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.     

Protecting what is left after colonisation: embedding climate adaptation planning in traditional owner narratives

Climate change is disproportionally affecting Indigenous peoples' livelihoods across the globe. Despite this fact, climate adaptation planning and responses are not immediate concerns for most Indigenous people, whose key challenges are deeply embedded in colonial history. Through collaborative research centred on climate adaptation planning with the Yuibera and Koinmerburra Traditional Owner groups on the Great Barrier Reef Catchments, we demonstrate that Traditional Owners' primary concerns are in aligning the climate adaptation opportunity with their own strategies for Indigenous cultural renewal and survival. Their Indigenous identity generates a responsibility to protect cultural landscapes, sites, and their connections with these places. In this case study, to “protect what is left” of Indigenous material culture and socio‐cultural relationships emerged as the best approach to climate adaptation planning, providing both the decolonisation narrative and the means to strengthen their Indigenous practices. Planning for climate change adaptation is useful for Indigenous peoples when it supports decolonising, strengthens Indigenous customary practices, and recognises customary governance.     

Party Democracy: An Audit of Australian Parties

Competition between candidates representing political parties is usually regarded as a central feature of a liberal democracy. However, where competition between parties fails to provide the public with an effective choice of candidates, the real competition between candidates is displaced to a competition for party endorsement within particular parties. The paper examines the democratic implications of this displacement, and reports the findings of an audit of candidate-selection procedures within the principal Australian parties. The paper argues inter alia that the closed nature of electoral competition and the public status of Australian political parties imply that their internal affairs should be conducted democratically. The paper defines internal party democracy in structural and procedural terms. It applies realistic standards - realistic, because too much internal democracy could render a party ineffective and restrict electoral competition - in conducting an audit of the candidate-selection rules and the composition of candidate-selection voting panels for the principal Australian parties. The paper concludes with a suggestion for policy reform.     

Alternative Nested Logit Model Structures and the Special Case of Partial Degeneracy

Partially degenerate nested logit (NL) models have broad applicability in regional science. However, the literature on them is relatively sparse and confusion exists on some aspects of identification and related matters. This paper addresses a number of conceptual and econometric aspects of partially degenerate NL models. These include identification, scaling, invariance, and consistency with the utility-maximizing postulate that underlies discrete choiceanalysis. This is accomplished within the larger, encompassing framework of nondegenerate NL models of which the partially degenerate model is a special case.     

东亚稻作起源研究的新进展

农业起源是国际学术界的重大课题之一,而中国的稻作起源研究由于其丰富的材料在这方面取得了丰硕的成果,引起了世界的广泛关注。《东亚稻作起源研究的新进展》一文是加拿大著名植物考古学家加里·克劳福德和沈辰博士综合中国、日本和韩国近年来稻作考古方面的发现和研究成果所作的述评,在高度评价东亚稻作起源研究成就并赞同某些观点的同时,也提出了自己的一些看法。首先,作者赞同中国水稻的本土起源说,认为可能起源于长江中下游地区,是一种热带型粳稻。中国考古发现中未见籼稻,籼稻系起源于南亚地区。但是,对于当前所发现一些最早的水稻遗存(如玉蟾岩、彭头山、贾湖,甚至河姆渡)是否为驯化种,作者却持基本否定态度,认为仍然属于野生种,甚至没有足够的考古证据证明是人为采集利用的结果,直到较晚期的龙虬庄,水稻遗存才有了明显的人工干预迹象。农业起源是一个数千年的漫长过程,而非一种突发的事件,这也是国际学术界的主流观点。另外,作者还对中国学者对野生稻的生物分类方法提出了意见,认为目前的分类方法不够细致,还应该作进一步的划分。作者比较重视稻作起源中的技术手段,对日本学者的DNA方法表示赞赏,认为它解决了如粳、籼不同起源等方面的一些重大问题。最后,作者还提到要重视起源问题的文化和生态背景,强调了多学科系统协作的重大意义。     

The Virtues of Persistence

Book reviewed in this article:
Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II