Showing papers in "American Anthropologist in 1956"

Aspects of Group Relations in a Complex Society: Mexico'

Abstract: S TARTING from simple beginnings in the twenties, anthropologists have grown increasingly sophisticated about the relationship of nation and community. First, they studied the community in its own terms, taking but little account of its larger matrix. Later, they began to describe "outside factors" which affected the life of the local group under study. Recently they have come to recognize that nations or 'systems of the higher level do not consist merely of more numerous and diversified parts," and that it is therefore "methodologically incorrect to treat each part as though it were an independent whole in itself" (Steward 1950:107). Communities are "modified and acquire new characteristics because of their functional dependence upon a new and larger system" (ibid: 111). The present paper is concerned with a continuation of this anthropological discussion in terms of Mexican material. The dependence of communities on a larger system has affected them in two ways. On the one hand, whole communities have come to play specialized parts within the larger whole. On the other, special functions pertaining to the whole have become the tasks of special groups within communities. These groups Steward calls horizontal socio-cultural segments. I shall simply call them nation-oriented groups. They are usually found in more than one community and follow ways of life different from those of their community-oriented fellow-villagers. They are often the agents of the great national institutions which reach down into the community, and form "the bones, nerves and sinews running through the total society, binding it together, and affecting it at every point" (ibid: 115). Communities which form parts of a complex society can thus be viewed no longer as self-contained and integrated systems in their own right. It is more appropriate to view them as the local termini of a web of group relations which extend through intermediate levels from the level of the community to that of the nation. In the community itself, these relationships may be wholly tangential to each other. Forced to understand the community in terms of forces impinging on it from the outside, we have also found it necessary to gain a better understanding of national-level institutions. Yet to date most anthropologists have hesitated to commit themselves to such a study, even when they have become half-convinced that such a step would be desirable. National institutions seem so complex that even a small measure of competence in their operations seems to require full-time specialization. We have therefore left their description and analysis to specialists in other disciplines. Yet the specialists in law, politics, or economics have themselves discovered that anthropologists can be of almost as much use to them as they can be to the anthropologist. For they have become increasingly aware that the legal, political or other systems to

Body Ritual among the Nacirema

Abstract: THE anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of thelogically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. This point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock (1949: 71). In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go. Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago (1936:326), but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. T h w r e a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east.

Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan

Abstract: THE importance of ecologic factors for the form and distribution of cultures has usually been analyzed by means of a culture area concept. This concept has been developed with reference to the aboriginal cultures of North America (Kroeber 1939). Attempts at delimiting culture areas in Asia by similar procedures have proved extremely difficult (Bacon 1946, Kroeber 1947, Miller 1953), since the distribution of cultural types, ethnic groups, and natural areas rarely coincide. Coon (1951) speaks of Middle Eastern society as being built on a mosaic principle--many ethnic groups with radically different cultures co-reside in an area in symbiotic relations of variable intimacy. Referring to a similar structure, Furnivall (1944) describes the Netherlands Indies as a plural society. The common characteristic in these two cases is the combination of ethnic segmentation and economic interdependence. Thus the "environment" of any one ethnic group is not only defined by natural conditions, but also by the presence and activities of the other ethnic groups on which it depends. Each group exploits only a section of the total environment, and leaves large parts of it open for other groups to exploit. This interdependence is analogous to that of the different animal species in a habitat. As Kroeber (1947:330) emphasizes, culture area classifications are essentially ecologic; thus detailed ecologic considerations, rather than geographical areas of subcontinental size, should offer the point of departure. The present paper attempts to apply a more specific ecologic approach to a case study of distribution by utilizing some of the concepts of animal ecology, particularly the concept of a niche-the place of a group in the total environment, its relations to resources and competitors (cf. Allee 1949:516).

Achievement, Culture and Personality: The Case of the Japanese Americans

Abstract: Achievement, Culture and Personality: The Case of the Japanese Americans WILLIAM CAUDILL H lJf1Jara University GEORGE DE VOS University of Michigan INTRODUCTION achievement has on the importance M UCH of the literature on individual abilities, focused the relationship be­ of hereditary or learned as in tween IQ scores and educational or occupational success. In these studies, when discrepancies occur in expected predictions, the discrepancies are at­ tributed to other factors. For example, Terman and Oden (1947) use the added factor of individual personality traits to distinguish between otherwise matched groups-their high achievers being greater in prudence and fore­ sight, self-confidence, will-power and perseverance, and desire to excel. Recent workers have gone on to emphasize that such traits should be seen not only within the framework of the individual personality structure, but that these traits are also related to cultural values receiving very different emphases in lower and middle class levels of American society (Davis et al., 1951; Havighurst and Taba 1949). Some attention has also been given to the factor of ethnic background in accounting for differences in achievement. For example, Terman and Oden (1947) found that their Jewish subjects, while not differing significantly in mean IQ scores from the total group, had higher grades in college, received a higher income, and were concentrated more heavily in professional occupa­ tions. Thus, the indication is for something specific in Jewish culture to ac­ count for these differences, but beyond allusion to its probable importance, this factor has received little systematic elaboration. Early psychological studies of Japanese American children compared with other social and racial groups in California public schools (Darsie 1926; Clark 1927; Fukuda 1930; Bell 1933; Kubo 1934; Strong 1934; Sandiford 1936) give indication of a cultural factor at work which was not fully recognized or ex­ plored at the time. Strong (1934), in summarizing the achievement tests, grades obtained in school, and Binet IQ scores of Japanese American pupils in comparison with other groups in California schools, asks: How shall we explain the fact that the Japanese pupils in Los Angeles have about the same IQ as the average pupil and score about the same on educational tests but ob­ tain strikingly better grades? It may be that they possess to a greater degree than whites those qualities which endear pupils to a teacher; that is, they are more docile, occasion less disciplinary trouble, and give the appearance of being busy and striving to do their best. ... Another explanation would be that they come from poorer homes than the average and early realize that they must make their own way in the world; in consequence, they are better

The Developmental Approach to Cognition: Its Relevance to the Psychological Interpretation of Anthropological and Ethnolinguistic Data

Abstract: cern to anthropologists, ethnolinguists, and psychologists alike. To this end, we shall (A) discuss the nature of the developmental approach to cognition; (B) meet critically some of the objections to the application of the developmental concept of "primitivity" to anthropological-linguistic data; and (C) demonstrate the value of the developmental approach in relating ethnolinguistic data to psychological experimentation. (A) THE NATURE OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO COGNITION A general developmental approach has been of heuristic value in systematizing certain aspects of biological phenomena in various fields of life science such as comparative anatomy, embryology, neurology. It is the aim of developmental psychology to view the total behavior of all organisms in terms of similar developmental principles. It is our belief that such an approach is fruitful in coordinating, within a single descriptive framework, psychological phenomena observed in phylogenesis, ontogenesis, psychopathology, ethnopsychology, etc., and in linking these observations to the formulation and sys

Brahman Kinship in a Tamil Village

Abstract: THE kinship systems of all the Hindu castes of Tanjore District, South India, have certain features in common. All follow the rule of patrilineal descent. With the exception of town-dwellers, all are distributed in small caste communities, each community forming a local group within a multi-caste village. Villagers traditionally depend for maintenance, directly or indirectly, on wet rice lands and dry garden lands, and village sites remain fixed for centuries. Each caste community within the village contains from one to about twelve exogamous patrilineal groups. Marriages take place within the caste between members of different patrilineal groups of the same or of different villages, and communities of the same caste residing in the villages of a given locality (whose limits vary from caste to caste) form an endogamous subcaste. Within the subcaste, bilateral cross-cousin marriage and marriage to the elder sister's or classificatory elder sister's daughter are preferred. Given these common features, two main subtypes of kinship systems exist. One is the system of the Brahmans, the highest caste of landlords and religious specialists. The other is found in its "purest" form among the Pallans and Parayans, the lowest castes of landless laborers, collectively called Adi Dravidas or Original Dravidians, who live on the outskirts of villages. Major differences between these two systems include differences in the range of the kinship system as a whole, the size and generation depth of the patrilineal group, the composition of the dwelling group, the rules regulating marriage and divorce, the type of payments made at marriage, the range of incest prohibitions, the rules of adoption and of ancestral propitiation, certain differences in the pattern of kinship terms, and considerable differences in the rights and obligations, the emotional content, and the etiquette of behavior between kin. Two sets of factors seem to underlie those special characteristics of the Brahman kinship system which differentiate it from that of the lower castes: first, the Brahmans' occupations, means of subsistence, and position in the scale of ranked castes; and second, certain moral values deriving from the Sanskrit religious tradition, of which they are the main carriers. With regard to the first set of factors, Brahmans are traditionally permanent owners of agricultural land, rather than potentially mobile tenants, artisans, or landless laborers. This has implications for the depth and structure of their patrilineal groups, and their pattern of residence. Further, Brahmans as landowners are maintained by the work of lower caste tenants and laborers. As religious specialists, the men do almost no manual labor, but spend the greater part of their time in the home, absorbed in ritual and in kinship relationships. Women work only in the home, do not by traditional custom own immovable property, and (unlike low caste women) make no contribution to the household income in the form of cash or goods. These facts have im-

Double Descent and Its Correlates among the Herero of Ngamiland

Abstract: TRUE double or dual descent, i.e., the utilization in one society of both patrilineal and matrilineal principles of affiliation resulting in two lineage systems cross-cutting each other, has been found in scattered examples from several parts of the world (Murdock 1940). Our knowledge of the variety and operation of some African double descent systems has been greatly enhanced by recent studies by British anthropologists of the "structural-functional"

The Classification of Values: A Method and Illustration*

Abstract: ity or uniqueness of various values, the relation between values and behaviors, the meaning or meaninglessness of ethical terms, perhaps even the relation between duty and happiness (the "right" and the "good"). But the less abstract and general problems of adequate description of values continue to demand attention. The immediate objective of this effort is to outline and illustrate a descriptive-analytic method for classifying values as elements of a value system. The whole is regarded as an approximation and working hypothesis which may be useful, directly or suggestively, for the further study of values. The classificatory scheme to be presented was constructed to organize data relevant to the values of five cultures in the American Southwest (Navaho, Zuni, Spanish American, Texan and Mormon), collected over a five-year period by representatives of twelve special disciplines. Both philosophical and behavioral science sources were tapped for methods, concepts and terminology.' There follows a brief discussion of the theory and method of the classification; categories for describing a cultural value system; and, by way of illustrating a heretofore untested scheme, a description of the value system of the Ramah Navaho. A. THEORY AND METHOD OF THE CLASSIFICATION 1. The choice of a definition of "values" is decisive for the principle of classification to be used. The multiplicity of available definitions probably reflects the variety not only of theoretical biases but also of the phenomena to which the term refers. "Value" is a general label for a heterogeneous class of normative factors, not a simple conceptual unit. Simplification can be achieved

French Canadian Kinship and Urban Life

Abstract: The urban French Canadian kinship system is a variant of that generally reported for Western societies. It is a patronymic bilateral structure, with two major dimensions of lateral range and generation depth. While awareness of descent and pride in the history of a family name is shown by the majority of informants, frequency of contact is highest between members of the same generation, and cuts across consanguineal and affinal ties. These lateral and generation dimensions involve different patterns of behavior: a formal pattern of expected obligations operates between the generations; a more informal choice according to personality preference operates between members of the same generation. The nuclei of the kinship system are the parent-child and sibling relationships of the domestic family, which is held to be an autonomous unit. The expected roles of the members of the broader kin group vary according to their position in the formal and informal patterns, and their closeness to Ego's domestic family. These roles separate the total kin into a number of subgroups having special functions. The total kin group is expected to come into action only for very formal occasions, such as a funeral; in most situations, only the subgroups are involved. Women are more active within the kinship system

The Structure of Ancient Maya Society: Evidence from the Southern Lowlands

Abstract: IT HAS been a somewhat generally accepted opinion of Maya scholars that the structure of old Maya society was severely dichotomized into a village folk and a ceremonial center, or urban, elite, Obviously, there is much to support this view. The great politico-religious centers of the Late Formative (ca. 1000 B.C. to 200 A.D.) and Classic (ca. 200 to 900 A.D.) periods with their impressive temple and palace architecture, elaborate tombs, and the records of calendrical science and hieroglyphic texts carved on stone, stand in dramatic contrast to a jungle village of thatched huts. It is not my purpose to argue here that there was no gulf whatsoever between the Maya farmer of Classic times and his theocratic betters. Such a separation did exist. It is the profundity of the split that I question. There is, it is true, a reasonable continuity and parallel between the life and culture of the common Maya villager of the past and his present-day counterpart. On the other side, there is also a partial analogy between the Spanish urban-Catholic church tradition and the prehistoric Mayan theocratic tradition. Both represent centers of authority toward which the village Indian faced or faces; both were nuclei of civilizations and ideologies which penetrated in a less than full manner into the world of the simple farming communities. I think, however, that the qualification partial should be emphasized. An overstress on this analogy has perhaps been responsible for a too ready acceptance of ancient Maya social structure as but an image of historic and modern times.

Primary Group Experience and the Processes of Acculturation1

Abstract: T HE problem of this paper is to explain why some members of the MandanHidatsa village of Lone Hill2 become more acculturated than others. Our particular thesis is that the differences in degree of acculturation found among the Indian people are in large measure a product of early experience in the intimate family group, and the cultural orientation of their parents or their surrogates. There are striking differences in extent of acculturation in Lone Hill. They are manifest in type of home, education, subsistence, speech, and manner, and would be readily apparent even to the most casual observer. In a previous paper it has been shown that some families in Lone Hill follow the Crow lineage kinship system and Indian values while others have adopted the American kinship and value systems (Bruner 1955). A former superintendent of the Agency, who is also a trained social scientist, has written, " ... there is at Fort Berthold every degree of acculturation, from the family living on the reservation in the hoe culture age of the original village life to a few wellto-do ranchers with nearly every modern convenience in their homes" (Riefel 1952:125). Our purpose in this paper is not to describe these differences in acculturation in any detail, nor is it to correlate them with a check list of unweighted factors; it is rather to delineate the process by which they arise in the family situation and to analyze the larger social context in which they

Statistical Classification in Anthropology: An Application to Ethnomusicology

Abstract: Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7294%28195606%292%3A58%3A3%3C464%3ASCIAAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-OAmerican Anthropologist is currently published by American Anthropological Association.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/anthro.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgSat Jun 23 12:20:17 2007

Matrilocality and patrilineality in Mundurucu society

Abstract: UNILINEAL descent and unilocal residence, by definition, follow one of but two possible lines, the male or the female. Simple arithmetic would therefore dictate that there are four possible combinations of common descent and residence. Only three of the combinations, however, are found to have any frequent and reliable occurrence. Kroeber (1952:213) noted the single lapse in the following observation:

Micro‐evolution in a Human Population: A Study of Social Endogamy and Blood Type Distributions Among the Western Apache

Abstract: T HIS paper has a two-fold objective: 1) to apply modern population genetics to human breeding groups, and 2) to demonstrate certain aspects of the micro-evolutionary process in these groups. Population genetics, applied to man, must take into consideration a form of environment not encountered with other organisms; namely, culture. The rules of marriage and kinship structure play significant roles in the patterning of mate selection, the size and stability of breeding groups, and the degree of intra and intergroup mobility. After a brief introduction to the pertinent work already done in this area of research, we describe the population to be studied in terms of family, clan, phratry, and band organization. We then analyze some current and historic marriage records to determine if correlations exist between geographic origin of spouses and band affiliations. It is shown that the bands are endogamous but that random mating occurs within the band. Band interbreeding is apparently too infrequent to constitute a significant source of inflowing genes. The size of the bands within historic times has been too great for genetic drift to have operated as an effective evolutionary agent. Differences between bands in frequencies of the genes for the ABO and Rh antigens are demonstrated to exist and to have remained relatively constant in the past three generations. It is contended that these differences arose in prehistoric times when the band sizes were sufficiently small to allow the effective operation of genetic drift. Relative isolation and increased size in historic times tended to fix the gene frequencies as we find them today. Certain changes in gene frequencies that are observed might best be explained as the result of natural selective forces.

On the Interpretation of Archeological Evidence in Historical and Sociological Terms1

Abstract: H AWKES (1948:5) has rightly remarked that archeology belongs to "History not only in operational practice, but in philosophical theory likewise."2 In practice, however, history is based on documentary evidence and is highly personalized in the sense that we can usually see the individual person playing his part. On the other hand, archeological evidence is limited to the portions of material culture which time and circumstance have permitted to survive until at least the moment of discovery, and because of its medium archeology tends to be impersonal since the individual, as a person, can but very rarely be discerned. Professional historians, forgetting that philosophically, as Devoto (1946:9-10) reminds us, history is coterminous with mankind, tend to limit themselves to the study of literate societies. From the various sources of documentary evidence, of which some like inscriptions, papyri, etc., are also archeological in the manner of their discovery, we can learn about the nonmaterial aspects of that society's culture, such as language, social organization, religion, historical events, and even the personal reactions of its members to the problems of life as expressed in myth, chronicle, tale, prayer, poetry, or drama. The archeology of these societies is, to use Hawkes' (1954: 156-57) term, "text-aided": in German it is sometimes called archdiologie, as distinct from Vorand Ur-geschichte, which is "text-free." Hawkes' (1951:3ff.; 1954:159ff.) cognitional system of nomenclature for prehistory serves as an excellent instrument whereby we can measure the validity of applying inferences based on documentary evidence, in practice mainly philological, to predocumentary periods. Such inferences can sometimes be extended back through protohistoric to parahistoric times but with decreasing validity. But in these periods we are mostly, and in the purely text-free zones of human history we are completely, dependent on archeological evidence and archeological reasoning for our knowledge of human activity and achievements. During the past century archeology has developed a rather impressive form of reasoning, usually garbed in a specialist jargon, in which most of the terms are borrowed from other sciences ranging from geology to ethnology, but often with altered meanings. Most archeologists tend to take their modes of interpretation for granted but the recent studies of Willey (1953), Phillips and Willey (1953), and Hawkes (1954) undertake a critical re-examination of archeological methods and theory, which is a healthy symptom of scientific maturity. In this study I propose to examine further some of the problems raised by Willey, Phillips, and Hawkes in regard to the archeology of predocumentary periods, reviewing both European and American methods of interpreta-

Na-Déné and Positional Analysis of Categories†

Abstract: LANGUAGES may be classified together because of structural similarities without regard to any possible historical relationship between them; this is typology. They may be classified together because they share a number of features and are found in the same area; the similarities are presumed to be the result of diffusion in large part. This is what Trubetskoy termed classification as Sprachbunde. Finally, languages may be classified together because they are believed to have diverged from a common ancestral form of speech; this is genetic classification. All three kinds of classification are of great potential interest to the student of human culture. The special interest of genetic classification is that where there was once linguistic unity, it can be inferred that there was once cultural unity as well. In American anthropology, however, there is still no agreement on the criteria for genetic linguistic classification. The validity of establishing major stocks on the basis, at least in part, of morphological correspondences has been hotly contested. In the late nineteenth century Daniel Brinton (1891) included morphological facts in classifying American languages, while John Wesley Powell (1891) rigorously excluded them, relying on vocabulary facts alone. In this century, Sapir (1929) included morphological correspondences in establishing broad genetic groups, while the later Boas (1920, 1929) and the early Kroeber (1903, 1911, 1913) distrusted morphological resemblances unless accompanied by numerous lexical resemblances as well. This position essentially duplicated that of Powell, for lexical resemblances remained the necessary and sufficient criterion of genetic relationship. An occasional exception came in reasoning that if lexical and morphological resemblances seemed to point to different classifications, neither could be said to show genetic relationship, and diffusion would be invoked to account for both. Rowe has recently demanded the use of lexical evidence alone (Rowe 1954; Lackner and Rowe 1955). Recent statements by Newman (1954:628) and McQuown (1955:502) take the position that only lexical cognates supported by phonetic correspondences are valid proof of genetic relationship, while Hoijer (1941, 1954b:637-638), Bergsland (1951), Swadesh (1951), and Kroeber (1919, 1955) follow Brinton and Sapir in accepting morphological evidence as well. In the development of American anthropology this divergence of opinion on method has become linked with a particular question of fact: are Haida, Tlingit, and the Athapaskan stock genetically related? Is Na-D6ne, Sapir's term for the three, an historical reality? Discussions of Na-Den6 have turned largely on differing views of the general problem of method; conversely, discussions of the problem of method have turned frequently to Na-Dene as a test case. Thus the history of one is not fully understood apart from the history of the other, and new light on one is likely to illuminate both.

Structure and Function: Family Organization and Socialization in a Jamaican Community1

Abstract: THE purpose of this paper is to illustrate the proposition, through the analysis of a single sociocultural system, that personality processes manifest in the bearers of a culture at any given point in time are functions of the history of that culture, and that, similarly, these processes are indispensable to an understanding of the relationships existing between contemporary cultural form and antecedent historical conditions. In previous publications (1955a, 1955c) I described the culture of a Jamaican community, one of the outstanding characteristics of which is an intense economic and status rivalry centering about individual amassment and retention of wealth. Competition is between individuals rather than between nuclear families, for the ubiquitous individuating forces within the community in general also affect familial ties. The community is further marked by lack of a "sense of community," by a general absence of leadership and authority arising from within the group, by repetitive resort to sorcery ("obeah"), and by perennial accusations and suspicions of sorcery. There is a marked lack of kin-group or other solidarity, and ties are extremely weak and diffuse throughout. These are cultural and structural phenomena, but they are equally psychological and characterological processes which are acquired in the course of socialization. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that many of the significant areas of socialization for behavior in this community are functions of its historically determined structure of family organization. It has long been recognized that the varieties of family organization in contemporary New World Negro cultures represent the end-products of one of the most dramatic acculturative situations in recorded history. Most investigators agree that these family organizations have their primary historical antecedents in the experience of slavery, specifically, in the impermanence of family life during slavery (Frazier 1951:8-32; Henriques 1949:30-31; Leyburn 1949:177-78; Simey 1946:48-49). Herskovits' opposing views (1941: 167-72; 1948:553-55) need no recapitulation at this point. The most striking feature arising from this unique historical process is the fact that "it is undoubtedly the woman who is the linchpin in the organization of the Negro family in the New World in general and in the Caribbean in particular" (Simey 1946:43). The traditional centrality of the mother's position in the New World Negro family is best understood when viewed alongside the loss during slavery of the family institution as the context of procreation; both can be seen as the outgrowths of mutally reinforcing social and economic forces. "No matter how far

The Limitations of Boas' Anthropology*

Abstract: THIS paper will examine the dominant convictions of Franz Boas on a variety of subjects. We will show that, whatever their individual merits, they formed, when linked together, a chain that constricted creative research in cultural anthropology. By their combined standards, scarcely any research was judged satisfactory. The great talents of Boas himself were so restricted that he could not produce any positive, integrated work of significance, and his function became that of critic.

Cultural Components of Central America

Abstract: THE material presented here resulted from a series of systematic culture surveys of each of the countries of Central America except Costa Rica, where only a partial survey was possible. More than one hundred communities were surveyed, and monographs have been prepared on each country. The present work depends upon the material presented in these monographs, and was done while I was working with the World Health Organization. The term Central America is here used to refer to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, British Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Circumstances precluded a survey of British Honduras and for that reason it is omitted from some of the discussion. Spanish-American refers to a cultural tradition, defined and delineated in the paper. Meso-American, which in anthropological circles has been used (following Kirchhoff) to indicate a certain region of Mexico and western Central America, specifically the high culture areas of the Maya and Mexicans, here refers to a cultural tradition composed of groups which are cultural descendents of those civilizations. Our knowledge of the distribution of contemporary peoples and cultures of the world is still largely inadequate. The present essay attempts to provide systematic identification and classification for the region of Central America. I hope it will serve not only as a contribution to our general knowledge of the world's population, but also as a step in the improvement of the methodologies which have been followed in classifications of Latin American materials. In

Does Natural Selection Continue to Operate in Modern Mankind

Abstract: THE purpose of the present article is to examine the validity of the assertion, frequently made in medical, biological and sociological writings, that natural selection has been relaxed or even done away with altogether in modern mankind, particularly in advanced industrial societies. With this assertion as a premise, dire predictions of biological decadence of the human species have been uttered, especially in popular scientific literature. It is of course not our intention in this article to grapple with this immense problem in its entirety, and we mean neither to affirm nor to refute the predictions of decadence. We feel, however, that the thinking in this field may gain in clarity from a re-examination of the concepts of natural selection and adaptation, particularly as they apply to man. Such a re-examination is the more needed since these concepts have not remained stable even in biology since they were advanced by Darwin. Particularly rapid change has taken place in recent years in connection with the development of population genetics. Natural selection is regarded in modern biology as the directing agent of organic evolution. The process of mutation yields the genetic variants which are the raw materials of evolutionary change. Sexual reproduction then gives rise to innumerable gene combinations or genotypes. However, which mutants arise, and when, has nothing to do with their possible usefulness or harmfulness to the species. Natural selection, nevertheless, so maneuvers the genetic variability that living species become fitted to their habitats and to their modes of life. Organic evolution consists of a succession of threatened losses and recapturings of the adaptedness of living matter to its environment. But the environment does not change the genotype of a living species directly, as some evolutionists of the past have wrongly assumed. The role of the environment consists rather in that it constantly presents challenges to the species; to these challenges the species may respond either by adaptive modification or by extinction. It would be an exaggeration to say that the above view of the evolutionary process is universally accepted. Few biological theories really are. However, the importance of natural selection, at least as an agent which guards against degenerative changes in populations, is denied by scarcely anyone. We need not labor the point that the evolution of the ancestors of the human species was brought about by the operation of the same fundamental biological processes which act elsewhere in the living world. A new situation has arisen with the advent of the human phase. Species other than man become adapted

Athapaskan Kinship Systems

Abstract: S OME years ago A. L. Kroeber attempted a "tentative reconstruction of primitive Athabascan kinship" (Kroeber 1937:602). It was at his suggestion that this paper was written, to present as much detailed comparative data as are now available and perhaps to achieve a somewhat less tentative reconstruction. I am indebted to Professor Kroeber, both for his suggestion and for his aid in financing the project. Thanks are also due to Mrs. Janet Joel, who undertook the task of compiling, from diverse sources, the data herein presented.

A Nativistic Movement in Western Siberia

Abstract: IN May 1904 an Altai Turk' named Chet or Chot Chelpan (Russianized as Chelpanov) received a vision in which there appeared to him a white horse carrying a rider dressed in white. This rider announced the imminent return to earth of Oirot Khan, who would lead the Altai Turks to freedom from the Russians and re-establish the ancient Oirot khanate. The natives along the Chuya River in the Altai were deeply stirred by news of this vision. They believed that a living god had appeared among them; this belief quickly associated itself with the already existent local legend that there still remained in distant places a few principalities of the fallen empire of Chingis Khan, and that in one of them lived Oirot Khan, the last descendant of the great Khan Chingis. It was also connected with a second legend, that in the 18th century a prince of the Altai, Shunni, had led his people into Russian domination and promised to return and free them if they were not happy in their new state. He had returned twice, the first time in the 1870's. His return was associated with a change in the shape of the high peaks of the Altai. In 1900 such a change had taken place, possibly as a result of an avalanche, and a Mongol lama had announced himself as the returning Oirot Khan. Nothing came of this, however, because the Russian regime acted swiftly and expelled him from the Altai.

Araucanian Patri‐Organization and the Omaha System

Abstract: T HE thesis of this paper is that Araucanian society has been patrilineally organized since the time of the Conquest, but that the appearance of the Omaha system is a very recent development and not fully representative of Araucanian society. It is concerned, therefore, with the development of Araucanian social organization under four sections: (1) brief review of two basic assumptions about the development of Araucanian kinship and social organization; (2) examination of historic kinship terminology and other data on social organization, in connection with these assumptions; (3) presentation of data obtained in the field in 1953, and other recent material on Araucanian kinship and social organization; and (4) an interpretation of the development of Araucanian social organization on the basis of historical material and the present pattern of distribution. For about three centuries the Araucanian Indians of Chile withstood the large-scale colonization of their native habitat, Araucania. These so-called "fighting Araucanians" came to be known by the generic term "Mapuche" which means, in their language, "people of the land." During the period of Spanish colonization the Mapuche lived between the Bio-Bio River and an ill-defined boundary north of the town of Valdivia, in a rather thickly forested area which lies between the Andes and the Pacific. North of the Bio-Bio River lived the Picunche Indians, who were closely related to the Mapuche and were part of the over-all Araucanian group. From the environs of Valdivia south to the Island of Chilo6, the more open country was inhabited by the Huilliche Araucanians or "people of the south." These cultural subgroups shared a common language, Araucanian, the regional dialects of which were mutually intelligible. Today only the Mapuche remain as a large, easily definable ethnic group in southern Middle Chile. The Picunche were rapidly acculturated during the early colonial period. The Huilliche, for the most part, have been absorbed into the mestizo population between the southern limits of Araucania and the Island of Chilo6. Perhaps the most ambitious thesis dealing with the evolution of Araucanian society was presented by Ricardo E. Latcham (1924), who drew heavily on colonial documents for supplementation to field work he conducted among the Mapuche in Cautin Province, the heart of Araucania. The premises upon Which Latcham based his fundamental arguments in favor of matrilineal organization do not bear close scrutiny. Nevertheless, he stands out with Guevara Silva as one of the most assiduous students of Araucanian culture who wrote in the early decades of the twentieth century. American anthropologists have recently shown interest in exploring histor-

The Amiable Side of Kwakiutl Life: The Potlatch and the Play Potlatch

Abstract: potlatching, play potlatching or potlatching for fun, that has never been described but is of the greatest importance for an understanding of Kwakiutl life. The existence of playfulness in relation to potlatching requires reinterpretation of the character both of this institution and of the people participating in it. The 1951 field data include much new material on home life, child rearing, and humor that supports Boas' claim that the private life of the Kwakiutl possessed many amiable features, but it is the aim of this presentation to show that even in the public life of the ceremonials and potlatches there was mirth and friendliness. A summary of the relevant interpretations of Kwakiutl life will be given, followed by an examination of Boas' first-hand account of the winter dances and potlatches of 1895-96 in which there are incidents of funmaking. The new material on play potlatching will be submitted and, in conclusion, the evidence will be discussed in relation to necessary reinterpretations of Kwakiutl life and general theoretical implications.