Politics and the Cultural Landscape: The Case of Aboriginal Land Rights

In this paper Aboriginal land rights are analysed from the perspective of a disadvantaged group seeking access to a scarce resource controlled by external agents. The Aboriginal participants in land rights politics are found to be actively seeking ways in which their interest in the land can most effectively be communicated to external groups which have constructed well-formed, but often distorted images of what constitutes a genuine Aboriginal interest in the land These externally constructed notions of Aboriginality and what constitutes a valid land claim are influencing the concepts used by Aboriginal groups in the public political arena to demonstrate their unique interest in the land In this paper three examples of this process are explored- the emphasis of a specific gender model, the emphasis on spatially discrete sacred sites and the emphasis on the bounded tribal territory.     

PREHISTORIC FLINT MINES AND THEIR IDENTIFICATION AS SOURCES OF RAW MATERIAL

This paper is a statistical and geological study of the results of analysis of flint from British and West European flint mines, carried out by emission and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Groups of flint specimens were studied from each geographically separate flint mining area. Flints were analysed for a group of easily measured trace elements shown by previous work to be generally present. The ratios between the trace elements form a consistent pattern for each flint mine and statistically valid differences of pattern can be recognized between different flint mines. A geological investigation shows that the measured trace elements may be derived from clay minerals and explains geographical and statistical variation in the composition of flint in terms of its mode of origin in the chalk. An advanced statistical technique allows individual flint specimens of unknown origin to be attributed by their composition to one or other of the identified flint sources. The archaeological implications of this study are discussed.     

Unrest in the Arab world: why the 2011 uprisings still matter

This article reviews the current state of analysis of the 2011 Arab uprisings. It argues that valuable literature on the uprisings is emerging just at a time when the international policy agenda has moved away from 2011's flirtation with visions of a democratic Middle East. This literature presents a timely reminder that the uprisings were part of long‐term processes of political change, rather than isolated phenomena. Understanding the very different post‐uprising trajectories of different Arab countries requires comparative analysis of the political economy, state institutions, the role of the security sector and strategies of opposition movements, among other factors. Moreover, comparative experiences from transitions in other regions indicate that the conflicts, economic problems and social polarization that have ensued in most of the transition countries are not evidence of an Arab exception, but, rather, have parallels with political transitions elsewhere, which have rarely been peaceful or simple. Compared to 2011, the perceived costs of political change are higher today, while the gains remain uncertain. But the drivers of unrest remain unresolved; and a small minority will seek change through brutal and violent means. Western policy‐makers need to understand what is driving these movements. Yet they also, crucially, need to understand what is motivating and preoccupying the larger publics in the Arab world, in order to build broad‐based relations with these countries, and avoid inadvertently empower violent groups by allowing them to set the political agenda.     

Thermal springs and heat flow in North America

Thermal springs are commonly thought to be an indicator of geothermal resource potential. However, there have been few analyses of the relationship between thermal springs and the underlying thermal regime. An examination of temperature and discharge rates for a large database of thermal springs in North America demonstrates that there is not a simple relationship between these measurements made at the surface and subsurface heat flow. Hydrogeological factors appear to exert strong controls on the temperature and discharge at these springs and should be carefully considered in geothermal resource assessments.     

STUDYING TECHNOLOGICAL PRACTICES AT A LOCAL LEVEL: NEUTRON ACTIVATION AND PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSES OF EARLY CERAMIC PERIOD POTTERY IN CENTRAL CHILE*

We discuss neutron activation and petrographic analyses of domestic ceramics and some raw materials from five archaeological sites in the Valdivia de Paine locality, in Central Chile. During the time period studied, the area was occupied by small‐scale horticultural groups with disperse and sedentary or semi‐sedentary settlement patterns. The analyses indicate that diverse local raw material sources were used in pottery production, and shared by members of different co‐residential units and between different cultural groups. The data indicate as many similarities as differences among the technological practices of pottery‐producing groups who lived in spatial proximity. The results have implications for the understanding of pottery‐producing communities at a local level, as well as small‐scale groups in general.     

Doing Building Work: Methods at the Interface of Geography and Architecture

This paper summarises the methodological approach taken in an interdisciplinary project involving geographers and architects. The project charted the diverse afterlives of the modernist‐inspired, state‐sponsored, residential high‐rise, and did so drawing on two cases: Red Road Estate in Glasgow and Bukit Ho Swee Estate in Singapore. In offering a specific account of, and reflection upon, the methodologies used in the High‐rise Project, we hope to advance the methodological repertoire of human geography generally and contribute further to the new wave of scholarship on geography and architecture.     

Too little,too much: Cultural feminist geographies

This paper traces some of the contours of recent critiques of cultural geography and reflects upon the implications they have for the continuing vitality of a feminist geography concerned with the cultural. The paper seeks to work away from this current disenchantment suggesting that in the field of feminist geography there are explicit intellectual and political imperatives that keep central the field of concerns associated with cultural geographical perspectives. Along the way we examine emergent scholarship on the governance of gender through culture concepts, the idea of gender as a form of foundational ordering grammar, the implications of non-representational claims for feminist scholarship, and the nature of performativity. We conclude by encouraging feminist cultural geography to chart the emergent geographies of relational natures and material cultures that reveal gender as both embodied and discursive, given and enacted.