scholarly journals Resource scarcity drives lethal aggression among prehistoric hunter-gatherers in central California

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (43) ◽  
pp. 12120-12125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark W. Allen ◽  
Robert Lawrence Bettinger ◽  
Brian F. Codding ◽  
Terry L. Jones ◽  
Al W. Schwitalla
Keyword(s):  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Sociopolitical Complexity ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Central California ◽  
Political Complexity ◽  
Sharp Force ◽  
Lethal Aggression

The origin of human violence and warfare is controversial, and some scholars contend that intergroup conflict was rare until the emergence of sedentary foraging and complex sociopolitical organization, whereas others assert that violence was common and of considerable antiquity among small-scale societies. Here we consider two alternative explanations for the evolution of human violence: (i) individuals resort to violence when benefits outweigh potential costs, which is likely in resource poor environments, or (ii) participation in violence increases when there is coercion from leaders in complex societies leading to group level benefits. To test these hypotheses, we evaluate the relative importance of resource scarcity vs. sociopolitical complexity by evaluating spatial variation in three macro datasets from central California: (i) an extensive bioarchaeological record dating from 1,530 to 230 cal BP recording rates of blunt and sharp force skeletal trauma on thousands of burials, (ii) quantitative scores of sociopolitical complexity recorded ethnographically, and (iii) mean net primary productivity (NPP) from a remotely sensed global dataset. Results reveal that sharp force trauma, the most common form of violence in the record, is better predicted by resource scarcity than relative sociopolitical complexity. Blunt force cranial trauma shows no correlation with NPP or political complexity and may reflect a different form of close contact violence. This study provides no support for the position that violence originated with the development of more complex hunter-gatherer adaptations in the fairly recent past. Instead, findings show that individuals are prone to violence in times and places of resource scarcity.

scholarly journals Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply

Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Latifah Abdul Ghani ◽  
Nora’aini Ali ◽  
Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran ◽  
Marlia M. Hanafiah
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
Seawater Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Desalination Technology ◽  
The Impact

Seawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant installed in Kampung Pantai Senok, Kelantan, as this plant was the first installed in Malaysia. The software SimaPro 8.5 together with the ReCiPe 2016 database were used as tools to evaluate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SWRO plant. The results showed that the impact of global warming (3.90 kg CO2 eq/year) was the highest, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.62 kg 1,4-DCB/year) and fossil resource scarcity (1.29 kg oil eq/year). The impact of global warming was caused by the natural gas used to generate the electricity, mainly during the RO process. Reducing the environmental impact can be effectively achieved by decreasing the electricity usage for the seawater desalination process. As a suggestion, electricity generation can be overcome by using a high-flux membrane with other suitable renewable energy for the plant such as solar and wind energy.

Diaspora and the Origins of the Syro-Anatolian Culture Complex

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-68
Author(s):  
James F. Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Paul Gilroy ◽  
Cultural Origins

This chapter proposes a model for how the Syro-Anatolian Culture Complex (SACC) arose during the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition at the end of the second millennium and start of the first millennium BCE. It presents SACC as a case study for diaspora studies in the tradition of Paul Gilroy and James Clifford. A series of demographic transformations took place at this time, including small-scale migrations from central Anatolia and the Aegean into southeastern Anatolia, as well as a ruralization of the local settlement patterns from previous major urban centers. Together, these transformations brought several different populations into close contact with one another, resulting in a diverse ethnolinguistic landscape reminiscent of certain contemporary situations of diaspora. It is precisely these mixed cultural origins that have led SACC to be so difficult for scholars to characterize, leading as it did to multiple affiliation groups sharing cultural and political traditions.

scholarly journals Interplay between structural change in Central Asian agriculture and institutional scarcity of land and water: evidence from Tajikistan

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Insa Theesfeld ◽  
Frederike Klümper
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Institutional Relations ◽  
Access Rights ◽  
Third Dimension

Abstract:This contribution focuses on the interaction between structural change in agriculture and the availability of key natural resources – land and water. The relationship is not unidimensional; therefore, we propose three dimensions of resource-induced structural change. The first dimension describes the links between the two critical input factors into agricultural production, namely land and water. To systematize this perspective, we use the concept of linking patterns that depict direct and indirect intersectoral linkages from a property rights perspective. Second, we examinee the dimension of how structural change in agriculture can be triggered by scarcity of natural resources. The third dimension describes structural change that may lead to overuse and scarcity. In this regard, we introduce resource scarcity not only as physical but most important as institutional scarcity. To illustrate these dimensions, we have chosen a case in Central Asia, where the availability and the control of access and withdrawal rights to land and water is of utmost importance for the agricultural sector. Tajikistan faces physical and institutional scarcity in arable land. The institutional scarcity is due to the non-transparent and costly processes that need to be followed to gain land rights. Likewise there is sufficient supply in water, in Tajikistan, but the de-facto access rights to water are limited for some groups. For instance, the post-socialist irrigation infrastructure is now inappropriate to serve all small-scale users on a canal. In the future, land use change due to a predicted increase of major investors, will have additional impact on the de-facto water rights. We conclude that a solid study not only on the physical but also on the institutional relations of agriculture to natural resources is important to come to reliable predictions of structural change in agriculture. We also show that structural change in agriculture may have wider implications for rural society that go beyond the agricultural sector.

scholarly journals Recintos fortificados en época visigoda: historia, arquitectura y técnica constructiva (PROVA)

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Political Complexity ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The One ◽  
Urban Sites

Desde el año 2016, el Ayuntamiento de Riba-roja de Túria y el Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC) desarrollan en el término municipal de dicha localidad un ambicioso proyecto de estudio de la Antigüedad Tardía y Visigoda. Este volumen pretende aportar nuevos datos al conocimiento histórico y técnico de las fortificaciones de las nuevas «ciudades» en los albores de la Edad Media. Con ello las instituciones promotoras del actual proyecto de investigación manifiestan su interés por la generación y la difusión del conocimiento del patrimonio visigodo de Riba-roja de Túria. En el periodo examinado, el medio milenio 400-900, Hispania, antigua provincia del Imperio romano occidental, se convirtió en al-Ándalus. Entre medio, entre la urbs y la medina, entre la villa y la alquería, los asentamientos fueron cambiando. Sin embargo, los datos históricos son escasos y predominan los episodios bélicos y de alta política. Además, hasta hace poco, la arqueología no ha sido muy explícita, por escasa y discontinua, excepto en algunos yacimientos. El gran recinto fortificado de València la Vella. Es un nuevo asentamiento fortificado de casi 5 hectáreas sobre un promontorio elevado sobre el río Turia y fundamental para reconstruir la historia del territorio valenciano entre los siglos VI y VIII. Los nuevos datos señalan un urbanismo monumental y planificado, más allá de un simple castrum o castellum con meras funciones defensivas. Los capítulos de esta publicación recorren los 500 años que van del 400 al 900, cuando surgieron nuevos asentamientos fortificados. The result is the thirteen contributions that make up this book, one of which is a theoretical reflection written by the editors on the concept of the city, while the rest focus on territories, sites or specific questions. The reader will find in this volume a compendium of research relating to the formation and development of cities in Iberia and south-eastern Gaul. From the mid-first millennium BC, the peoples living in this area of the western Mediterranean developed settlement patterns based on the existence of urban sites, that probably emerged in response to population growth, technological development and increasing social complexity. However, there are considerable regional differences with regard to the chronology of these processes, as well as the nature of the emerging settlement patterns, including the size and shape of the urban sites. In some regions, the urban phenomenon appeared very late and was clearly less developed. This indicates the existence of a variety of forms of sociopolitical organization and particular historical processes within the general demographic increase and growing social and political complexity in the study area during the Iron Age. The aim of the articles selected for inclusion in this volume is to reflect this dichotomy: on the one hand, the generalization of the urban phenomenon and, on the other, the different solutions that arose in particular regional contexts.

scholarly journals The social networks and structural variation of Mississippian sociopolitics in the southeastern United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (14) ◽  
pp. 6707-6712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Lulewicz
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Relational Structures ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Southern Appalachian ◽  
Political Landscapes

Network approaches in archaeology offer a promising avenue for facilitating bottom-up, comparative approaches to sociopolitical organization. While recent applications have focused primarily on migration and demographic trends, identity and identity politics, and the dynamics of geopolitical and regional interaction, little in the way of comparative sociopolitical organization has been attempted. In this study, I present an alternative approach to the use of sociotypological models across southern Appalachia. In particular, I demonstrate the value in employing network analyses as a mode of formally and quantitatively comparing the relational structures and organizations of sociopolitical landscapes; in this case, those traditionally characterized as constellations of chiefdoms. By approaching southern Appalachian histories through the relationships upon which social, political, and economic institutions were actually built, I move the study of southeastern political systems beyond the use of models that emphasize the behaviors of elites and the ruling class as inspired by the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records. To these ends, using a robust regional ceramic dataset, I compare network histories and political landscapes for the southern Appalachian region between ca. AD 800 and 1650. The results of these analyses contribute insights to the study of small-scale political organizations by demonstrating that (i) as chiefdoms developed, leaders drew on preexisting social and political conditions; (ii) while networks of chiefly interaction were defined by instability, wider networks of interaction were much more durable; and (iii) quantitative network analyses and qualitative ethnohistoric accounts can articulate with one another to shed light on indigenous political organization.

scholarly journals The up-scaling of ecosystem functions in a heterogeneous world

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Lohrer ◽  
Simon F. Thrush ◽  
Judi E. Hewitt ◽  
Casper Kraan
Keyword(s):  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Marine Habitats

Abstract Earth is in the midst of a biodiversity crisis that is impacting the functioning of ecosystems and the delivery of valued goods and services. However, the implications of large scale species losses are often inferred from small scale ecosystem functioning experiments with little knowledge of how the dominant drivers of functioning shift across scales. Here, by integrating observational and manipulative experimental field data, we reveal scale-dependent influences on primary productivity in shallow marine habitats, thus demonstrating the scalability of complex ecological relationships contributing to coastal marine ecosystem functioning. Positive effects of key consumers (burrowing urchins, Echinocardium cordatum) on seafloor net primary productivity (NPP) elucidated by short-term, single-site experiments persisted across multiple sites and years. Additional experimentation illustrated how these effects amplified over time, resulting in greater primary producer biomass (sediment chlorophyll a content) in the longer term, depending on climatic context and habitat factors affecting the strengths of mutually reinforcing feedbacks. The remarkable coherence of results from small and large scales is evidence of real-world ecosystem function scalability and ecological self-organisation. This discovery provides greater insights into the range of responses to broad-scale anthropogenic stressors in naturally heterogeneous environmental settings.

scholarly journals PARTICIPATORY ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT IN NYANGATOM DISTRICT OF SOUTH OMO ZONE, SOUTH ETHIOPIA

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
Asmelash Tesfaye ◽  
Ermiyas Mekonnen ◽  
Mekete Girma ◽  
Tekleyohannes Birhanu ◽  
Wondwesen Shiferaw
Keyword(s):  
Resource Utilization ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Pasture Management ◽  
Livestock Products

The aim of the study was to identify potential constraints to mutual resource utilization in the bordering areas of Nyangatom and to identify and develop participatory mitigation measures to resource utilization problems based on community and government proposals. The study employed Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) to collect the primary data. 1 FGD and 2-3 FGDs were held in each kebele. Livestock production is the major source of livelihood followed by crop production in the district. Bee keeping, fishery and gathering of forest products are the supplementary activities performed by the community. Sell of livestock and livestock products, honey and crop in times of surplus production are the major sources of income and they spend it to fulfill their food demand, medication and purchase of clothing’s. Most of the communities in Nyangatom are food insecure. Drought, conflict, diseases and invasive species are the main hazards to the environment in the area whereas resource scarcity and sense of ownership are among the reasons that prohibit mutual resource utilization. Area enclosures allied with plantation of grasses, Rehabilitation of the depleted grazing lands and introduction of improved pasture management, Maintenance, rehabilitation and construction of water infrastructure, Expanding small scale irrigation, Ensuring security and Countering prosopisjuliflora were the mitigation measures suggested by the community.

Climate Land Energy Water nexus models reviewed across scales: progress, gaps and best accessibility practices

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Vinca ◽  
Keywan Riahi ◽  
Andrew Rowe ◽  
Ned Djilali
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals

<p>Approaches that integrate feedbacks between climate, land, energy and water (CLEW) have increasingly advanced and have become more complex. Such so called nexus approaches have already been useful in quantitatively assessing strategies under resource scarcity, planning infrastructure for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals or assessing cross-sectoral climate change impacts. However, most of the models and frameworks do often miss some important inter-linkages that could actually be addressed by using newest models. The reason for such negligence is often technical and practical, as many of the newly developed and open-source frameworks are not yet widespread. We review and present these models so that decision maker needing tools for analysis could identify what is best for their needs. Particular attention is given to model usability, accessibility, longevity and community support. At the same time we discuss research gaps, and room for improvement for next development of the models from a scientific point of view. We explore at different scales where and why some nexus interaction are most relevant. We find that both very small scale and global model tend to neglect some CLEW interaction, but for different reasons. The first rarely include climate impacts, which are often marginal at local level. While the latter mostly lack pieces because of the complexity of large full CLEW system at the global level.</p>

scholarly journals The Drivers of Maize Area Expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa. How Policies to Boost Maize Production Overlook the Interests of Smallholder Farmers

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romy Santpoort
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
To Come ◽  
Global Statistics ◽  
Area Expansion

Maize has become the second most produced crop in the world. Specifically, in sub-Saharan Africa, global statistics show that more and more land is being used for (small-scale) maize production to meet future food demands. From 2007 to 2017, the area on which maize is grown in sub-Saharan Africa has increased by almost 60%. This rate of expansion is considered unsustainable and is expected to come at the expense of crop diversity and the environment. Based on available literature, this paper explores the political and economic processes that contributed to the increased use of land for maize production in sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses population growth as an important driver. Moreover, it unravels some of the politics and narratives triggered by climate change that have paved the way for policy measures that aimed to boost maize production in the region. These measures, which often emphasize the need for increased production, the need for new technologies and resource scarcity, overlook the largest group of maize producers that are least powerful, but most crucial for food security in sub-Saharan Africa: smallholder farmers.

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