Human Organization 1996

Aunger, Robert. Acculturation and the Persistence of Indigenous Food Avoidances in the Inturi Forest, Zaire. Human Organization, Vol.55, Number 2: 206-218.

Aunger explores the effects of western schooling and Christianity on the food avoidance interests, or food taboos, of the peoples of the Inturi Forest with premise that the robustness, the number, types and amount, in food avoidance taboos has been and will be shown to be affected by acculturation. Aunger’s analysis is based on two types of data: 449 interviews regarding individual values on the edibility of 145 animal based foods and the reported meat consumption over a period of 47,000 person days in 18 villages. Auger believes that these food taboos are kept in existence on two different levels: the cultural and the biological. In this study, the cultural existence of a food taboo is said to be dependent on variation in: education, interest in adhering to Christian food taboos, food gathering technique and age. The biological aspect of food taboos Aunger speaks about is simply the idea that a food taboo can restrict a person’s ability to function and that loss of functionality can cause an effect close to that of survival of the fittest for any certain taboo where the consequences of a certain food taboo, biologically, can determine the longevity of the existence of that taboo. The majority of the article is the exploration of the effects of schooling and the introduction of the Christian religion on the cultural level of what he calls a “biological evolutionary” framework of culture systems.

In terms of schooling, and using the multivariate statistical model, Aunger found that a person with a greater experience in school has a greater number of food avoidances than their less-educated peers and that men tend to have a greater increase in diversity of avoidances, with respect to education, in comparison to women. Women have a higher average diversity of avoidance. Also, many of the educated older informants seem to have less interest in stating avoidances whereas educated youths seems to feel pride in remembering and reporting what they know of avoidances.

In terms of Christianity, Aunger found that there was a very small amount of change, caused by the introduction of Christianity, in food taboos. He does state that both Christianity and education have a similar effect on interest in food taboos and that the greater of the two catalysts is education. He furthers his analysis by stating that Christianity is also similar to education in that it tends toward a discounting attitude on the subject of food taboos. It is Robert Aunger’s belief that Christianity is not a potent acculturating force in this spectrum.

Lastly, Anger returns to the nutritional burden argument showing that schooling, in the Inturi region, tends to reduce an individual’s nutritional burden and argues that an increase in acculturation would increase nutrition by taking away certain taboos. He reiterates his biological and cultural effects argument with respect to inter-generational transmission of food taboos. Aunger finishes by stating that he did find correlation between his hypothesis and the robustness of food avoidances.

CLARITY RATING: 4
DAVID HUNTER Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna and Yoram S. Carmeli. Patients Who Get What They Want: Policy and Power in the Context of Prenatal Care. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55 (2): 178-182.

The authors focus this article of issues of power dynamics in the public health care system in Ontario, Canada. They examine two elements of power dynamics, that of the outside politics that exert pressure on hospitals and the relationship between medical professionals and their patients. To further illuminate these issues, the authors offer a brief comparison with the health care system in the United States and make the conjecture that the observed differences are due in large part to the differing power dynamics. Specifically, they argue that in Ontario, where health care is free of charge the emphasis is on budgeting and the external pressure on hospitals is to cut costs. Conversely, they conclude that in the U.S. where much of health care is privatized, the emphasis is on profit and the external pressure is to make more money. Concerning the power dynamic between medical professionals and patients, the authors contend that in both the U.S. and Ontario those patients with the economic and social means have more success in dealing with doctors.

To get at these points, the authors followed an economically stable Canadian couple as they sought an amniocentesis. The woman in the couple did not meet the regular guidelines in Ontario for receiving this test and thus the couple faced a variety of bureaucratic challenges. The medical professionals that the couple initially approached were generally critical of the procedure and offered medical statistics about the risks to discourage the couple. This is cited as evidence of the external pressure on the health care industry in Ontario to keep costs low. Not deterred, the couple used their social network to contact doctors in the U.S. who supported the procedure and offered statistics about the benefits. This is taken as evidence of the more profit-based pressure on the U.S. health care system to perform as many procedures as possible. When the couple persisted, a professional at the large hospital they contacted in Ontario referred them to a smaller hospital, which may not have filled its quota for the procedure. This is presented as further evidence of the emphasis on budgeting in the Canadian system. This route was ultimately successful. The fact that the couple is able to maneuver their way through the system, according to the authors, points to their advantage in the power dynamic due to their economic and social status.

The authors conclude by pointing out some of the positives and negatives of each system. While in Ontario health care is more widely available it can be more difficult to obtain under circumstances where the patient does not meet the set criteria. However, while no such restrictions exist in the U.S. there are still restrictions based on economic means. Thus they argue that the economic and social standing of a patient is important in both systems for getting the desired treatment.

CLARITY: 4
ABIGAIL HAZLETT Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Bullers, Susan & Patricia Barker Lerch. Powwows as Identity Markers: Tradition or Pan-Indian? Human Organization, 1996 Volume 55(4): 390-395.

Susan Buller and Patricia Barker Lerch, of the University of North Carolina, Wilminton, write on the effects of increasing tribal acceptance of Pan-Indian cultural markers. They approach this phenomenon by studying the effects of a common Pan-Indian activity, the powwow, on the Waccamaw Sioux of North Carolina.

Pan-Indian activities are described as shared rituals that serve to unite culturally distinct tribes. By sharing common rituals individual tribes claim a shared identity as Native Americans. In this manner smaller tribes are able to gain the advantages of a larger group. Furthermore, these activities allow populations that have lost their local cultural customs to adopt new customs and reassert their Indian heritage.

The authors attempt to test two underlying assumptions about Pan-Indian activities, here typified by the powwow. First, Pan-Indianism is thought to be more widely accepted by groups who have lost their original cultural delineators like native language. Second, it is speculated that Pan-Indianism is more appealing to those of mixed ancestry as they may be accepted as part of the group identity of “Native American” more readily than as members of any specific tribe.

A household survey of one hundred and ten homes was conducted in a predominantly Waccamaw community. The Waccamaw were selected for their desire to be recognized as “Indian.” The survey recorded the ethnic identity of each household member and asked the family head to rate the importance of several factors contributing to an “Indian” identity. The factors listed included seventeen markers of traditional Waccamaw identity. Four Pan-Indian markers were also included. Thus, the experimenters could identify the importance of either factor in the Waccamaws’ perception of Native American identity.

As expected, analysis showed that traditional markers of identity remained important. For example, being seen as Native American by others was considered central to seeing oneself as Native American. Surprisingly however, participation in local powwows was also seen by all as an important aspect of being a Waccamaw. Previous hypotheses predicted that those who are exogamous or of mixed ancestry would be drawn to Pan-Indian customs. They found instead that pure blooded, endogamous Waccamaws found the powwow to be central to the Waccamaw identity.

The authors propose a historical explanation for this unexpected result. As the tradition was instituted by a native chief a generation ago, it may by now be considered an old Waccamaw tradition. Regardless, Pan-Indian powwows have been successfully adopted as part of the unique Waccamaw identity. This example challenges previous assumptions that Pan-Indian and traditional tribal customs are mutually antagonistic, that one only becomes more prevalent at the expense of the other. Here a tribe has managed to assimilate new customs into an older, unique identity.

CLARITY RANKING: 5
ALISON EVANS & NICHOLAS GORMAN Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Camacho, Michelle E. Madsen. Dissenting Workers and Social Control: A Case Study of the Hotel Industry in Huatulco, Oaxaca. Human Organization Spring, 1996 Vol. 55(1): 33-40.

This article examines the hotel industry in Hualtulco, Oaxaca, Mexico and the employee social relations within it. The author, Michelle E. Madsen Camacho, studied the conflicts and differences between unionized and non-unionized workers.

Camacho utilized participant observation in her studies. She worked for about two months for one of the major hotels in the area. In this way she was able to more fully understand the condition of the workers and the operations of the hotel. Workers were interviewed in their own homes and in their native language (Spanish). All people who were interviewed were union members. Two charts are utilized in the article. One is the percentages of male and female non-unionized workers by positions. The other is positions for unionized workers. These charts clearly illustrate the discrepancy between the two types of workers.

Camacho argues that the “unions serve the function of inducing compliance in laborers,” instead of functioning as an aide to the workers. “If workers are divided, there is less likelihood that they can effectively make demands.” Thus, employers and union leaders pit unionized laborers against non-unionized ones.

The Mexican government believed that building resort areas would “elevate employment and the standard of living.” However, they did not consider the fact that it would increase tension between the workers, bringing out social differences between them. It “creates hierarchies of power.”

The unionized and non-unionized workers are given different lunch breaks, with a great discrepancy in time allotments, as well as different food. They are even given different bathrooms and they have different uniforms. Though the workers must conform in most ways, they subtly defy authority through “verbal disregard for regulations and mocking employers.”

The workers were fully aware that the union did not represent them, but instead, served to help the authority keep absolute control. By working with, and interviewing, unionized workers, Camacho came to the conclusion that workers “constantly negotiate a balance between control and dissent.”

CLARITY: 5
JORDANA BAROWSKY Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Cameron, Mary. Biodiversity and Medical Plants in Nepal: Involving Untouchables in Conservation and Development. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55(1): 84-92.

The title of this article contains all the components of this piece. However, as in-depth anthropology has taught us all, a label is simply just that, and more often than not, continued development and research are needed to fully understand a topic.

Cameron’s overall goal while in Khaptad National Park, Nepal was to create, with the help of many local and global environmental organizations, a conservation development project in the western part of the country. Underlying all of this, Cameron realized that not only was the environment going to benefit from the conservation project, but so were the people of the community and their economy. Thus, her goal in writing about her anthropological experience was to show that a broad base of knowledge and enthusiasm are necessary for anthropological work. Cultural knowledge becomes applicable, and in many cases necessary, to complete a variety of community-based tasks. Knowledge of the Khaptad culture was important in order for Cameron to complete the conservation project.

Cameron ends her piece with the most striking point of all, which in a sense conveys the message that applied anthropology has the potential to create social development. Yet what needs to be stressed is that this does not necessarily mean coming from a superior standpoint with the idea of changing or overthrowing a previously established community. What it does mean, however, is that open and culturally sensitive anthropologists can inspire a community towards progression while simultaneously becoming more accepted members of the community. To prove this Cameron tells her story to show us how at each step pf her experience this truth was reinforced.

One of the main goals of Cameron’s project in Nepal was to create a program that would benefit the most people possible, in all classes of the community. Cameron was also focused on marketing medicinal plants, which would involve the goal of incorporating the lower caste. Cameron’s first challenge was attempting to combine the efforts of the village people with that of the military— two groups that lacked cooperation. The importance of this step was revealed in the fact that the village people felt that most of Khaptad’s environmental problems were the cause of the military’s exploitation of timber and hunting of endangered species. The locals felt that they had always been stewards of the land. Thus Cameron’s job became more than conservation; it became a development of new social constructions. The conservation project required that all classes of society come together to work for something, that would in the end, benefit them all in many ways. Cameron goes on to describe the specifics in the marketing of plants, as well as how each step was to be carried out.

Throughout all of the author’s steps, one is reminded of the importance of a well-rounded anthropologist, and furthermore, one who is willing to cooperate with many aspects of one culture or specific project. Cameron was able to cooperate with conflicted and impoverished people because of her knowledge of the culture and patience for the emergence of new and unexpected directions in her project. As a result, she was able to construct a successful operation, and one in which all classes of society benefited. Additionally, Cameron was able to teach all of us the importance of anthropologists within the realm of multi-faceted and intersubjective work.

CLARITY: 4
LAUREL COATS Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Castle, Sarah. The Current and Intergenerational Impact of Child Fostering on Children’s Nutritional Status in Rural Mali. Human Organization, 1996 Vol.55(2):193-205.

Castle challenges the generally held assumption that children who grow up in foster families are nutritionally disadvantaged in comparison to children raised by their biological parents. She states that it is difficult to ascertain a specific effect of foster caring on children’s nutrition and cites that various studies have come to different conclusions about the relationship. Using her research and other studies’ conclusions, she defines current and intergenerational contextual factors that have a decisive influence on whether a child is advantaged or disadvantaged nutritionally by the foster care experience.

Castle states that various factors should be considered that define the effect of the foster care experience on children’s nutrition. Especially key to the argument is this difference between forced fostering and actively requested fostering. The former occurs when children are unwanted in the original family, such as when a child is the product of an extramarital affair. The latter is when a foster family desires the child, for help with domestic duties or for a variety of other reasons. These variables—whether a child is forced into foster care or actively requested—are what Castle defines as current variables. Her conclusion regarding this factor is that when a child is forced into a foster family, they are more likely to be nutritionally disadvantaged than their counterparts who are actively sought out by a foster family for a positive purpose.

She also defines an intergenerational factor. She first cites a study saying that women who were raised as foster children are more likely to put their own children into foster care. She concludes that if the mother has a forced fostering experience, she is more likely for physical and psychological reasons to be an insufficient mother and therefore to put her child into a forced foster care situation. Thus, this intergenerational factor states that the type of foster care the mother was raised with also dictates whether children’s nutrition will be affected positively or negatively by their own foster care experience.

CLARITY: 5
SARAH CALVERT HILL Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Cramer, James C. And Mcdonald, Katrina Bell. Kin Support and Family Stress: Two Sides to Early Childbearing and Support Networks. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55 (2): 160-169.

The article addresses both the positive as well as negative features found within support group assistance to a young mother. As stated in the article, the authors felt that previously not enough attention had been paid to the negative aspects that the young mother experienced due to her generally positively-viewed support group. Because of this, they focused on the negative stresses and conflicts related to the support group.

The authors begin by saying that the mother’s support group definitely does contribute essential support; however, they include that, “often-overlooked conflicts and stresses within kinship support networks have several important implications.” As their self-proclaimed focus of their study is that of the negative aspects, an important emphasis is that, while there are positive benefits of a young mother having a support group in place, “family support can generate stresses, difficulties, and disappointments along with the widely touted benefits.” The authors then elaborate upon such stresses and difficulties; one problem is that the young mothers generally were dependant upon already poor family members. Another is that the kin networks were socially/emotionally deficient, another that there were often conflicting interests between that of the mother and her support group, and that there were also conflicting perceptions of just how much support the mother should receive (e.g., the mother felt she was not receiving sufficient support while her support group felt it was giving plenty.)

Aside from the 39 references cited, the authors conducted their own study of in-depth interviews among 42 young, low-income mothers in 1989 and 1990. Statistics on the mothers were stated, including their similarities and differences. From the study, benefits and stresses of the mother’s support groups were discussed including specific examples. After the benefits and stresses were covered, the authors then discussed the expectations and disappointments of the young mothers with regards to why such stresses had been in place. Such expectations often came about due to initial positive reactions of the support group upon hearing of the pregnancy, the history of unplanned pregnancies within the support group itself, and the desire for support from the father.

In their conclusions, the authors found that there were, in fact, previously known benefits to the young mother gained from her support group; however, there were several stresses gained as well. They found that the stresses resulted often from expectations and that “the stresses associated with kinship support networks must be taken seriously.” The authors also concluded that their findings cast a shadow on the revisionist view of teen childbearing (i.e., that teen childbearing is mostly a happy experience when a support group is present to help the mother) because this view had tended to disregard the significance of the stresses due to the support group itself.

CLARITY: 5
TRAVIS J. HARPER Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Durrenberger, Paul E. and Kendall M. Thu. The Expansion of Large Scale Hog Farming in Iowa: The applicability of Goldschmidt’s Findings Fifty Years Later. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55 (4): 409-415.

The authors focus this article on whether or not it is detrimental to rural society to move from small scale hog farming to large scale industrial hog production. They place their analysis of census data in the context of the findings of Walter Goldschmidt who hypothesized that small scale farmers share interest in the community and produce healthier socioeconomic environments. In contrast, large scale farms have no positive impact on communities. Goldschmidt’s work was originally conducted in California in the 1940s and the authors attempt to broaden the scope of his work to apply to the specific conditions of rural Iowa.

In order to do this they first outline the background of the hog industry in Iowa. Pork production has long been a staple of Iowa’s economy and until recently has taken the form of independently owned and operated small scale farms. As other swine producing states have adopted more efficient modern techniques Iowa’s economic competitiveness has decreased, causing a push for the shift from the traditional small scale farm to larger scale and more industrial production.

In order to offer evidence for the applicability of Goldschmidt’s hypothesis the authors analyzed several community databases including the U.S. Census of Agriculture and the U.S. Bureau of Census. As a measure of economic well-being they used the number of people receiving food stamps. Numerous variables were used to get at the impact of the shift from small to large scale farming on Iowa’s economy and statistical tests were run between these variables to produce useful correlational data. The primary findings were that the total number of hogs produced by a community is the best predictor of economic health but that secondarily the presence of small scale farms is also key to the well-being of rural economies. Taken together, these findings suggest the validity of Goldschmidt’s hypothesis in the Iowa hog industry. Thus it is not only necessary to produce a large number of hogs but to do so by means of small scale farming.

In addition to outlining these findings in the conclusion, the authors offer some criticisms of the large scale hog production industry. They argue that the purported efficiency of this means of production ultimately reduces the number of jobs and has health and environment repercussions. The authors clearly state that their findings are only the first step in research of this type. They advocate further study of the Iowa hog industry.

CLARITY: 4
CHLOE CASTRO and ABIGAIL HAZLETT Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Elias, Peter Douglas. Worklessness and Social Pathologies in Aboriginal Communities.Human Organization, 1996. Vol. 55( 1): 13-23)

This article deals with unemployment and its correlation to “social pathologies” among aboriginal societies in Canada and the United States. The author includes many definitions of “social pathologies” including: substance abuse, child abuse, elder abuse, suicide, homicide, violence, criminality, bitter factionalism, and family and household instability. Giving employment to people who have a history of social pathologies and history of sometime violent crime does not happen; thus the behavior becomes entrenched. Local officials and community planners are then faced with the task of helping these individuals obtain work, a task which can drain the scare resources these types of small, distant communities. The author presents a case study of one such aboriginal community in Churchill, Manitoba in order to create a model of relationship between work and social pathologies that can benefit the local officials and community planners. The author presents many graphs and numbers in his case study of Churchill, Manitoba. He focuses specifically on the time period 1967 to 1974. From 1967 to 1969 there were little work opportunities available to aboriginal peoples. From 1970 to 1972, on the other hand, there was an abundance of employment opportunities, and a rebuilding of the community was underway. Between 1973 and 1974 employment opportunities were greatly reduced but the town’s population had not yet begun to decline dramatically. The author uses numbers broken down by these two year increments and further broken down by tribes of aboriginal groups in Churchill. He collected data on violent acts committed by each group and confirms the link between social pathologies and unemployment. His tables show a decline in the number of violent acts committed during the years when employment opportunities were the highest. His tables are neatly broken down by year and group in order to make it obvious to the reader that there was a decline in violent acts between 1970 through 1972 when there was an abundance of work opportunities.

CLARITY: 4
KATHRYN BAER Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Ervin, Alexander M. Collaborative and Participatory Research in Urban Social Planning and Restructuring: Anthropological Experiences from a Medium-Sized Canadian City. Human Organization, 1996 vol.55 (3):324-341

The main focus of this article is the idea that applied anthropologists working with policy issues can best serve the community in a general or “rover” capacity. In this way they are able to integrate and coordinate many different sectors of human service delivery. Additionally it aids the anthropologist in identifying overlapping coverage areas and areas where human service delivery is insufficient or ineffective. In the article the author attempts to illustrate this point though five different projects on which the anthropologist worked in the city of Saskatoon. Much of the article is involved in describing how the author aided local governmental and non-governmental agencies in gathering information about the effectiveness and efficiency of human service delivery in different locations and policy areas.

In the first case they attempt to show the potential for anthropologists to identify primary human, social, and health needs at the community level. In the second case the author attempts to illustrate how anthropologists can find niches in policy research institutions which aid in designing social policy. In the third case the author attempts to exemplify how a single agency tries to respond to a multitude of needs directed to the “whole person,” though integrated programming. The final case focuses on “bottom-up” participatory-action research meant to empower those previously caught in cycles of dependency or exploitation.

These are all significant accomplishments for which the author should be proud. However, in showing that one way or methodology is better it is important to point out where the new method succeeds where others failed or did not work as well. The author makes little comparison between their work and work done using different methodologies. This leaves the author’s belief, that an anthropologist working in a general or rover capacity is best, wholly unproved.

This language of this article is very specific and academic. To a trained anthropologist this kind of specificity must be necessary to properly communicate their point, however, I believe the average person would have a very difficult time reading and understanding the article.

CLARITY: 3
STUART OGILVIE Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Goldin, Liliana R. Economic Mobility Strategies among Guatemalan Peasants: Prospects and Limits of Nontraditional Vegetable Cash Crops. American Anthropologist Spring, 1996. Vol.55(1):99-107.

Changes in economic mobility in western Guatemala that have resulted from nontraditional economic activity and the implications of these changes are addressed in this article by Liliana Goldin. The article has two broad focuses: the strategies poorer families have used to elevate their economic situation and the consequences these strategies have had on the overall socioeconomic status of their village. Related to these focuses are ideas of class development and village solidarity. The article investigates several strategies of economic improvement and discusses nontraditional crop production as a negative result of attempts to incorporate Guatemala into the global economy.

Goldin begins by describing recent Guatemalan economic trends, including an unequal distribution of wealth and land, which she explains by examining mechanisms of economic change within the San Pedro Almolonga community. Goldin investigates these mechanisms by conducting in-depth interviews with fifteen families who had experienced positive economic changes. The article describes the steps Goldin followed in her study, including the general survey procedures, occupational measures and measures of economic status. Factors of age, land, family size and household size are examined in connection with economic status.

Goldin uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods in the study of San Pedro Almolonga’s economic position in the region and the economic mobility among its inhabitants. Analysis of economic mobility strategies is based on census information for the region, informal interviews with people of neighboring villages, and in-depth interviews with 15 families from a comprehensively surveyed group of randomly selected households. Goldin discusses the methods used for the selection of families, conduction of surveys, and procedures of the interviews.

Goldin details how economic status is measured in this study. Two economic assessment strategies are discussed. One involves the subjective judgment by the interviewer; the other involves estimation by the participant. Relying on these measures, Goldin claims that economic differences in the area arise from occupational differences. Peasants engaging in trade and less traditional methods of economic activity should be wealthier than individuals engaging only in traditional agricultural activities. Seven case studies are described in the article, providing different perspectives on economic mobility strategies.

Through the qualitative analysis of seven Almolonga families, Goldin determines several specific nontraditional methods of acquiring economic mobility including marrying into or inheriting wealth, renting land before buying and becoming a trade middleman. She determines that changes in economic practices are the main means of upward economic mobility, but emphasizes that nontraditional vegetable production is a practice instituted by development programs that leads to the concentration of wealth. One of Goldin’s major claims is that nontraditional agriculture does not encourage upward economic mobility for most of the population. The occupations that contribute to upward economic mobility as described by Goldin are those that engage in trade and non-conventional methods of economic participation. Scarcity of land and interference by development programs are suggested as causes of the divergence from traditional economic activities. Goldin discusses the questionability of other economic options such as migration to the United States and wage labor in cities. These options, she claims, reinforce unequal social relationships and limit economic progress. Goldin relates how the advancement of the Almolonga economy creates mistrust and resentment by other towns. The resentment from other towns contributes to a sense of solidarity within the town.

CLARITY RANKING: 3
KATHERYN DETWILER Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath).

Grieshop, James I., Martha C. Stiles, and Ninfa Villanueva. Prevention and Resiliency: A Cross Cultural View of Farmworkers’ and Farmers’ Beliefs About Work Safety. Human Organization 1996 Vol. 55(1):25-32.

The authors of this article use two surveys of farmers and farmworkers in California to illustrate the differences in the two groups’ beliefs on work safety and the prevention of accidents at work. It also studies how the locus of illness measures could be adapted to injuries in agricultural work. The surveys were given separately to farmers (mostly Anglo-American males) and workers (mostly Mexican-American migrants, a little over half female). The authors focus on how the surveyed groups relate work related injury to internality, externality (and powerful others), searching for safety and accepting danger. Internality is thinking that a result is brought on by one’s own actions. Externality is the opposite. The belief that powerful others affect life is an aspect of externality involving acts of things such as fate, luck and God. Search for safety, which, with accepting danger, was created for this study, is the ability to take action to prevent accidents. Accepting danger is the ability to deal with accidents as they occur.

The surveys were conducted in different fashions to both groups, but held similar content for the most part. The authors state in the future it would be more effective to make the surveys more uniform in content. However, that complaint aside, they use the percentages and numbers gathered to draw support for their conclusions and arguments. They also cite a number of outside sources on various subjects to support and expand on what they claim.

Using statistics from the surveys, they conclude that the farmworkers are more apt to be externally oriented, specifically thinking either their boss or a powerful other had a lot to do with accidents at work. Farmers, conversely, believed (internally) that the individual was responsible for him or herself. In the matters of searching for safety and accepting danger, the workers had fairly equal beliefs in both areas, whereas the farmers preferred searching for safety.

Their conclusion as far as the matter of the applicability of this locus of injury control in workplace injury control was that studies of this nature would certainly be beneficial. By determining how workers view accidents, one can emphasize certain aspects of training that they might not otherwise consider.

CLARITY: 4
SUSAN BARNEY Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Hammond, John L. Popular Education in the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army. Human Organization Fall, 1996. Vol.55(4):436-445.

Hammond believes that education, both basic and political, played a vital role in the success of the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army. He argues that educating a guerrilla army increases practical military ability as well as ideological concern. The article focuses on the effect education, and the value of education on the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and in the Salvadorian conflict.

In El Salvador between 1988 and 1993, Hammond conducted 40 interviews with guerrilla combatants. While in the field he explored the educational process, the conditions under which it was carried out, and its role on the war effort. Hammond explains that although research conditions were “not optimal,” he attempted to gather secure representation of important categories: men and women, foot soldiers, squadron leaders, and commandants, and combatants with a variety of military specialties. He illustrates how some of these individuals became literate and in turn taught literacy to others.

Hammond explains that, contrary to Che Guevara’s foquismo, the leaders of the FMLN believed in the Maoist thesis of prolonged popular war. They decided that educating the army, especially on political ideology, would reinforce the motivation of the combatants. Hammond draws a connection between the FMLN and the French revolutionary army when he introduces the term levee en masse, which refers to the concern of the morale of the individual soldier. Hammond believes the leaders of the FMLN righteously exploited the attraction of literacy. He cites a 1991 radio commercial where one “very hip sounding young man” explains to a peer how he learned to read and write in the National Army for Democracy. The young man goes on to explain that his companeros and he were “fighting together for a more just society.”

Because of the nature of guerrilla warfare the education sessions were not carried out in a systematic fashion and were influenced by the intensity of the environment and the ability of the “teacher” of the group. Teachers were often the military leaders as well, combining the roles of political and military leadership. Hammond reports that political discussion occurred much more frequently. He explains how peasants identified more with less educated combatants and thus the combatants were able to gain their trust, engage in conversation and get them to cooperate. Through educating the combatants in political ideology, teaching them to think independently and helping them to organize and control others, the combatants kept a sense of solidarity towards their unified cause and a depth of conviction in what they were doing.

Despite the best efforts to avoid inequality in the FMLN, the way in which the combatants were educated often served to highlight differences in status and gender among the combatants. Though the well educated rose to top ranks and gender differences were most pronounced in the type of tasks women did vs. men, there was training in gender consciousness as well as a firm commitment by the FMLN to educate all combatants. In fact, achieving equality of rights and increasing knowledge, skills and consciousness was so important to the FMLN that educational benefits were negotiated into the peace settlement, thus increasing the ability of all within the society to understand and appreciate each other’s strengths and abilities.

CLARITY: 5
REUBEN MILLER AND LEE KNOUS Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath).

CLARITY: 4
SUSAN BARNEY Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Hofling, Charles Andrew. Indigenous Linguistic Revitalization and Outsider Interaction: The Itzaj Maya Case. Human Organization, 1996. Vol.55(1):108-116.

In this article, Charles Andrew Hofling considers the increasing threat of extinction for traditional cultures and languages as a result of the capitalist infiltration of remote regions of the world. He concentrates on outsider involvement, primarily of anthropologists, linguists and environmentalists, in cultural and linguistic revitalization and conservation efforts waged in response to concerns about cultural and linguistic extinction, and the inherent obstacles in and subsequent implications of such engagement. Hofling illustrates the delicate intricacy of revitalization and conservation movements and argues the necessity for change in both community and outsider involvement.

To demonstrate his position, Hofling uses the endangered Itzaj Maya of Petén, Guatemala, among whom the language shift and cultural change have resulted entirely by outsider involvement, and the evolution of the Itzaj Mayan revitalization movement; its inception, disintegration and the current attempts for an uncertain resuscitation.

Upon his second visit to San José in 1988, Hofling found that post-civil war violence and a flourishing of cultural transformation and ladinoization efforts, as well as a rise in economic tension and in the immigrant population from the south, had increased Itzaj cultural and linguistic instability, the latter driven to near extinction. Yet, there were no revitalization movements until 1992, at which time Hofling observed the seemingly successful rebirth of Itzaj. Two organizations, the Maya Language Rescue Project (PRIMI) and the Itza Biosphere were established in San José on behalf of Mayan linguistic and cultural survival, working independently of, and collaboratively with, one another and the already recognized Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG), as well as with a number of other foreign organizations with interests in the area. Soon thereafter, however, Hofling realized that the Itzaj were being used by outsider consumers and investors as a means to achieve their competing individual objectives. Portraying the Itzaj as the last dying indigenous Mayan peoples proved a very lucrative icon for the tourism industry, and thus the economy, as well as for environmental conservationists aiming to preserve the land on which the Itzaj resided. On his third visit a year later, however, Hofling found the revitalization movement dead. ALMG had closed down, PRIMI and the Biosphere committee were inactive, the governor had been removed from office for complicit activity, and civil authority was crumbling. The Peténs were becoming suspicious of the increased interest in the local ecology and culture as they realized that they had assumed a subordinate position to their outsider clientele and were thus not sharing in the rewards.

Hofling believes this asymmetrical relationship between the Itzaj community and outside investors is the primary impetus for the breakdown of the revitalization dynamic. Ultimately, the responsibility for rescue efforts lies within the local community. Collaboration between locals and informed advocates is thus imperative. Social scientists must be more reflexive and self-critical and allow the local culture a more active role in cultural and economic transformation.

CLARITY: 4
CODY DIERUF Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Kennedy, John C. and Olsson, Karen. Health Care Seeking Behavior and Formal Integration: A Rural Mexican Case Study. Human Organization, 1996. Vol.55(1): 41-46.

This study seeks to illustrate the distinct separation between biomedical and traditional health clinics and the negative consequences thereof. It has been found that many people seek out either traditional or biomedical healers by self diagnosis. Often the biomedical approach to medicine claims universality and denies the importance of traditional practitioners and their methods. This leads to a divided health care system in which there is poor communication and understanding of both methods.

Kennedy and Olsson set out to show that the optimum set up for health care is to fully integrate the two systems. A few problems in the current system of health care are unavailability of part-time traditional practitioners and adverse effects on patients when traditional and biomedical doctors are unaware of the other?s practice. By forming a pluralistic health care system, they hope to provide patients with both types of practitioners working out of the same clinic.

To show how the integration of the two separate systems would be beneficial Kennedy and Olsson conducted 205 interviews at the clinic named Centro de Salud Rural Concentrado de Tlayacapan. They also taped 17 interviews with various health care practitioners. The data was analyzed using the Stata, a statistical computer program.

Data were organized by first presenting what percentage of the 205 respondents consulted with traditional practitioners during the previous year. Finding that 70% of the respondents fit into that category, it is explained that the reason this may be is because the respondents self-diagnose traditional illness for which the correct course of action is to consult a traditional practitioner. The second display of supporting information is that of the Health Care Practitioners Questionnaire. The results showed that the curative prescriptions and definitions of disease were vastly different between practitioners. Often the biomedical practitioners worked from the stance of germ theory where traditional practitioners did not. Notably, some biomedical practitioners denied the existence of traditional diseases, and others assigned biomedical etiologies to them. None of the biomedical practitioners would prescribe traditional treatment.

CLARITY: 4
EMILY BENNETT Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Lipson, Juliene G., and Omidian, Patricia A. Ethnic Coalitions and Public Health: Delights and Dilemmas with the Afghan Health Education Project in Northern California. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55(3): 355-360.

In this article, Patricia A. Omidian and Juliene G. Lipson define their efforts to create a public health network for Afghan refugees in Northern California through both advocacy and “action anthropology.” The authors of this piece, among others, initiated the project knowing that more than knowledge of health issues would be necessary to create a successful program for Afghan refugees. The main goals of their project were to create ties between different ethnic groups as well as to provide support for Afghan refugees who now number around six million throughout the world. Among the many issues that Afghan immigrants face are posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, economic and family issues, as well as cultural conflict with United States citizens.

In this article, these women explain the many struggles they faced trying to establish the health education network. The first step in establishing their organization was gaining approval and funding for the project as well as completing a health assessment of the Afghan community. The committee continues to seek adequate funding. To encourage funding, they hold community meetings in order to give the project publicity and give the Afghans hope. The next challenge involved more complex group issues between the organizers and the Afghans. The initiators of this group needed to reassure Afghans that they were not coming from a “one up-one down” standpoint in the process of health education. Within these efforts the authors realized the significance of cultural differences among themselves and the Afghan refugees. Afghans traditionally cooperate in a system of negative reciprocity with strangers; they try to create a relationship in which they get the better end of the deal. This project gives to individual refugees in many ways, such as writing letters for them in English and various other community services. Therefore, one of the primary goals of this project was to establish a bond between the organizers and the refugees, and more specifically, one that facilitated an equal and reciprocal relationship. Omidian and Lipson speak on the general terms of giving and receiving. While giving to the community, there was a slight mismatch of purposes between the Americans and the Afghans. Many Afghans wanted to know about the importance elements of health education, while the others simply wanted “accessible health care.” Furthermore, during the project, the steering committee tried to exclude existing Afghan community leaders from their meetings. This was, in the most part, due to the fact that these leaders had an “enormous distrust” due to political events that took place in Afghanistan. The Afghan community also expected things from the members based on their own culture. For instance, the three Americans on the committee were expected to help the community the way Afghan doctors did by being “able to open bureaucratic doors.” Once a reciprocal relationship was achieved, only then could the health educators gain any sort of headway in the development of the Afghan community in Northern California.

Many problems continue to impede the progress of this project. For example, there are a few discrepancies in how things should work, “while the state proposed a bottom up model, the Afghan community has a top-down pattern of social interaction.” The bottom up approach would include empowering the community with knowledge of political events that would encourage their belief in the right to make decisions. The top-down approach would entail that nobody is on the same social level due to his or her religion, ethnicity, and gender. Their social interactions are then executed accordingly. Overall the project is, nonetheless, succeeding. The action anthropologists who created this project realized the importance of cultural knowledge and acceptance as well as reciprocal teamwork among social efforts with varying ethnicities. Not only are the Afghans gaining from this project, but the Anthropologists are as well.

CLARITY: 4
LAUREL COATS and STACY DAVIS Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

McConnell, David L. Education for Global Integration in Japan: A Case Study of the JET Program. Human Organization, Winter 1996. Vol 55 (No. 4): 446-457.

David L McConnell examines the difficulties encountered when the Japanese government began its “internationalization” campaign, known as Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET).

JET is a program that began in 1987 which recruits college graduates, mostly from English speaking nations, to Japan in order to promote international exchange. JET has been an attempt to ease Japanese integration into the world economic community. As a result, internationalization plays a large role in how this policy gets implemented into the schooling system, while how it also contradicts with the cultural isolation and homogeneity of the Japanese race. McConnell asserts that while internationalization has and does plays a role in the creation of JET, so also do cultural norms and bureaucratic priorities within Japan.

Several difficulties have resulted in transitioning the program from theory into practice. One problem discussed in the article was the fear that the Ministry of Education had about the Japanese teachers’ reluctance to the program itself. In the end, an agreement was reached in which Japanese teachers were integrated into JET through the concept of team-teaching.

Another problem has been the difficulty that the program has had in recruiting well-qualified teachers who will commit fully JET. The solution to this problem has been the sponsorship of team-teaching workshops and seminars as part of a larger system of instructional guidance. Team teaching has the tendency to exacerbate issues of cultural difference. The foriegn teachers often emphasize “fun” through more communications based activities like games, whereas the Japanese teachers try to keep the atmosphere “sober,” and tend to focus on exam preparation, grammar, and classical English literature.

Due to cultural standards of behavior in Japan, the foreign teachers are treated preferentially. This preferential treatment accentuates the boundaries between foreigner and Japanese, a linguistic and cultural boundary that the Japanese tend to think the foreigner will never be able to surpass. A support group was established in 1987 for the foreign teachers in order to discuss their reactions and feelings about the program. Some of the foreign teachers came to the program with the attitude that Japanese methods of teaching and even Japanese culture itself will and should conform to Western standards after it is exposed to international influences. Despite the frustrations of hosting a foreign teacher, the Japanese teachers look at the process of internationalization as a cause that they should work diligently toward.

McConnell feels that the Japanese view internationalization as a “linking up” of Japan with the rest of the world, in order to be socially and economically present in the global system. The western view of internationalization is more about integrating foreigners into Japanese society, to create a more ethnically and culturally diverse nation.

CLARITY: 3
DIANE REES AND SARA SQUIRRELL Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath).

Merrill Singer. The Evolution of AIDS Work in a Puerto Rican Community Organization. Human Organization Spring, 1996 Vol.55(1):67-75.

Merrill Singer details the history and work of the Hispanic Health Council (HHC), “a community-based health research, service, and advocacy organization” located in Hartford Connecticut, in order to highlight the dilemmas they confront, and the role of anthropology in their work with AIDS prevention and treatment (67).

The article begins by explaining the HHC’s “inauguration” of AIDS work and research, and describes the process of research, accruing funds, and initiating their AIDS based programs. It then goes on to address the difficulties that an organization like the HHC confronts while doing such controversial work.

Acquiring funding is always difficult, and financial contributors to such organizations often want to dictate what will be researched and what type of programs the money will support. Unfortunately, financial donors usually want to support the projects that are popular and well known rather than allowing the organization to use the funds to their own discretion. The financial constraints also make it difficult for the HHC to provide treatment for patients with HIV.

The HHC has also had difficulties finding support from the local officials. They often try to cut funding of AIDS programs because the community as a whole does not view AIDS as a problem common to all humans, rather as a disease that affects low-class citizens who partake in “high risk” activities. The constantly changing political environment also causes the community’s support of a controversial issue such as AIDS to be fickle and inconsistent.

The HHC also confronts difficulties developing “culturally sensitive and language appropriate” material to educate the Hispanic population about AIDS and eliminating any preexisting myths that exist about its transmission.

Anthropology has played a key role in solving the previously discussed dilemmas that the HHC and other such organizations face. Rather than developing mainstream programs that reflect the ideals of corporate America, anthropologists have developed unconventional systems that address the cultural needs of the community and its individuals. Anthropologists have taught the HHC the importance of cultural sensitivity and community-based programs, and as a result, the HHC continues to provide services for “…diverse health and social issues to allow a more comprehensive approach….” Anthropologists also remain politically active in order to support their programs and research (71).

Singer concludes her article by emphasizing the importance of organizations similar to the HHC in AIDS prevention and education. Her article is well supported with credible sources and facts that lead the reader to agree with her regarding the importance of such culturally sensitive organizations when dealing with an issue as sensitive and controversial as AIDS.

CLARITY: 5
SARA CALVERT Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Mishler, Craig and Rachel Mason. Alutiiq Vikings: Kinship and Fishing in Old Harbor, Alaska. Human Organization, Fall 1996. Vol 55 (No. 3): 263-269.

Craig Mishler and Rachel Mason explore Scandinavian and Alutiiq intermarriage among Alaskan fisherman over the past one hundred years. Mishler and Mason argue that the resulting combination of Scandinavian work ethic and Alutiiq hierarchical social structure has contributed to a higher level of economic prosperity than that of neighboring Alutiiq communities where intermarriage has not occurred.

The article examines the kinship, fishing competition and social hierarchy of the fishing village of Old Harbor, Alaska. Old Harbor is a small town of approximately 271 residents as of 1991 located on the Southeast side of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska.

The article begins with a discussion of historical records of intermarriage among Scandinavian male immigrants with indigenous Alutiiq women beginning in the 1870s and continuing until today. Afognak and Kodiak Village were the first towns that attracted Scandinavians to Alaska during the newly booming salmon industry. The authors describe the connection between industrial booms in fishing and immigration in order to explain certain periods (especially the 1920s and 1940s) of increased intermarriages.

Mishler and Mason assert that the commercial subsistence of fishing in Old Harbor must be studied through kinship rights and obligations. Maternal kinship as well as matrilocal residency is practiced among this creolized class. Despite the fact that boat crews are organized around male kin relations, both consanguineal and affinal, the female figure plays a very strong role in one’s identity. Identity among these people is defined as Alaskan natives through maternal ancestry. Eskimoan language (that which is spoken by Alutiiq persons) is taught and Alutiiq heritage is observed through preservation of namesake from father to son, both which are linked to matrilineal kinship and obligations.

The next idea explored is the concept of fishing competition and social hierarchy within the Old Harbor community. Fishing competition occurs between Old Harbor fishermen who work together competing against outside communities. The practice of “combining” several boat crews for support and profit sharing is practiced by both Natives and non-Natives alike. Competition and social hierarchy play an important role in the process of recruitment and selection of crew members. The hierarchy follows the basic pattern of family members’ recruitment before village and outside persons join one’s boat crew. Social stratification also exists between fishing households and non-fishing households, with fishing households receiving higher status among the community. Within this categorization, social hierarchy and power generally follow along the lines of age and gender.

In the conclusion, Mishler and Mason argue that social stratification has occurred as a result of intermarriage. The authors explain that the “Scandinavian effect,” simply the Protestant work ethic that was not practiced by Alutiiq natives, has enhanced the wealth and prestige of creolized families over the years. They also attribute several Alutiiq customs, such as social stratification and competition, to the formation of a new class. These elements together help to explain the various social practices seen today in the fishing industry of Old Harbor, Alaska.

CLARITY: 3
DIANE REES Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath).

Moberg, Mark. Transnational Labor and Refugee Enclaves in a Central American Banana Industry. Human Organization, Vol. 55, Number 4: 425-435.

In this article Moberg examines the large influx of immigrants during the 1980’s from bordering Central American nations. He focuses on the changing national identity in Belize due to Hispanic populations becoming the majority over Anglophonic Afro-Caribbean populations, causing straining ethnic polarization. Moberg reports that between 1980 and 1990, the Hispanic population in Belize grew 71%, while the Anglophone population actually decreased due to outmigration. Moberg focuses his study on transnational laborers in the banana industry, as that population constitutes both a significant sector of the Belizean economy and a large portion of immigrant laborers. Transnational laborers originally began working on banana plantations in order to escape civil war and violence, and they were classified as political refugees. In recent years, as many Central American regimes have stabilized, these workers have continued to immigrate to Belize as economic refugees. Contrary to popular belief, Moberg argues that most of these displaced laborers will not return to their homeland, but rather will remain permanently in Belize. This constitutes a new global trend of binational laborers, who maintain strong ties to their country of origin through visits and remittances, yet feel themselves to be a part of the culture of their new country.

Moberg utilizes research that he conducted in Belize, which is an extensive survey of 157 households associated with the Belizean banana industry. Since the banana industry was privatized in 1985, when worker unions lost all power, nearly all Belizean workers have been replaced by immigrant Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran workers. These workers face a host of problems in Belize, from poor pay, to dangerous living conditions on plantations without clean water or electricity, to animosity from Anglophonic Afro-Belizeans who fear a loss of their national identity. Yet, despite these problems, most workers do not intend to leave Belize, especially those with legal work permits, even after conditions in their home countries have improved. Interestingly, Moberg points out that Belize has its own transnational population abroad, with 70,000 0f 180,000 Belizeans living in the United States, as many as half of them illegally. Research suggests that conflicts between the traditional Belizean culture and the new transnational population arise from the fears of Hispanics permanently altering Belizean culture.

Moberg has shown that Belizean fears are, in fact, founded. It appears that immigration into Belize from Central American countries has not ceased, with 30% of the banana workers having entered after 1992. Moberg also found that roughly 65% of transnational banana workers in Belize plan to permanently reside there, which will definitely alter the character of Belizean culture. In conclusion, Moberg stresses the importance of new labor laws that would better protect laborers from slave-like working conditions and abuse.

CLARITY RATING: 4
DAVID HUNTER AND ISAAC KAPLAN-WOOLNER Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Omidian, Patricia A. and Juliene G. Lipson. Ethnic Coalitions and Public Health: Delights and Dilemmas with the Afghan Health Education Project in Northern California. American Anthropologist Fall, 1996 Vol.55(3):355-360.

This article describes the dilemmas faced in the development of a Public Health Education Program in 1986 in the northern California Afghan refugee community. These dilemmas stem from cultural and political expectations within the Afghan community and from the incompatibility of the goals of the State with the community’s perceptions of health care needs. The difficulties that the two medical anthropologists encountered in their attempt to assess health in the Afghan community and plan culture-appropriate health education without offending or alienating the members of that community illuminate broader points about the necessity of sensitivity to non-Western culture and politics in anthropologic methods.

The article relates the anthropologist’s wish to encourage the participation of community members in the establishment of the program, a strategy the authors refer to as action anthropology. Central to the discussion of community participation is the problem of trying to empower people who reject empowerment due to potential political ramifications. This hints at a broader theme of the article focusing on a need for the recognition that ethnic communities are not structured in the characteristic Euro-American way.

The community participation that the health program sought was based on the assumption that the community would fit the democratic model of American society; a “bottom-up” system of participation. On the contrary, the author discloses, Afghan social structure is tribalized and hierarchical; a “top-down” pattern of social interaction. This is one facet of the disparity between State expectations and the political and social realities of the community. The authors discuss the effect that this hierarchical structuring had on their research. Primarily, it meant that certain community leaders had to be omitted from the program’s planning to avoid “drowning the project in political factionalism”. The article suggests that anthropologists must be flexible enough to trust non-western ways of community involvement.

Another significant point of the article related to both the issue of participation and the issue of cultural dissimilarity is reciprocity. Reciprocity, or the exchange of favors, is an Afghan social obligation. The authors discuss reciprocity as a means of creating more equal relationships thus avoiding the resentment that can occur due to the perceived patron-client relationships that typically develop between anthropologists and research participants. In establishing the Health Education Program, reciprocity allowed the anthropologists to collect data in exchange for advocacy for the research participants.

In conclusion, the authors describe their difficulties in obtaining sufficient funds to carry on the Health Education Program in the Afghan community. The themes of the article are recapped, including the disparity between the goals of the state and the goals of the community, the necessity of sensitivity toward cultural and political differences that may limit the willingness of community members to participate, and the centrality of recognizing subtle cultural expectations such as reciprocity to the collection of data and implementation of change.

CLARITY RANKING: 4
KATHERYN DETWILER Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath).

Peter Uvin and David Miller. Paths to Scaling-up: Alternative Strategies for Local Nongovernmental Organizations. Human Organization Fall, 1996 Vol.55(3):344-354.

This article discusses the way Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) “scale-up” in order to fine tune their programs and to make a larger impact on society. Although one may desire a concrete definition of “scaling-up” the complex nature of NGOs has lead to several definitions however, most refer to the improvement and expansion of programs run by NGOs.

There are four types of “scaling-up:” quantitative, functional, political, and organizational. Quantitative methods focus on increasing program membership as well as its budget and geographic working area. Functional “scaling-up” diversifies the programs offered by the NGO in an attempt to offer a wide array of services to local residence. Some NGOs prefer to work within the political structures in order to solve the problems and encourage change in underdeveloped countries through active political involvement. Organizational scaling-up involves restructuring NGOs to improve the efficiency of their activities and programs and increase their financial independence and stability.

Each type of “scaling-up” is broken into a variety of paths to achieve improvement. Five paths exist within quantitative “scaling-up.” Spread is the growth of programs through an increase of participants while replication occurs when a successful program is expanded or copied in another location after field “testing.” Horizontal aggregation refers to the integration of recourses and programs of various NGOs in order to strengthen their services. Integration occurs when an existing NGO’s program is adopted by the government or another organization. The final path of quantitative “scaling-up” is nurture in which an existing NGO encourages rural groups to develop into sophisticated organizations.

Functional “scaling-up” often occurs through horizontal and vertical integration. Horizontal integration happens when existing programs are expanded through the addition of new activities or sectors and vertical integration is the improvement of existing services through the addition of new activities.

Political “scaling-up” includes four paths. Information/mobilization focuses on spreading information about the NGO in order to increase participation. Networking involves the formation of temporary relationships that unite several groups around a common goal. Vertical aggregation influences governmental policy making in order to achieve long term change. The least common path of political “scaling-up” is direct entry into the political arena in which political parties are created or joined.

Organizational “scaling-up” includes diversifying and stabilizing their funding sources, increasing their degree of self financing, skills development, organizational learning, and institutional variety. All organizational paths are used to create more versatile and efficient NGOs by changing aspects of the systems.

Social change in developing countries started with small local organizations however social crisis during the 1980s encouraged them to seek external help from large NGOs. This article demonstrates how influential and complex modern NGOs have become.

CLARITY: 4
SARA CALVERT AND FAY CARROLL Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Pichon, Francisco. Land Use Strategies in the Amazon Frontier: Farm-Level Evidence from Ecuador. Human Organization 1996 Vol. 55(4):416-425.

This article was concerned with the patterns of land use by rural farmers in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. At the heart of the issues surrounding agricultural practices in Amazonian environments is the question of how political, economic and cultural pressures shape the way that the farmers choose to use the land. While there have been many studies concerning the practices of farmers in Amazonian areas, especially Brazil, this study was one of the first to examine Ecuadorian farmers in detail. It was also the first survey concerning Amazonian agricultural land use that was able to utilize a scientifically representative sample of farms. Essentially the author’s purpose was to provide raw data that may assist in answering the prevailing questions regarding Amazonian farming techniques.

According to this article, there has been a long-standing rift between two fundamental ideas as to what primarily influences the farmers into certain forms of land use. One of these two positions holds that the agricultural techniques employed are due to the ecological limitations of the area. According to this model, settlers are forced to clear a small plot of land immediately upon their arrival in order to grow food for sustenance, and this area quickly becomes less fertile which necessitates the expansion of the deforested area. This pattern of declining fertility and deforestation soon becomes an endlessly repeating cycle leading to the desertion of settlements by farmers. The other more recently developed theory regarding agricultural practices holds that the abandonment of farms is more closely linked to varying property rights under different political regimes.

Due to previously unavailable maps and demographic information, the survey team was able to conduct highly representative surveys of a wide variety of settlements. The foremost method of gathering information was through interviews with the heads of the household on each settlement. The data from each farm was then classified according to their dominant crops. Further information such as household size, crop diversity and ecological characteristics was included in synthesizing the findings.

The author formulated several conclusions regarding Amazonian agriculture based on information gleaned from the research that can be summarized by two general statements. The first is that there is too much diversity between the practices of different settlements to look at any given area in isolation from the area as a whole. This diversity is due to variations in a wide spectrum of factors such as the economic status and work skills of the settlers, the ecological peculiarities of any given settlement, access to roads and health care, etc. Secondly, the varying quality of the natural resources of the different farms certainly plays a role in how the land is used, but governmental and economic policies are nevertheless highly important in controlling how the land is utilized. The author suggested that only when all of these elements of the issue are examined holistically will a clearer picture of the problems surrounding Amazonian agriculture and their potential solutions emerge.

CLARITY: 4
LUKAS HEIN & SARAH HILL Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Richardson, Catherine Woods, Robert G. Lee, and Marc L. Miller. Thinking about Ecology: Cognition of Pacific Northwest Forest Managers across Diverse Institutions. Human Organization 1996 Vol.55 (3): 314-323.

Richardson, Lee, and Miller have collaborated on this article to find out how well and in what contexts forest managers of the Dungeness River watershed understand the ecology of the forests they manage. This study was conducted because the authors had found that very little ethnoscientific research had gone into peoples’ cognition of the ecology. More research had gone into the premise that institutions shape the ecological opinions of their forest managers.

There were a total of 48 participants, and each one was interviewed twice. A questionnaire was administered in the first interview to gain basic information such as the participants’ backgrounds. The participants also participated in a Free Listing exercise to list “things that make up forests in the Dungeness watershed” as well as “ways the forests in the Dungeness watershed can change” from a map of the watershed. The second interviews focused more on open-ended questions such as how participants put their knowledge to use in making decisions. In this interview, the participants were told to sort a stack of 40 cards into seven piles, and explain the significance of these groupings.

Turning all of the records into a system of graphical analysis was able to show the different cognitive models for the participants involved. Four groups were grouped by similar responses. Group A appeared to be more focused upon wilderness orientation, and how the wilderness is an important way in which forest managers should think about the forests they manage. The ideas that Group A found contradictory to the ideas they find most important were residential construction, influxes of people, and mass development. Group B is split into two offshoots because they both had people involved with timber activity, and their thoughts were similar. Group B1’s orientation was more focused on timber, while B2’s orientation was habitat. B1 linked housing and development with things that could be changed about the watershed, and B2 suggested that it was the habitat itself. Group C, with a bureaucratic orientation, distinguished the separate components of forest components and processes, and used many different criteria to rationalize the two terms.

The conclusions that Richards, Lee, and Miller come to are specific. People in Group A varied were found to have resembled the general American society in how they think of forest ecology. Group B1 was found to have more professional experience in forest management, so it appeared that their thoughts about forest ecology were based upon training and experience. More than half of Group B2 had rural backgrounds, and were found to have had an economic relationship with the land. The participants of Group C were found to have been forest managers for a longer period of time than others in the other groups, and most likely had their thoughts because of longer dealings with policy and administrations.

This study contradicts previous statements made from other forest management related ethnographic studies, suggesting that the use of multiple methods for studies of ecological cognition would be more useful.

CLARITY: 4
CHLOE CASTRO Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath).

Schelhas, John. Land Use Choice and Change: Intensification and Diversification in the Lowland Tropics of Costa Rica. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55(3):298-306

In this article John Schelhas discusses the intensity and the variety of land use in Costa Rica. Schelhas explains what the Boserup model is and in what areas it is accurate and in what areas it is inaccurate. He then addresses intensification and diversification in Costa Rica using an expanded version of the Boserup model.

The Boserup model, “(emphasizes) elasticity of (the) carrying capacity of (the) land”(299). The model provides the best way of looking at prolonging land use while making the most profit per hectare. The model is considered one of the best because it focuses on “landholders’ adaptive responses to changing socio-economic conditions”(298). However Schelhas felt that certain elements of land use decision get left out of the model. Such as local policies, culture and environmental factors.

Schelhas’ then describes the different types of land intensification using in case research done on the Canton of Sarapiqui. Schelhas divides land use for profit into two categories: subsistence production and perennial cash crop. Subsistence production refers to foods that are in everyday diet, such as rice and beans. Perennial cash crops are ones that bring in more money but are riskier. The two more important perennial cash crops he focuses on are pepper and coffee.

Schelhas then discusses alternative forms of employment known as off-farm employment. There are two different types of off-farm employees: day laborers and plantation workers. Schelhas included these off-farm employees because they play a major role in production.

Another important factor in production is the different choices for land use. In a section on land use dynamics, Schelhas describes different uses of land and the reasons for those choices. In this section he also challenges Boserup’s view on intensification as being too uniform. Schelhas felt that “risk, cultural factors, multiple household objectives, and environmental conditions”(305) were missing from Boserup’s model.

In conclusion Schelhas, restates that the Boserup model helps paint a broad picture of land use in Costa Rica. Looking closer at intensification and diversification helps prove this but also shows that there are other incentives that affect land use.

CLARITY RANKING:3
KYLE WILKE Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Sofer, Michael, Schnell, Izhak, Drori, Israel. Industrial Zones and Arab Industrialization in Israel. Human Organization, 1996 Vol. 55(4):465-474

This article examines the relationship between ethnic, political, and social limitations on Arab development and industrialization zones in Israel. The authors divide this article into five sections. They are: the relationship between industrialization zones and industrial development, historical background of industrial development, the importance of industrialization, the characterization of land and industrial zones as factors limiting industrialization and a general model that highlights the barriers of Arab industrialization.

The authors state that industrial zones are a precondition for industrial development. However there are more factors that affect industrial development then industrial zones. For example: access to markets, tax subsidies and politics.

Arab industrial development did not begin until the abolishment of military rule in 1966. After the abolishment more rights and a higher education lead to a greater industrialization of the Arab community. Therefore, there were more individuals with higher education to work in the plants. Also, as time has progressed, more women have begun to work in the plants. However, despite the many advances since 1966, there are still discrepancies between Arab-owned enterprises and Israeli-owned enterprises.

Arab entrepreneurs are influenced by two factors: internal and external. Internal factors include, Arabian society and culture. External factors are national policy, i.e. taxes. Industrial zones are important to the Arabs because they provide a place for an industrial park, where, through collectivism, they can share the cost of maintenance and utilities.

There are a few factors relating to land and industrial zones that limit industrialization. Due to the fact that Israel is a small country, there is a limit to the amount of land that can be devoted to industry. Because of this, the plant owners have devised methods of maximizing plant and living space so that the maximum profit can be obtained. Also, industrial zones need infrastructure in order to be successful. Therefore, if there are no structures, then that area is not going to be particularly profitable.

In conclusion, the authors create a model of the barriers of the Arab industrialization and reiterate the need for industrial zones and parks because of the efficiency they create.

CLARITY RANKING: 4
MOLLY YOUNG, KYLE WILKE Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Thu, Kendall M. What’s a “Year’s Work” Worth? The Influence of the State on Cultural Constructs of Farming in Norway. Human Organization Fall, 1996 Vol. 55(3):289-297.

Thu’s research focuses around the growing influence of state agricultural bureaucracy in Norway and its effect on farmers’ operating methods and concepts of farming. Research is compiled from participant observation, interviews, and surveys of those involved in both farming and the agricultural bureaucracy of the Al municipality. Thu’s findings demonstrate the somewhat unusual change, not from subsistence farming to a growing market economy, but instead towards growing bureaucratic mediation organizations. Norwegian farmers who once valued their work for its traditional regional dialect, close connections with nature, and feeling of rugged individualism must now understand the bureaucratic farming language, the technological tools necessary for production, and the multiple organizations with which negotiations must occur. Farmers have also begun to evaluate their work not in terms of production (as production quotas are now frequently limited) or in terms of cultural values (as farming becomes more technologically and bureaucratically oriented), but rather in terms of a “year’s work.” This term, developed from the “model farm” system of the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural Economics, refers to the man hours needed to keep up a family’s farm. This measurement was designed to create a common denominator for comparing farming and urban wage work. This comparison is also seen in farmers beginning to view their work as a source of employment based around wages, vacation time, and stability.

Through two case studies of the Torvestad Farm and the Flaumberg Farm Thu demonstrates how farmer’s work is organized and regulated by the state. Land ownership, production quantities, and supplemental income are a few of the areas that are strictly controlled by agricultural bureaucracy. The Torvestad Farm exemplifies the difficulties of product specialization and the problems with overproduction caused by decades of agricultural policies that increased production incentives. In addition, the Torvestad Farm demonstrates the state’s frequent refusal to permit farm expansion because of limitations in ownership quotas. The Flaumberg Farm exemplifies similar issues of dairy production quotas and the subsequent necessity of off-farm employment. The Flaumberg Farm also demonstrates the agricultural bureaucracy’s requirement to reduce the “year’s work” on many farms.

CLARITY :3
TALIA ULLMANN Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Van Gelder, Paul. Talkability, Sexual Behavior, and AIDS: Interviewing Male Moroccan Immigrants. Human Organization, 1996. Vol. 55(2):133-140

In this article, Paul van Gelder addresses the issues of the sexual behavior of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands and the ways in which they initiate and practice such relations within their community. The primary subject in the research “focuses on various methodological complications of making verbally explicit sexual relationships and risk reduction behaviors”.

Gelder first begins with an overview of the essay’s layout, the variations in the places and persons interviewed, and also developing the interview strategy in order to achieve a higher level of honesty and openness between the interviewer and the participant. This is put into a context by an overview of the Arabic word heshma, which contains both elements of chastity and shame, and how it relates to the secrecy and timidity of Moroccan males in the Netherlands and the process of obtaining sexual partners. Gelder discusses the four steps in the sexual behavior of these males, namely approach, agreement, The Act, and the aftermath, citing particular difficulties in his ability to accurately research the third element due to covert cultural and societal practices regarding sexuality.

Gelder and his participants also faced the cultural barrier of language and understanding the various dialects and body language of the individuals involved. This includes levels of crudeness of the participants, based upon their social contexts within society, as well as location, when engaged in the search for sexual contact. Different uses of the various languages, either Dutch or a form of Moroccan Arabic, greatly affect the considered sexual act. Another level of communication within the discourse of sexuality is the subject of the family’s openness in discussing sexual education, in this case a seldom practiced activity in Moroccan culture.

Achieving the greatest levels of explicitness in participant discourse, and the strategies developed in order to obtain the most private details, is the underlying theme behind the interviews and study of sexual behavior among this group of men in the Netherlands. It describes the differences seen between individual and small group interviews, and the benefits of the small groups when the participants came from similar backgrounds, therefore feeling slightly more comfortable in describing personal practice. From here the discussion takes a slight turn into the revelations of the participant’s experiences, both in sexual practice and common sex education, in dealing with sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS and the HIV virus.

Concluding with a brief discussion of the Moroccan cultures’ ideas of the roles of sexuality and their generally corresponding social groups, Gelder increases the understanding of the differences between the ideas of discursive versus relational interviewing strategies. He emphasizes the “talkability” factor, what makes the participant want to share, how they need to feel in order to share more explicitly, and the understanding of the culture and context of the participant on the part of the interviewer. It then leads into applying these interviewing skills in promoting education in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and promoting “risk-reduction behaviors”.

CLARITY: 4
STACIA ERBE. Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Vigil, James Diego. Street Baptism: Chicano Gang Initiation. Human Organization, 1996 Volume 55(2): 149-153.

James Diego Vigil, of the University of California, Los Angeles, writes on the institution and development of rites of passage performed by Los Angeles area Chicano barrio street gangs during initiation. The topic is approached from several angles by explaining the socio-cultural climate in which these gangs arose, the structures common to most gang initiation rituals, and the practical functions that these rituals serve for both the gang members and the initiates.

Vigil begins by noting the economic factors that gave rise to Chicano barrios, the neighborhoods where Chicano gangs are most prevalent. Major construction projects in the Los Angeles area fueled an influx of semi- and unskilled workers who would later fall upon hard times as work became scarce. In these communities single parent households, low incomes, and poor school conditions have all come to contribute to gang membership. The claim is made that as children become dissatisfied with their homes and schools they are driven to spend time on the streets. The dangers associated with street life are then confronted by the creation of gangs in which each member contributes to the protection of the whole.

The compilation of life histories, interviews and ethnographic observation notes gathered by the author shed light on traits common to Chicano barrio street gang initiation rituals. The author notes how the most common initiation practice is to place a single initiate against several gang members in a fight. Factors such as the number of opponents an initiate must fight and the length of the combat vary. Pre-initiation good standing with a gang may reduce the severity of the ritual while intoxication of one’s opponents may increase the brutality. The one trait found common to all these rituals is that the initiate can show no sign of weakness during the fight.

Vigil concludes with an explanation of the results of a successful initiation. For the gang members it accomplishes the practical function of selecting initiates who have the fighting skills and mentality necessary contribute to the gang’s defense. It also serves to promote feelings of gang unity; initiates undergo a demeaning experience in order to join a privilege group, the respective gang. Furthermore it promotes a sense of unity, as each gang member, having been through their own initiation, then has something with which they can relate to the initiate.

For initiates, a successful initiation may be considered of rite of passage into manhood. The ritual often takes place during adolescence when youths may be seeking a new age/sex identity. In passing the ritual initiates benefit from acknowledgment of their manliness, inclusion in a privilege group, and participation in a mutual defense group.

CLARITY RANKING: 5
NICHOLAS GORMAN Lewis & Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Williams, Dee Mack. Grassland Enclosures: Catalyst of Land Degradation in Inner Mongolia. Human Organization Fall, 1996 Vol.55 (3) 307-313.

In this article, Dee Mack Williams discusses the repercussions grassland enclosures have had on land degradation in Inner Mongolia. In the past 20 years or so, an enclosure policy has been instituted in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) of Northern China in the hopes of preventing further erosion of the grasslands. However, upon closer examination, Williams concludes that this policy is in fact causing more harm than good. The cause of this is rooted in both social and geological aspects of the land area. This article is divided into seven sections, each one detailing either the policy ideals, the policy impact, the status of the land, and policy adjustment, followed by an epilogue. By conducting fieldwork, Williams realized that despite best efforts, the land was not being preserved as was intended and instead was suffering from further erosion.

Williams argues that the restrictions that are placed upon independent sedentary pastoralist animal husbandry households caused further degradation instead of decreasing it. The households graze their animals outside of their allotted plots of land on public property, thus leaving their share of land to prosper and provide more than enough fodder for the winter months. As a result, the land that is not privately owned, which covers larger percentage than the land that is privately owned, is abused and harmed by the feeding herds, causing the desert areas to continue to overtake the former grasslands.

While conducting fieldwork in the Nasihan Township of Wengniute Banner, Chifeng City Prefecture (about 500 km Northeast of Beijing), Williams noticed that the boundary lines of individual property awarded to the people via the policy were not clearly defined, therefore making it easy for other people to move in on that land and utilize their neighbors grazing land for their own herds. Therefore, those that could afford to fence their lands and feed upon others lands had larger, healthier herds, making a large income gap between them and their fellow herders. However, purchasing the necessary material to enclose individual plots of land was expensive and so it was only the elite of the society that was able to do so, further widening the gap between the haves and the have nots.

Williams advocates the adoption of a new policy as the best method of preserving the grasslands. In 1988, Chinese grassland specialists proposed the “small grasslands enclosure” policy, which makes individual plots of land smaller but equipped with the necessities that are pertinent to the care of the herds. Each plot of land would have a system of water conservancy, like a sunken private well. Next, the land would be divided up into sections and certain harvestable plants would be planted that would provide the owner with the necessities they need to feed their families as well as their herds during the year. Last, electric water pumps operating 4-6 hours a day would be installed as well as modern farming equipment, including sprinklers, tractors, harrows, hay balers, etc. (312).

CLARITY: 3
MOLLY YOUNG Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Wilson-Moore, Margot. Servants and Daughters: Out of wedlock Pregnancy and Abandonment of Women in Bangladesh. Human Organization, 1996. Vol.55(2): 170-177.

This study concerns the issue of frequent abandonment of women in Bangladesh who are impregnated out of wedlock. The information gathered concerns what factors encourage out of wedlock pregnancy and abandonment of those women. The reasons for this are explored through the religious, economic, and cultural structure of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim and the culture is such that love relationships are viewed as immoral and the activities of young women are rigidly curtailed in order to prevent them. Girls are not given information on human sexuality. Many of the women at the center were in domestic service which creates a situation in which they can be easily taken advantage of. All blame for such disgraceful our of wedlock pregnancy is placed squarely on the woman regardless of her age or her comprehension of the situation.

To conduct this study Wilson-Moore accessed information from the Center for Training and Rehabilitation of Destitute Women (CTRDW) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. CTRDW provided information on the experiences of 410 women and 227 children abandoned over a nine year period. The information was also obtained through informal interviews and participant observation that occurred during 36 months of field research conducted over the past eight years.

The article gave a transcribed account of pregnancy and abandonment. Background on the research of the subject is given and as well as a description of CTRDW and its clientele. To explore the religious economic and cultural effects on the issue the article is separated into sections on; The Vocabulary of Abandonment, Attitudes Toward Women, Sexual Knowledge and out of Wedlock Pregnancy. Two personal transcribed accounts given, which have been translated from their original language of Bangla, followed by a section on Abandonment of Infants and the conclusion.

Abandonment of children born out of wedlock is a common and acceptable solution to the problem. While there are a few organizations such as CTRDW that exist to give aide to these women, there will not be any great changes without a change in the existing attitudes. For now, women continue to be unvalued and disregarded members of society and the potential for their exploitation remains.

CLARITY: 4
JORDANA BAROWSKY Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)
EMILY BENNETT Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)

Winkelman, Michael. Cultural Factors in Criminal Defense Proceedings. Human Organization, 1996. Vol.55(2): 154-159.

This article discusses anthropology in the law; specifically in a court room setting. The author talks about how anthropology can be used to help clarify someone’s motivation for their crime. The anthropologist would do this by showing how the defendant’s culture would not view what he or she did as wrong. This is why it is necessary to point out how such a person would still be a law-abiding citizen; because their act was not culturally defined as a heinous action.

Therefore, if a person were to kill someone because he or she thought that person was a witch, the anthropologist could show that in the person’s mind he or she was not actually killing a human, but rather a being that would only harm others. Thus by killing this thing he or she believed that it was an action to protect others. This article states that with this type of case an insanity plea is usually brought forth. Here the defendant pleads that their actions were based on their culture, which by the dominant culture’s standards (and by the Model Penal code) would never be excusable. Thus the person could argue that he or she had no other choice than their actions and could plead “momentary insanity.” With this a person claims nonresponsibility for their crime; because it was a crime of passion, which can not be controlled.

This article discusses how using a person’s culture in order to absolve them of a crime is tricky, for everyone must be convinced that the person who committed the crime had no free will. “Cultural factors cannot serve as an excuse that the defendant did not know the law or know right from wrong,” rather cultural factors must be used to show non-specific intent. Due to it being hard to show how a person is not responsible for their own actions, the author talks about how anthropologists are rarely used before the actual trial. An anthropologist can then be brought in to help clarify the defendant’s mens rea (Latin for a “guilty mind,” or criminal intent in committing the act) during their crime. The author is trying to show in this article how anthropology can work for the better in a court situation. He shows his points through his own personal examples as well as citing previous cases. The author sets his evidence up well by breaking down the article into sections dealing with the different phases in a trial and what can be argued for the defendant through the trial by using their cultural background. The author’s main point is that it is worthwhile to see how a person’s culture influences their actions (especially law-breaking actions), even if it will not always justify the actions.

CLARITY: 3
DEBRA GUSKIN Lewis and Clark College (Deborah Heath)