Darwin to Einstein: Primary sources on science and belief

R.G. Collingwood defined historical knowledge as essentially ‘scientific’, and saw the historian's task as the ‘re-enactment of past thoughts’. The author argues the need to go beyond Collingwood, first by demonstrating the authenticity of available evidence, and secondly, using Namier as an example, by considering methodology as well as epistemology, and the need to relate past thoughts to their present context. The ‘law of the consumption of time’ encourages historians to focus on landmark events, theories and generalisations, thus breaking from Collingwood's emphasis on fidelity to past ideas and interpreting the past from the concepts of the present. This conflict can only be reconciled by the study of historiography.     

Making Sense of Law and Disorder

This article tells the story of a cross‐cultural encounter on a beach at King George’s Sound in the south west of Australia in 1826, when Major Edmund Lockyer arrived to establish a British military garrison. The account we have of those early encounters come from the pen of Lockyer, and by taking a close reading of his journal this article attempts to reveal the meanings and context of Aboriginal actions. It also analyses how the Aborigines and the British made sense and subsequently responded to the encounter. Whilst this story is not given iconic status in Australian historiography, it is valuable in opening up a porthole into this contact zone at the moment when precarious relationships were being formed.     

The Politics of Ethnography: Figures of Csangoness in fin-de-siècle and Twentieth-Century Hungary and Romania

The Csangos are an ethnic/religious minority from Moldavia, Eastern Romania. They are defined as legitimate subjects by two antagonistically nationalizing projects: the Hungarian and the Romanian one. I am not trying to discover some “authentic” or “hybrid” identity that would explain away the ambiguities connected with this ethno-religious group. The Csangos appear, in this paper, as mutating historical forms and figures, made up through fateful events and part of “historical ontologies”. Because of their specific position inside opposed nationalisms, they can provide theoretical insights into the constituting of nationalizing narratives, ethnography and social sciences in East and Central Europe.     

Trajectories of Culture in West Mexico

Explaining culture change requires a multi-dimensional approach, and so does explaining cultural continuity. I combine several approaches to explain why the account given of a Mexican town's history changed between 1879 and 1992. I also identify and explain what did not change during the period, as well as during the subsequent period of fieldwork itself, 1992–2005. Rather than treat cultural continuity as the result of inertia, I follow Urban ([2001], Metaculture: How Culture Moves Through the World, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN) in looking for what motivates the transmission of culture as well as what pathways it takes, although I prefer to stress human agency in writing of the trajectories along which people propel culture, in this case a town's history. One approach which I draw, for explaining the trajectories of culture, is Malinowski's seminal study of Trobriand myths (1926), but I combine it with the more recent approaches that link versions of history to the interests of social groups; highlight the density of ties between person, people and place; pay attention to the genre of narratives being transmitted, and to the skewing of culture towards central places; and finally, consider shifts not just in the figure of particular narratives but in the grounds that underlie them, such as the criterion of truth against which narratives are measured.     

Reconsidering Relocated Buildings: ICOMOS,Authenticity and Mass Relocation 1

ICOMOS charters guide global heritage conservation practices. Fundamental to most is the notion that a ‘monument is inseparable from the history to which it bears witness and from the setting in which it occurs.’ Yet buildings have been moved for centuries. Neither the fabric nor the size of a building, nor planning regulations, nor even heritage listing, have prevented their relocation. This article briefly examines the history of relocation, reviews attitudes to relocation in ICOMOS charters, and analyses two case studies involving the mass relocation of heritage buildings in the UK and in New Zealand to question the assumption that buildings lose their authenticity if moved.     

Heritage Noire: truth,history, and colonial anxiety in The Blair Witch Project

When watching the film The Blair Witch Project we seem to be witnessing through its clumsy, apparently uncrafted footage the unmediated documentation of 'reality' as it occurs. This article argues that the carefully crafted deceit of The Blair Witch Project may be understood as part of a subversive 'public history' project that uses modern history's own scientific motifs and methodologies against itself and challenges its basic tenets. If positive myths of the past are structured into what we tend to call heritage, i.e. shared narratives affirming a positive sense of self and region or nation, then this paper argues that The Blair Witch Project takes the same notion and subverts it, giving its chosen audience a dark and unsettling sense of its own history.     

先秦史官与史学

本文认为先秦史官职责的演变经历三个阶段 :夏商史官基本特征是充当沟通天人的使者 ,宗教性明显 ;周史官基本特征是以“官”的角色定位而行使历史官之史的职责 ;春秋晚期至战国史官 ,带有许多士文化的特征。先秦史官历史演变是决定中国早期史学发展的重要条件。     

中国现代史家论文学作品的史料价值及其史学实践

中国现代史家在继承传统思想与方法的基础上,吸收近现代西方新的文学观和史料观,对文学作品的史料价值及其成因、如何正确看待文学作品的史料价值、历史研究运用文学作品的基本原则和方法等问题作了深入探讨,一些史家还在运用文学作品研究历史方面取得了突出成就。     

社会政治变动与西周晚期的历史表述

西周晚期至东周之初是早期史学发展过程中的一个重要节点。受西周晚期社会政治变动的影响,该时期的历史表述产生了诸多重要变化。其一为表述主题发生转变,由原来侧重表述天命、族群及周王朝的发展,转而侧重贵族家族或诸侯功业等主题,开东周诸侯国史述作之风。其二为历史表述的内容与主旨渐趋丰富多元。西周衰亡刺激时人反思历史,审视时政,开始就历史动因提出不同的解释模式,实即私人述史的一个开端。其三为述作群体扩大,人数较多的中下级贵族及普通士阶层开始成为历史表述的主体。部分贵族士大夫摆脱旧观念的约束,就历史与政治发表看法或讴歌主君,"君子作歌"之风由此而起,实为春秋家史兴盛局面的滥觞。     

修昔底德选用史料方法刍议

修昔底德的史著以叙述伯罗奔尼撒战争为主要内容,涉及希腊世界主要城邦的政治、军事、经济、外交以及海陆交通等方面丰富多样的史料。修昔底德按照自己处理史料的原则,对于战前史和战争史本身的史料分别采取了不同的处理方法。对于战前史料的选择和考信方法主要采用比较考异法和反溯法;对于当代史料的选用及考信方法主要采取实录法、辨异法、推测法、纠错法、隐微法等五种。修昔底德貌似如实直书的表象背后,隐含着名副其实的“修昔底德陷阱”。