Nomadism in the Modern World

A Soviet specialist on the economic geography of Afghanistan and the arid zone examines contemporary processes characteristic of nomadism: the changing relationships between nomadic and settled populations and the pressures that induce nomads to adopt a settled mode of life. The gradual transformation of the nomadic economy is viewed as historically inevitable, but the problems involved in the settling process vary in different regions and depend to a large extent on the physical and economic setting of the region.     

流民与近代盗匪世界

本文从社会史角度，对流民与近代盗匪世界的互动关系进行剖析，认为流民是盗匪的最可靠的来源，近代中国所以成为盗匪世界，正是建筑于流民遍地国情基础上的。文章还以苏、皖淮北地区为例，进一步揭示出流民与社会动乱的关系，指出：在一个流民众多的国度里，如果社会不能将他们的社会行为纳入合理的规范内，那么，流民的越轨犯禁，就会直接造成社会的动荡不安。     

Moving Words: Christian Language and the Modern World

Within the anthropology of Christianity, much attention has been paid to the convergence of Christianity with modern understandings of language. In this essay, I review scholarship that traces the historical connections between modern and Christian views of language, particularly in British colonial attacks on Hindu language practices, and I examine two recent ethnographies that offer different vantage points on the variety of ways in which contemporary Christians use language in a self-consciously modern way.     

Towards a Transpacific Archaeology of the Modern World

The historical archaeology of overseas Chinese communities is a rapidly growing subfield. Although historical archaeology is not widely practiced in China, there are well-developed interdiscipinary research centers that investigate the history and culture of migrants’ qiaoxiang (hometown) societies. Scholars in American Studies programs throughout Asia are also bringing new perspectives to the study of Chinese migration past and present. By collaborating with these scholars, archaeologists on the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project are developing new chronological, geographic, spatial, and material frameworks for the interpretation of overseas Chinese archaeological sites and landscapes.     

Tailors-Made: Heritage Governance Customization in Late Modern Canada

Canada is not just a patchwork of varying heritage governance delineated by provincial and territorial boundaries but a maelstrom of contesting and overlapping practices and processes originating from state and non-state actors. Since the 1990s, this patchwork of governance has increasingly diffused into Indigenous and local spheres through the negotiation of formal (treaties, legislation) and semi-formal (memoranda of understanding) agreements. Ideological tensions persist between the design aspirations of resurgent Indigenisms and Canadian late modern state processes. The resurgence of Indigenous capacities and institutions with a heritage management mandate has also created Indigenous jurisdictions not premised in any nation-to-nation agreement.     

Military and Civilian Governance in the Western Borderlands of the Russian Empire during the First World War

On the whole, the civilian and military authorities were able to coordinate and compromise in governing Russia’s western borderlands during the First World War, despite constant military interference in civilian governance and a certain apathy in the center, both of which contributed to administrative disunity from the onset of the war.     

On the Edge of Improvement: Rathlin Island and the Modern World

This paper focuses on the archaeology of an island off the north coast of Ireland as a case study of the processes affecting rural life in the country in the Age of Improvement. The nature of changes to management of the landscape and architectural modes is discussed and an attempt is made to identify the agents of reform. The response and negotiation of the islanders to emergent commercialisation is discerned by changes to traditional houses and the material emerging from recent excavation work.