Interpretive field geomorphology as cognitive,social, embodied and affective epistemic practice

This article examines the epistemic practices of interpretive field geomorphology—that is, the in-the-moment act of “seeing the landscape” geomorphologically. Drawing on the philosophical works of Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty, it aims to bring to light the complex, multi-dimensional, knowledge-producing process of field observation and interpretation. Methodologically the study is based on geomorphologists' accounts of their fieldwork, gathered through questionnaire and interviews. By paying attention to what geomorphologists say they are doing in the field, interpretive field geomorphology is articulated as a combined cognitive, social, embodied, and affective experience through which understanding is arrived at. The paper thus sheds light on one part of what Brierley et al. call “the dark art” of geomorphological interpretation, and draws out implications in terms of researcher positionality, researcher training, and offering an epistemic justification for field-based pedagogies.     

New technologies and the political economy of geomorphology

New technologies enable high‐resolution monitoring techniques and the generation of big data and have been heralded as increasing the depth of our understanding of geomorphic phenomena. These technologies, however, also provide us with a convenient entry point into the increasingly constraining political economy of geomorphology. Building on the work of Stuart Lane and of critical physical geographers, this paper traces and examines the multiple roles that new technologies have played in constraining research questions and directing resources. Using the activity sphere framework outlined by David Harvey, the influence of new technologies can be traced around the spheres and their constraining of existing relations within academia and explanation identified.     

Forbidden Images: Rock Paintings and the Nyau Secret Society of Central Malaŵi and Eastern Zambia

This paper examines the rock art of the nyau secret society of eastern Zambia and central Malai. The art dates principally from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has been known to researchers since the 1970s but has given up few of its secrets. I examine the questions of why the art was made and why the tradition ceased. Key to answering these is the realization that the art belonged to a specific historical and geographic context: the era and area where nyau was forced to become an underground movement because of its suppression by Ngoni invaders, missions, and the later colonial government. The art provides us with detailed insights into the way nyau has served in the process of overcoming and manipulating the traumatic social changes faced by Chea society in the last few centuries.Cet article examine l'art rupestre de la société secrète de nyau au est du Zambia et Malai centrale. L'art date principalement aux dix-neuvième et bas vingtième siècles. Recherchers ont su l'art depuis les années soixante-dix, mais ils ont appris peu de ses secrets. J'examine les questions de pourquoi l'art était fabriquer et pourquoi la tradition a cessé. Pour résoudre ces questions c'est important à réaliser que l'art était à sa place dans un milieu spécifique d'histoire et géographie: au temps et place où nyau était forcer à devenir un mouvement clandestin à cause de sa répression par les envahisseurs Ngoni, les missions et, plus tard, le gouvernement colonial. L'art nous donne les aperçus détaillé sur comment nyau a servi dans le procès à surmonter et manipuler les changements traumatiques que la société Chea a bravé dans les siècles récents.     

也说师■鼎铭的“困(韋東)伯太师武”

师■鼎铭"困伯太师武"一句的"困(韋東)"二字,原文写法非常奇怪。裘锡圭先生释为"東(韋東)",读为"范围",认为是遵循、效法之意。本文同意把后一字释为"(韋東)",但把前一字改释为"困"。"困(韋東)"也是遵循、效法的意思。     

Une méthode illustrée pour la sectorisation morphodynamique de la rivière Neigette (Québec)

An illustrated methodology for the morphodynamic sectoring of the Neigette River (Québec) Fluvial hydrogeomorphology is little recognized in policy management and planning in Québec. A better understanding would result in more enlightened planning for waterways. The deficiency could result from the fact that too few methodologies have been developed that take account of the particular nature of Québec rivers. This study tests the applicability of a methodology of dividing rivers into homogeneous morphodynamic units. This compartmentalization results from the analysis of longitudinal changes in stream power, sedimentary composition of the banks, channel entrenchment, and planform geometry. The method is tested on a section of the Neigette River, which encompasses a wide variety of forms and processes frequently found in Québec rivers. Results suggest the presence of three morphodynamic sections: wandering with multiple channels, dynamic meandering and stable meandering. The method provides an effective basis for discriminating between these morphodynamic environments and their respective limits. Stream power is the variable with the greatest discriminating capacity. The efficacy of the approach, the ease of its application, and its flexibility make this a valuable tool for the management of fluvial environments.     

Changing views in Canadian geomorphology: are we seeing the landscape for the processes?

Geomorphology in Canada, as elsewhere, has evolved into an essentially bipartite discipline focusing either on ‘process’ or broader ‘historical’ (Quaternary) landscape interpretation. A growing emphasis on process‐oriented research that relies increasingly on instrumentation and computational technologies has occurred. Critics of such research note limited applicability for landscape evolution, fashionability of methods and limited societal relevance. Indeed, some say we are not seeing the landscape for the processes. This article discusses the changing nature of geomorphology since the Quantitative Revolution of the 1950s including new advances, recent trends and challenges. Publication trends and recent advances suggest that the discipline is very healthy (following a slump in the early 1990s) and continues to evolve, which may reflect increasing research infrastructure and/or funding opportunities and new publications spotlighting Canadian research. Unfortunately, fundamental (less applied) research is threatened by funding program shifts, changing institutional pressures and a decline in research capacity from retirement attrition, and student recruitment challenges. Three research priorities are recommended: (1) continued fundamental research, (2) more integrated modelling to link micro scale processes to macro scale landform behaviour and (3) improvements in profiling our discipline amongst students and related professionals.     

废甲编区:清初衡山县里甲赋役改革与基层区划的重塑

清初,迭遭兵燹的湖南地区经历了兴垦、均编粮里、清丈等重建赋役秩序的过程。其中,衡山县于康熙四十三年实施的"废甲编区"更是呈现出清初里甲赋役改革的丰富面相。因应偏沅巡抚赵申乔革除里排、滚单催征的举措,衡山县打破原有里甲规制的束缚,改革中坚持粮不过区、就地编区的原则,孕育了字区的地缘性色彩,重塑十七字四百三十七区的赋役区划体系。以康熙五十三年新一轮的清丈为契机,知县葛亮臣在业已建立的区划结构内清查荒籍,使字区成为地方重要的赋役征派和土地登记单位。在这一区域变迁的历史过程中,字区的行政区划功能逐渐得到强化和延续,以赋役征派为目的建立起来的基层赋役区划向实体化与政区化迈进,与之相应的行政话语也深刻地影响着民间契约文本的表达。     

A Hierarchy of Geographies: A Skinnerian Model of Indochina’s Overseas Chinese Congrégations and Their Influence on French Colonialism

In Indochina, overseas Chinese were organized by dialect group into associations called congregations, which shared many of the functions of huiguan in China. The spread of overseas Chinese economic and social networks followed a Skinnerian model in which large urban con?régations wielded more political and economic authority than did smaller, rural con?régations. By examining the impacts of French colonialism upon overseas Chinese networks within Indochina and upon overseas connections with their Chinese native places, this paper proposes that the Skinnerian model of local-system hierarchy fits quite comfortably when applied to the world of French colonial Indochina and its overseas Chinese. Furthermore, it argues that French colonialism actually reinforced the Skinnerian hierarchy of politics and markets in ways that endured long after the collapse of Imperial China.     

The Disappearing State and the Quasi‐Event of Immigration Control

Immigration enforcement by sheriffs and police can be characterized as a proliferation of quasi‐events which never quite rise to the status of an event. This poses distinct challenges for feminist‐inspired scholarship on the state which seeks to document, ethnographically, how the state goes about its business on the ground. In this article we draw on our fieldwork experience in North Carolina and Georgia on sheriffs’ and police departments’ use of traffic enforcement and policing roadblocks to scrutinize drivers for their legal status, and ask how our ethnographic approach to the problem of state power inevitably stumbles in relation to the ordinariness of these practices. We conclude that feminist scholarship committed to an ethnography of the state could do much more to think through the potentially aporetic quality of that which is our common object of research—the state in practice.