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.     

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.     

Jack of Two Trades,Master of Both: Smelting and Healing in Ufipa,Southwestern Tanzania

Pre-colonial African ironworking was much more than just a technology; it encompassed economic, social, political, symbolic, and even healing components. It is only unfortunate that archaeometallurgical research has not availed equal weight to each aspect, hence the apparent obscurity of some of them. Revealing the multiple facets of healing as manifested in ironworking technology, this paper attempts to rectify this imbalance. Essentially, the paper examines pros and cons of combining ironworking with healing of humans, a phenomenon common among ironworking communities in pre-colonial Africa. It is revealed that by combining the two, iron smelters ensured themselves of gains beyond technology and economy; they also became socially and politically influential. In addition, the paper notes that there existed a very close connection between healing and ritualism not only among smelter–healers but also conventional healers. After a thorough examination, it is found that the connection between the two was also pragmatic and deliberately instituted by the practitioners in order to enhance monopoly of their trade and protect their inventions against interlopers.     

Dixie's Power in War and Peace

Book reviewed:
Joseph A. Fry. Dixie Looks Abroad: The South and U.S. Foreign Relations , 1789 – 1973.