Review: Yogong: Factory Girl

Yogong: Factory Girl by Robert F. Spencer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I knew this book was out of date when I started reading it. In fact, I guess it was out of date when it was published, since the study was conducted from 1972-1978 and the book only came out in 1988. Still, I thought it would be interesting to look at it from a historical point of view. And I was surprised at how different Korea seemed as compared to when I first went there (in the late 90s). It was very much still a developing, factory-based country, while in the 90s it was already becoming knowledge-based and technology-oriented. 

I thought I would end up skimming or skipping a great deal of this, but I ended up reading the entire thing (typos and all, of which there are plenty, unfortunately). I'm guessing this might be the first study done on Korean women during this time. In fact it may be the only one. Either way, the Korea from this book is a far cry from the technologically advanced K-pop country of today, but it shows how it was transitioning from the Korean war to get where it is. And, more than that, it shows the plight women were going through working in the factories during this time. 

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Review: Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Basically it turns out that Out of Africa was a gross oversimplification. We came out, in various waves, some went back in, many died out after coming out, we came out at least twice and confronted Neanderthals. Then we spread around, the Denisovans were pretty big, but died out, but there's still some of their DNA going around. Same with Neanderthals. Plenty of ghost populations (populations we know must have existed due to DNA, but with no traces). Also within Africa there was a ton of movement, and plenty of people who were out of Africa returned to Africa, many times way back down to South Africa. The migration into America is no less complicated, with plenty of movement over many waves, including at least one major one back to Siberia. And all of these are quite recent discoveries, with much more analysis going on now in Asia, and plenty to come in Africa and elsewhere, so this will probably be hopelessly out of date by the time I finish writing this review. 

Re: the Denisovans, I'm wondering if they represent the first Indigenous Taiwanese, since these then spread throughout the Pacific in more or less the same regions we find Denisovan DNA. Although, again, it's all a hodgepodge.

The book ends with a caveat re: classifying people into races, but also NOT classifying them into races, which is well-rounded and probably needed. 

If you're interested in language families this book also has plenty of material. 

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Review: Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache

Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache by Keith H. Basso
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having started this book, I almost left it unfinished after the first part. I still don't know why I had it in my wishlist. Regardless, it is definitely a unique book. This is part linguistics, part anthropology, part philosophy, all dealing with the Western Apache. The idea of "place-making" is, as far as I can tell, unique, and yet there are echoes of it in other cultures I'm sure. 

No matter who you are, this is almost definitely what Tyler Cowen refers to as a "view quake" book. 

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Review: Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a gem of a book. A topic that really needs to be discussed thoroughly, which this book seems to do. A book about a fascinating people, who had spread out more than any others until the British Empire.

The Tupaia section is absolutely fascinating. How is he not more famous?
His map was considered off because it doesn't depict a bird's eye view of NSEW coordinates, but rather it is based on winds (the point toward which the North wind blows) and currents. Also, a bird's eye view is not how they viewed travel (nor how anyone usually does when not using maps).
I remember reading Mau Piailug's obituary in the Economist, which I found intriguing, so I really appreciated being able to read more about the background of what he had been able to achieve here. And now I want to find his obituary again, since I remember it was a really nice one.
In fact, here it is: https://www.economist.com/obituary/20...

I do wish there had been more talk about the origins. It seems like the "out of Taiwan" theory is more or less accepted, but the author concentrated on what happened subsequently. Having lived in Taiwan for a while, I remember hearing a great deal of what similarities they still shared with many of their brethren in other islands, but this wasn't really touched upon.
I also wish she had talked more about Madagascar. I remember thinking it was crazy that it had also been populated by Polynesian people, but it had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagas.... This seems just as impressive as New Zealand, if not more so, but it was just mentioned in passing. 

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