Showing papers on "Surprise published in 1970"

Ethnographic Salvage and the Shaping of Anthropology

Abstract: systems of explanation that provide us with a scientific view of the various universes that we occupy and seek to understand. The notion, however, that data collection is itself value free, that facts are facts, is old-fashioned and naive; it oversimplifies the understanding of the scientific process and invests the extensive bodies of "fact" with a false sense of truth. It should not surprise those engaged in the search for understanding and knowledge that the kinds of data we seek-and therefore find-are conditioned by the particular problems we define and, in a more general way, by our view of the universe. Similarly, the kinds of data we collect and the particular viewpoint each of us selects skew the resulting theoretical systems. Science in general, or any scientific system in particular, is culture-based in that it reflects the particular values, the particular epistemological view, that a society accepts, sanctions, and uses as a basis for the behavior of its members. A clear example of this occurs in the history of human biology. The science of human biology-and its derivative, physical anthropology-is a product of medical, and more particularly surgical, interests. These inevitably emphasized the pathological in contrast to the normal. In fact, it is difficult to grasp the concept of normality within a population except in terms of the pathological whose very existence demands its recognition. Thus the valuable contributions of John Hunter during the eighteenth century derived from his collections and systematization of the abnormal in man, and it was this emphasis on the abnormal, the pathological, that channeled the discussions as it provided the data for the interpretations of racial differences, their origins, and their meanings throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries. Only with the emergence of the concept of population and its linkage to genetics does a pathological view of human variability and change for the meaning of races lose its appeal and importance. There is then a complex interplay of data and theory in any science that affects both the kinds of data collected and the theory that results. Further, the exact nature of this interplay is situationally determined, that is, it is a function of the particular intellectual milieu that itself is a product of a time-centered sociocultural system. Thus, science, whatever the phenomena with which it deals, is a part of culture, and each science is part of a culture. Man's self-awareness accounts in only a very general way for his anthropological concerns. If one adds the awareness of differences occasioned by the group contacts that human mobility ensures, it is not difficult to recognize that the existence and consequent description of human differences-any of which could have severe social consequences-are continuing problems in the creation and maintenance of "thought systems" and/or culturally defined environments. Such a process was particularly noteworthy in the Western intellectual tradition not only because of the increased awareness of human differences that, at various times, more intense mobility and migration produced, but also because of the ability, through writing, to record such differences, a record that in its accumulation provided data that demanded some form of classification and systematization, which, in turn, raised the common problems of the classificatory level of modern science. Both the accumulation and use of the data concerning human differences led within the Accepted for publication 22 December 1969.

Black Youth and Motivation

Abstract: in America spawned a new and vibrant generation of youg black people. The degree of their commitment and determination came as a surprise for most white Americans, who, if they thought of blacks to any extent, considered them to be a rather docile, acquiescent people. As the events of the early 60's moved on with inexorable force, another, still younger generation of blacks stood on the periphery watching and waiting their turn. Their intense coming-of-age has brought still more surprise and puzzlement not only to white Americans, but to some Negroes. So busy have many been in "handling" or "coping with" the complex behavior of these young blacks, that relatively little has been done in terms of examining the basis for this behavior. This paper represents an attempt

CLASSROOM DISCUSSION OF RACIAL IDENTITY or HOW CAN WE MAKE IT WITHOUT “ACTING WHITE”?

Abstract: An interracial group of high school students met weekly to discuss personal responsibility toward the problems of civil rights and racial equality. The goals and intentions expressed by the black students came as a distinct surprise to the white. One conclusion to be drawn is that the public schools must assume a vital role in educating youth about values and moral issues.

Anarchists in Britain Today

Abstract: In 1965 it was possible for the author of an article on the anarchists in Britain to begin by observing that anarchists no longer figured in the popular consciousness and that the existence of anarchists could occasion as much polite surprise as the continued existence of the Independent Labour Party.1 This present article and its inclusion in a special issue on Anarchism is perhaps in part a proof that this situation is no longer true, and that anarchism has recently attracted sufficient attention to justify a new and closer look at anarchists in Britain today. It would hardly be rash to argue that whatever else may be true of the Left in Britain in 1970, the anarchists’ presence deserves to provoke much less polite surprise than it may have done five years ago.

The psychological adjustment of normal people during a year's tour in Vietnam.

Abstract: Much of what has been said is not new, or at least does not come as a surprise to many readers. Nevertheless, there has been a rather neglected need to view each person's adaptation to powerful affectual issues of separation and abandonment, fears of death and disfigurement, and the experience of frustration in the continuum of the person's earlier adaptive experiences. We are trying to see the ways people in Vietnam continually have to buttress themselves against the waves of strong internal reactions to external stresses which have presented themselves to us from early on in life.

Intergovernmental plans and achievements: oecd and other international bodies

Abstract: The title that was printed in the programme—‘OECD and Unesco’—which took me a little by surprise, is at the same time too broad and too constricting. Too broad, because one can say a great deal about intergovernmental planning and co‐operation without ever mentioning an international organization. Too broad also, perhaps, because I have been involved directly only in the OECD programmes and so can only talk about OECD at first hand. Too constricting, because if one introduces international organizations at all there is no justification for stopping at those two: there are a great many inter‐ and non‐governmental bodies interested in information and governments work with all of them.

Generative Phonology and the Teaching of Spelling.

Abstract: T O educators familiar with claims that English spelling is so irregular that it can only be mastered by list memorization or, on the other hand, that it is "eighty-five per cent phonetic," the assertion by Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle in The Sound Pattern of English (Harper, 1968) that our spelling system is nearly optimal must come as something of a surprise. It may be worthwhile to consider what evidence forms the ba-

Education and Modernism in Bornu

Abstract: WE HAVE COME to expect that formal education will be called upon to contribute to the betterment of society. Hunter wrote in regard to education in East Africa that "The task is not to reproduce an old African society but to create, in a generation, a new one-new in language, custom, skills, political and social relations; new in attitudes and responsibilities and beliefs.2 It is no surprise to learn, therefore, that some statesman or some planner has predicated the successful modernization of his society upon certain inputs from the nation's schools. Such postulations often connect successful modernization with certain value orientations, assuming furthermore that these orientations can be acquired in school. We set out to investigate the above assumption in a study conducted in 1965-66 in the former Bornu Province of Nigeria's Northern Region.

Politics, Status & the Organization of Ethnic Minority Group Interests: The Case of the New York Protestants

Abstract: This is an unusual article. For one thing, it attempts to assess the efficacy of religious organizations' attempts to influence the appointment of office-holders, much as Joyce Gelb did for Negroes in the last issue of POLITY. Even more unusual is the treatment of WASPS as a minority; for while we know that they are in fact a minority in various parts of the United States, few scholars have paid attention to their reaction to minority status. Perhaps it should not surprise us that the reaction is not much different from the actions of other minorities; but Professor Pratt provides interesting documentation.

The United Nations as a Political Institution: A Personal Retrospect

Abstract: When I accepted the invitation of the Oxford University Press in 1957 to write a study of the United Nations it was against a distinctive background of what might be called United NationsUnited Kingdom relationships. Suez had just come and gone leaving in its wake a national sense of resentment, of surprise and distress that Britain, after so many years on the bench, should now have found itself in the dock. What sort of inter-

Freedom of Speech and Its Relationship to Dissent.

Abstract: Since time immemorial, teachers have com plained about student apathy, lack of motiva tion, lack of interest in serious social problems. At last students are "turned on." But their manner of expressing themselves turns off people in authority.If we are to save and improve what we have of the democratic process and improve society, says Mr. Haiman, we must find a way to capitalize on the new motivation of the young. He lists a number of essential preconditions, some of which may surprise you.

John A. Howard

Abstract: JOHN A. HOWARD, professor of marketing at Columbia University, is a truly complex and multi-disciplined member of the marketing profession. His contributions to the practice of marketing and the teaching of marketing are manifold. This sketch, however, is limited to John Howard the scholar, the role in which he has made such important contributions to the practice and teaching of so many others. For those who know him well and are familiar with the precision of his mind-as exhibited both in what he has written and in how he expresses himself-it might come as a surprise to learn that Jack Howard was reared on a midwestern farm, away from the benefits of an urban environment and the better educational programs attendant on such an environment. After attending Blackburn College for two years, he entered the University of Illinois where he came under the