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Showing papers in "Annual Review of Anthropology in 1977"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The origin of primary states has been studied extensively by anthropologists since the publica- tion of Morgan's Ancient Society (35) 100 years ago as mentioned in this paper, and it is a fundamental problem which, though it cannot have an ultimate solution, serves as a measure against which to evaluate the effectiveness of new perspectives and methods.
Abstract: To explain the origin of primary states-those which arise in a context of interacting prestate societies-has remained an objective of anthropologists since the publica­ tion of Morgan's Ancient Society (35) 100 years ago. It is a fundamental problem which, though it cannot have an ultimate solution, serves as a measure against which to evaluate the effectiveness of new perspectives and new methods. The centennial of Morgan's publication has not inspired comprehensive new explanatory theories or research insights, but it has been marked by a synthesis of past work, by provoca­ tive restatements of extant theoretical approaches, and by the testing of proposed explanations derived from these approaches utilizing new methods. This review begins with a commentary on a recent synthesis, discusses definitional problems, and assesses recent research on several cases of state development. In conclusion, it is argued that recent research has already obviated some of the positions taken in the synthesis and has clarified the directions which future theory-building and research must take.

274 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines two apparently opposed positions on Islam: the "anthropological" and the "theological" perspectives emerge from different assumptions concerning the nature of Man, God, and the World, use different languages of analysis, and produce different descriptions of religious life.
Abstract: In the course of our intellectual history, Islam came to be understood as a unified religious tradition and, in common with other institutional religions, taken as a guide to its own understanding (25). The conct!pt of Islam thus defined the nature of the subject matter and its appropriate modes of interpretation or explanation, but discoveries emergent within this framework have begun to contradict these premises. In order to reveal the significance and complexity of this problem, this review first examines two apparently opposed positions on Islam: the "anthropological" and the "theological." These perspectives emerge from different assumptions concerning the nature of Man, God, and the World, use different languages of analysis, and produce different descriptions of religious life. Five anthropological studies are taken here to represent the internal variation within the anthropological perspective, while a general commentary suffices to describe the more standardized theological para­ digm. Of course, the works discussed here do not exhaust the relevant studies of Islam, but they exemplify certain major approaches well enough to allow discussion of the interaction of theoretical views and ethnographic description. In all ap­ proaches, the meaning of religion as a universal form of human experience and of Islam as a particular instance is presupposed, invariable, and incontestable. Conse­ quently, all claim to uncover a universal essence, the real Islam. Ironically, the diversity of experience and understanding revealed in these studies challenges the often subtle premise of the unity of religious meaning. It then becomes possible to ask if a single true Islam exists at all. By virtue of its scope and sophistication, the work of Clifford Geertz offers a suitable point from which to begin the investigation. Although he proceeds by assuming a single form of religious experience and a unity of meaning within Islamic tradition, Geertz simultaneously accentuates the diversity in the actual content of religious experience as lived in the everyday world. Although they are intricately

150 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: On the other hand, this article pointed out that anthropologists have produced an entire new literature on the status of women cross-culture, and the result is a bewildering number of contradictory views on women's status.
Abstract: on female an­ thropologists in this country. Apart from their personal interest in women's status, the movement itself has cast them in the key intellectual role of defining women's place in a revised theory of the evolution of human society. Beginning in the early 19 70s and rising to a current crescendo of books and articles, anthropologists represe nting all theoretical persuasions, most of them American and most of them women, have produced an entire new literature on the status of women cross­ culturally. This literature has proliferated so rapidly that apparently competing views, and in some cases compatible and mutually supporting ones, have gone unacknowledged; publication dates of some works are virtually simultaneous. The result is a bewildering number

118 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A large number of fields of study are relevant to the genesis of the Sahel famine of 1968-1973, so as discussed by the authors focus this review on three issues that seem to me the most important: (a) some aspects of the SAHIAN pastoral economy and its relation to wider market economies; (b) the demography of Sahelian pastoralists; (c) changes in the last half century, corresponding to the period from the imposition of French colonial rule.
Abstract: A large number of fields of study are relevant to the genesis of the Sahel famine of 1968-1973, so I have chosen to focus this review on three issues that seem to me the most important: (a) some aspects of the Sahelian pastoral economy and its relation to wider market economies; (b) the demography of Sahelian pastoralists; (c) changes in the last half century, corresponding to the period from the imposition of French colonial rule. Hard information is scarce in all these fields, so it is hazardous to theorize; but without some attempt at explanation of the recent events in terms more satisfactory than "population growth" or "climate change," little progress can be made. I have not drawn specific development policy conclusions from this, preferring to let the historical record speak for itself.

87 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the Svanian region and their role in the discovery of the Golden Fleece in the early Middle Ages.
Abstract: a place of mystery and legend. They dominated the farthest recess of the Euxine Sea; to Greek mariners the voyage to the Colchi4ian city of Phasis (the modern Poti) and up the like-named river (now known by the Svan name of "Rioni") was the 'EcrXaTO, 8poJ.to" the "uttermost run." Thither the Argonauts went in quest ofthe Golden Fleece, and in the mountains behind Phasis, and behind the Greek city of Dioscurias (the modern Sukhumi) Prometheus was chained, and there, too, in the words of Herodotus, there dwelt "many and all manner of na­ tions." Again and again in the two and a half millenia since Herodotus's day, writers have commented on the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the Caucasus. Strabo, writing about four and a half centuries later, having discounted more exaggerated estimates, affirms that 70 tribes, all speaking different languages, would come down to trade in Dioscurias, and a few decades after Strabo, Pliny claimed that the Romans carried on business in the same city by means of 130 interpreters. Arab travelers in the middle ages bore continuing witness

86 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Redfield's research in the Mexican village of Tepoztlan marked the expansion of field research in social anthropology into complex societies.
Abstract: Robert Redfield's research in the Mexican village of Tepoztlan in the late 1920s marks the expansion of field research in social anthropology into complex societies. Certainly in the decades which followed this work there was a proliferation of research among peasants, pastoralists and fishermen. Anthropologists conducted field work not only in Latin America, but in the civilizations of Asia and Africa as well. In this general expansion, a few studies were conducted in Europe in the late 1920s and 1930s, notably by Arensberg in Western Ireland (5, 6), by Chapman in Sicily (30), and by Sanders (97) in the Balkans. But the cultures of contemporary Europe held little interest for the profession at large. I As a number of writers have noted, little social anthropological research was carried out in Europe until the 1950s (2, pp. 2-3; 5, pp. 9-13; 56, p. 743). This was certainly not because of a lack of familiarity with the continent. The study of historical sources on the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and on the Celtic and Germanic "tribes" of antiquity played a prominent role in the formation of nineteenth century anthropological ideas. As John Davis (38, pp. 1-4; see also 76) has pointed out, Maine, Fustel de Coulanges, Robertson-Smith, Fraser, Durkheim, and Westermark all drew on Mediterranean sources in formulating their comparative and theoretical schemes, and Maine especially made much use of material on the Irish Celts. Morgan drew on all of these societies in his evolutionary formulations, and anchored his work in classic Greece and Rome. Marx and Engels used the ancient civilizations as a kind of watershed. Writings which focus on the processes that led to the formation of capitalism began with these slave-based

86 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Mousterian was later distinguished from the earlier industries as the "Middle Paleolithic" as discussed by the authors, based upon an apparently greater frequency of flake tools in the Middle Paleolithic, as opposed to core tools (predominantly hand axes) in the Lower Paleolithic.
Abstract: The earliest evidences of deliberate manufacture of tools by man's ancestors have been of deep interest to prehistorians since the general recognition of the significance of the collections of Boucher de Perthes in the mid-nineteenth century. Within these Lower Paleolithic collections of stone artifacts lies much of our evidence of the beginnings of the patterns of cultural behavior that distinguish man from other creatures. The term "Lower Paleolithic" is to some degree an outmoded survival of late nineteenth century thinking based upon typological constructs drawn from a limited sample of artifacts, most of which had been found in northern and southwest France. It was first used by de Mortillet in 1872 (48) to distinguish those chipped stone industries in which bone and antler tools were then unknown from an "Upper Paleolithic" in which such tools were associated with those of chipped stone. By the early twentieth century the term had been restricted to Acheulian and preAcheulian hand axe (biface) industries and the subsequent Mousterian. The Mousterian was eventually distinguished from the earlier industries as the "Middle Paleolithic," although the initial justification for this division now appears weak. It was based upon an apparently greater frequency of flake tools (predominantly scrapers) in the Middle Paleolithic, as opposed to core tools (predominantly hand axes) in the Lower Paleolithic, a difference which was largely the result of the collecting techniques of the nineteenth century. At that time the earlier Paleolithic of western Europe was known primarily from collections made by unskilled laborers from terrace gravels in northern France: the specimens collected tended to be restricted to symmetrical and easily recognizable bifaces. The appeal of symmetry and regular flake patterns on these specimens for the collectors employing the workmen was probably also a factor in determining what was saved as "representative" of these industries. In contrast, while hand axes were present in the Mousterian, it was known primarily from more objective samples of chipped stone

55 citations




Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: By stressing the evolutionary continuity of mental experience, Griffin has re­ opened the question of animal awareness and discussed possible windows on the minds of animals.
Abstract: The problems of symbolic language and of mind are the great problems in the evolutionary transit through three billion years from the first genes to man. Some interpret mind, and the ability to symbol, as an intrusion of complete novelty unique to the human species (44, 1 71, 1 72, 348). They emphasize the radical mental gap between man and other animals. Others, including the philosopher Bergson and the geneticist Sewall Wright (359), suggest that if we are consistent in the criteria we use to attribute mind to other members of our species (especially those whose language we understand, although we cannot enter into their stream of consciousness) then we must ascribe minds to chimpanzees, other primates, and the higher vertebrates. If vertebrates have minds, why not all animals? Plants? Viruses? Individual cells? Genes? Nucleotides? Hydro­ gen atoms? Subatomic particles? They view mind as an aspect of all reality, they see the world as a multiplicity of minds, each with two aspects: (a) as it is to itself (mind), and (b) as it seems, as an incursion into the mind of another (matter). By stressing the evolutionary continuity of mental experience, Griffin (105) has re­ opened the question of animal awareness and discussed possible windows on the minds of animals. If most scientists accept biological evolution in animals and man, why do some shy away from the concept of continuity in mental experiences including language? New studies on the brain and language, especially the split brain findings, help to resolve this major dichotomy in the theory of mind and communication-that

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a topical approach is used to emphasize the central features of the Mound Builder race in the region of the United States and the relationship of historic tribes to this past stage of greater complexity.
Abstract: Ten years ago James B. Griffin (62) observed that three themes dominated eastern North American prehistory: 1. the gradual evolution from hunting and gathering bands to settled agricultural societies over a period of 15, 000 years; 2. the achieve­ ment of two cultura l "climaxes"; and 3. the strong impact on cultural evolution of cultivated plant introductions from Mesoamerica. Subsequent research in the Midwest has continued to focus primarily on these themes or on issues and problems derived from them. The historical roots of these themes reach back to a period before serious archaeology existed when the central intellectual questions were the origins and fate of the Mound Builder race. Since then, scholarly attention has turned to an anthropological concern for the processes and conditions promoting cultural evolution in the Midwest as determined by investigations based on a sound regional prehistory. The original issues, however, find echoes in those problems that revolve around the fate of Mississippian high culture in the Midwest and the relationship of historic tribes to this past stage of greater complexity. I have chosen a topical approach here in order to emphasize the central features

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of the problem of behavioral differences in terms of nervous system organization and function is presented, focusing on issues which have relevance to traditional anthropological pursuits, such as learning experiences modify behavior, members of different groupings of man show "culturally" specific behavioral regularities, and the behavior of man is regulated and con- trolled by the nervous system.
Abstract: This chapter offers an analysis of the problem of behavioral differences in terms of nervous system organization and function. Emphasis is placed on issues which have relevance to traditional anthropological pursuits. This bias needs to be underscored since the material which will be discussed could be given a different emphasis and interpretation. Several assumptions guide this presentation: (a) learning experiences modify behavior; (b) members of different groupings of man show "culturally" specific behavioral regularities; and (c) the behavior of man is regulated and con­ trolled by the nervous system. It follows that man's nervous system is subject to learning (that it is somehow "plastic") and that any group regularities in behavior traced to cultural influences are in some way correlated with regularities in nervous system functioning. In this presentation "culture" signifies the symbolic systems of a people. Such symbols are observed and reflected in the style of their social and cognitive behavior. Culture then is viewed as a system which one infers or abstracts from the distinctive mode of life of a group. The following categories of behavior are identified. By social behaviors we will refer to activities such as gestures, demeanor, facial displays, and simple or coordinated actions, including the social (i.e. performance) aspects of language and speech, which are viewed from an interpersonal and situational stand­ point. The appropriate performance of social roles belongs in this category of behavior as does the participation in activities which are imbued with shared meanings and which reflect norms in the group. The individualistic correlates of the observable social behaviors of a people are termed cognitive. This implies that

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The history of anthropology has a long-established history within the discipline as mentioned in this paper and every major graduate program requires of its students a course in the history, sometimes combined with the theory, of anthropology.
Abstract: History of anthropology has a long-established history within the discipline. Virtu­ ally every major graduate program requires of its students a course in the history, sometimes combined with the theory, of anthropology. It is not obvious, however, that this has caused history of anthropology to fill a significant or integral role in the teaching and practice of the discipline. Indeed, the opposite has traditionally been true. The required course is frequently taught by the eldest member of the department, who is presumably qualified to teach the history because he has lived through more of it than anyone else. At best such a course provides the fledgling anthropologist with a collection of anecdotes, later to prove useful in socializing his own students within the profession. At worst such a course convinces the student that there is no intelligent reason to consider research done more than a decade previously.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In some countries, such as the Maghreb, change started early and has been going on ever since; in others, like the Gulf States and Oman, it has only just begun.
Abstract: Change in the contemporary Middle East is ubiquitous and often rapid and pervasive (87, 171, 212). In some countries, such as Israel (73, 159), Lebanon (109, 172), Egypt and some regions of the Maghreb, change started early and has been going on ever since; in others such as the Gulf States and Oman (121, 181), it has only just begun. But as some studies of remote areas indicate, the winds of change have by now penetrated even the more outlying, isolated communities (e.g. 146, 147; see also 34, 79). The process blurs the traditional boundaries between the component pieces of the Middle Eastern "mosaic of people" (50, p. 2); but the mosaic does not disappear; new and larger pieces are formed and imposed upon the older ones as new boundaries are forged and older ones reassert themselves in new disguises (114, p. 308-309). Change is not a unidirectional homogenizing process of "modernization" or "Westernization." There is little doubt that the announcement of the "Passing of Traditional Society" (142) was vastly premature. How deep reaching is that change? Does it actually transform Middle Eastern societies and communities, or are their basic features resilient to the forces of change? Is the process of change essentially the same throughout the 'region, or can one distinguish different kinds of processes and different types of communal response to them? To what are the differences related? Anthropologists of an older generation were chiefly concerned with the description and analysis of the transmitted, traditional traits of Middle Eastern societies [e.g. 143; 210, Vol. 1; see also Hart's review of French anthropology in Appendix III of Antoun's work (9)]. Among the new generation,

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The term "pragmatics" is in wide and fashionable use today in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and adjoining fields as mentioned in this paper and its applications range from the narrow scope of the study of the meaning of deictic expressions to use as a catch-all category covering all aspects of communication that cannot be analyzed as literal meaning, including even matters of turn-taking and social interaction.
Abstract: The term "pragmatics" is in wide and fashionable use today in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and adjoining fields. Its applications range from the narrow scope of the study of the meaning of deictic expressions to use as a catch-all category covering all aspects of communication that cannot be analyzed as literal meaning, including even matters of turn-taking and social interaction. Morris (28) used "pragmatics" to describe those aspects of language which involve users, and contexts of use, of linguistic expressions. He opposed pragmatics to syntax (the study of linguistic form) and semantics (the study of the literal meaning of expressions). But Morris's discussion of pragmatics was programmatic and not very specific. Bar-Hillel (3) proposed more specifically that pragmatics be concerned with indexical expressions; that is, expressions whose meaning or reference cannot be determined without reference to context-the pronoun I and the adverbs here, now, and then, for example. Despite such discussions, the study of pragmatics in linguistics received little attention until strong interest in it was provoked in the early 1970s, when the interests of philosophers and linguists (especially, but not exclusively, those associated with "generative semantics") converged on the topics of presupposition and conversational implicature (these terms will be explained below).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Despite a long tradition of anthropological studies of signification and communica- tion on both sides of the Atlantic, it is only in the last two decades that semiotics has moved from the periphery of exploratory anthropological concern into the core of the field, where it has become a part of the self-conscious definition of the ethnographer's subject matter, methodology, and theory, especially macrotheory as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Despite a long tradition of anthropological studies of signification and communica­ tion on both sides of the Atlantic, it is only in the last two decades that semiotics has moved from the periphery of exploratory anthropological concern into the core of the field, where it has become a part of the self-conscious definition of the ethnographer's subject matter, methodology, and theory, especially macrotheory [see the recent reviews by Schwimmer (73), Singer (80), and Turner (87)].