The Middle Palaeolithic of the Nejd,Saudi Arabia

The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as being of great importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. Here we report on the identification of five new Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Nejd of central Arabia and the southern margins of the Nefud Desert to the north. The importance of these sites centers on their diversity in terms of landscape positions, raw materials used for lithic manufacture, and core reduction methods. Our findings indicate multiple hominin dispersals into Arabia and complex subsequent patterns of behavior and demography.     

BACK TO THE FUTURE: POSTNARRATIVIST HISTORIOGRAPHY AND ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Jouni‐Matti Kuukkanen has written an important book. It directly confronts a key theoretical dilemma that has shadowed debate in historiography for several decades: histories cannot be written without using some narrative structure or other, but epistemological evaluation cannot be applied to narratives qua narrative. Thus, if empirical inquiry takes the form of a history, then it cannot be rationally evaluable, and if rationally evaluable, empirical inquiry cannot be in the form of a history. Kuukkanen's book both directly confronts and proposes a strategy for surmounting this tired and tiresome theoretical barrier. Kuukkanen deserves great credit for attempting to reshape a long‐stalled debate in a way that enables the theoretical options to be imagined anew. Yet his structuring of the oppositional tendencies engenders some ongoing problems regarding how to understand the philosophical stakes and options. This review argues that achieving Kuukkanen's postnarrativist future requires going back to past epistemic concerns discarded because they were tied to conceptions of logic and explanation that could not be reconciled with narrative form. Kuukkanen practices postnarrativism but still preaches a prenarrativist conception of logic. To reach his promised future, to actually overcome the dilemma that he rightly seeks to transcend, one must actually have the courage of Kuukkanen's pragmatist convictions.     

Privatization

The privatization of government services, especially by utilizing the contracting-out mode, has accelerated in recent years in the United States, particularly at the state and local level. Shifts in the relative strength of forces in a political coalition model underlay the trend. There have been several benefits of privatization, especially cost containment and quality enhancement. The recent history of privatization provides a number of lessons to guide future privatization policy.     

Reviews

NEW GUINEA: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS. Peter Hastings. Melbourne, Cheshire, 1969. For the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Pp. 320. $4.95 (hardcover), $3.50 (paperback).

THE EAGLE AND THE LOTUS. J. F. Cairns. Melbourne, Lansdowne Press, 1969. Pp. 240. $4.95 (hardcover), $2.50 (paperback).

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY. R. H. Snape. Melbourne, Longmans, 1969. Pp. vi + 122. $2.50.

THE STERLING AREA, THE COMMONWEALTH AND WORLD ECONOMIC GROWTH. J. O. N. Perkins. Occasional Papers II. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1967. Pp. 120. 17s 6d (U.K.).

NORFOLK ISLAND: AN OUTLINE OF ITS HISTORY 1774–1968. Merval Hoare. St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1969. Pp. 173. $3.95.

BEYOND THE URALS. Violet Conolly. London, Oxford University Press, 1967. Pp. xx + 420. $11.60.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA. R. T. Shand (ed.). Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1969. Pp. 360. $8.50.

JAPAN'S FIRST GENERAL ELECTION, 1890. R. H. P. Mason. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1969. Pp. vii + 254. 42/‐ (U.K.).

KOREA AND THE POLITICS OF IMPERIALISM. C. I. Eugene Kim and Han‐Kyo Kim. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1967. Pp. x + 260. $7.00 (U.S.).

THE RUSSO‐CHINESE WAR. George Alexander Lensen. Tallahassee, The Diplomatic Press, 1967. Pp. 315. $15.00 (U.S.).

THE INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY: SECOND FRONT OF THE INDIAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT. K. K. Ghosh. Meerut, Meenakshi Prakashan, 1969. Pp. xxi + 351. Rs (Indian) 30.

BRITAIN AND THE PERSIAN GULF, 1894–1914. Briton Cooper Busch. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1968. Pp. XVI + 432. $8.75.

ZAMBIA: INDEPENDENCE AND BEYOND. THE SPEECHES OF KENNETH KAUNDA. Colin Legum (ed.) London, Nelson, 1966. Pp. xiii + 265. 35/‐ (U.K.).

THE EISENHOWER PRESIDENCY AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY. David B. Capitanchik. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969. Pp. xi + 80. £1 (U.K.).

AUSSENPOLITIK IN ADENAUERS KANZLERDEMOKRATTE. A. Baring. Munich, Forschungsinstitut der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Auswärtige Politik, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1969. Pp. VII + 492.