从“中间性”到“世界主义”:一种超越民族研究的“中心-边缘”叙事的尝试

From Intermediary to Cosmopolitanism:An Attempt to Transcend the“Central-Periphery”Narrative in Ethnic Studies

20世纪80年代以来,在民族研究领域有诸多突破“中心-边缘”二元叙事的尝试:借助“后殖民理论”的视角强调“混杂性”和“流动性”来消解“中心”和“边缘”,或者拓展费孝通“走廊”范式对“互动”和“迁移”的强调,将对立转化为“中心”对“边缘”的区分和涵盖。在此基础上,本文尝试引入“世界主义”,以一元的“世界性”来突破二元的对立。世界主义在两个层面上展开,既指包含了流动性和开放性的身份认同,也指含括了时空万物的一种“宇宙-政治”观。世界主义既是一种道德立场,强调每个地方都是中心,都有对于世界的想象、解释和参与的愿望和能力,也是一种分析框架,强调每个地方的世界性都是历史性形成的、容纳了不同层次的特定结构。本文以此重新思考民族、族群、国家、文化等概念的边界,强调每个地方存在的超越这些概念边界的“联系”——区域性的和历史性的、符号性的和物质性的、以及存在意义上的。

Since the 1980s,scholars at home and abroad have been trying to transcend the analytical framework and narrative mode of“center-periphery”in different ways.Influenced by post-colonial theories,some anthropological and ethnological studies have introduced concepts such as hybridity,fluidity,and in-betweenness in the analysis of ethnic regions in China so as to avoid the“essentialization”of“center”and“periphery.”According to the study of the“corridor paradigm,”some studies advocates an analysis of the formation of a multi-ethnic zone from a historical perspective and the dialectic relationship between diversity and unity from the perspective of civilization,emphasizing that the center and periphery could be reversed or subverted over the long course of history.In other words,from the historical perspective,the flow of people,things,and ideas in history break down the simplified scheme of center-periphery.Based on a discussion of the various approaches mentioned above,this article engages with the discussion by introducing the concept of“cosmopolitanism.”This concept emphasizes the fact that people everywhere are self-centric and inclined to imagine themselves as the center,which could challenge the political and economic structure of the center-periphery.This concept also assumes that people everywhere possess the ability to imagine,interpret,and connect with the world,which underlines the subjectivity of marginalized people in the political-economic sense.Meanwhile,this concept highlights that every place is cosmologically imagined and historically constructed,which produces multiple centers and peripheries.This article deliberately takes the position of cosmopolitanism and embraces the principle of hospitality to widen the scope of discussion.It means,firstly,to broaden the spatial dimension of discussion.Cosmopolitanism does not simply refer to connecting the individual with the global,as if the individual and the global are two discrete entities.Instead,it refers to locating every person in the world and embedding the universe within each person,assuming that every person is capable of imaging and interpreting the world,as well as pursuing and engaging with bigger pictures beyond the locality of their life.In this sense,the world is not a single-dimensional globe,but contains multiple universes within various persons and localities.Secondly,it signifies opening up to the temporal dimension of discussion.It acknowledges that globalization is one fa ade of cosmopolitanism in human history,and urbanization is another one.Nonetheless,cosmopolitanism does not necessarily emerge in the globalizing process,nor is it congealed only in cosmopolitan cities.The“cosmopolitan”in cosmopolitan-ism can be located in different historical periods and has nothing to do with modernity.The various historical cosmopolitan localities are characteristic of physical,intellectual,or spiritual flows in various scales at multiple levels.Thirdly,it means embracing various forms of the Other.The“cosmo”in cosmo-politanism generally includes various beings and objects such as humans,animals,plants,landscapes,things,ghosts,spirits,and deities.These generalized others give human life structure and rhythm in various ways so that human life is not only for the production and reproduction of survival but also for inner or outer transcendence.