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.     

La Fabrique de l’infini Phénoménologie du désordre et genèse sensible de l’idée d’infini chez Diderot

Against the classical point of view, for which the idea of the infinite is the expression of God’s in the human being, Diderot proposes a concept of the infinite that considers it as an immediate production of the body. Removing the infinite from its former divine origin, Diderot’s idea of the sentient body contests the classical concepts, particularly the one of order, which bound epistemology to theology. Thus, disorder acquires a new value, even in its pathological forms, which now can be considered as modes of an immanent and fundamentally creative process.     

Land Snail Shell Beads in the Sub-Saharan Archaeological Record: When,Where, and Why?

Shell beads are well established in the archaeological record of sub-Saharan Africa and appear as early as 75,000 BP; however, most research has focused on ostrich eggshell (OES) and various marine mollusc species. Beads made from various land snails shells (LSS), frequently described as Achatina, also appear to be widespread. Yet tracking their appearance and distribution is difficult because LSS beads are often intentionally or unintentionally lumped with OES beads, there are no directly dated examples, and bead reporting in general is highly variable in the archaeological literature. Nevertheless, Achatina and other potential cases of LSS beads are present at over 80 archaeological sites in at least eight countries, spanning the early Holocene to recent past. Here, we collate published cases and report on several more. We also present a new case from Magubike Rockshelter in southern Tanzania with the first directly dated LSS beads, which we use to illustrate methods for identifying LSS as a raw material. Despite the long history of OES bead production on the continent and the abundance of land snails available throughout the Pleistocene, LSS beads appear only in the late Holocene and are almost exclusively found in Iron Age contexts. We consider possible explanations for the late adoption of land snails as a raw material for beadmaking within the larger context of environmental, economic, and social processes in Holocene Africa. By highlighting the existence of these artifacts, we hope to facilitate more in-depth research on the timing, production, and distribution of LSS beads in African prehistory.     

An Interview with James Kwesi Anquandah

Professor James Kwesi Anquandah was Ghana’s first archaeologist. He was also the first Ghanaian to become head of the Archaeology Department at the University of Ghana, which was the first archaeology department in sub-Saharan Africa, established in 1951. Dedicating his life to Ghanaian archaeology, particularly during the difficult years in Ghana in the 1980s and early 1990s, Anquandah had a significant impact on the development of archaeology in Ghana. In addition to his research, advisory and curatorial work, Professor Anquandah was instrumental in the training of three generations of Ghanaian archaeologists. During the course of a professional career that spanned nearly six decades, Professor Anquandah made archaeology relevant and accessible to all Ghanaians.