The Problem of Diffusion: Rejoinders

MYTH AND RELIGION OF THE NORTH, The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. By E. O. G. TURVILLE-PETRE. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964. Pp. 340.50s. net. Reviewed by E. O. James.

HERBERT JENNINGS ROSE, 1883–1961. By W. L. LORIMER, Oxford University Press. 3s. net. Reviewed by E. O. James.

THE CULT OF THE CAT. By PATRICIA DALE-GREEN. London, William Heinemann. Pp. 189; 39 plates. Price 30s. Reviewed by Theo Brown.

DIE SAGEN DER MONATHLICHEN UNTERREDUNGEN OTTO VON GRABENS ZUM STEIN. Edited by W. E. PEUCKERT. Corpus Fabulorum I. Berlin, W. de Gruyter &; Co., 1961. Pp. xix, 327. Reviewed by E. Ettlinger.

GÖTTER UND GÖTTERTIERE DER MAYA. By WOLFGANG CORDAN. Bern, Francke Verlag, 1963. Pp. 75; 50 text figs. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

THE REGIONAL VOCABULARY OF TEXAS. By E. Bagby Atwood. University of Texas Press, 1962. Pp. 273, xiii. $5.75. Reviewed by C. A. Burland.

LAPP LIFE AND CUSTOMS. By ØRNULF VORREN and ERNST MANKER, (translated by Kathleen McFarlane). London, 1962. Pp. 183.38s. Reviewed by W. R. Mead.

FOLK TALES FROM RAJASTHAN. Retold by L. N. BIRLA. Illustrated by PHANI BHUSHAN. London, Asia Publishing House, 1964. Pp. 60. 20s. Reviewed by L. P. Elwell-Sutton.

DRAMA AND IMAGERY IN ENGLISH MEDIEVAL CHURCHES. By M. D. ANDERSON. C.U.P., 1963. Pp. 248. 45s. Reviewed by Alex Helm.

BRETON FOLK DANCES. By JEAN-MICHAEL GUILCHER. Paris, School of Higher Studies, Sorbonne. Reviewed by Douglas Kennedy.

THE LAST DAYS OF THE SIOUX NATION. By ROBERT M. UTLEY. Yale University Press, 1961. Pp. 314; 24 plates. 56s. net. Reviewed by C. A. Burland.

STUDIES IN JAPANESE FOLKLORE. By RICHARD M. DORSON. Indiana University Press, 1963. Pp. 247. Reviewed by W. H. Hudspeth.

THE MEDIEVAL HISTORY OF THE COAST OF TANGANYIKA. By G. S. P. FREEMAN-GRENVILLE. Oxford University Press. Pp. 238; maps, plates. 50s. Reviewed by W. H. Whiteley.

DIE VOLKSERZÄHLUNG. By LEOPOLD SCHMIDT. Berlin, Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1963. Pp. 448; 4 maps. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

DEUTSCHES JAHRBUCH FÜR VOLKSKUNDE. Vol. ix. Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 1963. Pp. 468; Pls. 8, xvi; 9 text figs. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

BRÜDER GRIMM GEDENKEN 1963. Gedenkschrift zur hundertsten Wiederkehr des Todestages von Jacob Grimm. Marburg, N. G. Elwert Verlag, 1963. Pp. ix, 610; 16 plates. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

SONGS OF THE CIVIL WAR. Compiled and edited by IRWIN SILBER, Piano and Guitar Accompaniment by Garry Silverman. Columbia University Press, 1960; Oxford University Press, 1961. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.     

Reviews

Studies in Folk-Song-and Popular Poetry. By Alfred M. Williams, with a Prefatory Note by Edward Clodd. 8vo; pp. vi., 329. Elliot Stock, 1895.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Translated by C. H. S. Davies. Putnam Sons, New York. By Joseph Jacobs.

Egyptian Tales Translated from the Papyri. First Series, IVth to XIIth Dynasty Edited Flinders Petrie, Hon. D.C.L. Illustrated by Tristram Ellis. London, Methuen &; Co. 1895.

Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World collected from oral tradition in South-West Munster by Jeremiah Curtin. David Nutt, 1895.     

Wood and Fire: Scotland’s Timber Cursus Monuments

This paper offers the first comprehensive overview of Scotland’s early Neolithic timber cursus monuments. This small group of sites has, in recent years, been viewed as a significant element of the early Neolithic repertoire in northern Britain, and forerunner to the later earthwork cursus monuments found across the British Isles; but as yet their treatment has been at a largely superficial level. The article draws together the evidence from excavations, cropmarks and the authors’ own fieldwork. As well as describing the monuments, the study also offers a new interpretation of the construction, role and destruction of these monuments within the context of the woodland world of lowland Scotland in the first half of the fourth millennium BC.     

Natural Right and The Origin of Species

Abstract

This article concerns the relationship between Abraham Lincoln's natural right argument against slavery and contemporary Darwinian biology. It is frequently supposed that the latter undermines the former. I argue to the contrary that natural right has been rediscovered independently by modern Darwinian biology, and that it largely confirms Lincoln's understanding of human nature.