地理的视角:中国历史地理研究与教学的前沿

2011年2月19日到20日,在美国中南部的阿肯色州州会小石城举行了"中国历史的地理视角国际学术研讨会",藉以推广地理学在传统汉学界的影响。本次会议由阿肯色州大学小石城分校(University of Arkansas,Little Rock)组织,得到了中国大陆、中国台湾、英国、德国、白俄罗斯与美国等各地学者的高度重视。19日全天开会,总共提交12篇论文,论点创新,时地跨越很广,从古代到当代,从华西北到华东南,收获相当丰富。主要演讲者是伊利诺斯州大学芝加哥分校(University of Illinois,Chicago)的何特勒(Laura Hostetler)和哈佛大学(Harvard University)的包弼德(Peter Bol)。20日上午包弼德举行颇有启示的讲座,即关于"中国历史地理信息系统"的研究与教学实用。     

Site formation processes in caves: The Holocene sediments of the Haua Fteah,Cyrenaica, Libya

Caves have yielded some of the most globally important archaeological sequences, but often their interpretation has suffered from assumptions about cave sedimentary processes. Caves contain distinctive sedimentary environments: this has major implications for the understanding of contained archaeological materials. This paper describes and analyses the Holocene sediments in the Haua Fteah, a sequence regarded as essentially continuous by the original excavator. 50 years after it was first excavated, the Haua's Epipalaeolithic to post-Classical chronological range and rich finds make it still the key Holocene archaeological site in North Africa. The reassessment shows, however, that the sequence is strongly discontinuous and this has major implications for the reinterpretation of the site, as the highly-resolved archaeological record is thus likely to reflect a series of brief occupations, rather than continuous human activity. As with many caves, the sedimentary record in the Haua Fteah is an extremely sensitive indicator of environments and processes in the wider landscape. Secure understanding of sedimentary process, from analysis of the highly individual records found in caves, is essential for full understanding of their contained archaeology.     

Trajectories of Development: International Heritage Management of Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa

Archaeology and material heritage are increasingly being used for development projects aimed at producing economic growth and reducing poverty. I am interested in how these projects construct particular ‘developmental’ visions of heritage, orienting and circumscribing relationships both with the past and contemporary social contexts. Here I address these processes as developmental technologies that produce poverty as a ‘local’ affair, in need of intervention, set in contrast to the traveling and translational abilities of international expertise in heritage management and development. I trace the expansion of this expertise across the Middle East and North Africa region, in a variety of contexts where material heritage is mobilized to reduce poverty. Importantly, the question of the economic value of heritage is necessarily placed center-stage in such projects. I argue that as archaeologists we need to engage with the economic value of material heritage, in order to start examining how exactly material heritage works in the world: to what ends and results, in what contexts, who gains to profit, and who suffers.     

Impure and Worldly Geography:1 The Africanist Discourse of the Royal Geographical Society, 1831–73

The written networks through which knowledge is produced and circulated offer a focus for a theoretically informed critique of the formation of modern geographical knowledge. Drawing on deconstruction and colonial discourse theory, this paper presents a reading of the Royal Geographical Society's (RGS) published record of nineteenth-century African exploration. This discourse posits a racially unmarked subject-position as the condition of scientific discussion. The Society's geographical knowledge is shown to have been formed through the effacement of alternative subject-positions and the appropriation of other ways of knowing. It is suggested that closer attention to the discursive structures of written networks of knowledge might inform a more nuanced understanding of the reproduction of disciplined knowledge.     

Three Scenarios Of The Middle To Upper Paleolithic Transition The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in Africa and the Early Peopling of Eurasia by Anatomically Modern Humans

Previous papers of this cycle describe the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Eurasia and in the Sino-Malayan zone. Archaeological evidence from Africa however, suggests a completely different model of the transition. Despite the variability of Paleolithic industries in Africa, the maintenance of the Middle Paleolithic strategy of core reduction constitutes a common trend. The transitional industries in North and East Africa are characterized by Aterian points and backed geometric implements.     

The prehistory of Cyprus: Problems and prospects

The archaeological record of prehistoric Cyprus is rich, diverse, well-published, and frequently enigmatic. Regarded by many as a bridge between western Asia and the Aegean, Cyprus and its past are frequently seen from scholarly perspectives prevalent in one of those two cultural areas. Its material culture, however, differs radically from that of either area. Apart from the early colonization episodes on the island (perhaps three during the pre-Neolithic and Neolithic), evidence of foreign contact remains limited until the Bronze Age (post-2500 B. C.). This study seeks to present the prehistory of Cyprus from an indigenous perspective, and to examine a series of archaeological problems that foreground Cyprus within its eastern Mediterranean context. The study begins with an overview of time, place, and the nature of fieldwork on the island, continues with a presentation and discussion of several significant issues in Cypriot prehistory (e.g., insularity, colonization, subsistence, regionalism, interaction, social complexity, economic diversity), and concludes with a brief discussion of prospects for the archaeology of Cyprus up to and beyond 2000.     

The 2010 independence jubilees: the politics and aesthetics of national commemoration in Africa

In 2010, as many as seventeen African states celebrated their independence jubilees. The debates surrounding the organisation of these celebrations, and the imagery and performances they employed, reflect the fault lines with which African nation‐building has to contend, such as competing political orientations as well as religious, regional and ethnic diversity. The celebrations represented constitutive and cathartic moments of nation‐building, aiming to enhance citizens' emotional attachments to the country and inviting to remember, re‐enact and re‐redefine national history. They became a forum of debate about what should constitute the norms and values that make‐up national identity and, in the interstices of official ceremonies, provided space for the articulation of new demands for public recognition. A study of the independence celebrations thus allows us to explore contested processes of nation‐building and images of nationhood and to study the role of ritual and performance in the (re)production of nations.     

Civic Sacrament and Social Imaginaries in Transition: The Case of the South African Churches and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Abstract

This article reflects on a seminal moment within South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC): the appearance of the African Initiated Churches (AICs) before the Commission in 1997. It demonstrates how this moment brought into relief divergent contestations of the public within South African Christianity in three ways: first, by situating the TRC within the liturgical performance of a reimagined South African nationality, making it a "civic sacrament" of reconciliation; second, by highlighting the formative role churches themselves played within this liturgy, deploying theological language to create a healed, secular body politic; third, by displaying the different social imaginary of the AICs—a social imaginary which interrupted the TRC's liturgical recreation of time and space, as well as challenging the historical relations between church and state in South Africa. The paper concludes with the question posed in this "interruption," a question that challenges the broader church with regard to fulfillment of the liturgy not in the secular nation-state, but in that City which is to come.     

The Supply of Glass at Portus Ilicitanus (Alicante,Spain): A Meta‐Analysis of HIMT Glasses

Portus Ilicitanus (Picola, Alicante) was the main sea harbour of the Roman Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta and as such played a crucial role in the supply of fundamental commodities to the Iberian Peninsula. Excavations yielded large quantities of glass in fourth‐ and early fifth‐century contexts. Elemental analysis of 60 samples by laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) confirmed that the glasses were imported from the Eastern Mediterranean. A majority of the glasses correspond to the HIMTa primary production group, which originates from Egypt. The statistical evaluation of published data of 589 HIMT glasses further revealed differential distribution patterns of the HIMTa and HIMTb subtypes between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, suggesting chronological trends that are linked to wider geopolitical changes. This demonstrates the need for systematic large‐scale approaches to identify supply patterns and possible factors underlying geographical differences and/or chronological developments.