Book reviews

CHINA

GILLIAN BICKLEY. The Golden Needle — The Biography of Frederick Stewart (1836–1889). Hong Kong: David C. Lam Institute for East‐West Studies, 1997. 308 pp. Index, illustrations. HK$168, paper.

ZHENG CHAOLIN. An Oppositionist for Life: memoirs of the Chinese Revolutionary Zheng Chaolin , ed. and trans, by Gregor Benton. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1997. xxiii, 333 pp. Index, biographical reference list. US$49.95, hardcover; US$18.50, paper.

JOHN W. DARDESS. A Ming Society: T'ai‐ho County, Kiangsi, in the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996. 322 pp. Maps, tables. US$45.00, hardcover.

LEO M. DOUW and PETER POST (eds). South China: state Culture and Social Change during the 20th Century. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996. xvi, 253 pp. Figures, tables, glossary, introduction, bibliography, index. Dfl. 75, paper.

GEORGE C. S. LIN. Red Capitalism in South China: growth and Development of the Pearl River Delta. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1997. xii, 219 pp. C$75, hardcover.

KAM LOUIE (ed). Strange Tales from Strange Lands: stories by Zheng Wanlong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asia Series, East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1993. vii, 133 pp. US$18.00, hardcover; US$12.00, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

PURNENDRA C. JAIN (ed). Distant Asian Neighbours: Japan and South Asia. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd, 1996. xii, 235 pp. Appendices, index. Rs400, hardcover.

B. McVEIGH. The Nature of the Japanese State: rationality and Rituality. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. xx, 251 pp. Index. No price given (reviewed from proofs).

SOUTH ASIA

SEKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY. Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: the Namasudras of Bengal, 1872–1947. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1997. xii, 325 pp. Abbreviations, table, map, bibliography, index. £40.00, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

LEE TING HUI. The Open United Front: the Communist Struggle in Singapore 1954–1966. Singapore: The South Seas Society, 1997. xi, 417 pp. Preface, abbreviations, select biography, index. No price given, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

JACQUELINE S. ISMAEL and ENID HILL (eds). Social Welfare and Social Development. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd, 1997. v, 195 pp. Contents, preface, contributors, articles, tables, endnotes. No price given.     

ACCULTURATION ALIMENTAIRE ET MUTATION URBAINE: LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DE L'INDUSTRIE DE LA RESTAURATION DANS L'AGGLOMÉRATION URBAINE DE QUÉBEC

Le développement récent de I'industrie de la restauration au Canada est représentatif de la transformation rapide des habitudes alimentaires de la population depuis trois décennies. De plus en plus industrialisée, la restauration se développe selon deux tendances principales: la nutrition (la restauration rapide - fast-food) et la convivialité (restauration gastronomique). Dans cet article, nous analysons le développement de I'industrie de la restauration dans la région métropolitaine de Québec au cours des trente dernières années, en faisant ressortir la dynami-que spatiale de la pénétration du secteur de la restauration de type 'fast-food' lors de I'expansion du tissu urbain et sa structuration par les voies rapides de transport automobile.
The recent development of the restaurant industry in Canada reflects the rapid transformation of the population's eating habits during the last thirty years. As it becomes more and more industrialized, the economic sector of the restaurant industry is developing according to two main tendencies: nutrition (fast-food restaurants) and conviviality (fine dining). In this paper, we look at the development of the restaurant industry in the metropolitan area of Quebec during the last three decades, showing the spatial dynamism of the fast-food sector since the beginning of rapid urban expansion and highway construction.     

Trade unions,the Australian Labor Party and the Trade–Labour Rights Debate

This paper examines the Australian trade union movement's campaign to convince the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to support the inclusion of core labour standards in international trade agreements. Despite historical affiliations, the Australian union movement has been unsuccessful in its attempts to influence the ALP. In contrast, the US union movement has convinced both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party to accept that core labour standards should be a part of the trade negotiating agenda. The reasons for the US unions' success on this issue are examined within the context of the changing relationship between the respective union movements and their traditional parliamentary allies. The need for Australian unions to examine and reassess their strategies by drawing lessons from the US experience, including the possibility of a changed relationship with the ALP, is discussed.     

Sami self‐determination in the making?*

Abstract. The article discusses whether principles of territorial or non‐territorial jurisdiction ought to guide the future distribution of decision‐making power between the Norwegian Sami Parliament and the Norwegian Parliament. It argues that an acceptable distribution of powers must satisfy two normative criteria: first, decision‐making power ought to be distributed on the basis of individuals' desire to be politically associated with some people rather than with others. Second, a normatively defensible distribution of decision‐making power must ensure that those who are subject to the jurisdiction of a particular body have the right to vote in elections for, and thus have the possibility to affect the composition of, that particular body. The article concludes that a non‐territorial principle for distribution of decision‐making power provides a more fruitful point of departure for discussions of the future status of the Sami Parliament in the Norwegian political system than do notions of territorial jurisdiction.     

Archaeology in Translation

In this editorial I note a type of resistance to the hegemony of English in academic contexts and call for consideration of expanding on this development. In an editors note I go on the credit assistant editors Marcia Bezerra, Julie Holowell and Alexander Hererra who were inadvertently not acknowledged in the volumes to which they contributed.

---

Resumen En este editorial hago notar una cierta resistencia hacia la hegemonía del idioma inglés en contextos académicos y hago un llamado a considerar la expansión de este desarrollo. En una nota editorial doy crédito a los editores asistentes Marcia Becerra, Julie Hollowell y Alexander Herrera, quienes inadvertidamente no fueron reconocidos en los volúmenes donde ellos contribuyeron.

---

Résumé Dans cette rédaction, je remarque une résistance à l’hégémonie de l’anglais dans le contexte académique, ce qui demande une certaine réflexion pour nous étendre sur ce sujet. Dans une note de l’éditeur dans laquelle je suis mentionnée, les rédacteurs adjoints Marcia Bezerra, Julie Holowell et Alexander Hererra n’ont pas, par inadvertance, été reconnus dans les publications auxquelles ils ont contribué.

     

Zur Pluralisierung im Luthertum des 17. Jahrhunderts und ihrer Bedeutung für die Deutungen von ‚Natur’︁

Building on methodological considerations in cultural history and historical anthropology, the following contribution proceeds from the concept of ?nature’? rather than from ?natural science’?, with the former understood here as the object of culturally determined projections, values and practices. This ?constructive’?, practice‐oriented concept of nature exposes perceptions of and attitudes towards nature that, owing to the usual reduction of nature to natural science, would otherwise have remained hidden, but which may well be essential to its constitution. To a certain extent, the term ?nature’? continues the terminological extension from ?natural science’? to ?natural philosophy’?, but as a heuristic device it more strongly implies the significance of culturally mediated practices and dynamics. The essay raises the following questions: Which religious conceptions entered into which attitudes towards nature and which religious expectations and interpretive matrices were the motivating forces behind which studies of nature? The figures within seventeenth‐century Lutheranism who shaped and promoted nature‐oriented attitudes and practices were not the ?orthodox’? scholars more strongly tied to academic and controversialist theology, but rather reform‐oriented theologians critical of the church. In the context of the inner differentiation and pluralization of seventeenth‐century Lutheranism, these reform‐oriented groups not only inspired innovate theological projects but also assumed a leading role, along with liked‐minded Christian laypersons, in interpreting and studying ?nature’?.