Avian taphonomy: observations at two Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) breeding colonies and their implications for the fossil record

Actualistic studies on vertebrate taphonomy have centred on mammals, and to a much lesser extent on flying birds. Members of the Spheniscidae are anatomically specialized making it problematic to make direct inferences from previous taphonomic work. Modern bone assemblages from two Spheniscus magellanicus breeding colonies on the southern Atlantic coast of continental Patagonia, Argentina, were surveyed on foot along linear transects, and features were determined that are useful in interpreting the fossil record. Present day bone accumulations have specific properties resulting from penguin anatomy and osteology as well as from the composition of the vertebrate community and regional environmental conditions. Most salient are the high spatial density of bones, the dominance of Spheniscidae remains over those of other vertebrates, the high percentage of disarticulated bones, the predominance of limb bones, the low frequencies of carnivore bone modifications, and the abundance of fractured bones. Many of these features observed in the modern assemblages can be identified in fossil avian bone deposits.     

A Flawed Saint: The Popular Image of William Gladstone in the Australian Colonies

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the popular image of William Gladstone which gradually emerged and evolved in the Australian Colonies throughout the nineteenth century. By using a wide variety of newspaper sources and political speeches, the piece shows how Gladstone was extensively discussed and interpreted on the far side of the ‘British World’. It tracks the ups and downs of the turbulent relationship Gladstone had with the Australian Colonies over his long career, as he influenced Australian history both directly through the policies he implemented and indirectly as an inspiration for local politicians. It concludes that although Gladstone repeatedly aggravated Australian opinion both through his time at the Colonial Office and the ‘soft’ foreign policy he pursued as Prime Minister, his domestic popularity as a successful liberal and democratic figure was enough to make him a hero in colonial eyes. This conclusion shows how ‘British World’ popular sentiment was able to trump nominal local interests. This demonstrates not only the predominance of Britishness in Australian identity during this time period, but also how as a simultaneously separate yet intimately linked part of the Empire, Australians abstracted their own significance and meaning from domestic British politics.     

Colonial and Provincial Separation Movements in Australia and New Zealand, 1856–1865

This article examines separation movements in Britain’s Australasian colonies during the first decade of responsible government, 1856–65. Separation movements sought to carve new colonies from the territory of existing ones or, in the case of a number of New Zealand movements, to create new provinces within that colony’s quasi-federal system. Their demands rested upon assertions that a colonial or provincial government neglected large and prosperous hinterlands from which considerable revenue was collected. Only one colonial separation movement achieved its goal, but four provinces succeeded. I argue that responsible government played a major role in the success or failure of these movements. Responsibility concentrated authority in a remote capital; colonial separatists desired to exercise this privilege within a smaller new colony that they controlled, but its operation within the larger existing colony provided London with justification to reject most appeals. Further, it allowed New Zealand’s parliament to frame a mechanism that enabled discontented regions to become provinces without referral to local or imperial legislatures. Thus, I provide new insights into the formation of colonial polities and the influence of responsible government on settler political campaigns.     

Historical Archaeology of France in the New World

The author introduces this special issue of the journal that is focused on the historical archaeology of French colonial and post-colonial settlements in the New World. Case studies from widely separated regions reveal both the similarities and differences that existed in French colonial and descendant communities.     

岭南文化对广东外省人群体影响之探讨

本文从文化地理学的角度,以文化问卷调查为基础,采用定量与定性分析相结合的方法,探讨了岭南文化对广东外省人群体的影响特征。笔者发现:岭南文化影响广东外省人群体的总体特征呈中间型,南方群体、男性群体比北方群体、女性群体易于接受岭南文化。并得出几点结论:在文化扩散的早期阶段,等势文化之间的影响排斥性较明显,表层文化相对于深层文化接受大于排斥,文化距离对深层文化的扩散起决定影响,经济条件对表层文化的传播起关键作用。     

Civilisation et Naissance de l’Histoire Mondiale Dans l’<Emphasis Type="Italic">Historie des Deux Indes</Emphasis> de Raynal

In the Histoire des deux Indes, the concept of civilization applies initially to the making of modern Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire, in which the commerce does much to promote the civil and political «enfranchisement» of the third-estate in sovereign states. For Raynal, this historical experience of Europeans serves as paradigm, based upon which he depreciates the civilization of the ancient empires of the two Indies, and also elaborates various political proposals for transformation, or even for abolition, of the European colonial empires. Thus, universalizing the political structure of modern Europe, and pursuing the realization of civil and political liberty in diverse modes, he announces the advent of historical and political space of the modern world, composed of nation-states against the background of the global commercial networks.     

英属北美殖民地法律的早期现代化

关于英属北美殖民地社会经济属何种性质的讨论,涉及到对当时法律制度的历史地位进行评价的问题,美国学术界在这些方面至今还存在很多争议。从美国学者的学术交锋来看,尽管英属北美殖民地是否已进入资本主义发展阶段仍有待商榷,但当时市场经济的扩张确实已达到了一定的程度,从而使殖民地的法律制度出现了早期现代化的趋势,主要表现为陪审团在民事审判中的初步式微、从事实性答辩向法律性答辩的转变、普通法令状制度的逐步健全、专业律师队伍的出现和仲裁的正规化或边缘化。因此,英属北美殖民地法律在美国法律史上占有重要地位,殖民地时期绝不是美国法律的“黑暗时代”,当然也不可和19世纪混为一谈。     

Evolving Ideas: J. B. d’Anville’s Maps of Southern Africa, 1725–1749

This article focuses on the changes made to the cartography of southern Africa between 1725 and 1749 by the French geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville. The maps in question were produced in collaboration with the Portuguese ambassador Dom Luís da Cunha as part of d’Anville’s plan to demonstrate what lay between the Portuguese colonies of Angola in the west and Mozambique in the east and to establish a link across the continent. The maps he produced in the first two phases of his mapping of southern Africa (1725–1731) echoed the traditional horror vacui. The vast blank that appeared on his map of Afrique of 1749, however, has to be seen as d’Anville intended—the integration of empty space on a map with Enlightenment rationalization of geography.     

The Geography of Crime and Punishment in the Russian Federation

A UK-based team of two geographers and a criminologist presents the results of its ongoing investigation of the geography of Russia's prison system, which in 2011 is in the early stages of transition from housing inmates in communal barracks (regardless of the severity of their crimes) to one more similar to that in the United States, in which facilities are differentiated to accommodate the entire spectrum of inmates from those housed in maximum security prisons (cellblocks) to minimum security institutions ("colony settlements"). The authors seek to determine whether a Soviet-era spatial bias in the location of facilities persists in presentday Russia by comparing the location of prisons across regions with the distribution of the country's population as well as the per capita incidence of recorded crimes and serious crimes.