When the personal becomes political: using legal reform to combat violence against women in Ethiopia

This article focuses on Ethiopia's first civil society organisation, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), which has been campaigning for legal reform to secure women's rights and address violence against women. Implementing legal changes to benefit women in Ethiopia is impeded by difficulties in using the formal legal system, by poverty and deeply embedded gender inequalities, by plural legal systems, and by entrenched cultural norms. However, the article argues that the most significant challenge is the increasing degree of authoritarianism in Ethiopian state politics, that this is crucial in determining the space for activism, and that this shapes the successful implementation of legal change. The research shows how women's activism around personal rights challenges public/private and personal/political boundaries and can be seen as a political threat by governments in contexts where democracy and rule of the law are not embedded, leading to repression of women's activism and hindering the implementation of measures to protect women's rights when states become more authoritarian. Little is known empirically about the impact of democratisation on the implementation of measures to protect women's rights in Africa. This article shows how the emergence of democracy and legal reform intersects with the emergence of women's rights, especially with respect to gender-based violence. It shows how trying to secure women's personal right to be free from violence through the law is profoundly political and argues that the nature of democratisation really matters in terms of the implementation of measures such as legal changes designed to protect women's rights.     

明清文献中的“纸赎”和“纸赎银”

现有著作对明清文献中常见的法律术语＂纸赎＂和＂纸赎银＂的解释多有不妥,这两个词语既与商人抵押借款无关,也不是一般用来赎罪的罚金,而是诉讼费的名称,后来成为官吏科敛的一个名目。     

旅游者异地行为及其社会控制——基于文化差异视角的文献述评

本文按以下思路对Annals of Tourism Research（1982～2006）、Tourism Management（1998～2008）和其它资料中有关旅游者异地行为的文献作了述评：以文化差异为视角,从旅游者异地行为的概念出发,运用决定论、从众论、拥挤论、设计论等理论分析旅游者的异地行为;根据默顿的越轨行为理论把旅游者异地行为归纳为遵从行为、创新行为、从众行为、隐退行为、反叛行为五类;从若干角度论述旅游者异地行为差异产生的原因;从礼俗和法理的角度探讨旅游者异地行为的控制。在此基础上提出了若干研究启示。     

武田泰淳的文学发端

武田泰淳不仅是一位热衷于中国文学研究的知识分子,也是日本文坛“战后派”卓有成就的作家之一。本文旨在通过对武田特殊人生历程的分析,客观审视其第一次战时体验和评传《司马迁》的创作背景,以期更加清晰地阐释武田文学的发端及其现实意义。     

毕竟高歌能拔剑——论祁寯藻诗的师法渊源和诗歌意象

祁寯藻是清代道、成、同三朝帝师,位居首辅,影响整个咸丰初期的政局走向。他在政事之余作诗,出之以性情,寯平生哀乐于诗中,展示出晚清特定的时代风貌与文人士大夫的心态。他是宋诗派领袖,诗歌除宗法杜甫、韩愈、苏轼外,尤其推崇白居易,在师法渊源上独具特色。在表情达意方面,则常借助“剑”“春晖“‘萱草”等意象,形成个性鲜明的抒情体系。     

从《张家山汉简》谈汉初的户赋与户刍

本文从《张家山汉简》所出汉初法律条文着手,对汉初户赋和户刍的性质进行了细致分析,指出二者是一种特殊性质的户税,具有税率很轻的特点。由此,进一步探讨了汉代户税的演变过程,认为文景与武帝时期社会状况的变化是导致汉代户税不断加重又突然消失的重要原因。     

农业起源与“广谱革命”理论的变迁

广谱革命是国际学界农业起源研究的一个重要理论概念,自20世纪60年代以来被广泛用来指导中石器时代人类觅食策略和经济形态的变迁研究,并取得了显著的成果。在后来的半个世纪里,这一概念被不断的检验、充实和提高,并不断受到新材料的挑战。目前,过渡阶段的经济变迁也日益受到中国考古学界的关注,深入了解这一概念的发展,有助于我们提高研究水准,为我国的农业起源研究提供有益的理论指导。     

从史源学角度判断佯僙诸史的史料价值

记载佯僙的历代史书中,只有明代三大《贵州通志》是可信的,其他史书都是抄撮而成,是失实的。应从明代三通志中疏理材料,使佯僙的研究能进一步深入。     

Bone Hairpins at the Yinxu Site: Types,Origin & Development,and Functions

Unearthed bone hairpins from Yinxu, large in number and varying in type, are both utilitarian and symbolic in function. They were mainly buried with a small number of nobles, most of whom were female. This might demonstrate that the common burial custom at Yinxu was leaving hair untied after death. Buried bone hairpins are indicators of social status. A large number of bone hairpins unearthed from dwelling contexts suggests the Shang people’s preference for them, a continuous tradition since the Xiaqiyuan culture, indicating distinguishable hierarchy. Bone hairpins from Yinxu were necessary for daily life but also prestige goods, indicating differentiation in status, wealth, and hierarchy. Bone hairpins of the Yinxu style were used until the Western Zhou period. However, the rituality and symbolism behind the material gradually disappeared, which can be viewed as a material manifestation of reforms in power and ritual during the Shang and Zhou periods.     

Planning,Law, and Sexuality: Hiding Immorality in Plain View

Emerging research in sexuality and space outlines the diverse forms of spatial governmentality used to discipline non‐normative sexual behaviours, exploring how exclusion, concealment, and repression combines to ensure that ‘immoral’ sexualities are out of the sight of the ‘moral majority’. In this paper, we explore this contention in relation to planning for sex service premises (brothels) in New South Wales, Australia. Though such sex service premises are now legal, our analysis nonetheless considers the way that these premises have been subject to forms of planning constraint that reflect planners' assumptions about the appropriate manifestation of sex premises within the urban landscape. By exposing the assumptions written into planning law that sex premises are legal but potentially disorderly, we demonstrate the evidential power of planning to reinforce dominant moral geographies through instruments which, at first glance, appear to be focused on objective questions of amenity and the ‘best use of land’. This paper hence explores the ways in which planners have translated assumptions of disorder into categories of visibility and distance, meaning that brothels have become hidden in plain view so as not to disturb the integrity of residential ‘family’ spaces.