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Agriculture in the Arabian Peninsula becomes established from the early Bronze Age and relies on the cultivation of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and annual crops, namely barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare, H. vulgare subsp. distichon), different wheats – such as emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccon), bread wheat (T. aestivum subsp. aestivum) – and pulses such as pea (Pisum sativum) and lentil (Lens culinaris). The association of these crops with irrigation systems indicate the presence of oasian agrosystems from that time. Oasis is a resilient and powerful agricultural system allowing the production of multiple crops on a reduced surface thanks to water optimization. It is also a hub connecting local agrarian producers with merchants and travellers through exchanges particularly dynamic during Historical times, which can be highlighted through archaeobotanical data. Therefore, we’ll focus on recent archaeobotanical finds from Antique and Medieval sites showing that ancient oases were ecological and economic niches hosting new crops mostly originated from tropical regions, such as rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor ssp. bicolor) and cotton (Gossypium sp.). Their introduction should have led to major changes within the spatial, calendar and labour organizations of these pre-existent agricultural systems as well as the transfer and development of new know-hows. This contribution aims to describe some of these new plants and their chronology, to discuss their potential introduction into local agricultural systems and to examine the associated economic, ecological and technical components.

International audience

International audience

International audience

International audience; The ancient diffusion of cotton (Gossypium sp.) across the Old World is one of the most outstanding examples of social, environmental, technical and economic entanglement. The various trajectories of cotton products, including raw and processed seeds and fibres, are relevant markers of the circulation of knowledge, goods and people. However, understanding cotton diffusion in the past is limited by the fact that cotton products could have been produced locally and/or imported from different regions. Furthermore, cotton seeds and to a lesser extent, cotton fibres, are generally only found in charred form in archaeological contexts and this can be problematic as in some cases, the charring of plant remains results in an offset of the biogenic isotope values. In this study, the isotope composition of modern uncharred and experimentally charred cotton seeds that were grown in irrigated fields in Seville, Spain and greenhouses in Montpellier, France, was measured to establish the range of isotope fractionation that takes places across several parameters (temperature range: 50, 100, 150, 200, 225, 250, 275, 300, 325 and 350°C; time range: 2, 4, 8 and 16 hours). The results provide information on the extent to which carbonization effects measured δ13C and δ15N values and if such values can be used successfully to reconstruct the nature of the local growing environment.

International audience

Humans vary in many aspects of their psychology with differences routinely found in patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, setting individuals apart across time and place. Though many psychologists have attempted to account for these individual differences, one area that has continued to generate interest and disagreement is the concept of motivation. Today, understanding behavioural motivation remains one of the most important questions facing personality theorists. In an attempt to better account for human motivation, the present exploration reviews seminal theoretical positions put forward by Sigmund Freud from a Psychoanalytical perspective and contrastingly, that of Carl Rogers from the Humanistic approach. Critical consideration is specifically applied to how verifiable each perspective may be and the degree of empirical support either account has attained to date. Whilst understanding human motivation is not a new endeavour, the present exploration provides a contemporary critical assessment of traditional psychological explanations.

The offence of arson comes under the category of property crime, although the serious consequences of the offence often have a huge impact on both people and public costs, with serious injury and death potential outcomes. As with many crimes, there are various motivations that may behind a person committing arson. These can be understood under whether the offence was instrumental and therefore carrying out the crime for personal gain, or expressive, carrying out the offence due to difficulty in expressing their emotions. Instrumental arsonists may be easier to detect due to an often obvious financial or personal motivation, and these offenders are generally more common within the population of arsonists. However, perhaps more important to explore in relation to where psychology can best aid understanding and inform practice, is in cases where there is little or no instrumental value. These expressive arsonists are significantly more likely to reoffend than their instrumental counterparts, adding further to the need to gain a greater understanding of the factors that play a role in such individuals’ trajectories. The present paper reviews the\ud current literature surrounding expressive arson to present a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that contribute to this deviant behaviour. In doing so, the present paper draws on explanations from developmental, psychopathological and personality psychology to critically form such an understanding and present this in an understandable way that possesses heuristic value for the\ud psychological community with an interest in this area.

Over time, the concept of personality has stimulated considerable theorising and debate amongst researchers. Thought to be characteristics within an individual that account for consistent patterns of thought, feelings and behaviours, the quest to understand individual differences between human beings has led to the increased uptake of psychological measurement tools, known as psychometric tests. Many variations of psychometric tests that have been devised to date attempt to operationalise the theoretical principles of Trait theory and the dimensions therein. Typically, these are applied within occupational, educational and clinical settings, where such personality measures are considered increasingly useful in the evaluation of individuals either being assessed, or due to begin working within an organisation. However, despite researchers implementing psychometric tests such as the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa and McCrae, 1992a) reporting high levels of construct validity for the measure (Widiger and Trull, 1997), criticism surrounding the reliability of findings obtained from applications of the tool, resulting from the general lack of agreement around the trait dimensions that underpin psychometric testing, remain important. Another highly contented issue surrounding the basis of such tests are the stability and situationalist arguments, which criticise such methods as inaccurately representing a true picture of the individual due to failing to take the full environmental influences upon people into account. Such issues are undoubtedly more complex than such a summarisation can accredit, and upon paying systematic and critical consideration to the related assessments, a greater depth of analysis may be drawn.

Over time, the concept of personality has stimulated considerable theorising and debate amongst researchers. Thought to be characteristics within an individual that account for consistent patterns of thought, feelings and behaviours, the quest to understand individual differences between human beings has led to the increased uptake of psychological measurement tools, known as psychometric tests. Many variations of psychometric tests that have been devised to date attempt to operationalise the theoretical principles of Trait theory and the dimensions therein. Typically, these are applied within occupational, educational and clinical settings, where such personality measures are considered increasingly useful in the evaluation of individuals either being assessed, or due to begin working within an organisation. However, despite researchers implementing psychometric tests such as the NEO Personality Inventory [1] reporting high levels of construct validity for the measure [2], criticism surrounding the reliability of findings obtained from applications of the tool, resulting from the general lack of agreement around the trait dimensions that underpin psychometric testing, remain important. Another highly contested issue surrounding the basis of such tests are the stability and situationalist arguments, which criticise such methods as inaccurately representing a true picture of the individual due to failing to take the full environmental influences upon people into account. Such issues are undoubtedly more complex than such a summarisation can accredit, and upon paying systematic and critical consideration to the related assessments, a greater depth of analysis may be drawn.

International audience; Increasing evidence of cotton (Gossypium herbaceum/arboreum), both seeds of cotton and textile fragments in cotton, as well as textual mention sheds light on the diffusion paths of this tropical plant in the Old World. Both species have different trajectories. The first archaeological discoveries dating back to the 6th-4th mill. show perhaps localized domestication events of Gossypium arboreum in the Indian subcontinent while the spread of Gossypium herbaceum occurs at a later period around the change of era. During the beginning of the 1st mill. CE, cotton appears in numerous places in Arabia and Northeastern Africa, indicating its trade and acclimatization in arid environment. The examination of direct radiocarbon dating combined to the analysis of the distribution of the cotton archaeological finds and the textual evidence allow us to better characterise the trade routes and the introduction of cotton cultivation in local agrosystems, with a special focus on cotton in Arabia.

The understanding of extremism in the United Kingdom is as important now as it has ever been, and in doing so there is a need to inform empirically underpinned policy and intervention with the development of an evidence base. Especially from a risk management point of view, early intervention prior to radicalisation is a preferable direction to take and the government’s Prevent strategy reflects such. Yet currently, there are key concepts within counter-extremism and counter-terrorism policy which continue to be poorly defined and lack operationalisation, leading to negative implications on the ground and problematic implementation. Such issues can have a pertinent impact on perceived legitimacy of implementing agencies. Resilience, which is one such key concept alongside community cohesion, has been widely applied across disciplines and framed in a variety of ways. Whilst the psychological literature has begun to explore resilience as a multifaceted phenomenon, under a levels of resilience approach, there is a gap in the literature whereby resilience is reframed in the context of countering extremism. Resilience was subsequently framed in a vulnerability reduction context where the threat is the adoption of extremist attitudes and radicalisation and the successful adaptation is the rejection of such.\ud \ud \ud The overarching aim of this thesis was therefore to investigate resilience constructs alongside the role of the community and, political and religious factors. To link the exploration more closely to attitude change, one of the goals of counter-extremism interventions, the research also sought to determine the relationship of the above variables to attitudes of intolerance considered against the social norm. The research conducted a pilot study to provide an initial exploration of individual, community, and national resilience on a sample of 134 students. Data was then collected from 355 members of the general population to firstly explore resilience and the role of the community in study one, secondly attitudes of intolerance in study two, and finally resilience and community in the context of attitudes of intolerance in study three. All respondents completed a comprehensive questionnaire including demographics, measures of individual resilience, community resilience, national resilience, religiosity,religious fundamentalism,and attitudes of intolerance.\ud \ud \ud Findings demonstrated resilience at the level of the individual, community and nation are distinct constructs which are dynamic in nature, especially across context. There were also significant relationships between resilience constructs and community cohesion which support a reintegration of these two concepts within counter extremism policy. Furthermore, both community resilience and national resilience were found to be directly related to attitudes of intolerance. These findings are discussed in detail, specifically in relation to reframing, reimagining, and reapplying resilience in the context of countering extremism in Britain. As part of this discussion recommendations are made to policy makers based on the current findings which ultimately seek to integrate an evidence base into counter extremism policy and subsequently have a positive impact on implementation at a grass-roots level.Concluding, when policy is understood as a diagnosis and interpretation of society, community resilience and community cohesion together can be applied as responses to the need to reduce vulnerability to the threat of extremism and radicalisation. The current findings indicate building resilience at the level of the individual is less likely to be as directly beneficial in relation to reducing intolerance and national resilience may increase intolerance. By applying empirical analysis to explore resilience and the role of the community, grounded in the psychological literature on attitudes and attitude change, a unique perspective on the future of resilience building strategies and the community cohesion agenda is offered. Drawing on the evidence base which has shown the utility of community based interventions in other areas of crime and social issues, and how early intervention in countering extremism may be particularly valuable from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective to meet the needs of the general public and governing agencies.