Productive Relations in the Northeast and the Rest‐of‐Brazil Regions in 1995: Decomposition and Synergy in Input‐Output Systems

Using a set of interregional input‐output tables built by Guilhoto (1998) for 1995 for two Brazilian regions (Northeast and rest of the economy), the methodology developed by Sonis, Hewings, and Miyazawa (1997) is applied in the construction of a series of linkages such that it is possible to examine, through the nature of the internal and external interdependencies, the structure of trading relationships between the two regions. The methodology uses a partitioned input‐output system and exploits techniques that produce left and right matrix multipliers of the Leontief Inverse. This procedure facilitates the classification of the types of synergetic interactions within a preset pairwise hierarchy of economic linkages subsystems. In general, the results show that the Northeast region has a greater dependence on the rest of the economy region than the rest of the economy has on the Northeast region, and at the same time the rest of the economy region seems to be more developed as it presents a more complex productive structure than the Northeast region.     

The Neolithic Transition in the Iberian Peninsula: Data Analysis and Modeling

We apply GIS techniques to analyze a carefully selected database of 93 Early Neolithic sites in the Iberian Peninsula. This allows us to study the spatial dynamics of the Neolithic transition in Iberia. We study how the Neolithic was introduced into the peninsula in order to test the hypothesis that the Neolithic was introduced almost simultaneously from two sources: one at the northeast (via the Mediterranean coast) and another one at the south (possibly from Northern Africa). We also analyze how the expansion of the Neolithic transition took place within the Iberian Peninsula and measure local rates of spread in order to identify regions with fast and slow rates (such as the slowdown at the Cantabrian coast). In addition, we attempt to reproduce the main results obtained from the GIS analysis by applying reaction–dispersal models to the expansion of the Neolithic transition in the Iberian Peninsula. We conclude that a model with two sources is a reasonable assumption that agrees better with the archaeological data available at present than a model with a single source.     

Spatial dimensions increase the effect of cultural drift

The transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture (Neolithic) spread gradually across Europe from the Southeast. A reduction in cultural diversity of crop farming practices has been previously observed by comparing pre-LBK Neolithic sites in Greece and the Balkans (dated about 8500 yr BP) to LBK Neolithic sites in Central Europe (dated about 7000 yr BP). The decrease in crop diversity is statistically significant even when considering only the species less likely to have been subject to smaller productivity due to climatic factors (reductions in growing season, temperature, daylight, etc.). This reduction in cultural diversity has not been explained previously. In this paper we show that spatial drift, which occurred on the front of the advancing wave of pioneer settlements, can explain the observed loss of diversity during the LBK range expansion. Our results suggest that spatial dimensions can have a relevant effect also in other case studies in which cultural drift is important.     

From the Portolan Chart of the Mediterranean to the Plane Chart of the Atlantic: Cartometric Analysis and Modelling Maps of Portugal in the Eighteenth Century: From National Perspectives to Foreign Contributions

Handritade kartor över Sverige i Uppsala Universitetsbiblioteket. Katalog av Åke Davidson (Handgezeichnete Karten von Schweden in der Universitätsbibliothek zu Uppsala), Acta Bibliothecae R. Universitatis Upsaliensis, X (Uppsala, 1956), 136 pp., 5 tabs.

Franti?ek Roubik, Soupis map Ceských Zemí. Svacek 2, ?eskoslovenská Akademie Věd. (Praha, 1955), 311 pp.

R. Oehme, Joannes Georgius Tibianus. Ein Beitrag zur Kartographie und Landesbeschreibung Südwestdeutschlands im 16. Jahrhundert, Forschungen zur deutschen Landeskunde. Veröffentlichungen des Zentralanschluses für deutsche Landeskunde und der Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, 91 (Remagen/RH., 1951), 154 p., 17 tabs.

T. E. Layng, Sixteenth‐century maps relating to Canada. A Check‐List and Bibliography (Ottawa, 1956), XXVI + 283 pp.

Dainville, François de, Cartes anciennes de l'église de France (Paris, 1956), 4°, 323 pp., with figures and XVI plates.

Takejirô Akioka, Nippon Chizu Shi (A History of Cartography of Japan) (Tôkyô, 1955), 10 + 217 pp., 1 facsimile map, 1 fullsize coloured map, 72 plates and 40 ills, in the text     

Blunders,Errors and Entanglements: Scrutinizing the Cantino Planisphere with a Cartometric Eye

ABSTRACT

The results of a cartometric analysis of the early sixteenth-century Portuguese chart of the world known as the Cantino planisphere are presented and discussed. The focus is on errors affecting the geographic lines and the representation of the coastlines. The outputs of three types of analyses are considered: a quantitative assessment of scales (scales of latitude and scales of distance); a qualitative evaluation of the implicit grid of meridians and parallels underlying the representation; and an assessment of the accuracy of latitudes. From these, details were obtained about the chart's construction, some contradicting previous interpretations, which allowed connections to be established between the depiction of certain areas on the chart and contemporary voyages of exploration. It is concluded that the geometry of the Cantino planisphere is fully explained by the use of the cartographic methods of the Renaissance once the effect of magnetic declination is taken into account.     

The dark side of cultural policy: economic and political instrumentalisation,white elephants,and corruption in Valencian cultural institutions

Cultural policy is usually assessed as a positive element for socio-economic development and therefore, its criticism is generally confined to poor implementation and discussion of its social effects. However, it is occasionally analysed as an instrument that produces unsustainable development, as a generator of white elephants, or as a means of waste, corruption, and clientelistic domination of the political sphere. This is what we might call the ‘dark side’ of cultural policy. Our case study of the city of Valencia (Spain), focussing on two of its major cultural institutions, the Valencian Institute of Modern Art and the Palace of Arts, exemplifies this cultural policy dimension. This article aims to analyse the systemic and contextual causes of this phenomenon of cronyistic behaviour and to elucidate in what sense it can be understood as a contingent drift specific to a particular territory or as a structural condition of cultural policy.     

The governance of national cultural organisations: comparative study of performance contracts with the main cultural organisations in England,France and Catalonia (Spain)

In some European countries, performance contracts have become an instrument for the governance and control of major cultural organisations by the public administration. The negotiation and signing of a performance contract are mainly aimed at developing the goals of cultural policies by means of large organisations in order to achieve the traditional objectives of cultural democratisation and other instrumental objectives (economic development, urban regeneration or social inclusion). Nevertheless, the development level of performance contracts varies when we compare England, France and Catalonia (Spain). Each particular level of development is conditioned by the overall administrative and institutional context and the development level of results-based management and an accountability culture. The level of public funding and the degree of autonomy of management within each organisation can also explain why in some cases governance has been contractualised whereas in other cases either progress is more rhetorical than real.     

The Style of Blugzeimat and the “Masks” of the Prehistoric Rock Art of the Western Sahara: New Evidence for Long-Distance Contacts

Blugzeimat is a prehistoric rock-art site in the Tiris region (southern Western Sahara), with more than 100 engraved slabs. The major portion of these engravings represents zoomorphs, anthropomorphs and non-figurative signs. Based on the absence of protohistoric texts, chariots or horse riders, and the probable depiction of a halberd, the age of these engravings may correspond to the first half of the second millennium BCE. The stylistic attributes of the engraved bovines, which are the most commonly represented subject, allow us to relate Blugzeimat to several sites with pecked engravings located in the Tiris (Western Sahara) and Adrar (north-western Mauritania) regions. In addition to this first stylistic and geographic delimitation, we have also been able to identify signs, traditionally designated as “masks” in the literature, which relate Blugzeimat to several sites with incised engravings located in the northern Saguia el Hamra basin. As incised and pecked engraving techniques have been regularly considered examples of unrelated rupestrian traditions in the Western Sahara, the engraving of these highly specific signs using both techniques allows us to question that paradigm. Finally, the long-distance thematic coincidence represented by the presence of such signs, in regions far from one another, provides additional evidence to refute the common idea of an absence or scarcity of cultural contacts between the north and south of the Western Sahara before the adoption of the horse and camel.     

Urban Development and Cultural Policy “White Elephants”: Barcelona and Valencia

The importance of culture in defining new models of local development has been increasingly emphasized. However, less attention has been paid to the influence of local development models on local cultural policy. This article will focus on analysing two cities that have used culture as a central element in their economic and urban development. In both cases, they have followed different strategies but the two have finally finished generating two “white elephants”: the Universal Forum of Cultures in the case of Barcelona and the City of Arts and Sciences in the case of Valencia. From a comparison of the two cases, the paper analyses the causes of this urban phenomenon, which combines cultural legitimation, wasteful investments, financial and social unsustainability and, last but not least, corruption. These four characteristics of cultural white elephants express the depletion of a neoliberal city model based on real estate speculation and tourism, which de facto relegates culture – in spite of discourses about social cohesion and sustainability – as an instrument of urban branding and elite socio-economic domination.     

Modelling the effect of Mesolithic populations on the slowdown of the Neolithic transition

The expansion of the Neolithic transition in Europe took place gradually from the Near East across the whole continent. At Northern Europe, observations show a slowdown in the speed of the Neolithic front in comparison to other regions of the continent. It has been suggested that the presence of high population densities of hunter-gatherers at the North could have been the main cause for this slowdown. This proposal has recently been described by a mathematical model that takes into account: (i) the resistance opposed by the Mesolithic populations to the advance of Neolithic populations in their territory, and (ii) a limitation on the population growth dynamics due to the competition for space and resources. But these two effects are not equally responsible for the slowdown of the spread. Indeed, here we show that the limitation on the population growth dynamics seems to have been the main cause of the delay of the expansion of farming in Northern Europe.