Reviews

THE GLASS CURTAIN BETWEEN ASIA AND EUROPE. Raghavan Iyer (ed.). London, Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 356. Australian price 64/6d.

NEO‐COLONIALISM: THE LAST STAGE OF IMPERIALISM. Kwame Nkrumah. London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965. Pp. xx + 280. Australian price 66/‐.

THE ELEPHANTS AND THE GRASS. Cecil V. Crabb. New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. Pp. xiii + 237. Australian price 62/‐.

CHINA AND THE BOMB. Morton Halperin. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 166, $5.10.

ON ESCALATION: METAPHORS AND SCENARIOS. Herman Kahn. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 308. $6.60.

NUCLEAR DISPERSAL IN ASIA AND THE INDO‐PACIFIC REGION. A. L. Burns, Nina Heathcote and G. P. King. Canberra, The Australian institute of International Affairs and The Australian National University, 1965. Pp. ii + 101. $1.50 Australian.

THE SECURITY OF SOUTHERN ASIA. D. E. Kennedy. For The Institute for Strategic Studies. London, Chatto and Windus, 1965. Pp. xi + 101. $5.80 Australian.

ISLAM IN THE MODERN NATIONAL STATE. E. I. J. Rosenthal. London. Cambridge University Press, 1965. Pp. xxi + 416. 55/‐ stg.

ISLAM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. J. Horris Proctor (ed.). London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. viii + 221. $7 Australian.

LIVING WITH ASIA. J. F. Cairns. Melbourne, Lansdowne Press, 1965. Pp. 179. $2.50 Australian.

BARBARIAN BEDS. THE ORIGIN OF THE CHAIR IN CHINA. C. P. Fiiz‐Gerald. Canberra, The Australian National University; London, The Cresset Press, 1965. Pp. xvii + 85. Australian price £5/5/‐.

THE CHINESE MODEL. Werner Klatt (ed.). Hong Kong University Press, 1965. Pp. xix + 233. Australian price 34/6d.

CHINESE COMMUNIST EDUCATION. RECORDS OF THE FIRST DECADE. Stewart Fraser (ed.). Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 1965. Pp. xvi + 542. U.S. $10.

THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN. Herbert Passin (ed.). For the American Assembly, Columbia University. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1966. Pp. ix + 169. $U.S. 3.95.

DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN. G. W. Choudhury. Vancouver, University of British Columbia, 1964. Pp. xix + 309. $6.00 Canadian.

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. J. S. Dickey (ed.). New York, The American Assembly, Columbia University, 1964. Pp. 184. $U.S. 3.95.     

Obedient Passion—Passionate Obedience: Ashraf Ali Thanawi's Sermons on the Love of the Prophet

Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1863–1943) was one of the most influential South Asian preachers and authors of the twentieth century. His sermons range from Friday sermons in Arabic to those held before select disciples or at mass rallies in Urdu, and they were printed ever since his lifetime in great number and consistency. This article is particularly interested in the emotional roles allotted to preacher and audience and the overlap between religious and emotional dimensions of the communication process. Against the background of the changing roles of emotions in colonial India and the turn of preaching to print, this contribution focuses on sermons that concern the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet (mīlādu ‘n‐nabī), a practice that was central for an emotionalised piety directed towards the person of Muhammad and was highly contested. Thanawi elaborates on the necessity, limits, and cultivation of the love towards the Prophet and discusses the evocation and expression, intentionality, and temporality of the Muslims’ ideal emotional practices. Maintaining limits of devotion serves as the basis for an even more passionate love. Obedience, in preaching as an emotional practice as much as in the religious feelings towards the Prophet, is central to develop and communicate feelings that are all‐pervading, continuous, and unimpaired.     

Experimental Boat and Ship Archaeology: Principles and Methods

The need for experiments to study physical aspects of craft of the past is stated, as well as the necessity for them to have clear aims and to follow the established principles of scientific enquiry. These principles are discussed in this joint paper by ten maritime archaeologists and others, together with methods and some points of management critical to their application in this field.     

Human biology in the Classic Maya collapse: Evidence from paleopathology and paleodiet

We review evidence from human biology—paleopathological and isotopic paleodietary studies on ancient Maya skeletons—to assess the validity of ecological models of the Classic Maya collapse, in which elevated disease and deteriorating diet are commonly assumed. To be upheld, the health arguments of ecological models require that the Maya disease burden (1) was greater than that for many other societies and (2) increased over the span of occupation. The dietary argument requires (1) consistent change in diet from Preclassic and Early Classic Periods to the Terminal Classic and (2) increasing social divergence in diet. A correlation between diet and disease is necessary to link these arguments. Neither pathology nor isotopic data consistently support these criteria. Instead, it appears that local environmental and political factors created diversity in both disease burden and diet. In view of the human biological data, we are skeptical of ecological models as generalized explanations for the abandonment of Classic Maya sites in the southern lowlands.