Introduction: Anthropology,Collecting and Colonial Governmentalities

This special issue contributes to an emerging literature on the materialities of colonial government by considering the changing relations between practices of data collecting, styles of anthropological knowing and modes of governing which target the conduct of colonial and metropolitan populations. Drawing on comparative studies from Australia; the Australian administered territory of Papua; France; French Indo-China; New Zealand; North America and the UK; the papers consider the implications of different forms of knowledge associated with practices of collecting—anthropology, archaeology, folklore studies, demography—in apparatuses of rule in various late nineteenth and early twentieth-century contexts. This introduction outlines the rationale for the volume and elaborates the concept of “anthropological assemblage” which helps focus the authors' explorations of the socio-technical agencements which connected museum, field, metropolis and colony during this period. In doing so, it points towards a series of broader themes—the relationship between pastoral power and ethnographic expertise; the Antipodean career of the Americanist culture concept; and the role of colonial centres of calculation in the circulation of knowledge, practices of collecting and regimes of governing—which suggest productive future lines of inquiry for “practical histories” of anthropology.     

解析上海出土文物中的藏传佛教因素

元代以来,藏传佛教广泛在西藏以外地区传播,带来了独特的宗教理念和宗教艺术。江南地区寺塔林立,在上海佛塔"天宫"、"地宫"出土的佛教文物中,诸多藏传佛教文化元素,从较早的元代一直延续到清代。这些文物是藏传佛教在江南地区传播的实证,对其性质的分析研究,可以了解元明清时期汉藏文化的融合方式和特点。     

宁乡铜器群与新干铜器群比较研究

本文从铜器内涵、文化面貌及与中原铜器的关系等方面对宁乡铜器群和新干铜器群进行比较后发现,两者结构上存在巨大差异(所含铜器年代跨度不同、主体年代或所属文化年代不同、铸造地复杂情况迥异),时间上不并行,文化传统上联系很少,与中原铜器关系的性质也不一样.因此,我们认为两者既不是商代晚期湘江流域和赣江流域同时并存的青铜文明,也不存在源流或继承关系.对于宁乡铜器群文化属性的判定,应该建立在对其所属考古学文化背景的深入研究之上,不能因为其与新干铜器群分布地域彼此毗邻或部分铜器年代接近而进行简单比照.     

Contact Dynamics of Masonry Block Structures Using Mathematical Programming

A simple variational formulation for contact dynamics is adopted to investigate the dynamic behavior of planar masonry block structures subjected to seismic events. The numerical model is a two-dimensional assemblage of rigid blocks interacting at potential contact points located at the vertices of the interfaces. A no-tension and associative frictional behavior with infinite compressive strength is considered for joints. The dynamic contact problem is formulated as a quadratic programming problem (QP) and an iterative procedure is implemented for time integration. Applications to analytical and numerical case studies are presented for validation. Comparisons with the experimental results of a masonry wall under free rocking motion and of a small scale panel with opening subjected to in-plane loads are also carried out to evaluate the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the formulation adopted.     

Very long term history and people's history

Often William Blake and Isaac Newton are positioned as “opposites”: Newton the great systematizer, Blake the visionary artist. (Blake himself, in fact, seemed to have set up this direct opposition.) However, this opposition is perhaps too simple and overlooks the intricacies of each thinker's work. Further, this straightforward “opposition” fails to account for the pressure that scholarship itself, always occurring from a particular subjective position, applies to shape its objects of study; that is, it creates a useful “Newton” and a useful “Blake” with which to work. Here I employ spatial theorist Henri Lefebvre's technique of “critical thirding” (as Edward Soja has called it), or accounting for “an-Other” position in the dialectic of “Blake” and “Newton”. I consider where Blake and Newton were perhaps more similar than has been suggested in the scholarly literature, and, more crucially, how scholarship itself mobilizes (or indeed “creates”) its own, subjectively useful, “Blake” and “Newton” in order to make particular arguments.     

Maisons Tropicales/Maisons Coloniales: contesting technologies of authenticity and value in Niamey,Brazzaville, Paris,New York and Venice

This article draws on multi-sited anthropological fieldwork to analyse institutional practices of producing cultural authenticity and value under conditions of globalization. It focuses on the ‘re-discovery’ of three so-called Maisons Tropicales as modern architectural heritage in Niamey and Brazzaville. These prototypes of a colonial building project were subsequently translocated, commoditized and displayed as modern works of art in Paris and New York. The article describes the global connections and disconnections between the actors involved, claiming that the alternative practices of appropriating the Maisons Tropicales rely on competing and conflicting technologies of authenticity and value. Adding to scholarship on exchanges of material culture, as well as on the production of cultural authenticity and value, the article reframes debates in heritage studies pertaining to the ethics of site-specificity, material integrity, and integrity of place; preservation, conservation, and restoration; restitution and repatriation; as well as questions of cultural identity and the notion of a ‘shared’ colonial heritage. Ultimately, the article re-contextualizes the Maisons Tropicales in their (post-)colonial legacies. It concludes that critical interjections by artists and ethnographers suggest potential to reassemble the dominant technologies of authenticity and value in the fields of art and heritage preservation.     

Innovation,knowledge and relations – on the role of clusters for firms’ innovativeness

ABSTRACT

For more than two decades, theories on regional clusters have inspired economic and structural policies at the European, national and regional levels. Based on the assumption that clusters generate innovation, policy-makers at all levels of governance have adopted instruments and mechanisms to stimulate, resource and sustain clusters. Despite the considerable attention paid to the clustering phenomenon, empirical evidence on to what extent firms’ innovation activities benefit from operating in clusters is scarce and inconclusive. This paper contributes to the micro-foundation of clustering effects by examining the characteristics and activities of cluster firms in relation to their innovativeness. Bridging innovation, management and cluster theories, it is argued that structural and relational embeddedness, relational capital and absorptive capacity influence clustered firms' innovativeness. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling of data from 104 firms in two software and information technology service sector clusters reveals that firms’ structural embeddedness (i.e. frequency of interactions) in clusters and external networks facilitates innovation cooperation. Firms’ absorptive capacity reinforces this positive effect of cluster-internal interactions on innovation cooperation. Results also suggest a substitution effect of trust as relational control mechanisms for formal control mechanisms within the cluster. However, the study finds no significant impact of firms’ innovation cooperation within the cluster (i.e. relational embeddedness) on their innovation success.     

从环境的历史到环境史——关于环境史研究的一种认识

By and large, there are three kinds of research on environment: the history of environment as a field of natural history studies, the history of environment as within the scope of history of society studies, and environmental history as the study of the relationship between human and nature. The methodological perspective of the relationship between humanity and environmental distinguishes the third from the previous two. From this perspective, when we probe the mutual effects between human and nature, we will stress on their interactions. The new era and the realities of contemporary society foster the rise of environmental history, which has not only theoretical values but also practical significance. Translated from Xueshu Yanjiu 学术研究 (Academic Research), 2006, (9):12–22     

Catholic church history

Patrick O'Farrell: The Catholic Church in Australia, A Short History: 1788–1967, Nelson, Sydney, 1968, pp. 294, $1.75.     

夏扎家史

翻阅20世纪前半叶的西藏历史,我们的意识会被戏剧般的生活所吸引。从吐蕃到20世纪前半叶这段历史。是一种延续的渐进过程。贵族家族经历了形成、巩固、发展的漫长历史。这一切有如一幅长长的画卷,由远到近,最终清晰可见。家族正是生活在近代西藏社会中最高的和最受瞩目的家族。如“多仁”、“吞巴”,“帕拉”、“拉鲁”、“桑颇”、“擦绒”、“霍康”、“夏扎”、“索康”、“赤门”等等。这些家族正是依托制度,演绎各自家族的历史。     

Textual context in the history of political thought and intellectual history

ABSTRACT

We can easily misread historical texts if we take ideas and passages out of their textual contexts. The resulting errors are widespread, possibly even more so than errors through reading ideas and passages out of their historical contexts. Yet the methodological literature stresses the latter and says little about the former. This paper thus theorises the idea of textual context, distinguishes three types of textual context, and asks how we uncover the right textual contexts. I distinguish four kinds of textual-context error, and offer practical tips for avoiding these errors. However, the beating heart of this paper is the history–philosophy debate: in contrast to the prevailing assumption that historical and philosophical analysis are fundamentally different, I show that a commitment to textual context, which should be entirely uncontroversial, also commits one to think philosophically.     

中国古代人际传播思想中的关系假设

人际传播是人与人之间的意义创造和意义关系的交流.它因人们的交往关系而存在并运用于交往关系之中.关系总是同传播紧密地联系在一起而不可分割的.中国传统文化中关系假设无所不在.正是这些建立在通常假设意义的核心基础之上的"关系"理论造成中国古代乃至现代华人社会信息传播的隐蔽性.因此,只有研究维系中国古代人际传播秩序的关系假设,才能正确诠释"仁"、"礼"、"忠恕"、"和为贵"等传统思想范畴在古代人际传播过程中的意义.     

The history of neurosonology

A multitude of nonpharmacological interventions to terminate hiccup belong to the public-domain hiccup “mythology” or have been described in the medical literature as case reports. While usually effective in terminating bouts of acute hiccup, they are mostly ineffective in cases of hiccupping that have been present for an extended period. The common denominator of most of these therapeutic maneuvers (some also used to terminate paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia) is their ability to directly or indirectly increase efferent vagal activity. Among the best known “vagal maneuvers” are the oculo-cardiac reflex (Dagnini-Aschner), the carotid sinus massage, the Valsalva maneuver, stimulation of the ear/auditory canal, ice ingestion, and induction of emesis. This short report provides an overview on hiccups and attempts to identify the lesser known personalities who pioneered its treatment by vagal maneuvers. The recent introduction of electrical vagus nerve stimulation for therapy-resistant hiccup is the ultimate compliment to these pioneers.     

The commonwealth as history

The Imperial Dream: The British Commonwealth and Empire 1775–1969 by Edward Grierson. London: Collins, 1972. Pp. 320. £2.50. It is a pity that no one has troubled to read the proofs; the bibliography is peppered with spelling mistakes.

Commonwealth: A History of the British Commonwealth of Nations by H. Duncan Hall, with an introduction by Sir Robert Menzies. London, New York, Cincinnati, Toronto, Melbourne: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1971. Pp. xxxvi+1015, maps, illustrations. £10.00.     

Relational linguistic continuity

This paper develops a concept of relational linguistic continuity as a new basis to defend the right to linguistic survival. Relational linguistic continuity refers to a condition whereby individuals may continuously form human relations and have social interactions with others with whom they share the language of origin or of socialisation. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 critically engages with two distinct arguments that tackle the issue of linguistic survival: one based on equality of autonomy and another based on equality of dignity. Then, I point out that both arguments are insufficient for a full-fledged defence of linguistic survival. Section 3 develops a concept of relational linguistic continuity. I first introduce the seminal idea of linguistic security proposed by Leslie Green and Denise Réaume, which will be critically revised in order to develop my concept of relational linguistic continuity. I conclude with Section 4 by defending the right to linguistic survival and addressing potential criticisms. I argue that my concept of relational linguistic continuity successfully provides a basis to defend the right to linguistic survival.