bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Caste and Personal Rank in an Indian Village: An Extension in Techniques1
Authors: HIEBERT PAUL G.
Published: November 2004

Caste is a dominant theme in the Indian status order, but observations of social behavior in a village make it clear that caste alone does not determine fully the status order of the villagers. The hypothesis is offered that within his home village each individual has a personal status that is a combination of his caste status and such noncaste statuses as wealth, power, and office. It is further suggested that vector analysis can offer a useful model for perceiving personal status. To test the hypothesis, Marriott's caste‐ranking technique was used to rank thirty Konduru castes and eighteen individuals. A comparison of the two tests throws light on the relative importance of caste as a determinant in the personal status order and the extent to which a man's influence in the village is determined by non‐caste factors. There are possible implications for the concepts of caste and caste structures.
Ends and Means in Political Control: State Organization and the Punishment of Adultery, Incest, and Violation of Celibacy1
Authors: COHEN YEHUDI A.
Published: November 2004

Political organization appears to be among the most important factors affecting formal (legal) sanctions for nonmarital coitus. The correlations between prescribed capital punishment and nonmarital coitus in one type of nation are explored cross‐culturally. They suggest that there is no single attitude toward sexuality per se in these societies; instead the rules governing each type of nonmarital relationship are outgrowths of different relationships between controlling political bodies and local boundary systems. These processes are observable diachronically and sync/ironically; they suggest a reinterpretation of the Protestant ethic, that it is a politically stimulated value system. The data also suggest that rules governing nonmarital coitus need not conform to motivational patterns.
Goal Attainment Through Factionalism: A Guatemalan Case1
Authors: Schwartz Norman B.
Published: November 2004

Until recently, anthropologists have tended to stress the negative aspects of factionalism. In a northern Guatemalan town, San Andrés, factional conflicts have had positive consequences for the attainment of sectarian and community political goals. The starting point is an examination of the units between which conflict occurs, the factions. This approach directs attention to the functions factions may have for a social group. Three empirical factors appear responsible for the satisfaction of political demands in San Andrés: (a) the manner in which the factions, in the absence of durable political parties, organize conflict; (b) the absence of a dominant faction (or the dispersion of power) in the community; (c) the relative effectiveness of the local county government. It is suggested that varying combinations of these factors may help account for the variable consequences of factionalism. This paper also may have implications for community development research.
The Personal Adjustment of Navajo Indian Migrants to Denver, Colorado1
Authors: GRAVES THEODORE D.
Published: November 2004

Urban migration creates many adjustment problems for those American Indians who find economic opportunities on their reservations inadequate. Their extremely high rate of arrest in comparison with other urban groups, almost all for drunkenness or drinking‐related offenses, is testimony to the extent of their difficulties and the inadequate resources that they possess for coping with them. A systematic investigation of 259 male Navajo Indian migrants to Denver over the last ten years reveals a number of economic, social, and psychological pressures and constraints bearing on them, which account in large part both for intragroup differences in adjustment among them, and for their high arrest rates in comparison with other minority groups. The interaction among these determinants, as well as feedback from the migrant's behavioral response, is analyzed as a system of mutually interlocking and reinforcing variables through time. Practical implications of this study are briefly explored, including the apparent primary role played by the migrant's marginal economic position in the city.
“Telanthropus” and the Single Species Hypothesis: A Reexamination1
Authors: Gutgesell Vicki J.
Published: November 2004

Wolpoff has rejected “Telanthropus” as a refutation of the single species hypothesis on the basis of the stratigraphy at Swartkrans, the morphological characters of the “Telanthropus” specimens, and a statistical test. The stratigraphic and morphological evidence has been reexamined, and M. length and breadth dimensions of “Telanthropus” and Paranthropus have been compared statistically. These results are inconsistent with Wolpoff's conclusions and the single species hypothesis of human evolution.
The Polanyi School of Anthropology on Money: An Economist's View1
Authors: MELITZ JACQUES
Published: November 2004

This paper questions the popular anthropological assumption that all purpose money rules in the West today. Contrary to the followers of Karl Polanyi in anthropology, modern as well as primitive money is special purpose money. It is argued further that serious difficulties and confusions arise from indiscriminate use of the term money to refer both to (1) media of exchange and means of payment and (2) units of account. Lastly, the scholarship and perspicacity of the Polanyist verdicts about economists' views in the area of money is disputed.
Death and Kinship in Hinduism: Structural and Functional Interpretations
Authors: Orenstein Henry
Published: November 2004

This paper is, first, a structural analysis demonstrating that in Hindu sacred “law” death rites reflect a conception of kinship wherein intimacy is affected not only by such matters as genealogical distance, but also by differences in spiritual purity among kinsmen. Second, the paper shows that structural analysis of particular civilizations have more than intrinsic value, that they are also a necessary adjunct to highly general functional theories.
Adolescent Social Attitudes in South Africa and Swaziland
Authors: Lystad Mary H.
Published: November 2004

A content analysis was undertaken of stories written by adolescents in urban townships in South Africa and in an urban setting in Swaziland. The findings concerning the nature of the actors and the relationships between actors in the stories suggest that though South Africans in their early years encounter more elements of modernity than do the Swazis, in their present situation they view the world as having less rational elements, fewer psychological satisfactions, and more threats to their physical welfare than do the Swazis.
The Comparative Motor Development of Baganda, American White, and American Black Infants1
Authors: Kilbride Janet E. , Robbins Michael C. , Kilbride Philip L.
Published: November 2004

Baganda infants in Uganda were found to be significantly advanced in motor development during the first year of life when compared with Bayley's sample of American White and Black infants. Though they were not found to be as precocious as Geber's sample of Uganda infants, the same downward trend in degree of motor development during the second year of life was found. As age increased, developmental motor quotient (DMQ) decreased, but at 24 months of age the Baganda infants still obtained an average DMQ higher than either American sample. Several interpretations of these results are considered.
Social Groups and Kinship Calculation Among the Southern Betsileo1
Authors: KOTTAK CONRAD PHILLIP
Published: November 2004

Southern Betsileo kinship is theoretically bilateral, patrilineally skewed in practice. The skewing is greatest among the mass of commoners, less consistent among nobles and high status commoners who focus descent upon prestigeful ancestors by whatever line they are linked, while groups of slave descent have very shallow genealogies with no consistent skewing on either side.
De Facto Families and De Jure Households in Ondo1
Authors: BENDER DONALD R.
Published: November 2004

In the Yoruba kingdom of Ondo,2 households are conceptualized as special social units, and they form distinct social groupings. In contrast, families are given only a limited recognition, at best and they form distinct social groups only in limited contexts. Comparable situations are readily found in the ethnographic literature.
The Urban Curandero1
Authors: PRESS IRWIN
Published: November 2004

Accounts of the curandero in Latin America indicate reliance upon a largely peasant‐derived sterotype. The utility of such stereotypes for understanding curanderismo in an urban context is questioned. With Bogota, Colombia as an example, it is proposed that the concept of an “urban curing complex”—a holistic approach to curative facilities in the city—replace present over‐reliance upon one model (peasant) of curer style and healing.
The Leopard‐Skin Chief: An Examination of Political Power Among the Nuer1
Authors: Greuel Peter J.
Published: November 2004

In this paper the decision‐making processes which surround the Nuer's leopard‐skin chief are examined. While E. E. Evans‐Pritchard views the leopard‐skin chief as a powerless, religious official, this paper presents the thesis that he builds and leads a political coalition—and that coalition is the basis for his power.
Adaptive Aspects of Culture Shock
Authors: Anderson Barbara Gallatin
Published: November 2004

This paper considers some reactions of a small group (fifteen) of American scholars to a summer of work in India. Dream and memory materials gathered during a three‐month period suggest the repression of certain kinds of symbolic links to American culture. Highly affective imagery is displaced by forms of cultural identification that do not threaten the individual's capacity to adapt to a traumatic cultural confrontation.
Human Behavioral Differences in Southern Africa During the Later Pleistocene1
Authors: Clark J. Desmond
Published: November 2004

An examination of four “Middle Stone Age” archaeological occurrences with specific attention to details of paleo‐environmental conditions (determined from archaeological data and by inference from the contemporary setting) and to the composition of stone artifact assemblages from each, suggests: (1) that each site is strategically located for the exploitation of more than one micro‐environment and (2) that the nature of exploitation of specific plant and animal resources may be largely responsible for differences in lithic inventory between the sites. These hypotheses, which seem very probable now, should be tested by future work.
Culture and Stress: A Quantitative Analysis1
Authors: SPRADLEY JAMES P. , PHILLIPS MARK
Published: November 2004

Although anthropologists often employ the concept of stress to account for behavior, they have seldom studied differences in the way stressful situations are appraised. Some situations may be stressors in every society, others may be culturally relative. A method for quantifying the perceived magnitudes of events leading to culture shock is described and the results from a study of three sample populations are analyzed. This method has other applications which may increase the rigor of comparative studies.
Limited Good or Limited Goods? Response to Economic Opportunity in a Tarascan Pueblo1
Authors: ACHESON JAMES M.
Published: November 2004

This article describes the differential response to new economic opportunities in Cuanajo, a Tarascan Indian community in Michoacán, Mexico. It is argued here that blocks to development are primarily economic in nature, not cultural or cognitive (e.g., “limited good”) as has been asserted by others working in the area. When real opportunities became available, some individuals responded to them. Such positive forces lead us to reevaluate some basic premises concerning development which have been suggested in the areal literature.
The Unconscious in the Anthropology of Claude Lévi‐Strauss1
Authors: ROSSI INO
Published: November 2004

Lévi‐Strauss claims that the unconscious activity of mind is more important than the conscious one for understanding social phenomena and that the unconscious consists of an aggregate of forms, which are imposed on psychological and physical content. The real inspiration of Lévi‐Strauss' notion is the Kantian notion of mental constraints and the postulate of isomorphism of mental and physical laws. The methodological usefulness of the unconscious as a principle of intelligibility is placed in evidence.
War, Sports and Aggression: An Empirical Test of Two Rival Theories1
Authors: SIPES RICHARD G.
Published: November 2004

This paper investigates relationships between war, sport and aggression. Two rival models of behavior are tested: the Drive Discharge Model and the Culture Pattern Model Two test strategies are used: a cross‐cultural correlation study and a diachronic case study of the U.S. War and combative sports are found to be positively correlated, thus discrediting aggression as a drive in humans and supporting it as a learned cultural behavior pattern.
The Dynamics of Political Action: A New Look at Factionalism1
Authors: BUJRA JANET M.
Published: November 2004

A reassessment and redefinition of the whole field of political groupings from the most spontaneous to the most institutionalized, using comparative data. The paper reviews some current generalizations and hypotheses concerning factionalism (such as those of Nicholas, Spiro, and Friedrich), and attempts a comparative analysis of the circumstances conducive to change in factional situations.
Political Power and Information: A Cross‐Cultural Study1
Authors: WIRSING ROLF
Published: November 2004

It is hypothesized that the degree of political power is functionally related to the number of structural levels at which politically relevant information is stored and retrieved within a political system. “Political power” is measured by the degree of control intensity over warfare, adjudication, appointment, wealth, and human labor; while hierarchically structured “political teams” are viewed as the units that store and vertically transmit information. The hypothesis is tested cross‐culturally, and the results reported in the study. The evidence strongly supports the hypothesis. In addition, partial correlations are computed in order to control for diffusion, data quality, and coding inaccuracy.
General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology
Authors: BERLIN BRENT , BREEDLOVE DENNIS E. , RAVEN PETER H.
Published: November 2004

Since about 1954, modern field research has been carried out by a number of ethnographers and biologists in an effort to understand more fully the nature of folk biological classification. Much of this work has been devoted to studies dealing with the naming and classification of plants and animals in non‐Western societies. It has now become apparent that several important and far reaching generalizations can be formulated which promise to throw considerable light on prescientific man's understanding of his biological universe.
Structural Aspects of a Village Art1
Authors: ADAMS MARIE JEANNE
Published: November 2004

This article demonstrates that compositional principles of decorated textiles in East Sumba, Indonesia, find parallels in the formal rules by which major activities of the society are organized. In exploring the implications of this common use of structures, it suggests that this art does not reflect society but that both respond to the same structural principles which are those preferred as intellectual forms by the local culture.
The Classroom as a Sanctuary for Teachers: Discontinuities in Social Control1
Authors: WARREN RICHARD L.
Published: November 2004

The article develops the thesis that the classroom provides teachers a sanctuary from effective social control by the broader culture. Social control processes discussed are (1) formal organizational procedures for evaluating teacher classroom performance, and (2) both formalized and unstructured interventions by parents in the life of the school and the domain of the individual teacher's classroom. The thesis is developed through a comparative analysis of data from field studies of two elementary schools: one in Germany, the second in the United States.
The Crime of Manabozo
Authors: MAKARIUS LAURA
Published: November 2004

On the explanation here given of the nature of the trickster, as the projection in myth of the magical violator of taboo, the contradictory features he presents may be elucidated one by one. A secondary feature, hitherto ignored in the Algonkin trickster myth—namely, Manabozo's brother's death—is shown to conceal the ritual murder of a near‐kinsman committed in order to obtain magical power for the benefit of the group.
Tanyakert‐s,* Patron‐Client Relations, and Political Factions in Atány1
Authors: FÉL EDIT , HOFER TAMÁS
Published: November 2004

Traditional gatherings of men in certain stables in the Hungarian village of Atány are described and the nature of their memberships and their social functions, particularly in the political sphere, are explored. These gatherings are the chief setting for the formation and expression of patron‐client relations in the village, and historical as well as modern aspects of the patronage system are discussed.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: GROVE DAVID C.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Archeology: Chalcacingo. CARLO T. E. GAY

Archeology: Xochipala: The Beginnings of Olmec Art. CARLO T. E. GAY
The Beginnings of Cultivation in the Midwest‐Riverine Area of the United States
Authors: STRUEVER STUART , VICKERY KENT D.
Published: November 2004

Archaeology has become increasingly concerned with the interpretation of prehistoric subsistence settlement systems. In the area of the major river valleys south of the Great Lakes, a significant example of this concern has been the question of the role of cultivation in changing subsistence economies from the Late Archaic through Woodland periods. This article assembles all published (and unpublished) archaeological information on the remains of cultivated plants recovered from Woodland sites in the Midwest‐Riverine area. It then reviews current hypotheses for the beginnings of cultivation in light of this evidence.
Boundary Maintenance in Algonquian: A Linguistic Study of Island Lake, Manitoba1
Authors: WOLFART H. CHRISTOPH
Published: November 2004

A “mixed language” involving Cree and Ojibwa has been reported for certain isolated populations of northeastern Manitoba. Ethnohistorical and demographic studies forming part of an interdisciplinary project tend to corroborate such a view by pointing to a high degree of population mixture. The linguistic survey yields some preliminary conclusions while at the same time indicating areas for further study. Attention is also given to the use of sampling and of questionnaires as tools in a language contact study.
Comparative Analysis and Retroductive Reasoning or Conclusions in Search of a Premise1
Authors: CHANEY RICHARD PAUL
Published: November 2004

The entangled problems of selection of data, data patterning, and conceptual organization are discussed. The focus is on how various explicit (and implicit) postulates in the area of anthropological comparative analysis have guided various appreciations of data patterning. The spatial‐temporal framework is (1) the cross‐ cultural data and (2) the diverse theoretical patterning of these data. The article attempts to go beyond the legacy of logical positivism to unscoring what Norwood Russell Hanson has referred to as the “theory‐laden undertaking” of observation. Knowledge and understanding at the “frontiers” are viewed as conceptual analysis, criticism of criteria, and revision of methods and ideas.
Stone Tools for Steel‐Age Mexicans? Aspects of Production in a Zapotec Stoneworking Industry1
Authors: COOK SCOTT
Published: November 2004

This paper has three aims: (1) to describe in some detail selected aspects of the technology, work organization and production activity of the metateros (metate makers) of the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico, as well as to speculate about aspects of their past technology and work organization; (2) to encourage cultural anthropologists and archaeologists to be more explicit and systematic in considering material artifacts from a production perspective which views technology, ecology, and economics as integrated through the human labor process; and (3) to stimulate more cultural anthropologists and archaeologists to study production and exchange activity among extant populations as a key to understanding the organization of production and exchange among extinct populations.
Another View of American Kinship1
Authors: WORDICK FRANK J. F.
Published: November 2004

A cursory review of models which have been used in the analysis of the American kinship system is given. Then a new analysis phrased in terms of Lounsbury's formal model is presented. The American system is seen to be based upon three simple principles, which may be explained in terms of the structure of the familistic side of American society. Finally, these logical rules are used to determine the status of certain indeterminate kin types.
The “Xhosa” In Town, Revisited Urban Social Anthropology: A Failure of Method and Theory
Authors: MAGUBANE B.
Published: November 2004

The weaknesses of urban anthropology in South Africa are discussed from a methodological, analytical, and political point of view. The article asserts that colonial policy demands on urban anthropology placed limits on the choice of subject matter and concepts. This is illustrated from a three volume work, The Xhosa in Town, done in South Africa under the direction of Philip Mayer, the senior author.
Ritual Opening and Individual Transformation: Rites of Passage at Esalen
Authors: HOLLOMAN REGINA E.
Published: November 2004

Ritual manipulation of emotion can result in “psychic opening,” a state in which the individual's defenses are suddenly lowered. An individual in this state is vulnerable and suggestible, and major shifts in his psychic configurations can occur. When ritualized psychic opening exists as a part of a cultural event‐pattern for the purpose of inducing psychobehavioral transformation in individuals, the process can be considered as a type of rite of passage. An encounter/Gestalt workshop at Esalen Institute is discussed as an example of this process. The data show that the group setting itself has many liminal characteristics.
Marital Alliance in the Political Integration of Mixtec Kingdoms
Authors: SPORES RONALD
Published: November 2004

Analysis of pictographic and conventional documentation from Prehispanic and Colonial times reveals mechanisms of succession and alliance operative in the formation, expansion, and integration of Mixtec kingdoms. It is suggested that marital alliance be considered, along with other coercive and voluntaristic forces, in the dynamics of state formation and development. Royal marital alliances were exceedingly important not only in the maintenance of individual Mixtec “ministates” or kingdoms, but also in the creation of a social, political, and economic network that linked numerous communities and political domains into a broad social field bridging varied geographical zones ranging from tropical lowlands to highland valleys.
Problems in the Study of Later Pleistocene Man in Africa1
Authors: RIGHTMIRE G. P.
Published: November 2004

The Upper and post‐Pleistocene prehistory of man in Africa is highly complex, and a number of problems remain unsolved. The meaning of the Omo finds in relation to other late Middle or early Upper Pleistocene assemblages from southern Africa is uncertain, as is the significance of later fossil human remains which have been termed “Boskopoid.” The origin of the African Negro is another question, difficult to answer on the basis of evidence at hand. These problems are reviewed in the light of new dating and fresh study of key fossils.
State Bias and Women's Status
Authors: SACKS KAREN
Published: November 2004

There is another bias beside male bias present in interpretive works about women. I call it “state bias” to refer to a hierarchical way of conceptualizing characteristic of state societies. As regards women, it assumes that sexual equality can come in only one form: androgyny. But recent ethnographic studies and reexaminations of data suggest that for nonstates, equality may take various forms from both the perspectives of outside observers and members of the society as well.
Anti‐Languages
Authors: HALLIDAY M. A. K.
Published: November 2004

A t certain times and places we come across special forms of language generated by some kind of anti‐society; these we may call “anti‐languages.” An anti‐language serves to create and maintain social structure through conversation, just as an everyday language does; but the social structure is of a particular kind, in which certain elements are strongly foregrounded. This gives to the anti‐language a special character in which metaphorical modes of expression are the norm; patterns of this kind appear at all levels, phonological, lexicogrammatical, and semantic. The study of anti‐languages offers further insights into the relation between language and social structure, and into the way in which text functions in the realization of social contexts.
Book Reviews
Authors: Sacks Karen
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

General, Applied, and Theoretical: Sociology and the Demystification of the Modern World. John Rex

General, Applied, and Theoretical: Sociological Observation: A Strategy for Social Knowledge. Matilda White Riley and Edward E. Nelson
Book Reviews
Authors: Dunn John A.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Ethnology: Australian Religion: An Introduction. Mircea Eliade

Ethnology: Australian Aboriginal Religion: The Four Fascicles in One. Ronald M. Berndt
Book Reviews
Authors: Little Michael A.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Physical Anthropology: Comparative Studies on Human Adaptability of Japanese, Caucasians and Japanese Americans. S. M. Horvath, S. Kondo, H. Matsui, and H. Yoshimura

Physical Anthropology: Anthropological and Genetic Studies on the Japanese. S. Watanabe, S. Kondo, and E. Matsunaga

Physical Anthropology: Physiological Adaptability and Nutritional Status of the Japanese, A: Thermal Adaptability of the Japanese and Physiology of the Ama. H. Yoshimura and S. Kobayashi

Physical Anthropology: Physiological Adaptability and Nutritional Status of the Japanese, B: Growth, Work Capacity and Nutrition of Japanese. K. Asahina and R. Shigiya
Book Reviews
Authors: Holloway Ralph L.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Physical Anthropology: Evolution of the Brain and Intelligence. Harry J. Jerison

Physical Anthropology: Human Behavior and Brain Function. Harvey J. Widroe

Physical Anthropology: Violence and the Brain. Vernon H. Mark and Frank R. Ervin
A Look at Academic Anthropology: Through a Graph Darkly
Authors: Rogge A. E.
Published: November 2004

An “external,” nomothetic perspective that has been formulated by some historians of science (e.g., Kuhn 1968) is used to examine the history of anthropology in the United States. Regularities that characterize the growth of the physical sciences and the production and use of literature associated with them are shown to be characteristic of anthropology as well. Implications for the way anthropology will be done in the future are discussed. [anthropology, future of, growth of, history of]
Modern Mesoamerica: The Politics of Identity
Authors: CHAMBERS ERVE
Published: November 2004

Politics and Privilege in a Mexican City. Richard R. Fagen and William S. Tuohy

Being Indian in Hueyapan: A Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico. Judith Friedlander.

Panajachel: A Guatemalan Town in Thirty‐Year Perspective. Robert E. Hinshaw.

Población y sociedad: Cuatro comunidades del Acolhuacan. Marisol Pérez Lizaur.

Princes of the Earth: Subcultural Diversity in a Mexican Municipality. Barbara Luise Margolies.

Servants of the Saints: The Social and Cultural Identity of a Tarascan Community in Mexico.
The Anthropologist as Expert Witness
Authors: ROSEN LAWRENCE
Published: November 2004

Anthropologists representing each of the subfields of the discipline have appeared as expert witnesses in a wide range of legal cases. Their appearance raises a number of significant questions about the appropriateness of anthropological knowledge to adversary proceedings, and poses difficult ethical problems for the participant and the profession. The present article reviews a series of cases in which anthropologists have served as expert witnesses and proposes a set of recommended standards and reforms for this activity. [ethics, expert testimony, legal anthropology, American society, applied anthropology]
From Turbans to Inverted Triangles: South Asian Social Anthropology
Authors: KHARE R. S.
Published: November 2004

Human Fertility in India: Social Components and Policy Perspectives. David G. Mandelbaum.

Robber Noblement: A Study of the Political System of the Sikh Jats. Joyce Pettigrew.

Girl Students in Jaipur: A Study in Attitudes Towards Family Life, Marriage, and Career. Cora Vreede‐de Stuers.

Kinship and Urbanization: White Collar Migrants in North India. Sylvia Vatuk.

The Transformation of Sikh Society. Ethne K. Marenco.
Culture and Sociobiology
Authors: Barkow Jerome H.
Published: November 2004

Sociobiological concepts are easily misapplied to human behavior because the latter is culturally as well as biologically organized. Because biological and cultural evolution are two linked but conceptually distinct processes, sociobiology is more readily applied to the evolution of cultural capacity than to contemporary cultural behavior. The extent to which the latter is consistent with sociobiological expectation must be determined empirically, although there are theoretical grounds for predicting a limited degree of concordance. [sociobiology, culture, evolution, reductionism, biosocial anthropology]
Books with Audiovisuals
Authors: LeVine Robert A.
Published: November 2004

The Edge of the Forest: Land, Childhood and Change in a New Guinea Protoagriculturd Society. E. Richard Sorenson.

Growing up as a Fore. E. Richard Sorenson.
Rational Preselection from Hamadryas to Homo Sapiens: The Place of Decisions in Adaptive Process
Authors: Boehm Christopher
Published: November 2004

Normally biological and sociocultural evolution are explained in terms of blind variation and selective retention. This theory avoids intrinsic teleological fallacies but fails to account for a type of purposive behavior that is both distinctive and adaptively significant. The preselective hypothesis advanced here asserts that certain highly social animals including Homo sapiens are able to anticipate complex evolutionary problems. They may then beat natural selection to the draw by making their own deliberate adaptive choices, where the advantage of doing so is perceptually obvious. Such decisions occur both at the individual level and through political processes at the group level. Especially in group preselection, the result is an adaptive mechanism of unparalleled flexibility and rapidity of action, one very inadequately accounted for by ethnologists. Implications are suggested for ethology, archaeology, and ethnology in terms of redefining culture and revising models of cultural adaptation and evolution to make the study of process more effective. [evolutionary theory, cultural ecology, decision process, ethology, cognition]
Ethnography of Africa: The Usefulness of the Useless
Authors: Owusu Maxwell
Published: November 2004

The complex epistemological and methodological problems of data‐quality control or ethnographer bias in anthropological research as they relate to the use of the native languages and/or the use of native‐interpreter informants are critically reexamined. Summarizing the 1939–1940 Mead‐Lowie debate, the paper suggests, on the basis of a close review of selected classic ethnographies of Africa, various ways by which the quality of comparative cross‐cultural data could be meaningfully improved. [methodology of cross‐cultural research, epistemological issues in anthropology, use of native languages in fieldwork, ethnography of Africa, history of anthropology]
The Veil of Objectivity: Prophecy, Divination, and Social Inquiry
Authors: Jules‐Rosette Bennetta
Published: November 2004

It is possible for folk inquiry to become a source for the modification of anthropological thought. This paper discusses two alternative knowledge systems: traditional divination and syncretic prophecy in Central Africa. The processes of scientific discovery, causal reasoning, and the evaluation of evidence are compared with oracular reasoning and prophetic prediction. The oracular aspects of scientific reasoning are delineated along with the problems of reformulating and presenting basic data. Part of this presentational process is the “translation” of events from the context of their occurrence into a theoretical framework. The modifications generated by data analysis affect the explanatory adequacy of the method of inquiry. A rapprochement between folk inquiry and Western scientific assumptions diminishes the forms of theoretical reductionism that inhibit the possibility for describing and analyzing contrasting belief systems within an anthropological framework. [folk inquiry, prophecy, divination, scientific reasoning, Africa]
Ecological Imagery and Cultural Adaptability: The Canelos Quichua of Eastern Ecuador
Authors: Whitten Norman E.
Published: November 2004

Ecological imagery among the Upper Amazonian Canelos Quichua native peoples of eastern Ecuador provides a paradigmatic, symbolic template organized by sets of cosmological premises. This template, anchored by traditional shamanism and ceramic manufacture, is invoked in emotionally charged ceremonial and juropolitical contexts to express resistance to normative culture bearers who have a potential or real impact on the ecosystem and indigenous political economy. The imagery is described as it exists within a system of radical change. Mechanisms are discussed whereby ecosystem knowledge and social structure are systemically linked to cosmological premises within a dynamic system of indigenous cultural adaptability. [Ecuador, symbolism of Canelos Quichua, Amazonian cosmology, cultural adaptability, ecological imagery]
Kinship and Mode of Production
Authors: Siskind Janet
Published: November 2004

This article links the basic elements of kinship and marriage to the division of labor between the sexes. The concept of a mode of production is used to analyze the distinctive features of this organization of the labor process. These features include the categorization of persons by generation and sex and a specification of reciprocal rights and obligations. It is thus argued that kinship pertains to a particular form of production rather than to an irreducible and unchangeable human nature. [kinship, division of labor by sex, mode of production]
Preservation: A Developing Focus of American Archaeology
Authors: King Thomas F. , Lyneis Margaret M.
Published: November 2004

Social, historic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological values increasingly are considered in federal decision making affecting land use and modification. In situ preservation of significant archaeological properties is now often attainable through sensitive project planning. When destruction is unavoidable, funds are more often available for sound programs of data recovery than was the case in the past. The laws and policies which govern historic preservation challenge archaeologists to engage in regional planning, participate in agency decision making, emphasize conservation over excavation, develop explicit statements of research potential, and perform in a businesslike and professional manner. Particularism on the part of archaeologists, and procedural fossilization on the part of agencies, may hamper the development of balanced programs for preservation and scientific research. [Historic preservation, cultural resource management, public archaeology, archaeological law]
Linguistic Knowledge and Cultural Knowledge: Some Doubts and Speculations
Authors: Keesing Roger M.
Published: November 2004

The boundary between a speaker's knowledge of a language and his/her knowledge of the world poses deep and still unresolved analytical problems. Semantic systems and pragmatic rules build on and presuppose basic cultural assumptions about cosmology, time, causality—about the world described and manipulated by language. For a Western language, those assumptions are shared by speaker and linguist and need not be analyzed. But a non‐ Western language, such as Kwaio (Solomon Islands), may incorporate a very different model of the universe. Assumptions about ancestors and causality, magic and mana, infuse and motivate semantic systems and pragmatic rules. The challenges of articulating linguistic and ethnographic analyses are explored. [language, pragmatics, semantics, world view, sociolinguistics]
Formality and Informality in Communicative Events
Authors: Irvine Judith T.
Published: November 2004

This paper examines the analytical utility of the concept of “formality” in social‐cultural anthropology, particularly the ethnography of communication. A survey of literature indicates that “formality” actually incorporates several distinct descriptive dimensions that do not necessarily correlate. Separating these dimensions facilitates the comparison of social occasions, viewed in terms of their communicational structure. The occasions compared here are political meetings among Wolof (Senegal), Mursi (Ethiopia), and Ilongots (Philippines). It is suggested that formality in communicative events can serve not only the force of tradition or the coercive power of a political establishment, but also creativity and change. [formality, political meetings, ethnography of communication, sociolinguistics, situational analysis]
Art and Residence Among the Shipibo Indians of Peru: A Study in Microacculturation
Authors: Roe Peter G.
Published: November 2004

The geometric decorative art of the Shipibo Indians, Peruvian montaña, is produced by women balanced between a cultural imperative for personal innovation and submission to the constraints of traditional style. The experimental commissioning of painted Shipibo textile samplers using a rule‐based approach reveals that additional variables in the Deetz‐Longacre hypothesis associating female stylistic uniformity with matrilineal descent and matrilocal residence, such as the number of elements and rules used and the higher position in a hierarchy of complexity such solutions occupy, contribute to aesthetic micro‐acculturation. That is done in the Shipibo case in a way that belies the presupposition that the mother is always the most important mentor in a girl's art, while supporting this archaeological theory's prediction that a group of coresiding females produces relatively homogeneous art. [ethnoarchaeology, art‐style analysis, Deetz‐Longacre hypothesis, South American Indians, Peru, Shipibo]
Language, Handedness, and Primate Brains: Did the Australopithecines Sign?
Authors: Falk Dean
Published: November 2004

Evidence from comparative primate neuroanatomy, archaeology, and studies of vocalization systems of nonhuman primates suggests that human vocal language has a long evolutionary history and that there is continuity between our early primate ancestors' call systems and human speech. Old World monkeys exhibit cerebral asymmetries similar to those that appear related to human language. If arboreal monkeylike ancestors of humans were also characterized by cerebral asymmetry, then the fundamental asymmetry that forms the neurological substrate for human language may have been established through selection for simple “discrete” call systems in an arboreal habitat and would have occurred much longer ago than previously thought. The eventual shift from an arboreal to a terrestrial habitat was accompanied by increased complexity (“gradation”) of vocal communication systems. The archaeological record of tools suggests that communication systems became still more complex under the selective pressures that led to bipedalism and that language had been selected for by the time that bipedalism was achieved. Contrary to the gestural hypothesis, right‐handedness (which could not have preceded freeing of the hands) succeeded speech and may have been due to selective pressures for increased complexity of communication, causing a Field Effect upon the brain. [australopithecine, cerebral asymmetry, language, primate brains, right‐handedness]
Conceptual Universale in Interpersonal Language
Authors: White Geoffrey M.
Published: November 2004

A comparison of models of cognitive organization in the personality descriptors of three languages indicates that common conceptual themes underlie the meanings and uses of personality descriptors cross‐culturally. Two crosscutting dimensions, interpreted as solidarity/conflict and dominance/submission, consistently organize the interrelation of trait‐descriptors in a number of distinct languages. This finding leads to the speculation that these dimensions represent a universal conceptual schema produced by the interaction of innate psycholinguistic structures and fundamental conditions of human social life, for example, the potential for concord or discord in the goals and actions of multiple actors (solidarity/conflict), and for the asymmetrical influence of one actor upon another (dominance/submission). The appearance of similar structures in other types of vocabulary used to describe and explain interpersonal behavior (such as terms for emotions and social roles) suggests that these conceptual dimensions reflect basic themes in folk interpretations of social behavior. [cognitive anthropology, language, universal, personality, interpersonal themes]
Body Size, Weapon Use, and Natural Selection in the European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic
Authors: Frayer David W.
Published: November 2004

Evidence for a relationship between hunting strategies and body size is examined for human skeletons dating to the European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Trends for reduced limb size and stature seem to be correlated with improvements in the types of weapons utilized and a shift from aggressive to more docile game. Although some of these observations fit the predictions of Brues concerning the spearman‐archer model, it is suggested that selection for reduced metabolic demands is a more plausible explanation for decrease in body size from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic. [Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, hunting, body size]
Changing Assumptions in Primate Ecology
Authors: RICHARD ALISON F.
Published: November 2004

Ecological research on nonhuman primates developed separately from the discipline of ecology as a whole, and has in the past been characterized by a distinctive set of goals and assumptions. This paper examines some of the problems surrounding these assumptions. Recently, primate ecologists have begun to adopt the conceptual framework of other ecologists; it is argued here that this trend does not in fact solve all the old problems. Finally, the future of primate ecology is considered briefly. [Primates, ecology, adaptation, strategies, optimization]
Voodoo Death and the Mechanism for Dispatch of the Dying in East Arnhem, Australia
Authors: Eastwell Harry D.
Published: November 2004

A similar psychosocial sequence surrounds cases of voodoo death and cases where dying is expedited. Predeath obsequies and fatalism in the victim are common to both. The death mechanism in both is dehydration by confiscation of fluids. Intervention in two voodoo death sequences involved rehydrating the victim. As medical services extend to remote Aborigines, deaths with prominent psychosocial components that resemble voodoo death become diagnosable as orthodox medical conditions, [voodoo death, Australian Aboriginals, dehydration]
Where Have All Their Lineages Gone? Cattle and Descent Among the Nuer
Authors: Verdon Michel
Published: November 2004

Evans‐Pritchard's The Nuer not only served as the paradigm of “segmentary lineage systems,” but it also inspired a wide range of ethnographic literature which contributed to the elaboration of “descent theory.” The Nuer ethnography was reanalyzed many times and most recently it was declared that the “segmentary lineage system” constituted a “representational model” only, quite different from the actors' “operational rules” (Holy 1979a). Despite the remarkable insight that it proved in the formation of Nuer local groups and the mechanics of Nuer politics, Holy's analysis falls short of a satisfactory reinterpretation of the Nuer polity for those interested in comparison because it restricted itself to local groups and failed to tackle the Nuer concepts of buth, thok dwiel and mar, central to Evans‐Pritchard's interpretation. By relegating lineages to the status of “representation,” Holy further obscures the course of comparative analysis since he does not provide any criterion to discover when lineages belong to the “representational” or the “operational” levels. Using a different conceptual framework, it is demonstrated that the groups which Evans‐Prit chard interpreted as lineages are not “representations” but are in fact defined around cattle. It is concluded that the Nuer simply did not have any lineages, segmentary or not.
Sociobiology and Creationism: Two Ethnosociologies of American Culture
Authors: Gray J. Patrick , Wolfe Linda D.
Published: November 2004

One of the most important motifs in mythology is the animal‐human distinction. The relationship between humans and nonhuman animals is also a major concern of both human sociobiology and “scientific” creationism. In this paper, we suggest that sociobiology and creationism function as ethnosociologies of American society and that neither can be completely understood until they are related to each other and to the key symbols of American culture. We argue that sociobiology and creationism are comments on the secular world view of American culture and exist as transformations of one another.
Recent Studies in Chinese Kinship
Authors: Sangren P. Steven
Published: November 2004

Chinese Family and Kinship. Hugh Baker.

The Politics of Marriage in Contemporary China. Elisabeth Croll.

Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845–1945. Arthur P. Wolf and Chieh‐shan Huang.
BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES
Authors: Troike Nancy P.
Published: November 2004

Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Book 2: The Ceremonies, Part III. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble.

Codex en Cruz: Volume 1. Charles E. Dibble.

Codex en Cruz: Volume 2. Charles E. Dibble.
FILM REVIEWS
Authors: Loring C.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Lucy in Disguise. 1980. Written, produced and codirected by David Smeltzer in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The First Family. 1980. Produced by WVIZ in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Toward an Ethnographic Language
Authors: Agar Michael H.
Published: November 2004

In this article a general language for the characterization of ethnographic research is suggested. Drawing on interpretive philosophy, especially the work of Gadamer and Schutz, a core process of ethnography is described that emphasizes the resolution of problems in understanding across tradition boundaries. Concepts from recent work in knowledge representation are incorporated into the discussion to integrate it with current interdisciplinary work. [ethnography, hermeneutics, knowledge representation]