Landscape archaeology in southern Epirus, Greece I

Authors: James Wiseman, Kōnstantinos L. Zachos

Edition: illustrated

Publisher: ASCSA, 2003

ISBN 0876615329, 9780876615324

292 pages

Human societies at all times an in all parts of the world interact with the landscape they inhabit; it could not be otherwise, even if the interaction were somehow limited to the selective exploitation of natural resources. Human activities alter the landscape and the natural environment, often in dramatic ways; the alterations may occur as the result of human design, as in clearing a forest to plant crops, or may be incidental, as in the destruction (or reshaping) of a mountainside by Roman miners of precious metals. Conversely, humans at varous times in the past have pysically adapted to changes in their envirnment (especially in the distant past), or responded to environmental change in variety of other way. Some of these response, such as migration or technological innovation, have been drastic and revolutionary in their effect and are often recognizable in the archaeological record, while other responses were more gradual, even subtle, and are more difficult to detect. To acknowledge the importance of the natural setting, of the environment at large, in studying change in human society is not to deny the important of intercultural relationships, or the role of the individual intellect or collective social conscience in the evolution of ethical, spirutual, or other sociocultural phenomena in human affairs. The point is that to understand and explain changes in human society over time, it is critically important to study society in relationship to the changing environment in which it existed. Through this approach to the past archaeologists are able to provide insights into the factors that underlie changes in human-land relationships, sometimes over a short time-span or even regarding specific events, but especially over the long term. And they can explore those interculutural relationships and sociocultural phenomena cited above, which themselves evolved within specific environmental settings and change.

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Political Transformation and Changing Identities in Central and Eastern Europe

Authors: Andrew M. Blasko, Diana Januauskiene

Contributor: Andrew M. Blasko

Edition: illustrated

Publisher: CRVP, 2008

ISBN 1565182464, 9781565182462

420 pages

The post-communist democratic transformation in Europe continues to be one of the most widely topics in the social sciences, even after the recent wave of European Union expansion. Numerous attempts have been made to describe and explain the changes that have been taken place in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union, both in respect to the collapse of the Soviet-style system, and concerning the so-called "Europeanization" that different countries have greeted in markedly different ways. The collection of articles presented here comprises a further contribution to this on-going discussion that involves empirical studies of particular states in the region, a comparative investigation of certain shared problems, as well as an exploration of theoretical questions with the issues of identity and change. In addition to focusing on questions of importance of specific countries, the discussion endeavors to raise issues that are relevant to the region as whole as it has undergone the experience of system change with the resulting need to forge a new identity on the basis of history, culture, and aspirations for a better future.

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