Approaches to the Recent Past

These five books address the evolution of cognition and consciousness, the two topics no longer considered synonymous but separate though related inquiries. Two books focus on consciousness as revealed in art and artifacts from prehistoric sites of anatomically modern humans; one evaluates the intelligence of anthropoid apes through ecological, ethological, behavioral, and anatomical studies of living and fossil apes; one concerns intelligence as revealed in fossil brains and skulls; and the fifth is an essay using many types of data and imaginative scenarios to comment on the mind.     

神奇故事的结构研究与历史研究

《故事形态学》一书的俄文版出版于1928年。在当时它引起的反响是双重的。一方面,一些民间文艺学家,民族志学家和文艺学家对它表示了欢迎。另一方面,也有人指责作者是形式主义,而且这类指责直至今日还在重复。     

Geographical Approaches to the Study of Extractive Industries

The locational patterns of development of extractive industry in the USSR have been neglected as an object of study in Soviet economic geography. The geography of resource-based industry is determined by two groups of factors: natural and economic. Research is needed to establish the quantitative parameters of the effect of natural factors on location. The most significant economic factor of location is technical progress. A basic problem in the development of extractive industry in the Soviet Union has been the areal disparity between availability of resources and resource use. The disparity is most evident between the western and eastern zones of the country. Soviet economic regions can be grouped according to their share in the gross output of all extractive industry. Within groups, regions can be distinguished according to the extent to which available resources are being used. Resource-based industries tend to form the core of industrial complexes, particularly in pioneering regions where the economy is in its early stages of development. Five types of resource complexes are distinguished: energy-oriented complexes, ore-based complexes, fishery complexes, timber complexes, and nonmetallic mineral complexes.     

是继承还是偏离：布罗代尔新论

布罗代尔并不是年鉴学派创始人不折不知的遗产继承人,他的理论从一开始就含有根本偏离费弗尔、布洛克的轨道的成分;他的实践以其理论为指导,事件史被排除在他的历史之外,片面强调环境和结构对人类历史发展的单向决定作用。正是通过他的理论和实践,布罗代尔拔转了年鉴学派大船的航向,他本人也悄悄地路上了与年鉴学派创始人所主张的方向相偏离的道路,这是他的长时段理论及其实践的合乎逻辑的结果。     

全球史对世界史编纂理论和方法的发展

“全球史观”是近年来由国外史学界首先提出的一种研究世界历史的新观点,在这种新视野影响下形成的全球史史学显示出新的世界史编纂模式。全球史史学与传统世界史相比,无论在视角、编纂范围、意识形态、研究方法、历史分期和话语特征诸方面都有新的突破。全球史史学尚不能代替国别史的传统研究领域,但它开创了新的领域———研究国家或区域间的互动交流和全球文明在其他方面的整体关联。全球史史学所带来的方法论意义以及它所表现出的对带有强烈欧洲中心论意识形态的旧世界史体系的解构具有进步意义。     

New Approaches to Sacred Space

Stephen Murray : A Gothic Sermon: Making a Contract with the Mother of God, Saint Mary of Amiens. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Jaime Lara : City, Temple, Stage: Eschatological Architecture and Liturgical Theatrics in New Spain. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004. Robert Nelson : Hagia Sophia 1850–1950: Holy Wisdom, Holy Monument. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Robert W. Moss : Historic Sacred Places of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.     

Approaches to the Roman Empire: A Perspective

MIRIAM T. GRIFFIN. Nero: The End of A Dynasty. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. 320. $25 (US); RICHARD J.A. TALBERT. The Senate of Imperial Rome. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. Pp. xviii, 583. $60 (US); J.B. CAMPBELL. The Emperor and the Roman Army 31 BC-AD 235. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. Pp. xx, 468. $54 (US); ROBERT L. WILKEN. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984. Pp. xx, 214. $18.95 (US); HOWARD CLARK KEE. Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983. Pp. xii, 320. $25 (US).     

Approaches to the Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Past and Emergent Perspectives

Recently, interest in the archaeology of ethnogenesis has surged. This renewed interest stems from innovations in the historical study of ethnogenesis, theoretical shifts favoring multidirectional agency, and relevant contemporary sociopolitical debates. Theoretical problems surrounding the appropriateness of the social science concept of “ethnicity,” however, have made the comparative study of ethnogenesis difficult. Drawing from past and emergent perspectives adds renewed vigor to comparative studies of ethnogenesis. A methodology that integrates the different types of theory can resolve the theoretical tensions in the archaeological study of ethnogenesis.     

Bridging Positivist and Interpretivist Approaches to Qualitative Methods

The usual juxtaposition of qualitative research against quantitative research makes it easy to miss the fact that qualitative research itself encompasses at least two traditions: positivist and interpretivist. Positivist work seeks to identify qualitative data with propositions that can then be tested or identified in other cases, while interpretive work seeks to combine those data into systems of belief whose manifestations are specific to a case. In this paper, I argue that discovering causal relationships is the province of positivist research, while discovering causal mechanisms is the province of interpretivists. I explain why absolutist claims for one or the other approach are mistaken, and argue that the combination of both makes more sense. Finally, I offer suggestions for combinations of positivist and interpretive work, both at the level of thought experiment and in actual data collection and analysis. Throughout, I draw my examples from recent studies of poverty, a field in which a small but distinguished tradition of qualitative studies of the poor has been joined by a growing body of both positivist and interpretive work.     

Getting to the point: Evolutionary change in prehistoric weaponry

The evolution of prehistoric weaponry remains an open question in North American archaeology. The traditional model argues for an early use of the throwing spear followed by the spearthrower and bow and arrow. A major difficulty in testing this model is, identifying the functional variables that characterize different weaponry. The evolution of prehistoric weaponry is reexamined here from an evolutionary perspective where projectile points are considered part of the complete weapon system and variation within that system is identified. The engineering of four weapon systems, the thrusting spear, throwing spear, spearthrower, and bow, are examined to identify those point variables that enhance the success of the system. These variables are then measured on a 9000-year sequence of projectile points from northwestern Wyoming to examine time/space patterns. The patterns reveal that the spearthrower was in use prior to 7500 years ago.     

Extremal Approaches to Estimating Spatial Interaction

Two recent theoretical approaches to the gravity model of spatial interaction are examined with emphasis on the dissimilar physical and statistical theories from which they were respectively derived. Formal relationships between the two methods are demonstrated. The two approaches jointly indicate a general method of generating new hypotheses of gravity flows. This method is discussed and evaluated, and some questions of theory comparability are explored. Comments on some of the computational features of each of the two models conclude the paper.     

Comparative Approaches to Visions of Community

The aims of the first VISCOM conference were to compare different methods employed in the study of community to address new methodological perspectives for the analysis of categories of identification and belonging, the conditions and processes of the making of communities across large cultural and geo-political fields. At the same time, this exchange was meant to provide thorough reflections on the process of comparative research itself. This contribution sets out to discuss the diversity and creative tension of these methodological approaches before proceeding to outline how they may contribute to future collaboration both within the VISCOM project and beyond in interdisciplinary and, eventually, in transdisciplinary collaboration between historians and socio-anthropologists. The text thus focuses on the methodological tools and the very practical research processes addressed at the conference and in the case studies brought together in this thematic issue. It will specifically address the challenge to develop comparable, but contextually differentiated approaches to different types and amounts of medieval source material across time and space, viewing the methodological and conceptual framework of the project and the contributions of this issue as a toolbox. I will thus take up the claims of several contributors to more thoroughly contextualise the very conceptual notions underlying our research (such as identity, ethnicity and community) and argue in favour of a less “loaded” and more flexible conceptual vocabulary developed in close relation with the source material to cope with the high diversity of sources and methodological approaches.