Agriculture and community in Chaco Canyon: Revisiting Pueblo Alto

The Bonito Phase (ca. AD 860–1140) in Chaco Canyon is widely recognized as one of the primary sources of information about emergent social complexity in prehispanic North America. Large masonry buildings called “great houses,” such as Pueblo Bonito, are iconic symbols of the rapid rise of a powerful society based on the ability to harness labor to prolonged construction projects. It is clear that the political forces at work during the Bonito Phase had an agricultural foundation, presumably in the financing of construction through food surpluses, but the actual nature of farming in Chaco is surprisingly opaque to archaeologists. Indeed, many researchers have concluded that farming in Chaco Canyon was too constrained by poor soils to have supported the dynamic developments associated with the massive stone structures and extensive trade systems of the Bonito Phase. The popular perspective that Chaco was mysterious or enigmatic is largely a response to this view of the canyon as agriculturally marginal. In this study we argue that a predictive model of potential agricultural productivity that includes other portions of the canyon besides the floodplain indicates that Chaco was not marginal for farming. The results of this analysis suggest that great house communities may have been sited to control local production zones and that some great houses may have been linked to others in order to manage multiple agricultural areas.     

Interpreting the expansion of sea fishing in medieval Europe using stable isotope analysis of archaeological cod bones

Archaeological fish bones reveal increases in marine fish utilisation in Northern and Western Europe beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries AD. We use stable isotope signatures from 300 archaeological cod (Gadus morhua) bones to determine whether this sea fishing revolution resulted from increased local fishing or the introduction of preserved fish transported from distant waters such as Arctic Norway, Iceland and/or the Northern Isles of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland). Results from 12 settlements in England and Flanders (Belgium) indicate that catches were initially local. Between the 9th and 12th centuries most bones represented fish from the southern North Sea. Conversely, by the 13th to 14th centuries demand was increasingly met through long distance transport – signalling the onset of the globalisation of commercial fisheries and suggesting that cities such as London quickly outgrew the capacity of local fish supplies.     

Detecting the medieval cod trade: a new method and first results

This paper explores the potential of stable isotope analysis to identify the approximate region of catch of cod by analysing bones from medieval settlements in northern and western Europe. It measures the δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of cod bone collagen from medieval control samples collected from sites around Arctic Norway, the North Sea, the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea. These data were considered likely to differ by region due to, for example, variation in the length of the food chain, water temperature and salinity. We find that geographical structuring is indeed evident, making it possible to identify bones from cod caught in distant waters. These results provide a new methodology for studying the growth of long-range trade in dried cod and the related expansion of fishing effort—important aspects of the development of commercialisation in medieval Europe. As a first test of the method, we analyse three collections of cod bones tentatively interpreted as imported dried fish based on a priori zooarchaeological criteria. The results tentatively suggest that cod were being transported or traded over very long distances since the end of the first millennium AD.     

Proving Fishers Right. Effects of the Integration of Experience-Based Knowledge in Ecosystem-Based Management

Abstract

This article discusses effects of and drivers behind the current integration of experience-based knowledge in management. The case in point is production and integration of fishers' ecological knowledge (FEK) in coastal zone management in Norway. The article discusses how the principles of social justice and protection of biodiversity drive FEK integration, through analysing a case of conflict between small-scale fishers and cod farming in Storfjord, northern Norway. The case became known for the appearance of deformed “monster cod” which supported the fishers' claims that fish farming was harmful to the environment and thus also to the indigenous Sami culture. Assessing how FEK was judged in terms of its credibility, legitimacy and saliency, the article argues that the criteria by which FEK is judged are different from how other types of policy-relevant knowledge is judged. In addition to being scientifically credible, its quality as age-old knowledge derived from interaction with the environment increases its influence on management decisions in biodiversity conservation controversies where fishers' and managers' interests coincide. The article concludes that integration of FEK in management both fulfils goals of protection of biodiversity and social justice, which makes it harder to ignore in socially and environmentally controversial contexts in the future.     

1978年以来我国农地产权制度变迁及启示

改革开放以来,我国农地产权制度改革大致上经历了四个阶段。从改革过程看,经过了从强制性变迁到诱致性变迁的过程,遵循了生产关系一定要适应生产力发展的规律,增强了农民对土地的稳定感和权属感,尊重了广大农民的自由选择,进一步协调了效率与公平的关系。展望未来,农地产权制度改革的方向应是完善农地承包权流转制度。     

Between Land and Water: Being a Settler at Ile-aux-Oies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

This paper first describes the particular environment represented by the middle estuary where Ile-aux-Oies lies. Secondly, it reconstructs an early French farming settlement on the basis of archaeological remains and demonstrates the place it occupies in this special environment. And thirdly, it places the process of adaptation and appropriation in a more global perspective through a discussion of our research in the light of Ian Hodder’s thesis on the domestication of space during the Neolithic Revolution in Europe.     

Patterns of plant δN values on a Greenland Norse farm

In a further empirical study of the impact of past human activities on modern plant δ¹⁵N values, plants were collected in each of two growing seasons from several defined contexts of an inland Norse farm in southwest Greenland. The δ¹⁵N measures of the plants show a clear distinction between areas with definite evidence of past human activity and those without. The data for the plants on this farm's infield indicates that it was purposely fertilized. The intriguing intra- and inter-variations in the ¹⁵N values of plants from several structures are not easily explained, but the differences appear to reflect the different functions of the various farm structures. The findings of this study suggest practical applications for future use of plant δ¹⁵N values in archaeology.     

Red rural,blue rural? Presidential voting patterns in a changing rural America

This paper examines individual and aggregate data to document the growing political diversity in rural America. This political diversity is evident in the various economies within rural America. The new rural economy is reflected in recreational counties, where natural and built amenities combined with the provision of services to residents and visitors are the basis for the local economy. Residents of recreational counties tend to be more liberal than their rural peers on a variety of political issues, and supported Barack Obama at significantly higher levels in 2008 and 2012. In contrast, in regions dominated by the old rural economy of farming, political views are more conservative and there is far less support for Democrats in general and President Obama in particular. An analysis of survey data combined with multivariate spatial regression analysis demonstrates that these differences between the old and new rural economy persist even when a variety of demographic, economic, social and geographic variables are controlled.     

大同南郊北魏墓群人骨的稳定同位素分析

探索中原地区农耕文明对游牧民族的影响,对于揭示游牧民族的汉化过程、了解民族间的相互交流和融合具有非常重要的意义。本文对山西大同南郊北魏(拓跋鲜卑)墓群出土的人骨进行了C、N稳定同位素分析,旨在揭示其食物结构的基础上探讨农耕文化对其生活方式的影响。一至四期出土人骨的δ13C值为-9.12±0.85‰,表明其主要以C4类食物为主,而其δ15N值(9.56±0.76‰)甚高,显示先民曾摄取大量肉食,即拓跋鲜卑进入中原地区之后,似乎仍以畜牧业为主,而受中原地区农耕文明的影响甚小。至于δ13C和15N异常的四个样品,可能来自其他地区。结合考古资料和相关文献,不难发现,与慕容鲜卑相比,拓跋鲜卑的汉化之路更为艰难。     

关于推进青海新农村建设的对策思考

新农村建设的实施需基于新旧政策措施相衔接并有重点、分步骤地推进,需要依靠金融部门和社会力量的大力支持,尤其需要农牧区群众的积极参与。本文在分析青海省新农村建设现状及其面临的主要问题基础上,就进一步加快青海新农村建设的步伐进行了思考。