唐玉门关地望新探——基于历史文献与考古遗存互证

在实地调查的基础上,根据传世典籍和出土文献的记载,结合年代测定、考古发现和遥感影像资料,通过空间分析,作者认为唐玉门关和墨离军驻地应在河西走廊西段的常乐故城,即今瓜州县“六工古城”遗址。这里是丝绸之路的交通枢纽,是西域出入口的重要关卡,亦即北魏时期新开伊吾道的起首。唐代玉门关地处疏勒河和榆林河下游洪积冲积扇缘的古绿洲,地貌和水资源等地理环境因素是制约关城选址的基础条件,而政治、军事等人文地理因素则是决定玉门关时空变迁的关键。     

从“社”到“庄”:清代前期山东寿光县顺庄法的推行

清康熙年间,山东寿光县为缓解"大差"负担,将"大差"由轮当制改为下放给各社自理,但这进一步加重了民间劈社的窘境。乾隆年间知县王椿在缺少土地记录的情况下,采用"顺庄法"重整地方组织,缓解赋税征收的困境。以百姓实际居住的"庄",取代官方登记的里甲组织"社",作为税收登记与征收的基本单位。同时,这也形成了山东以"村庄"为基层组织的地方社会。因南北土地分布状况的差异,顺庄法在山东与江南显示出不同的形态与结果。     

驰骋西北的平阳商帮

平阳商帮作为晋商的一支,明清两代是其发展的重要阶段,清末民初逐渐由繁盛走向衰落。平阳商帮经贸西路,其经营地点基本为丝绸之路沿线城市如西安、兰州、银川、武威、酒泉、西宁等,其经营行业涉及盐业、冶铁业、布业、烟业及茶叶等。明朝"开中法"的实施为平阳商人经贸西路拉开了序幕,丝路贸易的繁荣吸引平阳商人前去经商,"互通有无"的商业模式给平阳商人提供了商机,便利的交通亦是平阳商人经贸西路的重要条件。     

Negotiations of Irish identity in the wake of terrorism: the case of the Irish in Birmingham 1973–74

This article explores the Irish migrant experience in Birmingham during and in the wake of terrorist campaigns carried out in Britain between 1969 and 1975 and attributed to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Beginning with a discussion of the competencies with which Irishness was associated at the close of the 1960s in England, many of which were hinged on a notion of the Irish predisposition towards violence, the article continues on to take the political, cultural and religious “temperature” of the Irish community in Birmingham between 1969 and 1975, and follows on with a discussion of the specific strategies sought out by Irish immigrants to come to terms with the effect of events such as the “Birmingham Bombings” on their daily lives. Principle findings that emerge from the study indicate that IRA terrorism forced the Irish in Birmingham to engage with and adopt a number of distinct linguistic and cultural strategies in the post-1974 period, the cultivation of which indefinitely altered their relationship with Ireland as “home”, their visibility in the public British sphere and their associational patterns and practices within the migrant enclave.     

Countering Violent Extremism in Indonesia: Bringing Back the Jihadists

While Indonesia’s efforts at countering violent extremism have enjoyed some successes, a section of its Islamist community remains committed to militant jihadism. The return from overseas of hundreds of militants linked to ISIS means that there is now a greater need than ever for interventions to prevent radicalisation – and for programs to reintegrate militants back into society. Drawing on 20 selected interviews with former jihadists, this article asks how successful official efforts have been at disengaging those convicted under Indonesia’s Anti-Terrorism Law from violent extremism. A significant minority remain welded to a militant mindset: “committed jihadists” who are likely to reoffend. Some former jihadists have “disengaged provisionally” but remain vulnerable: they have only disengaged for tactical or practical reasons. Yet some have also begun to disengage emotionally. While they may not disavow completely the use of force, these “provisionally deradicalised” activists have moved closer to that minority of interviewees who are “fully deradicalised”. Using this four-part typology of the pathways by which some militant jihadists have disengaged but others have not, this article finds that disengagement is a gradual process shaped by social networks. Consequently, it is suggested that a variety of methods be used to promote disengagement both before and after inmates leave prison.     

Finding Thoreau in French Canada: The Ideological Legacy of the American Revolution

Henry David Thoreau’s Yankee in Canada is easily overlooked. Because it is so selective in its depiction of life in the St. Lawrence River valley, historians of mid-nineteenth-century Canada have shown little interest in Thoreau’s first-hand account. To American readers, it offers little of the characteristic Thoreau found in Walden and Resistance to Civil Government. Yet, it is highly significant as an expression of national self-definition. Thoreau borrowed themes at least as old as the American Revolution when noting the pernicious rule of Catholic and British power in Canada. He set out to expose the promise of republican values by emphasizing the contrast between these and the poor and morally stunted life under Old World institutions. His work must therefore be interpreted as a call to his audience to commit more deeply than ever to the ideals that animated the Great Republic’s founding moment. It must also stand as a civic interpretation of American nationality at a time when this perspective was waning. Before long, Old World peoples would be racialized and the ideological embrace of the republican values advanced by Thoreau would no longer suffice in making American citizens.     

The Dor 2001/1 Byzantine Shipwreck,Israel: final report

Dor 2001/1 was a Byzantine coaster, about 16.9 m long, with an estimated displacement of 50 tonnes, dated to the first third of the 6th century CE, and loaded with building stones. It was excavated over five seasons, recorded under water, and a section of the shipwreck was retrieved and studied on land. The hull construction was based on frames without any type of planking edge‐fasteners. It is thus among the earliest frame‐based shipwrecks found so far in the Mediterranean. The origin of its construction tradition, with flat frames amidships, hard chine and straight sides, might have been related to a riverine tradition.