Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS

Eden in the East. Stephen Oppenheimer. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1998. 560 pp.; photographs, diagrams, maps, figures, tables. Hardcover. $35.00.

Reviewed by A. S. BAER, Oregon State University, Corvallis

The author, a pediatrician, has written this tween 15,000 and 8000 B.P., causing Hoa book on historical geography as a general binhians or other people to flee to India ist. He is not averse to making superwaves and elsewhere. Ancestors of today's Orang out of specialists' findings in putting forth Asli, the indigenous people of the Malay his grand theory of prehistory with a sian peninsula, were an early fleeing group. Southeast Asian focus. As he sees it, his Second, about 10,000 B.P., the sea level rise views are akin to those of Wilhelm Sol was slower, with large river deltas forming heim and William Meachem, not those of and providing fertile sites for agriculture. Peter Bellwood (see references in Bellwood But the 8000 B.P. surge was a superflood, 1997). with supertsunamis and a sea transgression To take an academic approach, one 5 m above today's level, drowning most might ask what problem the author set out lowland Neolithic sites occupied from to solve and what are his methodology, his 10,000 to 5000 B.P. (p. 20). Third, because results, and his conclusion. The problem he of this superflood, the last major emigration discusses is the postglacial inundation of the began from Sundaland, with Austronesians Sunda Shelf and its consequences. As his heading to the Pacific and rice cultivation tale unfolds, he hypothesizes that a rise in heading to India, while China, India, and sea level and, indeed, "floods," on the shelf Egypt remained Neolithic. Oppenheimer after the last glacial maximum led South thus posits a "wave of advance" of South east Asians to disperse by sea and land to as east Asian culture, including the idea of it far away as Mesopotamia, if not farther. To being "the epicenter of language dispersal support his idea he considers archaeologi since the last Ice Age" (p. 122, but see cal, linguistic, genetic, and artistic informa Sims-Williams 1998 for cautions about tion, as well as personal travel notes. He "thinking big"). finds among the various specialist disci Although there is more to this book than plines tessera here and there and fits hydrology, I can comment on only a few them into his mosaic picture of postglacial of its aspects here. For example, the author Southeast Asia. We hear little about pieces has rice cultivation, Austro-Asiatic lan that do not fit his model well, though some guages, megaliths, bronze, and so forth pieces that were used fit better than others. moving to India after the postulated third The loose fitters may fall out of the picture flood (pp. 83-86). This idea is based in as more information is considered or comes large part on rice being cultivated in south to light. ern Thailand c. 9000 B.P. (where small Important parts of this model are pre groups of Orang Asli still live). However, sented in the first half of the book. First, the relevant report does not mention Sundaland was flooded in three surges be- whether the rice grains, found associated with pottery there, were cultivated forms.

collection is now dated to 13,000 B.P. in to say about prehistoric health or epide China and rice cultivation to around miology. Nor does he emphasize demogra 11,000 B.P. (Pringle 1998). Even if rice was phy. It is worth mentioning that in bad cultivated in Thailand in 9000 B.P., which times, from whatever cause, health suffers. then led to its cultivation in India a thou This can be especially critical in small sand years later, as the book supposes, one populations, such as those under discussion. might ask: Why then did it take so long for If indeed postflood Sundaland survivors this technology to travel to nearby Borneo? dispersed to India, they would surely have Cultivated rice has now been dated in met up with new diseases or new strains of Borneo to 4000 B.P. (Bellwood 1997). old ones (which many epidemiologists have Would it take five times longer for rice discussed). The resulting ill health in such a technology to move to Borneo than to relict group may have precluded successful India? In related matters, the supposedly dispersal. The author's implication of size close "ancestral form" of DNA attributed to able migration is thus curious. the Orang Asli (p. 194) was also found Grand models need plausibility and de in Malays and Taiwan Chinese (not ab rive further strength by leading to testable origines, p. 207). The "9-bp deletion" has predictions. Two testable predictions in arisen more than once (Martinson 1996), this book are that underwater archaeology and "Jeni" (p. 196) is a false name. Colo will reveal floodplain Sundaland settle nial-era exonyms such as Negrito (p. 125) ments (see also Anderson 1997) and that are often misleading. myths (including Biblical accounts) will Passing from the west of Southeast Asia support the model. eastward, the author takes up the saga of The second half of the book, on the Austronesian speakers heading toward the geographic extent of myths, is presented to Pacific. Based on genetic evidence of a cer support the author's flood-and-flee model. tain DNA trait (the "Polynesian motif"), It is open to various interpretations. Given the book claims the homeland for Aus that West Malaysia is a core area for the tronesians going to the Pacific was in the book's thesis of biocultural emigration Sabah-Sulawesi-Maluku area "since the from Sundaland after the last glacial maxi end of the Ice Age" (p. 160), rather than in mum, its myths merit more scrutiny than Taiwan and its environs later, as Bellwood's the book provides. People in West Malay model has detailed (Melton et al. 1998). sia still remember the great flood and use it Oppenheimer's claim is based on data from as a time marker. One said, "My family few populations and on a very small piece moved here long ago, before the great of human DNA. Genetic analysis of Asia flood." Another said, "I was born the year Pacific peoples is still in its infancy, with of the great flood." This great flood was in many interesting indigenous groups never 1926. Lesser floods have occurred since having been surveyed. For example, the then. In 1967 about 20 percent of the state genetics of sea people (Orang Laut), who of Kelantan flooded, and in 1971 about 20 may have been eastward dispersers, is vir percent of Pahang flooded (Sooryanarayana tually unknown. We need a lot more re 1995). Up to 63 cm of rain has been re gional data about a lot more DNA before corded in one day. Floods, thunder, and robust scenarios can emerge. related phenomena are understandably no Although the author regards Southeast strangers to the myths of the Orang Asli of Asia as the center of the world in post Malaysia. glacial prehistory (p. 123), some people The creation story of the Temiar group will clearly disagree. For instance, some of Orang Asli contains a flood and a geneticists find the colonization of the woman creator dreaming two fruits into a Americas originating from the region of brother-sister pair who committed incest Lake Baikal, not from Southeast Asia (Benjamin 1967). The Semai group cre (Karafet et al. 1999). In addition, although ation story has a flood and a man mating trained as a physician, the author has little with a woman arriving from heaven-no ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 38(2) FALL 1999 incest here (Juli Edo in press). Other BELLWOOD, P. mythic elements mentioned in Oppen 1997 Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archi heimer's book as aboriginal to the area pelago, 2d ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. do not occur in these Orang Asli myths. That is, there is no naga, lake, "word," BENJAMIN, G. 1967 Temiar religion. Ph.D. diss., Univer earth/sky dichotomy, land raiser, parricide, sity of Cambridge. body parts for the cosmos, creative wind, JULI EDO "seven," or cosmic egg. The Orang Asli in press Stories of migration from native speakers of Aslian (Austro-Asiatic) lan resources: The Semai oral tradition. guages do not conform to the idea of fur Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulle nishing numerous mythic elements to the tin 19. world (p. 322), despite the author's thesis KARAFET, T., S. ZEGURA, O. POSUKH, L. OSI that their ancestors diffused afar some POVA, A. BERGEN, J. LONG, D. GOLDMAN, W. 10,000 or more years ago. Nor are Orang KLITZ, S. HARIHARA, P. DE KNIJFF, V. WIEBE, R. GRIFFITHS, A. TEMPLETON, AND M. HAMMER Asli myths affiicted with a "quest for im 1999 Ancestral Asian source(s) of New mortality" or a "Cain and Abel," as dis World Y -chromosome founder hap cussed in later chapters. And, among other lotypes. American Journal of Human problems, "Mantras" (p. 386) are not Genetics 64 : 817 -831. Aslian speakers, and Aslian groups were in MARTINSON, J. contact with outsiders long before "the last 1996 Molecular perspectives on the colo couple of hundred years" (p. 399). All in nisation of the Pacific, in Molecular Biology and Human Diversity: 171- all, myths may not function as the mag 195, ed. A. Boyce and C. Mascie nifying lens needed to furnish 20-20 Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni hindsight. versity Press. In conclusion, what went on in South MELTON, T., S. CLIFFORD, J. MARTINSON, M. east Asia over the past 15,000 years interests BATZER, AND M. STONEKING academics, indigenous groups, and even 1998 Genetic evidence for the Proto Austronesian homeland in Asia: politicians today. This book helps to ad mtDNA and nuclear DNA variation dress this question, but it dwells even more in Taiwanese aboriginal tribes. Ameri on events outside Southeast Asia: from can Journal of Human Genetics West Asia and Europe to the Pacific. Al 63: 1807-1823. though there are basic issues presented in PRINGLE, H. the book, they need further examination, 1998 The slow birth of agriculture. Science analysis, and critical discussion. 282: 1446-1450. SIMS-WILLIAMS, P. 1998 Genetics, linguistics, and prehistory: Thinking big and thinking straight. REFERENCES Antiquity 72: 505-528.

ANDERSON, D. D. SOORYANARAYANA, V. 1997 Cave archaeology in Southeast Asia. 1995 Floods in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal Geoarchaeology 12(6): 607-638. of Tropical Geography 26: 35-46.

The Archaeology of Northeast China: Beyond the Great Wall. Sarah M. Nelson, ed. London: Routledge, 1995. 263 pp.; tables, figures, maps, photographs. Hardcover.

Reviewed by SARI MILLER-ANTONIO, California State University, Stanislaus

This book describes the regional Neolithic bei, an area historically known as Man and Bronze Age archaeology of the Dong- churia that includes the current provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. It is a

ern scientists. Each chapter begins with an from the Houwa Site (5600 B.P.) on the editor's introduction, a useful feature that North Korean border. Xu Yu-lin divides synthesizes the most important new dis the site into Upper and Lower levels and coveries and current interpretations of the interprets them as developmental stages of archaeological remains reported within the the same culture, but this requires clarifica chapter. Nelson and her Chinese colleagues tion because the stratigraphically later phase are commended for their efforts to avoid a is technologically more primitive. Most Sinocentric bias in interpretation. They notable in this chapter is the discussion of recognize the need to illuminate the past of possible relationships among peninsular groups of people who have traditionally (Liadong, Shandong, and Korean) cultures been overlooked or misrepresented. In and possible connections with coastal deed, one of the most interesting aspects of Siberia. The identification of canoe-shaped the formulation of Chinese civilization has pottery from the Lower Houwa adds to the been the recognition of the important con growing body of data on the origins of the tributions from regional cultures of the canoe in ancient China and changes in boat hinterlands, those beyond the Great Wall. form through time. Both levels of the Chinese archaeology has matured by the Houwa have yielded figurines of animal inclusion of these distinct developments in and human form. Xu interprets the human regional perspective. faces as religious objects relating to ancestor A discussion of the regional ecology, a worship, which supports the idea that this tabular summary of radiocarbon dates, and important ritual was in place at least 5000 an outline of the defining features of the years ago. Neolithic in the Dortgbei precede the dis In both Jilin (Chapter 3) and Heilong cussion of the Hongshan and related cul jiang (Chapter 4), recent archaeological tures by Guo Da-shun in the first chapter investigations have focused on clarifying of Part I (Neolithic). Sites belonging to the distinctions between true Neolithic and these cultures are distributed in the ecolog Bronze Age sites without bronze artifacts. ical transition between Inner Mongolian Salient characteristics of Neolithic settle grasslands and the rich Yellow River Valley ments include flaked stone and microliths agricultural lands, documenting subsistence as the main production tools, including the strategies at the interface of pastoralism and utilization of nonlocal stone such as obsid developed agriculture. The stone tools of ian, and continued reliance on fishing and the Hongshan are numerous, sophisticated, hunting even after animal husbandry and and diverse. They reflect agricultural tasks agriculture are developed. Across both pro such as plowing, tilling, and harvesting, but vinces, sites are located in contiguous envi the occurrence of microlithic tools and ronmental zones, on sand dunes in the west quantities of pig and sheep bone support and along rivers and marshes on mounds the importance of animal husbandry as and platforms in the east. Clear differences well. The remarkable Goddess Temple and in pottery and house styles are interpreted cluster of stone tombs discovered at Niu as cultural rather than temporal distinc heliang, Liaoning, in the 1980s have led tions. However, the extent to which eco some scholars to identifY ceremonial foun logical adaptations account for the differ dations of Chinese civilization within the ences is a necessary area of study. Hongshan. Status items such as altars, fine The Lower Xiajiadian Culture, assigned jades, and statues of stylized animal, hu to the Early Northern Bronze Age, has a man, and deity forms are associated with wide distribution in western Liaoning. the temple complex. Guo argues for links Guo's hypothesis is that the Lower Xiajia with the Yangshao, based on painted pottery dian divided into several branches, one of styles, and with the Quijia to the northwest, which moved south and became the Shang based on early metallurgy, and emphasizes and another stayed in place and was the the two-way nature of these links. precursor to the Yan Culture of the Early Additional evidence to support a diverse Zhou. Yan steamers are a common artifact, early agricultural base in this region comes and both utilitarian and ceremonial pottery 260 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 38(2) . FALL I999 are decorated with taotie (animal mask) and Some contain bronze and iron artifacts as turtle and dragon motifs, patterns found on well as stone and bone tools, supporting later Shang bronzes. The characterization the notion of continuity of settlement in of the Bronze Age in Liaoning continues this rich agricultural region from the Early with a chapter on the development of Neolithic to the Warring States and Han "Northern Type" bronzes. Stylistically dis Dynasty. It is clear from the quantity of tinct from Shang bronzes, but contempo information presented in this book that rary with the Late Shang, their distribution Dongbei archaeology is a dynamic area of is widespread and they are rarely associated investigation that will benefit from an in with pottery. This has led to the hypothesis terpretive focus and the application of new that their origin and affiliation are with analytical techniques, especially applied to pastoral nomadic tribes of the grasslands. palaeobotanical and palaeoclimatic studies. Guo suggests that Liaoxi (western Liaoning) Although this book is heavily descriptive, was an important area of cultural exchange. it is an excellent resource for an upper In the last chapter, scholars of the Hei division or graduate seminar in compara longjiang Bronze Age (Tan, Sun, Zhao, and tive regional archaeology. It will stimulate Gan) focus on the southeastern part of the discussion on important topics such as how province, the Song-N en Plain. They identify ethnic diversity might be reflected in and several cultures with diverse assemblages. interpreted from the archaeological record.

Southeast Asian Archaeology 1996. Marijke J. Klokke and Thomas de Bruijn, eds. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Leiden, 2-6 September 1996. Hull, England: Centre for South-East Asian Studies, in cooperation with the International Insti tute for Asian Studies, Leiden, 1998. 318 pp.; figures, maps, plates, references, index. Reviewed by S. JANE ALLEN, Ogden Environmental and Energy Services, Honolulu

This volume, which contains 23 papers analyze approximately 3 million ceramic presented at the 1996 Southeast Asian artifacts dating to four contexts (c. 2000- archaeologists' conference, includes a di 1500 B.C.) at Khok Phanom Di, in verse range of articles by scholars from south-central Thailand (for site overview, Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and see Higham 1989: 65-89). Representative the United States. The articles are orga sampling, weighing, and analysis of fabric nized in three sections: prehistory (seven and form-including petrographic analysis articles), historical archaeology (seven), and of representative pieces-allowed confi art and architecture (nine); no summary dent in-the-field assessment of most items overview is provided. Each individual arti and produced data that can be applied to a cle is reviewed here, to provide even cov broad range of research questions. erage; the final section includes general Lam Thi My Dzung describes excavation comments. results from four Sa Huynh cemetery areas The prehistory section begins with Brian at Hoi An, in the Thu Bon River catch Vincent's article, which carefully explains ment, Viet Nam, and considers possible sampling strategies and techniques used to relationships with later sites. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal suggest that most site use took place between c. 300-200 B.C. and

sherd) indicate later use as well. Trade collected 40-50 cm below the surface in items suggest regular partICIpation in Song Gentong II produced a 7090 ± 70 Southeast Asian trade with China, India, B.P. radiocarbon age. Links with other sites and the Middle East. Site locations and are suggested: the grinding of hematite has involvement in foreign trade also suggest been documented for other cave sites in continuity with later Cham sites, including east Jawa; flexed burials at Gua Niah, Tra Kieu and Mi Son, located short dis Sarawak (c. 7020 ± 135 B.P.), like the cur tances upstream. rent burial, are associated with hematite Nguyen Xu an Hien traces changing (also see Bellwood 1997: 175, 196-198). rice-grain morphology in Viet Nam, tabu Wilhelm G. Solheim II summarizes the lating data for 17 carbonized rice-husk and results of University of Hawai'i surveys kernel samples collected at North and conducted in 1975 and 1990 in Irian J aya South Vietnamese sites dating to the period and Maluku and briefly reviews two other between c. 4000 B.P. and A.D. 1900. The University projects, one concerned with characteristics of 3000-year-old rice grains uses of the sago palm in eastern Indonesia from Dong Dau village in the north suggest and the other the ongoing multidisciplinary that round and intermediate shapes were program at Angkor Borei, Cambodia. Sur once grown much more commonly than is vey finds in Irian Jaya include, among true today. The sample probably includes others, megaliths and other finds at Lake early, cultivated, glutinous rice, which is Sentani; secondary burials and large appli still grown in the area. qued jars at Cenderawasih Bay; skeletal Mohammad Kamaruzaman Abdul Rah remains on Meosbefondi, associated with man suminarizes data recovered from four flakes of New Britain obsidian; pottery units (see map) excavated in Taat Hill Cave bearing and deeper shell-artifact-bearing 2, on the upper Terengganu River in layers on Biak; 29 karwar (ancestor figures) Terengganu, Malaysia. Lower layers appear on Biak and Waigeo; and rock paintings in Hoabinhian. Contacts with occupants of at Mai Mai and on Waigeo. In Maluku, Hoabinhian sites in Kelantan and Pahang Dutch and Portuguese forts, earthenwares, are suggested; traditional routes still con Chinese porcelains, and stonewares were nect these areas. Ceramics in upper layers recorded on Ternate and Halmahera; a appear Neolithic, although no polished swamp on Halmahera promises good re stone tools were recovered. Radiocarbon covery of organics from a former harbor. dates on shell produced 5010 ± 60 B.P. and Peter Veth, Susan O'Connor, and 6730 ± 60 B.P. ages for Layers 1 and 2, re Matthew Spriggs discuss the possible role spectively. Various layers produced flakes, a played by the Aru Islands, Maluku, in the hand ax, choppers, an anvil, cutting tools, settlement of Sahul-first as part of a land weathered limestone, bone, fish scales, bridge and later as a stepping stone. Among charcoal, and shell. The combined data 23 sites recorded in 1995 and 1996, two suggest temporary occupation. large caves on Kobroor appeared particu A. Marliac and Truman Simanjuntak re larly promising for excavation. Two units port the results of excavations in the Song opened at Liang Lemdubu, a 30-m-long Gentong I and II rock shelters (six units), cave in karst, produced retouched/utilized Kabupaten Tulungagung, east Jawa (Java). flakes and a long faunal sequence. One po Although the possible Neolithic layers are tential problem concerns the fact that the badly disturbed, earlier layers produced units were excavated by arbitrary 5-cm scant floral finds, marine and other faunal spits (p. 77); since at least one unit sec remains, ceramics, polished bone tools, tioned six distinct layers with variable polished and pierced shell ornaments, and boundaries (Fig. 4), some mixing of layer lithic items, including mortars and pestles contents may have occurred. The docu used to grind hematite. A flexed adult mented sequence began with cultural ex human burial in the deepest layer exca ploitation of a rainforest-savannah mosaic. vated is associated with hematite. Charcoal After c. 6500-7000 B.P., the grasslands ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 38(2) . FALL I999

receded, rainforest exploitation continued, Phnom Kulen. Multidisciplinary evidence and marine resources were added. Faunal reflects the official adoption of a northern taxa may include (among others) an extinct dialect, the engineering of important giant kangaroo and, in deep spits, Pro water-retention structures, construction of temnodon, a Pleistocene megafauna. Flow the first temple mountains, and the emer stone capping cultural deposits produced gence of the state centered at Angkor. 25,000 B.P. and 26,000 B.P. uranium/ Saveros Pou's sociolinguistic examina thorium dates, suggesting that this cave was tion of Old Khmer inscriptions reveals that indeed occupied by humans during the set the Mon formed part of Khmer society tling of Sahul. early on; that personal relations existed be The historical archaeology section begins tween Khmers and Javanese; that Indian with Ashok Datta's review of evidence that residents represented many diverse areas on Gange and Tamralipta, two Bengal port the subcontinent (also see Kulke 1990 for names mentioned in the Periplus of the Ery discussion); that most Khmer-Chinese thraean Sea and in Ptolemy's work, refer to relations were trade related; that Khmer the same port, which was probably located society incorporated three main social at Natsal. Although Natsal is located 35 km classes, through which individuals could inland today, on a Ganges tributary, ac move vertically; and that Brahmans served companying maps suggest that sites in the ruler and not, as sometimes claimed, this active deltaic area may once have been the reverse. Inscriptions indicate that Jaya located closer to the shore. The author varma(n) II and III were physically active, concludes that the prosperity of Bengal's learned, religious, and tolerant rulers; that port cities after the first century A.D., and Jayavarma(n) III may have been the first perhaps earlier, relied not on Indo-Roman ruler to organize elephants for military ser trade, as has been claimed, but on trade vice; and that Jayavarma(n) II originated with Southeast Asia. much of today's royal Khmer vocabulary. Amara Srisuchat presents radiocarbon Wahyono Martowikrido describes 15 dates, many reported here for the first time, gold bowls and additional pieces inscribed for 29 Thai site components dating from in Old Javanese, from Plosokuning, central the fourth century B.C. to A.D. 600-the Jawa. Materials reported elsewhere include period during which contacts with foreign 6387 gold coins, 600 silver coins, and items areas regularized-and discusses diagnostic with scratched inscriptions. The current items from sites of the period. These mate inscriptions, which resemble tenth-century rials include, among others, Phimai black inscriptions from east and central Jawa, are ware (see Welch 1989 regarding recoveries incised, punched, or chiseled; they refer to at additional sites); bronzes manufactured weights and to names that are probably locally (also see Higham 1989: 213-228; those of donors. The author finds that bowl Welch 1985, 1989), but often displaying style and weight may reflect the social rank foreign stylistic influences; and glass beads of the donor, while bowl size does not. that include both imported and local types. Jan Wisseman Christie reviews terms Early historical-period sites are now known used for weights and measures in the early to have existed even in the north, reflect Javanese states and discusses the geographic ing growing industries and mcreasmg sources for those terms. Most basic terms extraregional trade contacts. are indigenous. Both Javanese and Sanskrit Ang Chouh:'~an's article establishes that were used for units of distance, length, the accession of Jayavarman II in A.D. 802 weight, and value; Sanskrit terms were also was a turning point in Cambodian history, used in references to time. With few ushering in the Angkorian era. Major exceptions, the terms used for units of events associated with Jayavarman II, and area and volume, counting units, and nu cited in inscriptions for several centuries, merical coefficients were exclusively Java include the freeing of Cambodia from nese. The appendices translate three ninth Javanese domination, adoption of the god and tenth-century grant- and tax-related king cult, and the founding of a capital on inscriptions. BOOK REVIEWS

J. G. de Casparis summarizes epigraphic Debjani Paul recounts the tale of the data concerning Pu Sindok, a mid-tenth miracle in which the Buddha subdued the century Javan ruler whose reign, c. A.D. mad elephant Nalagiri and describes the 929-947, may have involved military con evolution of Indian and Southeast Asian quests; whose kingdom moved from cen sculptures and paintings representing this tral to east Jawa, for unknown reasons; and event. Early Indian renditions show the whose daughter later ruled in Bali. During Buddha and either one Nalagiri or two Sindok's reign, indigenous traits including (one attacking, one subdued). Variations, mountain worship gained momentum, and some postdating A.D. 1000, are known Indian traits lost some prominence; the from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Thai kingdom initiated by Sindok eventually land, and Cambodia. In the mid-ninth produced the powerful fourteenth-century century, a new, probably Pala element kingdom of Majapahit. Archaeological in appeared: five lions were now shown vestigation of the Tembelang area, where sprouting from the fingers of the Buddha's Pu Sindok's capital may be located, is right hand, probably representing the pafi invited. casTla, the five Buddhist moral codes of The art and architecture section begins conduct. with Pinna Indorf's application of concepts Nandana Chutiwongs describes gold and from psychology and comparative philoso silver items from eighth-century and later phy to the analysis of symbolism in South sites in South and Southeast Asia. These east Asian architecture, whose elements are include Buddha images, most made of best understood as parts of a conceptual gold, the metal prescribed by Indian trea continuum. The author's exclusive focus tises for the most respected icons; Bodhi on South Asian components tends to rein sattvas, most of silver, the metal next to force old ideas of blanket "Indianization," gold in value; Hindu deities in both; gold undervaluing indigenous elements (cf. and silver details on bronze images; foils; Allen 1998; Kulke 1990; van Leur 1967). and rings. The probable roles these metals Further, the sociopolitical context for the have played throughout history in South structures is described as the so-called and Southeast Asia-ceremonial, merit Southeast Asian "mandala state" (e.g., p. gaining, prestigious-are carefully consid 177), a term that is also applied to South ered. east Asian polities by some archaeologists. Timbul Haryono describes a silver Siva The term mandala is Sanskrit, not Southeast image discovered in the ruins at Candi Asian; is religious or symbolic, not politi Sewu, a Buddhist temple at Prambanan, cal; assumes overriding Indianization; and central Jawa. Although Hindu images are obscures indigenous patterns of develop often represented in Southeast Asian Bud ment. I suggest that it be discarded in po dhist temples, their role in Buddhist con litical contexts. texts is not yet clearly understood. This Bruno Bruguier describes three pre image, on a bronze pedestal, holds two of ninth-century cave temples carved in lime his four hands in a respectful attitude that is stone massifs-Phnom Khyang, Trotung, unusual for Siva. Traits including the use of and Ngouk-in Kampot, near Cambodia's silver (used in India to represent deities south coast. Each contains a small, squared, seen as white) suggest that the form repre walled cell focused on a stalagmite that sented is Mahe~vara. The author points out serves as a linga. Construction is mainly of that Javanese metalsmiths did not use stan brick, with shale doorways at Phnom Tro dard Indian alloys and probably worked tung and Khyang. The Phnom Khyang and from Javanese craft manuals. Ngouk temples have brick pilasters, sculp Hariani Santiko, using documentary and tured lintels still in place, and squared roofs. archaeological evidence, concludes that Phnom Trotung is unusual in its use of three groups of religious structures dating laterite for wall construction, its incorpora to the Majapahit period-terraced sanctu tion of a curved and gabled brick roof, and aries on mountainsides, meditation caves, its continuing use as a place of worship. and sacred pools-were used by ascetic ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 38(2) . FALL 1999

Javanese-Saivite priests named rsis, who dhism in Cambodia. The stftpa replaced the retreated to isolated places to attain high prasad; a large Buddha statue now faced east spiritual knowledge, generally practicing in front of the stftpa; an entry pavilion was their religion in secret. The author suggests added in the east, allowing public access for that certain changes in Hinduism in Jawa the first time-a tradition that survives in such as the transformation of the goddess Cambodian temples today; and the sacred Durga-KalI into a demon-may have precinct was delineated with sIma (border begun as misunderstood teachings, partly stones). The roles played by the prasad and because of this secrecy. the stupa are examined, continuities and Viviane Sukanda-Tessier, wntmg in changes are outlined, and the function of French with an English abstract, describes the complex as temple or tomb, or both, an enigmatic group of three stone statues in is discussed, in part through extensive central Jawa: an attenuated, stylized male annotations. with a turban; and much smaller male and Editors Klokke and de Bruijn have per female figures. The central figure is said to formed an important service in publishing be Ki Santri, Kean Santang, an Islamic these papers, which contain many impor apostle; Islam was installed at the Majapahit tant data and several encouraging inter court c. A.D. 1450. The other two are Ki pretations. The text contains relatively few Lurah (a village head) and his wife, who typographical or other errors, although refused to convert to Islam and were some articles need maps and other figures. turned into stone. The three have been Overall, the volume is well produced. The moved at least three times in 172 years, articles represent disparate disciplines, vari from a roadside between Telagabodas and ous approaches, and divergent viewpoints, Garut in 1818, to Sukaraja (some 32 km all of which is as it should be. Although a southeast) by 1872, and to Ciamis (some 23 synthesizing overview would have been a km northeast) by 1990. Traditionally ven useful addition, the data and ideas pre erated by villagers, the three may have been sented should make this volume a useful moved for protection from theft or damage. addition to libraries concerned with South Nora Taylor takes a refreshing look at east Asian history and prehistory. seventeenth-century sculptures of Po Rame and other Cham king-deities, which were once described as "decadent." Instead, REFERENCES these late sculptures reflect modification of ALLEN, S. JANE adopted Indian religious motifs so that they 1998 History, archaeology, and the ques accorded with indigenous Cham beliefs. tion of foreign control in early his Indian images and metaphors became toric-period Peninsular Malaysia, in "localized" (Wolters' [1982] term, cited by The Transition to History in SOI

in South-east Asia, in Semaian 3, regional exchange at late prehistoric Ol1derzoek in Zuidoost-Azie: 8-32, centers in the Phimai region, Thai ed. H. Schulte Nordholt. Leiden: land. Ph.D. diss. University of Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Hawai'i, Honolulu. Zuidoost-Azie en Oceanie, Rijksuni 1989 Late prehistoric and early historic ex versiteit te Leiden. change patterns in the Phimai region, Thailand. Joumal of Southeast Asian VAN LEUR, J. C. Studies 20(1): 11-26. 1967 Indonesian Trade and Society. The Hague: W. van Hoeve. WOLTERS, O. W. WELCH, DAVID J. 1982 History, Culture, and Region in South 1985 Adaptation to environmental unpre east Asian Perspectives. Singapore: In dictability: Intensive agriculture and stitute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Pacific Designs: British Museum Pattern Books. Rebecca Jewell and Jude Lloyd. London: British Museum Press, 1998. 27 pp.; 100 b. & w. line drawings. Soft cover.

Reviewed by DEBORAH WAITE, University of Hawai 'i, Manoa

Pacific Designs is the seventh book in the reducing three-dimensional objects to two British Museum series of Pattern Books. dimensional line drawings. Others in the series are devoted to African, Lloyd presents a brief overview of ancient Egyptian, early Celtic, early medi Oceania, dealing succinctly with history, eval, Islamic, and North American Indian society, artists and audience, art, and phe design. All make use of art and artifacts in nomena such as mana and tapu. She em the British Museum and elsewhere. Arti phasizes the importance of contextualiza facts reproduced for Pacific Designs come tion (e.g., the role of artifacts in interisland exclusively from the collections of the trade and culturally permitted and pro British Museum. hibited knowledge about art). The authors, Rebecca Jewell and Jude A description of basic visual and func Lloyd, have an anthropological back tional characteristics is provided for the arti ground. J ewell is also a freelance illustrator; facts, which are organized within the broad she authored African Designs in the Pattern parameters of Polynesia, Micronesia, Mela Book series. Lloyd has special interest in nesia, Australia, and Indonesia/Irian Jaya. Melanesian arts and has recently completed Each of the broad categories is subdivided field research on material culture in the into island groups or other regional divi Torres Straits islands. sions. A short bibliography concludes the Like other Pattern Books, Pacific De text. signs has been written for an intended Pacific Designs conveys, visually, many of audience-people interested in design. The the myriad design elements of Oceanic text contains a preface (Jewell) and an art. Nevertheless, in reducing three eight-page introduction to the drawings dimensional artifacts to two-dimensional (Lloyd). Jewell acknowledges the dis drawings, not only is there the acknowl crepancies between present-day political edged loss of dimensionality but also a po boundaries and "ethnographic boundaries," tential loss of signification in instances as well as the problems encountered when where execution of interacting imagery in depth represented spatial/contextual depth (e.g., in Maori carving). There are a few errors and omissions. The intricacy of trade

Asian Perspcctil'cs, Vol. 38, No.2, © 1999 by University of relations between Tonga and Fiji should be Hawai'i Press. indicated rather that stating that Tongan 266 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 38(2) . FALL 1999 islanders merely went to Fiji to purchase Jewell states that her "aim has been to pro goods (p. 18). In the Marquesas Islands vide a pictorial record of just some of the description (p. 20), the Ivory reference beautifully decorated and crafted objects in belongs to a publication edited by Dark the Pacific collections of the British Mu and Rose, not just Dark. Names of Oce seum. .. [as well as] source material for anic artists were not merely unknown until practicing artists, potters, textile designers, recently, as stated, but unknown to many teachers and others interested in the history outsiders; they were certainly known in of Pacific art and culture." In this task, the and, often far beyond, their communities. book succeeds.

Maori Art and Culture, 2d ed., Dorota C. Starzecka, ed. London: British Museum Press, 1998. 170 pp.; illustrations. £14.99.

Reviewed by DEBORAH WAITE, University of Hawai 'i, Manoa

The first edition of Maori Art and Culture Ngahuia Te Awekotoku, Chair of Maori was published in 1996 in association with Studies at Victoria University, Wellington, the exhibition "Maori," held at the British contributes the second chapter, entitled Museum from 27 June until 1 November "Maori: People and Culture." His essay 1998. The first edition obviously preceded begins with an accounting of the cosmo the exhibition; the second appeared in logical roots of life from a Maori perspec conjunction with it. Both contain essays tive, starting with the cosmological narra written by major Maori scholars as well as tive of the creation of life and proceeding an essay dealing with the Maori collections logically to considerations of mana and tapu in the British Museum by editor D. C. as they have grown from the context of Starzecka, who is Assistant Curator Emeri that narrative. tus in charge of the Oceanic collections at Artifacts considered in this section, such the British Museum. as objects of war and personal adornment, The second edition has been expanded are contextualized accordingly. Te Aweko to include an essay on contemporary Maori toku provides a depth of interpretation that art by Robert Jahnke and the second edi many non-Maori readers could not other tion cover includes the names of the wise realize. authors, cited beneath the title. The A. T. Hakiwai, Curator of Maori Col authors represent outstanding expertise in lections of the National Museum of New Maori studies, art, and archaeology. All Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, similarly come from Aotearoa New Zealand; three approaches the subject of his essay, "Maori scholars are Maori and three are pakeha Society Today: Welcome to Our World." (i.e., of European descent). As the title indicates, the essay deals with The book opens with an essay on Maori Maori people today and their attitudes prehistory by archaeologist Janet Davidson, toward their taonga, or treasures, from a from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Maori perspective: "We as Maori people Tongarewa. She gives a thorough overview have our own timeless rhythms and group of Maori origins and early settlement prac dynamics." tices. Early items of personal adornment in Hakiwai deals with Maori social dynam the exhibition are discussed within their ics as well as attitudes toward the past, pres period of conception and use. ent, and future or, in other words, space and time in a Maori world. Maori marae and

tance of land rights for the Maori people Maori carving concludes what amounts to receives the full attention that is its due. an extremely valuable essay. Two articles deal with Maori wood Pendergrast accomplishes the same for carving and fiber arts and include the most the fiber arts, which, he notes at the outset, references to artifacts in the exhibition. are predominantly women's arts. Types of "Maori Wood Carving" is written by clothing, baskets, and bags are fully dis Roger Neich, Curator of Ethnology at the cussed with detailed but concise descrip Auckland Museum and Institute. Mick tions of manufacturing techniques. Instruc Pendergrast, who was Ethnology Assistant tive diagrams supplement the accounts of at the same museum until his retirement, technical process. Photographs of the contributes the essay "The Fibre Arts." manufacturing process and close details of Neich begins his article by emphasizing garments further illuminate Pendergrast's the importance of artifacts in all aspects of writing. He, of all the authors in the book, Maori life. He, like Te Awekotuku, deals makes greatest use of old photographs of with cosmological origins but, unlike Te past Maori people wearing their magnifi Awekotuku, he extracts a narrative that re cent cloaks and capes. lates specifically to the carvings that belong Dorota Starzecka writes about the Maori to Maori council houses. Te Awekotuku, collections in the British Museum. As their on the other hand, starts with the beginning curator, she is eminently qualified to dis of life itself, from which all genealogies cuss the artifacts within this context. Her ultimately stem and which is, accordingly, article provides an account of the history of the nexus for the production of artifacts. the collections, the age of the material N eich deals knowledgeably with the (when known), and the ways in which col carving process, formal qualities, and signi lections from diverse sources eventually fication of Maori artifacts, relying on his made their way to the British Museum. own considerable expertise along with that These histories, accumulated after the arti of others. Subheadings such as "Form and facts were extracted from their Maori con function in Maori carving," "Design ele text, still belong to the artifacts and can be ments and rules of composition," "The considered a part of their genealogy. Star human figure," "The manaia," "Surface zecka describes her article as "but a rough patterns," and so forth reveal a Western outline" of the museum's Maori collection approach to a discussion of "art" and also a that will be fully considered in a catalogue clarity of presentation. to be published in a few years. Neich broadens some of his formal anal In concluding, Starzecka mentions three yses with references to Egyptian art, which, artifacts that entered the British Museum like Maori art, avoided the effects of West collections in 1990. The book includes ern perspective. Both, he reasons, are con illustrations of two even more recently ceptual rather than perceptual arts. (Maori acquired artifacts-a male wooden figure artists and scholars would definitely agree carved for the British Museum by Lyonel with this point.) The comparison provides Grant of Rotorua and a nephrite pendant another frame of reference for compre carved by Clem Mellish of Havelock Marl hending the visual aspects of Maori artifacts borough. Contemporary Maori artifacts and art. and art do not receive major attention in The article contains much valuable in this book. Hakiwai's essay is devoted to formation. Artifacts are considered for their Maori society today, but does not deal with formal qualities but are also contextualized. Maori artists working today in Aotearoa Separate sections deal with the Maori New Zealand. Neich provides only two canoe, store house, and, comprehensively, pages on contemporary art. the carvings and paintings associated with Maori artists working today are consid the council house, the last of which has ered in an article entitled "Contemporary been a particular area of research interest Maori Art: Fact or Fiction." This addition for Neich. A brief treatise on contemporary to the 1998 edition of the book was writ- 268 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 38(2) . FALL 1999 ten by Robert Jahnke, a prominent Maori posal." "Maori art today ranges across artist and professor in the Department of indices of customary and non-customary Maori Studies, Massey University, Palmer practice ... regulated by the 'styles, canons ston North. The article discusses the work of taste, and values of Maori culture'" (he of artists such as Robyn Kahukiwa, Paka quotes an important Maori scholar, Sidney riki Harrison, Cliff Whiting, Brett Graham, M. Mead, in this statement). Some of this Hene Kerekere, and Maureen Lander. art may differ considerably from the arti Jahnke urges the substitution of the term facts in the British Museum, but it belongs "customary" for "traditional" so as to ac to the same genealogy. This book gives a commodate the dynamic of diversity thorough and vivid view of the multi among present-day artists who reconfigure faceted nature of Maori art past and present Maori visual and conceptual elements with and is highly recommended for scholars the "sophisticated technology at their dis- and laymen alike.