纪念性建筑:象征性行为之热动力学解释

在考古研究与文明探源中,宏伟的纪念性建筑如金字塔、宫殿、庙宇陵墓常被视为文明灿烂程度的重要标志。本文中,布鲁斯·特里格借鉴热动力学方法来看待这个问题,并用"最省力"原则来剖析这种毫无回报的能量投入。热动力学用计算或衡量社会能量投入的劳力和数量来衡量这个社会的权力和复杂化程度,随着社会复杂化的进程和文明的起源,人类的生产方式发生了一种重大的变化。一般来说,无论是动物还是人类的生存都遵循一种"最省力"的原则,即在从事任何活动如生产和分配食物和其他资源时都力求节省能量,也即我们今天所谓的讲究"效益"。"最省力"原则完全不适用于祭祀建筑的营造和奢侈品的生产,而表现了一种"显赫消费"的特点。如果权力经济主导着这些物品的生产,那么消耗能量、特别以一种非实用目的来消耗他人能量的方式便成为衡量权力大小的标志。于是,权力能够从象征性上予以表达和强化的最基本方式,就是为非实用的目的而消费能量。从经济学角度来说,权力的"显赫消费"和全部依赖社会剩余产品的特点,很容易损害支撑这个社会系统存在的经济基础。当统治阶层将大量的社会资源和能量投入毫无回报和经济效益可言的祭祀和炫耀活动中去的时候,其结果很快就会达到开始损害其经济基础一点。当整个社会的运转完全为了维持等级体制而非供养民生,当"显赫消费"逐渐开始透支能量和耗竭资源、无法再从物质上来维持统治阶层的神圣地位时,这个复杂社会的崩溃就不可避免。为什么考古学上所谓"满天星斗"的史前文明大部分都是流星一闪,究其原因可能可以从权力的政治经济学上来找答案。     

环太湖与宁绍平原史前社会复杂化比较研究

一．相关理论的阐述 （一）社会复杂化概念 在当今国际考古学界,复杂化是社会化演变和明与国家起源的重要研究课题。对于“社会复杂化”（social complexity）这一概念,美国学罗思曼（M．S、Rothman）认为,复杂化是指一个多村落社会中经济、管理和宗教相互依存关系所发生的一种量变和质变过程。这种依存关系的核心是不同社会成员作用的分异（segregation）和集中（centralization）。在此,分异是指分工和专门化程度,而集中是指社会各亚系统和最高控制中心之间的关联程度。复杂化也包括了分属不同族属、社会等级、性别和职业等范畴的各社会群体之间的互动。     

世袭社会的另一种形态——对六朝士族社会的一个初步观察

按照以政治权力、经济财富和文化名望这三种主要社会资源的分配作为划分社会形态的标准,尤其是权力分配的标准,魏晋南北朝的社会还是应被称之为世袭社会,即一种和从西周到春秋的世袭社会既属于同一个类型,但又有许多区别的世袭社会。而从这一历史时期之前和之后的社会历史看,此前的秦汉社会并非世袭社会,而是已经走向了选举社会;从唐以后的历史看,更是形成了一个稳定的选举社会。这样就有了一种在两个选举社会之间夹持一个世袭社会的情况,出现了一种回潮或曲折,似乎不符合社会的发展规律,但事实就是如此。     

地理空间的闭合与区域社会的统合——以环太湖地区史前社会演进过程中的地理要因分析为中心

就环太湖地区史前社会演进过程与该地区史前地理环境之间的关系这一课题而言,长期以来学界始终将探索与讨论的时代焦点置于新石器时代晚期,因为,这一时期(即崧泽文化晚期-良渚文化时期)环太湖地区史前社会经历了革命性的变化,而且在文化繁荣程度、社会复杂化水平等方面均达到了中国大陆史前文化的巅峰.从研究内容上来看,多数研究者关注的重点是自然环境变迁在环太湖地区社会变迁过程中的作用机制与影响方式.     

乡村权力文化网络中的"社"组织研究--以晋南万荣通化村、荣河村和河津西王村为例

一、前言 　　在社会现代化进程中,中国乡村的社会结构和权力文化呈现着多元互动的组合模式.对于中国农村,既不能从主流政治的立场把它简单地界定为国家权力的基层组织,也不能从纯行政区域的眼光看待其空间组合,而要从历史文化变迁、人文地理状况等多方面深入考察不同区域的社会文化特征.我们在晋南万荣、河津等地的田野调查中,就深刻地体会到不同区域乡村组织的复杂性.“社“这一从古代传承下来的民间组织,在其他地区已经销声匿迹了,但是,在河津、万荣以及与此隔河相望的陕西韩城、合阳却还存活着,而且正显示着实际的社会功能,这引起我们对当前乡村民俗组织的结构特征、存活形态、运行机制等问题的浓厚兴趣.经过考察,我们发现“社“这种民俗组织在不同历史时期、特定地域内显示着不同的社会功能,因而在乡村社会中也表现出相异的民俗特征,它作为乡村权力文化网络的交织点正在社会现代化进程中发挥着不可替代的作用.……     

知文明

<正>中国史前社会上层远距离交流网的形成公元前3500年前后,中国史前各主要文化区在社会同步跨越式发展、社会复杂化程度加强、新的社会上层出现的背景下,地区之间的交流也发生了质的变化,形成了社会上层远距离交流网。交流的主要是原始宇宙观、天文历法、高级物品制作技术、权力表达方式、丧葬和祭祀礼仪等只有社会上层才能掌握的知识。各地的     

中国古代社会与国家之关系的变动

本文概要,在于说明中国古代,国家权力逐渐增长的过程。在国家没有成形以前,人类已有小型的群体组织,例如地缘组织、亲族,凡此都可称为“原群”,其成份通常具有高度的同质性。商代的国家组织并不发达,上述的原群实为国家的基础。周代以亲属封建,国家的上层与原群的社会实相重叠,不过诸侯的封国之内,因为有统治者与被统治者的多层结构,国家之内,社会始呈现异质性。春秋战国时代,社会趋于复杂化,代表财富、知识与影响的社会力量兴起。异质的社会,可称为复群的社会与国家权力之间始有求取彼此平衡的需要。即使秦是专制集权,也不得不尊重富人,汉初亦然。是以《史记》有货殖、游侠、刺客诸传,以志政治权力以外的诸种社会权力。汉文以后,景、武两世,打击社会权力,不遗余力,终于消灭以城市为基地之工商业及民间领袖。嗣后则是以地方农村为基地之士大夫宗族,成为代表知识的社会权力主流。士大夫在朝为官吏,在野为地方领袖,于是国家与社会之间呈现一种亦分亦合的辩证关系,颇符合黑格尔以为国家与社会之间为一连续体之观念（但国家未必是社会的理性化）,而不是近世以为国家与社会为对抗体之观念。正因为社会的组成以地方宗族为基石,中国古代社会遂具有浓重的原群特性,而不能发展     

关于增强对国家权力监督力度的思考

对国家权力进行监督,是依法治国的一项重要内容。针对目前在这方面存在的监督疲软的问题,本文作者以为,应从完善国家权力之间的制约入手,把强化专职监督机构的监督作为关键,以人民民主监督为根本,增强对国家权力监督的力度。一、完善国家权力之间的制约机制国家权力是一种管理社会事务的支配力量,要对其进行有效的监督,需要有与其支配力对等的制约力。这种制约力量首先来自国家权力体系本身,来自国家权力之间的相互制约。因此,要增强对国家权力的监督力度,就必须从改善国家权力结构,形成强有力的权力约束机制入手,使各种国家权…     

制衡理论产生的环境因素及历史与现实意义探析

权力制衡学说最早起源于古希腊的亚里士多德.历经数世纪的发展演变,十八世纪启蒙运动时期.由法国启蒙思想家孟德斯鸠进行了全面而系统的阐述,从而形成了完整的权力制衡理论.笔者认为,任何一种理论的产生都与其历史地理环境存在着紧密的联系,是海洋文明而非农耕文明催生并发展了这一理论.权力制衡学说不仅对中国近代的康有为、孙中山等人产生了很大的影响,对近代欧美各主要资本主义国家的影响尤为深远.西方各国的政治制度基本上是按照这一理论建立起来的.权力制衡理论无疑对我国目前的政治文明建设具有积极的借鉴意义.     

隆重推荐《第四种权力——从舆论监督到新闻法治》

在现代社会,新闻舆论被当做除了行政、立法、司法三大权利之外的“第四种权力”。一个社会的“第四种权力)是否能健康、自由地发展,直接维系着这个社会是否具有自我完善、自我净化、自我更新的功能。处于转型期的中国社会。新闻对于维护社会正义更是作用突出。朱镕基总理曾经给中央电视台“焦点访谈”节目题词:“舆论监督、群众喉舌、政府镜鉴、改革尖兵”。这四句话精辟地总结了当前中国的新闻舆论所担负的职责和使命。那么,今日中国新闻界的状况是怎样的呢?《第四种权力——从舆论监督到新闻法治》一书,对中国新闻现状作了全景的展示和局部描述,最突出的部分则是对中国新闻现状的深入剖析,这一部分的文字感情沉痛而充满胆识,既有相当的批判意义又有着明确的建设性。     

Early Complex Society on the North and Central Peruvian Coast: New Archaeological Discoveries and New Insights

Archaeological data from the north and central Peruvian coast are presented here as a means to explore key themes relating to social complexity, including complex society and its origins, newly resolved chronological issues, the relationship between iconography and society, and the definition of a new culture. Focusing on an early time span, from ca. 3000 to 200 cal BC, we identify key questions about the trajectory through which early Andean complexity developed, and we discuss new ideas about the chronological placement of Cerro Sechín and Chavín de Huántar. We also use an intertextual approach to study the iconography of the complex Sechín Alto polity and as a means to demonstrate duality, social hierarchy, and the origin of symbols within the society’s iconography. Finally, we highlight a newly described polity, centered in the Nepeña Valley, that is important because its urban traits presage later cultural complexity and because the recognition of this polity demonstrates the potential for similar discoveries of comparable small polities.     

关于中国传统社会土地权属的再思考——以土地交易过程中的“乡规”、“乡例”为中心

本文从中国传统社会土地交易过程中存在的"乡规"、"乡例",探讨了中国传统社会的土地权属,揭示了中国传统社会土地所有权属的多重性,以及反映中国社会历史实情的土地所有权属的认证与土地所有权属转移的确定.     

旅游地复杂系统演化理论研究流派、进程与展望

以系统科学发展历程为脉络,梳理现今蓬勃发展的旅游地复杂系统演化理论研究成果,辨析了不同流派的核心概念、理论体系、研究方法,探寻该领域研究的共同纲领与范式尚未形成的内在原因,提出摒弃现有不同理论观点之差异,集各家之所长,以"非线性思维"、"整体思维"、"关系思维"及"过程思维"的系统科学探究方式为指导,以系统要素间耦合关系及其思想为进程构建旅游地复杂系统演化理论研究框架,并展望了今后的研究方向与思路。     

Oleneostrovski mogilnik: Reconstructing the social and economic organization of prehistoric foragers in Northern Russia

Oleneostrovski mogilnik (Red Deer Island cemetery) in Karelia, USSR, is the largest known Mesolithic-age cemetery in the Boreal zone, containing the remains of at least 170 individual interments. An analysis of mortuary patterning, demographic structure, and regional interaction was performed in order to elucidate the nature of Boreal zone forager society during the late Mesolithic. These analyses suggest that the society which produced Oleneostrovski mogilnik was larger and more internally differentiated than previously believed, with a complex system of social differentiation that included hereditary social positions and economic ranking. It also participated in an extensive regional exchange network which moved exotic goods and raw materials over considerable distances. It is concluded that the climax of forager occupation in the Boreal zone occurred during late Mesolithic times, with a maximum density of population and maximum social complexity, and that more recent hunter-fisher-gatherer occupations represent only a pale reflection of this peak.     

Measuring the Complexity of Past Social Systems: a Task Analysis Approach to the Study of Late Prehistoric Monumentality in Iberia

In this paper, we explore the heuristic potential of a set of ideas about the structural and functional complexity of systems, proposed in the 1990s by theoretical biologist Daniel McShea. In particular, we focus on the structural aspects of the complexity exhibited by social systems organized into low- and intermediate-level functional units (i.e., groups and teams). To address this subject, we describe a methodology suited for measuring the complexity in the organization of work in such systems, which is primarily based on hierarchical task analysis. With this methodology, we approach a concrete case study: the construction of megalithic monuments in late prehistoric Iberia (ca. 3800–1800 BC). On the basis of the analysis of the three best documented, most structurally, and functionally complex monuments built within each of the three periods under study (Late Neolithic, Copper Age, and Early Bronze Age), we found that there was a trend towards less complexity in work organization related to monument building from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. We discuss the importance of these results in light of the existing models of social complexity in European Later Prehistory, concluding that a more balanced view of social processes would be obtained if we look at complexity as a property of every different social system integrated into the whole society, and not as an exclusive property of the latter.

     

The Function of Place and its Changes

The function of place, though a significant concept in geographic research, has not received much attention in the Soviet literature. Functions are defined as activities performed to satisfy particular needs of society. These functions are generally performed by engineering systems, which may range from simple pasture management or cropping systems to such highly complex systems as a city or a major iron and steel plant. The authors polemicize against the view that the function of place is preordained by its natural potential and argue that a dynamic sequence of functions through time is much more relevant to the needs of a rapidly evolving society. Several types of functional sequences are distinguished: they may be “revolutionary,” in the sense of replacing one function by another, or “evolutionary,” involving change within the framework of a particular type of function. They may be “progressive,” by involving increasingly complex engineering systems and growing intensity of use, or “regressive,” in the sense of reverting from a cultivated to a natural state. Reversibility of function declines with increasing complexity and cost of engineering systems. Functional stability depends on the degree to which a function evolves naturally out of the given economic-geographic setting and on the level of inputs.     

Pacific Coconut: Comestible,Comfort and Commodity

ABSTRACT

As the title implies this special issue concentrates on the coconut in its older usages and its transformation into commodities. The coconut has many histories, with specific intersections with each Pacific island society, indeed each community and family. This brief introduction seeks to give an overview of its penetration into the lives and societies at several levels, from small clans to major companies, from growers to governments, all implicated along the commodity chain. In spite of the coconut’s ubiquity, the historiography has never addressed it fully but taken it rather as a given, one player in capitalism in the region, yet in fact, for over a hundred years, it was the star product upon which many governments and people across the tropical Pacific depended for income. We hope that some aspects of the coconut’s complexity and meaning are brought to light in the following new contributions to its history.     

黄河流域早期铜器演进初探

黄河流域是中国早期铜器起源与发展的关键区域,早期铜器的演进受社会复杂化程度制约。在文明化进程的视野下,本文通过用铜遗存的考古信息与社会经济背景,将黄河流域早期铜器的演进分为早期用铜的萌芽、发展初期及区域化特征形成三个阶段,初步阐释铜制品从出现到规模化使用的过程。人群流动、定居农业、手工业生产、城市与权力的集中是影响黄河流域早期铜器演进模式的重要因素。大体在公元前2300年至前1400年的文明进程中,黄河上游铜器的制作与使用具有相似的风格及开放共融的特征,而黄河中下游地区防御性城市与权力的发展,推动了铜器技术与社会功用的本土化转变。     

The evolution of sociopolitical complexity in prehistoric Hawaii: An assessment of the archaeological evidence

The sociopolitical system of late prehistoric Hawaii was among the most complex of any Oceanic chiefdom, as indexed by such characteristics as scale, rate of energy extraction, degree of functional specialization, and political hierarchy. Various anthropologists and archaeologists have advanced models of how this complex sociopolitical system developed out of an earlier Ancestral Polynesian society. Recent advances in Hawaiian archaeology have now begun to provide a wealth of data on the course of prehistoric change in the archipelago over some 1500 years and, thus, provide evidence which can be used to test alternative models of the evolution of sociopolitical complexity. This paper reviews the major alternative models that have been put forward and provides a synopsis of the archaeological evidence relevant to their testing.     

Applying the Strategic‐Relational Approach to Urban Political Ecology: The Water Management Problems of the Baixada Fluminense,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

Abstract: The complexity of water management requires an explanatory framework that is able to capture the multidimensionality of the relations between nature and society increasingly mediated by the state. The evolution of water problems in the Baixada Fluminense, a wetland area situated to the north of Rio de Janeiro, provides a paradigmatic example of how water management becomes incorporated into the fluid politics between state, nature and society. The local experience is examined by making use of the strategic‐relational approach (after Bob Jessop) expanded to urban political ecology. The concept of “trialectics” is proposed as an ontological representation of the interconnections between the state apparatus, class‐based relations and the socionatural elements of the water cycle. The empirical results show that, in a situation of precarious water supply, regular flooding and severe river degradation, state interventions have tended to favour certain groups and areas, which only intensifies the politicisation of water management.