Book Reviews 249 Department of Anthropology at Sydney was done by competence, diligence, enthusiasm, and conscien- tiousness, not by the charisma that generates the shabbiness criticized here. Nevertheless, he is to blame for fulfilling his duties too well, for the Sydney tail seems destined eternally to wag Australian an- thropology.

A Factor Theory jnr Arunla Kinship Terminology. EUGENE A. HAMMEL. (Anthropological Records, Volume 24.) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966. v, 19 pp., references, 3 tables. $1.25.

Reviewed by BARBA~A LANE, University of British Columbia

This brief exercise in formal analysis touches upon several vital concerns of method in anthropology and merits the attention of serious students and col- leagues in the discipline generally, not kinship specialists alone. In the introductory section, Ham- me1 concisely presents several arguments for formal analysis and deals effectively with the issue of ethnographic relevance. He points out the problems involved in identifying “reality,” whether analytic or ethnographic, and argues that in analysis “what is important is not the reality of the criteria but the fact that their permutations produce aggregates of things that can be empirically identified either by the ethnographer or by the informants” (p. 1). The ideas in this section are neither new nor original, and Hammel provides references to more extended dis- cussions in the literature. Hammel’s contribution is to put plainly, and in capsule form, several basic issues in anthropology and to suggest procedures for dealing with them.

The analysis of Arunta kinship terminology that forms the main body of the study is an exercise in the ordering of data to derive formal models and to identify analytical principles that will reproduce the taxonomic scheme. The author writes clearly, argues cogently, and is careful to remind the reader that the analysis offered is but one of a number of ways of sorting and interpreting the data.

Old and New Australian Aboriginal Art. RONAN BLACK. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1964. xxiii, 175 pp., selected bibliography, 131 illustra- tions, index, endpaper map. 50s.

Reviewed by F. D. McCmm, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra

Aboriginal art forms the subject of a dozen books on sale nowadays; there is a lucrative market for bark paintings and for curios decorated with aborig- inal motifs. This book is intended to satisfy the ap- parently keen desire of the public, tourists, and art- ists to understand this art. The author is a Polish artist who has lectured on geography and ethnology in a Polish university.

At the beginning, quotations are made from vari- ous writers on the art and on the inevitable extinc- tion of the aborigines; in the latter respect the marked increase in full and mixed bloods today belies the pessimistic and wishful thinking of the past. The first major section, on old aboriginal art, is a brief description of daily lie, the relationship of art to religion, and art regions; this is followed by sec- tions on rock engravings and paintings, bark paint- ings, sacred and ceremonial objects and designs, weapons and other articles, sculpture and modeling.

The book is compiled from a limited number of sources, as the list of references indicates. No refer- ence is given for illustrations taken from scientific books and papers-no less than 12 (Figs. 13,60,61, 62,67, 72, 74, 75,77, 78,83,84, one a sketch from a cover design) are reproduced from my own two handbooks, but there is no clue to their origin. The block acknowledgment a t the beginning is thus in- adequate for the purpose.

The author has not read the more serious analyses of aboriginal art that are available, nor has he given an adequate discussion of aboriginal religion and mythology, particularly of the diverse functions of art in the widely varying regional cults and cere- monies. I t is obvious that he has no firsthand knowl- edge of prehistoric phases (not mentioned) or of techniques and styles in the rock art. Thus he classi- fies bichromes as monochromes, X-ray figures as geometric, and the Wandjina heroes, but no others, as expressionistic. He repeats the old fallacy that in grooved outlines of rock engravings the pits were drilled and the intervening rock cut away, ignoring the research that has shown these grooves to consist of overlapping punctures. In his view, western N.S.W. sites are all intaglio in technique; he is una- ware of the vital importance of the linear phase in engraving sites throughout the interior and the northwest of the continent. He cites Mountford’s “pounding” as a special technique, when in reality it is a survival of the classic pecking technique. An ex- ample of one of many errors is the statement that carved trees are found exclusively in western N.S.W.; he contradicts this by saying that Collins described an initiation ceremony with carved trees in Sydney in 1804. Trees were carved in central and eastern N.S.W. but not in the Sydney-central coast area.

The second major section is an uncritical descrip- tion of applied aboriginal art-pottery, textiles, murals, book illustration-with no real assessment of the great potential of this art as a source of in- spiration in modern Australian architecture, interior decoration, ballet, and pure art. The section merely draws attention to the commercial use of these motifs, some good and poor examples of which are illustrated.

The book is well illustrated and printed, but it needs considerable revision by the author, based on much deeper reading, to make it a worthwhile ac- count of aboriginal art.