Book reviews

Iran's Foreign policy 1941–1973: A Study of Foreign Policy in Modernizing Nations. By Rouhollah K. Ramazani. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1975. xiv + 507pp. $20.

Israel and Iran: Bilateral Relationships and Effect on the Indian Ocean Basin. By Robert B. Reppa, Sr. New York: Praeger, 1974. 187pp. $16.50.

Iran at the End of the Century: A Hegelian Forecast. By Robert E. Looney. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath, 1977. 155pp.

Mirza Malkum Khan: A Biographical Study in Iranian Modernism. By Hamid Algar. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973. 327pp.

From Darkness into Light: Women's Emancipation in Iran. By Badr ol‐Moluk Bamdad. Edited and translated by F. R. C. Bagley. Hicksville, New York: Exposition Press, 1977. 140pp. $8.00.

Love and War: Adventures from the Firuz Shah Nama of Sheikh Bighami. Translated from the Persian by William L. Hanaway, Jr. Persian Heritage Series No. 19. Delmar, New York: Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1974. 208pp.

Malayer und sein Umland: Entwicklung, Structur und Funk‐tionen einer Kleinstadt in Iran. By Mostafa Momeni. Marburg/Lahn: Marburger Geographische Schriften, Heft 68, 1976. 208pp.

The Qashqa'i Nomads of Fars. By Pierre Oberling. The Hague: Mouton, 1974. 277pp.     

The safe spaces ‘in-between’ – plays,performance and identity among young ‘second generation’ Somalis in London

ABSTRACT

The article elaborates on how young UK-born self-identifying Somalis use performance to create ‘liminal’ spaces that allow them to explore and express the often contradictory registers of self and belonging through play and the carnivalesque. The plays they write, practise and perform transform community places into ‘safe spaces’ that open and invite dialogue on the intergenerational conflicts they experience around identity and expected behaviour. Far from being fictions, in making visible the liminality in the daily lives, these young people communicate ‘the reality behind the role playing mask’ [Turner, Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre – The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: PAJ, 155]. This research is based on 6 months ethnographic research with the Mustaqbal youth group based in London. It contributes to rethinking ‘safe space’ by illuminating how young people use the ‘stage’ to express elements of their lives they are otherwise unable to voice.     

Model Uncertainty in Matrix Exponential Spatial Growth Regression Models

This article considers the most important aspects of model uncertainty for spatial regression models, namely, the appropriate spatial weight matrix to be employed and the appropriate explanatory variables. We focus on the spatial Durbin model (SDM) specification in this study that nests most models used in the regional growth literature, and develop a simple Bayesian model‐averaging approach that provides a unified and formal treatment of these aspects of model uncertainty for SDM growth models. The approach expands on previous work by reducing the computational costs through the use of Bayesian information criterion model weights and a matrix exponential specification of the SDM model. The spatial Durbin matrix exponential model has theoretical and computational advantages over the spatial autoregressive specification due to the ease of inversion, differentiation, and integration of the matrix exponential. In particular, the matrix exponential has a simple matrix determinant that vanishes for the case of a spatial weight matrix with a trace of zero. This allows for a larger domain of spatial growth regression models to be analyzed with this approach, including models based on different classes of spatial weight matrices. The working of the approach is illustrated for the case of 32 potential determinants and three classes of spatial weight matrices (contiguity‐based, k‐nearest neighbor, and distance‐based spatial weight matrices), using a data set of income per capita growth for 273 European regions.     

Laser ablation depth profiling of U-series and Sr isotopes in human fossils

We have explored laser depth profiling to obtain data sets for U-series as well as Sr analyses. Laser probing with an 81 μm spot size allows for the exploration of low uranium domains of up to 400 μm below the outer surface in tooth enamel. These low U domains will contain Sr isotope compositions of the individual, that are least affected by diagenetic Sr overprints. The small holes drilled for U surveying are not visible to the naked eye. Using larger spot sizes of around 233 μm, laser drilling can be used to obtain reliable U-series isotope data to a depth of approximately 1000 μm in enamel and around 1300 μm in bone. Furthermore, meaningful ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope data can also be obtained with this spot size. Using our sampling strategy, the overall damage to a human tooth is minute, as demonstrated on a Neanderthal tooth from Moula-Guercy. We expect that laser ablation depth profiling will become routine for gaining insights into the age of human fossils and the migrations of ancient humans.     

Gasperini's syndrome: its neuroanatomical basis now and then

Crossed brainstem syndromes consist of ipsilateral impairment of cranial nerves III-XII and contralateral impairment of the pyramidal and sensory tracts. Gasperini's syndrome, described in 1912 by the Italian internist Ubaldo Gasperini, is one of them. It results from a lesion of the caudal pontine tegmentum and is most frequently defined as ipsilateral impairment of cranial nerves V, VI, VII, and VIII and contralateral sensory loss. Since no autopsy was performed to confirm Gasperini's clinical observations, we analyzed all elements of his syndrome from a current perspective as well as in the light of the anatomical knowledge available to him. This resulted in a historical survey of the development of neuroanatomy over the last 300 years.     

Prostitution and infection: transnational and comparative perspectives on Italian health policy (1922–1958)

ABSTRACT

In 1958 the Italian parliament abolished controlled prostitution and closed the case di tolleranza – brothels licensed and supervised by the state. Justified in the nineteenth century as a means to combat venereal diseases, discussions surrounding the state-regulated prostitution became increasingly complex after the Second World War. This article will focus on the presumptive chief argument, the brothels’ benefit to public health. Using a historical comparison, it will identify this factor’s role in the continuation or abolition of the regulated system and any aspects unique to the Italian case. To take full advantage of the comparative approach, countries have been selected that permit an entangled historical comparison that is both synchronic and diachronic: Whereas the change in prostitution regulations occurred after the Second World War in France and Italy – the same era – we must jump back to a different period, the pre-war years, for the German case.