Why Does the Cook Islands Still Need Overseas Aid?

The Cook Islands Government spends more than 40 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Its tax revenue is capped at 25 per cent of GDP under a 1998 austerity package agreed with its creditors New Zealand, Nauru and the Asian Development Bank. Non-tax revenue is 5 per cent of GDP, and external aid fills the resulting gap. This recently renewed reliance on aid contrasts sharply with the strong performance of the economy’s private sector, driven by a booming tourism industry, which has pushed the balance of payments into a huge surplus and raises important questions about the allocation of the gains from growth.     

The exploitation of marine resources at Saruq al‐Hadid: Insights into the movement of people and resources in Bronze and Iron Age south‐eastern Arabia

Marine resources were an integral and consistent component of subsistence strategies employed in south‐eastern Arabia throughout late prehistory. Of particular interest is the movement of these resources from the coast to interior sites and the implications of this movement for transhumance and trade in the region during this period. Marine species were frequently identified in the faunal assemblage from the inland site of Saruq al‐Hadid, dating from the Bronze Age to Early Iron Age (c.2000–c.800 BCE). This included marine fish species, along with two cormorant species (Phalacrocorax sp.) and several fragments of dugong (Dugong dugon). Twenty‐seven families of marine shell were also identified in the remains recovered from the site. The presence of these remains at this inland site demonstrates that resources were frequently moved from the coast to the interior throughout Saruq al‐Hadid’s occupation, indicative of their enduring significance in subsistence strategies employed at the site. This paper presents the results of zooarchaeological analysis of these remains and discusses the significance of their presence at Saruq al‐Hadid, with reference to subsistence, craft production and intra‐regional exchange during the Bronze and Iron Ages.     

Index to Folklore 119, 2008

THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA : A History of the Intrusion of the Hottentots and Bantu into the Hunting Grounds of the Bushmen. By G. W. STOW, F.G.S. Edited by G. M. THEAL. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1905. Pp. xvi + 618, with as Plates and a Map. Price 21s. Reviewed by N. W. Thomas.

ORIGINES ISLANDICAE, edited and translated by GUDBRAND VIGFUSSON and F. YORE POWELL. Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1905. Reviewed by L. Winifred Faraday.

ENGLISH MEDICINE IN THE ANGLO-SAXON TIMES. By JOSEPH FRANK PAYNE. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1904. Reviewed by Bertram C. A. Windle.

JUL : ALLESÆLESTIDEN ; HEDENSK, KRISTEN JULEFEST. Vol. I. By H. F. Feilberg. Copenhagen : 1904. Reviewed by W. A. Craigie.

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE, Vol. XVII., Oct.–Dec, 1904. Reviewed by N. W. Thomas.