Showing papers in "Annual Review of Anthropology in 1980"

Sign Language Structure

Abstract: The designation "sign language" has been used for a wide variety of semi­ otic systems ranging from the expression of emotions in men and animals (24) to the transmission and reception of genuinely linguistic structures. Sign language is a misnomer, however, when such structures result from spoken language processing up to the point where gestured signs replace the vocal output. The kind of sign language research reviewed here contem­ plates human cultural systems in which not just the output signal but also the processes for forming words and sentences operate without any connec­ tion to speech or sound. Sign languages of this kind are used for interaction by members of deaf populations as spoken languages are used by those who can hear. Other sign languages may more or less completely and unambigu­ ously mediate general or special interaction (6, 7, 57, 87), but these are generally learned and used by persons already competent in some spoken language, and hence they differ from sign languages acquired as their native languages by persons who cannot hear speech and by children of deaf parents (82). Research reviewed here is primarily or entirely concerned with sign languages of deaf populations, and in what follows it is these languages that will be meant by the term "sign languages." Reasons for studying sign languages and the results of such research also show wide variety. Earliest to emerge was educational research: from 1880 when a congress of educators in Milan decided that deaf children should see and use no sign language in their educational experience, incredible as this may seem to those unacquainted with the rise of "oralism" (2, 25, 40). Recent research reveals the inevitable effect on children who cannot hear of depriving them of sign language (23); it also strongly indicates the use of bilingual strategies (16, 21). In another direction, sign language research has helped focus new consideration of the origins and evolution of language

Adaptive Strategies in Peasant Agricultural Production

Abstract: Considerable social science research has been carried out in recent years on agricultural change among peasant farmers in developing countries. This research has been noteworthy for two reasons. On the one hand, there is a trend toward joining the approaches of economic anthropology and cul­ tural ecology in the study of production processes in peasant communities. In many cases, this combination of approaches transcends the substantivist­ formalist controversy of the 19608 and moves the focus of research toward adaptive strategies and the integration of individual decisions and commu­ nity patterns. Second, research on agricultural production relates more directly than many areas of anthropology to current issues of global concern and provides relevant data to practitioners as well as to academics. With an increasing awareness of worldwide inequalities in the distribution of food and produc­ tive resources and of food shortages in some countries, attention has turned to the small farmers of the world, whose lands employ the majority of the world's people, but whose productivity is being rapidly outstripped by recent increases in population. The failure of the "development decade" of the 19608 to ameliorate these conditions or to improve standards of living in most rural areas has led to a greater concern, both within international development agencies and within national governments, to understand the agricultural decisions of these peasant farmers.

Play in Species Adaptation

Abstract: The individual contemplating research on play faces a classic approach­ avoidance conflict. Few areas in the biological and social sciences have witnessed a more spectacular "growth" in the past 15 years than play. Play unites and cuts across disciplines leading very directly to questions relating to species adaptation and developmental change. Yet play is also a minefield for the unwary, harboring a huge array of conflicting definitions, theories, and perspectives. The essence of play is paradox. This paradox both invites inquiry and repulses scientific systematization. Perhaps the most fundamental paradox inherent in play is that its wide­ spread occurrence at higher phylogenetic levels and its large role in the behavior of humans suggests its adap tive significance, while "playing" ap­ pears to be purposeless. Or worse, Fagen suggests that "the net immediate effect of play on fitness is therefore likely to be negative in most cases" (37, p. 397). The importance of play in quantitative terms is overshadowed by its "residual" quality. It is residual in the sense that it is often recognized and defined by contrast with other behaviors (e.g. "play-fighting") and in the sense that individuals appear to play only after other, presumably more important, motives (hunger, sex, shelter) have been satisfied. The third and last paradox to be presented does not exhaust the list; the two most widely accepted theories of play appear to be diametrically opposed. Both have a respectable history. Groos outlines the view current at the turn of the century:

Sex differences and language

Abstract: My purpose here is to review the recent literature on sex differences and language. Considerable interest in this topic is evidenced by the amount of recent research (7, 11,20,21,23, 34, 44, 52, 59, 74, 79, 81) and discussion (27, 39, 54, 56, 66, 69, 98, 99) it has generated. Much of this work has been stimulated by the women's movement in the United States. Some feminist discussion has related feminist political issues to language use and linguistic form. The women's movement has focused on the fact that in our own society and elsewhere, men have more of the power and authority than women do. Linguistic research reflecting this view has been concerned primarily with female and male differences in language use that both express and contribute to the maintenance of male dominance. The second source of feminist influence is the view that a particularly male ideology or world view is produced by the males in power and imposed on women to their detriment. That view has moved into the sphere of linguistics through the argument that the English language itself, in its structure, is inherently sexist and contributes to the perpetuation of male ideology through the denigration and rendering invisible of women (6, 65). Where the view that our language is sexist has led to recommendations that the language must be changed, linguists have been drawn into debates regarding both the utility and the feasibility of such recommendations. The research topic of sex differences and language is perhaps best charac­ terized as falling within the interdisciplinary realm of sociolinguistics. As it has been most narrowly construed, sociolinguistics is the study of the ways in which a person's speech conveys social information. Thus in recent social dialectological studies, particular linguistic variables are shown to

"The Best Is Yet To Be": Toward An Anthropology of Age

Abstract: Anthropology and old age have been linked in many ways, which may be summarized as old age in anthropology, anthropology of old age, and finally, anthropology of age (8, 18, 38, 50, 83) Since for a true anthropology of age, the "best is yet to be," this chapter is a preview as well as a review In anthropology, old people have played two roles First, senior members of society have guided curious ethnographers into many traditional cul­ tures However, the territory of their own lives as old people was seldom included in these tours Possibly because the status of some of these elders surprised Western ethnographers, it eventually became a puzzle to deci­ pher Old people consequently assumed a less personal role in anthropology as their status or treatment became a societal trait to be explained through correlation with other factors This historically deep but narrow focus on old age has recently broadened into an anthropology of old age which investigates cross-culturally the full topic of old age Since the 19608, first­ hand studies with old age as their central concern have documented the diversity of adaptations to old age in various social settings, revealed "ernie" insiders' responses to old age by the old, and charted the contours of contextual, cultural influences on the experiences of aging and old age These case studies are an important counterweight to the main structure of gerontological theory which rests on a precariously narrow foundation of

Human Biological Adaptation to Arctic and Subarctic Zones

Abstract: The area of human environmental adaptation has been of increasing concern to physical anthropologists in recent years, as evidenced by the everincreasing number of contributed papers and symposia at professional conferences, books and journal articles dealing with human adaptability or the interaction between human biological makeup and human social, cultural, and technological practices with an underlying adaptive or ecological theme (3, 10, 18, 25, 36a, 49, 55, 62, 71, 75, 98, 114, 118). The increased interest in human adaptation demonstrates a recognition of the importance and significance of this approach to the understanding of the structure and function of human societies and of how they respond to the multitude of stresses always present in any given environment. The success and diversity of the human species bear testament to our adaptability to an amazing array of environmental conditions. A discussion of human adaptation to the North American arctic and subarctic should include consideration of (a) how traditional native cultures adapt to these ecozones through biological, cultural, technological and behavioral means; and (b) how Westernization and subsequent culture change have altered the "adaptive homeostasis" that has been established over thousands of years. The primary focus of this review will be a critical discussion of selected research on biological adaptation. With few exceptions, this review will not cover osteological and blood group data. While

Anthropology, Administration, and Public Policy

Abstract: As the decade of the 1970s expires amidst a chorus of recrimination, the prolonged anxiety of the past ten years gives way to a feeling of pervasive dread ... During the past eighteen months wars have been fought in Uganda, northwest Africa, Angola, Rhodesia, the Congo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua, South Yemen, Iran, Libya, Ireland, China, and Iraq. Around the council tables at Geneva and the United Nations the ushers provide chairs for an increasingly sullen crowd of new and hostile states. Armed with nuclear weapons, the nations of the earth stalk one another across the Strait of Hormuz and through the maze of the London gold market. The workers on the currency exchanges begin to speculate whether the years between 1945 and 1980 might not come to be known as the Thirty-five Years' Peace. Lewis H. Lapham (75, p. 37)

Prehistoric Skeletal Record of Man in South Asia

Abstract: For over a century anthropologists have looked to South Asia for a palaeon­ tological record which would link already recovered hominid fossils from Eurasia and Africa to those found in East Asia. But until recently this expectation remained unfulfilled. Archaeological evidence rather than skel­ etal remains has documented the existence of Pleistocene man in the im­ mense landmass represented by the present political states of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, BangIa Desh, Tibet, Nepal and the Himalayan prin­ cipalities, and island Sri Lanka. This picture is changing today as a result of new hominid discoveries in South Asia, reinterpretation of skeletal remains collected in the past, more frequent and efficient field surveys, refinements of field methods, easy access to reliable dating and geochronological facilities, and employment of more appropriate observations and statistical measures of skeletal data during analytical phases of laboratory research. We are recognizing the presence of an increasingly growing skeletal record for hominids in South Asia which has a considerable, if discontinuous, antiquity of some 15 million years. Skeletal remains of Pleistocene man have been recovered from this part of the world, and certain skeletal series from later prehistoric times number several hundred specimens. Geographical, temporal, and cultural contexts are well established for most of these specimens. Consequently South Asia has taken a frontier position with respect to current research in human palaeontology, skeletal biology, palaeodemography and palaeoecology, and problems of determining degrees of biological distance and ethnic affinities. The corpus of published material about South Asian archaeology is massive and varied. Within the past 12 years significant sources on this topic have come from the pens of South Asian, British, and American scholars

New World Ethnohistory and Archaeology, 1970-1980

Abstract: Ethnohistory experienced enormous growth during the 1970s and finally came into its own as a recognizable and respected methodological subfield of the disciplines of anthropology and history. Although ethnologists and archaeologists have long since ceased to question the propriety and value of using documentation in anthropological research, the relationship of documentary research to other methodologies, particularly historical, or historic site, archaeology remains a subject for debate. The present review will consider the expanding development of ethnohistory during the past decade and will deal in passing with the special relationship between documentary and archaeological research.

Recent South African Anthropology

Abstract: Two perspectives are distinguished in this review: that of the anthropology "practiced" by scholars and institutions based in South Africa, and that of anthropological research and writing on South Africa as a region. Complete separation of the two is not possible, but the former predominates in the following two sections where the Republic of South Africa as presently constituted is the region of reference. Further discussion of work about South Africa as region is not limited to the work of anthropologists based in South Africa, and research and writing on culturally related populations in neighboring states is taken into consideration. Generally speaking, there is a selective focus on work published during the 1970s. Universities remain the primary centers of anthropological teaching and research in the country, and in recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of students enrolling for anthropology courses. Museum anthropology (cf 36, 162, 164) has also expanded considerably. The Human Sciences Research Council now has anthropologists on its staff publishing research reports, mostly on practical issues, and the South Afri­ can government's Ethnological Division has continued to produce its own publications, including the first festschrift for a South African anthropolo­ gist (45). This has been followed by four festschrifts, produced by other publishers, for anthropologists who terminated their teaching careers in South Africa (8,37,44, 188), a measure of the degree of continuity that has been established in South African anthropology. Further discussion requires the explanation that at universities limited to the exclusive or predominant enrollment of white students, six departments teach anthropology through medium of Afrikaans and four through me-

Northern Athapaskan Ethnology in the 1970s

Abstract: This article is a critical review of post-1970 publications in Northern Athapaskan ethnology. At the outset of the decade, Richard Slobodin (128; cf 127) commented at a Northern Athapaskan conference that much eth­ nology in the area seemed essentially descriptive and not very interesting theoretically. He added that there was a need for analyses of social organiza­ tion, economics, religion, and expressive culture. The extent to which these needs have been met during the decade is detailed here. The review does not attempt to be exhaustive in its coverage of the literature; it is based on approximately 150 sources selected from over 300 papers, monographs, and dissertations that have appeared or been pre­ sented since 1970. The selection was based mainly on the relationship of a source to central ethnological trends in the Northern Athapaskan region during this decade. Of necessity, materials have been excluded, especially those relating to land claims, treaty rights, and hydrocarbon development; several bibliographies and comments on research have appeared since 1970 and can be consulted for other ethnology sources (11, 34, 35, 46, 127, 128); a comprehensive annotation of post-1970 publications is in preparation (S. Krech, III, unpublished data). Approximately 27 Northern Athapaskan groups (commonly called "tribes") were spread throughout a vast region of the Alaskan and western Canadian subarctic shortly after white people contacted them. The groups were scattered in five physiographic-ecological zones (86; see also 149). The zones (east to west) and the groups whose names appear in this review are: the Arctic Drainage Lowlands (eight groups, including the Beaver, Chipew­ yan, Dogrib, Hare, Slavey); the mountainous Cordilleran region (13 groups, including the Kaska, Kutchin, Southern Tutchone, Tagish, Upper Koyu-

Current Trends in Phonology: The Challenges of Validation and Heterogeneity

Abstract: Three Phases of Development For more than half a century now, discussions of phonology within linguis­ tics have taken into account the limits of the subject established by the pioneers of American structuralism, especially Edward Sapir (75) and Leonard Bloomfield (5). Sapir's notion of sound pattern and Bloomfield's of phonetic pattern were strikingly similar at that time, and both, but especially Sapir's, have remained as subjects of at least intermittent discus­ sion to this day. For about 25 years, however, the generative approach to phonology (GP), introduced by Noam Chomsky (S, 10, 13), has served as the pivot of theoretical movements within linguistics. There are many indi­ cations that its period of domination is ending (see 4Sa) and that out of the confusing range of rival theories now contending for leadership, a variety with many traits carried over from structuralist phonology (SP), called Natural Generative Phonology (NGP), is best suited to this role.