Protestantism,nation and diaspora in Imperial Germany

This article examines the close connection between Protestantism and nationalism in Imperial Germany within a transnational context. In the years before 1914, the Prussian State Church in particular strengthened the legal and organisational framework for an increasing number of diaspora congregations to become attached. These acted as an important vehicle to embed the nationalist rhetoric produced within the Reich into emigrants' notions of belonging. Whilst previous scholarship has noted this connection in general, the article sheds more detailed light on the mechanics and structure, but also on the limits, of this process. Feedback processes from periphery to centre, in turn, had an impact on German national identity construction as that of a nation that was not confined to state borders. Applying a constructionist theoretical framework, the contested question of whether the heterogeneity of Germans abroad allows for the application of the diaspora concept is answered affirmatively.     

晚明文人参与八股文选编活动原因之探析

晚明时期,大量文人参与到科举参考书的选编活动中来,使得科举参考书激增。究其原因,主要有三：其一是因为科举考试在明后期出现了新的变化,科举应试者对参考书的需求增加;其二是因为晚明生员数量激增,大量生员陷于贫困,不得已选文谋生;其三因为晚明文人结社活动的需要。     

‘The warrior has always shewed himself greater than his weapons’: the Royal Navy’s interpretation of the Russo-Japanese War 1904–5

During the Russo-Japanese War, British naval attachés serving with the Japanese produced a series of reports on both technical and cultural aspects of the conflict. In seeking to explain the Japanese successes, the attachés compared and contrasted their hosts with themselves, Royal Navy and Britain more generally. These reports offer a rare insight of the cultural preconceptions of Royal Navy officers prior to the First World War, presenting explicitly the norms and beliefs that served to unite the service. Recovering these collective understandings helps to illuminate the decision-making processes that took place within the Royal Navy both prior to and during the First World War.     

A FRESH LOOK AT A LITTLE-KNOWN SOUTHEASTERN COPPER PLATE

Abstract

Chauga (38OC47) is a mound site now under Lake Hartwell at the head of the Savannah River in Oconee County, South Carolina. Excavations in 1958–1959 by the University of Georgia recovered a Mississippian copper plate. Upon comparison to others of its kind, it is clear that this lesser-known plate encompasses some interesting design features, most notably the presence of the only known depiction of a chunkey stone on copper. We have recently created a more accurate representation of its design. The plate appears to portray many similarities to depictions of Birdman dancers: kilted dancers and dancing elders within the “Stack” style. Birdman themes are common in Mississippian iconography. Given the importance that copper plates have for interpreting Mississippian art and belief systems, this updated examination provides useful new information for researchers studying Mississippian iconography.     

《四库全书·医家类》与四库学研究

“医家类”位居《四库全书》子部十四家的第五位,相对于“旧史多归之末简”的历史事实,医家类地位已经获得极大提高。有鉴于此,对“医家类”全面系统地研究具有重要的学术意义,可以弥补宏观笼统研究《四库全书》之遗漏,补充、细化、甚至改写宏观四库学的某些结论。     

清宫紫金琍玛造像考述

清乾隆时期是宫廷藏传佛教艺术发展的一个重要里程碑,其标志是汉藏艺术的频繁交流。六世班禅于乾隆四十五年进京为乾隆帝祝寿,他带来的紫金玛造像为乾隆帝所重,并在宫中造办处仿做,其后,又对原配方加以改进,成造了具有宫中特色的紫金玛造像,成为清宫藏传佛教造像的珍品。本文根据清宫内务府造办处的档案将这段历史渊源作了详细的介绍,并概述了故宫和承德避暑山庄具有代表性的藏品。     

From Siam to New York: Jacques May and the ‘foundation’ of medical geography

The history of medical geography is marked by a search for ancestors. The story usually begins in the writing of Hippocrates before re-emerging in the works of 18th and 19th century practitioners. In recent years, historical geographers have called for the destabilising of such assertions of lineage and descent. This paper offers a reconsideration of the history of medical geography through an exploration of the often hidden connections and intersections that have helped to frame the future trajectory of the sub-discipline. More specifically, we focus on the important contribution made by Dr Jacques Meyer May and offer a complex and multi-layered account that examines the close interweaving of his work as a colonial surgeon and specialist in tropical medicine and his role as a medical geographer in the United States.     

事有定数:明人对科举功名的认识

自隋、唐以降,伴随着科举制的创立、发展与完善,科举入仕成为社会普遍追求的理想人生模式, 以科举制度、科举人物、科举故事为核心内容的科举文化是中国传统文化的一个独特的构成部分。观照明人关于科举人物、科举故事的诸多记载和议论,基本上可以认为,命定、风水、报应等传统思想,因其理论上的包容性和阐释中的灵活性,是明人解释科举功名现象的主要理论依据。这种现象的生成,既是科场激烈竞争所引发的焦虑与无奈的结果,也是明人对社会、自然整体认知局限的自白。     

十六国时期慕容西燕、后燕几个问题的再探讨

370年,若不是内部的倾轧与腐败,当可与前秦相颉颃的慕容前燕犤2犦为前秦所灭。淝水战后,受到苻坚优待的前燕宗室在隐忍与等待中揭开了前秦土崩瓦解的序幕。他们的复国运动声势浩大,在北部中国掀起了阵阵波澜。学界对他们在复国运动中的表现、特点等却鲜有论及。事实上,他们的复国运动一开始就形成了两股势力的争衡,且与他们强烈的时代焦虑感是联系在一起的。与此同时,他们还表现出强烈的归根情结,而这些都有待进一步的厘清。     

Subsistence economics,family size,and the emergence of social complexity in hunter–gatherer systems in eastern North America

A consideration of ethnographic data, computational model results, and archaeological data suggest that changes in family-level economics coincident with subsistence intensification contributed to the emergence of social complexity among prehistoric hunter–gatherers in eastern North America by creating the conditions for a “rich get richer” scenario. Ethnographic data are used to construct a general computational model representing key person- and family-level behaviors, constraints, and decisions affecting the size and composition of hunter–gatherer families. Results from model experiments suggest that lowering the age at which children make a significant contribution to subsistence (e.g., through the broadening of the diet to include the kinds of mass-harvested, “low quality” foods that were increasingly exploited during the Archaic and Woodland periods) relaxes constraints on family size and makes large, polygynous families economically viable. Positive feedbacks between the productive and reproductive potentials of larger families produce right-tailed distributions of family size and “wealth” when the productive age of children is low and polygyny is incentivized. Size data from over 800 prehistoric residential structures suggest right-tailed distributions of family size were present during the Late Archaic through Middle Woodland periods. These distributions would have provided variability in family-based status that permitted the emergence of hereditary social distinctions.