Change and continuity: Case studies in cultural anthropology

George D. Spindler and student collaborators. Burgbach: Urbanization and Identity in a German Village. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. x + 134 pp. Glossary, references, recommended reading, maps, illus. $3.25 (paper).

Oriol Pi‐Sunyer. Zamora: Change and Continuity in a Mexican Town. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. xii + 134 pp. Glossary, references, recommended reading, map, tables, illus. $2.75 (paper).

Richard A. Barrett. Benabarre: The Modernization of a Spanish Village. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974. xiv + 106 pp. References, recommended reading, map, tables, illus. $3.00 (paper).

Helen Icken Saga. The Urban Poor of Puerto Rico: A Study in Development and Inequality. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974. xii + 110 pp. Glossary, references, map, tables, illus. $3.00 (paper).     

Restudy in economic anthropology

T. Scarlett Epstein. South India: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1973. xv + 273 pp. Maps, tables, bibliography, and index. $15.00.     

A new dimension for language

Guss, David M., ed. The Language of the Birds: Tales, Texts, and Poems of Interspecies Communication. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985. xv + 361 pp. including notes and sources. $14.50 paper.

Klein, Harriet E. M. and Louisa R. Stark, eds. South American Indian Languages: Retrospect and Prospect. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985. vi + 863 pp. including chapter notes, chapter references, and index.     

British anthropologists and African railwaymen

R. D. Grillo. African Railwaymen: Solidarity and Opposition in an East African Labour Force. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1974. xi + 215 pp. Figures, tables, appendixes, bibliography, and index. $15.00 (cloth).     

Statistics for anthropologists

David Hurst Thomas. Figuring Anthropology: First Principles of Probability and Statistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976. xi + 532 pp. Tables, figures, appendix, exercises, references, and index. $13.50.     

Transnational corporations and anthropology

Richard J. Barnet and Ronald E. Müller. Global Reach: The Power of the Multinational Corporations. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974. 508 pp. Tables, appendix, bibliography, and index. $4.95 paper.     

Rural sociology and social change

Charles P. Loomis and J. Allan Beegle., A Strategy for Rural Change. New York: Halsted Press, 1975. xv + 525 pp. Tables, figures, references, author and subject indices. $19.50.     

COMPUTERS AS CARTOGRAPHIC TOOLS

Abstract

In their exploration of an alternative approach to large historical databases, the authors aim to bridge the gap between the anticipations regarding Web-based collaborative work and the prevailing practices and academic culture in social and economic history. Until now, the collaboratory model has been derived from examples in the natural sciences. Moreover, publications on collaboratories in the social sciences and humanities revolved primarily around the potential of this model and were rarely based on actual research practices. In this article, the authors report on practices, risks, and opportunities of collaboratories in the field of social and economic history. The collaboratory model is a feasible alternative for the creation of large historical databases, but the practical challenges of such an enterprise are greater than generally assumed. In the concluding section, the authors formulate a number of guidelines for scholars interested in setting up collaboratories.     

The political logic of discourse: a neo-Gramscian view

This article contrasts Mark Bevir's approach to the history of ideas with a neo-Gramscian theory of discourse. Bevir puts the case for an ‘anti-foundationalist’ approach to understanding ideas, yet he defends a weak rationalism centred on individual intentions as the original source of all meanings. Discourse theorists—specifically Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe—also adopt an anti-foundationalist perspective but pursue its implications beyond any rationalism. The advantages of discourse theory are argued to lie in its emphasis on power and conflict in the consitution and transformation of social meanings and identity. Laclau and Mouffe's work, it is claimed, alerts us to a political logic of discourse that Bevir's more rationalist approach to ‘ideas’ sidesteps.