网络人类学:网络空间与人类学的互动

网络人类学是人类学的一个新的分支学科 ,它以网络空间的人与文化为研究对象。本文对该学科的研究领域、目前发展状况及一些研究成果进行了介绍。     

人类学视野下的文学人类学(上)

文学界的文学人类学研究 ,应该属于文艺理论批评的一个新学派 ,基本属于文化学范畴 ;而人类学领域内的文学人类学 ,是人类学的一个分支学科。人类学意义上的文学人类学目前存在更多的是问题 ,大致可以归纳为三个“不够”。首先 ,人类学界对文学人类学的关注不够 ;其自然结果就是投入不够 (指投入的研究时间和精　　　　　　　　　　　　　　力 ) ;其三是理论建构不够 ,本土的和西方理论介绍均着力不够。     

中国人类学:自我批评,起而迎接挑战

中国的人类学家，不管是投师于国外或国内，至今为止，几乎不能使他们的发现对世界其他地区的人类学有用处。中国人类学的问题不是不够地方性，而是太地方性了。中国人类学当前所需要的是经过一个时期的本土化发展，然而再走出来，参与世界性对话。     

Cacao usage by the earliest Maya civilization

The Maya archaeological site at Colha in northern Belize, Central America, has yielded several spouted ceramic vessels that contain residues from the preparation of food and beverages. Here we analyse dry residue samples by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization mass spectrometry, and show that chocolate (Theobroma cacao) was consumed by the Preclassic Maya as early as 600 bc, pushing back the earliest chemical evidence of cacao use by some 1,000 years. Our application of this new and highly sensitive analytical technique could be extended to the identification of other ancient foods and beverages.     

Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years

The role of African savannahs in the evolution of early hominins has been debated for nearly a century. Resolution of this issue has been hindered by difficulty in quantifying the fraction of woody cover in the fossil record. Here we show that the fraction of woody cover in tropical ecosystems can be quantified using stable carbon isotopes in soils. Furthermore, we use fossil soils from hominin sites in the Awash and Omo-Turkana basins in eastern Africa to reconstruct the fraction of woody cover since the Late Miocene epoch (about 7 million years ago). (13)C/(12)C ratio data from 1,300 palaeosols at or adjacent to hominin sites dating to at least 6 million years ago show that woody cover was predominantly less than ～40% at most sites. These data point to the prevalence of open environments at the majority of hominin fossil sites in eastern Africa over the past 6 million years.     

公有物品的人类学

通过翔实的个案材料,分析了公有物品的多层次性和多样性,并在“公有物品悲剧”的基础上,论述了公有论的主场、规则和特征。     

Earliest parietal art:hominin hand and foot traces from the middle Pleistocene of Tibet

At Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau we report a series of hand and foot impressions that appear to have been intentionally placed on the surface of a unit of soft...     

Reassessing the evidence for the earliest traces of life

The isotopic composition of graphite is commonly used as a biomarker in the oldest (>3.5 Gyr ago) highly metamorphosed terrestrial rocks. Earlier studies on isotopic characteristics of graphite occurring in rocks of the approximately 3.8-Gyr-old Isua supracrustal belt (ISB) in southern West Greenland have suggested the presence of a vast microbial ecosystem in the early Archean. This interpretation, however, has to be approached with extreme care. Here we show that graphite occurs abundantly in secondary carbonate veins in the ISB that are formed at depth in the crust by injection of hot fluids reacting with older crustal rocks (metasomatism). During these reactions, graphite forms from the disproportionation of Fe(II)-bearing carbonates at high temperature. These metasomatic rocks, which clearly lack biological relevance, were earlier thought to be of sedimentary origin and their graphite association provided the basis for inferences about early life. The new observations thus call for a reassessment of previously presented evidence for ancient traces of life in the highly metamorphosed Early Archaean rock record.