Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure. Introduction

The more current the notion of globalization becomes, the more it seems to be beset with vagueness and inconsistencies. The notion as such and the complex reality it attempts to grasp are therefore met with a mixture of uneasiness and fascination by social scientists. This lack of clarity is not exceptional—it seems to be the fate of many fashionable terms and probably also the cause of their popularity—and it is no reason to abandon the notion altogether. Even if globalization amounts to nothing more than a sensitizing notion, rather than an analytical concept, it is important to realize that the ambiguities it calls forth issue urgent challenges, not merely on the level of theory but also with regard to a better understanding of actual global entanglements and the crises to which they give rise.     

Globalization and the Power of Indeterminate Meaning: Witchcraft and Spirit Cults in Africa and East Asia

The obsession with witchcraft in many parts of present-day Africa is not to be viewed as some sort of traditional residue. On the contrary, it is especially present in the more modern spheres of society. In a comparative, global perspective, this linking of modernity and witchcraft is not particular to Africa: in other parts of our globalized world, modern developments coincide with a proliferation of what the Comaroffs (forthcoming) call ‘the economies of the occult’. In this article, representations in South and West Cameroon about ekong, supposedly a novel form of witchcraft explicitly associated with modern forms of wealth, are compared to Weller's study of the upsurge of spirit cults in Taiwan, during the recent economic boom of this ‘Asian tiger’. The power of such discourses on occult forces is that they relate people's fascination with the open-endedness of global flows to the search for fixed orientation points and identities. Both witchcraft and spirit cults exhibit a surprising capacity for combining the local and the global. Both also have specific implications for the ways in which people try to deal with modernity's challenge.     

青花瓷器产地判别研究

本项研究以江西省景德镇、云南省玉溪、建水、福建省平和的青花瓷器为主,结合香港清代碗窑以及德国、日本、泰国的现代青花瓷器,用能量色散X射线荧光（EDXRF）分析方法,在无损的情况下对其元素含量进行分析,得到了Ti、Mn、Fe、Co、Ni、Cu、Zn、Ga、Pb、Rb、Sr、Y、Zr13个元素的含量结果。用主成分分析方法对数据进行处理,利用第1主成分、第2主成分、第3主成分在三维座标系中绘制散点图,所得类群关系与已知情况完全相符。研究结果表明本文的研究方法可用于青花瓷器的产地判别。     

Book reviews

William M. Carpenter and David G. Wiencek (eds), Asian Security Handbook: An Assessment of Political‐Security Issues in the Asia‐Pacific Region. New York: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1996. xv + 301 pp. $US68.95 (cloth), $US27.95 (paper).

David S. Mason, Revolution and Transition in East‐Central Europe. Second Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. xiv + 242 pp. $US52.00 (cloth), $US 14.95 (paper).

Desmond Ball (ed.), The Transformation of Security in the Asia/Pacific Region. London: Frank Cass, 1996. 244 pp. £30.00 (cloth), £15.00 (paper).

M. Jane Davis (ed.), Security Issues in the Post‐Cold War World. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1996. ix + 248 pp. £45.00 (cloth).

Sam Bateman and Stephen Bates (eds), Calming the Waters: Initiatives for Asia Pacific Maritime Cooperation. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 114, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 1996. xxii + 207 pp. $23.00 (paper).

Sam Bateman and Stephen Bates (eds), The Seas Unite: Maritime Cooperation in the Asia‐Pacific Region. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 118, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 1996. xxx + 303 pp. $25.00 (paper).

Anthony Hyman, Political Change in Post‐Soviet Central Asia. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1994. 52 pp. £9.50 (paper).

Steven Philip Kramer and Irene Kyriakopoulos, Trouble in Paradise? Europe in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: McNair Paper 49, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, 1996. v + 71 pp. No price given.

Yaw Saffu (ed.), The 1992 PNG Election—Change and Continuity in Electoral Politics. Canberra: Department of Political and Social Change Monograph No. 23, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1996. xii + 409 pp. $30.00 (paper).

Roger Bell, Tim McDonald and Alan Tidwell (eds), Negotiating the Pacific Century—The ‘New’ Asia, the United States and Australia. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin in association with The Australian Centre for American Studies, 1996. xi + 324 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Anthony Milner and Mary Quilty (eds), Australia in Asia: Communities of Thought. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996. xi + 212pp. $24.95 (paper).

Colin Mackerras (ed.), Australia and China: Partners in Asia. South Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia, 1996. xi + 217 pp. $32.95 (paper).

Peter Maass, Love Thy Neighbour: A Story of War. Papermac, 1996. 305 pp. $24.95 (paper).

United Nations, The United Nations and The Advancement of Women 1945–1996. Blue Books Series, Volume VI, Revised Edition. New York: United Nations Department of Public Information, 1996. 852 pp. US$49.95 (paper).

Frank Elbe and Richard Kiessler, A Round Table With Sharp Corners, The Diplomatic Path to German Unity. Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1996. 256 pp. No price given.

Walter Hatch and Kozo Yamamura, Asia in Japan's Embrace: Building a Regional Production Alliance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xv + 281 pp. $90.00 (cloth), $34.95 (paper).

Andrew Selth, Transforming the Tatmadaw: The Burmese Armed Forces Since 1988. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 113, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 1996. 205 pp. $23.00 (paper).

Terry Burstall, Vietnam: The Australian Dilemma. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993. xxv + 329 pp. $19.95 (paper).

Terry Nardin (ed.), The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. x + 286 pp. $US35.00 (cloth).

Archie Law, A Hollow Success: The Repatriation and Reintegration of Cambodian Refugees. Melbourne: Issues in International Development No.7, Research and Policy Unit, World Vision Australia, 1995. 86 pp. No price given.     

Book reviews

? General

Thelma Chang. "I Can Never Forget”, Men of the 100th/442nd. Arizona: Sigi Productions, University of Arizona Press, 1991. 207 pp. Photographs, bibliography, index. US$34.95, hardcover.

James J. Fox and Clifford Sather, editors. Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography. Canberra: Department of Anthropology, Comparative Austronesian Project, 1996. viii, 336 pp. Introduction, contents, acknowledgments, figures, tables, maps, references, index. Npg, paper.

John Mackenzie. Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995. xii, 232 pp. 8 pp. of plates. US$24.95, paper.

Richard Robison, editor. Pathways to Asia: The Politics of Engagement. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1996. 270 pp. A$24.95, paper.

Eileen H. Tamura. Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identify: The Nissei Generation in Hawaii. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994. xx, 326 pp. US19.95, paper.

Nancy Viviani. The Indochinese in Australia, 1975–1995: From Burnt Boats to Barbecues. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996. xvi, 208 pp. Tables and figures, abbreviations, appendix, bibliography, index. A$24.95, paper.

? Northeast Asia

James Cahill. The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1996. x, 251 pp. Preface, glossary, bibliography, index. US$45.00, hardcover.

William H. Coaldrake. Architecture and Authority in Japan. London: Routledge, 1996. xxi, 337 pp. Preface, list of figures, acknowledgments, glossary, chronological table, notes, index. US$135.00, hardcover; US$44.95, paper.

Norman Eder. Poisoned Prosperity: Development, Modernization, and the Environment in South Korea. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. xiv, 192 pp. Two maps, bibliography, index. US$21.95, paper.

JaHyun Kim Haboush, translator. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth‐Century Korea. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xii, 372 pp. Illustrations, glossary, index. Npg, paper.

Donald Keene. The Blue‐Eyed Tarôkaja: A Donald Keene Anthology. Edited by J. Thomas Rimer. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. ix, 290 pp. Contents, editor's preface, index. US$24.50, paper.

Rikki Kersten. Democracy in Postwar Japan: Maruyama Masao and the Search for Autonomy. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. xiv, 289 pp. Series editor's preface, acknowledgments, index. US$74.95, hardcover.

Hiroshi Komai (Jens Wilkinson, tr.). Migrant Workers in Japan. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1995. xviii, 305 pp. List of tables and figures, preface to English edition, preface, introduction, policy proposal, references, index. US$76.50, hardcover.

Fumie Kumagai with Donna Keyser. Unmasking Japan Today: The Impact of Traditional Values on Modern Japanese Society. Westport and London: Praeger, 1996. 192 pp. Preface, bibliography, index. US$39.95, hardcover.

Robert M. Marsh. The Great Transformation: Social Change in Taipei, Taiwan since the 1960s. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. An East Gate Book. 418 pp. Maps, glossary, appendix, bibliography, photographs, index. US$62.95, hardcover; US$27.95, paper.

Joe Moore, editor. The Other Japan: Conflict, Compromise, and Resistance since 1945. New Edition. New York and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1997, for the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. xvi, 406 pp. Introduction, index. US$24.95, paper.

Leith Morton. An Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Poetry. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1993. xxv, 458 pp. Preface, introduction, biographies of the poets, bibliographic notes, selected English‐language bibliography. US$75.00, hardcover.

Ikko Shimizu. The Dark Side of Japanese Business: Three “Industry Novels” — Silver Sanctuary, The Ibis Cage, Keiretsu. Translated and edited by Tamae K. Prindle. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. 277 pp. US$50.00, hardcover; US$17.95, paper.

Yoshio Sugimoto. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 285 pp. US$90.00, hardcover; US$29.95, paper.

Shih‐shan Henry Tsai. The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. 290 pp. Introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. US$18.95, paper.

? South Asia

Ludwig W. Adamec. Dictionary of Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies. Metuchen, NJ, and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1996. xvii, 364 pp. US$48.00, hardcover.

Sudhir Kakar. The Colors Of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion and Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. xiii, 217 pp. Notes, index. US$14.95, paper.

Stanley N. Kurtz. All the Mothers are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. xv, 306 pp. Foreword by S.J. Thambiah, illustrations, index. US$49.50, hardcover; US$18.00, paper.

? Southeast Asia

H.S. Barlow. Swettenham. Kuala Lumpur: Southdene Sdn Bhd, 1995. xviii, 783 pp. Foreword, abbreviations, bibliography, plates, index. Npg, hardcover.

Daniel S. Lev and Ruth T. McVey, editors. Making Indonesia: Essays on Modern Indonesia in Honor of George McT. Kahin. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1996. 201 pp. US$18.00, paper.

Peter Rogers. Northeast Thailand from Prehistoric to Modern Times. Bangkok: Duang Kamol, 1966. 259 pp. Npg.

James Niel Sneddon. Indonesian Reference Grammar. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996. xxvii, 387 pp. A$29.95, paper.

N.P. van den Berg. Currency and the Economy of Netherlands India, 1870–1995. (Reprint of The Financial and Economical Condition of Netherlands India since 1870 and the Effect of the Present Currency System with introduction by Pierre van der Eng.) Singapore: Sources for the Economic History of Southeast Asia Data Paper Series No. 5, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. xxx, 120 pp. Tables. S$29.00/US$24.00, paper.

Pierre van der Eng. Agricultural Growth in Indonesia: Productivity Change and Policy Impact since 1880. Studies in the Economies of East and South‐East Asia. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press; New York: St Martin's Press, 1996. xiii, 375 pp. Abbreviations and acronyms, preface, tables, figures, notes and references, appendices, bibliography, index. US79.95, hardcover.

Michael Vatikiotis. Political Change in Southeast Asia: Trimming the Banyan Tree. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. xiv, 230 pp. Foreword. US$13.99, paper.