Cults and Christianity among the Enga and Ipili

In this article, I examine the continuities between early-contact cult activities and present day Christianity among the western Enga and eastern Ipili of highlands Papua New Guinea. Christians today see the cults as early attempts to ‘open the road’ for the coming of whites and missionization. Cult leaders are currently understood as prophets who had received messages from God and were sent out to herald the coming new era of social change. The ritual killing of a young man in the 1940s by cult leaders is conceptualized as the local version of the crucifixion of Jesus. The data herein illustrate the creative means by which Ipili and Enga in this region have indigenized Christianity and located their own regional histories and practices in the broader scope of world history.     

Book reviews

CHINA

CHARLOTTE FURTH. A Flourishing Yin: gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. A Philip E. Lilienthal Book. xiv, 355 pp. 20 halftones, 13 line figures. US$45.00, hardcover; US$17.96, paper.

MOBO C. F. GAO. Gao Village. A Portrait of Rural Life in Modern China. London: C. Hurst & Company, 1999. xiv, 286 pp. Maps, illustrations, preface and acknowledgments, appendixes, index. £16.95, paper.

JAMES R. LILLEY and DAVID SHAMBAUGH (eds). China's Military Faces the Future. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 368 pp. Illustrations, tables, graphs, index. US$74.95, hardcover; US$29.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MITSUHIRO YOSHIMOTO. Kurosawa: film Studies and Japanese Cinema. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2000. 485 pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. US$64.95, hardcover; US$21.95, paper.

YASUNORI FUKUOKA (trans. Tom Gill). Lives of Young Ethnic Koreans in Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000. 300 pp. Introduction, tables, figures, notes, references, glossary, index. A$39.95, paper.

AH‐JEONG KIM and R. B. GRAVES (trans). The Metacultural Theater of Oh T'aeSok. Five Plays from the Korean Avant‐Garde. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. 164 pp. Preface, introduction, translators' note, photographs, bibliography. US$33.00, hardcover; US$14.95, paper.

ANDREW COBBING. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain: early Travel Encounters in the Far West. Surrey: Japan Library, 1998. 257 pp. Illustrations, preface, introduction, biographical appendix, notes and references, index. £45.00, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

SATISH BALRAM AGNIHOTRI. Sex Ratio Patterns in the Indian Population: a Fresh Exploration. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000. 379 pp. Tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. Rs 475, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

ROBERT CRIBB. Historical Atlas of Indonesia. Richmond: Curzon Press (in cooperation with the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, Copenhagen), 2000. 256 pp. £75.00, hardcover.

STEFAN EKLOF. Indonesian Politics in Crisis: the Long Fall of Suharto, 1996–98. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 1999. 288 pp. Introduction, bibliography, index. A$33.00, paper.

BARBARA LEIGH. The Changing Face of Malaysian Crafts: identity, Industry and Ingenuity. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 2000. Glossary, bibliography, index. 124 pp. 59 colour and 92 b/w illustrations. A$85.00, hardcover.

KRISHNA SEN and DAVID T. HILL. Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000. 245 pp. A$35.00, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

DAVID HANLON and GEOFFREY M. WHITE (eds). Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. 443 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

LAKSIRIJAYASURIYAandKEEPOOKONG, (eds.) TheAsianisation ofAustralia?:someFacts about the Myths. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1999. 114 pp. A$16.95, paper.     

Element localization in archaeological bone using synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence: identification of biogenic uptake

Trace element analysis related to archaeological bone is viewed as one way to determine levels of element exposure in past populations. This area of research is complex because there is the potential for the incorporation of trace elements from the burial environment into archaeological bone. We tested the hypothesis that matching the spatial distribution of trace elements within cortical bone with the biological structures would provide evidence of biogenic uptake. We examined samples from a non-segregated Royal British Naval cemetery (1793–1822) in Antigua, West Indies. A key historical question related to this population was the extent of exposure to lead and the resulting health effects. Images from conventional light microscopy (histological) analysis of the bone samples were matched with elemental maps of calcium, strontium, and lead that were created through the use of synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF). Biogenic uptake of both strontium and lead was indicated based on the localization of these trace elements within discreet microstructural elements. The successful integration of histological information with XRF data is a powerful technique for the interpretation of past biological events through trace elements.     

The Index of Economic Disparity: Measuring trends in economic disparity across Canadian Census Subdivisions and rural and urban communities

Territorial inequalities have long been a subject of study and concern in Canada. In the face of large structural changes such as industrial shifts and the decarbonization of our economies, there is an urgency to understand such inequalities and design effective policy interventions for those places facing persistent economic decline. This paper shares a novel composite index that measures economic disparity across Canadian Census Subdivisions (CSDs) using Census data from 2001 through 2016 and the 2011 National Household Survey. Named the “Index of Economic Disparity,” it is comprised of an equally weighted average of four sub-indices that assign percentile rankings for all CSDs based on whether they experience persistent and substantial decline in key economic areas: population, labour force outcomes, working-age share of population, and industrial diversity. The variation of outcomes across geographies—urban and rural—highlights the importance of place-based policies.