Book reviews

TRANSFORMATION SCENE: THE CHANGING CULTURE OF A NEW GUINEA VILLAGE, by Ian Hobgin. The International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1951. xiv + 326 pp. with 2 maps and 22 plates. Price 30s.

AN INTRODUCTION TO WORLD POLITICS. By Professor W. Friedmann. 2nd ed. London, 1952 (Macmillan & Co. Ltd.), pp. xiv + 384. (Maps and tables).

THE SOCIAL SERVICES OF MODERN ENGLAND. By M. Penelope Hall. Routledge, 1952. Pp. viii 332. Price 25s.     

马科斯独裁下的菲律宾土地改革（1972—1986）

菲律宾农村土地分配的不公正状况在马科斯统治初期依然严峻，土地问题的急剧升级加剧了政体的演变，但军管法下的土改并没有使农民的生活状况得到明显改善。马科斯政府虽然与“旧寡头政治执政者们”逐步脱离，但和军人集团、政策制定者及商业权贵结合，实行“亲朋资本主义”政治，继续忽视农民的利益，农村基层组织也为地主势力所把持。制度创新的滞后严重阻碍了菲律宾农村土地改革和农村发展。     

Post-glacial environmental change and hunting-gathering societies of the southern Prairie Peninsula

Evidence from several disciplines supports the proposition that following the Wisconsinan and an initial but brief moist phase of the Holocene, there was a gradual drying trend in the mid-continent Prairie Peninsula that peaked about 7000 years ago, a pattern that was not reversed until about 4000 years ago. Except for minor perturbations, conditions during the past four millennia have essentially been similar to those of the present. Studies in palynology and geomorphology have shown that the climatic regimes of the early/mid Post-glacial had a marked influence on both the biota and landscape erosional patterns, especially along the margins of the Prairie Peninsula. Measurable changes in the landscape and attendant biota show a time-transgressive pattern of drought related phenomena recorded palaeo-ecologically from west to east.Few studies of archaeological sites in the Prairie Peninsula have examined the evidence in and around the sites themselves for data reflecting local environmental dynamics. In fact, earlier models proposed for explaining the evolution of food-procuring systems in eastern North America virtually ignored potential changes in the natural environment. This paper examines data from two archaeological sites along the prairie-forest border in Missouri that contain long cultural sequences. Evidence is presented that pronounced changes in the natural environment occurred and that these biophysical variables are indeed critical for understanding the evolution of food-procuring societies in the American Midwest.