“Going to the Extremes”: The Balearics and Cyprus in the Early Medieval Byzantine Insular System

ABSTRACT

This contribution mainly focuses on Cyprus and the Balearics, islands located at opposite geographical extremes of the Byzantine Mediterranean, during the passage from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. Historians have often regarded these islands as peripheral additions to the Byzantine heartland of the Aegean and the Anatolian plateau; this article argues that, in fact, archaeological and material indicators (such as ceramics, lead seals and coins), paired with the scarce textual sources, point to a certain degree of economic prosperity in the abovementioned islands during the period under scrutiny, suggesting that they continued to play an important role in the political, administrative and religious structures of the Byzantine Empire. A resilient insular economy and continuity of local production of artefacts was ensured by the persistence of demand from local secular and religious elites and regular, if infrequent, contacts with other areas of the Byzantine heartland or the Muslim Mediterranean.     

“忆旧还寻陶令盟”——序龚鹏程《北溟行记》

乙酉春節前夕,鵬程兄自臺北打電話來,說他客座北大期間寫的旅行隨筆一類文字,不止我看到的那兩篇,拾綴起來有六七萬字,準備出一本書,叫《北溟行記》,希望我便中寫一篇序。他的雅意讓我略感為難。因為平生從未給任何一位友人或同道的著作寫過序,沒有“人之患”什麼的理由,衹是懶爲此     

赵孟頫与《闲邪公家传》初探

癸未岁春四月，老友胡君作群来访，以其家传墨宝《闲邪公家传》（以下简称《家传》）法帖见示。余素酷爱孟頫楷书，尤其是他的小楷。数年前偶得孟頫晚年所书《汉汲黯传》，反复临摹，获益非浅。今见此帖，久久把玩、欣赏，爱不释手。胡君言其欲将此失而复得、四代珍藏七十余载的镇家之宝公开出版，惠及世人，余甚赞许。胡君嘱余为之运筹，并写一前言，余欣然应允。斟酌再三，题为《赵孟頫与〈闲邪公家传〉初探》。     

High-Speed Internet Access to the Other: The Influence of Cultural Orientations on Self-Disclosures in Offline and Online Relationships

The global village metaphor, originally popularized by Marshall McLuhan, suggests that individuals connected to information and communication technologies become more involved with others from around the world. The speed at which messages are communicated is one factor why Internet-supported technologies create a sense of community. The diffusion of Internet networks to areas around the world naturally increases the potential for intercultural communication. Considering the cultural differences of the communicators and diminished social cues of the environment, the opportunity for misunderstandings may be elevated in intercultural Internet-based communication. The present investigation explores how two important components of culture—individualism and collectivism—influence communication behaviors in face-to-face and computer-mediated relationships. Self-disclosures, which are fundamental to relationship development, are specifically studied. The findings reveal that collectivism is associated with fewer self-disclosures in computer-mediated relationships than in comparable face-to-face relationships. The difference between self-disclosure behaviors in face-to-face and computer-mediated relationships is more pronounced among individuals high in collectivism than those high in individualism. Implications to social information processing theory and future directions for intercultural Internet-based communication research are considered.     

The cosmopolitan city and its Other: the ethnicizing of the Australian suburb

Abstract

In this article I argue that there has been a significant cultural change in the meanings attached to two specific sites in the Australian cultural imaginary—the city and the suburb. I see this change as the product of opposing versions of multicultural Australia. In several Australian cities, particularly Sydney, although the combination of multiculturalism and economic globalization has helped to create increasingly cosmopolitan inner city suburbs, it has also contributed to the development of an antithetical but perhaps more politically significant version of the middle or outer suburb. This new version of the suburb is defined by minority ethnic or racial identities; it is increasingly represented as criminalized; and its development runs against the grain of the traditional conception of the suburb in the Australian national imaginary, as well as the globalizing rhetoric endorsing a cosmopolitanizing transnational citizenship. The context for the discussion is given particular force by the series of ‘race riots’ which occurred in the Sydney beach suburb of Cronulla in December, 2005. These events raised serious concerns about the fate of multiculturalism in Australia and highlighted the tensions that lie beneath what is often regarded as a successful set of social policies.     

诸葛氏溯源

关于“诸葛”一姓的来源，大体上有三种说法：一是《世本》卷三《氏姓篇》云：“有熊氏之后为詹葛氏，其后齐人语讹，以詹葛为诸葛。”“詹葛”一作“瞻葛”，该文并举例说：“宋景公时有大夫瞻葛祁。”     

何姓探源

“东海家声远，庐江世泽长”，这是收藏在北京国家图书馆地方志和家谱中心内《庐江何氏大同宗谱》扉页上的联语。它告诉世人：华夏何氏，源于安徽庐江．     

是姓探源

是姓，是已有1800年历史的姓氏，《中国姓氏大全》将其列为“罕见姓”。据统计，目前全国是姓人口约有8000余人，许多县、市没有此姓，而在常州及其邻近的无锡、江阴、宜兴等地，是姓人口约有4000多人，可见常州的是姓为全国是姓人口的50％。     

轵国·轵道·轵关

轵国轵国(今河南济源市轵城镇,有故城遗址),因出了我国古代四大刺客之一的聂政而闻名遐迩;又因轵国域内的漫漫轵道、巍巍轵关在军事上的重要地位,成为历代兵家必争之地。     

Water Supply in Medieval Middle Eastern Cities: The Case of Cairo

In spite of its location on the Nile bank, medieval Cairo suffered from serious problems of water supply because of its topography and the Nile regime that necessitated water storing. Direct canalization was not adopted to channel the Nile to inhabited quarters, either on the riverside or inland because of the dangers entailed in an uncontrolled water race during the Nile inundation. The Nile water was safely conveyed inland in canals, dammed by dikes at their mouths on the Nile before the inundation, and opened when the water level reached sixteen arms. Aqueducts and conduits carried the water from the canals to inland open reservoirs, or artificial lakes, around all of which grew residential quarters. The lake waters were transferred to cisterns and above ground tanks that were used as closed water reservoirs before distribution in the residential quarters of Cairo. Scattered in central sites within the quarters, there were the big wells and basins that received water from outside the quarter for distribution to the wells located near the houses, baths and mosque courtyards. The quarters' wells and tanks usually had a common water source and the houses' wells were interconnected by a labyrinth of underground conduits. Residences of the elite and bourgeoisie were equipped with water facilities as befitted their status. The upper middle class often rented qā‘as, exclusive residential units located on the ground floor, equipped with water systems. The lower socio-economic classes, which constituted the majority of the population, lived in standard units in residential complexes that were not equipped with running water but only with water jars. The general public regularly visited public baths for both personal hygiene and leisure, consumed commercially prepared food in the market and sent their clothes for laundering and pressing in the market.