Book reviews

CHINA

ERIC KIT‐WAI MA.Culture, Politics, and Television in Hong Kong. London: Routledge, 1999. 242 pp. Introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. £55.00, hardcover.

LILY XIAO HONG LEE and SUE WILES. Women of the Long March: the Never Before Told Story. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1999. 308 pp. Photographs, preface, chronology, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. A$24.95, paper.

MARIE‐CLAIRE BERGÈRE. Sun Yat‐sen (trans. Janet Lloyd). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. xii, 480 pp. Illustrations, introduction, endnotes, bibliography, index. A$90.00, hardcover.

JAPAN, KOREA

MASARU KOHNO. Japan's Postwar Party Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997. xiii, 172 pp. US$65.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

SHARON A. MINICHIELLO (ed). Japan's Competing Modernities: issues in Culture and Democracy 1900–1930. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. xiii, 394 pp. Illustrations, foreword, preface, introduction, index. US$54.00, hardcover; US$25.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

DICK VAN DER MEIJ. India and Beyond: essays in Honour of Frits Staal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 696 pp. $US110.00, hardcover.

ASHISH KOTHARI, NEEMA PATHAK, R. V. ANURADHA and BANSURI TANEJA (eds). Communities and Conservation. Natural Resource Management in South and Central Asia. New Delhi: Sage, 1998. 505 pp. Rs. 495, hardcover; Rs. 325, paper.

JAMES BROW. Demons and Development: the Struggle for Community in a Sri Lankan Village. (Hegemony and Experience. Critical Studies in Anthropology and History, Series Editors Hermann Rebel and William Roseberry). Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996. xviii, 218 pp. Index. US$45.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

REIDAR DALE. Evaluation Frameworks for Development Programmes and Projects. New Delhi: Sage Publications India, 1998. 150 pp. Index. Rs. 275, hardcover; Rs. 145, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

HANS ANTLOV and SVEN CEDERROTH (eds). Leadership on Java: gentle Hints, Authoritarian Rule. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1994. viii, 197 pp. £25.00, paper.

CORNELIA ANN KAMMERER and NICOLA TANNENBAUM (eds). Merit and Blessing in Mainland Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective. Monograph 45, Yale Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. 263 pp. No price given, paper.

IAN CHALMERS and VEDI HADIZ (eds). The Politics of Economic Development in Indonesia: contending Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Author notes, preface, acknowledgments. xxx, 269 pp. £60.00, hardcover.     

The Archaeology of the Disenfranchised

The question of multivocality has been much explored and debated in recent archaeological publications. Clearly, the objective of such work is to assure the inclusion of the views of disadvantaged minorities and disenfranchised peoples in the presentation of their own pasts. This objective has not been achieved with much success, however, partly because mainstream archaeologists have had some difficulties in grappling with what appear to be a proliferation of alternative archaeological theories. Few discussions have approached alternative archaeologies as constituting a definable archaeological paradigm that might be termed The Archaeology of the Disenfranchised. Four different models within this paradigm are discussed and a strategy for a more widespread inclusion of alternative archaeological discussions and projects is suggested.     

Enclaves in tourism: producing and governing exclusive spaces for tourism

Abstract

Exclusively planned tourism destinations, such as all-inclusive resorts, gated resort communities, private cruise liner-owned islands and privatized beaches, have increased over the last few decades. Researchers have analyzed these kinds of tourism environments as enclaves, which are typically driven by external forces and actors, strongly supported by globalization and the current neoliberal market economy. Existing research shows that tourism enclaves are characterized by active border-making, power issues and material and/or symbolic separation from the surrounding socio-cultural realities, leading to weak linkages with host communities and the local economy. Tourism enclaves involve power inequalities, injustices and unsustainable practices that often have serious negative impacts on local socio-economic development. The articles of the special issue focus on tourism enclaves in different theoretical and geographical contexts and they contribute to our understanding of how these exclusive spaces are created and transformed and how they shape places and place identities. The individual research articles are contextualized and discussed with the key theoretical perspectives and empirical findings on tourism enclaves. Future research needs include analysis of linkages and flows of labor, goods, ideas and capital in different scales; policymaking, planning and regulations; environmental impacts; and locals’ land and resource access in the respect of bordering, privatization and land grabbing. By focusing on these topics, the tourism industry could be guided towards more responsible and sustainable development path.     

Genealogies of Practice in and of the Environment in Banda,Ghana

Despite recent emphases on both environmental archaeology and practice theory in archaeology, the two are rarely combined. In this paper, we illustrate a genealogies of environmental practice approach that seeks to understand how human actions grounded in familiar repertoires make sense of environmental and political economic change. Employing archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data, we first examine taxon-specific genealogies of practice and then compare them to one another as well as to broader climatic, political, and economic contexts of the last millennium in Banda, west central Ghana. In focusing on the interactivities between different kinds of data, we coax out the strategies used by Banda’s inhabitants to cope with fluctuating environmental and political conditions. We argue that during a several centuries long drought in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries ad, Banda villagers took advantage of a diverse set of economic activities to cope with turbulence, but by the late nineteenth century, these opportunities had dwindled, diminishing the villagers’ practical options.     

Radon Predictions with Geographical Information System Covariates: From Spatial Sampling to Modeling

Radon (Rn) is a potentially toxic gas in soil which may affect human health. Assessing Rn levels in soil gas usually requires enormous efforts in terms of time and costs, since the sampling protocol is very complex. In most cases, the variable under study is sparsely sampled over the domain and this could affect the reliability of the spatial predictions. For this reason, it is useful to incorporate, into the estimation procedure, some auxiliary variables, correlated with the in soil gas Rn concentrations (primary variable) and more densely available over the domain. On the basis of this latter aspect, it is even better if the covariates are derived from a geographical information system (GIS). In this article, the Rn sampling protocol used during a measurement campaign planned over a risk area is described and the process of deriving GIS covariates considered as secondary information for predicting the primary variable is clarified. Then, multivariate modeling and prediction of the Rn concentrations over the domain of interest are discussed and a comparative study regarding the performance of the prediction procedures is presented. Rn prone areas are also analyzed with respect to urban and school density. All these aspects can clearly support decisions on environmental and human safeguard.     

'A Suitable Person for Suitable Cases': The Gendering of Juvenile Courts in England, c. 1910-39

This article examines the relationship between the introductionof women Justices of the Peace (JPs) in 1919 and the gendereddevelopment of juvenile courts in England, c. 1910–39.It argues that the campaigns for the appointment of women asJPs and for new methods of dealing with delinquent childrenwere closely connected from 1910 onwards, when the proposalwas first made that ‘suitable’ persons should beappointed to hear ‘suitable’ cases in magistratescourts. Using evidence drawn from government records and othersources, the article examines the interaction of the two campaignsand of feminist and penal reform groups in securing the remodellingof London's juvenile justice system in the Juvenile Courts (Metropolis)Act of 1920. It argues that these arrangements, and similarones adopted elsewhere in England, consciously reflected presumedfamilial and gender roles. It concludes that the replicationof the ‘traditional’ family in the composition ofthe court may have limited the ability of the youth justicesystem to be innovative in its approach to juvenile delinquencyin the period up to 1939. ^* a.f.logan{at}kent.ac.uk     

Plus difficile d'être élu dans une petite municipalité? Perceptions de la fonction élective par certains élus municipaux québécois

In Quebec, 75% of the province's elected municipal officials hold office in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. While we know that the demographic size of a municipality is likely to influence the career path and profile of elected officials and, more generally, the professional nature of elective office, to the best of our knowledge, little has been written about this relationship in Quebec municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. This is surprising given the institutional, political, and financial context can vary greatly depending on the size of the municipality and is thus likely to influence the nature of the day-to-day elective office. Using a methodology based on semi-structured interviews with roughly 30 elected officials, our study highlights two specific characteristics. Some believe the nature of their elective office to be the same as that held by their counterparts in large municipalities, so they feel that they are not equipped with the same tools to meet the needs of their office. Some perceive the conditions under which they exercise their office are different, so they note the scope of their task is heavy, impacting their daily lives. These findings point to the need for further studies on the management of these smaller municipalities.     

The Archaeology of California

Stimulated by several important, recent empirical advances, California archaeologists are engaged in a series of lively debates. These advances include new discoveries about the early peopling of western North America and sustained occupation of the California coasts as early as 12–13,000 BP. There also have been significant new developments in the role of paleoenvironmental change in cultural evolution, the emergence of long-distance interaction spheres, the presence of intensive craft specializations, and the appearance of sociopolitically complex hunter–gatherers. This article addresses these issues—and several others—with a view to the general interests of scholars worldwide. The exceptional heterogeneity of California ecosystems (from deserts to dense redwood forests to bountiful offshore islands) and the remarkable cultural diversity exhibited by the dozens of major groups who made these lands their home combine to produce a complex indigenous sociopolitical picture. Current understandings reveal myriad trajectories of cultural change across nine major subregions of the state.