Villagers’ agency in the Intangible Cultural Heritage designation of a Korean village ritual

This paper examines how the villagers of Pams?m village in Seoul acted as agents in configuring their own cultural identity which explores issues concerning Korea’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) designation system. It delves in detail how villagers practice their ritual of Pams?m Pugundang kut ? amidst the complex process of continuity and change as a way of sustaining and promoting collective village identity. By examining the implications of this cultural practices in contemporary society, this paper ultimately raises the question of who constitutes the true legatee of traditional culture of Pams?m village. The cultural practice of the Pams?m Pugundang kut carried out by the villagers of Pams?m can be interpreted not merely as a critique of the dynamics of political and cultural heritage, but the reconstruction of villager’s identity through the creation and continuation of their long village history. This study provides a useful case in examining a village community which describes in detail how the subject of this study constructs their cultural identity and faces the complex issues concerning Korea’s ICH designation system.     

Resurrections and rebirths: how the Risorgimento shaped modern Italian politics

The Risorgimento was the process of independence and unification of the Italian nation between 1848 and 1860, and has remained a powerful symbol of Italian politics ever since. Elaborating on Jan Assmann’s concept of cultural memory, the article discusses the Risorgimento at crucial moments in twentieth-century Italian politics: the 1911 anniversary of unification, the elaboration of the Risorgimento during fascism, the re-appropriation of the Risorgimento by the left and by the Resistance during the 1930s and 1940s, the general semantic space carved by the post-war democratic forces on both right and left with reference to the Risorgimento, and the sudden return to the memory of the Risorgimento in the 1990s and afterwards. The aim of the article is to understand both continuities and changes in the reference to the Risorgimento in twentieth-century political discourse, and to put into perspective Italy’s ‘particular’ road to modernity within a comparative European frame.     

Fatal Injuries in a pre‐Hispanic Canary Mummy: Violence,Accident or Ritual Suicide?

Perimortem traumas have been identified in a pre‐Hispanic Canary mummy (fifth–sixth centuries cal AD). The location and nature of the fractures in the cranium, cervical vertebrae, ribs and both legs indicate a fall from a considerable height, which would have been the cause of death. Supported by forensic anthropology criteria and historical information about the population of origin, the circumstances in which the fatal injuries might have occurred are discussed. Given the pattern of the injuries, it is debated whether they were the result of an accident or a ritual suicide, as aggression is thought to be a less likely scenario. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inhabiting Remote Tropical Seashores at 1500–1100 b.c.: Water,Practicalities, and Rituals in the Mariana Islands

When people first inhabited the Remote Oceanic region of the world at 1500 b.c., they generated archaeological sites attesting to their practical coastal adaptations in tandem with their ceremonial traditions, wherein water figured vitally in daily living and ritual performance. Of eight known first-settlement sites in the Mariana Islands, Ritidian in Guam uniquely incorporates one residential habitation plus two caves related to water collection, pictographs, consumption of unusual foods, and use of exceptionally decorative objects. The inter-connected findings clarify what was “special” about the special-use caves, in total articulating a fuller sense of cultural life and landscape than otherwise could be possible.     

祭器、礼器、“邵局”——关于南宋官窑的几个问题

作者在多年积累的考古实物资料的基础上,结合历史文献,探讨了与南宋官窑密切相关的诸问题：如南宋陶质祭器的使用与特征,王晋锡、邵谔与礼器局、邵局、修内司官窑的关系,南宋官窑生产的仿青铜礼器瓷的性质与用途等。作者认为,王晋锡之陶质祭器的烧造与邵谔之修内司官窑的建立,是先后发生在南宋绍兴年间的两件不同的事件,两者之间并无直接或间接的关系,南宋陶质祭器与官窑仿青铜礼器瓷在形制及用途上有本质的区别。     

Dangerous Places and Wild Spaces: Creating Meaning with Materials and Space at Contemporary Maya Shrines on El Duende Mountain

Ethnoarchaeological observations at Maya shrines on a sacred mountain suggest that three potent material strategies imbue ritual practices with different social meanings: 1) the use of different types of materials as offerings in various rites, 2) the ways in which the physical conditions of an offering are altered during deposition, and 3) the choice of location where the offering is deposited within the site relative to a ceremonial focal point. Through these strategies, individuals creatively negotiate limited access to material resources and assign diverse meanings to the material culture, practices, and places of ritual. Materials that represent commoners' rituals may primarily consist of quotidian items that are transformed in meaning by how and where they are deposited into an archaeological context.     

《古代的交互作用:欧亚大陆的东部与西部》述评

最近 ,英国剑桥大学麦克唐纳研究所出版《古代的交互作用 :欧亚大陆的东部与西部》文集 ,它集中展示了欧亚大陆的考古及东西文化交流的最新成果。 1998年以来 ,剑桥大学举办了 3次大型国际会议 ,内容涉及欧亚大陆史前学、人类学、语言和文化。本书为 2 0 0 0年“史前后期欧亚草原的开发”会议文集。由著名考古学家伦福儒教授作序 ,收入不同国家学者的文章 2 1篇 ,全面介绍了欧亚草原新石器晚期至铁器时代初的考古发现和的研究成果 ;另有部分文章涉及该区域内的植物考古学与人种学的Y染色体DNA分析     

政治与法律的良性互动——英国法治道路成功的根本原因

政治和法律既相辅相成,又相反相克。二者关系结构的不同,直接影响着甚至决定着一个国家的法治文明进程。英国的法治道路是一条较为顺畅的成功之路,其成功的根本原因在于政治与法律之间建立和保持了一种良性互动关系。16世纪以前,适度强大的政治权威促成了英国法治传统的生成以及自治型、制度化普通法体系的建立和衡平法的产生。16～17世纪,借助于普通法制度积极有效的制衡作用,英国有幸绕过了绝对专制统治的历史弯路,先于其他各国跨入了现代法治社会。认真总结英国法治经验,对于当前我国的法治建设事业无疑是大有裨益的。     

Recent Research on Chaco: Changing Views on Economy, Ritual, and Society

Current research on Chaco Canyon and its surrounding outlier communities is at an important juncture. Rather than trying to argue for the presence or absence of complexity, archaeologists working in the area are asking different questions, especially how Chacoan political, economic, ritual, and social organization were structured. These lines of inquiry do not attempt to pigeonhole Chaco into traditional neoevolutionary types, but instead seek to understand the historical trajectory that led to the construction of monumental architecture in Chaco Canyon and a large part of the northern Southwest in the 10th through 12th centuries. This review discusses the conclusions of current research at Chaco including definitions of the Chaco region, recent fieldwork, histories of Chaco archaeology, chronology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, demography, political organization, outlier communities, economic organization, social organization, ritual, violence, and the post-Chacoan reorganization. Although many issues are hotly debated, there is a growing concensus that power was not based in a centralized political organization and that ritual organization was a key factor in the replication of Chacoan architecture across a vast regional landscape. Exactly how ritual, social, and political organization intersected is a central question for Chaco scholars. The resolution of this problem will prove to be of interest to all archaeologists working with intermediate societies across the globe.