Funerary monuments with attached chapels from the northern Sahara

The chapel tumulus is a type of north Saharan funerary monument that incorporates an internal sanctuary separate from the burial itself. The distribution and development of the various forms of chapel tumuli are described. Their furnishings indicate that they were built by the Getules, horsemen and nomadic pastoralists, over the period of a millennium from the fifth century BC to the fifth century AD. The deceased could be approached through the chapel in order to obtain premonitory dreams, a form of divination that is still a Berber and especially a Tuareg custom.

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Résumé Un type particulier de monuments funéraires du Nord du Sahara a été nommé tumulus à chapelle en raison d'un aménagement architectural qui permet de pénétrer à l'intérieur sans cependant atteindre la sépulture. La répartition et les variations typologiques de ces monuments sont brièvement exposées. Ils ont été construits dans un territoire occupé par les Getules au cours d'un millénaire qui va du 5e siècle BC au 5e siècle AD. En se rapprochant du défunt par la chapelle, il était possible de s'endormir auprès de lui et d'obtenir des songes prémonitoires. Ces pratiques d'incubation ont encore cours chez les Berbères, surtout chez les Touaregs.

     

The Hawke government and education 1983–1985

Education was a major component of the platform and performance of the Whitlam governments. Under Fraser, projects were abandoned and overall growth ceased. The needs principle for aid to non‐government schools was undermined by the emphasis on unrestricted access to alternatives to the State system. Pressure grew for schooling to reflect and service the needs of the market place.

The 1983 election campaign scarcely mentioned education although special interests ensured that traditional commitments were secured. Once in power, the Hawke government tended to ignore these and maintained constraints on education spending.

Naive attempts in 1983 to implement the policy of reducing grants to wealthy private schools resulted, by 1984, in a bruised and shaken Hawke government having to placate the powerful private school/Catholic bishops lobby with a generously funded ‘historic settlement’ of the State Aid debate. The Participation and Equity Program was introduced to increase participation in post‐compulsory education, particularly by disadvantaged groups. Initially the depressed state of tertiary education was not addressed by the Hawke government which continued the neglect characteristic of the Fraser years. Hawke was returned to office in 1984 on a platform which had as little to say about education as it had in 1983.

The rhetoric and practice of the Hawke government has tended to reflect a view of education which is highly economic and instrumental in orientation. A crude nexus is seen to exist between educational spending and productive employment, a view which excludes any concern for the social benefits of education or a longer‐term perspective about the value of intellectual endeavour. Labor's traditional ideals and objectives of widening access to education and hence social and economic power are in danger of being ignored. If economic considerations alone continue to dominate policy, the legacy of the Hawke government may well be a set of educational policies which are destined, on balance, to increase rather than reduce inequalities in our society.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Frank Brennan, Land Rights Queensland Style. The Struggle for Aboriginal Self‐Management (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1992) pp.182. $29.95 ISBN 0 7022 2407 3.

Frank Brennan, Sharing the Country: The Case for an Agreement Between Black and White Australians (Melbourne: Penguin, 1991) pp.176. $18.95 ISBN 0 14 013867 6.

Libby Connors, Lynette Finch, Kay Saunders and Helen Taylor, Australia's Frontline: Remembering the 1939–45 War (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1992) pp.244. $16.95 ISBN 7022 2446 4.

Peter Edwards with Gregory Pemberton, Crises and Commitments: The Politics and Diplomacy of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1965 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian War Memorial, 1992) pp.515. $45.00 ISBN 1 86373184 9.

Dean Jaensch, The Politics of Australia (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.446. $34.95 ISBN 0 7329 0396 3.

J.E. King (ed.), Readings in Australian Labour Economics (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.363. $29.95 9 ISBN 0 7329 1261 X.

Patrick O'Brien and Martyn Webb (eds), The Executive State: WA Inc. and the Constitution (Perth: Constitutional Press, 1991) pp.389. $19.95 ISBN 0 646 04875 9.

David Pollard, Social Need and Social Policy (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1992) pp.112. $24.95 0 86806 452 1.

David Trigger, Whitefella Commin’: Aboriginal Responses to Colonialism in Northern Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.250. $45.00 ISBN 0 521 40181 X.

J.C. Altman (ed.), A National Survey of Indigenous Australians: Options and Implications. Research Monograph No. 3. (Canberra: Centre For Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, 1992) pp.170. $4.80 ISBN 0 7315 1395 9.

Compartive and International Politics

Peter H. Argersinger, Structure, Process, and Party: Essays in American Political History (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharp, 1992) pp.219. $US29.95 ISBN 0 87332 798 5.

Jane H. Bayes (ed.), Women and Public Administration: International Perspectives (Binghamton: Harrington Park Press, 1991) pp.139. $US14.95. ISBN 1 56023 014 2.

Jonathan Boston, John Martin, June Pallot, Pat Walsh (eds), Reshaping the State: New Zealand's Bureaucratic Revolution (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.408. $48.00. ISBN 0 19 558222 5.

Naomi Chazan, Robert Mortimer, John Ravenhill and Donald Rothchild, Polities and Society in Contemporary Africa (second edition) (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992) pp.483. $19.95 ISBN 155587 283 2.

Cal Clark and Steve Chan (eds), The Evolving Pacific Basin in the Global Political Economy: Domestic & International Linkages (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.226. $n.p. ISBN 1 55587 271 9.

Jacques Delors (trans Brian Pearce), Our Europe: The Community and National Development (London, New York: Verso, 1992) pp.166. $59.95 ISBN 0 86091 380 5.

David Denver and Gordon Hands (eds), Issues and Controversies in British Electoral Behaviour (London: Harvester Wheatsheef, 1992) pp.390 $n.p. ISBN 0 7450 0976 X.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (ed.), Just War Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) pp.336. $39.95. ISBN 0 631 17278 5.

Mark Franklin, Tom Mackie, Henry Valen et al, Electoral Change: Responses to Evolving Social and Attitudinal Structures in Western Countries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.475. $140.00 ISBN 0 521 37460 X.

Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, The Gulf Conflict 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (London: Faber and Faber, 1993) pp.504. $45.00 ISBN 0 571 16457 9.

Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (eds), Gender and International Relations (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.176. $29.95. ISBN 0 335 09740 5.

Janette Habel (trans by Jon Barnes), Cuba: The Revolution in Peril (London: Verso, 1991) pp.241. $59.95. ISBN 0 86091 308 2.

Anthony Heath, Roger Jowell, John Curtice, Geoff Evans, Julia Field, and Sharon Witherspoon, Understanding Political Change: The British Voter 1964–1987 (Oxford and Sydney: Pergamon Press, 1991) pp.334. £11.95 ISBN 0 08 037256 2.

Martin Holland (ed.), Electoral Behaviour in New Zealand (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.202. $35.00 ISBN 0 19 558261 6.

Eamonn Hughes, Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland: 1960–1990 (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.182. $32.95 ISBN 0 335 09712 X.

John Kingdom, No Such Thing as Society? Individualism and Community, (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992) pp.134. $34.95 ISBN ISBN 0 335 09726 X.

Jan‐Erik Lane, David McKay, and Kenneth Newton (eds), Political Data Handbook OECD Countries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.257. $75.00 ISBN 0 19 827718 0.

Arend Lijphart (ed.), Parliamentary Versus Presidential Government (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.257 $22.95 ISBN 0 19 878043 5.

David Marsh and R.A.W. Rhodes (eds), Implementing Thatcherite Policies: Audit of an Era (Buckingham, England: Open University Press, 1992) pp.212 $45.00. ISBN 0 335 15682 7.

Anthony G. McGrew and Paul G. Lewis et al, Global Politics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.337. $39.45 ISBN 0 7456 0756 X.

Miroslav Nincic, Democracy and Foreign Policy: The Fallacy of Political Realism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992) pp.200. $US43.50 ISBN 0231076681.

B. Guy Peters, The Politics of Taxation: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.338. $39.95 ISBN 1 55786 211 7.

Matthew Spriggs and Donald Denoon (eds) The Bougainville Crisis. 1991 Update. Political and Social Change Monograph No. 16 (Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University and Crawford House, Bathurst, 1992) pp.228. $n.p. ISBN 1 863 33013 5.

Ruy Teixeira, The Disappearing American Voter (Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1992) pp.256. $31.95 ISBN 0 8157 8302 7.

Loukas Tsoukalis, The New European Economy: The Politics and Economics of Integration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.333. $59.95. ISBN 0 19 828750 X.

Mark Turner, Papua New Guinea: The Challenge of Independence (Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin Books, 1990) pp.200. $16.95 ISBN 0 14 012390 3.

Jack Vowles and Peter Aimer, Voters’ Vengeance — The 1990 Election in New Zealand and the Fate of the Fourth Labour Government (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1993) pp.264. $32.50 ISBN 1 86940 078 X.

Bo Yang (trans. and ed. by Don J. Cohn and Jing Qing), The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992) pp.162. $19.95 ISBN 1 86373 116 4.

Theory and Methodology

Terrell Carver (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Marx (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.357. $35.00 ISBN 0 521 36694 1.

William Galston, Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.343. $35.00 ISBN 0 521 42250 7.

Peter Hay and Robin Eckersley (eds), Ecopolitical Theory: Essays From Australia, Occasional Paper 24 (Hobart: Centre for Evironmental Studies, University of Tasmania, 1992) pp.238. $24.00 ISBN 0 65901 508 4.

Ernest Mandel, Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy (London: Verso, 1992) pp.252. $34.95 ISBN 0 86091 548 4.

Patrick Riley (ed.), Essays in Political Philosophy (Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 1992) pp.385. $n.p. ISBN 1 878822 08 X.

Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.508. $59.50 ISBN 0 521 35092 1.

Stephen Sedley and Lawrence Kaplan (eds), foreword by Christopher Hill, A Spark in the Ashes: The Pamphlets of John Warr (London and New York: Verso, 1992) pp.116. ISBN 0 86091 599 9.

Judith A. Swanson, The Public and the Private in Aristotle's Political Philosophy (New York: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.244. $US31.95 ISBN 0 8014 2319 8.     

Palaeoecological evidence from neolithic fireplaces in the Sahara

Circular concentrations of stone fragments or pebbles occur widely in the Sahara, mostly on the great alluvial plains or along the foot of the escarpments. They are interpreted as fireplaces, but associated archaeological remains are usually scarce. More than 50 radiocarbon dates indicated that these features are of neolithic age, ranging fromca 9000 toca 3500 bp, with a maximum occurrence at 5800–5000 bp. In some regions they are extremely rare, elsewhere their density may exceed 30 per square kilometre. There are several reasons for attributing these fireplaces to neolithic cattle herders.

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Résumé Il y a de nombreuses concentrations circulaires de fragments de pierre ou de galets au Sahara; ils se trouvent surtout dans les grandes plaines alluviales, ou le long du pied des escarpements. On les interprète comme des foyers, mais d'habitude on n'y trouve que très peu de restes archéologiques qui y sont associés. Plus de 50 datations au radiocarbone ont indiqué que ces sites datent du Néolithique, s'échelonnant deca 9000 àca 3500 bp, avec une forte concentration entre 5800 et 5000 bp. Dans certaines régions ces sites sont très rares, tandis qu'ailleurs leur densité peut être supérieure à 30 par kilomètre carré. Pour plusieurs raisons on attribue ces foyers à des pasteurs des boeufs du Néolithique.