古村·老屋·手艺人

江南的三月,杂树生花,莺飞草长,春意盎然.我乘双休日与学校美术系的几个学生结伴,一同去了永嘉县最北边的一个偏僻的小山村--林坑村采风.早就听说那里山美,水美,是典型的浙南山区村落,只要用三、四个小时就能到那里.可没想到一路上不停的转车、行路,再加上山路崎岖窄小,车又颠簸,搞得人十分疲惫.临近村庄时,车子一拐入山口,远处就出现了一群镶嵌在青山绿水中、错落有致的浙南山区民居.它们一下子就把我吸引住了,一路的疲惫也好象被赶到九霄云外去了.     

三川土乡长联

上联龙离大海飞来,永住偎依恋三川。况弹丸之地扼关嗌(1)、通五县、接甘青、控丝路,险堑雄关军士兵家争夺也!暴风骤雨洗礼三川,常演触目惊心悲剧。此处西倚积石岿岭,东与永靖娅(2)接,北靠龙支山岭,南有黄河划界兮!仰望静明天宇,宿辰忭(3)和,舛星(4)化昊空。月晕、月辉,月辉、月晕,嫦娥昉(5)面素装,欲渡漭泱(6)银河舞自由。坠星踪去,日月永存,悠悠苍天,赐放晅(7)光照环球。嗟嗟!天公宠爱此间依山傍水,又无寒暑,温和润候,花昳瓜苾(8)赢得青海江南之美称。神工鬼斧拓宽盘古鸿猷(9),造就景观:积石垭(10)口吐波涛,寺沟俣(11)嘴吞黄河。临天池仙境…     

情暖土乡--胡锦涛总书记视察互助土族自治县纪实

隆冬的土乡大地,天寒地冻。北风在山梁上吹过,河水在冰层下悄悄地流淌,红红的太阳爬上了山头,人们到处都在传播着一个特大喜讯:中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席胡锦涛要来互助了!土乡各族群众奔走相告,38万土乡的干部、群众的心被这个喜讯感动着。这是一个让所有土乡人     

Hindu cosmology and the orinetation and segregation of social groups in villages in Northwestern India

This paper presents a cultural analysis of the directional orientation and segregation of castes in villages in a part of the northwestern plains of India. It interprets the built environment in terms of Hindu cosmology. Recent literature in cultural geography interprets the landscape as text or through symbols. The symbolic approach has greater relevance for traditional societies where clear schemata are discernible in built environments. This paper attempts a critical appraisal of Hindu cosmology as a schema for interpreting built environments in Indian villages.
Challenging the widely held view that Indian villages lack order, the paper demonstrates that there is a religiously ordained order in the landscape. The order is manifested in the form of orientation of several features of landscape, especially the caste mohallãs (wards) to the cardinal directions. Orientation of caste mohallãs to the 'sacred' directions in a settlement follows a system evolved by Indian civilization to harmonize the fractured social order with the segmented cosmic order. The paper also demonstrates that segregation is an inherent characteristic of orientation.
As a background for regional diversities, empirical evidence reveals that in the study region Hindu cosmology is impressed on villages, though often in a modified form. Villagers believe that the social space known as khenúã slopes down from west to east, while the southern sector is the 'lowest' segment of the village. Dominant castes characteristically reserve for themselves the best western site of the village and low castes are placed in lower social spaces, with scheduled castes being generally placed in the south.     

A social geography of preindustrial labour migration in Japan: Tajima and Kurome villages in the nineteenth century

Labour migration to and from two preindustrial villages in Japan is examined over nearly three-quarters of the nineteenth century. The history and geography of migration are related to local and regional conditions, and to natural events. Natural disasters are demonstrated to offer the best single explanation for much of the movement of labour.     

Deserted medieval villages and fields in Germany,a survey of the literature with a select bibliography

In Germany research into deserted settlements developed into an important branch of settlement history. It was realized that the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, following on a period of high-medieval expansion of settlement and cultivated land, were themselves a time of great decline. The theoretical explanation for this development is the late-medieval agricultural crisis, a concomitant of the late-medieval fall in population. We must distinguish between a high-medieval phase of settlement desertion associated with a concentration of population into larger villages and towns without a drop in absolute population figures, and a late-medieval desertion period when settlements and fields contracted because of loss of life due to famines and the Black Death. Different research methods have been used to locate deserted settlement sites, both from documentary evidence (Rückschreibung) and by doing field-work. By mapping the relict features of deserted villages and fields our knowledge of the evolution of settlement- and field-patterns was increased. In particular, the evolution of the three-field-system has been explained as part of the concentration of population into larger settlements. A classification of the desertion process has helped with the terminological clarification of the subject, although there remain areas of dispute. The introduction of the desertion quotient made it possible to map the distribution of the deserted settlements. In the light of most recent research based on medieval archaeology this map needs corrections. It is now obvious that the late-medieval desertion quotient was not only high in areas of marginal land quality but also in fertile areas with a long history of settlement continuity. In those areas vestiges of earlier occupations were literally ploughed into the ground. This example illustrates that future research on deserted settlements must be of an interdisciplinary nature.     

咏乡土风貌 歌沧桑变迁——《七彩黑林河》序

"上四堡"是青海省大通回族土族自治县西南隅的一处地名。从这名字,便可诱发人们许多联想,大通自古便是军事要冲,翻阅史籍,在漫漫历史长河里,这片土地上,金戈铁马,烽火连天,战车驰骋,你来我往,     

乡村都市化与都市村民的宗族生活--广州城中三村研究

在珠江三角洲地区,随着城市的不断扩大,乡村都市化进程加快,都市宗族这种特有的文化现象亦受到影响,传统观念的文化土壤、都市环境的心理适应以及经济利益的内在牵引是都市宗族得以存续的条件.然而,都市生活的浸染,致使宗族权力再度萎缩,宗族意识日趋消解.随着城中村的改造、村庄的终结,都市村民的宗族生活必将转化为远离其传统载体的文化躯壳,并在跨越边界的社区网络中渐淡地延续下去.     

17世纪英国海外贸易的拓展与转型

17世纪,英国与西欧、北欧呢绒的贸易趋于衰落,而与利凡特东印度以及北美殖民地的进口贸易却繁荣起来。进口的目的是为了再出口。这种输入与再输出的贸易越来越发达,而呢绒出口贸易则逐渐走向衰落,这就是所谓的贸易转型。17世纪英国的贸易转型分两个阶段：第一阶段发展的是与利凡特—东印度的贸易;第二阶段发展的是与殖民地的贸易。这种以再出口为目的的新型海外贸易,是17世纪英国巨额财富的主要来源。     

Beilstein in English

Abstract

If we consider the context in which certain works of art were produced, as well as the world view of the artists themselves, we should be able to make some connections between the history of science and the history of art. We can do this partly because we have access to reproductions of pictures in all media made before photography and can make comparisons between them. Yet these same techniques for the multiplication of images flood our own daily horizons with pictures taken from their original context and often trivialised. Photography has so conditioned our way of looking at pictures that a considerable corrective effort is needed to bridge the psychological distance between our own mentality and that of the past.