BOOK REVIEWS 123

longdong. Only Longgudong is published in any detail elsewhere in the Chinese litera- ture, leaving aspects of dental evolution in China unknown in the West.

Early (archaic) Homo sapiens is discussed in a chapter by Wu Xinzhi and Wu Maolin, while more recent remains are covered by Wu Xinzhi and Zhang Zhenbiao. The archaic remains are seen as precursors for the living and recent Chinese populations (see, espe- cially, the discussion of Dali), and as distinct from early Homo sapiens in other areas of the world, thus carrying on Weidenreich’s traditional interpretation of human evolu- tion in the Far East. Moreover, the virtually complete skeleton from Yingkou, discovered after the Wu and Wu chapter was written, adds even more fuel to the regional continu- ity argument.

The more recent remains (a sample now much larger than the Zhoukoudian Upper Cave materials) are shown to fit this scheme far better than Weidenreich thought. More- over, evolutionary trends within the large Neolithic samples are shown, and it is clear that research in all aspects of human evolu- tion is proceeding a t the fastest rate one could expect when the number of times the same name appears on different papers (an indica- tor of the small number of Chinese paleoan- thropologists) is taken into account.

The second half of the book, almost exactly half by page count, reviews the progress and prospects for Paleolithic archaeology in China. The authors, perhaps less familiar to the readers of this journal, also occupy the fourth floor of the IVPP in Beijing (Zhou Mingzhen once pointed out to me that the institute reflected the evolutionary process, with the invertebrate paleontologists below the vertebrate paleontologists, who in turn are below the paleoanthropologists).

The archaeological sequence is discussed in serial order, perhaps reflecting chronology. Jia Lanpo describes the earliest Paleolithic remains, supporting the redating of Yuan-

mou, which makes it younger than the Lower Pleistocene materials from Xihoudu. Zhang Senshui, who like Jia has extensive experi- ence at many of the archaeological sites, pre- sents a long and very useful chapter on the early Paleolithic. Chapters on the middle (Qiu Zhonglang) and late (Jia Lanpo and Huang Weiwen) Paleolithic tend to be pri- marily descriptive and site oriented, al- though like all the chapters in this compilation they include more discussion and interpretation than is usual in that part of the Chinese scientific literature available in English. More specialized chapters describe microlithic industries (Gai Pei), the Paleo- pithic of Inner Mongolia (Wang Yuping and J.W. Olsen), and the mammalian faunas of China (Han Defen and Xu Chunhua). Fi- nally, Jia Lanpo and Huang Weiwen place the understanding of China’s Paleolithic in a historic context.

This book is an absolute must for anybody interested in the course of human evolution in East Asia. Indeed, given some of the re- cent publications asserting that Chinese Homo erectus has nothing to do with the evo- lution of later humans and the use of these publications by geneticists claiming to show a recent replacement of all human popula- tions by a very small population from Africa, this book could well be required reading for everybody interested in the origins of mod- ern populations. The East Asian fossil evi- dence should be understood, and the un- interpreted opinions of our Chinese col- leagues at the IVPP read first hand, so that these can be considered in an accurate and valid way. This book provides the opportu- nity to do so. It will no doubt foster a better understanding of Chinese paleoanthropology than currently exists.

MILFORD H. WOLPOFF Department of Anthropology The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan

METRIC AND NON-METRIC CRANIAL VARIA- TION IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL POPULA- TIONS COMPARED WITH POPULATIONS FROM THE PACIFIC AND ASIA. By M. Pietrusewsky. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. 1984. xi + 113 pp., maps, figures, tables, references. $9.95 (paper).

The biological variation within Australian Aboriginal populations, the presumed Asian origin of the founding population, and the presence of temporal trends within Australia are the subjects of protracted debate. Despite an increased effort in the last two decades, this debate is after 200 years of research still some distance from resolution. Pietrusewsky

124 BOOK REVIEWS

has previously made contributions to the un- derstanding of the geographic variation within Australia with comprehensive cran- iometric analyses of the available material. In this latest work the objectives are clearly stated. These are to investigate the histori- cal-biological relationships between late Pleistocene and recent Australian Aborigi- nal people and some circum-Australian pop- ulations. In addition, the possible origins of these people are examined.

The author approached these issues through a multivariate, metric analysis of male and female Australian Aboriginal crania and male crania from the Pacific and Asia. This was combined with a study of non- metric traits in the same material. The Aus- tralian sample contained late Pleistocene, early Holocene, and recent crania, while the Asian and Pacific components were simply described as “near contemporary.” It is the nature of this sample, in particular the ab- sence of temporal control in the Asian and Pacific samples, that undermines the stated objectives of this analysis.

One of the few aspects of the Australian origins debate that obtains general agree- ment is the folly of directly comparing Aus- tralian Aboriginal people, past and present, with those living in Asia and the Pacific. Recent population movement throughout Southeast Asia and into the Pacific combined with considerable geographic variation and relatively great time depth within Australia leads to fairly predictable results from com- parisons of recent populations. In general these indicate that Australian Aboriginals are unique in terms of the overall complex of traits for which they have been examined, that they form a distinct contrast with people presently living in Asia, and that at a genetic level the Pacific and Asian areas tend to be closer to each other than either is to Aus- tralia. This literature, to a large degree, has been ignored by Pietrusewsky and it is to the detriment of the objectives of the monograph. Questions about the origins and variation of people in the Australian, and to a lesser de- gree the Pacific, areas can only be answered in reference to the late Pleistocene and early

Holocene material: Ngandong, Wadjak, Ta- bon, Niah, Leang Buidance, Gua Cha, and so forth, from Asia.

The major contribution this publication makes is in the documentation of geographic variation in both metric and nonmetric cra- nial traits. Previous analyses have generally considered only one aspect of cranial varia- tion and have been drawn from a sample containing either pooled sex or single sex data. Pietrusewsky’s comparison of male and female data provide interesting results, not the least of which is their high level of agree- ment. However, although numerous issues are raised by the analysis, many are exam- ined only in a circumspect manner. In partic- ular, the position the groups obtain in the discriminant function and generalized dis- tance results, the constellations that are formed, and the position of the isolated sam- ples (Kow Swamp, Tasmania, Broadbeach, and so forth) could have been given greater consideration. This is a common problem with statistical analyses of osteological data where often the biological and cultural real- ity of the data is made subservient to the complexities of the analysis.

With the exception of the maps, the presen- tation of this volume is excellent. There are very few errors within the text, and a large amount of data is presented in comprehen- sive tables. Pietrusewsky’s original data are kept on file at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and may be referred to by others. This monograph, and previous issues of the Occasional Papers series, of which this is the third, is aimed at the specialist with its principal value being in the extensive amount of information that is presented. For those interested in aspects of Australian Ab- original biological variation, this monograph and previous editions in the series are, above all else, a source of considerable stimulation.

PETER BROWN Department of Prehistory and Archaeology University of New England Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

DISEASE OF COMPLEX ETIOLOGY IN SMALL Diseases of complex Etiology in Small Pop POPULATIONS: ETHNIC DIFFERENCES AND ulations is a collection of papers that resulted RESEARCH APPROACHES. Edited by R. from a symposium held in British Columbia Chakraborty and E.J.E. Szathmary. New in August 1983. The title of the symposium, York: Alan R. Liss, Inc. 1985. xii + 423 pp., Genetic Epidemiology in an Anthropological figures, tables, references, index. $49.50 Context, is in some ways a more accurate (cloth). description of the book’s contents than the