Intensification and Social Complexity in the Interior Lowlands of Papua New Guinea: A Comparison of Bedamuni and Kubo

Kubo and Bedamuni are linguistically, culturally, and technologically related societies of the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea. They occupy similar environments and have access to essentially the same resources. They differ in population density (Kubo 0.4 people/km², Bedamuni 7/km²), subsistence orientation (Kubo are hunter-gatherer-like, Bedamuni are farmers who hunt) and intensification of plant food production (Kubo lower, Bedamuni higher). Relative to Kubo, Bedamuni are shown to exhibit increased differentiation within and between production units, greater integration within and between residential units, and heightened forms of evaluation within and between cultural systems. Each of these general characteristics is illustrated by particulars that refer, for example, to role differentiation, rights of access to land and resources, dispute resolution, mechanisms of inter-community cohesion, and exegesis with respect to subsistence practices and cultural identity. In turn, differences between the two societies in terms of these general characteristics sustain an interpretation that Bedamuni is a socially more complex society than Kubo. The awkward notion of complexity is examined; it is understood to comprise two independent dimensions—the “involvement of parts” (which is itself multidimensional) and the “individuation of form.” The latter dimension has received too little attention in discussion and definitions of complexity.     

‘Highway to Heaven’: the creation of a multicultural,religious landscape in suburban Richmond,British Columbia

We analyse the emergence of the ‘Highway to Heaven’, a distinctive landscape of more than 20 diverse religious buildings, in the suburban municipality of Richmond, outside Vancouver, to explore the intersections of immigration, planning, multiculturalism, religion and suburban space. In the context of wider contested planning disputes for new places of worship for immigrant communities, the creation of a designated ‘Assembly District’ in Richmond emerged as a creative response to multicultural planning. However, it is also a contradictory policy, co-opting religious communities to municipal requirements to safeguard agricultural land and prevent suburban sprawl, but with limited success. The unanticipated outcomes of a designated planning zone for religious buildings include production of an agglomeration of increasingly spectacular religious facilities that exceed municipal planning regulations. Such developments are accommodated through a celebratory narrative of municipal multiculturalism, but one that fails to engage with the communal narratives of the faith communities themselves and may exoticize or commodify religious identity.     

Silver phiale said to be from al‐Juba (al‐Wusṭa Governorate) — an archaeological puzzle

In March 2014, while recording finds in the Ministry of Heritage and Culture in al‐Khuwair, artefacts unexpectedly came to light reportedly from al‐Juba in Oman's Bar al‐?ikmān, in al‐Wus?a Governorate, until recently an archaeologically little‐researched part of the Sultanate. Some of the pieces could be attributed to the Samad LIA or perhaps the PIR, both from the centuries at the turning point of the ages from BCE to CE. Such finds have never before come to light in this part of Oman. Samad LIA sites are generally located some 220 km to the north on the southern flank of the al‐?ajjar mountains in a zone c.160 x 105 km in area. Diagnostic pottery finds spread from Wadi Bānī Ruwāhah (UTM 40Q 620570 m E, 2561848 m N) eastwards to the coast, a smaller area than previously believed.     

Measuring Relative Sustainability of Regions Using Regional Sustainability Assessment Methodology

Scientists analyze sustainability at the regional level with a combination of multiple indicators which reflect different characteristics of regions without combining the results in a single comparative unit. Moreover, the assessment of interdependencies between different characteristics requires experts' analyses, which makes sustainability analysis subjective, time consuming, and limited in use. This article analyzes the relative sustainability of subnational level regions through the application of regional sustainability assessment methodology (RSAM) based on accounting of resources capital and its internal and external transfers. This approach allows for assessment of regional sustainability as a function of resource quantity, quality, and interchangeability. The comparison of the two case study regions presented in the paper indicates the difference between a more sustainable region and a region of “weak sustainability.” First, the article indicates the discussion of the relevant geographic, economic, and social literature for both sustainability assessment and regional comparison. This discussion is followed by a conceptual representation of proposed RSAM and its application to various regions. Next, the article covers the data used and applied methods to test the proposed methodology and compare the two case study regions. The article concludes with a discussion of findings and recommendations for further application and testing.     

New Excavations at Border Cave,KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

New excavations at Border Cave use high-resolution techniques, including FT-IR, for sediment samples and thin sections of micromorphology blocks from stratigraphy. These show that sediments have different moisture regimes, both spatially and chronologically. The site preserves desiccated grass bedding in multiple layers and they, along with seeds, rhizomes, and charcoal, provide a profile of palaeo-vegetation through time. A bushveld vegetation community is implied before 100,000 years ago. The density of lithics varies considerably through time, with high frequencies occurring before 100,000 years ago where a putative MSA 1/Pietersburg Industry was recovered. The highest percentage frequencies of blades and blade fragments were found here. In Members 1 BS and 1 WA, called Early Later Stone Age by Beaumont, we recovered large flakes from multifacial cores. Local rhyolite was the most common rock used for making stone tools, but siliceous minerals were popular in the upper members.     

Introduction: gendered mobilities and transnational identities

In this short introduction to a themed section on gendered mobilities and transnational identities the articles are introduced and the three key conceptual themes which emerge from the collection are discussed. It is argued first, that gendered migration patterns reconfigure all the social relations within transnational family formations. Second, that chains of care need to be conceptualised in more complex ways recognising multiple forms and circulations of care. Finally, it is suggested that attention needs to be paid to the ways in which institutions intersect with migration and transnational family formations.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Sir John Cramer, Pioneers, Politics and People: A Political Memoir (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990) pp.viii + 231. $39.95 (hbk.) ISBN 0–04–442104–4.

Adam Graycar and Adam Jamrozik, How Australians Live: Social Policy in Theory and Practice (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1989, reprinted 1990) pp.xii + 314.

Ronald T. Libby, Hawke's Law: The Politics of Mining and Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1989) pp.xxvii + 175. $25.00 (pbk.) ISBN 0–85564–301–3.

George Palmer and Stephanie Short, Health Care & Public Policy: An Australian Analysis (Macmillan) $29.95(pbk.) $59.95(hbk.).

Tom Sheridan, Division of Labour: Industrial Relations in the Chifley Years 1945–1949 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.404. $45 00.

Gwyneth Singleton, The Accord and the Australian Labour Movement (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1990) pp.viii + 222. $24.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–522–84421–9.

Hugh Stretton, Political Essays (Georgian House: Melbourne, 1987).

James Walter (ed.), Australian Studies. A Survey (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.vi + 326. $24.95 ISBN 0–19–554773‐X.

Patrick Weller, Malcolm Fraser: A Study of Prime Ministerial Power in Australia (Penguin Books, 1989) pp.xvii + 440. $26.99 ISBN 0–14–012974‐X.

Anna Yeatman, Bureaucrats, Technocrats, Femocrats: Essays on the Contemporary Australian State (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1990) pp. xiii + 197. $14.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–04.442103–6.

Comparative and international politics

Raja Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan (New York: Verso Press, revised edition 1989) (Translated from the Urdu by Khalid Hasan, with and introduction by Fred Halliday) pp.xvii + 306. $34.95 ISBN 0–86091–979‐X.

George Bailey, The Making of Andrei Sakharov (Allan Lane, Harmondsworth, 1989) pp.453. $55.00 ISBN 0–7139–9033–3.

Patrick Cockburn, Getting Russia Wrong: The End of Kremlinology (London: Verso, 1989) pp.vii + 228. $24.95 ISBN 0–86091–977–3.

Bernard Eccleston, State and Society in Post‐War Japan (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989) pp.xvi + 286. $32.95 ISBN 0–7456–0166–9.

Julius W. Friend, Seven Years in France, François Mitterrand and the Unintended Revolution, 1981–1988 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989) pp xiv + 249. $US34.95 (hbk.).

John Gaffney (ed.), The French Presidential Elections of 1988 (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1989) pp.241. £29.50 ISBN 1–85521–059–2.

Steven A. Hoffmann, foreword by Michael Brecher, India and the China Crisis (Berkeley/London: University of California Press, 1990) pp.324. $US39.95 ISBN 0–520–06537–9.

Thomas Mann (ed.), A Question of Balance: The President, The Congress and Foreign Policy (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1990). pp.ix + 265. $US29.95 (cloth) $US10.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–8157–5453–1.

Rosalind Marsh, Images of Dictatorship: Portraits of Stalin in Literature (London: Routledge, 1989) pp.267. ISBN 0–415–03796–4.

Ross M. Martin, Trade Unionism: Purposes and Form (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.xiii + 296. $70.00 (cloth) ISBN 0–19–827710–5.

Richard Mulgan, Maori, Pakeha and Democracy (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.viii + 159. $38.00 ISBN 0–19–558204–7.

William David Pederson, The ‘Barberian’ Presidency (N.Y.: Theoretical and Empirical Reading, Peter Lang, 1989) pp.xii + 265. ISBN 0–8204–0693–7.

Gerald M. Pomper et al, The Election of 1988: reports and interpretations (New Jersey: Chatham House, 1989) pp.vi + 221.

Edited by John Ravenhill, No Longer an American Lake? (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989) pp.285. $17.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–04–372042–0.

Colin White, Russia and America: The Roots of Economic Divergence. (London: Croom Helm, 1987) pp.268.

Political theory and methodology

David Boucher, The Social and Political Thought of R.G. Collingwood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) pp.xi + 300. $75.00 (hbk.) ISBN 0–521–36384–5.

Gregory Claeys, Thomas Paine: Social and Political Thought (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990) pp.xiv + 257. $34.95(pbk.) ISBN 0–04–445090–7.

Steven M. DeLue, Political Obligation in a Liberal State (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) $US39.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–7194–0092–1.

Eva Etzioni‐Halevy, Fragile Democracy: The Use and Abuse of Power in Western Societies (Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, 1989) pp.xiii + 194. $US28.95 ISBN 0–88738–270–3.

David Held, Political Theory and the Modern State (Cambridge: Polity, 1989) pp.265. $29.95 (pbk.) ISBN 0–7456–0620–2.

Sue Curry Jansen, Censorship: The Knot that Binds Power and Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) pp.282. $70.00.

Philip K. Lawrence, Democracy and the Liberal State (Dartmouth: Aldershot, 1989) pp.213.

Ellen Meiksins Wood, Peasant‐Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy (London and New York: Verso, 1989), pp.210 + x, pbk, $29.95, ISBN 0–86091–911–0

Erik Olin Wright, Uwe Becker, Johanna Brenner, Michael Burawoy, Vai Burris, Gugliclmo Carchedi, Gordon Marshall, Peter Meiksins, David Rose, Arthur Stinchcombe and Philippe Van Parijs, The Debate on Classes (London and New York: Verso, 1989) pp.ix + 356. $34.95.     

Reviews

Australian

Scott Bennett, Aborigines and Political Power. Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1989, pp.167. $ 17.95 (paper)

Jim Downing, Country of My Spirit. Darwin, North Australian Research Unit, Australia National University, 1988, pp.181. $ 12.50 (paper)

Hugh V. Emy and Owen E. Hughes, Australian Politics: Realities in Conflict, Melbourne, Macmil‐lan, 1988, pp. 554. $29.95 (paper)

Paul Finn, Law and Government in Colonial Australia, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 216. $40.00 (cloth)

Ross Fitzgerald and Harold Thornton, Labor in Queensland From the 1880s to 1988. St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1989, pp.422. $34.95 (paper)

Brian Galligan (ed.), Australian Federalism, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1989 pp. 228. $15.95 (paper)

Brian Galligan (ed.) Comparative State Policies, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1988, pp.303. $21.25 (paper)

Helen Gardner (ed.). The Politics of Health. Melbourne, Churchill Livingston, 1989, pp. 492. $29.50 (paper)

Brian W. Head and Allan Patience (eds), From Fraser to Hawke: Australian Public Policy in the 1980s, Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, pp.525. $19.95 (paper)

Dean Jaensch (ed.), The Flinders History of South Australia — Political History, Adelaide, Wakefield Press, 1986, pp.533. $40.00 (paper)

Dean Jaensch, Power Politics: Australia's Party System, 2nd edn, Sydney, Allen & Unwin Australia, 1989, pp.226. $18.95 (paper)

Jonathan Kelley and Clive Bean (eds), Australian Attitudes: Social and Political Analyses from the National Social Science Survey, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1988, pp.206. $ 15.95 (paper)

D.A. Kemp, Foundations for Australian Political Analysis: Politics and Authority, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1988, pp.488. $29.95 (paper)

Clem Lloyd: Either Drought or Plenty: Water Development and Management in New South Wales, Sydney, Kangaroo Press, 1988, pp.311. $37.50 (cloth)

Ian McAllister and John Warhurst (eds), Australia Votes: The 1987 Federal Election, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1988, pp.284. $19.95 (paper)

G.S. Reid and Martyn Forrest, Australia's Commonwealth Parliament 1901–1988: Ten Perspectives, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1989, pp.572. $29.95 (cloth)

Comparative and international

Mike Bowker and Phil Williams, Superpower De‐tented Reappraisal, London, Sage, 1988, pp. 277. £10.95 (paper)

Charles Chatfield and Peter van den Dungden (eds), Peace Movements and Political Cultures, Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1988, pp.317. US$39.95 (cloth)

Ronald W. Clark, Lenin. The Man Behind the Mask. London, Faber & Faber, 1988, pp.564. £17.95 (cloth)

David Lane (ed.), Elites and Political Power in the USSR, Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1988, pp.299. £28.50 (cloth).

Alistair Cole and Peter Campbell, French Electoral Systems and Elections since 1789, 3rd edn, Alder‐shot, Gower, 1989, pp.202. £25.00 (cloth)

Conlan, Timothy, New Federalism: Intergovernmental Reform from Nixon to Reagan, Washington, D.C., Brookings, 1988. pp.247. US$15.95 (paper)

Russell J. Dalton, Citizen Politics in Western Democracies. Chatham, N.J., Chatham House, pp. 270. US$14.95 (paper)

E. Etzioni‐Halevy, National Broadcasting Under Seige: A comparative Study of Australia, Britain, Israel and West Germany, Hampshire, Macmillan. 1987, pp. 212. $82.95 (cloth)

Roger Hilsman, The Politics of Policy Making in Defense and Foreign Affairs: Conceptual Models and Bureaucratic Politics, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice‐Hall, 1987, pp.326. $42.50 (paper)

Scott Newton and Dilwyn Porter, Modernization Frustrated: The Politics of Industrial Decline in Britain since 1900, London, Unwin Hyman, 1988. pp. 224. $7.95 (paper)

J. Mathews, Tools of Change: New Technology and the Democratisation of Work, Sydney, Pluto Press, 1989. pp.234. $14.95 (paper)

Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organization and Power, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp.318. $39.50 (paper)

Robert Springborg, Mubarak's Egypt: Fragmentation of the Political Order, Boulder & London, Westview Press, 1989, pp.307. $39.95 (cloth)

Edward A. Tiryakian and Ronald Rogowski (eds), New Nationalism of the Developed West, Boston, Allen and Unwin, 1985, pp.394. $69.00 (cloth)

Political theory and methodology

J. Budziszewski, The Nearest Coast of Darkness: A Vindication of the Politics of Virtues. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1988, pp.201. US$24.95 (cloth)

Peter Grabosky and Paul Wilson: Journalism and Justice: How Crime is Reported Sydney, Pluto Press, 1989, pp.l49.$14.95(paper)

George Grant, English‐Speaking Justice. Notre Dame, Notre Dame University Press, 1985 (1974), pp.104. US$8.95 (paper)

J. Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. One, Reason and the Rationalization of Society, trans, by T. McCarthy, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1987, pp.465. $45.40 (paper)

J. Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. Two, The Critique of Functionalist Reason, trans, by T. McCarthy, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1987, pp.447. $69.95 (cloth)

J. Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, trans, by F. Lawrence, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1987, pp.430. $65.00 (cloth).

Les Johnston, Marxism, Class Analysis and Socialist Pluralism, London, Allen & Unwin, 1986, pp. 155. $19.95 (paper)

Bernard Daucnhaucr, The Politics of Hope, London, Routledge, 1986, pp.200. $76.95 (cloth)

Bill Jordan, The Common Good: Citizenship, Morality and Self‐interest, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1989, pp. 190. $29.95 (paper)

Ciaran O'Maolain, The Radical Right: A World Directory, Harlow, Longman, 1987, pp.500. £45.00 (cloth)     

New government and policy change in western Australia 1983–1988: Did Mr Burke Make a difference?

Using four indicators of government activity, we identify a number of policy innovations in WA under the Burke government We argue that this government's policies are distinct in some measure both from those of its Liberal predecessors and from the aims of the WA Labor Party prior to the Burke leadership.

Comparison with other Australian states suggests though that these policies are broadly compatible with directions taken under other Labor administrations and distinct from those of non‐Labor administrations. Thus, whilst a Burke‐led government did make a difference in WA, its policies reflect broader Labor‐oriented state trends.