San Juan,the Fragile City: Finance Capital,Class, and the Making of Puerto Rico's Economic Crisis

This paper narrates Puerto Rico's fiscal and financial crisis through a reading of San Juan's urban landscape. We underscore the role of capital in the city, primarily embodied by the local capitalist class (the Criollo bloc) and foreign capitalists. Historically excluded from the manufacturing sector (dominated by US capitalists), the Criollo bloc accumulates its wealth by concentrating financial assets in the city. In times of crisis, the Criollo bloc resorts to the acquisition of new assets and asset exchange with foreign capitalists to remain solvent and provide short‐term solutions to the state's fiscal and financial limits. The survival of the local capitalist class, we demonstrate, is dependent on asset stripping. Drawing on Clyde Woods, we document how asset stripping unevenly redistributes wealth and risks along class and racial lines within a colonial economy. The finance capital/asset stripping basis of San Juan's economy renders it an extremely fragile city, we contend.     

谭正璧《三言二拍资料》札记

谭正璧的《三言二拍资料》一书是迄今为止研究明代白话短篇小说“三言”与“二拍”的最重要的小说资料参考书,其搜罗与“三言”与“二拍”成书有关的本事及相关资料十分宏富,足资学者研究所需。但该书也存在一些瑕疵：对所收资料多系罗列,对其与“三言”与“二拍”各篇的关系缺乏必要的深入考辨,故使本事与后出作品间的关系不甚明晰,特别是对本事的远源与近源的辨别上贵远贱近等;偶有资料失收;所录资料与“三言”与“二拍”并非相关等。本文就经眼材料为据,对此诸问题进行了必要的考辨。     

¿Qué sabemos del Cantar de Fernán González?

The Poem or Book of Fernán González was probably written c. 1250 by a monk of San Pedro de Arlanza (Burgos, Castile) to strengthen the legendary foundation of his monastery by the tenth-century Castilian Count, Fernán González, and to promote his tomb cult there. The Arlanza poet was competing with the benefits that Santiago and San Millán de la Cogolla were trying to get on legendary accounts of the champion of the independence of the County of Castile from the Kingdom of León. It is clear that this is a work of monastic propaganda, designed to attract pilgrims and donations; therefore perhaps a better title for it would be Poem of the Foundation of San Pedro de Arlanza. The Arlanza poet was fond of the popular and orally transmitted Romance epics (Hispanic and Carolingian songs). He knew Siete infantes de Salas, the tradition of the Youthful Deeds of Rodrigo (Gesta de las Mocedades de Rodrigo), the anti-Carolingian song(s) of Bernardo del Carpio, and the Roncesvals Matière. We also suspect that the poet was recasting a now-lost epic cantar de gesta of Fernán González. This cantar was probably also known by Gonzalo de Berceo, who was actively working in San Millán de la Cogolla, a few years earlier, trying to attract pilgrims and donations. In this article, I try to analyze how much we know of the lost Cantar de Fernán González and if the Monastery of Sahagún (León) also reappropriated it for its own propaganda.     

“情兼《雅》怨”还是“情兼雅怨”——关于钟嵘《诗品》“情兼雅怨”的校释问题

“情兼雅怨”是钟嵘《诗品》评价曹植诗歌的重要特征,也是他评价其他诗人的一个重要标准,因而具有重要意义。但是,各注家对“雅”的点校存在很大分歧。本文指出,“雅”应是与“怨”两两相对的一种美学风格,而不是指《雅》(即《小雅》)。     

东阳南寺塔出土北宋经函中的彩绘乐舞及相关问题

1963年,在东阳南寺塔内发掘清理出一件北宋建隆二年(961)的贴金彩绘石雕经函。经函须弥座上所绘之10人乐舞图,与唐代以来佛教的净土思想有关。此类乐舞在北宋中原地区的佛寺中十分盛行,于11世纪中叶之前北传至辽地,并对11世纪末宋、辽墓葬中散乐图的大量出现产生重要之影响。     

Prouille,Madrid, Rome: the evolution of the earliest Dominican Instituta for nuns

The lifestyles of the three earliest Dominican women's communities were formulated according to their specific historical conditions and exigencies during the years 1206–21. Initially, the women associated with the preaching mission of Diego of Osma and Dominic Guzman were based at Prouille in the Languedoc and followed the Augustinian Rule. The development of the first instituta for Dominican nuns was the result of 15 years of overseeing the lives of the sisters. However, enclosure, and the institutional requirement for its observance, only came about in 1220 with the establishment of San Sisto, when St Dominic wrote an instituta specifically intended for a cloistered nunnery. This paper retraces and elucidates the historical development of the first Dominican instituta for women, and considers the remarkable choice of the Augustinian Rule as the basis for an enclosed women's order.     

The Dynamic Behavior of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi Using Simplified Analytical Models

The Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi endured stronger earthquakes for centuries before 1997 earthquake, which generated the collapse of the two vaults. Experts blame as possible reasons of collapse the damage cumulated from previous earthquakes and/or the retrofitting made to the structure over its lifetime. This article presents the history of the retrofit interventions of the Basilica through the centuries, focusing mainly on the roof, which has been subjected to three major restorations through its life. It is shown using simple analytical models that the cumulative effects of the changes made to the roof of the Basilica affected the structure’s dynamic behavior in a negative manner, increasing the seismic loads on the existing structural members. In particular, the numerical results show that the 1958 roof intervention has stiffened the structure, redistributing the seismic loads on the façade and the transept. This overload might explain the collapse of the two Gothic vaults during 1997 earthquake.     

论北宋制衡三衙的相关措施

三衙,全名为殿前都指挥使司、侍卫亲军马军都指挥使司和侍卫亲军步军都指挥使司,是北宋禁、厢诸军常设之统帅机构。其帅,宋人称作“三帅”、“管军臣僚”,或简称“管军”。三衙制度,与募兵制取代征兵制相适应,肇始于唐末五代,至北宋方渐趋于定型。它的确立,首先解决了中唐以降的藩镇割据问题。兵权由地方集中到中央得以实现。在此基础之上,从宋太祖开始的北宋统治,本着“兵权宜分不宜专”的原则,又从合理调整三衙与枢密院、皇城司以及帅臣之间的关系人手,构建了三衙、枢密使、皇城司主管宦官、帅臣之间彼此相互制衡的严密体系,并加强了台谏对三衙的监察,和皇帝对军政的亲自干预,从而进一步实现了兵权向皇帝手中的集中。     

《三希堂法帖》之赵佶书迹阙遗考述

<三希堂法帖>是清代著名的汇刻丛帖之一,该帖卷六、卷7刻有宋太宗、宋高宗、宋孝宗七件宋代帝王书迹,令人不解的是在这两卷宋代帝王书迹中竟没有宋代书画大家徽宗赵佶的书迹.本文从徽宗赵佶个性独立的书法风格、因艺灭国的君王行为、唯我独尊的书画签押、值得称道的书学贡献等方面加以考述,揭示了此举虽是臣下所为,实乃皇权意志使然.     

Oxygen isotope seasonality in a temperate estuarine shell midden: a case study from CA-ALA-17 on the San Francisco Bay,California

Seasonality determination using stable oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O) analyses in archaeological mollusk shell has been largely limited to aquatic settings where one of the two factors that control shell δ¹⁸O – water δ¹⁸O (or salinity) and temperature – is assumed to be constant. Open coastal marine environments reflect the former situation, and tropical estuaries constitute the latter. In an effort to expand stable isotope seasonality to an ecological setting where neither variable remains constant, we present a model of annual shell δ¹⁸O cycle of aragonite deposition derived from instrumental data on salinity and temperature from San Francisco Bay, California. The predicted range of modeled shell δ¹⁸O is consistent with observed δ¹⁸O values in prehistoric and modern shells when local conditions are considered. Measurements of δ¹⁸O taken at 0 mm and 2 mm from the terminal growth margin were made on 36 archaeological specimens of Macoma nasuta from a late Holocene hunter-gatherer site CA-ALA-17, and season of collection was inferred using the shell δ¹⁸O model. We conclude that shellfish exploitation occurred through the year with the exception of fall, which may indicate scheduling conflicts with acorn harvesting or other seasonally abundant resources elsewhere. The model supports the feasibility of stable isotope seasonality studies in temperate estuaries, provided that instrumental records are available to quantify the relevant water conditions at appropriate spatial and temporal scales.