Contested heritage at the Cape Town waterfront

Abstract

Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is a prime example of the international trend of revitalising economically defunct harbour areas for tourism and retail usage. This paper examines the various contested images of heritage evoked at the site during the period of South Africa's political transformation in the early 1990s:‐ a nostalgic perception of a harmonious past (by middle‐class Capetonians) versus a place of privilege and exclusion (by predominantly black working‐class inhabitants); academic concerns to commemorate the social history of the area versus commercial sensitivity to current marketing image; and the multiplicity of images in a postmodern space of spectacle and pastiche.     

“世界尽头”开普敦 地球上最美丽的海角

<正>如花园般美丽的开普敦,有着不同于非洲其他城市的旖旎风情,悬崖峭壁,澄净蓝空,优美的自然风光,连第一位抵达此地的德瑞克爵士都忍不住赞叹这里是"地球上最美丽的海角"。它曾被评为一生中必去的20个城市之一。     

从“因寺名镇”到“因寺成镇”:南翔镇“三大古刹”的布局与聚落历史

南翔自聚落形成之日起就与寺院之间纠葛不断,经过宋元明清四朝的不断"层累",其历史已被当地人前推至南朝萧梁时代,从而完成了从"因寺名镇"到"因寺成镇"的型塑。以上过程,直接因应于明中叶以降江南市场发育和市镇聚落拓展等关键历史阶段。作为南翔"三大古刹"之首的南翔寺,不仅参与并见证了南翔镇从兴起到日趋繁荣的历史过程,而且逐渐由单纯的宗教中心发展成为集宗教、商业和行政等职能于一体的重要场所。然而,寺庙并非市场发育的主导"驱动力",南翔镇的形成及成长,乃是空间、制度、商贸、文化等多条脉络交互作用下的产物。     

The First Herders at the Cape of Good Hope

It is generally accepted that the earliest livestock and pottery were brought to the southern tip of Africa by Khoi-speaking herders from northern Botswana around 2000 years ago. The archaeological remains of that age, however, show no sign of such a migration. Rather, some evidence points to the arrival of the Khoi in the southwestern Cape toward the end of the first millennium AD. The earliest livestock and pottery, it is argued, probably reached the Cape of Good Hope some 2000 years ago by a process of diffusion. The implications of this model for the current debates on the transition from hunting to herding in southern Africa are discussed.     

Identity Politics: The Elephant in the Room at the Cape York Institute's Inaugural Conference

The Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership is dedicated to research and policy advice relevant to the remote Aboriginal communities of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Its inaugural conference, entitled ‘Strong Foundations: Rebuilding Social Norms in Indigenous Communities’, addressed widespread problems of social dysfunction that manifest in failure to attend school, substance abuse and sexual violence. Keynote addresses explained the dysfunction as an outcome of dependency on welfare, disincentives to work, poor governance and dispossession. They made a number of worthwhile proposals, including governmental intervention, recognition of shared Australian-ness and humanity, abandonment of victimhood and cultural security. However, they made only tangential allusion to Aboriginal identity politics, which I argue play a crucial role in constituting the dysfunction and, if understood, open new avenues to Aboriginal development. This essay constitutes a plea for more rigorous examination of the politics that present such a barrier to Aboriginal development.     

Fighting the Taliban: Pakistan at war with itself

Some new groups calling themselves Pakistani Taliban with links to the Afghan Taliban have asserted themselves in the tribal areas of Pakistan. This has complicated the internal security scenario for Pakistan. This article traces the roots of the problem and argues that the State with its confessional character emits strong Islamist impulses making it easy for Taliban-like forces to take roots in Pashtun dominated areas in Pakistan. While the process of Talibanisation may not succeed in engulfing the entire state of Pakistan, it will certainly pose a critical internal challenge, contributing to its fragility and compelling Pakistan to stay perennially engaged with its internal security. Roll back is difficult but not impossible. This will involve the strong commitment of the State to take steps to bring about social, economic and political transformation in the Taliban-infested areas, and an effort on the part of the international community to help Pakistan in this critical endeavour.     

Following the Ancestors: Six Moments in a Genealogy of Urban Design and Heritage in the City of Cape Town

In 2014, Cape Town is celebrating its design in all its forms, having been voted the World Design Capital (WDC). The hopeful rhetoric of the city as ultimate holiday destination, African creative metropolis, prime global-events location or city of freedom indicates powerful cultural discourses at work. In this paper, I will give a series of insights into the links between colonial modernity, on the one hand, and the origins of contemporary discourses of urban design and heritage in Cape Town, on the other. I intend to discuss the function of official discourse concerning the design of the city as well as the sudden eruptions that disturb these constructs. I point to the recurrent patterns and moments in which design is made plain and unspoken. I will trace the genealogy of official or top-down design and heritage discourses as well as the moments or movements that are at odds with or embarrass this official discourse.     

The Earliest States in China: A Long-term Trajectory Approach

The origins, development, and makeup of early state societies in China have long been a favorite topic of research, though there has recently been an upsurge of attention among archaeologists in China and abroad. Research has been dominated by the identification of the Erlitou site from the early second millennium BC as the center of the earliest state in China, sometimes identified with the Xia Dynasty. Recently, several scholars have employed neo-evolutionary criteria for the identification of Erlitou society as China’s earliest state in an attempt to provide objective criteria for the traditional historiographical narrative. Overarching social and ecological models of cultural change have been severely criticized by anthropological archaeologists, and many archaeologists studying the development of ancient societies prefer to focus on individual case studies or specific institutions rather than on the state. In contrast to recent archaeological scholarship that has called for its total abandonment, we find the “state” a useful concept for understanding local trajectories as well as cross-cultural comparisons. In this article we suggest a way of incorporating the warnings against simplistic overarching models while maintaining the notion of rapid sociopolitical change associated with state formation. Based on an analysis of the long-term trajectory, we identify, in north China, two phases of rapid transformations: the first, starting around 2500 BC, when several unstable regional states evolved and declined, and the second, around 1600 BC, when an intraregional state, usually identified with the historical Shang, rapidly evolved.     

日本陆军与"蒙疆联合委员会"

“蒙疆联合委员会”是日本侵华期间,由日本军方扶植的傀儡政权中,唯一建立在我国少数民族地区的伪政权。但是,该政权并不是一个蒙古族的政权。日本军方利用德王的“大蒙古主义”及其所领导的“蒙古自治运动”,号称是帮助其实现“蒙古建国”,实际上是为了肢解中国,建立对苏作战基地。由此,德王的“蒙古建国”计划与日军的建立“蒙疆特殊地带”方针发生矛盾。“蒙疆联合委员会”就是二相互作用的结果。但主要是德王服从了日军。     

Fighting for Trieste: nationalism and political violence at the edge of the Iron Curtain

Between 1945 and 1954, the Italian and Yugoslav governments staunchly disputed national sovereignty of Trieste and northern Istria. Although scholars have extensively studied the diplomatic dimension of what became known as the ‘Trieste question’, only a few have devoted attention to the Italian government’s aggressive strategy toward the city from 1945 to 1954. This article examines the Italian politics of nationalism in Cold War Trieste by investigating the interactions between the central government, the Allied authorities and the local political forces that either supported or opposed Italian territorial claims toward the city. Based upon the study of Italian as well as Allied governmental records, state-led propaganda and public press, this article suggests that the central government not only tolerated but also encouraged phenomena of local political violence to oppose the Communist threat and defy Allied occupation. This study ultimately proves the residual strength of nationalism as a political ideology and further elucidates the undisclosed relationship between right-wing movements and the central government during the early years of the Cold War.