Book reviews

AN AUSTRALIAN IN INDIA. By the Rt. Hon. R. G. Casey. 1947. (London: Hollis and Carter, p. 120.)

Arnold J. Toynbee: A STUDY OF HISTORY. Abridgment of Volumes I‐VI by D. C. Somervell, 1946. (Oxford University Press, pp. 617).

AUSTRALIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EVOLUTION OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT. By T. P. Fry, 1947. (University of Queensland Papers; Faculty of Law, Volume I, No. 1, pp. 21).

EDUCATION IN FASCIST ITALY. By L. Minio‐Paluello. 1946. (Oxford University Press, pp. xiv and 236).

THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION IN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES. (Journal of Negro Education. The Yearbook Number XV. Published for The Bureau of Educational Research, Howard University, by The Howard University Press, Howard University, ‘Washington 1, D.C.) 1946. pp. 263–578.

COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION BY EUROPEAN POWERS. A series of papers read at King's College, London, 14th November to 12th December, 1946; by Jose de Almada, Robert Godding, Lord Hailey, A. M. Joekes, and H. Laurentie, 1947. (Royal Institute of International Affairs, pp. xiii +96).

THE LOST WAR: A Japanese Reporter's Inside Story. By Masuo Kato. 1946. (New York: Knopf, pp. 264).

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF SOVIET RUSSIA: Volume I. 1929–36. By Max Beloff. 1947. (Oxford University Press, pp. xii +261 and map).     

The Earliest Harbour Installations on Aegean Foreshores

This article aims to raise awareness of a few newly discovered prehistoric harbour facilities in Crete. In particular is an unusual, if not unique, slipway suggesting how large ships were hauled up on to the land at Middle Minoan II Kommos. Also, there are huge, successive structures (Buildings T and P) with long galleries that served as shipsheds inviting close scrutiny, as well as comparison with the later Classical shipsheds sheltering elite warships of the Greek city states. The three newly excavated Minoan buildings fit historically into the beginning of a now extended tradition of Classical shipsheds. The latter are compared here with their prehistoric counterparts and briefly discussed concerning origin, development, and aspects of cultural or historical significance.     

Russian timber industry in the 1920s: on the short history of Russnorvegoles

After the Russian Revolution, with civil war and interventions, war communism (1918–1921) led to a period of great economic difficulties in Russia. The New Economic Policy was the solution, and concessions offered to Western business interests were a part of it. In the timber industry of the 1920s, the jointly Western and Soviet controlled company Russnorvegoles was an important concession. The majority of the Western interests were Norwegian, and the company was registered as a Norwegian limited liability company with seat in Oslo. The four-and-a-half-year history, involving Western interests in the operations of Russnorvegoles, is both interesting and dramatic. Profitability was undermined, and intricate currency arrangements played a significant role during the last eighteen months in which Western interests were involved. The prominent Norwegian fascist politicians Quisling and Prytz were both involved, and the latter emerged a wealthy man. Living on his means for some years following 1928, he contributed financially to the formation in 1933 of a Norwegian Nazi party (Nasjonal Samling/National Reunion). This dimension of Norwegian political history demonstrates the role that Russnorvegoles played beyond the timber industry.     

Descent of Iron Age Farmers in Southern Africa During the Last 2000 Years

Ethnographies from southern Africa indicate that patrilineal descent dominates Bantu-language speakers. With great differences in material culture suggesting sociopolitical and economical changes between the earliest farmers that settled in the region in the first millennium AD and those described from ethnographies, it is very likely that descent patterns did not remain static over the course of nearly 2000 years. With major sociopolitical and economical changes, it is not surprising to suggest that other forms of descent also existed amongst farmers of southern Africa in the past. Although it remains ambiguous to establish descent patterns from archaeological remains in the absence of human burials, in this paper I investigate herding practices and the nature of farming as ways to infer descent. The results indicate that at least matrilineal descent was common in southern Africa before the arrival of ancestral Nguni and Sotho-Tswana speakers in the region during the Late Iron Age in the second millennium AD. Other forms of descent were likely present alongside matrilineal descent during the Early and Middle Iron Ages, when widespread evidence for patrilineal descent is absent.     

Iraqi Perceptions of Out‐groups: Effects of Ethnicity,Religion, and Location

At the Iraq “liberation” in 2003, many asked, “Could Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish factions be brought together, or is it likely that ethnic conflicts would lead to civil war?” This pilot project addressed: 1) How do Iraqis' self‐reported ethnic/religious identities (their membership in their personal in‐groups) relate to their perceptions of other unlike groups (out‐groups)?, and 2) How does a place of residence relate to Iraqi perceptions of out‐groups? My team collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions in Iraq, Jordan, and The Netherlands, asking for perceptions of Those Other Groups, their out‐groups. I found that background items of religion, ethnic origin, and location, taken by themselves, did not relate strongly to respondents' attitudes towards out‐groups. But, some combinations of background items did give significant differences in perceptions towards other groups. For example, moderate Arabs (with respect to ethnic importance) in Iraq were the group most opposed to foreigners, and were the group most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. In this paper I explain important terms (out‐group and wiki); report on my findings in the midst of a period of regime change in Iraq; mention the use of an alternate way to disseminate research findings over the internet via a wiki; and describe follow‐up projects on social capital among Iraqis. My hope is that this will contribute to a base from which researchers and fieldworkers can develop theories to explore and explain elements of civil society in Iraq and other societies. This paper presents the following major sections: Abstract; Introduction; Purpose; Background; Methodology; Results; Conclusions; Further; Work; Appendixes; and End Notes     

ENCOUNTERING INDIGENEITY: RE-IMAGINING AND DECOLONIZING GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT. In an era of postcolonialism and postcolonization, Indigenous struggles continue. Within 'settler societies' issues of dispossession—particularly of lands—remain largely unresolved. As part of the discipline of geography's active movement away from its colonizing project, this introduction to this special edition of Geografiska Annaler B seeks to (re)focus a disciplinary lens, and (re)open a dialogue—and potential research trajectory - about 'indigenous geographies'. As the papers in this special issue demonstrate, new cultural geographies have begun a process of re-engagement with issues of indigeniety through careful, sensitive, inclusive, representative and emancipatory research projects.