麦礼谦教授与美国华侨华人研究

要论美国的华侨华人历史研究 ,就不能不提麦礼谦教授。麦先生虽然是自学成才 ,并且大器晚成 ,但却是美国华侨华人历史研究的开拓者和奠基人之一。麦先生不仅自己积极进取 ,勇于开拓美国华侨华人研究的新领域 ,而且充满一个历史学家经世致用的人文情怀 ,乐于用自己所学服务社会     

The Fall of Mosaddeq,August 1953: Institutional Narratives,Professor Mark Gasiorowski and My Study

Over the decades that followed the overthrow of Mosaddeq in August 1953 a narrative attributing the fall exclusively to foreign conspiracy has taken hold and become institutionalized. In this narrative the internal factors are reduced to the simplest level of abstraction. They do not exist outside foreign conspiracy! This narrative is premised on an Anglo-American coup plot code-named TP-AJAX that was attempted in the late hours of 15 August but failed. The ensuing flight of the Shah generated dynamics which led to the fall of Mosaddeq four days later. The CIA chief operative in Tehran Kermit Roosevelt was quick to take credit claiming that these dynamics were inseminated by his ingenious and spontaneous planning. For abiding internal reasons both the CIA and the MI6 headquarters preferred to claim victory rather than admit failure. Evidence that emerged following the declassification of the State Department papers in 1989 and the leak of a secret CIA internal history in 2000 produced glaring evidence that the fall of Mosaddeq on 19 August 1953 had taken Washington, even its embassy in Tehran, by complete surprise and that post facto claims by Roosevelt were inconsistent both with Washington's explicit policy directives and Roosevelt's own situation reports filed with the CIA Washington during the interval between the two events. Roosevelt later published a phantasmagorical account of the event which, together with reminiscences of a few unnamed former operatives, was given credence by Professor Gasiorowski and associates, who curiously chose to ignore archival evidence.     

A Postmodern Reply to Perez Zagorin

This article engages with the arguments forwarded by Perez Zagorin against the possible consequences of postmodernism for history as it is currently conceived of particularly in its “proper” professional/academic form (“History, the Referent, and Narrative: Reflections on Postmodernism Now,”History and Theory 38 [1999], 1‐24). In an overtly positioned response which issues from a close reading of Zagorin's text, I argue that his all‐too‐typical misunderstandings of postmodernism need to be “corrected”—not, however, to make postmodernism less of a threat to “history as we have known it,” or to facilitate the assimilation of its useful elements while exorcising its “extremes.” My “corrections” instead forward the claim that, understood positively and integrated into those conditions of postmodernity which postmodernism variously articulates at the level of theory, such theory signals the possible “end of history,” not only in its metanarrative styles (which are already becoming increasingly implausible) but also in that particular and peculiar professional genre Zagorin takes as equivalent to history per se. And I want to argue that if this theory is understood in ways which choose not to give up (as Derrida urges us not to give up) the “discourse of emancipation” after the failure of its first attempt in the “experiment of modernity,” then this ending can be considered “a good thing.”     

A Reply to the foregoing Criticism

This paper discusses the vetlatori dance performed on the occasion of a baptised infant's death in the Valencia region of Spain until about fifty years ago. Analyses of historical sources that emphasise the noble spirituality of the vetlatori dance are shown to be based on romantic views of traditional culture and emotions related to the loss of an infant, rather than on authentic information. Ethnographic and ethnomusicological data are presented to illustrate that the music and dances performed during the vetlatori dance were meant for entertainment rather than for spiritual impact. Recourse is also had to oral sources, particularly interviews carried out in the 1960s and 1980s with former infant wake participants who experienced the vetlatori dance, and who confirmed the popular nature of the music, song, and dances that were performed. Analysis of written sources and of the choreographic and musical characteristics of the dance also shows that the kind of music performed was typical of festive celebration in the Valencia region. Functional outcomes for such wakes are also proposed.     

曼生款竹节壶再研究

上海金山县征集到一件曼生款竹节壶,此壶与道光时期的竹节形砂壶更相似,应为同时期传器,其题铭羊豆意在隐喻壶佳;从其他万泉款传器的比较推断,此壶应为万泉早期作品。     

情系夏商周——邹衡先生访谈录

安阳殷墟的发现将我国的信史提前到三千多年以前,这不仅提高了我国古代献的史料价值．更重要的是为夏商周考古找到了一个真正的已知点半个多世纪以来,许多学以此为基点,在探索中国古老明的漫漫征途上艰难跋涉,将青春献给了祖国的考古事业,北京大学考古博学院教授邹衡先生就是其中的一位,我们有幸采访了这位杰出的考古学家。