Reading “wrecks of history” and the Harley family narrative

During the English civil wars, many elite families faced the destruction of the buildings, monuments, and movables that had served for centuries as testaments to their social standing. The Harleys of Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire faced just this situation after their estate was demolished during a Royalist siege in 1644. While the family had ample cause to lament, this study reveals that destruction could also be framed as a generative force. In this framework, the broken artefact works in multiple ways, recalling the intact pre-war family while simultaneously attesting to its suffering and sacrifice. As the Harleys and those close to them wrote about loss and destruction, they evoke the family’s ancient prestige and re-frame loss in a way that lays the groundwork for local reconciliation and the success of the Harley line. Out of the ruins of their lives, the Harleys are re-created as a godly, genteel family.     

First Evidence Of The Use Of Freshwater Pearls As A Cosmetic In Ancient China: Analysis Of White Makeup Powder From A Northern Song Dynasty Lv Tomb (Lantian,Shaanxi Province,China)

The Lv family tombs in Lantian, Shaanxi Province are one of the most important archaeological sites of China in recent years, providing numerous objects and a wealth of information for the study of the history of the Northern Song dynasty. There were a large number of exquisite cultural relics unearthed from the tombs, including one porcelain box containing white powder, which was identified as women's makeup. The phase composition, microstructure, thermal properties and characteristics of the trace elements in the unearthed white cosmetic powder were comprehensively analysed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry – thermogravimetry (DSC–TG), Fourier transform infrared (FT–IR) microscopy and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP–AES). The white makeup powder was determined to be a product made from high‐quality freshwater pearls. These results, for the first time, showed evidence that freshwater pearl powder was used as a cosmetic in ancient China using archaeological objects, providing scientific evidence and new clues to enrich and expand research into the ancient Chinese cosmetic materials.     

曹仲达与“曹家样”研究

本文重新研究曹仲达与“曹家样”,考订了曹氏的生卒年及其可考的生平,认为他有着由南(朝)入北(朝)的经历。本文从画史所载曹氏师承入手,发现代表南梁新画风的张僧繇和来自中亚西域的塞特(壮)勤是其师承的重要来源,从而进一步探讨了“曹家样”的形成问题,认为“曹家样”是南、北二源以及其他复杂的社会、宗教、文化身份认同等因素共同作用的结果。本文还对长时段、大范围内相关的图像遗存进行考察,重新勾勒了“曹家样”的面貌。在对这一具体问题研究的基础上,作者提倡在后现代之后风格史研究的一种可能与方向——厚背景研究法。     

Counting them in,not out: Surveying Farm Women about Agricultural Leadership

This paper examines the efficacy of the survey method to investigate questions relating to women and agricultural leadership. I begin by reviewing the feminist critique of the survey using examples from the literature on farming women. I then describe two particular difficulties I encountered in surveying farm women about agricultural leadership in the Australian sugar industry. The first difficulty is the problem of constructing a sample of farm women using official data sources that is representative of the diversity of women in agriculture. The second difficulty is the impact that gendered agricultural identities may have on survey completion rates. The paper argues that, if we are to count farming women ‘in’, rather than ‘out’ when studying agricultural politics, we need to engage with methods which will be inclusive of the diversity of women in farming and which will also give consideration to the construction of gendered identities in agriculture.     

Inside and outside the school lunchbox: themes and reflections

We examine here the discourses surrounding the lunchbox taken to school by children: aspects both of the contents and of how children consume and understand these.1 The observations presented here form part of the preliminary stages of a broader project examining ‘Men, Children and Food’. The project itself is part of a large research programme – ‘Changing Families, Changing Food’ – funded by the Leverhulme Trust (award number F/00118/AQ) from 2006 to 2008, and situated at the University of Sheffield, working in collaboration with colleagues at Royal Holloway University of London. Our aims, in ‘Men, Children and Food’, are to explore the experiences of fathers (and other male figures in the household) and of children, in relation to food practices, including ways in which the two interconnect. View all notes Examples within and beyond the UK suggest that the lunchbox is a container for various aspects of the private and public. What traces can be found inside of wider social relations, including processes of care and surveillance? We argue that the lunchbox consists of intersecting spatialities, within which children constitute a public face, and create identities, relationships and subjectivities; this perspective frames opportunities for priorities in future empirical research with children.     

北朝家庭的道教信仰

北朝时期道教的广泛流播,使得家庭成为宗教信仰的基本单位。北朝家庭的道教信仰具有极为鲜明的特点。它以家庭和家庭成员为关注焦点,表现出极强的功利性,并且对宗教实行高度重视。从长时段的角度观察,道教信仰对北朝家庭的规模结构、生活方式、日常消费、亲属关系甚至于家内子孙名字的择取都产生了或隐或显的影响。     

‘By the charitie of good people’: poverty and neighbourly support in seventeenth century Lancashire

Historians of early-modern poverty have emphasized the ways in which the poor ‘made shift’, reducing or even preventing their dependence on formal poor relief. This article looks at one aspect of that ‘economy of makeshifts’: the casual support of the poor by their neighbours. It uses evidence from a uniquely extensive archive of pauper petitions from Lancashire (1626–1710), many of which contain incidental information about strategies of making shift. The petitions suggest that neighbourly support for the needy was common in Lancashire, both through localized begging and in more stable supportive relationships. Nonetheless, the charity of neighbours could easily be exhausted, leaving those in poverty forced to call upon the more formalized support of the Poor Law.     

跨国迁移对农村留守妇女婚姻家庭生活的影响——基于福建省明溪县H村的个案研究

论文基于质性研究方法,以人口国际迁移现象比较突出的明溪县H村为研究个案,从家庭收支特征、家庭地位、婚姻生活状态和社会支持网络等方面考察和分析了丈夫跨国迁移对农村留守妇女婚姻家庭生活的影响。研究结果显示,丈夫出国使家庭条件和物质生活得到改善,推动了农村妇女家庭地位的改善,电话联系弥补了夫妻空间分离造成的负面影响,但丈夫缺位使留守妇女承担了多重责任,婚姻品质和社会生活也因为丈夫出国而改变。与此同时,留守妇女的消费结构和消费观念并没有因为丈夫出国而发生明显的改变,社会生活支持网络并未弱化,仍是传统的亲属网络。     

法老时代的埃及妇女在家庭中的地位

Although many scholars have assert that the Egyptian women’s position in the family was high during the time of the Pharaohs, no research in China has made a comprehensive and systematic discussion over this issue so far. Based on both documents and archaeological materials, this article approaches this question in three aspects: (1) Egyptian women’s position in the family economy; (2) the affection between the husband and the wife; (3) the position and role of the mother. __________ Translated from Shijie Lishi 世界历史 (World History), 2004, (2): 11–20