‘Balkan Mentality’: History,Legend, Imagination

Abstract. In this article I attempt to do two things. First I consider in what sense it could be reasonable to talk of a ‘Balkan mentality’, shared across national divisions by all peoples in Southeastern Europe. I argue among other things that nationalism and its impact on culture and scholarship has been a major stumbling block for the conceptualisation of a shared ‘Balkan mentality’. Secondly, I go on to examine one possible context in which a shared mentality could be said to have existed among the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. I suggest that such a context could be located in the pre-nationalist Balkan society of the eighteenth century, a period in which the region was politically united by Ottoman rule. To illustrate the content of the mental outlook shared by the Balkan Orthodox in the eighteenth century I examine the autobiographical writings of three major authors, one writing in Greek (Caisarios Depontes), one in Bulgarian (Sofroni Vra?anski) and one in Serbian (Matija Nenadovi?). I identify the shared mental elements reflected in their texts and point out how the transition to a national self-conception taking place at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the Balkans, marked the end of this shared ‘Balkan mentality’. The study is thus an exploration in the ‘prehistory’, as it were, of nationalism in the Balkans, an exploration which also looks at the symbolic origins nationalism in the region as reflected in the texts of two of the three authors.     

History as Moral Reflection

Book reviewed in this article:
The Degradation of American History , by David Harlan.     

西藏次仁切阿雪山博物馆

藏文化中“自然与人”的关系密不可分是藏民族文化精髓的重要组成部分。“次仁切阿”就源自喜马拉雅山脉的什么传说。几千年来,在藏族先民与青藏高原的和谐相处中,形成了特有的生活方式和民族文化。藏文化中“自然与人”的关系密不可分,是藏民族文化精髓的重要组成部分。“次仁切阿”就源自喜马拉雅山脉的神秘传说。     

History as Sacrifice: The Polynesian Iconoclasm

ABSTRACT The Polynesian iconoclasm comprised a series of destructive episodes in which god‐images were rendered powerless and temples and associated structures were successively burned or torn down in Eastern Polynesia. Beginning in Tahiti and neighbouring Mo'orea in 1815, it spread rapidly to other Society Islands, the Austral Islands and the Southern Cook Islands. In this article I suggest that the willingness of Polynesian leaders to follow Tahitian precedence in destroying or unwrapping their god images can be partially explained by the fact that they saw themselves as participants in a large‐scale sacrifice, the common objective of which was the acquisition of greater mana and the consequent revitalisation of their societies. In making this argument I engage with anthropological theories that address relationships between sacrifice and historical transformation. I conclude by proposing that the Polynesian iconoclasm was a form of rituopraxis comprising regionally specific improvisations upon a general ritual schema.     

区域史研究的考察——以中亚史为例

地区史或区域史的研究应是世界史研究的一部分。在全球化的今天,世界历史的研究,既应是跨区域跨文化的综合整体研究,同时又是各个地区或区域研究的深入。在地区史研究中,地理上的划分是否能够提供一个满意体系,一直存有疑窦,而中亚史研究中更突出地存在着地理划分的争议。事实上,每一部有关中亚的著作都有自己的地理界定,不同的界定又体现出作者对自己所研究的地区的理解和期望,划定地域界限,就是确定、分析、重建,从而选择和采纳某种历史哲学。国内中亚区域史的研究,起步较晚,很大程度地受语言因素的制约,因此,在一些具体研究领域上,与国际最高水准还有不同程度的差距。