Wild or domesticated: DNA analysis of ancient water buffalo remains from north China

Recent zooarchaeological studies on water buffalo (Bubalus sp.) remains from China and south Asia question the traditional view that water buffalo were first domesticated in Neolithic China over 7000 years ago. The results from several recent population genetic studies of modern domesticated buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are not consistent with each other, placing the original center of buffalo's domestication in south Asia, southeast Asia, or China. This paper reports a study using an ancient DNA approach to analyze water buffalo remains from Neolithic sites in north China to investigate their affinities with modern domesticated water buffalo, and to shed light on the origin of modern domesticated water buffalo in China.A 169 bp fragment of D-loop mitochondrial DNA was successfully amplified and verified for 13 of 24 bone samples obtained from seven archaeological sites along the Wei River valley in Shaanxi Province, China. The bone samples which yielded positive DNA can be dated to 8000–3600 cal. BP. The phylogenetic analysis of the obtained DNA sequences along with modern water buffalo sequences indicated that the ancient water buffalos were not the direct ancestor of modern domesticated water buffalo. However, the phylogenetic analysis, along with BLAST searches of these ancient DNA sequences, did demonstrate their relatedness to water buffalo more so than to any other bovid species, confirming the existence of indigenous wild (but now extinct) water buffalo species (B. mephistopheles) in ancient China.The DNA analysis of these ancient remains failed to establish direct links between modern domesticated water buffalo (B. bubalis) and indigenous water buffalo (B. mephistopheles) from ancient China. If further DNA studies of more ancient remains from other regions of China confirm the observation of solely indigenous water buffalo species in ancient China, it would suggest modern water buffalo might not have been first domesticated in China.     

公司债权人保护之比较法研究——兼论新《公司法》之立法选择

传统的公司法理论,在债权人利益的保护机制上过分相信并依赖于资本的担保功能,不注重其他法律制度的设计,结果导致债权人利益的保护只停留于形式。笔者通过分析债权人保护模式上的差异,认为新公司法对债权人的保护,不仅要有事前的预防措施,也应有事后的救济途径。     

经济全球化背景下的中国政治发展战略

经济全球化已经成为当代世界的发展潮流,它不仅改变着整个世界经济和文化的格局,而且也深刻地影响着每一个国家的政治发展进程。在这一背蓄下,确定符合当代中国实际和发展阶段的政治发展战略,就是要在价值取向上发展社会主义民主政治,在发展模式上遵循渐进式发展。     

中国古代社会保障思想与实践初探

中国几千年所遗留下来的社会保障思想有许多精华值得我们挖掘和继承,特别是其中的大同均平思想、以民为本思想、兼爱交利思想和仓储后备思想及其实践,尤其值得我们学习和借鉴。吸收古代社会保障中这些行之有效的思想和方法,将有助于我们构建中国特色的社会保障制度,保障基本民生。     

南京粤军阵亡将士墓九十年祭

民国元年广东北伐军为主体的东线北伐的胜利,对于捍卫南京临时政府、促使清帝退位,起了重要的作用。今年3月,是南京粤军阵亡将士墓建墓90周年。为了存史,本就粤军的兴建、征战、墓冢、勋绩,分别作了考证,藉以缅怀革命先烈。     

30年来日本对华经贸政策的调整与演变

日本是中国最重要的贸易伙伴,是我国最大的援助国家,最大的投资国家之一,从1972年9月恢复邦交正常化以来,中日经贸关系总体来说发展顺利,但在不同时期日本采取的对华经贸政策是不同的,是不断根据国家的经济发展现状结合国际形势的变化进行调整。70年代日本对华经贸政策是以发展本国经济为前提推动中日经贸关系向前发展。80年代继承了70年代的对华政策,但政治色彩加浓;90年代采取不断发展中日经贸关系的政策;展望21世纪发展友好的中日经贸关系仍为日本对华的主导政策,但摩擦会不断增加。     

吉田茂内阁对华政策的成因探析

吉田茂是日本现代著名的外交家,政治家,二战以后曾五次担任首相,掌日本政坛帅印达七年之久,吉田茂为战后日本民主政治的建立和发展,日本经济的腾飞做出了卓越贡献,本文从分析吉田内阁对华政策入,着重剖析其内外成因,了解和把握其对当代中日关系的制约和影响,并试图对作为政治家的吉田茂和作为外交家的吉田茂的不同与关联进行探讨。     

中国关贸总协定创始缔约国地位之考论

1946年至1948年,中国作为第二次世界大战的战胜国和当时世界上的大国,和世界其他国家谋求建立国际贸易组织,积极参加创建关贸总协定的重要会议,和各有关国家进行了艰难的谈判,和其他国家达成协议,并签定了《关贸总协定》等一系列重要文件,同时签署了关贸总协定“临时适用议定书”,从1948年5月21日起,正式成为关贸总协定的缔约方。由此可见,中国确实是和美国、英国等国家一起共同创立了关贸总协定,中国是关贸总协定的创始缔约国。     

1911-1937年灾民移境就食问题初探

抗战前的民国时期,灾民逃荒现象极为普遍。灾发地政府因无力赈济自己的民众,或者出于推卸责任,放任其灾民四处流离,移境就食。流入地政府救济自己辖区灾民尚且不暇,自然不愿再为别区承担救济重任。再者,行政区划与经费的分配也限制了这种救抚他省灾民的欲望。因此,流入地对来境灾民无不驱逐出境或资遣回籍,而灾民在自己家乡确实又无以为生,迫不得已时只好重又外出。总起来看,整个灾发期间,灾民便是在灾发地与流入地的推来搡去之中艰难苟活。这一问题不是一地一隅所能解决,也远非一年一月所能一蹴而就,它需要各级政府的大力合作,需要对产生灾民的各种原因予以根治。然而,受时代条件所限,灾民的移境就食问题不能得到较好的解决,灾民的流离悲苦也就只能依然如故。     

Merchants' attitudes to work in the Barcelona of the later Middle Ages: organisation of working space,distribution of time and scope of investments

The debate concerning the attitude to work of medieval and renaissance merchants has been one of the most intense in twentieth-century historiography. Arising from the publication of the classic works of the sociologist Max Weber, the debate entered the field of historiography proper after the appearance of articles by Werner Sombart and Henri Pirenne. In the 1950s and 1960s, the works of Yves Renouard and Armando Sapori centred discussion on the development of a specifically mercantile culture in the Italy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In this historiographic context, the article below is an attempt to approach, through original sources, the figure of the merchant in late medieval Barcelona. These sources are inventories, wills, and marriage contracts, through which is offered a three-dimensional analysis of the professional culture of such a merchant; the concept of professional space; the organisation of time; and the bearings of his commercial and patrimonial investments. The result of this analysis is an attempt to reinterpret the decadence of Barcelona at the end of the fifteenth century through the notion of work entertained by those involved in commerce, attempting by this means to merge the consideration of economic and cultural matters. It is also a proposal for a model of analysis of professional categories, which on so many occasions have been left to one side because of the preponderance of more traditional questions such as those concerning society, economics or politics.