bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Female Sexuality and Growth
Authors: Jacobs Sue‐Ellen , Landgraf Susan
Published: November 2004

Carole Pateman. The Sexual Contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. xi. 264 pp. $39.00 (cloth).

Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter. Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980's. Stanford University Press, 1988. vi. 387 pp. $42.50 (cloth); $12.95 (paper).

Victoria Katherine Burbank. Aboriginal Adolescence: Maidenhood in an Australian Community, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988. xiv. 153 pp. $29.00 (cloth).
Swan Song
Authors: Krech III Shepard
Published: November 2004

Robin Ridington. Trail to Heaven: Knowledge and Narrative in. Northern Native Community. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1988. xv. 301 pp. $27.50 (cloth).
Among the Spirits Dancing
Authors: Lewis William F.
Published: November 2004

Stanley Diamond. Going West. Northampton, MA: Hermes House, 1986. 80 pp. $5.50 (paper).
Takes from Distant Fields
Authors: MPlath David W.
Published: November 2004

This article purports to braid together three lines of musings: about the permanent failures and transient successes that occur when an anthropologist, accustomed to the pace of ordinary ethnographic research, attempts to do fieldwork fast‐forward while collaborating with a documentary video crew; about the transformation of a once‐remote community in northeastern Japan into “everybody's home town,” riding on the literary coattails of the godfather of Japanese folklore studies; and P.P.O. (profound philosophical observations) about visual and verbal modes of communication and about the distinction between being and time, and being there in time.
Immortality Denied
Authors: Grindal Bruce
Published: November 2004

To the Sisala people of West Africa, immortality resides in the worship of the ancestors and in the mysterious spiritual powers adhering to the dual processes of death and rebirth. In this article, I present a piece of literary ethnography about the circumstances and life of one Sisala man who, by failing to attend his father's funeral and to go into the grave in order to hear his father's last words, dishonored his family and thereby sealed his spiritual death. It is also a story about the relationship between the ethnographer and a fellow human being and the mutual and often painful exchange ofpersonhood and value. It is about the shedding of tears.
The Evidence of Instruments
Authors: Miller Thomas Ross
Published: November 2004

Photographs and musical instruments collected by the American Museum of Natural History Congo Expedition between 1909 and 1915 reveal aspects of Mangbetu and Azande musical life in the early colonial period. They also raise questions of representation and intention. Archival documentation, when compared with modern sources, shows dynamic artistic change.
Life and Death in Saramaka
Authors: Gonzalez Nancie L.
Published: November 2004

Richard Price. Alabi's World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. xx. 444 pp. $59.00 (cloth); $18.95 (paper).

Richard Price and Sally Price. Two Evenings in Saramaka. Musical transcriptions by Kenneth M. Bilby. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1991. xvi. 417 pp. $19.95 (paper); $55.00 (cloth).
Anthropology and Literature: Diverse Perspectives
Authors: Schmidt Nancy J.
Published: November 2004

Fernando Poyatos. ed. Literary Anthropology:. New Interdisciplinary Approach to People, Signs and Literature. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1988. xxiii. 353 pp. $24.95 (paper); $87.00 (cloth).

Philip A. Dennis and Wendell Aycock eds. Literature and Anthropology. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1989. ix. 227pp. $12.95 (paper); $24.95 (cloth).

Jonathan Hall and Ackbar Abbas. eds. Literature and Anthropology. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1986. 294 pp. $15.82 (cloth).

Littérature et anthropologie. L'Homme. Special issue, 1989. 236 pp. 180FF (paper).

Littérature and anthropologie. Nouvelles du Sud. no. 4. Ivry: Editions Silex, 1986. 143 pp. 220FF (paper).
Correlations between Reduction Strategies and Settlement Patterns
Authors: Henry Donald O.
Published: November 2004

This paper describes the relationships observed between reduction sequences, distances to raw material sources, and settlement mobility. Alternative economizing measures are discussed. The traditional measure based upon a “distance decay” model is contrasted with economizing behaviors that were linked to finishing tools more completely near raw material sources and to curating blanks and tools. It is suggested that prehistoric groups selected these alternative means of economizing their use of raw material dependent upon the ultimate size contraints of the finished tools.

Both qualitative and quantitative techniques for establishing the ranges of reduction sequences are described. Data sets from Epipaleolithic sites in southern Jordan and from Late Prehistoric sites in Oklahoma are used to define relationships between settlement patterns and lithic reduction strategies.
Identifying Style in Stone Artefacts: a Case Study from the Nile Valley
Authors: Close Angela E.
Published: November 2004

This paper examines current theories of, and approaches to, style in flaked stone artefacts. In light of the simplicity of flaked stone artefacts and the more or less mixed nature of Stone Age assemblages of any size, it is concluded that, in this context, the most appropriate type of style is the subconscious variety that arises out of choices between functionally equivalent options, and that we should try to eliminate from consideration traits that represent either individual or deliberate stylistic input. For the Stone Age, style can usefully be pursued only at a fairly high level of social grouping.

A case study of stylistic analysis is provided by Late Palaeolithic assemblages from the Nile Valley. These include the large series of sites from Wadi Kubbaniya, where several Late Palaeolithic “industries,” as traditionally defined, occur within a very confined geographical area and under well controlled and well dated stratigraphic conditions.
The Rehabilitation Detectives
Authors: Miller Gale
Published: November 2004

Paul C. Higgins. The Rehabilitation Detectives 1985 Beverly Hills. CA: Sage Pub.
Dimenssion Of Work
Authors: Jacobean Claire
Published: November 2004

Richard H. Hall: Dimension Of Work 1986 Beverly Hills,Calif.: Sage Publications.
Book Reviews
Authors: Dunk Thomas , Potter George Ann , Smart Alan
Published: November 2004

Cognition and Communication at Work. Yrjö Engeström and David Middleton. eds. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Coca, Cocaine and the Bolivian Reality. Madeline Barbara Leons and Harry Sanabria. eds. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Cowboys and Cultivators: The Chinese of Inner Mongolia. Pasternak, Burton and Janet W. Salaff. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993.
Book Reviews
Authors: Glick Paula Brown , Toth James , Smart Alan , Gamst Frederick C. , Paul Durrenberger E.
Published: November 2004

They Make Themselves: Work and Play among the Baining of Papua New Guinea. Jane Fajans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1997

Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual, and Warfare in Papua New Guinea. Polly Wiessner and Akii Tumu. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press,1998.

Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. Valentine M. Moghadam. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers,1993. [Women and Change in the Developing World Series, Mary Moran, ed.]

Gender and the South China Miracle. Ching Kwan Lee. Berkeley: University of California Press,1998.

On Hobos and Homelessness. Nels Anderson (Raffaele Rauty, ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1998.

Oyster Wars and the Public Trust: Property, Law, and Ecology in New Jersey. Bonnie McCay. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998.
Book Reviews
Authors: Tulley Stephen E. , Durrenberger E. Paul , Applebaum Mika
Published: November 2004

Economics: The Culture of a Controversial Science. Melvin W. Reder. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Labor Pains: Inside America's New Union Movement. Suzan Erem. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001.

Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America. Joel S. Savishinsky. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Visual Reviews
Authors: Chibnik Michael
Published: November 2004

Changing Works: Visions of a Lost Agriculture. Douglas Harper. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Where Have All the Children Cone? The Crisis in Rural Communities. Lisa Hardmeyer Gray, producer. 55 min. New York: Filmakers Library, 1998.
Class Warfare in the United States, Part 1
Authors: Paul Durrenberger E.
Published: November 2004

Immigration and American Unionism. Vernon M Briggs, Jr. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.

The Shadow Welfare State: Labor, Business, and the Politics of Health Care in the United States. Marie Gottschalk. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Night Comes to the Chromosomes: Inbreeding and Population Genetics in Southern Appalachia
Authors: Tincher Robert B.
Published: November 2004

Assimptions about the prevalence of inbreeding in Appalachia have long been used to account for certain characteristics of the mountain people and their culture. Such premises continue to be accepted as valid explanations even though little quantitative evidence has ever been presented on the subject. Inbreeding has become part of the popular stereotyped image of Appalachia, and has even been used to imply that mountain people are inherently to blame for their disadvantage! political and economic situation. This article presents a less speculative view of consanguineous marriage in Appalachia, based on the author's fieldwork, in which rates of isonymy (marriage between persons with the same surname) were used to estimate levels of inbreeding in a remote four‐county area of Eastern Kentucky over a 140‐year time period. The findings, along with data from previous studies of marriage patterns in mountain communities, suggest that inbreeding levels in Appalachia do not seem extreme enough to justify labeling inbreeding as unique or particularly common to the region, when compared with those reported for populations elsewhere or at earlier periods in American history.
Extended Families and the Control of Hypertension in Central Mississippi
Authors: Greenberg Adolph M. , Frate Dennis A. , Johnson Sidney A. , Shimkin Demitri B.
Published: November 2004

In order to evaluate the beneficial support functions of multigenerational extended families, a research and demonstration effort was developed to focus on the management of a chronic disease, hypertension. Conducted in central Mississippi, high blood pressure management self‐help groups were established in 4 white and 9 black extended families. An influential member of each family was trained to monitor the blood pressures of all family hypertensives and a self‐help group of related hypertensives formed. An 18‐month formative evaluation showed that 90% of hypertensives participating in the family‐based self‐help groups achieved a controlled blood pressure.
Fitting In: Newcomer Adaptation in a Corporate Research Setting
Authors: Briody Elizabeth K.
Published: November 2004

This ethnographic study of a corporate research department expands our understanding of the difficulties encountered by new employees in learning the cultural rules of the workplace. Particular attention is focused on the process by which newcomers become affiliated with their initial projects. The results suggest that newcomers tend to identify with other employees on the basis of job classification, gender, age, and tenure in the department. Such information is useful in sensitizing all individuals in a given organizational setting to the culturally relevant learning which newcomers must acquire and in providing criteria for the re‐evaluation of existing newcomer orientation programs.
The Role of Bioanthropology in the Infant Formula Industry: Dietary Iron Status of American Infants
Authors: Ryan Alan S.
Published: November 2004

Bioanthropological methods and quantitative skills provided the tools needed to design and implement a large‐scale national survey of infant food consumption and dietary status. This article considers dietary iron intake of 847 American infants ranging in age from 6.5 months to 13.4 months. Iron intake was evaluated according to demographic characteristics and for different foods (cow's milk, iron‐fortified formula, non‐ironfortified formula, infant ceral, commercial baby food, and homeprepared table food) . Results indicated that, across all demographic characteristics considered, a large proportion of infants who were fed a diet that included either cow's milk or non‐iron‐fortified formula received amounts of iron below the RDA. In contrast, infants who were fed a diet that contained an ironfortified formula had median intakes of iron above the RDA. The results also underscore the importance of the WIC program (Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children) in meeting the iron needs of high‐risk infants. The implications of low iron intake during infancy are considered in relation to aspects of growth and development.
Technological Change as a Social Process: A Case Study of Office Automation in a Manufacturing Plant
Authors: Howard Robert , Schneider Leslie
Published: November 2004

As new computer technology moves into more and more workplaces, the study of its potential impacts on workers and their work is becoming increasingly common. However, such research is often weakened by a too‐narrow conception of technology and technological change as primarily a technical issue. In fact, it is impossible to abstract the “impacts” of technology from the dense web of social relations and the complex milieu surrounding technology's design and use.

this article describes a different approach to studying technological change as a social and cultural process. Using ethnographic principles and methods, it reports on the key social and organizational issues surrounding the implementation of a complex computer system at a small manufacturing plant. It also argues that this ethnographic approach has special promise for helping work organizations analyze and understand their experiences with technological change.
Cultural Authenticity as Entropic Metanarrative: A Case from Ryukyuan Studies
Authors: Ota Yoshinobu
Published: November 2004

In examining an history of ethnographic investigations of the Ryukyus, a long chain of islands south of Japan, this paper proposes to identify a process by which the Ryukyuan culture is constructed as the authentic, exotic Other, a process to which not only Japanese ethnographers and folklorists but also Western anthropologists have actively contributed. The search for authentic culture in the Ryukyus, prima facie a theoretical as well as empirical issue, cannot be separated from social and political contexts in which such a search has taken place. This paper analyzes a system of signification that not only defines but also formulates the authentic Ryukyus as an object of study and that excludes as a consequence the “emergent Ryukyus,” which reflects the creative, reinventive efforts of the current Ryukyuan people.
Transsexuals and Caretakers Power and Deceit in Intergroup Relations
Authors: Bolin Anne
Published: November 2004

Persons Seeking Sex Change Surgery are enmeshed in medically required relations with sets of caretakers, medical specialists, and mental health professionals. A heterogeneous group of individuals at the outset, transsexuals are molded by the system to conform with a stereotype expressed as a category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Ethnographic Participant‐observation and interviewing provide insight into this whole process that may have much broader implications, [gender, transsexual, stereotype, intergroup relations, diagnostic category]
Men's Heterosexual Fear Due to Reciprocal Inhibition
Authors: KITAHARA MICHIO
Published: November 2004

A model of men's heterosexual fear is presented by using Carol Ember's cross‐cultural data. Unlike Ember's model of a psychoanalytic causal chain, in this model men's heterosexual fear is mostly explained directly by both food shortage and mother‐child sleeping arrangements in terms of reciprocal inhibition and reinforcement as conceived within the framework of behavior therapy. The two models are examined by path analysis, and this model shows a significantly better agreement with the data than Ember's model.
A Holo‐Cultural Study of Humor
Authors: ALFORD FINNEGAN , ALFORD RICHARD
Published: November 2004

“Easy, easy,” says the Tiv youth at his circumcision ceremony, “many women will weep if you err.”
Metaphors for Embarrassment and Stories of Exposure: The Not‐So‐Egocentric Self in American Culture
Authors: HOLLAND DOROTHY , KIPNIS ANDREW
Published: November 2004

C'est l'idee de “personne,” l'idee du “moi.” Tout le monde la trouve naturelle, precise au fond de sa conscience, toute equipee au fond de la morale qui s'en deduit.[Mauss 1938:263]
Does "Class Count" in Abanilla? The salience of silence in a local reconfiguration of class
Authors: Vicencio Claudia
Published: November 2004

The absence of neat class divisions, and particularly the presence of a growing middle class, (as well as questions about the state regulation of social life which will not be addressed here), force us to abandon an old‐fashioned adherence notions of class struggle which associate definite forms of social consciousness with hostile camps. However, if we approach as something defined by experience and shaped by history, that is. as something arising from and giving rise to distinct modes life, interests, and local culture for workers, then we can usefully enquire into people's interpretations of their daily lives and experiences as being (or not being) class‐based. This paper describes the historically contingent reconfiguration of social relations in the town of Abanilla. Spain in the southeastern region of Murcia. It is based entirely on my own observations, drawing on life history interviews I collected in June 1999.1 am grateful to the session organizers for the opportunity to present this work in progress, and to Tony Gait for his comments.
Cosmopolitanism and Business among German‐Turks in Berlin
Authors: Pécoud Antoine
Published: November 2004

This paper investigates the cultural dimension of immigrant entrepreneurship in the case of Berlin's Turkish economy. This investigation is needed because cultural explanations of business have been criticised for their deterministic and reified conception of culture. As a result, models explaining immigrant economies are now mostly socioeconomic and ignore culture. After a description of recent changes in German‐Turks entrepreneurial activities and an ethnographic description of two German‐Turkish businesses in Berlin, the paper argues that the implications in terms of culture and identity of self‐employment can be fruitfully analysed with the concepts of hybridity and cosmopolitanism. Finally, a broader perspective is proposed that establishes a link between foreigners, trade and culture in order to enlarge our understanding of cosmopolitanism.
EVIL EYE OR DELUSIONS
Authors: Migliore Sam
Published: November 2004

Sam Migliore is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L9, having received both his baccalureate and master's degree at that same institution. His MA thesis was entitled, “Mal'uocchiu: The Sicilian‐Canadian Evil Eye Complex,” and was completed in 1981. Mr. Migliore's main interests are in medical anthropology, urban, studies, and ethnic group studies. More specifically, he is interested in folk illnesses and traditional healing among urban ethnic groups. He is currently conducting his doctoral dissertation fieldwork among Sicilian Canadians in southern Ontario, on a project that focuses on medical decision making.
A Longitudinal Study of Ethnicity and Disease Incidence
Authors: Palinkas Lawrence A.
Published: November 2004

Ethnic differences in the distribution of disease and injury have been attributed to a constellation of genetic, social, and cultural factors associated with ethnicity. In this paper I describe the results of a prospective study of ethnic group differences in rates of first hospitalization for all diseases and injuries among a cohort of U.S. Navy men who enlisted in 1974 and were followed for a six‐year period. Eight groups were defined on the basis of the self‐designated ethnic identity of each cohort member. Incidence rates were derived from all first hospitalizations during the follow‐up period and then grouped into 16 ICDA‐8 diagnostic categories. Results indicated that ethnic groups were not uniformly at risk for first hospitalizations in all disease categories, even when social environment, socioeconomic status, and access to medical care were held constant, and that the relationship between ethnicity and disease incidence differed with respect to each diagnostic category.
Kyasanur Forest Disease: An Ethnography of a Disease of Development
Authors: Nichter Mark
Published: November 2004

Kyasanur forest disease (KFD) is an example of a disease of development associated with deforestation in South India. This ethnographic account discusses the ways in which this unfamiliar debilitating disease was interpreted by South Kanarese villagers during an epidemic outbreak. Attention is focused on social and historical dimensions of emergent explanatory models. Highlighted is the manner in which physical aspects of the disease served as natural symbols for its social construction. Also noted is the metonymic relationship of body and land that underscored explanations linking the duties of feudal kings to the well‐being of their kingdoms at a time following land reform and the division of estates. Beyond a consideration of co‐extensive ideas of etiology, health‐care decision making during the KFD epidemic is explored.
Looking Backward: An Autocritique
Authors: Alland Alexander
Published: November 2004

A retrospective and critical review of my own work in medical anthropology, I examine here what I now believe are the strengths and weaknesses of an ecological approach to the discipline. Although of major importance, the etic view embodied in the ecological perspective is not sufficient for a full understanding of cultural and biological adaptations to disease. Medical anthropology should remain true to its roots in the mother discipline by continuing to investigate the combined effects of biology and culture on human behavior.
Unpacking the Demoralization Thesis
Authors: Young Allan
Published: November 2004

American psychotherapies use a variety of explanations for their practices. From an anthropologist's point of view, one of the most sophisticated of these explanations is the demoralization thesis proposed by the psychiatrist Jerome Frank. Frank's thesis is that (1) no psychotherapy has been shown to be more efficacious than any other psychotherapy, and (2) claims about the special efficacy and validity of particular traditions and techniques are equivalent to myths. Because the demoralization thesis appears to be making radical claims, it seems paradoxical that it also enjoys a favored position in psychiatric discourse. This article unpacks the thesis and finds that, appearances notwithstanding, its implications are consistent with the cultural particularisms of the eclectic mainstream of contemporary psychiatry.
Physician Impairment: Social Origins of a Medical Concern
Authors: Johnson Thomas M.
Published: November 2004

Physicians, for at least most of the 20th century, appear to have been especially vulnerable to suicide, depression, substance abuse, and marital discord. Yet concern with so‐called “physician impairment,” as revealed by the extent to which such problems have been discussed openly in the medical literature, has dramatically increased in the last 20 years. This growing concern about problems among physicians has been depicted by some within the medical profession as the result of increased compassion for colleagues and concern for the quality of patient care. But it also reflects major structural and ideological shifts in American society, including post‐Vietnam war anomie and the 1960s “drug scene,” the human potential movement of the 1970s, and the dramatic social transformation of American medicine in the 1980s.
A Diphtheria Epidemic in a Religious Sect: An Anthropological Assessment of a Public Health Intervention
Authors: Princeton Joy C.
Published: November 2004

In this report I evaluate the outcome of an educational program initiated by public health officials and targeted at members of a small religious sect. The program focused specifically on teaching sect members scientific facts about diphtheria and other communicable diseases. The sect does not believe in immunizations or other medical interventions, and health officials assumed that members would accept medical care for diphtheria if they understood communicable diseases from a scientific perspective. The research revealed that although members who attended educational sessions had more scientific knowledge about communicable diseases than did members who did not attend the classes, none of them intended to change religiously based beliefs or behaviors about diphtheria either now or in the future.
From Accident to Crash: The Auto Industry and the Politics of Injury
Authors: MacLennan Carol A.
Published: November 2004

In many instances, the politics of public health is directly related to the problem of state power. This is especially true for automobile injuries and the 64‐year history of the effort to reduce their number in the United States. This article looks at the continual redefinition of the automotive injury problem through these phases: (1) 1920–60, when the automobile manufacturers controlled prevention programs that defined the driver as the cause of accidents, (2) 1960–79, when federal regulations targeted vehicle technology as the best source of prevention strategies, and (3) 1979 to the present, when, during the Reagan years, the framework shifted toward defining health and injury prevention as economic commodities. Throughout this history the dominance of a market ideology in U.S. political culture has largely defined both the character of public health programs to reduce injuries and the capacity of the state to curtail industrial power to design hazardous technologies.
Childbirth Education and Childbirth Models: Parental Perspectives on Control, Anesthesia, and Technological Intervention in the Birth Process
Authors: Sargent Carolyn , Stark Nancy
Published: November 2004

Childbirth education classes represent a formal means of information transmission to prospective parents regarding the birth process. Assessment of the impact of medical messages communicated in two sets of childbirth classes suggests that the structure and orientation of the class affected the particular messages conveyed. Hospital‐based classes familiarized prospective patients with hospital procedures, while private classes encouraged self‐advocacy and parental participation. Yet childbirth classes were found to influence women's reactions to delivery less than preexisting beliefs, values, and expectations derived from people in their personal networks. Discussions regarding pain and anesthesia most clearly revealed kin and friends to be the main sources of influence on these matters. In contrast to feminist models of birth that advocate parental control of decision making and limited technological intervention, the overriding goal during delivery of the Dallas women we interviewed was to remain alert yet pain free.
Varying Biosocial Correlates of Asthma and Wheezy Bronchitis
Authors: Kaplan Bernice A. , Mascie‐Taylor C. G. N.
Published: November 2004

The British National Child Development Study has followed everyone born in one week in 1958 in England, Wales, and Scotland at varying intervals since birth. Examination of the data from this study has permitted analysis of differences between those diagnosed with wheezy bronchitis and those with asthma at ages 7 and 11. Among the 15,398 individuals at age 7 and the 15,303 at age 11, 446 (449 at 11) had asthma and 2,488 (1,194 at 11) had wheezy bronchitis. There are striking differences in parental social status, occupation, education, housing, family size, birth order, and geographic distribution between the asthmatics and the wheezy bronchitics. There are also differences in reasons given for long school absences among children in the two diagnostic categories. By 1969 the disease classification had begun to change, and by 1974 the category of wheezy bronchitis was no longer in use. We examine some of the possible societal reasons for the change in classification.
“Political Will” and Community Participation in Costa Rican Primary Health Care
Authors: Morgan Lynn M.
Published: November 2004

This article criticizes the concept of “political will” by analyzing Costa Rica's experience with community participation in health between 1973 and 1985. Despite a long‐standing state commitment to social welfare programs, Costa Rica has been unable to achieve active, sustained participation in the government's rural health programs, partly because of partisan conflicts over implementation. It is unlikely that “political will” can succeed in countries where the state's commitment to social welfare is less obvious than in stable, democratic Costa Rica. This article identifies three problems with the concept of “political will”: (1) by focusing on individual countries, it shifts attention from the international health agencies that so often determine poor countries' health policies; (2) it implies that states are monolithic entities, comprised of unified coalitions, rather than competing groups involved in a constant struggle over policy; and (3) it diverts the analytic gaze from global inequalities and relations of international dependency that contribute to poverty and ill health. Rather than blaming poor countries for their supposed “lack of political will,” international health organizations should examine what factors led them to rescind their commitment to community participation in health.
Consensus and Coercion: Primary Health Care and the Guatemalan State
Authors: Green Linda Buckley
Published: November 2004

During the 1970s international and bilateral development agencies actively began promoting and financing comprehensive primary health care (PHC) programs in underdeveloped countries. The stated goal of these activities was to provide rural peoples with a modicum of basic health services, and access to health care did increase as a consequence of the PHC effort. However, this article examines the relationship between capitalist development processes, the state, and the peasantry in Guatemala in order to demonstrate another consequence of PHC interventions: that they ultimately operated as an inherent part of this relationship and bolstered legitimacy for the existing social and economic order. Although the delicate balance between the state's need to garner consensus and its potential for resorting to coercion to establish its legitimacy is clearly highlighted in an extreme example like Guatemala, the same relationship between processes of capitalist accumulation and social legitimation pertains to other settings.
Applied Collaborative Biomedical Anthropology in a State Health Department Setting
Authors: Olsen Carolyn L.
Published: November 2004

State health departments offer a diversity of collaborative research opportunities for biological anthropologists. This article discusses some of the issues one may confront in conducting collaborative biomedical research in this kind of setting, drawing on my experiences in the New York State Department of Health. Unlike an academic setting, the choice of a research topic is likely to depend upon the bureau in which one works and not solely on one's interests or prior specialty in biological anthropology. Though findings may not be publishable in anthropological journals, one can contribute to the literature of other disciplines. It is relatively easy to find collaborators from other disciplines, both inside and outside the health department, and collaboration has significantly broadened my knowledge.
The Cultural Construction of AIDS and Its Consequences for Prevention in Botswana
Authors: Ingstad Benedicte
Published: November 2004

In this article I describe how traditional Tswana healers perceive AIDS and classify it as either a “Tswana disease” or a “modern disease.” I also discuss the consequences that these categorizations may have for preventing the spread of HIV, as well as the possible role that healers can play in this important effort.
Glucose Level, Acculturation, and Glycosylated Hemoglobin: An Example of Biocultural Interaction
Authors: Szathmary Emöke J. E. , Ferrell R. E.
Published: November 2004

Abnormal elevation of the 1c variety of normal hemoglobin A (%HbA1c) is used by clinicians to diagnose diabetes. As a measure of long‐term glucose status, %HbA1c may also be employed to indicate differences in mean glucose levels between populations. In a longitudinal study of the etiology of noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) in Amerindians, Dogrib adults living in several settlements in the Canadian Northwest Territories underwent oral glucose challenge. From the fasting blood samples, %HbA1c was determined to assess its utility in identifying diabetics and to determine the factors that influence its variation, as these may also be involved in the onset of NIDDM.

The mean %HbA1c in the Dogrib sample is 4.73 ± .49. The upper 95% confidence limit is 5.68%, and values exceeding this level are abnormal. The disease sensitivity of this criterion is only 16%. Nevertheless, %HbA1c is correlated with fasting and hour‐2 glucose levels and is higher both in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance and in probable diabetics. The low level of % HbA1c in the Dogrib is the likely result of low carbohydrate intakes, given their continuing dependence on caribou hunting and fishing.

%HbA1c level is influenced by log fasting triglyceride (LFT), age, and village of residence. %HbA1c is higher in the main Dogrib village than in the semi‐isolated settlements, even after %HbA1c is adjusted for LFT and age, and any one of caloric or carbohydrate intake, physical activity, and diabetic status. The difference in %HbA1c level parallels known differences between communities in acculturation‐influenced phenomena, including the direction of dietary shifts.
A Systematic Approach for Using Qualitative Methods in Primary Prevention Research
Authors: Willms Dennis G. , Best J. Allan , Taylor D. Wayne , Gilbert J. Raymond , Wilson Douglas M. C. , Lindsay Elizabeth A. , Singer Joel
Published: November 2004

In this article we delineate a systematic approachfor incorporating qualitative methods in research on primary prevention. Using examples from our studies of both smoking and cessation processes, we describe our procedure in four consecutive stages: (]) interviews and fieldnotes, (2) case studies or life histories, (3) discourse and content analyses to identify emergent issues and themes which are subsequently standardized as codes, and (4) the interpretation of sociocultural patterns and idioms of bodily experience. The relevance of qualitative methods in primary preventive medicine is discussed with examples from our own research on smoking. We argue that this form of basic research is an essential precursor to culturally effective interventions in clinical as well as community settings.
“Psychic Surgery”: Close Observation of a Popular Healing Practice
Authors: Singer Philip
Published: November 2004

Philippine “psychic surgeons” are reputed to “enter” the body bare‐handedly, remove blood, tissue, and/or organs, then “close” the body, leaving no wound. In this article I report on a relatively controlled demonstration of psychic surgery held at Oakland University in September 1986. Observers included a professional magician and a pathologist. Analysis of videotapes made during the proceedings shows how a persuasive sleight‐of‐hand performance was achieved. Furthermore, none of the tissue or blood specimens supposedly removed during the procedure matched those of subjects. I conclude by discussing some of the forces that have contributed to the popularization of these healers.
Seal Blood, Inuit Blood, and Diet: A Biocultural Model of Physiology and Cultural Identity
Authors: Borré Kristen
Published: November 2004

Inuit models of nutrition constitute an integral part of Inuit cultural identity and influence diet selection. Interviews were conducted among five elders, the adults of three extended families (illagiit), and two other individuals to develop a model of food ingestion and health. The focus of the model is the special relationship between seals and Inuit. The cultural model has four linked components which provide an explanation of why Inuit select the foods they do. Inuit nutritional knowledge, as expressed in the cultural model, complements current scientific nutritional knowledge and can be shown to influence individual behavior under certain circumstances. Cultural models are shown to be useful for articulating the relationship between culture and individual health behaviors, such as diet selection.
Becoming a Possession‐Medium in South India: A Psychocultural Account
Authors: Nuckolls Charles W.
Published: November 2004

Possession‐mediumship, the expected possession of a specialist by a spirit for the purpose of soliciting knowledge and assistance, is a form of divination which occupies an important place in the ethnomedical traditions of village South Asia. This article examines the institution and practitioners of possession‐mediumship in the vicinity of a Jalari (Telugu fishing caste) village in coastal southeastern India. The practitioners include two Jalari women and two non‐Jalari men. All four practice on behalf of Jalari patients. Although they employ similar diagnostic repertoires and mediumistic techniques, they vary considerably in their recruitment to and experience of possession‐mediumship. Following a description of divinatory practices, the analysis focuses on ambivalence in the motherson relationship, arguing that, in some circumstances, its resolution may encourage development as a possession‐medium.
Gender Politics in the Distribution of Therapeutic Herbal Knowledge
Authors: Browner C. H.
Published: November 2004

Data on the distribution of knowledge about medicinal plants in an indigenous Mexican community challenge several assumptions at the heart of medical anthropology concerning the distribution of therapeutic herbal knowledge. Contrary to expectation, many men in the community were knowledgeable about medicines for managing reproduction and women's reproductive health problems, and men more acculturated to the national society were particularly likely to know about plants containing chemicals that contribute toward their purported effects. Also contrary to expectation was the fact that older people were no more likely than younger ones to be knowledgeable about herbal remedies for reproductive health. Nor was prior illness experience necessarily associated with increased therapeutic herbal knowledge. Furthermore, although women who were socially integrated controlled more therapeutic herbal knowledge than those who were more isolated, the same was not true of men. These findings not only demonstrate the value of taking the gender‐based distribution of power into account in analyses of intracultural variation, but they also raise questions about theories currently used to explain intracultural variation.
Some Old Questions for the New Cross‐Cultural Psychiatry
Authors: Hopper Kim
Published: November 2004

The WHO cross‐cultural studies of schizophrenia exemplify both the achievements and the pitfalls of large‐scale psychiatric epidemiology. Their logistical and technical advances have been justly celebrated; the consistent—and unexpected—finding of better outcome in the developing than in the developed world continues to vex analysts. At the same time, anthropological critics have not been shy about pointing up the limitations and blind spots of such research. Criticisms range from charges of ethnocentrism and category errors in the psychiatric research enterprise itself especially the inapplicability of its disease taxonomy to some non‐Western cultures, to translation difficulties, the suspect and “thin” quality of questionnaire‐generated accounts of illness, disregard for variant understandings of the “self,” and the naïveté of treating culture as a set of variables. Not all of these objections, I argue, are well‐founded; some more properly reflect persisting instabilities in anthropological theory. This critical commentary all but ignores the striking epidemiological findings in the West that dispute the received wisdom of chronicity as the natural trajectory of schizophrenia. A natural alliance awaits realization between clinicians—newly alerted to ill‐understood factors affecting course and outcome—and fieldworkers—bent on close ethnographic analysis of the configurations and roles of beliefs, work, kin‐based support, the uses of public space, and “the natives”‘ own understanding of what ails them.
Determinants of a 20th‐century Population Explosion in the Malinche Region of Tlaxcala, Mexico
Authors: Robichaux David Luke
Published: November 2004

This article considers the effects of economic factors on changing fertility rates, with special attention to a decline in the age at marriage. The analysis of field, archival, and census data from Acxotla del Monte in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala focuses on two comparisons: (1) a comparison of 1929 with 1976 censuses; and (2) a comparison of ages of women at first birth in the periods 1959 to 1965 and 1970 to 1976. These data show a decrease in the age at marriage coinciding with increased wage labor. This, in turn, is linked to a breakdown in the domestic group as the unit of economic production. A decline in the age at marriage has also been reported for England during the Industrial Revolution. Industrialization has probably had a similar effect on many rural communities in Mexico, as well as in other developing countries, and should be considered, along with improved health care and declining infant mortality rates, in explaining Mexico's recently burgeoning population growth.
Psychotropic Drugs and Concepts of Compliance in a Rural Mental Health Clinic
Authors: Kaljee Linda M. , Beardsley Robert
Published: November 2004

The medically defined concept of “compliance” indicates a unidimensional interest: whether patients use physician prescribed treatments for a disease as diagnosed by a physician. This article presents findings from a pilot research project conducted at a rural mental health clinic in the Mid‐Atlantic region of the United States. The research was aimed at understanding chronically mentally inpatients' knowledge and uses of prescribed psychotropic drugs. Patients' experiences with and meanings assigned to their illnesses and biomedical treatments are presented in the context of their perceptions of control over their treatments and over their social and economic life and within the context of their health‐seeking processes and health goals.
A Matter of FACS: Constituting Novel Entities in Immunology
Authors: Cambrosio Alberto , Keating Peter
Published: November 2004

This article contributes to the development of an anthropology of biomedicine that takes as its subject matter the content of biomedical knowledge and practices. It offers an ethnographic account of the establishment of the international classification of white blood cells, known as the “CD nomenclature,” and goes beyond the assertion that biomedical knowledge is “socially constructed,” providing a fine‐textured analysis of how, in this specific case, knowledge was constituted. The CD nomenclature found its way into newspapers and daily medical practice mainly through the involvement of the CD4 subclass of lymphocytes (white blood cells) in AIDS definition and diagnosis. The establishment of the CD nomenclature is thus part of the recent movement of immunology to the center stage of the biomedical sciences. This study analyzes the articulation of the elements (institutions, tools, concepts) that made the classification possible. By focusing on the material practices of immunologists, the analysis shows that the present‐day classification of lymphocytes has as its precondition the constitution of a network for the establishment of identities between immunological reagents produced by different laboratories. Furthermore, it is argued that the standards by which identities are established are inseparable from the entities (lymphocyte subsets) that are classified. Finally, it is claimed that an ethnography of the practices by which such a network comes into being provides an adequate analysis of the constitution of knowledge, specifically, of scientific information about the entities known as lymphocyte subsets.
The Emergence of an Urban U.S. Chinese Medicine
Authors: Hare Martha L.
Published: November 2004

Fieldwork conducted among a diverse sample of non‐Asian patients of Chinese medicine in New York City during 1989 and 1990 showed that they are formulating models of health, illness, and healing based mainly upon their own bodily experience with therapy. They view the Chinese medical therapy that they receive as holistic, in contrast to the fragmentary nature of biomedicine. While some practitioners who were interviewed also spoke of personal encounters with the healing mechanisms of this non‐Western form of treatment, the models of both Asians and non‐Asians in this second category tended to focus upon Confucian or Taoist ideals of order and responsibility. It is hypothesized that, while certainly affected by socioeconomic and political exigencies, an urban U.S. variant of Chinese medicine may be emerging from the ground up; that is, from the consumers and therapists who are most intimately involved with the system.
HIV‐Related Risk Practices among Glasgow Male Prostitutes: Refraining Concepts of Risk Behavior
Authors: Bloor Michael J. , Barnard Marina A. , Finlay Andrew , McKeganey Neil P.
Published: November 2004

Based on ethnographic data on relations between 32 male prostitutes and their clients, this article examines variability in HIV‐related risk practices. It is argued that risk behavior should be seen as a situated product, emergent from the immediate situation of the sexual encounter. A minority of the prostitutes engaged in unsafe sex with at least some of their clients. Unsafe sex and violence were both associated with client control—with sexual encounters of such covertness and ambiguity that the client was allowed maximum discretion to decide terms and conditions. Safer sex was associated with countervailing prostitute techniques of power. This situated view of risk behavior sits unhappily with conventional psychosocial and sociocultural models of risk behavior. An alternative heuristic framework, based on Schutz's (1970) work on “systems of relevance,” is suggested.
The Medicalization of Homelessness and the Theater of Repression
Authors: Mathieu Arline
Published: November 2004

As a result of changes in the economy and attendant government policy decisions, the United States is experiencing a crisis in homelessness unprecedented since the Great Depression. While some homeless people are mentally disabled, the majority are not—they are homeless because they lack sufficiently well‐paying jobs and because of a lack of adequate, affordable housing. This article examines how, during the 1980s, the New York City government publicly and politically linked homelessness with mental illness, a linkage frequently reinforced by the press. This medicalization was used to divert attention from the socioeconomic roots of the problem and to justify the removal of homeless people from public spaces. The author examines changes in government policies and responses of activists, the public, and the press in several different phases over the decade.