This book is concerned with the development of agriculture in a 'contact economy'- an economy lying on the boundary between subsistence farming and farming dependent on the market. Thailand was opened to trade with the West over a century ago, and Thai farmers became accustomed to selling their surplus produce regularly. But it is only very recently, with the development of a road network, that many farmers have come to find the surplus that they sell of equal importance to what they produce for their own use. Even now most of them feel that they must produce their own rice.

The Mount Hagen people of the New Guinea Highlands have no indigenous centralised authority. They have, nonetheless, clear patterns of social order and leadership. The problem of how order is achieved in such societies has exercised anthropologists since the 1940s. It is also one of considerable relevance to New Guinea as it is emerging today. This study builds its case not only on the descent characteristics which have been stressed in African models of uncentralised societies but also on the activities of the {u2018}big-men{u2019} and the specific ideologies of the Hageners.

For his study of Western Australian attitudes towards Aborigines Dr Taft chose three samples: in Perth, where there arc few Aborigines; in a large country town with a reputation for bad relations between Europeans and Aborigines; and in a small country town where relations were good. He analyses these attitudes with respect to several variables and finds that the most important influences on the relationships are the effects of community norms. Some interesting aspects of European attitudes to one another also emerge.

Three-quarters of the Australian continent is arid or semi-arid. History has shown that man{u2019}s utilisation of arid lands has, in general, caused progressive deterioration of the natural vegetation, the animal resources, and finally the landscape itself. Already settlement in Australia{u2019}s arid lands bears all too evident witness to damage and degradation. Each additional use of these lands - for grazing, farming, mining - tends to distort the extremely delicate ecological balance of most of Australia.

In Japan the Heian period (A.D. 794 to 1185) was characterised by a great volume of published works of literature written by women - an event brought about by the coincidence of the development of a Japanese script at a time when women were enjoying a freedom unparalleled till the present and when the country was at peace. One of the most popular forms adopted was the nikki, a diary form which women turned into a masterful combination of poetry and prose.

This book looks at 'the Aboriginal problem' from an unusual viewpoint - that of the Aborigines themselves, for whom 'the Aboriginal problem is the white Australian'. The essays deal with all those features of traditional Aboriginal life that made it so deeply satisfying to the original Australians: religion, attachment to land, imaginative culture, and the whole ethos on which the impact of Europeans and their way of life has been destructive. The Aborigines have been dispossessed, exploited, rejected and on occasions reviled.

Despite the quantity of official and academic studies generated by the postwar immigration program, little publicity has been given to Australia's gain of highly skilled workers. This book has been written to fill out our knowledge in this area. Until recently, Australia experienced shortages of professional man power, and both government and private employers looked abroad for it. But professional skills are not as easily transferred across the globe as are lesser skills.

In 1856, at the age of six, Samuel Shumack came to the Duntroon Estate in Canberra. He farmed in the district until 1915. Forced by injury to retire from active farming, Shumack, at the age of 59, began to record his memories of old Canberra. He was an acute and accurate observer. His stories move freely from one episode to the next. The text is enhanced by eight colour plates by artist Gray Smith. This fascinating book will be treasured by all who have an interest in Canberra's history. Chap.