The Tiruttoṇṭar Tiruvantāti of Nampi Āṇṭār Nampi

This paper presents an English translation from the original Tamil of the canonical Saivite hagiographical work, the Tiruttoṇṭar Tiruvantāti of Nampi Āṇṭār Nampi. The date of this work is disputed, but it was probably composed at some point between 870 and 1118 CE. This classical Tamil poem gives in summary form the lives of the sixty three Saivite saints of the sixth to ninth centuries known as the Nāyaṉmār, or Tiruttoṇṭar (“holy servants”, sc. of the Lord Siva). The paper also includes an Introduction, setting out the context of the poem and its place in the Saivite literary tradition from which the Saiva Siddhanta philosophy subsequently developed, and Notes which explain the mythological and other references which the poem contains.     

Spontaneous clostridial myonecrosis.

Spontaneous, nontraumatic clostridial myonecrosis is a rare infection with an insidious onset and usually fatal outcome. Spontaneous clostridial myonecrosis has a frequent association with colon carcinoma, leukemia, diabetes mellitus, and drug-induced immunosuppression. We present the case of a 73-year-old diabetic man who died of spontaneous Clostridium septicum myonecrosis, who had presented with fulminant gangrene of the right thigh. Clostridium septicum was cultured from the quadriceps muscle postmortem. At autopsy, in addition to the gangrene, there was a Duke's A adenocarcinoma of the cecum, which had not been diagnosed during life. When spontaneous nontraumatic clostridial myonecrosis is diagnosed at autopsy, investigation should include through exam and the obtaining of past medical history in order to elucidate predisposing factors.     

Reviews

Zhores A. Medvedev, Soviet Agriculture, New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987, xiv + 464 pp. $27.50.

Abel Aganbegyan, The Challenge: Economics of Perestroika, London: Hutchinson, 1988. xxvii + 248 pp. £20.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Maurice Friedberg and Heyward Isham eds. Soviet Society Under Gorbachev: Current Trends and the Prospects for Reform. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe Inc. 1987, xiv + 159 pp. $28.50 h/b, $12.95 p/b.

Martin McCauley ed. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. London: Macmillan Press in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1987, 247 pp. £29.50 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

David A. Dyker ed. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev: Prospects for Reform. London: Croom Helm, 1987, 227 pp. £25.00 h/b.

Alexander Yanov, The Russian Challenge and the Year 2000. Translated by Iden J. Rosenthal. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987, xvi + 302 pp. £19.50.

Margot Light, The Soviet Theory of International Relations. Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988, 376 pp. £35.00.

James R. Millar, Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the USSR: A Survey of Former Soviet Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, xiv + 423 pp. £12.95.

Thomas G. Hart, Sino‐Soviet Relations: Re‐examining the Prospects for Normalisation. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company, 1987, xiii + 128 pp., £18.50.

Donna Bahry, Outside Moscow: Power, Politics, and Budgetary Policy in the Soviet Republics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987, ix + 236 pp. £15.50.

Jerry F. Hough, Opening up the Soviet Economy. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1988, ix + 100 pp. $8.95 p/b.

Padma Desai, The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1987, viii + 281 pp. £29.50.

Trevor Buck and John Cole, Modern Soviet Economic Performance. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987, viii + 192 pp., £27.50.

Adam Zwass, Market, Plan, and State: The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Two World Economic Systems. Armonk, New York and London: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1987, x + 198 pp., $32.50.

Peter Gey, Jiri Kosta and Wolfgang Quaisser, Crisis and Reform in Socialist Economies, Boulder, Colorado and London: Westview Press, 1987, xi + 196 pp., £28.50.

Ian Jeffries and Manfred Melzer eds. The East Germany Economy. London: Croom Helm, 1987, 329 pp., £35.00.

Andras Raba and Karl‐Ernst Schenk eds. Investment System and Foreign Trade Implications in Hungary, Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1987, 260 pp., DM44.00.

Malcolm R. Hill and Richard McKay, Soviet Product Quality, Basingstoke: Macmillan Press in association with Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, 1988, xv + 205 pp. £29.50.

Carl G. Jacobsen ed. The Soviet Defence Enigma. Estimating Costs and Burden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, xvii + 189 pp. £25.50.

Jacques Sapir, Le Système militaire soviétique, Paris: Editions la Découverte, 1988, 343 pp, 150 FF.

Genia K. Browning, Women and Politics in the USSR. Consciousness Raising and Soviet Women's Groups. Brighton and New York: Wheatsheaf Books and St. Martin's Press, 1987, ix + 178 pp. £25.00.

George Avis, ed., Soviet Higher and Vocational Education from Khrushchev to Gorbachev. Bradford: the University; Bradford Occasional Papers no. 8, 1987, vi + 136 pp. £5.50.

J. Muckle, A Guide to the Soviet Curriculum: What the Russian Child is Taught in School. London: Croom Helm, 1988, ix + 213 pp. £22.50.

Michael Reiman, The Birth of Stalinism: The USSR on the Eve of the ‘Second Revolution’. Translated by George Saunders. London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 1987, xii + 188 pp. £24.50 h/b. £9.50 p/b.

Alan M. Ball, Russia's Last Capitalists: the NEPmen 1921–1929, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. xvii + 226 pp. $32.50.

Robert M. Slusser, Stalin in October: The Man who Missed the Revolution. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, xiv + 282 pp. £20.25.

Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987, xvi + 351 pp. £30.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Teodor Shanin, Russia, 1905–1907: Revolution as a Moment of Truth. London: Macmillan, 1986, xiv + 378 pp. £9.95.

Jadwiga Koralewicz, Ireneusz Bialecki and Margaret Watson eds. Crisis and Transition: Polish Society in the 1980s. Oxford: Berg, 1987, 184 pp., £21.00

Joni Lovenduski and Jean Woodall, Politics and Society in Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan Education, 1987, xiii + 432 pp, £30.00 h/b. £8.50 p/b.

Ray Taras, Poland, Socialist State, Rebellious Nation. Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1986, xviii + 200 pp. £27.50.

Geoffrey Hamilton ed. Red Multinationals or Red Herrings? The Activities of Enterprises from Socialist Countries in the West. London: Frances Pinter 1987, 202 pp., £18.50.

Gérard Duchêne, L'Economie de l'URSS, Paris: Editions La Découverte, 1987, 127 pp., No price.

Klaus Ziemer, Polens Weg in die Krise. Eine politische Soziologie der ‘Ära Gierek’. Frankfurt am Main: Athenaum, 1987, 491. DM68.00.

Sandor Szakály, A magyar katonai elit. 1938–1945 (Military Elite in Hungary 1938–1945) Budapest: Magvetö Publishing House, 1987, 275 pp., 28Ft.

Jan A. Pichna Sociologicke Problemy Vynalezcovskeho a Zlepsovatelskeho Hnutia v Priemyselnom Podniku, (Sociological Problems of the Invention and Improvement Movement in the Industrial Enterprise). Bratislava: Praca Vydavatel?tvo a Nakladatel?tvo ROH, 1987, 240 pp., Kcs. 25.

William Chase and J. Arch Getty, The Soviet Data Bank. Version 1.0. 1986, $100.00.     

Children’s Reports of Disclosure Recipient Reactions in Forensic Interviews: Comparing the NICHD and MoGP Protocols

Reactions from confidantes who receive children’s abuse disclosures can affect children’s well-being and the likelihood that they will recant. Disclosure recipient (DR) reactions were coded in 95 forensic interviews of 4- to 13-year-old alleged sexual abuse victims. Half of the interviews were conducted using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Protocol (which includes a disclosure phase focused on the child’s initial abuse report) and the other half using the Memorandum of Good Practice (MoGP), a predecessor of the Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) guidelines used in the UK today (which recommends asking about children’s initial disclosures but has no designated disclosure phase). Children reported a variety of DR reactions, including supportive and unsupportive responses, and noted that many DRs questioned them about the allegations. NICHD interviews contained more references to DR reactions than MoGP interviews. NICHD interviews elicited more DR reaction information using invitations rather than more focused prompts and by asking children explicitly about their disclosures rather than relying on children to provide the information spontaneously. Findings indicated that children may be willing and able to provide disclosure information but may require prompting.     

What role for trade in food sovereignty? Insights from a small island archipelago

The food sovereignty movement has been gathering momentum in advocating the rights of individuals and nations to control their own food systems. Alongside this is a mounting critical engagement regarding its privileging of local food production as the means through which to achieve this goal. Adopting a place-based approach, we explore the foodways of diverse communities across a small island archipelago – the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies. Based on interviews and focus groups, we unpack narratives relating to islanders’ changing food practices and aspirations. These are understood as two competing but inter-related themes of disruption and reification of current practices shaped by wider food regimes in interaction with ecological challenges. Given that conditions of historic dependency implicate the islands in a myriad of dependent trade relationships, we argue that small island economies offer, and require, unique cases for understanding how sovereign conditions for trade might be developed in line with a food sovereignty framework. We underline the importance of an inter-disciplinary focus for bringing forth a nuanced understanding of what might be required to shape more sustainable, sovereign and secure food futures. Doing so is necessarily rooted in an appreciation of islanders’ accounts of social, economic, political and ecological change over time.     

Mediated Communication with Minors in Asylum-seeking Hearings

This study evaluated caseworkers’ information-seekingprompts in interviews with asylum-seeking minors and assessesthe accuracy of the translations provided by interpreters. Twentysix Russian-speaking minors were individually interviewed byone of 10 caseworkers assisted by one of 17 interpreters. Aquantitative analysis examined the type of questions asked andthe accuracy of the corresponding renditions. The actual andtranslated content of the messages were examined using a qualitativeanalysis. The study showed that interviewers relied heavilyon focused questions, which are more likely to elicit inaccurateinformation. When open questions were asked, the interviewerstended to ask narrow ‘directive’ questions ratherthan broader ‘invitations’. The interpreters’renditions of utterances were often inaccurate. Almost halfof the misrepresentations altered the content and one thirdinvolved changes in the type of question asked. This indicatesthat both interviewers and translators clearly need specialtraining to ensure that they serve asylum-seeking minors adequately.