The Liberal Party,Free Trade and the 1841 Election

It is a paradox that the Liberal Party's electoral defeat in 1841 attested to its underlying strength and vitality. This article focuses on the impact on party unity of the free trade measures advocated by the ministry in the months preceding its fall. The Liberal Party's bold electoral platform antagonised its protectionist MPs, a group previously overlooked in the historiography, but fell short of the demands of its radical wing for political reform. While all the ingredients for fragmentation existed, unity prevailed. Protestations of loyalty to the leadership could be heard from the mouths of Liberal MPs of all shades, from stalwart protectionists who coalesced around the ministry on traditional foreign policy grounds through to the most fervent radicals who celebrated its ‘new’ direction. Such findings of cohesion contradict accounts which have hitherto viewed the 1841 electoral defeat as evidence of the party's inchoateness. Indeed, this article shifts the historiographical narrative away from addressing why the Liberals lost to the more pertinent issue of why the losses suffered were not greater. In answering that question, both the sensitivity with which the financial agenda was presented by ministers and the flexibility of different sections of the Liberal Party in interpreting and presenting the free trade measures to the electorate are underlined. Above all, Lord John Russell is rehabilitated as a ‘popular’ leader and his importance in the development of the nascent Liberal Party is unearthed.     

诸葛八卦村,那叫个美!

<正>全国最大的诸葛亮后裔聚居地——浙江省兰溪市诸葛村,是南宋末年诸葛亮二十世孙诸葛大师公迁居此地后,为纪念先祖诸葛亮而按九宫八卦阵图式精心设计构建的。诸葛村全村5000多人,聚居着诸葛亮后裔第四十三至五十五代共4000多人,完完全全的一家人呐。     

The upper Xingu village is a stage

Thomas Gregor. Mehinaku: The Drama of Daily Life in a Brazilian Indian Village. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1977.     

The dialectic of farm and village in French Canada

Michel Verdon. Anthropologie de la colonisation au Québec. Montreal: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1973. 283 pp. Tables, charts, and appendixes. $7.50.     

“常”与“非常”：一个鲁中村落的信仰秩序

乡村信仰活动之中有“常”与“非常”之别：以家庭为单元而进行的村落内部的信仰活动,是村民日常生活的一部分;以村落为单元、以村际互动为特征的跨村落庙会活动,营造出一种有别于社会常态的特殊文化情境,是民间信仰活动的“非常状态”。前者是后者的日常积累,后者是前者的凝聚与强化。本文以山东省淄博市洼子村民间信仰为个案,试图在广泛的意义上探讨民间信仰“常”与“非常”两种状态之间的相互关联与转换机制,以及对于当代乡土社会的意义。     

加牙——织毯村庄的记忆

“加牙”二字是藏语,这个名字是怎么来的,我问过了许多人,始终也没得到一个圆满的答案。唯一一个有说服力的说法是第一位加牙活佛就出在这个村,所以后来这个本名已不可考的西北平原上的小村落便一直延续了“加牙”的名字,直到如今。在湟中塔尔寺,住有加牙活佛,至今已传承到了第十四世。     

Everyday political practices,democracy and the environment in a native village in Mexico City

In recent years there has been a debate about the extent to which democratization implies protection of the environment. This article offers an exemplary case of this debate, exploring the theoretical links between democracy and environmental protection advanced by Walker (1999): accountability, development and participation. The site of the study is a Mexican native village, one of many incorporated into the metropolis, Mexico City. The city is faced with the challenge to supply an expanding population of some 20 million with housing, clean water and oxygen. The forest in the common property belonging to the original inhabitants is formally protected with logging bans and a rigorous Land Use Plan, yet illegal sales of this communal land to new settlers result in irregular settlements which now contain one quarter of the village’s inhabitants. In 1997 local elections were reinstated in Mexico City, after a suspension of nearly 70 years. Although the governing party in the city promoted the protective Land Use Plan, the party’s local politicians promised to regularize the zone in exchange for votes from the irregular settlers. These dynamics are explored in the context of everyday political practices in the village. The struggles over material and symbolic resources are analyzed in terms of force fields with multiple actors, making visible the ways in which democratic elections alone cannot prevent the ongoing deforestation caused by irregular settlements.     

Migration in West Africa: a savanna village perspective

The author describes the determinants and impact of temporary labor migration from northern Ghana, an area dependent on subsistence agriculture, to the south, where employment opportunities in mining, commercial agriculture, and the public sector are relatively abundant and higher-paying. The effects on social organization, agriculture, and population dynamics are discussed. (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

Hydrogeological Modelling of Water-Level Changes in an Area of Archaeological Significance: A Case Study from Flag Fen,Cambridgeshire, UK

Concern exists regarding the long-term viability of the internationally important archaeological remains of the Flag Fen site near Peterborough. This paper describes a hydrogeological numerical groundwater model which has been used to understand the groundwater situation with regard to the archaeology, including drainage impacts, and also to explore future scenarios. Observed and modelled groundwater levels have been interpreted using three zones: the ‘dry’ zone 1 above the seasonal maximum water table; zone 2 of seasonal water table fluctuation; and a deeper zone 3 of permanent saturation. Archaeological wood is best preserved in Zone 3. Much of the Bronze Age wooden structure is located within Zone 2 or above. The hydrological conditions are therefore not ideal for the long-term in situ preservation of the material. Groundwater modelling indicates that the main factor controlling groundwater levels in the area is artificial drainage. The approach would be applicable to other wet-preserved archaeological sites.