Winding Back Australian Women's Rights: Conventions,Contradictions and Conflicts

Since 1996, Australia's Coalition government has been involved in winding back women's rights. It has diluted the role of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, attempted to weaken the Sex Discrimination Act to allow for discrimination on the basis of marital status, and has refused to provide Australian women protection through the international realm via the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In taking these steps, the government has not only placed rights in conflict against each other but has also been contradictory in its approach. The attempts to wind back women's rights demonstrate the fragility of existing rights protection measures in Australia more generally and suggest the need to consider alternative rights protection mechanisms such as sex equality guarantees in a bill of rights.     

Book reviews

CHINA

CHARLOTTE FURTH. A Flourishing Yin: gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. A Philip E. Lilienthal Book. xiv, 355 pp. 20 halftones, 13 line figures. US$45.00, hardcover; US$17.96, paper.

MOBO C. F. GAO. Gao Village. A Portrait of Rural Life in Modern China. London: C. Hurst & Company, 1999. xiv, 286 pp. Maps, illustrations, preface and acknowledgments, appendixes, index. £16.95, paper.

JAMES R. LILLEY and DAVID SHAMBAUGH (eds). China's Military Faces the Future. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 368 pp. Illustrations, tables, graphs, index. US$74.95, hardcover; US$29.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MITSUHIRO YOSHIMOTO. Kurosawa: film Studies and Japanese Cinema. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2000. 485 pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. US$64.95, hardcover; US$21.95, paper.

YASUNORI FUKUOKA (trans. Tom Gill). Lives of Young Ethnic Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000. 300 pp. Introduction, tables, figures, notes, references, glossary, index. A$39.95, paper.

AH‐JEONG KIM and R. B. GRAVES (trans). The Metacultural Theater of Oh T'aeSok. Five Plays from the Korean Avant‐Garde. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. 164 pp. Preface, introduction, translators' note, photographs, bibliography. US$33.00, hardcover; US$14.95, paper.

ANDREW COBBING. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain: early Travel Encounters in the Far West. Surrey: Japan Library, 1998. 257 pp. Illustrations, preface, introduction, biographical appendix, notes and references, index. £45.00, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

SATISH BALRAM AGNIHOTRI. Sex Ratio Patterns in the Indian Population: a Fresh Exploration. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000. 379 pp. Tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. Rs 475, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

ROBERT CRIBB. Historical Atlas of Indonesia. Richmond: Curzon Press (in cooperation with the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, Copenhagen), 2000. 256 pp. £75.00, hardcover.

STEFAN EKLOF. Indonesian Politics in Crisis: the Long Fall of Suharto, 1996–98. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 1999. 288 pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. A$33.00, paper.

BARBARA LEIGH. The Changing Face of Malaysian Crafts: identity, Industry and Ingenuity. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 2000. Glossary, bibliography, index. 124 pp. 59 colour and 92 b/w illustrations. A$85.00, hardcover.

KRISHNA SEN and DAVID T. HILL. Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000. 245 pp. A$35.00, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

DAVID HANLON and GEOFFREY M. WHITE (eds). Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. 443 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

LAKSIRIJAYASURIYAandKEEPOOKONG, (eds.) TheAsianisation ofAustralia?:someFacts about the Myths. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999. 114 pp. A$16.95, paper.     

Book reviews

CHINA

RICHARD MADSEN. China's Catholics: tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 191 pp. 11 b/w photographs, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$27.50, hardcover.

WANG ZHENG. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: oral and Textual Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xv, 420 pp. 8 b/w photographs, chronology, glossary, bibliography, index. US$50.00, hardcover; US$18.95, paper.

YUEZHI ZHAO. Media, Market, and Democracy in China: between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998. US$44.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

ALAN KNIGHT and YOSHIKO NAKANO (eds). Reporting Hong Kong: foreign Media and the Handover. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999. 223 pp. Illustrations, introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. £14.99, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

JEONG‐HYUN SHIN. The Trap of History: understanding Korean Short Stories. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xv, 115 pp. US$15.00, paper.

SIDNEY HAYDEN LESBIREL. NIMBY Politics in Japan: energy Siting and the Management of Environmental Conflict . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. 187 pp. £29.50, hardcover.

G. CAMERON HURST III. Armed Martial Arts of Japan: swordsmanship and Archery. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. 243 pp. Introduction, 21 b/w illustrations, notes, glossary, references, index. US$30.00, hardcover.

SOUTH ASIA

G. V. TAGARE. Saivism. Some Glimpses. Contemporary Researches in Hindu Philosophy and Religion, No. 4. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1996. vii, 161 pp. Index. Rs. 180.

LATA MANI. Contentious Traditions: the Debate on Sati in Colonial India. University of California Press, 1998. 260 pp. 5 b/w illustrations. US$47.00, hardcover; US$18.00, paper.

T. SCARLETT EPSTEIN, A. P. SURYANARAYANA and T. THIMMEGOWDA. Village Voices. Forty Years of Rural Transformation in South India . New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. 242 pp. Introduction, photographs, appendices, maps, glossary. Rs. 195, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

M. NGAOSYVATHN and P. NGAOSYVATHN. Paths to Conflagration: fifty Years of Diplomacy and Warfare in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, 1778–1828. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1998. No price given, paper.

PATRICK VINTON KIRCH. The Lapita Peoples: ancestors of the Oceanic World. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997. xxv, 353 pp. Plates, figures, maps, tables, preface, bibliographical references, index. US$32.95, paper.

HELEN CREESE (ed and trans). Parthayana, The Journeying of Partha: an Eighteenth‐century Balinese Kakawin. Bibliotheca Indonesica 27, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998. xi, 504 pp. NLG 80.

GENERAL ASIA

FRANK B. TIPTON. The Rise of Asia: economics, Society and Politics in Contemporary Asia. Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia, 1998. xiv, 557 pp. Tables, foreword and acknowledgments, bibliography, index. A$42.95, paper.     

Mammalian erythrocyte preservation in a 3500-year-old Egyptian pot

A ca. 3500-year-old Egyptian pot from the Fayoum site of Gurob contains ethmoid bones characteristic of the sinuses and morphological remains of erythrocytes. The pot contents are interpreted as the remnants of an embalmers studio, and substantiate records of mummification.     

Using Archaeology to Teach Australia’s ‘Difficult’ Indigenous Past

Abstract

The inclusion of the topic ‘Ancient Australia’ in the new Australian Curriculum is causing teachers to rethink the way they teach history in schools. Year 7 students are now required to understand that Australian ‘history’ began with the arrival of the First Australians around 50,000 years ago, not with the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788. Consequently, a number of epistemological, historiographical, and ethical challenges have emerged. In this paper I discuss the implications of this reconceptualization of Australian history in the curriculum and explore ways in which archaeology can address the ‘difficult’ history of the First Australians.     

Ethno-geochemical and Phytolith Studies of Activity Related Patterns: A Case Study from Al Ma’tan,Jordan

ABSTRACT

Understanding Neolithic sites in southwest Asia is often difficult because of the lack of preservation of organic remains and the effects of various taphonomic processes that alter the original record. Here, we use an ethnographic approach to test the potential of using plant phytoliths and geochemistry to aid our interpretation of southwest Asian Neolithic sites. Our study of a recently abandoned stone and mud constructed village in Jordan, shows that for certain activity types, phytoliths and geochemistry can help distinguish different construction methods and functions, particularly for burnt areas, animal use areas and where there has been the addition of a specific construction material. For features constructed from the same source materials distinctions are more problematic. Geochemical and phytolith proxies were individually effective in distinguishing activity areas and construction materials, but signals were diminished when the statistical analysis was run on both forms of evidence combined. It is therefore recommended that the data from plant phytolith and geochemical analyses are subject to separate statistical tests and that the two sets of results are used in combination to interpret archaeological sites and their uses.     

Gender differences in teenage alcohol consumption and spatial practices

In recent years teenagers have reported a decline in under-age drinking at the same time as their access to public space has been increasingly curtailed. In this paper we explore the spatial practices and drinking behaviours of a group of teenage girls and boys aged 13–14 years in Liverpool, UK. Our analysis considers how their use of space was bound up with experimentation with alcohol and how this varied by gender. We find in support of previous research that both boys and girls report nuanced experiences of public space, with some enjoying greater freedom while others have moved into more domestic and supervised leisure spaces in response to fears about their safety in public spaces. The boys also reported less alcohol consumption than the girls. These gendered experiences were mediated by social relationships and encounters with other young people, their parents and carers and also other adults in positions of authority.     

Exploring gender and fear retrospectively: stories of women’s fear during the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders

The murder of 13 women in the North of England between 1975 and 1979 by Peter Sutcliffe who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper can be viewed as a significant criminal event due to the level of fear generated and the impact on local communities more generally. Drawing upon oral history interviews carried out with individuals living in Leeds at the time of the murders, this article explores women’s accounts of their fears from the time. This offers the opportunity to explore the gender/fear nexus from the unique perspective of a clearly defined object of fear situated within a specific spatial and historical setting. Findings revealed a range of anticipated fear-related emotions and practices which confirm popular ‘high-fear’ motifs; however, narrative analysis of interviews also highlighted more nuanced articulations of resistance and fearlessness based upon class, place and biographies of violence, as well as the way in which women drew upon fear/fearlessness in their overall construction of self. It is argued that using narrative approaches is a valuable means of uncovering the complexity of fear of crime and more specifically provides renewed insight onto women’s fear.