BEATING THE BOUNDARIES: LAND TENURE AND IDENTITY IN THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS
The land tenure system of New Guinea Highlanders is simple in principle but complex in practice. Land features prominently in their lives, not merely as a horticultural resource but also socially and sentimentally. Rights to land are one of the principal areas in which the Wola of the Southern Highlands Province express and act on their kinship relations, kin-defined obligations controlling access. While kin-structured transactions of wealth create current identity and comtemporaneously validate social status, issues pertaining to land rights root social life in the past and give it continuity. The activation of rights to cultivable land features centrally in the constitution of local groups, which result from the coming together of persons on territories to which they can claim cultivation rights by virtue of recognized consanguineal and affinal links to the landholding corporation. Both land use and land rights have transient aspects to them. The relativity of land rights among the Wola is an integral aspect of their social order. Wola farmers not only physically move from one garden site to another on occasion, but they also acknowledge a disconcerting impermanence to cultivation rights to any land. This relates to the issues of boundaries and identity. Communities are not only socially but also geographically in flux. This shifting of land rights is potentially perplexing. It strikes at identity because land situates humans in the world and symbolizes continuity. But the blurring of boundaries is integral to the stateless political order, though it presents problems today with the encroachment of the state, in the guise of mining companies demanding definition of land ownership.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF USE-RIGHTS: A COMPARISON OF TWO PAPUA NEW GUINEAN SOCIETIES
Peter D. Dwyer and Monica Minnegal
Use and ownership of land and resources in two related societies of lowland Papua New Guinea are shown to covary with residence, gender, marriage, kinship, and local understandings of rights that are accorded by either conventions of practice or conventions of inheritance. We argue that the articulation of these material and social relations is predicated on the potential for a lack of congruence between discourse and behavior. Differences between the societies, and changes observed in one of them, inform a model of the transformation of use-rights in nonheirarchical and communally based systems. Under that model, an ideal of free access gives way to an ideal of restraint, an expectation that permission will be sought gives way to a requirement that an invitation be offered, and an understanding that women are exchanged in marriage gives way to an understanding that it is both women and their rights to use land and resources that are exchanged.
THE SELECTION OF LITHIC RAW MATERIALS IN THE LOWER AND MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE LEVELS TD6 AND TD10A OF GRAN DOLINA (SIERRA DE ATAPUERCA, BURGOS, SPAIN)
The study of hominid behavior as reflected in the selection, procurement, and management of lithic raw materials provides a reliable framework in which to study some of the traditions of particular Paleolithic communities. The raw materials composing the technological assemblages of levels TD6 (Late Lower Pleistocene) and TD10A (Late Middle Pleistocene) from the site of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos) were analyzed within this framework. The abundance and diversity of readily available raw materials in the immediate surroundings of Sierra de Atapuerca sites have allowed the correspondence between technology and raw materials to be highlighted in both assemblages analyzed. Accordingly, the results obtained suggest that the hoimonids who occupied these two levels practiced different selection, procurement, and management behaviors with respect to the raw materials used for tool production. These differences are consistent with the technical systems identified in each level: TD6, containing a pre-Acheulean industry, exhibits a pattern of poorly standardized raw material selection, while TD10A, represented by a Middle Paleolithic industry, shows a highly standardized pattern of raw material selection and optimization. This study produced two main conclusions: (1) a correspondence between economic behavior and certain aspects of the technological tradition is documented at Gran Dolina and (2) cultural and biological factors may explain the diachronic technical changes documented at the Sierra de Atapuerca sites.
THE MIDDLE CLASS IN ANCIENT CENTRAL MEXICO
Ancient Mexico had a system of estates, based on birth, and classes, based on power, and it is important to distinguish between them. There were two estates: noble and commoner. Classes are constructs of the observer and there is no fixed number, but I believe that in any stratified society, there must be at least three. I identify the middle class of ancient Mexico, which included both commoners and nobles, and argue that it played an essential role in ancient Mexican society, providing services that were essential to the upper class. It included various kinds of lesser political officials, stewards, certain artisans, ritual specialists, and enforcers. To ensure their loyalty to the upper class, they were set apart from the lower class and rewarded accordingly. In the absence of monetary salaries, they were given various privileges, exemptions, and tokens of esteem, but were not given the means to weild upper-class power.
JOHN ADAIR, 1913-1997: WORK ACROSS THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SPECTRUM
John Adair was an anthropologist whose career covered several different aspects of the anthropological discipline: Native American art studies, visual anthropology, and applied anthropology. He was a photographer and a cinematographer, and his work almost always had an applied and an interdisciplinary element. Adair dies in December 1997; it is too soon to write a critical evaluation of his work. This essay is a memorial, briefly describing his major projects and the themes which he developed throughtout his work.
A Dictionary of the Maya Language as Spoken in Hocaba, Yucatan. Victoria Bricker, Eleuterio Po'ot Yah, and Ofelia Dzul de Po'ot. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1998, 410 pp. $65.00, paper. Reviewed by Allan Burns, University of Florida.
Apes, Language, and the Human Mind. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Stuart G. Shanker, and Talbot J. Taylor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, x + 244 pp., 38 illustrations. $29.95, cloth. Reviewed by Derek Bickerton, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The Archaeology of Rock Art. Christopher Chippindale and Paul S. Tacon, eds. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1998, xviii + 373 pp., 209 black-and-white illustrations. $80.00, cloth; $29.95, paper. Reviewed by Paul G. Bahn, Hull, England.
Klithi: Paleolithic Settlement and Quaternary Lanscapes in North-west Greece. 2 vols.Geoff Bailey, ed. Cambridge, Eng.: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 1997, xix + xv + 699 pp., illustrated. $125.00, cloth. Reviewed by Lawrence Guy Straus, University of New Mexico.
The Paleoecology of Lower Magdalenian Cantabrian Spain. James T. Pokines. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports S-713, 1998, 189 pp., 80 figures + tables and appendix. 38 British pounds, paper. Reviewed by Lawrence Guy Straus, University of New Mexico.
Ekain y Altxerri: Dos Santuarios Paleoliticos en el Pais Vasco. J. Altuna. San Sebastian, Spain: Haranburu, 1997, 200 pp., color illustrations, line drawings, maps. Cloth. Reviewed by Lawrence G. Straus, University of New Mexico.
Altamira. P. Saura, photographer, A. Beltran, ed. Paris: Seuil, 1998, 179 pp., color and black-and-white illustrations, line drawings, maps. Cloth. Reviewed by Lawrence G. Straus, University of New Mexico.
Rouffignac: Le Sanctuaire des Mammouths. J. Plassard. Paris: Seuil, 1999, 99 pp., color illustrations, line drawings, maps. Cloth. Reviewed by Lawrence Guy Straus, University of New Mexico.
Between Artifacts and Texts: Historical Archaeology in Global Perspective. Anders Andren. New York: Plenum Press, 1998, x + 215 pp., black-and-white illustrations. $39.50, cloth; $47.40 outside U.S. and Canada. Reviewed by Stanley South, Institute for Southern Studies and SCIAA, University of South Carolina.
Craft and Social Identity. Cathy Lynne Costin and Rita P. Wright, eds. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 8. Arlington, Va., 1998, vii + 182 pp., black-and-white illustrations, halftones. $15.00, paper (members); $22.00, paper (nonmembers). Reviewed by Philip J. Arnold III, Loyola University Chicago.
Migration and Reorganization: The Pueblo IV Period in the American Southwest. Katherine A. Spielmann, ed. Tempe: Arizona State University, Anthropological Research Papers 51, 1998, ix + 301 pp., 100 black-and-white illustrations, 4 plates, 49 tables. $30.00, paper. Reviewed by Arleyn W. Simon, Arizona State University.
Pueblo Indian Painting: Tradition and Modernism in New Mexico, 1900- 1930. J.J. Brody. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1997, 225 pp. $60.00, cloth; $30,00, paper. Reviewed by Joyce M. Szabo, University of New Mexico.
Mummies and Mortuary Monuments: A Postprocessual Prehistory of Central Andean Social Organization. William H. Isbell. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997, xvii + 371 pp., 49 halftones, 43 black-and-white illustrations. $40.00, cloth. Reviewed by Karen E. Stothert, Pre-Columbian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks.
Aegean Strategies: Studies of Culture and Environment on the European Fringe. P. Nick Kardulias and Mark T. Shutes, eds. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1997, xxii + 313 pp. $63.00, cloth; $23.95, paper. Reviewed by Carla Atonaccio, Wesleyan University.
Social Construction of the Past: Representations as Power. George C. Bond and Angela Gilliam, eds. London and New York: Routledge, 1994, xviii + 232 pp. $19.95, paper. Reviewed by Paul R. Mullins, Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis.
The Hernando de Soto Expedition: History, Historiography, and "Discovery" in the American Southwest. Patricia Galloway, ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997, xvi + 457 pp. $60.00, cloth. Reviewed by Jerald T. Milanich, Florida Museum of Natural History.
The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy. William N. Fenton. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998, xxii + 786 pp., 5 maps, 46 figures. $70.00, cloth. Reviewed by Daniel Strouthes, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.
Rethinking Hopi Ethnography. Peter M. Whiteley. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press: 1998, xiv + 285 pp. $39.95, cloth; $18.95, paper. Reviewed by S. Nagata, University of Toronto.
Crossing Borders: Changing Social Identities in Southern Mexico. Kimberly M. Grimes. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998, xiii + 191 pp. $45.00, cloth; $19.95, paper. Reviewed by Beth Baker-Cristales, School for Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts.
Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. H. Russel Bernard, ed. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 1998, 816 pp., $89.95, cloth. Reviewed by Oswald Werner, Northwestern University.
A Place Apart: An Anthropological Study of the Icelandic World. Kirsten Hastrup. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998, xii + 227 pp. $52.00, cloth. Reviewed by Richard F. Tomasson, University of New Mexico.
Selves in Time and Place: Identities, Experience, and History in Nepal. Debra Skinner, Alfred Pach III, and Dorothy Holland, eds. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1998, xii + 338 pp. $65.00, cloth; $26.95, paper. Reviewed by Gregory G. Maskarinec, University of Hawaii.
The Scramble for Art in Central Africa. Enid Schildkrout and Curtis Keim, eds. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1998, xiii + 257 pp. $59.95, cloth; $19.95, paper. Reviewed by Alex Alland, Columbia University.
Native Arts of Columbia Plateau: The Doris Swayze Bounds Collection. Susan E. Harless, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998, 152 pp., 232 black-and-white illustrations, 48 color illustrations. $50.00, cloth; $29.95, paper. Reviewed by Marian Rodee, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.
Makuna: Portrait of an Amazonian People. Kaj Arhem, with photographs by Diego Samper. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998, xi + 172 pp., color photographs. $34.95, cloth. Reviewed by Kim Hill, University of New Mexico.
Native Traditions in the Postconquest World. Elizabeth Hill Boone and Tom Cummins, eds. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998, 480 pp. $30.00, cloth. Reviewed by John H. Bodley, Washington State University.
A Room Full of Mirrors: High School Reunions in Middle America. Keiko Ikeda. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1998, x + 205 pp. $35.00, cloth. Reviewed by Herve Varenne, Teachers College, Columbia University.
After Pomp and Circumstance: High School Reunion as an Autobiographical Occasion. Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, 204 pp. $39.00, cloth; $14.00, paper. Reviewed by Ann Sigrid Nihlen, University of New Mexico.