Whiteness and Farmers Markets: Performances,Perpetuations … Contestations?

Abstract: Academics and activists highlight the potential for alternative agrifood movements to contribute to the evolving coalescence of justice and sustainability. This potential, however, is constrained by what scholars have identified as the prevalent whiteness of such movements. This paper uses ethnographic research at two northern California farmers markets to investigate how whiteness is performed and perpetuated through the movements’ discourses and practices. We found that many managers, vendors and customers hold notions of what farmers and community members should be that both reflect and inform an affluent, liberal habitus of whiteness. Although whiteness pervades these spaces, we have also witnessed individual discourses and acts of solidarity and anti‐racism, as well as fledgling institutional efforts to contest white cultural dominance. We conclude by discussing the potential of farmers markets to create an anti‐racist politics of food.     

“北胡”“西域”盐色与丝路交通地理

汉代以来盐史记忆中已经可以看到中原人对远方奇异盐产的印象。多处盐产地盐的异样色彩,与内地以往经济生产与饮食生活中的观察体会及消费经验有所不同。关于宿沙氏“煮海”传说盐色“五样”的情节,学者以为“异闻”。许多文献资料可见所谓“紫盐”“青盐”“黄盐”“赤盐”“黑盐”等记录。这些对于远方盐色的体会,是以长途交通实践为发现条件的。而早期丝绸之路史的记录,与相关盐史迹象存在某种关联。这一情形,值得交通地理与文化交流史研究者关注。     

罗振玉藏“元年铍”铭文所见地名“广望”考

通过对罗振玉旧藏“元年铍”中未知地名“ ”新的考释,可以将该地名隶定为“ ”,读为“广望”,即见于《汉书·地理志》的西汉广望。以往战国时“广望”多被划入燕国境内,从“元年铍”应为战国时赵国兵器可知,“广望”在战国时一度属赵国。结合铭文内容与史料,铍铭中的“元年”应为赵悼襄王元年,广望属赵时间上限应该不会早于赵孝成王元年,下限则为赵王迁八年。     

“泥婆罗门”疏证

汉文史籍所载吐蕃南疆史事常见“泥婆罗门”一词,前人往往将该词视作“泥婆罗”的误用。综合汉、藏文献和域外研究,“门”应是门隅(Mon-yul)或门巴(Mon-pa)之简称,“泥婆罗”与“门”应为两个部落或属国的名称。     

20世纪上半叶中国“人文地理学”与“人生地理学”内涵演变研究

当今学界对于我国地理学发展史上“人文地理学”与“人生地理学”二者的内涵界定和关系阐述并不完全准确。通过对20世纪上半叶地理学科文献的解读,可以发现二者存在三个阶段的演化:第一阶段,为传统方志地学与近代人文地理学交汇下萌发,以分类呈现人文事象为主的“人文地理学”;第二阶段,为批判方志传统,主张以人地关系论为核心,并在法国学派思想影响下产生的“人生地理学”;第三阶段,为批判人地关系论,在景观论与辩证唯物主义理论相结合的背景下提出的“人文地理学”。在三个不同阶段,“Human Geography”一词未曾改变,但在中国代表的内涵迥异,相互之间存在部分的继承,但更多的是通过批判而形成的思想演化。其根源在于西方近代地理学思想传入中国后,与中国地方的学术环境及时代背景产生交融,继而形成内涵各异的学术思想变体。     

楚灵王“南怀之行”地名考

清华简《系年》载有楚灵王“南怀之行”相关史事,可与《左传》昭公四年、五年所载楚灵王伐吴相关史事相应。据吴楚之战形势可以推知,其中所涉朱方、棘、栎、麻、夏汭、钟离、州来、巢、繁扬、琐、鹊岸、罗汭、莱山、南怀、汝清、坁箕之山等地名,均在今淮河流域。     

说 “淮汭”与 “豫章”:吴师入郢之役战争地理新探

公元前506年吴师入郢之役的战争地理过去共有三种论说。本文结合古文字资料、历史文献以及田野考察资料,重新解读“淮汭”与“豫章”两个关键地名,并以吴、楚之间的水、陆交通线为背景,重建这一战役的战争地理。吴师的进兵与退兵都是利用淮河水道,而双方的交战则是在随枣走廊之中往复。相较于过去的学说,本文的地理重构不只是立足于较为可靠的文献基础,同时展现出更为合理的空间逻辑关系。     

“阿奢理贰伽蓝”地理方位与玄奘西行“跋禄迦”的交通路线

“阿奢理贰伽蓝”的地理方位一直是西域史地关注的热点。《大唐西域记》《大慈恩寺三藏法师传》等史料均有相关记载,称为“阿奢理贰”和“阿奢理儿”,即汉语“奇特”之意。根据新疆“第三次不可移动文物普查”成果并结合史料记载与交通线路考证可知,玄奘西行“跋禄迦”路线为“盐关道”,与现今307省道库车—拜城段基本重合,“阿奢理贰伽蓝”当为克孜尔尕哈石窟与博其罕那佛寺的组合。     

近代中国邮政空间的“国进民退”

近代中国邮政空间主要是以民信局、国营邮政、侨批等多种企业实体构成。清朝邮政成立后即开始蚕食小额民间资本支持下的民信局经营空间,而基于对1936年《中华民国邮政舆图》的数字化工作发现,历经40余年经营,国营邮政基本整合了全国范围内的邮政空间,也基本完成了本领域的“国进民退”。在此过程中,国营邮政审慎模仿民信局的经营方式,使用多种创新经营策略,除了在大中城市内部和城市之间构建了便捷快速的邮政网络空间,更借助邮政代办的方式以极低的成本将营业网络“下沉”到铁路和公路无法覆盖的农村地区,较好地与传统农村“定期市”网络完成耦合,基本达到了通商处必通邮的效果。国营邮政点和邮路集聚所形成的“邮政聚集区”也成为一种显著的近代化外在空间表征,同时成为界定所谓“核心—边缘”结构的系统可信、定量可验证的空间指标。     

汉初长安的城防与“北军”建置

“北军”是汉朝十分重要的武装力量,但其并非始于高帝朝,而是惠帝后期随着长安城的修筑所设的城防部队。因西汉初期长安城南部主要为两宫,防务由卫尉执掌,城卫军只能驻扎在城北,所以宫卫军称南军,城卫军即北军。从张家山汉简《二年律令·秩律》来看,卫将军应是北军的最高长官,其建置还有卫将军长史、候(候丞)、校长、士吏等。当时卫将军是整个汉朝官僚体系中唯一常设的将军。文帝即位,卫将军权力扩大,在本部北军之外亦兼领南军,后北军一度旋罢旋置,再后来卫将军被裁撤,北军遂转属中尉。     

‘Is imperialist nationalism an oxymoron?’*

According to Ernest Gellner's celebrated definition, nationalism is a political principle that holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent. Based on this definition, Alexander Motyl has declared that ‘nationalism and imperialism are polar types’. Even so, dozens of books and articles have used the concept of ‘imperialist nationalism’ without any qualms. Is this just a matter of terminological confusion, or does it reflect a deeper disagreement on what the phenomenon of nationalism actually is? In the lecture, I discuss the concept of ‘imperialist nationalism’ as used in the standard literature and find that numerous historical actors take pride in being both nationalists and imperialists. I distinguish between overseas colonial empires and contiguous land‐based empires and demonstrate that in both cases, ‘imperialist nationalism’ can be found. In the latter case, nationalism can take the shape of either ‘nation‐building imperialism’, in which nationalists strive for cultural homogenisation throughout the state, or ‘ethnocratic imperialism’, in which the distinction between ‘the imperial nation’ and other national groups is retained. In overseas colonial empires, I find only ethnocratic imperialism. As a case study, I analyse how Russian nationalists have related to the fact that Russia has historically been an Empire.     

A Moldovan ‘sheep'? – framing Moldovan passivity

This article offers a different perspective for understanding Moldovan discourses of passivity by turning its attention to representations of national identity. Its main focus is a Moldovan ballad, Miori?a, and the way in which it discursively both frames and legitimises inaction. It builds on the idea that Miori?a is a central part of the way in which Moldovans represent their identity with respect to the writings of Ion Dru??, its main promoter in Moldovan society. More importantly, the ballad is conceptually linked to national characteristics such as lamentation and kindness, characteristics that can be summed up under the headline of ‘passivity’. Thus, drawing from constructivist and post‐structuralist approaches, the article stresses how these elements inform the Moldovan view of the self, its identity and even its representations of foreign affairs, framing the Moldovan lack of agency on a discursive level.     

Two medieval ‘trepanations’ – therapy or swindle?

During the 1991–1992 excavation of the ruins of the medieval cathedral in Hamar, Norway, the broken skull of an elderly man was found, showing evidence of an incomplete trepanation. The ‘surgeon’ had obviously tried to penetrate the skull surface around bregma in an irregular circle of 23 × 21 mm. Upon investigation, the skull revealed a reactive‐pathological area of the internal surface of the occipital bone, which probably represents a respite after a meningeal disorder (a tumour or an infectious process), causing us to suggest that the trepanation was meant to cure the patient's increasing headache. However, as a second skull with similar marks was found in the same churchyard, another explanation seems possible. Because the brain tumour in the first case may have altered the patient's mental state, we may surmise that these incomplete operations were an attempt to remove from these patients' heads the ‘Stone of Madness’, which was then commonly considered to be the reason for psychiatric diagnoses as well as persistent headache, and often depicted in European art, most notably in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The second skull, revealing an even more incomplete attempt, did not show any skeletal pathology at all. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.