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    Book Reviews 81

    Judging from Archaeology with Ethnography, thestrength of Australian ethnography and archaeol-ogy remains within the empirical realm. With theexception of the paper by Murray, the theoreticaldiscussions are pedestrian.Flood concluded that without ethnography therewould be no moth hunters. Ross argues that noreasonable archaeological statements for theVictorian Mallee could have been made without theuse of ethnography. Similarly Jones and White(p.84) stress that a reductionist archaeological ap-proach would miss out on the social, religious andintellectualcontext of the Ngilipitji quarry and of theproduction and distribution of large blades (leilira).These statements imply an archaeologicalmalaise, that ethnography is being used to paperover gaps in the fragmentary archaeologicalrecord. This is a dangerous practice as sketchyarchaeological data can be made to fit a variety ofethnographic models with equal plausibility. Theeffect is the projection of the ethnographic presentback onto the Australian past confirming ratherthan testing the assumption of continuity.Archaeology with Ethnography is a good openerto the debate about how a more theoreticallyminded ethnographic approach might cornple-ment a non-reductionist archaeology. This ofcourse raises the question of what a non-reduc-tionist archaeology might look like. To my mind itis an archaeology capable of extending its scopebeyond the walls of a trench or the morphology offlakes. To continue with a strictly empiricistAustralian archaeology and ethnography is to runthe risk of sentencing these disciplines to a par-ticularist oblivion.REFERENCESBinford, L.R. and J.F. O'Connell. 1984 AnAlyawara Day: the Stone Quarry. Journal ofAnthropological Research 40:40&32Woodroffe, C.D.. J. Chappell and B.G. Thorn.1988 Shell middens in the context ofestuarine development, South Alligator

    River, Northern Territory. Archaeology inOceania 23:95-103

    BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OFARCHAEOLOGY VOLUME 24. lnstitute of

    Archaeology, University College:London (1987). 240pp. ISBN00760722 (paperback). Price f20.00

    Reviewed by David FrankelDepartment of Archaeology, La Trobe Universify,Bundoora, Victoria 3083

    Commemorative histories are generally conserva-tive, providing a normative chronicle of events anddevelopments seen from one, commonly estab-lishment, perspective. In this Golden Jubilee issueof the Bulletin the lnstitute of Archaeology takesa different approach to marking its fiftieth anniver-sary. Here we have a varied collection of papers- many of them originally given in a special seriesof lectures - analysing the development of thelnstituteand the general nature of archaeologicalpractice. They generally give personal, sometimesanecdotal accounts of how the lnstitute was con-ceived and created, and how specific subjectareas (Romano-British,Near Eastern, Nautical) orother aspects (conservation, computing, field-training) have developed. Some of these seemmore like notes on work-in-progress than finalstatements or simple self-congratulation, and fitinto a general critique of past and present situa-tions as a basis for suggesting future trendsresponding to new ideas and changing cir-cumstances. Some of these personal reflectionsmay be a little naive, but underneath them all Is acommon concern with showing how the per-sonalities and energies of individuals have shapedthe lnstitute and the discipline as a whole, and abasic commitment o active ield research and datacollection and analysis.If some of the discussions seem somewhatparochial and of minimal value from a non-Britishperspective, others touch on more general currentconcerns, such as the legitimacy of practisingarchaeology with the material remains of otherpeople's ancestors. lan Glover and Warwick Braygive a two-part presentation of their views on'scientific investigation or cultural imperialism:British archaeology in the Third World' criticallyassessing the effects of their work in different areasof the world. Despite some misgivings, and arecognition of the different aims and contextswithin which local archaeologistswork, they never-theless come down clearly on the side ofinternational research, and its legitimacy if notnecessity. Peter Parr responding to what mayhave been a more provocative original presenta-tion by Glover and Bray reflects on similar ideas inhis assessment of the Institute's involvement inNear Eastern archaeology. The conflicts and self-doubts expressed by the self-conscious Third-World researchers do not appear to him asan issuein the Near East, where the archaedoglcal, ifnotthe wider community is seen as having a mutualinterest in a common heritage - perhaps orrefostered by the Institute's rde in trainmg overseasstudents.Other aspects of Parr's paper raise other familiarproblems - unding and facilities. Australian ex-cavations, although on a far smaller scale thanmany Old World ones, also suffer from the samestrictures, with their attendant waste ofalent andof unpublished or poorly completed ield research.Despite these distractions - of failing confiencein the moral legitimacy of the subject, poor finan-

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    82 Book Reviews

    cial support and resources, and technical and per-sonal problems - he common element to emergefrom this volume is of the value of primaryarchaeological research and especially the needfor more, and better, excavations. The globalscope of the Institute's field research is shown inthe listing of 196 projects being carried out by thestaff and students in all parts of the world. Thisemphasis on fieldwork - undamental to MortimerWheeler's original concept of the Institute- clear-ly remains a central policy. However, inconsidering the field-training programme Drewittrecognises the need for a significant change inwhat constitutes adequate archaeological raining.As in Australia the main growth area in employmentin the U.K. is in cultural resource management,requiring skills not only in survey and excavation,but also in a range of managerial and other areas.The need for post-graduate training in theseaspects has been debated for some time inAustralia: our problem here, as in London, will beto combine this new form of technical training withacademic research skills so as to give ourgraduates the global perspectives, the primaryfield skills and those others which many of themwill use in their day-today work in the future.This volume, with its historical perspective andself-evaluation, forms an appropriate commem-oration for the first fifty years of a significantarchaeological institute and points the waytowards future developments within Wheeler'sconception of what constitutes proper archaeol-ogy.The price of this Bulletin includes a separateReview Supplement with reviews of fifty-six bookscovering an extremely wide range of archaeol-ogical subjects.

    MAN ON THE RIM: THE PEOPLlNG OF THEPACIFIC, byALAN THORNE and ROBERTRAYMOND. Angus and Robertson nassociation with the AustralianBroadcasting Corporation: Ryde (1989).288pp. (cdor plates, end notes, index)lSBN0 207 16246 8 (hardcover).Price $39.95Reviewed by David YesnerDepartment of Anthropology, UniversityofAlaska,32 1 Providence Drive, Anchorage AK. 99508USA .

    It is indeed an ambitious project to encompasssuch a wide range of geographical areasand time

    depth in a popular treatment of prehistory as in hisvolume by Allan Thorne and Robert Raymond, anda tribute to the authors that they have been able tocarry it off so well. Both authors - Thorne, theanthropologist, and Raymond, the journalist -have a long-standing commitment toward main-taining high intellectual quality in thepopularization of scientific materials, and it showsin this work on the peopling of the Pacific Rim.Furthermore, the intellectual quality is particularlyhigh for a book designed to accompany atelevision series, and in that regardMan on theRimcompares favorably or even exceeds he quality ofother recent works such as the Nature of Australia.There is to be expected, of course. some uneven-ness in the coverage of both topics andgeographical areas, in part because of the neces-sity of creating thematically unified segments forthe television-viewing audience. However, I wassomewhat dismayed at the relatively shortcoverage (limited to only a few paragraphs) givento certain areas, such as prehistoric Japan. Otherareas, such as Siberia and the North AmericanArctic, receive comparatively significant attention(in two chapters, 'Into the Deep Freeze' and 'AUniverse of Ice'). And, as might be expected, a fairamount of attention is given to Australia andMelanesia. On the whole, however, there is at leastsome attention given to all regions of the PacificRim. I was personally glad to see extendedcoverage of Tierra del Fuego, where Ihave beenworking most recently. More disconcerting thanthe extent of coverage. in fact, is the organizationof the book (and theTV series?) which mixes arealand topical approaches. Following nitial chapterson early man in mainland Southeast Asia ('FirstFootsteps') and on colonization of Australo-melanesia ('Casting Off') are individual chapterson the prehistory and modern populations ofAustralia, Siberia, the North American Arctic, andMelanesia, in that order. Following this are threechapters that deal with changes over time in sub-sistence ('Changing the Menu'), technology ('ANew Cutting Edge'), and economic organization('The Powerhouse'). After a chapter on modernJapan ('Pure and Simple') are chapters on nativeNorth America ('Flaming Arrows'), South America('RoadsWithout Wheels'), and Mesoamerica ('TheFeathered Serpent'), followed by Polynesia,presumably because it was last to be settled byprehistoric populations. Thus areal and topicaljuxtaposition probably works well onTV, but is lesssatisfying in book form, although this is partlycompensated for by the elaborate color illustra-tions.The greatest strength of the book is the fact that itis both very comprehensive and up-to-date in itscoverage of theoretical issues. The section onfossil man n Southeast Asia, for example, includessome of the most recent fossil discoveries n China,although there is no discussion of the implicationsof the east Asian fossils for the timing of the ap-pearance and spread of anatomically modern