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Talking Science NATIJRE VOL.l03 9 JUNE 1983 554 BOOK REVIEWS The book is a contribution to the English-language publications- but how literature of the "Cambridge school of Talking science many of these English-language articles palaeoeconomy" founded by Eric Higgs, Eugene Garfield were written by scientists from the citing and in their paper Bailey eta/. suggest that author's country? If scientists in country A this school is characterized by three The Foreign Language Barrier: Problems cite research conducted in many different distinctive concepts: site catchment in Scientific Communication. nations and reported in English, while analysis, close man-animal relationships By J.A. Large. scientists in country B only cite papers by and optimum resource exploitation Andre Deutsch: 1983. Pp.l96. £9.95. their own nation's authors reported in systems. These are important components several languages, who is less aware of the of many of the analyses here. What international literature? Until we analyse perhaps adds further interest is the attempt FEw would argue with the claim that the nationality of the citing and cited to integrate palaeoeconomy with the other English is the lingua franca of international authors, in addition to the language of the developments in hunter-gatherer studies. science. Therefore, if your native language citing and cited articles, it is premature to Thus absent but looming large is the figure is not English you face a problem. Unless characterize the language problem in world of Lewis Binford, and his model of hunter­ you can read English you won't know most scientific communication as a "barrier". gatherer variability. Binford contrasted, of what is reported in the literature; and We need a comparative bibliometric on the one hand, logistically organized unless you can write and publish in English, method that takes into account both inter­ hunter-gatherers (whose subsistence your own research may be overlooked by lingual and international links in the depends on planned and highly structured the world scientific community. literature before we can conclude that there foraging trips), and on the other, collectors J.A. Large, however, examines the is a language-based crisis in science. (who subsist more opportunistically in a language problem from the perspective of I cannot agree with Large that the less-differentiated environment). He was scientists whose native language is English. language problem currently poses the able to show that variability in adaptive He suggests that researchers in Britain and biggest obstacle to scientific communi­ strategy had important behavioural and the United States have been under no pres­ cation. In my opinion, the main problem archaeological correlates. The juxta­ sure to acquire and maintain proficiency in today is information overload. The volume position in these papers, especially those of a foreign language, presumably because of scientific publication is still increasing, Torrence and of Davidson, of discussion of English has been the dominant language of exponentially in some fields. It is more this model and of the principles of science for decades. As a result, those difficult for scientists everywhere to digest palaeoeconomy highlights many of the speaking and reading only English are everything that is significant in English, difficulties in palaeolithic studies and the ignorant of significant results reported in much less the foreign-science press. Can we extent to which palaeoeconomy has foreign-language publications. really expect them all to learn Russian, become divorced from other developments While the percentage of the world's Japanese, Chinese as well as French and in the discipline. For example, although the scientific publications that are published in German? concept of optimality is employed by non-English languages is relatively small, Large concludes that computer-based several authors little attempt is made either the absolute number is growing. In par­ translations will help to solve the language to relate it to its evolutionary basis or to use ticular, Japanese and Russian language problem. However, indiscriminate trans­ the techniques of optimal foraging theory. materials have increased significantly. But lations will only increase the problem of Another example would be the general it is not clear how much is not covered by information overload. Information disregard for the character of the leading abstracting services, which services and review journals have made archaeological formation processes and claim to be comprehensive. In any case, the solid advances in identifying the more the growing field of taphonomy and assumption here is that Western scientists significant, high-impact research within middle-range theory, such that Bahn are becoming less aware of important the mass of scientific literature. More could (p.l69) can still say that he is "clinging to research buried in the growing mass of non­ be done to identify core material in foreign the hope that faunal remains . are English language publications. journals, but only the best should be added representative of the prehistoric economic Large supports his claims with an array to the already overloaded communication strategies despite differential preservation of surveys and studies on library usage of channels. The best guarantee that this will and sampling". foreign-language materials, world output occur is through personal contacts between These apparent shortcomings are, of publications in various languages and scientists. A comprehensive translation though, the product of two very positive citations to foreign-language publications programme would only increase the elements that lie at the heart of this in journals. His presentation would, isolation of scientists by discouraging them stimulating book.. First, it attempts to however, have been improved if more data from acquiring even a minimal proficiency integrate two traditions in palaeolithic had been provided. Each study should be in a foreign language. If there had not been archaeology - the small scale, ethno­ described in terms of the size of the sample a cover-to-cover translation programme graphically-inspired and behaviourally­ and the years to which the data apply. A maybe even more Russian scientists would based American approach, and the long­ few additional lines in the text and tables be publishing in English today. Translation term, ecologically orientated British would have allowed the reader to judge programmes might also decrease atten­ school. And secondly, by presenting a view how representative and relevant the data dance at international conferences, where of the European palaeolithic in which low are with a minimum of effort. much current scientific information is density populations employ a series of Although Large's studies and surveys exchanged. adaptive techniques (ranging from infor­ examine in detail the languages of pub­ The cultural and political value of lin­ mation exchange and alliances to mobility lished articles, they do not consider the guistic training is indeed vital to good and highly organized hunting strategies) to nationalities of the authors. For example, science. It needs to be promoted not solve the problems of survival faced by we arc told that English-language articles because it will help us deal with the liter­ hunter-gatherers in the European glacial cite other English-language publications ature better, but rather because it will environment, these authors have con­ almost exclusively, and only a small pro­ increase the kind of personal contacts that tinued the transformation of our percep­ portion of the references cite foreign­ lead to better identification of important tion of palaeolithic peoples from tool­ language material. Hut what percentage of information. 1 1 making automatons to real social and the cited English-language items were biological organisms. I.! written by French, German, Russian, Japanese or Chinese authors? Conversely, Eugene Garfield is President of the Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, the Robert Foley is a Lecturer in the Department of a significant proportion of references in publisher of Current Contents and the Science Anthropology at the University of Durham. non-English language articles arc to Citation Index. © 1983 Nature Publishing Group.
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