A Context for Concealment: The Historical Archaeology of Folk Ritual and Superstition in Australia

Are there traditions of folk ritual practice in Australian historical contexts, and are they observable in the archaeological record? Studies from the US and UK have documented a range of practices suggesting the persistence of British and European traditions of folk magic well into the twentieth century and previous historical work has identified numerous examples of ritual concealments in Australian buildings. In examining over 4,500 Australian historical archaeological sources, however, we found very few examples of possible folk ritual practices. This raises the question of why such practices are not being captured by current archaeological recording methods. As counterpoint, a general model is constructed from US, UK and Australian work that raises intriguing possibilities for the situating of superstitious behavior in Australian historical archaeology, including the contexts in which people might be more prone to practise such behaviors and how they might be materially identifiable.     

The evolution of the cultural policy regime in the Anglophone Caribbean

This paper addresses the complexities involved in developing cultural policies in the Anglophone Caribbean. The first section examines the evolution of the cultural policy agenda in the 40‐odd years since the independence era. It traces and analyses the policy trajectory from one that sought to promote the intrinsic values of culture, to one that currently espouses the more instrumental value of the cultural industries. The next section analyses the efficacy of the policy path by examining a regional cultural policy initiative, the Caribbean Festival for the Arts (CARIFESTA). The paper suggests that the Caribbean cultural policies have under performed because of critical disjunctures. These generally involve the imposition of a nationalistic policy framework on the transnational structure of the Caribbean cultural sector. The paper concludes by suggesting a regional cultural approach to policy formulation can provide a more effective mechanism to encourage and harness the cultural wealth of the Anglophone Caribbean.     

History and folklore: a historiographical survey

This article is designed as an introduction to the other articles in this special edition of Folklore. It argues that the relationship between historians and folklorists has undergone three phases: the “age of harmony” prior to the First World War, when both disciplines were in their infancy; the “age of suspicion” from the 1920s to the 1970s, when historians tended to define their field narrowly as the development of the nation‐state, and to stress their “scientific” methodology based on contemporary archival documents; and the “age of rapprochement” since the 1970s as historians ventured into new areas—popular culture, micro‐history, “history from below”—borrowing methodologies from the social sciences as they did so. And it looks forward to an “age of co‐operation” between the two disciplines.     

The meaning of historical terms and concepts: New studies on begriffsgeschichte

A contribution to the liberalism-republicanism debate from a political historian's point of view, this essay focuses on Britain in the mid-Victorian period—arguably the golden age of modern liberalism. The first part argues that the writings and political ideas of the leading liberal thinkers were imbued with ‘neo-roman’ values, including participatory citizenship, civic virtue and concern for the common good. The second part discusses the dissemination of ‘neo-roman’ ideas among the rank and file of the Liberal party, focusing on popular celebrations of the right to bear arms. The essay concludes that, despite the methodological claims of some scholars, the liberalism-republicanism debate has tended to ignore the context within which ideas and traditions were developed by their leading interpreters. Moreover, it argues that if we really are interested in the context of political thought we must go beyond traditional concerns with the ‘canonical’ texts and look at its social environment.     

Book reviews

Empire and Order. The Concept of Empire, 800–1800 by James Muldoon. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. Pp.viii + 209. £42.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–65013–1.

The Ideological Origins of the British Empire by David Armitage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.xii + 239. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59081–7; 0–521–78978–8.

England's Maritime Empire: Seapower, Commerce and Policy, 1490–1690 by David Loades. Harlow: Longman, 2000. Pp.xi + 277, maps. £50.00 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–35622–6; 0–582–35628–8.

Theatre and Empire: Great Britain on the London Stages under James VI and I by Tristan Marshall. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.viii + 211. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7190–5748–5.

Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, 1673–1800 by Eric Hinderaker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997 and 2000. Pp.xii + 293. £45.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–56333‐X; 0–521–66345–8.

Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754 by Timothy J. Shannon. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 263. No price given (hardback). ISBN 0–8014–3657–5

An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Pp.xviii + 357, maps, tables, illus. $55.00/£41.00 (hardback); $22.50/£17.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–8122–3558–4; 0–8122–1732–2.

A Voyage round the World by George Forster, edited by Nicholas Thomas and Oliver Berghof assisted by Jennifer Newell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. 2 vols. Pp.xlvii + 860, illus., maps. ISBN 0–8248–2091–6.

General History of the Caribbean, Volume VI: Methodology and Historiography of the Caribbean edited by B.W. Higman. London and Oxford: Unesco Publishing/Macmillan, 1999. Pp.xxii + 948, illus. £45.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–72460–7; 0–333–72461–5.

The Cultural Politics of Sugar: Caribbean Slavery and Narratives of Colonialism by Keith A. Sandiford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.221. £37.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–64233–7.

History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Becoming Merina in Highland Madagascar, 1770–1822 by Pier M. Larson. Portsmouth, NH, Oxford, and Cape Town: Heinemann, James Currey and David Philip. Pp.xxxii + 414, maps. £40.00 (hardback); £16.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–689–6; 0–85255–639‐X.

West Indians in West Africa, 1808–1880: The African Diaspora in Reverse by Nemata Amelia Blyden. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2000. Pp.xii + 258. $75.00/£50.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–58046–0461.

A Concise History of Australia by Stuart Macintyre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.xiv + 320, maps, illus. £30.00 (hardback); £10.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–62359–6; 0–521–62577–7.

Ships, Furs, and Sandalwood: A Yankee Trader in Hawai'i, 1823–1825 by Charles H. Hammatt, edited by Sandra Wagner‐Wright. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. Pp.xxxii + 96. $39.00 (hardback); $18.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8248–2258–7 (pb).

Mission und Gewalt: Der Umgang christlicher Missionen mit Gewalt und die Ausbreitung des Christentums in Afrika und Asien in der Zeit von 1792 bis 1918/19 (Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv, vol. 6) edited by Ulrich van der Heyden and Jürgen Becher. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. Pp.557. DM 160,‐ (hardback). ISBN 3–515–07624–7.

Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism by Richard H. Grove. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xiv + 540. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–40385–5.

Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and South East Asia edited by Richard H. Grove, Vanita Damodaran, and Satpal Sangwan. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 1,036. £35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–195–63896–4.

Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonialism and Global Environmental History, 1400–1940 by Richard H. Grove. Knapwell: White Horse Press, 1997. Pp.237. No price given. ISBN 1–874267–18–9 (hb). 1–874267–19–7 (pb).

Weltmacht oder Untergang: Die Weltreichslehre im Zeitalter des Imperialismus by Sönke Neitzel. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2000. Pp.453. DM 98,‐(paperback). ISBN 3–506–76102–1.

The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492–1962 by Arthur Charles Dayfoot. Kingston, Jamaica: University Press of the West Indies, 1999; Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. Pp.xvii + 360, maps, illus. US$30.00 (paperback); US$49.95 (hardback). ISBN 976–640–061‐X (paperback); 0–8130–1626–6 (hardback).

Making Saints: Religion and the Public Image of the British Army, 1809–1885 by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III. Madison and London: Associated University Presses, 1998. Pp.197. £27.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–8386–3729–9.

Negotiating India in the Nineteenth‐Century Media edited by David Finkelstein and Douglas M. Peers. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. Pp.xi + 285. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–333–71146–7.

Cultures of Empire: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A Reader edited by Catherine Hall. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.x + 390, photographs. £47.00 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–5857–0; 0–7190–5858–9.

Indians in Britain: Anglo‐Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880–1930 by Shompa Lahiri. London: Frank Cass, 1999. Pp.xviii + 249. £42.50 (hardback); £17.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–7146–4986–4; 0–7146–8049–4.

Bausteine eines zukünftigen deutschen Mittelafrika: Deutscher Imperialismus und die portugiesischen Kolonien by Rolf Peter Tschapek. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000. Pp.475. DM 144,‐ (paperback). ISBN 3–515–07592–5.

The Treasury and British Public Policy, 1906–1959 by G.C. Peden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.xiv + 581. £65.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–820707–7.

Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914: Ein Handbuch edited by Hermann Joseph Hiery. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2001. Pp.880. DM 198,‐ (hardback). ISBN 3–506–73912–3.

An Economic History of Malaysia, c. 1800–1990: The Transition to Modern Economic Growth by John H. Drabble. Basingstoke: Macmillan (in association with the Australian National University), Canberra, 2000. Pp.xxiii + 316. £19.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–333–55300–4.

The Making of Modern Burma by Thant Myint‐U. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp.284. £45.00 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–78021–7; 0–521–79914–7.

East African Doctors: A History of the Medical Profession by John Iliffe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.336. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–63272–2.

India's Prisoner: A Biography of Edward John Thompson 1886–1946 by Mary Lago. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Pp.xi + 388, illus. $39.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–8262–1299–9.

Kuwait, 1950–1965: Britain, the al‐Sabah, and Oil by Simon C. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1999. Pp.167, map, illus. £20.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–19–726197–3

The Business of Decolonization: British Business Strategies in the Gold Coast by Sarah Stockwell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Pp.ix + 265. £48.00. ISBN 0–19–820848–0.

Defence and Decolonisation in Southeast Asia: Britain, Malaya and Singapore 1941–68 by Karl Hack. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000. Pp.xiv + 341. £45.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7007–1303–4.

British Documents on the End of Empire, Series A, Volume 4: The Conservative Government and the End of Empire, 1957–64, Parts I and II, edited by Ronald Hyam and Wm. Roger Louis. London: The Stationery Office, 2000. Pp.cix + 825 (Part I); Pp.xxxvii + 811pp (Part II). £80.00 each (hardback). ISBN 011–290578–1 (Part I) and 011–290579‐X (Part II).

Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial Theory in Transit edited by Steve Clark. London: Zed Books, 1999. Pp.viii + 264. £45.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85649–627–9; 1–85649–628–7.     

Strengthening the Role of Public Health in Environmental Policy

Over the past 25 years there has been a steady decline in the role of public health agencies in environmental protection. This paper examines the major factors that have contributed to that decline, including the impact of federal environmental laws, the disparity in funding between regulatory and public health activities in environmental protection, and the emergence of risk assessment as a basis for environmental decisions. The methods of risk assessment and traditional public health approaches are contrasted, and the advantages of the involvement of public health agencies are discussed. Recommendations are presented for strengthening the role of public health in environmental decisionmaking to address more effectively public concerns about environmental risks.