Frontiers Of Settlement Research Articles

The Ecological Crisis in Chiapas: A Case Study from Central America

Most landscapes in Chiapas were recently subjected to a change in land use that has caused various environmental problems in a highland-lowland interactive system. In the Soconusco coastal plain, cash crops with long dry fallow periods caused a decline in precipitation, whereas in the lower escarpment of the Sierra Madre, coffee plantations with unshaded cultivation in rows and inputs of herbicides reinforced major hydrological fluctuations. While these impacts have been reduced during the last decade, demographic pressure in the upper part of the Sierra Madre and in the Altos de Chiapas, resulting in a growing need for land, is responsible for advancement of the frontier of settlement into steeper parts of the Sierra and toward Lacandonia. The resulting soil erosion and leaching cause further degradation, and, together with elevated runoff rates, also have a heavy impact on the forelands. This was evident in September 1998 in the form of disastrous floods and devastation in the Soconusco plain.

Revisiting the Australian Experience: Transmillennial Conjurings

Ever anxious about real and apparent “identity” crises, Australians have in recent years been increasingly better served by interdisciplinary academic writings. A common theme is the clarification and resolution of recurrent national uncertainty. Others, intimately related, include the divide between indigenous and imported conceptualizations, especially notions of sacredness, together with broadly targeted historical interpretations of environmentalism, environmental management, and violent social clashes on settlement frontiers. Although these academic writings represent welcome additions to civic scholarship, they are also variously influenced, and their purchase on the public imagination limited, by the effects of current intellectual trends. While it might be expected that fictional exemplars would address place‐making and place‐securing in rather more comfortable fashion, they have not been immune to similar destabilizations. Nonetheless, one intriguing, problematical work makes a useful civic point in dealing creatively with Australia's epidemic of premillennial doubt.

Resistance and Rebellion on the Spanish Frontier: Native Responses to Colonization in the Colombian Chocó, 1670-1690

By the mid-sixteenth century, Spanish conquest of the major Indian societies in the Americas was more or less complete. There were, however, many indigenous societies that still remained outside the orbit of Spanish control, usually because they were in remote and inaccessible regions, had no obvious economic resources to exploit, or were able to mount effective resistance to Spanish incursions. Some of these societies continued to exist beyond the boundaries of the Iberian world throughout the colonial period; for others, those boundaries were broken down as Spanish colonial settlement expanded from its early bases and extended into regions that the Spaniards had initially found too difficult to colonize. Movements of this kind on the frontier of Spanish settlement occurred throughout Hispanic America, as missionaries and settlers carried Spanish influence and Spanish government into peripheral regions from northern Mexico to southern Chile.1 Frontier expansion of this kind also occurred in areas of New Granada (modern Colombia), where settlers pushed into previously uncolonized regions both to the east and to the west of the major settlements in the interior. One significant direction in which the frontier expanded was into the Choco, the large lowland region on New Granada's Pacific flank. Here, Spanish penetration was driven by both missionary zeal and, more powerfully, by the search for gold.

Global patterns and family matters: life history and the Ukrainian pioneer diaspora

From the late 1880s until the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 thousands of Ukrainian peasants emigrated from the Austrian provinces of Galicia and Bukovyna, seeking agricultural lands on the frontiers of settlement in Canada and Brazil. This paper traces the process of emigration, settlement, and the creation of the Ukrainian pioneer diaspora through the actions of the Morski family of Khmelyska, Galicia, whose members established pioneer settlements in Manitoba, Canada, and in Paraná, Brazil. The effects of the physical environment and of the institutional frameworks experienced on each frontier help to explain differences in the rate of economic progress, assimilation and integration into the mainstream culture of the host societies.

Cattle theft, primitive capital accumulation and pastoral expansion in early New South Wales, 1800–1850*

The key role of cattle (as against that of sheep) in the settlement and economic development of colonial Australia has been neglected. This species of livestock made possible the opening up of the interior of the continent, where, until the later nineteenth century, they occupied more grazing land than sheep, to enable wool production to become the export staple. Cattle functioned as a surrogate for capital, otherwise in critically short supply. Cattle theft, in two of the three forms analysed,was a motive for the perpetrators to push the frontier of settlement beyond the expanding settled districts.

Forest management practices in the Bayano region of Panama: Cultural variations

This paper examines the relationship between cultural variation and forest management practices in the New World tropics by presenting results from a survey conducted in indigenous and colonist communities in a settlement frontier of Panama. Statistical analyses, focused specifically on differences between the economic base, forest use, and management practices of indigenous and colonist households, are presented. The findings reveal that there are no significant differences between the indigenous and colonist households in this respect; furthermore, differences that exist among the sample households appear to be linked to access to market and not to cultural variations.

Settlement Myth and Settlement Activity: Interrelationships in the Zionist Land of Israel

Settlement frontiers may bring about the production of political settlement myths leading future settlers to frontier settlements. Such myths may develop through three phases of geographical interpretation: (i) the realization or consumption of previous myths, (ii) ideological loading of the landscape and (iii) the emergence of mythical space. These phases, notably the latter, are expressed in various outlets of the collective memory and civil religion. Zionist political settlement myths may be interpreted as dealing with environmental struggles, social development and security. These myths are interrelated with several chains of local or regional settlement processes and events: produced myth comes to be consumed by later settlers. But the creation of such myths emanates from the urban cores of Jaffa, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem.

Shamanism in Northwest Australia

Editors' note: Andreas Lommel was Director of the Staatliche Museum für Völkerkunde in Munich from 1957 to 1977. He last did fieldwork in Australia in 1955 with his wife, Katharine, (Lommel and Lommel, 1989), and first in 1939 when he came to the Kimberley district of Western Australia as a member of an ethnological expedition under the auspices of the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt‐am‐Main. Based on this work, he and another member of the Frobenius expedition, Helmut Petri, have produced ethnographic monographs (Lommel 1952, Petri 1954) and many other publications on the Wunambal and Ngarinyin respectively. The following is one of the few yet to have appeared in English. We have chosen to publish it for the unique perspective it offers on a particular, poignant moment behind the frontiers of European settlement of Aboriginal Australia.For another perspective on some of the same matters, we have paired Lommel's memoir with one by one of the Ngarinyin people he met on the trek he describes in it: David Mowaljarlai, who was at that time about ten years old (as recalled in Lommel's foreword to Mowaljarlai and Malnic, 1993). Mowaljarlai is now a leading figure in Aboriginal affairs, and in 1991 was named Aboriginal Australian of the Year. As it happens, Lommel's manuscript reached Oceania just as one of us (A. R.) was about to leave for the Kimberleys to collaborate on a site survey with Mowaljarlai. We informed Lommel of this and suggested that Mowaljarlai be invited to provide further comments and reminiscences about the matters discussed in the paper. Lommel enthusiastically accepted this offer and raised specific points for clarification from Mowaljarlai, which were put to him and two other senior Ngarinyin men in the interview which is transcribed below.

Rural Process-Pattern Relationships: Nomadization, Sedentarization and Settlement Fixation

Rural Settlements--Process-Pattern Relationships Reconstructing Rural Processes--The British Evidence The Settlement Process and Pattern of Cheshire The Expansion of Agricultural Settlement Frontier In Palestine (Eretz Israel)--Processes and Patterns The Factors Accounting for the Prevalence of Nucleation Sedentarization and Nomadization--Factors and Characteristics The Nomadization Process in Southern Palestine Seasonal Settlements--Factors and Processes of Fixation Jewish Settlement Processes and Patterns in the Palestine (Eretz Israel) The Map of the Settlement Patterns of Palestine (Eretz Israel) General Conclusions Bibliography Index

The Vacant Land: The Mythology of British Expansion in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Ironically, as race has become more muted in the discourse of the South African state a number of scholars have begun to take a fresh look at the history of race and racial ideology. In White Supremacy, his comparison of American and South African history, George Fredrickson emphasized the importance of European perceptions of Indians and Africans, though in the South African case he concentrated almost exclusively on settlers of Dutch, French and German descent, the Afrikaners. Following a tradition of earlier generations of scholars, Fredrickson returned to the early frontier of European settlement. Old wine in a new comparative bottle, White Supremacy signalled neither a fundamerltal historiographical departure in the study of the South African past nor even a new periodization of the country's history.

Pioneers over Jordan: the frontier of settlement in Transjordan, 1850-1914

In the 19th century conditions of rural life in the Middle East were revolutionized. But the traditional preoccupation in Muslim societies with urban culture means that the study of rural life has been comparatively neglected. In this book, available in paperback for the first time, Raouf Sa'd Abujaber does much to redress the balance. He describes how cultivators, among them his own ancestors, moved eastwards into tribal lands across the Jordan and changed the use of land from pastoralism to settled agriculture. The agricultural cycle, relations between landowners and peasants, and the marketing of produce are illustrated through a series of case studies, including that of the author's own family estate. Drawing extensively on family papers, as well as British, Jordanian, Ottoman and French sources, this book should make a valuable contribution to the literature on historical geography and the social history of the Middle East.

REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS/BESPRECHUNGEN

Book reviewed in this article:Fennell R, (1987, 2nd. Edition), The Common Agricultural Policy of the European CommunityHadwiger, D.F. & W.P. Browne, eds. (1987), Public Policy and Agricultural TechnologyStevens, R.D. & C.L. Jabara (1988), Agricultural Development Principles. Economic Theory and Empirical EvidenceBan, A.W. van den & H.S. Hawkins (1988), Agricultural ExtensionRöling, N. (1988), Extension Science ‐ Information Systems in Agricultural DevelopmentMorss, E. et. al. (1976), Strategies for Small Farmer Development ‐ an Empirical Study of Rural Development ProjectsChambers, (1983), ‘Rural Development ‐ Putting the Last first’Hall, A. & J. Midgley, eds. (1988), Development Policies. Sociological PerspectivesQuarles van Ufford, P. & M. Schoffeleers, eds. (1988), Religion and Development. Towards an Integrated ApproachL. Fortmann & J.W. Bruce, eds. (1988), Whose Trees? Proprietary Dimensions of ForestryCosgrove, D. & S. Daniels, eds. (1988), The Iconography of LandscapeBlunden, J. & N. Curry (1988), A Future for Our CountrysideMansvelt Beck, J. (1988), The Rise of a Subsidized Periphery in SpainWilson, S. (1988), Feuding, Conflict and Banditry in Nineteenth‐Century CorsicaAganbegyan, A. (1988), The Challenge: Economics of PerestroikaSinclair, P.R., ed. (1988), A Question of Survival: The Fisheries and Newfoundland SocietyAbujaber, R.S. (1989), Pioneers over Jordan. The Frontier of Settlement in Transjordan, 1810–1914Davis, G. & S. Daniels, ed. (1988). Indonesia. The Transmigration Program in Perspective

Sod land versus sagebrush: early land appraisal and pioneer settlement in an arid intermountain frontier

Pioneering in North America took settlers into a succession of new and untried environments. As the frontier advanced westward into regions where forests alternated with humid prairies, pioneer settlers initially overlooked grassland habitats in favour of locations in timbered areas. When the frontier of settlement moved into the arid intermountain West, the sagebrush-covered landscapes must have appeared forlorn and barren to pioneer settlers who had migrated from more humid environments. An analysis of the relationship between land cover and early land selections in Owens Valley, California indicates that the valley's grasslands were initially favoured over sagebrushcovered habitats. Once the grasslands were taken up and settlers were forced to occupy the “sage barrens”, it quickly became apparent that sagebrush land was often equally productive and more easily worked than sod land. The process of “delayed sagebrush settlement” in the arid intermountain West parallels the “delayed prairie settlement” process documented in humid environments.

Opening Panama's Darien Gap

The Darien "gap" was opened in the 1970s when a ribbon of highway was cut through the wilderness allowing uncontrolled colonization to penetrate the region. The Gap Highway and associated settlement frontier led to the removal of rain forest habitats and resulted in drastic reductions in wild plant and animal resources. Other resettlement programs also altered the indigenous landscape which had survived largely intact since colonial times. The region's historic Negro riverlowns have declined while population growth has occurred along the new "cattle front" and in the "cultural parks." These new patterns have undermined the region's traditional subsistence base. Although the Darien has experienced considerable deforestation, it nevertheless contains one of the last remaining stands of Central American rain forest and continues to nurture the cultural heritage of the Kuna and Choc Indians.

The City Hotel as Landscape Artifact and Community Symbol

Hotels, or their precursor, the tavern, were cornerstones of urban development on America's settlement frontier. As a landscape artifact the hotel marked the early business and social core of cities; it also symbolized community progress and achievement, as well as investment opportunity. The hotel evolved from a democratic social institution into a grand central-city palace that showcased technological innovation while gradually yielding its democratic character to entrepreneurial expedience. The modern convention hotel mirrors some aspects of the 19th century hotels, but it has not recaptured its democratic connection to the local community.

Systematic colonization and town planning in Australia and New Zealand

The theory and principles of systematic colonization, propounded most strongly by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, set new rules for British expansion overseas after 1830. This was particularly apparent in the foundation years of South Australia after 1836, and in the early settlement of New Zealand after 1840 in which Wakefield played a personal part. These outworkings developed strong and distinctive town planning themes in which two South Australian Surveyors‐General, William Light and George Goyder figured prominently. The annexation of the Northern Territory of Australia in the 1860s and 1870s, and the expansion of the frontier of settlement in inland South Australia from 1860 to 1890 displayed these themes. This history demonstrates a breadth of concerns in the settlement of these territories which covers political economy; capitalist enterprise; the machinery of government and public policy concerning the survey, sale and use of land; the development of an urban system; and the planning of towns. This has ...

The Search for a Series of Small Successes: Frontiers of Settlement in Eastern Bolivia

Few thinly populated regions of the world represent genuine frontiers of settlement. The tendency to describe almost any area of sparse population as a settlement ‘frontier’ is not uncommon, especially in studies of Latin America. What matters, however, is what is going on within such sparsely populated zones, or indeed within more densely populated zones which are in an active frontier stage.

Transport Policy: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Following a statement of current political issues in transport at local, national and international levels, existing theory relating location and movement to transport facilities is outlined. The connections between social and economic change and improved mobility are explored and historical examples discussed, including the 19th century extensions of settlement frontiers and 20th century urbanization. Political issues are translated into practical problems and the methodology required for their solution is developed, including the geographical representation of a transport system and its computational manipulation. Various administrative and other means of relieving the political, economic and social stresses arising from the need for mobility are distinguished. Some realities facing decision makers are illustrated with a review of recent events at various geographical scales. (TRRL)

An Iroquois frontier: the north shore of Lake Ontario during the late seventeenth century

Historical accounts and assessments of Lake Ontario's north shore during the late seventeenth century generally describe the area as an abandoned battleground and devasted “no-man's land”. The impression is built of English and particularly French views that this was an area no longer useful as a major source of furs. To the Iroquois the land was anything but devastated. Whereas they bypassed the territory in their constant search for furs to the north and west, the north shore, strategic and fertile, became a trading, agricultural, and even settlement frontier. A reassessment of the written documents and largely neglected maps of the period suggest that the Iroquois occupation of the north shore was highly ordered and based on traditional trade routes and tribal territorial claims. It was an extension of the homeland. But innovations in subsistence, settlement, and lifestyle did occur. The study of expansion to the north shore provides valuable insights into the delicate balance between the forces of change and continuity in post-contact Iroquois society.

THE DISPOSSESSION OF THE PAWNEE

ABSTRACT The Pawnee evolved an adapted system of occupance in the central Great Plains based on horticulture and the exploitation of the bison herds. From the 1830s on, great pressure was exerted on the Pawnee to change their way of life in accordance with Euro-American concepts of civilization. This involved the attempt to change the Pawnee into yeoman farmers, complete with a work ethic and a sense of private property. The Pawnee resisted, convinced of the validity of their own norms. After 1854, however, when the settlement frontier pushed into Nebraska, the Pawnee were confined to a small reservation and subjected to enforced acculturation, encroachment by settlers, and persistent Dacotah raids. Their decision to leave Nebraska in 1873–74 was a last, desperate effort to preserve a way of life.