An interest in the spatial organization of society has long been the province of geographers. Recently, scholars in other fields have been applying geographical models and concepts in their own studies. (See, for example, Howard (1976) on the usefulness of spatial analysis in African economic history.) The books under review indicate various ways in which geographical concepts of space and region are currendy being used. That by geographers Obudho and Waller represents an application of the concept of region to the problems of development planning. The two volumes edited by Smith, on the other hand, utilize spatial frameworks in a very broad way to examine many aspects of social and economic systems.

Smith's book indicates the current directions of a group of scholars—mainly anthropologists—who began by studying periodic marketing systems as spatial systems and who have now moved on to the examination of other aspects of social systems from a spatial perspective. Much of their work was stimulated by Skinner's (1964–65) work on marketing systems in China; Skinner's work in turn was based on models from economic geography, primarily central-place models. The first of the volumes, Economic Systems, is primarily concerned with marketing systems, while the second, Social Systems, considers institutions such as political, religious, and kinship systems.