Judicial Changes in Qing Beijing during the Shunzhi Period (1644–61)

The judicial system in Qing Beijing integrated both Ming and Manchu institutions. In the Ming judicial system, the first level of courts in Beijing included the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate, and on the second level was the Court of Judicial Review. During the Ming, however, this system became heavily disrupted by the intelligence security apparatuses, like the Eastern Depot. In the Manchu system, on the first level of courts was the banner company captains and on the second level was the Ministry of Justice. After 1644, the Ming’s institutional legacies and lessons remained so important to Manchu rulers that they eventually created an integrated legal system that primarily drew from the Ming system. This integration reflected the Qing dynasty’s endeavor to adopt Ming institutions. Prince Regent Dorgon insisted upon judicial separation on the first level of the courts—Censors of the Five Wards could not settle cases involving banner people, nor could the banner system handle cases involving civilians—while the Shunzhi emperor and his successors wanted judicial unity in Beijing and ordinary banner people and civilians to be adjudicated by the same courts.     

On Will and Reason in L'astrée

This article sheds light on the technique of amplificatio by which Boccaccio expands the stories of famous women he finds in Valerius Maximus's De fide uxorium. Boccaccio's work on famous women situates itself between the genres of fiction and the historical treatise. It analyzes in philological detail Boccaccio's citation technique and his elaboration of the ancient model, showing how the greatest narrator of the Italian Middle Ages revitalizes and actualizes it and crafts an original literary product.     

Senior Officials in Tibet Appointed by the Government of the Republic of China： Case Study of Lu Hsing-Chi and Others

After the Qing Dynasty was overthrown by the Revolution of I9II, the newly established government of the Republic of China （ROC） was confronted with a dilemma：the warlords were fighting each other and the foreign imperialists were waiting for opportunities to expand their interests in China. Even so, the new Republic government set out a series of political system reforms. As the most important part of political system, the official system directly reflected the reforms.     

The Rehabilitation of an Uncomfortable Past: Everyday Life in Vietnam during the Subsidy Period (1975–1986)

In 2006, the Museum of Ethnology organized a special exhibit on everyday life in Hanoi during the “subsidy period”, the term increasingly used to describe the decade of high socialism that began in 1975 with the reunification of a divided Vietnam and ended in 1986 with the official introduction of market reforms known as ??i m?i (Renovation). The representational strategies, which linked the collectivism of the past with the individualism of the present, prompted a nationwide discussion regarding the significance of a moment that previously had no clear name or place in official accounts due to the severe hardships it produced. The details presented demonstrate how the rehabilitation of this decade has expanded the political boundaries of what state institutions can present as having historical and ethnographic value in Vietnam as well as opened new avenues for comparative studies with (former) socialist states elsewhere.     

How Should Tibet Face The New Century?──Chairman Leqoi of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government Answers China's Tibet Questions

The year 2001 marks the first year of China's 10th Five-Year Plan.It is also a year in which the development of China's westernregion development programs is being strongly promoted. Howshould Tibet react to this situation? With this question in mind,China's Tibet reporters recently interviewed Leqoi, Chairman ofthe Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region.QUESTION:Mr. Chairman,could you please tell us whatmeasures Tibet will under thenational western region development program duri…     

The “Ideological Offensive” in Education: the Portrayal of the United States in Secondary Curricula and Textbooks in Poland during the Stalinist Period (1948–1956)

During the period of the People’s Republic of Poland (1952–1989), schools played a decisive role in transmitting the official ideology of the ruling Communist regime and cultivating young supporters. One of the most important aspects of indoctrination was constructing in students’ hearts and minds a particular image and disposition towards the United States. While existing research has examined the high level of political propaganda in the content of textbooks and curricula during the Communist period in Poland, no one has specifically analysed how these materials depicted the United States during the critical Stalinist years (1948–1956). Analysis of official curricula and textbooks for civics and history courses in secondary schools indicates that over this period, school materials increasingly depicted the United States as ‘predatory,’ ‘imperialist,’ and ‘exploitative.’ This study illustrates how curricular materials aligned with the foreign policy objectives of the Polish United Workers’ Party and the Soviet Union.     

Local Councils as ‘Place-shapers’: The Implications of the Lyons Report for Australian Local Government

The recent past has seen an intense focus on ‘financial sustainability’ in Australian local government to the exclusion of other important dimensions of local governance. This restrictive emphasis on finance has been unfortunate as it has ignored important developments in the international literature, which is best exemplified in the landmark 2007 Lyons Report in the United Kingdom. In this official inquiry, Sir Michael Lyons reiterates the critical significance of local voice and local choice in contemporary local government and develops the concept of ‘place-shaping’ as epitomising the modern role of local councils. However, British local government enjoys far broader service provision responsibilities than its Australian counterpart. Accordingly, this paper thus seeks to outline the nature of ‘place-shaping’, as conceived in the Lyons Report, and consider its applicability in the much narrower Australian local government milieu.     

Teachers of Tibet University(Ⅱ)

Probing Effortsand PioneeringSpirit-Story of Vice-PresidentLobsang NangyalAll the teaching staffand students ofTibet Universityspeak highly of LobsangNangyi,citing his probingefforts and pioneering spiritas the model for emulation.Lobsang Nangyal wasassigned to teach in TibetTeacher's School when hegraduated from Lhasa Mid-dle School in 1964.     

Between Regionalization and Centralization: The Creation of the Musée Léopold II in Elisabethville (Musée national de Lubumbashi), Belgian Congo (1931–1961)

Since “museumland” was revisited in the 1980s, different authors have studied the history of colonial museums in Europe within a broader discussion on colonial bias, the creation of traditions and the theory of representation. It has become clear, for example, how African utensils were exported to Europe, where they were exhibited as curiosa, ethnographical objects or art. But what happened when the very notion of the museum was exported back to Africa? Who created these institutes and in what context? Was the relationship between colonizers and colonized altered? Did the “social life” of the objects on show change? And what was the relationship between the “old” museums in Europe and the “new” ones created in the colony? These questions have rarely been studied. In this article, the creation of the Musée Léopold II will be used as a basis to offer insight into the links between colonial “science” and “policy”, which proved not to be as monolithic as often portrayed, but rather were complex amalgamations of different opinions and even conflicting interests.     

Demythologizing the Satan Tradition of Historical-Criticism: A Reevaluation of the Old Testament Portrait of שָׂטָן in Light of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

This book continues the excellent work begun in Thompson's first book, The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives. In trying to find a context for the Bible, T. rightly focuses on the literary, theological, and ideological content of the biblical text. He well illustrates how recording history (from a modern point of view) is not the concern of the biblical writers. On the other hand, as he shows, to deny that the Bible is true historically is not to deny its truth in other areas. Although often agreeing with T. and applauding much that is in the book, the reviewer found certain areas of concern or disappointment. He feels that T. is often inconsistent, sometimes seeming to reject the use of literary sources almost altogether, yet still quietly using them when it suits his purpose. For example, the sources for the conquests of Alexander the Great have some of the same weaknesses as Josephus, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and even some of the narrative texts of the Bible, yet T. seems to accept that these still tell us something about Alexander. An area of weakness is T.'s grasp of the Hellenistic and Roman period where the sources andscholarship have not been mastered, and certain original sources are both explicitly rejected and then covertly used as a basis for many assertions. This is not a main part of T.'s argument, but it has implications for trying to put the writing of the Bible in the Hellenistic/Roman period. An area judged to be actually tendentious is T.'s argument that ''Jews'' and similar terms are only religious designations and carry no ethnic content. Despite these criticisms (which do affect T.'s approach and conclusions in crucial areas) the reviewer nevertheless accepts much that T. says and appreciates the attempt to give a holistic argument on this complex question. Especially appreciated is T.'s positive reconstruction of the history of Palestine based primarily on archaeology in a central section of his book.     

Adaptive strategies or ideological innovations? Interpreting sociopolitical developments in the Jequetepeque Valley of Peru during the Late Moche Period

Environmental perturbations and social unrest are thought to have led to the reconstitution of traditional belief systems and hierarchical political relations on Peru’s North Coast during the Late Moche Period (550–800 AD). Ideological transformations are thus commonly interpreted as adaptive or reactive responses to social, political, and ecological disruptions. Nevertheless, religious practices directly shaped the formation of alternative power structures and ecological systems on the North Coast during the Late Moche Period. This is especially evident in Late Moche Jequetepeque, which witnessed the proliferation of non-elite ceremonial sites and small-scale agricultural facilities throughout the rural hinterland of the valley. Moche-inspired ritual performances orchestrated in the countryside created distinctive new forms of political order which structured economic activities and ecological behavior. In this article, the Jequetepeque case study is mobilized to reassess normative interpretations of the role of religious ideology in cultural adaptation and sociopolitical realignment.     

My Work as Secretary General of the KMT Tibet Office(Ⅱ)

EDITOR'S NOTE: As World War II was about to end in the 1940s, the KMT Government built the Xikang-Tibet Highway and dispatched troops into the region, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Shen Zonglian Director of the Tibet Office. The KMT Tibet Office remained in operation until in 1949, when the Tibetan government reacted to "drive the Hans out of Tibet." The author of the following story was secretary general of the KMT Tibet Office at that time. The following is the second part o…     

Structural Funds of the European Union in Poland—Experience of the First Period of Membership

The aim of this article is to present the results of the first period of taking advantage of Structural Funds in Poland. The analysis refers to realisation of the planned activities in the strategic document which is the National Development Plan 2004–2006, being a base of the new model of the Polish regional policy. The obtained results show the level of success of Structural Funds including the structure being a result of Operational Programmes which are a part of the National Development Plan, and the structure of beneficiaries, among which the listed ones are: units of local governments, businessmen, non-governmental organizations and educational institutions. In each case the analysis includes regional differences of the absorption process which allows us to define the influence of Structural Funds on changes of regional economic development in Poland.     

Old wine in new bottles? Some views of the economy of the early Church

From a sociological point of view the early Christian communities seem to have been rather isolated in their pagan, or Jewish, surroundings. The aim of this article is to throw some light on the economic behaviour of the members of the early Church. Did they establish a Christian economy, which was determined by their moral and religious values, or did they adjust themselves to the prevailing economic conditions of the Roman Empire?