Thinking Past Henri Lefebvre: Introducing “The Theory of Ground Rent and Rural Sociology”

This introduction to the translation of Henri Lefebvre's 1956 essay “The theory of ground rent and rural Sociology” moves through three stages. First, it suggests that Anglophone appropriations of Lefebvre have tended to focus too much on his urban writings, at the expense of understanding his early work on rural sociology, and failing to recognise how his urban focus emerged as a result of his interest in rural–urban transformation. Second, it provides a summary of his wider work on rural questions, including his unfinished work on a major treatise of rural sociology; and outlines the key themes of the present essay in relation to these other projects. Third, it connects Lefebvre's issues to wider debates in political economy and geography about aspects of the rural, land and ground rent, not least including the work of Antonio Gramsci and José Carlos Mariátegui.     

Reviews

Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age, HOWARD B. CLARKE, M#AAAIRE NI MHAONAIGH & RAGHNALL #AAO FL#AAOINN (eds), 1998, Dublin, Four Courts Press, pp.468, ISBN 1.85182.235.6, £25.00 (hb)

The Making of Ireland, From Ancient Times to the Present, JAMES LYDON, 1998, London and New York, Routledge, pp.425, ISBN 0.415.01348.8, £14.99 (pb)

Pathways to Ulster's Past: Sources and Resources for Local Studies, PETER COLLINS, 1998, Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, pp.xi + 158, ISBN 0.85389.693.3, £6–50 (pb)

If The Irish Ran The World: Montserrat, 1630–1730, DONAL HARMAN AKENSON, 1997, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp.273, ISBN 0.85323.952.5, £29.95 (hb); ISBN 0.5232.962.2, £14.95 (pb)

Propagating the Word of Irish Dissent 1650–1800, K. HERLIHY (ed.), 1998, Dublin, Four Courts Press, pp.137, ISBN 1.85182.411.1, £30.00 (hb); ISBN 1.85182.412.X, £11.99 (pb)

Ireland Since 1690: A Concise History, ROY DOUGLAS, LIAM HARTE & JIM O'HARA, 1999, Belfast, Blackstaff Press, pp. 247, ISBN 0–85640–645–7, £8.99 (pb)

Ireland: Towards New Identities?, KARL‐HEINZ WESTARP & MICHAEL BOSS (eds), 1998, Denmark, Aarhus University Press [Dolphin Series: 29, General Editor Tim Caudery], pp. 180, ISBN 87.7288.380.4, £14.95 (pb)

The Bellews of Mount Bellew: A Catholic Gentry Family in Eighteenth‐Century Ireland, KAREN J. HARVEY, 1998, Dublin, Four Courts Press, pp.218, ISBN 1.85182.351.4, £30.00 (hb)

Henry Flood: Patriots and Politics in Eighteenth‐Century Ireland, JAMES KELLY, 1998, Dublin, Four Courts Press, pp.486, ISBN 1.85182.365.4, £39.50 (hb)

Counties of South Ulster 1834–8: Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Volume 40, ANG#AAELIQUE DAY & PATRICK MCWILLIAMS (eds), 1998, Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast, pp. 200, ISBN 0.85389.661.5, £8.75 (pb)

Famine Diary, BRENDAN #AAO CATHAOIR, 1999, Dublin, Irish Academic Press, pp. xix + 201, ISBN 0.7165.2655.7, £18.95 (hb)

Famine, Land and Politics: British Government and Irish Society 1843–50 PETER GRAY, 1999 Dublin, Irish Academic Press pp. ix +384, ISBN 0.7165.2564.X, £39.50, US$57.50 (hb)

The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New, THOMAS KENEALLY, 1998, London, Chatto and Windus, pp.xvii +732, ISBN 0.091.83736.7, £25.00 (hb)

Some Ethical Questions of Peace and War, WALTER MCDONALD, 1919; TOM GARVIN (ed.), 1998, Dublin, University College Dublin Press, pp. 140, ISBN 1.900621.18.5, £9.95 (pb)

The Victory of Sinn Fein, P. S. O'HEGARTY, 1924; TOM GARVTN (ed.), 1998, Dublin, University College Dublin Press, pp. 164, ISBN 1.900621.17.7, £10.95 (pb)

Dividing Ireland: World War I And Partition, THOMAS HENNESSEY, 1998, London, Routledge, pp.280, ISBN 0.415.19880.1, £16.99 (pb)

Location and Dislocation in Contemporary Irish Society: Emigration and Irish Identities, JIM MACLAUGHLIN (ed.), 1997, Cork, Cork University Press, pp.354, ISBN. 1.85918.054X, £45.00 (hb); ISBN.1.85918.055.8, £15.95 (pb)

John Hume and the SDLP: Impact and Survival in Northern Ireland, GERARD MURRAY, 1998, Dublin, Irish Academic Press, pp.328, ISBN 0.7165.2644.1, IR£27.57 (hb)

Battling for Peace, RICHARD NEEDHAM, 1999, Belfast, Blackstaff Press, pp. 344, ISBN 0.85640.654.6, £12.99 (pb)

Talking to the Dead: A Study of Irish Funerary Traditions, NINA WITOSZEK & PAT SHEERAN, 1998, Amsterdam, Rodopi, Costerus New Series 117, pp. 182, ISBN 9.789042.00531.0, £19.50 (pb)

Robert Shipboy Mac Adam: his life and Gaelic proverb collection, A. J. HUGHES, 1998, Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, pp. 240, ISBN 0.85399.698.4, £9.95 (pb)

Irish Popular Culture, 1650–1850, JAMES S. DONNELLY, JR. & KERBY A. MILLER (eds), 1998, Dublin, Irish Academic Press, pp.284, ISBN 0.7165.2551.8, £32.50 (hb)

The Present Lasts a Long Time: Essays in Cultural Politics, FRANCIS MULHERN, 1998, Cork, Cork University Press, pp.203, ISBN 1.85918.225.9, £14.95 (pb)

Media Audiences in Ireland: Power and Cultural Identity, MARY J. KELLY & BARBARA O'CONNOR (eds), 1997, Dublin, University College Dublin, pp.288, ISBN 1.900621.09.6, £13.50 (pb)

Ireland and Cultural Theory: The Mechanics of Authenticity, COLIN GRAHAM & RICHARD KIRKLAND (eds), 1999 Basingstoke, Macmillan, pp. 249, ISBN 0–333–67597–5, £16.99 (pb)

The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual, ALEXEI KONDRATIEV, 1998, Cork, Collins Press, pp.263, ISBN 1.898256.42.X, £12.99 (pb)

Conversing with Angels and Ancients: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland, JOSEPH FALAKY NAGY, 1997, Dublin, Four Courts Press, pp.356, ISBN 1.85182303.4, £35.00 (hb)

Margaret Aylward 1810–1889: Lady of Charity, Sister of Faith, JACINTA PRUNTY, 1999, Dublin, Four Courts Press, pp. 192, ISBN 1.85182.438.3, £14.95 (pb)

Poets and Politics: Reaction and Continuity in Irish Poetry, 1558–1625, MARC CABALL, 1998, Cork, Field Day Monographs/Cork University Press, Series Editor, Seamus Deane, pp.232, ISBN 1.85918.162.7, £16.95 (pb)

The Anglo‐Irish Novel and the Big House, VERA KREILKAMP, 1998, Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, pp.289, ISBN 0.8156.2752.1, US$44.95 (hb)

Irish Encounters: Poetry, Politics and Prose since 1S80, ALAN MARSHALL & NEIL SAMMELLS (eds), 1998, Bath, Sulis Press, pp. 199, ISBN 0.9526856.3.9, £35.00 (hb); ISBN 0.9526856.4.7, £13.95 (pb)

Red‐Headed Rebel: Susan L. Mitchell, Poet and Mystic of the Irish Cultural Renaissance, HILARY PYLE, 1998, Dublin, Woodfield Press, pp.248, ISBN 0.9528453.7.7, £12.50 (pb)

The Harlem and Irish Renaissances: Language, Identity and Representation, TRACY MISHKIN, 1998, Gainsville, FL, University Press of Florida, pp. 127, ISBN 0.8130.1611.8, US$49.95 (hp)

Advertising and Commodity Culture in Joyce, GARRY LEONARD, 1998, Gainesville, FL, University Press of Florida, pp.252, ISBN 0–8130–1632–0, US849.95 (hb)

Joyce, Joyceans and the Rhetoric of Citation, ELOISE KNOWLTON, 1998, Gainesville, FL, University Press of Florida, pp.x+ 135, ISBN 0.8130.1610‐X, £39.95 (hb)

Theatre of Shadows: Samuel Beckett's Drama, 1956–1976, ROSEMARY POUNTNEY, 1998, Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe, pp.309, ISBN 0.86140.407.6, £12.95 (pb)

The Unappeasable Host: Studies in Irish Identities, ROBERT TRACY, 1998, Dublin, University College Dublin Press, pp.288, ISBN 1.900621.06.1, £30.00 (hb); ISBN 1.900621.07.X, £15.95 (pb)

Mistaken Identities: Poetry and Northern Ireland, PETER MCDONALD, 1997, Oxford, Clarendon Press, pp. ix + 226, ISBN 0.19.818422.0, £35.00 (hb)

Folklore and the Fantastic in Twelve Modern Irish Novels, MARGUERITE QUINTELLI‐NEARY, 1997, Westport, CT and London, Greenwood Press, pp. 166, ISBN 0.313.30490.4, £39.50 (hb)

Contemporary Irish Literature: Transforming Tradition, CHRISTINA HUNT MAHONY, 1998, New York, St Martin's Press, pp.299, ISBN 0.312.15871.8, US$55.00 (hb); ISBN 0.312.21901.6, US$18.95 (pb)

Selected Plays of Micheál mac Liammóir, JOHN BARRETT (ed.), 1998, Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe; Washington, DC, Catholic University of America Press, pp.319, ISBN 0.86140.154.9, £30.00 (hb); ISBN 0.86140.155.7, £9.95 (pb)

Selected Plays: T. C. Murray, RICHARD ALLEN CAVE, 1998, Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe, pp. 274, ISBN 0.86140.142.5, £30.00 (hb)

Selected Plays: M. J. Molloy, ROBERT O'DRISCOLL, 1998, Gerrards Cross, Colin Smythe, pp.394, ISBN 0.86140.148.4, £35.00 (hb);, ISBN 0.86140.149.2, £9.93 (pb)

Sacrilege, BRENDAN CLEARY, 1998, Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, Bloodaxe Books, pp. 96, ISBN 1.85224.460.7, £7.95 (pb), Snakeskin Stilettos, MOYRA DONALDSON, 1998, Belfast, Lagan Press, pp. 78, ISBN 1.8736.8725.7, £5.95 (pb.)

The Things that Were, AUBREY DILLON‐MALONE, 1998, Dublin, Ashfield Press, pp. 256, ISBN 1.901658.090.0, £7.99 (pb)

Getting Used to Not Being Remarkable, MICHAEL FOLEY, 1998, Belfast, The Black Staff Press, pp. 306, ISBN 0.85640.626.0, £8.99 (pb)

Re/Dressing Cathleen: Contemporary Works from Irish Women Artists, JENNIFER GRINNELL & ALSTON CONLEY (eds), 1997, Boston, McMuIlen Museum of Art, Boston College and Cork, Cork University Press, pp. 144, ISBN 0.9640153.8.2, £14.95 (pb)

Contemporary Irish Cinema Cineaste Supplement, vol. xxiv, nos. 2–3, March 1999, New York, pp. 23–76, ISSN 25274.79078, US$6.00     

Late Holocene Historical Ecology: The Timing of Vertebrate Extirpation on Crooked Island,Commonwealth of The Bahamas

We report eight new accelerator-mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates performed directly on individual bones of extirpated species from Crooked Island, The Bahamas. Three dates from the hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami), recovered from a culturally derived bone assemblage in McKay's Bluff Cave (site CR-5), all broadly overlap from AD 1450 to 1620, which encompasses the time of first European contact with the Lucayan on Crooked Island (AD 1492). Marine fish and hutia dominate the bone assemblage at McKay's Bluff Cave, shedding light on vertebrate consumption by the Lucayans just before their demise. A fourth AMS ¹⁴C date on a hutia bone, from a non-cultural surface context in Crossbed Cave (site CR-25), is similar (AD 1465 to 1645) to those from McKay's Bluff Cave. From Pittstown Landing (site CR-14), an open coastal archaeological site, a femur of the Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) yielded an AMS ¹⁴C date of AD ～1050–1250, which is early in the Lucayan cultural sequence. From a humerus in a non-cultural surface context in 1702 Cave (site CR-26), we document survival of the Cuban crocodile on Crooked Island until AD ～1300–1400, which is several hundred years later than the well-documented extinction of Cuban crocodiles on Abaco in the northern Bahamas. We lack a clear explanation of why Cuban crocodiles likely survived longer on Crooked Island than on a larger Bahamian island such as Abaco. One AMS ¹⁴C date on Crooked Island's extinct, undescribed species of tortoise (Chelonoidis sp.) from 1702 Cave is BC 790 to 540 (2740 to 2490 cal BP), which is ～1500–1700 years prior to human arrival. A second AMS ¹⁴C date, on a fibula of this tortoise from McKay's Bluff Cave, is AD 1025 to 1165, thereby demonstrating survival of this extinct species into the period of human occupation.     

‘Mother's Blood,Father's Land’: Native Title and Comparative Land Tenure Modelling for Claims in ‘Settled’ Australia

Anthropologists working in the field of Australian native title are required to piece together the early laws and customs of claimant groups and assess the degree to which these have continued since the assumption of British sovereignty. The former task is often difficult in south‐eastern Australia because of a lack of good quality early records. I suggest here that there are general principles of Aboriginal land tenure that can be recovered from elsewhere in Aboriginal Australia, where the ethnography is of a better standard, and these can be used as a guide for working with the patchier materials characteristic of the south‐east. The principles mainly cohere around the organic relationship between patrilineal descent and complementary filiation, and are shown to be relevant to the modelling of contemporary south‐eastern tenure, where people speak of ‘bloodlines’ identified with ancestral lands.