ined--while raising, of course, many other interesting questions about the society that exceed the scope of the study. But there is little sense that the reader has come in any way to know how Iranians felt or feel about their work, how they perceive the West for whom they produce these objects, or what it is like to be a carpet-maker in Iran.
Nelson, however, tries to get at more of this type of personal content. The meaning of Shinto for his subjects is the material on which he hoped to base his deductions about its general meanings for society. But Nelson, while he has made an interesting, thorough study of the Suwa Shrine's ritual year, does not succeed in explaining the import of Shinto for contemporary Japanese culture. In terms of the direct description of the shrine's rituals Nelson necessarily leaves significant gaps in the reader's knowledge because it is not his purpose to provide a thorough grounding in the history of Shinto and the origins of the practices he observed. Such information is outlined in his notes and these are organized to direct the curious to other sources of information. In addition Nelson takes care to provide whatever he feels is essential background. But the reader may still feel that this is not sufficient. The subtle connections that Nelson is necessarily drawing between Shinto and Japanese culture seem, in the end, to be based less on what he has observed, and been told, at the Suwa Shrine than on how he believes Shinto practice is fulfilling certain goals that he believes it should possess. He proceeds by assertion rather than, as he believes, by deduction. Indeed, at several points, Nelson leaves the reader unsure of the validity of his conclusions simply because the reader does not possess enough information to evaluate what he says.
Helfgott is primarily engaged in explaining how the tradition of Iranian carpet manufacture fits into political, social, and economic aspects of the ...