Abstract:In making sense of otherness, we should pay attention to three characteristics of culture: a system of meanings, subjectivity, and being ruled by a peculiar dialectic. The attention to global history can be explained by two human motivations: One is the perennial quest for universal ideas and ideals, and the other is to bring the writing of history closer to the scientific model, and help peoples to transcend divisions and share a sense of human solidarity. The researchers into the history of intercultural encounters need to attend to three subjectivities in order to expose both cultures’ inner cores inhabited by their respective assumptions about the world, society and order, understand the reasons for frequent resistance to otherness, and peek into the space where local and global histories overlap. The approaches to overcoming the challenges to the studies of cross-cultural history lie in enhancing interdisciplinary awareness, and concentrating on the mutuality and space of culture change triggered by cultural difference. Any acculturation is accompanied by deculturation. The efforts to preserve the diversity of world cultures will be more advisable than the unifying attempts. Contradictory values will coexist. The tolerance based on understanding otherness will be more promising than the attempts to homogenize. Cross-cultural history can serve as a link between local and global histories, and a cognitive point of departure for increasing understanding among societies, but only at the local dimensions can the full depth of its meanings be accessed. The studies of cross-cultural history can bridge the gap between the essential preservationism of an individual culture and the globalization process that exacts change in its preserving structure. The injection of otherness will turn into culture change when it is domesticated into normalness, so the researchers should examine the local dimensions of both the exporter and the recipient, and the cross-cultural communication process of forming shared meanings, negotiating identities, expressing beliefs, reproducing values, and molding symbolic representations of reality and order.
王玲. 跨文化历史研究的缘由与路径[J]. 《深圳大学学报》(人文社科版), 2022, 39(6): 22-30.
WANG Ling. Reasons for and Approaches to the Studies of Cross-Cultural History. , 2022, 39(6): 22-30.
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