Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson. The Origin and Evolution of Cultures Zohl dé Ishtar. Holding Yawulyu: White Culture and Black Women's Law Donald Denoon. A Trial Separation: Australia and the Decolonisation of Papua New Guinea Sarah F. Green. Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek‐Albanian Border Holger Jebens. Pathways to Heaven: Contesting Mainline and Fundamentalist Christianity in Papua New Guinea Verena Keck. Social Discord and Bodily Disorders: Healing among the Yupno of Papua New Guinea Hotze Lont. Juggling Money: Financial Self‐help Organizations and Social Security in Yogyakarta Fiona Magowan and Karl Neuenfeldt (eds). Landscapes of Indigenous Performance: Music, Song and Dance of the Torres Strait and Arnhem Land David McKnight. Of Marriage, Violence and Sorcery: The Quest for Power in Northern Queensland B. J. Parker and L. Rodseth (eds). Untaming the Frontier in Anthropology, Archaeology and History Alexei Yurchak. Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More     

Fluid Ontologies: Myth, Ritual and Philosophy in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Fluid Ontologies: Myth, Ritual and Philosophy in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. L. R. Goldman and C. Ballard. eds. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1998. 172 pp.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Reading the Skin: Adomment, Display and Society among the Wahgi Michael O'Hanlon Crisis in the World's Fisheries: Peoples, Problems and Policies James R. McGoodwin Return to Tahiti: Bligh's Second Breadfruit Voyage Douglas Oliver Crested Kimono: Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family Matthews Masayuki Els Tatuatges dels Fang de l'-Africa Occidental Jordi Sabater Pi and J. Oriol Sabater Coca Cartographies: Poststructuralism and the mapping of bodies and spaces Edited by Rosalyn Diprose and Robyn Ferrell Cultural alternatives and a feminist anthropology: An analysis of culturally constructed gender interests in Papua New Guinea Frederick Errington and Deborah Gewertz Dual Classification Reconsidered: Nyamwezi Sacred Kingship and Other Examples Serge Disease of Society: Cultural and Institutional Responses to AIDS D. Nelkin, D.P. Willis and S.V. Parris (eds) Conversations with Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss and Didier Eribon (translated by Paula Wissington) Ku Waru: Language and Segmentary Politics in the Western Nebilyer Valley, Papua New Guinea Francesca Merlan and Alan Rumsey The Song of the Flying Fox. The Public and Esoteric Knowledge of the Important Men of Kandingei about Totemic Songs, Names, and Knotted Cords (Middle Sepik, Papua New Guinea) Jürg Wassmann, (trans. Dennis Q. Stephenson) Boroko, Papua New Guinea Art and Identity in Oceania Eds. Allan Hanson and Louise Hanson The Language of Things Eds. Pieter ter Keurs and Dirk Schmidt Rijkmuseum voor Volkenkunde     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Brenda Johnson Clay. Unstable Images: Colonial Discourse on New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, 1875–1935 Sanjukta Dasgupta and Malashri Lal (eds). The Indian Family in Transition: Reading Literary and Cultural Texts Sverker Finnström. Living With Bad Surroundings Geoffrey Gray A Cautious Silence: The Politics of Australian Anthropology David K. Jordan, Andrew D. Morris and Marc L. Moskowitz (eds). The Minor Arts of Daily Life: Popular Culture in Taiwan. Honolulu R. H. Mathews (ed. by Martin Thomas). Culture in Translation: The Anthropological Legacy of R. H. Mathews Martin Nakata. Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the Disciplines Andie Diane Palmer. Maps of Experience: The Anchoring of Land to Story in Secwepemc Discourse Antonia Mills (ed.). ‘Hang Onto These Words’: Johnny David's Delgamuukw Evidence Hartmut Lutz (ed. and transl.). The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab: Text and Context Michael W. Scott. The Severed Snake: Matrilineages, Making Place, and a Melanesian Christianity in Southeast Solomon Islands Mark Stevenson. Many Paths: Searching for Old Tibet in New China Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern (eds). Exchange and Sacrifice Margaret Trawick. Enemy Lines: Warfare, Childhood, and Play in Batticaloa Mark P. Whitaker. Learning Politics from Sivaram: The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka     

Characterization of population structure from the mitochondrial DNA vis‐à‐vis language and geography in Papua New Guinea

Situated along a corridor linking the Asian continent with the outer islands of the Pacific, Papua New Guinea has long played a key role in understanding the initial peopling of Oceania. The vast diversity in languages and unique geographical environments in the region have been central to the debates on human migration and the degree of interaction between the Pleistocene settlers and newer migrants. To better understand the role of Papua New Guinea in shaping the region's prehistory, we sequenced the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of three populations, a total of 94 individuals, located in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. We analyzed these samples with a large data set of Oceania populations to examine the role of geography and language in shaping population structure within New Guinea and between the region and Island Melanesia. Our results from median‐joining networks, star‐cluster age estimates, and population genetic analyses show that while highland New Guinea populations seem to be the oldest settlers, there has been significant gene flow within New Guinea with little influence from geography or language. The highest genetic division is between Papuan speakers of New Guinea versus East Papuan speakers located outside of mainland New Guinea. Our study supports the weak language barriers to genetic structuring among populations in close contact and highlights the complexity of understanding the genetic histories of Papua New Guinea in association with language and geography. Am J Phys Anthropol 142:613–624, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Musaespora,a genus of pyrenocarpous lichens with campylidia,and other additions to the foliicolous lichen flora of New Guinea

Abstract: The new lichen genus Musaespora is described from Java and Papua New Guinea. It is the first known pyrenocarpous lichen genus with campylidia, and appears to belong to the Aspidotheliaceae. Three species are described, two foliicolous species from Papua New Guinea and one corticolous species from Java. In addition, a list is given of the foliicolous lichen flora of the site in Papua New Guinea, where the foliicolous Musaespora species have been found, two more new foliicolous species are described, Echinoplaca hispida and Sporopodium lucidum, and 19 species are recorded for the first time form Papua New Guinea.     

Taxonomy of new relatives of Onthophagus?catenatus Lansberge, 1883 from New Guinea (Coleoptera,?Scarabaeidae,Scarabaeinae)

Four new taxa from New Guinea are proposed in the dung beetle genus Onthophagus Latreille, 1802, all in the operational group of Onthophagus catenatus Lansberge, 1883. The group is discussed, defined, and the five taxa included are listed, keyed, and diagnosed. Three new species are described: Onthophagus abmisibilus (from West New Guinea, Indonesia), Onthophagus kokodanus, Onthophagus kokosquamatus (both from Papua New Guinea). One new species comprises a lowland and an upland subspecies: Onthophagus kokodanus kokodanus and kokodanus hagenaltus (both in Papua New Guinea).     

Contributions to the Cladocera fauna from Papua New Guinea

Twenty-eight taxa of the Cladocera are identified in collections from Papua New Guinea, 17 being new records for New Guinea, bringing the total number of Cladocera taxa reported for this region to 39. Most of the taxa are circumtropical. One species (Sarsilatona papuana) is endemic to Papua New Guinea and northern Australia. The species list includes two species that are normally listed as Holarctic:Alonella nana andAlona rustica. Widespread genera such asDaphnia, Pleuroxus, Disparalona, Acroperus were strikingly absent from the Papua New Guinean material.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Bain Attwood and Fiona Magowan (eds) . Telling Stories: Indigenous History and Memory in Australia and New Zealand. Piya Chatterjee . A Time For Tea: Women, Labor, and Post/Colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation. Jean and John L. Comaroff (eds) . Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism. Michael Humphrey . The Politics of Atrocity and Reconciliation: From Terror to Trauma. S. Jaarsma and Marta Rohatynskyj (eds) . Ethnographic Artifacts: Challenges to a Reflexive Anthropology. Gaynor Kavanagh . Dream Spaces: Memory and Museum. Fred R. Myers . Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art. Nigel A. Stephenson . Kastom or Komuniti: A Study of Social Process and Change among the Wam People, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Ida Susser and Thomas C. Patterson (eds) . Cultural Diversity in the United States: A Critical Reader. Elizabeth Wood‐Ellem . Queen Salote of Tonga: The Story of an Era, 1900–1965. Michael W. Young and Julia Clark . An Anthropologist in Papua: The Photography of F. E. Williams, 1922–39.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Lissant Bolton. Unfolding the Moon: Enacting Women's Kastom in Vanuatu. Rebecca Cassidy. The Sport of Kings: Kinship, Class and Thoroughbred Breeding in Newcastle. Kate Fox. The Racing Tribe: Watching the Horse Watchers. Robert J. Foster. Materializing the Nation: Commodities, Consumption and Media in Papua New Guinea. Faye D. Ginsburg, Lila Abu‐Lughod and Brian Larkin (eds). Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Leo Howe. Hinduism and Hierarchy in Bali. Bruce M. Knauft. Exchanging the Past: A Rainforest World of Before and After. Linda Sue Lewis. Laying Claim to the Memory of May: A Look Back at the 1980 Kwangju Uprising. Vicki Lukere and Margaret Jolly (eds). Birthing in the Pacific: Beyond Tradition and Modernity? Julie Marcus. The Indomitable Miss Pink: A Life in Anthropology. David McKnight. From Hunting to Drinking: The Devastating Effects of Alcohol on an Australian Aboriginal Community. Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple: Ontology In Medical Practice. Raul Pertierra, Eduardo F. Ugarte, Alicia Pingol, Joel Hernandez and Nikos Lexis Dacanay. Txt‐ing Selves: Cellphones and Philippine Modernity. Urs Ramseyer. The Art and Culture of Bali. Urs Ramseyer and I. Gusti Panji Tisna (eds). Photographs by Rama Surya. Bali: Living in Two Worlds: A Critical Self‐portrait. Anthony Siaguru. In‐House in Papua New Guinea. Peggy Reeves Sanday. Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Neil L. Whitehead. Dark Shamans: Kanaima and the Poetics of Violent Death.     

Multilocus population genetic analysis of the Southwest Pacific malaria vector Anopheles punctulatus

The population structure and history of the cryptic malaria vector species, Anopheles punctulatus (Doenitz), was investigated throughout Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands with the aim of detailing genetic subdivisions and the potential for movement through this biogeographically complex region. We obtained larval collections from over 80 sites and utilised a diverse array of molecular markers that evolve through different processes. Individuals were initially identified to species and genotyped using the ribosomal DNA second internal transcribed spacer. DNA sequencing of a single copy nuclear ribosomal protein S9 and the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I loci were then investigated and 12 nuclear microsatellite markers were developed and analysed. Our data revealed three genetically distinct populations – one in Papua New Guinea, the second on Buka Island (Bougainville Province, Papua New Guinea), and the third on Guadalcanal Island (Solomon Islands). Genetic differentiation within Papua New Guinea was much lower than that found in studies of other closely related species in the region. The data does suggest that A. punctulatus has undergone a population bottleneck followed by a recent population and range expansion in Papua New Guinea. Humans and regional economic growth may be facilitating this population expansion, as A. punctulatus is able to rapidly occupy human modified landscapes and traverse unsealed roads. We therefore anticipate extensive movement of this species through New Guinea – particularly into the highlands, with a potential increase in malaria frequency in a warming climate – as well as relatively unrestricted gene flow of advantageous alleles that may confound vector control efforts.     

Intersterility between populations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lentinula edodes</Emphasis> from Papua New Guinea

Mating tests among strains of Lentinula edodes distributed in Asia-Australasia were conducted. As a result, 26 strains were classified into three groups: 2 strains from Mt. Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea (PN1 group) showed intersterility with 7 strains from Mt. Albert Edward and Mt. Kaisenik in Papua New Guinea (PN2 group) and semicompatibility (clamp formation restricted to contact zone between paired monokaryons) with 17 strains from Asia-Australasia (AA group), whereas the strains of the PN2 group showed compatibility with the AA group. These results suggest that the shiitake populations distributed in Asia-Australasia including Papua New Guinea are in the process of speciation. Contribution no. 391 from the Tottori Mycological Institute     

Evolutionary origins of taro (Colocasia esculenta) in Southeast Asia

As an ancient clonal root and leaf crop, taro (Colocasia esculenta, Araceae) is highly polymorphic with uncertain genetic and geographic origins. We explored chloroplast DNA diversity in cultivated and wild taros, and closely related wild taxa, and found cultivated taro to be polyphyletic, with tropical and temperate clades that appear to originate in Southeast Asia sensu lato. A third clade was found exclusively in wild populations from Southeast Asia to Australia and Papua New Guinea. Our findings do not support the hypothesis of taro domestication in Papua New Guinea, despite archaeological evidence for early use or cultivation there, and the presence of apparently natural wild populations in the region (Australia and Papua New Guinea).     

The Incorporated What Group: Ethnographic,Economic and Ideological Perspectives on Customary Land Ownership in Contemporary Papua New Guinea

Land law and economic development in Papua New Guinea, by David Lea and Timothy Curtin. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, UK, 2011, 207pp. ISBN: 9-781443-826518.

The incorporated land group (ILG), created by the Land Group Incorporation Act (1974) in Papua New Guinea, was one of a number of results of the 1971 Committee of Inquiry into Land Matters that convened in Papua New Guinea just before Papua New Guinea independence in 1975. It allowed for the legal incorporation of customary land-holding groups and was designed to promote business and cash-earning opportunities in rural Papua New Guinea in the post-independence period of nation- and citizen-building.

In more recent times, the ILG however has been put under considerably more strain by being forced to acquire functions that were not envisioned by its architects in 1971—namely the receipt, distribution and investment of incomes from resource extraction projects. The ILGs set up by various resource projects (most significantly in the petroleum project areas of PNG) have all run into various and severe difficulties in meeting these requirements of resource income management and business development on a scale not ever anticipated in 1971. Using examples from Papua New Guinea's petroleum project area and elsewhere, I cast doubts on the capacities of contemporary indigenous landowning units to make incorporation work for them in the face of current organization and financial challenges.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Bain Attwood (ed.). The Age of Mabo: History, Aborigines and Australia. Paula Brown. Beyond A Mountain Valley: The Simhu of Papua New Guinea. David B. Edwards. Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier. Martha Albertson Fineman. The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family and Other Twentieth Century Tragedies. Vineeta Hoon. Living on the Move: Bhotiyas ofthe Kumaon Himalaya. Ratna Kapoor and Brenda Cossman. Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in India. John C. Maher and Gaynor Macdonald (eds). Diversity in Japanese Culture and Language. Karen Fog Olwig and Kirsten Hastrup (eds). Siting Culture: The Shifting Anthropological Object. Adrian Peace. A Time. of Reckoning: The Politics of Discourse in Rural Ireland. Michael G. Peletz. Reason and Passion: Representations of Gender in a Malay Society Meir Shahar and Robert P. Weller (eds). Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China. Warren Shapiro and Uli Linke (eds). Denying Biology: Essays on Gender and Pseudo-Procreation. Michele Stephen. A' aisa's Gifts: A Study of Magic and the Self.     

Three new Indo-Australian species of the sciaenid genusAtrobucca,with a reevaluation of generic limit

Three new species of the sciaenid genusAtrobucca are described:A. kyushini from off Borneo, differs from all known congeners in having no swimbladder appendages enveloplng the bladder, no forward directed branches from the ventral limbs of the appendages, a long tube-like last appendage parallel to the bladder wall and a pale mouth lining;A. brevis from off northern Australia and Papua New Guinea, is distinguished by its short pectoral fin (less than 23% SL) and pleural rib on the 11th vertebra;A. adusta from Papua New Guinea, is distinctive in having a low dorsal soft ray number (23–24) and long caudal peduncle (27–30% SL).Atrobucca Chu, Lo et Wu is redefined to accommodate the new species: the genus is principally characterized by the swimbladder appendages divided into developed dorsal and ventral limbs, and the only slightly curved sulcus tail of the sagitta. A key and diagnoses are provided for all known species ofAtrobucca.     

Antigen and haplotype frequencies at three human leucocyte antigen loci (HLA-A, -B, -C) in the Pawaia of Papua New Guinea

The genetic profile of the Pawaia, a seminomadic, linguistic isolate from the highlands fringe of Papua New Guinea, is described in terms of antigen and haplotype frequencies at three class I human leucocyte antigen loci (HLA-A, -B, and -C). The Pawaia, like other Papua New Guinea populations, exhibit restricted polymorphisms at all three loci studied, both in the number of alleles segregating and in the level of average heterozygosity. An extremely high frequency (52.9%) of HLA-B27, the antigen implicated in the pathogenesis of seronegative arthropathies, was found. A novel HLA-C locus specificity, CNG, resulting probably from a gene duplication event, was also observed in significant numbers. Although the gene frequency comparisons suggest their strong affinities with the highlanders, the Pawaia haplotypes reveal significant admixture from other neighbouring groups as well. The usefulness of HLA haplotypes in tracing the movements of human populations in the New Guinea area is discussed.     

Two unusual species of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Physalacria</Emphasis> (Basidiomycetes,Agaricales) collected in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea during mycological expeditions by the National Science Museum,Tokyo

Two unusual species of Physalacria from New Zealand and Papua New Guinea are described and illustrated. Physalacria pseudotropica from South Island in New Zealand and P. tropica from Papua New Guinea are recorded for the first time.     

The Strongylophthalmyiidae (Diptera) of Papua New Guinea,with descriptions of five new species and a world checklist

Eight species of the Strongylophthalmyiidae are reported from Papua New Guinea. Of these, five species (Strongylophthalmyia gigantica sp. nov., S. papuana sp. nov., S. rubella sp. nov., S. sedlaceki sp. nov. and S. shatalkini sp. nov.) are described as new to science. Strongylophthalmyia puncticollis Frey is recorded for the first time from Papua New Guinea. Faunistic remarks, a key to the species of the Strongylophthalmyia in Papua New Guinea and a world checklist are provided.