19世纪后半期鲁西民间宗教结社与拳会的动向

分析八卦教、拳会、基督教会三关系对于教案和义和团的研究有重要意义。鲁西八卦教在清政府的镇压之下,尽管仍能维持而不坠,但自18世纪末已开始走向衰落,且在1861-1863年的起义后销声匿迹。拳会在清中期是民间宗教结社的外围组织,至八卦教衰落后,成为地方社会的新势力。鲁西是天主教在山东的根据地,八卦教的衰退与教会的发展在时间上基本一致。19世纪后期,拳会与教会都在不断扩张势力,双方围绕着乡村民众的保护问题互相对立。19世纪末在鲁西频繁发生教案,其原因之一正是双方矛盾上升为武力冲突。     

Brain Physiology and the Mind in the Nineteenth Century

This article explores the integration of research and theory in nineteenth-century neurophysiology. Four generalities combine to explain their integration. They are the core beliefs of the neurologists, the pervasive habit of perceiving mind when observing behavior, the criteria for the existence of mind, and mind as an efficient cause. These generalities help explain specific choices made by certain researchers to work within the traditional model of the nervous system, to reject materialism, and to find intelligence and voluntary behaviors in physiological systems.     

Reading Pottery: Literature and Transfer-Printed Pottery in the Early Nineteenth Century

The use of illustrations from literary sources, specifically fiction, on transfer-printed earthenwares in the early nineteenth century is addressed through an example of a household dump in Buckinghamshire, England. This paper examines such ceramics in terms of the nature of fiction and the reading public in Britain during this period and how the production and consumption of literary ceramics is connected to the changing perception of fiction and its accompanying illustrations. The paper argues that the use of literary scenes as patterns on transfer-printed vessels had to mediate both changing perceptions of fiction and ideals of the picturesque and suitable subjects for transfer print patterns.     

Christian Capital: Singapore,Evangelical Flows and Religious Hubs

Recent scholarship has pointed out the ways in which religions are increasingly commodified, primarily through two mechanisms: the monetisation of religious objects and practices, and the materialisation and extension of religious-symbolic power through new technologies and practices. These two mechanisms of monetisation and materialisation provide very concrete ways of understanding religious commodification, but they do not provide a complete picture of how religious capital is created and sustained in the holistic context of society, city and nation considered in relation to international capital flows. “Christian Capital” includes not only the commodity, consumerist and media empires particularly associated with global-reach “megachurches”, but also the less-tangible situational, relational, human-social and influential wealth created between religious agencies and their urban-national contexts. Using the case of Christian agencies in Singapore and their strategic creation of transnational influences, this paper offers a conception of Christian capital that incorporates not only the materialisation of religious influence in terms of finances and commodities, but also its expression in less tangible but significant ways in terms of the creation of an international “brand” of Singapore Christianity.