Caste and the Desire for Belonging

Questions of power and competition have figured prominently in the expanding debate about Dalit assertion. This article moves beyond the rhetoric of caste wars to engage with the affective and emotional dimension of caste. The focus is on the urban environment, where caste unity is challenged by the centrifugal forces of urban living. The article demonstrates how Khatiks in Bhopal are reunited through a festival culture that straddles class differentiation, factional politics and generational gaps. The emerging formation signifies the continuing strength of caste sentiments in the city and demonstrates how Dalits create arenas for publicly declaring pride in their heritage both within and beyond the political arena.     

Diverse lifestyles and populations in the Xiaohe culture of the Lop Nur region,Xinjiang, China

The archaeological culture found in Xiaohe Cemetery (1980–1450 BC) is one of the early Bronze Age cultures in Xinjiang, northwestern China. The material assemblages from Xiaohe culture display features with both eastern and western influences. These east-west cultural and dietary interactions may be observed via the diet of the Xiaohe population. This paper examined the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of human and animal bones and human hairs from the Xiaohe Cemetery and compared with those of human bones from the Gumugou Cemetery, another Xiaohe culture site. The results indicate that the diets of the peoples from the Xiaohe culture varied significantly over different periods. The unified diets of the earlier periods reflect that an admixed population first settled in the Lop Nur region and primarily engaged in animal husbandry. In the later periods, the transformations in the human diets in this region reflect that new immigrants constantly relocated here and promoted population complexity over time. Moreover, this population occasionally produced small quantities of domesticated wheat and millet. The complex population and diversified economy of the Xiaohe culture were due to the expansion of the coeval cultures in the Eurasian steppe and eastern immigrants. Additionally, the millet cereal was probably mainly used for ritual practices rather than for staple food in the later periods.     

Global Agendas,Local Norms: Mobilizing around Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in Asia

This article explores the articulation and framing of unpaid care work and the mobilization around it at two spatial scales, the global and national. For the latter it focuses on three of the largest and most diverse countries in Asia — India, China and Indonesia. While the concept of unpaid care work has received considerable attention in international development discourse, it is rarely found in feminist mobilization and advocacy across these countries. The article asks why this issue remains largely excluded from women's political agendas. It also explores how it is framed when it is included. While most organizations recognize women's double burden and the importance of domestic labour, they do not consider ‘unpaid care work’ as a legitimate political issue around which to mobilize. Rather, it is framed, if at all, as part of other political agendas, such as the rights of the elderly (in China), the rights to social protection, especially childcare and maternity entitlements (in India), or the right to equal opportunities within marriage (in Indonesia). The study analyses the differences in framing, the conceptualization of gender equality embedded therein, and the implications for policy.     

Feminist Mobilization,Claims Making and Policy Change: An Introduction

More than two decades after the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, gender equality policies have not delivered in the ways envisaged. This special cluster of articles seeks to understand why. Women's mobilization and feminist activism was central to the Beijing process and the advocacy that followed, yet their influence on policy processes seems constrained in the current context of global political and economic changes. The articles in this cluster explore the negotiations between different actors, institutions and discourses — and the tensions and contradictions therein — as explanations for why certain domains of women's rights remain at the margins of political agendas and others receive more attention. Specifically, why have women's labour rights and the demands of the unpaid care economy failed to gain policy traction? The articles point to the importance of political practice, which includes the ‘framing’ of policy demands as compelling narratives, engagement with state entities and the forming and managing of alliances. There are trade‐offs inherent in each of these elements, for example, between transformative gender equality objectives and the pragmatic impulse to frame claims in less politically and socially threatening ways. Further, in a context of increasing globalization, mobilization is required at multiple levels — from the local to the transnational. The articles thus seek to deepen our understanding of how policy change for women's rights occurs.     

榆林横山大古界遗址出土仰韶晚期陶器的科学分析

为揭示陕北地区仰韶时期陶器的产源、烧造工艺、技术传播和文化交流等方面的情况,应用能量色散X荧光光谱仪、热膨胀分析仪对陕北榆林横山大古界遗址考古发掘现场出土的古陶残片主次量化学组成、烧成温度进行了测试,并用万能材料试验机测试部分样品的抗压强度。分析结果显示:这批陶器原料取自当地,主要是"自烧自用",陶片中Al2O3含量偏高,外观红色主要是Fe2O3含量偏高导致,烧制温度约为950~1050℃,此项研究为进一步保护修复提供了实验数据。     

秦始皇兵马俑博物馆陶器库室内空气质量评价与影响分析

文物存放环境空气质量的好坏对文物的保存至关重要,由于缺乏应有的保护,部分长期存放的文物局部表面出现物理污损、颜色变化或漆皮及彩绘起翘。因此,为了尽可能避免不良环境因素对文物的影响,需对其环境状况进行研究分析,以便制定科学的环境控制措施。为此,通过冬(2008年1月30日至3月3日)夏(2008年7月28日至8月22日)两季在秦俑博物馆陶器库开展室内空气质量调查研究工作,获得了大气气溶胶中水溶性离子、碳组分、SO2和NH3的质量浓度特征,同步进行了室内微气候的测定。结果显示,冬季PM2.5的平均质量浓度及所含主要水溶性离子浓度均高于夏季,并且同一时期室外均高于室内,但其中个别成分如Cl-及碳组分OC有机碳在夏季的库内浓度明显高于室外。此外有害气体NH3受高温及排放源影响其浓度表现出夏季库内高于库外,夏季高于冬季的现象。研究表明,库内微气候和污染物存在明显的季节差异。不同季节污染物的浓度及来源略有差异。部分污染物浓度偏高,可能会对库内存放的脆弱文物产生一定影响,需要采取一些防控措施。     

秦俑二号坑土壤干缩特征研究

通过对秦俑二号坑土壤胀缩作科学研究,监测数据对比,运用土壤干缩特征理论,构建了秦俑二号坑土壤干缩特征曲线,结果发现秦俑二号坑干燥进程较为迅速,2000年以前二号坑干燥化尚未对彩绘陶器造成威胁和侵害,但近年来土壤含水量已由挖掘初期的15%～20%,降低到目前的2%～8%,对坑下文物表面彩绘构成威胁。通过补充土壤水份等办法可以减缓这种变化。     

谈明清墨模图纹与雕刻工艺

故宫收藏了数万件明清制墨,本文以此为基础,通过古墨上的纹样了解、归纳墨模雕刻工艺。主要从装饰图纹、雕刻刀法的变化上论述不同时期墨模雕刻工艺的时代特征与风格,展示由明向清发展的演变脉络。