Journal of World History, vol. 22, no. 1 (2011)

ARTICLES

The Rise and Fall of Cowrie Shells: The Asian Story
Bin Yang, 1

This article sketches the rise and fall of the use of cowrie shells in eastern Eurasia from the archaeological period to the nineteenth century. Originating in the sea, especially in the region of the Maldive islands, cowrie shells migrated to various parts of Asia as precious goods in the prehistoric era and later became a commodity and currency. By focusing on their experiences in Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian societies, this article illustrates the significance of these shells in a cross-regional context, analyzes the transformation of their functions over the longue durée, and discusses some local and global issues, such as why cowrie shells failed to develop into a common currency in early China.

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Biography, vol. 33, no. 4 (2010)

Biography 33.4 coverEditors’ Note, iii

ARTICLES

American Neoconfessional: Memoir, Self-Help, and Redemption on Oprah’s Couch
Leigh Gilmore, 657

This essay reads the scandal surrounding James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces as part of a developing brand, the American neoconfessional, and questions how memoirs, as part of this brand, present “reading in public” as a mode of civic engagement that teaches readers to consume and judge “similar others.” Continue reading “Biography, vol. 33, no. 4 (2010)”

Journal of World History, vol. 21, no. 4 (2010)

ARTICLES

A Chinese Farmer, Two African Boys, and a Warlord: Toward a Global Microhistory
Tonio Andrade, 573

This article urges world historians to experiment boldly with narrative history and microhistory as a corrective to the field’s heavy emphasis on models and structures. Global microhistory as the author conceives it focuses on human dramas that shed light on intercultural connections and global transformations, and the article offers an example of the genre: a story of a Chinese man, two African boys, two feuding Dutch merchants, and a Chinese warlord, characters thrown together by the great waves of international trade and cross-cultural interaction that swept the world in the seventeenth century. The author hopes that narrative approaches will draw more students and general readers into the field of global history and help make its insights and approaches resonate with a wider public.

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Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 49, no. 2 (2010)

ARTICLES

Southern Subanen Aspiration
Jason William Lobel and William C. Hall, 319

Southern Subanen, spoken on the Philippine island of Mindanao, is the only Philippine language known to have contrastive aspiration, which is a rarity in the Austronesian family. While aspirated consonants are common in the world’s languages, Southern Subanen provides us with an uncommon glimpse at how aspirated consonants can develop. Their unique historical derivation in Southern Subanen is such that, in certain environments, aspiration marks semantic contrasts in verbal prefixes and even functions as a marker of nominalization. In this paper, we will analyze the historical sources of this aspiration and its realization in the modern language.

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