Holism and individualism in ecological anthropology

Rappaport, Roy A. Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People, enlarged edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. xviii + 501 pp. including illustrations, appendices, bibliographies, and index. $30.00 cloth, $9.95 paper.

Ellen, Roy. Environment, Subsistence and System: The Ecology of Small‐Scale Social Formations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. xvi + 324 pp. including bibliography and indices. $42.50 cloth, $13.95 paper.

Jochim, Michael A. Strategies for Survival: Cultural Behavior in an Ecological Context. New York: Academic Press, 1981. x + 233 pp. including bibliography and index. $18.50 cloth.     

Women and children,war and peace: political agency in time of conflict

The four books under review focus on different aspects of war and conflict, but they all make it clear that women and children are more than their victims. They can be, and often are, active participants in all dimensions of conflict, from taking up arms to working for peace. While all four books paint an appropriately grim picture of war and its impact, there is also some optimism to be found in the resilience shown by women and children as they face the brutality of war and often actively seek to work for peace. Three of the books examine women's involvement in conflict, war, peace and peacemaking, and the aftermath of these events, albeit in very different ways—although all view women as active participants in the process rather than as victims. The fourth book included in this article, Children and global conflict, is not only relevant to the discussion, but also provides another important lens through which we can examine issues of conflict, war and peace. This review article provides insight into the contrition made to the field by these recent books individually, as well as when considered as parts of a whole.     

SOCIALISM AND THE FISHERY: A CASE STUDY OF THE CUBAN SHRIMP FISHERY

Analysis of the problems involved in the use of common property in fisheries has frequently been subsumed under the rubric ‘tragedy of the commons’. In the English-language literature dealing with this topic, little consideration has been given to the exploitation of fish stocks in countries with command economies. In such countries, the state not only acts as a central authority regulating the use of the commons, but is also the owner of the means of production. The socialist state thus possesses powers which should, theoretically, enable it to avoid the biological overfishing and even extinction of stocks that have been frequent occurrences in the fisheries of many countries with capitalist economies. An evaluation of the exploitation of shrimp stocks on the Cuban insular shelf since the revolution of 1959 reveals a mixed record of successes and failures. Stocks have been subject to overfishing, but the state has been able to employ its powers to address at least some of the associated problems. However, the current economic situation in the country makes it more difficult to deal with the impacts on shrimp stocks of habitat degradation resulting from pollution in near-coastal waters, water diversion, and development in the coastal zone. L'analyse des problèmes dûs à la propriété commune dans le domaine des pêches est souvent incorporée à la rubrique « tragédie des communs ». Les publications en anglais sur le sujet se sont peu intéressées à l'exploitation des reserves de poissons, dans les pays àéconomie centralisée. Dans ces pays, l'Etat agit non seulement en tant qu'autorité centrale qui règle l'usage des ressources communes, mais il est en outre propriétaire des moyens de production. En théorie, l'état socialiste possède donc des pouvoirs qui devraient lui permettre d'éviter la surpêche biologique, voire l'extinction des stocks, fréquemment observée dans de nombreux pays capitalistes. Une évaluation de l'exploitation des réserves de crevettes du plateau insulaire cubain, depuis la révolution de 1959, révèle un passé partagé de succès et d'échecs. Bien que les stocks aient été l'objet d'une pêche excessive, l'Etat a pu utiliser ses pouvoirs pour remédier à un partie des problèmes liés à cette surpêche. Néanmoins, la situation économique actuelle du pays rend plus difficile un quelconque traitement de l'impact sur les stocks de crevettes de la dégradation de leur habitat – dégradation due à la pollution des eaux côtières, au détournement des voies d'eau et au développement du littoral.     

Time and the spectral other: Demonstrating against ‘Unite the Right 2’

Recent public protests against right-wing politics in the United States have often demonstrated a sense of surprise at the recurrence of racist, anti-Semitic and fascist ideologies and movements which ought to belong to the past. Using insights from Walter Benjamin, Johannes Fabian and Jacques Derrida, the authors analyze the recent gathering of thousands of counter-demonstrators at the ‘Unite the Right 2’ rally in Washington, DC and discuss how political and moral enemies are rhetorically consigned to another time. The temporality on display at this demonstration was more complex than linear, progressive time. Instead, it consolidated events from the past, present and future into a sense of eternal and recurrent victory. They argue that this temporality is an expression both of Derrida’s ideas about spectrality and Tanya Luhrmann’s analysis of the moral psychology of faith.