Body Language: The Somatics of Nationalism in Tamil India

The modern nation resides, literally and symbolically, in the bodies of its citizenry. These bodies in turn constitute the national body politic. The female embodiment of the nation is frequently the ground on which the two bodies intersect. This essay explores this intersection through the analytic of the ‘somatics of nationalism’, with examples drawn from Tamil-speaking India in this century. Through an analysis of how images of the shared womb, blood, milk, and tears of the female embodiment of the nation were circulated by nationalist narratives, the author suggests that these were somatic building blocks with which the nation and its constituency were constructed in southern India. In turn, Tamil citizens were called upon to demonstrate their loyalty by putting their own bodies on line, shedding their own blood and that of their enemies, for the sake of the embodied nation. Nations and citizen-patriots may relate to each other politically, materially and emotionally, but they also do so somatically.     

泥人抟土塑型的“那些年”

正泥塑是中国一种古老常见的民间艺术,它以泥土为原料,以手工捏制成形,形象以人物、动物为主。泥塑取材广泛,神话、戏剧、小说以及民间生活都是其素材来源,通过塑造人物造型,刻画鲜明的人物性格,营造浓郁的生活气息。2016年北京农业嘉年华中,天津展区的泥塑作品形象逼真,个性鲜明,展现出旧时乡村风貌和人文情怀,把我们带回了单纯、朴实的"那些年"。     

The Old Cold War

James McAllister . No Exit: America and the German Problem , 1943 – 1954 . Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press , 2002 . vii+264 . Index and bibliography. $ .     

Clothes as Expression of Action in Former Concentration Camps

The prisoners of the former concentrations camps were supposed to be deprived of their socialization by brutal dehumanization. Among other things, the use of blue-and-white striped prison clothes was meant to reinforce a homogeneous and uniform prisoner society. However, studies from a sociological perspective have shown that prisoners’ societies were indeed diverse and structured, allowing individuals to develop strategies of survival within their – albeit limited – scope for action. In this article, prisoners’ possibilities to act are discussed using the example of clothing – an omnipresent and visible medium. Various changes and alterations preserved in prisoner clothing from former concentration camps reveal open or secretive acts of individuals and thus provide insights into the different levels of action inside the camps.     

老虹口:弄堂的印记

<正>上海到处都充满着故事,走近虹口老弄堂,似乎能听到历史的声音,成片的旧城区总是带给人几许怀旧的遐思。那些年过半百的老房子里的人和相依的砖瓦一同演绎着老上海的里弄风情。如果你也像我这样眷恋旧时光的余温,就约上三五个旅伴,驻足虹口老城区,看一看旧民俗,听一听老故事,重温过往的记忆吧!我们住的酒店对面有一所老房子(高阳路167号),是上世纪初的百年老宅,我想那条街也堪称是上海老街,充满了旧时的气息,可听说过些时日就要拆了。那我还是记录下吧,这也是即将消失的老宅     

韩屋里遗存的高丽

<正>北村韩屋由一组传统民居构成,这里没有高层建筑,也看不到太多现代化的设施,全木制结构,一不留神,还以为走进了古老的高丽王朝。在首尔最热闹的钟路上,我看到许多吹笛子的中年男人,那空灵的笛音吸引了远近游客,把他们围在中央,但他们却如入定的僧人,一个眼神都不给你,仿佛他们的世界除了笛子的乐音外,更无其他。虽然地处闹市,却能让人越听越静。如果爱因斯坦的相对论果真需要一个事实去验证的话,这个时刻就是最好的证     

风格独特的玉树藏族服饰

青海省玉树藏族自治州的藏族服饰,因独具特色而引人瞩目。 服饰以各式布料,绸缎,呢子,氆氇,毛绒和虎、豹、鹿、水獭、牛、羊等动物的皮革制成。 首饰则由九眼珠、红珊瑚、蜡贝、绿松石、玛瑙、琥珀、宝石和金、银、铜、锡等配制。服饰和首饰既是对美的追求,也是对财富的炫耀。     

Fabric for Seventeenth-Century Children and Adolescents' Clothes

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the information on clothing which can be taken from the relatively newly exploited source of the probate account (as opposed to the probate inventory). The accounts only itemize the costs of clothing children up to apprenticeship, or to marriage, not the fully adult. Fortunately for this author's interests, the bulk of the accounts cover the children of parents with moveable goods worth under £100, under yeoman status. This particular article focuses on the range of prices that can be gleaned from the accounts on the prices of fabrics, and demonstrates that the same fabrics in the seventeenth century came in a very large range of prices and qualities. It differs from Professor Shammas' conclusions. The costs of clothing minors rose in the seventeenth century. It examines the prices of boys' and girls' clothes that can be gathered from the accounts, and also the types of fabric that were used to make each type of garment for them, taking into account the economic status of each child. It concludes that although the finer, more expensive, fabrics more commonly made up clothes for better-off children, this did not always follow : nor did the poor always wear the cheapest fabrics. There was no clear social stratification, although there was a rough one.