Working through theoretical tensions in contemporary archaeology: A practical attempt from southwestern Colorado

Archaeology should actively combine different paradigms to obtain a more complete understanding of the past. This paper argues for a practical combination of elements of the culture-historical, processual, and postprocessual approaches into a two-tier model. The first tierreconstructs the events of the past, using culture-historical and middle-range principles, and the secondconstructs a reflexive explanation of these events, which situates an analysis of the internal and external constraints on past human behavior within the specific theoretical and political positions of the analyst. The theoretical arguments are developed by means of an analysis of the prehistory of a segment of the mountains of southwestern Colorado.     

Book reviews

P.G. Edwards, Prime Ministers and Diplomats: The Making of Australian Foreign Policy 1901–1949, Oxford University Press in association with The Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1983, pp. vii + 230. $24.99.

Ghanshyam Pardesi (ed.), Contemporary Peace Research. Harvester Press, Brighton, 1983, pp. xi + 374, £30.00

Cosmas Desmond, Persecution East and West. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1983, pp. 172. $5.95.

B.G. Ramcharan (ed.), International Law and Fact‐Finding in the Field of Human Rights. Martinus Nijhoff. The Hague, 1982, pp. x + 260. $US48.00.

M. Akehurst, A Modern Introduction to International Law. Fourth edn. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1982, pp. 304. $49.50 (cloth) $17.95 (paper).

T. Nardin, Law, Morality, and the Relations of States. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1983, pp. xii + 350. $45.00 (cloth) $19.00 (paper).

Allan McKnight and Keith Suter, The Forgotten Treaties. Law Council of Australia, Melbourne, 1983, pp. xi + 136. $5.95.

D.E. Rosenthal and W.M. Knighton, National Laws and International Commerce. Chatlam House Papers 17. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Royal Institute of Internationa! Affairs, 1982, pp. xi + 96. $9.95.

R. Kay (ed.), The Surrender and Occupation of Japan (Documents on New Zealand External Relations, Vol II), Department of Internal Affairs, Historical Publications Branch, Wellington, 1982, pp. 1782. $75.

Mike Muller, The Health of Nations: A North‐South Investigation. Faber and Faber, London, 1982, pp.255. $10.95.

Phiphat Tangsubkul, ASEAN and the Law of the Sea. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1982, pp. xv + 148. $S24.00.

D.P. O'Connell (edited by I.A. Shearer), The International Law of the Sea, Vol. I. Oxford University Press, New York, 1982, pp. xxxiii + 634. $100.00.

R.A. Herr, R. Hall, and B.W. Davis (eds.), Issues in Australia's Marine and Antarctic Policies. Public Policy Monograph, Department of Political Science, University of Tasmania, 1982, pp. xii + 201. $7.95.

Jürgen Tampke. The People's Republics of Eastern Europe. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. 178. $27.50.

Alexandre Bennigsen and Marie Broxup, The Islamic Threat to the Soviet State. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. vii + 170. $22.50.

Aryeh Y. Yodfat, The Soviet Union and the Arabian Peninsula. Soviet Policy Towards the Persian Gulf and Arabia. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. xiii + 191. $23.50.

Saburo Okita. Japan's Challenging Years: Reflections on my Lifetime. Australia‐Japan Research Centre. Australian National University, Canberra, 1983,pp.xii,+ 147.$p10.00(Australia) $12.00 (overseas).

Martin Stuart‐Fox (ed.), Contemporary Laos. University of Queensland Press. St. Lucia. 1982. pp. xxii + 345. $19.95.

Jim Dunn, Timor: A People Betrayed, Jacaranda Press, Milton, 1983, pp. xiii + 402. $15.95.

J. Southwood and P. Flanagan, Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Terror, Zed Press, London, pp. 272. £12.95 (cloth) £5.95 (paper).

Stephen Feuchtwang and Athar Hussain (eds.), The Chinese Economic Reforms. Croom Helm, London, 1983, pp. 373. £15.95.

Yearbook of International Organisations 1983–84, 20th Edition, Volume 1 K.G. Saur, Munich, for the Union of International Associations, Brussels, 1983, pp. 910. DM 428.     

Public Perception of a Technological Hazard: A Case Study of the use of 2,4-d to Control Eurasian Water Milfoil in the Okanagan Valley

Use of the herbicide 2,4-d to control Eurasian milfoil in the Okanagan Valley has proved very controversial. Public perceptions toward the control programme are described. Over half the respondents were in favour of the use of 2,4-d, although chemical control was the least preferred alternative, following harvesting, biological, and dredging techniques. A strong positive correlation exists between those supporting the use of 2,4-d and those indicating greatest interference with normal activities due to the infestation. It is suggested that an expressed preference approach toward risk assessment should have been taken before the confrontation developed.
L'emploi du désherbant 2.4-d dans la lutte contre le volant d'eau (Myriophyllum spicatum) dans la vallée de l'Okanagan s'avère sujet à de grosses controverses. Il sera question dans cet exposé de décrire les impressions publiques vis à vis du programme de contrôle. Globalement 54 pour cent des interrogés se sont déclarés pour l'usage de 2.4-d même si le contrôle par moyen chimique était le moyen le moins préférable apres les alternatives physiques, mécaniques, et écologiques. Il existe une étroite correspondance entre ceux qui sont en faveur de cet usage et ceux qui seraient le plus incommodés par l'infestation. Nous avançons que l'approche directe pour l'évaluation du risque entreprise dans cette étude aurait dûêtre mise en rigueur avant le développement de la situation d'affrontement.     

Recent trends and issues in Australia‐Indonesia relations

THIS ARTICLE concentrates particularly on bilateral relations between Australia and Indonesia.* While it is necessary to see relations between the two countries in their broader regional and global context, there has also been some tendency to underestimate the impact of domestic political and economic factors.     

Understanding the historic legacies of empire from the timbers left behind: Towards critical dendroprovenancing in the British North Atlantic

The forests of British North America were integral to Britain's maritime empire. Many of these timbers exist today as wooden beams and flooring at historical dockyards and garrisons such as the Royal Naval Dockyard of Bermuda. In this paper, we investigate what timbers from this Dockyard can tell us about interconnections and empire-building throughout the North Atlantic region. To do this we drew from approaches of critical physical geography, historical geography, and dendroprovenancing by using timber as a way to interrogate collaboratively the changes in—and connections across—socio-ecological landscapes. We examined HM Customs records between 1825 and 1850 to determine the flow of timbers to Bermuda. We then sampled timbers from buildings constructed between 1825 and 1853 and analyzed them using isotopic and dendrochronological techniques to establish the probable location of origin of the timber samples. HM Customs records showed that prior to the 1840s, timbers primarily came from British North America, whereas post-1840 timbers primarily came from the southeastern United States, with some still coming from Europe and British North America. To establish whether timber use by the Royal Navy and Royal Engineers matched the pattern in the customs documents, we looked to the dendrochronological records. Dendrochronologic evidence showed that military construction followed the same pattern, with buildings constructed pre-1840 using material from British North America and buildings constructed post-1840 using timbers sourced from the southeastern United States. Finally, using this information we explore some of the connections between regions, in terms of resource use, and the implications of those uses—for example, that the British Admiralty continued to benefit from the practices of slavery through the use of products produced from enslaved labour in other parts of the North Atlantic well after emancipation.     

Buffon's Needle and the Probability of Intercepting Short-Distance Trips by Multiple Screen-Line Surveys

For transport planning purposes, information on origin-destination movements may be obtained by stopping traffic at the roadside and interviewing drivers. The roadside interview stations are usually located so that they lie on one of a number of lines (called screen lines) that cross from one side of the survey area to another. In this way, all movements with the origin on one side of a screen line and the destination on the other are intercepted. For regional surveys, a grid of screen-lines may be used. The movements intercepted are not, however, representative of all those in the region. That is because shorter-distance movements are underrepresented; the coarser the grid, the worse the effect. The extent of this underrepresentation is estimated in this paper by calculating the probability of intercepting a trip of given direct length, under the assumption that the screen lines constitute a uniform rectangular grid, and that trips of a given length are distributed over the region at random. The result is an extension to the Buffon needle problem. Ways in which such a result, obtained for an idealized situation, may be extended to apply to more realistic situations, are discussed: in particular it is shown how the trip-length frequency distribution of all trips may be estimated from that of intercepted trips, using a simple formula that is applicable to a much more general pattern of screen lines.