Frontiers’ violence: The interplay of state of exception,frontier habitus,and organized violence

As global capitalism is expanding to the most remote areas of the world, the notion of “frontier”, where competing social orders are contesting each other, is gaining traction in academic analyses. Contemporary frontiers are associated with resource exploitation in marginalized spaces and processes of socioecological transformation, which are characterized as particularly violent. This article offers a conceptual contribution to the frontier debate by putting violence in the center of a frontier concept. Building on a sociology of violence, this approach assumes that every social order comes with some form of organized violence. We argue that the frontier is characterized by a tidal passage: Existing orders and their institutions, which socially embed and constrain a particular use of violence, are challenged by an expansive order which comes along with new formations of violence, leading to a reorganization of violence. Thus the frontier describes a momentum in which the interplay of social order and organized violence becomes highly disputed. Representatives of the expansive order refuse to recognize existing orders and favour a state of exception, in which law is set aside to impose the new order.     

Unsettling sovereignty: Violence,myths and the politics of history in the Ethiopian Somali metropolis

An increasingly consolidated anthropological scholarship has moved from a legal notion of sovereignty towards an analysis of its violent enactment. Yet, it has paid insufficient attention to the ways in which the idea of sovereignty forms and operates in localized political struggles. Taking seriously Bonilla’s (2017) call for the “unsettling” of sovereignty, this article scrutinizes how ideas of legitimate rule have formed around myths of violence in the capital of the Ethiopian Somali region. It uses ethnographic material to examine the politics of history around material constructions through which myths of violence are entangled with the city's landscape of memory. It reveals sovereignty in the process of formation, becoming culturally and materially grounded in the myths of violence of an emerging Somali nation within the ethnic federal Ethiopian state. This article argues that past claims to sovereignty continue to affect the politics of history, with profound consequences for ongoing nation-state building projects and the corresponding territorial imaginations. It thus highlights the inherently fragile nature of ideas of state sovereignty in the frontier metropolis. On this basis, it contributes to a geographically differentiated anthropology of sovereignty and to an understanding of its co-constitution through violence in the frontier and myths in the metropolis.     

明清时期瑶族向西南边疆及越南、老挝的迁徙

本文对明清时期的瑶族向西南边疆及越南、老挝等东南亚国家的迁徙进行了探讨。认为明清时期,由于封建统治阶级的政治压迫和经济剥削,以及刀耕火种游耕生产方式、自然灾害等方面的原因,瑶族被迫从湖南及湘粤桂边界大规模向西南边疆及东南亚一带迁徙,并由此而引起瑶族人口和其文化中心的转移,形成新的文化特征,瑶族亦由此而成为跨境民族。     

10世纪前中国西北边疆发展的几个特点

10世纪前的中国西北边疆经历了开拓、稳定和演变等过程,构成了一个相对完整的发展阶段,边疆发展的各种形态与主要特点尽皆呈现。南农北牧既是西北边疆的基本经济形态,也是历史上中原农业王朝与北方游牧民族角逐态势延伸的主要依据;在作为边疆主体的中原或内地王朝、客体的西域地区和旁体的北方游牧民族等三个主要因素的共同作用下,西北边疆的政治地理范围时有伸缩,而多种统治体制并存、边疆问题与民族问题一体化等特点也贯穿于这一时期西北边疆发展的整个过程。     

古代治边观念的研究内容与主要特点

本文对古代治边观念的研究内容和主要特点进行了探讨。认为古代治边观念是中国古代逐步形成的关于边疆、历史疆域形成与管辖及相关问题的处理,在态度、方略和措施方面的一系列认识。其研究内容十分丰富,大体上包括古代边疆观、古代治边观以及对其他边疆有关问题的认识观三个主要方面。治边观念的特点主要有对历代边疆施治产生了深刻影响;与国势兴衰相关联;中原王朝与边疆政权的治边观念有一定差异;经历了发展演变的过程。     

古代西北疆域研究若干问题的思考

古代西北疆域是我国疆域的重要组成部分,对古代西北疆域的研究也是边疆史地研究中的重点之一。本文分析了西北疆域研究中应该注意的几个问题,认为以动态的标准确定我国不同时期的历史疆域是研究西北疆域的基本前提;西北疆域地位不断演变,是西北疆域变迁史的基本特点之一,也是西北疆域形成过程的基本形式。同时,文章还就民族、地理环境、国防安全等方面说明了西北疆域形成和发展的内在原因。     

两汉边防战略思想的发展及其主要特征

本文认为两汉的边防战略思想经历了一个发展演变的过程 :西汉前期 ,奉行“黄老学说” ,采用南抚北守、以防为主的战略思想 ;自汉武帝起 ,“尊儒”“重法” ,实行主力伐胡、开拓边疆的战略 ;东汉前期 ,在“柔道”治国方针的指导下 ,实行保境安民、俱存不扰的战略思想 ,废除更戍役制度 ,大力调整边防力量 ;东汉中后期 ,公卿大臣“多近儒” ,实行“恩信招降”、“以夷制夷”的战略思想 ,着力于组建与增设营兵 ,大量使用属国兵等。在不同历史阶段 ,由于形势不同 ,边防战略思想有别 ,战略思想的文化特征和所产生的效果、影响也各有不同。     

明代羁縻卫所制述论

羁縻卫所制是明朝政府为了实现对西北和东北边疆地区及民族的有效统治 ,而创设的一种地方管理模式 ,与同一时期推行于西南地区的土司制有所不同。文章从羁縻卫所的设立、明朝政府的管理措施、羁縻卫所的特点及其历史作用等四个方面 ,对这一问题进行了分析和探讨。强调指出该项制度的推行和实施 ,对维持明朝北部边疆的相对稳定 ,促进边疆民族的交流与融合 ,起了积极作用。     

The bishop and the Basques: The diocese of Calahorra and the Basque provinces of Alava and Vizcaya under Bishop Rodrigo Cascante, 1147–1190

Under Bishop Rodrigo Cascante (1147–90), the northern Iberian diocese of Calahorra made its first significant administrative inroads into Alava and Vizcaya since its nominal assimilation of those Basque provinces around 1090. An examination into the fluctuating history of Calahorra's administrative penetration of its Basque provinces during this period highlights the extreme difficulty of this undertaking, which was severely hampered by the opposition of a strong Basque regional nobility. It also reveals a close connection between the fluctuations that characterized Calahorra's administrative fortunes north of the Ebro and the see's turbulent political context, defined by its position straddling a volatile frontier between Castile, Navarre and Aragon. Finally, it provides a useful opportunity to analyse Rodrigo Cascante's changing relationships with the secular powers that competed for the territory of his Riojan see. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the bishop of Calahorra was not a passive partner in these relationships, but actively adjusted his stance with respect to the crowns of Castile and Aragon, primarily in function of how well they did, or might, contribute to the realization of his Basque agenda.     

北洋时期参战军(边防军)、西北边防军研究

随着直皖矛盾激化,段祺瑞为了维持在北京政府中的地位及完成南北统一,以中国对德宣战参加一战为契机,在日本的经济和军事援助下,编练了参战军(一战结束后改称边防军)。约同一时期,皖系干将徐树铮编练了西北边防军。1920年直皖战争爆发,边防军和西北边防军均不同程度卷入。皖系战败后,两军除少数阵亡,部分被遣散外,余部被直奉瓜分,最终归于消亡。