商汤都城的辩正

亳的本义是居民点,亳的称谓源于今冀中保定市的古博水。亳作为地名,只说明商部族在此居住过,并不和汤都发生必然联系。汉晋以来的学者即在亳和汤都之间划上了等号,这是历史的误会。商汤灭夏从冀中之亳出发,并在征伐葛、韦、顾、昆吾后,开始建郑州商城;然后西进消灭夏桀,并在今河南偃师建筑商城。偃师是商汤最后的都城,冀中之亳和郑州商城在一定时间内也曾作为都邑而存在。     

"宅地农场议案"在国会的辩论及其通过

《宅地农场法》是美国历史上最重要的一项土地法令,它深深植根于美国悠久的免费分配土地的历史传统之中。“宅地农场议案”在国会的辩论成为美国历史上最激烈和最感情化的一次漫长辩论。它同美国南、北、西三大地理区域关系、奴隶制与反奴隶制的斗争紧密地交织在一起。这一议案的通过,标志着西部和北部争取民主自由、反对奴隶制斗争的胜利,使美国的土地制度进一步民主化。     

Mycenaean Beads: Gender and Social Contexts

Although Mycenaean burial customs and the absence of written sources make many questions about beads unanswerable, nonetheless there is some evidence, or room for speculation, about who wore beads, how they were worn, uses other than as jewellery, relations to seals and amulets and spindle whorls and textiles, their materials and sources and their part in long-distance and other cultural contacts,colours and the possible significance of them, manufacturing processes and craft organization, symbolic values of relief-bead motifs, beads as rank- or status-markers. Gender roles and differences are sometimes hinted at in the archaeological record. Written sources from Egypt and Mesopotamia and archaeological and ethnographic studies in India can sometimes help to fill gaps by suggesting questions or answers.     

Entitlements Analysis: Relating Concepts and Contexts

Sen's entitlements approach has attracted much attention and imitation, including attempted extensions beyond its original context in the explanation of famines. It has evolved in various ways as it is applied to new regions, purposes and subjects – beyond South Asia, to policy design and to matters of routine hunger, environment, gender and overall intra-societal distribution. For analysis of famines, the approach provides a valuable set of concepts and questions in explanation and policy design; but it gives a general frame rather than a comprehensive theory or detailed explanatory model. For wider subjects, this general approach – a socially disaggregated, institutionally aware analysis of effective command over specific necessities – is again valuable. However, difficulties may arise with its concept of ‘entitlement relations’, and with confusions related to the label and the referent of the ‘entitlement’ concept, and to the original ‘exchange entitlement’ label. Sen's concepts and labels reflected, naturally enough, the purposes in his study of the 1940s Bengal famine and its specific conditions. A modified set of concepts and labels may be more helpful, together with an underlining of the variety of contexts and of the limits to any one theoretical frame.     

Sacred Narratives in Secular Contexts

Although sacred narratives are thought to have lost their numinous aura for secular receivers (readers/listeners), their presence is evident whenever mythology, usually taken to reflect a mode of thinking typical of primeval cultures, and its associated themes are used in fictional works. This study aims at elucidating sacred narratives for people who do not subscribe to their sacredness. It attempts to show (1) that myths reflect a fictional mode of thinking; (2) that meaningful myths map the unconscious drives of secular readers/listeners, enabling them to confront them in terms of their own culture; and (3) that fictional thinking thus operates as a psychical laboratory. I illustrate these claims through myths that feature animosity between parents and children, such as the stories of Oedipus, Isaac, and Jesus.     

Liberal Policy Debates and Their Consequences for African Americans

Marilyn E. Lashley and Melanie Njeri Jackson (Eds.), African Americans and the New Policy Consensus: Retreat of the Liberal State.     

Subaltern Studies and its Critics: Debates over Indian History

Ranajit Guha, (ed.) A Subaltern Studies Reader 1986–1995
Peter Heehsm, Nationalism, Terrorism, Communalism: Essays in Modern Indian History
Sumit Sarkar, Writing Social History
Achin Vanaik, The Furies of Indian Communalism: Religion, Modernity And Secularization     

美国移民大辩论历史透视

美国是一个移民之邦,从1607年始至今已融合了100多个民族成分,种族之杂糅位世界之最。进入20世纪80年代,百万计的东南亚及拉美国家的移民涌进美国。他们的到来无论在经济上还是在化上都给美国社会带来了巨大的冲击,新的移民浪潮使美国国内已沉寂了半     

The Eisenhower Doctrine in its American and Middle Eastern Contexts

Book reviewed:
Salim Yaqub. Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine in the Middle East . Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. xiii + 377 pp. Illus., maps, notes, bibliography, index. $59.95 (cloth), $22.50 (paper).