Coconut Crisis in Kerala? Mainstream Narrative and Alternative Perspectives

India's oilseeds sector, which includes its coconut economy, experienced drastic changes in the wake of agricultural liberalization in the mid‐1990s. A persistent coconut crisis ‘narrative’ emerged after sharp price declines between 2000 and 2002 in which small farmers in the state of Kerala, India's main coconut producer, were identified as victims of the liberalized importation of cheap palm oil. This article describes this crisis narrative based on a literature review of academic and official reports, and challenges its problem analysis by juxtaposing it with information from ethnographic research with local farmers and traders. The research indicates that local labour shortages and increased regional competition also had a strong impact on Kerala's coconut market, production and processing, which varied from region to region. Furthermore, small farmers, with their diversified livelihoods, did not recognize a ‘crisis’ as such. Drawing upon the ‘advocacy coalition framework’, the article also indicates reasons for the emergence and persistence of the coconut crisis narrative and points to complex processes of restructuring social space in the age of globalization.     

《法苑珠林》与君臣观

隋唐时代,随着中国封建社会进入了鼎盛时期,佛教的发展,也在中国佛教史上达到了顶峰.如果说唐代佛教繁荣的标志是其思想内涵的丰富,那么其外在的表现形式之一就是类书在佛教典籍中的使用.类书体例自魏晋南北朝出现后,在佛教典籍中也逐渐兴起,许多高僧大德的著述使用了类书体例.     

史学比较研究如何可能？——刘家和先生《史学、经学与思想》初读记

如何进行中西方史学比较研究以及在新的世界史背景下认识中国史学传统,是当今中国历史学界面临的重要问题,海内外学人倍加关注。刘家和先生长期从事希腊、印度与中国的古史研究,近些年来开始从思想的层面检视中西方史学,因为有着深厚的古史研究基础与通贯中西的理论修为,刘先生总能见人所不能见,于中西史学颇多新识,尤其是在方法上多能予人以启导。当然,由于中西方语文背景与思想进路的迥然不同,双方史学的比较研究,特别是西方的逻辑理性与中国的历史思维如何对接与融通,仍然存在诸多值得进一步深思的问题。     

想念红妹

仲春二月,天气乍阴乍晴,寒意没有马上要减退的样子,校园里还是一片灰黄,望得久了,有一种眼酸的感觉。柳枝藏芽,生怕冻坏了嫩生生的身体,山雀也更愿躲在窝里享清福,不想出来活动,     

上博简《诗论》“《汉广》之智”与《诗·汉广》篇探论——并论儒家情爱观的若干问题

上海博物馆藏战国楚竹书的第一部分,即《诗论》,其第10号简和第13号简都提到《汉广》一诗,并且进行了较多评析.这对于解决聚讼不已的《诗@汉广》的"游女"身份及诗旨等问题有很大启示.分析《汉广》诗意,可见诗人实在"不可得"与"不可能"之间犹豫徘徊.事物的"可能"与"不可能",并不受礼义界限的影响,而是基本上与礼义无关的事情.然而,事物的"可得"与"不可得"则是礼义影响的结果.《诗论》简,对于《汉广》一诗的评析在所有关于情爱诗篇的说解中显得尤为深刻而重要.孔子对于《汉广》的评析,与《韩诗外传》、《说苑》所记遇浣女事皆表明了孔子的情爱观.其情爱观的中心是赞成男女在礼义的范围内的情爱,提倡在可能的情况下对于爱情大胆追求,而不是对于男女情爱予以排诋.男女间必须授受不亲"],应当有一条不可逾越的鸿沟,这只是后儒之见,孔子之时尚未出现.     

Disability and Social Inclusion: The Blind Songstress in Early Twentieth-Century Guangzhou

This article examines disability as a contested notion of social inclusion by focusing on the blind songstress (guji) in early twentieth-century Guangzhou (Canton). Through personal memoirs, the print press, and institutional documents, this article reconstructs the social life of guji as their experiences intersected with professional community, workplace, and charity. First, I show that the adoption of blind girls from families into training guilds managed by veteran guji was a chosen kinship strategy for blind women since the late Qing period. Second, the commercial sponsorship of guji following the establishment of the Republic not only expanded working opportunities for blind women but also exposed their vulnerability to male-dominated entertainment spheres. Third, the reformist critique of guji as an inappropriate form of sex-related consumption pushed the nascent military government to collaborate with foreign missionaries in “rescuing” blind girls from their professional households. The experiences of guji thus reveal competing ideas of what qualified a disabled person to become a member of society at the beginning of the twentieth century, as work-based inclusion gave way to charitable inclusion as an outcome of shifting social attitudes toward the employment of women with disabilities.     

中古时期肥水与巢湖流域连通问题考辨

本文重点讨论在中古时期是否存在沟通肥水、巢湖两流域河道(包括自然与人工)的问题。《水经注》认为存在,而且不止一条。后人踵其说而不加考察,最终积非成是。本文在仔细梳理历代正史、地理书、古地图和方志的基础上,结合前人研究成果、实地考察资料,主要从历史文献记载和实际地理状况两方面进行考证分析,对自《水经注》以来的这种说法加以否定。本文认为在中古时期,肥水、巢湖两流域始终是没能连通的。     

The origins of the modern emotions: Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and the embodied mind

In the history of European ideas, Princess Elisabeth is conventionally viewed as little more than a curiosity, a clever but ultimately unimportant exiled princess who became the confidant, critic, and muse of a far more famous man, René Descartes. Contrary to this view, however, this article argues that Elisabeth made a significant contribution to the development of western philosophy in her own right. Drawing on her letters to Descartes, as well the diaries and correspondence of her associates and a range of secondary sources, it demonstrates that an early understanding of the modern emotions akin to that which later found form in the work of the moral sentiment theorists can be found in Elisabeth’s thought. In particular, drawing on her understanding of the embodied mind, Elisabeth of Bohemia began to develop a hybrid understanding of the passions, identified a role for the emotions in the pursuit of virtue, and began to reconceive the relationship between reason and the emotions that had until then dominated seventeenth-century thought.     

为改革开放树碑立传的佳志——《天津经济技术开发区志》读后

入伏初日,收到了自渤海湾畔寄来的《天津经济技术开发区志》（以下简称《泰达志》）,顿时眼前一亮,尽管暑热难耐,然疲乏之气顿消。细细品读,不禁有感而发。     

10年来华侨支援祖国抗战研究述评

学术界对华侨支援祖国抗战的研究已经相当深入,截至1995年抗战胜利50周年时,已经出版全面论述华侨支援祖国抗战的研究著作5部①,专题研究著作2部,文章有二三百篇,详细情况请见笔者撰写出版的有关研究综述②.下面将1995年至2005年,即从抗战胜利50周年到60周年这10年间,华侨支援祖国抗战研究的新进展作一介绍.