An intra-imperial conflict: the mapping of the border between Algeria and Tunisia, 1881-1914

This paper explores the issue of colonial borders through a case study of the intra-imperial boundary between Tunisia and Algeria, two territories under French rule between 1881 and the first decade of the twentieth century. The aim here is to understand what was at stake when it came to separating two territories holding different legal status but both administered by the French: Algeria which had officially become a French colony in 1830 and Tunisia which was given Protectorate status in 1880. The paper considers some of the many disputes over the border that took place both in the field and in colonial administrative offices. It also raises the question of the scope of colonial rule by exploring the way the border was never fully determined and was constantly redrawn by the inhabitants of the border regions themselves, who were presented first as tribes, and later, as either Algerian or Tunisian by the French civil and military administrations, and by the political authorities in Algiers, Tunis or Paris. As they all had their own interests in the matter, disputes were common but were also sometimes resolved in unexpected ways. Finally, the paper raises a further issue concerning the question of national identity in the context of the definition of national territories, which reveals the full ambiguity of the concept of identity in the colonial situation.     

巴基斯坦国家构建进程的多维阐释

现代巴基斯坦的历史线索纷繁复杂,以国家构建的视角对其进行考察是一种可尝试的研究路径。认识巴基斯坦的国家构建进程,需要从三组结构性矛盾切入:一是国家认同与非国家认同的矛盾,二是军人干政倾向与民主诉求的矛盾,三是世俗主义与宗教化的矛盾。三组矛盾可追溯到巴基斯坦国家建立时期乃至更久远的历史,并嵌入巴基斯坦的社会环境和地缘环境之中。每一组矛盾都会对另外两组矛盾造成影响,影响方式可分为"逻辑关联型"和"现实策略型"两类。三组矛盾可分别归纳为国家认同、政体、国体三个维度,它们共同构成巴基斯坦国家构建的立体图景。巴基斯坦的国家构建本质上是一个价值性问题,三组矛盾都是围绕着"把巴基斯坦建成一个什么样的国家"这一命题展开。     

西周钟镈组合与器主身份、等级研究

先秦钟镈无论科学发掘、偶然发现的窖藏还是传世收藏,数量相当可观。对于其研究,长期集中于三个问题:甬钟起源、钟镈名称考辨、编钟编镈所反映的周代音阶乐律。就礼制问题而言,     

The geography and natural resources of Bolivia

This paper tries to show the main thread of Scottish national identity in the nineteenth century and how Scotland's close connection with the empire did not asuage Scottish desires to retain a national identity. The paper tries to illustrate that the interpretation of the union connection by the Scottish political classes was central to the understanding of Scotland as a nation during the period. Examples are also provided of the way in which the union could be questioned in this century, but this was with the caveat that this would necessarily be limited; for such was the extent to which national identity was played out on an imperial stage. Although Scots never lost sight of their distinctiveness, any extension of the critique of union would have ultimately worked against their ability to confidently display their identity as they did quite successfully in the nineteenth century.     

Studies of Gender in the Prehispanic Americas

In the past ten years archaeologists have produced a vast literature on the study of gender in the prehispanic New World. This review defines key concepts, identifies three major themes within this tradition—gender in native cosmologies, intersections of gender and the body, and studies of work and specialization—and explores the significant contributions of engendered archaeology to the broader field. Final suggestions for linkages with queer studies and indigenous feminism point the way to where this field might develop productive new avenues of research.     

Historical Archaeology of France in the New World

The author introduces this special issue of the journal that is focused on the historical archaeology of French colonial and post-colonial settlements in the New World. Case studies from widely separated regions reveal both the similarities and differences that existed in French colonial and descendant communities.     

The Need for Vengeance or the Need to Mourn? Atiq Rahimi's Exploration of “Afghan” Self-Identity in Earth and Ashes

It has been said of Atiq Rahimi's novel Earth and Ashes that the author intends it to convey a loss of any vision for a better future in Afghanistan. This essay neither disputes nor affirms this, but instead argues that this tone of disillusionment is sustained for a specific purpose—namely, to show how a belief in the Afghan requirement of vengeance helps sustain cycles of violence in Afghanistan. No critical work has explored this key motivation for the writing of the novel; this article does so using a method of close reading that enables an evaluation of the role the reader is afforded as part of this endeavor, be they natives or outsiders to this culture.     

Knowledge and professional identity in engineering: code‐switching and the metrics of progress

When nations redefine their priorities and re‐plot their directions of travel, engineers get worried about the contents of their knowledge. The cultural and historical specificity of their responses illustrates the extent to which the questions of what counts as engineering knowledge and what counts as an engineer are linked tightly together, and also suggests that both may be tied to local images of the nation. After summarizing recent historical work comparing national patterns in engineering knowledge and engineers' work, this essay outlines how a focus on professional identity may provide a way of accounting for national and transnational influences on engineers while avoiding the specter of determinism. Offering brief case studies drawn from France, the UK, Germany and the USA, the authors describe engineers as ‘responding’ to codes of meaning that live at different scales, including contrasting metrics of progress and images of private industry. The paper is concluded with a brief assessment of some further implications of the analysis of professional identity for work in engineering studies.     

“The Balkans’ Other within”: Imaginings of the West in the Republic of Macedonia

Using the case study of the Republic of Macedonia, I explore how people who live in a realm conventionally cast as insufficient of “the European Self” imagine “the West”. Such imaginings are important because they are intertwined with negotiations of nationhood and citizenship. I argue that in local constructions of the global social order, Macedonia emerges in an interstitial position between “the Balkans” and “the West” as “the Balkans’ Other Within”. Social actors craft this position out of Western hegemonic constructions of the Balkans as a socio‐political anomaly and portray “the Other within” (Macedonia) as the engulfed land of promise. The case study of Macedonia allows us to refine the concepts of “Balkanism” by underlining local perspectives on the promise that “the West” carries for the Balkans and “Orientalism” by emphasizing the possibilities that the construction of the Orient charts for the future advancement or demise of the Self.