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The Population of New Zealand. Interdisciplinary perspectives
106
REVIEWS
Alan Macfarlane and Keith Thomas are not mentioned. More detailed accounts of particular places at particular periods are presented in surveys of violence and fear in the countryside and in the city. In the depths of the countryside, brigands, highwaymen and sturdy beggars loom large among the figures of terror. In the city, frenzied mobs, gangs, faceless silent criminals, fire-raisers and, above all, aliens, are perennial bogeymen. The topography of fear is more easily delineated than the connections between great panics, witch-hunts, persecutions, massacres and outbreaks of economic distress, revolution or war. The fourth part of the book describes landscapes deliberately designed to strike terror into passers-by to deter them from crime or idleness. In addition to gibbets, prisons, workhouses and lunatic asylums, many other structures inspire dread. Cathedrals and temples put the fear of God into worshippers ; palaces and courts command deference from commoners; castles, fortresses, Offa’s Dyke, Maginot Line and the Iron Curtain intimidate potential enemies. Fear is an ingredient of pomp and ceremony, especially of military parades and manoeuvres. The most pervasive and menacing landscape of fear is the land.scape of nuclear deterrence. Yi-fu Tuan’s study is strong on cross-cultural comparisons but not so thorough in its historical treatment. It leaves an impression that the world and the nature of our fears are fixed and unchanging and that a present-day map of fear is also valid for past times. A chapter on the middle ages explores a realm of fear that was more intense and had a different configuration from the present, and it would be valuable to compare the medieval landscape of fear with that of Roman Gaul or sixteenth-century Japan or Chicago in the 1920s or Solzenitzyn’s Gulag. But all these are quibbles. This is a worthy successor to Topophilia and Space and Place, It makes difficult concepts transparently clear and leads us into new areas of awareness. It should generate fresh research. University
HUGH PRINCE
College London
R. J. WARWICK
NEVILLE and C. JAMES O’NEILL,
disciplinary Perspectives (Auckland: $12.95)
Longman
The Population of New Zealand. Znter-
Paul
Limited,
1979. Pp. xii + 339.
Over the past two decades there has been an upsurge of interest in New Zealand’s population, not only among the nation’s academics, but among the citizens of the country as well. New Zealanders have tended in the past to see themselves living in the world’s most ideal country, and therefore have taken it as normal that people would want to migrate to their shores. But since 1976 they have received a rude awakening as migration figures have shown a net outflow of people. In the 1960s and 70s New Zealanders have also become more aware of the problems of a multi-racial society, and are coming to recognize the demographic differences between the dominant but older-aged pakeha European stock and the indigenous younger Polynesian sector. The Population of New Zealand attempts to provide New Zealanders and others with a wide understanding and appreciation of the contemporary demographic situation of the country as well as to note recent trends in demographic behaviour. The book is organized systematically by topics, and is written by well-qualified authors from various disciplines including geography, demography, economics, sociology and psychology. According to the back cover each chapter looks at the contemporary situation in its historical context. The authors were apparently left to decide themselves as to what time span constituted the historical context, and as a result great variations exist. For example, some see the historical context as the 1970s alone, others the period since the Second World War and only five of the eleven authors look at developments since the nineteenth century. Thus the book will only give historical geographers a broad outline of various aspects of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century population, Warwick Neville’s chapter on ‘Trends and sources’ being of most value. A. V. Zodgekar’s chapter on ‘Mortality’
REVIEWS
107
and C. .I. O’Neill’s on ‘Fertility’ can also be singled out as including valuable historical data. There is still a need for a detailed book on historical aspects of New Zealand’s population. Although the historical geographer will find this volume of limited assistance, this should not be seen as a condemnation. The volume’s main purpose was to look at the contemporary scene, and this has been achieved. All chapters add new insights to New Zealand’s population today. One of the strengths of this book is that the editors did not accept a narrow definition of their field, and have included chapters dealing with the relationships between population and the economy, with social policy and with the environment, all fields which are of public concern within New Zealand society today. The latter two chapters contain some interesting historical material. Other chapters deal with trends and sources, migration (both internal and international), marriages and families, mortality, fertility, sex and age distribution, ethnic groups, the labour force and population and the future. While it is accepted that in a volume with several contributors there will be variation in quality from one to another, I found that no chapter can be singled out as being of low standard. Each chapter has a list of references, and the book contains useful statistical tables and clear diagrams. The editors and publishers are to be congratulated on the high standard of editing and presentation. The Population of New Zealand is recommended as essential for anyone interested in this South Pacific country today. University
of Otago
YAMADA YASUHIKO, Kodai T6hoku no Furonteia [The ancient Tiihoku
Kokon
R. P. HARGREAVES
frontier] (Tokyo :
Shoin, 1976. Pp. 277. 3000yen)
The process by which the Japanese political and social system extended into the Tbhoku region of northern Honshii has not formerly been studied by historical geographers. Yamada Yasuhiko’s book tracing Tbhoku’s settlement from the third to the ninth centuries A.D. is therefore, a welcome addition to the frontier studies literature. It concentrates primarily on the northern half of the Sendai Plain in central Tohoku, where the frontier’s northward expansion slowed down during the Nara period (710A.D. 784). As the author points out, students of ancient Tbhoku face a paucity of primary documents. He employs chronological histories such as the Shoku Nihongi (compiled in A.D. 797) and the Nihon kfiki (A.D. 840), as well as commentaries and elaborations on earlier law codes like the Ry6 no gige (A.D. 833) and the Engi shiki (A.D. 927). These books provide valuable information on the establishment of administrative units and the location of shrines but do not yield many demographic or economic data about Tohoku. From this and other fragmentary evidence data, Yamada analyses and maps various Japanese cultural phenomena in Tohoku including: j&i fields, a land distribution system which was applied throughout Japan in the mid-eighth century as part of the titsuryB code, a penal-administrative bureaucratic framework adopted from Tang China in the late seventh century; the emergence of an interconnected network of forts with earthen defence ridges and signal fires; and the distribution of Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, kilns, and other remains. At the beginning of the book Yamada pays tribute to Western frontier studies but warns the reader about the pitfalls of comparing ancient Tbhoku with foreign frontiers. His own approach, as he acknowledges, is influenced by Norman J. G. Pounds’ emphasis on the connectivity between Roman military towns and their neighbouring forts, Edmund W. Gilbert’s stress of the transition in Roman Britain from a military to a cultural zone, and L. P. Ku-wan’s mapping of artifacts on the Roman Egyptian frontier. In his survey of Japanese scholarship the author discusses the enigmatic identity of the Emishi or Ezo
REVIEWS
Alan Macfarlane and Keith Thomas are not mentioned. More detailed accounts of particular places at particular periods are presented in surveys of violence and fear in the countryside and in the city. In the depths of the countryside, brigands, highwaymen and sturdy beggars loom large among the figures of terror. In the city, frenzied mobs, gangs, faceless silent criminals, fire-raisers and, above all, aliens, are perennial bogeymen. The topography of fear is more easily delineated than the connections between great panics, witch-hunts, persecutions, massacres and outbreaks of economic distress, revolution or war. The fourth part of the book describes landscapes deliberately designed to strike terror into passers-by to deter them from crime or idleness. In addition to gibbets, prisons, workhouses and lunatic asylums, many other structures inspire dread. Cathedrals and temples put the fear of God into worshippers ; palaces and courts command deference from commoners; castles, fortresses, Offa’s Dyke, Maginot Line and the Iron Curtain intimidate potential enemies. Fear is an ingredient of pomp and ceremony, especially of military parades and manoeuvres. The most pervasive and menacing landscape of fear is the land.scape of nuclear deterrence. Yi-fu Tuan’s study is strong on cross-cultural comparisons but not so thorough in its historical treatment. It leaves an impression that the world and the nature of our fears are fixed and unchanging and that a present-day map of fear is also valid for past times. A chapter on the middle ages explores a realm of fear that was more intense and had a different configuration from the present, and it would be valuable to compare the medieval landscape of fear with that of Roman Gaul or sixteenth-century Japan or Chicago in the 1920s or Solzenitzyn’s Gulag. But all these are quibbles. This is a worthy successor to Topophilia and Space and Place, It makes difficult concepts transparently clear and leads us into new areas of awareness. It should generate fresh research. University
HUGH PRINCE
College London
R. J. WARWICK
NEVILLE and C. JAMES O’NEILL,
disciplinary Perspectives (Auckland: $12.95)
Longman
The Population of New Zealand. Znter-
Paul
Limited,
1979. Pp. xii + 339.
Over the past two decades there has been an upsurge of interest in New Zealand’s population, not only among the nation’s academics, but among the citizens of the country as well. New Zealanders have tended in the past to see themselves living in the world’s most ideal country, and therefore have taken it as normal that people would want to migrate to their shores. But since 1976 they have received a rude awakening as migration figures have shown a net outflow of people. In the 1960s and 70s New Zealanders have also become more aware of the problems of a multi-racial society, and are coming to recognize the demographic differences between the dominant but older-aged pakeha European stock and the indigenous younger Polynesian sector. The Population of New Zealand attempts to provide New Zealanders and others with a wide understanding and appreciation of the contemporary demographic situation of the country as well as to note recent trends in demographic behaviour. The book is organized systematically by topics, and is written by well-qualified authors from various disciplines including geography, demography, economics, sociology and psychology. According to the back cover each chapter looks at the contemporary situation in its historical context. The authors were apparently left to decide themselves as to what time span constituted the historical context, and as a result great variations exist. For example, some see the historical context as the 1970s alone, others the period since the Second World War and only five of the eleven authors look at developments since the nineteenth century. Thus the book will only give historical geographers a broad outline of various aspects of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century population, Warwick Neville’s chapter on ‘Trends and sources’ being of most value. A. V. Zodgekar’s chapter on ‘Mortality’
REVIEWS
107
and C. .I. O’Neill’s on ‘Fertility’ can also be singled out as including valuable historical data. There is still a need for a detailed book on historical aspects of New Zealand’s population. Although the historical geographer will find this volume of limited assistance, this should not be seen as a condemnation. The volume’s main purpose was to look at the contemporary scene, and this has been achieved. All chapters add new insights to New Zealand’s population today. One of the strengths of this book is that the editors did not accept a narrow definition of their field, and have included chapters dealing with the relationships between population and the economy, with social policy and with the environment, all fields which are of public concern within New Zealand society today. The latter two chapters contain some interesting historical material. Other chapters deal with trends and sources, migration (both internal and international), marriages and families, mortality, fertility, sex and age distribution, ethnic groups, the labour force and population and the future. While it is accepted that in a volume with several contributors there will be variation in quality from one to another, I found that no chapter can be singled out as being of low standard. Each chapter has a list of references, and the book contains useful statistical tables and clear diagrams. The editors and publishers are to be congratulated on the high standard of editing and presentation. The Population of New Zealand is recommended as essential for anyone interested in this South Pacific country today. University
of Otago
YAMADA YASUHIKO, Kodai T6hoku no Furonteia [The ancient Tiihoku
Kokon
R. P. HARGREAVES
frontier] (Tokyo :
Shoin, 1976. Pp. 277. 3000yen)
The process by which the Japanese political and social system extended into the Tbhoku region of northern Honshii has not formerly been studied by historical geographers. Yamada Yasuhiko’s book tracing Tbhoku’s settlement from the third to the ninth centuries A.D. is therefore, a welcome addition to the frontier studies literature. It concentrates primarily on the northern half of the Sendai Plain in central Tohoku, where the frontier’s northward expansion slowed down during the Nara period (710A.D. 784). As the author points out, students of ancient Tbhoku face a paucity of primary documents. He employs chronological histories such as the Shoku Nihongi (compiled in A.D. 797) and the Nihon kfiki (A.D. 840), as well as commentaries and elaborations on earlier law codes like the Ry6 no gige (A.D. 833) and the Engi shiki (A.D. 927). These books provide valuable information on the establishment of administrative units and the location of shrines but do not yield many demographic or economic data about Tohoku. From this and other fragmentary evidence data, Yamada analyses and maps various Japanese cultural phenomena in Tohoku including: j&i fields, a land distribution system which was applied throughout Japan in the mid-eighth century as part of the titsuryB code, a penal-administrative bureaucratic framework adopted from Tang China in the late seventh century; the emergence of an interconnected network of forts with earthen defence ridges and signal fires; and the distribution of Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, kilns, and other remains. At the beginning of the book Yamada pays tribute to Western frontier studies but warns the reader about the pitfalls of comparing ancient Tbhoku with foreign frontiers. His own approach, as he acknowledges, is influenced by Norman J. G. Pounds’ emphasis on the connectivity between Roman military towns and their neighbouring forts, Edmund W. Gilbert’s stress of the transition in Roman Britain from a military to a cultural zone, and L. P. Ku-wan’s mapping of artifacts on the Roman Egyptian frontier. In his survey of Japanese scholarship the author discusses the enigmatic identity of the Emishi or Ezo