Southern Farmers and Their Stories: Memory and Meaning in Oral History

Melissa Walker, an associate professor of history at ConverseCollege, author of All We Knew Was To Farm: Rural Women in theUpcountry South, 1919–1941 (Baltimore, MD: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 2000), winner of the Willie Lee Rose Prizefrom the Southern Association for Women Historians, presentsan intellectual tour de force in Southern Farmers and TheirStories: Memory and Meaning in Oral History, part of the NewDirections in Southern History Series from the University ofKentucky     

Phenomenology and the Problems of Oral History

Abstract: In this article, the author argues that many of thebest practices of oral history reflect phenomenological thinkingeven though practitioners may not describe themselves as usingphenomenological methods. The author suggests that knowledgeand application of phenomenology can clarify or minimize suchpotential problems as interviewer bias and informant unreliabilityand can refute accusations that oral history is less reliablethan history taken from documents.     

高崧父子生平考──兼谈南方士族墓葬的特殊性问题

本文较为系统地论述了东晋时期高崧父子的生平事迹,并对南方士族墓葬的特殊性问题作了探讨。     

构建中国特色、中国风格和中国气派的中国口述史学--关于口述史料与口述史学的若干问题

口述史料主要指经过口传或为后人记录成为史料的民间传说、社会歌谣、历史人物讲话、录音录像以及访问调查的原始资料,对这些资料的发掘和整理被称作口述史学.在西方,现代意义上的口述史学建立于20世纪30～40年代前后,与这些国家相比我国至今仍充其量只有一些口述史的实践,其发展受到多方面的限制.建议成立有关组织,召开研讨会,构建相关规范,制定相关规划,形成和发展中国特色、中国风格和中国气派的口述史学.     

当代中国史研究与口述史学

当代中国史是历史学家族中最年轻的一门学科,也是目前最有活力、发展最快的研究领域之一。口述史学的出现适应了时代的需要,也顺应了国史变革的方向。寻求二者的最佳结合途径能使二者相得益彰,“合之则两美,离之则两伤”。当代中国史研究需要通过开展口述史来拓展研究视野,活跃研究思路,并弥补与修正史料之不足,以最大程度地发挥其面向社会公共教育和启迪的功能。     

Poromoi Tamu and the Case of the Drowning Village: History, Lost Places and the Stories We Tell

Archaeological excavations at an ancestral village site within rainforest in Papua New Guinea has revealed buried cultural evidence that can be explained in a number of ways. While interpretations based on Western archaeological methods suggest regional landscape dynamics informed by geomorphological processes, Indigenous Rumu oral traditions suggest an interpretation of the site’s stratigraphy based on the workings of spiritual forces. The role of story-telling and new information in site interpretation and understanding is explored in light of these different yet complementary accounts.