Book reviews

Tham Seong Chee. Social science research in Malaysia, vii, 151pp. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1981.

Anthony Whitten. The gibbons of Siberut. xiii, 207pp., 8 plates. London, etc: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1982. £9.50.

Katrien Polman. The north Moluccas: an annotated bibliography, xx, 192pp. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981. (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Bibliographical . Series, 11.) Guilders 30.

J. H. M. C. Boelaars. Head‐hunters about themselves: an ethnographic report from Irian Jaya₃ Indonesia, xv, 296pp., 15 plates, 5 maps. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde, 92.) Guilders 90.     

Book reviews

Jan Bank. Katholieken en de Indonesisohe Bevolutie. 576 pp. + 7 pp. English Summary. Baarn: Amboboeken, C19833. CPublikaties van het Katholiek Documeiitatie Centrum, 11.) Guilders 37.50.

Francois Raillon. Les étudiants indonésiens et l'Ordre Nouveau; pplitique et idéologie du Mahasiswa Indonesia (1966–1974). 351 pp. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1984. (Études Insulindiennes/Archipel, 6.)

Victor T. King. The Maloh of West Kalimantan: an ethnographic study of social inequality and social change among an Indonesian Borneo people. viii, 252pp, 13 plates. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1985. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volken‐kunde, 108.)

S. A. Niessen. Motifs of life in Toba Batak texts and textiles, viii, 249pp. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1985. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklik Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde, 110.)     

A Cross-Cultural Study of Young Children's Mapping Abilities

The mapping abilities of four-year-old children in York, England, Durban, South Africa, Tehran, Iran, Mexico City, Mexico and Evanston, Illinois, USA were investigated, using a methodology involving air-photo identification and simulated navigation on an air photo. The results show that essential mapping abilities (perspective and scale transformations) are well developed by the age of four in these cultures, and provide some evidence in support of the hypothesis that mapping abilities emerge without training in very young children of all cultures.