bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ecological Generalization and Structural Transformation of Sociocultural Systems1
Authors: SEGRAVES B. ABBOTT
Published: November 2004

In recent years, refinements and extensions of the theory of sociocultural evolution have not developed at a pace consistent with the theory's potential. It is suggested that the abatement in theory generating activity is due in part to a lack of clarity in the statement of certain fundamental ideas in the now classic Evolution and Culture, edited by Sahlins and Service (1960). The present essay attempts to improve upon their contribution by the clarification, modification, and extension of some aspects of the general theory of sociocultural evolution. The result is a series of theoretical propositions which give rigorous expression to many of the central ideas in the theory and underlines the predictive power of the concept of ecological generalization. The primary implication of this paper is that further development of the theory of sociocultural evolution is likely to proceed only if a greater degree of clarity in definition and increased rigor in the explicit statement of theoretical propositions is adopted as a mode of communication among theoreticians.
The Anthropology of Authenticity: Everyman His Own Anthropologist
Authors: Kaplan David
Published: November 2004

Anthropology, the contributors to the recent volume Reinventing Anthropology tell us, is suffering from severe hardening of the intellectual arteries. In order for it to be revitalized, they say, the discipline must be de‐professionalized and de‐institutionalized, made more personal and existential. This involves a rejection of the pose of “objectivity” and “value‐free” inquiry and an open admission of the inherently ideological nature of the discipline. In a word, anthropology will have to become politically and morally partisan. This essay explores some of the implications of the recommendations made by the reinventors of anthropology. The stance taken in Reinventing Anthropology, this paper contends, would not only undermine anthropology as a systematic field of inquiry but would also negate whatever “relevance” the discipline might have to the contemporary world.
Population, Exchange, and Early State Formation in Southwestern Iran
Authors: WRIGHT HENRY T. , JOHNSON GREGORY A.
Published: November 2004

Several widely discussed single‐variable explanations of the origin of the state are tested using data from Southwestern Iran. These data demonstrate that increasing population or increasing inter‐regional trade alone cannot explain the appearance of specialized governments during the fourth millennium B.C. More complex types of explanation are suggested, and methods for testing them are outlined.
On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes1
Authors: COWGILL GEORGE L.
Published: November 2004

Population growth is not an automatic tendency of either ancient or contemporary agrarian societies. It is not an autonomous “prime mover” which accounts for developmental episodes. Even when population problems occur it is wrong to assume that they will generally stimulate developmental innovations. Development is more apt to be stimulated by more effective demand and perceptions of new possibilities. Stresses due to shortages may actually reduce effective demand and inhibit development. Better approaches for understanding development are suggested.
Studies in Child Language: An Anthropological View1
Authors: BLOUNT BEN G.
Published: November 2004

A First Language: The Early Stages. ROGER BROWN

Language Acquisition and Communicative Choice. SUSAN ERVIN‐TRIPP.

Studies of Child Language Development. CHARLES FERGUSON and DAN I. SLOBIN

Language Acquisition: Models and Methods. RENIRA HUXLEY and ELISABETH INGRAM, eds.

The Psychosociology of Language. SERGE MOSCOVICI, ed.

Langageet développement mental. PIERRE ORéRUN.
Academic Opportunity in Anthropology, 1975‐901
Authors: D'ANDRADE R. G. , HAMMEL E. A. , ADKINS D. L. , McDANIEL C. K.
Published: November 2004

Since 1960 there has been a steady decline in the number of children born each year in the United States. As a result, the number of eighteen‐ to twenty‐one‐year‐old adults will decline from approximately seventeen million in 1980 to fourteen million in 1990. Even with an increasing percentage of college entrances, there will still be a large decrease in the college student population. New faculty will not be required, and even “growth” disciplines such as anthropology will suffer severely from the lack of available academic positions for new Ph.D. 's. Anthropology, which has had a rapid increase in the number of Ph.D.'s awarded yearly, will even by the most optimistic projections be unable to accommodate the large majority of new Ph.D.'s after 1982 in college or university positions. It appears most likely that the Ph.D.'s who are not able to find academic positions will be able to find employment in administrative and staff positions.
The Concept of Carrying Capacity for Systems of Shifting Cultivation1
Authors: BRUSH STEPHEN B.
Published: November 2004

The concept of carrying capacity is related to homeostatic regulation as part of the “new ecology” paradigm. Formulas designed to measure the man‐land balance of tropical horticulturalists reveal two problem areas. Theoretically, the relationship between homeostasis, change, and evolution remains indefinite. Methodologically, there are substantial difficulties in defining cultural and environmental components of the formula and in obtaining diachronic data to test the concept.
Status and Exchange in the Profession of Anthropology
Authors: HURLBERT BEVERLEY MCELLIGOTT
Published: November 2004

This is a study of the distribution of Ph.D.s in anthropology who obtained their degrees from and who are teaching in Ph.D.‐granting departments in the United States and Canada. 1358 graduates of 80 departments are considered. A quantitative method of ranking departments, based upon exchange theory principles, is applied to this universe and its results compared to the results of a qualitative ranking carried out by the American Council of Education (A.C.E.) based upon personal evaluation of departments by anthropologists themselves. An elite is designated and the degree to which that elite dominates the academic profession is expressed in terms of the distribution of its graduates as faculty of elite schools, other Ph.D.‐granting schools, and non‐Ph.D.‐granting schools as compared with the distribution of nonelite graduates among those same faculties. A suggestion is made concerning the social structure of the academic profession of anthropology based on the results of the study.
The Precultural Basis of the Incest Taboo: Toward a Biosocial Theory
Authors: PARKER SEYMOUR
Published: November 2004

The literature on the origins of the incest taboo is characterized by controversy over the nature/nurture issue, and fears of reductionism. In recent years work emanating from such diverse disciplines as cultuml and physical anthropology, ethology, and neuropsychology warmnts a new look at this intriguing issue. It is probable that incest avoidance is widespread among the vertebrata and is “built into the wiring.” As learned behavior becomes more important phylogenetically, curiosity and exploration plays a larger role in adaptation and has manifest survival admntages. Incest awidance functions as a mechanism to propel the individual into new relationships and “social territory.” For humans, incest avoidance and its later elaboration into a cultuml taboo serve to motivate exploration of and attachment to a wider social nexus than the family. It also prevents fixation at a relatively undifferentiated psychological stage of development
The State of Nonverbal Communication as a Field of Inquiry
Authors: Braroe Niels Winther
Published: November 2004

Nonverbal Communication: Readings with Commentary. Shirley Weitz, ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1974. x + 351 pp. $10.00 (cloth), $4.95 (paper).

A World of Strangers: Order and Action in Urban Public Space. Lyn H. Lofland. New York: Basic Books, 1973. xvi + 223 pp. $9.50 (cloth).

Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Erving Goffman. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. lx + 586 pp. $12.50 (cloth).
The Role of Exchange in Productive Specialization
Authors: BATES DANIEL G. , LEES SUSAN H.
Published: November 2004

Nomadic pastoralists are specialists in complex systems of land use. Their own productive strategies are dependent in large part upon the conversion rates of their products to imported items from other sectors of a larger economy. Changes in these conversion rates are likely to arise for a number of reasons; pastoralists respond to such changes in various ways, depending upon their past histories and current conditions. The case of the Yörük, specialized pastoralists of southeastern Turkey, is used to illustrate this process of changing productive strategies. Generalizations are sought concerning the ways in which large systems of land use become more or less specialized through time, in terms of the consequences of shifting exchange conditions for the productive strategies of component households. [economic anthropology, pastoralism, complex society, interpopulation exchange]
A Note on Groomprice
Authors: Nash Jill
Published: November 2004

With this issue, Discussion and Debate is replaced by Reports and Comments, reflecting the desire of the Editorial Board to encourage the prompt publication of short factual reports of the results of recent research (preferably, less than 1,500 words). There will be less emphasis on exchanges between authors and their critics, although manuscripts already accepted for Discussion and Debate will be published, some in this issue and some in later issues, and the Editors will still consider for publication brief comments concerning articles and reviews that we have published.
Ethical Principles for Conducting Fieldwork
Authors: Cassell Joan
Published: November 2004

Federal regulations to protect human subjects assume a particular relationship between experimenter and subject based upon biomedical research. Because this relationship is not found in every type of research, the regulations are not universally applicable. Relationships between those who study and those who are studied vary with the kind of research. Such variations depend on the relative power and control of the researcher, the direction of interaction, and the level of possible harms and benefits. Measured on these continua, fieldwork is at the opposite end of the spectrum from biomedical research. Consequently, the ethical system on which federal regulations are chiefly based—using utilitarian risk‐benefit calculations—becomes ineffective and inappropriate when applied to proposed fieldwork. Here, investigators have relatively little power and less control of the setting and context of research, interaction flows in two directions, and calculable harms and benefits are comparatively low. Various models of fieldwork are described, each having differing relationships between investigators and subjects. It is suggested that the Kantian categorical imperative, with its principle of respect for human autonomy, might be useful in judging the ethical adequacy of these varieties of fieldwork. [fieldwork, ethical principles, research relationships, federal regulations, risk‐benefit calculations]
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Anthropologists Advising on Public Policy
Authors: Willner Dorothy
Published: November 2004

What knowledge do cultural anthropologists have to contribute to public policy? What problems have they encountered and what roles should they assume? After reviewing several positions, this paper suggests that anthropologists consider contributing to public policy through other branches of government in addition to the executive. Emphasis is given to the legislative branch in a representative democracy. Although the paper discusses the United States, the approach ought to be applicable to other representative systems as well. [public policy, political anthropology, applied anthropology, ethics]
Margaret Mead: A Biographical Sketch
Authors: Metraux Rhoda
Published: November 2004

This statement provides a brief outline of some aspects of Margaret Mead's life history with the expectation that it may help readers to place the several papers in this issue in context.
Two Models of Population Growth
Authors: Schacht Robert M.
Published: November 2004

Two simple models of the ecology of population growth are described: “exponential” growth with “r‐selection,” and “logistic” growth, with “K‐selection.” Various methods for estimating the parameters of these models are presented in detail, along with statistical methods of evaluation and comparison. Also briefly discussed are more complex models of population growth sometimes used by demographers and ecologists. The two simpler models of population growth are then applied, by way of illustration, to two episodes of population growth in protohistoric southwest Iran, dating from 4000–2350 B. C. Interpretation of the results and the implications for future research are then discussed. [population growth, statistical models, exponential growth, logistic growth, early Iran]
A Fresh Outlook on Cultural Selection
Authors: Boehm Christopher
Published: November 2004

Programmed to Learn: An Essay on the Evolution of Culture. H. Ronald Pulliam and Christopher Dunford.

Population Pressure and Cultural Adjustment. Virginia Abernethy.
Book Review
Authors: Goodyear Albert C.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Archeology: Florida Archaeology. Jerald T. Milanich and Charles H. Fairbanks..

Archeology: Aboriginal Subsistence Technology on the Southeastern Coastal Plain during the Late Prehistoric Period. Lewis H, Larsen..
Book Review
Authors: Cook Thomas Genn
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Archeology: Hopewell Archaeology: The Chillicothe Conference. David S. Brose and N'omi Greber

Archeology: The Hopewell Interaction Sphere: The Evidence for Interregional Trade and Structural Complexity. Mark F. Seeman.
Types Distinct from Our Own: Franz Boas on Jewish Identity and Assimiliation
Authors: Glick Leonard B.
Published: November 2004

Boas's published writings on assimilation were deeply influenced by his German Jewish background. In particular, his unwillingness to recognize Jewish cultural identity as a reality was central to his persistent emphasis on human plasticity and his insistence that people not be “classified” in groups. In support of this argument, 19th‐century German and German Jewish history is reviewed, focusing on the relation between Kultur ideology and anti‐Semitism. It is suggested that this approach to Boas's statements offers fresh perspective on some of the apparent confusion in his ideas about culture and assimilation.
The Myth‐Eating Man
Authors: Brady Ivan
Published: November 2004

The Man‐Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy. W. Arens.
The First Demographic Transition: An Analysis of Subsistence Choices and Reproductive Consequences
Authors: Handwerker W. Penn
Published: November 2004

Demographers tend to account for the low growth rates through most of human history by reference to high levels of fertility and mortality. In contrast, anthropologists commonly suppose that Pleistocene growth rates stemmed from low levels of fertility and mortality, and that the increased rate of growth at the Pleistocene‐Holocene transition stemmed from an increase in fertility. This paper adduces evidence supporting the view that Pleistocene growth rates reflect moderate levels of births, and that the increased rate of growth at the Pleistocene‐Holocene transition reflected a decrease in mortality which, over time, was replaced by a demographic transition to high birth and death rates. There is evidence that fertility did not respond to demand for children. Variation in fertility is accounted for by behavioral change following from demand for an adequate and reliable flow of income. [prehistoric demography, natural fertility, decision‐models of fertility]
Protein and Carbohydrate Resources of the Maku Indians of Northwestern Amazonia
Authors: Milton Katharine
Published: November 2004

The Maku are a linguistically distinct indigenous population of hunter‐gatherers living deep within the tropical forest of northwestern Amazonia. Their geographical range greatly overlaps that of another indigenous population, the Tukanoans, riparian fisher ‐gardeners. In ecological terms, the two populations can be viewed as occupying different niches within their equatorial forest biome. A quantitative examination of the Maku diet indicates that calories may at times pose a dietary problem for the Maku. In contrast, the Tukanoans may occasionally face seasonal shortages of fish, their major protein source. Traditional exchanges of food and labor between members of the two populations may help avert potential dietary problems and increase overall human biomass in this geographical region.
What Is the Sapir‐Whorf Hypothesis?
Authors: Kay Paul , Kempton Willett
Published: November 2004

The history of empirical research on the Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis is reviewed. A more sensitive test of the hypothesis is devised and a clear Whorfian effect is detected in the domain of color. A specific mechanism is proposed to account for this effect and a second experiment, designed to block the hypothesized mechanism, is performed. The effect disappears as predicted. The Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis is reevaluated in the light of these results.
Career Guides for Anthropologists
Authors: CHAMBERS ERVE
Published: November 2004

Getting a Job Outside the Academy. A Special Publication of the American Anthropological Association, No. 14. American Anthropological Association.

Directory of Practicing Anthropologists. A Special Publication of the American Anthropological Association, No. 13. Agnes B. Chatelain and Louis F. Cimino, compilers

Anthropological Careers: Perspectives on Research, Employment and Training: Essays Presented to the Anthropological Society of Washington during Its Centennial Year 1979. Ruth H. Landman, ed.

Stalking Employment in the Nation's Capital: A Guide for Anthropologists. Iles Minoff, ed.

Directory of Practicing Anthropologists in the Nation's Capital. Robert M. Wulff, ed.
Sexual Division of Labor in Agriculture
Authors: Burton Michael L. , White Douglas R.
Published: November 2004

Female agricultural contributions decline with agricultural intensification. We formulate and test a theory of the processes of agricultural intensification that explains a high proportion of the variance in female contributions to agriculture. Five variables show replicable effects across two or more regions of the world. These are number of dry months, importance of domesticated animals to subsistence, use of the plow, crop type, and population density. Of these, the first two are the most powerful predictors of female agricultural contributions, while population density has only very weak effects.

MICHAEL L. BURTON is Professor of Anthropology. School of Social Sciences. University of California. Irvine. CA 92717.

DOUGLAS R. WHITE is Professor of Anthropology. School of Social Sciences. University of California. Irvine.
Book Review
Authors: Speth John D.
Published: November 2004

Book review in this article:

Archeology: Settlement of the Prairie Margin: Archaeology of the Richland Creek Reservoir, Navarro and Freestone Counties, Texas: 1980‐1981. L. Mark Raab

Historic Indian Groups of the Choke Canyon Reservoir and Surrounding Area, Southern Texas. T. N. Campbell and T. J. Campbell

Archaeological Investigations at Choke Canyon Reservoir, South Texas: The Phase I Findings. Grant D. Hall, Stephen L. Black, and Carol Graves

Excavations at 41 LK 67: A Prehistoric Site in the Choke Canyon Reservoir, South Texas. Kenneth M. Brown, Daniel R. Potter, Grant D. Hall, and Stephen L. Black

Anasazi and Navajo Land Use in the McKinley Mine Area Near Gallup, New Mexico, Volume 1, Parts 1 and 2: Archeology. Christina G. Allen and Ben A. Nelson

Anasazi and Navajo Land Use in the McKinley Mine Area Near Gallup, New Mexico, Volume 2: Navajo Ethnohistory. Klara B. Kelley
Optimal Foraging and Hominid Evolution: Labor and Reciprocity
Authors: Kurland Jeffrey A. , Beckerman Stephen J.
Published: November 2004

We argue that cooperative foraging incorporating information exchange may have preceded tool use during the course of hominid evolution. In moving to the savanna, early hominids must have faced increasingly dispersed but sometimes more profitable food sources. The problem is finding such foods. Search costs can be reduced for each individual if a number of foragers cooperate by ranging over different parts of the habitat and by exchanging information about encountered food items. Given the probability of encountering a given food item and the return per individual for that item, it is possible to specify the optimal group size. Thus, in the patchy savanna environment, selection would have favored increased gregariousness and cooperation on the part of early hominids, setting the stage for the emergence of reciprocal exchanges of information and resources. However, such a system of reciprocity is open to manipulation. Outside the foraging context, the tension between reciprocity and manipulation would shape other social interactions. Communication and information exchange may have been more critical than labor and technology in evolving hominids from hominoids. Human sociality may find its origins in a shift in primate foraging tactics.
The Nature of Folk‐Botanical Life Forms
Authors: Atran Scott
Published: November 2004

Original work by Brent Berlin, Eugene Hunn, Cecil Brown, and other ethnoscientists has produced significant findings pertaining to claims of universality for folk‐biological ranks, in general, and folk‐botanical life forms, in particular. These findings implicitly call into question conventional wisdom in the history of biology, which tends to consider life forms as the outworn vestiges of scholastic tradition or as merely socially practical ways of carving up the living world. Unfortunately, however, ethnobiologists continue to rely on faulty analytical schema for assessing the nature of life forms which philosophers and historians of biology have developed in their ignorance of the popular conceptual foundations of folk taxonomy. The error is compounded by the adoption into ethnosystematics of the most empiricistically reductionist, and logically confused, interpretation of such schema that derives from the neo‐Adansonian, or pheneticist, school of modern system‐atics. This interpretation confounds (1) meaning and reference, (2) the semantics of cognitively distinct object domains, and (3) the conceptual differences between common sense and science. These points are challenged, and it is concluded that life forms, though anthropocentrically biased, are no more “artificial” or “special‐purpose” than higher‐order scientific taxa. Finally, the problem of so‐called “unaffiliated” and “ambiguous” generics is addressed and a new analysis offered.
Paleodemography: Critiques and Controversies
Authors: Buikstra Jane E. , Konigsberg Lyle W.
Published: November 2004

Recent criticism of paleodemographic methods (Bocquet‐Appel and Masset 1982) has centered on biases introduced by the nature of reference samples and the population‐specificity of techniques for estimating age in skeletal remains. This paper examines five key arguments concerning this bias and alleged imprecision from the perspective of life table analysis. The results of our simulation and statistical analyses indicate that the criticism leveled by Bocquet‐Appel and Masset is extreme. Imprecision in age indicators applied to older adults remains a problem, however, as does interobserver error.
The Versatility of Human Locomotion
Authors: Devine John
Published: November 2004

Human locomotion was studied for 160 societies through the use of early travel accounts, missionaries' reports, and the ethnographic literature. As a result of the value Western society has placed on a sedentary way of life, and the consequent devaluation of movement, the common “striding gait” of humans has taken on a kind of misplaced concreteness. Humans facultatively employ a number of locomotor patterns besides the habitual bipedal gait: long‐distance running, climbing, leaping, crawling, swimming, and skiing (the latter two are not dealt with in this paper). Human locomotion, like that of animals, is an analogous rather than a univocal concept, admitting great variation, plasticity, and subtle differences in gait, style, speed, and endurance. These multiple concepts have important implications for the construction of models of the evolution of hominid bipedalism.
Film Reviews
Authors: Ikels Charlotte
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Gut Dao—On the Way: A Station on the Yangzi

Women in China Today

Wuxing People's Commune

Small Happiness: Women of a Chinese Village
Toward a Reconstitution of Ethnicity: Capitalist Expansion and Cultural Dynamics in Sudan
Authors: O'Brien Jay
Published: November 2004

In this article I argue that, despite recent advances in anthropology, prevailing images of ethnicity in academic discourse overemphasize units at the expense of interconnections and tend toward ahistorical formalism. Through an examination of the dynamics of ethnic segmentation of the agricultural labor force in Sudan in this century, I seek to show that both the modem character of ethnicity as an organizing principle and the content of particular ethnic identities in Sudan emerged in the process of peripheral capitalist development. Ethnicity in these circumstances is thus fundamentally different from the ethnicity of the Sudanese past and from ethnic principles articulated elsewhere under different social conditions.
Discourse‐Centered Approach to Language and Culture
Authors: Sherzer Joel
Published: November 2004

The Sapir‐ Whorf hypothesis, as usually formulated, searches for isomorphisms between grammar and culture and views language as either providing the means for thought and perception, or, in its stronger form, conditioning thought, perception, and world view. In this article I consider discourse to be the concrete expression of language‐culture relationships. It is discourse that creates, recreates, focuses, modifies, and transmits both culture and language and their intersection, and it is especially in verbally artistic and playful discourse, such as poetry, magic, verbal dueling, and political rhetoric, that the resources provided by grammar, as well as cultural meanings and symbols, are activated to their fullest potential and the essence of language‐culture relationships becomes salient.
Blood Drunkenness and the Bloodthirsty Semai: Unmaking Another Anthropological Myth
Authors: Robarchek Clayton A. , Dentan Robert Knox
Published: November 2004

The Senoi Semai of Malaysia have frequently been cited as examples in the debates over the wellsprings of human violence. Numerous writers have employed selected Semai ethnographic material to support assertions that, their apparent peacefulness notwithstanding, Semai are in reality bloodthirsty killers. This assertion has in turn been used as evidence in support of a variety of approaches whose common thread is a view of aggressiveness and violence as somehow innate in human beings. The authors of this article, whose publications form the basis of most anthropological knowledge of Semai life and culture, draw on their own published and unpublished work as well as on documentation from other sources to refute these interpretations. We hold that Semai life is, as first‐hand observers have described it, notably free of interpersonal violence, and we argue that misrepresentations rooted in particular theoretical or philosophical a priori assumptions are scientifically untenable and culturally slanderous.
The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree
Authors: Heider Karl G.
Published: November 2004

Disagreements between ethnographers often arise because of the particular circumstances of field‐work or attributes of the ethnographers. A positivist search for truth versus error may be less fruitful than a constructionist examination of the research itself. This article suggests a conceptual framework for such a constructionist approach.
Book Review
Authors: Stanford Dennis
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Archeology: The Colby Mammoth Site: Taphonomy and Archaeology of a Clovis Kill in Northern Wyoming.

Archeology: George C. Frison and Lawrence C. Todd.: How to Deep‐Freeze a Mammoth. Björn Kurtén. Translation and revision of Hur Man Fryser in en Mammut.

Archeology: On the Track of Ice Age Mammals. Antony J. Sutcliffe.
Film Review
Authors: Turnbaugh William A. , Turnbaugh Sarah Peabody
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Mohawk Basketmaking: A Cultural Profile. 1980. Produced by Frank Semmens.

Our Lives in Our Hands. 1986. Produced by Karen Carter and Harald Prins.
Distinguished Lecture: Archeology and Anthropology
Authors: Spaulding Albert C.
Published: November 2004

This essay was delivered as the Distinguished Lecture to the 86th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 21, 1987, at Chicago, Illinois.
Marriage Transactions: Labor, Property, Status
Authors: Schlegel Alice , Eloul Rohn
Published: November 2004

Marriage transactions—bridewealth, dowry, indirect dowry, and so on—and the absence of transactions have been shown to have a patterned distribution worldwide. This article attempts to account for these patterns by looking at marriage transactions as mechanisms by which households provide for labor needs, distribute property, and maintain or enhance status. A major factor in determining type of marriage transaction is the presence and type of property controlled by the household. Bridewealth circulates property and women, while dowry and indirect dowry concentrate them. The former is found where property is limited, in tribal societies and among the landless poorer classes in traditional states, whereas the latter is found in property‐owning classes of landed or commercial pastoral peoples. This article pays particular attention to dowry and indirect dowry, using ethnographic and historical data to explain their functions.
Multiple Stable States of Disease Occurrence: A Note on the Implications for the Anthropological Study of Human Disease
Authors: McGrath Janet W.
Published: November 2004

Ecologists model human disease using predator‐prey models, with humans as the prey and the pathogen as the predator. Use of these models permits the identification of stable equilibria and stable states of disease prevalence for human host‐parasite systems. May (1977) has described the possibility of the presence of multiple stable states of disease prevalence for human disease systems. The model of multiple stable states implies that historical circumstances are important in determining the occurrence of disease. This model offers a theoretical framework in which to examine the occurrence of epidemics in human populations and to develop a more complete understanding of disease processes.
Book Reviews
Authors: Crumley Carole L.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Archeology: The Pagan Celts. Anne Ross.

Archeology: Celtic Britain. Charles Thomas.

Archeology: The Gods of the Celts. Miranda Green.
High‐Altitude Occupations, Cultural Process, and High Plains Prehistory: Retrospect and Prospect
Authors: Bender Susan J. , Wright Gary A.
Published: November 2004

Models of hunter‐gatherer occupation in mountainous areas are evaluated in light of current data bases and field research strategies. Utilizing evidence from the mountain fringes of the North American High Plains, both climatic and task‐specific models are rejected in favor of a broad spectrum model. It is argued that the broad spectrum model better explains the extant data base for the Central Rocky Mountains and that it provides a point of departure for research strategies in other high‐country regions.
Margaret Mead and Samoa: Coming of Age in Fact and Fiction
Authors: Feinberg Richard
Published: November 2004

Derek Freeman's 1983 critique of Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa has prompted one of the most heated debates in recent anthropological memory. Yet even Mead's defenders have generally accepted the view that she saw Samoa as a romantic paradise. Here I argue that a careful reading of Coming of Age shows quite a different picture. In my reanalysis, Mead's work emerges as complex and somewhat enigmatic, with facile conclusions standing in contrast to much rich and sensitive ethnography. My goal in this article is to highlight what Mead actually said, pointing up the notable discrepancy between the popular perception and her actual account.
Disappearance of the Incest Taboo: A Cross‐Cultural Test of General Evolutionary Hypotheses
Authors: LEAVITT GREGORY C.
Published: November 2004

Employing a cross‐cultural sample of 121 societies, this research tests and supports three hypotheses offered by Yehudi Cohen (1978) concerning the relationship between the general evolution of society and the extension of the incest taboo. Cohen generally proposes that the number of relatives included in the incest taboo will be reduced as societies become technologically and socially more complex. More specifically, Cohen identifies the development of trade institutions as eliminating the need for extended incest regulations. Furthermore, Cohen proposes that as the incest taboo contracts and becomes less important, violations of this taboo are treated less severely.
Book Reviews
Authors: WILLARD WILLIAM
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Applied Anthropology: A Homeland for the Cree: Regional Development in James Bay, 1971–1981. Richard F. Salisbury

Applied Anthropology: Aroland Is Our Home: An Incomplete Victory in Applied Anthropology. Paul Driben

Applied Anthropology: The Ogoki River Guides: Emergent Leadership Among the Northern Ojibwa. Edward J. Hedican
The Political Impact of Trade in Chiefdoms
Authors: KIPP RITA SMITH , SCHORTMAN EDWARD M.
Published: November 2004

Trade theories of state formation have failed to specify trade as market behavior, and to appreciate the political role of imported luxury goods in chiefdoms. When luxury goods and other valuable commodities become available through the market rather than through interpersonal, chiefly exchanges, the elite's power depends increasingly on economic exploitation and the control of arms. Archeological data from several locales illustrate the disruptive and formative effects of trade diasporas in chiefdoms.
Low Socioeconomic Status and Female‐Biased Parental Investment: The Mukogodo Example
Authors: CRONK LEE
Published: November 2004

Hierarchies of wealth and ethnic prestige among East African herders present an opportunity to test the Trivers‐Willard hypothesis that low socioeconomic status should correlate with female biases in parental investment. The Mukogodo are at the bottom of such a regional hierarchy due to their poverty and low status as former hunters. As a result of these factors, Mukogodo men have lower polygyny rates than their neighbors, and Mukogodo women have higher mean reproductive success than Mukogodo men. The data fulfill the prediction that there should be a bias in parental investment in favor of daughters. The sex ratio of the 0–4 age group and the reported sex ratio at birth are both female‐biased. Although there is no evidence of infanticide, sons may be neglected in favor of daughters. Evidence from a dispensary and from a clinic run by a Catholic mission both show that the Mukogodo take daughters for treatment more often than they take sons. Also, daughters may be nursed longer than sons.
Kalapalo Biography: Psychology and Language in a South American Oral History
Authors: Basso Ellen B.
Published: November 2004

Kalapalo warrior biographies are concerned with dialogical processes of challenge, resistance, debate, and the negotiation of meaning—with the struggles that take place as people try to understand and experience anew. Although warriors were trained to aggressively defend their communities against enemies, these narratives describe how they attempted to refashion ideological forms connected with ethnic allegiance and moral community. The personalities of warriors, closely connected to the training they underwent in adolescence, are particularly important in this regard. While biographies are often understood as texts in which history is merely a context surrounding the progress of individuals, descriptions of personal development are shown here to constitute testimony about historical processes themselves, in this case the experiences of refugees fleeing from centers of European expansion in lowland South America.
Thalia's Revenge: Ethnography and Theory of Comedy
Authors: Chambers Erve
Published: November 2004

This article compares theories of comedy to the development of modern ethnography. The discussion begins with a review of 18th‐century English satire, followed by commentary on the place of comedy in Western intellectual traditions. In considering the relationship between theories of comedy and modern ethnography, I argue that the genres have in common the regular use of literary modes of exaggeration, exceptionality, reversal, and practice. These shared modes suggest similar critical intent. Recognizing a relationship between theories of comedy and modern ethnography adds to our appreciation of the plurality of the ethnographic endeavor.
On the Rise and Fall ofTulánsand Maya Segmentary States
Authors: Fox John W.
Published: November 2004

An approach integrating ethnohistory, ethnography, and settlement pattern archeology allows a series of “ontogenetic stages” with segmentary lineage behaviors to be delineated for the Post‐classic Quiché‐Maya state at Utatlán, Guatemala. Comparisons to the Postclassic states in lowland southern Mesoamerica (e.g., Chichén Itzé, Mayapán) assess the segmentary state model. In each, intrusive lineages migrated to coalesce into confederacies that exemplified decentralized authority and common descent. Then the polities suddenly dissoluted, with disarticulated segments again migrating to commence the cycle anew. As a documented case of growth and near collapse of a Maya segmentary state, the Quiché are traced from intrusive, nearly egalitarian Putún lineages through successive tiers of “confederation” in which various ethnic peoples first voluntarily allied and then were coerced into subordination. Utatlán inherited the mantle of rulership of the Lowland Maya “great tradition,” heretofore vested in theTuláns.By so doing, the Quiché acquired symbols of rulership, such as full quadripartition of the calendar and a literary tradition, whereby thePopol Vuhpresented general Mayan mythology and specific Quiché history. Incipient economic specialization occurred after state formation within otherwise mechanical solidarity‐like lineages linked according to the cardinality of the calendar.
Creating the Appearance of Consensus in Mende Political Discourse
Authors: Murphy William P.
Published: November 2004

The language and logic of consensus as a discourse and political strategy are analyzed with the case of a Mende lineage meeting in Sierra Leone. A methodology of collecting local, private, and skeptical exegesis of public discourse leads to theoretical questions related to the use of language and secrecy to orchestrate a public consensual order while concealing alternative orders of opposition.
Ideological Language in the Transformation of Identity
Authors: Stromberg Peter G.
Published: November 2004

Christians who have undergone conversion experiences usually claim that the experience has not only strengthened their religious commitment, it has in addition transformed their lives. The idea that a person may be transformed through using a set of symbols (called an “ideology” here) is not limited to Christianity; many ideologies make similar claims. Using the example of the conversion experience, I argue that ideologies may indeed create a sense of self‐transformation in the subject. This sense arises out of the fact that the subject is able to use the ideological language to resolve enduring problems of meaning in his or her life. Such problems are not, however, resolved once and for all; rather, the discourse of informants reveals that self‐transformation is an ongoing process wherein ideological language is used to express and come to terms with persisting emotional ambivalence.
Maize and the Origin of Highland Chavín Civilization: An Isotopic Perspective
Authors: Burger Richard L. , Merwe Nikolaas J. Van der
Published: November 2004

Scholars frequently posit maize as the staple food of Chavín civilization and some even argue that this crop provided the critical stimulus for its development. Stable carbon isotope analysis permits an evaluation of these hypotheses because maize, the only C4 cultigen consumed in pre‐Hispanic Peru, leaves an unambiguous imprint on the bone chemistry of its consumers that allows the calculation of its relative importance in the diet. Analysis of osteological samples from Chavín de Huántar and Huaricoto indicates that although maize was eaten, C3 foods like potatoes and quinoa constituted the bulk of the dietary intake during the development and climax of highland Chavín civilization (ca. 850‐200 B.C.). The authors briefly explore possible reasons for the secondary importance of maize in the Initial Period/Early Horizon subsistence systems of this region, a pattern already established by the late Preceramic period (ca. 2000 B.C.).
The Uses of “Inaccurate” Data: A Methodological Critique and Applications of Alaska Native Data
Authors: McNabb Steven L.
Published: November 2004

The ramifications of a current debate about informant accuracy are shown to extend well beyond informant accuracy per se, since they invite scrutiny of fundamental epistemological assumptions. Accuracy is analyzed as a complex concept that must be evaluated along several dimensions, suggesting that multiple standards of “accuracy” require multiple methods of data collection and interpretation known generally as triangulation. Alaska Native data collected by several disparate means are briefly analyzed in order to illustrate how triangulation works.
Applying Cognitive Decision Theory to the Study of Regional Patterns of Illness Treatment Choice
Authors: Mathews Holly F. , Hill Carole E.
Published: November 2004

This article argues for the utility of cognitive decision modeling in assessing regional patterns of health behavior and, when combined with the explanatory modeling approach, in describing and analyzing more effectively sources of intracultural variation in choice within a region. A decision model developed in two intensively studied communities in rural Costa Rica was used to predict treatment choice in a third one representative of the rapid social change occurring in the region. A subsequent analysis of the errors made in prediction pinpointed patterns of intracultural variation that were then investigated from the explanatory model perspective. The incorporation of these more qualitative data into the original decision model made it more sensitive to both the complexities of the decision context and the specifics of the individual illness experience while also enabling greater accuracy in the prediction of regional patterns of treatment choice.
Issues in Bonobo (Pan paniscus) Sexual Behavior
Authors: Blount Ben G.
Published: November 2004

Sexual behavior is one of the reported similarities between Pan paniscus and Homo sapiens that has stimulated recent interest in the phylogeny of the Pan and the Australopithecus/Homo genera. Similarities do exist, but an understanding of the forms and functions of Van paniscus sexual behavior is best achieved through a comparison to Pan troglodytes. Pan paniscus shows increased female receptivity, variability in copulatory position, male or female initiation of sexual behavior, differential male and female preferences for copulatory position, and association of food sharing and sexual behavior. Their sexual behavior appears to function in proximate terms as a tension‐reduction mechanism. Lowered tension, in turn, facilitates multi‐male, multi‐female social groups. Lowered levels of aggression and increased sexual activity appear to be associated with paedomorphism, and the behavioral and anatomical/physiological characteristics of the species appear to be a consequence of a feeding ecology that promotes large groupings of the animals at preferential and comparatively rich feeding sites.
Human Ovarian Function and Reproductive Ecology: New Hypotheses
Authors: Ellison Peter T.
Published: November 2004

A series of eight hypotheses is presented, based on the results of current research, concerning the responsiveness of the human ovary to constitutional and environmental variables. These hypotheses are motivated by a theoretical position that seeks to understand human reproductive physiology as the product of natural selection. The hypotheses are: (1) Ovarian responsiveness occurs along a graded continuum. (2) The graded continuum of response forms a final common pathway for various “stresses.” (3) Ovarian function tracks energy balance, not simply nutritional status. (4) Ovarian function tracks aerobic activity independently of energy balance. (5) Additive interactions characterize the interaction of constitutional and environmental factors modulating ovarian function. (6) Reproductive maturation is synchronized with skeletal maturation, especially of the pelvis. (7) Peak ovarian function is not ordinarily achieved until the early twenties. (8) Late reproductive maturation is associated with a slower rise in indices of ovarian function with age, and a lower level of ovarian function in adulthood. Together, these hypotheses provide for two, non‐exclusive theories of facultative modulation of female reproductive effort. One theory views ovarian function as responsive to the prospects for positive reproductive outcome as these may be affected by maternal age, maturation, energy balance, and activity level. The second theory views ovarian function as responsive in a similar way to the need to maintain long‐term maternal energy balance.
Men and Women in Southern Spain: “Domestic Power” Revisited
Authors: Gilmore David D.
Published: November 2004

This article offers a definition of “domestic power” and attempts to operationalize this for comparative study of gender relations in southern Europe. It describes male‐female relations in two stratified rural towns in Andalusia (southern Spain). The data show that working‐class women in these towns, often united with their mothers, are able in many cases to prevail in domestic decision making despite opposition from their husbands. The article explores the cultural and psychological reasons for this apparent inversion of a constituted patriarchal ideal and the relative effect of social class upon male and female power asymmetries. The implications of limited access of male fieldworkers to Andalusian women are briefly addressed. Finally, these findings are discussed in the light of broader epistemological issues in gender study.