Nitrate ruins: the photography of mining in the Atacama Desert,Chile

A photographic album entitled Oficina Alianza and Port of Iquique 1899 illustrates the industrial development of nitrate mining in Chile. From the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, British capitalists dominated the extraction of Chilean nitrate and its export as a fertilizer and an explosive. The Oficina Alianza, a nitrate works at the centre of British monopoly of the trade, is, as other oficinas across the Antofagasta and Tarapacá regions of the Atacama Desert, a ruin. This article considers the correspondences between Alianza’s photographic album, a record of a working nitrate oficina, and its abandoned industrial structures. It examines the ruin and the photograph as Benjaminian allegories.     

Browsing the Modern Kitchen—a feast of gender,place and culture (Part 1)

Assembling 10 essays from around the globe which engage variously with the space in which food preparation occurs—the kitchen—revealed stunning diversity but also commonalities. In this first of two sets of theme papers on this vital but often unexamined domestic space, the discourse of modernity unites the look and use of twentieth-century kitchens in Australia, Britain and Finland. Imbued with notions of scientific management, the modern kitchen had some common designs which prescribed women's place within it—first as the main occupant and then as the family overseer. The construction of this semi-private space also involved particular domestic technologies which, as the new century dawns, now literally connect the kitchen to the world beyond via the internet fridge. This Introduction begins the two-part feast of gender, place and culture—with an overview of Australia and sketch of subsequent essays—Supski on mid-century migrant Australia, Saarikangas on Finland, Bennett on rural Britain and Watkins on the fridge.

Hojeando la cocina moderna—un banquete de género, lugar y cultura (primera parte)

Reunir diez ensayos de todos lados del mundo que engranan variamente con el espacio donde se prepara la comida—la cocina—reveló no solo diversidades impresionantes sino similitudes. En esta primera de dos ediciones especiales sobre este espacio doméstico esencial aunque poco examinado, el discurso de modernidad une el aspecto y el uso de cocinas del siglo XX en Australia, Gran Bretaña y Finlandia. Imbuido con conceptos de la administración científica, la cocina moderna tuvo algunos diseños comunes que prescribieron el lugar de mujeres dentro de ella—primera como el ocupante principal y luego como capataz de la familia. La construcción de este espacio semi-privado involucró también tecnologías domesticas especificas que, a la vez que amanece el nuevo siglo, actualmente enlazan literalmente la cocina con el mundo externo vía la nevera ‘internet’. Esta introducción empieza el banquete de dos partes de género, lugar y cultura—con un repaso de Australia y un bosquejo de los ensayos subsecuentes: Supski en Australia migratorio a medio siglo, Saarikangas en Finlandia, Bennett en Británica rural, y Watkins en la nevera.     

Archaeology and integrity: The world archaeological congress as a resource for indigenous communities

Resumen El World Archaeological Congress puede servir como un recurso esencial para los grupos indígenas que deseen participar completamente en el ejercicio de la arqueología. Las experiencias de los nativos americanos con la arqueología se pueden comparar con las de otros grupos indígenas, y el código ético, del WAC ilustra hasta que punto esta organización se toma en serio su compromiso de trabajar en cooperación con las comunidades. En este artículo se presentan algunas metas que el WAC tiene que plantearse en relación con los grupos indígenas, incluyendo la educación, el establecimiento de redes de trabajo, la profesionalidad y la gestión de los yacimientos arqueológicos.

---

Résumé Le congrès Mondial d'Archéologie peut être une ressource vitale pour les indigènes désireux de participer pleinement à la profession d'archéologue. Les expériences indigènes américaines avec l'archéologie sont semblables à celles d'autres groupes indigènes et le code l'éthique du WAC démontre jusqu'à quel point cette organisation est sérieuse quant au travail et à la coopération avec les communautés. Il y a plusieurs points de considération pour le WAC au sujet des peuples indigènes, tels que l'éducation, le réseau de communication, le professionalisme et la gestion des sites culturels.

     

Pastoralist iron production on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya: wider implications for archaeometallurgical studies

Recent research conducted on the Laikipia Plateau in Kenya highlighted several shortfalls in the existing models for understanding and interpreting past iron production technologies. The research was undertaken in order to assess variability in past pastoralist iron production techniques – the first such archaeometallurgical exploration in the region. In all, seven furnaces and one iron production refuse area were excavated across two discrete sites separated by only 3 km: Mili Sita and Cattle Dip, both dating to the second half of the second millennium AD. The recovered archaeometallurgical materials – slag, furnace wall, and tuyères – were analysed using a combination of optical microscopy, SEM-EDS and ED-XRF.The results revealed that the technologies in question were complex and sophisticated, and their reconstruction and interpretation required some special considerations. The exploitation of titania-rich black sand was observed to bear a major influence on the resulting slag compositions at both sites, and use of these specific materials resulted in consistently efficient smelting episodes, demonstrating the technical competence and skill of the past smelters. However, although the slag compositions and microstructures of all the samples were markedly similar between the two sites, striking stylistic variation was apparent in the furnace design. This raised questions not only about the organisation and identity of the smelters who were working in this area at this time, but also of the reliability of assuming that similar slag compositions – peculiar as these might be – reflect similar technological (or sociotechnical) systems (cf. Pfaffenberger, 1992). A further problem encountered was that the consequently ulvite-rich slag was comprised of five, not three, major constituents – titania and lime in addition to iron oxide, alumina and silica. This meant that the operating parameters of these smelting episodes could not be easily interpreted using the usual models, which tend to be based around the assumption of fayalitic slag.As such, this paper will discuss to what extent consistency in technological style, in a broad, sociocultural sense, can be inferred through slag analysis, as well as the need for the formulation of wider reaching models that encompass the full scope of technical variation in iron production.     

Hillslope Runoff and Soil Erosion Following Reforestation in the Copper Basin,Tennessee, USA

The landscape of the 130 km² Copper Basin, in the southeastern USA, became extremely degraded during more than a century of logging, mining, acidification, grazing, and fire. In the twentieth century, the Copper Basin became the focus of a series of reforestation programs and is now largely tree‐covered again. To investigate the effects of over 50 years of reforestation efforts, we developed a space‐for‐time substitution and conducted rainfall simulation experiments in ‘forest’ patches of various ages, at sites remaining unvegetated, and at forested reference sites outside the basin. At 59 sites, we monitored surface runoff and sediment detachment rates during 30‐minute rainfall simulation experiments; and at 54 of those sites, we determined soil organic matter content. Then, we measured litter and observed soils at 25 of the sites, and measured soil respiration at a site in each age zone. The results demonstrate that soil erosion by sediment detachment decreases within a decade following reforestation. Recently reforested sites have soils with significantly less organic matter and have higher runoff rates than forests more than 50 years old. The long‐term persistence of low infiltration rates suggests that, at sites where the A and B soil horizons and the biological health of the soil have been lost, restoration of the hydrologic function of a landscape by reforestation may require centuries.     

Publications briefly noted

SHARON KINSELLA. Adult Manga: culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. xii, 228 pp. £12.99, paper.

STEPHEN ESKILDSEN. Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1998. vii, 229 pp. US$19.85, paper.

H. A. J. KLOOSTER. Bibliography of the Indonesian Revolution, Publications from 1942 to 1994. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1997. Bibliographical Series no. 21. 666 pp.

J. E. HOARE (ed). Britain and Japan: biographical Portraits, Volume III. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. xviii, 397 pp. £45.00, hardcover.

AYAKO HOTTA‐LISTER. The Japan‐British Exhibition of 1910: gateway to the Island Empire of the East. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. xvi, 256 pp. £45.00, hardcover.

JACQUES GERNET. Buddhism in Chinese Society: an Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries (trans. by Franciscus Verellen). New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. xvii, 441 pp. US$21.00, paper.

GREGORY M. PFLUGFELDER. Cartographies of Desire: male‐male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600–1950. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xi, 399 pp. US$45.00, hardcover.

GAIL HERSHATTER. Dangerous Pleasures: prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth Century Shanghai. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xii, 591 pp. 26 b/w illustrations, 6 tables. US$18.95, paper.

TSERING SHAKYA. The Dragon in the Land of Snows: a History of Modern Tibet since 1947. No location given: Columbia University Press, 1999. xxix, 574 pp. US$29.95, paper.

J. E. HOARE. Embassies in the East: the Story of the British and their Embassies in China, Japan and Korea from 1859 to the Present. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1999. xvi, 238 pp. £40.00, hardcover.

PADMASIRI DE SILVA. Environmental Philosophy and Ethics in Buddhism. London: Macmillan Press, 1998. xv, 195 pp. A$69.95, hardcover.

ROB GOODFELLOW. The Green Iguana, and Other Short Stories (cartoons by Weldon Neville). Wollongong: Kang Djoko, 1999. 96 pp. A$20.00, paper.

GAO MINGLU (ed). Inside Out: new Chinese Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 223 pp. US$29.95, paper.

EVELYN S. RAWSKI. The Last Emperors: a Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. xii, 481 pp. 10 b/w illustrations, 3 line figures, 3 maps, 18 tables. US$45.00, hardcover.

RANA MITTER. The Manchurian Myth: nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. xi, 295pp. US$45.00, hardcover.

KATSUICHI HONDA. The Nanjing Massacre: a Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame (ed. Frank Gibney, trans. Karen Sandness). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 400 pp. Photographs, map, index. US$68.95, hardcover; US$25.95, paper.

E. BRUCE BROOKS and A. TAEKO BROOKS (eds). The Original Analects: sayings of Confucius and His Successors. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. x, 342 pp. US$34.00, hardcover.

ALEX MCKAY (ed). Pilgrimage in Tibet. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 1998. xi, 228 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

LISA RAPHALS. Sharing the Light: representations of Women and Virtue in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. 348 pp. US$21.95, paper.

LING HUPING. Surviving on the Gold Mountain: a History of Chinese American Women and Their Lives. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. 252 pp. US$19.95, paper.

DENNIS HIROTA (ed). Toward a Contemporary Understanding of Pure Land Buddhism: creating a Shin Buddhist Theology in a Religiously Plural World. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. ix, 257 pp. US$21.95, paper.

WENDY LARSON. Women and Writing in Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. 267 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. US$51.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

BURTON WATSON (trans). The Zen Teachings of Master Lin‐Chi: a Translation of the Lin‐chi Lu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xxxii, 140 pp. US$18.00, paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

DORE J. LEVY. Ideal and Actual in “The Story of the Stone”. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 213 pp. US$49.00/£33.95, hardcover; US$19.00/£13.50, paper.

GREGOR BENTON (ed and trans). Chen Duxiu's Last Articles and Letters, 1937–1942. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998. 163 pp. Foreword by Wang Fanxi, editor's introduction, appendices, glossary, index. £40.00, hardcover.

EILEEN CHANG. The Rice‐Sprout Song. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 182 pp. Foreword by David Der‐wei Wang. US$15.95, paper.

EILEEN CHANG. The Rouge of the North. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 185 pp. Foreword by David Der‐wei Wang. US$15.95, paper.

MCLAREN, ANNE E. Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998. viii, 340 pp. US$103.75, hardcover.

EDWARD S. STEINFELD. Forging Reform in China: the Fate of State‐Owned Industry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 300 pp. Tables, figures, preface, notes, bibliography, index. A$80.00, hardcover; £12.95, paper.

PETER CONN. Pearl S. Buck: a Cultural Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 467 pp. A$28.95, paper.

FLEMMING CHRISTIANSEN and ZHANG JUNZUO (eds). Village INC. Chinese Rural Society in the 1990s. Surrey: Curzon, 1998. 277 pp. Illustrations, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. £35.00, hardcover.

HAROLD M. TANNER. Strike Hard! Anti‐Crime Campaigns and Chinese Criminal Justice 1979–1989. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1999. 253 pp. US$28.00, hardcover; US$17.00, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

LONNY E. CARLILE and MARK C. TILTON (eds). Is Japan Really Changing Its Ways?: regulatory Reform and the Japanese Economy. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1998. 232 pp. US$39.95, hardcover.

PETER KATZENSTEIN and TAKASHI SHIRAISHI (eds). Network Power: Japan and Asia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997. 399 pp. US$62.50, hardcover; US$23.95, paper.

BERNARD FAURE. The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. 338 pp. US$18.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTERAL ASIA

VIJAY MISHRA. Devotional Poetics and the Indian Sublime. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. 268 pp. US$21.95, paper.

OLIVER MENDELSOHN and MARIKA VICZIANY. The Untouchables: subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 289 pp. Glossary, preface, bibliography, index. A$36.95, paper.

DONALD S. LOPEZ, Jr. Prisoners of Shangri‐La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998. 238 pp. Notes, index. US$25.00, hardcover.

MELVYN C. GOLDSTEIN and MATTHEW T. KAPSTEIN (eds), with a foreword by Orville Schell. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet, Religious Revival and Cultural Identity.

Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1998. x, 207 pp. 37 b/w photographs, notes, bibliography, index. US$40.00, hardcover; US$15.95, paper; £30.00, hardcover; £11.95, paper.

PETER RICHARDUS (ed), with an historical foreword by Alex McKay. Tibetan Lives: three Himalayan Autobiographies. Surrey: Curzon, 1998. xxviii, 223 pp. 2 maps, frontispiece, 33 b/w plates, select bibliography, index. £40.00, hardcover.

RAMAKRISHNA PULIGANDLA. Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy. Delhi: D. K. Print‐world, 1997 (revised edition), xix, 362 pp. Preface to second edition, preface to first edition, bibliography, glossary, index. Rs. 450, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

PAUL HUTCHCROFT. Booty Capitalism: the Politics of Banking in the Philippines. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998. 278 pp. US$39.95, hardcover.

PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER. Tales from Djakarta: caricatures of Circumstances and their Human Beings. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1999. 145 pp. Foreword, introduction, glossary. US$15.00, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

YAYORI MATSUI. Women in the New Asia: from Pain to Power. Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 1999. x, 194 pp. Index. A$29.95, paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

LOWELL DITTMER. Liu Shaoqi and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, revised edition. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. US$68.95, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

HARRIET EVANS. Women and Sexuality in China: female Sexuality and Gender Since 1949. New York: Continuum, 1997. 270 pp. US$49.50, hardcover.

TONY GALLAGHER. In Their Own Words: profiles of Today's Chinese Students. San Francisco: China Books, 1998. 214 pp. A$24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

JOHN PRICE. Japan Works: power and Paradox in Postwar Industrial Relations. Ithaca and London: ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 1997. 315 pp. US$45.00, hardcover; US$17.95, paper.

SOUTH ASIA

JEFFREY J. KRIPAL. Kali's Child: the Mystical and the Erotic in the Life of Ramakrishna. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2nd edition, 1998. 386 pp. $US19.00, paper.

D. A. LOW and HOWARD BRASTED (eds). Freedom, Trauma, Continuities: Northern India and Independence. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. ix, 237 pp. Rs 350, hardcover; Rs 195, paper.

MARTHA ALTER CHEN (ed). Widows in India: social Neglect and Public Action. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 456 pp. £29.00, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

C. F. YONG. The Origins of Malayan Communism. Singapore: South Seas Society, 1997. xvi, 312 pp. Preface, tables, plates, abbreviations, introduction, index. No price given, paper.

DAMIEN KINGSBURY. The Politics of Indonesia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998. ix, 286 pp. 1 map. A$29.95, paper.

R. WILLIAM LIDDLE. Leadership and Culture in Indonesian Politics. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, for the Asian Studies Association of Australia (Southeast Asia Publication Series no. 29), 1996. 314 pp. A$35.00, paper.

NICHOLAS TARLING. Britain, Southeast Asia and the Onset of the Cold War, 1945–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. x, 504 pp. Preface, abbreviations, maps, personalia, notes, bibliography, index. A$80.00, hardcover.

GENERAL ASIA

DAVID MARTIN JONES. Political Development in Pacific Asia. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. 235 pp. US$57.95, hardcover; US$26.95, paper.

JAMES J. FOX (ed). The Poetic Power of Place: comparative Perspectives on Austronesian Ideas of Locality. Canberra: Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1997. vi, 204 pp. Maps, references, index. A$30.00 (surface mail) or A$38.00 (air mail), paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

CHRISTOPHER I. BECKWITH. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: a History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987. xxii, 281 pp. First paperback edition with a new Afterword, 1993. No price given, paper.

GREGOR BENTON. China's Urban Revolutionaries: explorations in the History of Chinese Trotskyism, 1921–1952 . (Revolutionary Studies) New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1996. 269 pp. US$55.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

GUANLONG CAO. The Attic: memoir of a Chinese Landlord's Son. Translated by Guanlong Cao and Nancy Moskin. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1996. 245 pp. US$24.95, hardcover.

JOHN FITZGERALD. Awakening China: politics, Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. 461 pp. US$69.95, hardcover.

MELVYN GOLDSTEIN, WILLIAM SIEBENSCHUH and TASHI TSERING. The Struggle for Modern Tibet: the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. xi, 220 pp. Photographs, map, index. US$27.95, hardcover.

DAVID S. G. GOODMAN and GERALD SEGAL (eds). China Rising: nationalism and Interdependence. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. xi, 196 pp. Contents, list of tables, notes on contributors, index. A$33.95, paper.

KEUN LEE. Chinese Firms and the State in Transition: property Rights and Agency Problems in the Reform Era. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1991. xi, 210 pp. Tables, foreword, acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, index. No price given, hardcover.

LILY XIAO HONG LEE. The Virtue of Yin: studies on Chinese Women. Broadway, Sydney: Wild Peony, 1994. 117 pp. A$18.95, paper.

JOHN MAKEHAM. Name and Actuality in Early Chinese Thought. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1994. 286 pp. US$17.95, hardcover.

EDWIN E. MOISE. Modern China, A History. 2nd ed. London and New York: Longman, 1994. 250 pp. Index, illustrations, maps. £14.99, paper.

MAYSING H. YANG (ed.). Taiwan's Expanding Role in the International Arena. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. 216 pp. Foreword, preface, index. US$52.95, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

WINSTON DAVIS. The Moral and Political Naturalism of Baron Kato Hiroyuki (Japan Research Monograph no. 13). Berkeley: Center for Japanese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1996. x, 125 pp. Contents, abbreviations. No price given, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

WILLIAM CASE. Elites and Regimes in Malaysia: revisiting a Consociational Democracy . Clayton, Melbourne: Monash Asia Institute, 1996. xiv, 268 pp. A$29.95, paper.

D. D. MEARNS and C. HEALEY (eds). Remaking Maluku: social Transformation in Eastern Indonesia. Darwin: Centre of South East Asian Studies, Northern Territory University. 1996. 185 pp. No price given, paper.

PANIVONG NORINDR. Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997. x, 205 pp. US$44.95, hardcover; US$16.95, paper.

SAYA S. SHIRAISHI. Young Heroes: the Indonesian Family in Politics (Studies on Southeast Asia no. 22). Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1997. 183 pp. Bibliography. No price given.