GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS 57I

Regional stories exist to serve a variety of p

larly assume a number of formats. Milieu-spe
ponent for anyone who writes to provoke- w
identity, a robust feeling of nostalgia, or so
cause then the setting, which is usually just
formed into another character, tantamount
group of individuals in a particular narrativ
probed for strictly analytical and/or ethnogr
case an author may go to great lengths to fus
on occasion, to leave humans out of the stor
even become the key character, as is common
attention on inaccessible, far-flung, frontie
revealed how one place- the Imperial Valley-
told through the eyes of a broad mixture of
particular way of seeing reality and thereby com
in categorically distinctive, nuanced ways. T
sible perspectives is no doubt unattainable in
over and over again, this is The Impossible Lan
description (p. 16), which indicates that just
possible, after all. I know the Imperial Valley
valley in a very different way thanks to this
search. I wholeheartedly recommend the
Atlantic University

THE HORSE, THE WHEEL AND LANGUAG

the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern W
and 553 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., bibliog.,
University Press, 2007. $35.00 (cloth), isbn
Questions of Indo-European origins have int
teenth century, when the British judge Sir W
between Hindu legal texts and English. Since
among archaeologists and linguists concernin
Europeans, focusing on the Near East and Ce
has proposed that the Russian-Ukranian stepp
nal core, centered on the domestication of t
tween 4000 B.c.E. and 2000 B.c.E. Anthony ba
and Ukranian archaeological reports and his
with a wealth of regional maps and site diagr
Neolithic steppe cultures from the Danube d
The first section of the book, six full chapters
tions relating to Indo-European origins and it
Germanic, Slavic, and Indo-Iranian, which cu
land. Anthony explains quite carefully the p
in determining when the branches diverged f

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572 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

European (pie). His debate is with the archaeo

ancient Anatolian at 6500 b.c.e. and its likely o
at Catalhöyük in Turkey (see, for example, Re
The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins [1987]).
cabulary relating to wool and wagons to map t
centered on language groups on the Russian s
Renfrew's position on the origins of Indo-Eur
the analysis of ancient Hittite that was prese
which only fragments of Indo-European word
Anatolian as a likely Afro-Asiatic language th
culture of cattle, wheat, and pottery from th
Asiatic diffusion is still a tentative propositi
logic that the rate of linguistic change, as pre
evidence of Indo-European branches as Hittit
on the invention of the wagon wheel and dom
and 3500 b.c.e. These linguistic roots, not the
gins that Renfrew proposed, mark pie after 4
then mapped to show a "homeland" (Figure 51
in the Ukraine to Ural River in the Russian stepp
steppe boundary from the Carpathian Mount
The second half of the book, eleven detailed
cal analysis of individual steppe cultures and
Neolithic domesticated culture across the Russ
Anthony first presents the settled Cris cultur
and its interaction with the Pontic-Caspian hunti
The key to transferring Neolithic cattle, whe
tered on the Dnieper River rapids, as found in
is the matriarchal culture of Old Europe that
offered. Gimbutas proposed that the Pontic-C
the Danube River Valley and destroyed its vi
b.c.e. {The Prehistory of Eastern Europe, vol. 1, M
Cultures in Russia and the Baltic Area [1956]).
plex sequence, based on his careful investigatio
bits. He concludes that Pontic-Caspian herder
ter 4500 b.c.e., the first as a source of food i
b.c.e., to control herds of cattle and flocks of
point the herd riders established trading posts
Valley, gradually assimilating the Old Europe
b.c.e. Wagon and horse burials mark the adva
Central Europe.
A far more fascinating pulse of Pontic-Casp
base of the Caucasus Mountains at the site of M
the Black Sea. Here elements of sophisticated

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 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS 573

goods were found that blended the domestic

wheel cultures of the Tigris-Euphrates city-state
weapons and horse bits dated at 3300 b.c.e.
horse riders of the steppes and urban dwellers
innovations of the Indo-European culture. The
the Yamnaya culture, which emerged betwee
after 3100 b.c.e. Bronze Yamnaya weapons a
found in mound graves capped by stones tha
Danube Valley. Even more surprising was the
dated at around 2100 b.c.e., at Sintashta on the
Ural Mountains. Here steam-bent, wood-sp
spears testify to a highly developed chariot w
in the Ural Mountains with breeding race ho
pressed southward, after 1800 b.c.e., into the
oped the Egyptian, Persian and Aryan (Indian
Among the many discoveries was the location
the edge of the Iranian plateau, in present-da
In summary, David Anthony has produced c
plants the origins of Indo-European culture fir
by 3500 b.c.e. and demonstrates the spread o
eastward up the Danube River in Central Eur
plateau into the Indus Valley. Through such
others by direct warfare, the seeds of moder
languages were spread across Europe and Sout
plex argument by a fluid and sincere writing
wrought pottery types and grave diagrams w
sequence of regional culture maps is immensel
plexities of archaeological sites, although mo
for the former Soviet republics. The question
also need more direct discussion, either in the
Danube Valley. These concerns aside, The Hors
early geography of the Russian steppes to re-
pean culture that is as fascinating as any my
Architectural College

DELEUZE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAG

Halsey. ix and 286 pp.; maps, ills., bibliog
Publishing, 2006. $99.95 (cloth), isbn 978075
The dense and exotic writings of the French
Guattari- rife with near-impenetrable neo
humorous critiques of "royal science" and my
attracted their fair share of devotees, detract
and even a few practitioners. "Deleuzeans," th

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