Review
                     CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
 Review of AD Spiegel and PAMcAllister (eds) (1991) - Tradition and Transition in
 Southern Africa (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press; African Studies,
 50(l&2)).
                                                                    Gerhard Mar£
    This collection of 13 contributions (including an introduction by the editors) is a
festschrft dedicated to the anthropologists Philip and Iona Mayer. It concludes with
 a bibliography of the Mayers' impressive written work spanning the period 1934
 (when Philip Mayer completed his Doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg)
 until 1990.
    The contributions cover a wide range of anthropological concerns, held together
 (if at times rather loosely) by the theme of 'tradition and its transformation in
 situations of social transition'. This theme was chosen because of the Mayers'
 'particular contribution ... to the understanding of people's attempts to deal with
 social structural changes over which they themselves have little or no control'
 (1991:1).
   The question, 'how do people use cultural resources to make sense for themselves
of the social change around them', that was addressed by Philip and Iona Mayer, is
relevant to contemporary studies, both locally and internationally as ethnic and
 national groups occupy much of the turbulent world stage.
   William Beinart refers to this question when he contrasts, in his biographical note
on the Mayers, the analysis of culture as dynamic (in Townsmen or Tribesmen) rather
than the static vision imposed by apartheid. Beinart notes Philip Mayer's 'intellec-
tual curiosity (which) led him in unlikely directions', and their deep opposition to
racial discrimination and apartheid.
   It is undoubtedly a mark of the breadth of the interests of the Mayers that so many
of the contributions could refer in an unproblematic and unforced way to then-
influence on the approaches or material dealt with. Dunbar Moodie, writing on
'narratives of resistance on the South African gold mines'; Robin Palmer on 'Italian
villagers in London'; McAllister on the use of ritual to resist domination in the
Transkei; and Hammond-Tooke and Spiegel on 'kinship authority and political
authority in pre-colonial South Africa' and 'extramarital relations in Lesotho',
respectively, to take but a few examples.
    That same breadth is also reflected in the range of contributions to this useful
collection (published as a book, but also as the African Studies journal's fiftieth
98                                                        TRANSFORMATION 20(1992)


anniversary volume). The editors note that 'it is... fitting that the contribution by
David Webster should conclude this collection'. Webster's article is the last he wrote
before he was assassinated, and deals with the gendered complexity of ethnic
identities in the Kosi Bay area of NataL This region of South Africa is undoubtedly
that in which the status of and control over cultural resources, at issue in all the
contributions in this collection, is most viciously fought over. Understanding is a
necessary part of resolution, and the book does contribute to that process.
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