Book Reviews

[...]when a report of this one example, written by the Dutch Protestant missionary, the Reverend Candidius, reached Europe in the seventeenth century, it so shocked the learned community of those days that it attained a certain notoriety. In the first chapters Hitchcock offers us a geographical and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde land- en volkenkunde, 1996, Vol.152 (3), p.483
Main Authors: Boomgaard, Peter, Shepherd, John Robert, Bernice de Jong Boers, Hitchcock, Michael, King, Dwight Y, Kahin, Audrey R, Han Knapen, Brookfield, Harold, Mulder, Niels, Durrenberger, E Paul, Pels, Peter, Wiener, Margaret J, Marie-Odette Scalliet
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Abortion
Anthropology
Austronesian languages
Dictionaries
Dutch language
Editing
Language history
Libraries
Loanwords
Missionaries
Phonemics
Phonetics
Religious missions
Spelling
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Summary:[...]when a report of this one example, written by the Dutch Protestant missionary, the Reverend Candidius, reached Europe in the seventeenth century, it so shocked the learned community of those days that it attained a certain notoriety. In the first chapters Hitchcock offers us a geographical and historical survey of Sumbawa (especially Bima). Besides these more practical points, he puts forward some theoretical considerations about race and ethnicity, Indonesian Islam, Islamic anthropology, and the field of anthropological study, reflecting the wider theoretical anthropological aim of the book. Since Leary has not investigated the world view, the indigenous value-meaning system of the Senoi peoples, he has not considered the possibility that the existence of a cultural inclination towards peacefulness under normal circumstances does not conflict with outbreaks of violence during abnormal, stressful events. [...]the qualities of the CAD clearly prevail:- the data in the dictionary have been collected by acknowledged experts on the languages concerned, and all around the same time (the late 1980s); - their spelling is phonemic and the same phonemic font with approximately the same phonetic value is used throughout the book;- equivalents in the eighty languages for a given concept can be compared immediately;- nearly 50% of the data have never been published before;- by the inclusion of loanwords a broad-brush picture of the history and scope of extra-Austronesian contacts is presented;- thanks to extensive indexes all information can be easily retrieved;- the maps present all essential geographical information in a very clear way;- editing and lay-out are attractive and well-organized;- the extensive bibliography presents easy access to further reading.
ISSN:0006-2294
2213-4379