'How' of easing

women's load

Knowing and Knowing How.

Edited and compiled by Vanessa Griffen. Published by the Centre for Applied Studies in Development, University of the South Pacific Women’s Programme.

Women the world over receive less help than men from devel opment and funding agencies, and often their own authorities.

They have less education, less training, credit, equipment, seeds, technical assistance, than men. This is also true in the South Pacific, in total disregard of women’s vital role in subsistence agriculture and vil lage support, especially in Melanesia.

Women are child-bearers, and responsible for family wel fare. They are often heads of families (husbands being else where), they are food producers and processers, food storers and marketers. Figures from Solomon Islands at a South Pacific Commission Women’s Workshop gave a much lower life expectancy for women than men this is against all world trends, and clearly the result of heavy subsistence labour, and too frequent child-bearing.

A concerted effort to ‘lighten the load’ is indicated, and technologies can be one method the provision of tools. Ad ditionally, technologies have status (which is why they are largely in the hands of men).

Technologies bridge the muscle-power gap between the sexes, and reduce powerlessness in many areas.

The Centre for Applied Studies in Development, Vanessa Griffen, and the Women’s Programme Director, Claire Slatter, are to be com mended therefore for their book, a milestone in the process of meeting the above problems.

These are stated clearly in an excellent introduction. The book assembles immensely valuable material in the fields which most affect women’s daily lives: cooking and the energy required for it, water and sanitation, household im provements, food preservation, housing. Throughout the book the ‘how to make’ directions are simple and clear, with good supporting diagrams.

This writer has worked with groups in many of the techno logies described, and feels confident that field workers will

be able to use the manual in most situations, give the sup port often needed in tools and material by the authorities.

The real problem will be dissemination a continuing worry in the South Pacific.

More books will follow in the series, on health, nutrition, food production, and income-earning activities for women. They are

eagerly awaited.

Ruth E.

Lechte.

Hooks received

Papua New Guinea’s Prehistory: An Introduction. Prepared by Pamela Swadling. Published by the National Museum & Art Gallery, PO Box 5560, Boroko, PNG, in association with Gordon & Gotch (PNG) Pty Ltd. ISBN 0 7247 0869 3. Price $l.OO.

At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. By Gordon W. Prange.

Published by Michael Joseph Ltd, Lon don, distributed by Thomas Nelson Australia, 480 La Trobe Street, Mel bourne 3000. ISBN 0 7181 20906. Pub 1982. Recommended price $25.80.

Air Raid: Pearl Harbor Recollections of a Day of Infamy. Edited by Paul Stillwell. Published by Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland. ISBN 0 87021 086 6. No price available.

Losing Control ... Towards an Under standing of Transnational Corporations in the Pacific Islands Context. By James E Winkler. Published by the Pacific Conference of Churches, PO Box 208, Suva, Fiji. Price SF2.

Building a Pacific Community: The Addresses and Papers of the Pacific Community Lecture Series. Edited and Introduced by Paul Hooper. Published by the University Press of Hawaii, 2840 Kolowalu Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822. ISBN 0 8248 0790 1. Price $9.95. Pub. 1982.

Anuta: Social Structure of a Polynesian Island. By Richard Fineberg. Published by the Institute for Polynesian Studies, Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus. Laie, Hawaii 96792. Price $8.50. ISBN 0 939154 24 2 (hard cover) ISBN 0 939154 23 4 (soft cover).

Oral Tradition in Melanesia. Edited by Donald Denoon and Roderick Lacey.

Published by the University of Papua New Guinea and the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Port Moresby. No ISBN or price given.

Millstones and Milestones: The Career of B.F. Dillingham. By Paul Yardley. Pub lished by the University Press of Hawaii, 2840 Kolowalu Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822. ISBN 0 8248 0761 8. Price $17.50. Pub. 1982.

Eruera: The Teachings of a Maori Elder.

Eruera Stirling as told to Anne Salmond.

Published by Oxford University Press, 222-236 Willis Street, Wellington, New Zealand. ISBN 0 19 558070 2 paper, ISBN 0 19 558069 9 cloth. Price $24.

Pub. 1980.

Words of The Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia, by R.E. Johannes. Published by University of California Press, distrib uted by Australia & New Zealand Book Co Pty Ltd, PO Box 459, Brookvale,

Nsw 2100. Pub. 1981. Isbn

0 520 03929 7. Price: $23.50.