处女地假说与北美印第安人的命运

在白人殖民者到来前,北美印第安人已经在美洲大陆上生活了数万年,并对周围的环境产生了重要的影响。白人殖民者来到美洲后,一方面出于欧洲种族主义的文化偏见,一方面出于剥夺印第安人土地的现实利益需要,建构出处女地假说,并根据自身需要将北美大陆上的原住民简单形容为高贵的印第安人和嗜血的野蛮人两种非此即彼的刻板形象。处女地假说成为白人殖民者向西部边疆扩张、驱逐和剥削印第安人的理论工具。对于美洲白人来说,该假说意味着机会和希望,而对于北美印第安人来说,该假说则代表了种族主义偏见和殖民主义的罪恶。随着现代环境主义的兴起,处女地假说和印第安人的传统生态智慧受到热捧,印第安人也试图利用这一工具为其当前争取资源控制权的斗争服务,但收效不大。     

白人到来前北美印第安人社会的疾病生态及其意义

在白人到来前相当长的时期内,印第安人社会疾病较少,印第安人身体相对健康。但是随着农业的发展和居住模式从游牧到定居的转变,土著社会中各种疾病开始增多,印第安人健康状况逐渐恶化。至哥伦布到来前夕,印第安人社会已经充斥着各种疾病,并非是很多学者所说的毫无疾病的"伊甸园"。白人到来前北美印第安人社会的疾病生态对白人到来之后的外来传染病入侵美洲具有重要的意义。印第安人已有的疾病削弱了土著民族的健康状况,导致外来传染病会产生更高的发病率和死亡率,大大加剧了该群体的疾病负荷。这一时期土著民族的疾病生态成为白人到来后外来传染病入侵、印第安人人口大量死亡、土著社会遭受严重打击的重要因素之一。     

Artefacts,archaeologists and American Indians

Abstract

Archaeologists traditionally have observed the style and technology of artefacts and used this to classify archaeological assemblages, describing the repeated association of artefact groups as a ‘Culture’. We continue to place overwhelming reliance on our ability to derive meaningful information about past culture from artefacts, yet the importance these objects had for the members of the cultural group (past and present) is not adequately considered. The typological approach sidelines the creative role of the artisans, we find out a little about their economy, gain momentary glimpses of their religion, but learn almost nothing about their humanity. Archaeologists tend to focus on the physical, technological or esoteric attributes of an artefact, while indigenous populations tend to focus on the object's ritual or social importance. This is most apparent in the treatment of funerary artefacts. Until recently, many American Indian tribal groups have seen no distinction between ‘grave robbing’ and ‘archaeological excavation’ it made no difference to them whether the dead were disturbed by looters or by qualified archaeologists. By involving indigenous populations in the design, practice and dissemination of archaeological research, we can add humanity to our study of the human past, and take a step toward a truly worldwide archaeology.     

试论毛皮贸易对北美印第安人的生态影响

毛皮边疆是北美西部开发中最具有传奇性的一种边疆,它不仅涉及范围广,持续时间长,而且创造了白人与印第安人交往的新形式,同时还给北美印第安人带来了深刻的影响。本文主要从环境史角度探讨了毛皮边疆导致的印第安人生存环境的恶化和生态伦理的堕落,驳斥了所谓印第安人从毛皮贸易中受益的谎言。     

The archaic prehistory of the North American Southwest

Evidence today suggests that by at least 8000 to 8500 B.P., Archaic hunter-gatherer economies were established throughout the North American Southwest. The Early Archaic seems to be a period of considerable variability across the subregions; this may be a product of currently slim knowledge of the period, or it may indicate that the region witnessed considerable flux. With the Middle Archaic period from 5500 to 3500 B.P. there seems to be greater similarity in material culture across the region and a definite increase in the number of known sites. Finally, the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period from 3500 to 2000 or 1500 B.P. sees the establishment of a mixed farming-foraging economy in much of the Southwest with apparently major changes in subsistence-settlement systems. Preagricultural Archaic land use patterns are known in broad outline but not in detail; high mobility by small social groups in an annual round would have permitted exploitation of diverse biotic communities. In most parts of the region, significant socioeconomic change accompanies the incorporation of agriculture into the late preceramic period, as witnessed by the appearance of longer-term residential sites with pitstructures and storage features.     

1840-1850年天主教爱尔兰移民及其在美国的政治参与

天主教爱尔兰移民是美国历史上第一支大规模的非新教移民团体。他们进入美国社会后,不仅引发了美国人宗教生活的长期震荡,而且对这个国家的政治生活产生了持续影响。通过建立自己的组织,他们发明了一套与主流群体打交道的方式,从而克服了从他们踏上这块土地第一天起就遇到的宗教、伦理方面的障碍。美国历史上最大的爱尔兰移民潮发生于19世纪40至50年代,其间爱尔兰天主教移民与美国早期新教移民的矛盾和冲突也最为突出,他们所遇到的问题以及解决这些问题的方式足以为我们了解美国移民史和美国文化特征提供借鉴。     

Middle-Class Ideologies and American Respectability: Archaeology and the Irish Immigrant Experience

This study illustrates the materialization of identity shifts through refined ceramic and glass forms recovered from working class Irish immigrant and Irish-American communities. The sites used in this article were chosen because of their spatio-temporal compatibility covering dynamic periods of Irish identity in the United States. Historians argue that 1880 marks the beginning of an identity shift from Irish immigrant to Irish-American. This research attempts to provide the necessary materials to begin a discourse bringing together material and historical evidence illuminating the conflict between competing ideologies of respectability and changing conceptions of Irish identity in America.