In search of Wales: travel writing and narratives of difference, 1918–50

Travel writers since the eighteenth century have sought to portray Wales as a place of «difference» with its own culture, history and legends woven into the landscape. Their texts were later to inspire twentieth-century travellers. These later travellers also drew on the academic work of geographers, anthropologists and archaeologists such as H.J. Fleure, Cyril Fox and E.G. Bowen who wrote extensively and influentially on their ideas of identity and race grounded in the landscapes of Wales. One recurrent theme throughout these popular travel narratives, like H.V. Morton'sIn Search of Wales , was that of a Celtic history and culture, evident both in landscape and in the people. Travellers» books recorded journeys punctuated by visits to the monuments of this Celtic past with its hill-forts and standing stones, and by encounters with the peoples of Wales. The literature of travellers and academics combined to create a particular form of text for Wales that in turn became the language for the promotion of tourism and for the images and experiences of Wales that could be taken away by those who came to visit.     

试论重庆万州中坝子遗址夏商周时期文化遗存

万州中坝子遗址是三峡地区一处以商周时期化为主的重要遗存。经过近年来的发掘,清理出商周时期的灰坑、墓葬、水田等多处遗迹现象,同时获得一大批陶、石、骨、铜器等遗物。根据陶器组合及型式变化和地层关系,本将中坝子遗址商周时期化遗存分为二期四段。通过对比,其年代与鄂西地区的中堡岛三期类型、川西地区的三星堆二期化大致相当。另外,因中坝子遗址位于古代巴人活动的中心区域,对该遗址的研究也为探索早期巴化提供了十分重要的资料。     

Anti-methodology par excellence: Richard Cobb (1917–96) and history-writing

Richard Cobb (1917–96) was a well-known historian of modern France whose numerous studies contributed to revising our interpretations of the revolutionary period and its impact on the people of both Paris and the provinces. Cobb was also a very knowledgeable, sharp, witty and deeply entertaining essayist and reviewer not just of all things French across a wide chronological spectrum, but of historical matters more generally. Controversial and unusual, his work proved to be unique among scholars – and, for this reason, open to criticism. One trait that defined such uniqueness was his unapologetic and fierce aversion to methodological discussion as well as theoretical reflection in historical research. And yet, as this article attempts to show, his oeuvre – including a variety of different material – unveils a range of insightful and important considerations on the métier d'historien and the practice of history-writing. By focusing on a series of compelling images Cobb delineated throughout his works, reviews and essays in order to depict the role of the historian and the way(s) of going about the business of approaching the past, the following pages intend to provide a novel sketch of the ideas of this anti-methodologist par excellence. In particular, attention will be given to his configuration of the identity of the practitioner as wanderer, detective and novelist. It is thus hoped that the light cast on his writings might prompt a new reading of Cobb's opinions as a source of possible historiographical inspiration for new generations of historians.     

Fixing value: history,ethnography, and material ontologies of deservingness in a Philadelphia repair shop

This article draws on labor history and science and technology studies to propose a method, and to provide an example, of historical analysis that is responsive to the conceptual categories that arise out of ethnographic accounts of individuals’ lived experiences. Using an ‘ontological tool-box’, this article follows various enactments of consumer appliances and, along with them, ideas of what it is to be a productive worker in a small appliance repair shop and across the practices of certain institutions of disciplinary power. Through an ethnographic and ontological analysis of repair in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington, this article reveals that, rather than being inevitable or essential, all the categories used to organize our world, whether referent to identities or objects, are both constituted by and constitutive of a complex set of social relations and ideological priorities, which even historians are implicated in reproducing.     

A review of observational,theoretical and numerical studies of VLF triggered emissions

We review theoretical and numerical studies of VLF triggered emissions generated by manmade signals propagating in the whistler mode in the magnetosphere. Instead of listing all the past studies on the subject we select some of those works which give important ideas and the theoretical basis for future studies. The main purpose of the paper is to clarify what problems remain unresolved and to make suggestions for future studies.We first describe the phenomenon of VLF triggered emissions and give a brief review of experiments and observations. We then summarize the basic physics of VLF wave-particle interactions, which is indispensable for an understanding of the triggering mechanisms. We review important ideas and theories, as well as numerical models so far employed, summarize the present understanding of the phenomenon and consider briefly those problems which need further study. Especially, we focus our attention on numerical simulations whose capabilities in nonlinear physics are increasing with the increasing power of supercomputers.     

THE 2013 ANTIPODE RGS‐IBG LECTURE New Materialisms and Neoliberal Natures

The rise of non‐deterministic understandings of nature, with their emphasis on intensive difference and non‐linear processes, has occurred in conjunction with the neoliberalization of environmental governance, which at once emphasizes and financializes the inherent productivity of nature. This paper accepts the position that there is a link between the two, but argues that if we are to maintain a crucial ontological distinction between capital and non‐capital, this link must be understood as contingent rather than necessary. Drawing upon Deleuze and Guattari's concept of “universal history”, I argue that the neoliberalization of nature must be understood, in part, as the strategic containment of the critical energies of new materialist thought, and that the role of critical historiography is to recognize within processes of containment the contents and qualities of more radical possibilities. If such critical efforts are to succeed they must continually distinguish between nature's innovative force and the mechanisms that seek to capture this force in the service of capital and state. In turn, if we are to remember the radical potential of these ideas, the neoliberalization of nature must be understood as a response to these critical energies, and not their origin.     

Bison breeding characteristics and interpretation of archaeological seasonality revisited

Bison breeding behaviour has been used for the last three decades as the basis for developing methods for assigning season‐of‐occupation estimates to archaeological sites on the North American Plains. These methods are based upon the supposition that the North American bison breeding season is extremely short and that genetically controlled ontological characteristics such as foetal growth and tooth eruption sequences can therefore be used to infer site seasonality in a reasonably straightforward and precise manner. This paper reviews bison population studies conducted during the past 30 years to reassess present understandings of the length of North American bison breeding seasons. It is concluded that the bison breeding season regularly extends over a period of three to four months, and that initiation of ontological development will therefore also vary over the same period of time. Bison development characteristics cannot provide a reliable or precise means of assigning seasonality to archaeological sites on the North American Plains. It is suggested that methods using physical characteristics such as dental cementum incrementation which are directly affected by seasonal changes could be more productive. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Wilsons — A Line of Engineers

Abstract

In addition to his enduring engineering works, Thomas Telford was the inspiration of several lines of engineers whose progenitors worked for the great man. This paper describes such a line, continuing for five generations of engineers. Its founder was one of the two John Wilsons who worked as managing overseers for Telford. The John Wilson here considered, worked on the Caledonian Canal, the Göta Canal and the Glencorse dam. Two of his sons became civil engineers, one establishing his own business in London and the other travelling the world. They in turn were succeeded by two nephews, one of whom carried on the London consultancy whilst the other became Chief Engineer to the Great Eastern Railway. They in turn had sons who continued as civil engineers, and grandsons who have diversified into newer branches of engineering.     

石质文物表面憎水性化学保护的副作用研究

根据最小干预和不影响文物原貌的原则,使用表面化学防护和化学加固等保护材料被认为是保护石质文物的有效方法。目前,已试用于石质文物表面保护的化学材料主要是有机硅等有机化合物。这些有机材料能起到一定的防水和加固作用,但是也潜在不少问题,一些可能的危害目前还没有引起人们足够的重视。本工作以通用有机硅类防水加固剂为表面保护材料,以砂岩、凝灰岩、白云岩、大理岩和花岗岩为保护对象,模拟各种破坏因素,包括干湿循环、盐结晶、冻融和加热等的作用和联合作用,研究了表面化学处理后岩石样品在模拟环境中的变化情况,发现破坏现象严重。其中,化学保护剂在石材表层产生的亲水/憎水界面导致石材受某些应力的加速破坏是重要原因。上述研究结果提示,在石质文物的保护中应慎重使用憎水性表面化学保护剂。     

TIME,PRESENCE, AND HISTORICAL INJUSTICE

The relationship between history and justice traditionally has been dominated by the idea of the past as distant or absent (and with that, irreversible). This ambiguous ontological status makes it very difficult to situate the often‐felt “duty to remember” or obligation to “do justice to the past” in that past itself, and this has led philosophers from Friedrich Nietzsche to Keith Jenkins to plead against an “obsession” with history in favor of an ethics aimed at the present. History's ability to contribute to the quest for justice, as a result, often seems very restricted or even nonexistent. The introduction of the “presence”‐paradigm in historiography can potentially alter this relation between history and justice. However, to do so it should be conceived in such a way that it offers a fundamental critique of the metaphysical dichotomy between the present and the absent and the underlying concept of time (chronosophy) that supports this dichotomy. The “presence”‐paradigm can be emancipatory and productive only if presence and absence are not perceived as absolute dichotomies. In the first part of this article I elaborate on the influence that the present/absent dichotomy has on the notion of justice by introducing a conceptual contrast between what I will call the “time of jurisdiction” and the “time of history.” The second part of the article focuses on the way certain aspects of the dominant Western chronosophy reinforce the present/absent dichotomy and thereby prevent us from thoroughly exploring the ambiguous but often very problematic presence of the past. Throughout the article I refer to the relatively recent phenomenon of truth commissions and the context of transitional justice to discuss some challenges for the “presence”‐paradigm.     

Reconstruction of a country estate in Prussia,Pomerania (now Poland), 1861–1945

SUMMARY: Most of the estates in Pomerania, Germany (now West Poland), were completely destroyed by the end of World War II (WWII). One of these estates belonged to our great-grandfather, and thereafter to the eldest son and a grandson; three generations lived in the house from 1861 to 1945. An inventory compiled in 1941 by the wife of the third owner has survived; the contents of the entire house, some with their ownership attached, enabled us to divide 80 years of occupation into three phases. This unusual but precise record, together with unpublished family histories, personal memories, and a few photos and documents made it possible to reconstruct the house and revive the history of these three generations in Daber-Freiheit.     

Evolutionary Ecology,Resource Depression,and Niche Construction Theory: Applications to Central California Hunter-Gatherers and Mimbres-Mogollon Agriculturalists

Evolutionary ecology is a theoretical framework that has been widely applied to problems in human evolution and prehistory. Because the approach often focuses on how behavioral adjustments to changing socio-ecological conditions create novel selective pressures that in turn drive other changes in morphology and behavior, it draws on the same evolutionary logic that underlies niche construction theory. We illustrate here the important role that niche construction has played in archaeological applications of evolutionary ecology with two detailed case studies: one from Late Holocene hunter-gatherer populations in Central California and one from Mimbres-Mogollon agriculturalists in New Mexico. These examples illustrate that evolutionary ecology-based approaches, with an emphasis on formal predictive modeling, allow for the incorporation of niche construction as it affects model parameters with reference to specific problems involving past behavior. Further modeling and empirical applications will expand the synergies between these complementary approaches and advance our understanding of the human past.     

The politics of evolution: Morphology,medicine, and reform in radical London

Summary

This essay closely examines the highly contested but widely employed historiographical category ‘absolutism’. Why are scholars so divided on whether it is even legitimate to use the term and, if they agree to do so, why are they still much at odds in explaining what it is? What are the main historiographical currents in the study of absolutism? Is it the same thing to speak of absolutism in regard to the practices of early modern European monarchies and with reference to the political ideas of so-called absolutist theorists? By addressing these questions through the methodology of intellectual history, this essay provides a comprehensive account of debates on absolutism and, at the same time, suggests that further work needs to be carried out on its theoretical aspects. In this respect, the author will propose a series of key ideas and principles which are meant to encapsulate the core of an early modern doctrine of absolutist monarchical sovereignty. It will also be argued that, when studying political thought, the term ‘absolutism’ might be abandoned in favour of the plural ‘absolutisms’ as a better way of understanding the past, its languages, opinions, people. In so doing, a thorough analysis of what political absolutism(s) is will be set forth, and a series of more general considerations on history-writing will also be advanced.     

4. THE MATERIAL PRESENCE OF THE PAST

This article deals with the material presence of the past and the recent call in the human sciences for a “return to things.” This renewed interest in things signals a rejection of constructivism and textualism and the longing for what is “real,” where “regaining” the object is conceived as a means for re‐establishing contact with reality. In the context of this turn, we might wish to reconsider the (ontological) status of relics of the past and their function in mediating relations between the organic and the inorganic, between people and things, and among various kinds of things themselves for reconceptualizing the study of the past. I argue that the future will depend on whether and how various scholars interested in the past manage to modify their understanding of the material remnants of the past, that is, things as well as human, animal, and plant remains. In discussing this problem I will refer to Martin heidegger's distinction between an object and a thing, to bruno latour's idea of the agency of things and object‐oriented democracy, and to Don Ihde's material hermeneutics. To illustrate my argument I will focus on some examples of the ambivalent status of the disappeared person (dead or alive) in argentina, which resists the oppositional structure of present versus absent. In this context, the disappeared body is a paradigm of the past itself, which is both continuous with the present and discontinuous from it, which simultaneously is and is not. Since there are no adequate terms to analyze the “contradictory” or anomalous status of the present‐absent dichotomy, I look for them outside the binary oppositions conventionally used to conceptualize the present‐absent relationship in our thinking about the past. for this purpose I employ Algirdas Julien Greimas's semiotic square.     

Construction of Meaningful Contexts On War,Lions, Dogs,Birds and a Vineyard

The present article argues that 1 Kgs 20-22 are not well-suited as historical sources for the Aramean wars, but are of considerable importance in the reconstruction of the world of ideas of that time. It is shown how animals and plants can be used as codes in the narrative. The use of lions, dogs and birds in 1 Kgs 20-22 illustrates one and the same theme: killing and devouring. Yahweh can appear as a lion or send a lion, but even though the lion kills, it does not “devour” the disobedient prophets of Yahweh. Yahweh is also behind the treatment of Ahab, Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, but Yahweh leaves it to dogs and birds to devour them. The king of animals is connected to Yahweh's prophets and the unclean animals to the apostate royal house. Through the codes we gain insight into certain basic modes of thought in Old Testament cosmo-ontology. For linguistic expressions acquire their meaning not only from the narrative sequence in which they are used, but also from the system in which they are included.     

(UN)DOING HISTORY: A CASE FOR EPISTEMOLOGICAL ALTERITY

This article addresses two primary tensions that currently beset medieval history. The first concerns a contentious debate within the field regarding the relative merits of two interpretative approaches: that which seeks to situate the Middle Ages within a narrative of continuity wherein aspects of the medieval bear some relationship of familiarity with the present and that which accords a radical alterity to the past that instigates moments of historical rupture. The second tension concerns the fraught relationship between history as a site of knowledge production with some proximity to engaging and producing truth and history as constructed, wherein its purported object of study, the past, is not an ontological fact but a cultural artifact. In this instance, what we witness is less a debate among scholars within history than an amorphic anxiety about history. This article makes a case for engaging the radical alterity that confronts the historian of the Middle Ages. It does so, however, cognizant of an ontological impasse: if alterity is attentive to difference, a difference that resists translation into modern knowledge regimes, then what does it mean to engage it historically—that is, through a temporal structure that would have been foreign to the very period of study?     

劣化石刻表层生物矿化加固材料的探索性研究

许多濒危石质文物表层劣化现象严重。但是,以往使用的表层加固材料很难令人满意,探索新的疏松岩石表层加固材料已是当务之急。由于天然生物矿化物耐候性优越,与基底岩石相容性良好,具有较好的加固作用,本工作依据生物矿化的原理,以不同生物大分子溶液作为有机模板,分别控制草酸钙、磷灰石和碳酸钙过饱和溶液于室温下在疏松岩石仿制样品的表层及孔隙内结晶生长。通过抗压强度、表面硬度和耐水浸泡等试验进行了加固效果评价,以考察仿生物矿化材料对含钙疏松岩石的加固能力。实验结果表明,仿生合成的生物矿化材料均具有一定的加固效果,其中以磷灰石仿生矿化材料的加固强度最大,以硫酸软骨素为模板的加固效果为佳。并且,在考察的3种加固方式中,以"直接混合"的加固强度更好,以"表面渗透"的耐水浸泡能力更强。本工作为开发濒危石质文物表层加固材料提供了新的思路。     

“茶马古道”遗产保护中的文化品牌建设

文化遗产可以展现一个地区的文化脉络,也是评价该地区文化深度与厚度的要素之一。对待历史功能在现代社会发生了一些转变的文化遗产,应该加以保护还是改善开发是学界引发广泛讨论的论题。而冻结与封存并不能体现文化遗产的价值,尽管茶马古道的部分历史功能已经消逝或改变,但其在过去近20年问已经以一个文化标签的形式进入了大众文化视域,成为一个区域形象符号。树立品牌建设观念,遵循文化品牌建设的原则、规律进行综合性的保护与利用,是此类跨区域、跨民族、跨文化类型的文化遗产保护与传承的重要方式。     

Gendered spheres: theorizing space in the English printing house

The English printing house was initially conceived, legally, as a printing house, with public work taking place in a private setting. This private space emphasised the traditional hierarchies of political and legal order: Women’s work that took place within the printing house thus fell into the traditional role of household labours. This erasure of labour is one that foregrounds the erasure of women’s writing from history; women who worked in essence as publishers, as printers and booksellers, are very clearly present in the historical records but invisible in our narratives of book history. How did this erasure happen, and why is their presence, and work, overlooked? If we consider the language of space in theory and reread Moxon’s Mechanickal Exercises closely, we see the ways in which the ideas of space itself can be implicitly gendered, and how this might shape our idea of the printing house.