织绣文物中的寿字装饰

我国于汉代已经在织锦的铭文中使用寿字.到明清时期,寿字与象征长寿的仙桃、菊花、仙鹤及寓意连绵万代的葫芦、字和寓意喜庆幸福的灯笼、蝙蝠等组成吉祥图案。寿宇的字体也随着时代的发展而不断丰富。本文按时代顺序将寿字的字形排列梳理,不仅可供读者了解其丰富的文化内涵.而且根据寿宇的字形变化.可作为判断织绣文物年代的一种依据。     

Left-behind and Vulnerable? Conceptualising Development and Older Women’s Agency in Rural China

Abstract:

Concern has been growing recently in China about the well-being of children, women and the elderly “left behind” on the farm when family members leave the village in search of waged work. Increasingly, the left-behind are portrayed in academic and policy discourse as a “vulnerable group” of passive dependants, sidelined by modernisation and abandoned by their families. This paper challenges this discourse, arguing that while attention to the well-being of the left-behind is vital, there is an urgent need for a shift in focus from their vulnerability to their agency. The paper focuses on the agency of left-behind women between the ages of 50 and 80. It aims, first of all, to point the way toward an empirically richer understanding of the social construction of older women’s agency and well-being. The second aim of the paper is to suggest how different conceptualisations of “agency” and “older women” might contribute to more ethical and politically effective strategies for development and the improvement of women’s well-being. To further these two aims, the paper draws on fieldwork conducted in rural Ningxia, north-western China, and on critiques of the “capability approach” to development expounded by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.     

The Cultural Queasiness Factor: Intersections of Gender,Sexuality and HIV Prevention in Burma/Myanmar

The Ministry of Health in Burma/Myanmar considers HIV its first priority in disease prevention, and HIV prevention represents a significant element of the work of many of the international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) based in the country (CBI, 2006; Ministry of Health, 2008). Yet inBurma/Myanmar, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, there is a “cultural queasiness” around HIV. This queasiness is a dis-ease of the emotions, transmitted through the ongoing linking of HIV transmission with “bad behaviour” (resulting, in part, from HIV prevention's own repeated use of a “risk group” approach). Indeed, the mere existence of HIV prevention work, inand of itself, sparks waves of cultural queasiness because it transgresses the norms regarding which topics are considered appropriate for public airing, and which are not. Through reference to empirical research involving in-depth interviews and observation of field work practice, this article demonstrates how the desire to minimise this queasiness can result in disavowal of the experiential and emotional complications so deeply embedded in HIV prevention and HIV transmission. Thus HIV prevention both is affected by, and reinforces, cultural queasiness.     

Smart Growth Policy Choice: A Resource Dependency and Local Governance Explanation

Smart growth is a planning and land use policy objective that generally focuses on where development should occur and how best to protect natural resources. What explains the adoption of smart growth policy by local government? This study focuses on a cooperative intergovernmental program that seeks to enhance local government abilities to work toward achieving state goals on sustainability. Extant research suggests that local interest group preferences shape policy decisions. However, much of the evidence on the influence of local interest groups on smart growth policy is presented within the coercive intergovernmental context. This article argues that resource dependency influences local decisions in pursuing a smart growth agenda when state incentives are provided. The findings suggest that fiscal capacity and the characteristics of local governing institutions are significant predictors in the decision to take part in an intergovernmental program. Business and neighborhood interest groups have a significant effect on policy adoption, as do local characteristics depending on the smart growth functional area.     

明代地域商帮兴起的社会背景

In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the means of transportation were greatly improved; commodity production became more developed; silver was gradually monetized; commercial taxes became lighter; and social attitudes towards merchants changed. All these developments created a favorable environment for the formation of regional merchant groups. Meanwhile, social factors at the regional level—characteristics of local commodity production, favorable natural environment and production structures, as well as Ming government’s practice of border defense, border trade, foreign policy, local customs, and the interpretation of commercial activities of local people—all contributed to the emergence of merchant groups. Translated by Wu Yanhong from Tsinghua Daxue Xuebao 清华大学学报 (Journal of Tsinghua University), 2006, (5): 81–94     

Spondylolysis and lifestyle among prehistoric coastal groups from Brazil

Southern Brazilian prehistoric coastal series were examined for the presence of spondylolysis. All defects occurred at the pars interarticularis, most at L5 (51%), with the vast majority bilateral and complete (86.2%). Frequencies decreased from young adulthood (54.2%) through mid‐adulthood (33.3%) to older adulthood (12.5%), suggesting differential mortality among affected individuals. The high overall prevalence (29.6%) demonstrates that these groups experienced a strenuous lifestyle, with activities that required repetitive and vigorous movements of lumbar hyperextension and rotation. Archaeological data provide support to interpret this pattern. Throwing harpoons, rowing and wrestling fishing nets were likely the main activities associated with the defect among men. Continuous loading of weight, including plant resources, mollusks and nursing children, were probably the tasks associated with spondylolysis in women. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Early Bronze Age funerary archaeological landscape of western Ja'alan: results of three seasons of investigation

This paper presents the results of three seasons of investigations in the western part of Ja'alan in the southern al‐Sharqyiah Governorate in the Sultanate of Oman. The results highlight the importance of this part of Ja'alan during the Early Bronze Age (EBA), particularly the Hafit period and provide us with important information about the funerary archaeological landscape during this period. The results also reveal important aspects of landscape utilisation and occupation during this time and add to our knowledge of the cultural and economic facets of the earliest Bronze Age societies. The distribution of tombs in the landscape suggests that they were constructed by nomadic or semi‐nomadic pastoral groups that shifted from one location to another in search of grazing for their livestock. The availability and seasonality of natural resources such as water, pasture and game made it necessary for them to mark their tribal territory with their funerary structures.     

Trust,business groups and social capital: building a Protestant entrepreneurial network in nineteenth-century Naples

Abstract

This article explores the behaviour of a group of foreign entrepreneurs (mainly Swiss and Germans) who settled in southern Italy during the nineteenth century, establishing cotton manufacturing, creating a religious community, importing technologies, machines and patterns of management. These entrepreneurs shared a high level of training and culture and they all belonged to Protestant denominations. In the context of this foreign entrepreneurial community, the article examines the role played by friendship, kinship, origins, education and religion in shaping the network that linked groups of Protestant businessmen across Europe, emphasizing how these manufacturing firms relied on forms of cooperation, solidarity and physical proximity that were consolidated and perpetuated across more than three generations.     

体验链条产业化:旅游吸引物构建的一种系统方法——基于新疆博尔塔拉温泉县的个案研究

旅游核心吸引物不仅具有某种特殊的客观属性,同时还具有人为主观建构的符号属性,它在旅游体验中的价值体现在多个方面。论文提出了旅游核心吸引物构建的一种新方法,其基本思路是:从市场空白与产品创新角度切入,通过二维矩阵定位方法萃取旅游主题;然后按照"真实性体验"原理进行旅游产品设计,以地方特色产业为纽带,构建由一系列游客参与体验活动串联而成的旅游体验链条。这种建立在旅游目的地本地产业化需求与外部旅游市场需求双向驱动基础上的新方法,突出旅游吸引物的体验价值性及其产业化生产组织过程,能有效解决少数民族地区旅游产业开发与地方优势传统产业的衔接问题,从根本上实现少数民族地区旅游业发展的立地性和可持续性。     

清末槟城副领事戴欣然与南洋华人方言群社会

自 1 9世纪以来 ,槟城的华人社会便以福建 (闽南 )人和广东 (广府 )人为主 ,尤其是前者。客家人的人数 ,一直都只占华人人口的 1 0 %左右。本文将讨论客家移民———戴欣然的奋斗和事业及其牵引出来的方言群关系。本文的一个讨论重点 ,是探讨戴欣然在槟城的慈善事业和领事任内的活动 ,进而讨论槟城华族方言群社会的互动关系