Scapegoating in Burma (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This guest editorial considers the attacks on the Rohingyas and Muslims in the wake of liberalization in Burma.     

Newspaper Reporting on Climate Change,Green Energy and Carbon Reduction Strategies across Canada 1999–2009

Canada’s climate change strategy faces an uncertain future since the country’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011, making domestic public debate and awareness critical in the search for effective mitigation policies. This article presents a spatio-temporal analysis of newspaper reporting across Canada on climate change and carbon reduction approaches, ranging from renewable energies (solar, wind, hydro power) to carbon management (e.g., carbon capture and storage [CCS]) and economic approaches (e.g., carbon trade, ecological fiscal reform). The findings of a news article keyword analysis show that the overall growth of the Canadian news coverage during this time period was significantly fragmented into isolated peaks of activity rather than continuous growth of the topic of climate change. Furthermore, the study finds a strong news emphasis on technology- and growth-oriented solutions as opposed to a comprehensive ecological modernization that would encourage a deeper structural discussion about Canada’s much-criticized carbon-intensive energy economy.     

Social change and sexual mores: a comparison between pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana

This article compares pre‐20th‐century Norway and 20th‐century Botswana—two settings separated by time and space but sharing a sharp rise in non‐nuptial births. The comparison seeks to create a synergetic analytical effect by combining firsthand, experience‐near field data from Botswana with solid historical analyses of bastardy in Europe. This radical comparison provides a perspective that highlights the importance of treating “culture” not as a residual category, but as an integral part of everything social. This implies that there is a need not only for a proper sociocultural contextualization of localities, but also for an analysis of extra‐local power structures as fundamentally cultural, reflecting not only bureaucratic and political concerns but also values and existential perspectives.     

Isotopic values of diet of Blastocerus dichotomus (marsh deer) in Paraná Basin,South America

The marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus, Illiger, 1815) is the largest contemporary South American deer, and its habitat includes the floodplains and wetlands of eastern South America. Throughout the Holocene these deer were widely used by indigenous societies, from the southern banks of the Amazon River to the Río de la Plata River, and from the Andean foothills to the Atlantic Ocean. However, despite the enormous ecological and archaeological importance of this ungulate in the region, our knowledge of the isotopic values of their diet is almost nonexistent. This paper is the first systematic approach to the study of the isotopic values of this mammal's diet, using archaeological and present-day samples from interconnected watersheds of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers in east-central Argentina. The results obtained from 24 measurements indicate an average value of ?21.09 ± 1.46‰ in δ¹³C collagen, with a low coefficient of variation (6.92%). The data indicate a marked preference for consumption of plants with a C₃ photosynthetic pathway. Most of the observed variability in the isotopic values corresponds to the period 900–1430 ¹⁴C years BP, a time range during which the values show higher consumption of C₄ plants. This it could be related with a period where temperature and associated humidity increased, synchronous in the area with the Medieval Climate Anomaly.     

Book reviews

Native Resistance and the Pax Colonial in New Spain edited by Susan Schroeder. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xxvi + 2000, maps. $45.00/£42.75 (hardback); $19.95/£18.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8032–4266–2; 0–8032–9249‐X.

European and Native American Warfare, 1675–1815 by Armstrong Starkey. London: UCL Press, 1998. Pp. viii + 208. £40.00 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1–85728–554–9; 1–85728–555–7.

Frontier Profit and Loss: The British Army and the Fur Traders, 1760–1764 by Walter S. Dunn, Jr. Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 196, map. £47.95 (hardback). ISBN 0–313–30605–2.

British Identities before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 by Colin Kidd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.viii + 302. £35.00. ISBN 0–521–62403–7.

Protestantism and National Identity: Britain and Ireland, c. 1650‐ c. 1850 edited by Tony Claydon and Ian McBride. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xii + 317. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–521–62077–5.

Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735–1748 by Anthony W. Parker. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Pp.xiii +182. £31.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–8203–1915–5.

In Irons: Britain's Naval Supremacy and the American Revolutionary Economy by Richard Buel, Jr. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp.xi + 397. £25.00/$35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–300–07388–7.

Science and Exploration in the Pacific: European Voyages to the Southern Oceans in the Eighteenth Century edited by Margarette Lincoln. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press in association with the National Maritime Museum, 1998. Pp.xix + 228, illus. £35.00/$63.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–85115–721–1.

Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands by Jane Samson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. Pp.xiii + 240, maps. $35.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–8248–1927–6.

The Maratha War Papers of Arthur Wellesley, January to December 1803 edited by Anthony S. Bennell. Stroud, Glos.: Sutton Publishing for the Army Records Society, 1998. Pp.xi + 458. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0–7509–2069–6.

Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India by Lata Mani. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998. Pp.xiv + 246, illustrations. $47.00/£37.50 (hardback); $18.00/£13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–520–21407–2 (paperback).

’Christen und Gewürze’: Konfrontation und Interaktion kolonialer und indigener Christentumsvarianten edited by Klaus Koschorke. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Pp.298. DM 98 (paperback). ISBN 3–525–55960–7.

Religion in Victorian Britain, Volume V: Culture and Empire edited by John Wolffe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997. Pp.viii + 359, illustrations. £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–5184–3.

Imperialism and Colonialism: Essays on the History of European Expansion by H.L. Wesseling. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1997. Pp.x + 212. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0–313–30431–9.

The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession by Andrew Lambert. London: Chatham, 1998. Pp.256, illustrations. £30.00 (hardback). ISBN 1–86176–086–8.

Sturm über dem Nil. Der Mahdi‐Aufstand: Aus den Anfängen des islamischen Fundamentalismus by Wilfried Westphal. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1998. Pp.419, 23 pictures, three maps. DM 48.00 (hardback). ISBN 3–7995–0092–8.

The Journal of John Wodehouse First Earl of Kimberley for 1862–1902 edited by Angus Hawkins and John Powell. Camden Fifth Series Volume 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1997. Pp.xxii + 530. £40.00 (hardback). ISBN 0521–62328–6.

Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South Africa by Stephen M. Miller. London, and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1999. Pp.viii + 279, maps. £39.50/$57.50 (hardback), £17.50/$26.50 (paperback). ISBN 0–7146–4904‐X; 0–7146–4460–9.

Francophone Sub‐Saharan Africa 1880–1995 by Patrick Manning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 247, maps. £40.00 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–64255–8; 0–521–64519–0.

Mau Mau From Below by Greet Kershaw. Oxford: James Currey, 1997. Pp.xxx + 354. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–731–0.

Mau Man and Kenya by Wunyabari O. Maloba. Oxford: James Currey, 1998. Pp.x + 228. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–85255–745–0.

History of Central Africa: The Contemporary Years Since 1960 edited by David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin. London: Longman, 1998. Pp.vii + 314. £17.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–27607–1.

Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power by Cyrus Ghani, London: I.B. Tauris, 1998. Pp.xiv + 434. £29.50 (hardback). ISBN 1–86064–258–6.

A History of Laos by Martin Stuart‐Fox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Pp.xv + 253, maps. £35.00 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–521–59235–6; 0–521–59746–3.

Britain in China: Community, Culture and Colonialism 1900–1949 by Robert Bickers. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 276, tables, illustrations. £45.00 (hardback); £15.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–7190–4697–1; 0–7190–5697–7.

Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore From First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal by Malcolm H. Murfett, John N. Miksic, Brian P. Farrell, and Chiang Ming Shun. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp.xviii + 398. £35.00 (paperback). ISBN 0–19–588482–5.