Scottish Shire Elections: Preliminary Findings in Sheriff Court Books

Historians of the Scottish parliament have paid little attention to shire elections because of an apparent lack of local source material. This article explores some of the reasons for this perception and argues that sheriff court records contain considerably more evidence than has been appreciated hitherto. It demonstrates that these records provide details of the electoral process, the regularity of elections, the numbers of electors, external interference in elections and internal divisions within the electorate, local responses to national political events, and attitudes to representation through such things as levying taxes locally to reimburse representatives’ expenses. It challenges the once widely‐held view that the lesser nobility, who comprised the electorate, were uninterested in parliamentary participation, suggesting instead that the statute of 1587, by which shire representation was established, was reasonably successful. Finally, it considers the potential for further research in these and other records which, it is argued, will provide a much deeper understanding of 17th‐century Scotland's parliamentary history in particular and political history in general.     

Multiregional Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Andes During the Late Intermediate Period (c. A.D. 1000–1400)

During the Late Intermediate period (LIP, c. A.D. 1000–1400), the central Andes experienced the decline of the Wari and Tiwanaku states, as well as processes of state formation, regional population growth, and competition culminating in the imperial expansion of the Chimú and Inka polities. The LIP holds the potential to link the archaeological features of early Andean states with the material signatures of the later ones, providing a critical means of contextualizing the intergenerational continuities and breaks in state structures and imperial strategies. The recent proliferation of LIP research and the completion of a number of regional studies permit the overview of six LIP regions and the comparison of highland and lowland patterns of political and economic organization, social complexity, and group identity.     

汉画风伯形象及其功能探析

在山东、江苏等地的汉画像中均可见到一种力士鼓唇吹气的形象,这一形象就是汉代人塑造的风神风伯。风伯或出现于雷电云雨之神出行的队列中,或张口弄舌地吹掀屋顶,或与箕星为伴驰骋于月夜星空。通过对诸类图像的分析可以看出,汉代风伯神话是在先秦流行的箕星信仰与飞廉崇拜的基础上发展、演变而来的,而风伯画像作为汉代丧葬艺术的有机组成部分,又承载着佑助墓主灵魂升仙的宗教功能。