Day-trip herding is one aspect of the person-animal interactions that form the basis of the domestication process. This study examines the influence of socio-economic factors on subsistence techniques and the variation of person-animal relationships among pastoralist societies.

Domestic sheep and goats are herded together as one herd in Arkhangai Province, Mongolia. I observed that the herds frequently mingled with each other when they came in proximity during day-trip herding, and herdsmen intervened in their herds repeatedly throughout day-trip herding. However, previous studies conducted in Africa have suggested that herds with fixed membership did not mingle and they moved autonomously with little intervention by herdsmen.

The distinctive behavior of herds and techniques used by herdsmen to intervene in herds to control their activity in Mongolia appeared to stem from a combination of such factors such as the social organization involved in animal management, folk knowledge of animal behavior, and the influences of the natural environment. Concerning the social organization, several households formed a temporary residential group and combined their animals in a single herd to share the work of day-trip herding. However, the composition of residential groups changed in a few weeks or months and the membership of herds also changed in the short term. Indeed, the herds mingled frequently, unless herdsmen intervened to integrate, lead and control the activities of animals. The day-trip herding of such herds was only possible with frequent intervention by herdsmen.

Indonesia was once one of the leading football countries in Asia. Even though the international status of Indonesian football has long been attenuated, football is still the most popular sport in the country. This article is an attempt to describe the relationship between society and sport in Indonesia through focusing on a local football club.

PSM is a football club established in 1915 in Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. At first, the club was given the Dutch name of MVB (Makassar Voetbal Bond). During the Japanese occupation, it was given a new Indonesian name, PSM (Persatuan Sepakbola Makassar), by which it has been known ever since.

The 1950s and mid-60s were the golden era of PSM, starring Ramang—considered to be the greatest Indonesian footballer. South Sulawesi was at that time the ground for the Kahar Muzakkar rebellion against the central government. This period is known as the era of Fanatisme Daerah (regional fanaticism). PSM served as a powerful tool to counterbalance outsiders, mainly from Jawa.

In the late 60s the rebellion ended, Suharto’s New Order regime began, and South Sulawesi found itself more integrated into the central government than it had previously been. Concurrently, PSM’s achievements gradually declined. Ironically, however, PSM became a symbol of Makassar, receiving support from the mayor of Makassar and a local entrepreneur. Consequentially, PSM was significant for internal Makassarese society rather than broader society outside of the world of Makassar.

Within these contexts, although it was originally born as an offshoot of the Dutch East Indies, PSM gives a ‘visualization’ of the characteristics of Makassar of the times. Football, in this sense, offers us an optimal chance to examine related issues such as ethnicity, regional history, social integration, and local and central politics.

This paper aims to describe and analyze the diversity of indigenous banana-farming cultures in Asia and Africa, focusing on the variation in local cultivars. First, we describe local cultivars, cropping systems, and uses in 13 research areas and then characterize each banana-farming culture by the cultural and economic importance of the crop. Second, we map the distribution of genome types and the relationships between uses and genome types.

We found clear differences in the distributional patterns of genome types between Asia and eastern coastal Africa, and inland Africa; the former has a wide range of genome types with a relatively small number of local cultivars within each genome type, while the latter has many local cultivars within a limited number of genome types. The areas also differ with regard to the economic and cultural importance of bananas. Bananas are regarded as a staple food or staple material in Africa, whereas in Asia they are regarded as an ingredient for snacks, cakes or medicines.

A comparison of the banana-farming cultures indicates that the diversity of local cultivars arises from a balance among such actors, as farmers, traders, and consumers in urban areas or the northern countries, who have little idea of the abundant local cultivars produced in the south.

This article presents an historical analysis carried out in order to understand the present state of adat (custom or customary law) in central Flores, eastern Indonesia. By exploring the vast network of causal nexuses that have brought the present into existence, this study aims to elucidate what the present, or a certain phenomenon observed in the present, really is. Here I deal selectively with certain parts of that network of causes and effects. Specifically, I explicate how the present state of adat in central Flores is causally connected with (1) the slave trade and warfare that took place in central Flores until the early 20th century, (2) Dutch colonial rule, which prohibited both slavery and warfare, and (3) the “development” policy that the Soeharto government executed from the 1970s until its downfall in 1998. I have chosen this focus not only for reasons of space, but also because doing so makes it possible to comprehend aspects of the present state of adat that were not conceived of in the “development” discourse that took place during Soeharto’s New Order and have not been conceived of in the current political circumstances surrounding adat.

Tamaki Yasuaki

Waka Aoyama. An Ethnography of Poverty : Socioeconomic Life of Five Sama Families in Dovao City, Philippines. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 2006, 414p. +xi

Mamo Hebo

Itaru Ohta and Yntiso D. Gebre eds. Displacement Risks in Africa: Refugees, Resettlers, and Their Host Population. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press and Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2005, 394p. +xv

Akiyama Akiko

Ian Scoones. Science, Agriculture and the Politics of Policy: The Case of Biotechnology in India. New Delhi: Orient Longman Private Limited, 2006, 417p.