A journey to Mars: John Dewey’s lectures and inquiry in China

ABSTRACT

Instead of the framework of influence–acceptance commonly used in previous studies, the author uses new sources to reexamine John Dewey’s visit to China from the perspective of interactive experience. This study presents Dewey’s lectures in China as the result of interrelationships among a variety of elements – Columbia University, different hosts and audiences, the media, all levels of the Chinese government, the domestic situation in the United States, the international situation, and Dewey’s expectations and work – against the general background of China’s New Culture Movement and new educational reforms. Dewey’s speeches on democracy, science, and new education were remarkably successful in the first year of his visit to China, but began to meet with resistance from some students beginning in June 1920. Because of the Red Scare in the United States, Dewey had to stay in China. In the second year of his visit, he gave warmly welcomed lectures on the same topics in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces. With a deeper understanding of China, Dewey not only identified himself with reform plans but also began to pay more attention to China’s economic problems. His inquiry into the problems confronting China is a good example of what he advocated in his lectures: seeing democracy, science, and new education as a way of thinking and carrying out actions and making intellectual choices while moving forward.     

江苏省红色旅游与文物保护开发的实证研究

近年来,红色旅游发展为江苏省旅游发展带来了新的机遇,也对市场经济条件下的文物保护事业提出了新的挑战。从分析江苏省红色旅游与文物保护的现状入手,通过问卷调查、现场访谈等方式进行实证研究,提出了红色旅游与文物保护的互动发展模式,并在此基础上提出了具有可操作性的发展对策。     

五千年前陶质建材的测试研究

迄今为止的考古发掘表明,我国最早的陶质建材,应该是距今5500年左右的凌家滩“红陶块”。考古学家推测其原料为粘土矿物,烧成温度约800～1000℃,且其物理性能与砖质建材较为接近,应为“砖的雏形”,为此,本工作测试分析了凌家滩“红陶块”的物相组成、烧成温度、吸水率与抗压强度,同时对比分析了明砖、汉砖、现代砖的物理性能,发现“红陶块”系粘土原料在950℃以上温度烧制而成,其吸水率和抗压强度由外向内呈梯度变化,内层的抗压强度、吸水率接近于现代砖和汉砖,业已超过明砖样品,所有这些分析结果,皆支持考古学家关于凌家滩“红陶块”为砖的雏型的推测。     

红外光谱在传统年画红蓝色料分析中的应用研究

年画是中国特有的民间艺术形式。本研究介绍了传统年画印制所用红蓝色料的发展历史,选取15种中国古代与近现代常用红蓝色料进行红外光谱分析,并归纳总结了标准样品的化学结构与红外谱图特征。在此基础上,利用衰减全反射傅里叶变换红外光谱仪对三幅清末民初时期的传统年画开展无损检测。结果显示三幅年画的红蓝色料均为合成颜料或染料,包括酸性大红G、酸性墨水蓝G、普鲁士蓝等。本研究扩展了红外光谱在书画文物分析检测中的应用范围,为传统年画色料的无损鉴定提供科学依据。     

Early Evidence for Domestic Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) in the Horn of Africa

Domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus L. 1758) are one of the most valued farm animals in the world today. Chickens are widespread and economically and socially significant in Africa. Despite their importance, little is known about the nature of their introduction and subsequent integration into African economies. One reason for this is the morphological similarity of domestic chickens to wild galliform birds in Africa such as guineafowl and francolin. Here, we present direct dates and morphological evidence for domestic chickens recovered from Mezber, a pre‐Aksumite (>800–450 BCE) rural farming settlement in northern Ethiopia. Key morphological markers differentiated these domestic chickens from francolins. The Mezber direct chicken element accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates of cal 820–595 BCE and indirect/charcoal AMS dates of cal 921–801 BCE constitute the earliest osteological evidence for chickens in Africa. Chicken bones in the domestic food waste of an early rural settlement at Mezber and their presence in later Aksumite urban contexts show that chickens were integrated into diverse Ethiopian highland settings. The Mezber specimens predate the earliest known Egyptian chickens by at least 550 years and draw attention to early exotic faunal exchanges in the Horn of Africa during the early first millennium BCE. These findings support previous archaeological, genetics and linguistic data that suggest maritime exchange networks with South Arabia through ports along the African Red Sea coast constitute one possible early route of introduction of chickens to Africa. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Farasan Islands,Saudi Arabia: towards a chronology of settlement

An archaeological survey of Saudi Arabia's Farasan Islands in May 2010 recorded a broad range of sites that have not previously been documented. The survey concentrated on Greater Farasan and Segid islands, and comprised a rapid recording of sites shown to the authors by representatives of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. The sites were photographed, their positions logged, sketch drawings made of the principal features and surface pottery drawn and photographed. Detailed drawings were made of a stone anchor and a well with possible Ancient South Arabian carved decoration. The sites visited included settlements, wells, cemeteries and a cave. Several sites included the remains of buildings made of massive ashlar blocks, as well as others of rubble‐stone construction. Datable material at the sites points to several periods of occupation, from the early first millennium BC to early modern times. Some locations were characterised by long periods of settlement. Apart from the findings of this survey, most of the sites remain largely uninvestigated, and suggest significant potential for future research into settlement on the archipelago, as well as into past maritime activity and technology in the southern Red Sea region and beyond.     

Environmental and Resource Degradation Associated with Small‐Scale Enterprise Clusters in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam

The paper reports on an empirical study of the environmental and resource degradation observed in small‐scale handicraft clusters in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Most entrepreneurs in these clusters face important challenges, including depletion of natural resources, linked to acute shortages of capital and land. Such issues are identified as the main cause of overcrowding, poor working conditions and extreme environmental degradation. The study also highlights some industrial ecology practices at the enterprise level, and assesses the role played by the government in providing incentives for enterprises to invest in new technology and pollution control. Drawing from the analysis of a questionnaire survey of 56 handicraft enterprises, the study identifies the major constraints they encounter in adopting new environmentally clean technologies and engaging in environmental management. Shortage of capital and lack of knowledge about the benefits of new technologies were viewed as the most important barriers, followed by shortage of skilled workers, poor market conditions and scarcity of land appropriate for industrial production.     

京口救生会与镇江义渡局

清至民国年间,镇江、瓜洲的绅士在镇江西津渡街设有救生、济渡两个慈善机构,为常年救助渡江遇难者。这两个机构虽都以红船为标识在水上施行救助,但机构的性质、章程、救助对象等却有着明显的不同。     

Use-wear analysis of obsidian artifacts from Later Stone Age shell midden sites on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea,with experimental results

This paper presents results of use-wear study on lithic artifacts from two Later Stone Age sites (Gelalo and Misse) on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea. The sites produced large quantities of lithic artifacts in association with mollusk shells and ostrich eggshell beads, but it is unclear if all the stone tools were required for bead and mollusk shell processing. The study involved recording of microfracture damage traces in order to infer the use-material and the manner in which the artifacts were used. A large percentage of the analyzed samples from Gelalo and Misse preserve wear patterns suggestive of human use. The diagnostic wear types include: (1) dense step, snap (crushing) and hinge fractures typically confined on the working edges, and (2) feather scars organized in a scalar manner visible on the ventral and dorsal surfaces of the active parts. The observed damage patterns suggest cutting and engraving medium to hard materials. The evidence is incomplete for more generalization about the specific activities carried out at the sites. A brief experimental study involving ostrich eggshell drilling, oak twig sawing and bark scraping, meat slicing, and mollusk shell sawing and drilling was carried out to aid interpretation of wear features observed on the archaeological specimens. Wear traces produced by sawing mollusk shell and oak wood showed close affinity to those observed on the archaeological specimens. The study contributes important information about early Holocene site use on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea. The close association of used lithic artifacts, symbolic objects (beads) and broken shell remains indicates that the sites were habitation areas.