新时期中国近代社会史研究评析

20多年来,社会史研究已经成为中国近现代史领域中最令人瞩目的方向。中国近代社会史研究经历了学科复兴、体系建构和稳步发展的三个阶段。中国近代社会史研究的时代特征主要体现为:区域社会史成果突出,其理论研究也日趋深化;近代乡村史研究方兴未艾,走向深入;新理念下的社会性别史引人关注。对于传统的中国近代史学科而言,社会史研究的学术贡献主要表现为三个方面:即突破教条,重构体系;汲取新知,更新方法;三大转向,完成转型。跨学科的交叉渗透、多学科理论方法的汲取,为社会史的进一步发展提供了深广的学理基础和诱人的前景。     

The past 20 years of modern Chinese social history

Modern Chinese social history has played an important role in the general revival of Chinese social history. This essay will provide an overview of the major achievements of past 20 years with particular emphasis upon the field of modern social history, the growth of regional social history, and the new research that draws upon field studies. It will also consider the recent debates on “re‐examining political history” and provide an introduction to new works in medical history and environmental/ecological history.     

Environmental History within a Revitalized Integrative Research Methodology for Today and Tomorrow

Abstract

In the past decades, historians and scientists worldwide have focused intensively on researching and recording the micro and macro trends of the environmental history of many places with reference to numerous aspects of nature that involve people. Yet no definite methodology, epistemology or even theory has resulted from these research contributions, which were and are being conducted within disciplinary and sometimes interdisciplinary frameworks. The transdisciplinary research approach, at least as practiced by historians, is a ‘newcomer’, although it features familiar criteria. For several reasons, some historians appear to be neither in favour of, nor familiar with, research co-operation with other disciplines, private practitioners or informed community members. There are obstacles to using a research methodology that complements the interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach, especially the grey areas of research quality, source validity, methodology and publication value. However, if approached constructively and meaningfully, transdisciplinary research may result in what we could call higher-order research because it is all-inclusive and can provide diverse perspectives on any theme, for example, environmental history. This article discusses the possibility of progressing towards ‘transdisciplinary’ as part of an integrative multidisciplinary approach in research on environmental history. An integrative multidisciplinary (‘triangular’) research model is proposed, especially for use by historians and others who want to approach environmental research from disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives. It is also hoped that this discussion will stimulate the debate by historians on research co-operation with the social sciences and humanities, as well as collaboration with non-related sciences in environmental history.     

大学校史研究中的若干问题

学校的历史,是一个学校整体的历史。因其在教育史、文化史、社会史上的特殊地位,使得它的研究具有一般历史研究所不具备的特殊意义。但在中国特殊的国情下,一方面是大学离散聚合频繁,存亡继绝难测,从而加大了校史研究的复杂性;另一方面又因缺乏历史学者的参与,而使得大学校史的撰写存在诸多缺憾,校史的研究难成一门“显学”。     

The History of African Village Chickens: an Archaeological and Molecular Perspective

The history of the introduction and dispersal of village chickens across the African continent is a subject of intense debate and speculation among scholars. Here, we synthesize and summarise the current scientific genetic and nongenetic knowledge in relation to the history of the species on the continent. Sociocultural, linguistic, archaeological and historic data all suggest a complex history for the species in Africa, characterized by multiple maritime and/or terrestrial introductions over time and several dispersal routes towards and within Africa. Molecular genetics information supports these observations and in addition suggests possible Asian centers of origin for African domestic chickens, including South Asia and Island Southeast Asia. However, both sets of data were until now too limited in their geographic scope, both within Africa and in comparison with chickens from Asia, to unravel the history of the species in detail. We anticipate that further continent-wide studies combining archaeological, ancient and/or modern genetic information may shed new insights on the history of the species. These will contribute to a deeper understanding of the history of trading networks and human interactions within Africa and between African and Asian societies, at the root of the development and expansion of African civilizations.     

Teaching Archaeological Pasts in South Africa: Historical and Contemporary Considerations of Archaeological Education

This paper discusses the history and trending of archaeological education in South Africa, a set of frameworks wherein primary and secondary level students instrumentalize archaeology to investigate and debate their pasts. Archaeological education has existed thus far as a conversation among archaeologists and a footnote in the national curriculum. I present the first cohesive treatment of these projects. I examine attendant conflicts and obstacles, drawn partly from my involvement in two South African projects but illustrating issues that I believe have global resonance. I submit that archaeological education entails engagements that hold serious ramifications for archaeological ethics, practice, and epistemology.     

Race and hospitality: Allied troops of colour on the South African home front during the Second World War

Though often marginalised in histories of the Second World War, South Africa, in addition to contributing manpower and economic support to the Allied war effort, was a transport hub and a site for military training. Millions of Allied servicemen and women spent time in South Africa, which became an important node in both imperial and Allied wartime networks. Examining the varied experiences of Allied personnel of colour in South Africa, with a focus on the Māori battalion, this essay, working towards a transnational social history of the conflict, highlights the ways in which wartime hospitality both reflected and subverted ideologies and practices of racial segregation.     

THE OWL OF MINERVA AND THE IRONIC FATE OF THE PROGRESSIVE PRAXIS OF RADICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY IN POST‐APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

Despite its title and stated objectives this edited volume does not provide a broad and inclusive survey of post‐apartheid South African historiographical developments. Its main topic is the unexpected demise in the post‐apartheid context of the radical or revisionist approach that had invigorated and transformed the humanities and social studies during the 1970s and 1980s. In the context of the anti‐apartheid struggle the radical historians had developed a plausible model of praxis for progressive scholarship, yet in the new post‐apartheid democratic South Africa radical historical scholarship itself encountered a crisis of survival. This should not be confused with a general “crisis” of historical scholarship in South Africa, as some of the uneven contributions to this volume contend, as that remains an active and diversely productive field due also to substantial contributions by historians not based in South Africa. If the dramatic and ironic fate of radical historical scholarship in the context of the transition to a post‐apartheid democracy is the volume's primary topic, then it unfortunately fails to provide serious and sustained critical reflection on the origins and possible explanations for that crisis. A marked feature of the accounts of “history making” provided in this volume is the (former) radical historians' lack of self‐reflexivity and the scant interest shown in the underlying history of their own intellectual trajectories.     

The last 200,000 years (or thereabouts) in Eastern Africa: Recent archaeological research

Research in Eastern Africa is hampered by a variety of logistical constraints common in underdeveloped and politically fragmented regions. The later Middle and early Upper Pleistocene are attracting attention in the debate over the origins of anatomically modern humans. There has also been considerable field research and discussion of the development of specialized pastoralism. Archaeology, history and several other disciplines have combined to study the development of social complexity in the Great Lakes region and along the Swahili coast, the Aksumite civilization and African agricultural systems. Finally, the rise of a cadre of indigenous archaeologists is fostering debate over what constitutes explanation and over the relevance of the discipline within Africa.     

Symbolic Reparation,Heritage and Political Transition in South Africa’s Eastern Cape

This article first examines the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendation of symbolic reparation for apartheid, and its effect on South African heritage. Second, it considers the relationship between public history and civic nation building in South Africa, as well as problems in trying to develop an inclusive public history through museums. Case studies drawn from Grahamstown and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape are explored as examples of the redevelopment of the old and establishment of the new public history as part of the negotiated transition.     

Historical and Dialectical Perspectives on the Archaeology of Complexity in the Siin-Saalum (Senegal): Back to the Future?

Drawing on recent critiques of evolutionism, this article reviews the history of Iron Age studies in Siin-Saalum (Senegal) to examine the construction of African archaeological knowledge. From the 19th century to the 1980’s, analyses of complexity in Senegal have been animated by developmentalist views that have portrayed the regional past as a stagnant backwater. In the past 25 years, however, archaeological research has sought to redress these inaccuracies by exploring the diversity and idiosyncracy of African histories, and the processes behind sociopolitical change. These critical agendas can help us exploit the analytic potential of material culture to reincorporate African societies into the stream of world history, and to use the African past to reevaluate current scenarios of complexity and their applicability to various regions of the globe. To achieve these goals, however, and develop a fully self-reflexive archaeology in Senegal, researchers must eschew moral celebrations of African distinctness and strive instead to document how local pasts owe their particular qualities to complex political-economic articulations with other world societies. Concurrently, we must also attend to the dynamics of historical production in and out of guild circles, and consider our entanglement in the making of contemporary ‘culture wars.’ Because it is ideally suited to probe the historical and material depth of cultural differences and inequalities, archaeology must take a leading role in dispelling essentialist readings of Africa and promoting democratic knowledges about the continent.     

当代中国史视角下的社会史研究

新时期以来当代中国史研究日益受到学界重视,取得了引人瞩目的研究成果。近几年来,当代中国史研究出现了新的发展态势,越来越多的学者提出了要加强与政治史、经济史、文化史并列的社会史研究,强调以整体视角来拓展与深化当代中国史研究,这既蕴涵着学术演进的内在逻辑支配,又有着与外在的社会现实相契合的时代机遇。在此发展背景下,一些国史学者从宏大叙事转向微观实证,致力于地方、社会层面的微观研究,重视地方史料的发掘与整理,取径民间,以区域或地方为个案进行实证研究,力求在地方史或区域史研究的基础上把握总体史的样态。因此,很有必要从方法论的角度,以社会史为视角检讨当代中国史研究的开拓与进展,从而推动社会史这一新的学科的建设与发展。     

South African University history: a historiographical overview

University history has traditionally been the domain of the commemorative publication which presented institutions in a very favourable light, full of the boasts of growth and achievement. In considering university histories, it is useful to examine this traditional approach as well as more recent scholarly developments in the study of the history of institutions of higher learning internationally. In South Africa, most universities have some form of published history, although these vary greatly in scope, depth and critical approach. This article briefly considers volumes produced on South African universities and their past in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Trends and approaches evident in this wide variety of publications are highlighted. Questions such as the choice of moments of origin and commemoration, the effect of Apartheid on the retelling of the past and the use of either an autobiographical or a collaborative approach are considered. The comparative lack of histories of former ‘non-white’ universities is also explored, while the predominance of interest in matters of institutional identity in the post-Apartheid context is highlighted.     

1. INDIA IN A WORLD: DILEMMAS OF SOVEREIGNTY

Azfar Moin's The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam prompts a consideration not only of the histories of Islam and early modern connected histories of Central and South Asia, but also of current debates about local and global history‐writing. Moin's work intersects with a strand of comparative world history—following Victor Lieberman's Strange Parallels—but also engages strands of historical anthropology, bringing to light a range of compelling stakes for global historians, historians of South Asia, and scholars of nationalism alike. Though Moin's work pushes the boundaries of connected histories centered on South Asia, his focus on a trans‐regional millennial science avoids questions of the local within new global histories.     

Colonization and the Commodification of Nature

This paper explores some of the theoretical issues surrounding the commodification of nature and its value as a research topic. In particular it examines the relationship between European colonization, the rise of capitalism and the increased use of abstract space. An appeal is also made for adding environmental history to the research agenda of historical archaeology. Case studies from South Africa and Virginia illustrate the manner in which abstract notions of space and the environment contributed to the commodification of nature. The Virginia case study from Jamestown Island provides a particularly vivid example of how micro- and macro-level environmental changes can be linked to important political and economic events.     

“中华人民共和国地方史工作研讨会”纪要

盛世修史是中华民族的传统 ,我们今天研究和撰写中华人民共和国国史和地方史 ,正是要通过不断总结历史经验 ,坚持真理 ,修正错误 ,使我们的事业不断发展。地方史研究与国史研究一样 ,不是权宜之计 ,国家有关部门和各级政府应将地方史工作纳入社会科学研究的全面长远规划当中 ,给予充分的重视 ,建立相关常设机构 ,并在经费上予以保障。目前地方史工作缺乏统一的指导和规划 ,应在统一规划的基础上 ,加强地方史工作的交流     

区域史研究理论与近代东北区域史研究

从上世纪80年代以来,随着地方史研究的复兴,区域性历史研究也日益繁荣,并逐渐成为中国近代史学研究的一个新取向.在这种形势下,近代东北史的研究也逐渐突破了传统的地方史研究模式,兴起了一股区域史研究的浪潮.然而,在近代东北区域史研究中也存在着概念混淆、理论研究不足、研究方法单一等问题,只有解决好这些关键性的问题,才能更好地推动近代东北区域史研究工作向纵深方向发展.     

Chinese Social History: Forty Years of Research under the Chinese Economic Reform

In the wake of the Chinese economic reform, Chinese scholars have welcomed in the resurgence of historical social research. Looking back over the past 30-odd years of research development, it could be said there existed four general periods: A brainstorm period, an initial “beginning” period, a period of maturation and lastly an expansion period. From looking at the context of [its] theoretical development, it is clear that scholars researching Chinese social history were, from the beginning, focused on how exactly to define “society.” This, however, resulted in much debate about the different concepts of social history itself. Though the matter has yet to be settled, the ultimate research objective for the field of historical social research is in its pursuit of truth. In recent years following the dissolution of disciplinary boundaries, the interdisciplinary viewpoint(s) established by social and cultural history have also provided forth a new horizon for the development of Chinese historical social research.     

Revisiting History’s Cenotaphs: The “Common Man” and Ethics of Commemoration in Conflict Archaeology

The aphorism that victors write history routinely stirs up debate about the epistemic underpinnings of conflict histories. This is as true of analyses of the most publicized of modern wars as it is of studies of little documented conflicts in the distant past. Nowhere, however, are source discrepancies as tangible as in the records of resistance movements in feudal and colonial societies. Archaeologists working in such contexts thus have a chance to adopt the ‘common man’ as a subject of research not only to balance the record, as it were, but also on ethical grounds with a view towards commemoration.     

试论历史人类学与中国近代史研究中的几个问题

兴起于20世纪80年代中后期的历史人类学,尽管从学术传承上分属于两个不同的学科,但它的出现为消融历史学与人类学的边界,促成两个学科的交叉与融合,起到了不可低估的作用。在历史学内,“历史人类学”的形成亦经历了一个从社会史、社会文化史到历史人类学的演变过程。而在中国近代史领域,历史人类学已经展开一些研究实践,但是尚需进一步提倡。这种提倡表现在三个方面:底层视角、区域经验、文本与田野互动。历史人类学会对中国近代史研究产生有益的影响,会成为一种介于宏大叙事与经验性实证研究的“中层理论”。从历史学科的本位出发,历史人类学对人类学的吸收借鉴颇多,但是不能轻易放弃历史学科本位。