Cats of the Pharaohs: Genetic Comparison of Egyptian Cat Mummies to their Feline Contemporaries

The ancient Egyptians mummified an abundance of cats during the Late Period (664 - 332 BC). The overlapping morphology and sizes of developing wildcats and domestic cats confounds the identity of mummified cat species. Genetic analyses should support mummy identification and was conducted on two long bones and a mandible of three cats that were mummified by the ancient Egyptians. The mummy DNA was extracted in a dedicated ancient DNA laboratory at the University of California - Davis, then directly sequencing between 246 and 402 bp of the mtDNA control region from each bone. When compared to a dataset of wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris, F. s. tristrami, and F. chaus) as well as a previously published worldwide dataset of modern domestic cat samples, including Egypt, the DNA evidence suggests the three mummies represent common contemporary domestic cat mitotypes prevalent in modern Egypt and the Middle East. Divergence estimates date the origin of the mummies' mitotypes to between two and 7.5 thousand years prior to their mummification, likely prior to or during Egyptian Predyanstic and Early Dynastic Periods. These data are the first genetic evidence supporting that the ancient Egyptians used domesticated cats, F. s. catus, for votive mummies, and likely implies cats were domesticated prior to extensive mummification of cats.     

杭州出土白瓷制作年代与产地的研究

近年来,杭州出土了一批白釉瓷器残片,特别是一些具有定窑风格的白瓷样品引发了众多考古工作者和古陶瓷爱好者的关注与浓厚兴趣。为探究其制作年代和产地,采用热释光技术和X射线荧光无损分析技术相结合的方法对一批杭州出土具有定窑风格的白瓷样品进行了检测分析。测试结果表明,这批白釉瓷片样品制作年代约处在北宋末年到南宋早期,胎的化学组成中Al₂O₃含量较高,最低24.78%,最高达33.06%,具备北方瓷器特点;胎中微量元素Rb、Sr、Zr含量的比例以及钙镁碱釉的特征与河北曲阳定窑极为相似。综合文献及其它人文考证,这批杭州出土的白瓷应该为北宋晚期至南宋早期产自于河北的定窑瓷器。此分析结果也将为研究宋金贸易及文化提供科学依据。     

William James on a phenomenological psychology of immediate experience: the true foundation for a science of consciousness?

Throughout his career, William James defended personal consciousness. In his "Principles of Psychology" (1890), he declared that psychology is the scientific study of states of consciousness as such and that he intended to presume from the outset that the thinker was the thought. But while writing it, he had been investigating a dynamic psychology of the subconscious, which found a major place in his Gifford Lectures, published as "The Varieties of Religious Experience" in 1902. This was the clearest statement James was able to make before he died with regard to his developing tripartite metaphysics of pragmatism, pluralism and radical empiricism, which essentially asked "Is a science of consciousness actually possible?" James's lineage in this regard, was inherited from an intuitive psychology of character formation that had been cast within a context of spiritual self-realization by the Swedenborgians and Transcendentalists of New England. Chief among these was his father, Henry James, Sr., and his godfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, james was forced to square these ideas with the more rigorous scientific dictates of his day, which have endured to the present. As such, his ideas remain alive and vibrant, particularly among those arguing for the fusion of phenomenology, embodiment and cognitive neuroscience in the renewed search for a science of consciousness.     

Pink truck ads: second-wave feminism and gendered marketing

Second-wave feminist media had a contentious relationship with corporate advertisers. This article uses automotive advertisements to explore the role of gender, class, and race in the construction of consumer markets from the 1970s through the 1980s. It analyzes the struggle of Gloria Steinem and other liberal feminists to navigate the terrain between the women's movement and corporate advertisers. The increased economic power of women, stemming from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act as well as broader social and political shifts, facilitated their efforts. In the 1980s, automobiles continued to be marketed to women, albeit through "feminine" imagery conforming to the era's dominant trends.     

中国古代高温铁釉瓷的呈色研究

中国是最早烧制高温陶瓷的国家,从原始瓷开始,含铁原料制作的颜色釉瓷贯穿了整个中国制瓷的历史,从而产生了呈色各异、品种繁多的铁釉瓷.为研究影响铁釉瓷呈色的各类因素,本工作综合应用成分分析方法,对一些典型的铁釉瓷品种进行定量测定.研究表明:高温铁釉中Fe2O3的含量范围从1％至高达约18％,铁的含量对釉的呈色起着决定性的作用;同时窑炉的烧成气氛和原料中的TiO2含量变化会影响Fe2+、Fe3+的生成比例,从而使釉色发生改变;另外,原料中MnO的含量、施釉工艺等也会对釉色产生影响.研究结果将对我国高温铁釉瓷制作技术的产生、发展有一个更好的诠释.     

The limits of oral history: ethics and methodology amid highly politicized research settings

In recent years, oral history has been celebrated by its practitioners for its humanizing potential, and its ability to democratize history by bringing the narratives of people and communities typically absent in the archives into conversation with that of the political and intellectual elites who generally write history. And when dealing with the narratives of ordinary people living in conditions of social and political stability, the value of oral history is unquestionable. However, in recent years, oral historians have increasingly expanded their gaze to consider intimate accounts of extreme human experiences, such as narratives of survival and flight in response to mass atrocities. This shift in academic and practical interests begs the questions: Are there limits to oral historical methods and theory? And if so, what are these limits? This paper begins to address these questions by drawing upon fourteen months of fieldwork in Rwanda and Bosnia-Hercegovina, during which I conducted multiple life history interviews with approximately one hundred survivors, ex-combatants, and perpetrators of genocide and related mass atrocities. I argue that there are limits to the application of oral history, particularly when working amid highly politicized research settings.     

The cosmos of the Paris apartment: working-class family life in the nineteenth century

Drawing on Bachelard's notion of “cosmicity” this article investigates the living conditions of Parisian working-class families in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nineteenth-century social critics claimed that the lack of privacy in urban apartments made decent family life impossible. However, evidence from judicial dossiers concerning attentat à la pudeur (intimate assault against children) illuminates the lived experience of children and their families in Paris apartments. Rather than a sharp divide between public and private, children experienced their apartment homes as the core of a social and spatial world under the surveillance of parents, neighbors, and other children.     

抗战时期四川江津国立女子师范学院研究

江津国立女子师范学院作为战时国统区的女子最高学府,是教育部为培养后方女子师资而建立的。自1940年在江津建立至1946年迁往重庆前,是女子师范学院艰难办学的六年,学院从无到有,院系不断得到完善,学院规模逐渐壮大,为国家培养造就了一批批中等女子教育师资,同时也为今天的西南大学作了丰厚的历史积淀。     

Traveling with faith: the creation of women's immigrant aid associations in nineteenth and twentieth-century France

This article explores the efforts of French Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women to morally, spiritually, and physically protect immigrant and migrant women and girls in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Women of faith worried about the dangers posed by the white slave trade, and they feared the loss of spiritual consciousness among women living far from their families and their places of worship. In response to these concerns, they developed numerous faith-based international organizations aimed at protecting vulnerable working-class immigrants. Upper-class women's work in immigrant aid societies allowed them to take on much greater social and religious leadership roles than they had in the past. Likewise, the intricate, international networks that these women developed contributed to the building of international cooperation throughout Europe.