Texts and Contexts

The Pacific Way: A Memoir. By Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. xvi, 280 pp, maps, photos, index, gloss., apps. ISBN 0824818938. $US14.95 (paperback).

A Vision for Change: A. D. Patel and the Politics of Fiji. By Brij V. Lal. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, The Australian National University, 1998. xvii, 282 pp, map, photos, index, refs. ISBN 073152350. $A25 (paperback).

Hard Times on Kairiru Island: Poverty, Development, and Morality in a Papua New Guinea Village. By Michael French Smith. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1994. x, 278 pp, map, tables, photos, app., notes, gloss., bibliog, index. ISBN 0824815815.

Neither Cargo nor Cult: Ritual Politics and the Colonial Imagination in Fiji. By Martha Kaplan. Durham, Duke University Press, 1995. xviii, 226 pp, maps, bibliog., index. ISBN 0822315785.

Footsteps in the Sea: Christianity in Oceania to World War II. By John Garrett. Suva and Geneva, Institute of Pacific Studies in association with World Council of Churches, 1992. 514 pp, maps, plates, bibliog. ISBN 9820200687. $US13.95 pb.

Where Nets Were Cast Christianity in Oceania Since World War II. By John Garrett. Suva and Geneva, Institute of Pacific Studies in association with World Council of Churches, 1998. 499 pp, maps, plates, bibliog. ISBN 9820201217. $US13.95pb.

Double Ghosts. Oceanian Voyagers on Euroamerican Ships. By David A. Chappell. Arrnonk, New York and London, M. E. Sharpe, 1998. xix, 231 pp, illus., notes, bibliog., index. ISBN 1563249987.

Living Tradition: A Changing Life in Solomon Islands. As told by Michael Kwa'ioloa to Ben Burt. London, British Museum Press, 1998. vi, 169pp. ISBN 0714125334.

The Cassowary's Revenge: the Life and Death of Masculinity in a New Guinea Society. By Donald Tuzin. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1998. xiii, 256 pp, bibliog., index, plates, maps. ISBN 0226819515.

Political Decentralisation in a Mew State: The Experience of Provincial Government in Papua Mew Guinea. Edited by R. J. May and A. J. Regan with A. Ley. Bathurst, Crawford House Publishing, 1998. xii, 431pp (paper).

Sites of Desire, Economies of Pleasure: Sexualities in Asia and the Pacific. Edited by Lenore Manderson and Margaret Jolly. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1998. xii, 367pp. ISBN 0226503046 (paper), 0226503038 (cloth).

Hannah Dudley: Hamari Maa. By Morven Sidal. Suva, Pacific Theological College [1998]. viii, 144 pp, appendix.

Great Powers and the Wider World. By John Dunbabin. London and New York, Longman, 1994. Two vols, 513 and 549pp respectively, indexes. £44 and £42 hardback; £17.99 and £16.99 paperback.

Trading Beyond the Mountains: the British Fur Trade on the Pacific, 1793–1843. By Richard Somerset Mackie. Vancouver, UBC Press, 1998. 444 pp, figs, maps, tables, bibliog., index. ISBN 0774805595. $29.95.

Beyond a Mountain Valley, The Simbu of Papua New Guinea. By Paula Brown. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1995. 296pp. ISBN 082481701X.     

Contexts and Debates

Carl Levy (ed.), Italian Regionalism. History, Identity and Politics, Berg, Oxford 1996, 197 pp., ISBN 1–85975–131–7 hbk, 1–85973–156–2 pbk, £12.95.     

Mycenaean Beads: Gender and Social Contexts

Although Mycenaean burial customs and the absence of written sources make many questions about beads unanswerable, nonetheless there is some evidence, or room for speculation, about who wore beads, how they were worn, uses other than as jewellery, relations to seals and amulets and spindle whorls and textiles, their materials and sources and their part in long-distance and other cultural contacts,colours and the possible significance of them, manufacturing processes and craft organization, symbolic values of relief-bead motifs, beads as rank- or status-markers. Gender roles and differences are sometimes hinted at in the archaeological record. Written sources from Egypt and Mesopotamia and archaeological and ethnographic studies in India can sometimes help to fill gaps by suggesting questions or answers.     

Celtic Ritual Activity at Gordion,Turkey: Evidence from Mortuary Contexts and Skeletal Analysis

Primary support for a Celtic presence in Turkey during ancient times comes from textual sources. However, the analysis of human skeletal remains and mortuary practices at the site of Gordion, combined with archaeological findings, provide persuasive evidence of a Celtic settlement including ritual activity. Data are drawn from 47 individuals excavated from the Lower Town area of the site: 21 Later Hellenistic (late 3^rd to 2^nd centuries BCE) and 26 Roman (1^st to 2^nd centuries CE). The two sub‐samples have markedly different paleodemographic profiles. Composition of the Later Hellenistic group is unusual, with very few infants (5%) and primarily young or middle aged adults (52%), whereas the Roman sample has many infant burials (27%) and less than half young or middle aged adults (35%). Burial contexts for the two groups are also distinct, with only one formal interment associated with the Later Hellenistic, the remaining individuals being in mixed groupings of human and animal bones or disarticulated and commingled human skeletal deposits. By comparison, the Roman sample comprises exclusively primary burials, two cremations, and 24 inhumations. Evidence of inter‐personal violence, such as perimortem cranial trauma and decapitation, is totally absent in the Roman group but present in 25% of the Later Hellenistic specimens. The nature of the Later Hellenistic skeletal assemblages and the ritual space in which they were found show similarities to European Celtic remains identified as resulting from ritual sacrifice. The data presented here represent the first comprehensive bioarchaeological approach to these population groups from central Turkey. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Migration,Human Resource Transfers,and Development Contexts: A Logit Analysis of Venezuelan Data

This paper is concerned with the reciprocal relationship between migration and development in Third World settings. Using individual-level data for Venezuela, migration behavior is related to a person's age, educational attainment, gender, and characteristics of his/her place(s) of residence as an out-migrant, in-migrant, or stayer. Place characteristics are in terms of four groups based on employment patterns: the core, regional centers, resource frontiers, and traditional rural areas. Four questions are of concern. First, does development influence migration? All analyses indicate this is so. Second, does migration influence development? Findings are ambiguous in that places experiencing improvement in their mix of human capital lagged in the net number of persons obtained through migration whereas a gain in numbers was accompanied by deterioriation in human capital profiles. Third, was incipient polarization reversal occurring in Venezuela in the late 1960s, early 1970s? This paper departs from the usual approach by addressing this question in terms of human capital attributes instead of population aggregates. On this basis, polarization reversal is in evidence, particularly in regional centers. Finally, this study answers in the affirmative that places with different development characteristics generate migration streams differing in type, magnitude, explanation, and impact.     

Drought as a Revelatory Crisis: An Exploration of Shifting Entitlements and Hierarchies in the Kalahari,Botswana

This article analyses drought in Botswana as a ‘revelatory crisis' in which structural contradictions as well as deteriorating socio-economic conditions are exposed. Paradoxically, however, drought also enables such conditions to be concealed because they can be attributed to the ‘crisis' and not to deeper problems and trends. In addition, crises such as droughts disrupt conventional routine sufficiently to allow actors (including government policy-makers as well as rural producers) to innovate with normative codes. This fact along with the opening up of structural fault lines often leads to accelerated rates of social change. Change is analysed here both in terms of the structural conditions in which it takes place (and alters) and with regard to the actions taken by individuals and institutions in order to reveal the links between structure and agency. The article draws upon an extended case study from Central Botswana and utilizes Sen's method of entitlement analysis to examine changing social processes.     

Learning in Authentic Contexts: Projects Integrating Spatial Technologies and Fieldwork

In recent years, professional practice has been an issue of concern in higher education. The purpose of this study is to design students' projects to facilitate collaborative learning in authentic contexts. Ten students majoring in Management Information Systems conducted fieldwork with spatial technologies to collect data and provided information works for communities. Activity theory was used to analyze the activity system of the project. The results showed that the project had positive effects on students' attitudes toward practical knowledge and social communication. In the end, the author suggests the benefits and problems related to promoting learning through integration with community practices.     

Early Metal in South India: Copper and Iron in Megalithic Contexts

In South India early metal artifacts, usually associated with megalithic sites, include both copper and iron. Although in some cases copper artifacts predate those made of iron, there is no evidence of an extensive metallurgical tradition based on copper and its alloys. Typological studies have had limited success in explaining the megalithic sites and the production and consumption of metal, while other approaches have not explicitly addressed the social contexts of metal production. While there emerge some suggestive patterns from the archaeometallurgical evidence to date, understanding the role of metal production and consumption in megalithic contexts means reevaluating traditional paradigms about the nature of these sites and about how metal technologies develop.     

Chemical Alteration and Use of Beeswax Through Time: Accelerated Ageing Tests and Analysis of Archaeological Samples from Various Environmental Contexts

In order better to interpret the chemical composition of ancient organic residues and artefacts containing beeswax, the degradation of this raw material was accelerated in the laboratory by controlled heating. During the course of degradation, deposits were condensed above the beeswax. Both degraded beeswax and these deposits were analysed. These experiments definitively proved that n‐alkane depletion is due to a sublimation process that depends on the molecular weight of these hydrocarbons. The formation of benzoic and cinnamic derivatives due to the degradation of flavonoid precursors initially present in beeswax has also been highlighted for the first time. The analysis of samples from Neolithic and Roman periods led to the identification of beeswax characterized by different degradation patterns linked to their environmental context.     

The Politics of Termination: Concepts and Process

This article clarifies some of the theoretical issues relevant to the concept of termination of public policies. It distinguishes between functional and structural termination, considering the first to reflect an end to policy or program activities, the second to reflect an end to institutional arrangements that have responsibility for policies or programs. Their Interrelationship is analyzed. The authors find that few programs or policies are terminated; fewer bureaus, agencies, or departments are eliminated. In fact, efforts at termination occasionally lead to an expansion of resources. An application of these concepts and this framework in the case of community health care in Nebraska demonstrates their potential utility for understanding termination.     

Stones from Bavaria: Iranian Lithography in its Global Contexts

This essay traces the circulation of the industrial commodities of lithographic presses and stones and compares the uses to which these commodities were put in Iran with other regions at the same time. Using Persian travelogues as sources on scientific exchange, the essay compares Iran's access to lithography with its spread through Europe, Russia and South and Southeast Asia. Using lithography as a gauge of Iran's integration into an industrializing global economy, it compares state-led Iranian attempts to access lithographic commodities with attempts by other regional powers to develop local sources for these ‘stones from Bavaria’. After tracing the role of Christian Evangelicalism in the technology's dissemination, the essay finally contextualizes Iranian uses of lithography in global developments in illustrated and newspaper printing.

Since the art of Lithography has risen to considerable celebrity, attempts have been made to discover the same species of stone…

– Aloys Senefelder, 1819