The art of nationalism: Artists' perspectives on the Latvian Centenary film programme

In the aftermath of several decades of neoliberalism in Eastern Europe, the social fabric of post-socialist societies is frayed. In this context, nationalist cultural policies and everyday displays of national belonging have emerged as key instruments of social solidarity. There has recently been a drive of state initiatives in Latvia in the field of cultural policy aimed at strengthening national identity. In this paper, we focus our attention on one particular cultural policy initiative, Latvian Films for Latvian Centenary. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 16 film directors who participated in the Centenary film programme, the paper explores how artists and cultural operators involved in this programme are mobilised as national(ist) subjects and how they see their work within such a framework. We argue that nationalist cultural policy can be successfully implemented because the artists, themselves formed as responsible political and moral subjects in the tradition of Latvian cultural nationalism, share a regard for culture and the arts as a resource for sustaining the political statehood and the national community. However, the artists also recognise the limitations of their work as a source of social cohesion and solidarity in a society that is ethnically divided.     

“A plantation can be a commons”: Re‐Earthing Sapelo Island through Abolition Ecology

This paper is based on the 2018 Neil Smith Lecture presented at the University of St Andrews. It considers the plantation past/futures of Sapelo Island, Georgia, one of the Sea Islands forming an archipelago along the US Southeastern coast. I work through the abolitionist efforts of the Saltwater Geechee’s who have resided there since at least 1803 to better understand how we can mobilise an emancipatory politics of land and property and to produce commons that work to repair and heal the violence done through enslavement and ongoing displacement. I weave together a series of historical threads to better situate linked ideas of abolition democracy and abolition geography, and to extend the notion of abolition ecology as a strategic notion to connect Eurocentric based political ecologies with the emancipatory tradition of Black geographies.     

胡人发型:中古“剪头胡雏”艺术形象试解

古人发型是文化界长期关注的一个重要现象。发型不仅是时代的特征与时尚的符号,也是各个族群的辨识标志。从北朝到隋唐的中古社会,"剪头胡雏"的文物图像屡屡出现,一般来说,此类胡人形象是剪发而不是束发,在当时以"高髻为尚"的社会习俗中,"剪头胡雏"发型是有着"阶级感"的存在,是有关底层胡人的直观艺术产物。也说明当时入华胡人还没有彻底"汉化",仍然保留着本族群的发型特征。该发式是胡人与汉人的区别,也是其身份归属的象征。     

明代苏州宗族形态探研

明人追求通过修谱与祠祭表达祖先崇拜和宗族共同体的意识。明人的祖先祭祀,依据祭祖地点,可以划分为墓祭、家祭、祠祭。娄坚《徐氏宗谱序》分析了明代江南故家大族与谱牒不盛的问题,认为吴人不能聚族在于习俗的鄙、奢所造成的,强调通过宗族建设移风易俗。明代族谱更加盛行,表现出强烈的以谱法接济宗法的观念。苏州士大夫发扬光大了宋代范仲淹设置义田、义庄的传统,以此赡族进行宗族建设,官府倡导并保护义田与义庄,形成了不同于其他地区宗族形态的特色。明代苏州处于宗族组织化的新阶段。     

部落与民族主义的竞逐——1953年法国在摩洛哥的政变与格拉维部落的兴衰

部落构成了中东社会生活的一个重要层面,是理解中东国家必不可少的视角。1953年,法国在摩洛哥发动政变,废黜了支持民族主义力量的苏丹穆罕默德五世。格拉维部落在此期间经历了兴衰起落。此次政变集中反映了摩洛哥国内部落和民族主义力量对国家政权的竞逐,是观察中东地区部落和国家间复杂逻辑关系的典型个案。摩洛哥传统势力的代表格拉维部落与国家间关系表现出复杂形态:部落利用国家力量实现崛起,部落对抗民族主义力量发动政变企图控制国家,最后部落被国家抛弃而衰落。在部落和民族主义竞逐国家政权的过程中,法国殖民者成为二者沉浮的决定性因素和制衡力量。由于部落对国家认同的脆弱性,殖民主义政权得以通过玩弄部落认同对殖民地进行分而治之。     

生计与风水:清代湘南地区的矿业开发与生态环境

湘南地区毗邻赣、粤、桂三省,地理位置特殊,是一个复杂的地理单元。及至清代,湘南地区已是湖南省乃至全国铜、铅、银等矿业生产的主要区域。长达数百年的矿产开采与冶炼,促进了地方社会的经济发展,也给当地的生态环境带来深远影响。由此,湘南官绅民各界对矿业开发引发的环境问题亦有因应,“坑冶十害论”和“九嶷山封禁案”即为其集中体现。开矿采砂本为解决贫民生计而采取的措施,但因破坏风水、污染水土等一系列影响环境的后果,以致出现开矿与禁矿之争,使得湘南地区矿业开发一度出现波折。这两例个案亦折射出在“重本抑末”的传统社会中地方官绅士民在生计与风水之间的离合关系。地方社会以保护风水为由严禁矿冶,在一定程度上遏止了生态环境的破坏与恶化,不过,其在环保方面发挥的作用也不宜被高估。     

解放太原战役期间中国共产党与阎锡山集团民众动员之比较

解放太原战役期间战争双方均需在当地动用大量民力、物资,民众动员起着至关重要的作用。中国共产党与阎锡山集团往复争斗近十五年,彼此已相当熟悉,二者的动员模式、技术极其相似,但实践效果却判若两途。通过比较双方在政治宣传、民众保障、组织发动、思想教育等方面的动员活动,可见中国共产党的民众动员更贴合人们的需求,能够获得民众的自觉支持;反观阎锡山方面却是官民区隔、上下离心,浩大的动员声势常流于表面。二者迥异的组织能力和政党文化影响了实际动员效果。太原战役期间双方在动员中呈现的差异不啻是当时国共之别的重要缩影,也折射出左右两党最终胜败的内在原因。     

Frontiers’ violence: The interplay of state of exception,frontier habitus,and organized violence

As global capitalism is expanding to the most remote areas of the world, the notion of “frontier”, where competing social orders are contesting each other, is gaining traction in academic analyses. Contemporary frontiers are associated with resource exploitation in marginalized spaces and processes of socioecological transformation, which are characterized as particularly violent. This article offers a conceptual contribution to the frontier debate by putting violence in the center of a frontier concept. Building on a sociology of violence, this approach assumes that every social order comes with some form of organized violence. We argue that the frontier is characterized by a tidal passage: Existing orders and their institutions, which socially embed and constrain a particular use of violence, are challenged by an expansive order which comes along with new formations of violence, leading to a reorganization of violence. Thus the frontier describes a momentum in which the interplay of social order and organized violence becomes highly disputed. Representatives of the expansive order refuse to recognize existing orders and favour a state of exception, in which law is set aside to impose the new order.     

Cattle Slaughter Industry in Qing China: State Ban,Muslim Dominance,and the Western Diet

Cattle slaughter and beef consumption are barely mentioned in the literature on Chinese economic, food, or animal history. This is possibly due to the widely held popular and scholarly assumption that beef was avoided and even considered taboo in the daily diet of Chinese people in premodern times. This article investigates the tangible regulation and practice of cattle slaughter in Qing China—the period when the beef taboo was argued to be formally subsumed into Chinese morality. I ask the following questions: To what extent did the Qing state ban cattle slaughter? How was the ban enforced in the localities? Did Chinese people slaughter cattle for consumption? Were there lawful beef markets in Qing China proper? How did increasing beef-eating Western sojourners since the mid-19th century impact this sector? Accordingly, I demonstrate that with the leeway provided by the state, the cattle slaughter industry developed in many regions of China proper, especially large cities. In this sector, Chinese Muslim merchants played a dominant role, even though the Han merchants could outnumber them. Their efforts have prepared the state and Chinese merchants to better cope with new circumstances since the mid-19th century. Broadly, this paper sheds light on how different religious, ethnic, and national groups affected the economy and the practice of law in the Qing dynasty.     

Bringing Chinese Law in Line with Western Standards? Problematizing “Chinese” and “Western” in the Late Qing Debate over the New Criminal Code of Great Qing

This article examines the intense debates over the New Criminal Code of Great Qing (Da-Qing xin xinglü) in the National Assembly (Zizheng yuan) during the Qing empire’s New Policy Reform (1901–11). The focus is on the conflict between those who drafted and supported the new code and those who expressed reservations, especially over reform of the laws on filial piety and fornication. The issue of reconfiguring the family and social order through law was closely related to the overarching agenda of twentieth century legal reform in China—making an empire that “ruled through the principle of filial piety” into a modern nation-state that had direct relationships with its citizens. More importantly, an analysis of the late Qing debate over family law enables this article to problematize such concepts as “Chinese” and “Western” during this crucial moment of China’s empire-to-nation transformation. It showcases the paradox of China’s modern-era reforms—a contradiction between imposing Western-inspired order with a largely indigenous logic and maintaining existing sociopolitical order in the name of preserving national identity.