Nations Unchained: Revolution,Empire, and the Collapse of the Westphalian Order

I examine transformations of “world orders,” of the basic norms governing relations between powers and between powers and peoples. I present three historical transformations of the world order: First, the transformation at the end of the eighteenth century of the Westphalian or Vattelian order in Europe based on the equality of states and the balance of power, into a world order based on nationalism and imperialism. Second, the transformation in the aftermath of World War II in which imperial domination was rejected, national self-determination affirmed, and territorial acquisition by force outlawed (what I call “1945 rules”). Third, the present collapse of 1945 rules in the face of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. I assess these transformations with help from Nicholas Onuf and the English School of International Relations.     

Mobility and Social Change: Understanding the European Neolithic Period after the Archaeogenetic Revolution

This paper discusses and synthesizes the consequences of the archaeogenetic revolution to our understanding of mobility and social change during the Neolithic period in Europe (6500–2000 BC). In spite of major obstacles to a productive integration of archaeological and anthropological knowledge with ancient DNA data, larger changes in the European gene pool are detected and taken as indications for large-scale migrations during two major periods: the Early Neolithic expansion into Europe (6500–4000 BC) and the third millennium BC “steppe migration.” Rather than massive migration events, I argue that both major genetic turnovers are better understood in terms of small-scale mobility and human movement in systems of population circulation, social fission and fusion of communities, and translocal interaction, which together add up to a large-scale signal. At the same time, I argue that both upticks in mobility are initiated by the two most consequential social transformations that took place in Eurasia, namely the emergence of farming, animal husbandry, and sedentary village life during the Neolithic revolution and the emergence of systems of centralized political organization during the process of urbanization and early state formation in southwest Asia.

     

“讲故事”的文化史研究——读《档案中的虚构》

初看娜塔莉.泽蒙.戴维斯著作的标题———《档案中的虚构———16世纪法国司法档案中的赦罪故事及故事的叙述者》,①敏感的读者或许会以为:该书讨论的是档案史料的价值和辨析问题。其实不然,该书的目的并不在于此。戴维斯书名中的“虚构”(Fiction)实际上是指“虚构的故事”或“小说”的意思,这可以从作者的“夫子自道”中得到佐证:“每当我展读这些赦免的皇家文件———法国的档案中充斥着它们的身影———我对于这些文件内容的文学品质感到惊讶,或者,我应该说,它们的‘小说’品质。我的意思是它们的作者们将犯罪的事件形成至一则故事的程…     

Correction to: Mobility and Social Change: Understanding the European Neolithic Period after the Archaeogenetic Revolution

Journal of Archaeological Research - In the original publication it was erroneously stated that the Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1a2 was found in Yamnaya burials, and that R1a was found in Majkop...     

An Army of Educators: Gender,Revolution and the Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961

The conventional scholarly narrative of gender in post‐revolutionary Cuba is that the revolutionary government prevented the emergence of an expressly feminist movement by addressing women's basic needs and simultaneously eliminating autonomous space for female organising. Recent scholarship has increasingly considered women's participation in revolutions in order to understand women's roles in post‐revolutionary societies. Looking beyond armed insurrection for instances of female participation in revolution, this article considers women's roles in the Cuban Literacy Campaign. An analysis of the testimonies of female former volunteer teachers and of the official rhetoric and content of the campaign suggests that the broader narrative of cooption, while certainly accurate overall, threatens to obscure instances in which women did challenge traditional gender norms in meaningful ways. This paper argues that the Cuban Literacy Campaign and the participation of women in that campaign significantly impacted Cuban patriarchal culture at a crucial moment of consolidation for the revolutionary regime. In other words, though the male‐led revolution did not give women the space to organise against patriarchy, by actively participating in the revolution, women did help change the nature of Cuban patriarchy.