bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ritual States of Consciousness: A Way of Accounting for Anomalies in the Observation and Explanation of Spirit Possession
Authors: Zane Wallace W.
Published: November 2004

Confusion prevails in the anthropological literature concerning the nature of spirit possession belief and its effects. In large, this is due to the difficulty in differentiating between culture‐specific categories of altered states of consciousness and reconciling these to analytical categories. Theories of spirit possession tend either toward description of the culture context without reference to outside theories, thus lacking comparability, or toward application of externally derived categories to the possession behavior, which often lack on‐the‐ground relevance. Since comparison is the aim of anthropology, we need categories which enable us to accomplish that and still reflect cultural belief. I propose focusing on "ritual states of consciousness" rather than just altered states, which may or may not be spirit possession according to different criteria. This will enable us to retain the culturally relevant categorization while achieving a useful comparability among cultures. I test this idea by analyzing the Spiritual Baptists of St. Vincent and other Caribbean religions.
The Mythology of Evil Among North American Indian Yuroks and Its Implications for Western Spirituality
Authors: Alsup Royal , Krippner Stanley
Published: November 2004

The mythology of evil has assumed renewed importance among diverse spiritual groups in the West and among scholars of the anthropology of consciousness. An investigation of Yurok mythology reveals that it is conceptualized asian "imbalance" between individuals (or groups) and parts of themselves, other community members, nature, and/or the Great Spirit. Yurok teaching stories, as well as shamanic practices, provide examples of how these imbalances are brought into equilibrium through worship, ceremonial procedures, and personal behavior. Western spirituality may find ways to better confront individual and social evil by studying Yurok practices, especially their emphasis on the sacred uses of humor, their use of ceremony to face the paradoxes of life, and their application of myth to attain personal and group harmony.
Come‐backs/Reincarnation as Integration; Adoption‐out as Disassociation: Examples from First Nations Northwest British Columbia
Authors: Mills Antonia , Champion Linda
Published: November 2004

To those raised outside of Gitxsan and Witsuwit'en culture, the concept of a child, (or adult) claiming to be, or being attributed as, an ancestor returned as well as the person of this life, sounds like a split personality. In this paper, we examine a single example of this category from among the more than two hundred cases on record for the Gitxsan and Witsuwit'en of northwest British Columbia. The example serves to demonstrate that the Gitxsan and Witsuwit'en do not construe the situation of someone "come back" as a divided self, but as an embedded self, a person with deep roots and double grounding in the territory and the kin group, doubly integrated into the nexus of social life. This contrasts with the poignant cases of people who were fostered or adopted out, sexually abused, and made to feel confused about their heritage. The autobiographical account of the second author is an example of a woman in this category. It demonstrates the response of shutting down emotion, and absenting oneself from the abusive situations by "leaving the body." Our analysis suggests that cultural definition of what is normal varies from Western to Gitxsan and Witsuwit'en culture. It suggests further that the definition of the experience as useful helps recovery of such individuals when they are reunited with their natal culture.
The Identification of Spiritual Content in Dream Reports
Authors: Casto Kira Lynn , Krippner Stanley , Tartz Robert
Published: November 2004

This investigation was designed to evaluate a new dream content measure, the Casto Spirituality Scoring System. Therefore, our research question was: "Can the spiritual content of dream reports be identified and measured?" We randomly selected 20 male and 20 female dream reports obtained in dream seminars in each of six countries. We added 20 dream reports from one U.S. female and one U.S. male undergoing "spiritual development" programs. Of the 280 dream reports in our collection, 59 contained spiritual content, according to our definition of "spiritual" as one's focus on, and/or reverence, openness, and connectedness to something of significance believed to be beyond one's full understanding and/or individual existence. The research question was answered affirmatively in so far as the Casto Spirituality Scoring System yielded high reliability when the scores of two judges, working independently, were compared. These initial results are promising but further research needs to be done before the usefulness of this system can be fully demonstrated. Key words: dreams, spirituality, consciousness, survey
The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru.
Authors: Bacigalupo Ana Mariella
Published: November 2004

The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru. Bonnie GlassCoffin. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1998. 246 pp. $50.00 (cloth); $15.95 (paper)
Lies and Amnesia in Anthropological Research: Recycling the Waste
Authors: Rösing Ina
Published: November 2004

Based on field research on Andean medicine men and West Tibetan (Ladakhi) shamans, this paper delineates some research problems which arise from the lies told and amnesia experienced by indigenous informants. It is shown that the problem of amnesia leads to the paradox that "one can only do research on shamans by ceasing to do research." In discussing four hypotheses for understanding shaman's amnesia, as a "lie," as a professional ideology, or as an artifact of Western research, a solution is sought for this paradox. The best solution is seen in an approach called "recycling the waste" in which lies, inventions, contradictory and fragmentary information (usually considered as the "waste" of research) are being "recycled" as valuable data in their own right.
Studying Mapuche Shaman/Healers in Chile from an Experiential Perspective: Ethical and Methodological Problems
Authors: Bacigalupo Ana Mariella
Published: November 2004

Anthropologists who "study" religious practitioners are always confronted with both an ethical and a methodological problem. Our traditional training asks us to remain detached from our "informants" and their beliefs in order to collect "data" whose content will be analyzed according to academic agendas and theoretical trends, translated into anthropological jargon and published in ethnographies that will be accepted, published, and read in the academic world. On the other hand, the purpose of our anthropological research is to gain a deeper understanding of the "other" from the "inside." Experiential anthropology has searched for a deeper understanding of religious practitioners and their beliefs. This includes focusing on native epistemologies and experiences and personal engagement with informants that sometimes involves the ethnographer's apprenticeship and initiation into the religious traditions that are beingstudied. This experience involves our commitment and respect towards those we study. Drawing on my own experience with Mapuche shamans in southern Chile I discuss the ethical and methodological problems anthropologists have in bridging professional interests with the personal commitments made with those whom we study. I discuss the ethical problems in using apprenticeship and initiation solely for professional purposes and the problem of cultural appropriation, the limitations that an exclusively academic model has on what can be written about, how it should be conceptualized, theorized, and represented, and the problems anthropologists undergo in having to simultaneously maintain professional detachment and be committed to those with whom we work.
"After the Past, Before the Present": New Shamanism in Gorny Altai
Authors: Vinogradov Andrei
Published: November 2004

This paper is a brief survey of the history of Altai shamanism in the 20th Century, and of the main influences, both from "inside" (from within the Altai community) and from the outside onto shamanic beliefs and practices of the Altai, especially onto the shamanic revival. Based on my experiences living in 1988 and 1989 in Gorny Altai, the paper reports on aspects of present‐day shamanism, and the emergence of neo‐shamanism in the post‐Soviet period. The decline of shamanism due to the impact of the Old Believers, the Orthodox Church and the emergence of Burkhanism in 1904, as well as the repression during the Soviet period, is described and is noted as influential in contributing to the current revival of shamanism in its "neo‐shamanistic" form. Several factors that facilitate the regeneration of shamanism are identified and discussed.
A Native Taxonomy of Healing Among the Xinjiang Kazaks
Authors: Ank Kaǧan
Published: November 2004

The nomadic Kazaks inhabiting Xinjiang Province, China, retain many aspects of their pre‐Islamic way of life, including the use of methods of traditional healing usually classified under the rubric of "shamanism." These practices are closely related to those in Kazakstan, Mongolia, and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

The present study addresses aspects of traditional healing in use among the Xinjiang Kazaks in recent times, and presents a native taxonomy of these practices obtained during recent fieldwork in Xingjiang. Special attention is paid to the use of words, sound, and movement in healing contexts by elders and specialized individuals.
Concepts of Death Among Professional Alpine Climbers: Continuing Risk Behaviors in the Face of Death
Authors: James Paul E.
Published: November 2004

Alpine climbing in the US has increased in popularity since the 1970s and despite the high objective risk involved it has continued to find new devotees. For professionals involved in this sport, the risks are encountered through near‐death experiences and the real deaths of close friends. This essay uses interviews with climbers in the state of Washington, discussing their experiences with death, and uses written accounts. First, I discuss the many risks involved in climbing and how these risks are perceived and accepted by climbers. Next, 1 look at the immediate reaction to alpine deaths, and finally, to the long term effects on the lives and climbing practices of this group. Despite repeated confrontations with death, all informants continue exposing themselves to these risks. Every year more and more acquaintances die while the ideas and values that these climbers hold allow them to resist the fear of their own death and continue to climb. Keywords: death, risk‐taking, sports.
Embodying the Spirits Among The Iu‐Mien
Authors: MacDonald Jeffery L.
Published: November 2004

This paper exploresTaoistrituals among Iu‐ Mien refugees in the United States and the ways in which Iu‐Mien spirit masters provide means of embodiment for the spirits and gods. The Iu‐Mien practice over two hundred separate rituals to provide healing, pay the spirits for benefits received, purchase good health, life, children, and wealth from the spirits, provide spirit guardians, and assist souls in their transitions through the Iu‐Mien universe. This paper examines the ways in which the gods are embodied during specific rituals in sacred spirit paintings (mienvfang), which in themselves are literal bodies of the gods, complete with bones, flesh, and clothing. In other rituals, the Mien spirit masters themselves embody the gods in trance. The relationship of these embodiments to Iu‐Mien cosmology as well as to communication with the spirit world via divination, ritual, and Chinese literacy is discussed.
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's‐Eye View of the World
Authors: Fields Tina
Published: November 2004

The Botany of Desire:. Plant's‐Eye View of the World. By Michael Pollan. 2001. New York: Random House. 271 pages. $24.95 (hardback). ISBN 0‐375‐50129‐0
Trance, Possession, Shamanism and Sex
Authors: Lewis I. M.
Published: November 2004

Altered States of Consciousness is an umbrella term applied in the study of psychological, sociological and religious phenomena that are regularly encountered experientially in the study of trance, possession, and shamanism, all of which have complex and problematic links with music. Beginning with trance, and stressing the pervasive sexual imagery invoked, this paper reviews the role ofASC in these three areas in the anthropology of religion.
Further Correspondences and Similarities of Shamanism and Cognitive Science: Mental Representation, Implicit Processing, and Cognitive Structures
Authors: Hubbard Timothy L.
Published: November 2004

Properties of mental representation are related to findings in cognitive science and ideas in shamanism. A selective review of research in cognitive science suggests visual images and spatial memory preserve important functional information regarding physical principles and the behavior of objects in the natural world, and notions of second‐order isomorphism and the perceptual cycle developed to account for such findings are related to shamanic experience. Possible roles of implicit processes in shamanic cognition, and the idea that shamanic experience may involve normally unconscious information becoming temporarily available to consciousness, are considered. The existence of a cognitive module dedicated to processing information relevant to social knowledge and social interaction is consistent with cognitive science and with shamanism, and may help account for the extension of intentionality and meaning that characterize shamanic practice. Overall, findings from cognitive science and ideas from shamanism exhibit a number of correspondences and similarities regarding basic properties of cognition, and this suggests that shamanic and nonshamanic cognition may not be fundamentally different.
Pathologizing Possession: An Essay on Mind, Self, and Experience in Dissociation
Authors: Budden Ashwin
Published: November 2004

In this paper, critique the classic psychoanalytic anthropological construal of dissociative spirit possession as a pathological phenomenon. I review some of the relevant theoretical and ethnographic literature on this subject but focus on the work of two prominent psychoanalytic anthropologists to explore divergent views of the psychological nature of pathological and religious experience. Emphasis is placed on the necessity for taking into account the culture specific factors that shape dissociative possession, particularly with regard to spiritual experiences. I also move beyond this view to an embodiment approach that is useful for analyzing the experiential ground of spirit possession, and thus for providing insight into how particular individual and cultural realities are constructed through dissociation. Key words: dissociation, embodiment, possession, psychoanalytic anthropology, self

"Perception is never an absolute revelation of 'what is' " ‐A.l. Hallovvell (1955: 84)
the colors of emotion1
Authors: D'ANDRADE R. , EGAN M.
Published: November 2004

Research on synesthesia has consistently found an association between colors and emotions. In order to try to determine whether the basis for this phenomenon is culture specific or universal, a test to determine color and emotion associations was administered to a sample of Tzeltal‐speaking adults from highland Chiapas and U.S. college undergraduates. The results of the color‐emotion test indicate that within the limits of translation equivalence color chips and emotion terms show very similar patterns of association in both cultures. These results seem to indicate that the phenomenon of synesthesia is mediated by the universal factors uncovered by Osgood's semantic differential test. The results also indicate that saturation is a major factor in color‐emotion synesthesia.
the Hawaiiankapuabolition of 18191
Authors: SEATON S. LEE
Published: November 2004

The abolition of thekapu(tabu) system of Hawaii after the death of Kamehameha I in 1819 has been a continuing source of interest as a problem in the explanation of culture change. Divine intervention, church‐state conflict, cultural fatigue, women's liberation, cultural imperialism, socioeconomic evolution, and the politics of state formation have been offered as explanations. The cultural revolution is here reexamined from the integrative framework of “political culture.”
political conflict and social change in an Italian commune1
Authors: COHEH EUGENE N.
Published: November 2004

Political conflicts occurring between villages in a Central Italian commune are analyzed both as singular cases and as a series of connected situations. I argue that the latter perspective provides the basis for an understanding of structural change, which is lacking in the individual case‐study approach favored by processual analysis.
a note on the measurement of Sahlins' social profile of domestic production1
Authors: EVANS MARTIN
Published: November 2004

Sahlins' quantitative approach to production in primitive societies, based on a comparison of the observed relation between production per worker and proportion of consumers to workers in households with a hypothetical “Chayanov” relation (representing production for livelihood), is examlned. Changes in the type of measurement made are suggested which allow the degree of divergence of the empirical production pattern from the Chayanov pattern to be decided by statistical tests, instead of by subjective evaluation. The tests proposed are applied to data from three villages discussed by Sahlins. Some suggestions are made about factors which might cause production patterns to change through time.
gift giving and reciprocity among the Japanese Americans in Honolulu1
Authors: JOHNSON COLLEEN LEAHY
Published: November 2004

Gift‐giving practices of the Japanese Americans in Honolulu have been analyzed within the framework of the reciprocity norm. This system of balanced reciprocity requires that specified amounts of money be given at important events in the life cycle. It is concluded that reciprocity serves important social functions by facilitating status placement, providing generational continuities, reducing conflict, and equalizing class differences.
ethnicity and commerce
Authors: FOSTER BRIAN L.
Published: November 2004

The widely observed pursuit of commerce by ethnic minorities is usually explained historically or in terms of the content of the traders' culture. An examination of Mon traders in Thailand suggests that the ethnic difference itself is important in (1) freeing traders from constraints of the host society and (2) reducing stress inherent in face‐to‐face commercial transactions. These observations are subsumed into a concluding hypothesis relating ethnic differences to certain ritual activities, other kinds of social categorizations, and phenomena related to scale, all of which function in similar ways.
the North Alaska Eskimos: a culture and personality perspective
Authors: HIPPLER ARTHUR E.
Published: November 2004

The seemingly paradoxical aspects of Eskimo culture and personality can be parsimoniously related to an Eskimo “cultural personality” whose roots in the socialization experience may explain much of adult Eskimo behavior. This concept is also useful in analyzing precontact “legal” systems and the two changes which have occurred since then.
to kill three birds with one stone: the rotating credit associations of the Papua New Guinea Chinese1
Authors: WU DAVID Y. H.
Published: November 2004

The author looks at rotating credit associations in the Overseas Chinese community in Papua New Guinea, where complicated financial networks have been built up from simple traditional models, and argues that it is man and not the institution which holds the key to cultural change and economic development; the way in which the economic institution is manipulated by the people determines its adaptability.
Tripolitanian Jewish communities: cultural boundaries and hypothesis‐testing1
Authors: GOLDBERG HARVEY E.
Published: November 2004

Previous studies of rural North African Jewish groups have not directly confronted the problem of the scale of these communities. In reconstructing the culture of Tripolitanian Jewry, which migrated to Israel in 1949, the question of scale is examined by assessing the degree to which the rural communities and Tripoli shared cultural traits. The approach used is that of hypothesis‐testing, together with the application of tests of significance.
peripheral and transitional markets: the Aztec case1
Authors: KURTZ DONALD V.
Published: November 2004

Only recently has ethnohistorical data been interpreted in terms of sociocultural theory. This methodology has promise because some ethnohistorical data, such as the writings which depict preconquest Aztec society, reveal the cultures of societies in a more “pristine” state, uncontaminated by contact with Western societies. The urban market economy of the preconquest Aztecs is analyzed with reference to a model derived from market economies in contemporary West Africa. It is demonstrated that Aztec urban markets are transitional between “peripheral” and modern market economies. The transitional process is examined, an explanation for it is offered, and the working model is reinterpreted.
the socioeconomic status of the Ainu: the past in the present1
Authors: PENG FRED C. C. , RICKETTS ROBERT , IMAMURA NARIO
Published: November 2004

This is a study of the effects of the economic policies of the Japanese government on Ainu social structure. These policies were designed for the long‐term development of Hokkaidō and the stabilization of its Ainu population. They included land redistribution and an emphasis on agriculture at the expense of hunting and fishing. However, land redistribution did not stabilize the Ainu population because farming was the traditional occupation of the women, not the men. When Ainu men were forced to give up their traditional hunting and fishing activities, they became seasonal migrant laborers instead of farmers. The result was a redistribution of the populations of traditional Ainu communities and some major changes in social structure. Thus the present social organization of the Ainu is the outcome of the interaction of internal and external socioeconomic factors over a long period of time.
intra‐cultural diversity: some theoretical issues1
Authors: PELTO PERTTI J. , PELTO GRETEL H.
Published: November 2004

Recent anthropological research includes a growing number of studies which focus directly on issues of intra‐cultural and intra‐community diversity, rather than simply recording passing mention of “deviations” from norms or cultural patterns that are presumed to be standardized. Studies of behavioral and cognitive diversity are essential for understanding differential processes of social change, as well as other theoretical problems. We suggest that intra‐group diversity in behavioral repertoires and cognitive orientations, like genetic diversity within populations, is of great significance for on‐going processes of human adaptation.
interconnectedness and the duration of connections in several small networks1
Authors: HAMMER MURIEL , SCHAFFER AMY
Published: November 2004

One aspect of a theory utilizing the concept of social network is examined empirically for five small networks, with an emphasis on hypothesized changes over time. An attempt is made to relate the distribution of the connections in these networks to their durations in terms of a measure of distance.
“ideal” and “real” behavior in the Mesoamerican nonresidential extended family
Authors: TAGGART JAMES M.
Published: November 2004

Redfield's (1941) notion that rapid sociocultural change brings about a discrepancy between “ideal” and “real” behavior in the Mesoamerican nonresidential extended family is revised with data from the Nahuat area. The author shows that chronic family tensions unrelated to rapid change can affect the solidarity of the agnatically related males upon whom nonresidential extended family unity depends and that informants express these tensions in their ideology of family behavior.
conflict and cooperation in Andean communities
Authors: WHYTE WILLIAM FOOTE
Published: November 2004

This paper presents a framework for the analysis of cooperation and conflict based on surveys and anthropological studies of Peruvian rural communities and an examination of the literature on the nature of peasant communities (Redfield, Lewis, Foster, and others). Instead of considering these qualities of human relations as opposite ends of the same continuum, the framework presents two separate continua: high‐low cooperation and high‐low conflict.
women in modernizing societies1
Authors: BOSSEN LAUREL
Published: November 2004

It is commonly assumed that modernization generally brings an increase in sexual equality. This paper examines the alternative possibility, that modernization favors an inferior status for women. Focusing on economic variables as a basis for comparison, an examination of modern changes in various societies in which women's traditional position has been relatively strong indicates a deterioration in women's position relative to men.
a study of the cultural domain of “relatives”1
Authors: ALEXANDER JACK
Published: November 2004

The data for this study of the collective representation of kinship were collected in intensive interviews with urban middle‐class Jamaicans. Analysis of these data suggests that while the collective representation of kinship and its uses are distinct, the observation of these uses is valuable for the full understanding of the culture of kinship.
Asdiwal crumbles: a critique of Lévi‐Straussian myth analysis1
Authors: THOMAS L. L. , KRONENFELD J. Z. , KRONENFELD D. B.
Published: November 2004

Lévi‐Strauss' use of ethnographic sources, of definitional terms, and his analytic categorization of incidents in the Asdiwal story is arbitrary, inconsistent, and even distorts the story text on occasion. His argument, in addition to being circular in places, is internally inconsistent, especially as regards the claim that when myths make negative evaluations, they always involve the opposite of real life, a claim which is, in fact, both supported and refuted.
the Balinese marriage predicament; individual, strategical, cultural
Authors: BOON JAMES A.
Published: November 2004

Different kinds of Balinese marriage make allowances for preferences according to individual personalities, for practical alliance strategies, and for religiously auspicious patrilateral parallel cousin unions as well. The related values are integrated in a hierarchical conception of personality, society, and cosmos which is expressed in positive categorical marriage rules, in symbols from legend and myth, and in actual cases of psychological stress. The simultaneous prevalence of individual love ideals, groups ranked by hypergamy, and ancestral temple endogamy in Bali clarifies issues in cross‐cultural marriage typology.
“matrilocal” Greek peasants and a reconsideration of residence terminology1
Authors: CASSELBERRY SAMUEL E. , VALAVANES NANCY
Published: November 2004

It has recently been suggested that peasants never consistently form matrilocal joint households. Residence data from a Greek island community seem to contradict this statement. Many of the real and apparent contradictions in residence pattern studies are due to the ambiguous and inconsistently utilized terminology. A nomenclature system proposed by Pedro Carrasco (1963) is employed in order to present the Greek data precisely and unambiguously.
general principles of human anatomical partonomy and speculations on the growth of partonomic nomenclature1
Authors: BROWN CECIL H.
Published: November 2004

This paper describes twelve general principles of classification and nomenclature in human anatomical partonomy (body parts systematics). These principles are derived through comparison of “naming‐behavior” data from forty‐one globally distributed languages. In addition, four growth stages in the development of nomenclature for parts of the human extremities are proposed.
an analysis of Rofaifo mammal taxonomy
Authors: DWYER PETER D.
Published: November 2004

Analysis of a New Guinea folk classification of mammals reveals considerable correspondence for entities perceived and labeled by folk and scientific zoologists, but notable differences in the cognitive status accorded those entities in the two classificatory systems. The cognitive status of folk categories may be best understood in a relativistic frame rather than by assigning them to fixed positions within a formalized hierarchy of conceptual states. Taxonomic evolution has been dominated by shifts in the conceptual level for archetypal categories, with upgrading of categories more frequent than the reverse. Categories with connotative rather than denotative referents seem to be appropriate candidates for upgrading.
‘eagle’=‘bird’: a note on the structure and evolution of Shoshoni ethnoornithological nomenclature1
Authors: HAGE PER , MILLER WICK R.
Published: November 2004

This paper provides an ethnozoological example of the processes described by Berlin for the evolution of ethnobotanical nomenclature. An unusual feature of Shoshoni ethnoornithology is the existence of named intermediate categories, which precede the life form label, of which they are the source; furthermore, they seem to derive from a process different from those postulated by Berlin. The conceptual distinction which the intermediate categories make and the intermediate life‐form polysemy are not unique to Shoshoni. These facts may require a reconsideration of the significance and temporal ordering of intermediate categories in Berlin's theory.
ethnoanatomy in a multilingual community: an analysis of semantic change1
Authors: McCLURE ERICA F.
Published: November 2004

Several languages and dialects have been in intimate contact in Romania over a long period of time. An ethnographic semantic analysis of anatomical terms in a Romanian multiethnic community sheds light on the extent to which the internal structure of words and the nature of the contact between languages influences the degree and nature of borrowing among those languages.
Islam and inheritance in Malaya: culture conflict or Islamic revolution?
Authors: BANKS DAVID J.
Published: November 2004

This essay examines the impact of the Islamic legal tradition on Malay ideas about the inheritance of property. It concludes that Muslim legal concepts have been fully incorporated into a Malay framework for the analysis of society and how it does and should work. Previous writers have seen Islam as part of a conflicting legal cultural dualism which opposes a harsh, male chauvinist and foreign Islamic law to a general fund of humane, Malay folk wisdom, implying inherent rural factionalism and a split peasant legal personality. The essay presents data from the West Malaysian state of Kedah to explicate the “typical” Malay case, in which Islam is said to give a bilateral kinship system a patrilateral bias. This analysis cites three interdependent factors in folk ideology which provide rationales for the distribution of property and have bases in peasant knowledge of Islam. The essay finds that Islamic law is so thoroughly part of Malay life that one may consider Malay culture part of a Southeast Asian Islamic Great Tradition. It concludes by exploring reasons for the appeal of legal dualism and discusses possible changes in Malay ideas about the morality of property distribution.
the urbanx Indian in colonial Oaxaca1
Authors: CHANCE JOHN K.
Published: November 2004

Documentary sources from Mexican and Spanish archives are used to analyze ethnicity and ethnic change among the urban Indians in the Spanish city of Antequera (now called Oaxaca) in colonial Mexico. After briefly reviewing the ethnography of the Valley of Oaxaca at the time of Spanish contact, I will discuss the ethnic boundaries among the Nahuas, Zapotecs, and Mixtecs of Antequera, the relation of the Indians to other socioracial categories in the city (i.e., Spaniards, mestizos,mulattoes), and the course of change within urban Indian society between 1521 and 1800.
modern Buddhist murals in northern Thailand: a study of religious symbols and meaning1
Authors: FERGUSON JOHN P. , JOHANNSEN CHRISTINA B.
Published: November 2004

We draw attention to the importance of visual symbols in the anthropological investigation of religion and cultural values and analyze a recent efflorescence in monastic mural paintings in the city of Chiengmai in northern Thailand in order to discover the iconographic code which might reveal underlying meanings and values. The popularity of certain Buddhist symbols found in the murals is established by means of a quantitative methodology. The results are analyzed in terms of traditional Buddhist explanations of the symbols and then compared with informants' accounts of why the murals were popular. The opinions of the artists and monks and laity involved are considered in reference to cultural changes in values taking place in a modernizing society. The murals are an assertion of certain core values expressed in ancient Buddhist symbols as a defense of the totality of the religious system against perceived threats from competing modern values. An unexpected result of the research was the discovery that the Thai religious symbolic system incorporates into a broad continuum a host of legends and symbols that are not just “folk” beliefs but are central to an adequate anthropological understanding of Theravada Buddhism itself.
the diffusion possibility method: a more general and simpler solution to Galton's problem1
Authors: PRYOR FREDERIC L.
Published: November 2004

A new statistical technique permits detection of the influence of certain types of diffusion on the results of a cross‐cultural analysis. The key tool is a “diffusion possibility matrix” which shows the possibility of diffusion occuring between each pair of societies in the sample. With the aid of such a matrix, several different kinds of clustering tests are described and demonstrated. The method has the advantage of greater flexibility and simplicity than previous methods, as well as greater statistical power.
ecology and human ecology: a comparison of theories in the biological and social sciences1
Authors: RICHERSON PETER J.
Published: November 2004

Ecology has been used frequently by social scientists as a source of theoretical models, and biological ecologists have often applied their theory to human populations. Several problems have attended these cross‐disciplinary enterprises, including inappropriate uses of teleological models and a failure by both biologists and social scientists to understand the theoretical implications of culture and technology for ecological models. Attention to these problems will increase the applicability of ecological theories in the social sciences.
ecological niche theory in sociocultural anthropology: a conceptual framework and an application1
Authors: LOVE THOMAS F.
Published: November 2004

The concept of “ecological niche” is frequently employed in sociocultural anthropology, but there have been few systematic applications of it. This paper examines the utility of the concept for the analysis of social interaction and change, with special reference to complex societies. In a small agricultural valley of northern California, competition between two status groups over a scarce resource—land—has led to displacement and changing patterns of resource use. “Niche” describes the aggregate outcome of underlying processes of competition on the individual level.
integration through production: the use of zonation in Espinar1
Authors: ORLOVE BENJAMIN S.
Published: November 2004

This article analyzes several common themes in ecological and economic anthropology, particularly the emphasis on systems of distribution and the use of normative models of action. The applications of a recent theory in Latin American anthropology, the “verticality model,” have been limited by these shared assumptions. Data from Espinar, a province in southern highland Peru, show the importance of systems of production and material constraints on action.
the process of state formation in Madagascar
Authors: KOTTAK CONRAD P.
Published: November 2004

This paper suggests that, rather than investigating “the origin of the state” within familiar sociopolitical typologies based on general evolution, anthropologists (I) study specific processes of state formation and (2) view sociopolitical transformations as a dynamic, continuous, processual evolution rather than as a succession of types. Data from several populations of Madagascar are used to illustrate material correlates of sociopolitical organization and the synergistic interaction of variables in specific sequences leading to state organization. Questioning the significance of distinguishing between pristine and secondary states, the article asserts that both local and regional factors must be analyzed as determinant inputs in processes of state formation.
production and division of labor in a West Indian peasant community
Authors: BERLEANT‐SCHILLER RIVA
Published: November 2004

Subsistence and cash production on the West Indian island of Barbuda fall into two organizational categories: that for which household personnel is sufficient and that for which personnel from different households must organize into a cooperative team. This difference in productive organization is associated with exclusive areas of social and economic responsibility divided between men and women, although physical labor sometimes overlaps. Underlying the organization of production and hence the sexual distinction of roles, are the productive capabilities of the landscape and the customary system of land tenure that permits its most efficient use.
extending the scope of formal analysis: a technique for integrating analysis of kinship relations with analyses of other dyadic relations
Authors: LAVE JEAN , STEPICK ALEX , SAILER LEE
Published: November 2004

A native domain of formally labeled dyadic relationships, including consanguineal and affinal ties, various ceremonial relationships, and relatedness in general is subjected to a formal semantic analysis. A decision model is then used to explain the natives' choices among alternative terms. Because the model predicts term choices with a high degree of success and easily encompasses many different types of relationships, it should be applicable to a wide range of societies.
big men and middlemen: the politics of law in Longana
Authors: RODMAN WILLIAM L.
Published: November 2004

Studies of political middlemen suggest that appointed middlemen tend to be less effective than middlemen who achieve an interstitial position by acting as entrepreneurs. This paper discusses the introduction of native middlemen charged with responsibility for dispute processing in a northern New Hebridean society. The case of assessors in Longana indicates that government appointees may succeed in performing their assigned duties when established local leaders perceive a middleman role as a means of gaining access to scarce political resources.
the utility of pluralism: M. G. Smith and plural theory
Authors: LÉON MADELINE BARBARA , LÉONS WILLIAM
Published: November 2004

This paper reevaluates plural theory and its implications through an analysis of M. G. Smith's contribution. Difficulties encountered stem from Smith's preoccupation with political causality and his assignment of conflict and consensus theory to two different kinds of society. We conclude that neither of these assumptions is integral to plural theory per se. Plural theory is capable of asking the appropriate questions concerning how the vertical corporations of a plural society are created, maintained, and transformed.
the nature of nurture
Authors: MARSHALL MAC
Published: November 2004

The problem of what is to be included in “the nature of kinship” is examined by focusing on kinship and friendship in Truk District, Caroline Islands, Micronesia. A cultural model of “intensive interpersonal relationships” is presented showing how natural kinship, created kinship, and friendship conceptually interlock for Trukese. It is concluded that the essence of kinship as a general cross‐cultural construct is sharing and that cross‐cultural studies of kinship must focus on the variety of symbolic actions that stand for kinship in different cultural settings.
women and men in the Enga tee
Authors: FEIL D. K.
Published: November 2004

This paper explores the power and influence of women in the tee exchange of the Tombema Enga of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Intersexual relations in the Highlands have generally been described as frought with anxiety and conflict. Similarly, women's position has been defined as low and inferior to that of men. This paper takes the view that rather than trying to sum up the position of women, it is more sensible to describe male‐female relations in a variety of separate social domains, free from the more ideological statements that men make of women in situational vacuums. By so doing we may find that women exercise considerable power. As male‐female relations are viewed in the context of the tee exchange, a picture emerges in which women are essential participants, making key political decisions, allotting pigs, and in all ways, shaping the exchange partnerships and relations of men whom they link. These conclusions raise questions as to the nature of the tee and what it does in Enga society.
Peacocks and penguins: the political economy of European cloth and colors
Authors: SCHNEIDER JANE
Published: November 2004

This paper relates color symbolism in European dress to the historical geography of textile manufacturing and dyeing, dating back to the Middle Ages. Its central concern is the widespread use of black, not only as a color of mourning, but also as a mode for communicating religious and political goals. Black clothing, it is argued, constituted both a practical and a symbolic means of resisting the luxury, polychrome fabrics that older and more developed civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean exported. Although beautiful and tempting, these textiles were instruments of hegemony, for they were produced under monopoly conditions furthered by the highly uneven world distribution of dyestuffs. In Europe they commanded basic resources — slaves and bullion — in exchange and thus created an unequal balance of trade. Black cloth, which contributed in many different ways first to arrest and then to reverse this imbalance, was a totally indigenous product that native craftsmen manufactured and brought to perfection using native raw materials. As such, it had something in common with contemporary symbols of national liberation, perhaps even when it called attention to death.
Beyond dependency theory: national and regional patterns of underdevelopment in Guatemala
Authors: SMITH CAROL A.
Published: November 2004

The historical and spatial pattern of Guatemala's underdevelopment is examined here, with special attention being paid to the differentiation of the national core and western periphery in the twentieth century. It is argued that Guatemala's underdevelopment cannot be traced to its long‐standing export dependency, but rather to the uneven expansion of export‐generated capital and its varying impact on relations of production in different parts of Guatemala's economy in the twentieth century. Evidence supporting this position consists of census data on changing patterns of urban growth and occupational characteristics of Guatemala's (operationally defined) economic cores and peripheries. This evidence is measured against explicit models of dependency structures and underdevelopment, as well as field and historical data on changing patterns of relations of production.
the enemy of every tribe: “bushman” images in Northern Athapaskan narratives
Authors: BASSO ELLEN B.
Published: November 2004

A variety of “bushman” images are found throughout the Northern Athapaskan area. They have been typically characterized as supernatural beliefs arising in response to fears of dangers in the natural and social environments and to ignorance of true causes of events. I argue in this paper that an understanding of the images must also take into account the cultural and social systems that govern their creation and use in personal narratives. In particular, the images within one region, the central Mackenzie River valley, must be understood in terms of the focal concerns of seasonality, supernatural power, social relationships, and technology, as well as the explanatory uses to which the narratives are put.
Merit and misconduct: venerating the Bo tree at a Buddhist shrine
Authors: PRUESS JAMES B.
Published: November 2004

This paper deals with an example of behavior in a religious context that seems to contradict the norms and values of the society and religious tradition. During a specific Theravada Buddhist merit‐making ceremony, the participants are permitted to express the non‐Buddhist themes of intoxication, aggression, and implied sexual license. The demonstration of these themes during the ceremony is interpreted as a symbolic expression of disordering, unpredictable social and natural forces that must be neutralized at an important transitional period between the old year and the new. The analysis proceeds from the assertion that the interpretation of anomalous behavior in a religious context requires attention to the spatial and temporal dimensions of the particular ceremony, the nature of its participants, and its place with regard to other similar ritual that occurs during the same period.
Dumje: paradox and resolution in Sherpa ritual symbolism
Authors: PAUL ROBERT A.
Published: November 2004

Ritual may be usefully viewed as a symbolic attempt to resolve contradictory ideas and affects within a single cultural tradition. One such paradox faced by Buddhism in practice is the necessity of simultaneously affirming and denying the value of worldly existence. The Sherpa seasonal festival of Dumje may be understood as an attempt periodically to express and resolve this problem through a complex juxtaposition of sexual, aggressive, and ecological metaphors and symbols.
Banana County in the wake of United Fruit: social and economic linkages
Authors: PARTRIDGE WILLIAM L.
Published: November 2004

The linkage approach to development studies is used to trace three community‐level responses to the withdrawal of United Fruit Company from the old banana zone of Colombia: the reassertion of traditional cattle ranching, the innovation of rice agriculture, and the formation of peasant cooperatives.
drinking behavior, economic status, and adaptive strategies of modernization in a highland Mexican community
Authors: DeWALT BILLIE R.
Published: November 2004

Widespread peasant drunkenness was frequently cited by local people and development agents as a prime reason for the lack of success of planned change programs in the Temascalcingo region of the Mexican central highlands. This paper compares drinking patterns in the region with other Mesoamerican communities and then documents the considerable intracultural variability in this behavior within one group of peasants. There is no support for the general contention that heavier drinkers are less likely to be modernizing their productive activities. I do find, however, that heavy drinkers are less likely to be interested in some modernization strategies (specifically animal improvement) and are more likely to be interested in others (use of tractors). Although alcohol use is not the most salient variable associated with the change process, it did contribute significantly to an understanding of sociocultural dynamics in the Temascalcingo region.
authority and change in the Indonesian bureaucracy
Authors: CONKLING ROBERT
Published: November 2004

Theories of modern complex organizations have implicitly assumed the existence of strong authority. The anthropologist, when he seeks to understand bureaucracies in the Third World, finds that the problem of authority looms large. Using case studies from Indonesia, this paper shows how contrasting patterns of operation and change stem from this difference between Western and Third World bureaucracies.