Présidente: le grand défi. Femmes,politique et médias

Mathieu, J.‐L., La Défense de l'environnement en France (Presses Universitaires de France, 1994), 128pp., 45F., ISBN 2 1304 5939 0

Prendiville, B., Environmental Politics in France (Westview, 1994), xiii‐190pp., $27.00, ISBN 0 8133 8822 8. Translated from L'Ecologie, la politique autrement? Culture, sociologie et histoire des écologistes (L'Harmattan, 1993), 200pp., 110F., ISBN 2 7384 1864 3     

Current approaches to teaching introductory physical anthropology

Joseph B. Birdsell. Human Evolution: An Introduction to the New Physical Anthropology. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1972. xiii + 546 pp. Illustrations, figures, bibliography, and index. $9.95

Bobby J. Williams. Evolution and Human Origins: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. ix + 277 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, and index. $10.95.     

Gender-Mixing Roles,Gender-Crossing Roles,and the Sexuality of Transgendered Roles

Fischer, Michael M. J. and Mehdi Abedi. Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. xxxvi + 564 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $49.75 cloth, $23.50 paper.

Bradburd, Daniel. Ambiguous Relations: Kin, Class, and Conflict among Komachi Pastoralists. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990. xxix + 240 pp. including notes, references, and index. $29.95 cloth.     

Humanized nature and objective spirit

Valeri, Valerio, (Paula Wissing, transl.) Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. xxviii + 446 pp. including notes with references, plates, and index. $55.00 cloth, $22.50 paper.

Heesterman, J. C. The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. x + 255 pp. including notes with references and index. $32.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Charlesworth, Max, Howard Morphy, Diane Bell, and Kenneth Mad‐dock, eds. Religion in Aboriginal Australia: An Anthology. Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1984. xii + 458 pp. including chapter references and index. $35.00 cloth.     

Own-child estimates of U.S. white fertility, 1886–99

Abstract

The collapse of empires is exceedingly difficult to understand. The author examined the distribution of imperial lifetimes using a data set that spans more than three millennia and found that it conforms to a memoryless exponential distribution in which the rate of collapse of an empire is independent of its age. Comparing this distribution to similar lifetime distributions of other complex systems—specifically, biological species and corporate firms—the author explores the reasons behind their lifetime distributions and how this approach can yield insights into empires.     

The Failure of ‘Liberal Developmentalism’: The United States's Anti-Communist Showcase in Guatemala, 1954–1960

This article examines the British involvement in the reorganisation of the Ottoman Empire's customs service. The study focuses particularly on the role of Sir Richard Crawford, who was appointed as a consultant to the Ottoman customs administration in 1909. In doing so, the article sheds fresh light on the position of European advisers as well as on British commercial diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire during the years preceding the First World War. This topic warrants further historical research as previous studies have not considered Crawford's position and the progress of the customs reform in detail. He introduced some important reforms, but proved unable to solve the complex question over the porterage service or to increase customs revenue as much as had been anticipated. War and revolution as well as the consequent disruption of trade; the vast geographical scope of the Ottoman Empire; and opposition from local and international stakeholders to his reforms explain to some extent why Crawford was unable to modernise the customs service as effectively as had been planned. In addition, Crawford's professional background and his personal characteristics were in some ways incompatible with the requirements of the demanding diplomatic world of Constantinople.