Iron Age hydraulic plaster from Tell es-Safi/Gath,Israel

Hydraulic plasters or mortars prior to the Roman period are rare. Here, we report the identification and characterization of 3000 year old (Iron Age) hydraulic plaster surfaces from the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath. This site, located in central Israel, was occupied almost continuously from prehistoric through modern times, and is identified as the Canaanite and Philistine city of Gath. A survey using an on-site Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) identified the presence of amorphous silicates, in addition to calcite, in each of two superimposed plaster layers. This suite of minerals is characteristic of hydraulic plaster. An in-depth characterization of the plasters using FTIR, acid dissolution, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray powder diffractometry (pXRD), heating experiments and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), shows that special silicate-containing minerals were brought from some distance to the site in order to produce these plaster surfaces. We therefore conclude that the plasters were deliberately produced, and were not the result of a fortuitous addition of local silicate minerals. A layer of around 150 μm thick enriched in carbonate hydroxylapatite was found in both plaster surfaces, and the same mineral was identified by infrared spectrometry in the surrounding sediments. This suggests that organic materials were used on these surfaces. These surfaces are among the oldest hydraulic plasters known.     

Exploring ‘Other’ childhoods through quantitative secondary analyses of large scale surveys: Opportunities and challenges for children's geographers

This paper considers the potential contribution of secondary quantitative analyses of large scale surveys to the investigation of ‘other’ childhoods. Exploring other childhoods involves investigating the experience of young people who are unequally positioned in relation to multiple, embodied, identity locations, such as (dis)ability, ‘class’, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. Despite some possible advantages of utilising extensive databases, the paper outlines a number of methodological problems with existing surveys which tend to reinforce adultist and broader hierarchical social relations. It is contended that scholars of children's geographies could overcome some of these problematic aspects of secondary data sources by endeavouring to transform the research relations of large scale surveys. Such endeavours would present new theoretical, ethical and methodological complexities, which are briefly considered.     

What future for feminist geography?

Drawing primarily on my own work, speculations are offered on a range of possible futures for feminist geography. It is suggested that the most likely trajectory is one of incorporation as feminist geography is dismissed, regarded with indifference or included within a pluralist, but basically unaltered discipline. While a contentious and depressing suggestion, an alternative trajectory is offered by a feminist geography which actively engages with other progressive developments in the discipline and creatively incorporates new developments in feminist scholarship on, for example, the body, deconstruction and post‐colonialism. A third future builds on such engagements to offer various transformations of the subject, power relations and conceptual baggage which presently constitute feminist geography, through a process of self‐reflection and critical positioning. These three trajectories of incorporation, engagement and transformation I see as simultaneously operating in my own work. Reflections on them are offered for others to consider and to stimulate debate.     

Book reviews

CHINA

MURRAY A. RUBINSTEIN (ed). Taiwan: a New History . Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 536 pp. Illustrations, maps, photographs, index. US$27.95, paper.

CLARA WING‐CHUNG HO (ed). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women Vol 1: the Qing Period 1644–1911. Editors in Chief Lily Xiao Hong Lee and A. D. Stefanowksa. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. 424 pp. Bibliography, index. US$87.95, hardcover.

JUN JING. The Temple of Memories: history, Power, and Morality in a Chinese Village. Oakleigh, Victoria: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 217 pp. Illustrations, introduction, notes, references, character lists, index. A$29.95, paper.

LISA ROFEL. Other Modernities. Gendered Yearnings in China after Socialism. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999. xvi, 330 pp. 3 b/w illustrations, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$16.95, paper.

HAIPING YAN (ed). Theater & Society: an Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. xlvi, 328 pp. Introduction, notes on translators. US$ 62.95, hardcover; US$ 24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MICHAEL J. GREEN. Arming Japan: defense Production, Alliance Politics and the Postwar Search for Autonomy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 206 pp. US$19.00, paper.

T. J. PEMPEL. Regime Shift: comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Idiaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998. 263 pp. £13.50, paper.

IAN NISH (ed). The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: a New Assessment. Surrey: Japan Library, 1998. 226 pp. Foreword, list of contributors, introduction, appendix, notes, index. £40.00, hardcover.

SUGIHARA SEISHIRO (trans. Norman Hu). Between Incompetence and Culpability: assessing the Diplomacy of Japan's Foreign Ministry from Pearl Harbour to Potsdam. Lanham: University of America Press, 1997. xxv, 227 pp. Appendices, glossary, bibliography. No price given, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

JOHN DOWSON. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998. 430 pp. Rs. 100, paper.

SURES CHANDRA BANERJI. A Companion to Dharmasastra. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998. 265 pp. Rs. 350, hardcover.

ANIL KUMAR. Medicine and the Raj: British Medical Policy in India 1835–1911. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 246 pp. £27.50, paper.

VTVEK PINTO. Gandhi's Vision and Values. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 176 pp. Index. Rs. 225, hardcover.

MINA SWAMINATHAN (ed). The First Five Years: a Critical Perspective on Early Childhood Care and Education in India. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 1998. 313 pp. £35.00, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

PETER SEARLE. The Riddle of Malaysian Capitalism: rent Seekers or Real Capitalists? St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1999. xvii, 318 pp. Tables, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. A$29.95, paper.

KATHERINE A. BOWIE. Rituals of National Loyalty: an Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. xxii, 391 pp. US$49.40, hardcover; US$18.50, paper.

MICHAEL A. AUNG‐THWIN. Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Burma. Ohio University Center for International Studies, Athens, Ohio. Monograph No. 102. 1998. US$25.00, paper.

ANNE BOOTH. The Indonesian Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. A History of Missed Opportunities. Basingstoke: Macmillan, in association with the Australian National University, 1998. xvi, 377 pp. A$49.95, paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

YI‐TSI MEI FEUERWERKER. Ideology, Power, Text: self‐Representation and the Peasant ‘Other’ in Modern Chinese Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. 321 pp. $A90.00, hardcover.

PO‐CHING YIP and DON RIMMINGTON. Basic Chinese: a Grammar and Workbook. London: Routledge, 1998. vii, 221 pp. £12.99, paper.

MARY ANN FARQUHAR. Children's Literature in China: from Lu Xun to Mao Zedong. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. $US62.50, hardcover.

RAY HUANG. Broadening the Horizons of Chinese History. Discourses, Syntheses, and Comparisons. Armonk, NY; London, England: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. viii, 274 pp. Tables, graphs, notes, index. US$56.95, hardcover; US$22.95, paper.

GLORIA HEYUNG CHUN. Of Orphans and Warriors: inventing Chinese American Culture & Identity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. 198 pp. Introduction, notes, bibliography, index. US$59.00, hardcover; US$19.00, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

PURNENDRA JAIN (ed). Australasian Studies of Japan: essays and Annotated Bibliography (1989–1996). Rockhampton, Queensland: Central Queensland University Press, 1998. 341 pp. Introduction, essays, annotated bibliography, index. $A34.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

S. R. N. MURTHY. Vedic View of the Earth — aGeological Insight into the Vedas. Reconstructing Indian History and Culture, no. 14. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1997. xxvi, 306 pp. Preface, figures, glossary, bibliography, index. Rs 400, hardcover.

SUBRATA K. MITRA and V. B. SINGH (eds). Democracy and Social Change in India: a Cross‐Sectional Analysis of the National Electorate. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. 339 pp. Introduction, tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. Rs 425, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

ALBERT LAU. A Moment of Anguish: Singapore in Malaysia and the Politics of Disengagement. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998. viii, 312 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. US$39.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper (outside ASEAN and Hong Kong).

MICHAEL D. BARR. Lee Kuan Yew: the Beliefs Behind the Man. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series no. 85, 2000. £40.00, hardcover.

GENERAL ASIA

HUNG‐MAO TIEN and TUN‐JEN CHENG (eds). The Security Environment in the Asia‐Pacific. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 368 pp. Tables, index. A$24.95, paper.     

The Impact of Back Benchers in the Creation of Social Reform: The Indefatigable and Honourable Exertions of Mr Gilbert*

During the 18th century, back-bench members of parliament played a critical role in creating social policy. This article provides a case study of the political campaigns of the Lichfield MP, Thomas Gilbert, and his attempts at a comprehensive reform of the poor law in 1765 and 1782. These individual endeavours were energetic, sophisticated, but unallied to a particular agenda or based on Gilbert's original perspectives. Instead, he harnessed the power of local interests and extra-parliamentary forces, particularly magistrates, through the adept use of print culture in his later campaign to form social policy based on a broad political consensus. A skilled political operator, he used these same methods to help navigate his bills through parliament. To better fit the context, the campaigns were moulded around political expediency and influenced by the development of Gilbert's humanitarian reputation and the burgeoning of the press, parliamentary reporting, and political debate. The political environments of 1765 and 1782 were, therefore, different, and broader trends influenced the two campaigns. This article demonstrates the importance of the press to political campaigning and suggests that to be successful (in social policy at least) a would-be reformer was required to engage with a developing participatory political culture. However, given Gilbert's approach, the importance of ideology as a basis for social reform in an 18th-century context is questioned.     

The Challenges and Potentials of Archaeological Heritage in Africa—Cape Verdean Reflections

This paper considers three different ways that heritage can be considered fragile—as a reference to the conservation status of the physical heritage, as a concern for the meaning of the heritage, and in terms of threats to the knowledge potentials. It also briefly considers any special conditions that may characterise the threats to heritage in Africa and the consequential challenges to its heritage managers and politicians. On this basis, the experiences of working on one of the first systematic archaeological projects in Cape Verde are used to think about how these challenges are encountered within a specific place but from the viewpoint of foreigners and archaeologists.