Athabaskan–Siberian Folklore Links: In Search of Na-Dene Origins

The North American Na-Dene languages, most of them belonging to the Athabaskan branch, are possibly related to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia. A series of episodes of traditional narratives link the Na-Dene with the Altai-Sayan region. The creators of the Sumnagin culture of eastern and north-eastern Siberia, who possibly reached Alaska in the Early Holocene, seem the most plausible candidates for the proto-Na-Dene speakers, although interpretation of corresponding archaeological materials remains controversial.     

Alan Dundes (1934–2005)

THE HISTORY OF MELANESIAN SOCIETY. By W. H. R. RIVERS, F.R.S. Two volumes. Cambridge: University Press. 1914. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

ZEUS, A STUDY OF ANCIENT RELIGION. By ARTHUR BERNARD COOK. Vol. I. : Zeus of the Bright Sky. Cambridge, at the University Press. 1914. Medium 8vo, pp. xliii + 885. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

THE ASIATIC DIONYSOS. By GLADYS M. N. DAVIS. Pp. x + 276. London, G. Bell &; Sons, Ltd. 1914. Reviewed by W. Crooke.     

United with the Countrymen: Folklore Studies at Peking University, 1918–26

Late nineteenth and early twentieth century China faced a grave national crisis resulting from intense foreign pressure and a rigid political system that was incapable of adapting to the challenges of the modern world. China’s decline did, however, lead to a wave of nationalism that swept across Chinese society. Set against this backdrop, a new generation of patriotically minded intellectuals, one with relatively broad exposure to Western thinking and academic methods, turned its focus to enlightening the oppressed masses as a means of bringing about national salvation. These intellectuals pursued this forward-looking aim by looking to the past for inspiration. More specifically, they looked to folk culture as a means of connecting with the common people and weaving together a new discourse that promoted national unity. Under these circumstances, a group of professors at Peking University, including Zhou Zuoren, Liu Fu, and Gu Jiegang, began to search for vernacular works in folk culture. This article examines folklore studies at Peking University expanding from folksongs to folk customs and other forms of folk literature. It focuses on early folklorists’ activities, folklore organizations, and primary publications. Under the university’s influence, folklore studies appeared in various newspapers and other research institutions in Beijing and Shanghai in rapid succession.     

A Selected Bibliography of Mathematical Articles in Soviet Economic Geography (1960–1968)

Advocates of a new discipline of theoretical geography seek to bolster their argument for establishment of the discipline with quotations from Lenin. Theoretical geography, conceived more broadly than Bunge's mathematical geography, would seek to generalize the findings of all the particular geographical disciplines, to formulate general geographical laws, develop a common geographic method and common approaches to the formalization and modeling of geographic phenomena. Its objects of study are so-called geosystems, which are conceptualized as totalities of the autonomous spatial systems of the environment, population and the economy. Each geosystem is viewed as being associated with its geospace, defined as the “eigenspace of geographical objects, of geographically whole formations”. Geosystems are regarded as possessing a certain degree of freedom in contrast to the view that cause-and-effect relations within such systems are rigidly predetermined. The outlines of a number of general geographic laws are suggested. They include the law of growing contrast in spatial systems of all types and the law of asynchronism in the development of spatial systems. Theoretical geography is presented as having significant practical application in the analysis and prediction of the effect of man's development of spatial systems, in setting of development priorities and determining optimal types of development.