Hidden in plain sight: mixed methods and the marble orchards of the Vlach Rom (Gypsies) in Toledo,Ohio

While American Romanies live a remarkably secretive cultural existence, their grave locations and memorial stones offer accessible evidence about their history and active, on-going communities. This article elaborates a less-intrusive ethnographic method that uses Romani cemetery data to explore and map the distributions and social networks of American Romani communities. This case study identifies Vlach Rom memorial sites located in Toledo, Ohio's Calvary Catholic Cemetery. Data were gathered on the memorials and spatially cataloged using a global positioning system (GPS). Additionally, genealogical data on the families were collected whenever available in order to construct and map family networks. Conjectures explaining the spatial distribution were tested by empirically investigating geographic information system (GIS) maps of different gravesite attributes. Land availability was the most likely factor determining the distribution. Evidence of Toledo Rom history and cultural practices were also gathered and reviewed from a qualitative analysis of the memorial stones. These discoveries have the potential to advance Romany studies—by applying modern analytic tools, GPS and GIS hardware and software to reveal otherwise “hidden” knowledge.     

The formation of secondary education in Israel, 1948–1964

As in most areas of Israeli historiography, studies in the history of the educational system rely mostly on sources concerning the leaders of the system, and above all, the political arena. However, quite surprisingly, the Israeli government had almost no part in the formation of the secondary education system. With no legal or budgetary sanctions, the Ministry of Education had no authority over the multitude of institutions. High schools were founded according to the parents’ demand for education, and maintained by their tuition fees, without any governmental intervention. Thus, any historical account of the system and its ramifications should take into consideration that it was shaped not by politics and ideology, but by an “Invisible Hand.”     

Poor Relief,Taxes and the First Universal Pension Reform: the origin of the Swedish welfare state reconsidered

In the year 1900, Sweden probably had the oldest population in the contemporary world. It was also the first nation to implement a universal pension system in 1913. The universal character in early social legislation has certainly been decisive for the development of the Swedish welfare state. This alternative has not been self-evident. Why did the reforms turn universal, when the continental model, the Bismarck social security system, was exclusively directed at industrial workers? Research has concentrated on demographic factors and growing demands for social security, or on the fact that Sweden was still a predominantly rural society with about 2,400 local authorities. This article examines the development of social legislation in the light of local government expenditures and incomes, and suggests an overlooked possibility: the formulation of the first universal national social security reform was a redistributional response to uneven distribution of incomes and general expenditures among the rural districts in Sweden.     

The emergence of Baltic Moorkultur: visions of scientific-technological mastery of peatlands in the age of great social change, 1850–1914

ABSTRACT

This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracing the emergence of Baltic Moorkultur in Estonia and Livonia from the 1850s to the early 1910s. Baltic Moorkultur, a set of modern drainage and peat extraction techniques, has been viewed as part of a modernisation process and evolving visions of future, which touched the identity of Baltic German landowners, scientists and entrepreneurs. General reasons for an impetus for the large-scale reclamation of peatlands were the growth of population, economic liberalisation, growing demand for fuels and the fact that the basis of manorial economy gradually crumbled and led to increasing urge to modernise its source of livelihood. Baltic Moorkultur can be thought as a high-tech response of that time to the exploitation of peatlands. This article explains why it became adopted and how it altered the appraisal of environments that had been perceived as suboptimal.     

山东临沂吴白庄汉画像石墓

山东临沂吴白座汉画像石墓由墓道、墓门、墓室、回廊、耳室组成,出土了少量随葬品和大量画像石材,画面内容丰富,主题鲜明,雕刻技法婚熟,线条流畅,为我们研究汉代的政治、经济、宗教信仰等提供了宝贵的实物资料。     

Immaculate Consumption: A Critique of the “Shop till you drop” School of Human Behavior

Consumer behavior and choice models have assumed a major role in historical archaeology. Recent interest in consumption is an honest attempt to move beyond an emphasis on production. Consumer models have clear material referents, making them useful in historical archaeology. These models, however, separate production from consumption, and privilege the autonomous individual as the preferred unit of analysis. They also reinforce and validate ideologies that obscure inequalities and power relations in modern society. For us the important issue is how people reproduce themselves as social beings. Focusing on social reproduction integrates both production and consumption.     

1850-1880年越南社会整合情况之分析

近代越南社会的政治制度日趋僵化和阮氏王朝统治者的因循守旧 ,历史上固有的家族和村社制导致了狭隘的价值利益观的形成 ,基督教在越南的传播和发展而滋生出的新的矛盾和冲突 ,这些因素交相并织 ,妨碍了近代越南社会的整合 ,加剧了封建制度的危机 ,引起社会的急速衰退并最终沦为法国的殖民地     

《从巴黎到伯尔尼》:恩格斯的一份社会调查

对原始献和目击记录进行认真的分析,以便深入了解历史事件与人物的真实面目,这是历史科学的传统。恩格斯的《从巴黎到伯尔尼》正是一篇具有珍贵的社会史史料价值的目击记录。在这篇未完成的手稿中,恩格斯给了法兰西有关地区的风土人情以较好的评价。它是当时法国的社会情景、民间心态与自然风貌的写真,是后人研究法国近代历史的宝贵资料。     

关于中国早期国家的几个问题

目前学术界对有关中国早期国家的概念存在着分歧.我们认为中国早期国家是指夏商周三代已具备公共权力,但社会仍滞留在居民血缘组织基础之上的政治组织.所谓中国在龙山时代就已出现了早期国家的说法是不能成立的.至于中国早期国家的产生,则是走的部落联盟酋长因其职务的“独立化“转变为“社会主人“这样一条路径.