民俗主义、学科反思与民俗学的实践性

"民俗主义"这一概念及其相关的学术讨论揭示了现代社会中民俗文化事象的基本常态,承认和正视民俗主义现象的常态化,某种意义上,正是各国现代民俗学的起点。中国民俗学也必须正视中国当代社会及文化中无所不在、无时不在的"民俗主义化"常态,并深刻意识到民俗学者自身也程度不等地卷入到与民俗主义有关的各种事态之中。民俗主义研究视角的导入不仅促使中国民俗学全面地校正自己的研究对象,也揭示了民俗学者与民俗主义的关系而有助于推动中国民俗学对民俗学者自身角色与责任的深入反思,进而重新审视民俗学的应用性、实践性和公共性。民俗学者通过介入非物质文化遗产保护运动相关的实践性和应用性研究,将促使民俗学在中国成长为一门能够对国家文化政策、对非物质文化遗产行政、对现代中国社会里多种生活文化问题和民俗主义事象展开基于学理的描述、解释、揭示、评论和批评的学问。但与此同时,现代民俗学也必须面临如何理解和应对一般民众在其生活中创造民俗的实践和民俗学者的学术应用性实践这两者之间存在的复杂性这一新课题。     

个人叙事与交流式民俗志:关于实践民俗学的一些思考

实践民俗学是民俗学面向当下生活进行研究时的视角转换和理论重构。实践民俗学认识到:生活实践的主体是普通民众,而不是以"民俗主义"或"传统的发明"为理论依据的民俗操弄者;在田野访谈中出现的个人叙事,其实是以个人身份进入社会文化再生产过程的不可或缺的话语形式,它与集体叙事是相互建构的关系;强调实践的民俗学,必然使研究方式由传统的实证式民俗志向交流式民俗志转变,注重研究者与民众之间的交流与对话实践。作为具有学术转型意义的理论体系和研究范式,实践民俗学有助于从生活实践文化的传统及其创造性转化的视角重新认识和深刻理解中国社会正在发生的历史巨变。     

隐居民俗与孝道——兼谈公共民俗学

居住民俗研究将居住空间的习惯性使用、建筑形式、建筑过程中的民俗仪式和禁忌、隐居行为等都包括在关注视野之中。而隐居与孝道关系密切,它从一个侧面反映了日本社会传统家族制度和民俗行为的继承与变迁,隐居民俗各种形态的形成与变容也显示出今日社会老人生活形态和观念之变化。对隐居民俗的调查研究及各学科对研究应用的回顾,表明21世纪的民俗学应更加关注学术为社会服务,强化"公共民俗学"(Public Folklore)实践。     

我读《生存智慧与文化选择——达斡尔族农业民俗及其生态文化特征研究》

戴嘉艳老师的专著《生存智慧与文化选择——达斡尔族农业民俗及其生态文化特征研究》是一部关注农业民俗及其映射的生态文化方面的论著。作者在田野调查的基础上,选取达斡尔族主要聚居地莫力达瓦达斡尔族自治旗的一个典型农耕村落为个案,以生态文化特征为视角,对达斡尔族农业民俗进行全面、整体的考察。既结合传统生活背景,深入分析和阐释农业民俗的文化本质与社会功能,又从文化变迁的角度,联系农业现代化进程中的现实问题对农业民俗的现代传承与价值提升问题进行思考和探讨,这无疑是在应用民俗学领域拓展视野和思路,并在实践层面进行的有益探索,体现了民俗学者的社会担当与社会责任感。     

探究日常生活的“民俗性”——后传承时代民俗学“日常生活”转向的一种路径

在民俗的"后传承时代",民俗呈现为传承、消费、意识形态等不同形式,渗透到日常生活的方方面面,"传统""共同体"等民俗学既有的规定性概念难以把握这些社会文化现象,民俗学提出了"日常生活"转向的学术追求;民俗学的日常生活研究,不是以日常生活为对象,而是以日常生活作为目的和分类的方法,重新把握现代社会中的民俗现象,在流动的、意向性建构的"共同体"中探究民俗的意义;鲍辛格、岩本通弥等民俗学者通过发掘日常生活实践主体运用"过去的经验""历史化""故事化"地感知、表象生活世界,致力于寻求传统民俗学与现代日常生活的相通之处,为民俗学研究开辟了新径。结合理论铺垫与前人的研究实践,在此基础上尝试提出以"探究日常生活的‘民俗性’"作为民俗学"日常生活"转向的一种路径;民俗性,即实践主体在意向性生成的语境中运用"过去的经验"民俗化地感知、表象世界;民俗学需要从日常生活的表象中发现"民俗性",进而解释其社会文化意义。     

从事象、事件到民俗关系——40年民间信仰研究及其范式述评

以《民俗研究》刊发的论文为主要考察对象,可以探索新时期民间信仰研究的基本走向,总结民俗学在理论研究方面的贡献以及在方法论上的突破。民俗学的研究传统是以民俗事象为中心,继而结合对于民俗事件的跟踪,运用民俗学者的切身感受和身体经验,探究在动态的事件过程中得以呈现的民俗多元主体与多面相生活文化之间的互构关系。民俗事件所对应的是民俗作为生活的存在形态,其研究最终还是要回归到事象即民俗文化的层面,经由民俗学者的理论抽象建构起社会/文化共同体(民)与知识体系(俗)之间的联系。研究民俗文化与民俗生活中各种错综复杂的关系,理应成为民俗学学科的追求方向与立足点。     

中国民俗学:从民俗主义出发去往何方?

民俗主义是一个过渡性的概念,是指现代社会中对于民俗的二手传播和展演现象。在二十世纪里六十年代初,当德国民俗学者汉斯·莫泽首次使用它时还明显带有贬义色彩,随后经过学术界的广泛讨论,逐渐转化成了一个中性化的术语。以鲍辛格为代表的新一代民俗学家主张站在客观中立的立场对民俗主义现象展开经验性的文化分析,直至八十年代,东德民俗学家斯特洛巴赫从马克思主义的社会进化观出发呼吁放弃使用民俗主义的概念。中国民俗学目前也因面临学科边缘化等危机而从内部出发谋求学术上的转型,当前在社会生活中普遍存在的民俗主义现象正可为民俗学者提供讨论的话题和研究的对象。从民俗主义的研究实践出发,中国民俗学可发展起一系列的学术分支,如公共民俗学、政治民俗学、经济民俗学、艺术民俗学、宗教民俗学等,通过与相关学科进行平等而富有建设性的对话,以提高自身的学术地位。     

日本民俗学“在野之学”的新定义——菅丰“新在野之学”的倡导与实践

新在野之学(新公共民俗学)是日本当代民俗学者菅丰的代表性理论,是对日本民俗学草创期"在野之学"的回归和再构建。该理论旨在打破长期以来由日本学院派民俗学者主导的封闭的学术体系,消除专业与非专业之间的隔阂,寻求学院派民俗学者、公共民俗学者、各类社会组织、普通民众等多样化行为体的协同合作。它要求民俗学者重视介入式的日常实践,成为当事人而不是旁观者;在实践过程中努力获得文化表现的正当性,谨记民俗传承人的权威性;植根于地方,将文化客体化并给予当地人必要的支持;对自我和他者的实践与研究以自反性、适应性的方式加以把握;不以实践为目的,而以民众的幸福为己任。     

美国民俗学的实践理论——兼论西蒙·布朗纳的有关阐释

西蒙·布朗纳于2020年在北京师范大学的系列讲座,紧紧围绕民俗学的实践理论这一主题进行。民俗学在世界范围内的兴起曾深刻影响了美国民俗学的道路,但美国不同于欧洲的特点使其民俗学长期以来强调个人主义、语言学路径与艺术文本,使得美国民俗学在"超级时代"来临后面临许多挑战。为此,布朗纳提出了以传统为中心的民俗学实践理论,这要求我们重新理解和阐释"实践"和"传统"这些重要概念,并从心意与认知的角度去解释现代社会中究竟是什么激发、活化与生产了传统。这种研究路径强调将物质与非物质交织在一起研究,也强调不同文化之间的比较与发现。在此系列课程中,他以大量中国民俗的事例与美国民俗相互比较,并大胆提出自己的猜想。他提出的实践理论和对中美民俗比较的设想,都可以为中国民俗学界带来启发。     

为民主、争自由的民俗学——访日归来话短长

今年5月10-13日,高丙中教授、王杰文教授和我受日本民俗学会会长、东京大学教授岩本通弥的邀请,在东京参加了两个会议,即日本现代民俗学的年会和由岩本教授主持的中日韩三国国际会议"民俗实践与公民社会——在德国民俗学与东亚民俗学之间".会议的主题是讨论德国民俗学的理论、方法和概念与东亚民俗学的关联性,具体要讨论的问题是,我们民俗学要搞基础文化研究,那么,德国民俗学能够给我们以什么样的启示.岩本教授在会上作了一个主题发言.他们这些年愈发觉得德国民俗学对东亚民俗研究的重要性,也发现了彼此之间有许多相关之处.近年来,岩本教授有一个庞大的培养计划——系统地把自己的学生送往德国,让他们在那里待三个月,了解德国民俗学的最新进展,这和高丙中教授的海外民族志研究有异曲同工之处.     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht,Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as ‘the economy’ hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.     

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve (Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.     

Some chronological implications of a fossil molluscan assemblage from a neolithic site at Brook,Kent, England

The later post-glacial history of a valley in the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent, is described, based on molluscan stratigraphy, archaeological evidence and radio-carbon dating. Differences in size and colour banding, respectively, of fossil and living representatives of two species of land snails, Pomatias elegans (Müller) and Cepaea nemoralis (L.), are correlated with climatic change during the post-glacial period. The problems of the use of fossil shells of these species as samples for radiocarbon dating are discussed.     

China's Dynamic Industrial Sector: The Internet Industry

A Singapore-based economic geographer explores and analyzes the spatially uneven evolution of the Internet industry in China, arguing that the country's immense regional disparity in the provision of Internet services is best explained by the interplay of place- and path-dependence. The author demonstrates how the highly uneven regional endowments in relevant industrial and entrepreneurial resources have led to the substantial and persistent regional imbalance within China's emerging "new economy." His initial survey of the country's 100 leading Internet content providers (firms), identified from a listing of ca. 11,700 commercial websites, is selectively augmented to reflect an increase of over 70 million Internet users in 2007, reaching a total of 253 million in June 2008, and thus overtaking the United States as the world's largest Internet market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L10, L86, O30. 6 figures, 1 table, 53 references.     

The 1911 International Exposition in Rome: architecture, archaeology, and national identity

This paper discusses the 1911 International Exposition in Rome and illustrates how this patriotic celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian Sate utilized symbolic landscapes of architecture and archaeology to promote nationalist sentiments of italianità and romanità centered on the young capital of Rome. Through modern art exhibitions at the Valle Giulia, scientific conferences at the Castel Sant’Angelo, archaeological exhibits on the Roman Empire in the Baths of Diocletian, and regional Italian pavilions in the Piazza d’Armi, exposition officials offered a complex representation of Italian national identity that was modern yet ancient, cosmopolitan yet bucolic, European yet regional, and imperial yet developing.     

The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great – The Need for Medical Analysis: Reply to Commentaries

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. By elucidating the nature of his death, we can better interpret various aspects of Alexandrian history. Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome. It would therefore be of significance to note that one of the greatest leaders in history who conquered much of the then known world may have been suffering from a physical disability.     

Hospital Drama: Visual Theatres of the Medical Rendezvous from Asylum to Hospital with Reference to Specific Works by Anna Furse

Abstract

This paper is informed by Furse’s practice as a theatre maker in two fields of output that are connected by two factors: first, the presence of the woman patient — hysteric/subfertile respectively — within the clinical gaze; second, the significance of the womb to each pathology. In the treatment of each (explored in Furse’s theatre), lens based technologies play their part, whilst the cultural and medical can be seen to have overlapped to produce specific meaning with regard to Her body and its spectacularity. The article presents an overview of some of the key issues in precisely how the woman’s body becomes spectacular within this prosthetic medical gaze and how the medical — and theatrically designed spaces to represent these — become meaningful and potent proxemics that in turn inform medical/ theatrical spectatorship. Overarching nineteenth-century protocols at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (where Furse’s Augustine (Big Hysteria) is set) to contemporary imaging technologies used in the treatment of subfertility with Assisted Reproduction Technologies (the topic of her Art of A.R.T. projects), it examines the way in which photography develops through cinema to X-Ray, ultrasound and then 3D/4D ultrasound to ‘capture’ the woman’s body in ways by which she becomes muted and exposed. These occular technologies that extend the gaze, first to an exterior subject and then, eventually, traversing the flesh without knife, lend specific performativity to the ‘patient’ women, within the context of hysterias and reproductive impairments respectively. Finally, issues of suspension of disbelief are addressed. The spectator’s faith in the screen-based image of Her spectacular body is interrupted in Furse’s work, which is also keenly interested in the effect of such imagery on the woman’s sense of Self. The historical and cultural leaps in this article argue that there is indeed a trajectory through the history of medical imaging since the first application of photography to anatomy to the more advanced scoping technologies of medical imaging today, and that in each era, the production of these images remain fraught with cultural implications.     

The Death of Alexander the Great – A Spinal Twist of Fate

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. Physical depictions of this historical figure reveal the likelihood of a cervical scoliotic deformity. This is substantiated with the medical history and is correlated with his untimely death. For the first time, it is concluded that Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome.