Britishness, asylum-seekers and the northern working class: 1851

The arrival of a small group of Polish-Hungarian refugees in Liverpool in 1851 reveals a lot about contemporary political views in the United Kingdom. The refugees were members of General Wysocki's Polish legion, which had fought Russia and Austria during the Hungarian revolution in 1848-49. While British liberals had hailed the nationalist cause from a distance, they were made uneasy by the presence of the refugee republicans with radical ideas. For that reason, British liberals worked with the government to try to send the Hungarian refugees to the United States. On the other hand, tradesmen and artisans in Liverpool - who were drawn to the social democratic ideas of liberty expressed by the revolutionaries of 1848 - organized a successful campaign to grant the refugees asylum.     

Book reviews

CHINA

RONALD SULESKI. Civil Government in Warlord China: tradition, Modernization and Manchuria. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. 302 pp. Bibliography, index. US$66.95, hardcover.

BØRGE BAKKEN. The Exemplary Society: human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 516 pp. Notes, bibliography, glossary, index. A$300.00, hardcover.

DU SHANSHAN. "Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs”. Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the Lahu of Southwest China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. US$60.00, hardcover; US$25.50, paper.

REBECCA E. KARL. Staging the World: Chinese Nationalism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002. US$59.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

ELIZABETH J. PERRY. Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: social Protest and State Power in China. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. US$73.95, hardcover; US$27.95, paper.

JAPAN AND KOREA

STEVE ODIN. Artistic Detachment in Japan and the West: psychic Distance in Comparative Aesthetics. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. 204 pp. Index. US$55.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

VERA MACKIE. Feminism in Modern Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. xiv, 293 pp. £50.00, hardcover; £18.95, paper.

KAYE BROADBENT. W omen's Employment in Japan: the Experience of Part‐time Workers. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. 176 pp. US$90.00/£55.00, hardcover.

JAMES R. BRANDON and SAMUEL L. LEITER (eds). Kabuki Plays on Stage: Darkness and Desire, 1804–1864. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. xv, 397 pp. 31 colour and 14 b/w plates, glossary, selected bibliography, contributors, index, list of plays by volume, dust jacket. US$50.00, hardcover.

KONGDAN OH (ed). Korea Briefing 1997–1999: challenges and Change at the Turn of the Century. Published in cooperation with the Asia Society. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000. 243 pp. Preface, map, chronology, glossary, suggestions for further reading and websites, index. US$30.95, paper.

KONGDAN OH and RALPH HASSIG (eds). Korea Briefing 2000–2001: first Steps Toward Reconciliation and Reunification. Published in cooperation with the Asia Society. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. 308 pp. Maps, tables, bibliography, chronology, index. US$24.95, paper.

The Korean Peninsula: peace and Prosperity after the Pyongyang Summit (Proceedings of a Conference 6–7 October 2000). New Zealand Asia Institute: The University of Auckland, 2001. 146 pp. New Zealand domestic price $NZ20.00 or equivalent incl. postage and packing. Overseas price $NZ30.00 or equivalent incl. postage and packing.

YONGHO CH'OE, PETER H. LEE, and W.M. THEODORE DE BARY (eds). Sources of Korean Tradition, Volume 2: from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Preface, explanatory note, contributors, bibliography, index. US$54.00, hardcover; US$22.50, paper.

SEIJI M. LIPPIT. Topographies of Japanese Modernism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 301 pp. US$22.50/£16.50, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

ALF HILTEBEITEL. Rethinking the Mahàbhàrata: a Reader's Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. x, 365 pp. US$50.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper.

ALI AMJAD. Labour Legislation and Trade Unions in India and Pakistan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. xix, 190 pp. £15.99, hardcover.

LIONEL CAPLAN. Children of Colonialism: Anglo‐Indians in a Postcolonial World. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2001. x, 261 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper.

JACQUES POUCHEPADASS. Land, Power and Market: a Bihar District under Colonial Rule, 1860–1947. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 2000. 574 pp. Tables, figures, maps, appendixes, abbreviations, glossary, introduction, sources and bibliography, index. Rs 695, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

THOMAS M. McKENNA. Muslim Rulers and Rebels: everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 364 pp. £37.95, hardcover; £16.95, paper.

JEROEN TOUWEN. Shipping and Trade in the Java Sea Region, 1870–1940: a Collection of Statistics on the Major Java Sea Ports. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2001. xi, 172 pp. Tables, figures, bibliography.

DANIEL FITZPATRICK. Land Claims in East Timor. Canberra: Asia‐Pacific Press, 2002. x, 246 pp. A$40.00.

GEORGE McT. KAHIN. Southeast Asia: a Testament. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. xxiv, 350 pp. £75.00, hardcover; £19.99, paper.

BOB HERING. Sukarno: founding Father of Indonesia 1901–1945. Leiden: KITLV [Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde] Press, 2002. 439 pp. Euro30.00, paper.

POLINE BALA. Changing Borders and Identities in the Kelabit Highlands: anthropological Reflections on Growing Up in a Kelabit Village near the International Border Dayak Studies Contemporary Society Series, no. 1. The Institute of East Asian Studies, Sarawak Malaysia: Unit Penerbitan Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 2002. 142 pp. Bibliography, glossary, index, images. No price given, paper.     

Domesticated Landscapes: The Subsistence Ecology of Plant and Animal Domestication

Harvesting different species as foods or raw materials calls for differing skills depending on the species being harvested and the circumstances under which they are being taken. In some situations and for some species, the tactics used are mainly behavioral—that is, people adjust, or adapt, their own actions to fit the behavior and circumstances of the species they are taking. Under other circumstances and for other species, the skills and tactics used may call for greater environmental preparation or manipulation. Therefore, instead of trying to distinguish people today and in the past as either foragers or farmers, it makes sense to define human subsistence behavior as an interactive matrix of species and harvesting tactics, that is, as a provisions spreadsheet.     

Measuring the Scale of Segregation Using k‐Nearest Neighbor Aggregates

Nearly all segregation measures use some form of administrative unit (usually tracts in the United States) as the base for the calculation of segregation indices, and most of the commonly used measures are aspatial. The spatial measures that have been proposed are often not easily computed, although there have been significant advances in the past decade. We provide a measure that is individually based (either persons or very small administrative units) and a technique for constructing neighborhoods that does not require administrative units. We show that the spatial distribution of different population groups within an urban area can be efficiently analyzed with segregation measures that use population count‐based definitions of neighborhood scale. We provide a variant of a k‐nearest neighbor approach and a statistic spatial isolation and a methodology (EquiPop) to map, graph, and evaluate the likelihood of individuals meeting other similar race individuals or of meeting individuals of a different ethnicity. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated in an application of the method to data for Los Angeles and three metropolitan areas in Sweden. This comparative approach is important as we wish to show how the technique can be used across different cultural contexts. The analysis shows how the scale (very small neighborhoods, larger communities, or cities) influences the segregation outcomes. Even if microscale segregation is strong, there may still be much more mixing at macroscales.     

From Comparative to Interreligious Theology: Perry Schmidt-Leukel's “Fractal” Version of Pluralism

Perry Schmidt-Leukel has proposed a “fractal” theory to correlate factors which are replicated across religious traditions. His aim is to develop notions of religious and theological pluralism which have become locked into a somewhat sterile conflict with “inclusivism.” A wide range of thinkers from a variety of religious traditions respond to his initiative, some applauding it, others criticising it as being too abstract to do justice to the particularity of religious phenomena. A highlight is Francis X. Clooney's defence of his comparative theology project as an alternative to pluralism. In reply, Schmidt-Leukel generously accepts a number of criticisms while reasserting his proposal that on the basis of fractal theory a truly interreligious theology is possible. It remains to be seen how widely fractal theory applies to concrete religious phenomena.