人类早期文明中的自然铜

自然铜是人类使用最早使用的金属之一,它与人类早期文明存在重要联系。本文介绍了自然铜的属性、地质与世界分布,并结合考古证据和相关文献对人类早期自然铜的认识、利用、开采、加工及其社会价值进行了分析,对自然铜与早期金属文明之间的关系进行了探讨。     

新中国成立初期山西省农村扫盲

新中国成立初期,广大农村中文盲半文盲普遍存在的现实难以适应国家社会经济发展的要求,因此开展大规模的农村文化教育势在必行。在中央人民政府的领导下,山西省政府对农村扫盲工作高度重视,通过积极的宣传动员、有效的组织管理以及灵活多样的学习形式,提高了广大农民的文化素质和思想觉悟,形成了良好的社会风尚,为社会主义建设培养了优秀人才。由于农村扫盲受到时代与环境的限制,亦存在形式主义和官僚主义倾向、学习形式僵化等局限性。     

辛亥革命元勋王天培将军遗文

辛亥革命元勋贵州籍将领王天培,一生追随孙中山先生革命,笃信三民主义,由于性情直率,胸怀坦荡,遭到蒋介石、何应钦等人嫉妒,以＂莫须有＂罪名陷害,英年早逝。从他撰写的一些对联、讲话、题词、诗歌、信函等遗文里,不难看出王天培聪颖的才华,直率的性格,忠诚的思想,坦荡的胸怀,以及坚定的信念和高尚的气节,不愧是贵州人民的好儿女。     

南京地区明代功臣贵族墓出土洪武瓷刍论——兼论出土的其它瓷器

南京地区分布有明初功臣墓及其后代墓葬区,出土了不少重要洪武瓷.研究表明,家族墓中出土瓷器的品种与墓主的经历有关,贵族墓的瓷质随葬品种类依时间从梅瓶变化至罐,明代早期龙泉窑和磁州窑在全国瓷业中也占有重要地位,贵族墓出土的瓷器一般都是民窑器.     

新中国成立初期的马克思主义宣传教育工作

新中国成立后,中国共产党成为领导全国政权的执政党。这种变化使党的马克思主义宣传教育工作面临许多新的问题,同时也提出了许多新的要求。为此,党采取了健全马克思主义宣传教育机构、提高各级党委和党员干部对马克思主义宣传教育工作重要性的认识、系统翻译和出版经典著作、培养马克思主义理论教员和宣传员、注重马克思主义通俗化和大众化等一系列措施,为马克思主义宣传教育工作提供了有力的组织保证,奠定了坚实的思想基础,使马克思主义理论在广大人民中得到普及,使中国共产党与广大民众有了共同语言,为当前马克思主义的宣传教育工作提供了有益的历史参考。     

陈独秀对湖南早期党史人物群体成长的影响

湖南早期党史人物群体,是指从新民学会成立到大革命失败,以新民学会为核心、受其影响的早期党史人物的集合。他们的成长得益于陈独秀的言传身教:从言传方面来说,受陈独秀主编的《新青年》的影响,逐步转变自己的思想观念,接受并宣传马克思主义,成为一个马克思主义者。从身教方面来说,一方面,陈独秀指导毛泽东等建立湖南共产主义小组,支持并鼓励毛泽东等在湖南从事的一切革命活动,培养和重用以毛泽东为代表的湖南早期党史人物,使他们在党内异军突起,崭露头角;另一方面通过对陈独秀的错误思想的批判,以毛泽东为代表的湖南党史人物对中国革命的基本问题有了较为正确的认识,日益成熟起来。     

Indentured servitude and convict labour in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies, 1671–1755

The article explores how indentured servitude and the use of convict labour began and evolved in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies in the period 1671–1755. It examines the intentions and realities behind indentured servitude and convict labour on the islands, and compares these with the workings and use of indentured servants in the British West Indies.

Similar to conditions in the British West Indies, the lowest social strata of white society in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies consisted of a small population of convicts and indentured servants. The use of these groups as part of the labour force took place from the onset of colonisation in 1672 until 1755, the period in which the islands were governed by the West Indian and Guinean Company, WIGC (Vestindisk-Guineisk Kompagni). The analysis reveals that the importation and deployment of indentured servants and convicts can be divided into two distinct periods. Until 1700, the objective of the WIGC was to provide cheap labour for the colony. After 1700, however, the aim was to recruit qualified personnel and to secure the planters against slave rebellion by increasing the white Danish population. As convicts provided neither qualifications nor security, convict transportations to the Danish-Norwegian West Indies ceased after 1700. After 1755, when the Danish-Norwegian Crown purchased the colonies from the WIGC, Danish convict labour and indentured servants were no longer imported to the colony. By contrast, in the British West Indies, imports of indentured servants and convicts continued to play a significant role.

The article explores the physical and legal conditions of the indentured servants and convicts, who constituted the lowest social group in white colonial society and were in some respects considered slaves.     

The World under the Stars: Astrological Geography and the Bologna 1477 Edition of Ptolemy’s Cosmographia

ABSTRACT

This article is a re-examination of the first complete printed edition of Ptolemy’s Cosmographia (Bologna, de Lapis, 1477), hitherto considered flawed and defective. An investigation of the status and priorities of the team of court astrologers responsible for this edition, and an examination of the alterations they made to Ptolemy’s maps, suggests that their aim was a redaction intentionally different from existing versions of the Geography. It is suggested that the editors sought to adjust the arrangement of provinces from that recommended in Ptolemy’s Geography (book VIII) to the astrological arrangement detailed in his Tetrabiblos (book II) and that they modified the content of the key regional maps accordingly. In this light, the Bologna 1477 edition underlines the importance of assessing the reception of Ptolemy’s geographical work against a cultural background in which astrology prevailed as an integrated system of knowledge, practices and beliefs.     

Campanile (Mollusca: Gastropoda): a new record from the early Miocene of Victoria,Australia

Campanile rupicolum sp. nov. is described from the early Miocene Upper Maude Limestone Member of Maude, Victoria. The genus has not hitherto been recorded from Victoria, a part of the Southeast Australian biogeographic Province, and was thought to be characteristic of the Austral-Indopacific Province. This is the oldest occurrence of the genus so far recorded from Australia.     

For the Wealth of the Realm: the transformation of the public sphere in Swedish politics,c. 1434–1650

This article addresses the transformation of the representative public in late medieval and early modern Sweden. While recognizing the importance of Habermas' theory of the public sphere, the focus is on the progressive character of the royal administration and on how the interaction within the administrative setting eventually came to serve as a basis for political opinion. The interplay between local bargaining over taxes and political action at the national level is of critical importance. The state formation process served to empower new groups such as peasants and burghers, who eventually learned how to wield rational arguments in defence of their interests. This is demonstrated here by focusing on the interaction between local officeholders and the tax-paying peasantry.