Measured domestication rates in wild wheats and barley under primitive cultivation,and their archaeological implications

Man's (or, more probably, Woman's) first cereal crops were sown from seed gathered from wild stands, and it was in the course of cultivation that domestication occurred. Experiments in the measurement of domestication rates indicate that in wild-type crops of einkorn, emmer, and barley under primitive systems of husbandry: (a) domestication will occur only if they are harvested when partially or nearly ripe, using specific harvesting methods; (b) exposure to shifting cultivation may sometimes have been required; and (c) under these conditions, the crops could become completely domesticated within 200 years, and perhaps only 20–30 years, without any conscious selection. This paper (a) considers possible delays in the start of domestication due to early crops of wild-type cereals lacking domestic-types mutants; (b) examines the husbandry practices necessary for these mutants to enjoy any selective advantage; (c) considers the state of ripeness at harvest necessary for the crops to respond to these selective pressures; (d) outlines field measurements of the selective intensities arising from analogous husbandry practices applied experimentally to living wild-type crops; (e) summarizes a mathematical model which incorporates the measured selective intensities and other key variables and which describes the rate of increase in domestic-type mutants in early populations of wild-type cereals under specific combinations of primitive husbandry practices; (f) considers why very early cultivators should have used those husbandry methods which, we suggest, led unconsciously to the domestication of wild wheats and barley; and (g) considers whether these events are likely to leave archaeologically recognizable traces.     

The transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe

This paper presents a general survey of the transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe, approached within the framework of the availability model and treated from the perspective of local (Mesolithic) hunting and gathering communities. We argue that in Eastern and Northern Europe, the transition to farming was a slow process, which occurred through the adoption of exogenous cultigens and domesticates by the local hunter-gatherer populations, who may have been already engaged in some form of husbandry of the local resources. Contact and exchange with the Neolithic and later Bronze Age of Central Europe had a profound and prolonged influence on the process of the adoption of farming in Eastern and Northern Europe. During the slow process of transition, mixed hunting-farming societies emerged, which could be regarded as having a characteristic social and economic organization of their own (i.e., neither Mesolithic nor Neolithic). In conclusion, we argue for continuity in population and in social and economic traditions from the hunter-gatherer past until recent antiquity and, in some areas, into the historical period.     

Expertise Marginalized: Quality Inspection and the Grain Market in Republican China

With the help of professionally trained agricultural scientists, the Guomindang’s Nationalist government drafted a large-scale program for agricultural reconstruction in the late 1920s and early 1930s. At the heart of the program was a scientific rice-breeding experiment with the potential to produce great numbers of new high-yield rice varieties. However, this scientific achievement could not assure success of the new rice varieties in the market because the marketability of rice was determined not by the scientific productivity improvement but by a series of processes required before the rice reached consumers. For this, local and practical contexts had to be considered. By juxtaposing two different forms of “rice expertise,” this paper illuminates the incompatibility between the state’s productivist understanding of agricultural improvement and the quality issue in the grain market.     

英国政治现代化的历程及特点--读阎照祥关于英国政治制度史的几本论著

阎照祥的《英国政党政治史》、《英国政治制度史》和《英国贵族史》构成诠释英国政治现代化的合力体系与传导体系,体现了作者独特的文本解释技术和知识话语生产体系,即基于大史学的治史观念,寻找历史学、心理学与社会学的最佳结合点,并在发挥学科整合群集优势的基础上运用心理一行为流派、结构一功能流派和比较一综合流派的操作范式,对英国政治现代化多元结构的状态、各政治单元的功能及其彼此的关系进行纵向历时维与横向共时维的交叉解读。不仅突破了学术界长期存在的“重社会革命而轻社会改革”、“重政治精英而轻特殊群体”、“重阶级斗争而轻政党政治和政治制度”等思维定式,弱化了史学功能的人为化与工具主义倾向,而且在史学的宏观泛化和微观碎化之间寻找到一种相对的平衡,为回归史学的多样性、复杂性和客观性提供了可以遵循的范例。     

留日学生、东游官绅与直隶省的近代化进程(1900～1928)

1900～1928年间留日学生群体、赴日考察官绅及其他人士在直隶省近代化进程中扮演了重要角色。留日学生所学专业及赴日考察官绅所关心领域表明,这一群体在制度更新、技术引进和人才培养等方面对直隶省近代化进程产生了深刻影响。在这一引入日本经验、推动直隶近代化的进程中,清末直隶总督袁世凯等人起到了关键性的作用。民初直隶省政府延续了这一作法,使以天津、北京为龙头的直隶省近代化走在了全国前列。直隶省既注重派出留学生系统吸取近代化知识体系,也注重派出官员考察力促观念转变,两相结合,有效排除了因制度与观念差异进而导致近代化进程受阻的障碍。直隶省派学生留学、派官员考察的做法,应是后发国家区域近代化进程中的成功经验之一。     

中国的近代化与国情

中国近代化面临的特殊国情主要有二：一是近代化因素的积累严重不足;二是封建专制政治制度对近代资本主义因素的顽固排拒。任何致力于近代化事业的有识之士都必须正确认识这种特殊国情,对清政府和专制政治心存幻想注定不切实际,对近代化因素的积累水平估计过高也注定要走弯路。但在自鸦片战争至五四运动前的近百年时间里,有识之士们在对国情的认识上恰恰存在以上两种误区。正是这种认识上的误区,导致了有识之士们在近代化道路的选择和近代化具体操作过程中的种种错误决策,并因而延缓了中国近代化的进程。     

20世纪中国农业与农村变迁的跨学科考察--中国农业历史学会第九次学术研讨会综述

在南京举行的中国农业历史学会第九次学术研讨会,集中讨论了20世纪中国农业和农村变迁问题,涉及政治、经济、社会、技术、生态等方面。交叉性、时代性、前瞻性,是本次研讨会的主要特点。     

晚清时期岭南出国留学生在中国近代留学史上的地位与作用

翻开近代中国留学史 ,晚清时期岭南出国留学生对中国近代早期中西文化交流的贡献 ,特别引人注目。首先 ,他们是中国近代出国留学的先驱者和开拓者。其次 ,他们是中国近代早期中西文化交流的重要桥梁和纽带。再次 ,他们也是肇启中国现代化进程的早期启蒙者和先导者 ,而且在一定的客观程度上 ,积极推进着中国早期现代化的启动。最后 ,他们对中国近代中西文化交流的主要贡献 ,就是起着开风气之先 ,最早吸取和引进西方先进文化 ,并把它辐射到全国去的作用     

近代中国对农业私人投资的供给和需求分析

在中国近代化进程中,要完成对传统农业的改造就必须对农业进行投资,而且是投资于现代生产要素的引进。在私人投资方面,农业的自我投资依赖于农业剩余的供给,而近代中国的贸易赤字和财政赤字却剥夺了大量的农业剩余,造成农业自有资金的枯竭。在农民变得越来越贫困的同时,投资的重任转移到地主身上。可是,与非农业部门相比,较低的农业投资收益率对投资者毫无吸引力。与此相反,农村资金却大量流向了城市,造成了城市的泡沫繁荣。     

中原文明形成过程中的几个特点

关于“文明”一词 ,在学术界可以有许多种不同的解释。对文明这一概念的不同理解 ,以及对文明标志的不同看法 ,直接影响到我们对文明探源所涉及的一系列学术问题。我认为 ,解决这一问题 ,首先是要把文明和文明因素、文明和文明起源在概念上区分开来。“文明”一词在史学上特定的涵义是原始社会已进入国家和阶级社会的时代。以往人们常常把“文字、青铜器、礼仪性建筑、城市的出现作为文明时代的标志。我认为 ,把这些“标志”作为文明的诸多因素 ,似乎更合适一些。从事物发展的角度来看 ,文明的起源并不是一蹴而就的 ,而是有一个较长时间的酝…