Choice Review

The author is a good writer with a flair for style as well as a talent for photography. Throughout 12 chapters he reviews the cultural adaptation of 12 different cultures and societies, i.e. the way in which they have found solution to the problem of surviving on the soil that they occupy. In four years he visited all of them, a contingency that binds Reader's presentation. He is unabashed in his functionalism, and arbitrary in his choices (as indicated by an intellectually confused table of contents). A chapter titled "The Potato Growers" follows another essay titled "Hunter Gatherers" and precedes another called "India and China." The logic of all this escapes this reviewer. Works of vulgarization oversimplify the material they purport to present, but their success can still rely on the coherence and cogency of the argument. Alas, Reader has failed because his text is neither entertaining enough for a travelogue nor serious enough for a scientific treatise. His photographs are technically skilled but not particularly meaningful. Still, in his amateuish way, Reader's apology for human diversity can only be commended. Not recommended for academic readers. -J. P. Dumont, George Mason University