Magic and Fate in Eighteenth-Century London: Prosecutions for Fortune-Telling,c. 1678–1830

London newspaper and court records of the long eighteenth century constitute good records for the study of magical beliefs and practices, provided that allowances are made for the nascent middle-class prejudices of their compilers. These records reveal, nonetheless, that both middle- and lower-class Londoners resorted to fortune-telling. Popular prognostic services, long called upon to answer specific queries, began more to resemble counselling after 1700, in so doing supplying their clients with self-knowledge and a greater sense of agency.     

THE NUMBER‐AVERAGE SIZE RULE: A NEW EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL LOCATION AND CITY SIZE*

ABSTRACT The spatial intensities of both industries and population are highly uneven across space. Moreover, these intensities differ not only across industries, but also change through time. Nevertheless, we show using Japanese data for metropolitan areas in two time periods that the location intensities of both industries and population are linked by surprisingly simple and persistent patterns. In particular, we identify a strong negative log‐linear relation between the number and the average (population) size of metro areas in which a given industry is found. This relation, which we designate as the Number‐Average Size (NAS) Rule, is also shown to be intimately connected to both the Rank‐Size Rule and Christaller's (1966) Hierarchy Principle applied to metropolitan areas. In particular, we show mathematically that in the presence of the Hierarchy Principle (which holds quite well in Japan) this NAS Rule is essentially equivalent to the Rank Size Rule.     

The prehistoric pile-dwelling settlement of Stagno (Leghorn,Italy): wood and food resource exploitation

A pile-dwelling settlement, dated to the final Bronze–early Iron Age (XII–XI century BC), was excavated at Stagno, near Leghorn (Tuscany, Italy). The site presented a well-preserved portion of the wooden foundation structure buried by sediments rich in plant remains: both wood and plant remains were subjected to archaeobotanical investigation. The ultimate goal was to improve our knowledge on agricultural economy and wood usage in Tuscany during the prehistoric ages. The results pointed to a farming system based on Triticum spp. (wheat), Hordeum spp. (barley) and Leguminosae cultivation in addition to the gathering of wild fruits, such as Corylus avellana, Cornus mas, Prunus spp., Vitis spp. Many of these plant remains are associated to a wetland context. Mesohygrophilous trees, such as deciduous Quercus, Ulmus minor, Fraxinus cf. excelsior, and Sorbus were used for the construction of the pile-dwelling structures; the choice of these plants indicates a good knowledge of the technological characteristics of timber.     

White But Not Quite: Normalizing Colonial Conquests Through Spatial Mimicry

The role of mimicry in the construction and deconstruction of social identities has enriched our understanding of power relations considerably. However, as a spatial practice, mimicry has received scant consideration. In what ways can space itself become an object of mimicry? What strategies and practices are involved in this process and with what political objectives? The current paper treats these questions by analyzing processes of mimetic spatial production aiming to transform the Israeli‐occupied territory of Mount Hermon into an “ordinary” western ski resort. Yet this concerted effort produces a variety of tensions and contradictions that ultimately undo the normalization of the colonial space, comprising a test case of the convoluted ways in which mimicry of space, not merely in space, generates various forms of slippage, excess and ambivalence.     

台北书店风景

好多人,对台北的第一印象便是：这里是有很多读书人的——你看,满街都是书店。 据说,整个台北一共有700多家书店,无论是繁华闹市还是寻常巷陌,遇到它们的概率都相当高。我想就算是不爱读书的人,在跟它们频繁地打过照面之后,也一定会要停下来say hello吧。     

Comparing seeds/fruits and pollen from a Middle Bronze Age pit in Florence (Italy)

The recovery of a Middle Bronze Age pit in Florence offered the opportunity of studying seeds/fruits and pollen coming from the pit fill layers. Both datasets resulted similar in their mixed composition of cultivated, synanthropic, and wild plants. They represent different traces coming from the plants which were stored and voluntarily or involuntarily introduced into the structure. Foodstuff and fodder storage activities are testified in the pit. Particularly, plant gathering is better represented by seed/fruit remains, while fodder procurement is mainly clarified by pollen. In this study, the use of pollen as evidence of economic activity is validated by the hypothesis that the origin of the pollen in the pit is from the stored plant material more than from the pollen rain. Therefore, comparing these datasets proved to be useful to assess the sources of the plant remains found in the pit, to interpret the origin of the fill layers and make some inferences on the structure and its uses, and to attempt some palaeoethnobotanical considerations.     

How natural are natural woods from wetland sites? – a case study at two sites of the Jomon period in central Japan

To clarify the characteristics of natural woods from wetland sites, the taxonomic composition and diameter of natural woods were compared with those of wooden artifacts at two sites of the middle to latest Jomon periods (ca. 5300–2800 cal BP) in central Japan that have contrasting characters. The Oise-yama site in Saitama was a least used site only with a few pit dwellings and pits on the surrounding upland and no structures in the wetland. The Shimo-yakebe site in Tokyo was a heavily used site with wooden structures and rows of stakes in the wetland and many remains on the upland. Natural woods of the Oise-yama site had an exponential decrease along the diameter gradient, irrespective of taxa, but wooden artifacts of the Shimo-yakebe site had clear marks of human selection both in the taxonomic composition and diameter. Natural woods of the Shimo-yakebe site also had an exponential decrease along the diameter gradient similar to those of the Oise-yama site. Thus, the exponential decrease in the diameter distribution seemed to be intrinsic in naturally deposited, allochthonous woods found at wetland sites.     

The history of Yunosawa village and the leprosy policy in Japan: a study of a free medical-treatment area for leprosy patients.

The village of Yunosawa, near Kusatsu town, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, existed as a refuge for Hansen's disease sufferers from 1887 to 1941. It was the only such place to maintain, to its final closure, self-government free from the pre-war State isolation policy.The aim of this study is to clarify the dynamism from the notion of "the protection from social persecution of leprosy patients" to the notion of "the defense of society from the leprosy patients as a source of infection". Herein, I will explain history of Yunosawa village and its relation to the shift in State policy concerning leprosy. In addition, I will demonstrate the value of a free medical-treatment area.     

AN INDUSTRIAL AGGLOMERATION APPROACH TO CENTRAL PLACE AND CITY SIZE REGULARITIES*

ABSTRACT An empirical regularity designated as the Number‐Average Size (NAS) Rule was first identified for the case of Japan by Mori, Nishikimi, and Smith , and subsequently extended to the United States by Hsu . This rule asserts a negative log‐linear relation between the number and average population size of cities where a given industry is present. In this paper, we utilize the cluster‐identification methodology developed by Mori and Smith to sharpen this notion of “industrial presence” by focusing only on cities that constitute at least part of a significant spatial agglomeration for the given industry. Our key result is to show that the NAS rule continues to hold (even more strongly) under this sharper definition.