Begging Letters: Tin Trunk Literacy and the Empathy Economy of Tristan da Cunha,c. 1909–39

European colonialism fostered ‘radically constrained’ literacies in the global south dominated by the epistolary form produced by ‘tin trunk literati’ frequently scribing as amanuenses for collectives. Literacy on the British mid-South Atlantic island colony of Tristan da Cunha was marginal to the nineteenth century male exchange economy and consequently relegated to the female domestic sphere. With the shift from sail to steam in trans-oceanic shipping at the turn of the twentieth century the male exchange economy vanished and female literacy acquired a vital new importance in the creation and maintenance of an empathy economy with the Atlantic mainlands generating the manufactured imports essential to the colony’s survival. The low literacy level and new dependence for subsistence on writing undermined the patriarchal authority of ‘headmen’ and gave a small group of female amanuenses effective political power on the island. The latter worked hard to maintain their newfound power by thwarting repeated metropolitan attempts to spread literacy or socialise the island economy and fostering fear and ignorance of the outside world among the islanders. The profoundly conservative and even oppressive nature of ‘functional literacy’ on Tristan da Cunha in the first half of the twentieth century provides a corrective to the emancipatory claims made for ‘tin trunk literacy’ elsewhere in the global south.     

‘Black Economic Empowerment’, Business and the State in South Africa

‘Black Economic Empowerment’ (BEE) has been a major policy thrust of the democratic governments in South Africa since 1994 in attempting to redress the effects of apartheid. In this article, we explore the historical precedents to BEE in South Africa, review the different steps taken in promoting it, and assess some of its outcomes to date. We argue that BEE can take only limited forms because of the economic policy constraints in which it has been incorporated. Moreover, these forms have an increasingly managerial logic that further restricts what can be achieved. Short of a major shift in conceptions of — and policy for — BEE, meaningful ‘empowerment’ is unlikely to take place.     

Exploring Goodness-of-Fit and Spatial Correlation Using Components of Tango's Index of Spatial Clustering

The ability to detect anomalies such as spatial clustering in data sets plays an important role in spatial data analysis, leading to interest in test statistics identifying patterns exhibiting significant levels of clustering. Toward this end, Tango (1995) proposed a statistic (and its associated distribution under a null hypothesis of no clustering) assessing overall patterns of spatial clustering in a set of observed regional counts. Rogerson (1999) observed that Tango's index may be decomposed into the summation of two distinct statistics, the first mirroring standard tests of goodness-of-fit (GOF), and the second an index of spatial association (SA) similar to Moran's I . In this article, we investigate the effectiveness of Rogerson's expression of Tango's statistic in separating GOF from SA in data sets containing clusters. We simulate data under the null hypothesis of no clustering as well as two alternative hypotheses. The first alternative hypothesis induces a poor fit from the null hypothesis while maintaining independent observations and the second alternative hypothesis induces spatial dependence while maintaining fit. Using Rogerson's decomposition and leukemia incidence data from upstate New York, we show graphically that one is unable to statistically distinguish poor fit from autocorrelation.     

Book reviews

CHINA

CHRISTOPHER I. BECKWITH. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: a History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987. xxii, 281 pp. First paperback edition with a new Afterword, 1993. No price given, paper.

GREGOR BENTON. China's Urban Revolutionaries: explorations in the History of Chinese Trotskyism, 1921–1952 . (Revolutionary Studies) New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1996. 269 pp. US$55.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

GUANLONG CAO. The Attic: memoir of a Chinese Landlord's Son. Translated by Guanlong Cao and Nancy Moskin. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1996. 245 pp. US$24.95, hardcover.

JOHN FITZGERALD. Awakening China: politics, Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. 461 pp. US$69.95, hardcover.

MELVYN GOLDSTEIN, WILLIAM SIEBENSCHUH and TASHI TSERING. The Struggle for Modern Tibet: the Autobiography of Tashi Tsering. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. xi, 220 pp. Photographs, map, index. US$27.95, hardcover.

DAVID S. G. GOODMAN and GERALD SEGAL (eds). China Rising: nationalism and Interdependence. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. xi, 196 pp. Contents, list of tables, notes on contributors, index. A$33.95, paper.

KEUN LEE. Chinese Firms and the State in Transition: property Rights and Agency Problems in the Reform Era. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1991. xi, 210 pp. Tables, foreword, acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, index. No price given, hardcover.

LILY XIAO HONG LEE. The Virtue of Yin: studies on Chinese Women. Broadway, Sydney: Wild Peony, 1994. 117 pp. A$18.95, paper.

JOHN MAKEHAM. Name and Actuality in Early Chinese Thought. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1994. 286 pp. US$17.95, hardcover.

EDWIN E. MOISE. Modern China, A History. 2nd ed. London and New York: Longman, 1994. 250 pp. Index, illustrations, maps. £14.99, paper.

MAYSING H. YANG (ed.). Taiwan's Expanding Role in the International Arena. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. 216 pp. Foreword, preface, index. US$52.95, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

WINSTON DAVIS. The Moral and Political Naturalism of Baron Kato Hiroyuki (Japan Research Monograph no. 13). Berkeley: Center for Japanese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1996. x, 125 pp. Contents, abbreviations. No price given, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

WILLIAM CASE. Elites and Regimes in Malaysia: revisiting a Consociational Democracy . Clayton, Melbourne: Monash Asia Institute, 1996. xiv, 268 pp. A$29.95, paper.

D. D. MEARNS and C. HEALEY (eds). Remaking Maluku: social Transformation in Eastern Indonesia. Darwin: Centre of South East Asian Studies, Northern Territory University. 1996. 185 pp. No price given, paper.

PANIVONG NORINDR. Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997. x, 205 pp. US$44.95, hardcover; US$16.95, paper.

SAYA S. SHIRAISHI. Young Heroes: the Indonesian Family in Politics (Studies on Southeast Asia no. 22). Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1997. 183 pp. Bibliography. No price given.