Publications briefly noted

SUEHIRO KITAGUCHI (trans. Alastair McLauchlan). An Introduction to the Buraku Issue: Questions and Answers. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. 213 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

WANG LING‐CHI and WANG GUNGWU (eds). The Chinese Diaspora: selected Essays. Two Volumes. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998. Vol. 1: xiv, 287 pp. US$39.00, hardcover; Vol. 2: xii, 300 pp. US$39.00, hardcover.

JOHN S. BOWMAN (ed). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. US$85.00; £52.50, hardcover.

PHYLLIS L. THOMPSON (ed). Dear Alice: letters Home from American Teachers Learning to Live in China. Berkeley: The Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xiv, 337 pp. US$19.95, paper.

PAUL W. LEWIS and BAI BIBO (PIU BO). Hani‐English English‐Hani Dictionary. London: Kegan Paul International, 1996. 837 pp. £95.00, hardcover.

DONALD DENOON, PHILIPPA MEIN‐SMITH with MARIVIC WYNDHAM. A History of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. xviii, 523 pp. US$60.00, hardcover; £16.00, paper.

WANG GUNGWU and JOHN WONG (eds). Hong Kong in China: the Challenges of Transition. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1999. 324 pp. Tables. No price given, hardcover.

JOHN McCREERY. Japanese Consumer Behavior: from Worker Bees to Wary Shoppers. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. 278 pp. Illustrations. £14.99, paper.

ENGELBERT KAEMPFER. Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. 545 pp. US$64.00, hardcover; US$34.95, paper.

HIROMITSU IWAMOTO. Nanshin: Japanese Settlers in Papua and New Guinea 1890–1949. Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History, 1999. 175 pp.

BARBARA BENNETT PETERSON (editor in chief). Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 402 pp. US$74.95, hardcover.

JOSEPH CHENG (ed). Political Participation in Hong Kong: theoretical Issues and Historical Legacy. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 1999. xviii, 321 pp. Tables. US$34.00, paper.

NEIL J. DIAMANT. Revolutionizing the Family: politics, Love, and Divorce in Urban and Rural China 1949–1968. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000. xviii, 440 pp. US$55.00, hardcover.

DONALD KEENE. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xiii, 1,265 pp. US$32.50, paper.

DONALD KEENE. World within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre‐modern Era, 1600–1867. A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xv, 606 pp. US$25.00, paper.

WM. THEODORE DE BARY and RICHARD LUFRANO (eds). Sources of Chinese Tradition. Second Edition, Vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. xviii, 636 pp. US$49.50, hardcover.

RAE YANG. Spider Eaters: a Memoir. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. xi, 285 pp. US$16.95, paper.     

An exploration of character traits and linear measurements for sexing mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) skeletons

The skeletal elements of mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) have proven difficult to sex with statistical confidence due to wide overlap in the body size of the two sexes. We studied a sample of 53 modern mountain gazelle skeletons to determine which character traits and metric measurements best predict sex. The success of the character traits was determined using blind tests while the metrics were examined using discriminant function analysis. The most useful elements include the previously identified horn core, pubis and atlas, but also some new bone portions that preserve well in the archaeological record (e.g., distal tibia, distal metacarpal and metatarsal, and second phalanx). Surprisingly, two elements commonly used in sexing analyses (distal humerus and astragalus) were not among the most effective elements. Although cutting points and discriminant functions for sexing gazelle bone portions are presented here, they do not account for potential body size change and thus are not suited for direct application to archaeological assemblages. Instead, we provide guidelines for application to archaeological gazelle assemblages, most importantly a regression analysis that considers the sex ratios obtained from multiple measurements to predict the sex ratio of archaeological gazelle populations.     

The Search for the 1871 Whaling Fleet of the Western Arctic: writing the final chapter

During 2015, the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries led a systematic seabed mapping survey along the Arctic coast of Alaska in search of whaling ships abandoned in 1871. The purpose of the expedition was to determine if wreckage from these abandoned ships was still present in the survey area, and, if so, to assess and document its location, status and condition. The project mapped approximately 50 km² of seabed using sidescan sonar and magnetometry and identified six sites that contained wreckage from at least two whaling ships. Magnetometry data also suggested that additional wreckage may be buried in the seabed.     

Mill’s closet: J.S. Mill on solitude and the imperfect democracy

This paper focuses on the role solitude played in John Stuart Mill’s political thought. By doing so, it challenges contemporary appropriations of Mill’s thought by participatory, deliberative and epistemic theories of democracy. Mill considered solitude to be contrary to political participation and public debate, but nonetheless regarded it as essential for democracy and for intellectual progress. Since the early 1830s Mill began developing an idea of solitude while simultaneously forming a particular kind of a democratic model which I refer to as ‘imperfect democracy’. According to this model, democracy is restrained by non-democratic elements which offer a contrary spirit and are not incorporated by democracy. At first Mill believed the ‘leisured class’ would fulfil this task, but later considered solitude as a possible solution. This paper follows the way in which these ideas were crystallised in Mill’s thought, and by doing so offers a novel interpretation of Mill’s political thought and his nuanced understanding of solitude, political participation and democracy.