The Beasts At Large – Perennial Questions and New Paradigms for Caribbean Translocation Research. Part II: Mammalian Introductions in Cultural Context

Looking to clarify outstanding questions about human-animal dynamics in the pre-Columbian Caribbean, archaeologists have recently renewed investigation into the sociocultural context of mammal translocations to the islands. In this second instalment of a three-article series, I examine Amerindian ethnophoresy, that is, the process of anthropogenic species dispersal and its associated cultural practices, drawing on archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric evidence. Building on the ethnozoogeographic baselines established in Part I, I consider the tangible and intangible roles of introduced mammals, with particular attention given to subsistence, status, symbolic and ritual dimensions. I discuss enduring speculation over the management and incipient domestication of these species and its broader significance. Collectively, these topics are important because they inform explanation of the cause, extent and consequences of non-native animal introductions and allow us to understand translocation as an adaptive response to the natural and cultural environment. I conclude that resolution of the managed/domesticated status of non-native animals, in particular, constitutes the most critical research area in Caribbean ethnophoresy since this bears directly on the environmental impact and ecological legacy of mammal introductions in the region. This last topic is addressed in Part III of the series.     

Of mice and sparrows: Commensal faunas from the Iberian iron age in the duero valley (central spain)

This paper aims to emphasize the importance of imported commensal faunas in archaeological contexts by reporting on the earliest known house sparrows and house mice from the Iberian peninsula. The finds, which date to the Iron Age of a hinterland area of the peninsula, have been identified on the basis of osteomorphological and osteometrical criteria, which are specified in the text in order to demonstrate the reliability of the identification. The temporal and geographical coincidence of these remains in the two sites analysed with those of donkey and, secondarily, chicken remains and faunal remains of littoral origin, lends support to the hypothesis that these animals arrived with the earliest trans-Mediterranean colonizers to the southern shores of the Iberian peninsula and spread involuntarily thereafter as ‘side-products’ of the Phoenician commercial routes throughout the Iberian hinterland.     

生态旅游可持续发展四维目标模式探析

本文从理论上探索了生态旅游可持续发展目标的系列问题,基于"生态旅游四体系统"理论,构建了理想的"生态旅游可持续发展四维目标模式",论述了生态旅游可持续发展的"静态模式"和"动态模式",实现生态旅游可持续发展的动力源于生态旅游的多主体受益者。根据生态旅游可持续发展目标内涵的多维性、状态的差异性、受益者的多主体性的特点,应用生态学的"共生理论",得出了生态旅游可持续发展目标实现的最佳途径是其多目标、多受益主体的和谐共生的最终结论。