Book reviews

CHINA

RICHARD MADSEN. China's Catholics: tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 191 pp. 11 b/w photographs, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$27.50, hardcover.

WANG ZHENG. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: oral and Textual Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xv, 420 pp. 8 b/w photographs, chronology, glossary, bibliography, index. US$50.00, hardcover; US$18.95, paper.

YUEZHI ZHAO. Media, Market, and Democracy in China: between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998. US$44.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

ALAN KNIGHT and YOSHIKO NAKANO (eds). Reporting Hong Kong: foreign Media and the Handover. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999. 223 pp. Illustrations, introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. £14.99, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

JEONG‐HYUN SHIN. The Trap of History: understanding Korean Short Stories. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xv, 115 pp. US$15.00, paper.

SIDNEY HAYDEN LESBIREL. NIMBY Politics in Japan: energy Siting and the Management of Environmental Conflict . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. 187 pp. £29.50, hardcover.

G. CAMERON HURST III. Armed Martial Arts of Japan: swordsmanship and Archery. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. 243 pp. Introduction, 21 b/w illustrations, notes, glossary, references, index. US$30.00, hardcover.

SOUTH ASIA

G. V. TAGARE. Saivism. Some Glimpses. Contemporary Researches in Hindu Philosophy and Religion, No. 4. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1996. vii, 161 pp. Index. Rs. 180.

LATA MANI. Contentious Traditions: the Debate on Sati in Colonial India. University of California Press, 1998. 260 pp. 5 b/w illustrations. US$47.00, hardcover; US$18.00, paper.

T. SCARLETT EPSTEIN, A. P. SURYANARAYANA and T. THIMMEGOWDA. Village Voices. Forty Years of Rural Transformation in South India . New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. 242 pp. Introduction, photographs, appendices, maps, glossary. Rs. 195, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

M. NGAOSYVATHN and P. NGAOSYVATHN. Paths to Conflagration: fifty Years of Diplomacy and Warfare in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, 1778–1828. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1998. No price given, paper.

PATRICK VINTON KIRCH. The Lapita Peoples: ancestors of the Oceanic World. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997. xxv, 353 pp. Plates, figures, maps, tables, preface, bibliographical references, index. US$32.95, paper.

HELEN CREESE (ed and trans). Parthayana, The Journeying of Partha: an Eighteenth‐century Balinese Kakawin. Bibliotheca Indonesica 27, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998. xi, 504 pp. NLG 80.

GENERAL ASIA

FRANK B. TIPTON. The Rise of Asia: economics, Society and Politics in Contemporary Asia. Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia, 1998. xiv, 557 pp. Tables, foreword and acknowledgments, bibliography, index. A$42.95, paper.     

Optimal Environmental policies for Sustainable Growth: A Two-Region Model

I examine the sustainability of a spatial economy consisting of an advanced region and a developing region. The advanced region aids the developing region with technological knowledge on pollution abatement. The model is based mainly on that of van den Bergh and Nijkamp (1995) but differs in that the aids are determined through an optimal control method. The numerical simulation shows that the optimal control policy is thought to be effective in the sense that almost all trajectories of the welfare index of the advanced region are single-peaked with a fairly long duration of growth, and the policy favorably affects the welfare level of the developing region.     

Early Maya Ritual Practices and Craft Production: Late Middle Preclassic Ritual Deposits Containing Obsidian Artifacts at Ceibal,Guatemala

This article examines Preclassic Maya ritual practices and craft production by means of a study of ritual deposits containing obsidian artifacts dated mostly to the late Middle Preclassic period (700–350 b.c.) at Ceibal, Guatemala. New ritual practices developed at Ceibal during this period, possibly through political interactions and negotiation involving emerging elites and other diverse community members. Common objects in ritual deposits in the public plaza shifted from greenstone celt caches to other artifacts, including those made of obsidian. The inhabitants of Ceibal engaged in various kinds of craft production, including the manufacture of obsidian prismatic blades. They also conducted public rituals in the Central Plaza, depositing exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores and other artifacts with symbolic significance in caches and as offerings in incipient elite burials and interments of sacrificed individuals. These cores clearly demonstrate the use of a sophisticated blade technology. Like greenstone objects, exhausted polyhedral obsidian cores deposited in cruciform arrangements along the east–west axis of the central E-Group plaza were used as symbols and markers of the center and four cardinal directions within the Maya cosmos. Public rituals were important for creating collective identities and for processes of political negotiation within the community. Emerging elites likely came to play an increasingly important role in public rituals as principal performers and organizers, setting the stage for later public events centered on rulers.     

Modeling the Impact of Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce on the Organization of the Logistics Industry

In this article, we analyze patterns and recent trends of the logistics industry with specific emphasis on the impact of business-to-business (B-to-B) electronic commerce on its industrial organization. From this conceptualization, we develop an optimization-based logistics model comprising two interlinked networks representing commodity flow and information flow, respectively. The model is operationalized using Monte Carlo simulation to highlight possible scenarios of logistics industry changes in response to the use of B-to-B e-commerce. Through this endeavor, we examine how new technologies affect the cost of information and transportation transactions in the logistics industry.