Multiple Trajectories: A Critique of Industrial Restructuring and the New Institutionalism

This article argues that the agrarian studies literature sheds new light on the multiple,nonlinear trajectories of capitalist development occurring in the context of accelerating global integration. Cast in relation to classical political economy, work on agrarian change is centrally concerned with multiple paths of agrarian transformation. It attends both to historically specificforms of social property relations and to the ways that struggles over resources and labor are simultaneously struggles over culturally constructed meanings, definitions, and identities. Accordingly, it goes well beyond the "new institutionalism" that figures prominently in the literature on industrial restructuring. The article draws on recent research in globally linked industrial districts in former bantustan areas of South Africa to illustrate thecontemporary and continuing salience of agrarian histories and concepts. It also suggests how attention to multiple trajectories of sociospatial change can be used to challenge the neoliberal orthodoxy taking hold in post-apartheid South Africa.     

Erasing Culture and Race: Practising ‘self-determination’1

This paper is an ethnographic exploration of the process heralded by the progressive policies of Aboriginal self-determination. The discourse of self-determination was based on anti-racist ideals and a break with the past. However, state officials did not divest themselves of their cultural baggage, and proceeded by trial and error to implement a program of creating autonomous Aboriginal communities for people of whom they had no knowledge. In attempting to reshape communities there was little recognition of the cultural specificities of the Aboriginal domain let alone the way difference, both as race and as culture, had been constructed and perpetuated in practice. The state erased its own white past. The ordinary practices of state officials became a glass barrier, precluding Aborigines from responding either as expected or as they themselves desired. Neither incompetence, ignorance nor ill-will is at the root of these failures, but rather the liberal, common sense, anti-racism which informs the state's refusal to deal with the social realities of history and race. The absence of history and race from anthropology's study of cultural dynamics frames the discussion.     

Coastal resident perceptions of nature-based adaptation options in Nova Scotia

Climate change risks to coastal communities may overwhelm current management strategies. The emergence of nature-based solutions could provide alternative approaches for climate adaptation; however, studies on their public acceptability are limited. This research focuses on the human dimensions of nature-based coastal adaptation solutions. The research sought to understand the kind of environmental changes participants were experiencing in their coastal communities of Nova Scotia and what management responses they observed being taken, if any. Online focus groups were held with coastal property owners in Nova Scotia to understand how they assess coastal risks and four approaches to nature-based coastal adaptation: living shorelines, accommodation, retreat, and dyke realignment to make space for wetland restoration. Results revealed ongoing trust in traditional hard-line approaches, but also interest in knowing more about nature-based options. There was general support for living shorelines, albeit with scepticism; a concern that accommodation is just a “band-aid” approach; resistance to retreat, despite general recognition of its future utility; and a lack of understanding of dyke realignment. The successful implementation of nature-based coastal adaptation approaches will require more evidence of their viability, better options for financing them, and engagement with communities around the best-fit alternatives for them.     

Book reviews

CHINA

EDWARD FRIEDMAN and BARRETT L. McCORMICK, eds. What if China Doesn't Democratize? Implications for War and Peace. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 376 pp. Index, introduction, notes, tables. US$69.95, hardcover; US$26.95, paper.

SHAOHUA HU. Explaining Chinese Democratization. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2000. 194 pp. Acknowledgments, introduction, bibliography, index. US$62.50, hardcover.

S. A. SMITH. A Road is Made: Communism in Shanghai 1920–1927. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. x, 315 pp. £45.00, hardcover.

MARAM EPSTEIN. Competing Discourses: orthodoxy, Authenticity, and Engendered Meanings in Late Imperial Chinese Fiction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard East Asian Monographs, no. 197, 2002. xii, 353 pp. US$39.50, hardcover.

JAPAN, KOREA

BRIAN J. McVEIGH. Wearing Ideology: state, Schooling and Self‐Presentation in Japan. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2000. 231 pp. Illustrations, introduction, notes, appendices, bibliography, index. US$65.00 cloth; US$19.50 paper.

ALISON McQUEEN TOKITA. Kiyomoto‐bushi. Narrative Music of the Kabuki Theatre Sen Studien zur Traditionellen Musik Japans Bd. 8. Basel. London: Barenreiter Kassel, 1999. 400pp. Preface, foreword, Japanese and English abstracts, introduction, photographs, illustrations, appendices. DM68.00, hardcover.

BERT EDSTROM (ed). The Japanese and Europe: images and Perceptions. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000. 283 pp. £45.00, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

SIRI GAMAGE and I. B. WATSON (eds). Conflict and Community in Contemporary Sri Lanka: “Pearl of the East” or the “Island of Tears”. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. 355 pp. Rs495, hardcover; Rs295, paper.

RANABIR SAMADDAR. The Marginal Nation: transborder Migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. 228 pp. Rs 325.

GENERAL ASIA

DAVID WALKER. Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850–1939. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1999. 312 pp. $29.95, paper.

J. S. EADES, TOM GILL and HARUMI BEFU (eds). Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000. viii, 295 pp. A$39.95/US$26.00, paper.

YAMAMOTO YOSHINOBU (ed). Globalism, Regionalism & Nationalism. Asia in Search of its Role in the 21st Century. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. xi, 260 pp. £14.99/US$34.95, paper.

DONALD DENOON. Getting Under the Skin: the Bougainville Copper Agreement and the Creation of the Panguna Mine. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000. vii, 264 pp. Maps, bibliography, appendices, index. A$39.95, hardcover.

JOANNE R. BAUER and DANIEL A. BELL (eds). The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. xii, 394 pp. Notes, index. £40.00, hardcover; £14.95, paper.

ANNE‐MARIE HILSDON, MARTHA MACINTYRE, VERA MACKIE and MAILA STIVENS (eds). Human Rights and Gender Politics: Asia‐Pacific Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2000. ix, 240 pages. Notes, index. £60.00, hardcover.     

Past or present? Differentiating California prehistoric native American remains from forensic cases: An empirical approach

The goal of this project is to provide additional data and statistical analyses for differentiating between prehistoric/historic Native American remains and modern forensic cases that may be potentially confusing. Forensic anthropologists often receive requests from local law enforcement to infer whether skeletal remains are of forensic or non‐forensic significance. Skeletal remains of non‐forensic significance are commonly of Native American ancestry, but the empirical methods common for determining Native American affinity from skeletal remains have not been established for California prehistoric/historic Native Americans. Therefore, forensic anthropologists working in California lack empirical methods for not only identifying prehistoric California Native American remains, but also differentiating them from modern/forensic populations whose skeletal attributes are similar. In particular, skeletal remains of Latin American US immigrants of indigenous origins are becoming more present in the forensic anthropological laboratory, and can exhibit the same suite of skeletal traits classically used to identify Native American affinity. In this article, we initiate an investigation into this issue by analyzing both craniometric and morphoscopic data using a range of statistical methods for differentiating prehistoric Northern California Native Americans from modern Guatemalan Maya. Our discriminant analyses results indicate that by using nine craniometric variables, group classification is 87% correct. In addition, seven morphoscopic variables can predict group classification correctly for 77% of the sample. The results suggest that it is possible to differentiate between our two samples. Such a method contributes to the efficient and empirical determination of temporal and geographic affinity, allowing for the repartriation of Native American remains to their tribes, as well as the accurate analysis of forensically significant remains. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NEIGHBOURHOOD ETHNIC MIX AND THE FORMATION OF MIXED‐ETHNIC UNIONS IN BRITAIN: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS

Although developed societies are becoming increasingly ethnically diverse, relatively little research has been conducted on geographies of mixed‐ethnic unions (married or cohabiting). There is some recent evidence from the US that mixed‐ethnic couples are more likely to be found in mixed‐ethnic neighbourhoods, but this research is based on cross‐sectional data. Therefore it is not possible to determine whether mixed‐ethnic couples are more likely to form in mixed‐ethnic neighbourhoods or whether they are more likely to move there. Our longitudinal analysis allows us to tease out the relative importance of these two processes, furthering our understanding of the formation of mixed‐ethnic unions. Using data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study we examine neighbourhood effects on the formation of mixed‐ethnic unions in England and Wales. We find that mixed‐ethnic unions are more likely to form in neighbourhoods with low concentrations of co‐ethnic population. The results from this study lend support to the contact theory that geographical proximity to other ethnic groups enhances mutual understanding between people from different ethnic groups and could lead to the development of intimate partnerships.     

Light and Darkness in an Edwardian Institution for the Insane Poor—Illuminating the Material Practices of the Asylum age

Natural light and its provision within asylum and other buildings is a neglected aspect of the historical archaeology of institutions. An Edwardian asylum in the north of Ireland is analysed for the management of natural light through the siting of buildings, window design and placement of interior glazing. A close reading of selected contemporary literature relating to natural light is employed to assess the significance of light provision within institutions of this period and contemporary discourses are in turn illuminated by the material practices recorded in the case study.     

Problems of spatial and temporal continuity of rural settlement in Ireland,A.D. 400 to 1169

In Ireland the period A.D. 400 to 1169 is characterized by an abundance of field evidence for dispersed enclosed homesteads known as ring-forts. This paper examines a number of hypotheses concerning the spatial characteristics of ring-forts in an attempt to explain puzzling discontinuities in their distributional pattern. Environmental constraints and evidence for alternative settlement forms are discussed. The significance of place-name elements in the understanding of social organization and settlement is critically examined; and attention is focused on the relationship between indigenous Irish settlement and alien settlement forms introduced at the time of the Norman conquest.