Women,Pigs, God and Evolution: Social and Economic Change Among Kubo People of Papua New Guinea

This paper depicts connections and interactions between several apparently disparate themes of change observed in recent years at a village in the interior lowlands of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Changes in patterns of association between men and women can be traced, in the first instance, to altered management practices necessitated by intensified pig production. That intensification, in turn, reflects the growing importance of money in the local economy, a shift which, through its predication on recognising the commensurability of differences, has ramifications far beyond the economics of pig production. An earlier emphasis on equivalence in exchanges has been replaced by a recognition of substitutability, with a consequent reification of categories at the expense of individuality. This trend has been reinforced by the influence of a new Christian cult that, in emphasising the distinction between men and women, has reified gender categories as a basis for structuring social action. The declining association between men and women which emerged as an adaptive response to changing economic realities has thus become incorporated as a structural transformation in Kubo social life.     

Publications briefly noted

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (QUEENSLAND BRANCH) and CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF AUSTRALIA‐;ASIA RELATIONS. Australia and the Asia‐Pacific Challenge: Queensland Business in Asia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 77, 1996. 24 pp. A$10.00, paper.

EDMUND S.K. FUNG and CHEN JIE. The Attitudes of the PRC Chinese Towards Australia and China, 1989–1996. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐;Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 78, 1996. 29 pp. A$ 10.00, paper.

HAROLD MARSHALL. Ignorance to Enlightenment: fifty Years in Asia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australians in Asia Series no. 18, 1997. xii, 120 pp. A$16.00, paper.

O.H. ISAKSSON. Encounters in Asia: a Soldier's Story. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australians in Asia Series no. 19, 1997. x, 67 pp. Af 14.00, paper.

CURTIS ANDRESSEN and KEICHI KUMAGAI. Escape from Affluence: Japanese Students in Australia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 79, 1996. 116 pp. A$16.00, paper.

HANS ANTLOV. Exemplary Centre, Administrative Periphery, Rural Leadership and the New Order in Java. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series no 68, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1995. xi, 222 pp. A$25.00, paper.

CRAIG BAXTER and SYEDUR RAHMAN. Historical Dictionary of Bangladesh (Asian Historical Dictionaries, ed.Jon Woronoff, no. 2 ), 2nd ed. Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1996. xvii, 285 pp. Foreword, list of acronyms, chronology, map, introduction, dictionary, appendices, bibliography. US$49.50, hardcover.

HARUMI BEFU (ed). Japan Engaging the World: a Century of International Encounter. Denver, Colorado: Teikyo Loretto Heights University Center for Japan Studies, 1996. 120 pp. US$15.00, paper.

MARY ELIZABETH BERRY. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. xxxii, 373 pp. US$45.00, hardcover.

BRIAN BOCKING. A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996. 251 pp. £35.00, hardcover

MARCEL BONNEFF, translated by Rahayu S. Hidayat. Komik Indonesia. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, 1998. x, 226 pp. No price given, paper.

MALCOLM CHALMERS. Confidence‐building in Southeast Asia. Bradford Arms Register Studies no. 6. Trowbridge: Westview Press, 1996. 279 pp. £19.95, paper.

HARUKO TAYA COOK and THEODORE F. COOK. Japan at War: an Oral History. New York: The New Press, 1992. 479 pp. US$39.95, hardcover.

ROMAN CYBRIWSKY. Historical Dictionary of Tokyo. Lanham Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1997. 212 pp. US$49.00 hardcover.

GORDON DANIELS. Sir Harry Parkes: British Representative in Japan 1865–83. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996. 239 pp. £40.00, hardcover.

PHILIP DORLING and DAVID LEE (eds). Australia and Indonesia's Independence, The Renville Agreement: documents 1948. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1996. xxvi, 603 pp. A$34.95, paper.

MONIKA DREXLER. Daoistische Schriftmagie: interpretationen zu den Schrifta‐muletten "fit" im "Daozang". Munchener Ostasiatische Studien vol. 68 Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1994. 241 pp. DM 96, paper.

J. C. EADE. The Thai Historical Record, A Computer Analysis. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, 1996. xix, 265 pp. No price given, paper.

EDWARD FOWLER. San'ya Blues: laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo. New York: Cornell University Press, 1996. xxi, 262 pp. US$29.95, hardcover.

RICHARD M. W. HO. Ch'en Tzu‐ang: innovator in T'ang Poetry. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993. 233 pp. (including a 30‐page Chinese translation). No price given, hardcover.

PIERRE HUTTON. After the Heroic Age and before Australia's Rediscovery of Southeast Asia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australians in Asia Series no. 20,1997. x, 99 pp. A$16.00, paper.

DAMIEN KINGSBURY. Culture and Politics: issues in Australian Journalism on Indonesia, 1975–93. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia Asia Papers no. 80, 1997. xii, 161 pp. A$20.00, paper.

JULIE LANDAU. Beyond Spring: Tz'u Poems of the Sung Dynasty. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 275 pp. No price given, paper.

SUIWAH LEUNG (ed). Vietnam Assessment, Creating a Sound Investment Climate. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. xiv, 122 pp. US$18.50, paper.

LINCOLN LI. The China Factor in Modern Japanese Thought: the Case of Tachibana Shiraki, 1881–1945. New York: State University of New York Press, 1996. x, 171 pp. No price given, paper.

W. H. McLEOD. Historical Dictionary of Sikhism (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements, ed. Jon Woronoff, no. 5). Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1995. xi, 323pp.

ATSUSHI MAKI. Postwar Private Consumption Patterns of Japanese Households: the Role of Consumer Durables. Canberra: Australian National University, Australia‐Japan Research Centre, Pacific Economic Papers no. 262, December 1996. 20 pp. A$15.00, paper.

SURJIT MANSINGH. Historical Dictionary of India (Asian Historical Dictionaries, ed. Jon Woronoff, no. 20). Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1996. xi, 511pp. Foreword, abbreviations and acronyms, glossary, chronology, maps, introduction, dictionary, bibliography, appendices. US$78.00, hardcover.

JAYANT MENON. Has Japan been “Opening‐Up”?: empirical Analytics of Trade Patterns. Canberra: Australian National University, Australia‐Japan Research Centre, Pacific Economic Papers no. 263, 1997. 21 pp. $A15.00, paper.

EDWIN E. MOISE. Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill, London: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xviii, 304 pp. US$39.95, hardcover.

LUC NAGTEGAAL. Riding the Dutch Tiger, The Dutch East Indies Company and the Northeast Coast of Java, 1680–1743. Verhandelingen 171. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1996. vii, 250 pp. / 50, paper.

HEIDI ROUPP (ed). Teaching World History: a Resource Book. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. xiii, 271 pp. US$66.95, hardcover; US$31.95, paper.

MITZIKO SAWADA. Tokyo Life, New York Dreams: urban Japanese Visions of America, 1890–1924. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xvii, 268 pp. No price given, hardcover.

J. R. SIMPSON, Y. KOJIMA, R. KADA, A. MIYAZAKI and T. YOSHIDA. Japan's Beef Industry‐economics and Technology for the Year 2000. Wallingford, Oxon: CAB International, 1996. 207 pp. No price given, hardcover.

STEPHEN F. TEISER. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. xvii, 275 pp. US$18.95, paper.

ELIZABETH ROCHAT DE LA VALLEE, and CLAUDE LARRE (trans). Su Wen: Les 11 premiers traites. Varitetes Sinologiques no. 70. Moulins‐les‐Metz: Maisonneuve (Editions medicales), 1993. 408 pp. 470 FF, paper.

RICHARD T. WANG. Area Bibliography of China. Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1997. xiii, 334 pp. US$59.00, hardcover.

NG CHEE YUEN, NICK J. FREEMAN and FRANK H. HUYNH (eds). State‐owned Enterprise Reform in Vietnam, Lessons from Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. viii, 170 pp. No price given, paper.     

Identity and Material Culture in the Later Prehistory of Central Europe

Examination of the archaeological evidence for the expression of identity in later European prehistory provides a new and promising approach to understanding change in this period. New views of the role of material culture in the communication of meanings, of the nature of identity, and of agency in the past provide a useful framework for approaching the evidence. Analysis of patterns of sameness and difference in style and decoration of manufactured objects indicates how people used their material culture to structure and to communicate their identities—on the level of the individual, of groups such as families and residential communities, and of larger entities commonly referred to as ethnic groups. This approach offers insights that complement social and economic models of change in later prehistory.     

The Geographer as Itinerant: Peter Scott in Flight, 1952–1996

Mobility is the keystone of the ‘new’ regional geography. Attention is drawn to the outpouring of work on travellers throughout history. Surprisingly, little mention is made of geographers who have crossed borders, been immigrants and have engaged in writing about movement. As is evident from Peter Scott's pocket log diary of air travel and airports, there is scope for a study of the whole range of spatial practices of individual geographers through an examination of maps, diaries, stories, books and television programs. As all geographers are travellers, it is perhaps more appropriate to create the spirit of the time so that we can position ourselves in the bigger picture and enjoy our private reveries. This paper, therefore, seeks to recreate the air transport geography of the mid-1960s and to list key changes over the following thirty years, before examining air transport geography in the mid-1990s. Attention is paid to advertising signs and images of each period.     

Models of Policy Discourse: insights versus Prediction

Policy researchers traditionally have adhered to the quantitative: (or positivist) approach. Recently, some policy analysts have emphasized a more qualitative (or postpositivist) approach. Little, if any, of the latter has been considered by proponents of the former as serious policy (i.e., "objective") analysis. This tension has produced some conflicts as to which camp is more attuned to a policy version of "truth."
This essay attempts to demonstrate the strong and weak points of both paradigms, and argues that either by itself has serious debilitations. For instance, positivists deny the subjective nature of values that denigrate the putatively "objective" orientations of their analyses, perhaps even rendering it "undemocratic." On the other hand, postpositivists have a difficult time operationalizing their preferred research methodologies with the necessary rigor.
The essay concludes that the research problem—rather than a favorite methodology—should determine the research approach, and that both the quantitative and qualitative aspects can be used in a consonant manner.     

Intensification and Social Complexity in the Interior Lowlands of Papua New Guinea: A Comparison of Bedamuni and Kubo

Kubo and Bedamuni are linguistically, culturally, and technologically related societies of the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea. They occupy similar environments and have access to essentially the same resources. They differ in population density (Kubo 0.4 people/km², Bedamuni 7/km²), subsistence orientation (Kubo are hunter-gatherer-like, Bedamuni are farmers who hunt) and intensification of plant food production (Kubo lower, Bedamuni higher). Relative to Kubo, Bedamuni are shown to exhibit increased differentiation within and between production units, greater integration within and between residential units, and heightened forms of evaluation within and between cultural systems. Each of these general characteristics is illustrated by particulars that refer, for example, to role differentiation, rights of access to land and resources, dispute resolution, mechanisms of inter-community cohesion, and exegesis with respect to subsistence practices and cultural identity. In turn, differences between the two societies in terms of these general characteristics sustain an interpretation that Bedamuni is a socially more complex society than Kubo. The awkward notion of complexity is examined; it is understood to comprise two independent dimensions—the “involvement of parts” (which is itself multidimensional) and the “individuation of form.” The latter dimension has received too little attention in discussion and definitions of complexity.