Showing papers in "Current Anthropology in 1983"
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the differences in the means of territorial defense may alter the expected relationships between environmental variables and territorial costs and benefits, and the seemingly anomalous findings concerning Bushman territoriality are shown to be consistemt with cost-benefit theory only when this and other factors are taken into account.
Abstract: Cost-benefit models derived from evolutionary ecology have led to the general expectation that territoriality will be found where resources are most abundant and predictable. Literature sources for four Bushman groups, however, indicate that the most territorial of these groups are found where resources are sparsest and most variable. This paper has as its aim the extension of the animal models of territoriality to make them more widely applicable to human foragers. The Bushmen control access to territorial resources in ways not found in other animals, and it is argued that these differences in the means of territorial defense may alter the expected relationships between environmental variables and territorial costs and benefits. The seemingly anomalous findings concerning Bushman territoriality are shown to be consistemt with cost-benefit theory only when this and other factors are taken into a account.
282 citations
TL;DR: In this article, several applications of optimal foraging behavior to human foraging economies are summarized and evaluated, including the degree of realism, the validity of neo-Darwinian assumptions and simple energetic efficiency currencies, the need to incorporate the effects of risk and uncertainty, and the relation of individual decision-making to processes occuring at larger spatial and temporal scales.
Abstract: Recent applications of models of optimal foraging behavior to human foraging economies are summarized and evaluated. These models predict patterns of prey choice, habitat use, time allocation, settlement pattern, and foraging group size that will maximize some objective currency (such as the net rate of energy capture while foraging) under the constraints of resource characteristics and forager capabilities pertaining to a particular situation. Issues raised in anthropological critiques of optimal foraging theory are also discussed, including (1) the models' degree of realism, (2) the validity of neo-Darwinian assumptions and simple energetic-efficiency currencies, (3) the need to incorporate the effects of risk and uncertainty, and (4) the relation of individual decision-making to processes occuring at larger spatial and temporal scales. Despite the validity of certain criticisms, optimal foraging theory appears to offer a useful addition to more orthodox analyses of hunter-gatherer subsistence patterns ...
244 citations
TL;DR: Chisholm et al. as mentioned in this paper used stable-carbon isotope ratios in human bone collagen to determine whether a human consumer was obtaining food from either a C3-plant-based or a marineplankton-based food chain or a mixture of the two.
Abstract: by BRIAN S. CHISHOLM, D. ERLE NELSON, and HENRY P. SCHWARCZ Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 (Chisholm and Nelson)/Department of Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., Canada L8S 4M1 (Schwarcz). 12 x 82 Ethnographic and archaeological descriptions of subsistence on the Northwest Coast of North America are generally incomplete or imprecise (Fladmark 1975). This makes it difficult to determine quantitatively the degree of dietary reliance of prehistoric Northwest Coast people upon marine species. In this study we use a newly developed analytical tool to make direct measurements of average relative amounts of terrestrial and marine protein in the diets of ancient people by determining stablecarbon isotope ratios in human bone collagen. The analytical technique is based upon the difference in carbon isotope ratios that exists between the atmospheric and marine carbon-dioxide reservoirs (Chisholm, Nelson, and Schwarcz 1982). This difference is reflected in terrestrial C3 plants' and in marine plankton, and also at each succeeding trophic level of the terrestrial and marine food chains based upon them. Because of this, it is possible to determine whether a human consumer was obtaining food from either a C3-plantbased or a marine-plankton-based food chain or a mixture of the two. (Terrestrial plants, such as maize, that use the C4 photosynthetic ycle differ in carbon isotope ratios from C3 cycle plants and could produce results that overlap those from marine food chains. Fortunately, C4 plants are very rare in the Northwest Coast study area.) In situations, such as that on the Northwest Coast, in which protein intake is high and carbohydrate intake is very low (Drucker 1965), the collagen-forming amino acids, both essential and nonessential, will be derived from the protein portion of the diet (White et al. 1978:687), as synthesis of nonessential amino acids from carbohydrates is not necessary. The collagen stable-carbon isotope ratio measurements therefore reflect he protein portion of the diet. They are also thought to give the effective lifetime average marineterrestrial protein intake ratio for an individual (Chisholm et al. 1982). The quantity measured in these studies is the 6'3C value, which relates the stable-carbon isotope ratio of an unknown sample to an international standard2 and which is defined by a13C (per mil) = (RU/RR 1) X 1,000, where RU is the ratio (13C/12C) for the unknown, and R. is that for the standard. In our earlier work (Chisholm et al. 1982) we determined that the best available 8'3C values for this region for consumers of purely C3-plant-based and purely marine-based diets were -20 ? 0.9 per mil and -13 ? 0.9 per mil respectively. If intake from the two diets is mixed, the resulting value for a consumer falls in the 7-per-mil nterval between these two end points, allowing us to interpolate and thereby determine the relative proportions derived from each source. The uncertainty of ? 20% applied to the proportion estimates (Chisholm et al. 1982) was derived from the ? 0.9-per-mil uncertainties for the two end points and for the sample being considered. One difficulty involved in the application of this technique is that the end-point values are not yet well known, and slightly different ones have been used for purely C3-plant-food consumers (van der Merwe and Vogel 1978; Bender, Baerreis, and Steventon 1981). These perhaps result from differences in instrument calibration (Mann 1982) or in sample preparation. Our feeling is that values of about -22 per mil and -12 per mil, for purely C3-plant-food consumers and purely marine-food consumers respectively, could possibly be used instead of the -20 per mil and -13 per mil used here, but that any more extreme alteration in 613C values is unlikely. Use of these alternative end-point values would result in a decrease, from our calculated results, of about 10% in the estimated proportion of marine protein in the diet of a consumer. It would also result in a slight decrease in the uncertainty for the proportion estimate. However, it would not affect he proportion estimates relative to each other and does not affect the conclusions drawn here. A total of 48 samples from prehistoric human skeletons were obtained from osteological collections at Simon Fraser University and from the National Museum of Man, Ottawa,3 for 15 sites along the British Columbia coast (fig. 1). The average B13C
126 citations
TL;DR: A paleoscatological analysis of human material recovered from various levels excavated during 1976 and 1977 is reported, identified as belonging to the genus Diphyllobothrium.
Abstract: by RAU'L PATRUCCO, RAUL TELLO, and Duccio BONAVIA Laboratorio de Inmunologia nd Instituto de Medicina Tropical \"Alexander von Humboldt\" (Patrucco), Instituto de Medicina Tropical \"Alexander von Humboldt\" (Tello), and Laboratorio de Prehistoria, Departamento de Biologia (Bonavia), Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Apartado 5045, Lima, Peru. 2 ix 82 In 1896 Harshberger suggested that examination of human fecal material could provide information about the diet of prehistoric man. It was only in 1910, however, that Young definitively introduced paleoscatology as a tool for such research (see Bryant 1974). Van Cleave and Ross (1947) and Callen and Cameron (1955, 1960) modified and adapted Young's methods for the study of intestinal parasites in the ancient inhabitants of North America and Mexico. In Peru, despite the fact that ancient organic material is well preserved under the exceptionally dry climatic conditions of the coastal desert, this methodology has seldom been used. Since 1974, the Laboratorio de Prehistoria de la Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima has been engaged in archaeological studies of the Preceramic site Los Gavilanes. This site is located near the beach line in the Huarmey Valley, in a desert area of the north-central coast of Peru 292 km north of Lima (lat. 10?02'45\" S, long. 78?10'21\" W) (Grobman and Bonavia 1978). A preliminary report on the Los Gavilanes material, with special reference to its paleobotanical aspects, has been published (Grobman and Bonavia 1978). The present article is a report of a paleoscatological analysis of human material recovered from various levels excavated during 1976 and 1977. Los Gavilanes was first inhabited at least 5,000 years ago; three periods of occupation have been established by stratigraphic studies (Bonavia and Grobman 1979). Insufficient remains were left during the first period for dating in absolute terms. The second period left abundant cultural material, organic debris, and remains of stone buildings. Radiocarbon dating of the debris yielded a date of 4 140 + 160 B.P. (GX5070)-4,730 + 190 B.P. after Damons et al.'s (1974) correction. Thermoluminescence dating produced a date of 4,800 + 500 B.P. (BOR-20). The third period left structures in the form of silos built with materials from the previous period and used for storing maize. Radiocarbon analysis of materials from this period yielded dates of 3,750 + 110 B.P. (GIF-3664) and 3,755 + 155 B.P. (GX-5078)-4,227 + 145 and 4,227 + 181 after Damons et al.'s (1974) correction (Bonavia and Grobman 1979). Excavations at Los Gavilanes uncovered 52 coprolites; 22 from the second period, 22 from the third period, and 8 of uncertain stratigraphic context. Each specimen was rehydrated in an aqueous solution of 0.5%7 trisodium phosphate (Na3PO4) according to the method of Callen (1967). (All the characteristics of the hydrated coprolites fit Callen's [p. 281] criteria for human origin, especially the dark-brown color reported also by Bryant [1974:5]. Samples of our material have been studied by Glendon H. Weir of the Palynology Laboratory of Texas A & M University, who has confirmed its human origin.) One sample from the second occupation (2700-2850 B.C.) contained parasite eggs that we have identified as belonging to the genus Diphyllobothrium; they are ovoid, with an inconspicuous operculum and a smooth shell of moderate thickness enclosing FIG. 1. Diphyllobothrium pacificum egg (X 400) from Los Gavilanes (all photos reproduced at65%o f original size).
87 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the "chopper-chopping-tool tradition" proposed by Movius in 1948 as a characterization of Lower Palaeolithic assemblage variability in East Asia is examined and rejected.
Abstract: The "chopper-chopping-tool tradition" proposed by Movius in 1948 as a characterization of Lower Palaeolithic assemblage variability in East Asia is here examined and rejected. It is argued that its uncritical acceptance in the Western literature has resulted in an inaccurate perception of technological variability and change in this vast region. A brief summary of recent primary source material clearly indicates (1) that there are variable quantities of "classic" Acheulian bifacial handaxes in some Korean, Chinese, and Mongolian Lower Palaeolithic assemblages and (2) that a dichotomous pattern of assemblage variability characterized by handaxes in the West and choppers/chopping tools in the East in an unrealistic and oversimplified schematization of the East Asian Palaeolithic, which rivals in its complexity contemporaneous assemblages in the West. A better approximation of the Northeast Asian Lower Palaeolithic is Jia and Wei's two-series hypothesis, based upon recent excavations at Zhoukoudian Locality ...
66 citations
TL;DR: The evolution of the advanced hominid brain is likely the result of ongoing stochastic genetic processes that keep the eukaryotic genome in a state of genetic flux without reference to the selection pressures generated by macroscopic biotic communities.
Abstract: A stochastic, hierarchical model for the evolution of the advanced hominid brain is developed. The fossil and geological data date the event to 1.6-1.8 million years ago. Palaeoclimatological evidence does not suggest that it coincided with significant ecological change. The cognitive capacities of "small" hominoid brains are reviewed in the context of pongid technology and carnivory and the evidence for hominid stone tool technology prior to the Plio/Pleistocene. Calibration information suggests that small-brained gracile australopithecines represented a successful long-term adaptation to their particular African ecozones. The evolution of the advanced hominid brain is, therefore, likely the result of ongoing stochastic genetic processes that keep the eukaryotic genome in a state of genetic flux without reference to the selection pressures generated by macroscopic biotic communities. Radiometric calibration of the fossil evidence viewed in conjunction with computer simulations of macroevolutionary events...
63 citations
TL;DR: The status of male berdache among North American Indians was filled by persons, usually male, who remained members of their biological gender but assumed important social characteristics of the other gender.
Abstract: The status of berdache among North American Indians was filled by persons, usually male, who remained members of their biological gender but assumed important social characteristics of the other gender. Concentrated in western and midwestern North America, berdaches were few. The status tended to disappear after Indian societies came under outside political control. Male berdaches, particularly, combined the social roles assigned to both genders. They could dress like women, combine male and female dress, or alternate modes of dress. Their occupational role permitted a combination of male and female work to achieve exceptional productivity. Gender mixing also characterized their sexual behavior; often homosexual, they showed strong tendencies toward a bisexual orientation. Their transformation often required supernatural validation. The ritual roles of male berdaches, like other features of their status, rested on their definition as nonwomen. Traditional explanations of the berdache status seem based upo...
60 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a reading of Evans-Pritchard's classic The Nuer is presented, where the central theoretical problem is the relationship of structure to human agency and the utility of standard classifications of theoretical orientations in social and cultural anthropology, particularly of the category of structural functionalism.
Abstract: The argument of Evans-Pritchard's classic The Nuer has been subject to conflicting interpretations. We examine these interpretations and then present a reading of the work that treats it as a whole. A key conclusion is that Evans-Pritchard distinguishes among three aspects of the "systems" he describes: (1) logical possibilities immanent in all forms of action, (2) cultural or local idioms in terms of which action is formulated and expressed, and (3) conditions and patterns of action. With this framework he develops, through an examination of the way interests in cattle are translated into political practices, an analysis in which the central theoretical problem is the relationship of structure to human agency. Our reading raises questions about the utility of standard classifications of theoretical orientations in social and cultural anthropology, particularly of the category of structural-functionalism, of which The Nuer is taken to be a central text.
49 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a model of the cultural ecology of tropical high mountains based on a comparison of the Central Andes and the Himalayas is presented, and it is argued that mountain adaptations have three basic elements: an array of vertical production zones, each characterized by a complex interaction of variables including agricultural regime, social organization, stratification, land tenure, labor organization, and level of productivity.
Abstract: A model of the cultural ecology of tropical high mountains based on a comparison of the Central Andes and the Himalayas is presented. It is argued that mountain adaptations have three basic elements: (1) an array of vertical production zones, each characterized by a complex interaction of variables including agricultural regime, social organization, stratification, land tenure, labor organization, and level of productivity; (2) choice by the population of an overall production strategy for the exploitation of the vertical production zones available to it, a strategy that may involve specialization in one zone or, in response to a variety of constraints, the combined exploitation of several zones; and (3) a potential for change in production strategy, within the constraints of the mountain environment, under the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors.
49 citations
TL;DR: Man seems to be adapted for a low level of continuous sexual activity unrelated to the production of offspring, and this may be important in reinforcing the parental bond which allows for a long period of dependence of the infant upon its mother.
Abstract: Like that of many other mammals, our rate of reproduction is related to the carrying capacity of our habitat, and throughout our history low lifetime fertility has been advantageous. The most important determinant of lifetime fertility is the interbirth interval, and the major variable in this interval is the duration of postpartum anovulation due to breast-feeding. The need for a long birth interval is accentuated by our immaturity at birth and our requirement of prolonged contact between parent and offspring to learn the social and technical skills of human society. This paper reviews the evidence on the postpartum interval and mentions the !Kung hunter-gatherers, whose four-year birth interval is entirely due to the contraceptive effect of lactation. It is suggested that the main reason other communities do not have such a prolonged period of postpartum amenorrhoea is differences in patterns of breast-feeding, in particular less frequent sucklings, absence of nighttime feeds, and a reduced duration of ...
48 citations
TL;DR: Examination of figures 1and 2 suggests the simultaneous operation of all three developmental stages towards earlier calendar years due to acceleration of development; (2) the period between 0.8 and 3 years of age and the early pubertal phase); and (3) a shift of developmental stages toward earlier calendar months due to accelerate of development.
Abstract: the period between 0.8 and 3 years of age and the early pubertal phase); and (3) a shift of developmental stages towards earlier calendar years due to acceleration of development. Examination of figures 1and 2 suggests the simultaneous operation of all three. Their interrelations have not so far been elucidated and require further study. It is of interest that whereas for the population of Warsaw in the past decade or so the rate of increase in stature has been greater in boys (on the average, 1.3%) than in girls (1.2%), for the populations of the Silesian towns and of the rural regions it has been greater in girls than in boys (except in the youngest and oldest age-groups). Sexual dimorphism in stature shows great changes during the period investigated, although materials for an analysis of this phenomenon are scarce. Between 1879 and 1959, a substantial change took place in the preschool years; in 1879 dimorphism was most intense at early preschool age, decreased with the approach of the prepubertal period, and rose again with the beginning of the pubertal phase (fig. 3). The studies performed in 1959 and 1979 show great similarities in stature dimorphism. Dimorphism is somewhat more intense at 3-4 years of age and decreases until the 12th year, whereupon it rapidly rises. It is assumed that changes in dimorphism are related primarily to differences in the living conditions of the sexes, which are known to have changed greatly during the past century.
TL;DR: Burial practices as an archaeological source contain a variety of information as discussed by the authors, including information about the means of passage of the deceased to the other world and of life in the realm of the dead.
Abstract: Burial practices as an archaeological source contain a variety of information. Since they represent a stable system, the reconstruction of burial practices permits one to identify six informational units. The first unit reveals the ancients' ideas about the means of passage of the deceased to the other world and of life in the realm of the dead. The second unit permits the reconstruction of the process of replacement of one archaeological culture by another. The third unit can be used to draw conclusions about the social positions of various sex-age groups in ancient societies. The fourth unit allows one to characterize the social differentiation of ancient societies, as many features of the burial rite are determined by the social rank of the deceased. The fifth unit provides information about the evolution of forms of the family in ancient societies and permits the identification of "outsiders" in the community to which the cemetery belongs; the presence of "outsiders" may be explained in terms of marri...
TL;DR: In this paper, the origins of Chinese civilization are discussed and the evolution of the Chinese environment is discussed. But the authors do not discuss the role of Aboriginal affinities in the origin of the Australians.
Abstract: CHANG KWANG-CHIH. 1983. \"Concluding remarks,\" in The origins of Chinese civilization. Edited by David N. Keightley and Chang Kwang-chih, pp. 565-81. Berkeley: University of California Press. MACINTOSH, N. W. G., and S. L. LARNACH. 1976. \"Aboriginal affinities looked at in a world context,\" in The origin of the Australians. Edited by R. L. Kirk and A. G. Thorne. Canberra. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. McELHINNY, M. W. 1968. Northward drift of India: Examination of recent palaeomagnetic records. Nature 217:342-44. WHYTE, R. 0. 1983. \"The evolution of the Chinese environment,\" in The origins of Chinese civilization. Edited by David N. Keightley and Chang Kwang-chih, pp. 3-19. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Man seems to be adapted to a low level of continuous sexual activity unrelated to the production of offspring and this may be important in reinforcing the parental bond which allows for a long period of dependence of the infant upon its mother.
Abstract: Like that of many other mammals our rate of reproduction is related to the carrying capacity of our habitat and throughout our history low lifetime fertility has been advantageous. The most important determinant of lifetime fertility is the interbirth interval and the major variable in this interval is the duration of postpartum anovulation due to breastfeeding. The need for a long birth interval is accentuated by our immaturity at birth and our requirement of prolonged contact between parent and offspring to learn the social and technical skills of human society. This paper reviews the evidence on the postpartum interval and mentions the ]Kung hunter gatherers whose 4-year birth interval is entirely due to the contraceptive effect of lactation. It is suggested that the main reason other communities do not have such a long period of postpartum amenorrhea is differences in patterns of breastfeeding in particular less frequent sucklings absence of nighttime feeds and a reduced duration of breastfeeding. It is pointed out that the human female is the only mammal in which the breasts develop at puberty and it is suggested that this may be due to the breasts having evolved an erotic role. Man seems to be adapted to a low level of continuous sexual activity unrelated to the production of offspring and this may be important in reinforcing the parental bond which allows for a long period of dependence of the infant upon its mother. Comments from a number of other authors and the authors reply are given. (authors modified) (summaries in ENG FRE RUS SPA)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw from the cultures of China, Africa, Tibet and Japan, and the Navaho in support of a model for human cognitive processing which assumes that a major component of the rules for calculating human behavior is resident outside the individual in the symbolic artifacts of culture.
Abstract: Examples are drawn from the cultures of China, Africa, Tibet and Japan, and the Navaho in support of a model for human cognitive processing which assumes that a major component of the rules for calculating human behavior is resident outside the individual in the symbolic artifacts of culture. An Appositional Transformation Operator (ATO) is specified that can relate semantic concepts and patterns of behavior by analogy. The ATO is shown to work with great computational efficiency for verbal and visual analogies. The I Ching, a philosophical divination mechanism of classical Chinese culture, is shown to be constructed on the basis of an ATO logic. The existence of such an ATO divination system throughout much of Africa is also discussed, as well as the apparent encoding of ATO structures in the iconic imagery of Buddhism and of Navaho sand painting. This analysis is intended as part of a cross-cultural validation of a theory which posits that ATOs are the basis for human calculation of behavior by analogy ...
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of tourism on the Bahama Islands is discussed. But the authors focus on the economic aspects of tourism and do not consider the social aspects of Bahama's history.
Abstract: CRATON, M. 1962. A htistory ofthe Bahamas. London: Collins. ENGELS, F. 1942 (1884). The origin of the family, private property, and the state. New York: International. FITZMAURICE, G. 1959. Some results of the Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea. American Journal of International Law 8: 73-121. Fox, R. 1977. Urban anthropology: Cities in their cultural settings. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. FRIED, M. 1967. The evolution of political society. New York: Random House. GUMPLOWICZ, L. 1899. The outlines of sociology. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science. HODGSON, R., and L. ALEXANDER. 1972. Towards an objective analysis of special circumstances: Bays, rivers, coastal and oceanic archipelagos, and atolls. Kingston: University of Rhode Island Law of the Sea Institute. LAFLAMME, A. 1972. Green Turtle Cay: A bi-racial community in the Out-Island Bahamas. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y. . 1979. The impact of tourism: A case from the Bahama Islands. Annals of Tourism Research 6:137-48. LEIFER, M., and D. NELSON. 1973. Conflict of interests in the Straits of Malacca. International Affairs 49:190-203. LEWIS, V. 1974. The Bahamas in international politics. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 16:131-52. MAINE, H. 1861. Ancient law. London: Murray. MORGAN, L. 1877. Ancient society. New York: World. OPPENHEIMER, F. 1914. The state: Its history and development viewed sociologically. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. OTTERBEIN, K. 1966. The Andros Islanders. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. . 1967. "The evolution of Zulu warfare," in Law and warfare. Edited by P. Bohannan. Garden City: Natural History Press. PEACOCK, J. 1973. Indonesia: An anthropological perspective. Pacific Palisades: Goodyear. SERVICE, E. 1962. Primitive social organization. New York: Random House. --. 1975. Origins of the state and civilization. New York: Norton. STEWART, J., and L. FARON. 1959. Native peoples of South America. New York: McGraw-Hill. THOMSEN, C. 1838. A guide to northern antiquities. London. WITTFOGEL, K. 1957. Oriental despotism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
TL;DR: WERTIME, T. as mentioned in this paper, and TEREKHOVA, N. N. 1980. ''The history of metalworking production among the ancient agriculturalists of southern Turkmenia, in The Bronze Age civilizations of Central Asia.
Abstract: native copper.\" Actes du XIe Congre's International d'Histoire des Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 237-43. Warsaw. SOLECKI, R. 1969. A copper mineral pendant from northern Iraq. Antiquity 43:311-14. TEREKHOVA, N. N. 1981. \"The history of metalworking production among the ancient agriculturalists of southern Turkmenia,\" in The Bronze Age civilizations of Central Asia. Edited by P. Kohl, pp. 313-24. New York: M. E. Sharpe. TYLECOTE, R. 1970. Early metallurgy in the Near East. Metals and Materials 4:285-93. WERTIME, T. 1964. Man's first encounters with metallurgy. Science 146:1252-67. -. 1973. The beginnings of metallurgy: A new look. Science 182:875-87. WERTIME, T., and J. MUHLY. Editors. 1980. The coming of the age of iron. New Haven: Yale University Press.
TL;DR: Watanabe et al. as discussed by the authors found that interfamilial occupational differentiation was one of the most fundamental conditioning factors in the development of ranked and stratified societies among the maritime food-gatherers of the northern Pacific.
Abstract: by HITOSHI WATANABE Institute of Northern Culture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. 15 ix 82 The most important issue in Testart's (1982) article on the storing hunter-gatherer is that socioeconomic inequalities are associated not necessarily with the presence of agriculture, but with the existence of a type of sedentary economy with intensive food storage. The question that must be elucidated, as Testart points out, is how sedentarism and intensive food storage lead to inequalities. I would like to offer some new views on the problem. It seems to me that interfamilial differentiation of occupations or subsistence patterns may be one of the most fundamental conditioning factors in the development of ranked and stratified societies among the maritime food-gatherers of the northern Pacific.2 Interfamilial occupational differentiation (Watanabe 1968: 73) is characteristic of Arctic and Subarctic gatherers and absent among those of the tropics and subtropics. While the principal food of these latter peoples is vegetable, the staple of northern groups is animal-land and sea mammals and fish (see Watanabe 1978). These food resources vary widely both in form and in spatiotemporal distribution and behavior. In order to use them effectively, people must have a diversified technology. Occupational differentiation is part of a social adaptation for effective exploitation of the environment. Interfamilial occupational differentiation has incipient and developed forms; it may be seasonal or ad hoc or year-round. An example of the incipient type is found among the Eskimo of northern Alaska; the Hokkaido Ainu and the Northwest Coast Indians provide examples of the developed type. When the communal hunting (caribou hunting for interior groups, whale hunting for coastal ones) is over in the spring, families of northern Alaskan Eskimo disperse, some primarily to hunt and others primarily to fish (Spencer 1959:140; Spencer et al. 1965:132, 137; Larsen and Rainey 1948:29). The data do not permit a judgment as to whether the same families regularly fish or hunt every year. Since it is apparently impossible for these Eskimo to live on fish as a staple, a yearround distinction between hunting-oriented and fishingoriented families will theoretically never occur here. In contrast, the Hokkaido Ainu are divided year-round into hunting people (iramande utari) and fishing people (chep koiki utari) (Watanabe 1964a:47; 1973:47). The first group patrilineally inherits the ritual of the brown-bear deity (kimerok kamui or metot ushi kamui), the Ainu's highest-ranking deity. The group engages in planned periodic bear hunting the economic role of which is secondary to its socioreligious significance. Bear hunting is regarded as the highest of achievements, and success confers high prestige on the hunters. The families of this group also hunt deer and fish for two species of salmon (Onchorhyncus keta and 0. masou). The skins of bear and deer have been important objects of trade with the Japanese since ancient times, being bartered for both utilitarian and nonutilitarian goods (Watanabe 1972:51, 59). In particular, lacquer wares and swords were regarded as valuables (ikoro) and became symbols of wealth and prestige (Watanabe 1972: 52). They were part of the paraphernalia used and displayed in bear ceremonies (Watanabe 1964b, 1966a), which were not only the greatest social events, but also the rituals of the largest kin groups (ekashi ikiru). Skillful bear hunters (isoun kuru) were the objects of esteem and admiration. They were very few and were well-known even in neighboring areas. They were given the seats of the highest rank not only at the bear ceremonies of the ekashi ikiru to which they belonged, but also at those of other such groups. Families that did not possess the bear-deity ritual and did not engage in periodic bear hunting performed the rituals of lower-ranking deities, the shiri koru kamui (land-owning deity) and the wakka ushi kamui (water-residing deity), both of which were shared with families of the first group. Although this second group hunted deer in the environs of the settlement, its daily activities were concentrated on fishing for salmon and other fish throughout he year. The bear hunters fished for dog salmon during the early half of its season but moved to their hunting lodges in the mountains in the latter half, leaving the fishing to their families. Besides these two groups, there was a third group of quite a different kind, called usshiu (Watanabe 1964a: 15; 1973:15). My informants interpret he term as "servants," "menials," "hangers-on," migrant laborers"; it corresponds to the utare, "slave, " of Ainu ethnography. Usshiu means "foreigners" and was applied to both females and males regardless of marital status. What distinguished these people from others was a lack of affiliation with the local deities and consequently the lack of the right to participate autonomously in local economic life. Usshiu worked under the direction of the headman, performing relatively simple tasks such as transporting and processing fish, preparing firewood, drying animal skins, etc. In cases in which an usshiu was single, after one or two years of residence and service the headman would arrange his or her marriage to an appropriate person in the local group, and thus some usshius became regular members of the group. Of these three categories of people, the Ainu seem to have ranked the first group highest and the third lowest. In this respect it can be said that the three categories formed social classes or strata. However, these classes were not closed. For instance, if a father judged his son lacking in hunting ability, the son would not succeed to his father's occupation and would drop into the second class. On the other hand, children of the second class could rise to the first by showing aptitude for instruction by the hunters. Besides class distinctions, there was some concept of economic inequality in Ainu society, expressed in the words nishipa and irabokkari. Nishipa is generally interpreted as "rich." However, it referred not simply to ownership of goods or property, but to ownership of ikoro. Irabokkari was applied to a person who belonged to the local group but lacked the ability to support himself. In this category, apparently, were single men and women and aged persons without anyone to depend on. They had to live separately in poor houses and were given food and skins by relatives or wealthy people. The criteria for distinguishing these two categories are not yet clear, but it is certain that the former epresented the wealthiest class and the latter the poorest. Food-gatherers who live under ecological conditions that permit year-round dependence on fish as a main food source can afford to hunt as an extra means of subsistence. This situation is well represented in the Hokkaido Ainu. The availability of fish year-round permitted families a choice of subsistence activities that led to the differentiation ftwo groups, one hunting-oriented and the other fishing-oriented. The ? 131983 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, all rights reserved 0011-3204/83/2402-0005$1.00. 2 Because of space limitations I shall omit my views on stability of residence; readers are referred to Watanabe (1966b, 1968) and, for a comparison of the Ainu and the Northwest Coast peoples with regard to sedentarism, Watanabe (n.d.).
TL;DR: In this article, the authors sketch a series of highlights related to the development of social anthropology in Peru in its professional phase, that is, the period since the 1940s, when the teaching and practice of social anthropologists became institutionalized in Peruvian universities.
Abstract: This article simply attempts to sketch a series of highlights related to the development of social anthropology in Peru in its professional phase, that is, the period since the 1940s, when the teaching and practice of social anthropology became institutionalized in Peruvian universities. It is necessarily a descriptive attempt, presenting the main institutions or specific research or applied projects that became the frame of reference for the formation of the first generations of Peruvian ethnologists and also for the development of this new discipline in Peru.
TL;DR: The description de l'atlas etabli par H.C. Conklin (de l'Universite de Yale) sur les Ifugao du centre-nord de Luzon (Philippines), remarquables pour leurs rizicultures irriguees en terrasse as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Description de l'atlas etabli par H.C. Conklin (de l'Universite de Yale) sur les Ifugao du centre-nord de Luzon (Philippines), remarquables pour leurs rizicultures irriguees en terrasse.
TL;DR: The concept of archipelago states was first proposed by LAFLAMME as mentioned in this paper, who pointed out the four major attributes of the Archipelago state that distinguish it from other state subtypes, including formal military organization, the concept of citizenship, and clearly defined territoriality.
Abstract: by ALAN G. LAFLAMME Department of Sociology and Anthropology, State University of New York College at Fredonia, Fredonia, N. Y. 14063, U.S.A. 1 x 82 Since the inception of anthropology as a self-conscious discipline during the 19th century, its practitioners have manifested a preoccupation with the establishment of sociocultural typologies (e.g., Thomsen 1838, Maine 1861, Morgan 1877). A large percentage of these schemes, evolutionary and otherwise, have treated the state as a major structural type (e.g., Engels 1942 [1884], Service 1962, Fried 1967). State societies are said to possess a core of defining attributes. Formal government and civil law are, perhaps, the foremost of these (Service 1975:14-15). Taxation and central coordination of activities that serve the needs of the people are fundamental as well (Steward and Faron 1959: 100-101). To these attributes one might add the existence of formal military organization, the concept of citizenship, and clearly defined territoriality (Fried 1967: 235-36). Through the years, observers have made much finer distinctions within the state category. For example, Wittfogel (1957) distinguishes \"Oriental despotism\" as a subtype of the state. Many social scientists have utilized the \"conquest state\" as an analytic concept (e.g., Gumplowicz 1899, Oppenheimer 1914, Otterbein 1967). Fox (1977) has outlined a host of variations upon the state theme, including such subtypes as \"bureaucratic state,\" \"city-state,\" \"preindustrial state,\" \"industrial state,\" \"prismatic state,\" \"segmentary state,\" and \"theatre state.\" Presumably, these and other subtypes differ qualitatively and/or quantitatively from each other in significant ways. Many states are composed of islands and their territorial waters. Occasionally, scholars with an interest in international law have used the term \"archipelago state\" for such entities (Lewis 1974). Despite the fact that literally hundreds of anthropologists have conducted fieldwork within such societies, the concept of the archipelago state has received relatively little attention. Herein, I propose to outline the four major attributes of the archipelago state that distinguish it from other state subtypes. The first attribute of the archipelago state is that it consists of a large number of islands. The extreme case is Indonesia, with its 5 large islands and 3,000 small ones (Peacock 1973: 13). The Bahamas, much smaller, contain approximately 700 islands, 30 of which support significant settlements (Craton 1962:11). Even tiny archipelago states such as Fiji and Maldives have large numbers of constituent islands. According to one commentator upon international aw, \"the real essence of an archipelago is the concept of a self-contained and relatively compact group, not a loose congeries of islands dotted over a large extent of sea\" (Fitzmaurice 1959:88). In fact, however, various political, economic, and ideological factors have often combined to cause widely scattered islands to be claimed as integral parts of national territories. The second attribute of the archipelago state is that it considers the waters surrounding its component islands as being within its boundaries and an integral part of its heritage (Lewis 1974: 138). In order for such a claim to have any potential validity, the \"internal sea\" must manifest historically established intimacy of political and economic association with the several contiguous island populations (Hodgson and Alexander 1972:46). Even then, it is a moot point involving conflicting claims about exceptions to international standards such as the three-mile and twelve-mile limits. States of other subtypes tend to deny the legitimacy of this notion. It is their shared opinion that any doctrine that attempts to limit free access to the high seas is in violation of international aw (Leifer and Nelson 1973). The closing of certain shipping lanes and the monopolization of prime fishing rounds are the main stated objections, but strategic military concerns are at least as important. This controversy is a fact of life in most archipelago states. A third attribute of the archipelago state is that its component islands, with few exceptions, are small and economically underdeveloped. In the Bahamas, for example, the largest island has a surface area of about 350 square miles (Otterbein 1966:1). Small island ecosystems are virtually always severely deficient in most economically essential commodities and typically quite distant from suppliers of materials and energy resources and from major market centers. In most archipelago states, it is the rare community that has managed to evolve beyond the subsistence level. The options for development open to the small island community all have serious drawbacks. Tourism is an attempt to convert the twin liabilities of remote location and poor commercial development into marketable assets. Not infrequently, tourism results in major alterations in community tradition and social life (LaFlamme 1979). Another possibility is that of attracting foreign capital for industrial development. Historically, this option has often led to little more than exploitation and balance-of-payment deficits due to low wages and dramatically increased consumption of imported consumer goods. If these options are unavailable, islanders may resort to migrant wage labor, with its well-documented hardships for both migrants and their home communities. Archipelago states tend to have weak local economies; therefore, they tend to have weak national economies. A fourth attribute of the archipelago state is its centrifugal tendency. While virtually all state societies manifest regionalism, divisive ethnicity, and the like, such disruptive features are especially pronounced in the archipelago state. According to Lewis (1974:136), \"In an archipelago, the temptation is always great at worst to secede, and at best to disregard the political jurisdiction of the center.\" Component islands often possess different technoeconomic adaptations, social systems, and ideologies because of environmental diversity, differential outside contact, and isolation. Such factors militate against strong sociocultural integration. Poor communication exacerbates this centrifugal tendency. Airplane travel is often hard to arrange and is prohibitively expensive. Personal boat travel is limited unless distances are short and seas are calm. This leaves commercial vessels such as ferries and mailboats, if available. Telephone systems are typically poorly developed, and the mail is limited to the literate and the patient. Xenophobic tendencies, though probably found in certain individuals in all communities, seem to be most common and pronounced in relatively closed and isolated island communities. In the Bahamas, for example, one often encounters misconceptions about and fear of even inhabitants of islands only a few miles distant (LaFlamme 1972:63-64). Apprehension concerning outsiders makes central political administration an almost constant structural weakness in archipelago states. Archipelago states constitute a significant minority of the world's \"developing nations.\" Their internal and external problems relate, in large measure, to the structural features of the societal type. Anthropologists, especially those with an applied orientation, should find the archipelago state a useful concept in certain research projects. Additions to and refinements of the above-mentioned attributes might well emerge from application of the concept in ethnographic and comparative studies. 1 ?h 1983 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, all rights reserved 0011-3204/83/2403-0008$1.00.
TL;DR: Meyer et al. as mentioned in this paper discuss the abnormal among the Ojibwa Indians and describe the Goose Dance and the Swift Runner in a Cree narrative, which they call "The Swift Runner".
Abstract: RUTH. 1938. The abnormal among the Ojibwa Indians. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (now Journal of Abnormal Psychology) 33:14-33. MANITOBA COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH. 1899. The Queen vs. Toosh-enaun and Ah-ne-o-kizick. MS, no. 14, Fall Assize. MEYER, DAVID. 1975. \"Waterfowl in Cree ritual: The Goose Dance.\" Proceedings of the Second Congress, Canadian Ethnology Society, vol. 1. Edited by J. Freedman and J. H. Barkow. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 28. PRESTON, RICHARD J. t975. Cree narrative: Expressing the personal meaning of events. National Museum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 30. PUBLIC ARCHIVES OF CANADA. 1879. The Queen vs. Ka-ki-si-kutchin, \"The Swift Runner.\" MS, Department of Justice File C RG 13, C-1, vol. 1417. 1896. Northwest Mounted Police preliminary investigation file into the killing of Mapanin (Francis Auger) at Trout Lake (Alberta) on January 22, 1896. MS, RG 18, vol. 152, File 242. . 1899. Northwest Mounted Police investigation and arrest file, Moostoos case. MS, File RG 18, vol. 1442, no. 166. --. 1907-8. Department of Justice capital case file on Joseph Fiddler. MS, File RG 13, C-1, vol. 1452.
TL;DR: In this article, a role-specific vertical solidarity in South India, where urban Christian households employ rural Christians as domestics, is investigated. And the mistress-servant bond is characterized by the paradoxical features of subordination and devotion, unconditionality and instrumentality, sentiment and social distance.
Abstract: This study investigates a role-specific vertical solidarity in South India, where urban Christian households employ rural Christians as domestics. The mistress-servant bond is characterized by the paradoxical features of subordination and devotion, unconditionality and instrumentality, sentiment and social distance. Their bond may appear to be dyadic, but in fact it implies a network of reciprocities among multiple social actors: the families of the employer and employee, the intermediaries between them, religious functionaries, and the audience of fellow regligionists. The domestic clientage is rooted in an economic precondition, but it is legitimated and structured within the prevalent caste idiom and functions within a specific institutional framework that determines the options for the participants and the modes of control they exercise.
TL;DR: In this paper, a regional settlement pattern survey of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico is used to monitor how scarce goods and resources were allocated to members of society through eight phases from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1520.
Abstract: Archaeological data from a regional settlement pattern survey of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are used to monitor how scarce goods and resources were allocated to members of society through eight phases from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1520. The goal is to determine how distinct historical social structures performed economically in terms of the goods and resources recoverable archaeologically. Measures utilized include land use and settlement characteristics, domestic architectural space, public architecture, pottery, obsidian, and a number of other artifact classes. The results show consistent linkages between specific land use and population variables and specific artifactual items in ways suggesting that political control, or lack thereof, structured the economy in patterned ways. Other factors, including urbanization and boundary permeability, are influential but not as persistently involved as political power. These results show how regional-scale archaeological data can be used to sharpen theoretical underst...
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative analysis of the dentition des individus de deux sites funeraires, l'un d'epoque pre-agricole et l'autre d'Epoque agricole de la cote de Georgie, is presented.
Abstract: Comparaison de la dentition des individus de deux sites funeraires, l'un d'epoque pre-agricole et l'autre d'epoque agricole de la cote de Georgie. Une tendance a la reduction des dimensions est mise en evidence.
TL;DR: In this paper, economic analysis is used to examine the institution of bride-price, and some hypotheses about the determinants of brideprice are derived using data collected by Granqvist in the Palestinian village of Artas, these hypotheses are tested by means of multiple regression analysis.
Abstract: Economic analysis is used to examine the institution of bride-price. Supply and demand curves are developed in the context of the marriage market, and some hypotheses about the determinants of bride-price are derived. Using data collected by Granqvist in the Palestinian village of Artas, these hypotheses are tested by means of multiple regression analysis. The main explanatory variables are the productivity of the bride (measured by variables such as expected fertility, marital status, age, and education), the loss experienced by her own family (which depends not only on her productivity, but also on the closeness of the relationship between bride and groom), and the consumption of the wife in the marital home (which depends, among other things, on the personality of her husband). The incorporation into the analysis of uncertainty leads to the conclusion that exchange marriages-often observed in societies in which bride-price is paid-are more likely than others to end in divorce. This hypothesis is also t...
TL;DR: Yi and Clark's paper as discussed by the authors illuminated as never before the question of the partition of the Lower Palaeolithic into chopper and handaxe traditions, and it is no wonder that none of the commentators has objected to it.
Abstract: Yi and Clark's paper (CA 24:181-202) pleased me very much, for it illuminated as never before the question of the partition of the Lower Palaeolithic into chopper and handaxe traditions. While it is true, as several commentators mention, that opposition to Movius's scheme has been raised now and then, it has been feeble and at best not influential. To this day, every textbook contains that scheme, and-at least as far as I am aware-no other views are even hinted at. In presenting it in introductory courses, I take care to follow it immediately with my own opposing view, but I always feel as if I were uttering some kind of heresy. I am confident that Yi and Clark's article will cause textbooks to be modified in this regard, and I myself will be presenting the case to my classes in a different tone than before. This, in my opinion, is the article's major contribution. The authors' plea for recognition of the diversity of the vast area under study is unexceptionable, and it is no wonder that none of the commentators has objected to it. In comprehending this diversity we still have a long way to go factually, theoretically, and methodologically. All agree on this point. With the authors, I see no such belittling of Movius in their presentation as a few of the commentators note. With them, I greatly admire his work and consider him one of the outstanding prehistorians of our time. The issue here is not Movius, but his outdated view of the Lower Palaeolithic. Without criticism, science would be doomed to stagnation. Criticism should never be offered or received on a personal level; I don't think the authors' criticism in any way hurts Movius as a person or a scholar. As several commentators point out, not a few references directly relevant to the discussion seem to have escaped the authors' scrutiny. I wonder whether they have ever seen my paper on so-called Clactonian dispersals (Ohel 1978), in which I explicitly challenge the schematic partition of the Lower Palaeolithic, or my replies to the many comments on my article on the Acheulean/Clactonian problem (Ohel 1979). I came to doubt the partition scheme in the course of my 1975-77 research on the Clactonian, which is still widely accepted as an offshoot of the so-called pebble culture (or tradition), i.e., a nonhandaxe industrial complex, therefore non-Acheulean. The view I favored following my study was and still is that the Clactonian was not an independent culture or tradition; rather, "Clactonian sites" were preparatory areas for the manufacture of Acheulean tools (e. g., Ohel 1979, Ohel and Lechevalier 1979). As the authors and several commentators say, more than just a few "bizarre" handaxes have been found in assemblages within the "chopper zone" (even at the "high temple" of the chopper tradition, Zhoukoudian), where-by definition, so to speakthey should not occur at all. I was confronted with the same situation in reexamining the Clactonian. Moreover, as is also stated, handaxes are not the only index fossil of the Acheulean (and, as the late Fran?ois Bordes told me in the summer of 1980, backed knives, for example, are just as indicative of the Acheulean as handaxes). Conversely, there are quite a number of pure and obvious Acheulean sites or levels all over the Old World that for one reason or another lack handaxes. Prompted by the above-mentioned arguments with dedicated proponents of the partition scheme, I organized a symposium to be held at the XIth ICAES in Canada this summer on Acheulean/pebble-culture relationships. In it I had planned to read a paper forcefully rejecting the partition and citing the many recent publications in which the existence of handaxes within the traditional out-of-bounds zones is discussed (e.g., Bartstra 1976, 1978, 1982; Bordes 1968; Boriskovsky 1978; Derevianko 1978; Hayden 1979; Mohapatra 1981; Narr 1981; Okladnikov 1978; Sankalia 1978). Unfortunately, I have been prevented from attending the Congress by health complications, but I am sure that Yi and Clark's article will generate echoes in the symposium and help to shake at long last the partition's walls. Finally, I would like to venture an alternative hypothesis for all those Lower Palaeolithic and post-Oldowan assemblages traditionally subsumed under the so-called chopper tradition or pebble culture. From about 1.5 million years to about 100,000 years B.P., the Acheulean industrial complex dominated the Old World. (Of course, I am speaking in technological terms only.) Basically and fundamentally the technology was the same everywhere. At the same time, there were numerous variations, temporal and spatial, no doubt a reflection of physical, environmental, sociocultural, stylistic, functional, seasonal, and other factors. To use a musical analogy, these are all variations on the same theme. In a mood of amusement I like to label the 1.5-million-year time span subsequent to the Oldowan and prior to the Mousterian or Middle Palaeolithic "The First Worldwide Empire," meaning by "Empire," of course, simply the enormous spread of basic industrial traits. To many this suggestion may sound too simplistic, perhaps too linear, and surely too universal. I must therefore stress once again that the universality is merely at the fundamental level of technology and that complexity is everywhere represented by the specific variations. The Acheulean industrial complex is essentially of a core and/or flake technology incorporating such "revolutionary" modes of production as, e.g., the Levallois technique. It is, in my view, unique in its worldwide technological dominance, resembling neither what preceded it nor what followed it. Doubtless the main focus of our studies everywhere should be upon the meaning of its variations. Nevertheless, as I see it today the Lower Palaeolithic was basically (though only basically) one. If this is condemned as too "linear" a view, so be it.
TL;DR: Ferrarini and Marraccini as mentioned in this paperered red clays from the terrace of Petriolo II have been found to reflect adaptation to early forest habitats that replaced the glacial Artemisia steppes characteristic of this part of Italy during glacial extremes.
Abstract: hinted. Soil horizons that in 1980 appeared to span the whole terrace now are revealed to be spatially confined. Most important are red clays, deposited by erosion from the terrace above, which are associated with interstadial climatic conditions and which tend to contain the Gravettian or early Epigravettian materials in the site. Our preliminary assessment is that these soils were deposited following the last stadial maximum, perhaps after 20,000 B.P., and reflect adaptation to early forest habitats that replaced the glacial Artemisia steppes characteristic of this part of Italy during glacial extremes and of the Farma Valley specifically (Ferrarini and Marraccini 1978). Analysis of pollen samples recovered from this zone is now being performed to test this assessment. Overlying clays, also derived mainly from above, appear to reflect a more moderate climatic regime and habitat containing the broadleaf and brushy local plant associates found today in the valley. It also was revealed in 1981 that the Torrente Farma played a larger role than previously suspected in the evolution of the site's terrace. At various times the river encroached into the terrace, although today it comes no closer than 20 m. Through the late Pleistocene it varied from a meandering to a straightchannel stream, depending on water flow and flooding episodes. Buried alluvial sand, silt, and gravel deposits indicate that at times between suspected occupation periods the river bank lay within the current site boundaries. At times flood overflow temporarily buried the terrace and contributed to its build-up. Apparently the gradual build-up of the terrace through flood deposition and downwash had created a habitable river-edge terrace by the last stadial. At subsequent intervals, flooding interrupted occupation of the terrace, producing what appear to be successive layers of occupation debris and sterile deposits in the lower 50 cm of cultural deposits. After perhaps 15,00016,000 years ago, the final retreat of the river allowed downwash to bury the sandy silt of the last encroachment and later Epigravettian materials to be deposited closer to the current river bank and above the sandy silts of the former one. This reconstruction suggests also that Petriolo II, which now lies more than 50 m from the river, may have had the river at the base of its terrace when it was last occupied about 25,000 B.P. This research and the study of museum collections upport and strengthen the inference that interior southern Tuscany was largely or wholly depopulated during glacial extremes. As conditions moderated, human seasonal settlement gradually returned, increasing in proportion to the expansion of brushy habitat because of its attraction for game animals. This settlement appears to have been economically diverse rather than specialized in the hunting of large herd mammals. It appears to have been characterized by small group size and transhumant seasonal migration following browsing-mammal migration patterns. The possibility that regional exchange patterns developed during the Epigravettian, perhaps linked to the group-exogamous marriage patterns which should have characterized such a society, continues to suggest itself. These hypothesized patterns require considerable testing but form a nice contrast with the reconstructions recently offered by Barker (1981) and should provide valuable foci for research in coming years.
TL;DR: As a result of the rise and growth of the Asante state and the development of a complex administration of leisured officials based in Kumasi, the urbanized capital of Ghana, there developed, in the 19th century, a "peasantry" in the area surrounding Kumasi with economic, political, and cultural characteristics comparable with those of peasantries elsewhere as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: As a result of the rise and growth of the Asante state and the development of a complex administration of leisured officials based in Kumasi, the urbanized capital of the Asante empire, there developed, in the 19th century, a "peasantry" in the area surrounding Kumasi with economic, political, and cultural characteristics comparable with those of peasantries elsewhere.
TL;DR: A comparative analysis of the Central Mexican myths that deal with the first phase of the creation of the world can be found in this article, where the authors demonstrate that they all tell the same story.
Abstract: Reconstruction and comparative analysis of the Central Mexican myths that deal with the first phase of the creation of the world demonstrate that they all tell the same story. They attempt to explain how the world came to be what it is, the result of a mediation between two poles-the one eternal life in perfect harmony with the creators, the other life in darkness, alienation from the creators, and death. The passage from the first to the second is brought about by defilement-creation or illicit procreation-and has as its compensations the earth, separated from heaven by fire and/or by trees and bearers of heaven; Venus's first glimmer; cooking fire; cultivated plants; and the succession of generations. The mediation between these two poles is effected by the sacrifice which, by introducing the sun and the moon, causes day and night to alternate and restores life in the hereafter. Through systematic comparison it is possible to establish equivalences and to clarify the symbolic meaning of several elements...