Independent confirmation of a diagnostic sheep/goat peptide sequence through DNA analysis and further exploration of its taxonomic utility within the Bovidae

Buckley et al. (2010) recently identified a Type I collagen (COL1A2) peptide sequence that discriminates between sheep and goat species. The exact location of this peptide sequence on the genome was not reported. We identified the sequence's location and developed a PCR based approach that amplifies the diagnostic sequence from exon 41 of the COL1A2 gene. Using DNA analysis, we confirmed that this COL1A2 peptide discriminates between goat and sheep species reliably, but is limited as a more general phylogenetic marker.     

Violence,Social Differentiation and the Self

The article considers aspects of violence in everyday life among the Tiwi of Melville and Bathurst Islands. It briefly compares the role of violence in bureaucratically and juridically mediated forms with self-help and social regulation in Aboriginal societies, focussing on the expressive or performative aspects of violence in everyday interaction. Myers' discussion of violence among the Pintubi posits a dialectical polarity of relatedness and differentiation, corresponding with the affective poles of compassion and anger. This is compared with Sansom's account of semi-ritualized forms of violence in Aboriginal fringe-camp life, where a point of commonality in Myers' and Sansom's approaches is found: this consists of the attunement of action, of violence, self-violence and destructiveness to the witnessing public. In Tiwi life too, conflict is dynamically shaped by actors' attempts to impinge upon, to seek to arouse and in some cases to manipulate, compassion or concern in the witnessing group as defence or as a form of moral attack. Open, dramatic ‘appealing’ violence, often in the form of a more or less controlled loss of self-control, seeks to parry indirect interpersonal tension and antagonism, to reassert or restore social distance and protect or privilege important relationships from intrusive demands. However, these violent appeals in rhetorical threat, in self-violence, destructiveness or sometimes in dramatic suicidal gestures also invariably indicate extreme personal difficulty displaced into open forms of confrontation. The article proposes that the generative moment of violence for social differentiation be sought in an examination of dynamic interrelationships between individual life-history, inner group processes and their articulation with external social forms.     

‘Mr Neville did all in [his] power to assist me’: A. P. Elkin,A. O. Neville and Anthropological Research in Northwest Western Australia, 1927–1928

From the commencement of his field research A. P. Elkin sought to bring a practical application to his work on Aborigines. He positioned anthropology as an enabling science which had the capacity to reduce conflict, violence and misunderstanding on the frontier. He stated that the ‘object of his mission [field work]’ was both ‘academic and practical’. He declared that the knowledge gained through anthropological field research would serve not only narrow academic aims but would also be put at the service of government. Anthropology's purpose was to inform and influence the formulation of government Aboriginal policy. This paper examines Elkin's first encounter and interaction with government through his relationship with A. O. Neville, chief protector of Aborigines in Western Australia. It illustrates the beginnings of what Gillian Cowlishaw has called a discourse of helping, that is Australian anthropologists in the 1930s constructed a discourse about their usefulness to government. It was a discourse which seemingly lacked critical distance from the policies of government. I argue that this discourse of helping government was heavily influenced by Elkin once he became professor of anthropology but it can be discovered in this earlier period. I conclude by discussing how the implications of this discourse were played out in the decade of the 1930s. The focus of this paper is on Elkin and his relationship with Neville and the consequences of this relationship for Elkin's later actions.     

Book reviews

Henry Albinski, The Australian‐American Security Relationship. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia and London, 1982, pp. x + 257. $29.95.

Desmond Ball (ed.), Strategy and Defence: Australian Essays. George Allen and Unwin Australia, Sydney, 1982, pp. 402, $24.95 (cloth), $12.95 (paper).

A.F. Madden and W.H. Morris‐Jones (eds.), Australia and Britain: Studies in a Changing Relationship. Sydney University Press in association with Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Sydney, 1980, pp. xvii + 195. $15.00.

John Robertson, Australia at War 1939–1945. Heinemann Australia, Melbourne, 1981, pp. xv + 269. No price given.

R.H. Mathams, Sub Rosa: Memoirs of an Australian Intelligence Analyst. George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1982, pp. 127. $15.95 (cloth), $7.95 (paper).

James Michael, The Politics of Secrecy. Penguin, Harmonds‐worth, 1982, pp. 240. $7.95.

Leon Glezer, Tariff Politics: Australian Policy‐Making 1960–1980. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1982, pp. 360. $25.00.

K.J. Holsti, Why Nations Realign: Foreign Policy Restructuring in the Postwar World. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1982, pp. xi + 225. $49.95.

Andrew J. Pierre, The Global Politics of Arms Sales. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1982, pp. 311. $US26.00 (cloth), $US7.75 (paper).

Kim Richard Nossal (ed.), An Acceptance of Paradox: Essays on Canadian Diplomacy in honour of John W. Holmes. Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Toronto, 1982, pp. 202. $Can.13.50.

Mohammad Ayoob (ed.), The Politics of Islamic Reassertion, Croom Helm, London, 1981, pp. 298. $23.75.

Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1982, pp. xiii + 561. $US58.50 (Cloth), $US 19.00 (Paper).

Donald N. Wilber, Iran Past and Present: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic (9th Edition). Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1981, pp. ix + 375. £4.90.

Fred Halliday, Threat From the East? Soviet Policy From Afghanistan and Iran to The Horn Of Africa. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1982, pp. 149. $4.95.

Rupert Lockwood, Black Armada. Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney, 1982, pp. viii + 352. $24.95 (cloth), $13.95 (paper).

Baladas Ghoshal, Indonesian Politics 1955–1959: The Emergence of Guided Democracy, K.P. Bagchi & Co., Calcutta, 1982, pp. 314. Rs 75.00.

David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial. 1920–1945. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1981, pp. xi + 468. $34.95.

Richard Storry, A History of Modern Japan. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1982, pp. 304. $5.75.

Terry Edward Macdougall (ed.), Political Leadership in Contemporary Japan. (Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies No. 1), Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1982, pp. xiii + 145. $US5.00.

John Creighton Campbell (ed.), Parties, Candidates and Voters in Japan: Six Quantitative Studies. (Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies No. 2) The Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981, pp. viii + 169. $US5.00.

G. W. Breslauer, Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1982, pp. xiii + 318. $39,95 (cloth), $18.95 (paper).

John Ardagh, France in the 1980s. Penguin Books, Harmonds‐worth, 1982, pp. 672. $10.95.

Terutomo Ozawa, Multinationalism, Japanese Style: The Political Economy of Outward Dependency. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1979, pp. xxiii + 289. £6.30.

Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America. M. Evans and Company, New York, 1980, pp. ix + 140. $19.25.

Michael Moynagh, Brown or White? A history of the Fiji sugar industry, 1873–1973. Pacific Research Monograph No. 5, Australian National University, Canberra, 1981. pp. xxi + 306. $9.00.

C. Whitehead, Education in Fiji: policy, problems and progress in primary and secondary education 1939–1973. Pacific Research Monograph No. 6, Australian National University, Canberra, 1981. pp. xix + 228. $9.00.

Timothy J. Macnaught, The Fijian Colonial Experience: A study of the neotraditional order under British colonial rule prior to World War II. Pacific Research Monograph No. 7, Australian National University, Canberra, 1982. pp. xvii + 203. $10.00.

Rolf Gerritsen, R.J. May and Michael A.H.B. Walter, Road Belong Development: Cargo Cults. Community Groups and Self‐Help Movements in Papua New Guinea. Australian National University, Department of Political and Social Change Working Paper No. 3, 1981, pp. ii + 117. $5.00.

R.J. May, National‐Provincial Government Relations in Papua New Guinea: Consultant's Report to the Committee to Review the Financial Provisions of the Organic Law on Provincial Government. Australian National University, Department of Political and Social Change Working Paper No. 4, 1981, pp. 57. $5.00.

Richard Newman, Workers and Unions in Bombay 1918–1929. A Study of Organisation in the Cotton Mitts. Australian National University Monographs on South Asia 6, Australian National University, Canberra, 1981, pp. xvi + 320. $10.00.

Eamon Murphy, Unions in Conflict. A Comparative Study of Four South Indian Textile Centres. 1918–1939. Australian National University Monographs on South Asia 5, Manohar Publications, New Delhi, 1981, pp. xii + 287. $10.00.

Marcus Franda, Bangladesh: the First Decade, South Asian Publishers, New Delhi in association with Universities Field Staff International, New Hampshire, 1982, pp. 335. No price given.     

Rationalising parliamentary systems

Public Choice analysis of democratic political institutions focuses on the issues that are most salient under US constitutional arrangements. Parliamentary systems offer different institutional arrangements and different challenges to the Public Choice approach. We outline a Public Choice account of parliamentary democracy which concentrates attention on the roles of electoral competition and disciplined political parties, while also offering a discussion of parliamentary procedure. The Public Choice approach is contrasted with the mainstream view of representative, responsible government in which disciplined political parties are often seen as a threat to parliamentary democracy.