Local Control Wasting Away

Municipal solid waste management and planning traditionally have been regarded as the responsibility of local government. However, the legal climate surrounding solid waste management has become more constrained, placing local government at the mercy of the private waste management industry, and eroding the effectiveness of local waste planning efforts. This article provides an overview of recent court decisions impacting local government solid waste management. It also discusses current congressional activity relating to interstate waste transport and flow control, and assesses the potential effects of such legislation on public solid waste management and on privatization issues raised by critics of local control.     

Representation and knowledge in the prehistoric rock art of Africa

This study proposes that prehistoric rock art in Africa represents aspects of the natural and social environment which are aesthetically charged, for practical and symbolic reasons, and which are also problematic, in specific ways, for ordinary, untutored perception. Rock art functions as a medium of communication in three principal contexts. It refers to an extended network of ritual acts and beliefs, to out-of-the-ordinary perception and knowledge, and to adaptively significant local information. Rock art is therefore a particular, specialized instrument of the production process. Investigating the study of prehistoric art from art historical, archaeological, and anthropological points of view, the paper examines the ways in which the original contexts of function or meaning might be reconstituted, given the special nature and constraints of graphic representation as a mode of knowledge. Three major traditions of prehistoric rock art in Africa, the Sahara, Nile valley, and southern, are the focus of discussion and source of examples. The paper takes as a general theme the feasibility or possibility of an adequate archaeology of prehistoric knowledge.

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Résumé La présente étude propose que l'art rupestre préhistorique en Afrique représente des aspects du milieu naturel et social, exprimés de façon esthétique pour des raisons pratiques et symboliques, et qui présentent aussi des problèmes particuliers face à une perception non instruite. L'art rupestre sert de moyen de communication dans trois contextes principaux: il fait allusion à un réseau compliqué de croyances et d'actes rituels, à une perception et à des connaissances hors de l'ordinaire et à des renseignements locaux affectant l'adaptation. L'art rupestre figure donc comme instrument particulier et spécialisé dans le processus de production. En vérifiant l'étude de l'art préhistorique des points de vue historique, archéologique et anthropologique de l'art, l'article examine les façons selon lesquelles les contextes originaux de la fonction ou la signification pourraient être reconstitués, selon la nature et les contraintes spéciales de la représentation graphique comme genre de connaissance. La discussion se centre sur trois traditions principales d'art rupestre préhistorique, celles du Sahara, de la vallée du Nil et de l'Afrique du Sud, d'où sont aussi tirés les exemples. L'article a pour thème général la possibilité d'une archéologie mieux adaptée à la reconstruction des modes de connaissance préhistorique.

     

Book reviews

SHOWCASE STATE: THE ILLUSION OF INDONESIA'S ‘ACCELERATED MODERNISATION’. Rex Mortimer (ed.). Angus and Robertson, 1973. 164 pp; 0–207–12826. $3.95 softbound, $5.95 hardbound.

FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION: THE CASE OF INDONESIA. Jon M. Reinhardt. Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph Series No. 17, 1971. Distributed by The Cellar Book Shop, 18090 Wyoming, Detroit, Michigan 48221. $US6.50.

ISLAMIC COURTS IN INDONESIA: A STUDY IN THE POLITICAL BASES OF LEGAL INSTITUTIONS. Daniel S. Lev. University of California Press, Berkeley, London, 1972. 281 pp.

AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN POLICY: TOWARDS A REASSESSMENT. Claire Clark (ed.). Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1973. 274 pp. $3.75.

FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA. Enid Campbell and Harry Whitmore. Second edition, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1973. 488 pp. $15 cloth, $10 paper.

CONTEMPORARY NEW ZEALAND. K. W. Thomson and A. D. Trlin (eds.). Hicks Smith, Wellington, 1973. 456 01430 6. 218 pp.

CANADA'S SEARCH FOR NEW ROLES: FOREIGN POLICY IN THE TRUDEAU ERA. Peter C. Dobell. Oxford University Press, London, 1972. 0–19–285057–1. 161 pp. $5.10.

SOUTH AFRICA'S FOREIGN POLICY 1945–19701 James Barber. Oxford University Press, 1973. 0–19–21561–9. 325 pp. $13.15.

POWER AND EQUILIBRIUM IN THE 1970s. Alastair Buchan. Chatto & Windus, London, 1973. 0–7011–1998–5. 120 pp. $6.80.

THE SOVIET UNION IN WORLD AFFAIRS: A DOCUMENTED ANALYSIS, 1964–72. W. W. Kulski. Syracuse University Press, Box 8, University Sta, Syracuse, N.Y. 13210, USA, 1973. 526 pp. $US5.95 paper, $US17.50 hard cover.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE: ITALY'S BID FOR WORLD POWER, 1890–1943. G. St. J. Barclay. Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1973. 210 pp. 0283 97862. £3.95stg.

THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY VERSUS THE STUDENTS. Richard Johnson. Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1972. 215 pp. 0–300–01525–9. $8.00 cloth, $1.95 paper.

STUDIES IN DEMOGRAPHY. Ashish Bose, P. B. Desai, and S. P. Jain (eds.). The University of North Carolina Press, 1972. 579 pp. $12.95.

A DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA. Charles H. Heimsath and Surjit Mansingh. Allied Publishers, Calcutta, 1971. .559 pp. Rs. 30.

CHINA: THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. Jan Myrdal and Gun Kessle. Penguin Books, U.S.A., 1973. 155 pp. $2.20.

MAO TSE‐TUNG AND GANDHI: PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION. J. Bandyopadhyaya. Allied Publishers, Calcutta, 1973. 156 pp.

STUDIES IN POLITICS: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL. M. S. Rajan (ed.). Vikas Publications, Delhi, 1971. 512 pp. Rs. 60.