Karl G. Heider

Bio: Karl G. Heider is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Subsistence agriculture & Subsistence economy. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 18 citations.

Territory and property in primitive society

Abstract: 1) I should like to start by clearing up a certain number of ambiguities surrounding the term ’primitive society’. There are no theoretical criteria defining the boundaries of anthropology. Anthropology is concerned in the first place with all those societies that historians and economists neglect. The latter ignore these societies because we have no written records concerning them. Anthropology is a sort of trashcan of history; it deals with all those societies that demand personal acquaintance in order to be able to study them; that require that the researcher go and see for himself requiring participatory observation if he is to understand something of their functioning. There are, then, no theoretical criteria; but there are two practical ones. The first reflects a concrete state of affairs, namely the absence of written records, while the second constitutes a methodological imperative, namely the obligation to employ a method known as participatory observation. This is why anthropologists are confronted with an immensely diverse field, from the last bands of bushmen roaming the Kalahari desert, to the Masai, pastoral nomads of East Africa, to the village communities of Peru, India or Java. This broad diversity offers one advantage: it

Geography as Human Ecology : A Decade of Progress in a Quarter Century

Abstract: [T]he contest between geographers and their adversaries is identical with the old controversy between historical and physical methods. One party claims that the ideal aim of science ought to be the discovery of general laws; the other maintains that it is the investigation of phenomena themselves.... While physical science arises from the logical and aesthetic demands of the human mind, cosmography has its source in the personal feelings of man towards the world, towards the phe nomena surrounding him. We may call this an "affective" impulse in contrast to the aesthetic impulse. Goethe expressed this idea with admirable clearness: "It seems to me that every phenomenon, every fact, itself is the really interesting object. Whoever explains it, or connects it with other events, usually only amuses himself or makes sport of it, as, for instance, the naturalist or historian. But a single action or event is interesting, not because it is explainable, but because it is true." -F. Boas, 1887

Food Distribution and Social Bonding among the Mamaindê of Mato Grosso, Brazil

Abstract: A quantitative analysis of the distribution of basic foodstuffs among the Mamainde/Nambicuara of northwestern Mato Grosso, Brazil, indicates that their behavior in these activities very closely approximates their stated philosophy concerning them. Such distributions, which are conceptually distinguishable from "exchanges," provide participating families with shares which are very closely proportional to each family's relative size. These patterns of distribution are clearly important for the generation, maintenance, and expression of Mamainde social integration.

Lenski Effects on Sex Stratification Theory

Abstract: This paper tries to explain why the Lenski (1970) theory of stratification based on ecology and subsistence technology had relatively little effect on theories of sex inequality. In cultural anthropology, generalization was held to be impossible. Feminist explanation in sociology was social-psychological. Moreover, by the 1980s, the bias against biology in feminist theory came to include all of science. Exceptions to these trends include the work of Blumberg, Chafetz, Collins, Coltrane, and Turner. Whether feminist sociologists will follow their lead remains to be seen.