Searching for the Intercultural,Searching for the Culture

This paper questions a dominant view of culture as being relatively bounded and hermetic by questioning the concept of an intercultural domain that is brought into existence as a necessary consequence of this view. The paper suggests that recognition of cultural processes does not lead to the need to posit ‘a culture’ which is constituted by them. The view that ‘a culture’ is a relatively autonomous, relatively hermetic and relatively homeostatic entity arises, this paper argues, in the birth of nationalism and the founding years of anthropology, which are intimately linked. This approach, characterised here as modernist, is criticised for failing to deal well with complex cultural relationships. It results in the need to theorise an intercultural space, or a realm of cultural change, between cultures theorised as entities. Here the later work of Malinowski is used as an exemplar. The paper argues for alternative conceptualisations, such as Gluckman's suggestion that intercultural relations occur within social fields which are the proper subject of anthropology, and Strathern's contention that ‘society’ is a redundant concept, yet not denying ‘sociality‘. The case of the Aboriginal people of Broome in their struggle with the state over the terms in which their prior rights to land will be recognised is used to illustrate this.     

大学中的人民,人民中的大学墨西哥国立自治大学UNAM

这所大学的特色,在于它的自治传统和校园建筑艺术。自治传统使墨大成为墨西哥历史和文化独树一帜的传承者,而其校园建筑艺术则让墨大在2007年入选了世界遗产名录。     

Evidence for the Past

Book reviewed in this article:
The What and the Why of History: Philosophical Essays By Leon J. Goldstein     

为民修志以人为本--《鹰潭市志》涉人浅析

《鹰潭市志》分上、中、下3册,40卷,近400万字。笔者花了3个月的时间就该志涉人情况进行了认真分析研究。全志涉及有名有姓的人共6234人,计13512人次。全志计2235页,平均每页涉人5．33次;全志396万字,平均每332．5个字中,就出现1个有名有姓之人。研读《鹰潭市志》涉人情况,笔者深感该志为民修志、以人为本的宗旨是贯穿全志的一条主线。下面就《鹰潭市志》的涉人情况作粗浅评析。     

勇敢者的游戏 罗依莫拉河漂流记

<正>在俄国和芬兰边境,距离北极圈不远的地方,有一条原生态河流——罗依莫拉河。去年6月,我应俄国朋友之邀,与他们一起在那里进行了一次难忘的漂流。我们的漂流队由8个人组成,共3支小艇,装备相当专业。我们在白夜(高纬度地区出现的黄昏还没有过去就呈现黎明的现象)期间的那个傍晚到达了出发地,从一座桥边下水,进入了漂流的河道。头顶是蓝天白云,下面是光滑如镜的幽深河水。岸上是葱茏叠翠的白桦和杉木杂生林——桦木的树干是白色的,树冠     

勇敢者的游戏 罗依莫拉河漂流记

<正>在俄国和芬兰边境,距离北极圈不远的地方,有一条原生态河流——罗依莫拉河。去年6月,我应俄国朋友之邀,与他们一起在那里进行了一次难忘的漂流。我们的漂流队由8个人组成,共3支小艇,装备相当专业。我们在白夜(高纬度地区出现的黄昏还没有过去就呈现黎明的现象)期间的那个傍晚到达了出发地,从一座桥边下水,进入了漂流的河道。头顶是蓝天白云,下面是光滑如镜的幽深河水。岸上是葱茏叠翠的白桦和杉木杂生林——桦木的树干是白色的,树冠     

Water for the City,Ruins for the Country: Archaeology of the New York City Watershed

Two New York City institutions, the Board of Water Supply (BWS) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), have shaped rural regions far outside city boundaries. The BWS depopulated places selected for reservoir construction. Residents were evicted and towns were demolished then submerged. Those who remained struggled to reorganize their lives amid the landscape clearance. Once the reservoirs were complete, the DEP replaced the BWS as the institution in charge of ensuring the city’s water supply. The DEP Police patrols around the reservoirs and enforces land-use regulations. Archaeological survey of city-owned watershed lands reveals a scarred landscape of ongoing colonial conflict.     

Taking Pictures for the Villagers

The township sent out a notice that all villagers should be photographed as part of the datacollection effort for the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme （NCMS） and it was hoped that the work team could help carry this out. We all wanted to help, but knew that it would not be easy. It was during a busy farming season, so it was difficult to gather the villagers （most of whom were busy working in the fields）. First we set up a simple photography studio in the village committee. The only piece of equipment we owned was a tripod and we used the bare wall of the committee building as a backdrop for the photos. As the day drew to a close, the villagers came in twos and threes, most of them straight from the fields. Then facilities for villagers to freshen-up were provided, including a basin of water, towels, and comb for them to tidy up before the shoot. But the villagefolks were often too shy to wash up in front of us, and even after our gentle persuasion, they would just splash some water on their faces. Sometimes, we, the photographers, had to help them with their hair and general appearance. Fortunately, they were completely at ease with that.     

Longing for the New Jerusalem

Abstract

The following article is concerned with the changing nature of religion in Northern Europe. It considers first the concepts of "believing without belonging" and "vicarious religion," pointing out the limitations of each and drawing extensively on previously published work. The following section discusses in more detail a shift that is currently taking place—that is from forms of religion that are imposed or inherited to forms of religion that are primarily chosen. Particular attention is paid to the implications of these changes for the rites of passage. The final section reflects on the theological consequences of these changes, first with a more detailed discussion of notion of vicariousness and second by examining the complex relationship between the public and the private in religious life. It argues that forms of religion that are chosen rather than inherited have implications for the public as well as the private sphere. They are ill-served by an over-rigorous application of the concept of privatization.