The spring,the seed and the tree: Gregory of Tours on the wonders of nature

In the preface to his liturgical calendar The reckoning of the course of the stars Bishop Gregory of Tours (538–594) — author also of Ten books of histories and Eight books of miracles as well as of a Commentary on the understanding of the Psalter (of which, however, only fragments are preserved) — declares God's “wonders” of the natural world to be superior to the seven ancient wonders of the world. The reason for this is that the latter, being works of men, are subject to decay and destruction, while the former, as miraculous works of God, are divinely sustained and renewed daily or annually, thereby becoming imperishable. An examination of the associative contexts in which two of these wonders — the sea (enlarged to include water in its various forms) and plant life — occur in the rest of Gregory's works reveals several essential themes of his thinking not only about nature, but also about God, man and society. Thought, for him, nature as a (divinely sustained) system of regularities does exist as a kind of backdrop, sudden unpredictable divine — and sometimes diabolic — action in and through phenomena occupies the center of the stage. Gregory tends to see this action in the shape of what he regards as pre-existing images or patterns of invisible spiritual truth, to which the visible, even material, structure of events must necessarily conform. He shows, too, how this action could reflect as well as meet various needs of the individual and of society as a whole. An association which recurs almost constantly in his treatment of divine action in these natural phenomena, which he sometimes describes as analogous to that in man, is precisely that with the cluster of closely related concepts of renewal, rebirth and creation ex nihilo. Together with what appears as an extreme, as it were ‘poetical’, sensitivity to sudden perceptions and intuitions, something like a longing for and surrender to what he describes as “astonished admiration” may have helped to make possible his recognition of that which he designated as divine creative power in the world of visible reality as well as in man's inner experience. His seeing this as an essential dynamic of the holy may mean that he felt it to be a fundamental need and concern not only of the individual personality but also, more obscurely, of the society in which he found himself.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Francis G. Castles (ed.), Australia Compared. People, Policies and Politics (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1991) pp.290. $22.95 ISBN 0 04 442339 X.

A. Kouzmin and N. Scott (eds), Dynamics in Australian Public Management: Selected Essays (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1990) pp.454. $34.95 ISBN 0 7329 0187 1.

Raymond Markey, The Making of the Labor Party in New South Wales 1880–1900 (Sydney: New South Wales University Press, 1988) pp.320. $24.95 ISBN 0 86840 370 9.

Rosemary Whip and Colin A. Hughes, Political Crossroad: The 1989 Queensland Election (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1991) pp.270. $29.95 ISBN 0 7022 2362 X.

Glenn Withers (ed.), Commonality and Difference: Australia and the United States (Sydney: Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian/American Educational Foundation, 1991) pp.138. $19.95 ISBN 1 86373 074 5.

Comparative and international politics

Joel D. Aberbach, Keeping A Watchful Eye: The Politics of Congressional Oversight (Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 1990) pp.288. $US12.95 ISBN 0 81570 059 8.

Zehra F. Arat, Democracy & Human Rights in Developing Countries (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991) pp.219 $n.p. ISBN 1 55587 170 4.

Ian Bellany, A Basis for Arms Control (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1991) pp.155. $n.p. ISBN 1 85521 051 7.

Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy (London and New York: Verso, 1991) pp.421. $n.p. ISBN 0 86091 318 X.

Ivo Daalder, The Nature and Practice of Flexible Response: NATO Strategy and Theater Nuclear Forces Since 1967 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991) pp.411. $US57.00 ISBN 0 231 17520 0.

John Darwin, The End of the British Empire: The Historical Debate (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.128. $27.95 ISBN 0 631 16428 6.

Bogdan Denitch, The End Of The Cold War: European Unity, Socialism, and the Shift in Global Power (London: Verso, 1990) pp.123. $24.95 ISBN 0 86091 532 8.

David Donnison, A Radical Agenda: After the New Right and the Old Left (London: Rivers Oram Press, 1991) pp.215. £9.95. ISBN 1 85489 030 1.

Peter Drysdale (ed.), The Soviets and the Pacific Challenge (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991) pp.160. $17.95 ISBN 1 86373 010 9.

Leon Hurwitz and Christian Lequesne (eds), The State of the European Community (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1991) pp.475. $49.95. ISBN 1 55587 249 2.

Tetsuya Kataoka, The Price of a Constitution: The Origin of Japan's Postwar Politics, (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1991) pp.237. $n.p. ISBN 0 8448 1714 7.

Daphne A Kenyon and John Kincaid (eds) Competition among States and Local Governments (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, with the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1991) pp.285. $n.p. ISBN 0 87766 517 6.

Jan‐Erik Lane and Svante O. Ersson, Politics and Society in Western Europe, 2^nd edn, (London: Sage, 1991) pp.421. £10.95. ISBN 0 8039 8407 3.

Stephanie Lawson, The Failure of Democratic Politics in Fiji (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) pp.307. $90.00 ISBN 0 19 827322 3.

E.M. McLeay (ed.), The 1990 General Election: Perspectives on Political Change in New Zealand, Occasional Publication No.3 (Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington, 1991) pp.183. $NZ29.95. ISBN 0 475 11202 4. ISSN 1170 7356.

Henry Phelps Brown, Egalitarianism and the Generation of Inequality (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) pp.552. $n.p. ISBN 0 19828 390 3.

Philip R. Pryde, Environmental Management in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.314. $37.50 ISBN 0 521 40905 5.

Anthony Smith The Age of Behemoths. The Globalization of Mass Media Firms (New York: A Twentieth Century Fund Paper. Priority Press Publications, 1991) pp.80. $n.p. ISBN 0 87078 325 4.

Immanuel Wallerstein, Geopolitics and Geoculture: Essays on the Changing World‐System (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.242. $35.00 ISBN 0 52140604 8.

Daniel Warner, An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1991) pp.151. $US30.00 ISBN 1 55S7 266 2.

Political theory and methodology

Norman Barry, Welfare (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990) pp.144. $24.95 ISBN 0 335 15595 2.

Peter Beilbarz, Labour's Utopias: Bolshevism, Fabianism, Social Democracy (London and New York: Routledge, 1992) pp.168. $49.95 ISBN 0 415 06616 6.

Sebastian de Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989) pp.497. $n.p. ISBN 0 7450 0634 5.

Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction (London: Verso, 1991) pp.242. $29.95 ISBN 0 86091 538 7.

Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller Jr., and Jeffrey Paul (eds), Ethics, Politics, and Human Nature (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991), pp.191. $39.95 ISBN 0 631 17885 6.

Barry Hindess, Choice, Rationality, and Social Theory (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988) pp.132. $70.00 ISBN 0 04 301306 6.

A. Khoshkish, Power or Authority? The Entelechy of Power (Lanham: University Press of America, 1991) pp.128. $n.p. ISBN 0 8191 8395 4.

Frank Lewins, Social Science Methodology: A Brief but Critical Introduction (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.110. $14.95 ISBN 0 7329 1331 4.

David Miller (ed.), assisted by Janet Coleman, William Connolly and Alan Ryan, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.570. $39.95 ISBN 0 631 17944 5.

Raymond Plant, Modern Political Thought (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.398. $34.95 ISBN 0 631 14224 X.

Alan Udoff, Leo Strauss's Thought: Towards a Critical Engagement (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1991) pp.327. $n.p. ISBN 1 55587 232 8.     

SPATIAL EQUILIBRIUM WITH FOOTLOOSE FIRMS*

ABSTRACT. We determine the location equilibria in a duopoly model under a novel solution concept. Typically, spatial equilibrium is described as either a simultaneous price and location game, or else as a two-stage location-then-price game. We introduce a new alternative, a two-stage price-then-location game. It is well known that no (pure strategy) equilibrium usually exists under the two standard solution concepts when products are homogeneous. We show this is also true for the new concept. We then provide numerical results for a specific functional form (the logit model) which introduces product heterogeneity into the standard framework, restoring equilibrium when the degree of substitutability between products is not too small.     

The Ngovo Group: an industry with polished stone tools and pottery in Lower Zaïre

Summary Now, for the first time, it is possible to place in an exact archaeological context the polished tools which have been collected for many years on the surface in the savanna immediately to the south of the equatorial forest. In Lower Zaïre, in an area of 6000 km², polished tools have been found systematically associated with a particular type of pottery. This pottery, which was previously known as Groupvi pottery and which we propose calling Ngovo group pottery is very distinctive.Although faunal remains associated in one case were of wild animals, someElaeïs andCanarium nuts could indicate the beginnings of agriculture. A series of dates in good agreement place these polished tools and this pottery within the last two centuries bc.At the present time, iron-working in Lower Zaïre has not been dated prior to the second century ad. This Early Iron Age is associated with the Kay Ladio group pottery which is possibly derived from the Ngovo group.

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Résumé Pour la première fois, il est possible de préciser le contexte archéologique des outils polis que depuis longtemps on recueillait en surface dans les savanes immédiatement au sud de la forêt équatoriale.Au Bas-Zaïre, dans une zone de plus de 6000 km², des outils polis ont été trouvés systématiquement en association avec une céramique d'un type particulier. Cette céramique, connue précédemment sous le nom de céramique du groupevi et que l'on propose d'appeler dorénavant groupe de Ngovo, est très caractéristique.Bien que les restes de faune qui y sont associés dans une grotte soient ceux d'animaux sauvages, des noix d'Elaeïs et deCanarium indiquent peut-être un début d'agriculture.Une série de datations remarquablement convergentes placent ces outils polis et cette céramique durant les deux derniers siècles bc.La métallurgie n'est jusqu'à présent pas datée au Bas-Zaïre avant le 2e siècle ad. Cet âge du fer ancien est associé à la céramique du groupe Kay Ladio qui dérive peut-être du groupe de Ngovo.

     

GAS LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF FATTY ACIDS IN FOOD RESIDUES FROM CERAMICS FOUND IN THE SOUTHWESTERN CAPE,SOUTH AFRICA

Gas liquid chromatography was used to analyse residues adhering to the inside of excavated potsherds from dated South African sites. The results suggested marine animal fat, possibly seal, had been cooked in the vessels. Fat of modern seals was baked and also analysed as a control sample. This gave similar results. The importance of seals in the prehistoric diet of the Southwestern Cape is supported by a large number of seal bones in the associated faunal material.     

Australian liberalism and corporatism

George Brandis, Tom Harley and Don Markwell (eds), Liberals face the Future: Essays on Australian Liberalism, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 386, $14.99 (paper) and Katharine West, The Revolution in Australian Politics, Melbourne, Penguin Books, 1984, pp. 116, $4.95 (paper).

John Rickard, H.B. Higgins: the rebel as judge. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.350. $29.95 (cloth).

Stuart Macintyre, Militant: the life and times of Paddy Troy, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.225. $19.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper).

Alan Metcalfe, In Their Own Right: The Rise to Power of Joh's Nationals, St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1984, pp.268. $20.00 (cloth)

Peter Love. Labour and the Money Power: Australian Labour Populism 1890–1950, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp.240. $9.95 (paper).

L.F. Crisp, George Houston Reid: Federation Father; Federal Failure? Canberra, ANU, 1979; The Later Australian Federation Movement 1883–1901: Outline and Bibliography, 1979; George Richard Dibbs: Premier of New South Wales, Prophet of Unification, 1980; Federation Prophets Without Honour: A.B. Piddington, Tom Price, H.B.Higgins, 1980; The Unrelenting Penance of Federalist Isaac Isaacs, 1897–1947, 1981; Charles Cameron Kingston: Radical Federationist, 1984.

Philip Toyne and Daniel Vachon, Growing Up the Country: The Pitjantjatjara struggle for their land, Melbourne, Penguin Books and McPhee Gribble, 1984, pp.157. $6.95 (paper)

Jim Kemeny, The Great Australian Nightmare, Melbourne, Georgian House, 1983, pp. 130. $14.95 (paper).

Peter Sekuless, The Lobbyists, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp. 145. $14.95 (paper).

Jennifer Aldred (ed.), Industrial Confrontation, Sydney, Allen and Unwin and Australian Institute‐of Political Science, 1984, pp.111. $15.95 (cloth), $7.95 (paper).

Glenn Withers (ed.), Bigger or Smaller Government? Papers from the sixth symposium of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 1982, Canberra, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 1983, pp. ix, 115. $8.50 (paper)

Commonwealth Grants Commission, Equity in Diversity: Fifty Years of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1983, pp. 180. $15.60 (cloth), $9.90 (paper).

Robin Walker, Under Fire: A History of Tobacco Smoking in Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, pp. 155. $19.50 (cloth).1

Hugh Saddler, Energy in Australia: Politics and Economics, Sydney, Allen and Unwin,1981, pp.205. $7.95 (paper)

Brian Kennedy, A Tale of Two Mining Cities: Johannesburg and Broken Hill 1885–1925, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp. 146. $25.00 (cloth)

Basile Kerblay, Modern Soviet Society, London, Methuen, 1983, pp.321. $37.50 (cloth), $23.95 (paper).

Gary Littlejohn, A Sociology ofthe Soviet Union, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.286. $16.95 (paper).

Talal Asad and Roger Owen (eds), Sociology of “Developing Societies”: The Middle East, London, Macmillan, 1983, pp.264. $11.95 (paper).

Richard Mulgan, Democracy and Power in New Zealand: a study of New Zealand politics, Auckland, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp.171. $A12.99 (paper)

Rex Mortimer, Stubborn Survivors, ed. H. Feith and R. Tiffen, Monash Papers on South East Asia No. 10, 1984, pp.xvii, 180. $6.00 (paper).

Philip Lowe and Jane Goyder, Environmental Groups in Politics, London, Allen and Unwin, 1983, pp. 208. $18.95 (paper)

John Surrey (ed.), The Urban Transportation of Irradiated Fuel, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 336. $14.95 (paper)

Ian Hancock, White Liberals, Moderates and Radicals in Rhodesia 1953–1980, London and Sydney, Croom Helm, 1984, pp.230. $31.95 (cloth).

Peter Hain, Political Trials in Britain, London, Allen Lane, 1984. pp 318. $29.95 (cloth).

Anthony Hyman, Afghanistan Under Soviet Domination, 1964–1983, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 235. $18.95 (paper).

Ivor Crewe and Anthony Fox, British Parliamentary Constituencies: A Statistical Compendium, London, Faber and Faber, 1984, pp.397. $67.95 (cloth).

Frederick C. Teiwes, Leadership, Legitimacy, and Conflict in China: From a Charismatic Mao to the Politics of Succession, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.167. $21.95 (paper)

John Wong, The Political Economy of China's Changing Relations with Southeast Asia, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.246. $14.95 (paper)

Adrian Leftwich (ed.), What is Politics? The Activity and its Study, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1984, pp. 172. $25.00 (cloth), $11.95 (paper).

Ted Benton, The Rise and Fall of Structural Marxism: Althusser and his Influence, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 259. $14.95 (paper).

Ben Fine, Marx's Capital, London, Macmillan, second edition, 1984, pp. 87. $9.95 (paper).

Stefan Collini, Donald Winch and John Burrow, That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth‐Century Intellectual History, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 385. $25.00 (paper).

William W. Bostock, Approaches to Political Explanation, Melbourne, RDI Press, 1983, pp.123. $9.00 (paper).

Ronald Beiner, Political Judgment, London, Methuen, 1983, pp. 199. $17.95 (paper).

John F. Wilson, The Politics of Moderation: An Interpretation of Plato's Republic, New York, University of America Press, 1984, pp.213. $12.25 (U.S.) (paper).

Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, trans. P.J. Rhodes, Penguin Books, 1984, pp. 198. $6.95 (paper).

Carol O'Donnell, The Basis of the Bargain: Gender, Schooling and Jobs, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1984, pp.186. $19.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper).

Dorothy H. Broom (ed.), Unfinished Business: Social Justice for Women in Australia, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1984, pp.213. $24.95 (cloth), $10.95 (paper).

S. Fabian and M. Loh, The Changemakers: Ten Significant Australian Women. Milton, Jacaranda Press, 1983, pp. 190. $14.25 (paper).     

INTERREGIONAL ARBITRAGE AND THE SUPPLY OF LOANABLE FUNDS: A MODEL OF INTERMEDIATE FINANCIAL CAPITAL MOBILITY*

ABSTRACT This paper develops a model of regional financial markets which can encompass different degrees of spatial financial integration. The behavior of the system is analyzed under alternative assumptions about the time frame of analysis and the extent of the flexibility of interest rates. It is argued that links may exist between regional real and financial sectors even in the short run and that such links must, through the regional balance of payments, exist in the long run, even where there is perfect financial spatial integration. It is observed that these relationships have generally been ignored by regional economic model builders.     

NONSURVEY INPUT-OUTPUT ESTIMATION TECHNIQUES: EVIDENCE ON THE STRUCTURE OF ERRORS

ABSTRACT This paper concerns the nature and extent of error introduced to regional input-output multipliers by errors associated with the estimation of regional purchase coefficients (rpc's). Using the Washington State input-output model and computer simulations, estimates of multiplier error are generated for two distinct sources of rpc error. The results indicate that multiplier error from both rpc sources may be significant and support the findings of previous studies which highlight the importance of error introduced to the household purchases column for multiplier accuracy.