历史人类学：读《走进历史田野》

几乎是没有任何疑义 ,历史学与人类学的兴趣正走向集中 ,两个学科之间合作的前景宽广而光明。早在 194 9年 ,法国著名人类学家克劳德·莱维 -斯特劳斯 (ClaudeGustaveLevi-Strauss)就宣称 :“他们 (历史学家和人类学家 )是在同一条道路上、沿着同一方向走着同一个旅程 ;唯一不同的是他们的朝向。人类学家是朝前行进的 ,寻求通过他们早已深知的有意识现象获得对无意识的越来越多的了解 ;而历史学家却可以说是朝后行进的 ,他们把眼睛死盯着具体和特殊的行为 ,只在为了一个更全面和更丰富的观点上考察这些行为时才把眼光离开他们。这是一个真…     

Approaching the Approaches

Abstract

Students of political theology need a broad introduction to, and some understanding of how to distinguish between, varying approaches to the discipline. This article argues that differing approaches should be introduced in ways which emphasize the historical, theological, geographical, and ecclesial situatedness of their practitioners. Such introduction to the situatedness of various approaches should not pretend to be objective, but should be sympathetic. Those teaching political theology should also carefully incorporate their own situatedness, showing students how they are working within particular approaches themselves without reducing their teaching to advocacy for their own approaches. The proposal for teaching political theology argued here focuses on inviting students to become active practitioners of political theology, instead of mere consumers of information about the discipline.     

Approaching selfhood

Often overlooked is the fact that postmodern theory brought to the fore a crisis in the humanities. The implied universalism of the current “iconic turn” in postmodern thinking is a blow to the traditional sciences grouped around national literatures and cultures. In the 1980's, postmodern practitioners in the United States began to assault the discursive practices of the mainstream under the banner of cultural studies. The current crisis in the humanities surfaced in the emancipation of the various studies from their traditional fields in the humanities. The German Studies practiced today in the United States for instance, has no counterpart in Germany's traditional departments of Deutsche Philologie. Whereas the icon in the United States has become an object of investigation for the various studies, it has not yet displaced the littera in Germany's literary sciences. However in the 1990's, the historical sciences in Germany responded to the challenge of the various studies by directing their attention not to cultural studies, but to cultural history, with its well-defined set of methodologies. But what kind of cultural history is it? Is it built on 19th century German foundations, or is it grafted to current North American notions of post-industrial culture? In this paper I show that the supposed opposition between cultural studies and cultural history is artificial. Through a close reading of Hayden White's extremist questioning of historical practice in Metahistory (1973), I demonstrate that there is no opposition between the icon and the littera in this recent radical critique of mainstream humanistic science. The vehement German reaction to his North American assault on European Kultur is based on a misunderstanding of White's premises. Rather than being constructed on a hodgepodge of postmodern approaches, I show that White's postmodern history is in fact conventionally grounded in 19th century Nietzschean thinking.     

走近坎儿井

在一望无际的茫茫沙漠、戈壁,常常走上几十里,数百里,都见不到一条小溪、河流,所以生活中不可缺少的“水”,成了极为珍贵的东西。用“滴水贵如油”这样的话来形容,是丝毫也不过份的。     

走近今日摩梭人

走近摩梭人,考察摩梭人的母系社会,体验摩梭人古朴的民风民俗是我多年的梦想。韩国汉城电视台要在千禧之年把中国有趣的民风民俗从北到南拍个遍,邀请我加盟作“嘉宾主持”,从学术的角度解释有关民俗文化事象。拍摄摩梭人的生活习俗,是计划中的最后一站,因我要随时准备接受采访,还要做有关联络工作,无法对摩梭人的历史文化、社会生活等方方面面作全面的调查,所以我把此行对摩梭人的考察定位在一般生活现象和我国实行市场经济后对当代摩梭人的经济意识方面。     

Constructing the Past

Ronald L. Grimes. Symbol and Conquest: Public Ritual and Drama in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976. 281 pp. $16.50.     

Forgetting the Past

Based on arguments developed more fully in the author's History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism (2006), this article urges historians of women and gender to develop a richer appreciation of the distant past. The article uses data from recent conferences and journals to demonstrate that our field is now overly focused on the modern era, and especially the last century. Then, in the spirit of encouraging further discussion and debate, the article lays out some reasons for this contemporary tilt, some ways we might right the balance and some benefits of doing just that.     

Struggling with the Past

Many postprocessual archaeologists have argued that active individuals make history. The apotheosis of the individual has been achieved under the rubric identity, the most pervasive theoretical term of the last few years. This focus obscures the fundamental idea that individuals do not exist in isolation. The relational concept of struggle will help us past this theoretical impasse. This concept has many components including real struggles in the past, our struggles to know the past, and using the past to struggle in the present. Our goal is to struggle past identity politics and the individual by focusing on peoples' real struggles in real cases.     

Evidence for the Past

Book reviewed in this article:
The What and the Why of History: Philosophical Essays By Leon J. Goldstein     

草原往事

生命,像一首悠扬的歌,每一个音符都是一个细节;又像一条蜿蜒的河,每一朵浪花都是一个故事;更像一棵婆娑的树,每一枚落叶都是一段往事。尽管,我的人生算不上精彩和丰盈,但也有一些经历弥足珍贵,至今记忆犹新。     

考古学如何走近公众——读《最早的中国》

<正>近年来,考古学与公众的关系成为考古学家们热议的话题,越来越多的考古学家开始意识到"考古学知识的普及与文化的寻根正在变得更加重要"①,而且认为"考古学家在普及教育中有着义不容辞的责任"②。但是,考古学是一门专业性很强的学科,加上学科传统、研究重点以及理论方法的