Showing papers in "American Ethnologist in 1984"
TL;DR: Gender notions are fundamental ideas in an Aristotelian sense (Durkheim 1965[1915]:21-22, 488ff), serving to orient people in their relationships with others as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Notions of gender, like those of space, time, and especially person, constitute fundamental ideas in an Aristotelian sense (Durkheim 1965[1915]:21-22, 488ff.), serving to orient people in their relationships with others. While gender notions never determine behavior, they are evoked-sometimes explicitly, more often implicitly-in making sense of the self as an actor in the world. In most societies, such notions have a givenness, an unproblematic character, because they are rooted in unquestioned understandings of the underlying meaning of reality. Insofar as the world view remains unchallenged, deviations as well as conformance to cultural norms derived from gender ideas are understood with reference to
171 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a gossip genre among Hindi-speaking Fiji Indians is discussed, which demonstrates the close relationships among gossip topic, performance style, and social process in a rural community.
Abstract: Anthropological studies of gossip have been preoccupied with its content; as important as the question of what gossip is about may be, such a focus has prevented a close examination of gossip itself as both text and activity. This paper is concerned with talanoa, a gossip genre among Hindi-speaking Fiji Indians. It demonstrates the close relationships among gossip topic, performance style, and social process in a rural community.
113 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a disturbing tendency to circularity has been demonstrated in studies of the symbolism associated with sexuality and envy. But this circularity was extended to the uses of archaeological evidence: similarities between ancient and modern symbols have virtually been created in support of the Mediterraneanist thesis, and these generalizations, moreover, often rely selectively on materials from only a restricted part of the circum-Mediterranean region.
Abstract: Recent studies of moral and symbolic systems have taken for granted the concept of a “Mediterranean culture area.” Consequently, readings of the ethnographic and ethnohistorical record have increasingly demonstrated a disturbing tendency to circularity, particularly in studies of the symbolism associated with sexuality and envy. This circularity has extended to the uses of archaeological evidence: similarities between ancient and modern symbols have virtually been created in support of the Mediterraneanist thesis. These generalizations, moreover, often rely selectively on materials from only a restricted part of the circum-Mediterranean region. As a result, Mediterranean and other stereotypes are reinforced, whereas they should instead be critically examined as part of the symbolic universe inhabited by informants and anthropologists alike.
107 citations
TL;DR: This paper examines the semantic structure of English classificatory terms in the area of concrete lexicon, linking differences in semantic structure with differences in grammatical characteristics of different classes of nouns.
Abstract: This paper examines the semantic structure of English classificatory terms in the area of concrete lexicon, linking differences in semantic structure with differences in grammatical characteristics of different classes of nouns. I argue that in recent literature on human categorization the strictly taxonomic categories (i.e., categories based on hierarchies of kinds) have not been distinguished from other types of categories. I discuss four types of supercategory that do not stand for “a kind of thing”: two different types of collective supercategories that stand for heterogeneous collections of things, a supercategory that stands for heterogeneous classes of materials, and a supercategory of purely functional concepts. [semantics, categorization, taxonomy, ethnobiology, cognition]
99 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, two new estimation procedures for this network autocorrelation model are compared to previously employed maximum likelihood procedures, and to the usual regression procedures which ignore interdependencies.
Abstract: Classical statistical inference procedures usually assume the independence of sample units. However, the assumption of independence is often unrealistic in cross-cultural research because societies in neighboring or historically related regions tend to be duplicates of one another across a wide variety of traits that are spread by historical fission, diffusion, or migration of peoples. A recent generalization of the usual regression model explicitly allows for networks of interdependencies among sample units as part of the model specification. Here, two new estimation procedures for this network autocorrelation model are compared to previously employed maximum likelihood procedures, and to the usual regression procedures which ignore interdependence. The results of comparisons based on simulated autocorrelation data and the reanalyses of two previously published empirical studies indicate that both of the procedures proposed here compare very favorably with the maximum likelihood approach, and both are vastly superior to the usual regression procedures when there is moderate to high autocorrelation (i.e., interdependence). [Galton's Problem, cultural diffusion, networks, cultural evolution, statistical methodology]
97 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the role of small groups of skippers in helping skippers to discharge their most important responsibility: deciding where to fish, and the size, timing, and limited purpose of the groups are explained with respect to the cultural ecology of the seine fishery.
Abstract: The salmon seine fishery of Southeast Alaska is a tightly regulated and very competitive commercial enterprise. Despite relations marked by competition, small groups of skippers cooperate with one another to the extent of sharing information as they scout for salmon just in advance of legal seine periods. This paper analyzes these voluntary action groups in terms of the role they play in helping skippers to discharge their most important responsibility: deciding where to fish. The size, timing of activities, and limited purpose of the groups are then explicated with respect to the cultural ecology of the seine fishery. [maritime anthropology, voluntary action, cultural ecology, decision processes]
75 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative typology of Melanesian political systems is provided, from an evolutionary perspective, and the range covered extends from small-scale polities in which political action is deeply interwoven with the fabric of kinship to those of increased scale, specialization, differentiation and hierarchy.
Abstract: This paper provides, from an evolutionary perspective, a comparative typology of Melanesian political systems. The range covered extends from small-scale polities in which political action is deeply interwoven with the fabric of kinship to those of increased scale, specialization, differentiation, and hierarchy. Perhaps surprisingly, it is found that those communities in which matrilineal principles are accorded importance are also those with the most elaborate and complex forms of political association: in particular, ranked descent groups, hereditary titular systems, voluntary secret societies, and elaborate status hierarchies based on achievement. [political evolution, leadership, matriliny, secret societies, social stratification, Melanesia, Vanuatu]
71 citations
TL;DR: For the Songhay of the Republic of Niger, sound is a dimension of experience separate from the domains of human, animal, and plant life as discussed by the authors, and sounds carry forces that can penetrate an object.
Abstract: This paper considers the “inner” dimension of sound in Songhay cultural experience. For the Songhay of the Republic of Niger, sound is a dimension of experience separate from the domains of human, animal, and plant life. They believe that sounds carry forces that can penetrate an object. More specifically, like many peoples of the world, the Songhay believe that the sounds of praisenames, magical words, and sacred musical instruments create an auditory presence that can transform a person morally, politically, and magically. Given the spatialized view of reality so engrained in the Western philosophical tradition, it is argued that a deeper appreciation of sound in and of itself could open anthropological ears to a penetrating comprehension of cultural sentiment.
70 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that women's Sande elite often side with elite men and exploit subordinate women in the context of regional political economy, and they draw conclusions about strategic uses of the Sande ideology by the elite.
Abstract: Recent studies of the women's Sande society of West Africa have argued that the Sande seeks to produce symbolically pure adult women as well as bonds of female solidarity. This paper shows that Sande elite often side with elite men and exploit subordinate women. Crucial Sande symbolism merges differentiating features between the sexes. Conclusions are drawn about strategic uses of the Sande ideology by the elite in the context of its regional political economy.
62 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine Toraja cultural identity as it has been shaped in recent years by the complementary movements of out-migration of Toraja youth and transient in-inigration of Western tourists, leading to a tendency to reify Toraja culture as ritual.
Abstract: “Ethnicity” and “identity” do not refer to fixed realities; their construction is a social process. This paper examines Toraja cultural identity as it has been shaped in recent years by the complementary movements of out-migration of Toraja youth and transient in-migration of Western tourists. For different reasons both movements have led to a focus on ritual as the defining feature of “Torajaness,” and to a tendency to reify Toraja culture as ritual. This reification poses new problems, leading to further transformations of both ritual and identity. [ethnicity, cultural identity, ritual, migration, tourism, Indonesia]
41 citations
TL;DR: The Miskito kings of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras have been described as British puppets whose authority depended solely on their role as middlemen as discussed by the authors, but they also may have been leaders of real stature in their own society, whose legitimacy was based on different cultural conceptions of leadership than those held by the British.
Abstract: The Miskito kings of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras have been described as British puppets whose authority depended solely on their role as middlemen. This paper suggests that the kings also may have been leaders of real stature in their own society, whose legitimacy was based on different cultural conceptions of leadership than those held by the British. [political anthropology, kingship, middlemen, Miskito Indians, Central American ethnology]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make a preliminary effort to relate the ideology and organization of labor to material conditions, doing justice to local The competition for labor associated with the incorporation of the Sakalava of northwestern Madagascar into polities of steadily increasing scale has involved the ongoing reorganization of social relations through the symbolism of death.
Abstract: Almost 90 years after the French colonized Madagascar, and almost 25 years after independence, the Sakalava of the northwest coast continue to work for the dead kings and queens who once governed them, while participating only marginally in national political economy. Several decades of efforts to "develop" the region and "perfect" its inhabitants seem to have failed here as elsewhere in Madagascar. Economists, whether conservative or radical, tend to analyze such situations in relation to global economy, "ignoring all the struggles over control of the means of production and the conflict over how people would work... what Marx called 'the hidden abode of production'" (Cooper 1980:15-16). They differ over the relevance of labor history to an understanding of contemporary conditions. Yet even radical theorists, who emphasize the extent to which Western industrialization was bought at the cost of impoverishing non-Western countries, have just begun to examine the ways in which this process operated locally. Other social scientific approaches to development tend to adopt the perspective of the participants, who do not see labor relations in either global or exclusively economic terms but rather as a matter of conflicting beliefs and values that define and organize work. The disruption in social relations entailed by often forced incorporation into world market economies persists in the complex contradictions characteristic of political, economic, and social institutions of now-independent countries. This essay suggests the contribution that social anthropology can make to the necessary synthesis of economic and other social scientific perspectives. It is a preliminary effort to relate the ideology and organization of labor to material conditions, doing justice to local The competition for labor associated with the incorporation of the Sakalava of northwestern Madagascar into polities of steadily increasing scale has involved the ongoing reorganization of social relations through the symbolism of death. During the precolonial period Malagasy spoke a common language of ancestors and relics by which to negotiate relations of labor and loyalty. French colonists sought to destroy Malagasy institutions and substitute their own language of law. As they failed to do so, they reverted to what they had learned of customary practices, thereby placing all parties outside the law as originally imposed. The contemporary association between a moribund economy and a lively preoccupation with the dead takes a distinctively Malagasy form among the Sakalava, but its general features may be widespread. [political economic change, religion, death, language, law]
TL;DR: Empirical determination of the focus, range, and defining features of highly inclusive categories shows that such categories are not universal, as has been claimed, and reflect a closer correspondence between biological categories and socioeconomic factors than current theory admits.
Abstract: Standard hypotheses regarding folk biological life-form evolution are not confirmed by data from Sinama, Sahaptin, and Tzeltal. This is probably because such hypotheses have been developed from highly inadequate data. Empirical determination of the focus, range, and defining features of highly inclusive categories shows that such categories are not universal, as has been claimed. Frequently, such categories class what is useful or useless, and therefore reflect a closer correspondence between biological categories and socioeconomic factors than current theory admits. [cognitive anthropology, ethnobiology, folk classification, language universals, category exemplars]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the summary images of the bride in two subcultures of the more general South Asian marriage system: North Indian Rajput and south Indian Nattati Nadar weddings.
Abstract: North Indian Rajput and south Indian Nattati Nadar weddings are compared to find the summary images of the bride in the two subcultures of the more general South Asian marriage system. “Woman as tribute” in contrast to “woman as flower” is revealed by such differences as the roles for relatives in the rituals, the severance and nonseverance of the bride from her kindred, and the cooling versus heating effects of preparatory baths. [women, India, comparative symbolic anthropology]
TL;DR: This paper explored the equality-versus-hierarchy contrast as a pair of distinct, yet interconnected, modes of structuring that create adaptive flexibility in response to extreme seasonal fluctuations of basic riverine resources.
Abstract: The social organization of Eastern Tukanoan peoples in the Northwest Amazon region shows a dual tendency toward egalitarian and hierarchical relationships. This paper provides new data on the neighboring Northern Arawakan peoples of the Isana and Guainia rivers. It explores the equality-versus-hierarchy contrast as a pair of distinct, yet interconnected, modes of structuring that create adaptive flexibility in response to extreme seasonal fluctuations of basic riverine resources.
TL;DR: In this article, four domains (musical instruments, fabrics, trees, and hand tools) were ranked with respect to their familiarity with each and to rate their knowledge about the domains on a seven-point scale.
Abstract: Fifty-four American college students were asked to rank four domains (musical instruments, fabrics, trees, and hand tools) with respect to their familiarity with each and to rate their knowledge about the domains on a seven-point scale. Then they were asked to list all varieties of each domain they could think of in a free-recall task. Subsequently, they indicated which of the segregates appearing in their lists they could recognize if encountered in a natural setting. Analyses show that the four domains differ significantly in familiarity to the sample, that vocabulary size and recognition ability vary significantly from one domain to another, and that familiarity is a strong predictor of salient vocabulary size, though less so of recognition ability.
TL;DR: In the Spanish bullfight, the relationship between the torero and the bull is homologous to that between man and woman in Spain this paper, and since the sexual hierarchy often represents the social hierarchy, the bullfight is a metaphor that makes a statement about the social order.
Abstract: The key to the interpretation of the Spanish bullfight is “honor.” Honor has been the structuring value for most of Spanish society, but it is based on the definition of male and female. In the bullfight, the relationship between the torero and the bull is homologous to that between man and woman in Spain. Since the sexual hierarchy often represents the social hierarchy, the bullfight is a metaphor that makes a statement about the social order. [honor, male/female, hierarchy/equality, bullfights]
TL;DR: In this article, a unitary approach to priyayi ethics, aesthetics, and power is developed by synthesizing themes common to earlier treatments, and several points of disagreement with Geertz's descriptions are discussed in conclusion as a way of drawing out lexicographic aspects of the methodology of interpretive anthropology.
Abstract: Most students of Javanese culture and society have used a few crucial native terms and concepts to analyze aspects of traditional etiquette, statecraft, and mysticism. A unitary approach to priyayi ethics, aesthetics, and power is developed here by synthesizing themes common to earlier treatments. Several points of disagreement with Geertz's (1960, 1973) descriptions are discussed in conclusion as a way of drawing out lexicographic aspects of the methodology of interpretive anthropology. [Java, statecraft, etiquette, language in culture, native philosophy]
TL;DR: A close analysis of magical hunting songs used by the Aguaruna of Amazonian Peru reveals that the songs are part of a general ordering process that encompasses the strategic use of thoughts, speech, objects, and acts to achieve practical ends as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In their interpretations of magical acts and utterances, anthropologists frequently argue that magic and technology are informed by two different kinds of logic, the former “expressive” in character, the latter “instrumental.” A close analysis of magical hunting songs used by the Aguaruna of Amazonian Peru reveals that the songs are part of a general ordering process that encompasses the strategic use of thoughts, speech, objects, and acts to achieve practical ends. In Aguaruna thought the expressive imagery of magical songs is an instrumental tool that shapes events in the performer's world.
TL;DR: This paper explored aspects of the sociable dimensions of Maring trade and showed that trade has the capacity to express and construct social relationships through the appearance of generosity in otherwise balanced transactions in New Guinea.
Abstract: Analyses of material exchanges have concentrated on ceremonialized forms. Approaches to trade are poorly developed and are materialist and utilitarian. After presenting a distinction between prestations and trade based on actors' interpretations, this paper explores aspects of the sociable dimensions of Maring trade. While trade is indigenously defined as self-interested and pragmatic, it actually has the capacity to express and construct social relationships through the appearance of generosity in otherwise balanced transactions. [economic anthropology, exchange, trade, generosity, New Guinea, Maring]
TL;DR: For 40 years, highland cultivators of Huancane, Puno, Peru, have seasonally migrated to valleys of the eastern Andes to grow coffee, while maintaining subsistence agriculture in their home communities.
Abstract: For 40 years, highland cultivators of Huancane, Puno, Peru, have seasonally migrated to valleys of the eastern Andes to grow coffee, while maintaining subsistence agriculture in their home communities. They work their coffee lands extensively, despite negative ecological impacts and the scarcity of new lands. This practice reflects the high labor demands of the subsistence sector and the often-demonstrated unwillingness of peasants to relinquish control over subsistence under insecure land tenure and market conditions. Using a modes-of-production approach, however, government policies and a system of state marketing cooperatives are shown to have played a major role in preventing producers from moving into full-time coffee cultivation and to have maintained their partial integration into the market economy.
TL;DR: The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the history of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900 LEE V CASSANELLI==================The Political Economy of West African Agriculture KEITH HART======
Abstract: The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600–1900 LEE V CASSANELLI
The Political Economy of West African Agriculture KEITH HART
The Past in the Present: History, Ecology, and Cultural Variation in Highland Madagascar CONRAD PHILLIP KOTTAK
Wives for Cattle: Bridewealth and Marriage in Southern Africa ADAM KUPER
TL;DR: In this article, two empirically-based theoretical models of changing household composition have been presented; the first predicts change as a result of class conflict in the development of a capitalist economy, and the other predicts adaptation to changes in a community's level of economic diversification.
Abstract: Historical changes in the composition of households in Western society have largely been analyzed without reference to social theory. Two empirically-based theoretical models of changing household composition have recently been presented; the first predicts change as a result of class conflict in the development of a capitalist economy, and the other predicts change as the result of adaptation to changes in a community's level of economic diversification. Using data from a rural U.S. community, both models are tested to evaluate their relative explanatory power. [household structure, social change, social organization, cultural ecology, rural United States]
TL;DR: The persistence of customary land tenure in a cash-cropping context is giving rise to new forms of social inequality that masquerade as perquisites of traditional preeminence in Longana, Vanuatu as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The persistence of customary land tenure in a cash-cropping context is giving rise to new forms of social inequality that masquerade as perquisites of traditional preeminence in Longana, Vanuatu This paper examines the processes through which a few customary landholders were able to create relatively large coconut plantations in the 1930s, and the ways in which some of their heirs have maintained these holdings, emerging as wealthy individuals who are beginning to follow copra production and investment strategies that increasingly differentiate them from smaller landholders A flexible system of customary land tenure has both legitimized the actions of such individuals and obscured the new consequences of following tradition [land tenure, social inequality, differentiation in peasantries, copra, Melanesia]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have analyzed disputing and dispute resolution as cultural processes, focusing on meaning construction and its relation to constitutive principles of social structure, using Ricoeur's text model.
Abstract: Recent studies have analyzed disputing and dispute resolution as cultural processes, focusing on meaning construction and its relation to constitutive principles of social structure. Ricoeur's text model provides a methodological basis for such analysis. According to this model, the meaning appropriated from texts (case accounts) depends on culturally specific assumptions about subjectivity (being in the world), referentiality (truth and truthfinding), and interlocution (third-party functions and authority). Description of these assumptions, in their dialectical relation to the substantive content of case account's, allows partial characterization of the Maranao “horizon” or “habitus,” the preconscious basis for Maranao perception and experience. The described features of Maranao habitus are explained, using the theory of practice, by topographic and ecological constraints on accumulation of economic and political power. [interpretive anthropology, disputing and dispute resolution, Philippines]
TL;DR: Widely divergent consanguineal systems (Crow-Omaha, Dravidian, Iroquois, and Eskimo) are shown to share a substantial core of rules and to display virtually identical relationships between superordinate categories.
Abstract: Extension rules, relational analysis, and componential analysis are integrated into a new generative model of kinship terminology focusing on the universal aspects of kin-term systems. Widely divergent consanguineal systems (Crow-Omaha, Dravidian, Iroquois, and Eskimo) are shown to share a substantial core of rules and to display virtually identical relationships between superordinate categories. Tax's rule of uniform reciprocals applies without exception at the proper level of abstraction. Primary differences between systems, such as cross! parallel phenomena, follow from the interaction of universal rules with a small number of rule options. [kinship terminology, universals, generative model, extension rules, relational analysis, componential analysis]