Coping with famine in Communist China (1949–62)

Several studies of Mao's Great Famine based on archival material have appeared over the past few years. This article is less focused on the famine than on how existing responses to starvation were gradually eliminated in the years before the launch of the Great Leap Forward in 1958, as well as how covert acts of resistance offered some hope to villagers during Mao's Great Famine from 1958 to 1962. China, after all, was a country well attuned to famine, and coping mechanisms existed at all levels of society, starting from a variety of survival strategies adopted by the villagers themselves and reaching all the way to international interventions by organisations like the Famine Relief Commission. Few of these were left intact in the wake of the Communist conquest in 1949, as is seen in the first part of this article. On the other hand, villagers were quick to learn how to lie, charm, hide, steal, cheat, pilfer, forage, smuggle, trick, manipulate or otherwise outwit the state. During the Great Leap Forward, these covert means of resistance were often the population's only hope for survival in many parts of the country reeling under the impact of famine, as seen in part two.     

The Lhoba Tribe in Dermo

ＴｈｅＬｈｏｂａＴｒｉｂｅｉｎＤｅｒｍｏｂｙＷａｎｇＬｉｍｉｎＯｎＡｕｇｕｓｔ１５，１９５０，ｔｈｅｓｅｃｏｎｄｄａｙｏｆｔｈｅｓｅｖｅｎｔｈｍｏｎｔｈｉｎｔｈｅＴｉｂｅｔａｎＹｅａｒｏｆｔｈｅｉｒｏｎＴｉｇｅｒ，ａｎｅａｒｔｈｑｕａｋｅｍｅａｓｕｒ...     

Staple or famine food?: ethnographic and archaeological approaches to nut processing in East Asian prehistory

Recent archaeobotanical studies in East Asia show that the use of wild food plants, particularly nuts, was important for not only hunter–gatherers but also early farmers. For example, recent archaeobotanical work has identified large quantities of nut remains from early Chinese rice farming sites dating 5,000–4,500 BC. In Japan, which introduced rice farming from China around 1,000–500 BC, archaeobotanical data have shown continued exploitation of nuts even after the introduction of rice farming. Therefore, the first appearance of farming does not appear to have immediately impacted the subsistence system, although it may have changed cultural perceptions of food plants, eventually rice replacing nuts as a staple food. To explain the cultural implications of this shift in emphasis, it is necessary to investigate people’s routine subsistence activities with reference to available ethnographic information on non-mechanised plant processing. The ethnographic data provide insights into ancient nut processing, including possible methods, tools, choices of working locations and labour scales. Conceptual modelling based on ethnographic observations of the range of nut-processing practices will also aid interpretations from newly developed methods, such as starch residue analyses. The resulting archaeobotanical, archaeological and ethnographic picture may help to further explore past social organisation and social perceptions of plant foods.     

The Oldest Post Office in Tibet

In1910,thePostalGeneralAdministrationoftheQingGovernmentsetuppostofficesinLhasa,Gyangze,Xigaze,PagriandYadong.ThismarkedthebeginningofthemodernpostalserviceinTibet.Postalroutesaddedupto650kin.ThefollowingyearsawtheestablishmentofthePostalAdministrationinLhasa,andbranchesinQamdo,Shubando,Gyamda,Gyangze,PagriandYadong.Atotalof50,000piecesoflettersandparcelswerehandledinthesameyear.Thesameperiodsawthesepostofficesstartremittanceservice,andtheopeningofthepostalroutesfromKangdingandQamdot…     

The CIA's Secret War in Tibet

hefirstAmericansNawangGayltseneversawhadsmall,silvereaglespinnedontheircaPs.Nawangwillneverforgetthoseeagles.Theyseemedauspicious,liketotemsofvictorvorsuccess.Today,hisfacewrinklesintoasadsmilerememberingthis.TheAmericanscame,hesaid,inabigturbopropplane,a…     

The Grandest Canyon in the World

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The ‘Self-Positing’ Self in Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death

In response to the claim that Kierkegaard's highly compressed definition of the self, given near the beginning of The Sickness unto Death, should be understood in Hegelian terms, I show that it can be better understood in terms of an earlier development in the history of German idealism, namely, Fichte's theory of self-consciousness. The notion that the self “posits” itself found in this theory will be used to explain Kierkegaard's definition of the self, including his rejection of the idea that the self posits itself absolutely. I go on to show how this conception of the self relates to certain features of the concept of despair described in The Sickness unto Death. This in turn allows me to indicate some implications of this conception of the self in relation to Kierkegaard's attitude towards the social and political forces shaping the modern world.     

The sun in Sámi mythology

The topic of this paper is the position of the sun, Biejvve, in the Sámi religion. The main source of our knowledge about Sámi religion is the accounts of the missionaries and priests from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who measured the Sámi's beliefs by the standards of classical Greek/Roman religion. Consequently, Biejwe was seen as one of the major celestial gods. Many have continued to follow this line of thinking. There is, however, another context in which Biejwe should be viewed. In almost all circumpolar societies, there exists/existed the concept of female goddesses or ‘mothers’ who regulate fertility and protect the family, especially women during pregnancy and children. Sáráhkká, the Sámi goddess of the hearth, is one of these goddesses. Her realm is the fire in the middle of the tent, at the center of people's lives. Consequently, she intercedes in everyday life; she cares for the family and the upholding of social values. Biejvve is also part of this complex. She is the burning fire in the sky, the annually recurring force which in springtime makes the hillsides turn green again and ensures there is food for the reindeer. She protects the reindeer calves during spring and sees to it that women get milk from the animals during summer. Unlike Såråhkkå, she does not intervene directly in people's lives and doesn not have the same elaborate cult, but she does carry the same life‐giving force.     

The Longest Painting Scroll in the World

Zongza Lhagyicannot forgetDecember 3,1999,When hereceived the entry certifi-cate from me London-based Guinness Book ofWorld Records while hewas in Shanghai.It reads:China Tibetan Cultural ArtColor Painting, the longest.measures 618 meters longand 2.3 meters wide.     

The Agathon Scene in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae

This article interprets Agathon's speech of self-justification in light of its dramaturgical functions within the prologue of Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae. Agathon refutes Inlaw's charges of homosexual effeminacy by outlining a theory of poetic composition according to which the poet changes his nature to create in himself the qualities of his characters and plays. The speech simultaneously works against Agathon's self-justification by portraying the tragedian as an elite intellectual whose theories are only valid within his own isolation.     

The opinion–policy link in Australia

Whether or not policy is responsive to public opinion is central to questions of representation. Democracy by many accounts is premised on there being a strong correspondence between public opinion and policy. This link has not, however, been examined in detail in Australia. This article examines the policy–opinion link in a more robust way than that has previously been achieved in Australia, through the use of legislative data from the Australian Policy Agendas Project (APAP) and public opinion data from Roy Morgan. The article asks: is policy congruent with public opinion in Australia? In addressing this question, we examine to what extent policy accords with the preferences of the public. This in turn provides us with some answers about how representative Australian democracy is, as well as contributing to an international debate about the responsiveness of policy to public opinion.

政策是否要对舆论负责,这是代表制的核心问题。民主的前提往往就在于舆论和政策之间的息息相通。但在澳大利亚,人们并没有仔细地研究过二者间的关联。本文根据澳大利亚政策议题计划提供的立法资料以及罗伊摩根提供的舆情资料,对政策—舆论关联做了比以往充分多的研究。本文试问：政策与舆论在澳大利亚是否一致？我们考察了政策在多大程度上符合民意。这也为澳大利亚民主在多大程度上具有代表性的问题提供了答案,对于国际上争论政策对民意的回应问题也具有参考意义。。