Other, Cooperate, and Even Punish Noncooperators, Then All of the Mem- Bers of That Group Would Grow and ºourish Even Though Some Would Pay Higher Costs

64 | ELINOR OSTROM other, cooperate, and even punish noncooperators, then all of the mem- bers of that group would grow and ºourish even though some would pay higher costs. With sufªcient out-migration from time to time, indi- viduals who were hardwired to recognize others and adopt norms would multiply. This scenario would explain the origin of “altruistic inclina- tions,” for which current models of indeªnitely repeated games cannot account. Field explains that currently accepted evolutionary models explain the continuance of some level of cooperation once it has begun; Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/34/1/64/1706955/002219503322645475.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 when the mystery of origins is solved, maintenance is no longer a theoretical challenge. This book also provides a good introduction to recent work in evolutionary psychology stimulated by the work of Tooby and Cosmides as well as to work about biases and heuristics in the mold of Kahneman and Tversky.3 Given the award of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics to Vernon L. Smith (who has been a pioneer in the ªeld of experimental economics reviewed in this book) and to Kahneman (who has chal- lenged many of the underpinnings of the rational-choice model), schol- ars in all of the social sciences would be well advised to read this book carefully.4 Elinor Ostrom Indiana University The Health of Nations: Infectious Disease, Environmental Change, and Their Effects on National Security and Development. By Andrew T. Price-Smith (Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2001) 219 pp. $22.95 In this book, Price-Smith advances the argument that the prevalence of infectious diseases has a direct impact on state capacity. As such new pathogens as hiv and Ebola emerge, and such old diseases as tuberculosis and Malaria reemerge in more virulent forms, outbreaks are likely to have a devastating impact on the capacity of states. Citing historians such as McNeill, Price-Smith argues that this relationship between health and state capacity has always existed, but he suggests that the current increas- ing rate of global environmental degradation will have a dramatically negative effect on the health of nations in the near future, speeding up and enhancing the nature of crises.1 As a result, he posits a declining abil- ity on the part of states to address the different problems, resulting in growing global insecurity and conºict. He concludes with the policy recommendation that Western governments should devote more atten- 3 Leda Cosmides and John Tooby “Cognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange,” in J. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby (eds.), The Adapted Mind (New York, 1992), 163–225; Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk,” Econometrica, XLVII (1979), 263–291. 4 Vernon Smith, “Microeconomic Systems as an Experimental Science,” American Economic Review, LXXII (1982), 923–955. 1 See, for example, William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (Garden City, 1976). REVIEWS | 65 tion and resources to the ªght against these scourges out of their national self-interest. The book’s great strength is the wealth of anecdotal evidence ad- duced on behalf of this thesis. In particular, several chapters paint a devastating portrait of the economic and social effects of diseases on low- income economies. Much of this material has already emerged in bits and pieces elsewhere, but Price-Smith’s presentation has the merit of being both relatively comprehensive and highly accessible to the non- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/34/1/64/1706955/002219503322645475.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 specialist. The work is not as strong about causal mechanisms. Its main ex- planatory instrument is a series of dubious national bivariate regressions between problematical proxies for disease and state capacity. The author moves incautiously from correlation to causality on too many occasions, making grand claims about the impact of health on state capacity, as if many other causal mechanisms were not also at work. Finally, the link between health and national security is asserted rather than demon- strated in the book’s ªnal chapters. The thesis that the security interests of Western countries, such as the United States, should lead them to as- sist countries in African that are ravaged by hiv/aids is an immensely at- tractive one, since our hard-headed publics do not appear swayed by humanitarian reasons alone. It is unfortunate that this book fails to make the empirical case for such an interest. Nicolas van de Walle Michigan State University Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture. By Jonathan M. Hall (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2002) 312 pp. $50.00 In a famous passage (Histories, 8.144), Herodotus has the Athenians chas- tise the Spartans for fearing that Athens might capitulate to the Persians. Several deterrents, according to the Athenians, keep them from betray- ing Greece—the places of worship that the Persians had destroyed and the elements constituting a “common Greekness” (to Hellenikon)— common blood and language, common shrines to the gods, common sacriªces, and common customs. This seems to be straightforward testi- mony to the ancient Greek conception of Hellenic ethnicity, but Hall demonstrates that communally shared Panhellenic identity was unstable and, at most times, less salient than other collective identities, especially in pre-classical Greece apart from Athens. This study traces the formation of a collective Hellenic identity in Greek antiquity, referring throughout by neologism to ancient Greek ethnic consciousness as “Hellenicity.” Hall begins by setting out his methodological and theoretical positions on the study of ethnic identity. For him, ethnicity represents a constructivist “imagined community,” not any primordial Stammbaum, and ethnicity “denotes both the self- consciousness of belonging to an ethnic group (‘ethnic identity’) and the.

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