Gender,empowerment, and cultural preservation at Topu Honis Shelter Home,Timor-Leste

Women's empowerment, the ability of a woman to make her own decisions and shape her own life, is a common goal for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating under the gender and development framework. This article examines the way that one NGO, Topu Honis Shelter Home, in Oecussi, Timor-Leste, facilitates the empowerment of its young women members and challenges gender norms in a patriarchal society. In doing six months of participant observation research at Topu Honis and semi-structured interviews, I discerned four sources of empowerment, which are explored in this article: (1) gender equality, (2) education, (3) agency and confidence, and (4) cultural preservation. The primary finding of this research is the suggestion that cultural preservation can be an important resource for empowering women, even in a patriarchal society. At first glance, this may run counter to the dominant western notions of empowerment, but in the case of Topu Honis, key cultural practices are preserved while oppressive gender norms are simultaneously dis-embedded. Development practitioners should explore how preserving and promoting local cultural practices may contribute to development and/or empowerment.     

Site maintenance practices and settlement social organization in Iron Age Karnataka, India: Inferring settlement places and landscape from surface distributions of ceramic assemblage attributes

This paper investigates the spatial organization of social relations in settlement contexts through a quantitative and distributional analysis of surface ceramic attributes from Iron Age Period (1200–300 BC) archaeological sites in Southern India. The results discern variation in depositional contexts across each site, from which I infer a variety of basic settlement activity structures (e.g., site maintenance, trash disposal, residence, animal husbandry, metallurgy, ritual). I use these results, together with further analyses of artifact and feature distributions, to infer a basic suite of places, place-making practices and some of the social relations and organizational structures that produced these historically unique Iron Age settlement landscapes.     

昭穆制度异议

周代"昭穆"是表示字辈的概念。父子之有昭穆,犹兄弟之有伯仲,伯仲用以区别同辈之长幼,昭穆意在辨别异辈之尊卑。昭穆依附于宗法而存在,在宗庙祭祀制、宗族伦理和继承制中产生作用,是宗法诸制度中的一项位序标准,其意义在于明确由辈分所决定的族人的地位尊卑,使宗族人伦关系明晰化、有序化。昭穆不是宗庙制度,也不是墓葬制度,是辈分概念却不是行辈标志"制度"。"昭穆"概念的产生与原始氏族社会及其婚姻形态毫无关系,也与所谓"母系分宗"无涉。昭穆是循环字辈,适应宗法强调区别尊卑长幼的需要而产生,虽与宗法有关,但与传子制或祖孙父子关系的亲疏毫无联系。     

舒城九里墩春秋墓的年代与族属析论

舒城九里墩春秋墓的时代,发掘报告认为与寿县蔡侯墓相当,若从鼎、簠、敦诸器的细部特征来看,似乎较蔡侯墓略早一些,下葬时间约在公元前500年左右。墓内残存的部分青铜礼器,具有明显的楚文化风格和特征,说明墓主人与楚国和楚文化有着密切的联系。该墓主的身份,发掘报告认为属于侯王一类的贵族阶层,很可能是群舒中某一位君主,可备一说。从其墓葬形制、规模、部分随葬器物以及当时的历史背景分析,亦不能排除为吴国高级贵族的可能性。     

晋南"夏墟"考

夏王朝包括夏代晚期的都城皆在豫西地区,晋南地区不存在像安阳殷墟那种都城废址性质的属于夏王朝的都邑故址;文献所记的“夏墟”应该是泛指广大区域而非专指某一地点,整个晋南地区皆应该属于“夏墟”之范围;晋南地区被称作“夏墟”的原因是由于商王朝灭夏之后夏族聚居晋南所致,“夏墟”即夏族聚居区;晋南地区被称作“夏墟”只能说明商代和西周初年夏族曾聚居于此,其与夏族的起源和夏文化的渊源没有必然的联系。     

中日实现经贸合作战略升级的区域环境

尽管中日两国关系内部的经贸合作关系与政治协作关系,在发展上长期处于不平衡、不协调的亚健康状态,但是中国从双边经贸合作的大局出发,一直在积极促进两国经贸关系与政治关系协调发展。这不仅是中国经济发展的内在需要,而且也是区域性外在作用的促进结果。值得一提的是,中日两国在亚太经济合作组织、东亚“10 3”合作机制、中日韩三国合作框架、中日俄三国利益关系的推进上,都有着广泛的合作基础与广阔的合作前景,从而在外部形成了中日两国经贸合作实现战略升级目标的区域促进环境,有利于双方在2008￣2010年间达到2 000亿美圆的经贸合作额度。     

与跨国银行竞争——中国银行业的效率与金融安全

银行改革的成功与否决定着中国金融改革的成败。中国银行业改革和打造国家金融安全体系的核心是银行产业组织效率的提升。有竞争才有效率,有效率才有竞争力,有竞争力才有国家金融安全。国有银行体制转轨的路径选择应该是股权多元化的产权结构改革和放开行业管制的市场结构改革并重的综合改革,当前要警惕其引入战略投资者后强化行业的行政垄断,由“内部人控制”演变成“外部人控制”,损害国家金融安全。银行业应该全面对内资(特别是民间投资者)开放,对外资的开放须循序渐进。     

论魏晋士人“孝先于忠”的观念

"忠"、"孝"是中国古代两种最重要的道德观念,二者都是维护封建统治的伦理基础。通常统治者往往更重视忠,但魏晋时期却由于种种原因,忠孝关系倒错,形成了"孝先于忠"的观念。     

Southwest and northwest: Recent research at the juncture of the United States and Mexico

Research within the last 3 to 5 years is summarized for the southern part of the southwestern United States and adjacent northwest Mexico. In an effort to identify important new sources of information, the literature of contract archaeology is cited, along with more widely available journal and book publications. Topics considered include Late Archaic farmers, early ceramic villages, subsistence and agricultural technology, settlement stability and residential mobility, community organization, and developments of the late prehistoric period sociopolitical complexity.     

青海发展社会中介组织的必要性

青海作为经济后发展地区,市场化水平较低,中介组织的发展正处于起步阶段。加快和规范青海中介组织的发展,对实施西部大开发,发展区域经济优势,提高青海企业国际竞争能力,加快科技成果转化,实现政府职能转变,适应经济全球化,具有十分重要的战略意义。