COMPTES RENDUS - AFEC

Comptes rendus
their senders about the social organization of the tribes, for example the
recurring political importance of women in steppe societies. It is only a
pity that, like many publications from Brill in récent years, this volume is
pestered by too many misprints, both in the transliterated texts and in the
English translations and annotations.
The two last contributions again make very enjoyable reading,
Eugenio Menegon's to show us how it was possible, though difficult, for
Christians in seventeenth-century Fujan to reconcile Chinese and Christian
concepts of world and time, Zhao Shiyu's and Du Zhengzhen's to make us
understand the ramifications of a local cuit and the ways how to conceal
its historical implications with the Ming Chongzhen emperor.
In ail, I am sure, the two volumes edited by Lynn A. Struve belong
to that not too fréquent species of conférence volumes, published in the
United States since the late fifties of the last century, which are really
séminal in character and will induce new and innovative research. Nicola
di Cosmo's and Dalizhabu Bao's book on the other hand should be welcomed
as an additional brick to a rather new scholarly field ail too long
neglected. Therefore, in my view, ail three volumes are a very welcome
addition to the ever growing literature on Chinese and East and Central
Asian history, and they are one more step to make research on this région
compatible with, for example, historical scholarship on Europe. To use the
language of hôtel and restaurant guides, they are ail highly recommendable.
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Erling von Mende
Freie Universitàt Berlin