Statistical Comparisons of the Osteology of Southwestern Columbidae

Columbid remains are commonly recovered in Quaternary deposits, but identification to the species level has been difficult, if not impossible, in areas where several species occur in sympatry. In the U.S.A., the problem becomes complex in the Southwest, where Neotropical species from Mexico occur in addition to the typical North American species. Twelve major skeletal elements of nine species of the Columbidae likely to be found in Quaternary deposits in the American Southwest were examined quantitatively. Discriminant analyses were used in an attempt to distinguish individual elements of the examined species. The skull, femur, tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus of some species could be discriminated, presenting the possibility of identifying these elements to the species level. Other elements could be identified with varying levels of success, providing a cautionary note in identifying solitary elements beyond the genus level.     

Improving Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Methodologies for Integrated Coastal Zone Management: an Approach from South Australia

The global concern about human-induced climatic change and its potential effect on sea-level has dominated the debate on coastal vulnerability, particularly since a common assessment methodology was developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1991. There have been numerous attempts to use or adapt this methodology but the focus has remained on sea-level rise as the single most important issue for coastal vulnerability. This paper presents a revised and more holistic coastal vulnerability assessment methodology which incorporates spatial and temporal scales relevant to the predicted impacts of climatic change and current human-induced hazards. Three studies in contrasting coastal environments of South Australia demonstrate that there are significant regional variations in sea-level response, human-induced hazards and local planning issues and that these may present a greater immediate threat than the possibility of sea-level rise.     

Radiographic evidence for changing patterns of animal exploitation in the Southern levant

Radiographs were taken of sheep (Ovis aries) and goat (Capra hircus) metacarpals from archaeological sites in Israel dating from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) to recent times. From these radiographs the combined cortical thickness (CCT) of the bones was measured, and used to estimate sample variation in bone mass. The samples were compared by species and period, and further compared with CCT values obtained for a recent sample of ibex (Capra ibex nubiana) from the same region. For all periods studied, CCT values in goats were comparable with those of recent ibex. A significant reduction in CCT values of both sheep and goats was found in the Early Bronze to recent samples as compared with the Chalcolithic and PPNB samples. It is proposed that this reduction in CCT values is associated with the presence of older, female animals in the later samples studied, and may be indicative of an emphasis on milk herds.     

Reviews

Daughter of Persia, Sattareh Farman Farmaian with Dona Munker, New York: Crown Publishers, 1992, 396 pp., $22.00.

Der Khan aus Tirol, Reinhard Pohanka and Ingrid Thurner, Vienna: Bun‐desverlag, 1988, 203 pp.

Beitraege zur Wirtschaftsstruktur und Wirtschaftsentwicklung Persiens 1850–1900,Manfred Schneider, Erkundliches Wissen Series, Heft 103, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990, 381 pp., no price listed.

Iranian Refugees and Exiles Since Khomeini, ed. Asghar Fathi, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1991, 293 pp., paperback $16.00.

Nomad: A Year in the Life of a Qashqa'i Tribesman in Iran, Lois Beck, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991, 503 pp. with 4 maps, 43 b/w photographs, and 9 tables, cloth $49.95, paperback $17.00.

U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran, Mark J. Gasiorowski, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991, xvi + 228 pp., biblio. and index to p. 242, hardback $35.00

L'islam chi'ite, croyances et ideologies, Yann Richard, Paris: Fayard, 1991, 303 pp.

Le shi'ismeen Iran, Imam et révolution, Yann Richard, Paris: Jean Maisonneuve, 1980, 135 pp.

Der verborgene Imam: die Gechichte des Schi'ismus im Iran [The Hidden Imam: History of Shi'ism in Iran], Yann Richard, trans. from French by B. Seel, Berlin: Wagenbach, 1983, 159 pp.

Iranian Immigrants and Refugees in Norway, Zahra Kamalkhani, Bergen: Migration Project Studies (Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen), 1988, 214 pp.

Qu'est‐ce qu'une révolution religieuse?, Daryush Shayegan, Paris: Al‐bin Michel, 1991, 262 pp.

Oil, Power and Principle: Iran's Oil Nationalization and Its Aftermath, Mostafa Elm, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992, xvii + 413 pp.

The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavi Triumph and Tragedy, Jahangir Amuzegar, Albany: SUNY Press, 1991, xii + 355 pp., including notes, bibliography, and index, hardback $71.50, paper $23.95.

Turko‐Persia in Historical Perspective, Robert L. Canfield, ed. (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, Douglas W. Schwartz, general editor), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, xiv + 256 pp.

The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1969–1977, Asadollah Alam, introd. and ed. Alinaghi Alikhani, trans. Ali‐naghi Alikhani and Nicholas Vincent, London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1991, viii + 568 pp., £24.95.

The Islamic Movement of Iraqi Shi'as, Joyce N. Wiley, Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992, ix + 153 pp., appendixes to p. 166, glossary to p. 171, bibliography to p. 181, index to p. 191, cloth $30.00.     

Book reviews

The Restless Urban Landscape. Paul L. Knox (Ed.), New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1993, 285pp.

Towards a New Economic Order: Postfordism, Ecology and Democracy. Alain Lipietz, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1992, 206pp.

London: A New Metropolitan Geography. Keith Hoggart and David R. Green (Eds), London, Edward Arnold, 1992, pbk.

Regional Innovation Policy: Case‐studies from the Ruhr Area, Baden‐Württemberg and the North East of England. Robert Hassink, Faculteit Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen Rijksuniversiteit, 1992, 187pp., ISBN 90–6809–155–7.

Environmental Problems in Eastern Europe. F. W. Carter and D. Turnock (Eds), London, Routledge, 1993, 249 pp., ISBN 0–415–06229–2.

From Garden Cities to New Towns: Campaigning for town and Country Planning 1899–1946.. Dennis Hardy, London, E. and F. N. Spon, 1992, 340pp., £39.95 hbk.     

SPATIAL METAPHOR AND THE POLITICS OF EMPOWERMENT: MAPPING A PLACE FOR FEMINISM AND POSTMODERNISM IN GEOGRAPHY?*

Spatial language and constructs are deployed systematically in the writing of many contemporary feminists. Disempowerment is couched in negative spatial terms: as “displacement,” having space denied, or as a negative or non-space. Empowerment, on the other hand, is written as an appropriation of the spatial: creating new spaces, occupying existing spaces, or revalorizing negatively labeled spaces. Furthermore, the map emerges as a common trope in this writing. Rather than transparently communicating the totality of what exists, however, their maps become rhetorical guides to possible worlds. The spatial provides a textual tool with which many contemporary feminists contest existing power relations. Space is viewed as liberating, empowering, and political. Their use of the spatial contrasts with the apolitical (and, not inconsequentially, gendered) conceptualization of space in some postmodern writing. This divergent deployment of spatial textual devices in the writing of some contemporary feminists and that of some postmodernists opens up another window on the knotty nexus of feminist and postmodern thought in geography.     

Fashioning the Domestic Novel: Rewriting Narrative Patterns in Margaret Oliphant’s Phoebe,Junior and Dress

This article argues that in her 1876 novel Phoebe, Junior, Margaret Oliphant used fashion and dress as a means to rework and modernize the narrative patterns of the domestic novel. In a volume entitled Dress, written for Macmillan’s ‘Art at Home’ series in 1878, Oliphant developed a mode of dress that privileged the adaptation of prevailing forms and fashions to the needs of the individual body. Oliphant saw such an individualist approach to dress as a modern understanding of fashion that favoured change and the adaptation of prevailing styles over the imitation of dominant social and aesthetic forms. This article links Oliphant’s understanding of fashion in her Dress volume with the revisionary narrative process that she exemplified in her writing of Phoebe, Junior. Returning to her series of novels charting the Chronicles of Carlingford after a number of years, Oliphant marked in sartorial terms the social and aesthetic changes that had occurred since the publication of her penultimate Chronicle, Miss Marjoribanks, in 1866. Revising in Phoebe, Junior her earlier novel, the trope of female creativity that linked the pen with the needle, and the conventional narrative patterns of the domestic novel, Oliphant posits a model of artistry based around the image of scissors and a process of cutting in order to create.     

Transforming cross‐cultural water research through trust,participation and place

Indigenous voices in government‐led natural resource management planning processes are often marginalised, misinterpreted, or excluded. Third parties, including government‐employed geographers, can act as knowledge brokers in defining Indigenous values and interests so they might be included in government planning processes. This paper reviews and assesses a research partnership that evolved to document the complex and diverse ecological and hydrological values held by Ngan'gi speakers about the Daly River and connected water places in the Northern Territory, Australia. The development of trust through the slow building of a relationship based on place‐based dialogue, a key aspect of participatory action research (PAR), created the foundation from which a mutually beneficial and respectful research partnership was able to, and continues to, evolve. Both research partners' perspectives are revealed here to articulate why the research partnership was deemed a success. Key lessons learned from the research partnership include the importance of trust, respect for place‐based learning, researcher and institutional flexibility, and awareness of the intricacies of relationship building and the benefits that research engagement can bring to Indigenous people and communities. We aim to further dialogue among geographers and interested disciplines as to the potential for PAR methods to foster mutually beneficial Indigenous–non‐Indigenous research partnerships.