Book reviews

CHINA

ANITA CHAN. China's Workers Under Assault: the Exploitation of Labour in a Globalising Economy. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001. 250 pp. US$ 22.95, paper.

YIJIANG DING. Chinese Democracy after Tiananmen. Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2001. Acknowledgments, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. 172 pp. C$75.00, hardcover.

BARBARA ENTWISLE and GAIL E. HENDERSON (eds). Re‐drawing Boundaries: work, Household and Gender in China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. x, 344 pp. US$19.95, paper.

XIN LIU. In One's Own Shadow: an Ethnographic Account of the Condition of Post‐Reform Rural China. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University Press, 2000. xvi, 246 pp. Illustrations, preface, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. US$15.95, paper.

XUEPING ZHONG. Masculinity Besieged? Issues of Modernity and Male Subjectivity in Chinese Literature of the Late Twentieth Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. 208 pp. Bibliography. US$49.95, hardcover; US$17.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

MARIUS B. JANSEN. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press/Belknap, 2000. xviii, 871 pp. US$35.00, hardcover.

MICHAEL MARRA (trans. and ed.) A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. 398 pp. Glossary, chronology, bibliography, index. US$32.95; US$69.20, paper.

SOUTH, WEST AND CENTRAL ASIA

A. K. HELLUM. A Painter's Year in the Forests of Bhutan. Edmonton and Honolulu: University of Alberta/University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. 120 pp. Appendix, bibliography. US$35.00, paper.

PRADIP N. KHANDWALLA. Revitalizing the State: a Menu of Options. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. 303 pp. Rs. 250, paper.

SHOMPA LAHIRI. Indians in Britain: Anglo‐Indian Encounters, Race and Identity 1880–1930. Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000. 249 pp. Glossary, bibliography, index. US$59.50, hardcover; US$24.50 paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Economic Development of Burma: a Vision and a Strategy. A Study by Burmese Economists. Stockholm: Olof Palme International Center; Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2000. 233 pp. S$30.00, paper.     

Reappraisal of ‘chronospecies’ and the use of Arvicola (Rodentia,Mammalia) for biochronology

The water vole, genus Arvicola, is characterised by a broad geographic distribution throughout Europe and is widespread during the late Middle and Upper Pleistocene. This genus is used as a major biostratigraphic tool within the Quaternary. Specific determinations using the Schmelzband-Differenzierung-Quotient or SDQ have identified many chronospecies within the fossil species Arvicola cantiana (Hinton, 1910). As SDQ calculation remains limited, this study reappraises the Arvicola genus in terms of morphodiversity and morphospace using outline analysis which takes into account the tooth as a whole. Outline analysis suggests that one single species of Arvicola, A. cantiana, was present during the Pleistocene. This species shows great variability with no trends or patterns in morphospace. Thus, these results call into question the reliability of SDQ for specific determinations and throw doubt on the biochronological framework based on Arvicola.     

Big City Labor Markets and Immigrant Economic Performance

Franklin J. James spent much of his career working to understand and improve our metropolitan communities. His interests were varied, ranging from impacts of fiscal and economic distress on urban areas to understanding socioeconomic forces reviving our central cities. During the last several years, Professor James had turned his attention to examining the positive economic impacts immigrants and ethnic communities have for reinvigorating our central cities-and beginning to investigate how non-native American's will impact America's suburbs in metropolitan settings
This preliminary exploration examines destination choices of immigrants, the characteristics of immigrant labor markets, and the determinants of immigrant earnings. The article begins to explore indirect evidence on the economic efficiency with which immigrants and native workers distribute themselves within and among labor markets as well as the assimilation process facing new immigrants. Evidence is presented to explain how the earnings of recent immigrants are affected by their human capital characteristics, their race, and ethnicity, and other factors. We reject the hypothesis that immigrants participate in a tertiary sector of urban labor markets and conclude that the determinants of immigrant earnings are similar enough to those of U.S. natives that it makes sense to assume that they work in the same primary labor market in which most native White Americans work. We find that urban labor markets for immigrants are surprisingly efficient, thus enabling immigrants to take advantage of economic opportunities. A major exception concerns what appears to be a powerful effect of discrimination on the economic progress of Black immigrants.     

In situ oxygen isotope micro-analysis of faunal material and human teeth using a SHRIMP II: a new tool for palaeo-ecology and archaeology

A Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP II) has been used to make high spatial resolution in situ micro-analyses of oxygen isotopes in fish otoliths, and teeth from fossil herbivores and a Neanderthal. Large intra-tooth variations in the oxygen isotopic composition (up to 9‰) were observed in the enamel of herbivores from the Neanderthal fossil site of Payre, consistent with preservation of seasonal cyclicity. The range of isotopic compositions observed in Neanderthal tooth enamel was much smaller (∼3‰), possibly the result of a longer enamel maturation time averaging out variability. An archaeological otolith from a Preceramic site in Northern Peru exhibited marked changes in δ¹⁸O over life, due either to the fish occasionally migrating from the sea to a lower salinity habitat, or to short-lived rises in sea water temperature. A fish otolith from Australia's Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area showed clear seasonal variations, but also a general trend towards isotopically heavier and more saline water, as indicated by higher δ¹⁸O and Sr/Ca values resulting from increased evaporation. The results of these case studies are compared to results of oxygen isotope analysis using more conventional methods and demonstrate the ability of the SHRIMP II to provide precise high spatial resolution in-situ oxygen isotope analyses of a variety of biogenic materials. This approach has major advantages over conventional methods. It can provide rapid, micro-scale isotopic analyses of sub-permil precision without the need for chemical preparation of the sample.     

Applying the H/V Method to Dense Cities. A Case Study of Valencia City

The aim of this study was to apply Nakamura's technique to Valencia city center, after some preliminary tests in Barcelona. Previous studies of Barcelona had measured periods in restrictive conditions and in various types of material ranging from very soft soil (with a predominant period of approximately 2 s) to rock (0.3 s), and under different measurement conditions. The Valencia city center measurements were taken by using the distance from buildings and car and pedestrian traffic to construct a measurement grid that was as regular as possible. We also estimated possible soil-structure interaction to detect potential vulnerability.