Simulation as Narrative: Contingency,Dialogics, and the Modeling Conundrum

In this paper, we will cast a critical eye on the practice of simulation modeling in archaeology, focusing on some of the unwritten assumptions underpinning currently popular agent-based approaches. We shall suggest the need for (1) a better integration with the basic tenets of complexity theory, (2) a stronger focus on epistemological issues, rather than on technological/methodological preoccupations, and (3) a distributed ecology of models functioning as an exploratory research laboratory. In essence, we argue for a more discursive, dialogic approach that places modeling in the arena of narrative construction, rather than the pursuit of some representation of “reality.”     

Cemetaries and Columbaria,Memorials and Mausoleums: Narrative and Interpretation in the Study of Deathscapes in Geography

This paper reviews research on deathscapes, particularly by geographers in the last decade, and argues that many of the issues addressed reflect the concerns that have engaged cultural geographers during the same period. In particular, necrogeographical research reveals the relevance of deathscapes to theoretical arguments about the social constructedness of race, class, gender, nation and nature; the ideological underpinnings of landscapes, the contestation of space, the centrality of place and the multiplicity of meanings. This paper therefore highlights how the focus on one particular form of landscape reveals macro-cultural geographical research interests and trends.     

Finding a Place for Possession,Divination, and Trance within the Historical Perspective

In this review article four publications from 2008–2010 are examined to assess the interplay between studies of possession, divination, and trance and historical method. The article avoids discussing the research in these works done from a purely anthropological or ethnographic stance, but focuses on the thematics of historiography. It does so by analysing the framing devices used in the predominantly historical research in the edition edited by Amar Annus and the monograph of Sarah Iles Johnston. Drawing these issues forward to the second set of texts, this article continues by looking at ways in which the seemingly a‐historical phenomena of divination, trance, and possession, can be accounted for historically. The article agrees with many of the commentators in these editions that the prevailing anxiety over the integration of history and divination and other “irregular” phenomena is generated by a narrow and sometimes ineffective scholarly mentality. This article concludes that alternative ways of making history must be considered if religious history seeks to claim an unbiased and less anxious approach to the study of phenomena that have hitherto eluded its processes.     

Social Democracy as a Way of Life: Fellowship and the Socialist Union, 1951-9

This articles considers the political cultural of the SocialistUnion (1951–9), and influential ethical socialist groupin the 1950s' Labour Party. Specifically, it discusses its uniqueintellectual influences and the legacy of its (somewhat different)previous manifestation as the Socialist Vanguard Group (1929–50).Emphasis is placed on the importance of the notion of fellowshipto the politics of this tradition and how this shaped a distinctpolitical and moral identity. Whilst it has been largely overlookedby historians, the Union had a considerable impact on Britishsocialism in the 1950s, through its journal, Socialist Commentary,and through leading members like Allan Flanders and Rita Hinden. ^* Special thanks are due to those former Unionists who sharedtheir experiences with me: Jay Blumler, Annemarie Flanders,and especially, Rene Saran. Thanks also to Peter Alexander,Nina Fishman, John Kelly, Peter Mandler, Mark Minion, Nick Tiratsoo,Hugh Wilford, and Leo Zeilig who read previous drafts of thispiece and to those participants in seminars at the Instituteof Historical Research who have commented on it. I am gratefulto George Bain for allowing me access to his papers at Warwick.     

从殷墟卜辞中的祭祀方式变化看商代祖神观念

商代的祖神祭祀有两个主要特点:其一,祭祀方式从无序到有序变化;其二,祭祀对象逐渐以直系近祖为重,其中又尤为重视上两代祖先.这种现象与其背后所蕴藏的商人祖神崇拜的心理活动具有直接的关系,是宗教思维主体意识逐步增强的结果.此外,卜辞作为一种问卜形式,其卜问事项、卜问语气、卜问意图都反映宗教思维中崇拜主体的心理倾向.     

叙事型构·文本界限·叙事界域:传统指涉性的发现

在诺苏彝族的本土口头传统中,史诗“勒俄”的源文本是极其丰富和多元的,同时也有着极其强固的文本性属观念与口头叙事法则。在田野研究的逐步推进中,我们意识到必须认真检视自己的研究对象到底是什么,其内部的叙事机制是什么?那么,我们需要回答的相关问题是:1)史诗“勒俄”的源文本形态及其叙事结构的民间记忆方式是什么?2)在有关“勒俄”的民间话语中为什么会出现“公勒俄”/“母勒俄”和“黑勒俄”/“白勒俄”两套语汇,其间的传统涵义是什么?3)书面化的史诗本事与口头演述的史诗叙事有怎样的内在关联与区别,民间叙事的传统规定性是什么?一…     

古代谶纬的机缘巧合及在钱币中之妙用

谶纬,是中国古代文化中的一种现象,有着悠久的历史。即:把自然界中发生的偶然事件而神秘化,并用诡秘的隐语、预言作为神的启示,将其视为预示社会安危的决定因素,以告人政事,或昭示国运的兴衰。亦是方士或巫师假借神明来说吉凶祸福的征兆。其中,表现在对钱币的运用上尤为突出,足见其产生的影响。     

Writing for Immediacy: Narrative Writing as a Teaching Technique in Undergraduate Cultural Geography

Narrative inquiry is an innovative means of encouraging students to internalize concepts, reflect on experiences or create applications for theoretical ideas. The use of first-person creative writing in a second-year cultural geography course prompted initial scepticism from students but eventually highlighted their constructivist engagement with course concepts. Despite a number of ethical, evaluative and moral dilemmas, encouraging the use of creative writing as a form of narrative inquiry allowed students to tell their stories so that they were valued and connected to wider disciplinary concepts.     

The Logic of Action: Indeterminacy, Emotion, and Historical Narrative

Modern social theory, by and large, has aimed at reducing the complexity of action situations to a set of manageable abstractions. But these abstractions, whether functionalist or linguistic, fail to grasp the indeterminacy of action situations. Action proceeds by discovery and combination. The logic of action is serendipitous and combinative. From these characteristics, a number of consequences flow: The whole field of our intentions is engaged in each action situation, and cannot really be understood apart from the situation itself. In action situations we remain aware of the problems of categorization, including the dangers of infinite regress and the difficulties of specifying borders and ranges of categories. In action situations, attention is in permanent danger of being overwhelmed. We must deal with many features of action situations outside of attention; in doing so, we must entertain simultaneously numerous possibilities of action. Emotional expression is a way of talking about the kinds of possibilities we entertain. Expression and action have a rebound effect on attention. “Effort” is required to find appropriate expressions and actions, and rebound effects play a role in such effort, making it either easier or more difficult. Recent theoretical trends have failed to capture these irreducible characteristics of action situations, and have slipped into a number of errors. Language is not rich in meanings or multivocal, except as put to use in action situations. The role of “convention” in action situations is problematic, and therefore one ought not to talk of “culture.” Contrary to the assertions of certain theorists, actors do not follow strategies, except when they decide to do so. Actors do not “communicate,” in the sense of exchanging information, except in specially arranged situations. More frequently, they intervene in the effortful management of attention of their interlocutors. Dialogue, that is, very commonly becomes a form of cooperative emotional effort. From these considerations, it follows that the proper method for gaining social knowledge is to examine the history of action and of emotional effort, and to report findings in the form of narrative.     

从敦煌占卜文书看晚唐五代敦煌占卜与佛教的对话交融--以敦煌写本宅经为中心

晚唐五代敦煌占卜与佛教在内容、形式、理论与实践等多个层面上进行着对话交融,彼此间的交融互用在某种程度上促进了双方的互补：佛教戒律、因果报应等观念通过占卜的运用在客观上很容易达到其普世化的效果;占卜对佛教诸因子的兼容,扩展了占卜内容和占卜种类,各式佛教理论的融入特别是佛教因果报应、轮回观念进一步完善了占卜理论,增强了占卜的变通能力。三教融合的文化特征与佛卜共信的宗教意识构成了晚唐五代敦煌占卜与佛教文化互动的多元成因。     

History,Differential Inclusions,and Narrative

Recent advances in the theory of dynamical systems, set‐valued analysis, and viability theory offer new and interesting perspectives on the shaping of social and historical time. Specific aspects of these theories are presented in several different areas to show their concrete applications in history and historical demo‐economy, and a parallel is established with novelist Tanizaki’s fictional technique. In connection with this, McCloskey’s 1991 comparison of storytelling with deterministic chaos is discussed and a critique of other models concerned with unpredictability in human affairs provided. Finally, the shapings of social and historical time are described in terms of the viable strategies at the heart of evolutionary processes involving human agents interacting with a variety of constraints. Sachiko could foresee great difficulties if her sister were to marry him, but at least for the time being they would not have to worry about what people thought. If on the other hand she married Itakura, she would be held up to public ridicule. Okubata seen by himself was not a happy choice, but he was certainly better than Itakura, and he could be their weapon to turn away the latter. 1 Junichiro Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976), part 2, chapter 26, 278.
     

Embodiment, Power and the Politics of Mobility: The Case of Female Tramps and Hobos

Mobility and travel have recently attracted the interest of many people, both inside and outside geography. This interest has often focused on issues of gender. Mobile women, in particular, have been seen to be indicative of wider social and cultural themes of power, exclusion, resistance and emancipation. In this paper, I consider the gendered dimensions of a moral panic in the United States between 1869 and 1940, known as the 'tramp scare'. I argue that the construction of the panic around threats to women's bodies and the actual experience of female tramps illuminates a clearly gendered and embodied politics of mobility.