Fording differences? Conditions mitigating water insecurity in the Niger River Basin

River basins are an extremely important source of freshwater for Africa and the impact of climate change on these communities constitutes an important question worth studying. Among these basins, the Niger River Basin is an ideal candidate for meso-level theory testing of climate change-induced political violence because of its importance as one of the largest sources of freshwater in Africa, its high vulnerability to climate change, and its location in a politically unstable region. This paper utilizes the benefits of GIS to test whether effects of water insecurity on the various incidences of political violence are conditional on economic, geographic, and social means of connectivity. Our analysis uses the density of secondary road networks, the geographic distance to the Niger River, and a shared co-ethnicity with one's head-of-state to evaluate the impact of hydrological stress and its subsequent risk for political violence across nine West African countries from 1997 to 2012. Using climatological data and an econometric de-trending method, we measure the separate, substantive impact that individualized changes in precipitation trend and precipitation variability have for the incidence of ACLED's political violence events, conditional on local economic, geographic, and social factors. Our results reveal a complicated web of circumstances under which certain forms of political violence are more/less likely to be observed. The implications of this analysis serve as a call for a closer inspection of the micro-channels by which climate stress impacts heterogeneous communities in the developing world.     

简论曹操对乌桓的征讨及意义

乌桓和袁绍势力的联合是导致曹操征讨乌桓的主要原因之一。在如何对待乌桓的问题上,曹操势力内部意见最初并不统一,但曹操最终采纳了郭嘉的建议,决定出兵乌桓。曹操北征乌桓的胜利,不仅将北疆分立的各政权纳入自己的管辖之下,实现了对北部地区的统一,而且为整军南下,专力于对付割据江东的孙权,以及亡命南方的刘备等解除了后顾之忧,但更重要的是中断了乌桓实现民族统一的历史进程,为乌桓人最终融合于汉等其他民族提供了前提。     

论“朝鲜中华主义”的实与虚

朝鲜后期,北伐论激起朝鲜士大夫小中华意识高度发展,因此有学者将其称为"朝鲜中华主义"。然而从事实来看,朝鲜士大夫虽然有很强的文化自尊意识,但是这种自尊意识是建立在春秋大一统之上的,小中华意识的发展反而使一元的天下观进一步强化,将中华秩序理想化。所以,朝鲜后期小中华意识的发展并不表示朝鲜士大夫以朝鲜为中华之正统或中国之正统,反而继续承认朝鲜为小中华,而在事实上更不证明朝鲜为当时东亚的文化中心国家,所以我们在使用"朝鲜中华主义"概念时尚需仔细斟酌。     

Crude controversies: Disputes along Niger’s petro-infrastructure

The article focuses on spatializing struggles in relation to Niger's new oil infrastructure and shows how it turned public and political. Two different but interconnected perspectives are employed: first, a historical perspective illuminates how economic theories of growth, visions of industrialization, desires for energy autonomy, political projects for constitutional change and infrastructural developments in neighbouring countries were, from the very beginning, entangled in Niger's oil assemblage. These entanglements made the petro-infrastructure political even before it had materialized. Second, by focusing ethnographically on the spatial dispersion of the petro-infrastructure over different administrative regions in Niger, the article examines territorializing processes in which temporally and spatially separated histories of marginalization were stitched together to reconfigure collective identities. These dynamics go beyond existing explanations of resource curse theories, showing how oil acts as a catalyst that accelerates pre-existing dynamics, slowly transforming the socio-political configuration in which it operates in the process.     

今日大海道——大海道考古探险纪实

大海道是古代丝绸之路上连接吐鲁番和敦煌的最近一条路。因道路险阻 ,近现代各种探险活动很难走完全程。新世纪之初 ,我国大海道考古探险队克服重重困难险阻 ,历时11天 ,成功穿越了大海道。文章较为详细地记述了此次探险考察活动的全过程     

The Imperial Visual Archive: Images,Evidence, and Knowledge in the Early Modern Hispanic World

This article examines the role of images as evidence and sources of knowledge in the early modern Hispanic world, arguing for the continued importance of visual epistemology as a technique for producing and circulating knowledge from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Visual materials played a central role in the production of knowledge, scientific and imperial, and served as key instruments for addressing the considerable challenges of distance and place posed by the geographical expanse of the empire. Historiographically, the article highlights the active generation of scientific knowledge in the Hispanic world and connects it to imperial and administrative practices; it highlights trans-regional channels of circulation, demonstrating the connected histories of the viceroyalties and peninsula and the multidirectional trajectories in which information and knowledge moved; and it points out deep connections between earlier and later colonial periods. Methodologically, the essay explores the potential of images as historical sources, suggesting that the high status of images in the early modern Hispanic world led to the creation of an enormous pictorial archive that deserves the same level of scholarly attention and rigor that has been lavished on the textual archive.     

After Emancipation: Thomas Fowell Buxton and Evangelical Politics in the 1830s

After the Emancipation Act of 1833 officially abolished slavery in the British empire, it became clear that the anti‐slavery coalition was even more tenuous than many had believed. The expectations created by reform, and by the previous measures removing disabilities on dissenters and catholics, sent the various elements within the anti‐slavery camp in different directions. This splintering of efforts was especially true of evangelicals in parliament. During the next four years, the anti‐slavery leader, Thomas Fowell Buxton, went through a reorientation as he worked to make sense of his priorities under new political conditions. Although involved with many issues of the day, Buxton came to focus on the plight of aboriginal peoples in the British empire and then formulated his proposals to end African slavery. Buxton's shift represents a larger one for evangelicals in England. While they could not all agree on the benefits or morality of poor law reform or the appropriate way to handle the Irish Church question, most could agree that the peoples coming under British rule should have their rights protected, especially if it opened a way for further missionary activity. By 1840, Buxton's efforts provided a set of concepts and an agenda for many people of otherwise diverse political bent. Domestically, the evangelical communities in Britain might disagree on what policy and programmes served their civilisation best; but they all agreed that Britain's growing empire needed to be directed in a way that promoted christianity and commerce, and hence the spread of ‘civilisation’.     

商汤伐桀路线新探

郑州商城就是商汤所都的亳邑,成乃成皋,戎山就是文献所称的陑山,也即后世的雷首山和中条山。今陕西省合阳县东南一带,是夏桀逃亡的“莘之墟”。鸣条位于今夏县西北和安邑镇以北地带。今河南省陕州市是夏王桀所逃的“南巢氏”,又称“焦门”。今山西夏县为中心的晋南地区古称“夏虚”,是夏王朝统治集团的最后归宿。     

Between Spectacle and Science: The Aurora in Central Europe, 1870s–1880s

Abstract

The article discusses the return and reception of two Austro-Hungarian arctic expeditions in 1874 and 1883, respectively. Both expeditions conducted extensive auroral research. The article focuses on the media discourse of the time: how the expeditions including their scientific aims and outcomes were perceived in the Viennese press and society. The reception given to each of the expeditions and the manner by which each was covered in the press differed greatly; accordingly, the aurora borealis, a quintessential polar phenomenon itself, was ascribed with strikingly dissimilar meanings in the media. Whereas in 1874 domestic interests were projected onto the Arctic, with the aurora symbolizing the monarchy's bright future, in 1883 media attention focused on local events such as the International Electrical Exhibition in Vienna; the Arctic no longer served as a potent symbol for Austro-Hungarian affairs. Analyses of various forms of media such as texts, poems, and illustrations show the cultural situatedness of scientific knowledge and its popularization. Representations and interpretations of the aurora can only be understood within the political, social, technological and cultural contexts of the time.