Talk:
Some Reflections on Human Communities and their Boundaries

Professor Ming-ke Wang
Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of History & Philology, (Academia Sinica)

April 19, 2017 (Wednesday), 4:30pm - 6:00pm
CPD-LG.34, Centennial Campus, HKU

In the last two years, there have been several important changes in the international arena: the rise of ISIS and its treat to the national borders of many Mid-East countries; the refugee crisis across the national borders of Europe; the newly-elected President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and his plan for a US-Mexican border wall. All these issues are closely linked to the competition among human communities over the access to critical resources, as well as to the (re)making of the boundaries of community and cultural identity.

In this lecture, the presenter will draw upon data gathered among the Qiang and the Yi minorities of western Sichuan, to explain the human ecological meanings of the territorial and the consanguineous communities and their boundaries, and related cultures. Based on this understanding, the presenter will provide some reflections on the history of the interactions between nomadic and residential empires in the Eurasian Steppe, and on the current international situation

人類社群及其邊界省思

王明珂 特聘研究員
中央研究院歷史語言研究所

近兩年來的一些國際局勢變化,如伊斯蘭國崛起及其對相關國家邊界之挑戰,如歐盟各國邊界因難民問題而緊張,美國川普總統積極加強邊境控管及築牆,這些都涉及人類資源競爭,社會結群,群體認同邊界以及相關的社會文化。在此演講中,講者由過去川西羌族,彝族村寨民族誌的例子,說明地緣與血緣性人類社群認同及相關文化的人類生態意義,藉此思考歐亞大陸游牧與定居帝國互動以及近代民族國家及其邊界形成之歷史,也藉此省思我們所面對的當今國際局勢。

*This seminar will be conducted in Chinese 本場演講以中文進行

Bio
Wang Ming-ke is a Distinguished Research Fellow in the Institute of History and Philology, and an Academician, at the Academia Sinica, Taipei. He obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 1992. He has conducted extensive ethnographic and ethnohistorical research on the Qiang and Tibetans in western Sichuan, with a special focus on the people’s historical memory and ethnic identity. His publications include Huaxia Bianyuan 華夏邊緣 (China from the Margins), Qiang Zai Han-Tsang Zhijian 羌在漢藏之間 (The Qiang Straddled between the Han and the Tibetan) , Youmu Zhe de Jueze 游牧者的抉擇 (The Nomad’s Choice: The First Encounter between Northern Nomads and Imperial China), and the most recent, Fansi Shixue yu Shixue Fansi 反思史學與史學反思 (Reflexive Historiography and Rethinking History).