BLOOD FOR THE GHOSTS: READING RUIN'S BEING WITH THE DEAD WITH NIETZSCHE

A focus on roots, localizations, usurpations, and obliterations together with commemoration and different fields of scholarly research, along with a thematic focus on Homer's Nykia, permit Hans Ruin to revisit the foundations of history in Being with the Dead. Ruin draws on cultural sociology, including the work of Alfred Schütz, as well as Heideggerian historicity and the dead of the distant past, including archaeology and ethnography, paleography and physical anthropology. Ruin also engages Michel de Certeau's Writing of History and its focus on the other in a necropolitical account tracked through interdisciplinary fields. In my reading I supplement Ruin's critical focus on Homer scholarship beyond the twentieth century with a return to Nietzsche's nineteenth-century emphasis on the “blood” needed to bring the voices of the past to speak in his own reading of Homer. To do this, I note the dead-silenced (“zombie”) scholarship haunting Nietzsche's voice in his field of classical philology in addition to Nietzsche's source scholarship and his hermeneutic methodology of historiographical research for the sake of ethnography, archaeology, and Nietzsche's lectures on pre-Platonic philosophy.     

An Analysis of the “Little China” Ideology of Chosŏn Korea

The Chosŏn dynasty founded by Yi Seong-gye was closely involved in the tributary system of the Ming dynasty. Chosŏn Korea called itself “Little China” due to the following two policies: mohwa (admiring China) and sadae (serving the greater). Chosŏn Korea traced its origin back to the dongyi (Eastern Barbarians) and claimed itself the only nation that had transformed itself from “Yi” (barbarian) to “Hwa” (Chinese) in the Chinese world system. References to the sage Kija (Jizi) in moral, historical, and political writings indicated the beginning of this transformation and thus the worship of Kija was consistently implemented. The ritual and cultural systems in Chosŏn Korea imitated those of China. The policy of admiring China, Confucian thought, and the worship of Confucius comprised a significant part of the “Little China” ideology. After the Ming-Qing transition, Chosŏn Korea did not acknowledge the legitimacy of the Qing dynasty and considered itself the only and true China.     

Tailors in 1950s Beijing: Private enterprise, career trajectories, and historical turning points in the early PRC

How new was the New China? This article explores the experience of Beijing tailors in the early years of the PRC in light of this question. After 1949, many long-established tailors simply continued to ply their trade in their old business premises, giving a strong impression of continuity in the social fabric of the city. They were increasingly challenged, however, by newcomers to the industry, including petty entrepreneurs who chose to invest in a socially useful trade, and the graduates of newly established sewing schools, usually women. Policy shifts from the New Democracy period through the “three anti” and “five anti” campaigns to the eve of the socialist transformation in 1956 affected old and new businesses, men and women, in different ways. Overall, the reduction in entrepreneurial freedoms that characterizes this period of Chinese business history was, in this sector of industry and commerce, most strikingly manifest in limitations on what tailors were licensed to make, which had effects on what Beijing people wore. From these various perspectives, 1949 can be seen to be a rather clear dividing line in the history of Beijing, but it was possibly a rather faint line at first, becoming darker and thicker as the 1950s progressed—or should that be “regressed?”     

New Elements in the Iconography of 9th–10th Century Ural-Siberian Silver

On the basis of its technological and stylistic features, a new find of oriental silverware from the Konda River is identified as a work of the Ural-Siberian circle and dated to the 9th–10th centuries. Its scene of gender violence is interpreted using the parallel text of the “Sabha Parva,” which describes the sufferings of Draupadi, Queen of Pandavas, and the actions of Duhshasana who won her in a game of dice. The urban culture of the pre-Arabian Sogd connects the Indian source with the Turkic environment of the Ural region. Here knowledge of the story from the “Sabha Parva” had not yet been recorded but nonetheless existed judging from scenes from the “Virata Parva” which appears among the monumental paintings of Penjikent.     

Contrasting Resistance and Alliances in the Ethnic State of Napiniaca,Chiapas (Mexico) (1521–1590): The Anthropological and Historical Aspects

The present article aims to re-evaluate the gamut of ostensible alliances forged between colonial subordinates and those who subordinated them in the ethnic state of Napiniaca, Mexico, as well as identify the social spaces and contexts in which such alliances were formed and ultimately fell apart. It will do so by attempting to “unwrap” indigenous strategies and forms of resistance based on the admittedly limited texts we currently possess, in light of modern research and theory in both (ethno) history and anthropology.     

“Vivo sin vivir en mí”: YouTube y la poesía de santa Teresa de Jesús

ABSTRACT

The poetry of Saint Teresa of Jesus has not aroused the same interest from the critics as has her prose. There are several reasons for this. However, her poetry has remained in the memory of anyone who has come in contact with it, as well as in public manifestations, one of which is the phenomenon of new media—in particular, YouTube. Consequently, this article presents an analysis of Teresa de Jesus's poem “Vivo sin vivir en mí” (“Live without living in me”) in the context of new media, specifically YouTube, in order to further analyze the oral-auditory impact of her work as a strategy of representation in the reception of her writing and, therefore, expand the communicative possibilities of her writing style close to the spoken language, beyond her time and context.     

良渚文化的社会政治特征探析

浙江余杭瑶山、反山贵族墓地的考古资料显示,两处墓地属于两个不同的统治阶级集团,集团内都是由男性担当社会管理和防卫职能,由女性担当社会宗教和纺织业职能,但两个集团职能的侧重不同,前者偏重于宗教祭祀,后者偏重于社会管理和政府财富。这两个社会控制集团联合执政或轮流执政,显示出良渚文化公共权力的传递与分割似与职能有关,符合民主国家权力集团组合的特征,成为良渚文化作为商业国家的社会政治的民主特征。良渚文化民主政治的社会中坚支撑是由拥有殷实财富和中等社会地位的中等集团所构成的"中产阶级",良渚社会统治集团内部成员也是由"中产阶级"晋升而来。     

Asiatics and Chinamen

This article compares two clusters of polemical language. One is comprised of critical uses of the term “Asiatic” in Russian political discourse from the 1890s to the 1910s. The other is Chinese usage, in the 1920s and 1930s, of the term “Zhina,” a Japanese version of “China” which was perceived as injurious to Chinese national pride. The article traces how, in both cases, political and cultural agents criticized their own country and society by adopting an outsider’s perspective – that of the foreigner, who would classify Russia as an “Asiatic” country and call China “Zhina.” The conclusions are relevant for understanding the sources of nationalist rhetoric in modern Russia and China, with implications reaching beyond these two countries.