Troubadours in Debate: The Breviari d'Amor

Matfre Ermengaud's thirteenth-century Occitan encyclopedia, the Breviari d'Amor, concludes with a treatise on courtly love, the “Perilhos tractat d'amor de donas segon que han tractat li antic trobador en lors cansos.” In this treatise, the chief figures of courtly love—the lovers, ladies, troubadours, and maldizen, with Matfre as narrator and participant—dispute key tenets of love, quoting frequently from numerous troubadour lyrics in order to prove their arguments. In fact, the “Perilhos tractat” presents quotations of troubadour lyric in a disputative manner so as to highlight the troubadours as themselves in debate, although the Breviari purports to be structured by the overarching principle of love dictated by the visual mnemonic metaphor of the Tree of Love. This study examines the quotations of the troubadour lyrics here as dialectical, then, rather than as expressing and confirming a unitary vision of Natural Love. The “Perilhos tractat” is a debate not simply on love but also on the understanding and reception of the troubadours more broadly; that is, Matfre's dialectical use of troubadour lyric generates a broader debate about the meaning of the troubadours’ lyrics and their poetic legacy in the late thirteenth century.     

The Debate on Immortality: Posthumanist Science vs. Critical Philosophy

At different times Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse argued that immortality is a condition of overcoming misery and achieving complete human freedom. Their arguments were made before “practical immortality” had become a concrete scientific project. The difference between what was then and what is now scientifically possible alters the ethical and political value of the idea of immortality. Had the first generation of critical theorists occupied the present historical moment, they would have realized that science harnessed to the demand for limitless life would not solve the kind of ethical and existential problems they hoped it would. I argue that the scientific struggle against human finitude is driven by the same egocentric concern for money and self-maximization that early critical theory diagnosed as the main psychological pathology caused by capitalism. Finitude, I conclude, is the price human beings must pay if they are to live free and meaningful lives.     

企鹅滩的绅士

<正>什么?南非有企鹅?这又跟我们想象的不一样。这些企鹅体型较小,不到成人的膝盖高,毛色鲜明,颈部一圈黑色,就像穿了燕尾服一样,眼周一圈粉红,显得格外纯真可爱,被人们称为企鹅滩的"绅士"。离开好望角,前往漂砾湾的企鹅滩。和其他地点不一样的是,企鹅滩禁止游客带自拍杆进入景区。这一规矩的由来是这样的:前几年有一个不守规矩的游客用手机自拍杆偷了一枚     

Some Angles on the Anglo Debate

Little can be done to replace English as the world’s common language for full WAC congresses. WAC intercongresses, however, offer an opportunity for linguistic (and intellectual) diversity. A regular plenary session at WAC full congresses in which the best works in archaeological theory are presented, with special efforts to include archaeologists whose works are not in English (in addition to those whose works are in English) might help insure diversity of perspectives in WAC.     

原工业化理论及其相关争论

自1970年代以来,“原工业化”这个术语在西方已广泛使用于学术作中,而且在学术界出现了有关这个论题的研究热潮,出版了多种研究成果。在国内,却仅有较少论中偶尔提及而没有较系统的论述和深入的探讨。本试就原工业化的理论,西方学术界对这一问题的争论及研究原工业化的意义诸问题,作一粗略的论述,供同行参考并求指教。     

The Debate on Globalization, Poverty and Inequality: Why Measurement Matters

In the last year or so, markedly different claims have been heard within the development community about just how much progress is being made against poverty and inequality in the current period of 'globalization'. This article provides a non-technical overview of the conceptual and methodological issues underlying these conflicting claims. It argues that the dramatically different positions taken in this debate often stem from differences in the concepts and definitions used and differences in data sources and measurement assumptions. These differences are often hidden from view in the debate, but they need to be considered carefully if one is properly to interpret the evidence. The article argues that the best available evidence suggests that, if the rate of progress against absolute poverty in the developing world in the 1990s is maintained, then the Millennium Development Goal of halving the 1990 aggregate poverty rate by 2015 will be achieved on time in the aggregate, though not in all regions. The article concludes with some observations on the implications for policy-oriented debates on globalization and pro-poor growth.     

Debate and commentary

Mikael Venge, Fra åretold til toldetat. Middelalderen indtil 1660. Dansk Toldhistorie (From Our Toll to a Customs Service. The Middle Ages up to 1660. Danish Toll History), vol. 1 (The Society for Toll History, K?benhavn, 1987), 314 pp., ISBN 87 87796 08 2.

Birgit Bjerre Jensen, Udnævnelsesretten i enevældens magt bolitiske system 1660–1730 (The Right of Appointment in the Power Politics of Danish Absolutism 1660–1730) Administrative‐historical Studies no. 12, The Royal Archives (Gads Publishers, 1987), 376 pp., ISBN 87 7497 103 4.

Niels Finn Christiansen, Arbejderbevægelsens forhistorie (The Pre‐History of the Danish Labour Movement. Traits of the Early Danish Labour Movement's Political and Social Development 1848–1880). SFAH's publications series no. 18 (1986), 188 pp., ill., ISBN 87 87739 216, 120 Dkr. (member's rate 100 Dkr.).

Anders Berge, Sakkundskap och politisk rationalitet. Den svenska flottan och pansarfartygsfrågan 1918–1939 (Expertise and Political Rationality: The Swedish Navy and the Armoured Ship Issue 1918–1939), Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis 37 (Stockholm: Almqvist &; Wiksell, 1987), 246 pp., ISBN 91 22 00883 7.

Olav Riste, (ed.), Western Security: The Formative Years. European and Atlantic Defence 1947–1953 (Oslo; Norwegian University Press, 1985), 333 pp.     

非洲猎奇粗放狂野的南非工艺品

<正>从古至今,工艺品对非洲人都是非常重要的,不论是用于宗教礼仪,还是增添生活情趣,装饰品始终伴随着非洲人民。正是这个原因,造就了非洲发达的手工艺品业,这种精湛的技艺是世界上任何地方都不能与之媲美的。非洲,尤其是南非的手工艺品绝对值得驻足观看、购买收藏。