Reviews on Historical Anthropology and Modern Chinese Research

Historical Anthropology, rising in late 1980s, belongs to two different subjects in scholarly perspective, but it played important roles to develop the combination of the two subjects. In history, historical anthropology experienced the process from social history to social cultural history and finally to historical anthropology. And in modern Chinese research field, there are some research practices in historical anthropology but more developments are needed. This kind of development lies in three aspects, namely, subaltern perspective, local experience and the interaction between text and field relating. Historical anthropology will have useful influence on modern Chinese research and become a kind of middle theory between grand narrative and experimental research. At the same time, historical anthropology absorbs much from anthropology but we cannot abandon the essence of history subject.