North American Community Research Articles

The North American Community College and Australian Higher Education

This paper discusses the development of community colleges in the United States and Canada, outlines some of their key distinguishing characteristics and the main models that have developed with regard to student entry to higher education and student transfer between institutions, and attempts an evaluation of the community college idea, looking at both strengths and weaknesses. The paper then explores the possible relevance of the community college for Australian higher education today.

Numbers of Mammal Species in North and Central American Forest Communities

Latitudinal trends in the species diversity of North and Central American Mammalian communities are documented by examining seven habitats ranging from the tundra of central Alaska to the moist tropical forest of central Panama. The communities are compared with respect to the numbers and kinds of species in each habitat and their size, spatial, and trophic relationships. Fifteen to 16 species occur in the two Alaskan habitats examined, 31—35 species in three forests in the eastern United States, and 70 species in two Panamanian forests, Observed latitudinal changes in species diversity, ecological diversity, and community structure are primarily a result of a southward increase in the number of bat species. The greater variety and year—round availaility of food resources such as fleshy fruits and insects, rather than increased spatial heterogeneity, appear to account for the greater diversity of mammals in the tropical habitats. The structure of Old and New World tropical mammalian communities appears to be very similar. One major difference is that among the bats there are relatively more fruit—and/or pollen—eating species and fewer insect—eating species in the Panamanian community than in Malaya.

Notes on herb medicine in Guam

The Island of Guam, westernmost U.S. possession, is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. It is approximately 212 square miles in area and is located 130 28" N. latitude, 1440 E. longitude. Of the approximately 100,000 Americans in Guam, roughly half are native Guamanians. A "typical" North American community complete with traffic jams and television, the Island boasts approximately 25,000 school children, two modern hospitals, as well as numerous medical clinics and private physicians. Under Spanish rule from 1565 to 1898, when it was ceded to the United States following the Spanish-American War, Guam has lost most of its pre-Spanish culture. The art of using plants for medicine (Chamorro-amot) is one of the few indigenous cultural habits surviving. Padre Sanvitores, arriving in 1668 as one of the first priests in Guam, stated, in reference to the use of herbs to treat illness: "Since they have few ailments, they know few medicines and treat themselves with few herbs, of which experience and necessity have taught them the uses and virtues." (4.197). Probably many of the plants now used for medicine have been introduced since then. Both natural and supernatural illnesses were treated (1,2,3,4). There was a sorcerer class, Mahkana, later called Kakahna, which apparently possessed the power of both causing and curing illness. This power was thought to be passed on to their children. Thompson, writing in 1947, stated: "Under the pressure from the American administration, the Kakahna have practically disappeared." (4.197). However, the natural illness healers are practicing today in many of the villages. These herb doctors, called suruhanas

The Evolution of the American Community

Nominalism and realism are defined as types of community integration. In the beginning the North American community was realistically integrated because it represented the transplanting of the medieval semifeudal village on our eastern coast. With the growth of the frontier and the mixing of peoples, Americanism and nominalist forms of community organization came to be almost identical. While pure realism or pure nominalism seldon exists in fact, a number of variables tend to emphasize one or the other. In America, age of settlement has been a constant factor promoting community realism. Mobility, low and differential fertility, urbanism, trade and commerce, and centralization of government and economic life have promoted community nominalism. On the whole, however, the evolution of the American community, after its first settlement, has been toward realistic integration. This process will probably move more rapidly in the twentieth than in the nineteenth century because the community-forming forces are gaining the upper hand over those which promote disintegration.

Plant Succession in the Larrea‐Flourensia Climax

The Larrea-Flourensia Desert Scrub is a widespread and relatively homogeneous community common to the central continental areas of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Its structure, ecological adaptations and responses, and its significance in the classification of llant communities are vastly different from those of other North American communities and particularly those of the East. The significance in classification has largely been overlooked. The present paper is intended to present the problem in the light of investigations carried out on a selected site in western Texas. Study was begun in 1931 while the author was engaged in other botanical work in that area, was continued in 1932 and 1933, and was reviewed in 1939. The successively denuded and covered Tornilla Clay beds were chosen for study because of their extremely unfavorable conditions for plant growth. Depletion of surface soil overlying them is disturbance in high degree.