|
|
|
LUNG
CONFERENCE PAPERS |
|
Robert B. Marks
Deihl Professor of History
Whittier College
Whittier, CA 90608
rmarks@whittier.edu
World System History and Global Environmental Change
Lund University, Sweden, September 19-22, 2003
In addition to the paper that I will present at the conference
("People Said Extinction Was Not Possible: 2000 Years of
Environmental Change in South China"), these two might be of
interest. I have provided an abstract of each; click on the link
to access a PDF file of the paper.
ASIAN TIGERS
"Asian tigers." To those working in a world systems framework
(however narrowly or broadly defined), those two words probably
bring to mind images of "the four Asian tigers" (South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore), of historic processes of rise
and decline within the system, and of cores and peripheries. To
environmental historians, on the other hand, "Asian tigers" brings
to mind "real" tigers, forests, ecosystems, preservation, habitat
degradation, and historic processes of anthropogenically induced
species extinction. This paper brings those two discourse
communities into conversation by examining the histories of
tiger-human relations in China, the Malay world, and India, and
the place of tigers in the power of Asian states vis-a-vis both
their own subjects and European imperialists.
CHINA'S POPULATION SIZE DURING THE MING AND QING:
A COMMENT ON THE MOTE REVISION
This paper critiques the recent attempt by F. Mote to radically
revise our understanding of China's historic population size and
its growth during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
dynasties. Bascially, Mote argues that the accepted version (i.e.
that an 18th-century increase doubled China's population is wrong;
he argues that the bulk of the increase actually occurred
centuries earlier during the Ming dynasty. If Mote is right, then
not only must the history of China during the Ming and Qing
dynasties be rewritten, so too must world history. I think he is
wrong. |
|
|
