Beach Boys Do It Too: Subculture and Commoditised Desire in a Transnational Tourist Site in Kerala,South India

This article is based on an ethnographic study of a group of Scheduled Caste (SC) male youth in a globalised tourist site in Kerala, South India, who participate in situational sexual and romantic relationships with predominantly tourist women from the global north. We first aim to expand on the “sex and romance tourism” literature of such encounters to provide an Indian context. Secondly, we aim to highlight how young men involved in such encounters undertake complex mediations of localised and global forms of consumption and commoditisation to participate in the neoliberal tourist market place. Mainly by way of a subculture known as the Jungees, we describe how young men utilise the former processes to seek economic and social mobility for themselves and their families but also to valorise and re-imagine their identity along racial, gendered, caste and class-based dimensions. Finally, we explore the young men’s articulation of a hierarchy of preferred encounters that draws on gendered, sexualised and racialised local and global imaginaries of commoditised desire(s) of tourist women from the global north. We highlight the ways in which participants actively utilise the neoliberal context to engage in a range of self-generated livelihood strategies and to contest their marginality.     

‘The final decision is with the patient’: reproductive modernity and preferences for non-hormonal and non-biomedical contraceptives among postpartum middle class women in Yogyakarta,Indonesia

In Indonesia fertility has plateaued for more than a decade. Over the same period Indonesian women have increasingly accessed contraception via the private sector. Our qualitative inquiry into the contraceptive preferences of middle class women in urban Yogyakarta revealed limited interest in and intent to use biomedical and hormonal contraceptive methods. Women’s justifications for their contraceptive choices were complex and manifold: most had concerns about safety and the side effects associated with hormonal and biomedical contraceptives; others were ideologically opposed to fertility control. We conclude that contraceptive choices were an embodiment of women’s reproductive modernity, which in turn underpinned their reproductive agency. We also problematise the extent to which women’s contraceptive choices were comprehensively informed. Women’s reproductive modernity was shaped by their socioeconomic status; access to modern communication technologies; understandings of their right to health and contraceptive choice; pious yet pragmatic religious identities; and negotiations within their marital relationships.     

Subsistence and the isotopic signature of herding in the Bronze Age Hexi Corridor,NW Gansu,China

Dietary patterns at two Bronze Age sites in the Hexi Corridor are investigated by the analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in faunal bone collagen. The findings are compared with archaeobotanical remains from one of the sites which include high proportions of millet (Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica) as well as the western derived cereals wheat (Triticum aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and oat (Avena sativa). The isotopic data indicate domestic omnivores (Canis and Sus) had diets dominated by millet. Minimally offset δ¹⁵N values between herbivore and omnivore fauna suggest low consumption of animal protein by omnivores. Diets of herded animal (Bos and Caprinae) included only low proportions of C4 foods, suggesting that these animals were not regularly foddered with millet plants, and that their grazing areas were mostly beyond the agricultural zone. The wide range in δ¹⁵N values amongst herbivore fauna (4.1‰–11.8‰) suggests grazing occurred in a variety of ecological zones, and this would be consistent with the occurrence of long-distance transport of livestock in the region.     

Gender differences in children's pathways to independent mobility

This paper presents some empirical findings relating to the independent mobility of children in two parts of south-east England – one a south London borough, the other a suburban county north of London. In both locations boys appear to enjoy greater mobility than girls, and become independent much earlier. But closer analysis suggests that girls manage to attain similar levels of independence from adults by travelling more in groups. This collective independence achieved through peers is often overlooked, and may compensate modern children to some extent for their loss of individual freedom.     

Early Neolithic diets at Baijia,Wei River valley,China: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human and faunal remains

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values are presented for faunal and human bone collagen from Baijia, in the Wei River valley region of Shaanxi Province, China. The remains have a calibrated age range of ca. 5709–5389 BC, and correspond with the early Neolithic Laoguantai Period. Stable isotopic results indicate that human diets included millet and probably aquatic foods such as fish and shellfish. Bovid samples are tentatively identified as water buffalo, and have a mean δ¹³C value of −14.6‰, which reflects some millet consumption. Whether bovids were grazing on wild millet, or had diets directly influenced by humans, is not known. The single Sus sample from Baijia had a diet dominated by C3 plants and is thus unlikely to have been a domesticated animal. Overall, the stable isotope results presented here conform to the current concept that the people of the Laoguantai culture were millet farmers, who had subsistence strategies that included hunted wild foods.     

Publications briefly noted

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (QUEENSLAND BRANCH) and CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF AUSTRALIA‐;ASIA RELATIONS. Australia and the Asia‐Pacific Challenge: Queensland Business in Asia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 77, 1996. 24 pp. A$10.00, paper.

EDMUND S.K. FUNG and CHEN JIE. The Attitudes of the PRC Chinese Towards Australia and China, 1989–1996. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐;Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 78, 1996. 29 pp. A$ 10.00, paper.

HAROLD MARSHALL. Ignorance to Enlightenment: fifty Years in Asia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australians in Asia Series no. 18, 1997. xii, 120 pp. A$16.00, paper.

O.H. ISAKSSON. Encounters in Asia: a Soldier's Story. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australians in Asia Series no. 19, 1997. x, 67 pp. Af 14.00, paper.

CURTIS ANDRESSEN and KEICHI KUMAGAI. Escape from Affluence: Japanese Students in Australia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers no. 79, 1996. 116 pp. A$16.00, paper.

HANS ANTLOV. Exemplary Centre, Administrative Periphery, Rural Leadership and the New Order in Java. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series no 68, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1995. xi, 222 pp. A$25.00, paper.

CRAIG BAXTER and SYEDUR RAHMAN. Historical Dictionary of Bangladesh (Asian Historical Dictionaries, ed.Jon Woronoff, no. 2 ), 2nd ed. Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1996. xvii, 285 pp. Foreword, list of acronyms, chronology, map, introduction, dictionary, appendices, bibliography. US$49.50, hardcover.

HARUMI BEFU (ed). Japan Engaging the World: a Century of International Encounter. Denver, Colorado: Teikyo Loretto Heights University Center for Japan Studies, 1996. 120 pp. US$15.00, paper.

MARY ELIZABETH BERRY. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. xxxii, 373 pp. US$45.00, hardcover.

BRIAN BOCKING. A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996. 251 pp. £35.00, hardcover

MARCEL BONNEFF, translated by Rahayu S. Hidayat. Komik Indonesia. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, 1998. x, 226 pp. No price given, paper.

MALCOLM CHALMERS. Confidence‐building in Southeast Asia. Bradford Arms Register Studies no. 6. Trowbridge: Westview Press, 1996. 279 pp. £19.95, paper.

HARUKO TAYA COOK and THEODORE F. COOK. Japan at War: an Oral History. New York: The New Press, 1992. 479 pp. US$39.95, hardcover.

ROMAN CYBRIWSKY. Historical Dictionary of Tokyo. Lanham Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1997. 212 pp. US$49.00 hardcover.

GORDON DANIELS. Sir Harry Parkes: British Representative in Japan 1865–83. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996. 239 pp. £40.00, hardcover.

PHILIP DORLING and DAVID LEE (eds). Australia and Indonesia's Independence, The Renville Agreement: documents 1948. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1996. xxvi, 603 pp. A$34.95, paper.

MONIKA DREXLER. Daoistische Schriftmagie: interpretationen zu den Schrifta‐muletten "fit" im "Daozang". Munchener Ostasiatische Studien vol. 68 Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1994. 241 pp. DM 96, paper.

J. C. EADE. The Thai Historical Record, A Computer Analysis. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, 1996. xix, 265 pp. No price given, paper.

EDWARD FOWLER. San'ya Blues: laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo. New York: Cornell University Press, 1996. xxi, 262 pp. US$29.95, hardcover.

RICHARD M. W. HO. Ch'en Tzu‐ang: innovator in T'ang Poetry. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993. 233 pp. (including a 30‐page Chinese translation). No price given, hardcover.

PIERRE HUTTON. After the Heroic Age and before Australia's Rediscovery of Southeast Asia. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australians in Asia Series no. 20,1997. x, 99 pp. A$16.00, paper.

DAMIEN KINGSBURY. Culture and Politics: issues in Australian Journalism on Indonesia, 1975–93. Brisbane: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia Asia Papers no. 80, 1997. xii, 161 pp. A$20.00, paper.

JULIE LANDAU. Beyond Spring: Tz'u Poems of the Sung Dynasty. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 275 pp. No price given, paper.

SUIWAH LEUNG (ed). Vietnam Assessment, Creating a Sound Investment Climate. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. xiv, 122 pp. US$18.50, paper.

LINCOLN LI. The China Factor in Modern Japanese Thought: the Case of Tachibana Shiraki, 1881–1945. New York: State University of New York Press, 1996. x, 171 pp. No price given, paper.

W. H. McLEOD. Historical Dictionary of Sikhism (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements, ed. Jon Woronoff, no. 5). Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1995. xi, 323pp.

ATSUSHI MAKI. Postwar Private Consumption Patterns of Japanese Households: the Role of Consumer Durables. Canberra: Australian National University, Australia‐Japan Research Centre, Pacific Economic Papers no. 262, December 1996. 20 pp. A$15.00, paper.

SURJIT MANSINGH. Historical Dictionary of India (Asian Historical Dictionaries, ed. Jon Woronoff, no. 20). Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1996. xi, 511pp. Foreword, abbreviations and acronyms, glossary, chronology, maps, introduction, dictionary, bibliography, appendices. US$78.00, hardcover.

JAYANT MENON. Has Japan been “Opening‐Up”?: empirical Analytics of Trade Patterns. Canberra: Australian National University, Australia‐Japan Research Centre, Pacific Economic Papers no. 263, 1997. 21 pp. $A15.00, paper.

EDWIN E. MOISE. Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill, London: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xviii, 304 pp. US$39.95, hardcover.

LUC NAGTEGAAL. Riding the Dutch Tiger, The Dutch East Indies Company and the Northeast Coast of Java, 1680–1743. Verhandelingen 171. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1996. vii, 250 pp. / 50, paper.

HEIDI ROUPP (ed). Teaching World History: a Resource Book. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. xiii, 271 pp. US$66.95, hardcover; US$31.95, paper.

MITZIKO SAWADA. Tokyo Life, New York Dreams: urban Japanese Visions of America, 1890–1924. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xvii, 268 pp. No price given, hardcover.

J. R. SIMPSON, Y. KOJIMA, R. KADA, A. MIYAZAKI and T. YOSHIDA. Japan's Beef Industry‐economics and Technology for the Year 2000. Wallingford, Oxon: CAB International, 1996. 207 pp. No price given, hardcover.

STEPHEN F. TEISER. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. xvii, 275 pp. US$18.95, paper.

ELIZABETH ROCHAT DE LA VALLEE, and CLAUDE LARRE (trans). Su Wen: Les 11 premiers traites. Varitetes Sinologiques no. 70. Moulins‐les‐Metz: Maisonneuve (Editions medicales), 1993. 408 pp. 470 FF, paper.

RICHARD T. WANG. Area Bibliography of China. Lanham, Md. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1997. xiii, 334 pp. US$59.00, hardcover.

NG CHEE YUEN, NICK J. FREEMAN and FRANK H. HUYNH (eds). State‐owned Enterprise Reform in Vietnam, Lessons from Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. viii, 170 pp. No price given, paper.