建构文化保守主义的思想谱系——评何晓明著《返本与开新——近代中国文化保守主义新论》

何晓明近著《返本与开新——近代中国文化保守主义新论》,建构了文化保守主义的思想谱系,在诸多关于文化保守主义的论著中,何著所建构的思想谱系脉络最长。该书将近代中国文化保守主义的开端提早到19世纪中叶,较19世纪末叶说与20世纪初叶说提早了半个世纪,这一论断充分考虑到了近代中西文化冲突与融通的历史以及"中体西用"论的内在发生机制;近代中国文化保守主义的理论推进,有两条相互交织的线索:一是"中体西用"论的内在演进,二是从"体用二元"论到"体用不二"论的演化;何著将1990年代文化保守主义在中国的"复出"也纳入了视野之内,这一时期的文化保守主义表现出新的发展趋势:保守主义与自由主义之间求同的趋势和文化保守主义内部存异的趋势。总之,呈现在我们面前的这部著作,是以超越文化保守主义、反思文化保守主义的姿态展开论述的。     

Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave

It has been suggested that between 80 and 35 ka the Middle Stone Age record of South Africa reveals episodes of inventiveness and innovation, punctuated by apparent returns to more conventional technologies. One such episode is the Howiesons Poort (HP). The appearance of a range of small geometric forms, apparently used as insets in multi-component tools, has been considered as evidence of improved hunting weapons, with possible social and symbolic connotations. On the basis of evidence such as backed tool production, small blade technology, the occurrence of typical end-scrapers and burins similar to those encountered in the European Upper Paleolithic, long-distance transport of fine-grained raw materials, and non-lithic novelties, the HP is associated with increased levels of technological efficiency and with behavioral innovations that could have allowed the expansion of African populations to other regions. Yet our knowledge of HP technology and tool production is limited to the analysis of Klasies River Main site by Singer and Wymer and Sarah Wurz, and a few preliminary reports from other sites. This is why we present here a detailed technological and typological analysis of several HP and post-HP assemblages from the well-excavated, well-dated and well-stratified site of Rose Cottage. Our analysis shows: (a) that the HP blade production was a real technical innovation, but was not based on indirect percussion, as often suggested; (b) that blade production was based on the use of marginal percussion which does not occur in the blade production of the Eurasian Middle Paleolithic; (c) that the tool kit was dominated by backed pieces, but not all can be considered as hunting weapons; (d) that neither end-scrapers nor burins are typical of this industry and are no more an antecedent to the European Upper Paleolithic than the end-scrapers and burins of the Middle Paleolithic; (e) that patterns of raw material procurement do not conform to models based on evidence from Klasies; (f) that diachronic changes within the Rose Cottage sequence indicate slow, gradual abandonment of the technological style of the HP; (g) that the post-HP assemblages are of MSA character and are typologically and technologically quite similar to the European Middle Paleolithic; (h) that the lack of persistence of the HP innovations is in need of an explanation. The HP is not a monolithic entity. Implications for the symbolic interpretations of the HP phenomenon are discussed.     

近代中国人对西方科学文化的几种解读

近代以来,中国从传统的科学和技术向近代的科学和技术转变,是在西方科学文化影响下完成的。这一过程亦是近代中国人对西方科学文化的认知过程。这一认知过程中,不同人物对接纳西方科学文化有或深或浅的解读,其中,“道器”与“体用”的文化认知模式是近代中国人解读西方科学文化的基本特征。     

积极发挥农产品期货市场的风险转移功能

作者建议,推进农产品期货市场的发展,必须为农产品期货营造良好的外部环境;加强大宗农产品期货的上市研究论证工作,扩大农产品期货品种;提高农业组织化程度,引导和带动农民参与期货交易;整合农产品信息统计和发布环节,加强对农民的期货知识培训;完善保证金体系,增加商品期货期权交易;拓宽期货经纪公司的业务范围和盈利空间;加快期货市场立法工作等。     

再论“失蜡工艺不是中国青铜时代的选择”

本文从技术史的理论角度论述了“没有需求就没有发明(No need,no invention)”、“没有需求就没有发展”等技术产生发展的客观规律,指出,中国古代(青铜时代)在发达而成体系的青铜范铸技术环境里是不可能孕育发展出“熔模铸造体系”的,并以曾侯乙尊盘的铸造工艺及相关的模拟实验结果作进一步的论证;同时,对中国古代“失蜡工艺”起源于商周青铜器“焚失法”的观点提出质疑,并指出,“失蜡工艺”是在佛教传入中国之后,为铸造“西洋风格”的佛像传入我国。     

Ancient Boats, Boat Timbers, and Locked Mortise-and-Tenon Joints from Bronze/Iron-Age Northern Vietnam

This paper describes two nautical discoveries buried c .2000 years ago in the Red River alluvial plain, northern Vietnam. One is part of a logboat with a series of empty mortise and locking-peg holes for plank attachment using loose rectangular tenons. The other, from an infant mortuary house, is a series of re-used 4-m-long timbers with exactly the same locked mortise-and-tenon technology. Both finds are interpreted as having belonged to river-boats like those shown on the sides of Heger 1 (Dong Son) bronze drums. Potentially-related technologies from the Mediterranean and China are also discussed.
© 2006 The Authors     

打碎技术创新的文化桎梏——从文化的角度透视我国的技术创新活动

目前,羁绊我国技术创新的文化因素,既有传统文化中积淀的不利方面,也能从当代不够完善的体制中找到印记。推进我国的技术创新活动,需要从观念文化、制度文化、组织文化等方面构建有利于创新的文化环境。     

Oskar von Miller and the Art of the Electrical Exhibition: Staging Modernity in Weimar Germany

Within the larger framework of understanding how modernity wasframed within and through the domestic sphere, this articleconsiders the efforts of Bavarian electrical engineer Oskarvon Miller to electrify and modernize Germany against the backdropof Weimar reform movements. Unlike modernist reformers associatedwith such projects as the Bauhaus or the Werkbund, Miller wasa practical systems-builder who sought to encourage consumptionwithin traditional frameworks of home and Heimat. For Miller,exhibiting the benefits of technology was a key element in securingits success, and his reliance on consumers rested on a corporatistideal that would create a new kind of community centred on technology.Whereas in the Imperial era Miller focused on Handwerker andsmall machines as the guarantors of both progress and socialstability, in the Weimar era he turned to housewives and housework.Through his involvement in electrification schemes as well asin his work in founding the Deutsches Museum, one of the firstmuseums of science and technology in Europe, Miller createda powerful narrative of technological progress that was bothtraditional and modern.     

Mapping the potential impact of synthetic biology on Australian foreign policy

Synthetic biology is an emerging technology that will impact on the future security and prosperity of Australia. As a discrete policy area synthetic biology has not been explored in relation to Australian foreign policy. To begin this process an understanding of Australia’s genetic endowment, Australia’s agricultural endowment and those security concerns novel to synthetic biology need to be developed. The convergence of the biological sciences and the information sciences is creating novel security concerns that impact on Australian sovereignty, both mainland and the Antarctic Territories, plant and animal health, and defence medical infrastructure. These concerns cross many traditional disciplinary and policy boundaries, an awareness of this is required and a nascent national practitioner community can develop this further. Drawing from work conducted by the US and UK synthetic biology practitioner communities, this article lays out the unique touch points synthetic biology has on Australian foreign policy.     

TWO CULTURES OF THE POSTHUMAN FUTURE

The posthuman has been looming large on the human horizon lately. Yet there is no shared understanding of what a posthuman future could possibly mean, and the tension between a technological‐scientific prospect of posthumanity and the critical posthumanist scholarship of the humanities is growing palpable. Whereas the former harbors a novel sense of historicity signaled by the expectation of an evental change to bring about the technological posthuman as a previously nonexistent and other‐than‐human central subject, the latter theorizes a postanthropocentric subjectivity of beings still human. In doing so, it extends the already familiar emancipatory concerns of the human world over the nonhuman, with special attention paid to the ecological other. Despite the occasional claims of critical posthumanism to bring humanities and technological‐scientific approaches to a shared platform, the prospect of technological beings of unparalleled power and the ecotopia of species equality do not fit together very well. In this article I argue that, in their present shape, technological posthumanity and critical posthumanism represent hardly reconcilable social imaginaries and two cultures of the posthuman future. My intervention is a plea for developing a more profound and mutual understanding of both. Instead of advocating particular agendas that nevertheless claim validity for the entirety of planetary life and the entire scholarly enterprise of knowledge‐production, we could invest more in efforts to come to grips with both social imaginaries and venture jointly into the creation of the conceptual tools of a new knowledge economy of understanding the rapidly changing world and our own (post)human prospects.