Saints and Sinners: a tephrochronology for Late Antique landscape change in Epirus from the eruptive history of Lipari,Aeolian Islands

Assessing the impact of past human activity on landscape change in the Mediterranean has always presented challenges, requiring sound chronological frameworks for observed environmental change. The current research, focused on the environs surrounding the ancient city of Butrint (southern Albania) during Late Antiquity, c. 4th–6th Century AD, establishes a tephra-based chronology for landscape change through the discovery of ash horizons from a little known eruption on the island of Lipari (Aeolian Islands). Recovered glass shards were geochemically fingerprinted to a 6th Century AD event on the island, dated through local archaeological sequences and corroborated by hagiographic evidence. The presence of this marker horizon at Butrint shows a continuation of open water, estuarine conditions throughout Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period (during which time Butrint ceases to function as an urban centre), disproving the widely held notion of increased soil erosion/deposition as a result of post-Roman landscape degradation. The study also shows that it is following the medieval revival of the town in the 13th Century that marked environmental change takes place, as estuarine areas silt, giving rise to marsh and wetland. The study highlights the importance of using a range of dating techniques to constrain landscape change, while the presence of the 6th Century Lipari tephra in Epirus, derived from an eruptive event larger than previously suspected, provides a useful regional dating marker for future landscape studies.     

新时期中国近代社会史研究评析

20多年来,社会史研究已经成为中国近现代史领域中最令人瞩目的方向。中国近代社会史研究经历了学科复兴、体系建构和稳步发展的三个阶段。中国近代社会史研究的时代特征主要体现为:区域社会史成果突出,其理论研究也日趋深化;近代乡村史研究方兴未艾,走向深入;新理念下的社会性别史引人关注。对于传统的中国近代史学科而言,社会史研究的学术贡献主要表现为三个方面:即突破教条,重构体系;汲取新知,更新方法;三大转向,完成转型。跨学科的交叉渗透、多学科理论方法的汲取,为社会史的进一步发展提供了深广的学理基础和诱人的前景。     

苏州状元谶背后的环境变迁

自宋代以来,苏州地区长期流传着"潮过夷亭出状元"的谶语,并且屡有应验。这一文化现象虽是地域文化发展的结果,但也有着深刻的环境变迁背景,它较为精确地反映了娄江水利形势的历史变迁。在文献丰富的江南地区,类似材料亦不少见,显然,深入发掘、利用此类文献材料,将有利于历史环境变迁的研究。     

麒麟原型与中国古代犀牛活动南移考

麒麟单称麟,又作麐,古文字中作"蔽",古代被视为四灵兽之一。麒麟身上有铠甲式的外表及圆泡钉式的纹斑"肉甲"而被称为"麐"(蔽)或"麟",因有头顶部的一只角而被归于鹿属动物。但据头上独肉角、铠甲式外表、圆泡钉式"肉甲"与马蹄类圆蹄,其原型为印度犀牛。印度犀牛因为气候环境的变迁,不断南移,中原少见,偶尔来至中原,便被认为是因圣王"仁德"而来,这便是麒麟被神化的原因。被称为麒麟的印度犀牛,其生活之地不断南移。商代活动在黄河流域,春秋至秦汉活动在吴越、江汉流域一带,今则仅见于印度东北部和尼伯尔地区。     

社会语用与经济社会发展刍议

语言是社会文化的一面镜子,它以自身的形态反映着社会的发展变化。而社会语用则反映了一个社会的民众文化素质及其道德修养和精神风貌。伴随当今社会的不断变革,语言面貌也正在发生着重大的变化,表现为语言的表现力较之以往更显生动且丰富多彩,但随之也出现了一些污染和损害语言纯洁性的不良倾向。     

个体的社会适应与心理健康的相关性研究

“体质——心理——社会”是较为公认的研究和理解人类健康的模式。心理健康具有个体性和社会性的双重属性,其个体性有发展性和自主性的特点,其社会性有适应性和规范性的特点。社会文化环境作为人们生存的物质条件,同时也是人类生存的心理条件,随着社会的发展,心理——社会因素和情绪刺激对人类的精神健康和躯体健康的影响越来越大,研究人的心理健康状况与社会适应状况、身体健康的互动关系,对于准确评判人们的健康状况及科学有效地保健和预防疾病有着重要的意义。本文主要从人际关系和健康状况的心理归因、医学领域中的心理学演进及其内涵、中国传统文化向心理保健的迁移等三个方面对个体的社会适应和心理健康的相关性进行了研究。     

论法律运行的变量转化关系

法律的运行过程是法律从产生到实施的全部过程,包括法律的制定、遵守、执行三个阶段。如果从观念、制度与行为的关系角度来看待法律运行过程,我们就会发现,法律的运行实际上是从观念到制度,再从制度到观念,最后从观念到行为的变量转化过程。     

明代僧道度牒制度的变迁

明初通过实行度牒制度,将僧道身份之合法确认权归于国家,实现对制度宗教组织成员的掌控,保持世俗政治文化主导地位及相关经济制度之推行。其基本目标,主要包括限制僧道人口、划分僧俗界限、考试授牒。但僧道定额在正统以后被大幅度突破,成化时期因滥度僧道,已经基本失去效力,虽经弘治时期整理,未根本改变趋势。明中叶以后,僧道中有度牒者,当不低于70万人,其无度牒者,又当远多于有度牒者。嘉靖中叶以后,纳银给度成为主要做法,明初制度精神已然丧失。度牒制度变迁与皇室家族信仰倾向及其利益关系密切。有关争论,基本在官僚士大夫与皇帝、后妃、僧道势力间展开,反映出儒家治国理念与佛道信仰之间的严重冲突。度牒制度由社会控制手段蜕变为财政手段,是明朝社会控制力削弱的过程,也是包括社会救助需求在内的财政压力造成的。     

The dynamic nature of social disadvantage: implications for hazard exposure and vulnerability in Greater Vancouver

Urbanization and re-urbanization continually alter spatial patterns of social disadvantage and hazard exposure, which in turn affect social vulnerability. The current study explores vulnerability to hazards in Greater Vancouver over a 15-year period (1986 to 2001). Results illustrate how social disadvantage is multi-dimensional and emerges from the social geography of a city. The study illustrates the speed with which both the structure and spatial patterns of social disadvantage can change in cities experiencing rapid growth or redevelopment. The study also suggests that Greater Vancouver does not display consistent patterns of minority- or income-based environmental inequity in hazard exposure, which raises questions about the role of various policies in ameliorating vulnerability to natural and technological hazards .     

Regulating unemployment the Continental way: the transfer of municipal labour exchanges to Scandinavia 1890–1914

Statistical knowledge, insurance and labour exchanges constituted the principal elements in the policies developed to handle the new social problem of unemployment in the decades before 1914. Political transfer, the exchange of ideas, problems and policies between reformers all over the modern world, contributed heavily to the making of unemployment. This article analyses the introduction of labour exchanges, a German innovation, in the Nordic countries. Special attention is given to the different settings, both extra- and intra-Nordic, for transfer and cross-learning. The aspiration that the municipal labour exchange, providing a free and impartial service to both employers and workers, would reduce unemployment and social tensions explains its swift introduction.