Estimating household structure in ancient China by using historical data: a latent class analysis of partially missing patterns

Summary.  Social data often contain missing information. The problem is inevitably severe when analysing historical data. Conventionally, researchers analyse complete records only. Listwise deletion not only reduces the effective sample size but also may result in biased estimation, depending on the missingness mechanism. We analyse household types by using population registers from ancient China (618–907 AD) by comparing a simple classification, a latent class model of the complete data and a latent class model of the complete and partially missing data assuming four types of ignorable and non-ignorable missingness mechanisms. The findings show that either a frequency classification or a latent class analysis using the complete records only yielded biased estimates and incorrect conclusions in the presence of partially missing data of a non-ignorable mechanism. Although simply assuming ignorable or non-ignorable missing data produced consistently similarly higher estimates of the proportion of complex households, a specification of the relationship between the latent variable and the degree of missingness by a row effect uniform association model helped to capture the missingness mechanism better and improved the model fit.     

Gender differences in social workers’ assessments and help-giving strategies towards single parents

The study investigates Swedish male and female social workers’ assessments and help-giving strategies towards single parents applying for income support. The study was carried out with the help of a vignette distributed as a mail questionnaire. Results show that social workers tend to conform to assessments and help-giving strategies that are consistent with expectations linked to their own gender role.     

蔡和森建党前社会调查活动探析

文章从蔡和森重视社会调查活动这一视角出发,分析了蔡和森社会调查活动的历史背景、特点及给我们的启示。     

人文语境与《红楼梦》的翻译

文章从人文语境的典籍文化、民俗文化、礼俗文化和审美文化四个方面阐述翻译中语用意图的实现过程 ,以探讨语境对文学翻译的重要作用 ,并力图找到移植原作隐含意义的最佳切入点     

Efe fathers: one among many? A comparison of forager children's involvement with fathers and other males

The study reported describes Efe (pygmy) forager one-, two-, and three-year-olds' involvement with males. The Efe of northeastern Zaïre were chosen because their social organization allows us to examine hypotheses based on studies in Western, technologically complex societies about the distinctive role fathers play in the lives of their young children. Behavioral observations of Efe children's day-to-day activities with fathers, men and boys were recorded using a focal subject sampling technique (Altmann, 1974). Two behavioral measures were created to capture the extent to which males were involved with children: Social engagement describes males' involvement with children and social attention describes eavesdropping by children on males' everyday activities. Eight one-year-olds, 7 two-year-olds and 8 three-year-olds were each observed for six, one-hour observation sessions that were distributed evenly over the daylight hours. Data were analyzed using the traditional measure of involvement (e.g., adult males) and using a newly developed measure of the involvement of the average individual (e.g., average adult mate). Comparisons at each of the ages showed that fathers were consistently like other men in the extent to which children participated in social activities with them and watched their activities. Only fathers' level of social engagement declined significantly as children grew older. Boys' role relative to other males became increasingly distinctive as children aged. The findings suggest that Efe fathers may not be unique in the same sense assumed by Western study ideals, and raise questions about the special status given to fathers in Western theory and data. The patterning of mate involvement with children is discussed in terms of Efe community life, and in terms of Efe children's developing understanding of their relationship with fathers and other males.     

Children's gender- and age-based categorization in similarity and induction tasks

The present studies examined children's and adults' preferences for gender- or age-based categorization using similarity and inductive inference tasks. Four-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and adults looked at pictures of people and decided which of two was more like a target (similarity condition) or which shared a novel age- or gender-related property with the target (inference condition). Age or gender-based matches were possible. The results are consistent with previous findings that gender-based classification decreases with age. However, they also demonstrate that children use gender more for judging similarity than for making inferences about novel properties. Distinct patterns emerge from the two tasks: 6-year-olds and adults in both conditions categorize more by age than gender; 4-year-olds categorize by gender more than age in the similarity task, but by age more in the induction task. Only adults differentiated by property in the inference condition. These findings suggest that the salience of gender categories cannot entirely be attributed to their inductive potential. Gender has a salience beyond what would be predicted by its power for directing novel generalizations.     

乌鲁木齐县安宁渠镇社会经济变化调查报告

该文通过对乌鲁木齐县安宁渠镇的调查 ,揭示了城镇化进程中所发生的社会经济变化 ,以及这一变化所产生的后果 ;论述了加快安宁渠镇发展急需解决的问题 ,即社会意识整合问题、知识更新问题、基础设施建设问题、体制问题等。     

脑死亡立法的社会意义及面临的困难

长期以来,心肺功能完全丧失一直是判定死亡的标准。然而,随着现代医学的进步,这一标准已不再适应科学的发展和社会的需要,脑死亡标准应运而生。世界上已有许多国家接受了脑死亡标准,并制订了相应的法律条例。我国在这方面才刚刚起步,在此过程中必然会遇到一些困难。因此,脑死亡立法应当谨慎进行。     

试论美术文化中的技术理性

无论从劳动产品的角度看,还是从社会的角度看,技术都是理性的表现;产品的生产过程,是一种技术展现的过程,即生产者的个性标记通过技术展现的过程,因此,技术本身也具有理性。理性的技术促进了人类社会的发展。     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Barbara A. Fennell, A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach
Kevin McCafferty, Ethnicity and Language Change: English in (London)Derry, Northern Ireland
Pieter Muysken, Bilingual Speech: A Typology of Code-Mixing.
Ulrich Ammon (ed.), The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other Languages and Language Communities
Andrew Goatly, Critical Reading and Writing. An Introductory Coursebook
Ana Roca (ed.), Research on Spanish in the United States. Linguistic Issues and Challenges
Ishtla Singh, Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction