ABDULLAH BIN ABDUL KADIR MUNSYI: A MAN OF BANANAS AND THORNS

Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi is best known for his memoirs, labelled by some his autobiography, the Hikayat Abdullah. The missionary, Alfred North, encouraged him to write his life story, a first in Malay, and it has been assumed that Abdullah, working in a new genre, was relatively faithful to the conventions of the genre; that at the very least, he was attempting to produce a tolerably straightforward account of his life and times. Both his admirers and detractors, though seemingly at odds, saw Abdullah's work as a mouthpiece for British values. It did not occur to scholars that Abdullah might possess his own agenda, and that his working in a foreign genre did not necessarily produce what those scholars assumed it did. This has produced a blinkered understanding of what Abdullah was about. His supreme aim was to enhance his own image and stature. Production of ‘historical’ facts was sometimes a secondary concern. ‘Fiction’ and ‘nonfiction’ were not yet established conventions in his literary milieu. He worked under major constraints, for his livelihood depended on not alienating patrons and future patrons, yet he devised ways to air views critical of the powerful. Here he was much more concerned with Islamic issues than ethnic ones.     

ISLANDSCAPES AND 'ISLANDNESS': THE PREHISTORIC ISLE OF MAN IN THE IRISH SEASCAPE

Summary.   This paper will explore the role of the Isle of Man in the prehistory of the Irish Sea area through an examination of its changing islandscape from the Neolithic through the Iron Age. It was far from insular during prehistory, but the social and economic interactions of prehistoric Manx people around the Irish Sea and beyond were heavily affected by their water-bound environment. The way that the prehistoric Manx perceived their boundaries and their coastal situation is reflected in their ritual and social landscape, their preferential use of coastal areas for monumental architecture, and in the choices they made with regard to the island landscape they inhabited. This culturally constructed sense of islandness allowed the prehistoric Manx people to maintain distinctive local cultures while still playing an active role in the larger Irish Sea region.     

COPPER AND BARIUM AS DIETARY DISCRIMINANTS: THE EFFECTS OF DIAGENESIS

In skeletons excavated from Woodland sites, copper and barium levels are found to have been contaminated by influx from the soil environment. Electron microprobe scans for both elements show build-up along the outer surface of femur cross sections. Elemental levels for Cu and Ba are lower in the femur or fibula than in the more porous rib. The distribution of Cu in the immediately surrounding soil is highly anisotropic. These observations indicate that Cu and Ba should not be used for dietary inferences about ancient populations without independent evidence that diagenesis is not important.     

VISION AS REVISION: RANKE AND THE BEGINNING OF MODERN HISTORY

It is widely agreed that a new conception of history was developed in the early nineteenth century: the past came to be seen in a new light, as did the way of studying the past. This article discusses the nature of this collective revision, focusing on one of its first and most important manifestations: Ranke's 1824 Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker. It argues that, in Ranke's case, the driving force of the revision was religious, and that, subsequently, an understanding of the nature of Ranke's religious attitude is vital to any interpretation of his historical revision. Being aesthetic‐experiential rather than conceptual or “positive,” this religious element is reflected throughout Ranke's enterprise, in source criticism and in historical representation no less than in the conception of cause and effect in the historical process. These three levels or aspects of the historical enterprise correspond to the experience of the past, and are connected by the essence of the experience: visual perception. The highly individual character of the enterprise, its foundation in sentiments and experiences of little persuasive force that only with difficulty can be brought into language at all, explains the paradoxical nature of the Rankean heritage. On the one hand, Ranke had a great and lasting impact; on the other hand, his approach was never re‐utilized as a whole, only in its constituent parts—which, when not in the relationship Ranke had envisioned, took on a new and different character. This also suggests the difference between Ranke's revision and a new paradigm: whereas the latter is an exemplary solution providing binding regulations, the former is unrepeatable.     

论人地关系的异化与人地系统研究

以工具的使用、农业文明的出现、文明社会的产生和工业革命为标志,人地关系发生了四次异化过程,形成了由自然环境、人类环境、社会环境和人类共同组成的、为人类所特有的人地系统。所谓的人地关系是人地系统中各组成部分之间相互关系的总称。人地系统受自然、技术和社会环境共同驱动,其核心是资源（自然环境）—生产（人为环境）—消费（人类）三者之间的平衡。人地关系研究的任务在于揭示人地系统的驱动机制以及系统内部相互作用机制     

HISTORY AS ORIENTATION: RÜSEN ON HISTORICAL CULTURE AND NARRATION

Geschichte im Kulturprozeß . By Jörn Rüsen History : Narration , Interpretation , Orientation . By Jörn Rüsen