Mexican anthropologists in Postrevolutionary Mexico

Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara. Boundaries and Paradigms: The Anthropological Study of Rural Life in Postrevolutionary Mexico. Leiden Development Studies No. 4; 1982. 355 pp. (price not given) to be republished by Routledge and Kegan Paul).     

Warfare and State Formation in Hawaii

Between 1782 and 1812, Kamehameha I conquered and unified the Hawaiian Islands. This process was unprecedented in Hawaii and coincided with increasing European contact, prompting many to attribute his success to European weapons and ideas. Those studying chiefly power in pre-unification Hawaii emphasise economic and ideological factors and fail to examine coercive capabilities in any detail, as well as the specifics of time and place. The approaches of other disciplines offer new perspectives. European military historians' emphasis on the importance of logistical, organisational and psychological factors calls for a re-evaluation of the significance of European weaponry and mercenaries in Kamehameha's wars of unification. He gained victory because his opponents overextended themselves logistically, and were weakened by internal divisions at crucial times. Military victory alone was not enough to secure power. Kamehameha also mastered the art of building and maintaining coalitions. Demilitarisation of the islands was central to the unification process.     

Muslim Contestations over Religion and the State in the Middle East

Abstract

With the future of the Middle East uncertain and unstable, claims to holding the authentic Islamic understanding of the role of religion in politics remain competed over in a political struggle for support, with sides believing that whoever can articulate the authenticity of their vision of government would become more able to influence public opinion. While one train of thought posits Islamic governance as an authentic and correct form of polity for the region which would bring about accountable, elected government, the other claims that Islam is fundamentally silent on the issue of the "state," and that notions of an "Islamic state" or caliphate are in fact dictatorial and antithetical to orthodox Islam, though Islamic values can inform the individual in their role as a citizen within a democratic state. This article will briefly examine the genealogy of these two competing claims from a Sunni Muslim perspective after examining the dominant approaches to analysing political Islamic groups, while also questioning whether it is fundamentally necessary to insert democratic ideals into such a discussion.     

陈焕章与民国初年的国教运动

陈焕章是民初思想界的重要人物,他与孔教会其他人士一道,致力于发掘传统儒学的“神学”及“现代性”内涵,并发起了规模巨大的国教运动。尽管这场运动与民初的帝制复辟运动纠缠在一起,但国教派并非都主张帝制,至少陈焕章等人与复辟派是有严格的政治界限的。国教运动思想家企图以“保教”为手段来“保国”,体现了鲜明的化民族主义,却与民初的民主主义产生了矛盾;另外,将本来属于“人化”的中国传统儒学人为地塑造成“神化”,也有违“传统”。这都注定了国教运动必然失败的命运。陈焕章学贯中西,本应在思想化方面有积极的建树,却与国教运动结下不解之缘,国教运动失败,他的历史地位与作用也因此而被淹没。     

Power and Religion in a Modern State: Desecularisation in Australian History

Secularisation is a concept with many meanings making it difficult to analyse historically. Yet it is the default master narrative in much Australian historiography. Secular historians typically criticise the role of religion in history as being either too unengaged or, if engaged, too intrusive and negative in its impact. This article challenges both assumptions, taking five “nodal points” in Australian history and arguing that they are better given a “Christian” than a secular interpretation. Australia's first European settlement was a high‐minded reform experiment, based partly on a humanitarian Christian vision. The Church Acts gave the population ready access to Christian influence, resulting in a highly “Christianised” nation. When federated, that nation refused to give ascendancy to any one Christian denomination, but largely assumed that its polity was that of a “Christian commonwealth.” Out of its Christian commitment, in the middle of the twentieth century, it withstood control by atheistic communists of its industrial and political life. In the first decade of the present century, a surprising number of politicians have sought to define its national identity largely in terms of its Christian heritage rooted in the Classical/Christian tradition.     

The Egyptian Predynastic and State Formation

When the archaeology of Predynastic Egypt was last appraised in this journal, Savage (2001a, p. 101) expressed optimism that “a consensus appears to be developing that stresses the gradual development of complex society in Egypt.” The picture today is less clear, with new data and alternative theoretical frameworks challenging received wisdom over the pace, direction, and nature of complex social change. Rather than an inexorable march to the beat of the neo-evolutionary drum, primary state formation in Egypt can be seen as a more syncopated phenomenon, characterized by periods of political experimentation and shifting social boundaries. Notably, field projects in Sudan and the Egyptian Delta together with new dating techniques have set older narratives of development into broader frames of reference. In contrast to syntheses that have sought to measure abstract thresholds of complexity, this review of the period between c. 4500 BC and c. 3000 BC transcends analytical categories by adopting a practice-based examination of multiple dimensions of social inequality and by considering how the early state may have become a lived reality in Egypt around the end of the fourth millennium BC.     

日本的首长制社会与国家的产生

本文概述日本国内有关古代国家形成的各种学说并阐述了作者自己的观点。他认为,把统治组织及其统治对象的人民作为国家的基本标志,是必要的。但是,还需要重视反映在首长制社会中的、在日本前近代社会底层流动的本质,采用分层社会的多线进化理论,更适合日本列岛的实际情况。有关国家形成理论的研究,一方面需要从微观与宏观的不同角度来观察日本列岛各地丰富多彩的历史发展过程;另一方面,无论是从当代课题的关系上,还是为了寻求历史模式,都需要在东亚或是亚洲的范围内考察日本的历史。     

“满洲国”的孝子——国家、宗教以及守墓行为的适应性变化

<正>1938年10月23日,以"李孝子"闻名的李中三结束了三年的守墓生活,离开了他母亲墓旁的小屋。在他守墓期间,这处位于吉林省中部九台乡间的墓地以"孝子坟"闻名于世,在当时日本占领的满洲国腹心地带,这只是几座孝子坟中的一处。每天都有上百个朝圣者从满洲各地来到这里祈祷、烧香,并且从坟头带走一把被赋予了神奇力量的土壤。李期满脱孝的时候,这一事件被当作一个正式的儒家仪式举行,几千人前来参加,并由一干满洲国的政治名流主持完成。     

State Absence and State Formation in Solomon Islands: Reflections on Agency,Scale and Hybridity

This article engages ethnographic research on perceptions of disputation, justice and security in rural Solomon Islands to reflect on issues of agency, power and scale in areas of limited statehood. Set against widespread popular perceptions of state retreat in Solomon Islands, the authors situate their study within the literature which addresses engagements with conflict‐affected and fragile countries and, in particular, literature with an interest in the spaces created by prolonged state absence as potential sites of innovation and transformation. The article examines the role of agency and power at different scales in the highly contested processes of state formation underway in post‐conflict Solomon Islands. Taking issue with the presumed privileging by local actors of non‐state over state forms that runs through much of the hybridity literature, the authors suggest that international ‘state‐building’ interventions, such as that recently experienced in Solomon Islands, require a more nuanced and historically informed understanding of local agency vis‐à‐vis the state in fragile and conflict‐affected settings.     

Cultural Engineering Under Authoritarian Regimes: Islamization of Universities in Postrevolutionary Iran

The purpose of this article is to analyze the efforts that have been made to Islamize Iranian universities, specifically since the emergence of hardliners in 2005. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Islamic regime relentlessly intensified its efforts to Islamize universities to train a new generation of ideologically driven students. In the three decades following the Revolution, three major periods of university Islamization have been implemented. The Cultural Revolution, which started in 1980, was the first step in the Islamization of Iran's universities: to cleanse the higher education systems from students and professors who criticized the new established Islamic regime. By increasing the number of students and the development of universities throughout Iran in the Rafasanjai era, the second wave of the Islamization of the university was triggered by Ayatollah Khamenei in 1994. During the reform era, the Islamization of universities slowed because of the many confrontations between the Supreme Leader and the reformist administrations. With the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election, the Islamization of universities intensified. While there are a few publications about the Islamization of universities, they mainly focused on the first and second decades following the 1979 Revolution. Focusing on the third period, this article will investigate the different strategies and tactics for the Islamization of universities, as well as reasons for its failures.