Journal of Anthropological Research 

About: Journal of Anthropological Research is an academic journal published by University of Chicago Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Download & Computer science. It has an ISSN identifier of 0091-7710. Over the lifetime, 1707 publications have been published receiving 33357 citations. The journal is also known as: New Mexico Anthropologist.

An Information Flow Model for Conflict and Fission in Small Groups

Abstract: Data from a voluntary association are used to construct a new formal model for a traditional anthropological problem, fission in small groups. The process leading to fission is viewed as an unequal flow of sentiments and information across the ties in a social network. This flow is unequal because it is uniquely constrained by the contextual range and sensitivity of each relationship in the network. The subsequent differential sharing of sentiments leads to the formation of subgroups with more internal stability than the group as a whole, and results in fission. The Ford-Fulkerson labeling algorithm allows an accurate prediction of membership in the subgroups and of the locus of the fission to be made from measurements of the potential for information flow across each edge in the network. Methods for measurement of potential information flow are discussed, and it is shown that all appropriate techniques will generate the same predictions.

Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies

Abstract: This paper draws upon ethnographic experiences among the Nunamiut Eskimo for insights into the effects of technological organization on interassemblage variability Varying situationally conditioned strategies of raw material procurement, tool design and manufacture, and disposal are described as clues to site function or "placement" in a subsistence-settlement system

Father absence and reproductive strategy: an evolutionary perspective'

Abstract: Explanations offered by social scientists for the effects of father absence on children are reviewed; certain aspects of these interpretations are found wanting. Another explanation using theory from evolutionary biology is suggested: children show evolved, sensitive-period learning in early childhood which is linked to mother's pair-bond status or to mother's attitude toward males. As a result of children's perceptions a developmental track is established, which influences expression of reproductive strategy in adulthood. Male children born into matrifocal households exhibit at adolescence a complex of aggression, competition, low male parental investment, and derogation of females and feminity, while females show early expression of sexual interest and assumption of sexual activity, negative attitudes toward males, and poor ability to establish long-term relationships with one male. Male children reared in father-present or nuclear households show less interest in competitive dominance with other males and more interest in manipulation of nonhuman aspects of the environment, while females show delayed sexual interest and activity and a mating strategy directed at locating a male who will invest in her and her offspring.

From Participant Observation to the Observation of Participation: The Emergence of Narrative Ethnography

Abstract: Beginning in the 1970s there has been a shift in cultural anthropological methodology from participant observation toward the observation of participation. During participant observation ethnographers attempt to be both emotionally engaged participants and coolly dispassionate observers of the lives of others. In the observation of participation, ethnographers both experience and observe their own and others' coparticipation within the ethnographic encounter. The shift from the one methodology to the other entails a representational transformation in which, instead of a choice between writing an ethnographic memoir centering on the Self or a standard monograph centering on the Other, both the Self and Other are presented together within a single narrative ethnography, focused on the character and process of the ethnographic dialogue.

Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies

Abstract: The nature of hunter-gatherer mobility strategies--the way in which hunter-gatherers move about a landscape over the course of a year--is discussed, using ethnographic data. Several mobility variables that measure residential and logistical mobility are defined; several environmental variables which measure resource accessibility and resource monitoring costs are also defined. Ethnographic data are used to demonstrate patterning between the nature of mobility strategies and the resource structure of an environment. The data show that the extent to which a group of hunter-gatherers emphasizes residential or logistical mobility is closely related to the structure of resources in their environment.