Coalport Bridge: A Study in Historical Interpretation

Abstract

Industrial archaeologists frequently demand the preservation of monuments. Such preservation can be justified on the grounds that a monument has an educational function, or sometimes that it has potential for excavation. It is the purpose of this article to suggest that a surviving monument continually poses questions about its own past, and about wider historical issues, and to show how the understanding of one particular monument, the Coalport Bridge, has increased over the last twelve years, not just because new documentary sources have come to light, but because it has been possible to use the evidence of the structure itself to test the authenticity of other sources.     

唯物史观视野中的历史必然性问题

历史必然性是唯物史观理论体系所要论证的核心问题之一。历史必然性思想具有重要的本体论和认识论依据,历史必然性与人的历史主动性有逻辑关联,历史必然性与偶然性之间存在着辩证统一的关系,强调历史必然性思想是人类推动社会进步的强大理论武器,在未来预测中具有重要的科学意义。     

Crossing the Line: Limits and Desire in Historical Interpretation

This essay focuses on the relationship within western humanism between attitudes toward textual interpretation and views of the human self in an attempt to unsettle the dichotomy between humanist and antihumanist approaches to the past. It has three main parts. First, it uses Umberto Eco's recent reflections on the limits of interpretation to explore current debates about the aims of interpretation. In particular, it asks what it means to frame the problem of interpretation specifically as a problem of establishing limits. Given the many possible vocabularies to compare and evaluate competing hermeneutic approaches, what are the implications of adopting one that speaks in terms of limits, of an “in bounds” and an “out of bounds?” Second, the essay draws on the work of Donna Haraway and Stephanie Jed to argue that a discourse about interpretation that seeks to establish the limits of interpretation excludes as out of bounds precisely those methodological strategies that most effectively analyze the mutually sustaining relationship between assumptions about texts and assumptions about selves. Third, the essay explores the relationship between interpretation and subjectivity at one key historical moment to show how to move beyond the strict dichotomy between humanist and antihumanist assumptions.     

The prehistory of northern Chile: A synthesis

Northern Chile, part of the south central Andes, consists of two main ecological subareas: extreme northern Chile, including the western valleys, and the Atacama Desert and oases. Different ecological conditions obtain in each subarea: puna, altiplano, and precordillera in the highlands; valleys, the desert, and oases in the intermediate zone; and coastal environments along the Pacific shores. In prehistoric times, all these environments were very interconnected. There are three different cultural traditions in the local prehistory: the early hunting and gathering tradition (10,000–4000 B.P.), the Chinchorro Tradition (7500–2500 B.P.), and the Altiplano or Andean Tradition (3000–0 B.P.). This proposed sequence is described, with emphasis on the early Chinchorro adaptations, including the important patterns of mummification, and its possible relation to tropical forest groups of the Amazon basin; and the Pre-Tiwanaku and later Tiwanaku and Inca developments, in relation to the circum-Titicaca region. The data presented in the paper are further developed to explore ideas and hypotheses for future research.     

历史记忆与族群认同变迁——巴蜀祖源传说的历史人类学解读

从历史人类学的角度来看,作为一种重要的集体历史记忆,祖源传说反映了一定社会情境下人们的族群认同。本文以巴蜀祖源传说为文本分析对象,解读了其中传递的华夏认同、本土记忆、异族认识等族群情感及其产生的社会情境,并结合其他材料探讨了周秦汉晋时期中原华夏人和巴蜀本土人对巴蜀族群认同发展的三个阶段,旨在从历史人类学的角度将共时性与历时性相结合、文化整合与时空变迁相结合。     

Neanderthals: A History of Interpretation

This paper investigates the history of Neanderthal construction in different domains of social life and media. It establishes three broad tendencies within Neanderthal reconstructions: following the expulsion of Neanderthals from 'humanity' in the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, the 1950s are characterized by a shift in this perception. From then, Neanderthals appear as essentially human creatures trapped in archaic bodies. Following this initial ideological oscillation the recent decades represent a parallel existence of both paradigms as well as a widening of conceptualizations. This paper argues that these ideological constructs remain operative, continuing to inform and form our perceptions of what Neanderthals are/are not.     

September 11: A Christian Fundamentalist Interpretation

Abstract

This article analyses sermons preached by Free Presbyterian ministers in the United States following the World Trade Centre tragedy and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It explores how these religious fundamentalists made sense of the event theologically. While terrorists carried out the attack, ultimately God was believed to have been responsible. It was considered God's way of punishing the American nation for its sin. Ministers' use of the Old Testament and God's covenantal relationship with ancient Israel is both the theological and historical backdrop to their explanation of September 11. Concentration on the Old Testament and fundamentalists' exegetical approach means that politics and religion are tightly intertwined. Emphasis on the militaristic portions of the Old Testament also helps justify the war in Iraq. Although Free Presbyterian doctrine is based on institutional separatism and believers' withdrawal from "the world" the sermons connect parishioners to their wider society through a shared sense of patriotic loyalty and national loss.     

环境解说评估研究综述

环境解说评估具有导向、鉴定、改进、管理、调控以及服务功能。国外的环境解说评估注重运用定性与定量分析结合的方式,研究内容包括：游客对解说媒体满意度和偏好、环境解说评估的方法和效果、环境解说的综合评估、环境解说评估标准等。国内相关研究起步比较晚,研究内容多为探讨解说效果和游客满意度,也有少量关于环境解说评估的理论思考以及评估方式探讨。本文认为,需要进一步扩展环境解说评估的对象,丰富环境解说评估的方法,加强前期评估和阶段评估的研究,并建立起环境解说标准。     

大遗址历史文化内涵的展示与阐释

大遗址历史文化内涵非常丰富,但如何将其生动地呈现给观众并非易事,展示和阐释是最基本的两种方式。展示旨在呈现大遗址的本体及相关信息,阐释是展示的延伸和补充,是运用更丰富的手段多方位诠释大遗址的历史文化内涵,给观众以更全面的认知。由于大遗址有诸多未知因素．因此对其展示和阐释也不可能是一次性或完结式的,需要随着考古学及相关科学研究的深入不断充实、调整和完善。     

半城芦苇半城庙——古甘州生态、历史、人文诠释

位于河西走廊中部的历史文化名城张掖,各历史时期特殊的自然、地理赋予了其优美的生态环境,独特的地理位置赋予了其厚重而特殊的历史职能,不同的文化聚汇、交融成就了其独具特色的地域风尚,张掖也由此成为丝绸之路上一颗闪耀的明珠。     

American Historical Demography: A Review Essay

Abstract

American historians of modern art routinely assume that after World War II New York replaced Paris as the center of the western art world. An analysis of the illustrations in French textbooks shows that French art scholars disagree: they rate Jean Dubuffet as the most important painter of the era, ahead of Jackson Pollock, and they consider Yves Klein's anthropometries of 1960 as the greatest contribution of a single year, in front of Andy Warhol's innovations in Pop Art. Yet the French texts also show that the French artists' practices and conceptions of art paralleled those of the Americans. Thus, whereas French and American scholars disagree over the relative importance of their nations' artists, there is no disagreement that the most important art of the 1950s was produced by experimental seekers, and that of the 1960s by conceptual finders.     

American Conservatism 2012: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

This essay examines the peculiar history of American political thought to seek a possible explanation for why conservatism in the United States remains a movement without a spokesperson or a platform to which all citizens of this country who describe themselves as conservative can subscribe. The primary cause of these problems appears to be a serious mismatch between the traditional conservative traits of caution and limits and the historic American spirit of dynamic change and boundless optimism.     

The Chinese Pacifics: A Brief Historical Review

ABSTRACT

This survey reviews the growing role and presence of China in the Island Pacific. As the late Professor Ron Crocombe remarked, in the Pacific a major transition is under way from a range of European to Asian influences. Many Western observers have viewed this rise of Asian, and specifically Chinese, influence with alarm, but Crocombe saw it as offering Pacific Islanders new opportunities. This paper first analyses the diversity that can be masked by terms such as ‘China’ and ‘the Pacific’. Then it surveys recent literature on China in the Pacific and scholarship concerned with longer Chinese histories in the region that most recent commentators ignore and which question a number of their assertions. Finally, it suggests possible future directions for historical research on this topic.