民俗的表演性:表演理论、活态传承与公共文化实践

表演理论是20世纪美国民俗学对于学界的重要贡献,其核心是"表演"和"语境"。在表演理论提出以后,民俗学经历了从关注文本向强调语境的转向,使得以差异性为基础的本真性再次成为学术研究的中心议题。然而,在随后以"语境"为中心的研究实践中,研究者们逐渐开始质疑本真性问题存在的逻辑合理性以及在实际民俗活动中的可操作性,研究重点也由此从辨析民俗事象的真伪,转变为讨论本真性背后的权力关系和文化政治。正是基于对"本真性"的祛魅,在当代非物质文化遗产保护的具体实践中,学术话语所追求的本真性与实际操作中的共享原则之间的矛盾,便因此而消解,这为当代公共民俗学实践提供了去语境化和再语境化的理论支撑和实操可能。在此,以行动认同为旨归的"表演"(形式)在"语境"(意义)的"式微"中重新凸显,实现了民俗传统的实践回归。     

Crouching tigers hidden dragons: on the myth of the two birth signs

Sensational reports on the number of newborn in the years of tiger and dragon have aroused great concerns among certain governments. Substantial social cost will be incurred if any age group diminishes or multiplies out of proportion. This article clarifies the facts concealed underneath those breathtaking anecdotes. The statistics of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, where people have strong passion for the birth sign dragon and distaste for tiger, shows that there are neither shrinking tiger nor bulging dragon cohorts for the newborn or the whole population.     

Caught between extremes: the culture and economics of traditional mask art in contemporary Sri Lanka

In contemporary Sri Lanka, the commodification of local mask production resulting from cultural tourism has caught the traditional mask artisan in a tight spot between “tradition” and “modernity”. The impacts of tourism are diversely received and interpreted within the local mask artisan community, with tourism simultaneously resulting in what can be called a “cultural discovery” and “cultural decline”. Within this cultural debate, this paper is an attempt to understand how the traditional mask artisan arrives at a balance between “tradition” and “modernity”, and culture and commerce. Qualitative research conducted in southern Sri Lanka shows that tradition and modernity are shifting conceptions. Negotiating a balance between tradition and modernity is, therefore, largely a matter of meaning and interpretation. When cultural commodification occurs, tradition and modernity are continuously redefined and reinvented by both the traditional mask artisan and cultural consumer to fit their own needs and agendas. Cultural commodification contributes to the survival and revival of Sri Lanka's mask tradition, a strategy that is simultaneously welcomed and contested within the local mask artisan community.     

The Frankish tradition and new perceptions of the monarchy: Louis XV—the new pharamond?

During the last century of the ancien régime in France, perceived notions of history, the rediscovery of the past, and the recourse to tradition were closely linked to each other as well as to political considerations or implications. Notions about the past and interpretations of tradition had relevance and meaning for the political élites, enabling them to explain the origins of the monarchy as well as its nature. The purpose here is to explore these links and to show how, in one particular instance, they came to affect the artistic representation of the monarch himself.     

Judgment,Tradition and Reason: A Response

Abstract

The author of The Desire of the Nations (DN) and The Ways of Judgment (WJ) responds to the criticisms and questions of the eight other contributors, defending his concept of government-as-judgment and exploring questions about international law and contemporary pluralism.     

Jasbir K. Puar,Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times

The importance of studying human–animal relationships and animal subjectivity is increasingly recognised by social and cultural geographers, particularly in agricultural pursuits. Little research, however, has been undertaken on animals in sport, resulting in a limited understanding of the perceptions and treatment of animals in society. To address this concern, we interrogate print media coverage of the construction and positioning of horses and humans in the controversial activity of jumps racing (National Hunt) in Australia between February 2008 and December 2009. We highlight the importance of seemingly contradictory human–animal relationships involving close frequent contact of some jumps racing advocates in contrast to the distanced, mediated relationships of jumps racing opponents. This paper highlights how the particular activity of jumps racing generates specific human–animal relationships and emphasises the need to reflect on the attitudes that shape and constrain human–animal relationships in varying contexts, including how these attitudes are mediated and the potential consequences for humans and other animals. These findings form the basis for a suggested research agenda that recognises the importance and articulation of proximity and mediation in human–animal relationships, particularly those focused on activities labelled ‘sport’.     

Michael Polanyi's Social/Political Order: Design for a Society of Explorers

Abstract

Michael Polanyi's fascinations throughout his lifetime were threefold: (1) science—specifically physical chemistry; (2) philosophy—specifically epistemology and ontology; and (3) political society, understood, in the British tradition, to include economics. In developing his recommendations for political society, Polanyi draws broadly upon insights and even concepts from his experiences and reflections in both science and philosophy. His search for meaning in all of his philosophical works provides for him the definition of what he considers the most important human endeavor and is that which the political order must strive to encourage and protect. In addition, the gratification he found in the collegiality and conviviality of scientific research, conducted most productively in what Polanyi identified as “societies of explorers,” suggested to him the diverse groups—as in science, “polycentrically” ordered—and engaged in all kinds of productive activities that came to represent, for him, the grassroots source of a society's creative vitality. Having come to appreciate the necessity of freedom for scientific discovery, freedom became a paramount value in the model he proposed for political society. But this freedom, he realized, had to operate within the boundaries of legal and moral constraint if it was not to dissolve into the oppressions of anarchy. So we find in Polanyi's model of political society a dynamic very similar to that which he had developed in his epistemology: an indwelling of tradition for the purpose of social stability but also a “breaking-out” of established ways to engage in creative endeavors. Similarly, as Polanyi had recognized higher and lower “orders” of existence in his ontology that were necessary for the “emergence” of more comprehensive and novel entities, “greater than the sum of their parts,” he provided for a similar vertical, or qualitative, “layering” in his social order. These insights, and more, that Polanyi draws from his scientific and philosophical reflections in the process of constructing his model of a political society are what I attempt to develop in this essay.     

In sickness or in health? Assessment of Early Iron Age human skeletons from Toutswe sites,east central Botswana

The general health of Early Iron Age (AD 700 to 1300) mixed farmers in east central Botswana has not been studied before. In this study the bones and teeth of 84 individuals from ten Toutswe sites were analysed for osteological manifestations of disease, with the aim of assessing the general health of the Toutswe communities. These individuals were aged between newborn and 75 years old, and include both sexes. Results indicate the presence of diseases commonly found in archaeological populations such as osteoarthritis, spina bifida occulta, cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis and enamel hypoplasias. One possible case of DISH was found. The frequency of lesions was comparable with or even lower than at other similar sites, such as K2 and Mapungubwe and other parts of southern Africa. The samples represent communities with relatively low levels of stress and infections. This seems to support the results of the palaeodemographic analysis, which indicated that the Toutswe people were better off than those of neighbouring K2 and Mapungubwe. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

人文主义地理学与地理学人本传统的复兴

实证主义地理学是通过"认识论翻转"确定均质化空间而保证其有效性的,这在根本上规定了实证主义方法论中人文世界的隐没。人类科学理性的缔造经过"认识论翻转",确保了其割裂人文世界的普世价值观,并随着实证主义在近现代的成功和学科建制化而得到制度保障。这一历程在显示实证主义对地理学神圣指导作用的同时,暗含了其对地理学分工的不适。在"认识论翻转"层面上,人文主义地理学对地理学研究传统进行了"否思":①重新评估了地理学的本体论问题,使人文世界定位于地理学研究领域之内;②发展了针对人文世界的整体主义方法论,但并非对实证主义的反判;③人文主义地理学的立足点伦理和价值是内在的而非实证主义外在的;④人文主义地理学讨论的知识论要求"本体论-认识论与方法论-价值论"的联通以获得具有人性的世界图景。