American Anthropologist 1971
Abrahams, Roger D. and Bauman, Richard. Sense and Nonsense in St. Vincent: Speech Behavior and Decorum in a Caribbean Community. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):762-771.
This article focuses on speech behavior in St. Vincent, part of the British West Indies. The authors attempt to illustrate Vincentian beliefs concerning proper and improper behavior using the social rules of speech in St. Vincent. The various speech categories recognized by Vincentians as well as the local name for these categories are explained.
Abrahams and Bauman describe two main speech dichotomies in St. Vincent. The first of these is the contrast between being sensible and talking nonsense. Nonsense is considered to be anything other than proper formal language. It can include hesitant speech, loudness, illogical arguments and speaking in Creole. Talking sweet and talking broad are very similar to sense and nonsense. Talking sweet is a controlled form of speech, not necessarily formal, which is. Talking broad is essentially speaking in Creole.
The authors argue that the distinctions made between talking sensibly and sweet and talking nonsense and broad reflect feelings of inferiority among the people of St. Vincent. The standard form of English spoken by the dominant White colonizers is given a higher status than the West Indies dialect. Vincentians sometimes think of themselves as the stereotype of African Americans set forth by the colonizers.
The tea meeting, a ceremonial event that has religious roots, is use das an example of the appropriateness of the contrasting speech categories. At tea meetings, men referred to as chairmen and scholars, who talk very sweetly, compete to be considered the finest speaker. The pit boys, who sit in the back and try to be as loud and distracting as possible, make the competition more difficult. The audience members, especially young women, also participate in the distraction attempts. The goal is to make the speaker forget his speech.
Recently, the balance of the tea meetings has been altering. Traditionally, the speakers have always maintained control over the event. The head pit boys, who made sure they were not too loud, have kept the pit boys in line. Transportation and economic advancements have led to the increased mobility of the pit boys. They are no longer all friends and relatives who can easily be controlled by the head pit boy. Now pit boys from other communities disrupt tea meetings. Abrahams and Bauman argue that this rebellion against talking sweetly and sensibly may be a reaction to the negative self-images that have been forced on the Vincentians. They predict an end to tea meetings as well as a future predominance of rudeness.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Abrahams, Roger D. and Richard Bauman Sense and Nonsense in St. Vincent: Speech Behavior and Decorum in a Caribbean Community American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):762-772
This article was written as an analysis of the two main types of speech in St. Vincent. Sensible, “sweet” speech was analyzed in terms of its role in designating proper behavior and was compared to nonsensical, “rude” speech and its role in improper behavior. The role of social dominance was shown in the assigning of value to language. The role of speech was addressed because of its status as a “principal focus of attention for the Vincentians themselves” (762).
The use of language is set up as a dichotomous system, and in which the values and language of the dominant group are held to be superior. The most highly valued language is that which is “decorous and deferential” (because of the values held by the dominant group), and is therefore called “sensible”. Related to this is talking “sweet”, which is close in form to standardized English. In contrast to this, is nonsense speech. This speech is considered to be illogical, and indecorous. Often, it is seen as just making noise. Talking broad is related to this, and can be seen as talking Creole, (in contrast to standard English), and speaking in short sentence fragments. Talking nonsense is often discussed in terms of disapproval, while talking sensible is related to the ideal.
The article shows the importance of linguistics in behavioral control by describing the taxonomy of language, and showing the social regulations imposed on the way language is used. Specifically, the many names that describe the gossip, or what they call “calling name”, “calling out name”, “giving fatigue”, and others, and the varying levels of danger or indecorousness involved within the types, indicates just how important the Vincentians consider language to be. This is also a source of contradiction, and shows just how strongly the dominance is ingrained within the peasants.
Arguments that result from calling name or other rude behavior draws crowds that at once enjoy the spectacle and condemn the participants. The participant’s lack of sense is often cited as a reason for his inappropriate behavior. However, in this condemnation, the peasant’s own socially subordinate position shows through. While condemning his neighbors, he also condemns himself. By saying: “we Negroes is a ignorant people” (768), he internalizes the social hierarchy that has been imposed upon him.
The authors cite the Tea Meeting as one of the strongest examples of the social controls of speech. In these meetings, the most respected speechmakers and the rude peasants are brought together for the purpose of celebrating “Talking Sweet.” The scholars are seated up on stage, while the rude members are seated in the back of the hall. One of the challenges of the evening is to see who will have control of the room—the chairmen, or the audience members, who taunt the scholars in order to fluster them. The authors conclude by discussing that the reactions against the Tea Meetings may represent a “casting off of a self-perpetuating negative self image” (771) for the peasants of St. Vincent.
This article was clearly written and easy to comprehend.
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JULIE SCHWARTZ Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Ackerman, Lillian A. Marital Instability and Juvenile Delinquency Among the Nez Perces.American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):595-603.
Lillian Ackerman’s article examines the problems that face the family life of the Nez Perces Indians of Idaho. This culture has many serious social problems with their people and their children, such as alcoholism, gambling problems, and marital disputes.
The author starts off by mentioning how juvenile delinquency is such a large problem in Nez Perces society. She then discusses the strictness with which the children are raised. “Whipmen,” appointed by the village chief, punish those children who misbehave. There are also actions taken which are intended to build character, like swimming in an icy creek early in the morning and taking whippings for not being fully immersed in the water.
The article then discusses the lack of parental support of their children ; many of these parents have alcohol or gambling problems. There have been reports of parents leaving their children at home alone for prolonged periods of time to go on drinking binges. There have, therefore, been numerous accounts of accidents and fires that ended in the death of children left home alone. Still other reports are of parents leaving children locked in cars in casino parking lots for up to twelve hours. Finally, parents would leave children with relatives for days at a time so they could do other things such as gambling or drinking. The neglect towards children that has been found in this culture is very prevalent and would seem to have a great effect on the Nez Perces children.
The other main part of the article was marital problems in the Nez Perces culture. Adultery and separations are very common with the married people in this culture. The author commented on how sexual relations between a man and his sister-in-law is “semi-sanctioned” in this society. Even though extramarital affairs cause stress and bitterness in the society, they are still very frequent.
This article was very interesting to me but seemed to jump around. The author also did not discuss juvenile delinquency among the Nez Perces; it only showed the reasons that it happened. One would think that this would be a big part in the article seeing that it is in the title. I would have liked to see how the neglect effected the grown children. This article could have been much better if it went into how the whipmen affected the children also.
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MICHAEL LAWSON Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Ackerman, Lillian A. Marital Instability and Juvenile Delinquency Among the Nez Perces.American Anthropologist. June, 1971 Vol. 73(3):595-603.
In her article, Ackerman discusses the causes behind juvenile delinquency and marital instability among the Nez Perces. She links juvenile delinquency to the cultural stress placed on the Nez Perces from contact with White culture, which caused the destruction of many key cultural institutions. Ackerman splits her discussion between juvenile delinquency and marital instability, juxtaposing the practices of the past and those of the present.
In pre-contact times, the Nez Perces lived in large villages for part of the year and split into patrilocal groups seasonally to exploit the natural resources in a region. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles, as well as parents, took responsibility for the raising of children. Grandparents exercised the most authority in their lives and lectured unruly children on proper behavior. Self-endurance fostered through icy swims, long runs, and sweat baths also encouraged proper behavior. Cultural values were also passed down through stories, usually told by the elders. The village “whipman” intervened whenever conflict emerged between a group of children. Interviews with Nez Perce informants reveal that this type of communal discipline had no negative psychological effects on the individual and is frequently remembered as humorous and necessary.
Today, families do not live patrilocally, an occurrence that has undermined many safeguards in the Nez Perces’ tradition. Grandparents can no longer depend on economic stability from their children, while children of divorced parents no longer enjoy the shelter of their grandparents once offered them in times of transition. Many parents are alcoholics and leave their children unattended.
Unstable marriages were not uncommon among the Nez Perces in the past. Parents (or grandparents) arranged marriages for their children when a boy reached the age of 18-20 and the girl turned 15. Extramarital affairs and divorces were frequent. If a wife or husband left with a lover, he/she annulled the previous marriage and entered a new one. When separations occurred, children lived with their paternal grandparents, although they might spend a few months of the year with their mother’s parents.
Today, people choose their own spouses and families no longer live patrilocally. Many men are unemployed or leave the reservation in search of work. Those who do work, consider their wages their own to use, and they often gamble or drink their money away without giving any to their families. Many women take jobs and still dig for roots to eat, supporting both their families and their men. Affairs still occur frequently, and short-term ones are typically forgiven or ignored. This pattern of marital instability appears in some sense a continuation of the past.
Ackerman suggests that the best way to solve the problem of juvenile instability is to reintroduce communal discipline. There is also a need to bridge the gap between traditional ideals, which view the male as a hunter/warrior, and the present need for men to become wage earners.
Ackerman provides a strong argument well supported by primary source evidence interspersed with an easy to read narrative about Nez Perces’ traditions. Her careful juxtaposition of traditions of the past with those of the present help to illuminate her claims.
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ALYSSA BROWN Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Anderson, Barbara Gallatin. Adaptive Aspects of Culture Shock. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1121-1125.
Barbara Gallatin Anderson spent three months in India gathering data about surviving culture shock and how people cure culture shock through dreams. Culture shock involves immersion into another culture, followed by a return to one’s own culture. Anderson maintains that there is a strong tie to home even if it is subconscious, in dreams of images from long ago memories. These ties, through dreams, help one deal with the immense “shock” while in another country and make returning home an easier transition.
When Anderson studied abroad in Corsica, she noticed that her dreams were different when abroad than at home. On a later trip to India, she took special notice of her dreams. She began to speak about dreams on a daily basis with her American colleagues to get a better understanding of the way people dream when they are in foreign situations. Anderson has categorized this dream process into three phases based on her observations.
The first phase of dreaming occurs during the first three-to-four weeks in a new country. These dreams cushion one from the painful present where one can neither function as an American nor as a native. Things most familiar in daily life from home are not present, such as spouses, children, and homes. Rather, memories that one would not otherwise think of, such as those of childhood, are common. Anderson and her colleagues hardly dreamt of one another at all during this period.
The second phase of dreaming occurs after the first four weeks, when surroundings become more familiar and comfort levels increase, yet one is still not entirely secure. Family and friends begin to appear in dreams, but they are usually far away. One of Anderson’s colleagues dreamt of his wife in a doorway and another of his children flying kites in the distance. Many of Anderson’s colleagues dreamt of Indian acquaintances doing American activities and vice-versa. One man woke after dreaming that he was wearing a turban, while others dreamt of Indians speaking fluent English without an accent.
In the last phase of Anderson’s dream sequence, one has assimilated to the new surroundings. During this phase Anderson and her colleagues’ dreams became similar to dreams they would have at home with the exception that there was a wider range of topics. Americans did American activities and Indians, Indian activities. In dreaming, even if Americans participated in Indian settings, they acted as though Americans would act.
Anderson finds that these dreams patterns are common and have helped to provide insight into the logic of psychological and cultural systems. She concludes that people undergo this dream process in order to cope with the demands of an entirely new environment. Anderson believes these dream patterns are necessary for psychic and social health.
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THEDY BODAM Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Anderson, Barbara Gallatin. Adaptive Aspects of Culture Shock. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1121-1125.
As stated in the introduction, the purpose of the article was to communicate the author’s findings of a study she did on culture shock and people’s reactions to it. Anderson set out to study how culture shock affected the people in her group when they, all Americans, went to India one summer. She realized that her dreams had an eccentric quality, and asked her colleagues about their own dreams during the first few weeks after their arrival in India. She found that their dreams were very similar in that most of them dreamt of people, events, and places in their pasts, not in their present lives. After some weeks, the content of the dreams changed to reflect a mixture of Indian culture and American experience. After some time, the dreams began to contain present people and places for them. They dreamt of family and friends, but in India. Anderson suggests that the dreams helped the people to cope with the changes in their lives. The dreams were a vacation resort from the strange new life system they experienced, that was so different from their American lives.
Another aspect of culture shock that Anderson describes is that of memory lapses. Sometimes when people would try to remember an English word for something, they could not remember it except by remembering the name for it in another language, and then translating it into English. Or sometimes a person could not remember the name of his current wife, but only recalled his former wife’s name.
Anderson states that each person deals with culture shock in a different way. There are some people who cannot seem to find their identity and so end up doing things that are “out of character” for them. They seem not to be able to fuse their true identity from their American culture into their new Indian culture. So, they have dual personalities.
Anderson suggests that all these things are coping mechanisms for the shock that we are experiencing. Each of these, the dreams, the memory lapses, and dual personalities help us to cope with an unfamiliar way of life.
Anderson also states that not only is there culture shock when one is beginning to adapt to a new culture, but there is also culture shock when one is being reintroduced into the original culture. She says that “we are unprepared for the unfamiliarity of what we anticipated would be comfortingly familiar” (1124). That is to say, that we expect to come back to that familiar way of life that we have been longing for, and when we get back, we have become unaccustomed to this way, and are now used to the way of life we had been experiencing while away.
This article was interesting. It was also clear and easy to read. Anderson wrote from her perspective and included statements from her colleagues to back up her claims.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
JESSICA BISHOP Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Anderson, Robert T. Voluntary Association in History. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):207-221.
In this article Anderson describes the development and subsequent rises and declines of voluntary associations throughout the world. Voluntary associations are groups formed for cultural reasons whose members do not necessarily have any family ties. Anderson also addresses various types of solidarities formed at different times and what purposes they may have served.
According to Anderson, the first evidence of voluntary associations comes from Mesolithic times. Anderson refers to Walter Goldschmidt who maintains that some Mesolithic people had religious solidarities that may have “cut across band and family ties (209).” Anderson also quotes Mischa Titiev, who describes ritualistic societies among American Indians on the Northwest Pacific Coast. Anderson asserts that these early associations were closely linked to religion, so it is unlikely that lower Paleolithic associations existed because there is no evidence of religion that early.
Anderson also links solidarities to settled village life which, he maintains, is why there were very few Mesolithic associations, people did not usually live in villages. It is in Neolithic times that Anderson argues voluntary associations, along with agricultural villages, became common. Anderson cites Elman Service, who maintains that common interest associations are most frequent at the tribal level of social organization, which corresponds Neolithic times. Solidarities among bands, he claims are rare, and at higher levels of social organization, such as states governing institutions supplement the need for these associations (211). At this stage voluntary associations expand beyond religion and are related to other social contexts including economy, sex, politics and education.
Anderson uses various examples to illustrate the absence of solidarities in pre-industrial states. The middle class, he argues, had associations such as merchant’s guilds, but voluntary associations were largely absent among the lower and higher classes. The aristocrats may have been to few in number to warrant solidarities, but the peasants who compromised the vast majority of the population were also without associations in most societies.
Industrial societies, voluntary associations are widespread. Urban-industrial growth can be linked to the formation of many new solidarities. The newly formed working class established unions and other associations to help people cope with the changing structure of society. Voluntary associations now serve purposes including socialization, education and the promotion of social change.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Anderson, Robert T. Voluntary Associations in History American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):209-222
Voluntary associations are found in most societies undergoing rapid change. Associations have been present in past societies around the world. These societies had economic and political systems that varied in complexity. Enough is known about voluntary associations to allow an assessment of the role they take in the evolution of society.
Anderson argues that voluntary associations play different roles in each stage of the evolution of a society. In some societies associations are not present. In societies where associations are present they play an important part in the structure of the society.
Anderson collects a variety of work done by other researchers on associations in different societies. This information is used to generalize the place of association in societies through the stages of evolution such as paleolithic-mesolithic bands, neolithic villages, preindustrial states, and industrial nations.
The nature of voluntary associations has changed through time. In the upper paleothic they appeared for the first time as religion began to be practiced and became more common in the mesolithic period when people began to settle in villages and perform ritual activities. During the neolithic period people developed secret societies, which incorporated only a portion of the society and had important cultural functions. With the development of preindustrial states associations lost importance in society, as it appears merchants were the only ones to form them. The development of industrial nations has occurred with a rise in voluntary associations in all classes of the society. The associations in industrial nations serve to intermediate between the individual and the community.
Anderson does not give an assessment of the role voluntary associations play throughout the evolution of society. The information Anderson uses to explain past periods in the evolution of society are sometimes taken from living groups of people. Anderson believes these people to be less evolved and thus can be substitute for historical evidence. Many of the examples given are unnecessary and make it difficult to understand what the author is trying to explain.
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SHAUN GODWIN Michigan State University, (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Bender, Donald R. De Facto Families and De Jure Households in Ondo. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):223-241.
In this article Bender describes the structures of residences, families and agnate lineages in the Yoruba kingdom of Ondo. Bender illustrates the difference between family and household in Ondo and how it differs from the way these units are defined in Euro-American culture.
The Ondo, Bender asserts, do not discuss relatives in terms of “family.” Agnatic lineages and households are the important social units for the Ondo. They do have relationships with other relatives, and they have words to describe these relationships, but the family in the way Euro-Americans think of it does not exist. Households, by Ondo definition, are composed of members of the same agnatic lineage and their wives. Other people may live there, but are not considered household members under usual circumstances.
The goal of an Ondo man is to be the head of a household and have as many descendents living there as possible. He begins by moving out of his father’s household and building a house for his own nuclear family. Fathers attempt to prevent sons from moving out because it decreases the size of their own households. All household members do necessarily live in the same house. If man is rich he may have houses for each of his wives. There is also a great deal of travel back and forth between houses in town and farms in rural villages; most households have a residence in both locations.
Bender focuses on the Ondo household as a social unit. He describes the social ranking within the household relating to age and sex, and the division of labor and living space. He maintains that households are a distinct characteristic of Ondo society that is separate from kinship ties, although the primary residents of a household belong to the same agnatic lineage.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Bender, Donald De Facto and De Jure Households in Ondo American Anthropologist. February, 1971 Vol.71(1):223-241
This article examines the relationship between kinship groups and households in Ondo society. The author searches to find what dominates the cohesion of a group of residents. Bender compares Ondo society with the social organization of other culture groups. He notes that in United States society families are expected to form household units and therefore family is the dominant factor in the cohesion of residential groups. Bender argues that in Ondo society households as opposed to families dominate social cohesion. He goes into great detail about the workings of households in Ondo society.
To support his findings Bender discusses how living arrangements are based on kinship but are often made up of people outside of your kin group. Nevertheless agreements are made to create the same kind of accountability found in a family in household groups in which many people are not kin. Therefore, according to Bender, household ties take precedence over family ties when functioning day to day in the home.
This article contained a lot of information but was not very clear.
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ANGELA TAYLOR Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Bloch, Maurice The Implications of Marriage Rules and Descent: Categories for Merina Social Structures. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):164-177.
Bloch discusses the marriage rules and practices of the Merina, who live in northern Madagascar in a country called Imerina. She describes many aspects of Merina life, including burial customs, marriage, economy, family and ethics. She attempts to show why the marriage practices of the Merina came about and how they are affected by family and economy.
The Merina divide themselves in “black” and “white” Merina. These labels do not accurately reflect skin color or other physical traits, but rather ancestry. In the later part of the eighteenth century the Merina conquered many neighboring peoples and took large numbers of slaves. The people descended from the slaves are called the black Merina and the white Merina are descendants of the original Merina people.
The marriage practices of the black and white Merina are very different. Although the white Merina have rules against incest, these rules are often overlooked. The main reason for this is the importance that they place on keeping land within the family. Intermarriage often occurs because the white Merina do not want the land to be in the possession of any outsiders. The black Merina avoid incest as much as possible, although they cannot always trace their family back as far as the white Merina and sometimes inadvertently intermarry. They rarely own any significant amount of land and generally marry their neighbors. Because of this, black Merina families all live relatively close together, unlike the White Merina who are quite far spread.
Bloch bases this article primarily on her own fieldwork. She concludes that the different marriage practices of the black and white Merina have different economic advantages and disadvantages. The white Merina are more advantageous, she claims, because they have relatives all over the country to trade with while the black Merina families are close together. She argues that the Merina successfully instilled their ideals about incest in their slaves, but now they are unable to obey their own rules because of their desire to keep land inheritance within the family.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Bloch, Maurice. The Implications of Marriage Rules and Descent: Categories for Merina Social Structures. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1)164-178.
On the island of Madagascar the native people of the Merina have divided themselves into two groups. Bloch explains that one group consists of the descendants of slave “black” Merina the other group consists of “white” descendants of free Merina. The ‘black’ Merina are not tradition bound and marry exogamously, considering family only to be as close as their third cousin. Their kinship pattern leaves most familial ties in neighboring villages. This is strikingly different from the “white” Merina, who are fiercely tradition bound and prefer endogamous marriages with kinship ties that ‘excuse’ incest from the third cousin on. White Merina also maintain kin ties many miles away, meeting at their ancestral homeland for kin burials. As modern/western technology develops in the capital city, Tananarive, Bloch believes that the differing kinship patterns between the “white” and the “black” Merina will create different implications for the prosperity of future generations of Merina.
Bloch wishes to find the reasons for the different kinship patterns between the two Merina groups, as well as the effect the patterns will have on later generations. He proceeds by comparing the kinship patterns between the free, or “white” Merina, and the “blacks”. Through observation and survey he compares the size and density of each kin group, as well as the proximity to other members of their specific kin groups. In the article he presents a chart depicting the kin density and proximity differences between the two groups to illustrate kinship rules and practices. With this information he determines that despite the rigid tradition bound group, the “white” Merina’s kinship patterns will prove more advantageous to later generations. Bloch argues that marriages between city dwellers and their ‘country cousins’ will help the “white” Merina maintain family land, as well as present better opportunities for education and trade in smaller ‘white’ Merina villages. These strong family ties will create a useful network of resources, whereas the “black” Merina grow more independent and isolated. This will remain the case as fewer “black country cousins” marry into cities, leaving them to rely on their village neighbors for support.
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KRISTEN VENZKE University of Minnesota Duluth (Jennifer Jones)
Bognar-Kutzian, Ida. Zoology and Chronology in Prehistory. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):675-679.
An archaeologist has to consider a wide range of cultural aspects when studying the history of a civilization. S. Bokonyi studied present day Hungary in his fieldwork to determine its prehistoric life. He found that present-day southwestern Asians import sheep and goats for the use of the Hungarian people, and therefore the pre-historic civilization must have begun the practice of animal breeding and keeping of pets. Bokonyi realized that by surveying a wide range of periods dealing with the domestication of local animals, he could he could increase his understanding of the ancient civilization from which these people came. His data ranges over a 2500 year time period, although it took only two years of fieldwork to collect.
Through observing surrounding civilizations, Bokonyi found similarities in the importance of domesticated animals to these cultures. Such similarities are usually found through an intense dating process and analyzed mathematically. Bokonyi’s mathematical analysis has three main steps, which help to determine if cultural aspects are relative to another culture. His steps to analyzing data collected through his fieldwork can be used in any context to find relationships between two cultures and their practices. These steps include the definition of the historical role of cultures, the historical evaluation of the data, and the simultaneous two-dimensional examination of the data.
The first step, the definition of the historical role, includes finding the relative age of a culture and its role within its own region and environment. The second point, the historical evaluation of the data, tells the anthropologist if two cultures are contemporary. The third point is the two dimensional data, which uses mathematical tables to determine spatial and time relations between the two cultures. The use of this type of evaluation is still prevalent and necessary in the study of cultures. The comparison and mathematical evaluation of cultures covers a large area and time period, and offers a great variety of information.
Bokonyi’s mathematical analysis creates a connection between the time periods of the cultures, and the space in which they live, in order to understand where a cultural practice began. Bokonyi was able to determine that the current day practice of pets and animal breeding originated from the ancient western Asian culture of the pre-Scythian population over 2500 years ago, and began the cultural practice of keeping animals and breeding them. This type of method allows anthropologists, like Bokonyi, to learn more about ancient civilizations of present-day cultures, using relatively little information and time.
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AIMEE LECLERCA Dickinson College (Anne Maxwell Hill)
Bognar-Kutzian, Ida. Zoology and Chronology in Prehistory American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol..73(3):675-679
Ida Bognar-Kutzian highlights the importance of incorporating several different disciplines, such as zoology and chronology, into anthropology. She emphasizes the zoological and chronological contributions of S. Bokonyi. As a zoologist, S. Bokonyi has aided archaeology, in the determination of the history and prehistory of Hungary. Most notable is Bokonyi’s chronological sequencing of different cultures and groups. Within the sequenced cultures and groups are periods when animal keeping, domestication of local animals, and animal breeding began.
The author moves to address the concept of integrating chronology as a precondition to understanding the objects, events, phenomena, and processes that archaeology most frequently encounters. Stratigraphic data helps to prove or disprove the simultaneity of two finds at a particular site, thus demonstrating which one might possibly be an earlier find or a later find. Bognar-Kutzian remarks that the wider the analytical environment is, the deeper the understanding of phenomena, objects, events, and processes will be; hence our assessments of them move closer to reality. She also examines the horizon concept of chronology, which “distinguish[s] between proven facts and assumptions, show[s] the relative value of the evidence, and do[es] not compel us to fill the gaps with estimates” (677).
Although Bognar-Kutzian suggests that minor discrepancies have arisen, the majority of her work has been consistent with that of S. Bokonyi’s in determining the various cultural levels during the history and prehistory of Hungary. Several examples are produced to show the significance of the zoological and chronological contributions to archaeology and anthropology.
The length of this article is deceiving. Although very short, the content of this article demands that it be looked at two or three times. She does an excellent job in describing the horizon concept of chronology, as an example, but when finished with her article, you need to reread it to lessen the confusion. After digesting the article for the third time, one can see the importance of zoology and chronology within anthropology in determining the history and prehistory of Hungary.
CLARITY: 2
SARAH M. LITTLE Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Bokonyi, Sandor. The Development and History of Domestic Animals in Hungary: The Neolithic Through the Middle Ages. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol. 73(3):641-673.
In this article, Bokonyi outlines the development of domesticated animals in Hungary from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. His bases his study upon the archaeological evidence of fauna in Hungary because the country well documented the remains from its excavations. In addition to describing the fauna development, he also discusses the cultures, the regions, and the historical time periods in which the domestication of the animals occurred.
Bokonyi argues that the domestication of animals has been in existence since prehistoric times. In the article, he illustrates the progression of the “taming” of animals and offers detailed evidence that supports his argument. For this study, Bokonyi examines the animal remains found in cemeteries and settlement sites. To make his argument clear, Bokonyi organizes the developments into phases and utilizes charts to visually represent the material. The first phase is the beginning of the Neolithic age; sheep and goats were domesticated on a small level, but hunting served as the dominant food source. The next phase was the end of the Neolithic Age through the Copper Age. During this time, man began to domesticate cattle and pigs in large numbers. The third phase began with the Bronze Age and lasted until the first part of the Early Iron Age. Cattle and pigs continued to be tamed and often served as food sources. The fourth phase occurred during the Roman Period. The breeding of animals dominated the culture; different types of horses and dogs came about, and the overall size of the animals increased. The fifth phase lasted from the end of the Roman Period until the beginning of the Middle Ages. During this period, animal breeding became less prevalent, the domestication of sheep dominated the culture, and overall domesticated animals decreased in size. The last phase began with the Middle Ages and ended in the beginning of modern times. Similar to the Roman Period, animal breeding was popular and resulted in the increase in the size of the animals.
As Bokonyi draws upon the research of others and archaeological evidence from Hungary, he creates a convincing, historical essay on the notion of animal breeding. The detailed depictions of each phase give the reader a great understanding of the topic.
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JOHNA BOULAFENTIS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Bowden, Edgar. Cluster Density Analysis of Dimensional Socio-Cultural Evolution Models. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):96-100.
In a previous article (American Anthropologist 1969, 71(5):864-870)) Bowden described a “three-dimensional, branching, socio-cultural evolution model (96).” In this article he proposes a, “quantitative method whereby societal density contours may be constructed at successive cross-sections (96),” of the branching model he previously described.
The branching model is constructed by connecting each society to whichever other society it most closely resembles (the degree of resemblance is determined by another method comparing various traits). Bowden asserts that the branching model is lacking in applicability, which is why he proposes this new method to complement it.
Bowden describes how the cross-sections are produced from the branching model and each contains an equal number of the sample societies. He explains how the “societal density (96)” is measured for each section, taking into consideration the avoidance of “infinite density (97).” He explains that this method assumes that at any given point each society contributes to the overall societal density: “(1) as though all the societies in the cross-section were in the same horizontal plane; (2) in inverse relation to each society’s distance from the selected point (97).”
Bowden illustrates this method using five diagrams that are examples of cross-sections. He mentions that the criteria that these models are based on should be subject to evaluation because some may represent random variation. He argues that a visual representation retains more errors than a purely mathematical model would, but maintains that, despite a few shortcomings that he points out, this method is useful in the study of socio-cultural evolution.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Bowden, Edgar Cluster Density Analysis of Dimensional Socio-Cultural Evolution ModelsAmerican Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):96-100
This short article discusses Edgar Bowden’s quantitative method of representing socio-cultural evolution. The model, building on previous works of the author, is able to reveal the underlying evolutionary structure of various societies, as they relate to each other, by revealing the density contours of cross sections of the pattern at various levels of development. He constructs a “physical model of the basic evolutionary pattern, simplified to its essential features” (96), in order to allow for visualization. He also shows that by placing them alongside each other, one can build up a “composite mental picture” (96).
Bowden’s explanation of the model gives equations and numerical values useful in ascertaining the meaning and value of points on the cross section. He argues that the method is useful because any society in the cross section contributes to the density at any given time. Each society exists along the same horizontal plane, and can be seen in inverse relation to the society’s distance from the selected point.
Bowden is quick to point out problems with the method, and is equally quick to give equations to solve for any “intuitively unacceptable” (97) data. In the article, he shows specific examples of representative density cross sections by societal rank, and compares this model to one he discusses in a previous article.
According to the article, Bowden has confirmed the multilinearity of development for lower levels of evolutionary development, and at the higher levels, he shows the splitting of more or less discrete lines of evolution (100). His hope is that in the future his methods will be further used to include other socio-cultural dimensions mathematically. While he recognizes that his method is not perfect, Bowden cites the need for physical visual representation as reason for the necessity of his method.
This article made use of some complicated material, specifically quantitative research methods that may make it a difficult article for some readers. However, the author was clear in his purpose, and his use of examples gave the article focus.
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JULIE SCHWARTZ Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Brose, David S. Early Upper Paleolithic Man and Late Middle Paleolithic Tools. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73 (5):1156-1193.
The relationship between Neanderthals, a hominid species closely related to humans, and Homo sapiens, or anatomically modern humans, attracts attention among anthropologists because there is an unexplained time gap between the two groups. David Brose, an anthropologist and professor at Case Western Reserve University, has been trying to explain how Neanderthals disappeared and were replaced by Homo sapiens. Tool assemblages have been critical for identifying the line between Neanderthals and humans. Brose argues that more data is needed to definitely distinguish the two groups.
Individuals rather than groups created tools, so no two are identical. Because of this, anthropologists generally categorize Paleolithic tools on the basis of their function. Another obstacle in classification is the fact that no two cultures required the same types of tools. In order to determine the relationship between the different time periods, David Brose had to look at when and why tools were made.
The time of the Neanderthals is often broken into the Middle Paleolithic and the upper Paleolithic, due to some obvious distinctions in climate, physical features, and industries. The change in tools between these periods was gradual. In the Middle Paleolithic time, significant numbers of special purpose tools, like borers, gravers, and other functional tools that are similar to modern day shovels and knives began to appear. Tools made of animal bone were also introduced in this time period, and were very strong and durable. It was in this time period when tools were specialized for specific usage. Tools made tasks such as skinning animals, digging into the earth, and gathering plants for food easier.
In the upper Paleolithic time these sorts of tools were abandoned. Teeth begin to substitute for tools, carrying out functions like pulling, fashioning, and prying animal skin and natural resources from the earth. Use of teeth and adaptation of the skull to cold elements affected the morphology of the Neanderthals. The differences that developed in Neanderthals at this time are what separated them from anatomically modern humans. Brose argues that this morphological difference suggests that Homo sapiens developed out of the Middle Paleolithic population. Brose is very enthusiastic about his argument and presents convincing evidence to support it, however, by his admonition, there are many gaps in his data. Only more discoveries and further research will fill these gaps.
CLARITY RANKING: 2.5
AIMEE LECLERC Dickinson College (Anne Maxwell Hill)
Brose, David S. and Milford H. Wolpoff Early Upper Paleolithic Man and Late Middle Paleolithic Tools American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1156-1194
The main concern in this article is the relationship of Neandertals to anatomically modern Homo sapiens. The authors claim that the appearance of Homo sapiens in Europe, the Near East, and Africa must represent either an evolution of Neandertals in the area or a migration. Brose and Wolpoff promote the gradual evolution of Homo sapiens from Neandertals and criticize the migration explanation on the grounds that there is no “sudden replacement” (1156) of Middle Paleolithic by Upper Paleolithic industries, and there is no morphological evidence indicating a “sudden replacement” of hominids either. They support their statements by using the archaeological record to examine temporal differences and indications of transitional phases.
According to Brose and Wolpoff the radiocarbon dates for Neandertal and Homo sapiens specimens discovered thus far contradict the migration theory. The youngest dates associated with Neandertals range from 40,900 +/-1000 BP to 35,250 +/-530 BP, while the earliest dated specimen of Homo sapiens is 25,820 +/-180 BP. These few dates from a wide range of areas indicate Neandertals precede Homo sapiens, and in no instance do relative stratigraphies or absolute dates indicate Homo sapiens contemporary with or preceding Neandertals in any area, which must be the case if migration occurred.
Next the authors discuss Paleolithic industries and give evidence in favor of a gradual transition from late Middle Paleolithic to early Upper Paleolithic industries. By examining archaeological records from across the globe they declare that most of the tool types that are considered characteristic of the Upper Paleolithic are also present in late Middle Paleolithic assemblages in smaller numbers. The evidence for local transitional industries everywhere Middle Paleolithic industries occur precludes the theory of “sudden replacement” anywhere in the Old World.
Lastly, Brose and Wolpoff suggest that morphological evidence also indicates continuity between Neandertals and Homo sapiens. They propose that Homo sapiens arose from a Neandertal ancestor still associated with Middle Paleolithic industries and Upper Paleolithic industries evolved later. They cite the variability within the Neandertal populations as one line of evidence for their hypothesis. The authors show that there is extensive overlap between the range of almost every Neandertal characteristic and the range of the corresponding characteristic in Homo sapiens. Brose and Wolpoff assert that technological and climatic adaptations are further evidence indicating worldwide evolution of Neandertals into Homo sapiens. They claim “the reduction of anterior dentition is part of a general trend reducing skeletal and muscular rugosity, replacing them with more efficient technology” (1185). Increased cultural adaptations to cold also contributed to the reduction in robustness of Neandertal facial morphology.
This is an interesting topic of discussion, but the extensive use of technical terms inhibits comprehension to some extent. Also, the long length of the article hinders the ability of the reader to understand all the points being made and how they interact.
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JUSTIN LEBIECKI Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Brown, Jennifer The Cure and Feeding of Windigos: A Critique. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):20-22.
In this article, Brown is disputing a recent hypothesis put forward by Vivian J. Rohrl. Rohrl claimed that Algonquian Indians cured windigo psychosis by feeding the afflicted person fatty meat, and that they did this because the process provided positive results due to the condition being a result of nutritional deficiencies. Brown argues that there is no evidence to show that this method of treatment was common, or that it would have been effective.
Brown states that out of the seventy cases researched by Teicher (1960), nutritional deficiencies could only have been a factor in at most twenty-five cases (21). She suggests that the field of psychiatry would be better equipped to discern the causes of windigo psychosis. Brown uses further evidence from Teicher to illustrate the rarity of fatty meat ingestion being used to treat windigo psychosis.
Although the fatty meat ingestion treatment may have been used at times, brown argues, there is no evidence to show that the Algonqians considered nutritional factors. The two cases of this fatty meat ingestion treatment described by Rohrl, according to Brown, can be interpreted in completely different way. Brown argues that the primary reason for the use of this treatment was not to alleviate nutritional deficiencies, but to induce vomiting. Vomiting supposedly removed the “heart of ice” within the windigo, thus curing them. The vomit offered physical evidence that the “heart of ice” had been successfully removed.
A case of a young boy windigo being murdered by his own family is used by Brown to illustrate the rarity of the fatty meat ingestion treatment. If this treatment were so widespread, she argues, why would a family resort to murder so quickly and neglect the painless alternative? The evidence presented by Brown counters the hypothesis put forward by Rohrl extremely well. Brown’s arguments are convincing, but in order to comprehend the subject matter fully it would be necessary to read Rohrl’s article as well.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Brown, Jennifer The Cure and Feeding of Windigos: A Critique American Anthropologis. February, 1971 Vol.73(1):20-22
In this article, the author is giving a critique of a work done by Vivian J. Rohrl. Rohrl’s initial work is about the treatment of windigo psychosis of the northern Algonquians. She hypothesizes that the Algonquians feed the sick fatty meats to cure them. Brown starts off by saying that a hypothesis suggesting that these people knew instinctually that nutrition was a possible cure, needs to be looked at rather carefully. Not only should it be tested in an anthropological sense, but a biological sense as well. Rohrl claims that this treatment in traditional and wide spread in its use, but Brown claims just the opposite, especially since Brown’s focus is on disgorgement rather than feeding. Feeding is one possible cure, but definitely not the orthodox one. In twenty-five cases at most, cannibalism was caused by a nutrition reason, i.e. dire need for food. In the other cases, there was more of a psychological causation. If, for these native people, the cause is not related to nutrition and feeding, then neither is the cure. Feeding was not used often as a cure. Out of seventy cases, only ten were treated in this manner. Most were killed. The natives did not feed the sick fatty meats for a nutritional reason, but rather a cultural one. They wanted to induce vomiting, therefore physically bringing out the heart of ice, or the cause of the illness. Even when the sick are not killed, the focus is still placed on the destruction of the heart of ice. Brown concludes that the work of Rohrl needs to be analyzed further to get to the motivation behind the different treatment styles, to see if it is statistically valid, and if the hypothesis is compatible with the native’s view. Brown criticizes Rohrl for not citing her source correctly, giving inaccurate years and page numbers. The article ends with a story of a typical treatment of windigo psychosis. Here is when the meaning of the disease is made clear. A boy begins to get the uncontrollable need to eat flesh, even biting his father, before being killed to cure him of the evil. If feeding were an oft-used treatment, it would have been considered in this instance.
The author is concise in her analysis. She has specific examples for each of her points. The only drawback is that the disease is not really explained until the firsthand account at the end. Overall, the article is straightforward and has sound arguments.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
SALENA K. KOUNTZ: Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Butzer, Karl W. Another Look at the Australopithecine Cave Breccias of the Transvaal. American Anthropologist October 1971. Vol. 73(5): 1197-1201.
Karl Butzer, in this brief article, examines J. T. Robinson’s hypothesis on the relationship between dietary habits and the contrasting dentition of the three different types of Australopithecines. He addresses the problems he sees involving the interpretation of the sedimentary evidence from the Transvaal cave fills posed by C. K. Brain.
The article’s purpose is to encourage further excavations and laboratory analysis and not to defend a newly proposed argument or to present new analytical data. Using data collected from Sterkfontein and Swartkrans in 1969 and 1970, and Makapansgat and Kromdraai in 1970, the author sees problems with the data’s application to Robinson’s theory of ecological differentiation of australopithecines. The data interpretations of C. K. Brain from 1957 and 1967 were also reevaluated by the author in this article. Upon reexamination of these sediments, the author concludes that Brain’s evidence, based upon angularity of quartz sand grains, the ratio of chert to quartz sand, and sediment color does not argue strongly for a fluctuating climate through time. The large amount of sediment found at each site led the author to infer that accumulation occurred in dry conditions and that these sediments do not argue for the alternating occupation by gracile and robust australopithecines under different environmental conditions. The articles ends with the author emphasizing the important and decisive nature the faunal paleontological evidence will provide for an otherwise poorly supported dietary hypothesis of australopithecine differentiation.
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JENNIFER DANIS Dickinson College (Ann Hill)
Butzer, Karl W. Another Look at the Australopithecine Cave Breccias of the Transvaal.American Anthropologist October 1971 Vol.73(5):1197-1201.
In this paper the author discusses what he believes is a problem with the evidence collected from the australopithecine breccias. He thinks that there should be more research and field study done to get the correct information.
Butzer draws his conclusions from C.K. Brain’s studies, which suggest that the gracile and robust australopithecine exploited different environments due to their differences. The author implies that this information supports the notion of a climatic “curve”, which entails the sequence of wet and dry climates that provided periods of ecological stress. Butzer did not think that this was correct. He believes that Brain’s analyses have little bearing on the environments and deposits at different sites. He suggests that since all the residual products of many ages are all swept into the same colluvial wash the “statistical results would seem to have limited environmental significance and no true quantitative applications.” (1199)
He concludes the article implying that the cave breccias do not provide convincing evidence of a fluctuating climate through time, and that the great bulk of the sediments at each site implies that it was relatively dry. This does not argue for alternating occupation by robust and gracile australopithecine like Brains and J.T. Robinson suggested. Butzer made it quite clear that he was not criticizing Brain’s works; he believed that more research should be done.
This very short article contained a lot of information. It may be hard to understand if there is no prior knowledge of the australopithecines and other work that has be done pertaining to them.
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NAHALA BUYCKS: Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Chenoweth, Vida and Bee, Darlene. Comparative-Generative Models of a New Guinea Melodic Structure. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):773-781
Chenoweth and Bee present a generative description of the vocal music of the Awa of the Eastern Highlands District, a remote area of New Guinea. There are various ethnic groups with diverse languages in New Guinea, and because of this there has been a demand for a, “generative description to facilitate participation in their musical cultures (773).” The authors’ intent is to enable comparison of musical styles and the composition of new songs in these styles.
Chenoweth and Bee analyze songs from ten categories: mourning, war, hunting, marriage, hallucination, songs pertaining to nature and homeland, local events, children’s songs, male initiation songs, and lullaby’s sung by women. Many of these songs are still sung (at least on certain occasions) even though their significance has been lost over the years. Other songs, such as the one for mourning, are still useful. The authors describe the songs in terms of intervals, scale, phrases, and rhythm, as well as, melodic structure and composition, including the development of a scale nucleus, and scale kernel infix and suffix (774-780). They describe the structure of Awa vocal music in three ways: a flow diagram, formulas and a geometric model.
The aim of this description is to enable comparison, so Chenoweth and Bee have begun to attempt comparisons. Trying to generate Usarufa melodies from this model only emphasized the musical differences between these linguistically similar cultures. They hope to continue studying the music of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea and test the comparative capability of their model more fully.
CLARITY RANKING: 1
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Chenoweth, Vida and Darlene Bee. Comparative-Generative Models of a New Guinea Melodic Structure. American Anthropologist. June, 1971 Vol.73(3) 773-782.
The authors’ objective is to present a framework for analysis of the melodic structure of songs of the Awa of New Guinea. The authors give a description of the Awa as being a people numbering 1500 and living in the ” southeastern section of the eastern highlands district of the trust territory of New Guinea” (p.773). The authors describe the melodic systems of the Awa in three methods. These methods are the flow diagram, formulas and a geometric model. The functions of the models, in the authors’ words, are “to enable foreigners to compose in a given musical system,” and also to compare songs between systems (p.773).
The authors start the presentation of descriptive models by categorizing the songs of the Awa by “topic and occasion” (p.774). These categories include mourning, war, hunting, marriage, hallucination, nature or homeland, and local events. After presenting the categories of Awa music, the authors proceed to analyze the songs of the Awa in terms of several characteristics. These include intervals, scales, phrases and rhythm. In these sections the authors analyze the relationships between the melodic structure of the songs, in terms of where the notes are and the rhythm used in a particular song. The authors make etic and emic conclusions of the importance of certain features based on the frequency in which they occur in various songs. For instance, the authors state, ” there are therefore nine emic intervals” (p.775). These emic intervals were categorized as such based on the “frequency of occurrence” in the songs in which they appear (p.775).
In the closing of their article, the authors reiterate the importance of analyzing the musical structure of the songs of the Awa in relation to the information presented within the article. The authors state, ” this model is a simple generative device that, used in conjunction with the scale, phrase and rhythmic description, can generate an infinite number of syntactically correct Awa melodies” (p. 781). A comparatist of musical types, the authors state, ” is primarily interested in…the comparison of systemic relationships, similarities and differences,” and also how ” these similarities and differences relate between systems”(p.781). The system the authors lay out in the article they believe can make this comparison more evident, enhancing it with more “comparative power” (p. 781).
The article is not designed for the average person to understand. It requires an extensive knowledge of musical terms and theory in order to understand why the various conclusions the authors make are significant. I found it very difficult to understand what the author’s were trying to say about the exact significance of rhythm, for example, when the terms they used meant nothing to me.
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ALLISON BOISVENU Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Clark, J. Desmond. Human Behavioral Differences in Southern Africa During the Later Pleistocene. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol. 73 (5): 1211-1235.
In his article, J. Desmond Clark examines four different archeological sites in Sub-Saharan Africa that contain evidence of “Middle Stone Age” human adaptations. He looks at sites that are located in vastly different environments to help explain the greater degree of specialization in stone tool production during this time period (1211). As Clark points out, “different habitats will emphasize some activities more than others, while some sites will reflect only the artifacts associated with a single activity” (1212). He specifically uses information about tools in order to display human behavioral differences in Africa.
Clark’s main agenda in this article is to prove to readers that the production of stone tools became more specialized after 35,000 BC and to show how this specialization can be seen in the variation of stone tools in prehistoric, Sub-Saharan tool-kits. In order to prove this point, Clark examines tool-kits from four different sites located in Twin Rivers Kopje, Kalambo Falls, the Dundo area, and Witkrans. Clark describes the various ways in which archeologists study these tools and compare them. They find which tools are used where, the wear patterns on the tools, and their age (determined through radiocarbon dating or various other methods).
To show the specialization of tools more clearly, Clark describes each site in detail. He notes the environment and the kinds of animals that would inhabit the various areas. The article is filled with descriptions and pictures of tools found in each site. For example, it is noted and pictured that a convergent scraper, a tool made from quartz, was used in the Twin Rivers, while this very same tool was made from chert (a type of stone) in Kalambo Falls. Not only are the tools described physically, but Clark also explains what they were most likely used for. This helps paint a vivid picture in the minds of the readers about the complexity of the tools during this time period. Throughout the article, Clark makes the point that, although the sites have similar tools, there are differences among them due to the needed specializations adapted in response to different habitats.
The data presented is reasonable, descriptive, and accurate, but not always easy to comprehend. Although Clark cites specific examples, the organization of his arguments is hard to understand.
CLARITY RANKING: 2.5
BECKY HAMWAY Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Clark, J. Desmond. Human Behavioral Differences in Southern Africa During the Later Pleistocene. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol 73(4):1211-1236.
This article examines four Middle Stone Age archaeological sites in sub-Saharan Africa. It details paleo-environmental conditions based on archaeological data and by comparison with the contemporary setting. The dating of the sites is between ca. 33,000 and 23,000 years B.P. Paleo-ecologically, the sites are not similar; the environments today are equally dissimilar.
The locations of the sites are
Twin Rivers,15 miles southwest of Lusaka, Zambia
Kalambo Falls (overlooking Lake Tanganyika Rift)
Dundo area of northeast Angola
Witkrans, 50 miles south of Vriburg and 125 miles north of Kimberley in the northern Cape Province of South Africa.
Of particular interest is the composition of stone artifacts. These artifacts “suggest (1) that each site is strategically located for the exploitation of more than one micro-environment and (2) that the nature of exploitation of specific plant and animal resources may be largely responsible for differences in lithic inventory between the sites” (1211).
The author goes into a lot of detail regarding the flora and fauna of the area during the Pleistocene epoch. He suggests that his “hypotheses, which seem very probable now, should be tested by future work” (1211). The article contains a many maps detailing the locations of the sites.
This article is highly technical and really quite difficult for the novice to understand unaided. With the aid of a knowledgeable individual or the Encyclopedia Britannica and a good dictionary, the article can begin to come to life.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
SHERRY BRUMGARD Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Clark, Geoffrey A. The Asturian of Cantabria: Subsistence Base and the Evidence for the Post-Pleistocene Climatic Shifts. American Anthropologist October, 1972. Vol. 73(5): 1245-1257.
The final article by Geoffrey A. Clark analyzes materials from pre-Neolithic sites in Spain. He found that the previous Asturian inhabitants have exploited two major bodies of animal resources: mammals and marine mollusks.
Clark clearly states his objectives in the beginning of his publication. He first examines the faunal information from the sites and proceeds to use this information to specify resources exploited by the Asturian populations. He then utilizes a model of post-Pleistocene climatic fluctuation proposed by Vega del Sella (1916, 1930), combined with his data, to assess the accuracy of events. Clark concludes that present investigations confirm the climatic events defined by Sella since the previous information seems vindicated by the available evidence.
CLARITY: 2
JUSTIN SOLONICK Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Clark, Geoffrey A. The Asturian of Cantabria: Subsistence Base and the Evidence for Post-Pleistocene Climatic Shifts American Anthropologist October 1971 Vol.73(5): 1245-1257.
In this article the author discusses some of the paleoecological aspects of an extinct cultural adaptation called the “Asturian of Cantabria, found in northern Spain.” He wants to prove that there was a climatic shift that affected adaptation. He attempts to organize all known information from Asturian sites, and review the model for post-Pleistocene climatic fluctuation. He uses the data already known to specify resources used by these populations and to “shed some light on the range and nature of extractive techniques.” (1245) The data he used was taken from four sources: site reports, conchero samples, excavated tests and museum collections.
The author places a number of tables throughout the article to organize known data about the expectation of mammals. He comments on what is found in the tables to explain his points. However, he says that the age and sex of the animals in the samples are not known and that the number of individuals taken was not calculated.
The author believes that if “analysis of terrestrial resources exploited shows a relatively stable pattern from the Late Pleistocene through the Asturian, excepting the Magdalenian occupations, analysis of marine fauna reveals a marked shift in species collected, due to climatic factors, and a quantitative increase in the amount of shellfish remains present in the sites, and in the number of species collected.” (1253) Evidence for climatic change is most apparent in the replacement of the cold-adapted winkle by the top shell. This was caused by the onset of the post-glacial climatic optimum.
This is a very confusing article. I did not follow what was being said to make him come to his conclusion.
CLARITY RANKING:1
NAHALA BUYCKS: Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Cochrane, Glynn. Juristic Persons, Group and Individual Land Tenure: A Rejoinder to Goodenough. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1152-1155.
This article is part of series of articles written alternately by Cochrane and Ward H. Goodenough debating issues of property in and use of American legal terms in reference to Trukese culture. This particular article is Cochrane’s response to Goodenough’s criticism of “Use of the Concept of the “Corporation”: A choice between Colloquialism or Distortion,” in which Cochrane comments on Goodenough’s previous analysis of Turkese property law.
Cochrane disagrees with Goodenough’s standards for applying the term “corporation.” He maintains that he used the term in the way that Goodenough had defined it. Certain situations, he explains, do not need English vocabulary to describe them, but rather should be described in the way that the Turkese describe them. He also asserts that the angle American approach that Goodenough utilizes to identify Turkese property law is insufficient in understanding data on the Turkese culture.
Cochrane states that “the distortion” in Goodenough’s analysis “that comes from attempting to fit Turkese joint family tenure into our legal categories is easily seen (1154).” He gives examples of how Turkese law functions in the cases of joint family tenure and estate inheritance and how these differ from Anglo-American culture. He concludes by arguing that, “despite Goodenough’s linguistic smokescreen (1154),” his use of legal terminology is excessive.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Cochrane, Glynn. Use of the Concept of the “Corporation”: A Choice Between Colloquialism or Distortion. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1144-1150.
Cochrane argues that the definitions of the term “corporate” that are currently being employed are failing to convey the meaning of the concept. Glynn examines previous uses of the concept of the corporation by various anthropologists and challenges their accuracy. Cochrane uses the idea of corporateness in his Property, Kin and Community on Truk by Goodenough to illustrate what could be considered inaccurate use of the idea of the corporation
Goodenough uses the term corporate to describe relationships of land ownership and exchange in Trukese society. Cochrane argues that, “Goodenough’s claim that ‘corporateness’ exists in Trukese as in western law is not valid; the result of this imposition, having little empirical fit with reality, can only distort the nature of Trukese property relations (1148).” Indeed, the arguments Cochrane presents do make it seems as though Goodenough’s work contradicts itself repeatedly.
The two ways of defining the concept of the corporation have traditionally been to either use a loose construction that says nothing definite and can imply many things that are incorrect, or to use what is referred to as the Anglo-American legal definition. Cochrane argues that the differing views as to the meaning of term “corporate” cause facts to be distorted because the reader of an article may be familiar with a different definition than the author.
Cochrane argues that anthropologists and other scholars need to define what they mean by the term “corporate” if they use it in their work. A universal definition may or may not exist someday, but this could help to avoid confusion and distortion while the definition is variable.
CLARITY RANKING: 1
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Cochrane, Glynn Use of the Concept of the “Corporation”: A Choice Between Colloquialism or Distortion American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1144-1149.
Glynn Cochrane suggests that there are alternatives to using the term corporation that may prove to be more appropriate where it is necessary to depict arrangements involving group possession. He states that “two traditions of usage exist with regard to the concept of ‘corporateness’ in relation to lineages or other kinds of organization; either, a loose construction has been placed on the term or, authors have claimed that they were using it in its Anglo-American legal sense” (1144). If anthropologists decide to utilize the term corporateness they have to choose between distorting ethnographic data or a kind of anthropological slang.
Cochrane offers up several examples of the informal anthropological version of the non-legal, loose tradition of employing the corporation term. More importantly, Cochrane focuses on the Anglo-American legal interpretation of corporation terminology used by Ward H.Goodenough. He notes that Goodenough embraces the definition of corporation that is seen in Webster’s New International Dictionary. “Any group of persons or objects treated by the law as an individual or unity having rights or liabilities or both, distinct from those of the persons or objects comprising it” (1145). Cochrane also notes that Goodenough fails to recognize the importance of the corporation’s perpetual succession and its development in English law.
Cochrane sets out to prove that the information within Goodenough’s article is misleading and that it distorts ethnographic data, as he suggests usually happens when anthropologists decide to employ the term corporation. He summarizes Goodenough’s article making distinctions between the terms full title or ownership, residual title, provisional title, junior or cadet lineages and how these terms relate to the idea of a corporation. Cochrane believes that Goodenough’s model is insufficient because it fails to take into account the hierarchical nature of property relations. He also states that Goodenough’s claim that corporateness exists within the Trukese culture as it does in western law has only distorted the nature of the Trukese property relations.
Cochrane suggests how Goodenough could have avoided the corporate confusion and recommends that there are alternatives to the corporation concept, one being from English law descent and the other from Hindu law. He also states that he understands that the informal use of the word corporation can and will persist, but a precise meaning of its usage will have to be clearly labeled.
Cochrane did a wonderful job of presenting his argument on the correct usage of the term ‘corporation’ along with his subsequent objections and suggestions regarding the term’s usage. The presentation of his article was very well organized. On the other hand, his close examination of Goodenough’s article gave rise to confusion in trying to follow each lineage and its relation to a corporation. A second reading of the article could clarify the confusion. Although his article was informative, it was equally unexciting.
CLARITY: 4
SARAH M. LITTLE Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Bennett, Stith. An Exploratory Model of Play. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1): 45-58.
The authors of this article create a model for play by examining the three possible relationships that beings hold with their environment. The most common of these in the can be described as the experience of “worry.” Anxiety occurs when the requirements for action placed on an individual outnumber the ability to complete them. At other times our relationship with the environment tends to produce another kind of experience: boredom. A wearing tedium or dullness can pervade action that has become routinized, making it hard to tell present action from past actions, since monotony lacks change or variety. The fewer opportunities for action we perceive, the more bored we become. Play is established when a balance is achieved, and the actions taken do not remove the possibility of future actions. This necessitates that an equilibrium be established with one’s environment. A most outstanding quality of this state of participation is the actor’s lack of an “outside” viewpoint on his conduct: a lack of self consciousness. The state of play precludes anxiety.
Csikszentmihalyi and Bennett also examine the different structures, which institutionalized play-forms, known as “games” take. In order to sustain the balance of actions, games set specific rules, where only certain choices and responses are possible. Most are based on the competitive model, where violence and aggression are not uncommon. However, it is important to note the distinctly separate identities displayed inside and outside the game. This form of play is further divided into games of strategy, games of chance, and games of physical skill. Although all have unique actions, origins, and requirements, they serve the same function: to remove oneself from conventional experience. Play emerges out of the context of everyday life whenever the latter becomes too worrisome, and slips back into everyday life whenever the play experience becomes too boring.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
LAUREN SWIFT Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Stith Bennet An Exploratory Model of Play American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):45-58
The authors begin by stating play is a universal cultural category grounded in the concept of possibility. Their conceptualization of play is when our relationship with the environment is in a state of balance between worry and boredom. Play is experienced when a slice of reality is delimited with which the player can cope in a predictable way. Play is characterized as the merging of awareness with action, which creates a state of oneness with one’s behavior. The lack of an analytic viewpoint on one’s conduct produces a lack of self-consciousness during the play episode. Csikszentmihalyi and Bennet assert that the requirement of a good game is that it should allow the player to sustain the experience of oneness with their action for a long span of time. With this in mind they analyze games of chance, games of strategy, and games of skill.
Ethnological evidence shows that most games originally served to relate the player with supernatural forces. Games of chance seem to have emerged from the divinatory aspect of religious ceremonies. There are many examples in North America of ceremonial activities such as fasting occurring before dice games. The desire to win the stakes placed on the outcome is a powerful motivation to play, but the authors point out that the real stake is the player’s ability to outwit chance.
Next the authors analyze games of strategy and assert that the distinction between these and games of chance is blurred. Poker is often cited as a game of strategy despite the fact that the game includes a large amount of chance. The authors mention chess as probably the most excellent game of strategy due to its ability to create the most absorbing play experience. The rules allow for an almost infinite variety of situations to develop and it can be as challenging to beginners as it is to masters.
Lastly the authors look at games of physical skill and describe them as the most universal play-forms. Games of physical skill are performed for many different religious, political, and social reasons. Among the Iroquois, lacrosse was played as part of a seasonal ritual, an inter-tribal feud, an intra-tribal status struggle, and as a remedy for a man’s sickness.
Csikszentmihalyi and Bennet declare that all forms of games were, and still are, inherently divinatory. The player is essentially trying to cope with the requirements for action that a particular situation presents. Although the rules change from game to game, each play-form allows the player to forget himself or herself, the world, and the distinction between the two.
This article gives an appealing definition of play and the forms it can take under different categories of games. The definitions and descriptions given are wordy and hard to make sense of some of the time.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JUSTIN LEBIECKI Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
de Laguna, Frederica. Diamond Jenness, C.C. 1886-1969. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):248-251.
Diamond Jenness was born in 1886 in New Zealand. In 1908 he gradated from Victoria University College of the University of Wellington and went on to Balliol College, Oxford University. There he earned a B.A. in Lit. Hum. And a Diploma in Anthropology in 1911, and an M.A. in 1916.
Jenness’ fieldwork began in 1911 with research on Goodenough Island, off New Guinea, where his brother in law Rev. A. Ballantyne, was stationed a missionary. After a year of fieldwork he wrote a monograph in cooperation with Ballantyne called The Northern D’Entrecasteaux. From 1913-1916 Jenness participated in the Canadian Arctic Expedition, of which only a few survived. There he studied northern Alaskan Eskimos, and the Canadian Cooper Eskimos the following year.
Throughout his life Jenness studied Eskimos comprehensively. He published many works including: “A New Eskimo Culture in Hudson Bay” (1925), People of the Twilight (1928, 1959), The Indians of Canada (1932), “Prehistoric Culture Waves from Asia to America” (1940), and Dawn in Arctic Alaska (1957).
In addition to his extensive work with Eskimos and in New Zealand, Jenness also spent time in Cyprus, resulting in The Economics of Cyprus, A Survey to 1914 (1962). He also served in the military beginning in 1917 as a gunner in the 58th Battery of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was Deputy Director of intelligence for the Royal Canadian Air Force (1940-1943), Chief of the Inter-Service Topographical Section, which he created (1943-1946) and Director of Research, Geographical Bureau, Canadian Department of National Defense (1947).
Throughout his life Jenness acquired honors, honorary degrees, and prominent positions in various organizations to numerous to mention. Jenness is remembered as an incredible anthropologist and writer. His wife, Eileen, and three sons, John, Stewart and Robert, survive him.
CLARITY: 5
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Denham, Woodrow W. Energy Relations and Some Basic Properties of Primate Social Organization. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):77-95.
Woodrow Denham’s article is about the relationship of non-human primates (e.g. apes and monkeys) to their environment. He analyzes the impact of the relationship between energy and food distribution on some basic characteristics of primate social organization, such as mating, population density and structure of social groups. His purpose is to construct a new model that would improve on an earlier model of primate social organization based on environmental and behavioral characteristics. He believes the characteristics described in the earlier model were unsystematic and inconsistent. Three types of primate responses are introduced at the beginning of the article: food acquisition, protection strategy, and reproduction. Denham describes the primate’s role in a food web as both a producer and a consumer. They consume plants to obtain energy, and thus become energy sources for their predators. In terms of protection, primates will practice concealment and escape as a means of keeping their acquired energy. This energy will later be expended through sexual reproduction.
The focus of Denham’s article is individual energy utilization for the purpose of reproduction. He argues that through the acquisition of energy, anti-predator behavior, and the structure of the organism, primates are able to efficiently expend their energy to procreate offspring and continue to structure their social organization. Denham strengthens his arguments by providing graphs that illustrate the relationships of energy to various social characteristics.
Denham continues on to show how primates act as energy sources. He examines the natural habitats of primates to determine whether or not they will be a predator or prey. This can be determined based on the food predictability and food density of the environment. Environments that are open and have a high-density food supply do not serve well as a place to protect oneself from its predators. On the other hand, those that provide dense physical surroundings and food distribution allow primates to furnish themselves with ample protection against predators. As a result, these primates have the capacity to develop social organizations, practice their mating habits efficiently, and continue reproduction.
In this article, Denham builds a strong model based on the environments of different primates to illustrate how this process is carried out. The article is both highly detailed in information and very specific in describing how primates react to their environments based on their energy, but is a difficult concept to grasp for those that are unfamiliar to the topic.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
BRENDAN BURLAND Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Denham, Woodrow W. Energy Relations and Some Basic Properties of Social Organization American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):77-95
This article is a criticism of Crook and Gartlan’s paper on the “Evolution of Primate Societies” (1966). Although Denham agrees that “social structure in many widespread primate species is largely habitat-rather than species-specific” (77), he claims that the disorganized presentation of the article allows gaps in the argument. This is an alternative look at the information provided by Crook and Gartlan with further insight by Denham. Diagrams obtained from the first article are altered to illustrate Denham’s views on the sociologic relationship between primates and energy acquisition, food density, food predictability, and evidence of predators in varying environments. Denham also observes gender ratios and mating within a primate group.
According to the author, all primates are consumers and producers, meaning that primates both gain energy by acquiring it from food sources and lose energy to other predators and parasites. This results in three types of responses in primates: energy acquisition, defensive strategies, and reproductive practices. Examples of energy acquisition includes hunting and foraging; defensive responses are passive concealment, escape, and confrontation; and mating practices include mongogamy, polygyny, polyandry, and promiscuity.
Emphasis is placed upon the connection between response of a primate group in reaction to stimuli and environmental conditions. Denham continues to discuss modes of behavior with diagrams showing energy expenditure versus energy preservation. Discussed in detail are the three anti-predator strategies, identifying which strategy would be the most energy efficient.
After speaking at length about food acquisition and defense, Denham goes on to tie the concept of food density, food predictability, and defense with optimal mating behavior for different groups. Four habitats result. Areas of high food density and high predictability (“HH”) cause primates to form monogamous relationships and, depending on the necessity of predator confrontation, mate either seasonally or permanently. Habitats of high food predictability and low food density (“HL”), due to heightened predator confrontation, allow for polygamous mating and permanent or temporary. Environments of low predictability and high food density (“LH”) allow for a much higher concentration of animals, giving defense responsibilities to peripheral males and allowing promiscuous mating of all mature primates. Last, areas of low food density and low predictability (“LL”) are more dispersed spatially than “LH”, decreasing the potency of peripheral male protection and selecting for groups of one male and multiple females. This results in polygynous mating. Denham maintains that in nature, these extreme cases are less likely than gradations between them due to ever-changing factors in the habitat.
Denham concludes his article by disagreeing that studying non-human primate behavior will aid in the study of the human social evolution. The author suggests that although primatological data may not aid in the explanation of human evolution in society, it may provide evidence explaining aspects of social organization of primates including man.
Denham provides valid reasoning for his assumptions which are well-illustrated by tables and diagrams to elucidate his point.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
STEPHANIE SMITH Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Douglass, William A. Rural Exodus in Two Spanish Basque Villages: A Cultural Explanation. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1100-1113
Douglass examines economic and cultural factors in Echalar and Murelaga, two villages in Basque regions of Spain. In the past few decades there has been a pattern of exodus from agricultural villages and migration to urban areas in this area of Spain. The predominant theory suggests that the reasons behind this pattern are entirely economic. Douglass argues that economy is a factor, but that cultural motivations must be examined as well. For this study, Douglass selected two villages, Echalar and Murelaga, which are identical in almost all ways. The two main ways that these villages differ are distribution of farmland and the methods of land inheritance.
Both villages are made of farms called baserriak, which have been in use for centuries. In Echalar, a farmer’s lands are spread out in small patches. Anything he does to his field effect his neighbors, whose fields are right next to his. Some fields may be up to one kilometer away, and others much closer to his home. In Murelaga, the situation is different. A farmer’s lands are all connected and surround his home. Neighbors land are no so close, so he is free to plant whatever he chooses without effecting other farmers.
Because of the more favorable agricultural circumstances, one would suspect that farmers in Echalar would be less likely to abandon their farms, but this not so. Douglass found that more people from Echalar had abandoned their farms and moved to the city than in Murelaga. He attributes this to the land inheritance methods, which differ in the two villages.
In Murelaga, male children and age order are large factors in heir selection. The child who is selected to be the heir to his/her parents land is socialized into the role from birth. They have stricter rules to follow than their siblings and must exhibit maturity sooner. In Echalar, there are no rules regarding inheritance, and the parents may select and child. Douglass found that this may have created competition between the siblings at one time, but at this point few are interested. They would rather move out and find another vocation than stay home and compete over the farm.
Douglass argues that although economics provides one reason for the mass exodus from farms in this area of Spain, cultural elements must be considered as well. These two villages show that the situation may be much more complex than economic statistics can show.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Douglass, A. William. Rural Exodus in Two Spanish Basque Villages: A Cultural Explanation. American Anthropologist. October 1971. Vol. 73(5):1100-1114.
This article’s main purpose is to discuss the depopulation of rural Spain. The population is rapidly increasing in urban areas while it is rapidly decreasing in rural areas. This whole phenomenon is known as rural exodus. Some believe that this rural exodus is due to economic opportunity. This article discusses the fact that it may have to do with other factors such as the social setting or cultural aspects of the areas. To further prove this point, Douglass’s compares two Spanish Basque villages, Echalar and Murelaga.
Both of these villages are located in mountain regions and are exposed to similar conditions. Agriculture was the main source of economy for both villages. Although it continues to be a major economic source in both, since the turn of the century there have been changes in agriculture, from subsistence farming to commercial farming. The lands of the villages are different with Echalar having more communal land. The other difference is the separation of land. Echalar has more distance between the landholders while Murelaga landholders are closer together.
Land is passed on from generation to generation, some dating back to the fifteenth century. The heir is either determined by male primogeniture in Murelaga or determined by the donor’s discretion in Echalar. The passing down of land by inheritance is an important aspect of both villages.
Douglass discusses some causes for the change in population over the years. Improvements in technology are seen as a factor in this change. Fewer workers are needed to keep the farm up. Looking at numbers of inhabitants through out the years, there was a decrease in population. War and changes in the economy caused some farmers to abandon their land. Echalar has more significant rural exodus compared to Murelaga.
The difference in the way that heirs are treated may be a factor in the population difference. In Murelaga, heirs are treated differently from non-heir siblings, they are taught more responsibility. On the contrary, the selection of heir in Echalar is determined at the discretion of the donors. There is a competition for heirship, which leads to sibling rivalry.
Another reason for decline in farming has to do with the cultural aspect of farming. Masters of the farm were once seen as the most prestigious roles in the village. Now, there is little prestige and farmers are seen as brutish. This change in prestige has caused siblings in Echalar to compete not to be the heir but to the escape of the heirship.
This article was lengthy and had a lot of information that seemed repetitious. However, it was easy to read and made me realize the importance of including microanalysis in demographic studies.
CLARITY: 4
AMANDA DEKARSKE Michigan State University. (Susan Applegate Krouse).
Ember, Melvin and Ember, Carol R. The Conditions Favoring Matrilocal Versus Patrilocal Residence. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):571-593.
Ember and Ember quantitatively evaluated various factors that may contribute the determination of matrilocal or patrilocal residence. They ran cross-cultural test on a series of theories relating to residence patterns with information obtained from the Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock 1962-1963).
They began by testing a popular theory that division of labor by sex determines marital residence. The results of the experiment were not statistically significant. These results differed from the results obtained by Driver and Massey (1957) on residence patterns in North America. Ember and Ember ran more tests and came to the conclusion that division of labor does have a somewhat significant influence on residence patterns in North America, in contrast to the rest of the world.
To explain the reasons for matrilocal or patrilocal residence throughout the world, the authors next tested the theory put forward by Murdock, that male status determines residence. This theory suggests that in societies where men have power in the form of movable wealth or political influence or where there is continual warfare, there is a tendency toward patrilocal residence. Ember and Ember found that movable wealth (large domesticated animals and slaves) and political influence both had significant relationships with patrilocal residence, but warfare did not.
The authors them examined matrilineal and patrilineal societies and found that patrilineal societies were more likely to engage in warfare against closely related communities. This reason for this, they argue, is that matrilineal societies are often not patrilocal, and some of the men born in a community will be living in nearby communities and not likely to fight against their families. Ember and Ember divided the societies in their study into those involved in internal warfare and those exclusively involved in external warfare. The societies involved in only external warfare tended to be matrilocal.
Ember and Ember argue that matrilineal societies are more likely to have matrilocal residence patterns because they engage in internal warfare less frequently. Because external warfare takes the men away from the community, the women must take over much of the subsistence labor. The opposite is true for patrilineal societies. Ember and Ember tested many factors to find reasons for residence patterns. They support their ideas with significant statistics and repeated experiments.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Ember, Melvin and Carol R. Ember. The Conditions Favoring Matrilocal versus Patrilocal Residence. American Anthropologist June 1971 Vol.73(3):571-594
This article is a description of cross-cultural tests conducted on many explanations of matrilocal versus patrilocal residence. The Embers’ objective is to discuss the different patterns of marital residence and to see if they favor matrilocal or patrilocal. They are interested in, “the conditions that give rise to the relatively small number of different patterns…” (571), which are only known to some extent.
The most common explanation of marital residence is, “the one that assumes that the division of labor by sex largely determines where a couple resides after marriage” (571). This division of labor labels the person who does most of the work as dominant. The pattern of residence is centered on this person. For example, “where males predominate in the division of labor, residence should tend to be patrilocal… Where females predominate, residence should tend to be matrilocal… And where neither sex predominates, the pattern or residence should localize neither sex… and neolocal residence” (571).
After testing the most common explanation, the results were as follows; men were said to be, “the most frequently localized if they do more work than women. Women are most frequently localized where they contribute more, and that neither sex tends to be localized where both sexes contribute equally…” (572).
The authors point out those interpretations of the results were not as they expected. The article states, “where men do more than women… the patterns of residence that localize males should be found more often than expected by chance… Where the sexes do an equal amount of work, we should find that residential patterns localizing neither sex should occur more often than expected… but they occur less often…. Similarly, where women do more than men, localization of females occurs less often than expected by chance…” (573).
The authors then discovered that there was a relationship that could clarify the relationship between the division of labor and matrilocal vs. patrilocal residence. They discovered, “the presence of warfare” (593). Evidence showed, “if warfare is continual, men will contribute more than women…unless the warfare prevents them from doing so” (593). Another discovery was the fact that warfare might affect residence because, “matrilocal societies have warfare only with other societies much more often than patrilocal societies” (593).
This article was very interesting. It pointed out numerous facts related to patrilocal and matrilocal residence, as well as the different cross-cultural tests that were used to explain the oppositions between the two. The article focuses on the authors’ main points respectively, but it never says if these tests were approved. Also the article does not really go into detail of what patrilocal or matrilocal residence consist of.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JENINE CLEMENTS Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Freeman, L.G. New Research in Paleoanthropology (Introduction). American Anthropologist October,1971 Vol.73(5):1195-1197.
Paleoanthropology is one of many sub-disciplines in the field of anthropology. Paleoanthropology attempts to analyze different relationships between the physical and behavioral factors in the evolution of Homo sapiens and its hominid ancestors, focusing primarily on pre-agricultural societies worldwide. New research in paleoanthropology emphasizes the re-examination of past field reports. The new results are thus based upon previous fieldwork in combination with methods utilized from interdisciplinary fields. Freeman’s article, “New Research Techniques in Paleoanthropology,” is an introduction to a collection of five papers illustrating new research techniques in this particular sub-field. These combined papers are intended to illustrate the fusing of paleoanthropology with other relevant natural sciences.
In general, the collection of articles introduced by Freeman effectively explain new research techniques in Paleoanthropology and critique earlier approaches. The articles illustrate the combination of interdisciplinary sciences and social sciences, proving that past works pertaining to paleoanthropology need to be re-examined. While the articles are very informative, they are also very technical and should be read carefully.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JUSTIN SOLONICK Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Freeman, L.G. New Research in Paleoanthropology. American Anthropologist. October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1195-1197
The author’s objective is to explain new research within anthropology’s subdiscipline, paleoanthropology. This field attempts to learn, depict, and understand evidence for the behavioral and physical evolution of Homo sapiens and their ancestors. Physical anthropologists and archaeologists conduct these studies. The time range that they work in consists from late Pliocene through the Pleistocene.
“Old-fashioned prehistory was primarily concerned with the definition of traditions of toolmaking, the delineation of the major stages through which each tradition had progressed and the assignment of each stage of each tradition to its proper temporary position” (1195). Traditional prehistorians formulated guesses and arguments about behavior imposed by hunting and gathering. As research advances, they are finding that past ideas about prehistoric human behavior are misleading and false and must be discarded in order for new analysis to occur.
With the emergence of this field, the author explains that American Anthropologist published a special issue in 1966. More recently, the five papers helped to define the new field. Articles included the organization of artifacts and features, defined the field further into explaining regional surveys, and provided an “activity-specific Paleolithic toolkit” (1198). Butzer’s article was based on South African cave sediments and questioned environmental conditions. Hansen and Keller’s article was based on the excavation of the Acheulean site of Isimila. They found micro environmental differences for two occupation floors. J.D. Clark wrote his article on four Middle Stone Age sites. Marks wrote the next submission on two regions in the Negev. He studied settlement patterns and artifacts leading to delineation. G. Clark wrote the last article on the study of post-Pleistocene Asturian activity of Cantabria couples. He reviewed past literature and suggested that site location was important for the manipulation of natural resources. In closing the author notes that “in our attempt to understand man’s physical and behavioral evolution, we are at long last learning to distinguish Evolution from the concept of Progress and to equate it, as rightfully must be done, with Adaptation” (1197).
This article is very easy to understand with the exception of what is contained in the special issue of American Anthropologist. Positives to this article include its length, content, and understandability. The negatives include a lack of pictures and a lack of solid context.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
ADAM COHEN Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Freeman, Milton M.R. A Social and Ecological Analysis of Systematic Female Infanticide Among the Netsilik Eskimo. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1011-1017.
In this article, Freeman questions the relation between ecology and culture to the systematic killing of female infants. The author wishes to explain to his reader that infanticide is more of a cultural practice than a strategy for maintaining ecological stability. His argument is constructed by first presenting the theories held by past ethnographers, then providing discrepancies throughout the data of those researchers, and finally bringing in valid evidence for his point: culture is the reason the Netsilik commit infanticide; ecological adaptation is only a result.
The Pelly Bay Eskimo live in a naturally harsh environment and unstable ecosystem. Between pregnancy, lactation, and taking care of and feeding a young child, reproduction expends more energy than the Netsilik can spare, thus it is a costly process for the people. Ethnographers have theorized that infanticide is a means of controlling population growth in order to minimize energy expenditure. By keeping the number of adults higher than the number of children in the group, there is a lower percentage of dependents who expend energy. The Netsilik population has been stable for the last 100 years of their existence, and it is possible infanticide has played a role in keeping the adult/child ratio favorable and the population growth minimal.
However, Freeman argues that while infanticide does occur at times of famine, or “peak ecological pressure” (1013), it also occurs at times when resources are plentiful and the environment is conducive to survival, which raises questions about the ethnographers’ previous theories. Also, Freeman states that “only female infants are killed” (1014). In the instance of one Netsilik family, a hunter and his wife had given birth to 12 children. The three sons were allowed by their father to live, while the nine daughters were not. From this, it might be gathered that the Netsilik Eskimo seem to value sons more than daughters. A mother may kill her newborn daughter rather than waste energy nursing her, and the woman may also receive pressure from her husband to commit infanticide in order to ensure the birth of a son in the near future. There have been reports of mothers who would like to bring up their daughters for companionship, but merely do what their husbands wish in order to keep tension at a minimum in the household. Infanticide is a cultural practice so common in Netsilik culture that it has, over time, been ingrained.
Freeman concludes his article by explaining that while infanticide has a role in keeping the ecology of their environment stable, he doubts that the Eskimo use this reasoning in their continuation of the practice. He believes the people of Pelly Bay are driven to commit infanticide due to the evaluation of sex roles within the culture. Freeman’s reasoning makes sense, but I would have been more convinced if he had given evidence from fieldwork at Pelly Bay and interaction with the Netsilik to back up his claims about infanticide in their society.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
LAURA MACLEOD Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Goldschmidt, Walter and Kunkel, Evalyn Jacobson. The Structure of the Peasant Family.American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1058-1075.
In this article Goldschmidt and Kunkel examine forty-six peasant communities to try to come to some conclusions about the social organization of peasant societies in general, especially concerning the family structure. The authors define a peasant society as a society that: “1) consists chiefly of agricultural producers who have rights to the land that they cultivate, 2) produces primarily for it’s own subsistence needs though also for exchange, and 3) forms part of a state organized system (1058).” They mention that definition is not meant to dispute other definitions, but is very useful in this particular study.
The methods used are primarily statistical analysis of existent data. Peasant societies from around the world were studied. Family structure, descent and inheritance are the main focus of the study. External as well internal factors affecting the social structure are also examined. Inheritance methods are divided into partible and impartible. These inheritance practices are considered in relation to various factors including patrilineal descent and land scarcity. The authors attempt to find a correlation between family structure and land inheritance.
Goldschmidt and Kunkel conclude that, generally speaking, there are three types of peasant families: “patrilineal stem family associations with impartible inheritance, patrilineal joint families associated with patrilineal partible inheritance, and nuclear families associated with bilateral partible inheritance 1069).” They found that the theory that land scarcity was a major influence on inheritance was largely incorrect, and can only be associated with impartible inheritance. Peasant social structures, they argue, are primarily shaped by outside influences, including urbanization of the surrounding state.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Goldschmidt, Walter and Evalyn Jacobson Kunkel The Structure of the Peasant FamilyAmerican Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1058-1076
The authors’ purpose in writing this article was to describe the family structures of the forty-six peasant communities they studied. Goldschmidt and Kunkel examined information on peasant communities in Europe, Asia and the Americas for their research. For the purpose of this study the authors’ define the communities as “(1) chiefly agricultural producers who have rights in the land that they cultivate, (2) produces primarily for its own subsistence though also for exchange, and (3) forms part of a state-organized political system” (1058).
In describing the peasant family structure, the authors reveal that there are three patterns through which peasants lands are inherited: “(1) It may be passed on by a single unit to a single heir. Sons are uniformly the preferred heirs… (2) All sons may share in the inheritance of land. They may work the land jointly for a time, but ultimately the land is subdivided among the heirs… (3) Land may be divided among all the offspring, sons and daughters” (1062).
The authors further detail the three major types of preferred household structure. These three types are the patrilocal stem families, the patrilocal joint families and the “nuclear families, in which the married offspring establish economically and jurally independent households” (1062). Finally, Goldschmidt and Kunkel examine how various peasant communities around the world deal with inheritance during periods of land scarcity.
The authors’ research on peasant communities and the family structure is dull, confusing and difficult to follow. Straightforward examples would have been beneficial; the examples provided did not assist with comprehension of the material.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
DEBORAH ROELS Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Goodenough, Ward H. Corporations: Reply to Cochrane. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73 (5):1150-1152.
Although a terribly short article, Goodenough fills it with information. As a scholar on the society called Truk, which is located in the Caroline Islands off of Papua New Guinea, Goodenough sets out to refute a colleague (Cochrane) who commented on Goodenough’s usage of the word “corporation” to describe Truk practices. Goodenough claims that, in using the word “corporation,” he was trying to portray the property-holding characteristics of various family groups in Truk which have “rights and duties as a unity party” different from those “rights and duties” of the individuals of the family group. Goodenough uses the example of utilizing English alphabet letters to refer to Trukese sounds. He explains that it is difficult, as the English letters that refer to certain sounds are not very comparable to those of the Trukese sounds. Along these lines, Goodenough claims that, in order to describe Trukese practices which are really incomparable to Western practices, he used the word “corporation” to give the facts of the situation, which he claims to be the only “serious scientific issue.” Therefore, Goodenough states that he was only being an intelligent anthropologist and reporting on his observations in Trukese society. Therefore, his colleague (Cochrane) has no right to state that Goodenough was wrong in using this word. Although Cochrane defines the word “corporation” in a much more strict sense than Goodenough desires, his is the usual English definition. However, for Goodenough’s purposes, it is in the interest of scholars to use those words that most closely resemble those of another culture. Therefore, Goodenough was not wrong to use the word “corporation” and should not be criticized for it.
Evidence in this article is lacking, as it truly is a refutation of an article written by Cochrane. However, Goodenough proves his point in a brief manner. The article is highly convincing and is easy to read.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
CARRIE CHARTERS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Goodenough, Ward H. Corporations: Reply to Cochrane. American Anthropologist. October 1971 Vol. 73(5):1150-1152
Goodenough wrote this article as a response to Cochrane’s criticism of Goodenough’s “Property, Kin and Community on Truk” (1951). In Cochrane’s criticism, he claimed that Goodenough had used the term “corporation” incorrectly. Here, Goodenough defends his position and also expounds on some things that he had learned since his previous writing.
When Goodenough discusses corporation, he uses the term to refer to the way in which the Trukese people deal with land and property issues. He states the he was simply attempting to use an English word “to refer to a Trukese cultural entity”. When he chose the word “corporation” to refer to Trukese property-holding groups, he did so because in that context, one of several meanings attached to “corporation” in American English could properly define it.
Unless one has read the first article by Goodenough and the criticism by Cochrane, this article may be a bit difficult to follow. Because Goodenough bases much of his article on the assumption that the reader has knowledge of the other two articles, he leaves out many important facts. It is difficult to understand why he would bring up phonetics in this discussion, as he does with the pronunciation of Pagopago, a town in Samoa. However, if one has read the previous two articles, then it will make more sense, as Goodenough does clarify some things that he feels have been misinterpreted in his first article.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JESSICA BISHOP Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Gould, Harold A. Jules Henry 1904-1969. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):788-797.
Jules Henry was an intelligent and dedicated man who made many contributions to the field of anthropology. He took his bachelor’s degree from City College of New York before attending Columbia University. At Columbia he studied under Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, with whom he worked closely, and took the first class taught there by Margaret Mead.
Henry’s doctoral research was done in southwest Brazil among the Kaingang Indians. He became skilled at their language quickly and lived there from 1932 to 1934. The resulting book, Jungle People, shows the psychological approach Henry applied to anthropology. His approach had been influenced not only by his coursework at Columbia, but also by previous fieldwork under Ruth Benedict with the Apaches and his own interest in the ideas of Sigmund Freud. Henry was one of the first anthropologists to include psychoanalytical ideas in their work.
After graduate school Henry sought to learn more about psychoanalytic approaches and use them with his ethnographic methods. In 1936 he traveled to Northern Argentina to study the Pilaga. His interest in psychology is reflected in Doll Play of the Pilaga Indians (1944) and “Rorschach Analysis of Pilaga Children (1942).
From 1939 to 1941 Henry was in Mexico, working for the Mexican government with Indian languages and literacy. There he saw the depresses state of that region, which as true of much of the world, and ideas he had established while working in Argentina were reinforced. Henry felt that anthropologist should try to help people and that allowing their own morals to play a part was not wrong but rather necessary. As Gould mentions about his later work, “…he condemns the lack of moral commitment, the sterile professionalism of “formalistic” anthropology”(792).
Influence by World War two and it’s consequences, Henry began to study “the complex national systems in which mankind increasingly lives” (791). This interest is reflected in his next publications, all from 1946: “Initial Reactions to the Americans in Japan,” “Employment Exchange in Brazil,” Developments in Brazilian Labor Since D-Day,” and “Environment and Symptom Formation.”
In 1947 Henry accepted a position as Associate Professor at Washington University, where he spent many years. It was there that he taught Harold A. Gould, who describes Henry as a “passionate” educator. Henry’s book Culture Against Man was written during this period. It expresses his view that culture not outside of but rather an expression of human will (791).
CLARITY: 4
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Greuel, Peter J. The Leopard-Skin Chief: An Examination of Political Power Among the Nuer. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1115-1120.
Peter Greuel’s article concerns the ethnographic work of Edward Evans-Pritchard on the Nuer society in southern Sudan, namely Evans-Pritchard’s analysis of their leopard-skin chief. Evans-Pritchard claims that the leopard-skin chief is primarily a religious figure, who performs rituals, and mediates disputes, but lacks real political power in the society. He also maintains that the Nuer have a classless society where no one has any real political power. Greuel claims that Evans-Pritchard leaves readers with only a vague idea of the actual role of the leopard-skin chief. Greuel argues that because the kin group is the basis of one’s political strength in the Nuer, whoever can assemble the largest kin group coalition is the most compelling in settlement of disputes. Because the leopard-skin chief is paid a substantial payment of cattle for his mediation services, he has the resources for assembling a large coalition. Such a large coalition, Greuel argues, would make the chief a political force, not a passive religious representative.
Greuel also points out a contradiction in Evans-Pritchard’s work. He notes that people seek protection in the leopard-skin chief’s home, which is surrounded by the homes of sons and patrons. Because the chief is the central figure in his kin group, Greuel claims that he must not only be a religious figure, but also a figure of reasonable political power. For example, when there has been a homicide in the village the murderer will seek refuge in the chief’s home and the chief will prevent further conflict prior to the mediation. In mediating, he isolates the dispute from the rest of the community, and leads a coalition comprising a majority of the villagers. Therefore, his opinions have authority, and he is not merely a religious figure. Although the chief wields power through his coalition, he does not have the power of enforcement. Greuel concludes that the leopard-skin chief does hold political power through their ability to assemble a coalition. Because he leads a coalition comprised of a majority of the villagers, he is able to indirectly enforce his opinions on those he is mediating.
Greuel accepts portions of Evans-Pritchard’s work, although he considers it an inadequate treatment of the leopard-skin chief’s political role. His article is clear for the most part, however, he does not give the reader much background about Evans-Pritchard, the leopard-skin chief or the Nuer. He is generally successful in the presentation of his argument that the leopard-skin chief does hold some power, and supports it with reasonable evidence. Overall, the article is easy to follow and interesting.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
ELIZABETH GIESECKE Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Greuel, Peter J. The Leopard-Skin Chief: An Examination of Political Power Among the Nuer American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1115-1120
This article is concerned with the analysis of Evans-Pritchard regarding the involvement of the leopard-skin chief in resolving village and inter-village conflict. Evans-Pritchard carried out studies of the Nuer and their uncentralized political system. While Evans-Pritchard differentiates between the segmentary political system and the villages that compose each segment, Evans-Pritchard did not give a clear idea of the decision-making processes within each village.
Greuel disputes the description by Evans-Pritchard that the Nuer lives without rulers in a classless and ordered anarchist society. The leopard-skin chief, according to Greuel, is not without political power and is not chiefly a religious officer. The chief, as the head of a coalition of kin, possesses political power through his ability to rally and maintain this base of support. The chief is not just a religious figure.
The Nuer, in order to obtain food, engage in both farming and animal herding. In order to harvest and plant at the appropriate time cooperation between kin is vital. Kin groups even share their food as they are all mutually dependent on one another for survival. The kin group is the political unit each individual operates from but all kin groups are interconnected and dependent on one another. In cases of deliberate murder the leopard-skin chief serves as a mediator between coalitions of kin groups and receives compensation for his services.
The leopard-skin chief makes decisions, which lessen the chances of further conflict, and makes continued cooperation between kin groups possible. Evans-Pritchard asserted the chief has no ability to enforce his decisions while Howell claims that his influence on the kin groups is his power. Greuel recognizes that Howell and Evans-Pritchard have different conceptions of power. These conceptions do not contradict because the chief only works to mediate and prevent further conflict.
Greuel explains that the chief is not just a religious figure but has other functions. Greuel makes a point regarding the political power of leopard-skin chief. The power of the chief is influence and not the ability to enforce decisions through force. Gruel does an excellent job clearly elaborating on the role of the leopard-skin chief in Nuer society.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
SHAUN GODWIN Michigan State University, (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Gross, Daniel R., and Underwood, Barbara A. Technological Change and Caloric Costs: Sisal Agriculture in Northeastern Brazil. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):725-739
This article written by Gross and Underwood examines the effects of external economic and social influences on the peasant society of sertao in Northeastern Brazil. According to Gross and Underwood, “peasant societies are by definition only fragments of larger socio-cultural and economic systems.” The influence of an external market or capital investment upon such a “fragment of a larger system,” often results in the uneven distribution of wealth and socio-economic stratification. The sertao society consists of a wealthy minority that controls the production of sisal, a plant used for making rope, and a majority of under-paid laborers. One repercussion of such economic polarization, according to Gross and Underwood, is the decline of personal nutritional levels among those at the lower end of the economic ladder.
Gross and Underwood, an anthropologist and a nutritionist, respectively, collaborated in a study to compare the caloric intake of workers in relation to their personal occupational energy expenditure. The study focused on the correlation between manual labor in the sisal fields and low economic status of sisal field workers. Low economic status, in turn, resulted in underweight, malnourished children of the sisal field workers. The examination of two sisal field workers’ families in this study, revealed that often times certain field jobs required high-energy outputs and almost all of the income acquired by these sisal workers was expended on food. As a result, a disproportionate quantity of calories went to the “wage earner” in order to continue optimum performance in the field. This, in turn, directly affected the dependants of the wage earner, depriving children of a sufficient caloric intake, resulting in decreased growth rates.
In the case study, two households were examined. According to the observations made by Gross and Underwood, each of these workers expended the highest level of energy while in the field. The study compared the caloric intake of each worker (and his family) during the week to the calories he spent on the job in addition to his family’s weekly caloric expenditures. Those results were then compared to the total weekly wage earned by each worker to their weekly household monetary expenditures. The results concluded that the wages earned by sisal field workers with families were not enough to provide adequate calories for their children, ultimately resulting in malnutrition.
Gross and Underwood note that the existence of the sisal fields defined the social stratification; the most “powerful” were those who owned/operated the fields and those who worked the fields were, as a result, often low-income families with malnourished children. Gross and Underwood’s argument persuasively concluded that, although the sisal fields produce a detrimental cycle for the majority of the sertao people, the outside world depends upon such production and the sertao people are ultimately unable to avoid involvement.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
LAUREN PATTERSON Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Gross, Daniel R. and Barbara A. Underwood Technological Change and Caloric Costs: Sisal Agriculture in Northeastern Brazil American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):725-740
The authors’ purpose in writing this article was to share information they gathered regarding the impact of the beginning of sisal agriculture to Northeastern Brazil. Sisal is “a drought resistant plant” (727), whose “leaf consist(s) of a tough fiber demanded in temperate zone countries for use as twine in baler and binder machines operating in grain fields” (727).
The cultivation and production of the sisal leaves into twine is extremely physically taxing although the wages earned are very low. “The average worker on an eight-man crew produces about 20 kg. per day which has an export value of about $2.00 (1971). The worker himself receives less than one-fourth that amount in wages, yet the energy cost of the principal jobs is astronomical” (731).
The authors studied the households of two sisal laborers to determine the impact of the low wages and dietary caloric needs of the workers and their families. One household consisted of the worker and his wife. The second household consisted of the worker, his pregnant wife and their four dependents. Gross and Underwood discovered that regarding the first household, “while not materially well-off in other respects, the members of this household consumed sufficient calories, and neither of the subjects showed overt signs of being undernourished” (732). The data gathered regarding the second household was very different. “The children were receiving collectively slightly more than half their estimated daily caloric requirements” (733). The authors discovered “energy cost of sisal laborers are so great in relation to wages that systematic deprivation of adequate calories to non-productive dependents of sisal workers is necessary” (725).
The authors’ presents a very interesting and informative study of the effects of low wages and caloric needs of the sisal laborers and their families. The article is clear, to the point and easy to understand.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
DEBORAH ROELS Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Gussow, Zachary and Tracy, George S. The Use of Archival Materials in the Analysis and Interpretation of Field Data: A Case Study in the Institutionalization of the Myth of Leprosy as “Leper.” American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3): 695-709.
In this article, Gussow and Tracy examine how in some cases, field research alone does not provide enough information for a valid hypothesis to be formed. For instance, although the information obtained through field studies is important, it is also necessary, when determining the social stigmas associated with leprosy, to look at the case through other sources. Such sources include documentation describing the disease and the descriptions of the social stigmas people once, and still do, maintain regarding infected carriers. In the case of leprosy, it is necessary to do so because it is apparent that the disease is stigmatized, in large part due to Biblical influences.
Through approaching the stigmas associated with leprosy from several angles, Gussow and Tracy explain how these stigmas were developed, as well as how they are perpetuated. They set out three propositions: 1) leprosy is stigmatized, 2) such stigmas are a result of equating modern leprosy with its Biblical accounts, and 3) since modern leprosy is equated with Biblical accounts of the disease, the social stigma has been perpetuated.
They then systematically explain the basis for each proposition, using examples from both contemporary life and the Bible as evidence for support. Starting with a short but inclusive history of the disease, the authors make clear that the disease has never been well-understood. Centuries ago, the term “leprosy” was used to describe several diseases, including syphilis. Since the patients were quarantined to reduce the threat of the disease’s spread, society misunderstood a great deal about its realities. The authors then mention that many hospitals were created, and continue to be run by, religious organizations specifically to treat lepers; this, the authors argue, serves as evidence that religion aids to the perpetuation of the misunderstanding. In addition to this evidence, Gussow and Tracy then itemize the continuing lack of medical knowledge contributing to inadequate legal and regulatory status for patients.
Through a series of supporting insights into patients’ difficulties due to the reputation of the disease and a lack of governmental assistance or knowledge, Gussow and Tracy build a strong case for the institutionalization of the social stigma associated with leprosy. They show, undeniably, that to understand the perpetuation of the stigma of leprosy, it is necessary to consult not only patients with the disease, but also the original sources from which the stigma may have arisen.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
CAROLE MCBRIDE Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Gussow, Zachary, George S. Tracy. The Use of Archival Materials in the Analysis and Interpretation of Field Data: A Case Study in the Institutionalization of the Myth of Leprosy as “Leper” American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):695-709
The purpose of this article is to show how archival data can be used to elucidate problems that occur while analyzing fieldwork. The particular phenomenon that is being investigated here is the stigmatization related to leprosy. The study defines leprosy as a communicable disease of the skin, eyes, organs, nerves and membranes. It remains highly misunderstood and misdiagnosed. The mode of transmission and the treatments are unclear and uncertain. A survey conducted in western countries indicated that little stigmatization was attached to the disease.
The authors hypothesized about the persistence of the idea of a stigma. Their approach included the conceptual approach to data for the purpose of analyzing an attitude or ideology, and the second being, the use of archival materials to complete the analysis. The survival of a myth relies heavily on what they call, “some realistic utilitarian payoff or viable social organization.”(696) The institutionalization of leprosy was sustained because members of the religious communities of the world were drawn to missions involving patient care. The type of treatment often included segregating lepers from the rest of society, which facilitated the continuation of the myth that led to the general stigmatization of lepers.
The authors state their purpose early in the paper and maintain a clear format throughout. The article also includes a clear chart of chronological events in the history of leprosy.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
ALLISON GOFF Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Haller, John S. Jr. Race and the Concept of Progress in Nineteenth Century American Ethnology. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):710-723.
Ethnology, according to nineteenth century anthropologists, was the study and characterization of the evolution of human intelligence in different societies and what was responsible for this evolution. Haller lists many different ethnologists and their views on how and why it is necessary for a human’s intelligence to change. The majority of ethnologists in the late nineteenth century, such as Henry Bates, believed that the brain developed along with a culture. The more advanced a culture, the more intelligent the humans within that culture had to become. This conception was borrowed from the ideas of Powell and Spencer.
John Wesley Powell believed that as humans advanced they competed less against each other for survival. The theory of “survival of the fittest” would eventually be overridden by a peaceful co-existence. Powell also wanted to define the stages in human progress. He built his theories from the writings of Lewis Henry Morgan.
According to Lewis Morgan, humans create technologies and institutions which are evidence of an advancement of their mental and moral powers. The creation of technologies and governments shows the intellectual advancement of humans within a society. Morgan based his findings on his work with American Indians.
The final view that Haller introduces is the idea that the natural climate has an effect on the intellectual changes in humans. For humans to adapt to a new climate, their intellect must change. Daniel Garrison Brinton supported this theory by examining the migratory actions of different cultures throughout time and paying close attention to how it affected their progress in the new region or society.
Ethnologists focus on the intellectual evolution of humans to explain how different cultures evolve to meet the demands of a changing society. The study of ethnology made headway to the understanding of different cultures, and ethnologists use their theories with the hopes of erasing social categories and making racial legislation fair.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
JOELLEN MCBRIDE Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Haller, John S., Jr. Race and the Concept of Progress in Nineteenth Century American Ethnology American Anthropologist June,1971 Vol.73(3):710-724.
Haller traces the theoretical developments of nineteenth century anthropologists as they struggled to define the evolution of mankind through concepts of progress and race in order to establish a unilineal hierarchy that culminated in a state of “civilization” mirroring their own Anglo-Saxon culture. Although physical anthropology and cultural anthropology were separated by this time, each continued to utilize the work of the other in a futile attempt to fill in missing links in both anatomical and cultural development to help justify their own theories of evolution. Haller mainly focuses on how cultural anthropologists used ethnology, which limited its investigations to the rudimentary beginnings of human society, to compare the social development of man and his culture while simultaneously incorporating the theories of physical anthropologists studying brain size and cranial measurements into their work. In fact early cultural evolutionists considered their work to be but a chapter in biology.
Just as biology suggested a sequence of forms ascending from homogeneity to heterogeneity, so the cultural anthropologists described the races of mankind moving through successive orders of complexity. Obscured by the comparative method of analogy, explanations of biological evolution and social evolution became synonymous in meaning during this time. Haller provides detailed accounts of cultural anthropologists W J McGee and John Wesley Powell as examples of how cultural evolutionists drew upon earlier anthropological theories and the work of physical anthropologists to formulate their own theories of evolution.
McGee (1853-1912), a geologist and anthropologist, “saw advancements through culture gradients from savagery to civilization as indicative of a corresponding cranial development” (713). Powell (1834-1902), a geologist and occasional philosopher, sought to define the exact stages in human progress, building upon the writings of Lewis Henry Morgan by dividing the stages of man’s culture into savagery, barbarism, and civilization. For Powell evolution began as a physical process and through struggles became increasingly intellectual.
Haller effectively shows how ethnology became a means through which cultural anthropologists sought to estimate the relative value of the races of man in order to justify their own race’s superiority. Haller masterfully winds the history of evolutionary theory into the work of nineteenth century anthropologists, in order to give the reader an intellectual understanding of the work done by anthropologist, without absolving anthropologists of their racist and ethnocentric ideals as a product of their time.
CLARITY: 5
SARA A. FELLOWS Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Hansen, Carl L. and Charles M. Keller Environment and Activity Patterning at Isimila Korongo, Iringa District, Tanzania: A Preliminary Report. American Anthropologist October, 1971. Vol. 73(5): 1201-1211.
The second article in this edited collection by Carl L. Hansen and Charles M. Keller deals with stone tool assemblages and their relationship to environmental context. Stone tool assemblages are generally used to draw inferences about available food and water supplies. Hansen and Keller’s combined work builds on earlier studies aimed at establishing a pattern of activity and function in regards to the tools and habits of their subjects, thus expanding their evidence by correlating it with a framework of environmental trends and artifact distribution.
Hansen and Keller started their research by examining the five stratigraphic layer sequence previously described in earlier reports. They focused on the third layer, as it provided the most useful and consistent record of the overall sedimentation deposition of the area. After studying the environmental implications of this layer, and taking in all possible archaeological considerations, the co-authors drew their conclusions. Essentially, the differences in the assemblages in connection with the environmental circumstances indicated variations in activity rather than time lapses.
The article illustrates the efficiency of correlating interdisciplinary sciences; proving complex without prior knowledge of tone tool seriation (i.e. progression) or principles of stratigraphy.
CLARITY: 3
JUSTIN SOLONICK Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Hansen, Carl. and Charles Keller Environment and Activity Patterning at Isimila Korongo, Iringa District, Tanzania: A Preliminary Report American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1201-1210
This article is a report of the findings of Charles Keller and Carl Hansen at the Isimila Korongo site in Tanzania. The Isimila Korongo site was originally excavated in 1957 by F.C. Howell. Howell determined that the site was representative of the late Acheulian period, was dominated by lake systems, and was inhabited for a “relatively brief duration” (1202).
In 1967, Hansen and Keller decided to study the site in hopes of determining the activity patterning and environmental circumstances of the area during the time of habitation. Hansen and Keller’s work focuses primarily on artifacts and sediment patterns found in the Sands 3 portion of the site. Based upon evaluation of the sediment in Sands 3, especially the recognition of channels, Keller and Hansen determine that the Isimila Korongo site was dominated by a river system, not a lake system as earlier excavations suggested. Hansen and Keller go on to suggest that because of the root channels found at the site, Isimila Korongo was most likely abundant in ground vegetation such as woody shrubs and grasses. Hansen and Keller conclude that the “evidence implies and environment of a series of small, anastomosing streams flowing on a seasonal basis.” (1207) They go on to say the area was subject to periodic flooding and substantial vegetative cover.
In terms of activity patterns Hansen and Keller excavated a variety of tools ranging from large cutting edge tools like cleavers and knives to smaller cutting edge tools like scrapers. Hansen and Keller suggest that the variation in tool usage reflects that people utilized a variety of tools in a variety of contexts.
This article was clearly written. Hansen and Keller use a lot of detailed description of the sediment composition to support their claims, which helps the reader to evaluate their findings.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
ANGELA TAYLOR Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Hay, Thomas H. Windigo Psychosis: Psychodynamic, Cultural, and Social Factors in Aberrant Behavior. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):1-19.
This essay studies and reports on a type of psychosis, called “Windigo,” prevalent among the Northern Algonkian Indian tribes. Windigo psychosis is the desire to consume human flesh, and this reports examines the reasoning behind why the Algonkian people have this uncontrollable tendency. The writer argues that it is not the presence of random or individual cannibalistic impulses but rather it is the frequency in which unritualized cannibalism occurs.
Attempting to identify differences between cannibalistic impulses and cannibalistic culture, the author states, “Cannibalistic impulses are frequent among psychotic people in all societies…Instead the occurrence of unritualized cannibalism among the Northern Algonkians may be explainable by some features of the common culture of these tribes and by which some characteristics of the small bands in which the cases of cannibalism occurred.”
This article also suggested that Windigo psychosis can be moderated and repressed through individual self-control and by the efforts of the people surrounding those with the disorder. For example, if people living in the same community as those affected with the psychosis have a good amount of self-control and are not afraid of the sudden outbursts, those with Windigo will realize this and try to contain their own impulses. On the other hand, if the people surrounding those with Windigo have minimal self-control, then they may provoke him to kill another human with the intent sharing the human flesh among everyone who was there.
This article uses Windigo psychosis to demonstrate how unique behaviors are influenced by cultural and social situations as well as the psychodynamics of any particular individual. All of these factors together influence the behaviors of human beings in any given social structure. I believe that this article did a wonderful job explaining the mental disorder of Windigo psychosis.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
DAVID NAFTALIN Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Hay, Thomas H. The Windigo Psychosis: Psychodynamic, Cultural, and Social Factors in Aberrant Behavior American Anthropologist February 1971 Vol.73(1)1-19
Hayss article addresses the incidence of windigo psychosis among northern Algonkian-speaking Indians, specifically the Ojibwa. He characterizes these people as reserved emotionally, especially with regard to aggression. According to informants, the windigo spirit causes cannibalistic events, and is not a normally occurring behavior. Those who display symptoms of cannibalistic behavior are thus termed windigos. Hay examines ways in which cultural and social factors come to determine this unusual behavior. He states, however, that the exhibition of this behavior is not exclusive to these people; it occurs in groups on almost every continent. Emphasized is the fact that although impulses may occur, they can lead to a number of situations, either no cannibalism, psychotic cannibalism, or ritualized cannibalism.
The author states that cannibalism has been reported among peoples not classified as psychotic (i.e.-individuals who consume out of necessity for survival, or of necessity of ritual), but verbalization of these urges is highly common in mental disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Hay also states that the desire to consume human flesh is usually tied to a belief in magical effects, related to preservation of relationships–such as those with loved ones, “solving ambivalent feelings toward some one” (3), or acquiring longevity/immortality.
Hay draws his examples of windigo psychosis from Morton Teicher’s work, titled Windigo Psychosis. He compares cannibalism by these Indians with behaviors of other groups where cannibalism is displayed: ritualized examples where loved ones are eaten to preserve a lost relationship (this includes the western version–whereby Christians take communion), individuals having ambivalent feelings towards people who do not satisfy their dependency cravings, and individuals who consume another to gain a characteristic of that person.
Hay goes on to discuss cultural factors which might account for this psychosis among Algonkian-speaking Indians. One is the unique behavior of obeying one’s dreams, without divulging to others the intended course of action. The other is a lack of rituals designed to compensate these feelings symbolically, such as through pantomime. These characteristics are opposite Iroquois and Athabaskan tribal behavior (considered similar to Algonkians in most other ways), which exert social control over individuals’ dreams, and whose members also engage in ritual cannibalism after war. The lack of a culturally acceptable outlet for Algonkians likely enforces the notion of cannibalism (windigo behavior) as being undesirable.
Social factors of cannibalism are discussed next. The most important, purported by Hay, is the control of the windigo’s behavior by those closest to them; the degree of success will determine the extent to which feelings are acted out. So in order for cure to be enacted two things need to occur, control over the cannibalistic urges, and reduction in intensity of said urges. Another interesting point about windigo psychosis is that it occurred in multiple-actor form in a majority of the occasions. This is explained by Hay, as occurring due to mutual unconscious agreement on the part of the Indians to violate the taboo.
I found Hay’s article to be extremely interesting. His points are made clearly, the reading flows well, and is backed up by relevant, elucidating examples. The taboo nature of the topic adds to the intrigue of the piece.
CLARITY: 5
AGUSTIN PINA Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Hsu, Francis L.K. Psychosocial Homeostasis and Jen: Conceptual Tools for Advancing Psychological Anthropology American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):23-41
The overall problem addressed by Hsu is the advancement of understanding humans and their actions/beliefs, as related to interactions with fellow human beings. He claims that the concept of personality (a Western concept strongly tied with individualism), obscures this advancement. He further states that the conceptual tools of, psychosocial homeostasis and jen (a Chinese word which signifies man), will help to elucidate our understanding.
Hsu seeks to prove that the concept of personality is invariably individualistic, and therefore limited in understanding the psychological aspects of humanity; in his words it fails “to come to terms with the reality of man” (23). In his opinion the concept of personality relies too heavily on matters of individual variation, or on the opposite extreme, classifying groups of people as being personified, and variant from other groups of people–disregarding external forces.
Hsu goes on to offer a model called the psychosociogram, which deals with eight levels of humanity’s existence. These eight levels are the: unconscious (7), pre-conscious (6), unexpressed conscious (5), expressible conscious (4), intimate society and culture (3), operative society and culture (2), wider society and culture (1), and outer world (0). According to Hsu (and other psychologists), this model deals with the various levels which affect how a person comes to interact with others, and react within a given culture; or in other words, how one develops one’s personality. He also uses the model of Americans contrasted with Chinese, to illustrate psychological development. Hsu focuses on levels 3 and 4 (with slight reference to 2 and 5) to illustrate psychological formation/worldview, this being due to their wide use in defining notions of self.
By analyzing these different components on a cross-cultural level, there can be specified the process by which man comes to develop psychosocial homeostasis. This is due to these levels being constant variables in all humans. He applies the Chinese concept of jen, because it offers a different perspective on what it means to be human.
Hsu contrasts is the concept of intimacy. He states that both Chinese and Americans start off life with parents and/or siblings. These constitute the beginning intimate relationships (necessary for psychosocial homeostasis) The Chinese usually does not find it necessary to diverge from these original intimates (due to concepts of what it means to be a man), while the American (with stress on self-esteem/future depending on ability to stand on one s own feet) will most likely upon maturity search for other individuals with whom to develop intimate ties (a sign of independence).
Overall Hsu’s article offers insight into how we come to define self, and into how different societies come to take on characteristics, as a result of cultural practices relating to social relations (i.e.–America and violence). He offers some valid viewpoints, and I found his article to be interesting.
CLARITY: 5
AGUSTIN PINA Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Hsu, Francis L. K. Psychosocial Homeostasis and Jen: Conceptual Tools for Advancing Psychological Anthropology. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol. 73 (1):23-43.
In this article, Hsu addresses the notion of personality and how from culture to culture the perception of it is different. He discusses how various approaches to personality are largely dependent upon the organization of each culture and the culture’s view of the “individual.” Primarily, his comparisons about the ideas of personality are between the Western/American standpoint and that of the Chinese. He characterizes the Western outlook on personality as an individual experience whereas in the Chinese culture one’s personality is embedded in the lives of the people in which one is intimately acquainted.
Hsu argues that “the concept of personality is a Western ideal of individualism” (34) and cannot be applied cross-culturally. In the article, he makes references to the Chinese idea of jen, which is concerned with one’s interpersonal relationship with fellow human beings and how those relationships are a significant portion of one’s identity. Hsu makes comparisons between Western and Chinese cultures, and shows that members of individualistic societies are expected to be self-sufficient and are responsible for “who they are,” whereas in the Chinese culture one’s life practices are involved with and his identity is dependent upon his close relatives.
He supports his argument by referring to a diagram composed of seven concentric layers that are to represent the composition of man. Each layer represents a different facet of man’s identity: the unconscious, the pre-conscious, the unexpressed conscious, the expressible conscious, one’s relationship with intimate society and culture, operative society and culture, wider society and culture, and the outer world. He applies the diagram to both cultures, and he gives examples of how people from individualistic societies tend to experience a higher degree of uncertainty in their life cycle than the Chinese because they are continuously searching for intimate connections and acceptance in the world. Dissimilarly, the Chinese predominantly surround themselves by family members that are familiar with their ways; thus, experiencing a lesser degree of anxiety throughout their lives.
In this article, Hsu, through his examples and the diagram, proves that the idea of personality cannot be found in all cultures, and because of this fact, many cultures experience their lives completely differently.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
JOHNA BOULAFENTIS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Ingham, John M. Are the Siriono Raw or Cooked? American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1093-1099.
John M. Ingham’s article discusses how a person’s role as a man or woman is related to the mythology of the Siriono society. He argues that the social exchange between the sexes is a product of their mythological beliefs about the moon, and through the study of symbols, their roles are easily defined.
Men in the Siriono culture are expected to hunt for game, and after marriage, they no longer provide for their own family, but must provide for their wife, her parents, and her unmarried brothers. This role is related to the symbolism of colors and animals in the mythology of the culture. In Siriono, water, the color black, and hunting are associated with men. In the mythology about the moon, the moon’s face turns black while hunting, therefore symbolizing a man’s role as a hunter. Animals are also characters in their mythology; a jaguar, represents a hunter who provides for women and a pig, represents a hunter who is either a stingy in-law or unmarried. There is also supernatural spirit, who is black, and hairy, and waits for his victims, who are primarily women, outside of the houses.
Women in Siriono are expected to prepare and cook meals for their family, and are dependent upon their husbands. Women are associated with fire and the color red. In their mythology, the moon’s face shines with fire when at home, therefore symbolizing a woman’s place. Women are also expected to make clay tobacco smoking pipes for their husbands. Making the clay pipes involves fire, which is a symbolic characteristic of womanhood. The supernatural spirit that symbolizes a woman is a spirit, who causes illness by invisibly entering victim’s bodies while they are in their houses.
The mythology related to the Moon creates distinctions between the sexes and gives each person a specific role in the Siriono society. When examining their mythology and the symbolism connected to it, the differences are quite apparent.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JOHNA BOULAFENTIS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Ingham, John M. Are the Siriono Raw or Cooked? American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol. 73(5):1092-1099
This article is a description of how the Siriono organize themselves in terms of lineage. According to the author for the most part the Siriono live in homes with their extended matrilineal family; that is except for the chief. This is because the status is passed from sons to fathers along patrilineal lines so the Chief’s house contains the members of his family line. The Siriono are hard to place into a strict set of lineages and sexual dichotomy by which they divide themselves, because for the Siriono there are always exceptions to the rules. These rules order the Siriono lifestyle into pairs of opposites such as water and fire or men and women. This idea of pairs of opposites is seen throughout Siriono mythology in which they have opposing forces that balance each other out, such as the idea of animals being hot or in a sense made of fire. Man is who is cold like water, and uses his reed arrows which grow in the water to kill animals of fire.
This is the idea behind the article that this division of the Siriono’s world into two parts also defines how they view themselves. The Siriono women are the keepers of culture and fire while the men who hunt with reed arrows and bring back raw meat for the women to cook represent a more natural and animalistic side. These, however, are not permanent divisions and men can become more like the fire by smoking tobacco, a tradition after a hunt.
This article was interesting and I was fascinated by the way the Siriono idea of duality entered every aspect of their lives. The article had some parts that were very hard to read and that I could have used some clarification on, but over all it was not that hard to read.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MICHAEL FOURNIER Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Johnson, Norman J. and Peggy R. Sanday . Subcultural Variations in an Urban Poor Population. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):128-143.
Investigations have been conducted to examine the lifestyles of the poor population of Pittsburgh, PA. The authors of the article believe that the poor population is heterogeneous and contains two subcultures: White and Black. This contrasts with the belief held by the anti-poverty programs (particularly employment and education programs), which do not distinguish between White and Black groups within the poverty-stricken population. These programs have failed because they do not address the heterogeneity of the poor populations they are intended to help. Johnson and Sanday, with data they collected from three of the largest poverty-stricken neighborhoods of Pittsburgh (two of them entirely black, one of them mostly white), give evidence to support their claim that these two subsets have different perceptions of cultural themes, including ethnic heritage and level of trust in society; because these differences are not addressed by federal programs, the programs are less effective.
Certain criteria analyzed included the spatial concentration of people, the perception of their nationality, the interaction between household members, and cultural themes such as thoughts about the future, the trust they put in other members of society, and their work ethic. Respondents’ answers indicated that striking differences do exist between the Black and White groups. By quantifying the responses, Johnson and Sanday discovered that using race as an independent variable against the dependent variables of the criteria mentioned above showed a high significance—in most cases it had more of a significance than when just the independent variable of poverty was used.
They concluded that perception of ethnic group membership is based on birthplace of parents for Whites and on color for Blacks. Race of respondent also had an effect on their orientation of the future. Blacks tended to have less orientation toward the future than Whites. When asked whether they think hard work will allow any American to get ahead, Blacks showed much less trust in this statement than did Whites. Johnson and Sanday suggest that “Black people have had to make continual adaptations to the American social order of a kind that have destroyed for them an orientation to opportunity and a trust in other people” (139). Federal programs have failed because they did not incorporate a recognition of the life styles of the people they served. By seeing the poor as a homogeneous population, important differences in perception (such as the criteria investigated by Johnson and Sanday) have been over-looked.
The authors explain that social isolation and the effects of public schools, which epitomize racial discrimination, perpetuate the Black cultural system. These external factors cause Blacks to internalize feelings of inferiority and failure. The failure of federal poverty programs indicates that assumptions about race and poverty must be questioned. Only through an understanding of cultural differences can one gain insight into educational problems encountered by Blacks and begin to resolve these problems accordingly. The authors insist that this topic is worthy of anthropological study, because anthropologists are oriented toward cultural relativity and objectivity, both of which are necessary in a study such as this.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
LAURA MACLEOD Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Johnson, Norm J. and Peggy R. Sanday Subcultural Variation in an Urban Poor Population American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):128-143
“Current work locates the poor as a subsociety within the lower class substratum of the larger society” (128). This paper’s purpose is to find out if the poor constitute a homogeneous or heterogeneous group. The data was collected from three of the larger poverty neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. Areas with the poorest housing conditions were selected, and the total sample size was 675 with a median income of $4,600.
Territory, membership, interaction patterns, and cultural themes were the criteria used for classifying particular cultural systems. Groups to be studied were selected on size. “Groups with thirty or more people were selected. Hence, those calling themselves Afro-American, American, Black, Colored, Irish, Italian, and Negro were selected” (129). The American group was then split into Black Americans and White Americans.
Participants answered questions regarding the future and trust, among others. Few differences existed between the nationality groups, but many differences existed between the Black and White groups. As a result, the study determined that Black and White were two separate subcultural systems. These systems were studied further.
Whites based national group membership on their parents’ birthplace but Blacks based membership on color. Family structure is also different between the two groups. Among Blacks, there is a higher rate of households with no father or households where the mother is the head. Differences in social relations between the group can be traced to isolation due to segregation. Isolation, the public school, and the color bar are some of the causes for differences. “As a group, Black people have had to make continual adaptations to the American social order” (137).
The study shows that several themes distinguish one group from the other. The data says that Black people are not future-oriented, do not trust people, and do not believe that hard work will pay off for them. The paper concludes that race is a significant factor in differentiating groups, and that the poor are not culturally homogeneous. However, because race is a cultural construct and is not real, many Black and White people showed very similar response patterns. Many in the Colored category gave similar responses to Whites, and many poor Whites gave responses similar to Blacks.
This article is interesting and easy to understand for the most part. The only things that take away from it are sifting through the data and reading all the tables.
CLARITY: 4
JUSTIN ZAMBO Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Keur, Dorothy. Mary Butler Lewis, 1903-1970. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):255.
Noted Archaeologist Mary Butler Lewis died on January 25, 1970. She leaves behind one daughter, one son, and her husband Clifford Lewis 3rd. Her contributions to the field of archaeology have been numerous.
Lewis earned her B.A. from Vassar, her M.A. from Radcliffe and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her early work was done in Guatemala during four expeditions between 1930 and 1941, as well as in the United States, specifically West Virginia, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Her Guatemalan research included work with Piedras Negras pottery, which provided a significant contribution to Mesoamerican archaeology. In 1943 she directed an amateur excavation of a Rock Shelter near Broomall, Pennsylvania. Her last project was the restoration of Mortonson House in Norwood, Pennsylvania. During this project she involved neighborhood children, and after her death their parents requested a memorial at the site to be put up in her honor.
Throughout her life, Lewis was involved in various organizations including Philadelphia Anthropological Society, the Southeastern chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology.
In addition to her academic contributions, Mary butler Lewis will be remembered for her enthusiasm and willingness to help colleagues, students and children, and for her role as a loving mother and wife.
CLARITY: 4
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Kinzey, Warren G. Evolution of the Human Canine Tooth. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):680-693.
The purpose of this article is to dispute Charles Darwin’s widely accepted theory that our ancestors had large canine teeth that have gotten smaller over the course of evolution. This view was based on studies of living primates and the two fossil apes that had been found at the time. In the early 1900’s two humanoid fossils were found (fossils believed to be very early ancestors to humans). Regardless of problems in the older theory, it survived due to three rationales: 1) Reduction of canine teeth is known in the evolutionary lines of other mammals. 2) Modern characteristics of human canines are similar to those animals with primarily larger canines. 3) The fossil record (of the time) provided direct evidence of large canines in the evolutionary line leading to man.
Kinzey argues that in light of recent fossil finds and further study, the idea of large canines in human ancestors is based on nothing more than stubbornly held beliefs about human evolution from the Darwin’s day. First, he points out that although certain mammalian herbivores have shown canine reduction in their evolution, in many other lines the tooth has remained small or even been lost.
He also proves that the six traits that modern humans have in common with animals that have large canines are not a result of canine reduction with retention of characteristics. Some human dental characteristics that previously supported the large canine theory are traits that can be found in mammals with small canines as well, according to Kinzey. Other evidence cited by earlier theorists did not account for the relative growth of the tooth area in relation to the entire body over time. Through closer analysis of the previous data, Kinzey found miscalculations that also disproved the conclusions of the older study. The last trait, concerning the sequence of tooth eruption, was invalidated by further research on the growth variation among humans that was not accounted for when the previous studies had been done.
Kinzey uses fossil evidence to support his theory. He points out that conflicting evidence for formerly large canine teeth may have resulted from conflicting views on where the line of human evolution can be traced in certain primates. Many specimens used for further research on this subject may be of questionable membership to our human line of descent. He concludes with examples of many fossils found that show small canines and support his logic that small canines in humans today are a trait that was maintained and not the result of an evolutionary reduction in size.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
CASSIE PYLE Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill).
Kinzy, Warren G. Evolution of the Human Canine Tooth. American Anthropologist. June, 1971 Vol.73(3):680-694
The author’s objective is to examine the evidence that man’s canine teeth are evolved from an ancestor. Middle Pleistocene hominids had larger canines than those of modern man. The orthodox theory is that early man probably had larger canine teeth, but as they learned to use stones, weapons, and clubs, they did not use their teeth as much; the teeth and the jaws were reduced in size. The basis for this view comes from Charles Darwin and from comparing human teeth and those of man’s ape-like ancestors. Canine teeth of those ape like ancestors were much larger than those of man’s. Supporting evidence for the claim was found on several fossils, including a Neanderthal man. The fossils of his canines supported theories because they were larger than those of modern day man.
The author provides a summary of arguments supporting the “reduction hypothesis” (681); many anthropologists summarized their arguments. These include how man must follow evolution, that certain characteristics (slight overhang, long roots, ect.) provide indirect evidence, and that fossil records support the hypothesis. Indirect evidence such as overlapping canines, single-rooted anterior lower premolars, the long root, the size of the milk canine, the relative size of lower anterior premolar, and sequence of eruption have all provided evidence for theories. Fossil evidence such as the fact “that the canines of Neanderthal man and Homo erectus are larger, on the average, than those of modern man” (686) has added to the argument.
However, through all of the investigations on the matter, scientists can no longer accept the proposition the man’s canine is reduced because of the development of tools, appeasement behavior, or a shift in hormonal interactions. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the canine enlargement has had different evolutionary lines. Studies of human evolution have looked at the functional importance of certain features of the canine. They note, “such features are difficult to explain on a purely functional basis, for in modern man the canines have no special function to perform” (688).
This article is very hard to understand unless you are a dentist. Although the information provided is entertaining and interesting, the content is hard to swallow. The article is rather long and contains no pictures and only a couple of tables and figures.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
ADAM COHEN Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Kitaoji, Hironobu. The Structure of the Japanese Family. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1036-1057.
In this article, Kitaoji aims to discredit popular beliefs that the structure of Japanese families is one characterized by paternalistic notions and filled with individuals as mother, brother, daughter, uncle. Instead, as Kitaoji proves, Japanese families are better characterized as having series of positions than a series of individuals. In Japanese families, the “structural principles” play more important roles than the members who make up the household. To obtain a position in the family structure as a permanent member, one may join at birth, by adoption, or by being a foster child. The rules of succession in Japanese families determines the change of position within the family, not the rule of descent or where one lives once married, as usually believed. Kitaoji claims that marriage indicates permanent familial members rather than birth. This idea is in direct opposition to widespread beliefs that an individual belongs to a family at birth, and assumes his position in the family thereafter. In truth, marriage is more important to determine the positions that one holds in a family than birth is. Men may be adopted into a family with no sons to become successors and husbands to daughters already in the family. This practice is in accordance with the Buddhist doctrines that the Japanese follow, in that the family lineage must not be broken. Therefore, individuals are recognized more by family names and position in family rather than their first and last names. All of Kitaoji’s information refutes earlier beliefs that the Japanese look towards families as patriarchal (with men at the head). The article proves that Japanese have more “democratic” family practices.
Kitaoji proves these claims with many case studies, short descriptions of families in Japan, charts showing family structure and kinship terms, tables explaining positions in Japanese families and many sources cited which back these claims. This evidence, in totality, is very convincing and, although sometimes confusing, aids in proving the point. All of these are added into the text, at important intervals that highlight individual points as the article progresses. Overall, this article was somewhat difficult to read but the general point was well proven and well taken.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
CARRIE CHARTERS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Kitaoji, Hironobu The Structure of the Japanese Family American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1036-1057
This article discusses the variations within the Japanese family concerning descent patterns and kinships. Kitajio has two main goals in the article, one is to analyze data that he has gathered on Japanese families with different structures and, the second is to explain the structural characteristics of the Japanese family. Kitaoji begins with the case studies. He describes the structure and descent line of three families. Each family is male headed; although the head of the household is not necessarily a blood relative. Kitajio uses these three examples to explain the variations of organization inside a Japanese family.
Kitajio goes into some depth explaining each of the three family examples. The first family faces the situation of the eldest son having a virilocal marriage where the family adopts a daughter-in-law to take over the duties of the housewife. The second family experiences a uxorilocal marriage where the son-in-law (the eldest daughter’s husband) is adopted to take over as head of household. In the third family, an adoption of a married couple from the family of a close relative is necessary in order to secure an heir for the family estate. In the article also explains the terminology used when describing the families. It is difficult to have one standard set of terminology because dialects vary as far as religion, age, sex, and occupation. There are sometimes separate kinship and address terms but other times they are the same.
This article is laid out nicely. Kitaoji first states his examples of the families and then follows each one up with a clear explanation of the structure of the family and how it is significant. Charts of each family’s descent line also assisted in making the examples clear and straightforward.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
AMY KROON Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Kottak, Conrad Phillip. Social Groups and Kinship Calculation Among the Southern Betsileo. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):178-193.
Kottak’s article focuses on the social organization of the southern Betsileo, who inhabit the southern interior highlands of Madagascar. Kottak argues that the variations in kinship calculation and descent are dependent upon one’s position in the socio-economic hierarchy. When calculating kinship, the people seem more inclined to identify with and have stronger obligations to their father’s kinsmen, though they state that they relate to both sides of their family.
Kottak organizes the article by breaking it into sections, which gives a brief history of each group, and also explains the stratification that exists among the people, and how people are affiliated with their descent groups. Though the Betsileo divide their society into nobles, commoners, and slaves, which for them the hierarchy is based on prestige, wealth, and power, Kottak reveals that socio-economic factors create three distinct groups among the society. Kottak shows how membership in each of these socio-economic groups determines how one will identify himself and his relation to his ancestors, and also how it regulates interrelationship among the groups.
The first group is composed of nobles and senior commoners, servants of the nobility. They can trace their ancestry back about thirteen generations, which is farther than the other two groups. This group does not only identify with relatives from the patriline, but tends to identify themselves with any ancestor who held a position of prestige. The second group is composed of commoners, who are dependent upon the senior commoner group for numerous resources. The commoner group focuses on their male heritage and can trace their patriline back about seven generations. The final group is composed of descendants of slaves. The slave group genealogies are comparatively shallow and only go back about four generations. The people within the group only identify with their slave ancestors who first inhabited the region and they also are not able to provide information about their non-slave relatives. It is simpler for them to document their matriline because previously slaveholders had rights to all of a slave woman’s children. The people in the two groups of free ancestry can choose to identify with a descent group. Their descent identification usually depends upon the situation and how many relatives from one side they are surrounded by. Typically, they will affiliate themselves with their father’s relatives because they do not want two sets of kin competing for the rights to same inheritance. In general, the groups do not intermarry and tend to stay in their social position throughout their lives.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JOHNA BOULAFENTIS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Kottak, Conrad Phillip. Social Groups and Kinship Calculation Among the Southern Betsileo. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73 (1): 178-193.
This article focused on the Southern Betsileo’s social structure and how it is directly related to matrilineal or patrilineal skewing of kinship calculation.
The three social divisions of the Betsileo society, in terms of power, wealth, and prestige, include the noble, the commoner, and the slave. Significant socio-economic contrasts separate the three groups. The groups in the highest social position are the nobles and the senior commoners, who are close descendents of the first Betsileo settlers. The commoners are junior branches of the senior commoners, who have recently relocated to that area. Their status is similar to “middle class” society in the United States. The lowest ranking social class is made up of slaves and their descendents. The nobles and commoners often associate with each other, while the slaves are isolated from Betsileo society,
When tracing kinship, patrilineal skewing often occurs among the nobles and junior commoners. The connections to the father’s side are very strong, but the Betsileo often attempt to balance their obligations and realtionships between both the father and mother’s side. Most nobles are able to trace their ancestry further back than on their father’s side. Slaves, in contrast, know very little about their heritage beyond one generation, because they were moved from their homeland. The majority of slaves and their descendents trace their kinship matrilineally since master’s tended to sell slave women with all of their children, breaking all contact with the father. Kottak discovered that some of the major factors contributing to the Betsileo’s genealogy being skewed, either patrilineally or matrilineally, include their socio-economic status, the demography and ecology of their surroundings, and their location in Madagascar.
CLARITY:3
CORTNEY HAHN University of Minnesota Duluth (Jennifer Jones)
Lange, Frederick W. Marine Resources: A Viable Subsistence Alternative for the Prehistoric Lowland Maya. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):619-636
In this article Lange suggests that maize was not the main source of nutrition for the prehistoric lowland Maya. Rather, Lange argues that for many reasons the Mayans could not subsist on maize and other crops alone. The author uses carefully chosen data from many leading experts on Mayan civilization and agriculture to make his case. First, Lange argues that Mayan populations exceeded the capacity of the fertile land. Therefore, other forms of nutrition were found in order to feed the population. Second, Lange identifies a few alternatives to the maize crop that the Mayans are believed to have used. Lastly, because of the location of the Mayans in the Yucatan peninsula, there was a heavy reliance on marine life.
In the first section of his essay, Lange suggests that the original population figures for the Maya are greatly underestimated. By combining the Mayan population estimates from three different sources prior to 1528, Lange is able to estimate the total population of Mayan in the Yucatan to be 2,285,000 people. This number contradicts previous counts, which were between 300,000 and 1,340,000 people. As a result of this new information Lange asserts that there was not enough fertile land to supply food for the entire population. The lack of sufficient fertile land for the population leads one to believe that the Mayans were in need of other food sources. Furthermore, the lack of protein in crop subsistence meant the Mayans must have looked elsewhere for this nutrient. Thus, they had house gardens for vegetables and they hunted for food in the rainless winter.
While scholars were studying these alternatives to crops and maize in particular, a major alternative was being overlooked: marine resources. The location of the Mayan civilization on the Yucatan Peninsula is ideal for the utilization of marine resources. Because of the new information Lange uncovered about the population and its need for an alternative food source, it is now clear that the Mayans took advantage of the sea. Inland fishing made up a small portion of the overall marine utilization. However, offshore sources were more abundant and thus more popular. Lastly, with harpoons Mayans were able to catch Manatees, which were a good source of meat and lard.
Through a very well constructed essay, Lange is able to clearly prove that Mayans relied greatly on marine resources. By addressing the overall concern that Mayan populations exceeded the amount of fertile land available, the larger issue of their reliance on marine life is raised. The author provides a detailed argument that as a result of higher populations than previously believed, the Mayans must have turned to alternate sources of food and protein. The significant of these alternate sources proves to be marine life. By using detailed data, Lange is able to convince the reader that marine life was indeed extremely important to the Mayans.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
RICHARD S. BRUNHOUSE Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Lange, Frederick W. Marine Resources: A Viable Subsistence Alternative for the Prehistoric Lowland Maya. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol. 73(3): 619-639.
Frederick W. Lange examines the subsistence patterns of the Prehistoric Lowland Maya and asserts that their diet is drawn from multiple sources, many of them overlooked by contemporary scholarship. He is particularly concerned with the possibility that the Maya utilized marine resources extensively, which would have added substantial nutrition value and protein to their diet. The article refutes the “traditional” view that the Prehistoric Lowland Mayan diet consisted mostly of maize.
Lange uses statistics from Jakeman, Hester, and Edwards to establish a population of just under three million people for the region. To support this many people, 57,000 square miles would have had to be planted with maize, while only 25,000 square miles are viable for agriculture in the area. This disjuncture, between the land available and the land required, establishes that food was needed from other sources. The author uses archaeological, biological, historical, anthropological, and most importantly ecological evidence to support his argument. Using these methods he argues that the Maya obtained food from a variety of different sources. Wild game was probably abundant due to their system of agriculture which left most of the land in prime condition for game to flourish. Archaeological evidence has shown that house gardens were very common. It is probable that some maize was cultivated, but not exclusively as contemporary scholarship assumes. Maize is an expensive and risky crop that is susceptible to drought and insects; it requires a good deal of rain at certain times; and precipitation patterns are very random in this part of the world. Thus maize was an expensive and risky crop to depend upon. Root production was easy for the poorer classes to pursue; although roots are high in carbohydrates, but low in protein as is maize. Lange argues that the Maya met their protein needs with marine resources, which are high in protein and nutrients. Most Lowland Maya centers of population were situated on the coast, which would depend on marine resources. What emerges is a picture of a society based on the ocean, eating fish and other marine resources, with their diets supplemented by agriculture and hunting.
CLARITY: 4
LOWELL EVANS University of Minnesota Duluth (Jennifer Jones)
Leaf, Murray J. The Punjabi Kinship Terminology as a Semantic System American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol. 73(3):545-554.
This article sets out to discuss the Punjabi kinship terminology as a semantic system. However, the article does not begin with a major focus on the Punjabi but rather on the problems of componential analysis and the assumptions it has made regarding semantics. An example used is the assumption that clear distinctions can be made between denotation and connotation of a word in order to classify kin-types as the denotations of kinship terms. This distinction is not normally clear unless the meaning of the words is understood to include the existence of some real objects to which it refers. A question posed in the article is, what would be the denotation of the word “God”?
Shortly after this, Leaf defines a semantic system as a system of related definitions, allowing for terminologies to be seen as complete linguistic systems. A word, in a semantic analysisis, is not the same as a word used in the context of phonological analysis. Basically for semantics, words with the same definition are treated the same, without regard to their sound characteristics. Phonological analysis, on the other hand, is concerned with the sound similarities and variants of words. A lengthier explanation of the terms, with examples related to Punjabi kinship terminology.
Leaf develops a semantic map, using some commonly used terms to indicate kin relationships. Clarification is given, in regard to what to what terms are used and their meanings, as well their phonological order and how to comprehend the semantic map.
The article on Punjabi terminology should be read carefully, perhaps more than once, in order to get a full understanding of the author’s purpose. Even then the article may seem drawn out with lengthy explanations that may only serve to further confuse the reader.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
SHANNA CRUMMEL Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Leaf, Murray J. The Punjabi Kinship Terminology as a Semantic System. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol. 73 (3):545-554
Leaf’s article analyzes the meaning connected with kinship terminologies of two contrasting theoretical frameworks, a “componential” framework and a structuralist framework, and then offers a different method of classifying kin based on his understanding of the Punjabi kinship organization.
Leaf argues that individuals from other cultures should not be placed into predefined and classified categories, but should be permitted to create their own kinship map based on the terminologies utilized in their culture. The “componential” framework upholds that kinship terms are based on biological links and lack social structure. The structuralist framework upholds that kinship terms are based on structure and lack a biological foundation. Through his studies with the Punjabi, Leaf finds that one should disregard these theories about kinship terminology because in following them one tends to place people of different cultures into kinship categories, and also attempts to understand them in relation to his beliefs about kinship rather than the culture’s belief surrounding relations. Applying a predetermined model of meaning to a culture limits and distorts the way in which the people view themselves. Furthermore, in many cases, the terminology anthropologists utilize may not even be found or understood in another culture. While conducting field investigations with the Punjabi, Leaf records a “semantic map” with the assistance of a large group of villagers. This map contained a minimum number of symbols that conveyed the most meaning to its viewers, and the only symbols that could be utilized were ones based on established Punjabi names and definitions.
Leaf includes an abbreviated map into his article and refers to it throughout the piece in order to offer the reader a visual representation of the ideas he is attempting to express. Leaf provides an excellent explanation of the Punjabi personal links and proves how his method of the “semantic map” can more accurately represent a culture.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JOHNA BOULAFENTIS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Löffler, Reinhold. The Representative Mediator and the New Peasant. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1077-1091.
In his article on peasant mediators or cultural workers, Reinhold Löffler builds on and refines earlier theory. A peasant mediator is defined as the person whose goal and duty, though loosely defined, is to speak for the local peasantry. Traditionally, these mediators have been seen has being superior to the surrounding people whom they are representing. Löffler has challenged these earlier notions and is suggesting that there are two kinds of mediators, those who are superior to the local peasantry, and those who are a part of the local population.
It is this latter type of mediator that Löffler focuses on through his fieldwork and the use of interviews with one specific informant he calls Mahmud in a place near Tehran, Iran. He uses this study of a man who, for all intents and purposes has always been a peasant, to illuminate how a person can speak out for the local people without being superior to those people. The people, in this case, need to have a mediator or representative since they are members of a typical feudal society. The people must face paying tributes to landlords, and contesting property rights. To this end, Mahmud must look out for their best interests.
It is not the case that Mahmud is necessarily more intelligent then the general populous, but more that he is exceptionally outspoken, and willing to take risks for the community. He also sees the value of a limited form of modernization for the peasantry. This modernization can take the shape of potable drinking water access through a pipeline, or even sanitary latrines for the community. Modernization can serve a dual role of both increasing the health standards of people, while at the same time decreasing outsiders’ prejudice toward the community. By not holding himself above the people around him, Mahmud is able to gain the respect of the peasant community, and still facilitate change as needed. Considering he is also outspoken and willing to take risks in the political realm, he makes an ideal representative.
Regarding Löffler’s argument, he seems to be relying heavily on the fieldwork in this one community and specifically with this one informant. Perhaps if he had seen the type of mediator that Mahmud represents in other communities in the area, Löffler would have a stronger claim. As he presents the case readers are left wondering if Mahmud is more of an exception then an addition or change to the previous scholarship in the area. Mahmud’s example refutes previous ideas that representative mediators must be superior, but his example alone may not be sufficient to make Löffler’s case.
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CALBER BECKFORD Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Loffler, Reinhold The Representative Mediator and the New Peasant American Anthropologist October,1971 Vol.73(5):1077-1091
The author’s objective in this article is to introduce a type of cultural mediator that has different characteristics from the patron Kijaji type and that contradicts the popularly held concept of a peasant. The author of this article presents a case of a man in Iran that could be classified as a mediator according to Wolf’s and Silverman’s definitions, but whose social position is that of peasants. Because of this the author concludes that there are two different types of mediators, the patron, Kijaji, involving rank and difference, and the representative type which is represented in this article’s case study.
The author uses the example of a peasant named Mahmud to demonstrate how his role as a peasant affected the traditional role of peasants. He does this by demonstrating the new, nontraditional role Mahmud took on as a peasant and representative type of mediator. Mahmud saw that oppressive actions were taking place against peasants and chiefs by the Katkodas or chiefs (Katkodas were at the intermediate level, peasants were at the bottom). The Katkodas were trying to claim land that the peasants cultivated. Mahmud complained to the central government about the oppressive actions of the Katkodas.
Their response was to intern him for two years, but after he was released he was not silent about his views. Mahmud pushed for a land reform system, independent from central government. He also went so far as to deny making requested tribute payments on behalf of the peasants. As a result he suffered the loss of partial vision in one eye when being knocked down by an infuriated official. Mahmud displays traits that are marked in contrast to those usually associated with peasants. Instead of being subservient and backing away from authority he was courageous and maintained his position in open conflict.
He was effective as a mediator because he subverted the traditions and values of many peasants. He had charisma, which empowered him in accomplishing many things. Such as paved village lanes and a new sanitary system for his people. His role propagated new behavior patterns, which differed from traditional expectations. In this case Mahmud is a peasant and a mediator, but a mediator that differs greatly from kijaji. This is because though he is a mediator he still has peasant status and no established authority position that would make him more powerful than other villagers. This position not only changed the concept of the mediator but also the traditional image of the peasant.
The author accomplishes his objectives in this long detailed article about the peasant and mediators changing characteristics. This article is very clear and concise.
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KRISTEN WOLOSZYN Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Lovejoy, Owen C. Methods for the Detection of Census Error in Palaeodemography.American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):101-109.
Lovejoy addresses the issue of accuracy in demographic variables deductible from skeletal populations. He argues that current methods of demography are insufficient because age and sex are generally the only parameters that can be determined from skeletons. Lovejoy proposes ways in which he maintains the amount of census error can be determined and therefore avoided.
Lovejoy discusses how features that can be used for sex determination vary between populations. He claims that relatively complete skeletons are fairly easy to determine the age and sex of, and proposes that after determining these archaeologists may then look for secondary age and sex characteristics, which could then be used for the less complete skeletons.
The age and sex of the peripheral skeletons is not necessarily entirely accurate. To detect the amount of error Lovejoy proposes a comparison between the less complete peripheral skeleton sample and the complete core skeletons sample. Using the age and sex ratios of the core group as the expected ratios of the peripheral group, Lovejoy asserts that certain statistics can determine the amount of error.
Lovejoy illustrates the use of core-peripheral sex determination using a cemetery population from Hiwassee Island. He then examines the reliability of inter-population comparisons by applying these same statistical methods to age ratios in two Occaneechi, Virginia, populations. From this he determines that it is not, “…probable that significant differences in such demographic indices as mortality and population growth rates can be determined from two population where they cannot be shown to differ at a low level of statistical significance (107-108).” Lovejoy concludes with a proposal that the method he has described should be tested further, as it may aid in the detection of census error.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Lovejoy, C. Owen Methods for the Detection of Census Error in Palaeodemography American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):101-109
In this article, Lovejoy seeks to determine whether improved techniques of census among skeletal remains can elucidate factors which signify biological and structural changes of humans in the same demographic area. This improvement in technique is purported by the author to reduce the error of census (by paleoanthropologists), when documenting changes (and possible causes) in skeletal make-up on a demographic level.
The most significant factors in determining control-trait groups among these remains is age group, and sex. Mistakes, stated by the author, usually occur when trying to determine statistics of incomplete skeletal remains. Thus, the first step is to analyze the most complete skeletons of a given group. From this information, prevalent traits (grouped in age/sex divisions) can be deduced. This can help in identifying these traits on the respective parts of incomplete skeletal remains, in order to identify universal traits within a given population.
Lovejoy states that another of the methods which reduce census error in modern demography, is comparing statistics, with those reported in an ideal situation. In other words, observed data is compared, with that done by professional census takers who have specialized training. This method may also be used with skeletal populations. The example used by the author to illustrate this point is the statistic of sex ratio; while some paleoanthropologists may count the number of bodies found (respective to sex) as representative of the group, the more diligent (or professional) will take into account external factors which could account for this statistic (for example, preferential burial practices based on sex).
Lovejoy asserts that while this technique will be valuable in determining age/sex differentiations, it will be less effective in determining single differences between otherwise comparable populations. He goes on to state that a better method for comparing these differences, would be to further divide the remains according to age group. In so doing, error for given age-groups is reduced, and located within a more specific domain.
Lovejoy’s next point of reducing census error, deals with defining a current figure (in his example, infant mortality), and using this figure to judge the accuracy of statistics derived from skeletal populations. He terms this as correctly accounting for biological reality. If a population displays ratios which are incongruous with what expected norms of the time period would be, then they are not considered as correctly accounting for the biological reality of the situation.
Lovejoy concludes with the point that if paleodemography is to provide accurate reconstructions of population dynamics of extinct groups, then increased reliability is necessary.
This article could benefit from some more specific examples. Lovejoy seems to have some valid theoretical ideas, however, they become muddled with his proposed methods for actual calculation of accuracy. Also, his tables of data do not provide concrete ideas of what he is trying to describe.
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AGUSTIN PINA Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Marks, Anthony E. Settlement Patterns and Intrasite Variability in the Central Negev, Israel. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1237-1244.
In this article Marks discusses recent excavations in the Central Negev done by the Southern Methodist University. This work was inspired by the lack of information about settlement patterns in this area. Overall, Marks claims, few excavations have been conducted in the area and knowledge is almost entirely limited to cave finds. He discusses what has been found during recent excavations and argues that the variability between sites seems to be related to natural resources.
Marks admits that conclusions are tentative because thorough excavations have yet to be. Surveys and test excavations revealed significant variation between the two sites being studied. Two separate sites are being examined, totaling fifty kilometers. Marks discusses the geographic and environmental setting of each. The availability of raw materials as well as the location of springs seems to control site location. These factors affected both sites at different times during the Paleolithic.
Marks also uses evidence of settlement patterns to dispute a commonly held theory that, “the Central Negev has not undergone any significant climatic change since the Pleistocene…(1237).” Epipaleolithic occupation, he maintains, shows that the conditions at the time much have been wetter. Without more moisture he argues, occupation would not have been possible.
Diagrams showing the distribution of various tools are included in the article, and Marks discuss some possible implications of the patterns of tool disbursement and location of raw materials.
He tentatively concludes that the sites he has found are temporary campsites for small groups from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic and sites that were occupied somewhat longer during the Epipaleolithic. He also argues that the clusters of different tools that have been found indicate variation in activity, “rather than to different cultural groups or evolutionary change within a single group (1243).” Marks asserts that his findings may possibly be applicable over a much larger area.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Marks, Anthony E. Settlement Patterns and Intrasite Variability in the Central Negev, IsraelAmerican Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol73(5):1237-1244
This article discusses prehistoric settlement patterns in Avdat and Har Harif areas of the Central Negev, in southern Israel. Marks looks at preliminary artifact and paleoecological information gathered from 25 excavations in the Avdat area and 21 near Har Harif to determine the prehistoric climate of the Central Negev. Previously, climate was thought to be consistent with the modern desert environment, suggesting sparse prehistoric settlements. Marks, however, believes that due to new information gathered at the sites near Avdat and Har Harif, anthropologists should reevaluate past ideas and look for fluctuations in climate as well as increased occupation during this period.
For both areas, Marks looks at flint availability and site orientation in regard to natural springs as important factors for site establishment. Artifacts from both Avdat and Har Harif sites were sampled for radiocarbon dating. Such data is valid because of the lack of vertical stratigraphy and the large, undisturbed expanses of horizontal land being excavated.
Information gathered from the two different areas resulted in varying information. For Avdat sites, almost half were Levantine Aurignacian. Middle Paleolithic sites were frequent, although Lower Paleolithic and Neolithic sites were rare. These results are due to the availability of raw material like flint in the Middle Paleolithic and the prevalence of perennial springs in the Upper Paleolithic. Proximity to water seems to hold no control over Middle Paleolithic sites and closeness to raw materials is not vital to an Upper Paleolithic site. In all Levantine Aurignacian occupations there is a dramatic correlation between the location of a site and proximity to a spring.
Contrastly, of the Har Harif sites, there were no perennial springs located and no Early or Middle Paleolithic sites were found. There were only two Levantine Aurignacian and some Epipaleolithic sites in Har Harif. From the information provided, the significance of springs in Avdat is paralleled in Har Harif. Because of the abundance of Epipaleolithic sites, Marks asserts that by the end of the terminal Pleistocene the climate was less arid.
Conclusions drawn from Avdat and Har Harif settlement patterns and faunal evidence imply that the Central Negev during the Upper Paleolithic was dry. However, during the Epipaleolithic both faunal evidence of forest dwelling animals and the incidence of grinding stones and sickle blades suggest a wetter climate able to support the growing of grains. Neolithic sites compared in the article note a lack of any tools used for harvesting grains, which suggests a climatic regression to a more desert-like condition.
Marks presents an interesting, if not complete, series of composite maps to aid in his speculation of prehistoric climate and occupations of the Avdat and Har Harif regions. This is, however, a preliminary report of the findings and should not be taken as a final compilation of the data from all 46 prehistoric sites excavated.
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STEPHANIE SMITH Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Morton, N.E., Y. Imaizumi, and D.E. Harris Clans as Genetic Barriers American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1005-1010
In this article the authors show that intermarrying clans are not significant genetic barriers in modeling human population structure, through a series of equations and their explanations. The authors define a clan as “any localized descent group which tends to be exogamous” (1005). The authors use exchange matrices to figure out genetic properties of idealized and actual mating systems.
Migration is a key factor in marriage exchange between clans. Migrants replace a proportion of the population every generation. Migrants enter the clans at random and the genetic results of this random mating are measured by the coefficient of kinship, “the probability that two genes are identical by descent” (1006). The coefficient of kinship between two clans of the same size is equal to that of a population that mates at random. A large number of clans that interbreed have only a slightly higher coefficient than a randomly mating population as well. Two clans that do not intermarry have a zero coefficient of kinship because they are not of the same generation. Circulating connubium, a form of indirect marital exchange, does affect the coefficient. “The coefficient of kinship increases with the number of clans in the connubium and declines with number of intervening generations” (1008). These effects are also negligible, however. The authors conclude that formal kinship and marriage systems are weak genetic barriers that can be ignored because of the effects of population size and migration.
This article does deal with anthropology, but it could just as easily be placed in a statistics or mathematics journal. Specialized terms like “stochastic”, “exchange matrix”, “null submatrices”, “vector”, and “connubium” are worthless to someone who is not familiar with the field. Yes, the article does show all of the equations it explains, but they are also of no use to the average reader who does not deal with these topics on even an occasional, let alone everyday, basis. The table also offers little help in understanding the article. Unless the reader has previous experience with the methods and equations presented in this article, it is very difficult to understand.
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JUSTIN ZAMBO Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Morton, N.E., Imaizumi, Y., and Harris, D.E. Clans as Genetic Barriers. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol. 73 (5):1005-1010.
In this article, the authors address how the intermarriage of clans is of genetic interest. The article is used to explain their theory of clan genetic barriers and show their results. The authors argue that “formal kinship and marriage systems are weak genetic barriers” (1010). They utilize mathematical equations and calculations in order to explain and support their argument. The uses of equations are to represent “a clan” and its kinship relations with individuals from the clan, between clans, and random kinships within the population.
The article relies much on the knowledge of mathematics and genetics, leaving the reader who does not have an understanding of these topics quite disconcerted.
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JOHNA BOULAFENTIS Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Needler, Martin C. Politics and National Character: The Case of Mexico. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):757-761
In this article, Needler addresses the Mexican outlook on politics and how it is shaped. Using the concept of political culture he assesses the impact of Mexican culture and the collective character traits on the nation’s political outlook, concept of history and political behavior. His argument is based on the broader concept that political attitudes and behavior of a nation are shaped by aspects of a shared, national character.
Needler first identifies the traits of what he calls Mexico’s “modal national character.” He uses this term to describe the similarities among Mexicans in their view of themselves, their world, and others. He then describes these traits. First, Mexicans are less concerned with external reality than with the inner state of their souls. There is also a distrust of others and human nature in general. Mexican character is also characterized by self-loathing, which is a product of this distrust. The self-loathing manifests itself as strong self-assertion or exaggerated masculinity. Therefore, psychologically, the Mexican is constantly and forcefully exerting him or herself against a world that is arbitrary and against others who are deceitful and untrustworthy. The Mexican concept of national history, while completely factual, is interpreted so that it corresponds to Mexican psyche. In this manner, it could be interpreted that outside forces, like the outside world to the individual Mexican, try to dominate the nation. In retaliation, Mexico forcefully, but usually unsuccessfully, resists. There is a major theme of betrayal by prominent political figures, which corresponds to the distrust of human nature.
Needler also examines the roots of the Mexican personality in their family structure. The father-son relationship, or lack of one, in lower-income families contributes to the development of a common national personality. Needler describes a system where children learn that their fathers’ behavior will be unpredictable and harsh. This will make them view authority as arbitrary and to be critical of it. Needler points out, however that the modernized political structures in Mexico do not reflect these traditional traits of the national personality. He points to the recent growth of the Mexican middle class and the evolution of the family structure to account for this change.
This article provides an interesting theory about the psyche of the Mexican people and how they view their nation and its history. Needler’s argument, however, is unconvincing because his data on the Mexican mindset is too anecdotal and often subjective. Readers may find his broad statements difficult to accept whether they are familiar with Mexican culture or not, and some may be offended by the sweeping generalizations he makes.
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LAUREN HIRSCHFELD Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Needler, Martin C. Politics and National Character: The Case of Mexico. American Anthropologist June 1971 Vol.73(3):757-761.
The author says that national character of a people has provided a certain understanding of why the politics of that nation are the way they are. For example, it is said, “British politics are stable, peaceful, and orderly…because the British people are like that (757).”
Needler’s objective is to seek how much of a nation’s political character is a function of culture, and how much of it is a function of character. The Mexican people have distinct political attitudes, many of which derive from the “modal national character.”
The author claims that the Mexican is not concerned so much with material goods and external world as he is with his soul. This leads to a feeling of individual powerlessness, and therefore, a resigned character as a defense. This apathy can be appointed to specific political themes throughout the history of Mexico.
The key pattern is the exertion of external forces on Mexico. Sometimes, Mexico is able to resist invasion, but the attempt has always been futile or temporary. Needler argues that the Mexican would agree with the interpretation of political history that reveals the “unreliability of human nature and the likelihood of betrayal” as well as one’s need to “impose his will, even though the odds are against him.(759)” This is most similar to the Mexican’s conception of what the world is.
A main reason this characteristic of the people of Mexico is spread nation-wide is because many inner-city households have no father figure, but a son who has witnessed many men take the place of his father. Needler claims this leads to rivalry between the two, and brings about the “need to affirm one’s masculinity in aggressive and assertive behavior.”
This is why the Mexican president plays the role of the ideal father figure. He is dignified but kind and concerned, the father one wanted but never had. In a revolution, the Mexican sees the invader as treacherous and exploitative, and may assert oneself against those characters. This is similar to the individual’s struggle with authority in his early life.
Mexico has recently developed a body of policy-making public servants whose work has been “honest and competent.” The key is to develop in public servants and citizens a sense of authority as “rational, responsive, and sympathetic,” something that directly conflicts the attitudes formed during the early socialization of Mexico.
I found this essay to be somewhat one-sided. The claims were not always backed up, and some things the author said seemed to be only his interpretations of the people of Mexico. Other than that, it was fairly clearly written and easy to follow.
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KRISTA CHAMBERS Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Norbeck, Edward. Mary Ellen Goodman 1911-1969. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):244-247.
Mary Ellen Goodman was born in California in 1911. She graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1932 with a Bachelor of Education degree. She became an elementary school teacher, but soon married Clark Goodman and moved to Massachusetts, where she studied anthropology at Radcliffe College. In 1946 she became the second person to receive a doctoral degree in anthropology from Radcliffe.
Over the next several years Goodman taught at Wellesley College, conducted field research in Japan as a Fulbright scholar, served as Director of early Childhood studies at Tufts University, Social Science Analyst for the United states Public Housing Administration, and Coordinator of Studies for the 1960 White House conference on Children and Youth.
Goodman’s professional interests centered around children and the family. She conducted various studies on socialization, race relations, urban societies and family structure, all focusing on children. All of her studies on children come together in her book, The Culture of Children, which was finished during her illness and intended for publication in 1970.
Mary Ellen Goodman will be missed professionally as a teacher, a researcher and a member of professional and charitable organizations. She is survived by her husband and two children, Gaye Ellen Goodman and Clark Goodman. She left her books to Rice University to form a departmental library, which has been named after her.
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NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Nutini, Hugo G. The Ideological Bases of Levi-Strauss’s Structuralism American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):537-544
If Levi-Strauss had limited the explanations of his theory and methods in anthropological terms instead of science and ideology, his ideas would be more acceptable and better understood by his colleagues. Nutini’s objective is to briefly discuss Levi-Strauss’s basic principles in order to show those principles may weaken the implementation of his “essentially sound conception of what scientific anthropology should be” (537).
Nutini clarifies the term ideology in three different senses. The first sense of ideology is practically equivalent with ethical behavior. We cannot be primitively familiar with how the world really is. One of Levi-Strauss’s central ideas of structuralism is that we see the world through “coded screens” because of our lack of real acquaintance with the real world. The second sense of ideology is largely a result of the first as it is an ethical-moral command to action. The third sense may be called “scientific ideology”. The emphasis of this sense is to establish the truth between “nature as individually perceived and nature as socially perceived” (538).
Levi-Strauss utilizes the first and third senses of ideology. Nutini believes that structuralism is a peculiar combination of these two senses. From the viewpoint that Levi-Strauss’s structuralism falls within the realm of ideology, it is not much different from any empiricist approaches. Structuralism contains the idea of “levels of analysis”, which separates structuralism from empiricist approaches because structuralism is closer to genuine science and farther from “scientific ideology”. Nutini says that Levi-Strauss’s ideological biases conflict with his scientific aims because structuralism is incapable of being solved through ideological considerations, which hinders its own success from “scientific ideology” to genuine science. Nutini states, “Levi-Strauss is clearly aware of what constitutes good science and yet he seems unable to practice it or at least to carry its implications to their logical conclusions” (542). His reasons for this may be traditional or aesthetic.
Nutini is wordy in his writing, which makes it difficult to read. The reader must look closely to gain insight from what Nutini has to say.
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KELLY MARCIKIC Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Press, Irwin. The Urban Curandero. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):741-755.
Press examines the methods of study concerning curanderos, or folk healers, of Latin America. There are a numbers of stereotypes surrounding curanderos, stemming from the urban curandero’s rural counterpart. These stereotypes interfere with the study of their healing styles. Examples of these stereotypes are the use of confession as a therapeutic device, the use of a well-known diagnosis, the use of a lengthy diagnosis, the active involvement of family or friends in the diagnosis and cure, and low fees. This article closely examines five different curanderos to demonstrate that they cannot be categorized strictly according to their healing style. Press argues that a more holistic approach to studying curanderos is needed in order to attain a broader understanding of them.
Press uses a comparative study done by author and physician Joel D. Kopple in the summer of 1967. Kopple examined curanderos in Bogotá, Columbia. The first of these healers was Pablo Gato, who operated in a poor neighborhood in the city. This curandero had a steady flow of lower to lower-middle class patients all day. Each session lasts only about five to ten minutes and contains a urine analysis and a statement of symptoms and suspicions. He combines all the symptoms into one petition and cures the whole illness. Gato claims to cure all illness, natural and supernatural. By contrast, other curanderos Kopple examined were located in more upscale communities. Some would use other methods of diagnosis, such as an iris examination. Also, many curanderos refuse to treat supernatural illnesses.
Press looked at the cases Kopple mentioned and made a list of tentative statements about urban curanderos. 1) The curer develops his own style as he wishes. 2) Many use both medicine and supernatural cures. 3) Curanderos are brief and impersonal with their diagnosis. 4) The curer only needs the patient in the diagnosis and the cure and not family, friends, or community members of the patient. 5) Many patients cure themselves. 6) The curanderos charge a fee for their services.
Press encourages anthropologists that study this topic to use a more holistic style that take into consideration a much larger picture that can give a fuller interpretation of curanderos. Although the idea behind Press’s argument makes sense, parts of the argument itself are a little difficult to understand because of the complex language he uses. Press reminds those people that may wish to study curandero practices not to rely on heavy stereotypes while researching these folk healers.
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JACLYN DADDONA Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Press, Irwin The Urban Curandero American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):741-756
“The Urban Curandero” is a fairly challenging article from the very beginning because it does not provide any introduction to the topic that it discusses. This may not have been a problem, had the issue at hand been a fairly common topic of anthropology. However, Press jumps right into a discussion of the curandero, or healer in Latin American countries. The article attempts to erase an all encompassing stereotype with which this healer/physician had previously been associated.
The body of the article presents the previous attempts by various and sundry anthropologists at categorizing the curandero in Latin America. In trying to categorize and stereotype the curandero, these professors have oversimplified the differences between various curanderos. For example, the common stereotype, which is heavily based upon a rural healer and the methods of healing used in rural communities overlooks the urban healer or curandero and the methods for healing in urban communities.
Next, the article outlines eleven points which the author suggests anthropologists might use in order to differentiate between the various curanderos and their healing methods. Analysis of these differences might also help to understand “the manner in which illness and related experiences are perceived and differentiated.” The end result suggested is that a more dynamic view of the curandero will be understood, which in turn will help to demarcate the differences of curative phenomena in peasant and urban milieus. What this ultimately demonstrates is that sickness and social relations differ from community to community and should not be characterized under an umbrella-like stereotype.
Although the article had a difficult beginning by not properly introducing the topic at hand, it was fairly easy to follow along after one understood what exactly a curandero was. The evidence provided by a multitude of anthropological studies was certainly ample, and might have even been condensed. Though a bit lengthy and abstract, the article was easily comprehensible.
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DAN LINK Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual, Sanctity and Cybernetics. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):59-71.
This article studied the role of ritual in communication among the Tsembaga Tribes of New Guinea. These tribes number about two-hundred Maring-speaking people, compromising about twenty groups. These traditional societies exist in an ecological balance between people and resources; they focus on religion and rituals as ways of revering nature. Symbolic acts such as the uprooting of a tree signals the start of war, whereas the planting of a certain tree and slaughtering of pigs means the end of war. These are factors which create balance for the Tsembaga Tribes
While these tribes are involved with the immediate members of their group and ecosystem, they are also participants in a larger system. It is within this larger system that they trade goods, valuables and their own men in a cycle that can take up to twenty years to complete. This cycle creates balance through distributing goods, especially the surplus of pigs, which provide the prime source of protein. It also helps to facilitate trade and limits fighting. Rappaport’s basic argument maintains that Tsembaga rituals are more functional than religious.
For instance, pigs are killed in rituals to pay back Tsembaga debt to their ancestors, thus regulating the frequency of warfare. These rituals, the author maintains, are also a means to transmit information from one group to another. They can also regulate war and peace. They strive to improve the quality of life and maintain the natural environment
Rappaport does a good job in constructing his argument with specific examples in every key point. I had difficulty in interpreting the article, however, because he had so much detailed knowledge of the Tsembaga Tribes that it was difficult to get his clear-cut argument without getting caught up in the detailed ritual cycles. However, by the end of the article, I was persuaded that rituals among the Tsembaga is the way these people experience and express respect for their eco-system; it provides communication and a connection among all living things.
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DANIEL WARSHAW Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual, Sanctity, and Cybernetics. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol 73(1): 59-76.
Using fieldwork that he has done with the Tsembaga in New Guinea as a springboard, the author looks at ritual and sanctity and how both figure into human communication and social regulation and control. Regulation and control refers to maintenance of a system. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd edition, cybernetics is “the theoretical study of communication and control processes in … systems.” The ritual is a form of communication; cybernetics is looking at how this ritual maintains social equilibrium. Rappaport hopes to gain increased understanding into the nature of religion in general.
The Tsembaga ritual of planting and uprooting the rumbim shrub is the example Rappaport uses. It revolves around cycles of warfare and peace. When a period of hostilities ends, the group plants the shrub called rumbim. A massive slaughter of pigs is associated with this planting; this is an offering to the ancestors for their help in warfare. The first offering is insufficient, therefore the group cannot engage in hostilities until the ancestors are fully paid. As the pig herd increases, their demands on both the land and the women (who are charged with their care and feeding) slowly become intolerable. It is at this time that pigs are slaughtered again to fully repay the ancestors. At the same time, the rumbim is uprooted and a yearlong festival ensues. The festival serves as a time for entertaining friendly neighboring groups and forming alliances; it is expected that those who come to the festivals to dance will come to the aid of the hosts in warfare.
What constitutes sanctity and what affords this ritual its religious character? The unverifiable belief in the spirits of the ancestors sanctifies this ritual. Rappaport’s conclusion regarding sanctity states “the quality of unquestionable truthfulness imputed by the faithful to unverifiable propositions” (69). Sanctity is non-discursive. “The truth of [the religious] experience is sufficiently demonstrated by its mere occurrence; it cannot be discredited by the discourse of the conscious mind” (70). Sanctity is subject to malfunction. However, Rappaport asserts that “sanctity contributes to the maintenance of systemic integrity even through changes in systemic structure and composition” and that “the sacred is surely an important component of human adaptation” (72).
With technological development comes a change in the relationship between sanctity and authority. As a society advances, the sacred becomes confined to a smaller realm, i.e. the church, as opposed to encompassing the whole of the social structure. Religious experience takes on the role of reducing “anxieties produced by stressors over which the faithful have little or no control, and [it] contribute[s] to the discipline of social organization” (73).
Finally, Rappaport discusses the mother-child relationship in communicating trust through ritual. He believes this enables people to later accept messages they cannot verify, or the sacred.
This article is very interesting and Rappaport achieves his goal of shedding light on the nature of religion in general. It is easy reading and quite captivating.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
SHERRY BRUMGARD Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Rosenblatt, Paul C. Donald R. Bender, 1934-1969. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):242-243.
Donald R. Bender was born on October 23, 1934. He grew up in Wisconsin and later attended the University of Wisconsin where he earned a bachelors degree in anthropology and sociology. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in 1964 from Northwestern University. His doctoral dissertation was called “Early French Ethnography in Africa and the Development of Ethnology in France.”
Bender left behind many unfinished projects and unpublished works on various topics as well as plans for a longer manuscript. His research interests included the Yoruba, Africa in general, and rural Minnesota communities. His career was only beginning and his contributions to the field of Anthropology could have been incredible.
In addition to a skilled anthropologist and a knowledgeable teacher, Bender was also a kind husband and father. It was on a family holiday that he died trying to save his five-year-old son from drowning.
CLARITY: 5
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Sanday, Peggy R. Analysis of the Psychological Reality of American-English Kin Terms in an Urban Poverty Environment. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):555-569.
In this article, Sanday compares two different approaches that have been used to analyze the psychological reality of American-English kinship terms. She describes research she has done on kinship terms in poverty stricken neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh. College students who lived in these neighborhoods themselves conducted the interviews, which concerned the kinship terms used by the subjects.
The two approaches compared by Sanday are a formal approach derived from the field of linguistics and an information-processing approach that deals with human thought. Sanday’s hypothesis is that which approach to use can be determined by the goal of the experiment. The goal of the formal approach is to, “uncover the cultural domain as it would be known to the cultural expert (555).” The goal of the information-processing approach is to find variation in the cultural and have results that would be acceptable to the native speaker (555). Hence, she argues, the formal approach is better for cross-cultural comparison and the information processing approach is better for examining one culture more completely.
Sanday analyses the data from these experiments quantitatively and includes several charts in the article. The sample size was 179, and the cognitive processes of each were analyzed with respect to kinship terminology. Her hypothesis regarding the variation in cognitive structure is that, “the variation in cognitive structure and processes can be accounted for by life cycle and social role variables, and by the individual’s experimental knowledge of the universe under study (560).” Sanday confirmed this hypothesis, but only after, “variables measuring the content of what is stored in memory were included (561).”
CLARITY RANKING: 1
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Sanday, Peggy R. Analysis of the Psychological Reality of American-English Kin Terms in an Urban Poverty Environment American Anthropologist June,1971 Vol.73(3):555-570
This article’s intent is to present a detailed analysis of the psychological reality of American-English kinship terms. The research for this analysis is obtained from a U.S urban poverty environment. The article starts off with an introduction looking at the two different approaches used to obtain the analysis. One of the approaches is from the area of linguistics, while the other is based on the information-processing approach to human thinking. The benefits of each way depend largely on the goal of the analysis. Both approaches are critiqued and both tend to lack in prediction and explanation. The sample used in this article for collecting data is described thoroughly.
Then the article goes into the meat of the paper; the actual “empirical analysis of the relationship between the results of componential analysis and those obtained using information-processing techniques.” (556). The data obtained from the sample, and how the data is analyzed presented in multiple charts. These charts are also described in text, containing detailed explanations the information presented. After providing the data and the analysis of the information, a general hypothesis is given. “The general hypotheses is that the variation in cognitive structure and processes can be accounted for by life cycle and social role variables, and by the individual’s experiential knowledge of the universe under study.” (560). The author then explains how she came to this hypothesis, and provides data to support it. The article concludes by summarizing all of the data and findings obtained from the analysis.
This article was very well organized and easy to follow. The tables of data and ideas presented throughout the article are extremely beneficial when trying to comprehend the analysis. The author gives a good detailed explanation of how she interpreted the data and came to her conclusion, instead of simply stating what the findings were. The information gathered was also obtained in a scientific way, accounting for different variables and constants.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
HEATHER MCISAAC Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Sanjek, Roger. Brazilian Racial Terms: Some Aspects of Meaning and Learning. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1126–1143.
In the 1970’s, the so-called “new ethnography,” based on folk classifications and human logics, was criticized for the absence of quantitative methods. Roger Sanjek, an anthropologist working in Brazil, set out to prove that quantitative methods were an important aspect of ethnographic research. He used them in his research of Brazilian racial terms in Sitio, a small fishing village.
Sanjek believed skin color and hair form were the deciding factors in the usage of racial terms, and the terms are learned as children mature. He came to this conclusion mainly due to the use of picture sets in which skin color and hair form dominate every picture. The results of his research on terminology also supported his hypothesis.
The author used the salience method to test the validity of the terms informants give him. This differed from earlier fieldwork when researchers simply accepted the information from the informants as truth and did not test the validity of the information.
The salience method has two steps in identifying the valid terms. The first step is to elicit a set of terms from the informants as they view the picture set. The second step is to take the most common terms and use them in a questionnaire administered to new informants of different ages. Sanjek, using the same picture set and giving the informants a choice of terms to use, approached children and adults and asked for a racial term to describe the men in the pictures.
The results of Sanjek’s research proved that racial terms in Brazil are based on skin color and hair form. When informants were asked what types of features evoked a given racial term, skin color and hair form were more important then nose and lip shape. He also discovered that racial terms are learned as children mature. The younger children, under ten years of age, only had a vocabulary of racial terms consisting of three terms. As the children matured, the vocabulary progressively increased with age.
Sanjek’s methods were very in-depth and concise. The salience method allowed him to check the validity of the racial terms the first set of informants gave him by administering a questionnaire to more people of different ages. The new ethnographers in the 1970’s, according to Sanjek, did not want to take the time to test the validity of the information given to them, so all their information and research was qualitative. In my view, qualitative research is not as convincing as quantitative, and any scientist should be aware of the difference between the two.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
JOELLEN MCBRIDE Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Sanjek, Roger. Brazilian Racial Terms: Some Aspects of Meaning and Learning. American Anthropologist. October 1971 Vol.73(5): 1126-43.
The author’s objective is to provide quantitative data in a New Ethnography. The author criticizes New Ethnography for its lack of quantitative methods and “hocus pocus” analysis (Sanjek 1126). Quantitative methods in New Ethnography are said to facilitate a fuller “collection of the corpus of terms”, specify the population sample of the ethnographic analysis, and provide a “verification of the analysis by the culture bearers” (1126). The author uses his study on Brazilian racial terms as both an example of what a correct quantitative method should look like, and as an example of a method that would strengthen the aim of the New Ethnography.
The author’s study on racial characterization describes how skin color and hair form are the two most important features that determine racial categories, and that these characteristics are learned in varying degrees throughout childhood. The author noted that features such as eye color, nose forms, and lip forms are other distinguishing factors by which race is identified in Brazil, but generally to a lesser extent than skin color and hair form. The author’s study consisted of giving thirty-six drawings of black and white male faces with the different combinations of hair forms, skin shades, nose forms, and lip forms to a sample of sixty adults, where their responses were recorded to identify their perceptions of the racial characteristics (1128). The same thirty-six drawings were also administered to 121 children under the age of nineteen. The comparison of the adult and child samples showed that the racial categories and vocabulary were gradually learned over time with a lump of categories being learned during puberty. The sample of children was broken down into four age groups of under 10, 10 to 12, 13 to 15, and 16 to 19. Sanjek shows that a “black/white discrimination is learned first”, while the hair form discrimination becomes “meaningful” to children between the ages of 13 to 15 (1138).
The author’s results and commentary show that the ability to distinguish race in terms of color “is almost universal by age thirteen”, and that some people do not go any further than color as a distinguishing trait in race determination (1139). Hair color is concluded as an important discriminating factor in race determination as well. It is noted that many other participants make very sharp distinctions of race that makes for a wide range of racial characterizations in Brazil. The author closes his article with saying that anthropologists should attempt to “formulate logically all the expected semantic domains, and to make hypotheses about distribution and learning” to create a better generalization “of the culture and its relation to the environment” (1140).
The author provides a good argument to support his idea that quantitative procedures in New Ethnography are “desirable”. However, by studying such a topic as racial determination and racial terminology I feel he loses credibility.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
KEVIN BULGER Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Savishinsky, Joel S. Mobility as an Aspect of Stress in an Arctic Community. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73-(3):604-617.
In this article, Joel Savishinsky analyzes the multiple stresses the Hare Indians face and how they cope with these stresses. The Hare Indian’s remote location in Northwest Canada presents a magnitude of hardships, such as food shortages, crowding, isolation from technology and modernity, and environmental harshness, which test the people’s ability to deal with stress. Savishinsky demonstrates the relationship between how they handle the stress and underlying cultural patterns of restraint and reliance on one another.
Savishinsky declares mobility as the main factor in the Hare’s existence due to travel into “the bush” several months a year. Because the shift from village life to isolation is so extreme, this mobility is a main creator of stress. However, because of the closeness of individuals and families to each other, the daily trips away from the village or camps also serve as stress relievers. Savishinsky feels the usually non-aggressive ways this stress is relieved demonstrate the cultural inclination of the Hare to be peaceful, calm and their tendency to maintain an open but hostile relationship with their fellow community members.
Savishinsky makes his argument by first explaining the stresses of the Hare and exploring their annual cycle of mobility. He then discusses the stressors in two different environments: the bush camps and the village. He finalizes his argument with a summary of his article and three hypotheses. These hypotheses are useful in transcending specific cultures and applying the research of stress to other populations. For example, this method of unearthing stress can transfer to other populations and can facilitate an anthropologist’s evaluation of the population’s tendencies.
From his use of direct quotes, it is apparent that he did some interviews. However, he never goes into detail on the interviewee’s gender, age, or job which would give great insight into the perspectives of the Hare themselves. This article is clear, and Savishinsky effectively makes the point that stress management is culturally biased. He explains his theories and uses many examples to support them.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
NOEL S MCINTOSH Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Southall, Aidian. Kinship, Descent, and Residence in Madagascar Ideology and Group Composition in Madagascar. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):144-163.
Southall discusses many different theories concerning the structure of kinship and descent in Madagascar. He gives a historical background of ethnography in Madagascar. He addresses the issue of classifying the kinship structure of the people of Madagascar, particularly in relation to agnatic and cognatic as well as unilineal and non-lineal. He also presents various factors that may have influenced the formation of this structure including environmental concerns and social pressures from nearby cultures.
Over the years scholars have put forward theories concerning which other cultures may have significantly affected Madagascar. Characteristics of social structure and language have been linked to African and Arabic cultures. Many of these proposed links, especially those to African cultures, are disputed by Southall. He acknowledges certain similarities to Anjouan descent patterns and terminology that have been studied by Robineau. Southall, however, argues that these similarities are due to influences from Madagascar to the Anjouan and not the opposite as commonly proposed.
Southall points out that different regions of Madagascar (largely defined by foreigners) have been labeled as having different patterns of descent and kinship. He argues that there are too many similarities between the groups to separate them to such a degree. He maintains that all of these groups are, “variants of a cognatic model with a range of emphasis on patrifiliation (160).” Southall concludes by mentioning that further research in Madagascar and the surrounding areas may lead to new theories on these issues and that for the present no substantial conclusions can be reached.
CLARITY RANKING: 1
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Spencer, Robert F. and Elizabeth Colson. Wilson D. Wallis 1886-1970. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):257-266.
Wilson D. Wallis died at his home in March of 1970, shortly after tuning eighty-four. He was teaching at Annhurst College at the time, where he had been for quite some time. He was survived by his wife Ruth and children Allen and Virginia, both of whom had already embarked on their own professional careers.
Wallis was born in Forest Hill Maryland in 1886. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle Pennsylvania, where he studied philosophy and law and went on to the law school at Dickinson. His legal training is often overlooked, but it was important part of Wallis’ life that instilled in him a need for evidence before coming to any conclusions.
From 1907 to 1910 Wallis studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. Wallis’ field had been philosophy, but the departments were closely connected at Oxford and Wallis was intrigued by anthropology. Wallis received a degree in anthropology and a B.Sc. for his ideas concerning individual and group behavior in Australian aboriginal life.
Wallis returned to the United States to earn his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, but his dissertation was strongly influenced by his previous stuffy of aboriginal Australians. His interest in ethnography led him to fieldwork with the Micmac of Nova Scotia and the Canadian Dakota in Manitoba. Wallis had an eclectic approach to anthropology. His interested included linguistics, physical anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, history, philosophy and law and many other fields.
Wallis substituted briefly at Berkeley before teaching at Fresno Junior College and then Fresno State College. There he developed his interest in immigration and acculturation. His studies were cut short by World War I, during which he served as a 1st Lieutenant in the Sanitary Corps.
After the war Wallis spent some time at Reed College before joining the University of Minnesota just as a new anthropology department was formed in 1919. In 1938 he became the department chair, a position that he kept until his retirement in 1954. Having retired, he moved to Connecticut where he taught at the University of Connecticut and Annhurst College.
CLARITY: 4
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Stini, William A. Evolutionary Implications of Changing Nutritional Patterns in Human Populations. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1019-1029.
William A. Stini’s article focuses on the problem of malnutrition and its effects on human growth within populations around the world and throughout history. Stini’s article is important because it discusses the current implications of the recent shift in eating habits. Because humans now require the nutrition of protein to survive, many people who rely on agriculture as their main source of food are suffering from malnutrition. Stini provides background information about physiological factors and human hormone responses. He notes that children are extremely susceptible to malnutrition because it is more difficult for them to deal with imbalances in amino acid intake, due to the lack of protein and reliance on vegetables in their diet. Stini argues that natural selection is causing members of the species lacking certain types of protein metabolism to die out.
Stini relies on recent research from a South American village to illustrate the effect of malnutrition on human growth. Stini describes the “idyllic” village of Heliconia, noting that there are “serious nutritional problems” in the area (1023). He writes that people in the village have a tendency to have many children while consuming food only from subsistence agriculture. The only crops that grow well in Heliconia are poor sources of amino acid. Malnutrition combined with poor sanitation cause children to become infected by intestinal parasites. The parasites cause diarrhea, which in turn causes more protein loss. He says that there are eight essential amino acids that must be ingested together in order for protein synthesis to occur. Although many vegetables contain these amino acids, they do no contain the combinations that are necessary. Stini writes that due to these problems, the people of Heliconia are generally smaller than they could be with better nutrition. Further evidence presented in the article shows that Heliconians, along with people living under similar conditions retain normal proportions and sexual dimorphism despite their smaller size.
Stini concludes his article suggesting that this ability of humans to adapt may contribute to the current threat of human overpopulation. He provides the reader with a great deal of background information about the current issue of malnutrition. The data Stini includes on Heliconia is very helpful in understanding the influences of our ancestors’ behavior and the real-life effects of malnutrition.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
LINDSEY HUTTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Stini,William A. Evolutionary Implications of Changing Nutritional Patterns in Human Populations American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.73(5):1019-1030
This article discusses the widespread problem of malnutrition in tropical areas of the world. Stini states that the largest problem in tropical areas is the undernourishment and malnutrition of children. He discusses how westernization has caused many problems such as vitamin deficiency and infections. The article begins with some background on human dietary patterns and moves on to explain the development of malnutrition.
Stini begins the article with a brief history of the diets of our early human ancestors. The foods that were eaten by these people demonstrate the evolution that has taken place in dietary substances since that period in human history. Hunting and gathering is mentioned in this part of the article as being a significant factor. This practice had a large impact on the human diet adding protein. The article goes into some detail of how certain foods are broken down into proteins and other substances. Following this there are descriptions of how the human body processes and makes use of these substances. There are examples given of how different body parts such as muscles, use these substances to develop. There are descriptions of the use of protein and fiber in humans. Stini also compares the effects of these substances on both males and females. He adds in a part about the effect certain foods have on hormones in both males and females. He gives contrasting information and helps the reader to understand the necessity of proper nutrition.
This article is well written and goes into detail about the substances needed in order to prevent the human body from being under nourished. This is an informative article and provides the reader with information relevant to the topic of malnutrition and ways in which it can be prevented through diet.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
AMY KROON Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Stipe, Claude E. Eastern Dakota Clans: The Solution of a Problem. American Anthropologist October, 1971 Vol.75 (5):1031-1035
This article discusses the theory that the Eastern Dakota people, a Native American group, did not necessarily have clans, contrary to the findings of earlier anthropologists. Stipe surveys the opinions of many anthropologists who have studied the Eastern Dakota.
Most anthropologists do not feel that the Dakota lived in clans at all, but formed other types of kin groups. One anthropologist, Lesser, argued that “kinship” was an incorrect term because there were no clear lines of descent, either patrilineal or matrilineal. Carver, who visited the Dakota in the 1760’s, was the first scholar to use the world “clan.” One hundred years later, Lewis Henry Morgan, (famous for his work on the Iroquois), said that there was no evidence for clans in the Dakota.
Stipe also addresses Carver’s early book, asserting that it was the last completely concrete evidence of clans among the Dakota. However, Stipe stated evidence for the widespread belief that Carver plagiarized the work of others. The accuracy of the book is questionable, and now many anthropologists doubt that it is based on fieldwork evidence. Some believe that Carver did not live among the Dakota for five months as he claimed.
Stipe’s argument is based on the reading and analysis of other anthropologist’s research. He criticizes many of them for not conducting research on their own, borrowing other people’s work and perpetuating errors. Although Stipe’s points are persuasive in showing that the Eastern Dakota may not actually have had clans, he does not use any of his own data to support this. He does, however, quote his sources well and allow the reader to make a decision based on other people’s evidence.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
CARRIE BLOUT Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Stipe, Claude E. Eastern Dakota Clans: The Solution of a Problem. American Anthropologist. October, 1971 Vol.73(5) 1031-1035.
Stipe’s objective is to disprove the theory that the Eastern Dakota tribes, who reside in “the area which is now Minnesota,” are organized into clans (p.1031). Stipe’s thesis is to “demonstrate that valid evidence for clans among Eastern Dakota has never been presented and that data to solve the puzzle are available” (p.1031). The remainder of the article is an analysis of various works done by people who studied or lived among the Eastern Dakota.
Stipe begins his analysis by presenting the ideas of those who supported the existence of clans among the Eastern Dakota. Among these are Jonathon Carver, Mary Eastman, A.L. Riggs, James Dorsey and Alanson Skinner. Carver gives the earliest evidence of clans, describing what seems like badges with which tribes identify with. Carver also states of the Dakota that, “the meanest person among them will remember his lineal descent” (p.1031). Eastman based evidence of clans based on ” the different kinds of medicines their members used” (p.1031). Riggs discusses clans in terms of “gentes” (p.1031), comparing the different family relationships among the Dakota. Dorsey also writes about Dakota clans in terms of “gens” (p.1032). Skinner discusses the division of the Eastern Dakota into ” exogamous patrilineal gentes” (p.1032).
After giving evidence for support of clans, Stipe presents his evidence against clans. Opposing evidence, Stipe states, ” is less common” (p.1033). Among those arguing against the existence of clans are Lewis Henry Morgan, Alexander Lesser and Edward Bourne. Stipe emphasizes that Morgan was unable to find evidence of clans when he visited them in 1861 (p.1033). Lesser denounces the clan theory because “there was no emphasis on either the maternal or paternal line” (p.1033). Bourne accuses Carver, a supporter of clans, of plagiarizing, therefore destroying the validity of his work on the existence of Dakota clans. Stipe also criticizes Carter’s reference to totems, stating it is incorrect (p.1033). In closing, Stipe restates the reason he began investigating the existence of clans stating “the lack of mention of clans in the correspondence and journals of whites in Minnesota…stimulated my search for a solution of the problem” (p.1034).
Overall the article was easy to understand. It takes a certain level of concentration to keep all the names straight, but Stipe’s objective and his criticisms are clear.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
ALLISON BOISVENU Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Trager, George L. Hortense Powdermaker: A Tribute. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):786-787.
George L. Trager makes it clear from the beginning that this is not an obituary. His purpose is to relate how Hortense Powdermaker affected his life. He sets the background by describing his own education and gradually developing interest in anthropology.
It was when Trager arrived at Yale as an “honorary fellow” that he met Powdermaker. He describes the casual atmosphere of the anthropology department at Yale, and asserts that this is typical of the field. Powdermaker he refers to as “a sort of fostering mother (786)” to himself and the other young anthropologists there. He relates how she had frequent get-togethers at her own home where she provided food and conversation.
Trager claims, “…it was at these gatherings that many of us learned the human aspects of being an anthropologist (787).” The aspects he mentions can be summed up fairly well by quoting the last: “…how to transform human behavior into ‘objective’ recording and then back again into human terms (787).”
CLARITY: 5
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Wilson, Peter J. Sentimental Structure: Tsimihety Migration and Descent. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):193-207.
Wilson spent time living with the Tsimihety of Madagascar. He observed that the Tsimihety have an essentially patrilineal society and a religion largely based on ancestor worship. In this article he argues that these patrilineal ties provide a degree of solidarity among agnatic descent groups despite the high occurrence of migration, which separates family members.
The Tsimihety migrate frequently. Their villages, according to Wilson, rarely last much more than forty years. This migration seems to be random and based only on acquiring better land. Wilson maintains that within each village the majority of people are related in some way, whether agnatically or cognatically, to the founder of the village. The founder is the man who first migrated to settle on the land, and establish a new residence for his agnatic descendants.
Using the lives of particular informants as examples, Wilson illustrates how Tsimihety land is passed on from one generation to the next. The most important fields, such as those for the cultivation of rice, are passed from a man to his sons. Men also loan some fields to their daughters until the daughters marry, and in rare cases to their daughters’ poor husbands. Women have gardens for the cultivation of certain female associated plants. These gardens are passed on from a woman to her daughter in law, which makes sense considering the patrilocal residence pattern of the Tsimihety that causes daughters to move away when they marry.
Wilson also explains how important agnatic descent is within a village. Those residents who are from the same agnatic line as the founder of the village have higher status than those related cognatically or not at all. Agnatic kin control land allocation, housing, and burial. Tsimihety who live in village away from their agnatic ancestors must travel to their ancestors’ graves periodically and eventually be buried there. The people whose ancestors are buried in the village where they live make sacrifices to ensure personal needs as well as village needs, and are therefore protecting the outsiders in the village.
Wilson asserts that the strong connection the Tsimihety maintain with their agnatic ancestors and kin supports his argument that their patrilineal ties have helped them to sustain a familial solidarity despite their frequent migration.
CLARITY: 3
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Wilson, Peter J. Sentimental Structure: Tsimihety Migration and Descent American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):193-208
The author’s objective in this article is to demonstrate that in spite of migration, infiltration, and intermarriage, Tsimihety people have always retained their identity. In this article he explains that the reason he believes they have been able to do this is because of Tsimihety recognition of, and adherence to an ideology of patrilineal descent. However, to observers, Tsimihety appear Malagasy and European, individualistic and unconcerned with group organization. In this article the author discusses how their identity through migration has been carried on by individuals acting on their own behalf.
To demonstrate this concept, the author uses many examples. Wilson talks about how descent constructs of the Tsimihety people are not associated with group organization, but more status transmission. The Tsimihety people most often move as individuals and if they move as a group it is a group no larger than a household. The decision of the individual to move is usually made by a man in consultation with his wife. Usually migration arises because of oppression or political constraints. The paradigm that the author uses to describe this type of migration proposes three things: 1) The first generation clears the land and creates the first living site 2) the second inherits the land and stays put, and 3) members of the third generation move out leaving behind members of the family who maintain the continuity of association between land and people. The Tsimihety have land in many places and that is why as they migrate they move to previously Tsimihety owned land and they achieve this land through this paradigm of Tsimihety rules. The land is then granted to migrating Tsimihety by status, which is assigned by the criterion of patrilineal descent. Once an individual has cleared the land and began cultivation he is the owner and the plot is given a name.
The ritual status among Tsimihety is his genealogical status with respect to his ancestors. A man inherits symbols from his father and these are said to belong to all those of the same kind. These symbols define his status wherever he travels. The Tsimihety are always concerned with movement, whether as migrants or residents connected to those who have left. In establishing the basic boundaries of his identity a Tsimihety refers to himself as a point in space in time referring to a genealogical ancestor. If a man ever referred to himself with the land of his mother’s ancestors, he admits inferior status in respect to land and the ancestors he must ask permission to settle. For the Tsimihety people women are agnatically descended but cannot pass on their descent status. They can borrow land but not own it. The one constant in all of the migrations of the Tsimihety is that a man is unlikely to move beyond reach of his closest agnatic relatives living on land of his ancestors. When a Tsimihety migrates he does not cut himself off from his past.
The author accomplishes his goal in this concise article. He does a good job articulating his views and gets the point across about the Tsimihety people.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
KRISTEN WOLOSZYN Michigan State University (Susan Applegate Krouse)
Witherspoon, Gary. Navajo Categories of Objects at Rest. American Anthropologist February, 1971 Vol.73(1):110-127.
This article outlines the categories of objects at rest within the Navajo culture and explores how human perceptions have different values according to their cultures. Before beginning analysis, Witherspoon defines “culture” and “cultural categories,” two terms utilized with the paper. Culture, he says, exists on a conceptual level, within a set of ideas, beliefs and attitudes regarding the mental and physical universe. These concepts not only identify what exists in our objective world, but a system that creates our entire world. Our reality is defined by our culture, broken into categories within each construct. Cultural categories are therefore conceptual constructs.
Witherspoon explains that the Navajo culture’s domain of objects at rest can be broken down into fifteen general categories. These categories are based on Navajo concepts of size, shape, firmness, density, position, cohesiveness, and whether an object is animate or inanimate or contained or not contained. Each of these categories is partitioned into one singular and fourteen plural categories, making 225 unique cultural categories and 102 distinct mono-lexical markers. These categories have been determined by Hoijer, an anthropologist, based on three variables: plurality, grouping and patterning.
Grammatical constructions that indicate number vary in function according to one’s language. Witherspoon states that while English has two basic categories to distinguish number, Navajo has six, which are marked by verbs in continuums of one, three, four, and five. The third person verb (fifth continuum) has three tenses, accounting for the other two categories.
The next variable deals with plural objects “at rest.” The Navajo base their words on whether an object is separate or in a group, one group or multiple groups, and the number of items within each group. For example, a pile of logs, several piles of log piles, and several groups of single logs are all stated differently.
The last variable used to define the categories of Navajo language is patterning. Animals placed in a random distribution are defined differently than animals that are placed in a straight line, perhaps referring to tame versus wild or set up versus roaming.
Witherspoon gives other examples to illustrate how Navajo culture categorizes a domain of culturally defined reality. While this article does not portray how Navajos think, it does show what categories they employ in their thought process. Many anthropologists claim that “primitive” languages lack the generalization and abstraction that modern languages have. Witherspoon argues that the variables of categorization are used in very specific and the fact that the Navajo culture cannot define each term of each category does not demonstrate a lack of abstract thinking and generalizations.
CLARITY: 3
MARISA DUKOWITZ Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)
Wolf, Eric R. Hortense Powdermaker 1900-1970. American Anthropologist June, 1971 Vol.73(3):783-785.
Hortense Powdermaker was born in 1900 in Philadelphia. She attended high school in Baltimore and went on to Goucher College where she earned a B.A. in history. After college she worked as a labor organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, before continuing her education at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1928 she received a Ph.D. in anthropology.
Directly after school Powdermaker began to study the village of Lesu in New Ireland. Her work there resulted in Life in Lesu (1933). Afterwards she moved on to the Institute of Human Relations at Yale. In 1932 she commenced work in Indianola, Mississippi, a community characterized by heavy racial tension. Studying this contemporary community was both revolutionary and dangerous, as well as significant aspect of Powdermaker’s work with racial issues. Her book on this community, After Freedom, was published in 1939.
Powdermaker spent a large portion of her life teaching at Queens College in New York, beginning in 1937. In 1946 her interest in media and communication led her to Hollywood where she studied “the filmmaking community (784).” Her book on the subject, Hollywood the Dream Factory, was met with harsh reviews from critics, and later from Powdermaker herself. Despite any faults, the book was still a useful contribution to the anthropological community.
From 1953-1954 Powdermaker took her fieldwork to Luanshya in Northern Rhodesia. There she studied personal identification aspects of “the shift from tribal life to urban location (784).” She published Copper Town based on her studies there.
Powdermaker’s last book, Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist, addressed many issues that face anthropologists everywhere using Powdermaker’s own varied field experiences. She retired from Queens in 1968, only to begin work again at Berkley. She began a study of students’ culture there, which she was sadly unable to finish.
CLARITY: 5
NICOLE RICHTER Dickinson College (Ann Maxwell Hill)