An Approach to the Diagnosis of Craniofacial Fibrous Dysplasia from the 2500‐Year‐Old Remains of a Skull from Ancient China

A human skull, buried about 2500 years ago in a Bronze Age cemetery at Jinggouzi, a site of an important ethnic group in ancient China, appeared to have characteristics of fibrous dysplasia. The CT images indicated a reduction in bone density and relatively homogeneous lesions. More features were revealed using CT reconstruction techniques. Lesions seen in low‐magnification images using a 3D deep‐field microscope had an irregular honeycomb‐like structure. At higher magnification, the trabeculae morphology and the gaps between the trabeculae were irregular and varied in size and shape. Paraffin‐embedded specimens stained with HE showed trabeculae with tortuous irregular arrangements varying in shape and width. The irregular trabeculae of woven bone has been described as having fibrous dysplasia. Molecular analysis of the GNAS gene indicated no mutation. This provides a non‐invasive approach for us to make more comprehensive diagnoses and to assist research into ancient human diseases.     

On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India: a View from the Butana Group of the Far Eastern Sahel

Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoing domestication shortly thereafter in the western Sahel, as finds of fully domesticated pearl millet are present in southeastern Mali by the second half of the third millennium BC, and present in eastern Sudan by the early second millennium BC. The dispersal of the latter to India took less than 1000 years according to present data. Here, we review the middle Holocene Sudanese archaeological data for the first time, to situate the origins and spread of these two native summer rainfall cereals in what is proposed to be their eastern Sahelian Sudan gateway to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean trade.     

Study on the lithology of stone chimes (stone musical instruments in ancient China) and Lingbi stone

The oldest extant musical instruments in the world are stone chimes. This music was created by the ‘eight tones’ that could be produced by these ‘stone’ voices. Although many of these stone chimes have been unearthed from sites predating the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China, their discussion in archaeological reports is usually not very thorough. In this paper, the ancient and modern samples are analysed from the point of view of lithology. The aim is to explore how the ancients chose to make these stones, and to check that the type of stone from which these ancient Chinese stone chimes are made is actually those recorded in previous studies. The results show that most of the ancient stone chimes in China are made of limestone. These chimes required a material with a single, homogeneous and compact mineral composition. Lingbi chimes (a kind of ‘lithophone’ produced in Lingbi county, China, are pure in composition and have a fine microcrystalline structure, which is the best choice for making stone chimes. This paper makes a systematic study of the lithology of Chinese stone chimes. The results supplement a significant lacuna in the study of ‘lithophone’ and ancient stone instruments both in China and on a more global scale.     

4. IS THERE A CHINESE MODE OF HISTORICAL THINKING? A CROSS‐CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Taking Chun‐chieh Huang's ruminations on the defining character of Chinese historical thinking as a starting point, this essay discusses the ways in which historical cultures and traditions are compared and contrasted and explores some new ways of thinking. It argues that cultural comparisons often constitute two‐way traffic (one begins to examine itself after encountering the other) and that attempts to characterize one historical culture, such as that of China, are often made relationally and temporally. When the Chinese tradition of historiography is perceived and presented in the West, it has been regarded more or less as a counterexample against which the “unique” traits of Western historical thinking are thrown into relief. Given the hegemonic influence of Western scholarship in modern times, latter‐day Chinese historians also valorize the East—West dichotomy. A closer look at this dichotomy, or the characterization of both cultures, reveals that it is not only relative but also relational and temporal. When the modern Chinese appeared impressed by the rigor of Rankean critical historiography, for example, they were essentially attempting to rediscover their own cultural past, for example, the eighteenth‐century tradition of evidential learning, in adapting to the changing world. Our task today, the essay contends, is to historicize the specific context within which cultural comparisons are made and to go beyond readily accepted characterizations in order to reassess certain elements in a given culture, to apply historical wisdom, and to cope with the challenges we now face.     

Book reviews

CHINA

RONALD SULESKI. Civil Government in Warlord China: tradition, Modernization and Manchuria. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. 302 pp. Bibliography, index. US$66.95, hardcover.

BØRGE BAKKEN. The Exemplary Society: human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 516 pp. Notes, bibliography, glossary, index. A$300.00, hardcover.

DU SHANSHAN. "Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs”. Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the Lahu of Southwest China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. US$60.00, hardcover; US$25.50, paper.

REBECCA E. KARL. Staging the World: Chinese Nationalism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002. US$59.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

ELIZABETH J. PERRY. Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: social Protest and State Power in China. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. US$73.95, hardcover; US$27.95, paper.

JAPAN AND KOREA

STEVE ODIN. Artistic Detachment in Japan and the West: psychic Distance in Comparative Aesthetics. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. 204 pp. Index. US$55.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

VERA MACKIE. Feminism in Modern Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. xiv, 293 pp. £50.00, hardcover; £18.95, paper.

KAYE BROADBENT. W omen's Employment in Japan: the Experience of Part‐time Workers. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. 176 pp. US$90.00/£55.00, hardcover.

JAMES R. BRANDON and SAMUEL L. LEITER (eds). Kabuki Plays on Stage: Darkness and Desire, 1804–1864. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. xv, 397 pp. 31 colour and 14 b/w plates, glossary, selected bibliography, contributors, index, list of plays by volume, dust jacket. US$50.00, hardcover.

KONGDAN OH (ed). Korea Briefing 1997–1999: challenges and Change at the Turn of the Century. Published in cooperation with the Asia Society. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000. 243 pp. Preface, map, chronology, glossary, suggestions for further reading and websites, index. US$30.95, paper.

KONGDAN OH and RALPH HASSIG (eds). Korea Briefing 2000–2001: first Steps Toward Reconciliation and Reunification. Published in cooperation with the Asia Society. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. 308 pp. Maps, tables, bibliography, chronology, index. US$24.95, paper.

The Korean Peninsula: peace and Prosperity after the Pyongyang Summit (Proceedings of a Conference 6–7 October 2000). New Zealand Asia Institute: The University of Auckland, 2001. 146 pp. New Zealand domestic price $NZ20.00 or equivalent incl. postage and packing. Overseas price $NZ30.00 or equivalent incl. postage and packing.

YONGHO CH'OE, PETER H. LEE, and W.M. THEODORE DE BARY (eds). Sources of Korean Tradition, Volume 2: from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Preface, explanatory note, contributors, bibliography, index. US$54.00, hardcover; US$22.50, paper.

SEIJI M. LIPPIT. Topographies of Japanese Modernism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 301 pp. US$22.50/£16.50, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

ALF HILTEBEITEL. Rethinking the Mahàbhàrata: a Reader's Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. x, 365 pp. US$50.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper.

ALI AMJAD. Labour Legislation and Trade Unions in India and Pakistan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. xix, 190 pp. £15.99, hardcover.

LIONEL CAPLAN. Children of Colonialism: Anglo‐Indians in a Postcolonial World. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2001. x, 261 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper.

JACQUES POUCHEPADASS. Land, Power and Market: a Bihar District under Colonial Rule, 1860–1947. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 2000. 574 pp. Tables, figures, maps, appendixes, abbreviations, glossary, introduction, sources and bibliography, index. Rs 695, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

THOMAS M. McKENNA. Muslim Rulers and Rebels: everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 364 pp. £37.95, hardcover; £16.95, paper.

JEROEN TOUWEN. Shipping and Trade in the Java Sea Region, 1870–1940: a Collection of Statistics on the Major Java Sea Ports. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2001. xi, 172 pp. Tables, figures, bibliography.

DANIEL FITZPATRICK. Land Claims in East Timor. Canberra: Asia‐Pacific Press, 2002. x, 246 pp. A$40.00.

GEORGE McT. KAHIN. Southeast Asia: a Testament. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. xxiv, 350 pp. £75.00, hardcover; £19.99, paper.

BOB HERING. Sukarno: founding Father of Indonesia 1901–1945. Leiden: KITLV [Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde] Press, 2002. 439 pp. Euro30.00, paper.

POLINE BALA. Changing Borders and Identities in the Kelabit Highlands: anthropological Reflections on Growing Up in a Kelabit Village near the International Border Dayak Studies Contemporary Society Series, no. 1. The Institute of East Asian Studies, Sarawak Malaysia: Unit Penerbitan Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 2002. 142 pp. Bibliography, glossary, index, images. No price given, paper.     

Embryotomy in the 19th Century of Central Italy

An enormous earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009 brought to light human bodies buried in the underground rooms of the medieval St. John the Evangelist church (Casentino, Central Italy). Among the remains, we discovered a human fetus, whose post‐cranial bones were wrapped in bandages and cranial bones were reallocated inside a sort of hood. Anthropometrical investigation revealed an age at death of 29 ± 2 weeks of pregnancy for the little mummy. Radiograph analysis of the fetus showed that the skull was dissected and disconnected from the vertebral column, and the post‐cranial bones were completely disarticulated from the axial skeleton. The body was reassembled in a way of anatomic connection at a later stage. This mummified fetus dated to ad 1840 showed paleopathological evidence of a possible embryotomy and could be a rare and unquestionable case of embryotomy in archaeological context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.