERPRETIVE AMBIGUITY

Building on what I view as the inability of archaeologists to distinguish patterning in the treatment of the dead in the central Ohio Valley Middle Woodland (Adena and Hopewell combined), I suggest an interpretive shift to focus instead upon agency; that is, upon mortuary events as the products of individuals and teams performing ritual acts using relics of their dead. That said, the remains we interpret as persona become, in effect, the “abandoned projects” of that agency, and their interpretation in the archaeological contexts we excavate (accretional mounds and other forms of mortuary features) is hedged around with what I call interpretive ambiguity. This approach embraces what we see as the extreme mortuary variability characteristic of the time and place without denying that underlying mortuary beliefs were real and conservative. Rather, it focuses upon the interpretation of place and how historical events occurring in places reflect larger social interactions.