Two Careers across Two Cultures

Beginning with my recollection of hearing C. P. Snow's ‘Two Cultures’ lecture, I sketch my experience of building two academic careers in succession, first in one of the natural sciences and later in the history of such sciences. I outline both the difficulties and the rewards that I encountered in crossing the alleged gulf between the sciences and the humanities, but also emphasise the diversity of cultures that I experienced within each. I describe my own encounter with the academic culture of continental Europe, within which the concept of a monolithic singular ‘Science’ could be dismissed as an ‘anglophone heresy’, and viewed from which the Two Cultures debate could seem both provincial and redundant.     

A Tale of Two Cultures

My life has been framed by the two-cultures debate. A scientific education, good but narrow, led me into history of science just as anxiety about specialisation opened opportunities for ‘bridge’ subjects, and History and Philosophy of Science seemed just that bridge. My DPhil thesis (1964), on the reception of chemical atomic theory in the nineteenth century, led to a new lectureship at Durham that involved giving courses right across the different faculties, and close, stimulating involvement with other institutions where it was also being taught and researched; with the business of examining, reviewing, editing, and publishing; with the various societies set up to promote history of science; and with scientific societies like the Royal Society, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, finding science losing public esteem, and becoming interested in their past and how it might promote understanding and enthusiasm in the present. Encounters with historians of science, technology, and medicine at home and abroad, with coal miners and with museum curators, all wrestling with very different histories, indicated that Snow's ‘two cultures’ were a feature especially of 1950s Britain, that cultures were deeply divided in all sorts of ways, and that the social history of science was as important as its intellectual history. So over time I found myself teaching course s, and writing, on science and religion in the nineteenth century as well as on Butterfield and Hall's ‘Scientific Revolution’ that had dominated the subject in the 1960s and the ‘Second Scientific Revolution’ that had excited young Turks of my generation. Finally, I launched a course on Two Cultures as a historical phenomenon, focussing upon science, its developing institutions, reception, and place in the culture of the nineteenth-century Age of Science.     

河姆渡遗址与河姆渡文化

河姆渡遗址与河姆渡文化是既有联系又有区别的两个不同的考古学概念,本文通过宁绍平原相关遗址的河姆渡文化遗存地层及内涵整合梳理、排比归纳、结合 14C测年,来阐述认识,讨论相关问题。     

斜腹杯与三苗文化

三苗化指分布在长江中游和豫南地区的屈家岭化和石家河化,斜腹杯则是其最典型的器物之一。斜腹杯不但在三苗化区大量存在,而且还传播到豫西、晋南、陕北和皖北等地,其形制、分布范围和数量的变动,很大程度上反映了三苗化的发展兴衰过程,从中也可较清晰地观察到其与周围化关系的若干变化。     

土乡风情畅想曲

层层云峰,藏红滴翠;处处香径,融情通幽。步入土族山乡的怀抱,顿使你心旷神怡,遐思翩跹。那么多的情,那么丰富的色彩,那么神奇而富有诱惑力的神话世界……且听,且看!随同导游阿爹1共踯躅——绿色的梦风卷云海漫天雾,日溢星河浪花舞。心想摘一朵,凭栏彩霞落。啊!好一幅浓墨重彩的关山图。听,马蹄哒哒,大地颤抖……猛喝一声,且住,且住!顿时,从天外飞来的九万匹银烈马,一齐卧倒在地球的东北部,东经102°06'—102°43',北纬36°42'—37°06'。这就是坐落在中华人民共和国青海省互助土族自治县的祁连达坂北山。——九峰回环,八沟敷秀,一池碧波,万…     

景教东渐及传入中国的希腊--拜占庭文化

景教是产生于拜占庭帝国境内叙利亚地方的基督教异端,它在受到东正教会打击后向东传播,进入波斯、中亚并扩展到中国境内。景教传入中国境内乃至中原地区的时间,至少可推至6世纪前半叶,景教碑记载的贞观九年(635年)并非景教入华的最初年限。进入中原的景教徒为了传教事业,展开积极的文化活动,将特质不同于华夏文化的希腊-拜占庭医学、建筑、机械制造、天文学和景教艺术等引入了中国,在中国典籍中留下了斑斑陈迹。     

Changing Welfare Cultures in Region and State

The article takes a regional case study of three northern counties—Durham,Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire—to examinehow the hardships of communities, devastated by long-term structuralunemployment, exposed the inadequacy of a locally based welfaresystem, where poverty was itself expected to relieve destitution.Local welfare administrators put up a sustained challenge tomany of the preconceptions and practices of central governmentin their administration of a hierarchy of relief, assistanceand benefits in public welfare. In doing so, these northernadministrators precipitated draconian central action in an exemplarytakeover of administration in three out of the five local administrationsthat suffered this strategic intervention nationally, whileseveral others were threatened. This crucible of confrontationprovided a regional catalyst for the traditional concept ofconditional benefits, and a stigmatized welfare dependency tobegin to be superseded by a more egalitarian, democratic viewof entitlements as a citizen's right within a mixed economyof welfare. The article ends with a brief reflection on thewider and longer-term significance of this changing culture.     

守望精神的家园——土族、撒拉族非物质文化遗产保护与开发现状调查

非物质文化遗产与物质文化遗产一样,是人类文明的结晶,是人类社会得以延续的文化命脉。土族、撒拉族作为青海特有的世居少数民族,在与周边民族长期交往过程中,创造了内容丰富、独具特色的民族文化。其口头与非物质文化遗产作为青海高原特色文化的重要组成部分,具有很高的文化品位和研究开发价值。     

论内蒙古地区的考古学文化

2004年3月,故宫博物院原院长、国家文物局考古专家组成员张忠培教授,应内蒙古自治区文物考古研究所的邀请,在呼和浩特进行学术考察。3月13日下午,张忠培教授在内蒙古博物馆大会议室做了一场精彩的学术报告。现根据记录将张忠培先生的学术报告刊载如下,题目为编者所加。     

中国新石器时代文化演变动力分析

对多年来积累的气候资料的综合分析表明:在全新世期间有两个比较明显的温暖期。它们的时间分别为8～6kaBP(校正成日历年龄大约为9～7calkaBP)和5～3kaBP(日历年龄大约为5.5～3.2calkaBP)。文化的发展很大程度上受到了环境条件的制约。在前一个温暖期的后半段(8～7calkaBP),北方旱作农业(磁山文化、大地湾文化、兴隆洼文化)发展起来。南方稻作农业要在7.0～6.0calkaBP才初具规模。而6.0～5.5calkaBP的气候冷干事件使得南北方文化均有不同程度的衰退,但是南方受到的影响要小于北方。在后一个温暖期到来之后(5.5～3.2calkaBP),分别以龙山文化和良渚文化为代表的南北方新石器文化几乎同时进入发展史上的另一个黄金时代。尽管南北方文化体系对于气候变化的响应有所差异,并且不同时期不同地域文化发展动力也不尽相同,但是从大的时空尺度上来看,我国的新石器时代发展经历了如下阶段:最早期文化萌芽阶段(10calkaBP)——早中新石器时代之间的文化相对衰退期(10～8calkaBP)——新石器时代中期的北方农业文明崛起(8～7calkaBP)——7.0～6.0calkaBP的南方稻作农业的极大发展期——6.0～5.5calkaBP的文化衰退期——新石器时代晚期(5.5～4.0calkaBP)文化的极大繁荣。其间一些大的文化演替或者转型事件的时间在各地也大致相同。说明这种大的文化演进过程还是受到了同一个信号的支配,而只有环境气候因素才可能影响到如此大的范围。     

Commodity Cultures: The Traffic in Things

Focusing on the commodification of various forms of cultural difference, this paper reviews recent work within the 'globalization' and 'creolization' paradigms, outlining an agenda for future research. Rather than condemning commodification as an unwarranted threat to the 'authenticity' of local cultures, the paper argues for a more complex understanding of people's relationship with the world of goods. Using a variety of examples, it is argued that the 'traffic in things' is associated with a wide range of meanings and a diversity of responses. Informed by recent debates in anthropology and material culture studies, it is suggested that geographical metaphors (such as distance and displacement) provide a more productive way of engaging with contemporary commodity cultures than do visual metaphors (such as unveiling or unmasking). Other means of transcending the distinction between cultural and economic geographies are also discussed.     

如何在文化交流中进行文化比较

作认为,当前世界上有一种以种族中心主义作为政治信仰和建立认同的化战略,按照这种战略就会导致不同化之间的冲突。为了反对种族中心主义,实现人类的团结,他主张通过研究历史来探讨不同化的认同问题,即探讨究竟什么使我们不同和为什么会如此。在此基础上还应该确立使不同的化之间互相承认和理解分歧的原则。     

东北大秧歌与地域文化

东北大秧歌历史悠久,它即是东北地域民族民间文化精英典型代表之一,也是东北满、汉等族文化大融合的结晶。本文从文化形态学和文化比较学的角度及方法论证了东北大秧歌的历史渊源、艺术特色与族属关系等方面。     

孝道与六朝丧葬文化

六朝时期,儒佛道三教求同于孝道,形成了独特而丰富的生死观和丧葬习俗,并产生了大批颇具三教色彩及孝悌内涵的随葬器物。