bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ritual Body Postures, Channeling, and the Ecstatic Body Trance
Authors: Goodman Felicitas D.
Published: November 2004

In this discussion, attention is focused on the neurophysiological changes recorded in the laboratory during experiences termed religious, since they facilitate contact with the alternate, the sacred reality. The experiences examined are "ritual body posture and ecstatic trance" and "channeling," that is possession. Contrary to previously held opinion based solely on observation, laboratory tests reveal certain differences, indicating that we are dealing with two distinct, albeit closely related, ASC's. Keywords: trance, altered states, channeling, consciousness
Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context, and Meaning in Qawwali.
Authors: Deschênes Bruno
Published: November 2004

Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context, and Meaning in Qawwali. Regula Burckhardt Qureshi. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. $24.95 (paper), xviii. 265 pp. CD with 60 min. of Qawwali music.
Altered States, Conflicting Cultures: Shamans, Neo‐shamans and Academics
Authors: Wallis Robert J.
Published: November 2004

In anthropology, archaeology and popular culture, Shamanism may be one of the most used, abused and misunderstood terms, to date. Researchers are increasingly recognizing the socio‐political roles of altered states of consciousness and shamanism in past and present societies, yet the rise of Neo‐shamanism and its implications for academics and their subjects of study are consistently neglected. Moreover, many academics marginalize "neo‐shamans," and neo‐shamanic interaction with anthropology, archaeology and indigenous peoples is often regarded as neocolonialism. To complicate the matter, indigenous peoples express multivocal opinions of neo‐shamanism, from blatant condemnation to active encouragement. I first trace the roots of neo‐shamanism in order to compare neo‐shamanic and academic approaches. Criticisms of neo‐shamanism as expressed by academic and native critics are presented, and I suggest these conflicting views are potentially reconcilable. Essentially, post‐processualist praxis should be implemented via programs of research and communication.
How Magic Works: New Zealand Feminist Witches' Theories of Ritual Action
Authors: Rountree Kathryn
Published: November 2004

The paper draws on three years' fieldwork and twelve years' familiarity withfeminist witches in New Zealand. These women are thoughtful and articulate about their magical practice, and it is their theories about how magic works and the function of ritual‐making which are the paper's central concern. Scholarly theories and debates about magic and ritual have frequently been dichotomously constructed: science versus magic, the symbolists versus the intellectualists, causality versus participation, ritual as action versus belief as thought, and so on. The witches who are the focus of this study do not explain their ritual practice in such dichotomized terms. Their spells, forexample, incorporate expressive, dramaticand aesthetic components and values, along with an explicit instrumental purpose. For these witches, magic is not anti‐science or pseudoscience: it sits alongside science as another wayofaddressingaproblem. The paper discusses feminist witches' theories and practices in the light of anthropological theories about ritual and magic, explores the role of symbols and energy in magic, and demonstrates how these witchesuse ritual for empowerment and healing.
Märipa: To Know Everything The Experience of Power as Knowledge Derived from the Integrative Mode of Consciousness
Authors: Rodd Robin
Published: November 2004

Shamans of the Piaroa ethnic group (southern Venezuela) conceive of power in terms of knowledge derived from visionary experiences. Märipa is an epistemology concerning the translation of knowledge derived from the integrative mode of consciousness, induced primarily through the consumption of plant hallucinogens, to practical effect during waking life. I integrate mythological, neurobiological, experiential, and ethnographic data to demonstrate what märipa is, and how it functions. The theory and method of märipa underlie not only Piaroa shamanic activity, but all aspects of Piaroa life; mythology, causality, eschatology, and history. Piaroa shamanic practices involve conditioning the mind to achieve optimal perceptual capacities that facilitate accurate prediction and successful psycho‐social prescription. Piaroa shamans describe their technologies of consciousness in terms of gods and spirits, but also in terms of studying and the acquisition of information. Because neurobiological processes underlie the development and experience of märipa, the language of neurobiology enables a partial translation of this indigenous epistemology. The concepts of feed forward neural processing and somatic markers are central to the processes of mental imagery cultivation that Piaroa shamans employ to divine solutions to adaptive problems. Piaroa 'techniques of ecstasy' involve the ability to apply mythological templates of human adaptation to schemas of human behaviour based on years of social analysis in association with heightened information processing capacities derivative of refined experimentation with the integrative mode of consciousness. Keyordsshamanism, neurophenomenology inugrativeconsciousness, hallucinogens
social change and the rise and decline of social movements: the case of Cyprus1
Authors: MARKIDES KYRIACOS C.
Published: November 2004

A social movement is an integral part of the total sociocultural environment. Any major transformation of the latter will most probably have a corresponding impact on the former. This proposition is examined through a detailed analysis of the anticolonialist movement of the Greek Cypriots to unite Cyprus with Greece (known as the Enosis movement). It is concluded that a traditionally rooted movement like Enosis cannot maintain its mass appeal if its ideological content remains intransigent and inflexible in its devotion to traditional norms at a time when the underlying sociocultural environment undergoes profound secularizing and modernizing changes.
susto revisited: illness as strategic role
Authors: UZZELL DOUGLAS
Published: November 2004

Several studies have suggested that susto is a response to some kinds of social situations. Now it is possible to consider what susto offers as a strategic role. First, adult susto is distinguished from the disease suffered by children, because although children play the role, they do not name it: adults diagnose the illness in children and give it meaning. Concluding a discussion of the strategic advantages and disadvantages of both adult and childhood susto, it is proposed that we eventually must attend how the role evolves from personal fiction into reality.
horse brands of the Mongolians: a system of signs in a nomadic culture1
Authors: WADDINGTON CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Published: November 2004

The horse‐herds of the Mongols, which are basic to their economy and culture, are marked with brands indicating ownership. The system of marking is different in the collective and private sectors; this paper deals with the traditional system used for private herds. The importance of brands in giving information is greatest in the steppe and Gobi regions where both herds and people move almost continuously over featureless and unmarked plains. Brands indicated lineal and collateral positions of owners in patrilineal kin‐groups, offices held, aristocratic or serf standing, and religious or lay status.
public and private politics: women in the Middle Eastern world1
Authors: NELSON CYNTHIA
Published: November 2004

The main questions examined in this paper are: (1) What is the notion of power as this has been used by ethnographers writing about nomadic and sedentary societies of the Middle East? (2) Given this notion of power, what are the images of women and power in the domestic and public domains? (3) What are the epistemological consequences to ethnography if we re‐think our notions of power and recognize its special features as a particular kind of social relation—reciprocity of influence—rather than as an embodied quality institutionalized in kinds of social structures?
inequalities in wealth, adoption of technology, and production in a Mexican ejido1
Authors: DeWALT BILLIE R.
Published: November 2004

In this paper, data from a Mexican ejido are presented to show that there are significant intra‐community differences in wealth and willingness to adopt new forms of behavior—two traits often reported as being homogeneous among peasants. Two empirical examples of the relationship between wealth and adoption of technology are presented and compared with previous theoretical models. While support is found for two variants of a “middle class conservatism” model, it is suggested that several different models of this relationship may emerge depending on the technology introduced and the socioeconomic constraints and incentives present. This point is illustrated with data on the economics of the two new types of technology.
expression and generalization in history and anthropology1
Authors: CONKLING ROBERT
Published: November 2004

An examination of certain aspects of historical and anthropological practice reveals (1) that rhetorical, or aesthetic, judgments inhere in the use of narrative, (2) that evocative, rather than merely denotative, language contributes to objective knowledge of events in another culture, and (3) that patterns, not laws, are the best means by which to generalize about unique sequences of events. A strict scientistic approach is not necessary for an historical and anthropological knowledge of social processes.
the subjective organization of some Zapotec verbs1
Authors: TRUEX GREGORY F.
Published: November 2004

As part of an investigation of experimental approaches to the descriptive semantics of some Zapotec verbs, subjects performed multi‐trial free recall and judged similarity tasks. From the results of these experiments, indices of semantic similarity were calculated and analyzed. A statistically significant Spearman Rank Correlation between the set of similarity indices from the free recall task and the judged similarity task indicates that there is a similar underlying organization. The results of this research bear directly on critical issues raised by Cole and his associates in their pursuit of an “experimental anthropology of thinking.”
art styles, social stratification, and cognition: an analysis of Greek vase painting1
Authors: DRESSLER WILLIAM W. , ROBBINS MICHAEL C.
Published: November 2004

In a diachronic study of the relationship between social stratification and formal design elements on painted vases in ancient Greece it was found that during periods of greater social stratification in the Greek city‐state of Athens there was comparatively more (1) complexity of style, (2) utilization of space, and (3) enclosure of figures in Attic painted pottery than during periods of less stratification. These results support Fischer's (1961) hypotheses concerning the relationship of social structure to art style and the value of comparative historical methods for investigating cross‐cultural hypotheses.
father absence and cross‐sex identity: the puberty rites controversy revisited
Authors: PARKER SEYMOUR , SMITH JANET , GINAT JOSEPH
Published: November 2004

This paper re‐examines the puberty rites controversy associated with the work of John Whiting. Whiting explains the cross‐cultural association between severe male puberty rites and low salience of father in the early socialization process by means of the intervening variable of ambivalence in sex (gender) identity in the growing male. The authors of this paper investigated this intervening variable directly in a polygynous community in the United States. Their findings did not support the Whiting hypothesis. Furthermore, a review of the recent literature on the subject also did not support this hypothesis. Finally, a discussion of cognitive theory as it applies to the problem of male identity suggests alternative ways of viewing this issue.
the Sherpa temple as a model of the psyche1
Authors: PAUL ROBERT A.
Published: November 2004

This essay is an interpretation of the structure and symbolism of a Sherpa Buddhist temple in northeastern Nepal. The temple represents an objectification of a model of the mind which underlies Sherpa religious thinking and also has interesting implications for the psychoanalytic theory of the structure of the psyche.
dropping remarks and the Barbadian audience1
Authors: FISHER LAWRENCE E.
Published: November 2004

Dropping remarks is an organized and typically clever routine used by Barbadians to goad an opponent during an intermediate stage of dispute. In a prevalent form the speaker makes a comment ostensibly for one hearer, though the intention is to demean an overhearer who recognizes the speaker's intention to insult. This paper focuses on the deliberate creation and propagation of interpersonal strife through the manipulation of these transparently ambiguous messages. The strategy of dropping remarks, as well as the strategic response to these remarks, is investigated, and implications are drawn for the cultural analysis of speech events in general.
structure, content, and cultural meaning of yuwipi: a modern Lakota healing ritual1
Authors: KEMNITZER LUIS S.
Published: November 2004

An analysis of the structure of a modern Lakota healing ritual and the kinds of problems treated by it reveals Lakota beliefs about the nature of humans and their relationship to the universe, including their experiences with acculturation. The first step in controlling the indeterminacy that is pervasive in Lakota life is recognizing and accepting the disorder. The agents of this control are certain spiritual beings and forces associated with identity symbols, which are identified and manipulated in the ritual.
the concept of rank in ethnobiological classification: some evidence from Aguaruna folk botany
Authors: BERLIN BRENT
Published: November 2004

Data from Aguaruna Jívaro folk botany provide evidence for the concept of rank in ethnobiological classification, Aguaruna plant taxa can be naturally accommodated into one of six proposed ethnobiological ranks which have been called kingdom (the unique beginner), life form, intermediate, generic, specific, and varietal. The taxonomic, biological, nomenclatural, and psychological characteristics associated with taxa of each rank are described. These data tend to support the hypothesis that the concept of rank is fundamental to all systems of folk biological classification.
the symbolic significance of ceremonial defloration among the Amhara of Ethiopia1
Authors: REMINICK RONALD A.
Published: November 2004

Ceremonial defloration symbolizes the core principles of Amhara culture and social organization, namely masculinity and patriarchal authority. Premarital chastity and the rituals associated with it have cross‐cultural implications.
incest, effigy hanging, and biculturation in a West Indian village1
Authors: RUBENSTEIN HYMIE
Published: November 2004

A mock trial followed by the hanging of effigies of the participants in incestuous mating is a ritualized means of punishing sexual deviance in the Eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent. Equally important, the combination of society‐wide norms and institutions with rural, lower‐class values and customs is a striking example of biculturation. In particular, hangingsare an example of the creative response of the island lower class to their exclusion from participation in mainstream institutions. The adaptive significance of this response may be seen by examining the various beliefs and values expressed inhangingsconcerning slander, family life, gossip, speech performance, prestige, sexuality, and societal institutions.
the ecological basis for Aztec sacrifice1
Authors: HARNER MICHAEL
Published: November 2004

The Aztec emphasis on ritualized human sacrifice and the sheer quantities of victims involved have long been recognized as apparent extremes of cultural behavior in the world ethnographic record. This paper proposes an ecological and evolutionary theory to explain why the peculiar development of the Aztec sacrificial complex was a natural consequence of concrete subsistence problems that were distinctive to Mesoamerica, and especially to the Valley of Mexico.
land, labor, and the child's cognitive performance among the Logoli
Authors: MUNROE ROBERT L. , MUNROE RUTH H.
Published: November 2004

Ecological variables begin a chain of relationships that carries into subsistence and socialization and ends with effects on cognition: plot size is positively correlated with the time adult females spend in subsistence task performance; women who most frequently work choose harsh punishment for children on depicted hypothetical sequences involving misbehavior; and children of compliance‐stressing mothers perform less well on a cognitive task than children of mothers who place less stress on compliance.
a pragmatic past: folk history, environmental change, and society in a Petén, Guatemala town
Authors: SCHWARTZ NORMAN B.
Published: November 2004

Over a fifteen year period (1960–1975), folk historians in a Petén, Guatemala town have revised their conceptualizations of the past without revising their reports of the facts as such. Simultaneously, a series of rapid changes in the demographic, economic, and political environment of the town has occurred. The connections between these two sets of changes are explored to show that the folk history has changed in response to the changing environment and that it serves both to promote desired social forms and conduct in a new situation and to make the new situation comprehensible. How and why the folk historical changes are possible is discussed, along with some general implications of such change.
the culture of race in middle‐class Kingston, Jamaica
Authors: ALEXANDER JACK
Published: November 2004

This contribution to the understanding of race as a cultural phenomenon in the Caribbean analyzes the reality created by a racial terminology that has bewildered observers by its many terms and their uses. The analysis shows that race symbolizes mythological time and thereby anchors in the past a belief in the fragmented nature of society.
Salience and relativity in classification
Authors: DOUGHERTY J. W. D.
Published: November 2004

In response to arguments that the most basic or salient level of classification for any given domain is largely a reflection of objective reality and, therefore, consistent across human populations, this paper argues that the salience of categories within a given semantic domain is primarily a function of man's attention to or indifference toward the membership of the domain concerned. As the salience of a domain decreases, the most salient category distinctions become increasingly more inclusive.
collective farming in northern and southern Yucatan, Mexico: ecological and administrative determinants of success and failure
Authors: CLIMO JACOB
Published: November 2004

Cross economic analyses that compare the productivity of Mexican collective ejidos (farms) with privately owned farms are insufficient to evaluate the success of Mexico's collective ejido program. They fail to account for differences in federal administrative incentives and constraints on the two sectors and differences in local ecologies. An anthropological comparison of local collective ejidos in the northern and southern zones of Yucatan state reveals that local variables are essential in determining the success or failure of ejidos. In both zones restrictive federal administrative policies inhibit the economic development of ejidos, but in zones where local ecological factors have encouraged rather than inhibited economic expansion, the ejidos show greater success.
ideologies of sexual inequality and strategies for change in male‐female relations
Authors: DWYER DAISY HILSE
Published: November 2004

An identity of beliefs about maleness and femaleness among the males and females of any society has generally been presumed. This paper examines the sexual ideologies of societies characterized by sexual inequality in terms of divergences between male and female beliefs and in terms of potentials for political change. Four sorts of sexual ideologies are put forward as ideal types. Differences in patterns of protest and change are examined as they correlate with these types.
Foreign labor and German industrial capitalism 1871–1978: the evolution of a migratory system
Authors: RHOADES ROBERT E.
Published: November 2004

This article traces the historical development of Germany's use of foreign labor since the founding of the Reich in 1871. Contrary to official proclamations that intra‐European migration is a mutually beneficial exchange of regional resources, this study demonstrates — historically and ethnographically — that labor migration functions to feed growth in the European “core” while stimulating socioeconomic decay or maintenance of the status quo in the “periphery.” The social scientific “equilibrium model” of regional interaction is thus seriously questioned.
when is genealogy history? Wolof genealogies in comparative perspective
Authors: IRVINE JUDITH T.
Published: November 2004

The Wolof of Senegal construct genealogies that represent a closer approximation to a historical past than do the genealogies of certain other peoples, notably the Nuer, the Luo, and the Tiv—the classic ethnographic examples of genealogy as projection of present‐day political relationships onto the past. This paper examines the construction and use of Wolof genealogies in the light of these other ethnographic cases, in order to identify social conditions that tend to preserve historical accuracy in an oral tradition. Those conditions concern the relation of the genealogist to his subject matter, the nature of the political climate in which he operates, and the forms of discourse at his disposal. It is suggested that the essential property of Wolof social organization bringing these conditions about is not so much the existence of a centralized state as the caste framework in which the state is embedded.
Aranda and Alyawara kinship: a quantitative argument for a double helix model
Authors: DENHAM WOODROW W. , McDANIEL CHAD K. , ATKINS JOHN R.
Published: November 2004

Quantitative analysis of descent and marriage practices and kinship term applications among the Alyawara tribe of Central Australia reveals that traditional Radcliffe‐Brownian models of Kariera and Aranda (section and subsection) systems fit the Alyawara in superficial ways but are entirely inappropriate in more fundamental ways. The problems that we encountered in analyzing the data suggest that the Radcliffe‐Brownian models contain basic and fatal flaws. The alternative model that we suggest for the Alyawara is a three‐dimensional structure that incorporates age relations as one of its principal features. Our proposed model is a double helix.
external politics, internal economics, and Ponapean social formation
Authors: PETERSEN GLENN T.
Published: November 2004

Long‐term transformations in Pacific island economies are analyzed in the perspective of their colonial experiences. Specifically, the modern political economy of Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, is compared with typical peasant economies. It is argued that historical changes in the Pacific do not necessarily produce the peasantlike societies frequently assumed to exist there and that development programs must take these conditions into account when planning for the area.
lineage, class, and power in the Aztec state
Authors: ROUNDS J.
Published: November 2004

A processual analysis of state formation in the Aztec city Tenochtitlan shows that rigid class stratification developed as a strategy for coopting the traditional leaders of the lineage segments of the prestate polity and for integrating these leaders into a centralized state power system. The dynasty that ruled this increasingly centralized structure used control over tribute revenues from the city's empire to separate the traditional leaders from their old constituencies, and, with a variety of legal and symbolic measures, to foster their self‐identification as an elite ruling class.
Harijan religion: consensus at the bottom of caste
Authors: MOFFATT MICHAEL
Published: November 2004

The religion of Indian Untouchables (Harijans) is often described and analyzed variationally, suggesting that Untouchables differ significantly in religion from those above them because of their lowermost position in the caste system. This paper challenges this variational emphasis. It examines the conceptualizations and ritual actions of a group of South Indian Harijans in their worship of “divine beings” and concludes that Harijan religion is characterized by deep, tacit consensus with higher‐caste religion. The variations that do exist are different from those previously proposed; they must be evaluated in relation to the deep framework of cultural unity, and they do not imply a change in collective consciousness at the bottom of the system.
dependency, mediation, and class formation in rural Guyana
Authors: SILVERMAN MARILYN
Published: November 2004

Both economic dependency theory and anthropological/sociological analyses in the West Indies are premised on a duality in the agricultural sector based on a distinction between plantation and peasant modes of production. As a result in local‐level analyses, dependency theory incorrectly assumes a homogenous, undifferentiated peasantry whereas social analyses are unable to comprehend empirical complexity. This also means that macro‐and microanalyses remain independent endeavors. It therefore is necessary to eliminate the concept of duality and to concentrate instead on historical analysis of economic differentiation and class formation—both products of the interaction between national and local levels and between so‐called peasant and plantation modes. To do this, the concept of mediation is used to refer to the process that articulates diverse interests and different structural levels within a broader frame of dependency and that thereby produces a cumulative process of differentiation on the local level. From this perspective, patronage, factionalism, and occupational multiplicity are explained as part of the process of local‐level class formation.
African apprentice workshops: a case of ethnocentric reductionism
Authors: VERDON MICHEL
Published: November 2004

Some of the best known studies in development economics on African economic institutions have treated apprentice workshops as small‐scale enterprises. This has only been achieved by ignoring the principles that structure groups of production. Taking such principles as my point of departure, I derive a number of properties that apply to enterprises. When the ethnographic evidence on apprentice workshops is reviewed, it is obvious that they cannot be mistaken for enterprises.
reproduction: a replacement for reciprocity
Authors: WEINER ANNETTE B.
Published: November 2004

An overemphasis on equivalences in exchange procedures forces us to continue to depend upon theories and models based on “norms of reciprocity.” This “reciprocity approach” disregards the significance of time and analyzes reciprocal equivalences for what, in fact, may be a process of replacement. Significant wealth objects, originally given in exchange, may be reclaimed years or generations later and in this way the replacement process gives an exchange system a dimension of reproductive potential. From this “reproductive perspective,” death rather than marriage operates as a regulatory force, allowing for the replacement of wealth, and the long‐term regeneration of social relations. [reproduction, exchange, death, Melanesia, Trobriand Islanders]
the Namonuito solution to the “matrilineal puzzle”
Authors: THOMAS JOHN BYRON
Published: November 2004

It has been widely assumed, following Richards and Schneider, that solidarity in the matrilineal descent group is dependent on the male authority within it. In the matrilineal society of Namonuito Atoll, however, it is the authority of certain females rather than that of males that underlies descent group solidarity. [matrilineal descent, kinship, sex roles, Oceania, matrilineal puzzle]
Bodhipuja: collective representations of Sri Lanka youth
Authors: SENEVIRATNE H. L. , WICKERMERATNE SWARNA
Published: November 2004

In traditional Buddhism, the Bodhi. Tree—a symbol of the Buddha—is worshipped for the accumulation of merit (pin) for the other‐worldly purpose of gaining desirable rebirths. Subordinately, the Bodhi has also been worshipped for the purpose of gaining specific ends in this world. Dynamic modern Buddhist movements in urban Sri Lanka emphasize Buddhist worship as opposed to deity worship for gaining this‐worldly benefit. This latter orientation provides fertile ground for the rise of a new cult of Bodhi worship among the educated, unemployed, urban youth of Sri Lanka. It provides them with a means of emotional expression for a new religiosity that is clearly at variance with the serene piety of traditional Theravada Buddhism. It is also argued that charismatically mediated religious performances are structurally similar to a modern, popular secular‐musical performance: both of them bind the same youthful devotees to one another in similar ways in a spirit of communitas. [Asia, Bodhi Tree, Buddhism, Sri Lanka, youth, religious change]
the dynamics of societal diversity: notes from Nicaragua for a sociology of survival
Authors: ADAMS RICHARD N.
Published: November 2004

At a more profound level than political economy, cultures and social structures are constantly generating new forms. Since this genesis has not been adequately conceptualized, a preliminary model for emergent phenomena in complex societies is suggested, analyzing the history and contemporary revolutionary situation of the Nicaraguan Atlantic region Indians. [complex societies, Nicaragua, Indians, survival vehicles, revolution, cultural emergence]
law as indigenous social theory: a Siamese Thai case
Authors: O'CONNOR RICHARD A.
Published: November 2004

Anthropologists often treat law as a discrete subject classified with politics and power and studied by nomothetic constructs. This treatment presupposes the place of law in society and denies history. To see law as a culturally constituted mode of analysis that projects an indigenous theory of society is to view a society in its own idiographic terms, and thereby demonstrate that it need not fit pre‐established classification and constructs. Traditional Siamese Thai law is presented as an indigenous and historical theory of society that links law with religion and meaning.[legal anthropology, culture and meaning, historical anthropology]
symbolic and empirical reality: a new approach to the analysis of food avoidances
Authors: LADERMAN CAROL
Published: November 2004

Food avoidances have been explained either as fitting into a cognitive system which operates through symbolic logic, or as part of a society's largely unconscious codification of pragmatic strategy. An examination of the Malay humoral system and the concept of bisa shows that pragmatic and symbolic reasoning are not mutually exclusive. On the most abstract level, the strength of the system comes from its internal logic and coherence; on a middle level of abstraction, it provides metaphors for reasoning and understanding; on the most concrete level – that of direct sensory experience – the system is reinforced by moorings in empirical reality that act as structural supports to the symbolic edifice. [food avoidances, humoral systems, cultural ecology, symbolism, Malay studies]
Optimal diet breadth theory as a model to explain variability in Amazonian hunting
Authors: HAMES RAYMOND B. , VICKERS WILLIAM T.
Published: November 2004

Optimal foraging theory is a set of related models from evolutionary ecology that predict the range and proportions of food items a predator should consume (diet breadth), where and how long it should hunt (patch choice), and how it should move (path choice). This paper assesses the utility of such models in anthropology by applying an optimal diet breadth approach to the analysis of hunting yields in three Amazonian societies. Specifically, we analyze diet breadth as a function of settlement age, distance, and technology. Data from the Siona‐Secoya, Ye'kwana, and Yanomamö indicate that these factors have a significant influence on diet breadth and support the basic predictions of the optimization model. [ecological anthropology, foraging strategies, Amazonia, South American Indians, anthropological theory]
womb as oasis: the symbolic context of Pharaonic circumcision in rural Northern Sudan
Authors: BODDY JANICE
Published: November 2004

This paper represents an effort to understand why Pharaonic circumcision of females persists in the Sudanese village of Hofriyat despite numerous attempts to effect its eradication. After a brief consideration of the custom's proposed origins and functions, its rich symbolic context is examined in some detail. Here it emerges that female circumcision is intricately related to a wide variety of local customs and beliefs, all of which appear to be informed by several related idioms stressing the relative value of “enclosedness.” The paper suggests that for those who have undergone it and who advocate its continuance, Pharaonic circumcision is an assertive, highly meaningful act that emphasizes feminine fertility by de‐emphasizing female sexuality, [genital mutilation, circumcision, symbolism, women, Sudan, gender]
inside looking around: studies of American culture
Authors: MESSERSCHMIDT DONALD A.
Published: November 2004

Local Success and Federal Failure: A Study of Community Development and Educational Change in the Rural South. CHARLES A. CLINTON.

Good Company. DOUGLAS A. HARPER.

Poker Faces: The Life and Work of Professional Card Players. DAVID M. HAYANO.

Texas Graveyards: A Cultural Legacy. TERRY G. JORDAN.

The Greek American Community in Transition. HARRY J. PSOMIADES and ALICE SCOURBY, eds.

The Code of the West. BRUCE A. ROSENBERG.

Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Neighborhood. IDA SUSSER.

Sex Roles in Contemporary American Communes. JON WAGNER, ed.
the closed society and its critics: historical transformations in African ethnography
Authors: COMAROFF JOHN L.
Published: November 2004

The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600–1900. LEE V. CASSANELLI.

The Political Economy of West African Agriculture. KEITH HART.

The Past in the Present: History, Ecology, and Cultural Variation in Highland Madagascar. CONRAD PHILLIP KOTTAK.

Wives for Cattle: Bridewealth and Marriage in Southern Africa. ADAM KUPER.
kingship among the Miskito
Authors: DENNIS PHILIP A. , OLIEN MICHAEL D.
Published: November 2004

The Miskito kings of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras have been described as British puppets whose authority depended solely on their role as middlemen. This paper suggests that the kings also may have been leaders of real stature in their own society, whose legitimacy was based on different cultural conceptions of leadership than those held by the British. [political anthropology, kingship, middlemen, Miskito Indians, Central American ethnology]
macrothought
Authors: FERNANDEZ JAMES W.
Published: November 2004

World View. MICHAEL KEARNEY.
the varieties of fertility cultism in New Guinea: part II
Authors: WHITEHEAD HARRIET
Published: November 2004

The fertility cults of New Guinea are often stereotyped simply as “male cults” in the literature, but comparative analysis reveals a great deal of regional variation in the cults, both in regard to the celebration of manhood and in regard to the degree of female exclusion. In a two‐part essay (Part I appeared in the last issue of AE), I will argue, first, that the cultic emphasis on male power and solidarity varies according to the form of the political community that the cult in part regulates and, second, that the cultic construction of fertility highlights the regionally variable position of the sexes in ceremonial exchange. [New Guinea, fertility ritual, sexual inequality, political organization, exchange theory]
salāam tahīyah: greetings from the highlands of Yemen
Authors: CATON STEVEN C.
Published: November 2004

The North Yemeni speech event of greeting as a rich semiotic act is interesting to analyze from both a linguistic and an anthropological point of view. It is argued that an indexical or pragmatic approach combined with an “interpretive” or symbolic understanding of culture may lead to the most interesting insights into verbal forms and their social meanings. In particular, it is argued that different constructs of the “person” are created in the speech event. [Arabic, ethnography of communication, interpretive anthropology, and self]
terms of endearment: Karo Batak lovers as siblings
Authors: KIPP RITA SMITH
Published: November 2004

Through the metaphoric use of kin terms, Karo Batak lovers cast each other as siblings. The metaphoric usage calls attention to the kind of “love” that both lovers and siblings share, although actual brothers and sisters must virtually avoid each other. Cross‐cousins, too, are likened to siblings; despite a high value placed on cross‐cousin marriage, cross‐cousins are neither the objects of sexual attraction nor of courtship. Arranged marriages between cross‐cousins are the antithesis of romances, some of which culminate in theatrical elopements. Lovers' terms of address make sense against a background of conceptual oppositions between siblings and cross‐cousins, arranged marriages and elopements, incest and exogamy. The anomalous lover relationship and its conventions of address mediate the contradiction that cross‐cousins, who are like siblings, may become spouses.
Carnaval in Yura: ritual reflections on ayllu and state relations
Authors: RASNAKE ROGER
Published: November 2004

Carnaval is the climax of an annual series of festivals sponsored by the indigenous authorities of the Yura, an ethnic group of Andean peasants in southern Bolivia. The 10‐day long Carnaval, a celebration rich in symbolic activity, provides a context in which the group reconstitutes itself ritually, both in its internal complexity and in its corporateness vis‐á‐vis the state. Symbolic action at Carnaval allows Yura to examine ethnic group‐state relations by juxtaposing Andean concepts and organizational forms with the external impositions of a hierarchical national entity.
engineering internment: anthropologists and the War Relocation Authority
Authors: STARN ORIN
Published: November 2004

This paper reexamines a neglected chapter in the history of anthropology, the involvement of ethnographers in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Anthropologists worked in the ten internment centers with the good intentions of improving camp conditions and defusing anti‐Japanese public opinion. But the present study argues that their writings had a series of largely unintended effects, including restriction of discourse about removal, legitimation of relocation, and promotion of racial stereotypes about the Japanese.
from Tupã to the land without evil: the Christianization of Tupi‐Guarani cosmology
Authors: SHAPIRO JUDITH
Published: November 2004

Throughout history, missionaries have appropriated items from the cultural repertoires of the missionized in the interests of spreading Christianity among culturally diverse peoples. Missionaries in eastern South America during the early colonial period translated the Christian message into terms taken from the cosmology of the Tupi‐Guarani peoples. Recent cultural borrowings by progressive missionaries, however—notably their use of the Tupi‐Guarani belief in an earthly paradise—have a different purpose, aiming not at the conversion of the Indians, but at the conversion of the church.
new Japanese mythologies: faltering discipline and the ailing housewife
Authors: LOCK MARGARET
Published: November 2004

Health professionals and the mass media have reported a sharp rise in the incidence of a variety of syndromes and neuroses in postwar Japan. The origins of these “diseases of civilization” are often explicitly associated with a breakdown of traditional values, and especially with the rise of the nuclear family. The remaking of a postwar cultural identity is discussed, with emphasis on the roles that the family, in particular the mothers, are assigned in this endeavor. A new disease, “menopausal syndrome,” is used as an example in order to examine the relationship of postulated physical distress during midlife, individual personality and behavior, and the social role assigned to middle‐class housewives. It is shown that the rhetoric about menopause is one part of the larger cultural debate about modernization in Japan. Although this rhetoric is accepted as accurate by the majority of women, survey research shows that it is erroneous and bears no relationship to the incidence of the physical discomfort it seeks to explain. The attempted medicalization of menopause and its relationship to the cultural debate is also discussed. [Japan, modernization, medicalization]
the medicalization of healing cults in Latin America
Authors: LOW SETHA M.
Published: November 2004

This paper examines the healing cults of two Latin American doctors—Dr. Moreno Cañas of Costa Rica and Dr. José Gregorio Hernandez—through a symbolic analysis of the doctors' life histories, the creation of myths about their lives, and the process of cult formation and transformation. The symbolic images of the two doctors are compared based on the doctors' individual characteristics and cultural meanings, the sociopolitical and historical context of the healing cults, and the structure of the myths as heroic tales. These analyses suggest that the ongoing medicalization of religious healing cults in Latin America and the increasing power of the medical sector to control and direct individual lives—particularly the lives of the poor and the politically marginal classes in Latin America—is reproduced in the generation of new symbolic images. The doctor/saint symbol that combines both the folk Catholic and Spiritist traditions of religious healing and the “high‐tech” imagery of the modern physician is a reflection of the medicalization/demedicalization and secular/sacred dialectic of Latin American healing cults. [healing cults, medicalization, Latin America, popular saints, symbolic analysis, doctors]
Certain knowledge, contestable authority: power and practice on the Islamic periphery
Authors: LAMBEK MICHAEL
Published: November 2004

The relationships among texts, readers, and moral community are explored in order to understand the dissonance and interplay of personal and textual authority in local Islamic practice (Sunni, Shaf'i branch) among Malagasy‐speaking villagers of Mayotte (Comoro Islands, East Africa). A political economy of knowledge approach is linked to an analysis of recitation as a ritual activity in which illocution‐ary force exceeds referential meaning. The discussion has relevance for the understanding of the relationship between religious knowledge, power, and action in Islamic societies as well as of the interface between the oral and the written more generally. [Islam, religious texts and ritual utterances, knowledge, power, Malagasy, Comoros]
House rethatching in an Andean annual cycle: practice, meaning, and contradiction
Authors: GOSE PETER
Published: November 2004

In the Andes, house rethatching is a labor process that creates more than just a new roof: it also produces a ritual imagery that gives form to, and is animated by, a tension between community and domestic life. This tension is expressed through the annual cycle as an opposition between a period of intensive interhousehold cooperation during the growing season and a period of appropriation by individual households during the dry season. House rethatching takes place during the seasonal shift from private appropriation to collective production, and is shaped by both of these opposed moralities, whose intersection and struggle animate the symbolism of the act and provide its practical grounding. On this basis I criticize attempts to reduce practice to a homogeneous set of dispositions through the concept of habitus, and seek to revindicate practice as a source of meaning.
lyric, history, and allegory, or the end of headhunting ritual in upland Sulawesi
Authors: GEORGE KENNETH M.
Published: November 2004

This article explores how a minority religious community in highland Sulawesi, Indonesia, brings meaning, history, and polity into being through the lyric discourse of headhunting ritual. The discussion shows how divergent interpretations of a single song work as tactical modes of understanding, as ways to “read with the polity.” In one case, a villager reads the lyrics in such a way as to link the ritual headhunt to the intercultural tensions of the past. In another case, however, a villager finds in the lyrics an allegory of local sexual politics. Both approaches connect ritual violence to the shaping of community. [headhunting, ritual song, textual analysis, tradition, social history, Sulawesi]
the “real” Haitian Creole: ideology, metalinguistics, and orthographic choice
Authors: SCHIEFFELIN BAMBI B. , DOUCET RACHELLE CHARLIER
Published: November 2004

This article analyzes competing representations of kreyòl and the symbolic importance of decisions taken in standardizing a kreyòl orthography. Kreyòl, which educated Haitians claim to share with the masses, is an enduring symbol of Haitian identity, yet the image of this language is deeply contested in several arenas. Linking language ideology, in particular metalinguistic terms that refer to varieties of spoken kreyòl, to orthographic choice, we view the debates as part of a nationalist discourse about Haitianness—what is authentic and legitimate—and examine the role of language in national identity formation. [Haitian Creole, language ideology, metalinguistics, orthography, national identity]
“they don't have to live by the old traditions”: saintly men, sinner women, and an Appalachian Pentecostal revival
Authors: SCOTT SHAUNNA L.
Published: November 2004

This article examines an Appalachian Pentecostal revival in socioeconomic context, analyzing it as an arena through which male church leaders interpreted women's abandonment of the church as they simultaneously sought to reestablish Pentecostal patriarchal hegemony within the community. The revival illuminates the contradictory tensions between gender, class, and community as they are articulated through revival discourse. [gender, Pentecostalism, Appalachia, patriarchy, community, de‐conversion]
from devil pacts to drug deals: commerce, unnatural accumulation, and moral community in “modern” Peru
Authors: NUGENT DAVID
Published: November 2004

“Resistance to the market” has been a trope commonly employed by anthropologists to explain local response to market expansion. Indeed, an extensive literature has documented the myriad forms of material and cultural resistance to the market undertaken by those who perceive it as a dangerous intrusion into their lives. In this article I argue that the use of this trope has contributed to the reproduction of a series of familiar but problematic dualisms in anthropology: modern/traditional, present/past, subject/object. Focusing on Chachapoyas—a region in the northern Peruvian Andes—I explore a series of changing social and political conditions, contingent in time and through space, that have encouraged radically different reactions to the realm of the market. In the 1930s local discourse concerning increasing market integration presented the market in terms verging on the mille‐narian, as having the potential to usher in an era of social justice, harmony, and community cooperation. By the 1980s, however, discourse on the market had undergone a complete inversion. The market was depicted as a dangerous and alien presence that threatened to dissolve the primary bonds of a community‐oriented way of life, which had retained its purity and harmony because of its distance from the realm of exchange. [tradition, modernity, market, moral community, control of space]