Book reviews

CHINA

CHARLOTTE FURTH. A Flourishing Yin: gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. A Philip E. Lilienthal Book. xiv, 355 pp. 20 halftones, 13 line figures. US$45.00, hardcover; US$17.96, paper.

MOBO C. F. GAO. Gao Village. A Portrait of Rural Life in Modern China. London: C. Hurst & Company, 1999. xiv, 286 pp. Maps, illustrations, preface and acknowledgments, appendixes, index. £16.95, paper.

JAMES R. LILLEY and DAVID SHAMBAUGH (eds). China's Military Faces the Future. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 368 pp. Illustrations, tables, graphs, index. US$74.95, hardcover; US$29.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MITSUHIRO YOSHIMOTO. Kurosawa: film Studies and Japanese Cinema. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2000. 485 pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. US$64.95, hardcover; US$21.95, paper.

YASUNORI FUKUOKA (trans. Tom Gill). Lives of Young Ethnic Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000. 300 pp. Introduction, tables, figures, notes, references, glossary, index. A$39.95, paper.

AH‐JEONG KIM and R. B. GRAVES (trans). The Metacultural Theater of Oh T'aeSok. Five Plays from the Korean Avant‐Garde. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. 164 pp. Preface, introduction, translators' note, photographs, bibliography. US$33.00, hardcover; US$14.95, paper.

ANDREW COBBING. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain: early Travel Encounters in the Far West. Surrey: Japan Library, 1998. 257 pp. Illustrations, preface, introduction, biographical appendix, notes and references, index. £45.00, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

SATISH BALRAM AGNIHOTRI. Sex Ratio Patterns in the Indian Population: a Fresh Exploration. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000. 379 pp. Tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. Rs 475, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

ROBERT CRIBB. Historical Atlas of Indonesia. Richmond: Curzon Press (in cooperation with the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, Copenhagen), 2000. 256 pp. £75.00, hardcover.

STEFAN EKLOF. Indonesian Politics in Crisis: the Long Fall of Suharto, 1996–98. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 1999. 288 pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. A$33.00, paper.

BARBARA LEIGH. The Changing Face of Malaysian Crafts: identity, Industry and Ingenuity. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 2000. Glossary, bibliography, index. 124 pp. 59 colour and 92 b/w illustrations. A$85.00, hardcover.

KRISHNA SEN and DAVID T. HILL. Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000. 245 pp. A$35.00, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

DAVID HANLON and GEOFFREY M. WHITE (eds). Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. 443 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

LAKSIRIJAYASURIYAandKEEPOOKONG, (eds.) TheAsianisation ofAustralia?:someFacts about the Myths. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999. 114 pp. A$16.95, paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

RICHARD MADSEN. China's Catholics: tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 191 pp. 11 b/w photographs, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$27.50, hardcover.

WANG ZHENG. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: oral and Textual Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xv, 420 pp. 8 b/w photographs, chronology, glossary, bibliography, index. US$50.00, hardcover; US$18.95, paper.

YUEZHI ZHAO. Media, Market, and Democracy in China: between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998. US$44.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

ALAN KNIGHT and YOSHIKO NAKANO (eds). Reporting Hong Kong: foreign Media and the Handover. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999. 223 pp. Illustrations, introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. £14.99, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

JEONG‐HYUN SHIN. The Trap of History: understanding Korean Short Stories. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xv, 115 pp. US$15.00, paper.

SIDNEY HAYDEN LESBIREL. NIMBY Politics in Japan: energy Siting and the Management of Environmental Conflict . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. 187 pp. £29.50, hardcover.

G. CAMERON HURST III. Armed Martial Arts of Japan: swordsmanship and Archery. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. 243 pp. Introduction, 21 b/w illustrations, notes, glossary, references, index. US$30.00, hardcover.

SOUTH ASIA

G. V. TAGARE. Saivism. Some Glimpses. Contemporary Researches in Hindu Philosophy and Religion, No. 4. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1996. vii, 161 pp. Index. Rs. 180.

LATA MANI. Contentious Traditions: the Debate on Sati in Colonial India. University of California Press, 1998. 260 pp. 5 b/w illustrations. US$47.00, hardcover; US$18.00, paper.

T. SCARLETT EPSTEIN, A. P. SURYANARAYANA and T. THIMMEGOWDA. Village Voices. Forty Years of Rural Transformation in South India . New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. 242 pp. Introduction, photographs, appendices, maps, glossary. Rs. 195, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

M. NGAOSYVATHN and P. NGAOSYVATHN. Paths to Conflagration: fifty Years of Diplomacy and Warfare in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, 1778–1828. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1998. No price given, paper.

PATRICK VINTON KIRCH. The Lapita Peoples: ancestors of the Oceanic World. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997. xxv, 353 pp. Plates, figures, maps, tables, preface, bibliographical references, index. US$32.95, paper.

HELEN CREESE (ed and trans). Parthayana, The Journeying of Partha: an Eighteenth‐century Balinese Kakawin. Bibliotheca Indonesica 27, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998. xi, 504 pp. NLG 80.

GENERAL ASIA

FRANK B. TIPTON. The Rise of Asia: economics, Society and Politics in Contemporary Asia. Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia, 1998. xiv, 557 pp. Tables, foreword and acknowledgments, bibliography, index. A$42.95, paper.     

Age‐related variation in isotopic indicators of diet at medieval Kulubnarti,Sudanese Nubia

This study compares trends in dietary composition in two large cemetery populations from the site of Kulubnarti (AD 550–800) in Sudanese Nubia. Bone collagen and bone apatite carbonate were analysed to characterise stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes. Previous research on these cemeteries has suggested marked differences in nutritional status and health between the populations. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant relationships between any isotopic indicators related to sex or cemetery of burial, suggesting no isotopically‐measurable differences in diet. However, collagen δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N were significantly related to age, suggesting age‐related differences in protein intake or other factors. Weaning trends are gradual and variable, with the range in δ¹⁵N values exceeding 4‰ among infants/young children (0–3 yrs) and standard deviations exceeding 1‰ in collagen δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N for both infants/young children and subadults (4–17 yrs). This suggests varied weaning strategies among both populations and variable diets prior to adulthood. Also observed was a distinct range of isotopic carbon and nitrogen values among individuals classified as subadults (4–17 yrs), who are depleted in collagen δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N relative to adults. However, both infants/young children and subadults are slightly enriched in δ¹⁸O relative to adults, which suggests the presence of non‐local individuals or age‐related variation in water sources. While most isotopic studies of age‐related dietary trends have focused on reconstructing the weaning process, this study presents findings that indicate tripartite isotopic trends distinguishing infancy, subadulthood and adulthood as separate dietary categories. Broad similarities are evident between the results presented here and those from several earlier studies of smaller populations and to nutritional studies of modern communities. These findings suggest that further research into health disparities at Kulubnarti should focus on non‐dietary causal factors, and more generally, that greater attention should be paid to subadulthood in palaeodiet studies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leviathan vs. Lilliputian: A Data Envelopment Analysis of Government Efficiency

In this paper we present a new approach to measuring government efficiency, based on the theory that communities that allocate resources efficiently in the local public sector maximize property values. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to identify the counties in Minnesota that are characterized by property-value maximization and hence an efficient public sector. The results indicate that the dominant source of public sector inefficiency is an inappropriate scale of operations. It appears that some county jurisdictions are too large to service the population efficiently. The size and concentration of government power are also responsible in part for observed inefficiencies.