Itaakpa,a Late Stone Age site in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Itaakpa rockshelter was excavated in three short field seasons, from 1985 to 1988, during which a human maxilla and mandible were found in a context characteristic of the ceramic phase of the West African Late Stone Age (LSA). An AMS date of 2210±80 b.p. was obtained from burned palm kernels from the same level. There was no apparent stratigraphic or archaeological break between this level and the layers above, and the pottery indicates continuity of occupation; the upper part of the sequence compares well with other, more recent, sites known in the area. The dimensions of the human teeth show an affinity with those found at Shum Laka, a rockshelter in southwestern Cameroun, in an archaeological context similar to that at Itaakpa. The site is only the third to be found in Nigeria (along with Iwo Eleru and Rop Rockshelter) where human remains suitable for comparative analysis have been identified in a good stratigraphic context along with LSA artifacts.     

Science, text and space: thoughts on the geography of reading

The idea of a 'geography of reading' provides a potential point of conversation between the cultural and scientific wings of our profession. Here I explore some dimensions of the geography of reading scientific texts. Drawing on a number of theoretical pronouncements – Gadamer's 'fusion of horizons', Said's 'travelling theory', Secord's 'geographies of reading', Beer's 'miscegenation of texts', Fish's 'interpretive communities' and Rupke's 'geographies of reception'– I focus on the spaces where scientific theories are encountered. The argument is that where scientific texts are read has an important bearing on how they are read. This realization points to a fundamental instability in scientific meaning and to the crucial significance of what might be called located hermeneutics. As a case study in the development of a cartographics of scientific meaning, I explore the different ways in which Darwin's fundamentally biogeographical theory of evolution by natural selection was construed in a number of different settings. The sites I have chosen to illustrate this are the scientific communities which congregated around the Charleston Museum of Natural History in South Carolina, the Wellington Philosophical Society and New Zealand Institute, and the St Petersburg Society of Naturalists in Russia during the second half of the nineteenth century. In each case the encounter with evolution theory, and the ways it was interpreted, are shown to have been shaped by local cultural politics, thereby disclosing the critical role that space plays in the production of scientific meaning.     

花园庄东地甲骨卜辞考释三则

花园庄东地甲骨卜辞中“ ”、“ ”和“ ”应分别释作“婉”(虐)、“xiu”和“要”(挍)。     

《石鼓文新解》辩

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通经致用--戴震对经典意义的追求

戴震继承了前代学者的思想,认为只有从字义训诂、名物制度的考释着手,才能读懂圣人大义,以观圣人之道.他认为,经是道的载体,闻道则是治经目的;然语言文字不通,则无从体察圣人之意.因此,戴震注重考证经典的流传、存佚、真伪;重视考订文字,审慎对待经典的校勘;解经知人论世,探求经义则诸说并存,这是他一生的治学心得.本文从治经目的与治经方法两个方面作了阐述.     

高拱著作版本考辨

现存高拱著作十五种,明清时期刊刻过三次：即初刻四十二册本、万历《高文襄公集》四十四卷本和笼春堂《高文襄公文集》八十八卷本。本文对这三个刻本所收书目、编订原则、卷数差别和内容异同等问题作了较为详细的辨析考证。这不仅对我们重新编订校勘《高拱全集》至关重要,而且对研究明史及高拱的政治改革和学术思想也有着重要意义。     

《四库全书总目》考据法则释例

本文全面总结了《四库全书总目》的考据方法,提出了四库馆派的二十九条考据法则,并举例说明。     

《出师颂》的艺术定位

讨论一件古代艺术品价值的前提是对其时代、作者、风格和水平进行比较准确的定位。本文认为章草《出师颂》艺术水平甚高,断非经生所书,以时代风格论亦非出自西晋索靖手笔。应是东晋至初唐之间一位受过二王书风洗礼的大书家的作品。证以智永《真草千字文》,米友仁“隋贤说”可以信从。在传世极罕的隋代法书中,它堪与智永千文比肩而无愧。     

《楚辞补注》校点举正

南宋洪兴祖的《楚辞补注》是现存最重要的楚辞古注之一,其传世版本众多。中华书局在1983年排印出版了《补注》的点校本,该点校本以毛氏汲古阁刻本为底本,由白化文先生等人负责整理。本文通过比勘《补注》的各种版本,同时参校其他相关典籍,列出点校本中存在的校点问题三十多处,以就正于方家。     

乾嘉考据学派对20世纪新历史考据学的影响

20世纪新历史考据学不只是受西方史学影响,而且与乾嘉考据学有直接的联系。乾嘉考据学派与西方近代史学多有相通之处,20世纪的历史考据学治史所采用的理念和方法既来源于西方,也来源于中国传统史学。乾嘉考据学派对近代中国史学产生了重大影响,许多学者传承了乾嘉考据学的精神和方法,在借鉴传统史学优长的基础上引进西方史学的理念与方法,从而构建了新的理论体系。在民族史学近代化过程中,史学的转型离不开民族文化的载体,而乾嘉考据学本身的生命力适应了近代史学转型的要求。