For the Community: Scottish Historical Archaeology and the Politics of Land Reform

In Scotland, land reform is, historically and still today, a defining political issue and a subject of debate. Central to this debate are different ideological understandings of the rural past. In this paper, I discuss the nature of the Scottish land question and explore several of the main—sometimes complementary, sometimes conflicting—ideologies concerning land, as put forward or supported by different constituencies: politicians; landowners; crofters; Scots more generally; and members of the Scottish diaspora. I consider the histories to which these ideologies relate and seek to locate the historical archaeology of rural Scotland in its political and social contexts.     

Upper House Reform in the United Kingdom and Australia

Discussion of upper house reform in the United Kingdom has been relatively muted in recent years, given the House of Lords' status as the world's last hereditary second chamber. However, a reform in 1999 removed the bulk of hereditary peers from the chamber and started a process of reflection about the appropriate role, functions and composition of the upper house. Fundamental questions arise about the power of the respective chambers at Westminster, the power of the government's mandate, and the possible territorial role of the upper house given the new devolution settlement. This paper describes recent developments, and contrasts the recent reform debate in the United Kingdom with the ongoing Senate reform debate in Australia. It discusses the extent to which views are converging and the likely outcomes of reform.     

Landscapes of Desire: Parks, Colonialism, and Identity in Victorian and Edwardian Ireland

Ireland’s Victorian and Edwardian public parks were landscapes in which normative models of class, gender, and colonial identities were constructed. This paper will explore how the materiality of these landscapes—their drinking fountains, railings, bandstands, and benches—facilitated forms of social practice that underpinned an ideology of improvement, creating regulated spaces of display and consumption in which the natural world and the urban populace could be objectified, domesticated and their moral worth evaluated. Yet, parks have always been sites of transgression so that from their earliest years, vandalism and other forms of subversive behavior created alternative narratives of identity.     

Pear Mill,Stockport: An Edwardian Cotton Spinning Mill

Abstract

Pear Mill, Stockport, was one of the last cotton spinning mills to be built, commencing production in July 1913. It therefore represents the end of a line of development which commenced with Arkwright's mill of 1771, and is an example of a type of building which is fast disappearing. The architects were A.H. Stott & Sons and the building is typical of their work of that period both in terms of construction, with concrete floors, and detailing. The power plant was a Manhattan type steam engine by George Saxon, driving the machinery via a rope drive. The mill had 137,312 mule spindles which remained until the 1950s when they were replaced by 33,636 ring spindles, the mill being electrified at the same time. It ceased operation as a textile mill in March 1978.     

同治十年江南的社会变乱、秩序危机与政府控制

太平天国战争后,江南地方政府面临着重建地方社会秩序、恢复经济生产等要务。但战后存在的社会危机感,以及民间随时可能发生的变乱,一直难以真正平复。本文考察了同治十年二月攻打广德州和建平县的所谓教匪反乱事件及江苏、浙江、安徽等省的协作平定行动。一般认为,在太平天国战争后,自中央到地方的垂直控制系统、地方的保甲体系以及府州县对于地方社会的掌控能力,有不同程度的削弱。可是从这个暴乱事件被平定的整个过程来看,这种认识是不太准确的。     

Engineering the Kingdom of God: Irrigation,Science and the Social Christian Millennium, 1880–1914

Irrigation was a hot issue in turn‐of‐the‐twentieth century Australia. Most often, it was embraced by booster‐visionaries who wanted it to provide Australia with a place at the table of nations. Not all irrigation enthusiasts placed the same emphasis on wealth and national power, however — indeed, there were some who believed it would help achieve a just distribution of social opportunity. In this article, I look at two Australian “social Christians”, the Melbourne minister, Charles Strong, and the South Australian journalist, Harry Taylor, who saw irrigation as an agent of God's Kingdom on Earth. This belief was part of a more general conviction, shared both by these men and other social Christians, that it was possible to merge millennial religiosity with evolution, progressive politics and rational principles.     

论吴越丧葬文化的改革与对策--以浙江省为例

吴越丧葬习俗既是中华民族丧葬文化的重要组成部分,又是具有自己地方特色的具体存在.在长期的历史发展过程中,不管是墓葬的形制、葬法葬式、仪式过程,还是通过墓葬或仪式表达出来的信仰形态和内容,或者是融入了自身环境形态的风水观念,都与其他区域存在着巨大的差异.正是这种差异,使我们感受到丧葬文化的区域性,感受到中华民族文化的多元一体化,也使我们深刻地认识到,吴越丧葬习俗的改变在国家殡葬改革大趋势前提下,必须针对这一地区存在的具体文化形态,否则,将事倍功半或失去意义.……     

Enlightened histories: civilization,war and the Scottish enlightenment

The concept of civil society continues to generate considerable interest, while the concept of civilization attracts comparatively little attention. This has led to a tendency to oversimplify the relationship between civil societies and militarily powerful sovereign states. Civil societies, it is often argued, are those societies that have emerged from a successful process of domestic pacification and effective control of state power. In this paper, it will be argued that some prominent Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed theories of civilization grounded in more complex historical narratives, in which the accomplishments of civil society were tied to the achievement of state sovereignty based on the successful monopoly of military might. The purpose of this paper is to trace the role of state sovereignty and military monopolization, and the consequent prominence given to the practice of war, in the “historical” theories of civilization articulated by David Hume, William Robertson, Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson.