Community Archaeology from Below: a Response to Tully

Abstract

The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project, set up in 1996 as an experiment in 'democratic archaeology', was shaken by a major internal crisis between November 2007 and July 2008. An attempt by a small group of local people to establish top-down control over the project was defeated by a political mobilisation of the project's mass base of volunteer archaeologists and community activists. This article, by a leading protagonist, analyses the crisis and comes to some radical conclusions about the nature of community archaeology, democratic organisation, and the way in which political power is sometimes contested.     

Crossing the Border from Slavery to Freedom: The Building of a Community at Buxton,Upper Canada

In November 1849, the first settlers arrived at what was to become the Buxton Settlement, the most successful all-black community established in Canada prior to the U.S. Civil War. A community soon had been established, a community based on freedom and hope for the future. In the late 1850s, Buxton's population reached close to 700 inhabitants. Three schools and four churches of differing denominations served the community's needs. Several graduates from Buxton's schools attended various colleges to study law, medicine, or for the ministry. A lumber mill and brick-making facility promoted community industry. The settlement boasted a two-story brick hotel, a general store, and a post office. Buxton's rich history lends itself to the study of several topics vital to the social history of both Canada and the United States, particularly the development and strength of a true community: Buxton became an interactive community based on self-reliance and independency.     

走出“历史不能假设”的蕃篱

章认为,历史发展不是脱离人的选择而自动发生的过程,历史发展是多种因素共同作用的结果,历史人物及其选择的差异、历史偶然性因素之配合不同,历史事件的路向就会发生变化。因此,在历史研究中,历史假设可以作为一种历史研究方法,通过对各种历史条件的再认识,弥补实证方法、抽象思维方法的不足,破除历史宿命论的藩篱。历史假设还可以增强历史的批判意识,有利于人们以史为鉴警醒自己。     

Powers of a kind: the anomalous position of France and the United Kingdom in world politics

Since the loss of their empires, Britain and France have been seen as states in historical but still only relative decline: no longer great powers but not typical of the large category of middle‐range powers. Despite financial constraints and limited size they retain their status as permanent members of the UN Security Council and continue to display the ambition to exert global influence. At times, London and Paris deal with this anomaly by acting in harness but at others their foreign policies diverge dramatically, not least because of the contrasting domestic traditions from which they emerge, and because of their differing roles within the European Union. This article assesses the capacity of these two notable states to maintain a leading role in international politics given their own uneasy relationship and the significant constraints which they now face, both external and internal. The article is a revised version of the Martin Wight Memorial Lecture, held at Chatham House, London, on 3 November 2015.     

Subdividing National Territories: The Drive to Live in a Political Community Whose Boundaries Are Congruent with the Cultural Community

Two ideals have dominated world politics for two hundred years. In one, conveniently called liberal, there are no real differences among peoples, and that they speak different languages and have different religions should not be allowed to affect their collaboration in a national state; the United States with its multiethnic, multinational composition has been the concrete expression of this. The opposite ideal, here called nationalist or reactionary, was that language and religion do matter and that people ought to be able to live in a political community whose boundaries reflect that; Iran is an extreme case of this. If the liberal ideal goes back to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, nationalism was given its impetus in nineteenth-century Romanticism. Nationalism has dissolved successively the British, Dutch, and French empires, and then gone on toward breaking down the constituents into which these separated. Despite attempted suppression of breakaway movements by better armed forces of existing states, the number of states in the world has more than doubled since the end of World War II. Only recognized governments can become members of official international bodies. Despite a lack of legitimacy, no right to speak in the councils of the United Nations, and no legal access to arms, the forces of separation seem on the rise, those of union of multicultural nations, on the decline. It is too early to predict ultimate victory for one ideal or the other.     

相关性 共鸣度 同理心——博物馆企及观众的关键所在

"保持与当代社会的相关性"理应成为博物馆的发展要义。展览、教育等惟有搭建在"相关性"的基础之上,吸引观众关注,才有可能进一步引发他们共鸣,促使其感动、铭记,并最终激励他们的同理心,改变其思维和行为。这是环环相扣、层层推进的一体化进程,以达求博物馆传播的良性循环,真正企及观众。对博物馆如何通过展览、教育以达求"相关性""共鸣度""同理心"等企及观众的核心要义进行探讨,将促使博物馆真正讲好当下的故事,同时走近观众,进驻他们的心灵。     

The Archaeological Survey Project in Fatschenbrunn,Municipality of Oberaurach,Germany: A Case Study for the Reconstruction of Past Farming Regimes in the Late Medieval and Post-Medieval Era

This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey project which is being carried out in the small village of Fatschenbrunn, in Lower Franconia, Germany. The project combines archaeological, historical geographical, botanical, geological and pedological data to reconstruct the farming regimes and land use in the late medieval and post-medieval era. Although the project is still on-going, the collected data allows the formulation of hypotheses on the formation of fertile agricultural soils through long-term human intervention in the past.     

The Research and Production Plant,Parkgate, Dublin: Archaeological Investigations of a World War II Munitions Facility

Abstract

This paper describes the structures, operations, and history of the Research and Production Plant, Parkgate, a munitions facility developed by the Irish State in the early years of World War II (referred to in Ireland as 'the Emergency'). Located on the edge of the city of Dublin and within the historic curtilage of Phoenix Park, its emissions were the cause of some controversy and resulted in a local health scare, suppressed and censored by the Fianna Fáil government of the day. The Plant's eventual closure was brought about by complaints from the Office of Public Works regarding severe chemical damage in the adjacent Peoples' Garden and to trees and other vegetation further away in the Park proper. In the meantime, production had switched to service a private concern, which was to benefit further from the arrangement before restrictions on the importation of phosphorus and other chemicals were lifted in 1946. The structures were identified and recorded over the summer of 2007 and the research conducted the following winter, based on files held in the Military Archives and contemporary parliamentary reports.