|
|
| |
American
Anthropologist
Ascher, Robert. Experimental
Archeology. American Anthropologist, 1961. Vol.63(4):793-813. In his article,
Robert Ascher is attempting to explain the value of experimental archaeology
at a time when the use of this technique is at a low point. The
piece begins with a broad explanation of what experimental archaeology
is, its different forms (including the imitative experiment which is
the focus of the writing), and the types of data it can be used with. The
next section deals with the four step inferential process created by
Thompson (1958) and its lack of an experimentation technique. Here, Ascher makes the point that imitative
experimentation can be used to strengthen the inferential process. Using an example, he convincingly shows how
without the use of experimentation in the inferential process, incorrect
inferences can be drawn. With
the use of experimentation however, the experimenter can make necessary
modifications to, or find alternatives for the original hypothesis
if it does not pass the test. The author then
tells the stories of five cases in which imitative experimentation
was used. The first case study
involves South African cave paintings and the archaeologist who used
imitative experimentation to infer the way in which the paintings might
have been created. The second
case study is a report on the manufacture of objects commonly referred
to as “charm stones”. Using imitative experimentation, archaeologists
were able to infer the methods, tools, and time required to make these
objects. The third case study
related the story of notched scapula and ribs that until being found
most effective as plant fiber scrapers for basket making through imitative
experimentation were incorrectly assumed to be used as hide scrappers.
The fourth case study was about an archaeologist who doubted the common
explanation that a certain group of artifacts were used as arrow shaft
straighteners. The use of imitative
experimentation however, proved their effectiveness. The fifth case study explains how the hypothesis
that cooper smelting was discovered by accident when a piece of ore
fell into an open pit fire is incorrect. Using
imitative experimentation archaeologists discovered that an open pit
fire does not produce enough heat, while a pottery kiln can melt down
the ore. The last part of
the article covers the concerns that people might have over the uncertainties
that are inherent in the inferential process and imitative experiments. He
touches upon the logic involved in imitative experiments, and also
some of the details that one must consider when analyzing the data
from an imitative experiment. CLARITY: 5 PATRICK DAUGHERTY .gif){kind=small} De Vos, George
and Hiroshi Wagtsuma. Values
and Attitudes toward Role Behavior of Women in Two Japanese Villages. American
Anthropologist December, 1961
Vol.93(3):1204-1229 In modern Historical background
was first given showing the nature of attitudes toward women in early
Japanese culture and tracing the change throughout the rise of the
samurai class. Additionally,
historical background was given on the two different villages observed,
tracing their origins and their connection with this influential samurai
class. One village, Niike, was
a farming village which was heavily influenced by the samurai and Confucian
code of conduct. The other village,
Sakunoshima, was predominately centered on fishing, which was influenced
far less by the samurai. Four areas of differences
in the attitudes toward women in these two villages were revealed:
attitudes toward love marriage and arranged marriage, attitudes toward
sexual relations, attitudes toward the concept of self-assertion/violence
with women, and in the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship. In
these areas, the fishing village showed far less restrictions and inequality
regarding women than did the farming village. The
farming village viewed love marriages as tenuous- usually ending badly. Additionally, they valued submission and
a lack of violence of any sort in women. In
the fishing village, men and women shared a more equal role. While love marriages were not wholly supported,
there was a softer attitude toward them. Also violence in females was permissible
particularly as it showed in the woman a social conscientiousness. As for the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law
relationship, while there was little mention of it in the fishing village,
it was a very big issue in the farming community. The restrictive attitude toward women in
a family put both the mother and the new bride in a position of conflict. Overall, the patterns shown in the test matches
well with past ideals and origins of the two villages. It seems that this test is reliable. CLARITY RANKING: 4 JULIE SMITH Fallers, Lloyd. In this thorough
article, Lloyd Fallers identifies the ideological and cultural evolution
of Ugandan society in relation to the national pursuit of unity. To
support his argument, Fallers defines nationalism, relates the acculturation
of Fallers defines
nationalism as an ideological commitment to the pursuit of independence,
and the common interests of a people who compose a given community.
According to Fallers, the dilemma for emerging African nations, such
as Fallers asserts
that this paradox of profound change and traditional conservatism is
the dominant impediment to Ugandan nationalism. Even though Fallers believes
that Kigandian society, the traditional cultural community of Uganda,
has acculturated from top down and has spread due to this universal
appeal of nationalism. Fallers reveals that for the Kigandan people,
the Western ideological values of Christianity, politics, and economics
have become absorbed into their culture, and they have in a sense naturalized
these foreign elements into their traditional culture. However, Fallers
insists, ideologies only develop and become dominant when the groups
within a society are willing to promote them. Even though it has been
Buganda’s pursuit of modernity that has driven the county towards nationalism,
as a colonial community they have remained isolationists reluctant
to commit themselves to the quest for unification. It is this reluctance
that has led many Ugandan tribes to resent the Bugandan bureaucracy
and subsequently resist Bugandan leadership in the pursuit of national
unity. CLARITY: 5 AMY MICHELLE
DiIULLO Fischer, J. L. Art
Styles as Cultural Cognitive Maps. American
Anthropologist, 1961. Vol.
63: 79-93. In this article,
J. L. Fischer employs data from Herbert Barry III’s study of artistic
styles and G. P. Murdock’s social research published in his World Ethnographic
Sample in a search for connections between various elements of artwork
and the society from which they emerged. His assumption is that artists unconsciously
express the core beliefs or practices of their society through their
craft. The first half of
Fischer’s argument is based on four hypotheses. He suggests that egalitarian societies will
favor simpler designs with repetitive forms while hierarchical societies
will favor a complex design with a number of different elements representing
the stratification of individuals in society. Further,
he hypothesizes that egalitarian art will contain higher levels of
empty space because such societies are generally wary of strangers
and choose to isolate themselves from the outside world whereas hierarchical
societies see empty space as a threat and are more secure when they
can assimilate other groups. Third,
egalitarian societies will produce art with a tendency toward symmetry
while hierarchical societies should prefer asymmetrical designs that
emphasize individual characteristics and differences. Finally,
Fischer theorizes that art in hierarchical societies will more frequently
have some sort of border or enclosure protecting them from those of
other levels while the art of egalitarian societies will have no such
boundaries. The second half
of Fischer’s argument concerns the relationship of sexes in a society,
particularly the choice of residence and the form of marriage. In
this study, he once again considers the complexity of design, but also
incorporates the use of line—straight lines representing the male and
curved lines representing the female. When his initial conjecture that straight
lines will represent a high level of male influence in choice of residence
proved false, Fischer reevaluated his work. He
came to the conclusion that it would be natural for male dominated
societies to have an inclination toward curved lines as this would
reflect a security of identity and interest in members of the opposite
sex while men who are not secure in their position (non-patrilocal)
would be more concerned with their feelings of inadequacy and search
for same-sex role models. As an extension of this theory, Fischer explores
the possibility that polygynous societies display more curved lines
in their art while monogamous societies employ more straight lines. Fischer concludes
that artwork is “a sort of map of the society” that created it. CLARITY: 4.5 M. KELLY DAVIES Gastril, Raymond
D. The Determinants
of Human Behavior. American
Anthropologist Dec, 1961 Vol. 63
(2) : 1281-1291 In Raymond D. Gastil’s
article on Human Behavior the focus is on the employed idea of social
and cultural. These words get
intertwined together; therefore lack of clarity is a result in the
world of social sciences. It
is often accepted that these words are close synonyms, which could
be replaced simply by sociocultural (1281). Vagueness
is a result of this way of delivering these words. Accuracy may help the illuminating power
and the objective independence of the categories. This leads to the four variables that help
to determine human behavior. The
author attempts to construct the groups of primary and secondary subdivisions
that can be used or not used in social science, therefore showing the
connected meanings as well as the ability to change. The four variables,
which may determine a behavior, include: biological factors, biosocial
factors, cultural tendencies and situational factors. These four classes of factors may be conceived
of as both four different classes of variables involved in the causation
of any human action and four different levels of the analysis of action
(1286). In other words, these
groups can be considered what makes up ones actions but also the study
of one’s actions. Each point
can be resultant to the one previous to it. Biological
factors start human behaviors. They
might include drives and forces of a person. Needs
are due to age, gender, and sex. Biosocial
include the environment in which one is interrelating with others in
a particular setting. An example
is language. This changes as
a person does. The traditions
that humans are taught and the conditioning of particular learning
styles make up the cultural part of the four variables. Lastly,
the situational factors imply the wider concepts of time and space
that the mind is aware of. In conclusion, Gastil
attempted to view the tendencies found in projecting and discovering
the fundamental conceptual distinctions involved in the theory of culture,
an attempt to give social and cultural clearer meaning by establishing
four categories. With this in
mind, conceptual distinctions may be unsuitable, however distinctions
stay useful. CLARITY RANKING: 3 Lane, Lane
discusses in depth several different theories that have come from
previous studies. He spends time talking about fellow researchers
in other parts of He
states that the shift to a bilateral lineage system from a generational
one was not a result of European influences. He
thinks that this shift happened as a natural response to extensive
depopulation. The causes of this rapid depopulation could
be many things, yet how and why were not so important to Lane as
opposed to cause and effect to traditional kinship systems. Sudden
depopulation could have had immediate effects on a generational matrilineal
clan system. Large groups that had a dramatic loss in
membership would face instability and demographic shifts that could
cause instability within the clan. Naturally
a more flexible bilateral system makes the social structure of a
group a bit more malleable. For
example, in this more flexible system of kinship, a child would never
become orphaned because a social order of responsibility for that
child would already be in place. A
child may have numerous members within a clan who are already responsible
for that child. So
his basic propositions were that these “bilateral kinship systems
found in CLARITY
RATING: 2 TIMOTHY
BORNTRAGER Matson, G. Albin
and Jane Swanson. Distribution of Hereditary Blood Antigens
among American Indians in Matson and Swanson
have researched the various hereditary blood antigens in American Indians
from South and Middle American. The Indian groups studied were all from Mayan
descent. Previously antigens
ABO, M-N, P and Rh-Hr systems have been studied, so Matson and Swanson
focused on more recently discovered hereditary blood factors. Matson and Swanson deliver a very strong
scientific research paper. To complete this
primary study (results from a larger study were to be published at
a later date) blood specimens were taken from 1089 Mayan Indians and
94 specimens were from the Lacandon Indians who reside in the This article is
a strong scientific research paper, which can make it difficult to
read if you are not familiar with the terminology used. Each specific antigen studied has the data
found explained and broken down according to the various groups with
specific details. The data is
explained very thoroughly, but what each antigen specifically does
in the body is not explained. This
makes the paper very dry and hard to read because it is caught up in
statistics. The groups studied are very broad and a thoroughly
representative of the groups studied, so the research is very comprehensive
in the study of blood antigens in these related groups. Matson and Swanson
conclude that the differences found in the blood antigens between the
Lacandon and the other Mayan descendants can be explained by the Lacandon’s
small gene pool. The Lacandon
live in very small communities far from people outside of their race. This
concludes that they have very few new genetic traits introduced to
their communities. CLARITY RANKING:
3 Mead, Margaret. Anthropology Among the Sciences. American
Anthropologist June 1961 Vol. 63(3): 475-482. This article was
originally given as the Presidential address by Margaret Mead at the
1960 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Mead begins her
speech by talking about how the field of anthropology will be more
useful in the country because anthropologists are better apt to contribute
to the growth of knowledge. She
strongly believes that there are not enough anthropologists out there
to do all the work that needs to be done. Although the number of anthropologists in
the world had tripled by 1960, the methods that were being used were
growing at a higher rate. Mead believes that
anthropology should be treated as a field science. She feels this way because anthropologists
actually do go out into the field and listen to people and excavate
sites. She argues that sociologists
and psychologists deal with contrived information while anthropologists
go out and listen and write things down and accept the way things are
because of history, not because of what people have found out in a
laboratory. While talking about
how the sciences do not want crossing over, she gives the example of
anthropology, sociology, and psychology. All three of these sciences share much of
the same material but the people involved consider them to be parallel
and not able to be related. She
then gives five areas where cross-disciplinary relationships have failed:
models, content, instrumentation, the make of other systems without
the fullest exploration of what the system is, and interest in the
field of evolution. She ends her speech
by stating that there is a responsibility that anthropology cannot
avoid. Anthropologists’ ethical
responsibilities are widening and they must understand the direction
in which human race and human sciences are moving in order to contribute. As
long as man survives, it is an anthropologists’ job to tell their story. CLARITY RANKING:
3 EMILY SCHRAMM Sahlins, Marshall
D. The Segmentary
Lineage: An Organization of
Predatory Expansion. American
Anthropologist April, 1961 Vol.63(2):322-344. Marshall D. Sahlins’ article
attempts to distinguish segmentary lineage from other “segmentary” societies
using an evolutionary perspective as opposed to a structural analysis. The
author defines a true segmentary lineage as a social means of competition
and intrusion into an area that is already occupied by other peoples. According to Sahlins, segmentary lineage
only occurs in tribes, which are distinguished from smaller bands and
larger chiefdoms. A tribe is
a loose association of multifamily kin groups. The
smallest multifamily group that resides together for all or most of
the year and which collectively uses a certain area’s resources is
called a primary tribal segment. These
primary segments are the basis for the segmentary lineage and are characterized
as being politically and economically autonomous with a tendency toward
disunity. The primary segments
do not depend on each other at all but they do come together to face
external competition. The author uses
the Tiv and Nuer tribes of Sahlins introduces
predatory expansion as a possible mechanism for the formation of a
segmentary lineage organization. By predatory expansion, the author means
that one tribe is encroaching upon land already occupied by another
tribe. This form of expansion
is what makes segmentary lineages necessary and possible. Using the Tiv and the Nuer as examples, the
author attempts to prove this by saying that the first tribe to expand
into an area is unlikely to have segmentary lineage organization because
it has no competition for resources and therefore complementary opposition
is not selected for. The second
tribe to expand over an area has to deal with the people who are already
there and so it is helpful for the segments to unite against them. In this case, complementary opposition is
selected for and this second tribe is likely to be a segmentary lineage. The Tiv and Nuer are both tribes who came
second to the land and found complementary opposition, the uniting
of the primary segments, to be an important mechanism for pushing back
their enemies. The author concludes
by restating the fact that segmentary lineages are only found at the
tribal level, but that it is not found in all tribes. Segmentary lineage organization is usually
prevalent in tribes that are expanding into occupied lands. When primary segments are opposing some external
enemy, they unite to defeat them but then quickly break back down into
primary segments once the conflict is over. CLARITY: 3 DeSHAWN JONES Smith, Robert
J. The Japanese Rural Community: Norms, Sanctions,
and Ostracism. American
Anthropologist June 1961 Vol.
63:522-533 Smith draws his
conclusions based on case studies. He discusses how the hamlet (baraku),
a sub-unit of the Japanese village or town shows the persistence of
their community and stability. The idea of stability and community
is especially interesting considering Smith is studying post-WWII Members of the baraku are
expected to cooperate. This is essential for the community and also
to avoid any act “which would cause the hamlet to ‘lose face’” (523).
Presenting a positive image to the outside world is deemed very important.
Though most members are happy to live in harmony with the community,
the baraku must ensure this, which is does
by using sanctions and ostracism. The most powerful
and common sanction is gossip. Because most baraku are small communities, word travels
quickly. For example, “If the daughter of a household is thought too
free with her affections, word will get back to her family very quickly” (524)
and she will be punished. The ultimate sanction
is ostracism, mura-hachibu.
The two most common causes of ostracism are “exposing the community
to a public loss of face and disturbing the peace and harmony of the
hamlet” (527). As opposed to past generations, ostracism now does not
mean the people involved are forced to leave the community. However,
they are completely cut off from the community. The offending household
will receive no agricultural aid, no one will communicate with them,
and marriage becomes incredibly difficult. A mura-hachibu is
often readmitted to the community but this is only after a considerable
amount of time and after they have written an admission of wrong-doing
and an apology and a request for readmission into the community. The
community usually wishes to readmit the mura-hachibu, because
it is an embarrassment to have people who do not follow the norms of
the community. Keeping a sense
of community is difficult in an ever-changing world. The members of baraku across CLARITY RANKING: 4 LYNN SHAULL
|
|
.jpg){kind=small}
