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Book reviews 419 Reproduction and Succession: Studies in Anthropology, Law and Society..By Robin Fox. Pp. 269. (Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, 1993.) £30.95. Fox's book is thought provoking and highly readable. It consists of four separate essays, whose underlying theme focuses on the potential conflicts between kinship relations and the state. He synthesises material from modern American court cases, ethnography, and ancient literature to look at the strength of kinship ties and how such ties may come into conflict with the type of ideology which dominates state based societies. The general message is that despite the state's attempt to limit the power of kinship groups, such kinship structures have always been important. Fox uses social and biological data to look at why this might be so. His ability to integrate the traditionally separate perspectives of social and biological anthropology is stimulating. It provides a breath of fresh air to those who are used to the debate being pitched in the fruitless term of biological explanations versus social ones. The book is divided into two sections: 'reproduction' and 'succession'. In the introduction to 'reproduction' Fox discusses the role of the anthropologist in policy making, in which modern anthropologists have little influence. However, in the chapters that follow he convincingly shows how a biosocial perspective could contribute to modern debates regarding an individual's rights to reproduce, and the structure of the modern family. He does this by discussing two recent court cases, one concerning the rights of Mormons to practise polygamous marriage, and the other concerning a surrogate mother who refused to give up her baby at birth. The first chapter discusses the case of a Mormon police officer who was sacked for admitting that he had married two women. The officer tried to fight his dismissal by taking the state government to court. Fox points out that polygamy is one of several normal human mating patterns, and he argues that there is no intrinsic reason why it should be any more detrimental to human society than any other, including monogamy. Much of the chapter is a description of the state court's objections to polygamy and, although interesting, I felt it would have been valuable if Fox had extended his anthropological discussion of polygamy to the environments that favour the practice, and expanded on the deeper reasons for the state's objection to polygamy, in terms of the formation of powerful kinship groups. However in the following chapter, Fox brilliantly applies biosocial reasoning to the issue of parenthood in a world of new reproductive technologies. Specifically he examines how these technologies can bring the fundamental mother-child relationship into conflict with the modern commercially dominated ideology which treats the 'contract' as virtually sacrosanct. He focuses on the case of a woman who having agreed to be a surrogate mother, refuses to keep her side of the contract and give up her child at birth. Fox argues that much thinking is not sophisticated enough to deal with these problems rationally, and he brings his wealth of biosocial knowledge to bear on this issue. This was the strongest chapter of the book and the most successful in synthesising the insights of biological and social anthropology. Fox addressed seemingly uncon nected issues such as the biology of mother-child bonding, and the role of class and status in our society to produce a thought provoking and far sighted analysis of the problems raised by the new reproductive technologies. This shows the important 420 Book reviews contribution that biosocial anthropology can make to some of the issues raised by these new medical technologies. In the second section, subtitled 'succession', Fox moves away from mating and reproduction per se and examines the issues of kinship. He provides an illuminating analysis of the strength of kinship bonds in the plays of ancient Greece, centring on Sophocles' play 'Antigone' first presented c. 440 BC. He suggests that classicists and commentators have tended to ignore the importance of kinship in ancient Greek society. The majority have seen the conflict in the play in individual terms; either as 'men versus women', 'society versus individual', 'living versus dead' or 'men versus gods'. Fox offers an anthropologically informed translation of 'problem' passages in the play, and it was exciting to see how biosocial insights can be used to interpret literature and that literary analysis is not just under the domain of the structural anthropologists. In the final chapter, Fox addresses the strong bond that commonly occurs between a mother's brother and her son, known as the institute of the avunculate. This chapter was impressive for presenting an unusually broadly based discussion of the avuncu late. Fox presents a balanced discussion of the traditional social anthropological theories which include the early social evolutionary school, the functionalism of Radcliffe Brown and Levi Strauss's structuralism. He then revitalises the issue by discussing various biological perspectives that illuminate the privileged position that the mother's brother often enjoys. In the section on the ethological approach Fox adds a unique insight into the issue of the avunculate. He returns to the strength of the mother-infant bond, contrasting its universality among mammals with the role of males, which varies between species and environments. Males other than the genitor can fulfil the nurturing parental role and Fox argues that whenever the mating bond is weak, but a male is still needed for the upbringing of the child, then it is natural for the mother's brother to step into that role. Fox then examines the evidence of kinship relations in non-human primates and he describes the complexity of such relationships. He stresses that primate kin relationships do not necessarily explain patterns of kinship among humans; however he does argue that the complex patterns of mating and kinship that have evolved in humans could have developed from elements present in the basic primate repertoire. Overall, the book is refreshing in that it integrates ideas from traditionally separate areas of anthropology to illuminate important issues. Fox presents balanced and fascinating arguments in a clear and highly readable style and demonstrates a gift for extracting the essence of the issue, integrating different approaches, and offering the reader a rounded synthesis. DANIELA SffiFF Qemographic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edited by Karen A. FooteT K$rmath**& HmSTCinaa~©*M^ This report is thefirstjj^s©^ Aca£emxJEtessr^93!T Panel onPQpute#em*sOyiianTiics of Sub-Saharan Africa of the United^^ateT*NlFCrcmal rolume 26, Number 3 July 1994 Journal of Biosocial Science Incorporating Biology and Society of the Galton Institute Published by the Biosocial Society Cambridge, England Journal of Biosocial Science July 1994 Vol. 26, No. 3 Contents M. Sans, I. Alvarez, S. M. Callegari-Jacques and F. M. Salzano Genetic similarity andmate selection in Uruguay page 285 Stan Becker and Suraiya Begum Reliability study ofreportingofdays since last sexual intercourse in Matlab, Bangladesh page 291 Kevin Marjoribanks Sibling and environmental correlates of adolescents' aspirations: family groupdifferences page 301 Kofi D. Benefo, Amy O. Tsui and Joseph de Graft Johnson Ethnicdifferentials inchildspacing idealsandpractices in Ghana page 311 L. Caro Dobon and J. Santo Tomas Martinez Inbreeding in Ojeda and Pernia, 1875-1985, province ofPalencia, Spain page 327 Abdelrahman Ibrahim Abdelrahman Education and assortative marriage in Northern andurban Sudan, 1945-79 page 341 Odile Frank, P. Grace Bianchi and Aldo Campana The endoffertility: age,fecundity page 349 andfecundability in women M. Kabir, Ruhul Amin, Ashraf Uddin Ahmed and Jamir Chowdhury Factorsaffecting desiredfamily size inBangladesh page 369 Dilip C. Nath and Kenneth C. Land Sex preference and third birth intervals in a traditional Indian society page 377 Colin Francome Gynaecologists and abortion in Northern Ireland page 389 Ryutaro Ohtsuka Subsistence ecology andcarrying capacity in two Papua New Guinea populations page 395 Gill Green The reproductive careers of a cohort of men and women following an HIVpositive diagnosis page 409 Book reviews Adrian Friday reviews Causes of Evolution: A Paleontological Perspective (edited by R. M.Ross & W. D. Allmon) page 417 Daniela Sieff reviews Reproduction and Succession: Studies in Anthropology, Law and Society (by R. Fox) page419 Stanley J. Ulijaszek reviews Demographic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (edited by K. A. Foote et al.) page 420 Bill Morgan reviews A Lexicon of Lunacy. Metaphoric Malady, Moral Responsibility, and Psychiatry (by T. Szasz) page 423 Robert Peel reviews Science as Practice and Culture (edited by A. Pickering) page 423 Elena Godina reviews Living with Civilisation (edited by N. W. Bruce) page 425 ISSN 0021-9320 Primed in Oreal Britain by Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press. Dorchester. Dorset