The National Question in Africa: Internal Imperatives

In an impassioned plea for political reform in Africa, this essay questions whether the concept of ‘nation-being’ is really applicable to territories ruled by dictatorial regimes. Without democracy, many African ‘nations’ are little more than a gambling space for the opportunism and adventurism of power. Furthermore, as in the concrete case of Nigeria, repression strengthens ethnic identity and encourages separatism. The risks of virulent ethnic conflict in Africa — and elsewhere — might be lessened if regional conferences were called to debate the national question openly, and to redefine (where necessary) both the external boundaries and the internal political realities of conflict-ridden societies.     

"The Ancient Economy": The Problem and the Fraud

Periodically since about 1860 the debate about "The Ancient Economy" has raged vehemently as oikos controversy , Bücher-Meyer debate , primitivists versus modernists or simply as the Moses Finley debate . Therefore, Hopkins rightly remarked: "The ancient economy is an academic battleground. The contestants campaign under various colours--apologists, Marxists, modernizers, primitivists Even within schools, there are sects." This still seems to be the case, although the author of this article does not belong to any school or sect but is looking for an anti-ideological controllable scientific truth. Whatever that may be it is, certainly, a critical venture where "fraud" is at stake. In 1986, by symbolic accident the year of Finley's death, he dared to start a new period in the debate and at present the controversy with all its usual tricks seems at its zenith again. Did the bell toll for the last round in this beloved controversy? After 150 years of debate, one can never be sure about that, but we will try again. The subject matter is no less important than the question "to whom belongs antiquity?" or "for what purposes does one study its history or culture?" The following article wants to introduce the debate in a few sentences, question its present relevancy as the Moses Finley debate and provoke readers into another one.     

再论“部落联盟”还是“民族”

王三义先生认为,以国家起源的“民族模式”代替传统的“部落联盟模式”,易建平这种做法是不对的。本文认为,王三史先生的观点难以成立,原因在于,他混淆了“部落联盟”与“部落联盟模式”两个完全不同的概念,并且,把希腊人和罗马人国家起源的例子当作了“特例”,而这摩尔根与恩格斯是当作典型例子的。     

"Showplace of the Cherokee Nation": race and the making of a southern house museum

This article traces the restoration history of the Chief Vann House State Historic Site, a former Cherokee plantation owned and operated by the state of Georgia. The article explores the make-up of the restoration community in the 1950s and identifies aspects of convergence and divergence among this white, elite group in terms of both their visions for the site and their notions of how best to represent Indians. It argues that restorers used the restoration process as a route for personal and community identity enhancement, identifying with the storied Cherokee Indians and claiming "Indian" characteristics and the historical experience of Indian removal for themselves.     

意大利“南方问题”的缘起和发展

一、“南方问题”的渊源 重视发展问题已经成为关注明和未来的一种方式。我国现阶段世界历史研究中,比较关注发展中国家的发展问题,对发达国家中的发展问题注意不够。意大利“南方问题”作为意大利近现代史中最重要的问题之一,早已引起意大利史学界的重视,可能成为同一时期研究最多的问题①。从该问题产生以后到墨索里尼时期,有关“南方问题”的论有20多种②。     

The "Return of the Subject" As a Historico-Intellectual Problem

Recently, a call for the “return of the subject” has gained increasing influence. The power of this call is intimately linked to the assumption that there is a necessary connection between “the subject” and politics (and ultimately, history). Without a subject, it is alleged, there can be no agency, and therefore no emancipatory projects—and, thus, no history. This paper discusses the precise epistemological foundations for this claim. It shows that the idea of a necessary link between “the subject” and agency, and therefore between the subject and politics (and history) is only one among many different ones that appeared in the course of the four centuries that modernity spans. It has precise historico‐intellectual premises, ones that cannot be traced back in time before the end of the nineteenth century. Failing to observe the historicity of the notion of the subject, and projecting it as a kind of universal category, results, as we shall see, in serious incongruence and anachronisms. The essay outlines a definite view of intellectual history aimed at recovering the radically contingent nature of conceptual formations, which, it alleges, is the still‐valid core of Foucault's archeological project. Regardless of the inconsistencies in his own archeological endeavors, his archeological approach intended to establish in intellectual history a principle of temporal irreversibility immanent in it. Following his lead, the essay attempts to discern the different meanings the category of the subject has historically acquired, referring them back to the broader epistemic reconfigurations that have occurred in Western thought. This reveals a richness of meanings in this category that are obliterated under the general label of the “modern subject”; at the same time, it illuminates some of the methodological problems that mar current debates on the topic.     

Quebec and Canada at the Crossroads: A Nation within a Nation

Abstract. I argue first that there are many different concepts of the nation, and advocate a certain conceptual pluralism. I also argue that a population as a whole cannot constitute a nation unless it has a certain national consciousness. I then show that we must adopt a fundamental principle of tolerance. I also try to attend to the complexities of the relations between Quebec and Canada, and argue that different populations represent themselves as nations in different ways and with different concepts. 1 show that Quebec constitutes a nation within a nation. I then wonder what it would mean for Canadians to accept a Quebec nation. Finally, I try to explain why a very large proportion of the population of Quebec has increasingly been favourable to sovereignty, and favourable to making a partnership proposal to Canada.     

中国国民政府与琉球问题

20世纪40年代,中国国民政府曾一度面临解决中、日之间悬而未决的琉球问题的有利时机。但是,由于国民政府内部分歧重重,以及二战后最高当局忙于内战,没有能够在该问题上达成任何政府共识,最终丧失了解决琉球问题的法理权。而且,伴随着东、西方冷战的加剧以及国民政府在国共内战后败退台湾,琉球问题被美国所操纵而成为美、日冲绳问题,从而给海峡两岸的中国人民留下深深的历史遗憾。     

中缅边界中的"麦克马洪线"问题及其解决

中缅边界中的"麦克马洪线"问题是英国在中国西南边疆进行殖民扩张的产物.中缅双方通过友好协商,本着互谅互让的精神,在1961年全面解决了包括"麦克马洪线"问题在内的中缅边界问题.中缅成功解决"麦克马洪线"问题的经验,对中印边界问题的解决具有借鉴意义.