bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Housing: Planning and Policy Challenges
Authors: Bates Lisa K.
Published: February 2013

This article examines the urban-planning and policy challenges by urban housing. It identifies what the field of planning could offer in terms of a more effective state role in the housing market and describes four functions of planning in the housing market. These include market shaping through plans that communicate information about future development, regulation of land-use and environmental controls, and stimulation of development activity with subsidies and incentives. The article also discusses a strategic planning framework for housing, and the social and political consequences of housing policies.
The Public Finance of Urban Form
Authors: Carruthers John I.
Published: February 2013

This article provides an overview of what is known about the relationship between urban form and public finance. It reviews previous research in a way that integrates work from fields as disparate as public economics and urban design into a cohesive whole, and explains how to adapt traditional models of public finance to incorporate land use, and the kind of strategic interaction which local governments regularly engage in when making both spending and regulatory decisions. The article also describes a behavioral model of public finance.
Gender, Cities, and Planning
Authors: Parker Brenda
Published: February 2013

This article reviews some of the historical contributions of feminist urban scholarship. It identifies three areas for elaborated and intertwined research and improved planning, including gender and urban politics, and planning processes, gender and the home/housing, and gender and health. The article suggests that the contributions of feminist material analyses of urban politics and planning, home and housing, and health not only made gender and urban inequalities visible, but also helped us to better comprehend and transform cities.
Frontiers in Land Use and Travel Research
Authors: Boarnet Marlon G.
Published: February 2013

This article examines research concerning land use and travel behavior in relation to urban planning. It summarizes the standard approach to studying land use and travel behavior, and identifies the key issues that should be the focus of planning research going forward. The analysis reveals that the literature on land use and travel behavior has so far focused almost exclusively on hypothesis tests regarding the association between the built environment and travel, and on the magnitude of the associations.
The Civics of Urban Planning
Authors: Sirianni Carmen , Girourd Jennifer
Published: February 2013

This article examines the major changes in public participation in urban planning in the United States at various points over the past half-century to track, analyses some of the core tools and practices, and highlights the persistent challenges in developing appropriately robust systems for engaging active publics in urban planning. The analysis reveals that while civic engagement in urban planning has generally been extended and enriched in the decades since the 1960s, cities vary considerably in how they incorporate civic engagement into planning processes.
The Neolithic in Southeastern Anatolia
Authors: Rosenberg Michael , Erim-Özdoğan Aslı
Published: February 2013

This article presents data on Neolithic sites in southeastern Anatolia, where, as elsewhere in southwestern Asia, the changes attendant on the Neolithic, while revolutionary in their consequences for the evolution of human cultural and social systems, were gradual. In the Early Aceramic we see the development of sedentary communities based on important economic changes, but ones that still retain major elements of the earlier hunter-gatherer, egalitarian social system. However, those elements are now buttressed with institutions (e.g., general-purpose public buildings, feasting) that permit the now somewhat larger communities to remain intact on a long-term basis and to act as a whole. In the Mature Aceramic (MA), we see some of those same institutions (public buildings and spaces) evolving to (of necessity) more strongly promote group identity at the community level in the still-larger communities that characterize the MA. Beginning in the MA III and continuing through the early part of the Pottery Neolithic, we see the gradual disintegration of the Aceramic Neolithic lifeway and its replacement by one that is quite different, wherein kinship appears to play a larger, more formal role. These social changes are intertwined with important economic changes (the development of the full southwestern Asia domesticate complex) and technological changes (the widespread adoption of ceramic technology), but the specifics of how they are related remains an open question.
The Iron Age in Eastern Anatolia
Authors: Khatchadourian Lori
Published: February 2013

This article presents data on the Iron Age of eastern Anatolia. The roughly 900 years embraced by the Iron Age marked a period of radical political transformations shaped first and foremost by the rise and fall of empires. How Urartu emerged in the ninth century BCE is a question whose answer lies most immediately in the opening centuries of the Iron Age. Currently, the very roughest outlines of two different scenarios exist. In the western Armenian plateau, relatively flat settlement hierarchies (compared to the preceding Late Bronze Age) and undifferentiated built spaces in what appear to be village-like constructions at key sites in the Euphrates basin provide few clues for precursors to the kinds of consolidated political institutions that came to reproduce Urartian hegemony. At the other end of the highlands, however, especially in southern Caucasia but perhaps also further west, a political tradition characterized by imposing fortresses continued from the Late Bronze Age, potentially signaling the earliest foundations of Urartu's archipelagic fortress polity. These scenarios invite a two-pronged inquiry into the Iron 1 period focused both on the production of power and authority by an emergent political élite, perched within the stone citadels of the highland mountains, and on the constitution of social difference through routine practices among the region's subject communities.
Göbekli Tepe: A Neolithic Site in Southeastern Anatolia
Authors: Schmidt Klaus
Published: February 2013

This article discusses findings from excavations at Göbekli Tepe. Though only partially excavated, it has become increasingly obvious that these findings may contribute significantly to our understanding of the transition from a subsistence pattern based exclusively on hunting and foraging at the end of the Pleistocene to the appearance of agriculture and animal husbandry in the course of the early Holocene. Göbekli Tepe is unique not only in its location on top of a hill and in its monumental architecture, but also its diverse set of objects of art, ranging from small stone figurines, through sculptures and statues of animals, to decorated megaliths, all of which set it apart. The most characteristic feature of the monuments of Göbekli Tepe are the monumental T-shaped pillars. These are arranged in round or oval enclosures, always with a pair of free-standing pillars in the center. It is highly probable that the T-shaped pillars are meant to represent anthropomorphic beings.
Çatalhöyük: A Prehistoric Settlement on the Konya Plain
Authors: Hodder Ian
Published: February 2013

This article discusses findings from excavations at Çatalhöyük. There is limited evidence for specialized and differentiated economic, political, and social functions at Çatalhöyük. Rather, the effect of a “town” (a large agglomeration of people living packed against each other) is produced by the repetition of social behavior within houses. Daily acts were heavily routinized and reconfirmed the social order. People were brought up within daily routines through which they learned the roles and rules of society. In addition, these rules and conventions were set within an elaborate symbolic system that centered around wild animals and the ancestors buried beneath the floors.
Kaman-kalehöyük Excavations in Central Anatolia
Authors: Omura Sachihiro
Published: February 2013

This article discusses findings from excavations at Kaman–Kalehöyük. Between 1986 and 2009, four main strata were identified in the North Trench: Stratum I, the Ottoman Period, fifteenth to seventeenth centuries CE; Stratum II, the Iron Age, twelfth to fourth centuries BCE; Stratum III, Middle–Late Bronze Ages, twentieth to twelfth centuries BCE; and Stratum IV, the Early Bronze Age, twenty-third to twentieth centuries BCE. The article mainly reports on architectural discoveries.
Sardis: A First Millennium B.C.E. Capital in Western Anatolia
Authors: Greenewalt Crawford H.
Published: February 2013

This article discusses findings from excavations at Sardis. Settlement at Sardis has existed for three-and-a-half millennia, from ca. 1500 BCE to the present; it may have existed even earlier, in the third millennium BCE (perhaps even before that). During its long existence, the settlement hosted many cultures: western Anatolian, Lydian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Turkish. Contemporaneous cultures typically merged (e.g., Anatolian and Greek, Byzantine and Turkish), and earlier cultural traditions affected later ones. In the first half of the first millennium BCE, Sardis was the capital of an independent state created by the Lydians, a western Anatolian people who inhabited valleys of the Hermus, Kayster, and Maeander Rivers and adjacent highlands and mountains, and who had distinctive cultural traditions; the Lydian language, an Anatolian sub-branch of Indo-European, is known from a relatively small number of alphabetic texts. The nature and extent of settlement has fluctuated between the extremes of a large prosperous city and a modest hamlet or group of hamlets, sometimes coexisting with transhumant populations. From the seventh century BCE to the seventh century CE, Sardis was a large city of major political and cultural importance, occupying at maximum extent an estimated 200 ha of land.
Phenomenology and Characteristics of Compulsive Hoarding
Authors: Frost Randy O. , Rasmussen Jessica L.
Published: February 2013

This chapter discusses current understanding of the phenomenology and characteristics of compulsive hoarding. The disorder is conceptualized within a cognitive-behavioral framework that includes excessive acquisition, difficulties with discarding, and clutter/disorganization. Information-processing deficits, emotional attachments, beliefs about possessions, and perfectionism are examined as underlying etiological factors. Characteristics of the disorder such as prevalence, onset and course, demographics and comorbidity are discussed. It is suggested that the distinctive features of compulsive hoarding, including unique neural and genetic substrates, warrant diagnostic classification as a separate disorder. Methodological problems with existing research are identified.
Personality Features of OCD and Spectrum Conditions
Authors: Pinto Anthony , Eisen Jane L.
Published: February 2013

This chapter reviews personality features (comorbid personality disorders, trait dimensions, and related constructs) in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and hypothesized obsessive compulsive spectrum conditions (body dysmorphic disorder, compulsive hoarding, tic disorders, and impulse control disorders). For each disorder, there is a discussion of the impact of personality features on clinical course, including the development and maintenance of symptoms, and treatment outcome. The chapter also includes a review of the longstanding, yet often misunderstood, relationship between OCD and obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). Understanding the role of personality variables in the psychopathology of OCD and related conditions has important etiological, clinical, and theoretical implications for the study of these disorders.
Psychological Models of Obsessive Compulsive and Spectrum Disorders
Authors: Cassin Stephanie E. , Rector Neil A.
Published: February 2013

The current chapter provides an overview of psychoanalytic and behavioral theories of obsessive compulsive disorder and related conditions (i.e., hoarding, hypochondriasis, body dysmorphic disorder, trichotillomania, and tic disorders), and reviews the empirical support for these psychological theories. While Freud correctly ascribed compulsive rituals to an anxiety-reducing role, the more fundamental tenets of his drive model of obsessional development, and the subsequent focus on the role of defense mechanisms, have remained largely untested. In contrast, behavioral theories of obsessive compulsive and spectrum disorders revolutionized the psychological conceptualization and treatment of these disorders, and there is strong evidence accumulated over the past 40 years demonstrating the seminal role of operant conditioning processes in the maintenance of obsessive compulsive and related spectrum disorders. The evidence supporting the role of classical conditioning in symptom development is less clear; however, learning theory has contributed a partial understanding of the etiology of these conditions.
Cognitive Approaches to Understanding Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders
Authors: Taylor Steven , Abramowitz Jonathan S. , McKay Dean , Cuttler Carrie
Published: February 2013

This chapter focuses on cognitive models of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders. It begins with a historical perspective, in which the antecedents of cognitive models are described. Contemporary cognitive models are then reviewed, predictions derived from the models are identified, and empirical evidence for these predictions is summarized. This is followed by a review of cognitive models of four OC-related disorders: hoarding, hypochondriasis, body dysmorphic disorder, and trichotillomania. Finally, the conceptual problems with cognitive models of OCD and related disorders are identified, suggestions for improvements to the models are made, and potentially fruitful directions for future research are proposed.
Additive and Alternative Approaches to Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Authors: Muroff Jordana , Ross Abigail , Rothfarb Joseph
Published: February 2013

While cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy are “gold standard” treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), complementary and alternative treatments are frequently sought for anxiety disorders. The purpose of this chapter is to review and discuss the available research on the application, efficacy and effectiveness of complementary and alternative methods for treating OCD. The first section identifies and reviews studies focusing on specific alternative and complementary treatments that are independent from, or work in conjunction with CBT, such as yoga, herbal remedies, motivational strategies, and bibliotherapy. The second section discusses alternative and complementary methods of more mainstream CBT and related techniques, with a particular focus on technology-supported approaches. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the methodological issues in the existing research on complementary and alternative methods in the treatment of OCD, questions for future research, and implications for providers.
Transportation Policy: Public Transit, Settlement Patterns, and Equity in the United States
Authors: Giuliano Genevieve
Published: February 2013

Public transit policy is based on two objectives: to provide basic mobility for the transportation of disadvantaged, and to serve broader social and environmental goals by reducing car use in metropolitan areas of the United States. Planners, policy makers, and environmental advocates view better public transit as a means to achieve urban planning objectives. This article discusses the outcomes of the past four decades of transit policy. It begins with presenting a short history of transit policy to reveal the evolution of public transit's objectives. It then explores two areas of transit outcomes: impacts on low-income households and impacts on metropolitan spatial structure. Furthermore, it reveals how transit's dependence on public support creates barriers to achieving its societal goals. Finally, the article presents suggestions for designing more effective transit policies. Transit is critical to the economic well being of the cities, it is therefore important that public support for transit continues.
Housing Informality: An Economist's Perspective on Urban Planning
Authors: Smolka Martim O. , Biderman Ciro
Published: February 2013

Informal settlements exist with formal settlements and are structurally interdependent with them. Housing informality also emerges as a consequence of certain institutional and other constraints on the urban land market. This article elaborates on these complex interdependencies and sheds light on potential policy options to mitigate informality itself to provide a new framework for dialogue between urban planners and economists in Third World cities. It begins with a review of the multiple forms that informality takes and the problems it poses to individuals and society. It then describes how urban economic theory has dealt with the issue, highlighting the failure of conventional models. Following this, it describes the rational housing choices of low income households and how current policies intended to remedy the results of these decisions instead aggravate informality. Finally, the article offers some new ways to apply conventional land policy instruments to achieve this goal.
Knowing Your Audience
Authors: Chapman Jennifer
Published: February 2013

The article investigates the shared history and contemporary practices of community and high school musical theater in the United States, through which each has established a unique relationship to its audience. One of the sources of the documenting practice is the American Association of Community Theaters (AACT), with its umbrella organization, Theater USA that collected documented histories of community theaters in the United States, including play and musical production since 1919. The resulting publication, Millennium Theatres: Discovering Community Theater's Future by Exploring Its Past includes theater members' personal memories, records of ticket sales, stories or descriptions of restructuring of the theaters to meet economic or community needs. Another resource for documenting practice is Dramatics magazine that is published by the International Thespian Society (ITS) and the Educational Theater Association (EdTA), Dramatics, targeting high school students and their teachers, compiles from member schools a “most produced play and musical” list annually. Dramatics represents schools that have made a commitment to including theater in their curricula or after-school activities. The national thespian society is currently known as the International Thespian Society, and its publication for members, Dramatics, is distributed to about 42,000 individuals, 80 percent of whom are high school students. The popularity of certain shows, as documented by the AACT, Theater USA, and the Educational Theater Association, has created a de facto canon for musicals in community and high school theater, which in turn reveals some expectations that audiences have of each form.
Competing Leagues, Mergers, and Expansions
Authors: Fenn Aju J.
Published: February 2013

This chapter outlines the relevant economic literature pertaining to the birth and evolution of football as a sport in the United States, and also reviews the game from its birth until the formation of the National Football League (NFL). Next, it briefly deals with some of the themes regarding football that have been explored in the rest of the literature. The classification of the literature on the NFL includes: the creation of NFL institutions that have led to increased competitive balance; the impact of race on players' and coaches' success in the NFL; betting on NFL games; issues of market power and profitability; and the cost-benefit analysis of hosting an NFL team. The United Football League has quietly entered markets where the NFL does not have a presence. It started play in 2007 and may gain market share if the NFL locks its players out for the 2011–2012 season.
Location, Location, Location?
Authors: Einolf Karl W.
Published: February 2013

This article explores the location of franchises in sports leagues. It specifically examines the location of franchises within the four major sports leagues in the continental United States: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Moreover, a facility location model is used to investigate the optimal placement of sports franchises in a league and to identify the best expansion prospects for a sports league. It is shown that the p-median model's optimal solution is less likely to be the best option for an organization if its facilities are less dependent on the income available at a node on the network. It is noted that the four major sports leagues in the continental United States do not all locate franchises optimally, according to the model.
Behavioral Biases and Sportsbook Pricing in Major League Baseball
Authors: Paul Rodney J. , Weinbach Andrew P.
Published: February 2013

This article discusses the literature that uses sports gambling markets as an analogy to financial markets. It also expands the study of actual sportsbook behavior, comparing the traditional models to the Levitt hypothesis and considering alternative theories, by examining the betting market for Major League Baseball (MLB). The reverse favorite-longshot bias and home/road biases are then explored. It appears that bettors prefer road favorites by a large margin, but this is not captured by the sportsbook odds, which, likely not coincidentally, tend to map closer to actual favorite win percentages. There are no statistically significant returns to betting against the public. The findings that sportsbooks do not set prices to balance the book calls into question the source of some of the earlier findings of market efficiency in sports wagering markets and its underlying support for the forecasting power of prediction markets.
The Economics of Crime Reconsidered
Authors: McGarrity Joseph P.
Published: February 2013

This article uses data on hit batsmen from Major League Baseball to illustrate a mixed-strategy, game theoretic approach to the decisions of the pitcher and the batter. The pitcher would like to throw to a batter who stands in the middle of the batter's box. The game theoretic model predicts that the pitcher will throw at fewer batters as velocity increases, while the standard crime model would assume that the pitcher's throw-ats would remain unchanged and the batter would respond by leaning in less often. The Total Effect curves suggest that there will be more throw-ats in the American League for any level of velocity. The number of purposeful inside pitches will decrease at an increasing rate as velocity increases. The game theoretic model predicts that a pitcher who can throw with greater velocity will have to waste fewer inside pitches to keep a batter from leaning into a pitch.
Contest Theory and its Applications in Sports
Authors: Dietl Helmut , Franck Egon , Grossmann Martin , Lang Markus
Published: February 2013

This article describes how the theory of contests is applied to professional team sports leagues. It presents the traditional Tullock contest and explains some basic properties of the equilibrium. It then addresses the applications of contest theory in sports. It shows how the assumption of flexible vs. fixed talent supply depends on the league under consideration and how it influences the equilibria. The relationship between competitive balance and social welfare is considered. Finally, it illustrates why many clubs tend to “overinvest” in playing talent in many team sports leagues. It is noted that an exclusive focus on competitive balance may result in inefficient policy conclusions. Due to the contest structure, team sports leagues carry the risk of over-investing in playing talent. The contest theory is a suitable instrument to analyze team sports leagues from a theoretical point of view.
Expanding the Formal Category of Impulse Control Disorders
Authors: Grant Jon E. , Odlaug Brian L.
Published: February 2013

In addition to the formal impulse control disorders (ICDs), high rates of trait impulsiveness, sensation seeking, and dissociative qualities have been noted in several other disorders that share similar phenomenological, clinical, and possibly biological characteristics. These proposed disorders include pathological skin picking, compulsive buying, problematic Internet use, and compulsive sexual behavior. Elevated rates of co-occurring ICDs within both the formal and proposed ICDs suggest that at least some of the proposed ICDs may share a common pathophysiology with some of the formal ICDs. Although research has only recently begun to explore pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for the ICDs, studies have shown a similar response between the formal and the proposed ICDs. Future development in understanding the relationship between these disorders will help to refine views of the psychopathology and taxonomy of these conditions.
Phenomenology and Epidemiology of Kleptomania
Authors: Shoenfeld Netta , Dannon Pinhas N.
Published: February 2013

Stealing behaviors have been reported since the eighteenth century. However, only in 1952 was the phenomenon included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While shoplifting and kleptomania share the same behavior, the motives behind each behavior differ significantly. Kleptomania is characterized as an incontrollable urge to steal, accompanied by mounting stress before committing the theft, followed by relief, guilt, and shame. Kleptomania seems to be a more female-dominant disorder, and the exact causes remain unknown. The explanations are broad, stretching from stressful childhood and low self-esteem to head trauma. It seems to be chronic, with exacerbations and remissions. Treatments vary from psychological approaches suggesting psychotherapy to pharmacological interventions with various medications. A combination of the two had been found to be the best treatment strategy. With the right diagnosis and treatment, there is hope for bettering the quality of life of people suffering from kleptomania.
Compulsive Sexual Behavior: Phenomenology and Epidemiology
Authors: Schreiber Liana R. N. , Odlaug Brian L. , Grant Jon E.
Published: February 2013

Compulsive sexual behavior (CSB), a relatively common disorder, is characterized by having sexually related thoughts, urges, and behaviors that cause significant psychosocial distress and functional impairment. This chapter describes the phenomenology and etiology of CSB. Gender, age, and ethnic/cultural influences on CSB are discussed, as well as comorbidity issues and the relationship between CSB and Parkinson’s disease. Addiction and obsessive-compulsive spectrum theoretical models of CSB are also summarized. Finally, the chapter provides future directions for clinicians and research to pursue.
Development of Impulse Control, Inhibition, and Self-Regulatory Behaviors in Normative Populations across the Lifespan
Authors: Hammond Christopher J. , Potenza Marc N. , Mayes Linda C.
Published: February 2013

Impulsivity represents a complex multidimensional construct that may change across the lifespan and is associated with numerous neuropsychiatric disorders including substance use disorders, conduct disorder/antisocial personality disorder, and traumatic brain injury. Multiple psychological theories have considered impulsivity and the development of impulse control, inhibition, and self-regulatory behaviors during childhood. Some psychoanalytic theorists have viewed impulse control and self-regulatory behaviors as developing ego functions emerging in the context of id-based impulses and inhibitory pressures from the superego. Object relationists added to this framework but placed more emphasis on mother–child dyadic relationships and the process of separation and individuation within the infant. Cognitive and developmental theorists have viewed impulse control and self-regulation as a series of additive cognitive functions emerging at different temporal points during childhood and with an emphasis on attentional systems and the ability to inhibit a prepotent response. Commonalities exist across all of these developmental theories, and they all are consistent with the idea that the development of impulse control appears cumulative and emergent in early life, with the age range of 24–36 months being a formative period. Impulsivity is part of normal development in the healthy child, and emerging empirical data on normative populations (as measured by neuropsychological testing batteries, self-report measures, and behavioral observation) suggest that impulse control, self-regulation, and other impulsivity-related phenomena may follow different temporal trajectories, with impulsivity decreasing linearly over time and sensation seeking and reward responsiveness following an inverted U-shaped trajectory across the lifespan. These different trajectories coincide with developmental brain changes, including early maturation of subcortical regions in relation to the later maturation of the frontal lobes, and may underlie the frequent risk-taking behavior often observed during adolescence.
Assessment and Treatment of Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Authors: McCloskey Michael S. , Berman Mitchell E. , Noblett Kurtis
Published: February 2013

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED), a DSM-IV-TR disorder characterized by significant acts of aggression and violence, is being increasingly recognized as a prevalent and chronic disorder. Given the personal, social, and economic costs associated with IED, there is a clear need for well-validated assessment measures and efficacious treatments. However, there are currently no published, well-validated diagnostic measures of IED. With regard to treatment, preliminary evidence from a few randomized clinical trials suggests that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy may be effective in treating IED. However, more research is needed before either can be considered an empirically supported treatment for IED. In this chapter, we discuss (1) challenges in developing reliable and valid assessments for IED and (2) issues relevant to developing and testing psychological and pharmacological treatment interventions for IED.
Impulsive/Compulsive Sexual Behavior: Assessment and Treatment
Authors: Coleman Eli
Published: February 2013

There is a growing recognition among clinicians that any type of sexual behavior can become pathologically impulsive or compulsive. There is quite a bit of debate about terminology for this condition, the diagnostic criteria, assessment methods and treatment approaches. In the absence of clear consensus, clinicians are struggling with how to help the many men and women who suffer and seek help from this type of problem. This chapter will review the author’s assessment and treatment approach. Clinicians will need to keep abreast of the literature as new research evolves and follow the continued debate around this controversial area.
Impulse Control Disorders and Older Adults
Authors: Hoff Rani A.
Published: February 2013

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are not well studied in the elderly, as the development of ICDs tend to decrease with age. Although less prevalent than younger patients, older adults with ICDs—psychological gambling in particular—may have unique assessment and treatment challenges as a result of their age, elaborate social community, comorbid medical conditions, and attitudes about mental health treatment. This chapter discusses the phenomenology of excessive gambling and other ICDs in elders, unique risk factors for this older population, and some potential treatment options. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the future directions for research in this field.
A Short History of Theory in Mesoamerican Archaeology
Authors: Gándara Manuel
Published: February 2013

This article attempts to identify the most important theoretical positions in Mesoamerican archaeology, briefly commenting on occasion about some substantive theories. The first real theoretical position would be historical particularism, centered on the cognitive goal of description, and going from the late 1890s to the 1950s, the “foundational period,” followed by neoevolutionism and Marxism with their variants, championing some form of explanation, roughly from the late 1950s and onward, in the “theoretical self-awareness period,” and finally, in a “theoretical diversification” period, with postprocessual archaeologists pursuing hermeneutic Interpretation (from the 1980s onward), and the flourishing of “thematic archaeologies”.
Archaeology on Mesoamerica's Southern Frontier
Authors: McCafferty Geoffrey , Amador Fabio Esteban , González Silvia Salgado , Dennett Carrie
Published: February 2013

The southern frontier of Mesoamerica has fluctuated through time but has generally included portions of the Central American countries of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Tied into this liminal status, the history of archaeological research and the development of archaeological institutions in these countries have varied, sometimes emphasizing “Mesoamerican-ness” and sometimes highlighting independent development. This article discusses the history of archaeological practice in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. It then presents a brief overview of the culture history of the region with particular emphasis on relations with Mesoamerican cultures.
Ideology, Polity, and Social History of the Teotihuacan State
Authors: Sugiyama Saburo
Published: February 2013

The development of early complex societies in the Central Mexican Highlands resulted in particular local traditions. The region twice served as the heartland for densely populated ancient cities—Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan—the populations of which are estimated to have been between 100,000–150,000 and 150,000–200,000 people, respectively. This article discusses the underlying local circumstances that favored the development of populous complex societies at an unprecedented scale in this region.
Archaeology of the Maya Highlands
Authors: Arroyo Bárbara
Published: February 2013

The Guatemala highlands is an area of contrasting climate, topography, and agricultural potential. High basins and fertile valleys are situated among a series of mountain ranges from the Pacific Coastal volcanic chains to the massive uplifts to the northeast, offering several advantages that facilitate human settlement. The Central Highlands are home to important natural routes, including the Motagua River, which drains into the Atlantic Ocean and separates a series of these mountain ranges crisscrossing Guatemala from east to west. To the north, tributaries of the Chixoy River irrigate the Central Highlands. This article focuses on the Central Highlands, and in particular on the primary site of Kaminaljuyú, which can be used as a proxy to understand better developments throughout the region.
Concepts of Collapse and Regeneration in Human History
Authors: Cowgill George L.
Published: February 2013

This article focuses on the concepts of collapse and regeneration employed by Mesoamericanists. Much mischief is caused by ambiguities about what it is that is supposed to be collapsing or regenerating. Most often, what is at issue is either the fragmentation of a large polity or the termination of a major cultural tradition. Mesoamericanists have not always clearly distinguished the fragmentation of polities from the termination of major cultural traditions. In discussing collapses and regenerations in Mesoamerica, it seems best to focus on political alternations, although migrations, demographic changes, and alterations of ethnic identities must be also considered. Scholars can, and will discuss the fates of cultural traditions, but they should make themselves clear on the distinction between that and the histories of polities.
Teotihuacan and the Epiclassic in Central Mexico
Authors: Parsons Jeffrey R. , Sugiura Y. Yoko
Published: February 2013

The collapse of Teotihuacan as a major center in the seventh century ad was part of a widespread series of changes that occurred throughout Mesoamerica at that time. The nature and causes of these changes and of the polities and economies that developed in the subsequent centuries of the Epiclassic (ca. 600–900 ad) have been studied by many archaeologists working in central Mexico over the past four decades. This article discusses the highlights of these and other studies and offers an assessment of our current understandings.
Developmental Cycles in the Gulf Lowlands
Authors: Daneels Annick
Published: February 2013

This article reviews the archaeological evidence of Classic and Postclassic Gulf Coast cultures, focusing on developments during the first and early second millennium ad. The Classic period civilizations seem to have risen progressively from a Preclassic background, a product of mainly isthmian interaction, but ceramics and lithics show a development up to some point parallel to the central plateau, a possible result of the highlands' interest in coastal resources and styles. The Gulf Coast way of life, as represented in settlement patterns and architecture is clearly a tropical lowland adaptation, with a dispersed population subsisting on a combination of agriculture, horticulture, forest husbandry, and extensive exploitation of sylvan and aquatic resources. In contrast, the Postclassic era witnesses major changes, as in most of Mesoamerica. The new cultures, while respecting the boundaries of the Classic period areas, appear to be the result of major foreign migrations.
Tula and the Toltecs
Authors: Healan Dan M. , Cobean Robert H.
Published: February 2013

Tula, Hidalgo, was one of several sites that rose to prominence during the Epiclassic period after the demise of Teotihuacan, and during the Early Postclassic period it was probably the largest and most influential center in central Mexico. For over a century various scholars have argued that Tula was the legendary Tollan (“place of reeds”), which, according to Aztec and other indigenous sources, was the capital of the Toltec civilization that dominated central Mexico prior to the arrival of the Aztecs. For this reason the site, its inhabitants, and its material culture are often referred to as Toltec, although there is evidence that “Tollan” and “Toltec” are pan-Mesoamerican concepts whose origins may go back at least as far as Teotihuacan, if not earlier. This article discusses the early history of Tula, Tula Grande and the Tollan Phase City, and Tula during the Aztec Period.
Ecological Approaches to Archaeological Research in Central Mexico
Authors: McClung de Tapia Emily
Published: February 2013

Ecological thinking applied to archaeological problems has evolved considerably over the past two decades. This article examines some of the perspectives that have developed in Mesoamerican archaeology and what the future may hold. Two significant developments have emerged in response to many of the difficulties associated with ecologically oriented research problems. One reflects a movement away from equilibrium models in ecology toward nonlinear dynamic models of systems and interactions among variables within the system. The other refers to the various ways in which this paradigm shift has played out in anthropology and archaeology. New approaches to the study of human-natural relations include the emphasis on complex adaptive systems within the framework of resilience theory and what has been called historical ecology, which also incorporates some of the fundamental concepts associated with dynamic systems in ecology. While neither of these perspectives has had a significant impact in Mesoamerican archaeology as yet, they provide useful tools for visualizing complex relationships in a historical perspective, based on local and regional developments.
Archaeology of Gender in Mesoamerican Societies
Authors: Joyce Rosemary A.
Published: February 2013

This article reviews studies on the archaeology of gender in Mesoamerica. Critical advances in the archaeology of gender in Mesoamerica include explorations of how status and age differences intersected with gender to affect the lives of men and women; increased understandings of how women in different societies and of different ranks were able to exercise power; and understandings of different experiences of sexuality. Sex cannot be treated as providing a natural basis on which cultural gender develops as a secondary phenomenon, because all cultural life, including the identification of biological sex, is experienced through patterns of thought, experience, and speech. Gender is thus better understood as a persistent way of acting as an embodied person, aware of socially sanctioned precedents for how to be a person with affective, sexual, and potentially reproductive relations.
Themes in the Art of the Preclassic Period
Authors: Pye Mary E.
Published: February 2013

This brief article on Preclassic-period art considers some recurrent themes and discusses some new approaches and recent finds. Specifically, it discusses chronology and the transition from the Archaic to Preclassic Period, and Olmec art. The Preclassic period is perhaps the true “florescent” era, at least for Mesoamerican civilization as a whole, given the appearance, development, and coalescence of arguably all of its major components and features long before Classic Maya civilization. Olmec art has captured scholarly and popular attention since the first report of a colossal Olmec head by Melgar (in 1871) and has since become a hallmark of Preclassic art. Olmec-style monuments, ceramics, portable greenstone art, and figurines have been widely reported throughout Mexico, and scholars have been writing about them since the early twentieth century.
Art of the Classic Period
Authors: Koontz Rex
Published: February 2013

The Mesoamerican Classic period (ca. 250–900 ad) is characterized by the expansion of urban elite artistic cultures across the region. The basic characteristics of Classic-period elite art were first developed in the preceding Preclassic period. Essential Classic-period monument types such as the stela and the relief panel as well as fundamental urban architectural forms like the pyramid and plaza were all created in the Preclassic period. These and related forms were further developed with the expansion of Mesoamerican urbanism. This article discusses small-scale objects and prestige materials, Teotihuacan's art and architecture, Teotihuacan's place in Mesoamerica, image and text in eastern Mesoamerica and Oaxaca, and Late Classic innovations.
Nahua and Mixtec Pictorial Books
Authors: Diel Lori Boornazian
Published: February 2013

During the Late Postclassic period, Nahuas and Mixtecs kept pictorial books for multiple functions, with the two main genres being religion and history. The Spaniards must have understood the significance of these books for the native peoples because they had specifically targeted the royal archives and temples, burning the books that were housed inside. So successful were they that few pre-conquest manuscripts from western Mesoamerica survive. Those that do, along with many others that were created after the conquest, provide a wealth of information on indigenous religion and history, and they do so by using a pictorial system of writing, whose main strength was its interpretive openness.
The Modern Capitalist World Economy: A Historical Overview
Authors: Frieden Jeffry A.
Published: February 2013

This article presents a historical overview of the modern capitalist economy. Capitalist economic activities are of very long standing—some would say they were present in proliferation during Roman times. By the late medieval and early modern period, large areas of Western Europe had thriving, relatively free markets for labor and capital, both in the city and in the countryside. We can most fruitfully and confidently speak of the full flowering of modern capitalism once it became a truly international economic order. That epoch evolved over the course of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, as capitalism expanded from a limited Western European base to affect much of the world, from the Americas to East Asia.
The Dynamics of Capitalism
Authors: Scherer F. M.
Published: February 2013

This article views capitalism as the set of economic relationships that emerged with the rise of the industrial or factory system during the eighteenth century. It focuses on production in privately owned, often capital-intensive facilities embodying ever more advanced technologies during and following the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution set in motion dynamic forces that will be the primary concern here. Most important among them are technological advances that propelled accelerated economic growth, changes in the structure of enterprise ownership and in the distribution of income among workers and owners, and a tendency toward more or less cyclical fluctuations in economic activity. These are the “dynamics” on which the article focuses.
Monopoly Capitalism
Authors: Cowling Keith , Tomlinson Philip R.
Published: February 2013

This article analyzes the nature of monopoly capitalism and traces its wider implications for the nature of the modern capitalist economy and the society that springs from this base. It adopts as its central proposition the not uncontroversial view that the essence of modern capitalism cannot be captured without an explicit recognition of its monopolistic or oligopolistic nature. The article is organized as follows. It begins by outlining the extent of monopoly capitalism in the modern economy. It then explores the theoretical implications of rising market concentration for market outcomes, in particular, with regard to price-cost margins, entry conditions, and profitability. Then it discusses the welfare implications of monopoly, and another section considers the distribution of surpluses. Finally, it discusses issues arising from transnational monopoly capitalism, particularly for development.
Agency Problems and the Fate of Capitalism
Authors: Morck Randall , Yeung Bernard
Published: February 2013

This article discusses agency problems and capitalism. It suggests that real social costs of agency problems lie deeper, in the inner workings of the economy. Inefficient resource allocation by firms costs money, as do the monitoring and control mechanisms that might limit those problems. Some level of agency costs is thus unavoidable. But both firms and economies can seek ways to reduce unavoidable agency costs.
Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control
Authors: Mueller Dennis C.
Published: February 2013

This article begins by reviewing some stylized facts. These facts pose some puzzling questions that must be answered, if we are to understand the role mergers play in capitalist systems. It then turns to the evidence of their effects on profitability, efficiency, and shareholder wealth. This evidence is used to resolve some of the questions raised by the stylized facts about mergers.