St. Leon and the culture of the heart

This essay reads Godwin's second novel, St. Leon (1799), as an attempt to counter the asperity he expresses towards the domestic affections in his political philosophy of the 1790s. In St. Leon, Godwin seeks to square his newfound interest in the affections as a topic for fiction with his commitment to an anti-establishment political agenda. Though it is presented as a ‘eulogium’ to ‘the affections and charities of private life’, the narrative persistently undercuts the potential for the affections to stimulate readerly curiosity. The focus of the novel constantly shies away from the domestic scene, and instead propels the momentum forwards to the alchemical adventures that precipitate the disintegration of the very affections the novel purports to eulogise. The novel thus plays out Godwin's complicated desire to embrace, and yet simultaneously to deny, the importance of private emotions in the pursuit of political justice.     

THE TRANSNATIONALIZATION OF GENDER HISTORY

W omen's H istory in G lobal P erspective , Volume 1. Edited by Bonnie G. Smith.
B odies in C ontact: R ethinking C olonial E ncounters in W orld H istory. Edited by Antoinette Burton and Tony Ballantyne.     

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.