处女地假说与北美印第安人的命运

在白人殖民者到来前,北美印第安人已经在美洲大陆上生活了数万年,并对周围的环境产生了重要的影响。白人殖民者来到美洲后,一方面出于欧洲种族主义的文化偏见,一方面出于剥夺印第安人土地的现实利益需要,建构出处女地假说,并根据自身需要将北美大陆上的原住民简单形容为高贵的印第安人和嗜血的野蛮人两种非此即彼的刻板形象。处女地假说成为白人殖民者向西部边疆扩张、驱逐和剥削印第安人的理论工具。对于美洲白人来说,该假说意味着机会和希望,而对于北美印第安人来说,该假说则代表了种族主义偏见和殖民主义的罪恶。随着现代环境主义的兴起,处女地假说和印第安人的传统生态智慧受到热捧,印第安人也试图利用这一工具为其当前争取资源控制权的斗争服务,但收效不大。     

试析二战对美国印第安人的负面影响

第二次世界大战对美国印第安人的自治诉求产生了深远的负面影响。在二战的巨大冲击下,印第安人事务局被逐出政治权力中心华盛顿,人员不断流失,战时活动成为印第安人事务的中心,以恢复土著自治权为目标的印第安人新政归于瓦解。与此同时,印第安人在服役于美国军队和参加战时生产等活动的过程中,与主流社会频繁接触,从而加速了自身接受同化的进程。这些接受了白人生活方式的印第安人,在战后初期越来越关注如何维护个人权利而非印第安人自治,结果使美国社会同化印第安人进入主流社会的呼声成为理所当然之势,为结束联邦政府对印第安人部落监管提供了依据。受上述因素影响,美国公众舆论明显转向,取消联邦政府与印第安人的托管关系、同化印第安人进入主流社会成为当时美国社会的共识。     

美国殖民地时期新英格兰清教徒对印第安人的形象建构

美国殖民地时期,新英格兰地区的清教徒基于自己的宗教观念塑造印第安人的形象。随着印白关系的演变,清教徒建构的印第安人形象也发生了变化。在初遇印第安人、改造印第安人、与印第安人作战这三个不同阶段,清教徒分别建构了“撒旦的仆人”“祈祷的印第安人”“恶魔的化身”三种印第安人形象。这三种形象都是清教徒对印第安人的“他者想象”,反映了清教徒自身的处境、焦虑和期待。清教徒对印第安人的恶魔想象,推动了美国种族主义和白人至上观念的发展,对美国的族群关系产生了深远影响。     

试论毛皮贸易对北美印第安人的生态影响

毛皮边疆是北美西部开发中最具有传奇性的一种边疆,它不仅涉及范围广,持续时间长,而且创造了白人与印第安人交往的新形式,同时还给北美印第安人带来了深刻的影响。本文主要从环境史角度探讨了毛皮边疆导致的印第安人生存环境的恶化和生态伦理的堕落,驳斥了所谓印第安人从毛皮贸易中受益的谎言。     

安德鲁·杰克逊政府迁移印第安人的动因分析

19世纪20年代末到30年代初,以安德鲁.杰克逊为代表的美国官员和南部诸州认为文明开化政策已经失败,美国印第安人政策迫切需要改弦更张。恰恰就在此时,迁移印第安人到密西西比河以西的政策构想也日趋成型,为杰克逊政府提供了一种新的选择。当时南部要求维护州权和白人利益的压力,则最终推动美国政府决定以迁移作为解决印第安人问题的途径。美国政府不惜以牺牲印第安人为代价,残酷剥夺土著土地。杰克逊高贵的言辞和父权式的论调,并不能掩盖迁移政策现实中的操纵性和强制性。杰克逊时代的民主,实际上只是白人美国的民主,是以牺牲印第安人的权益为代价的。     

现代环境主义视野下的“生态的印第安人”

生态的印第安人是伴随现代环境主义运动的兴起而在欧美逐渐流行起来的一种假说。它其实是历史上白人视印第安人为高贵的野蛮人这一传统观念在生态主义时代的新版本。虽然从印第安人的环境伦理和白人到来前他们对当地环境的影响来看,这种形象缺乏足够的历史根据,但却作为当前欧美社会批判西方文化以征服自然为特征的环境伦理的一个对照物而逐渐传播开来。在当前北美土著人争取资源控制权的斗争中,生态的印第安人形象被各方力量当作了实现各自利益的工具,结果使它在广为流传的同时,也饱受诟病。     

白人到来前北美印第安人社会的疾病生态及其意义

在白人到来前相当长的时期内,印第安人社会疾病较少,印第安人身体相对健康。但是随着农业的发展和居住模式从游牧到定居的转变,土著社会中各种疾病开始增多,印第安人健康状况逐渐恶化。至哥伦布到来前夕,印第安人社会已经充斥着各种疾病,并非是很多学者所说的毫无疾病的"伊甸园"。白人到来前北美印第安人社会的疾病生态对白人到来之后的外来传染病入侵美洲具有重要的意义。印第安人已有的疾病削弱了土著民族的健康状况,导致外来传染病会产生更高的发病率和死亡率,大大加剧了该群体的疾病负荷。这一时期土著民族的疾病生态成为白人到来后外来传染病入侵、印第安人人口大量死亡、土著社会遭受严重打击的重要因素之一。     

外来传染病与美国历史早期印第安人人口的削减

随着欧洲人、非洲人源源不断地来到北美大陆,"旧世界"的各种传染病接踵而至,通过跨大西洋航行、贸易、战争和定居等殖民活动,被传播到美国历史早期的印第安人中间,并呈现出高发病率和高死亡率两大特点。这些传染病导致印第安人人口的急剧减少,成为引发美国早期土著人口减少的重要因素之一。不过,外来传染病之所以造成印第安人人口的长期持续减少,主要还在于殖民主义的作用与影响。白人殖民者的各种殖民活动改变了北美印第安人社会的生态环境系统,便利了各种疾病的传播和暴发,也削弱了土著民族应对外来疾病的能力,创造了外来传染病在印第安人中肆虐并大量致死的外部条件。     

二战以来美国印第安人向城市的移居

二战以来,为了摆脱贫困的生活、改善自己的处境,越来越多的美国印第安人离开保留地到城市定居。在从保留地向城市的移居过程中,他们经历了印第安文化和白人文化冲突带来的痛苦和困难;在城市定居后,他们又面临贫困、受教育程度差、酗酒和反向移居(回到保留地)等社会问题。从保留地向城市的移居是不是印第安人的又一条“眼泪之路”?印第安人向城市的移居会不会继续下去?只有通过对印第安人移居城市的原因、移居城市带来的困难和问题进行分析,才能作出回答。     

是否要定义新人种?——美国的“多种族人”风潮

美国的人口统计方法从建国开始不断演化。最初政府把美国人分成三大类：自由白人男性、自由白人女性和奴隶。这一人种分类方法保持了将近７０年。内战中黑奴制被取消,黑人成为自由民,于是有了黑人一族。以后人口统计中又逐渐加入了其他类别,首先是承认了美洲印第安人,...     

Landscapes, land use, and the history of territory formation: An example from the Puebloan southwest

Territories are spatial units that encompass the broadest range of a society's land-use behaviors as well as the history of human interactions with the natural landscape. Drawing from published documents pertaining to the North American Indian Land Claims and to the prehistory and history of land use among the Hopi Indians of Arizona, this paper integrates spatial, material, and historical variables of land use behavior (1) to formulate an empirical definition of territory and (2) to develop a generalized life history of territory formation that can be applied explicitly to the archaeological record.     

Iktomi in the Land of the Maymaygwayshi: Understanding Lived Experience in the Practice of Archaeology Among American Indians/First Nations

In discussions concerning American Indians/First Nations and the practice of archaeology in North America, the issues are typically presented in a polarized fashion with American Indians/First Nations on one side and archaeologists on the other. Frequently the literature discusses how archaeologists should modify their practice in response to the needs of American Indian communities. Very little of the literature looks at the roles and challenges faced by American Indians who choose to pursue archaeology. This paper addresses this latter issue by examining my own work among First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada. Through the lens of ‘lived experience’, I will examine the interplay of identity, personal and communal histories, and the contemporary situation of my self and the First Nations communities I worked with, looking at how having ‘insider’ knowledge can be both useful and a handicap in fieldwork.     

"Showplace of the Cherokee Nation": race and the making of a southern house museum

This article traces the restoration history of the Chief Vann House State Historic Site, a former Cherokee plantation owned and operated by the state of Georgia. The article explores the make-up of the restoration community in the 1950s and identifies aspects of convergence and divergence among this white, elite group in terms of both their visions for the site and their notions of how best to represent Indians. It argues that restorers used the restoration process as a route for personal and community identity enhancement, identifying with the storied Cherokee Indians and claiming "Indian" characteristics and the historical experience of Indian removal for themselves.     

Eugenics as Indian removal: sociohistorical processes and the de(con)struction of American Indians in the southeast

Although research on the history of the eugenics movement in the United States is legion, its impact on state policies that identified and defined American Indians has yet to be fully addressed. The exhibit, Our Lives: Comtemporary Life and Identities (ongoing until September 21, 2014) at the National Museum of the American Indian provides a provocative vehicle for examining how eugenics-informed public policy during the first quarter of the twentieth century served to "remove" from official records Native peoples throughout the Southeast. One century after Indian Removal of the antebellum era, Native peoples in the American Southeast provide an important but often overlooked example of how racial policies, this time rooted in eugenics, effected a documentary erasure of Native peoples and communities.     

Welsh Indians and savage Scots: History,antiquarianism, and Indian languages in 18th-century Britain

This paper compares late eighteenth-century claims for the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian and for the existence of Welsh Indians. It shows that although both claims were supported in part by appeals to similarities between Celtic and American Indian languages, the appeals in each case were very different. On the one hand, the Edinburgh literati who supported Ossian's authenticity focused on expressive structures shared by all primitive societies. On the other hand, radically Protestant antiquarians and philologists focused on lexical similarities that they argued demonstrate a genetic link between certain American Indians and the Welsh. The paper uses this fundamental difference underlying a superficial similarity, to explore in greater detail the distinction between philosophical historians among the Edinburgh literati, who were religiously moderate, politically conservative, and promoted Scotland's integration into a modern, polite, commercial and English-speaking empire, and the Welsh antiquarians, who were religious and political radicals and whose interest in the Welsh Indians reflected and reinforced their attempts to resurrect a distant golden age of Celtic Britain.

pe’nguin. (1) A bird. This bird was found with this name, as is supposed, by the first discoverers of America; and penguin signifying in Welsh a white head, and the head of this fowl being white, it has been imagined, that America was peopled from Wales …     

The Indian Pre-Removal Information Network

The perceptions of American Indians have been hidden or overlooked as a result of the dominance of conflicting beliefs or myths formulated by white men regarding their behavior. This study examines the emigrant Indian pre-remoual information network to assess the influence of Indian and non-Indian information sources on emigrant Indian decisionmaking. Although Indians were exposed to both information sources, it appears they attempted to make the relocation decision that would be best for them, rather than being dominated or manipulated by one information source.     

Welsh Indians and savage Scots: History, antiquarianism, and Indian languages in 18th-century Britain

This paper compares late eighteenth-century claims for the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian and for the existence of Welsh Indians. It shows that although both claims were supported in part by appeals to similarities between Celtic and American Indian languages, the appeals in each case were very different. On the one hand, the Edinburgh literati who supported Ossian's authenticity focused on expressive structures shared by all primitive societies. On the other hand, radically Protestant antiquarians and philologists focused on lexical similarities that they argued demonstrate a genetic link between certain American Indians and the Welsh. The paper uses this fundamental difference underlying a superficial similarity, to explore in greater detail the distinction between philosophical historians among the Edinburgh literati, who were religiously moderate, politically conservative, and promoted Scotland's integration into a modern, polite, commercial and English-speaking empire, and the Welsh antiquarians, who were religious and political radicals and whose interest in the Welsh Indians reflected and reinforced their attempts to resurrect a distant golden age of Celtic Britain.

pe’nguin. (1) A bird. This bird was found with this name, as is supposed, by the first discoverers of America; and penguin signifying in Welsh a white head, and the head of this fowl being white, it has been imagined, that America was peopled from Wales …

—Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language, 1755.     

性别、种族、男性气概：再读二战之前美国本土华人历史

美国自快速工业化后,男性白人因失去手工业时代的支配地位而对外来移民和少数族群采取仇视的态度,将男性华人视如女性而置之于权力边缘。美国华人可说是在性别分化的机制运作之下,经历了种族歧视。男性华人尝试藉由抗争罢工、司法诉讼等方式争取尊严,这些行动虽然不一定都产生了良好效果,但从中我们可以看到美国华人男性气概的形成过程。本文主要以现存美国本土华人研究的二手资料为基础,以性别为关注点,力图重新给男性华人以不同的定位,从而使美国华人的研究更加完整。     

意识形态与美国革命的历史叙事

世界近现代史上的革命往往也是一种意识形态事件,而革命史写作与意识形态之间有着复杂的关联。美国史学界关于美国革命的历史叙事,经历了从辉格主义范式向新美国革命史学的转变,这场革命也从建国之父领导的政治革命,被改写成了一场由普通民众和边缘群体扮演主角的全面变革。在这一转变中,平民主义、多元文化主义和女性主义等思潮与革命史写作之间发生了微妙的互动。这种经过重构的美国革命史带有浓厚的意识形态色彩,已经从学术的边缘走向了中心,并为当前美国社会各种激进的意识形态提供了新的能量。但它仍只是美国革命史的众多相互竞争的版本中的一个。