Showing papers in "Anthropology Today in 1986"

Learning How to Bribe a Policeman

Abstract: A summary of a recent announcement by the Congress organizers will be found in our news columns. participation from South African residents, and that the newly constituted British organizing committee includes a number of well-known scholars who have a long and valued association with this Institute. In a recent statement they reiterate their commitment to the free interchange of scholars, but they consider that the present situation in South Africa is of exceptional gravity. We respect their decision. We can only hope that the academic community, by defending the principle of free association of scholars, can persuade those who might wish to disregard it in the future to think again before yielding to the temptation of making a symbolic gesture which has such damaging consequences. Those who proposed the ban on South African scholars at the World Archaeological Congress should not misinterpret a decision to defend freedom of thought, and its expression in scholarly discourse, as a tacit acceptance of the South African regime. To do so would be to support the propaganda of the South African Government, who will undoubtedly try to make such a claim. Insistence on the open expression of ideas is a powerful weapon against oppressive regimes everywhere. Jean La Fontaine

Dismembering the Image of God: Surgeons, Heroes, Wimps and Miracles

Abstract: Joan Cassell is Senior Research Associate at the Research Institute for the Study of Man, New York City. This paper is about the temperament of surgeons, about men and in the U.S. they are primarily men who aspire to be heroes, to vanquish death and defeat disease, and who scorn as 'wimps' those with lesser aspirations. For the past two years, I have been doing fieldwork among surgeons.1 I have focused where they focus on the operating room but I have also followed them on hospital rounds and into their lounges and consulting rooms, and joined them at tables in the -hospital cafeterias. My data come primarily from two mediumsized suburban community hospitals? I circulated freely within each hospital,3 observing people (chiefs of Surgery, senior surgeons, Chief Registrars, operating room nurses, and intensive care unit nurses) and settings (operating rooms, operating room lounges, charge desks, surgical wards, intensive care units, surgical clinics, emergency rooms, cafeterias, women's dressing rooms); in addition, I followed fourteen surgeons throughout an entire day, and administered an open-ended questionnaire on attitudes and practices to thirty-one surgeons.4 My research has been conducted during a period of critical, and to surgeons, disturbing, changes in American medicine. Doctor and hospital fees are coming under stricter regulation by the government and third party insurers; lawsuits against doctors are increasing, the costs of malpractice insurance costs rising, and competition for patients intensifying.5 Although older, established surgeons, make an extremely comfortable one might say luxurious living, I have observed younger men struggling, caught between a scarcity of patients and the high costs of malpractice insurance. Many surgeons of all ages expressed disillusion, telling me they would not want their sons to become surgeons today. It is difficult to predict the outcome of these changes and how and whether they will affect the bearing, behaviour, and even gender, of those who practice surgery. Today, however, surgeons in the U.S. exhibit a specific and recognizable set of traits that accord well with a specialty that focuses primarily on event, rather than process (Cassell, n.d.). Working with character or temperament is not in vogue these days. In liberal discourse, one is likely to be accused of 'stereotyping'. Moreover, the terms call to mind studies where the adult personality of an entire culture waslUerived from purportedly Freudian analyses of practices such as swaddling, weaning, and toilet training. Nevertheless, the facts are that colleagues and popular culture ascribe certain temperamental characteristics to surgeons which they themselves recognize and admire.6 I'm not sure whether to speak of temperament, 'social character' (Fromm 1948) or 'ethos' (Bateson 1937). But the traits are clear and resemble, in many respects, those of the test pilots trained as the first cadre of astronauts (Wolfe 1979), to whom several surgeons I interviewed in 1980 (Cassell 1981) compared themselves. The more I studied surgeons, the more similarities became apparent between the death-defying, almost exclusively masculine world of surgeons and that of test pilots and astronauts: not only occupational similarities in the lengthy training, high level of technical skill, pyramidal system of advancement, and scarcity of women in anything but supporting roles but temperamental similarities, as well. The legendary Chuck Yeager, who walked away from demolished planes to become the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, could well be the surgeon's heroic ideal. Like Yeager, the successful surgeon takes risks, defies death, comes close to the edge, and carries it off. 'We all sit together', explained the Chief of Surgery on my first day of research, as we walked into the cafeteria and he walked for the patch of green that marked the surgical table, where several young men sat, wearing green surgical scrub suits covered by white lab coats, the 'diacritical signs' (Nadel 1957: 30) that identify them as surgeons. Three registrars sat at another table; this was due to the presence of a female outsider, said the Chief, who indicated that it would take six months for the registrars to accept a woman, and even longer for the senior surgeons. A similar camaraderie and exclusion or, at the very least, distrust of women was found among surgeons at other hospitals.7 'There's a kind of comradeship', said one man, describing the relationship between surgeons, 'almost the comradeship of someone you've faced death with even though it's not your own death'.

Household Work as a Man's Job: Sex and Gender in Domestic Service in Zambia

Abstract: The author is assistant professor in the department of anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Introduction Gender roles are not given, but made as a result of men's and women's changing social and economic experiences. If women are domestic by nature then, certainly, nature itself is constructed. The case of domestic service, through time and across cultures, shows quite clearly that men and women have passed in and out of this occupation depending on time, place and economic circumstances. The division of labour is social. How, when and why its slots are differentially allocated to the two sexes become issues for investigation. The case of Zambia provides an interesting setting in which to explore these questions. For the entire colonial period in that country, domestic service remained almost exclusively a male preserve. Today, the great majority of servants continue to be men, although women have entered the occupation in growing numbers since independence in 1964. Here I seek to clarify why domestic service persists with these peculiar gender dynamics in Zambia. My article is based on extensive research that seeks to explain the continuities and changes within this occupation in terms of race, gender and class from the turn of the century to the present. To explore these questions, I have used historical and economic sources as well as life history data, sample surveys and participant observation. I begin with brief remarks on the gender division of labour in domestic service, both historically and cross-culturally. Then follows a discussion of continuities and changes within domestic service in Zambia after independence. I finally examine women's gradual entry into paid domestic work and some of the consequences of this change for men and particularly women servants.

World Archaeological Congress

Abstract: s (max 200 words), with speakers‘ full contact details and short biographical notes (max 100 words) should be sent to keirreeves@iprimus.com.au BY MONDAY 18 MAY 2009. Enquiries about the conference should be directed to keirreeves@iprimus.com.au Course announcement – Cultural Heritage and Legal Aspects in Europe Between 20-27 September 2009 the Institute for Mediterranean Heritage (Piran, Slovenia) and the National Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, in collaboration with the European Heritage Legal Forum and with the support of the Council of Europe, are organising an international course on Cultural Heritage and Legal Aspects in Europe. Throughout seven days of thematic lectures and visits, the course aims to provide European heritage professionals and researchers updated insights in current trends and issues in cultural heritage from the legal perspective. Please find attached the announcement where further details and the link to the website can be found. The deadline for application is 10 June 2009. For further information, visit http://www.dediscina-heritage.si/seminar.html Australia ICOMOS E-Mail News No. 379 ICCROM Course: LATAM 2009: Reducing Risks to Cultural Heritage 2009 9-27 November, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Quito (Ecuador) ICCROM is pleased to announce the 2009 session of the international course on \"Reducing Risks\", organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Natural and Cultural Heritage of Ecuador, the University Andina Simón Bolívar, the Canadian Conservation Institute, the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage and other regional partners. The purpose of this course is to focus on the risk management approach to preventive conservation of movable and immovable heritage. The course will take place in Quito, Ecuador from 9 to 27 November 2009 (three weeks) and will be given in Spanish. It is designed for collection and site managers, curators, registrars, conservators, and also directors of small to medium size museums, galleries, historic houses and archives, from all regions of the world. The course will also interest educators and professionals who teach collection management and preventive conservation, in either an academic or a vocational environment. The application deadline is 04 May 2009. A brief description of the course and full information on the application process: Spanish: http://www.iccrom.org/eng/01train_en/announce_en/2009_11latamprevenECU_en.shtml Francais: http://www.iccrom.org/fra/01train_fr/announce_fr/2009_11latamprevenECU_fr.shtml Application Deadline 4 May 2009 Contact PC 09 Collections Unit ICCROM 13 via di San Michele I-00153 Roma RM ITALIA Tel: +39 06 585531 Fax: +39 06 58553349 Email: collections@iccrom.org Call for Papers: International Institute for Conservation (IIC): Istanbul Congress 2010: Conservation and the Eastern Mediterranean 20-24 September 2010, Istanbul (Turkey) The twenty-third IIC Congress will take place in the spectacular and historic city of Istanbul, the European Cultural Capital for 2010. In conjunction with the Sakip Sabanci Museum, the many Congress events will focus on the conservation of moveable and immovable heritage in or from the Eastern Mediterranean. This will include material held in collections around the world: the care and conservation of artifacts, of sites, and the preservation of extraordinary architecture, reflecting the influences that have made the region one of the world‘s richest centres of heritage. Call for Papers Papers presented at an IIC Congress and published in the preprints undergo a rigorous peer review process. To this end, IIC Council appoints a Technical Committee of international experts who will make selections from the proposals received and will then invite draft papers. The drafts will be reviewed and the content of the program will be determined. The final contributions will be edited for publication by the Editorial Committee, chaired by David Saunders. IIC encourages you to submit your proposal for a paper early via the web at www.iiconservation.org/conferences/istanbul2010/send_abstract.php A call for posters will be made later in 2009. Please remember that submissions should not have been presented and/or published elsewhere before the date of the congress. Deadline for receipt of summaries 30 April 2009 You will receive a response from the Technical Committee by the end of June. Draft manuscripts will be required by 30 September 2009 and the Technical Committee will make their selection by the end of November. Contact Graham Voce Executive Secretary International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) 6 Buckingham Street London WC2N 6BA UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 5975 Fax: +44 (0)20 7976 1564 email: iic@iiconservation.org website: www.iiconservation.org 4 (c) Prehistory Society of Zimbabwe PSZ Newsletter 139 Excerpt from ‘Garden Roller Beads from Blue-Jay/Bunting Close, Hillside Dams, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’ Paul Hubbard & Rob Burrett Independent Archaeologists, Zambezia Encounters, Bulawayo Email for correspondence: hubcapzw@gmail.com Long known for a variety of archaeological phenomena Hillside Dams lie in the southern suburbs of Bulawayo. The main archaeological site in the area is that of Blue Jay/Bunting Close, first excavated in the 1970s by Huffman (1974). After a series of fires passed through the site we visited it to assess its full extent, with a view to possibly initiating further investigations in the future. We noticed a massive midden located at the upper end of the site where a mass of fragmented bone, pottery sherds and pieces of dhaka are being revealed by erosion. Near the base of the midden was half of a glass bead which, on closer inspection, turned out to be a garden roller (Wood 2000). We have occasionally noted other garden roller fragments in the area of this main midden. Huffman (1974) did not recover any beads in his excavations which makes this an important find for this site, suggesting that there is a great deal more to the material signature of the site than previously suspected. Garden roller beads were made by people living in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin (SLB) by members of the Bambandyanalo (or K2) and Leokwe communities. They were locally made glass beads created by heating smaller imported beads in a clay mould, fusing them together to form a large, chunky bead that is usually blue in colour. They are restricted to sites thought to be closely associated with the early Shona state centred at K2 (Huffman 2007). This bead, therefore, raises interesting questions about the possible role of this Bulawayo site vis-à-vis the wider world of the Shashe-Limpopo Basin (SLB). Huffman (2007) has argued that the trade in garden rollers was more controlled than for other beads, possibly only being traded between the elite from Bambandyanalo to subsidiary chieftainships. The bead indicates that the archaeological sequence at the site may be more nuanced than currently accepted. The broad regional ceramic sequence for this area of Zimbabwe is Zhizo replaced or transformed to Mambo (subject author specific interpretations) then to Woolandale. In the SLB it starts with Zhizo which transforms into Leokwe as well as early K2 as an intrusion. Huffman‘s (1974) excavations revealed that a Zhizo occurrence followed by Woolandale. The presence of this bead presents several possibilities, potentially redefining this sequence. The first possibility is that the Zhizo occupation lasted longer than thought, locally transforming into Zhizo B (Robinson 1985) but with the people at the time enjoying limited contacts with the Leokwe community of the SLB. There might have been some cross-cultural connections with the southern Shona State at this time and this could have resulted in the Bulawayo-based Zhizo people changing their dominant ceramic style to become Woolandale with time. Alternatively, there could be a Mambo occurrence between the Zhizo and Woolandale occupations which went unrecognised during the original excavations. Thirdly, Woolandale people, in contact with the SLB via the gold trade, could have been using and valuing the beads long after they disappeared in the SLB due to their scarcity in the interior. References Huffman, T.N. 1974. The Leopard’s Kopje Tradition. Salisbury: Trustees of the National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia. (Museum Memoir 6). Huffman, T.N. 2007. Handbook to the Iron Age. The Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. Robinson, K.R. 1985. Dated Iron Age sites from the Upper Umguza Valley 1982: their possible implications. South African Archaeological Bulletin 40 (141): 17-38. Wood, M. 2000. Making connections: relationships between international trade and glass beads from the Shashe-Limpopo area. in The South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 8: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 Years Ago Leslie, M. & Maggs, T.M.O‘C. (eds.), 78-90, Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Next Issue: June 2009 Sue Nugent s.nugent@uq.edu.au

Rockefeller Philanthropy: And the Rise of Social Anthropology

Abstract: Donald Fisher studied sociology at the University of Birmingham and has a doctorate in sociology of education from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Associate Professor teaching Sociology in the Department of Social and Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. While there is disagreement about the precise date when Social Anthropology became the dominant anthropological perspective in Britain, all agree that it happened during the interwar period. Kupei' settles on 1924 when Malinowski took up the appointment as Reader in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE). Beattie? locates the triumph around 1930, while Boissevain3 prefers the mid-1930s. Kuklick4 fluctuates between the late 1920s by which time Malinowski had defeated the Diffusionist dogma, and 1937 when Radcliffe-Brown took up the Chair in Anthropology at Oxford. All agree that the two leaders of the School were Bronislaw Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. Further, the progress of these two men and their students in Britain, Africa, and Australia provides convincing evidence for Marvin Harris's conclusion that 'By the late 1930s this group [social anthropologists] had gained virtually unchallenged control of the anthropological establishment throughout the British Empire." Social anthropologists were in control of the discipline. Their use of synchronic functionalist and structural functionalist frameworks tied to lengthy periods of intense participant observation in the field had become the domain assumptions of the discipline. British Social Anthropology had become 'normal science'. Yet we do not have an adequate understanding of what can only be described as a drastic and important shift. Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists have focussed primarily upon the content of the ideas, and the extent to which the new perspective was regarded as intellectually superior.6 More often than not, the focus of explanation has been on the linkage at both the intellectual and ideological levels of functionalism and colonialism. Analysts have pointed to the correspondence between the aims of colonial administrators in the British Empire, and the assumptions underlying Functional theory; the internal logic of the discipline that was pressing for a new conceptualization and new methodological approaches; the agreement among anthropologists and administrators about the need to bring science and practice together; the intradiscipline conflicts between aspiring leaders in the discipline; and not least, the sociohistorical setting which included all the social and economic uncertainties as well as the changing political and economic relations between the colonists and the colonized.7 I suggest that the wealth of information still fails to explain the underlying causes for the rise of Social Anthropology. The intent here is to help fill in these gaps. The focus is upon the relation between Rockefeller philanthropy and Social Anthropology during the interwar period. Rockefeller funding certainly did more than any other funding source to facilitate the new Social Anthropology. The decisions to provide this support emerged from the complex negotiations between Foundation officials and the Social Anthropologists.

Anthropology and British Psychiatr

Abstract: 11. Letter, G.Elliot-Smith to Edwin Embree (former Secretary, then Director of Division of Studies, RF), 12/1/26. File 401AD, University College, Anthropology, 1924, 1926-1927. RF, RAC. 12. Letter, Elliot-Smith to Embree, 3/14/27. File 401AD, University College, Anthropology, 19143, 1926-1927. RF, RAC. 13. See George W. Stocking, Jr., ed., Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, 1983), and Ernest Gellner, 'Malinowski and the dialectic of past and present'. Times Literary Supplement, June 7, 1985. 14. B.Malinowski. Practical Anthropology. Africa, 1929, 2:22-38, p.22. 15. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Memorandum on Anthropological Research: 11/17/30. Transmitted with a letter, Radcliffe-Brown to Day, 11/11/30. Folder 25, 910 Programme and Policy Anthropology Cultural, 1931-1956. RF, 3, 910, 3, RACV. It is worth examining the Memorandum in some detail as this document is the earliest clear statement from RadcliffeBrown about his perspective. His views were influential inside the RF. 16. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Memorandum: pp.3-4. RadcliffeBrown's later protestation against being labelled as a functionalist does seem rather weak in light of this document. See A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'On Social Structure, Presidential Adress, Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute, 1940, 70:1-12; and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Functionalism: A Protes: American Anthropologist, 1949, 51: 320-323. 17. For example, Richard Thurnwald, Economics in Primitive Communities (London: Oxford University Press, 1932); C.G. Brown and A. McD. Hutt, Anthropology in Action (London: Oxford University Press, 1938); Monica Hunter, Reaction to Conquest: Effects of Contacts with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1936); I. Schapera, A Handbook of TswanalLaws and Custom (London: Oxford University Press 1938); and Audrew Richards, Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia (London: Oxford University Press, 1939). The Institute cooperated with the Medical Research Council in a coordinated programme of nutritional research work in the Empire In addition to Richard's book, the IIALC also devoted a special edition of Africa to problems of nutrition. See Africa, 1936, IX, 2. 18. Lucy Mair, ed., Methods of Study of Culture Contact (Oxford University Press, 1938). 19. Audrey I. Richards. The Village Census in the Study of Culture Contact. Africa, 1935, 8:20-23, p.21.

Disappearing World Goes to China: A Production Study of Anthropological Films

Abstract: The general public learns much about 'other' societies through film and television programmes. Films about non-western industrial societies have a definite appeal for a large audience, and television companies have 'responded' by developing a variety of programmes with implicit or explicit anthropological perspectives.! Academic anthropologists need to examine carefully such films to appreciate how their professional concerns are mediated through the commercial and professional concerns of the television industry. In anthropological teaching, students need to develop what has been termed 'film literacy' (Forsdale and Forsdale, 1966); that is, they need to be able 'to read' these films paying attention to the concerns of academic anthropology but also trying to understand the media of film and television.

Physical Anthropology in Forensic Medicine

Abstract: Dr Lundy is a physical anthropologist at the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, and faculty affiliate at the department of anatomy and reproductive biology, University of Hawaii. When skeletal remains are discovered, immediate questions arise. Are they human? If so, how many persons are represented? Was the person male or female? To what ethnic group did he or she belong? How old was the person at the time of death? How tall was the person in life? What is the period of time since death, and what, if any, is the osteological evidence for the cause of death? Forensic pathologists, coroners and police officers are usually not properly trained to perform such examinations. The forensic physical anthropologist is the individual best trained to answer the above questions and in turn, provide investigators with a physical description of the person which can then be compared with missing person reports. A tentative match can then be pursued with detailed dental and medical records in hopes of establishing positive identity. In addition to training in physical anthropology and anatomy, the forensic physical anthropologist must be skilled in the interpretation of the morphology and variation of the human skeleton. Such skills are usually gained by studying large skeletal collections where one gets the 'feel' for the often subtle skeletal variations based upon sex, ethnic group and age. Most forensic anthropologists in the United States are employed in universities and museums and do their forensic work on a consulting basis. A few are employed full-time in government positions. The specialty is small with fewer than 80 members in the Physical Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and less than 40 have undergone voluntary certification in forensic anthropology by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. What follows is a brief discussion of how the forensic anthropologist attempts to answer the questions posed by the discovery of skeletal remains.

The Ethiopian Famine: Cultural Survival's New Report

Abstract: Ethiopia, which was hit in the mid-1980s by a highly publicized famine, is, as U4ited Nations figures show, ond of the poorest countries in the world. It is, however, the recipient per capita of virtually the least foreign investment and long-term development aid. International assistance has tended to flow from European 'metropolitan' powers to their former colonies and dependencies: Ethiopia has as a result been punished for the crime of maintaining her age-old independence. This economically underprivileged condition has been intensified in recent years by the Cold War, for several Western powers who provide the country with 9/lOths of all development assistance have denied, or strictly curtailed, development aid to Ethiopia because of her current military dependence on the Soviet Union. Another consequence of Ethiopia's current international alignment has been the excessive politicization of famine on the part of some western writers, who, like the authors of the publication by Cultural Survival Inc. reviewed here, Politics and the Ethiopian Famine, 1984-1975 (Jason W Clay and Bonnie K. Holcomb, $10), seem more intent on discrediting the present Ethiopian government than on producing an objective assessment of tho famine. The historical introductio -i, which is supposed to place this Cultural Survival report in context, displays little grasp of the subject, and is marred by many inaccuracies, only few of which, for reasons of space, may be mentioned. The authors, who seem to forget the unifying efforts of Emperors Tewodros and Yohannes, assert (p 7) that Emperor Menilek was the 'first' to envisage an Ethiopian empire. They go on to remark (p 15) that prior to his reign, the title of King of Kings had been 'primarily' claimed by Tigrayans. This claim was in fact made by only one Tigrayan Menilek's immediate predecessor Yohannes, whereas it was made by a succession of Ethiopian monarchs since the medieval period. Coming to more recent times Clay and Hoilcomb observe (p 17) that 'accounts of Haile Selassie's return to Addis Ababa in the 1940s indicate that the Wollo Oromo spat on him as he passed through their areas', which would seem to have been a difficult feat as his journey did not take him within a hundred miles of Wollo. It is further stated (p 12) that the British, after reinstating him on the throne, 'even shaped the new constitution' which is therefore dubbed an 'imported' one (p 15). This constitution, which was not promulgated until 1955 14 years after the liberation was actually drafted in Addis Ababa by a high level Ethiopian committee, and the only foreign advisers, as explained by one of their number (Spencer 1984), were not British, but American. Clay and Holcomb, who seem oblivious of the fact that the United Nations federated Eritrea with Ethiopia, assert, once again entirely incorrectly, that the former Italian colony was a United Nations 'mandate' (p 15) whose 'independence' was scheduled according to a United Nations timetable! (p 14). Such confusion sets the tone for the remainder of the work, much of which is based in hea say rather than serious research. We read for example (p 5) that the Ethiopian population has been variously estimated at between 32 and 45 million, and that assessment has 'always been more an art than a science! It would, however, have required little scientific rigour to discover that an Ethiopian census was taken in 1984, and that the first volume, published that year, gave a population figure of 42 million, which should at least be cited. The main body of the work sets out to present an independent account of the famine of 1984-5. However, despite lip-service (p,25) to the 'debate over the nature of refugee testimony' and an acceptance that 'information derived from refugees provides only a part of a complex picture' the report in fact relies almost entirely on refugees, and fails to consider the growing body of literature on famine. The so-called 'scholars and specialists' statements about the causes of famine' (p 31) turn out to be no more than newspaper reports and statements by 'liberation fronts', while the classic works on famine, such as those of A. Sen (1981) and Mesfin Wolde Mariam (1984) as well as countless others (see J. Seeley's bibliography of 1986), are ignored. Nor is any significant use made of reports by the many nongovernmental organizations operating in the country, nor of United Nations agencies, let alone of the Ethiopian government's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission. A semblance of academic respectability and impartiality is conjured up by the use of statistics. Scrutiny of this data however gives rise to some concern. The researchers spent only two months in Sudan, much of which was occupied in travelling between sites. Only 250 people were interviewed, and no more than 100 interviews were random. Most of the samples were too small to be meaningful, for example we learn (p 106) that 6.7% of a sample of 15 persons, i.e. one individual, was a woman. No less remarkably it is stated (p 75) that only one person from Shoa and one from Gondar were interviewed, and that they were therefore 'lumped together under the category "Wollo etc" but we are not told how many interviewees were from Wollo. In several cases questions were not asked to the full sample. We read (p 89) that 60% of those interviewed had seen people die, but the 'remainder were not asked the question' so that, as the report observes with faultless if dubious logic, 'everyone asked the question had seen people die' Another problem with the information collected is that it is not always explained. There is for example no attempt to indicate why the Tigrayan refugees (p 77) were 20 years older, i.e. twice as old, as those from Wollo. Another weakness arises from the fact that refugees were on occasion interviewed in groups, so that, for example, (p 43) men answered 'even when questions were Dr. Richard Pankhurst is a scholar of Ethiopian affairs with a particular interest in the historical dimension to famine. Five of his articles on famine, originally published between 1961-1973, have recently been republished in a book entitled The History of Famine and Epidemics in Ethiopia prior to the Twentieth Century (2.50 from Central Books) by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, Addis Ababa. Dr Pankhurst was formerly Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, and is presently Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society. We note that the conclusions of a recent report by Survival International, entitled Ethiopia's Bitter Medicine: Settling for disaster, are very similar to those of Cultural Survival, in their view that 'Resettlement, far from being a humanitarian venture of famine relief is an immense exercise in ethnic engineering designed to "combat tribalism": to build national unity by dismantling ethnic differences.' Survival International quote (SI News No 11, 1985) the Ethiopian Government UN representative's reference to SI as a 'politically motivated organisation, acting as an instrument of bandits and terrorists echoing the propaganda of secessionalist elements against the unity and territorial integrity of my country'. An earlier report by SI, entitled Resettlement in Ethiopia: an Evaluation had been submitted to the UN subcommission on the prevention of Discrimination and the

Lindow Man and the Danish Connection. Further Light on the Mystery of the Bogman

Abstract: A propos de la decouverte d'un corps exceptionnellement bien conserve dans les marecages du Cheshire, Grande Bretagne. Comparaison avec l'homme de Lindow au Danemark. Probleme de l'origine de la mort violente que semblent avoir subie ces individus: guerre, meurtre, sanction sociale ou sacrifice humain?.

Unholy Struggle on Holy Ground: Conflict and Interpretation in Jerusalem

Abstract: Glenn Bowman is a social anthropologist currently completing a doctorate on Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land for St. John's College, Oxford University. His fieldwork in Jerusalem, Israel and the Occupied Territories took place between October 1983 and June 1985. I was still in the field when Jonathan Webber's 'Religions in the Holy Land: Conflicts of Interpretation' appeared in the April 1985 issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY. It is an odd article to read on returning from the Old City of Jerusalem to Oxford, in large part because Webber's Jerusalem and the one I have been observing for the past two years seem worlds apart. Webber's Jerusalem is one still dominated by the ageold dhimmi system wherein identity is dictated by religious affiliation and contact between different confessional groups is restricted to melees over the sanctity of their respective holy places: The business of each of the old native populations of Jerusalem is to manufacture and maintain its set of holy places, and to codify and organize perceptions of events and the existence of other communities according to that fundamental principle... religious communities in Jerusalem talk past each other [and] refuse to take each other into account... Other communities merely offer members of any one particular group the opportunity to state and restate their own distinctiveness versus the rest. Hence the spectacle of inter-communal violence... (pp 5-6).

An American Teachers' Strike in China: Misreading Cultural Codes

Abstract: would adhere, is that it really belongs back in the western Pacific. The national museum in Port Moresby would probably have looked after the collection if it had been offered to them as a gift. Requests were made in Papua New Guinea to the British Government that the sale be deferred, but to no avail. (One day, though it may be far off, the British Museum may be both willing and legally empowered to return some of its own collections to their places of origin.) Dr Sillitoe, who has close associations both with the north east of England and with the western Pacific, argues that in a Melanesian context there has been an exploitative and immoral exchange to which breaking-up of the collection is a fit conclusion, since it carries over some of the animus which would be felt about the transaction by the makers of the objects. The whole affair is an object-lesson: in how objects can be assigned quite different meanings in different social contexts. The National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka is not to be blamed for what has happened. It deserves good wishes on its new acquisition, coupled with regret that the British have eventually sold it a bun with some of the currants picked out. Jonathan Benthall

Interpreting Ethnographic Film. An Exchange about Celso and Cora

Abstract: We publish here, with the consent of both authors, an originally private exchange. Margaret Willson is an American graduate student at LSE who was commissioned to draft catalogue entries for the projected supplement to the RAI Film Library Catalogue, under the general supervision of James Woodburn. She sent her draft entry on 'Celso and Cora' to Gary Kildea, the Australian film-maker, who was currently making another film also in the Philippines. Kildea sent handwritten comments to her, which we reproduce without change except that (1) obvious slips of the pen, etc., have been corrected; (2) a short passage has been omitted, in order to protect individuals' privacy. Kildea mentions at one point that he did not wish to make a public defence of his position, but he has agreed to our argument that the exchange has a valuable spontaneity which is sometimes hard to find in articles written for publication. The entry in the film catalogue entry will be finally redrafted by the editor James Woodburn. JCMB Draft by Margaret Willson (footnote references inserted by Gary Kildea) CELSO AND CORA Filmmaker Gary Kildea. 109 minutes. 1983. colour.

Why Study Anthropology

Abstract: with the intellectual contradictions implicit in physical scientists attempting to comment credibly on the social dimension of their findings means that The Human Story fails to come to life for the visitor. While it represents the latest in scientific thinking amongst the most eminent scholars in their field, the organizers have succeeded neither in transforming this academic knowledge into an 'exhibition' that will hold the attention of the family on a Sunday afternoon, nor in confronting fully the social implications of their 'story'. These two factors, the surface 'exhibit' and the underlying intellectual framework, are crucially interlinked. A forthcoming conference at the British Museum entitled Making Exhibitions of Ourselves promises to explore the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of such exhibition-making in ways that will be of considerable interest to anthropologists and which might throw helpful light on the problems faced by the particular exhibition under discussion here. Against such a background, it is difficult to give much credence to the claims of this exhibition to combat racism and to overturn the nineteenth century stereotypes and assumptions regarding race and evolution that still play a major part in the socialization processes of this society. If they are to mount much of a challenge to dominant ideology, exhibitions such as this will need to learn something from the ways in which the everyday images that reinforce these stereotypes, such as those in advertising, are capable both of holding immediate attention and of striking deep resonances with underlying preconceptions and ideology. The latest Guinness advert, for instance, appearing on large hoardings throughout British cities, depicts a supposed evolutionary development from short, dark apes to a tall, white beer-drinking male: whatever irony its producers may claim, it still feeds on, and helps reinforce, the assumption that the highest point of evolution is the white man. How often, in fact, does one see non-white women at the apex of evolutionary construction? (Indeed, the picture used for The Human Story has been criticized on similar grounds over the face of an anthropoid ancestor is depicted, in the form of a mask, the visage of a white man.). Against the power and pervasiveness of the everyday signs and symbols of race, social evolution and white supremacy, embedded in advertising, popular literature, and in schooling, even a striking exhibition on the theme of The Human Story would have to struggle to make an impact. Given the constraints of its production, both practical and intellectual, and the lack of imagination in its presentation, this particular exhibition is unlikely to do much to shift popular preconceptions, to challenge racial stereotypes or to help us anticipate our future.