Elusive polis: Explaining the MFP

Walter Hamilton. Serendipity City: Australia, Japan and the Multifunction Polis. Sydney: ABC Enterprises, 1991. 228 pp. A$29.95 (hardcover).

Ross E. Mouer and Yoshio Sugimoto (eds.). The MFP Debate: A Background Reader. Bundoora: La Trobe University Press, 1990. 166 pp. n.p.g. (paper).

Gavan McCormack (ed.). Bonsai Australia Banzai: Multifunctionpolis and the Making of a Special Relationship with Japan. Sydney: Pluto Press Australia, 1991. 228 pp. A$16.95 (paper).

Ian Inkster. The Clever City: Japan, Australia and the Multifunction Polis. Sydney: Oxford University Press, 1991. xi + 180 pp. $17.95 (paper).     

The body weight of AL 288-1 (‘Lucy’): A new approach using estimates of skeletal length and the body mass index

A method of estimating the body mass of hominids by use of the skeletal length and physique index is described. The body mass indices (BMI) of female humans and female chimpanzees are known and this permits an estimate of the probable BMI for the female common ancestor and thus for female morphs intermediate between the common ancestor and modern humans. AL288-1 (‘Lucy’) probably had a BMI of about 22.3 kg m⁻² and for a height of 105cm this yields a body weight estimate of about 25 kg. Body weight estimates of 28–29 kg would imply a body mass index similar to female chimps and are improbable. These conclusions will be compromised if the chimp–gorilla–homo phylogenetic relationship proves to be a trichotomy rather than a chimp–homo dichotomy.     

Book reviews

CHINA

MURRAY A. RUBINSTEIN (ed). Taiwan: a New History . Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 536 pp. Illustrations, maps, photographs, index. US$27.95, paper.

CLARA WING‐CHUNG HO (ed). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women Vol 1: the Qing Period 1644–1911. Editors in Chief Lily Xiao Hong Lee and A. D. Stefanowksa. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. 424 pp. Bibliography, index. US$87.95, hardcover.

JUN JING. The Temple of Memories: history, Power, and Morality in a Chinese Village. Oakleigh, Victoria: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 217 pp. Illustrations, introduction, notes, references, character lists, index. A$29.95, paper.

LISA ROFEL. Other Modernities. Gendered Yearnings in China after Socialism. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999. xvi, 330 pp. 3 b/w illustrations, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$16.95, paper.

HAIPING YAN (ed). Theater & Society: an Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. xlvi, 328 pp. Introduction, notes on translators. US$ 62.95, hardcover; US$ 24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MICHAEL J. GREEN. Arming Japan: defense Production, Alliance Politics and the Postwar Search for Autonomy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 206 pp. US$19.00, paper.

T. J. PEMPEL. Regime Shift: comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Idiaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998. 263 pp. £13.50, paper.

IAN NISH (ed). The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: a New Assessment. Surrey: Japan Library, 1998. 226 pp. Foreword, list of contributors, introduction, appendix, notes, index. £40.00, hardcover.

SUGIHARA SEISHIRO (trans. Norman Hu). Between Incompetence and Culpability: assessing the Diplomacy of Japan's Foreign Ministry from Pearl Harbour to Potsdam. Lanham: University of America Press, 1997. xxv, 227 pp. Appendices, glossary, bibliography. No price given, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

JOHN DOWSON. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998. 430 pp. Rs. 100, paper.

SURES CHANDRA BANERJI. A Companion to Dharmasastra. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998. 265 pp. Rs. 350, hardcover.

ANIL KUMAR. Medicine and the Raj: British Medical Policy in India 1835–1911. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 246 pp. £27.50, paper.

VTVEK PINTO. Gandhi's Vision and Values. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 176 pp. Index. Rs. 225, hardcover.

MINA SWAMINATHAN (ed). The First Five Years: a Critical Perspective on Early Childhood Care and Education in India. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 313 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

PETER SEARLE. The Riddle of Malaysian Capitalism: rent Seekers or Real Capitalists? St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1999. xvii, 318 pp. Tables, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. A$29.95, paper.

KATHERINE A. BOWIE. Rituals of National Loyalty: an Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. xxii, 391 pp. US$49.40, hardcover; US$18.50, paper.

MICHAEL A. AUNG‐THWIN. Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Burma. Ohio University Center for International Studies, Athens, Ohio. Monograph No. 102. 1998. US$25.00, paper.

ANNE BOOTH. The Indonesian Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. A History of Missed Opportunities. Basingstoke: Macmillan, in association with the Australian National University, 1998. xvi, 377 pp. A$49.95, paper.     

Continuity and discontinuity in the historical development of modern psychopharmacology

In the middle of the twentieth century psychiatry underwent a transition that is often referred to as the "psychopharmacology revolution." Implicit in the term revolution is the idea that a paradigm shift occurred. Specifically, it has been argued that psychiatry abandoned the psychoanalytic paradigm in favor of a qualitatively distinct conceptual system based on brain chemistry. The validity of this view requires that psychoanalysis had the status of a paradigm. This paper presents evidence that psychoanalysis did not constitute a paradigm and that the advent of psychopharmacology was not, technically, a scientific revolution. Instead, the rise of modern psychopharmacology was the culmination of a linear growth of biological knowledge that began to develop in the nineteenth century.