The Bioarchaeological Investigation of Childhood and Social Age: Problems and Prospects

Recently, the value of the study of children and childhood from archaeological contexts has become more recognized. Childhood is both a biological and a social phenomenon. However, because of specialization in research fields within anthropology, subadults from the archaeological record are usually studied from the biological perspective (bioarchaeology) or, more predominantly, the social perspective (social archaeology), with little research that incorporates both approaches. These polarized approaches to childhood and age highlight the dualistic way in which “biological” and “social” aspects of the body are viewed. Some recent literature criticizes bioarchaeological approaches, and calls for the incorporation of childhood social theory, including social age categories, into subadult health analysis. However, few studies have explicitly addressed the practicalities or theoretical issues that need to be considered when attempting this. This paper critically examines these issues, including terminology used for defining subadulthood and age divisions within it, and approaches to identify “social age” in past populations. The important contribution that bioarchaeology can make to the study of social aspects of childhood is outlined. Recent theoretical approaches for understanding the body offer exciting opportunities to incorporate skeletal remains into research, and develop a more biologically and socially integrated understanding of childhood and age.

从"集体保障"到"社会保障"--中国农村社会保障1949-2000

194 9年以来我国农村社会保障制度经历了从“以队为基础的集体保障”到“以家庭为主、国家和集体扶持救助为辅的社会保障”的历史变迁 ,大体可划分为初步建立、进一步巩固完善、异常发展、调整与恢复、改革与创新 5个阶段。但是 ,由于诸多因素的制约 ,农村社会保障仍然存在着水平低、风险大、方式旧等问题     

论社会心态对北洋历史进程的影响

社会心态是人类群体、民族、团体及个人受一定社会环境影响,在意识行为上的反映和表现。其表现形式较政治、经济难以把握,也容易为人们忽略,实际上社会心态却对历史进程起着重要的影响。北洋时期的社会心态主要有“接受”、“回归”和“再选择”三种主流表现,这三种心态在北洋时期建立民国、复辟倒退和维护革命成果三大主题中,与政治、经济、化等因素一起构成推动历史运动的合力,共同影响着北洋历史的进程。这表明北洋历史运动的发展不是简单地由政治和经济两项因素所决定,而是由更多的因素包括社会心态在内共同作用的结果。     

也论"社团改进会"--兼谈民初资产阶级革命派与会党关系的转变

社团改进会的成立,是以谭人风为首的部分革命党人力图根据民初形势发展的客观需要,对已经落后于时代潮流的旧式会党进行改造,使其成为一有助于民国的“完善稳定之民党”。谭人凤组建社团改进会决不是为了谋取一己私利,也决不是对某一个当权者的委曲求全,而是为了刚刚成立的中华民国的长治久安,是出于一种对民主共和政体的衷心拥护,出于对这种政治制度能不断得到巩固和完善的期望和信心。评价辛亥革命后革命党与会党关系的转化,不能单纯从会党在辛亥革命中所起的作用着手,而必须对其参与辛亥革命的心态和动机及其在辛亥革命后逆历史潮流的所作所为加以足够的重视;不能过分谴责革命派这样那样的缺点,而必须看到,在当时的历史条件下,它毕竟是中国先进生产力及其生产关系的代表,引领着时代发展的方向。     

汉代对西南边疆的经营

本文论述了汉代经营西南边疆的政策措施及其效果。汉代在西南边疆地区实行“以其故俗治”的政策,适应中央集权制统治的需要,符合边疆民族地区实际,有利于汉朝统治秩序的稳定和西南边疆经济文化的发展;另一方面,汉代边疆战略重点始终在北方和西北,对西南边疆的经营规模和力度仍然是很有限的,边远山区尤其如此。     

The Process is the Outcome

Ethics are the key to what WAC is all about. It is our stated responsibility as WAC members to help shed the dark disciplinary past and forge a future archaeology of solidarity with the aim of fostering equality (but not sameness) among people everywhere. The present Forum section of Archaeologies showcases the scope and depth of the discussions surrounding this core aspect of WAC, which took place at the first meeting of the Committee on Ethics (henceforth CoE) at Stanford Archaeology Center (California, USA) from April 19th to 21st 2007. It is an invitation to WAC members and others to partake in the process of drafting a “General Code of Ethics” for WAC, a process that ultimately is much more about inclusive discussions and decisions on a framework for ethical practice than about writing a text or proscribing how to behave. The second affiliation for Julie Hollowell will be in effect from 15 December 2007.     

Beyond identifying elites: Feasting as a means to understand early Middle Formative society on the Pacific Coast of Mexico

Feasts provide a public forum where social statuses can be affirmed or challenged among pre-state societies. Documenting feasting behavior thus provides insight into the construction of prehistoric political power. This paper presents expected material patterns of feasting by focusing on intra-site variability in food preparation, presentation, and consumption. Expectations are evaluated by comparing ceramic, ground stone, obsidian, and faunal data recovered from Conchas phase (900–800 BCE) elite and village midden deposits at Cuauhtémoc in the Soconusco region of southern Mexico. I argue that elite feasting at Cuauhtémoc created political cohesion between elite and non-elite segments of society during the Conchas phase as a new polity emerged that was more socially stratified and politically hierarchical than anything previously known in the region.     

19世纪英国济贫院制度评析

济贫在英国有着久远的传统,从17世纪开始,济贫院在英国逐步发展起来,1834年后,“院内救济”成为新济贫法体系的核心。济贫院遵循“劣等处置”和“济贫院检验”两个原则,济贫法委员会希望通过济贫院的威慑作用,促使贫民自力更生,减少济贫开支。济贫院在英国社会保障制度和福利国家形成过程中起到不可忽视的作用。学术界对济贫院的评价存在较大的争议,本文拟对这一制度进行评析,希望引起学术界对这一制度的更多关注。     

社会考古学综论

“社会考古学”一词早在1921年就已出现,但直到20世纪四五十年代,以柴尔德为首的考古学家才真正开始社会考古学研究。至今,社会考古学大致经历了三个发展阶段。其研究对象为社会;其内容则包括社会组织、社会规模、社会结构以及社会之间的关系等;其研究方法主要有聚落分析法、墓葬分析法、民族历史学分析法和人类分析法四种。而中国的社会考古学研究还处于起步阶段,在许多方面还有待改进。     

‘To Support Active Empirical Research at the Grassroots’: The Family and Community Historical Research Society

For over 20 years, the Family and Community Historical Research Society, FACHRS, has challenged the notion that universities should have a near monopoly on the construction, ownership, validation and transmission of knowledge. Its central strategy, of publishing research derived from its aggregation of data from connected local research projects, has its immediate roots in an Open University module, Family & Community History: 19^th and 20^th centuries, DA301. This emphasised research construction co-operation within a social scientific framework. The roots of the FACHRS also lie in the development, since Victorian times, of sociable, collaborative and co-operative local history projects. The FACHRS’s progress was framed by its engagement with communications and database technology and digitisation during a period when demarcation lines and epistemic identities, both within universities and outside them, dissolved and reformed.