godfrey lienhardt - Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology ...

212 Book Reviews
well as a deeper, 'inside' meaning that requires knowledge passed through initiation.
This is most evident in X-ray art which details the internal organs of various figures
(notably not human figures) in stylized representational conventions. The outside
meaning refers to the basic subdivisions of certain food animals, but the inside meaning
refers to the creation myths of ancestral deities, with certain aspects of internal division
corresponding to the sacred landscape. The X-ray figures become maps to the initiated,
documenting the adventures of ancestors across the clan land.
Taylor's detailed account of Western Arnhem Land art adds significantly to the
work begun by Morphy and Munn concerning one of the most important art-producing
regions of the world. His book not only documents the artistry of the Kunwinjku, but
also seeks to integrate the artistic process into an analysis of social change and semiotic
transformation, allowing for innovation within the confines of a rigorously traditional
cultural institution. These facts will perhaps balance what at times can be mildly
tedious technical descriptions, and the curious scarcity of women among the Kunwinjku,
which, in all fairness to Taylor, is due mostly to their exclusion as Kunwinjku
painters. An interesting follow-up to Taylor's detailed and well-written study of
Western Arnhem Land bark painting might be a broader analysis of artistry in the
region which would incorporate women and their expressive fonns (of which examples
undoubtedly exist), as well a further elaboration on Taylor's interesting analysis of how
art is tied to the social fabric of Kunwinjku life.
RUSSELL SHARMAN
JEREMY BOISSEVAIN (ed.), Coping with Tourists: European Reactions to Mass Tourism
(New Directions in Anthropology 1), Oxford and Providence: Berghahn 1996. viii, 264
pp., Figures, Plates, References, Index. £35.00/£14.50.
Based on a workshop on European Reactions to the Tourist Gaze held at the EASA
conference in Prague in 1992, this collection of eight papers by mostly young scholars
at the beginning of their careers includes an introduction and 'postlude' by two heavyweights
in the anthropology of tourism, Jeremy Boissevain and Tom Selwyn. Geographically,
the chapters examine respectively Andalusia, Sardinia, Malta, Skyros
(Greece), Cantal (France), the Lofoten Islands (Norway), and Amsterdam, which
although limited offer in sights into events which may be applicable world-wide.
Apart from certain theoretical weaknesses and subject limitations, described below,
the collection offers excellent ethnographic data to support the arguments put forward,
as well as attesting to the value of anthropological research and analysis in understanding
tourism and the rewards of the study of tourism for anthropology. The volume is
grounded within the notion of the 'host community', i.e. the indigenous population's
reaction to tourism, and many papers record with sensitivity the multiplicity and
complexity of local opinions and reactions concerning tourism. Examples include
Cornelia Zarkia's paper describing the different social classes on a Greek island and
their varying relationships with property, where, although the poor had become