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Seed to civilisation: The story of food
312
BOOK REVIEWS
knowledge of mathematics and this they do. Often, however, there recurs a detailed explanation of what seems to the reader to be a fairly simple and readily understood point, an occurrence which can be irritating. Conversely, of course, when the reader would like explanation of a point, such explanation may be missing. What it is reasonable to assume will be familiar is, however, a very personal matter for the individual reader. The book is firmly based on using particular subject areas to illustrate detailed modelling techniques and this aspect is to be commended in it. There is one drawback in the way this has been done; when a modelling principle is presented the authors almost immediately proceed to deal with the computer programming aspects of the principle. The simulation language used in the book is Continuous System Modelling Program III (IBM); for readers unfamiliar with this language, immersion in the programming aspects may result in failure to comprehend the principle. More definite separation of the principle and programming aspects of dealing with it would have improved the book. Each chapter is liberally supplied with exercises which are interspersed in the text and to which the answers are supplied at the end of the book. This works well even if it does slow up the rate of reading, although the authors clearly do not intend that the exercises should form part of the first reading of the text. The book is undoubtedly a very good text for both student and biological research worker, and the criticism levelled at it is of a relatively minor nature. The presentation is fairly basic, being based on a typescript without justification of the right-hand margins, but this is entirely adequate and has no doubt contributed to keeping the cost down to a reasonable level. J. G. W. JONES
Heiser, Jr., Charles B., Seed to Civilisation: The Story of Food (2nd edition), W . H . Freeman, Reading. 1981. 254pp. 126 illustrations. Price: £13.40 (Board). £6.20 (Paperback). This is a new edition of a book first published in 1973. The revised version differs from the original in the addition of two new chapters, one on sugar crops and the other on sunflower and cotton. There are also significant alterations and up to date additions to two other chapters. The book gives the origin and evolution of a selected list of crop plants, the more important of which are wheat, barley, rice, maize, potato and sugar cane. Treatment of the crops is not uniform, some having greater details presented on cytogenetic aspects, while for others information on their socio-economic history predominates. There is a chapter on the history and evolution of species of animals for meat production. Although the biological understanding is elaborated from the baseline of genetics and evolution, the arguments are related throughout to archaeological
BOOK REVIEWS
313
knowledge of plant agriculture and to the social history of man. Thus there are chapters on the origins of agriculture, on the twin human obsessions--sex and sacrifice--on nutrition in relation to the world's food supplies and on the obligations of 'the haves' and 'the have nots' to alleviate hunger and promote economic development. There are also vigorous--if rather brief and somewhat random--detours on familiar topics such as the Green Revolution, single cell protein, C 4 plants and the erosion of genetic resources. This is an introductory book for the general reader who will find it both stimulating and informative. The non-specialist reader will soon discover, however, that the experience is just a beginning and that he will be left with many unanswered questions for which a deeper understanding will almost certainly be helpful. WATKIN WILLIAMS
Huggett, Richard, Systems Analysis in Geography, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1980. Price: £4.95 (Paperback). £11.00 (Cloth). Readers of this journal do not, presumably, need to be persuaded of the value of systems analysis or the systems approach. Geographers, however, have exhibited both a reluctance to adopt this approach and some scepticism as to its value. Richard Huggett's book, then, is an attempt to persuade his fellow geographers of the value of this way of looking at the world. He begins with a survey of the terminology of systems and then turns to a discussion of systems analysis. He notes that the systems which are dealt with by geographers are very complex, often embracing both physical and human processes, and that few examples of systems analysis contain any explicit spatial component. He identifies four phases in systems analysis--the lexical, parsing, modelling and analysis. Under the first head he deals with the general problems of distinguishing the components of a system and measuring them, illustrating the problems with numerous examples from physical and human geography. The parsing phrase, or the measurement of relationships between components, deals largely with the statistical confirmation of functional relationships between components, and discussions of growth relationships, feedback relations and stochastic relations. The following two chapters, on 'Flow Models' and 'Regional Models', are devoted to a review of numerous models of interest to geographers in these two fields. Readers of this journal will find little in this book on agroecosystems per se, but may find the view of a wide range of models in allied fields of interest. Whether it will persuade geographers of the value of the systems approach is another matter; one feels that example--rather than exhortation--is the best way in this, as in other, fields. D. B. GRIGG
BOOK REVIEWS
knowledge of mathematics and this they do. Often, however, there recurs a detailed explanation of what seems to the reader to be a fairly simple and readily understood point, an occurrence which can be irritating. Conversely, of course, when the reader would like explanation of a point, such explanation may be missing. What it is reasonable to assume will be familiar is, however, a very personal matter for the individual reader. The book is firmly based on using particular subject areas to illustrate detailed modelling techniques and this aspect is to be commended in it. There is one drawback in the way this has been done; when a modelling principle is presented the authors almost immediately proceed to deal with the computer programming aspects of the principle. The simulation language used in the book is Continuous System Modelling Program III (IBM); for readers unfamiliar with this language, immersion in the programming aspects may result in failure to comprehend the principle. More definite separation of the principle and programming aspects of dealing with it would have improved the book. Each chapter is liberally supplied with exercises which are interspersed in the text and to which the answers are supplied at the end of the book. This works well even if it does slow up the rate of reading, although the authors clearly do not intend that the exercises should form part of the first reading of the text. The book is undoubtedly a very good text for both student and biological research worker, and the criticism levelled at it is of a relatively minor nature. The presentation is fairly basic, being based on a typescript without justification of the right-hand margins, but this is entirely adequate and has no doubt contributed to keeping the cost down to a reasonable level. J. G. W. JONES
Heiser, Jr., Charles B., Seed to Civilisation: The Story of Food (2nd edition), W . H . Freeman, Reading. 1981. 254pp. 126 illustrations. Price: £13.40 (Board). £6.20 (Paperback). This is a new edition of a book first published in 1973. The revised version differs from the original in the addition of two new chapters, one on sugar crops and the other on sunflower and cotton. There are also significant alterations and up to date additions to two other chapters. The book gives the origin and evolution of a selected list of crop plants, the more important of which are wheat, barley, rice, maize, potato and sugar cane. Treatment of the crops is not uniform, some having greater details presented on cytogenetic aspects, while for others information on their socio-economic history predominates. There is a chapter on the history and evolution of species of animals for meat production. Although the biological understanding is elaborated from the baseline of genetics and evolution, the arguments are related throughout to archaeological
BOOK REVIEWS
313
knowledge of plant agriculture and to the social history of man. Thus there are chapters on the origins of agriculture, on the twin human obsessions--sex and sacrifice--on nutrition in relation to the world's food supplies and on the obligations of 'the haves' and 'the have nots' to alleviate hunger and promote economic development. There are also vigorous--if rather brief and somewhat random--detours on familiar topics such as the Green Revolution, single cell protein, C 4 plants and the erosion of genetic resources. This is an introductory book for the general reader who will find it both stimulating and informative. The non-specialist reader will soon discover, however, that the experience is just a beginning and that he will be left with many unanswered questions for which a deeper understanding will almost certainly be helpful. WATKIN WILLIAMS
Huggett, Richard, Systems Analysis in Geography, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1980. Price: £4.95 (Paperback). £11.00 (Cloth). Readers of this journal do not, presumably, need to be persuaded of the value of systems analysis or the systems approach. Geographers, however, have exhibited both a reluctance to adopt this approach and some scepticism as to its value. Richard Huggett's book, then, is an attempt to persuade his fellow geographers of the value of this way of looking at the world. He begins with a survey of the terminology of systems and then turns to a discussion of systems analysis. He notes that the systems which are dealt with by geographers are very complex, often embracing both physical and human processes, and that few examples of systems analysis contain any explicit spatial component. He identifies four phases in systems analysis--the lexical, parsing, modelling and analysis. Under the first head he deals with the general problems of distinguishing the components of a system and measuring them, illustrating the problems with numerous examples from physical and human geography. The parsing phrase, or the measurement of relationships between components, deals largely with the statistical confirmation of functional relationships between components, and discussions of growth relationships, feedback relations and stochastic relations. The following two chapters, on 'Flow Models' and 'Regional Models', are devoted to a review of numerous models of interest to geographers in these two fields. Readers of this journal will find little in this book on agroecosystems per se, but may find the view of a wide range of models in allied fields of interest. Whether it will persuade geographers of the value of the systems approach is another matter; one feels that example--rather than exhortation--is the best way in this, as in other, fields. D. B. GRIGG