Arrival: Anthropology in Hollywood

The recent Hollywood science fiction film Arrival features as its main character a linguist who explicitly references the Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis and linguistic relativism. Unusually for a mainstream film, Arrival presents the insights of linguistic anthropology as a key to the human‐alien encounter and combines these concerns with other key anthropological insights, particularly in relation to notions of time and the embodied nature of writing/drawing. In this article, the author argues that the film can be useful in thinking about anthropological debates on ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ versions of Sapir‐Whorf and suggests that a careful parsing of the anthropological concepts drawn on in the film provides food for thought about the possible usefulness of popular fictional concoctions for thinking through contemporary issues in anthropology and conveying them to a wider audience.     

梁廷枏与地方海防通史《广东海防汇览》

清中叶岭南爱国史学家梁廷枏编撰的《广东海防汇览》是一部广东海防通史与专史。该书是一部具有个人著述性质的官修之书,它在资料收集上搜罗古今、综合公私,在学术视野上着眼广东而筹划全局。它既是一部经世致用的应时之作,也适应了清中叶我国边疆史地研究的学术新变。     

Messengers In Tibetan History

The year 1920 saw the establishment of a post office in Tibet. It was located in Daingyiling in Lhasa. Stamps were produced by the Zhaxi United Factory and postmen were called ＂Zhawa＂ in Tibetan. The major post road, with Lhasa as the center, reached Gongbogyangda in east, Yadong in south, and scores of post stations were set up along the road. The major work of the postmen was carrying private mail and remittances, etc. on foot; while official documents of the local government were mainly sent by professional postmen （Ngazong in Tibetan） hired by the government.     

In Defense of "Geopolitical Remote Sensing": Reply to Moisio and Harle

The author of a recently published paper on Finland's identity politics and national identity (Antonsich, 2005) responds to comments presented in the preceding paper in this issue of Eurasian Geography and Economics (Moisio and Harle, 2006). The rejoinder focuses on the nature of place knowledge acquired "in place" versus "at distance" as well as on more specific differences in perspective (e.g., use of sources, terminology, critical geopolitcs). Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O52, Z13, 14 references.     

Explanation And Thought Experiments In History

Although interest in them is clearly growing, most professional historians do not accept thought experiments as appropriate tools. Advocates of the deliberate use of thought experiments in history argue that without counterfactuals, causal attributions in history do not make sense. Whereas such arguments play upon the meaning of causation in history, this article focuses on the reasoning processes by which historians arrive at causal explanations. First, we discuss the roles thought experiments play in arriving at explanations of both facts and contrasts. Then, we pinpoint the functions thought experiments fulfill in arriving at weighted explanations of contrasts.     

History of the Dalai Lama In Govemment Work

The Dalai Lama ruled Tibet forprolonged period of time,but thiswas not the situation in the begin-ning when the title Was created.The religious leader first received thehonorific title in the second half of the16th century,some 100 years later after     

原参赞大臣西安提督哈国兴像轴

笔者关注“紫光阁功臣像”已经有些年了,每次在文章里介绍新发现的功臣像后,都要说大概不会再有多少了。然而这样的猜测屡屡被事实推翻,总是文章写完未久,又出现了新的原先不知道的紫光阁功臣像的画幅。这一方面说明我们对于已经流入西方收藏界的紫光阁功臣像的情况了解得较少,信息不是很通畅。另一方面还说明,由于近年功臣像在市场上颇多吸引藏家的眼球,原先并未当回事的同类作品,亦纷纷被将画幅携往欧洲者的后裔们,从箱子底翻出来而首次投放到市场上。     

A Future for Archaeology: In Defense of an Intellectually Engaged,Collaborative and Confident Archaeology

Through a critical review of inter- and transdisciplinarity in archaeology, this paper examines the power relationships within archaeology with regards to collaborators within and beyond the academy. By making a case for an archaeology that openly collaborates across disciplines and knowledge systems, but also more firmly articulates itself and its value, the paper makes a case for an engaged and problematising archaeology for the future.     

History,Sex And Scenography In The Octavia

With the Cambridge commentary by Rolando Ferri (2003) as point of departure, the article examines the claim that the Octavia is dependent on historians of the Flavian reign, but concludes that the case is unproven. As for the alleged allusions to the love poetry of Statius, the article argues that the similarities are coincidental and points instead to the striking parallels between the drama's depiction of the beautiful Poppaea as the darling of Venus and the short-lived Neronian cult of Poppaea as Diva Poppaea-Venus. Focusing on dramaturgy, the final section examines the commonly discarded links between the drama's implied scenography and the rich and varied resources of the imperial stage, concluding that the ignotus at each and every turn is laying out his plot ‘in accordance with the custom of those working for the stage’ (secundum consuetudinem scaenicorum).     

中国美国史研究的现代化取向

９０年代,中国学术界对现代化的研究出现了一个“美国热”（罗荣渠先生语）,涌现出了一批探讨美国现代化历程的著作。这些著作都力求以现代化的新视角、新方法去重新构架和发现美国史。其中许多成果是富有启示性的,也是很有建树的。本文主要就这些著作所体现出的中国美国史研究的现代化取向进行综合评论①。     

Global Hollywood and the Politics of Nationality

Book reviewed:
John Trumpbour. Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry , 1920 – 1950.