HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: pautler@ils.nwu.edu (David Pautler)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Re: Ethnobiological Classification
Date: 16 Nov 92 17:40:19 GMT
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences

In article <1992Nov16.164728.7481@ils.nwu.edu>, pautler@ils.nwu.edu (David Pautler) writes:

[to Gil:]
> BTW, if you continue to post as you have for the past week, I'll strongly
[text missing]

This should have continued, "support you, even if I don't agree with the
view expressed".  You've been very gracious, and instructive, this week.

	-dp-
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology,alt.books.reviews
From: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny)
Subject: Re: [GEN] Recent anthropologic collections
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 06:05:01 GMT

In article <BxICr6.CHn@NeoSoft.com> claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird) writes:
>Anyone had a chance yet to read
>
>	Schiller, Nina Glick, Linda Basch, and Cristina
>	Blanc-Szanton, editors
>	1992	Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration:
>		Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Reconsi-
>		dered.  New York Academy of Sciences, New York
>or
>	Eldredge, Niles, and Marjorie Greene
>	1992	Interactions:  The Biological Context of Social
>		Systems.  Columbia University Press, New York
>
>?  I assume the latter is the saltational-socialist contribution
>to the Theory of Everything skirmishes--note that I write this
>affectionately; I *like* such attempts at synthetic tradition as
>silverbacks Dennett, Edelman, Diamond, Prochiantz, MacNeish, Wil-
>son, ... have more or less recently given us.

I haven't read either, but I'd certainly like to!  Thanks for bringing 
them to my attention, I will order copies tomorrow - expect reviews 
whenever they arrive.  

Danny Yee.
From: mf1@ukc.ac.uk (M.D.Fischer)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: References on use of linguistic models in Social Anthropology
Date: 19 Nov 92 16:33:50 GMT
Reply-To: mf1@ukc.ac.uk (M.D.Fischer)
Organization: CSAC, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.

We are looking for published references to the application of models
and methods derived from linguistics to problems in social anthropology
and ethnographic analysis, particulary grammatical models. We are not
interested in the use of linguistics itself as a part of an
anthropological study, e.g. sociolinguistics.

Thanks in advance.


Michael Fischer
mf1@ukc.ac.uk
From: arkdr@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Dave Rindos)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Re: Gopher Anthro information server
Date: 17 Nov 1992 07:33:23 +0800
Organization: The University of Western Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: uniwa.uwa.edu.au

dkarma@pro-nbs.acme.fred.org (Druta Karma) writes:

>If I were to speak to someone about a gopher, I would be talking about
>what, exactly?

Hmmmm...... at the moment we are in the first *experimental* phases of
using gopher to carry a phone-list of anthroplogists and archaeologists
world wide.  A formal posting, here, and on other relevant boards and
mailinglists will follow when the system is working.  

But since this rather timely posting has appeared :{)  I might point out
that the first copy is being carried here on the uniwa gopher.  *If* you
happen to contact it (and it is not down!) comments would be
appreciated.  Reply to me, for now.

Dave Rindos
From: JHARTLEY@cmsa.gmr.com
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Categorization Confusion
Date: 18 Nov 92 12:44:20 GMT
Organization: GM Research Labs

I recently posted a description of Brent Berlin's ethnobiological work
and ho it related to Rosch's psychological theory of categorization.  One
poster, (Gil?), rejected the notion that categories are similar across cultures
because of his experience with aboriginal behavior.

While I recognize the gulf that may exist between how psychologists conceive of
categories and how anthropologists conceive of them, I think Gil is a bit
misled by the notion of intention.  He said something to the effect that
aboriginals do not intentionally categorize their world.

Categorization needs no intentionality.  Think of it this way.  The world
is "kaleidoscopically diverse" (Rosch's words) but our responses to it,
either in actions taken or words used to name things, are limited.  It is
a matter of mapping discreteness over continuity.  Lest we constantly
be encountering totally new experiences, we must treat some things (which
are different) as "the same".  Thus, when I encounter something dangerous,
I generalize to other things like it so that I can react quickly to similar
things in the future.  People need not set out to group things intentionally
(although this also goes on).  The structure in the environment, in combination
with the needs of the perceiver, lead the human to treat different things
as the same (i.e., to categorize).  What Rosch and Berlin have found, with the
cultures they each have studied, is that the categories that are found in
different cultures are remarkably similar.  These authors explain it by the
structure found in the world - a world shared by these cultures.
From: pautler@ils.nwu.edu (David Pautler)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Re: Ethnobiological Classification
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:47:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: ils.1992Nov16.164728.7481
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences

In article <-1364069595snx@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au>, gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick) writes:
> 
> In article <1689D6DEB.JHARTLEY@cmsa.gmr.com> JHARTLEY@cmsa.gmr.com writes:
> 
>  > His views resemble those of Rosch, a psychologist who was once married to
>  > an anthropologist.  The major points are that the structure in the world is
>  > "picked up" by the perceiver, to a large extent independently of culture,
>  > because (switching to Rosch's terms) categories at the basic level (or
>  > generic rank) maximixe within category similarity and between category
>  > distinctions.  This is interesting reading for addressing the issue of
>  > the interface between culture and structurally driven perception (by
>  > that I mean perception which is so influenced by the structure in the
>  > world that it is similar across cultures.)
> 
> One of the many difficulties I have with this model is its apparent
> assumption that humans universally categorise entities a priori, where
> in Aboriginal Australia there is no attempt at categorisation at all,
> and entities are very much given a back seat to relationships. That is,
> there is no record of "within category similarity and between category
> distinctions" here, but rather since Aboriginal entites are broken down
> into their constituent behaviours their common perception of layers of
> "among behaviouristic relationships" is mapped onto a continental grid
> process referred to as The Dreaming.

But the Aboriginals do have something like a noun-word for dogs, for example,
don't they?  They refer to individual dogs they've never seen before as dogs,
right?  The relevant Rosch claim here would be that there is more
cross-cultural agreement on the membership of basic-level categories, like
dogs, than on superordinate (animals) or subordinate (dingoes) categories.
Rosch doesn't claim that categorizations are culture-independent, much less
a priori.

A culturally-specific emphasis on relationships is interesting, and I'd like
to see more on that from you here.  But you, Rosch, and I agree that
Aboriginal brains work very much the same as our European brains do when
it comes to categorization, don't we?

	-dp-

BTW, if you continue to post as you have for the past week, I'll strongly
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
From: gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Ethnobiological Classification
Distribution: world
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 02:52:32 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


In article <1992Nov16.174019.23868@ils.nwu.edu> pautler@ils.nwu.edu writes:

 > [to Gil:]
 > > BTW, if you continue to post as you have for the past week, I'll strongly
 > [text missing]
 >  
 > This should have continued, "support you, even if I don't agree with the
 > view expressed".  You've been very gracious, and instructive, this week.

Received, thank you.

--
Gil Hardwick                                      gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au
Independent Consulting Ethnologist                            3:690/660.6
PERTH, Western Australia                                 (+61 9) 399 2401
   * * Sustainable Community Development & Environmental Education * *
From: pjhst10+@pitt.edu (Peter   J Hill)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Kirsten Anderson
Date: 19 Nov 92 19:34:51 GMT
Distribution: sci.anthropology
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

I am trying to find the current snail mail address of a friend from High

School Who went into Archeology.  (I know that there is a difference, but

there is no Archeology news group)  If anyonw knows her, I would appreciate

it if you would send me her address.  Thank you.  If you don't know her, sorry

for bothering you

Peter John Hill
PJHST10@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU

Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
From: MOHR@rz0000.uni-trier.de (Mohr, Stephan          )
Subject: Help I look for a book!
Organization: Universitaet Trier, Rechenzentrum
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 11:06:01 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.13

Hi

About two years ago I read a wonderful book about 'strange behavior' from
different peoples of the world. It was about the 'give-away-rite' of
north-american Indians, the non-pig-meat eating of middle eastern people and
many other rites. Although I really enjoyed reading this book I cannot remember
the name of the book or the name of the author. The book was a small paperback
aand I guess it was already some years in print. So if anybody out there can
help me to find this book. Any hint will be thankfully appreciated.

Stephan (mohr@uni-trier.dbp.de)
From: gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Anthropological classification . . . ;-)
Distribution: world
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 01:48:38 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


I do understand that it is not normal practice to repost mail to a
news.group, but this gem arrived this morning from the postmaster at
my mailserver (who is an occasional sci.anthropology lurker), and I
find myself unable to resist:

=======================================================================
Two anthropologists fly to the south sea islands to study the  
natives.  They go to two adjacent islands and set to work.  A few  
months later one of them takes a canoe over to the other island to  
see how his colleague is doing.  When he gets there, he finds the  
other anthropologist standing among a group of natives.  "Greetings!  
How is it going?" says the visiting anthropologist. "Wonderful!" says  
the other, "I have discovered an important fact about the local  
language!  Watch!".  He points at a palm tree and says "what is  
that?".  The natives, in unison, say "Umbalo-gong!".  He then points  
at a rock and says "and that?".  The natives again intone  
"Umbalo-gong!".  "You see!", says the beaming anthropologist, "They  
use the SAME word for 'rock' and for 'palm tree'!".  "That is truly  
amazing!" says the astonished visiting anthropologist, "On the other  
island, the same word means 'index finger'!".
=======================================================================

HHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

--
Gil Hardwick                                      gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au
Independent Consulting Ethnologist                            3:690/660.6
PERTH, Western Australia                                 (+61 9) 399 2401
   * * Sustainable Community Development & Environmental Education * *
From: arkdr@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Dave Rindos)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Re: Ethnobiological Classification
Date: 20 Nov 1992 08:28:51 +0800
Organization: The University of Western Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: uniwa.uwa.edu.au

gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick) writes (in response to me):

>I spent the first twenty five years of my life in the Australian bush,
>and I have never experienced any "Natural Order" to it, beyond its
>general compliance with the Physical Laws. 
Thank you.  We are in agreement, then.  If nature's order is governed by
Law (e.g descent with modification), and if cultural names for taxa are
arrived at by means of a natural process (the induction to be made from
Folk Taxonomy), then we would expect that culture, too, is a law-like
process.  Hence, the names for taxa in ALL systems reflect nature
because nature itself is governed by laws and because people are capable
of seeing the reflection of these laws in the patterns observed.

> > This, of course, leads us to appreciate that there would be "better" and
> > "worse" ways of describing these cultural processes.  The external,
> > objective process would stand as the "reality" against which any
> > given description of it could be judged.  But this is merely justifying
> > the notion that a science of culture is possible. 

>I finally decided myself that no *objective* science of culture is
>possible.
 
If an objective science of culture *is*, in fact, possible (which is
merely to say that Cultural processes occur in a law-like manner), then 
this will remain true irrespective of your, or anybody else's, "decisions"
on the matter.  Opinions, no matter how firmly held, provide poor guidance.

Dave
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
From: mporter@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mitchell Porter)
Subject: Re: William Irwin Thompson
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 05:05:03 GMT

gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick) writes:
>I trust you do not feel I am simply trying to take the mickey out of
>your enquiry, Mitchell; I simply find such an exchange posted here to
>sci.anthropology quite fascinating, as an anthropologist. Perhaps you
>simply missed the point I first made.
Yes, I hd missed all the posts made to sci.anthropology alone (the original
thread was crossposted to many other groups and I had been following it
elsewhere).
>There is an ethnographic film by Frederick Wiseman, an ethnographer of
>American Institutions, entitled "Primate" (early 1970s?). This film is
>a study of the Yerkes Primate Research Centre in Atlanta, and while it
>was very heavily criticised for not depicting its research programs as
>whole scenes (so distorting the view of science), it did nevertheless
>succeed in drawing out an extremely compelling irony in the backdrop
>to the tension among the scientists working there, of primates kept in
>cages.
I'm not quite clear on what the irony was - are the scientists, too, 
"caged" in some sense? Or was their tension somehow analogous to tensions
amongst the other primates (the ones in the cages)? (I haven't seen the film.)
>Here on the Internet I find such clipped scenes being presented again
>but apparently by scientists themselves, also having the effect of
>heavily distorting the view of science, of a restricted, disjointed
>and tense discourse lacking any context except that provided by a
>backdrop of chatter.
Is the similarity being suggested here that in the film, one saw in a
disjointed fashion occasional dialogues between scientists against the
"backdrop of chatter" [from the cages], and on the Internet, one sees
occasional intellectual exchanges mostly swamped by babble?
>I am quite worried about it, myself, when the dominant image being
>presented to the Internet is not of scientists engaged in scholarly
>pursuit, but of a duet of male peers posturing in readiness for an
>exchange of blows.

>It is interesting indeed that Professor John McCarthy responded as he
>did, inviting challenge . . .

>Why not the both of you just take this guy Thompson outside so you
>can punch his head in?
Hmm. Regarding John McCarthy's original post, I at first thought the tone
was somewhat hostile, but he did say that Thompson's essay contained
"acute observations" as well, so perhaps he simply writes in a forthright 
fashion whether praising or denigrating. As for taking Thompson outside
so I can punch his head in, on the whole I LIKE his ideas - I think you
may have misjudged *something* in what I wrote, or you were keen to drive
home the analogy between intellectual debate on the Internet and primate
emotional/territorial politics.
From: minch@lotka.stanford.edu (Eric Minch)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology,bionet.population-bio
Subject: seeking Moses Schanfield
Date: 23 Nov 1992 22:42:32 GMT
Organization: Stanford University
NNTP-Posting-Host: lotka.stanford.edu

Can anyone help us find Moses Schanfield, who published several  
papers on human population genetics? We need to verify some  
bibiographic citations for a forthcoming book.

--
 
Eric Minch 
Stanford Genetics   
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology,sci.cognitive
From: claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird)
Subject: Re: [GEN] Re: Anthropologists' Theory of Everything - was Recent anthropologic collections 
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 17:43:51 GMT

In article <BURKE.92Nov15143611@lostboys.ils.nwu.edu> burke@lostboys.ils.nwu.edu (Robin Burke) writes:
>
>Those interested in reading such accounts of human origins might be
>well-advised to also read Donna Haraway's _Primate_Visions_, an
>interesting set of cautionary tales about the construction and use of
>secular creation stories.
			.
			.
			.
GOOD POINT.  Incidentally, if someone
whines allegations about Haraway's ex-
cessive ideologic baggage, point the
complainer in the direction of the
quite popular article on anthropogenic
narratives that appeared around 1988
in *American Scientist* (or was it
*The Sciences*?  My memory's going).
-- 

Cameron Laird
claird@Neosoft.com (claird%Neosoft.com@uunet.uu.net)	+1 713 267 7966
claird@litwin.com (claird%litwin.com@uunet.uu.net)  	+1 713 996 8546
From: gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Help I look for a book!
Distribution: world
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 03:55:46 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


In article <By61I3.KHC@rzultr.uni-trier.de> MOHR@rz0000.uni-trier.de writes:

 > About two years ago I read a wonderful book about 'strange behavior' from
 > different peoples of the world. It was about the 'give-away-rite' of
 > north-american Indians, the non-pig-meat eating of middle eastern people and
 > many other rites. Although I really enjoyed reading this book I cannot remember
 > the name of the book or the name of the author. The book was a small paperback
 > aand I guess it was already some years in print. So if anybody out there can
 > help me to find this book. Any hint will be thankfully appreciated.

Marvin Harris's "Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches", perhaps?

--
Gil Hardwick                                      gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au
Independent Consulting Ethnologist                            3:690/660.6
PERTH, Western Australia                                 (+61 9) 399 2401
   * * Sustainable Community Development & Environmental Education * *
From: gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: New bug in my software
Distribution: world
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 04:37:09 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


I am beta testing news reader software at this end, and yesterday had
the new apparently "bug free" version downloaded to my system. While
the earlier bugs appear to have been cleared up, I notice that this
version is now dropping the first word from the subject line of the
thread to which I am posting.

Please bear with us . . .

--
Gil Hardwick                                      gil@Gilsys.DIALix.oz.au
Independent Consulting Ethnologist                            3:690/660.6
PERTH, Western Australia                                 (+61 9) 399 2401
   * * Sustainable Community Development & Environmental Education * *
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology,alt.appalachian,alt.peace-corps
From: dr@ducvax.auburn.edu
Subject: [GEN] Anthroplogy major, questions. (was: degrees)
Organization: Auburn University, AL
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:30:26 GMT

In article <Bx455o.4wA@ais.org>, newt@ais.org (Heather Darling) writes:
> I'm a sophomore in college planning on majoring in anthro. I need to know
> what I'll be able to do with this degree though. Is it possible to use it
> for any sort of social work? I'm interested in cultural preservation and
> plan to work with the peace-corps after I graduate. Any advice would be
> appreciated, I'm especially interested in working in the appalachian area of
> the US. 
> Thanks
> 
I'm a little surprised that this post did not generate any followups;
in any case, I've cross-posted to alt.peace-corps and alt.appalachian -
both convivial groups with helpful people who might be able to share
some first-hand experience/insights.  Usual remarks about followups,
though I think alt.peace-corps and alt.appalachian are inclusive enough
to tolerate sci.anthropology ;^)  The Appalachians... sigh... miss them 
every day I'm not there.

Obligatory sci.anthropology content: Saw a related ethnography recently; 
written perhaps 20 years ago, the new edition had a self-reflective
introduction added.  This ethnography was of particular interest to me 
because I had at least some direct familiarity with both the culture 
being described and the ethnographer's culture.  It's an odd feeling 
to find what one has tacitly assumed to be habits, or character traits, 
or even the product of a putatively unique family upbringing, described 
as identifying local cultural traits...

Disclaimer & Context Dependent Tangent:  One should not necessarily 
infer that I possess these traits (though I *would* claim that many
of my friends do).  It seems more (or at least equally) plausible
that I merely identify with the culture, or admire the cultural traits.
I think this is one of the standard intro sociology demonstrations,
where everyone is given an identical "personalized" character profile - 
some 80% (?) think it describes them closely...  

	D.R.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Roller  |    Bitnet = dr@auducvax            |  "Because we're all
Auburn Univ.  |  Internet = dr@ducvax.auburn.edu   |   in this together."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: loreag@iastate.edu (Lore A Guilmartin)
Subject: Texas A&M -- request for info
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 02:00:04 GMT

Is anyone out there currently enrolled in, or an alumnus of, the anthropology/
archaeology grad program at Texas A&M University?  I am planning to start work 
on my PhD there sometime next year, and would like to correspond with some
experienced students beforehand, in order to get my bearings!  I'll be studying
primarily archaeology and conservation, especially of textile artifacts.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Lore Guilmartin
loreag@iastate.edu




Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
From: turgd00@DMI.USherb.CA (DAVID TURGEON)
Subject: Leo Poncelet
Keywords: Do you know him ?
Organization: Universite de Sherbrooke -- Dept. d'Informatique
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:45:31 GMT

Leo is my father in law, and if you know him, I could tell him, and it
would help him in his decision to get a modem . 

He is an anthropologist, lives in Quebec and he graduated from U of Manitoba
and U of Laval.

Thank's

David
Newsgroups: sci.edu