American Anthropologist 1944
Beals, Ralph L. and Carrasco, Pedro. Games of the Mountain Tarascans. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol.46: 516-522.
In this article Beals and Carrasco are focusing on parallels that were being discovered between North and South America. They concentrate their attentions on several games that were played amongst the Tarascans that held a similarity with hockey. The article continues by listing and describing six different games that were at one point in time played by the Tarascans. They focus their attention on the rules of the games, when they were played and who was involved. It essentially provides a descriptive account of each of these games.
Beals and Carrasco attribute the majority of the similarities in the structure of the games and the particular dates on which they occur as a result of European contact. Thus there is a tendency to favor a diffusionist view of how and why these similarities occur. The information in the article, including the descriptions of the games, was gathered primarily by Carrasco under the direction of Beals and was centered on one town. Thus there was a limit to the amount of information gathered. Although there are mentions of associates who have heard of or seen proof of similar games in other regions, there is no material evidence.
There are no real attempts by either of the authors to show the correlations between North and South America, other than the explicit mention of such in the introduction. Rather this article provides the reader with an illustrative account of several games that were played amongst the Tarascans. There is also no mention of how long these have been in place, and there is only circumstantial evidence that points to the possibility that they were influenced by European contact.
CLARITY: 4
DIANA R. FERREE California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark W. Allen)
Benet-Tygel, Sula. The Paleolithic Period in Poland. American Anthropologist. 1944. Vol. 46: 292-316.
Sula Benet-Tygel’s article examines how the Paleolithic material in Poland has been overlooked in the study of European Paleolithic material. It is known that the east plays a role in the dynamics of the west, however the material from the west is not completely understood. She uses this article to explain all the material found from different sites in Poland to show its impact on the Paleolithic Period in Europe.
Benet-Tygel’s sources for her article were, all the published material from Poland up to date and also her own fieldwork in Poland from the years 1931 to 1935. There are over one hundred caves in Poland and these are where most of the material for Polish Paleolithic research is from.
The problem with material found from Poland and how it is different from western European material is that Poland has a large number of distinct local cultures. However, most of the material found was put into catergories of Western Europe and therefore their distinct features have been hidden. Benet-Tygel uses this article to reevaluate all the material and explain each ones distinct characteristics. She went on to explain all the research done in Poland, the glaciations and geological features, and compared outside lithic cultures to those found in Poland.
The main names used for Polish Paleolithic research are, Leon Kozlowski, Ludwik Sawicki, Stanislaw Krukowski, and Albin Jura. Besides Krukowski, they all explained their material from the western point of view. Their little knowledge of Russian lithics shows their western point of view. It is believed that Polish Aurignacian came from the west, however when viewing the material it is clear it comes from the east. The main outside lithic cultures used for comparison are, Russia, France, and Hungary.
This article was written in 1944 and not much information was available or even published on Paleolithic material. Due to lack of knowledge and published research on Paleolithic material, the eastern influence was overlooked. Benet-Tygel used this article to explain Poland’s significance and let the information that was known about Poland to get out to the public to give Poland the recognition it deserved.
This article will be of interest to those who are interested in European lithics from the Paleolithic Period. It is a material-rich filled article summarizing the lithic distribution on Poland.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JOANNA M. ROTCHFORD University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Benet-Tygel, Sula. The Magdalenian Culture in Poland. American Anthropologist 1944. Vol. 46:479-499.
Investigating cultural remains in Poland, the author asserts that the Magdalenian culture in this area is a development of the late Aurignacian culture, and was essentially uninfluenced by the true Solutrean. The author gives detailed descriptions of the artifacts found in Poland that led to this conclusion, some of which will be outlined here.
Stone and bone implements, flora and fauna, and climactic changes of various stages of the development in Poland are discussed. Beginning with the Magdalenian culture in Poland, the author details the findings in various sites. This includes the Koziarnia cave site, the Puchacz cave site, and the most abundant, the Maszycka cave site. The author continues with a discussion on the Swiderian culture, a sand dune culture that developed in this area. The Swindarian time period is broken down into three stages. These are labeled the early, developed, and late Swiderian periods. Detailed descriptions of findings are given, although not as abundant as the cave sites. Various sites and findings are discussed which are to numerous to be listed here. The author continues the article with a brief discussion on the age and distribution of the Swiderian culture in Poland. The author concludes with a sum up of the different periods and proposes an explanation for the development in Poland.
Although this article is a rather dry read for those with greater interest in other cultural areas, the details and descriptions given would most likely prove extremely useful to those who are researching this time and area. While a few conclusions are drawn, this article is largely a descriptive account of the findings.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
BRIAN ARMENTA California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Benet-Tygel, Sula. The Magdalenian Culture in Poland. American Anthropologist. October – December, 1944 Vol.46(4):479-499.
This article provides a review of previous archaeological studies of Stone Age Magdalenian culture in pre-war Poland, a territorial expanse that included large tracts of present-day Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. Presented in straightforward language, the article also includes eight full pages of illustrations of Stone Age implements. Magdalenian culture, essentially a development of the Late Aurignacian, continued to develop through Solutrean times. Until the retreat of the glaciers and the formation of the Vistula River valley at the end of the last ice age, evidence of this period in Poland is confined to the southwestern region of the country. The Vistula River valley served as a major migration route and was central to the development of a distinctive cultural florescence that has been called the Swiderian, from the type-site Swidry Wielkie, near Warsaw. The Swiderian is recognized as a distinctive culture that developed on the sand dunes left behind by the retreating glaciers. Because of its situation in sand dunes, only flints have survived as evidence to the present and have led to a great deal of debate over the exact age of the Swiderian cultures. Yet, it is clear that elements of the Swiderian are already present in the Late Aurignacian and extend well into the Magdalenian period – evidence that points to a lengthy development with local differentiation. The author divides Swiderian culture into three distinct periods: (1) Early Swiderian; (2) Developed Swiderian; (3) Late Swiderian. Early Swiderian is characterized by the crude beginnings of the Swiderian blade and is primarily found in the area of Nowy Mlyn in the Holy Cross Mountains region. The Developed Swiderian appeared with the northward migrations and is characterized by several types of tanged blades typified by the Melnik site in Podlasie. The Late Swiderian is characterized by the appearance of a typical blade with a blunted back found at the Czerwony Borek and Stankiewicze sites. The Late Swiderian closes the Upper Paleolithic Period in Poland. Different researchers have concluded that the autochthonous Polish Swiderian culture presents a dividing line between two separate European cultural provinces. These provinces are the Northwest European, embracing Belgium, Holland, northwest Germany, Denmark and Norway and the Middle East European, embracing Silesia, Brandenburgia, Poland, Lithuania, White Russia, Central Russia, Ukraine and the Crimea. The latter is centered on the Nowy Mlyn site in Poland.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
EIAL DUJOVNY University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Bennett, John W. The Development of Ethnological Theory as Illustrated by Studies of the Plains Sun Dance. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 162-181.
John Bennett opens the article discussing the work of Boas and his followers; in particular, Bennett conveys the trends of Boas’ writing, his ideas, and his areas of focus, as well as what his students chose to take away from his teaching. For example, Bennett notes that Boas clearly concentrated on empiricism and believed in the use of great detail when gathering data. Bennett comments that Boasian followers took away some aspect of his Anthropological philosophies and applied it to their studies of cultures; the cultures studied during this time, Bennett remarks, were those of the American Indians. In his article, Bennett chooses to highlight the past and, at the time he wrote the article, present studies of the Plains Sun Dance.
Bennett comments on the input of certain anthropologists into the Plains study. First, he mentions at length the contribution of Spier. Bennett calls Spier’s analysis broad and thorough, but somewhat masking of important components. Bennett states that Spier took a historical and functional approach to his analysis. Next, Bennett criticizes two authors, Wissler and Dixon, for taking Spier’s general and extensive examination of the Sun Dance and attempting to use it as evidence for their own exclusive ideas. Bennett then presents another contributor to the study of the Sun Dance, Kroeber; Kroeber’s work, according to Bennett, is another similar functional analysis that both supports and modifies Spier’s work. Finally, Bennett mentions Opler and Hoebel’s study of the Ute Sun Dance, which they consider to be an “instructive symbol of the vitality of primitive culture fighting for existence in the midst of modern civilization.” Opler’s detailed and refined study compliment and add to Spier’s study, and it shows the uniqueness of the Ute’s dance in contrast to other dances.
Lastly, Bennett discusses the different problems that anthropologists encountered in their research, from difficulties in studying the dances to somewhat contradictory findings. Regardless of the problems, Bennett seems to praise Spier’s study for being a good historical account of the Sun Dance and for following the Boas custom of ethnological theory. Bennett’s account is also very thorough itself; he portrays both positive and negative aspects of the studies and is seemingly unbiased in his presentation of the material.
CLARITY: 4
JUSTINE HAIR University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Bennet, John W. The Development of Ethnological Theory as Illustrated By the Studies of the Plains Sun Dance. American Anthropologist 1944 vol. 46: 162-181
This piece written by John W. Bennet attempts to trace the developments of ethnological theory and method through time. He chooses the Plains Sun Dance as his base from which he collects his data. Apparently, there had been several attempts at recording and studying the ceremony. Data on the Sun Dance had been collected since 1883. Bennet attempted to retrace the methodology used by each researcher at a particular point in time.
Bennet focused on L. Spier’s work most of all. This work seemed to confirm a relatively smooth movement of theoretical approaches from the teachings of Boas to the reworking of the data by Kroeber and Driver. Bennet identifies Boas as creating the style that innovated “empirical techniques and the systematic study of cultural microcosms,” which led to the development of the “Historical School.” However, within the paper there is evidence of multiple theoretical approaches. It would seem that ideas of evolution were at odds with ideas of diffusion and of psychic unity.
Bennet concludes that functional analyses must be reinforced by history and that techniques must compliment one another. These statements express a struggle to align, or fuse different and separate approaches to acquire the best results – an extremely optimistic view, for the time, because historical particularism clearly became the status quo, for a while. The different schools were at great odds and this article seems to illustrate the dynamics between the arguments of the time. Bennet admits that Boas’s teachings led to an eclectic diffusion of ideas but, the fundamental problems in all approaches remained. The article is loaded with ethnographic data. At times, this data becomes overwhelming to deal with in regards to tracing changes in methodology. For this reason, the article isn’t always so clear.
CLARITY RATING: 2
TAMER SARIELDIN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Bennett, John. The Interaction of Culture and Environment in the Smaller Societies.American Anthropologist. 1944. Vol. 46: 461-478.
While writing to bring about the re-alignment of ecology and sociology, Bennett attempts to repair the damage done to the study of cultural-environmental relationships by the historical school of ethnology during the 1920’s. In this article, Bennett compares cultures from the past and the present to show how certain cultural traits can be favorable or not favorable in particular temperate or hospitable environments. Moreover, he is searching for a set of universal hypotheses that would enable others to foresee whether or not a particular society has the capability to properly adapt to it’s full potential in any given environment.
In The Interaction of Culture and Environment in the Smaller Societies, Bennett uses a method of “constructive typology.” The geographical region of the southern tip of Illinois is his main environmental example for this argument. This region contains two physiological divisions: a highland (the Hills) and a bottomland (the Bottoms). The Hills is an area with scarce natural resources, and the Bottoms is an area with dense forest, abundant resources, and fertile soil. Then, taking three historical American Indian cultures – the Kincaid, Lewis, and Baumer societies – and three modern day American cultures, Bennett shows how they adapt to the Hills or Bottoms. He then analyzes the cultural background of each society by looking into the historical traditions of each culture. This allows him to find answers as to why each society does or does not use their surrounding environment to its fullest potential.
Towards the end of his article, Bennett comes to several conclusions. Mainly, he states that both culture and environment are responsible for determining cultural variability. Another result of his analysis is that a culture can fail to completely exploit their environment, yet be able to achieve a somewhat successful settlement. In short, he believes that when one is interested in the interaction of culture and environment from an ecological perspective, it is necessary to view the two sets of phenomena on the same level of thought.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MICHAEL FISCHER The University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Bennett, John W. The Interaction of Culture and Environment In the Smaller SocietiesAmerican Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:461-478.
In this article, John W. Bennett addresses the long-standing debate of culture versus environment. For many, the question seems to have been answered by Kroeber’s extensive study of a great many aboriginal cultures of North America. Kroeber’s analysis clearly demonstrates the correlation between culture and the environment when the environment is extreme, as in western United States and in far northern regions. This correlation is much less obvious in temperate, hospitable regions. This has led to the relationship between culture and the environment in hospitable regions being neglected. Bennett takes on this issue by searching for the nature of interaction between culture and environment. In pursuing this issue, the processual viewpoint causes him to presume that there would be no qualitative differences in the problems faced by any given culture, be they in hospitable or inhospitable regions. He delineates the two key aspects of the problem as, “(1)The differences in cultural adjustments to difficult and hospitable environments [and] (2)The basic processual similarities in the interaction of culture and environment, in any environment.” He then definitively states his objective in this article is to clarify a few of the critical factors of these two problems.
Bennett begins his methodological approach by laying out three alternative answers: “(1)Environment has had no effect upon culture, in which case the cultural variability must be accounted for on the basis of culture alone. (2)Environment had had an effect upon culture, but in relatively subtle and devious ways. (3)Both culture and environment have shared responsibility in determining cultural variability, and the processes of interaction have been complex.”
Bennett then describes in detail the region (the tip of southern Illinois), the cultures (Kincaid, Lewis, Baumer, and contemporary) and the environments occupied by each. The data is from a combination of previous research and his own fieldwork. The analysis of the data leads smoothly to the conclusion that culture and the environment work together.
CLARITY RANKING:4
HUNTER N. KELLEY California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Bidney, David. On the Concept of Culture and Some Cultural Fallacies. American Anthropologist 1944 Volume 46 (2): 30-44
In this article, Bidney explains culture and its properties. Ideas and patterns are what make culture. Materials and artifacts are products of culture, not culture itself. Gathering data and artifacts without studying the culture of theorizing does not contribute to any knowledge of the culture because artifacts are not defining cultural elements. Also, without theory, any information collected about ideas and patterns of a society are meaningless because data without theory does not progress knowledge. If cultural change is not studied, the culture is not being studied completely.
Bidney seeks to define culture and makes his point by comparing various anthropological theories. He compares realists (Tylor, Boas, Wissler, Benedict, and Mead), who believed that culture was based on material artifacts and ideas, with idealists (Marett, Redfield, Osgood, and Krober), who believed that culture was a superorganic organism which was a separate entity from man and was inactively transferred through generations. Bidney wants to find a way to reconcile these different theses.
Culture is an attained way of life. Humans are not born with the patterns in which they live. Bidney believes, contrary to Warden, that while invention and social habitation are essential to culture, communication is not. Culture is historic because it changes; it cannot be studied accurately without studying change. Culture is humanity’s way of adapting to our surrounding, thus there is a connection between rationality and culture. Theory is important because it allows anthropologists to observe the historical change of culture.
Bidney points out the flaws in various cultural theories. A positivistic fallacy results when an anthropologist believes that ideas are facts. This means that they would assume that if a culture believes something then they will live and act on that belief, but that occasionally is no the case. A normative fallacy emphasizes that even though a few members in a society hold a belief; their beliefs are not necessarily representative of the entire society. Naturalistic fallacy is when unfair assumptions are made about a society based on the members’ race. Culturalistic fallacy results when culture is believed to be a separate entity from man. Bidney believes that humans’ lives are not completely determined by cultural patterns in society (we are not “cultural robots”) and some anthropologists often ignore individual action.
CLARITY RANKING:5
BROOKE BURNS California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Bonafante, G. and Thomas A. Sebeok. Linguistics and the Age and Area Hypothesis. American Anthropologist. 1944 Vol. 46:382-386.
In Linguistics and the Age and Area Hypothesis G. Bonafante and Thomas A. Sebeok discount Margaret T. Hodgen’s argument that the age and area hypothesis is not applicable to the history of languages world-wide. The authors set out to prove that the hypothesis is validated for most languages with very few exceptions. They claim that Hodgen did not have proper knowledge of the historical origins of linguistics or of linguistic geography to make this assumption.
Through linguistic geography, the study of a language’s development in a given area, Bonafante and Sebeok are concerned with showing that languages do evolve at different rates in relation to the location of the regions where the language is spoken. They also want to open a road for ethnologists and social anthropologists to use the age and area method because linguistics is a cultural trait that diffuses and evolves like all other culture traits. Under this assumption, the authors retrace the step that linguistics has taken throughout history.
In order to prove their theory, the authors utilize the comparative method, specifically targeting the romance languages’ descent from Latin. They show in each provision of the age and area hypothesis that the branches of the Indo-European languages evolve more slowly is more isolated areas and retain older features than those branches in central regions. They construct tables to show the comparison of the languages in four major regions –Iberia, Gaul, Italy, and Dacia- where the romance languages are spoken. The tables show that the more remote territories have linguistic features that more closely resemble Latin. When examining the exceptions to the rule, Bonafante and Sebeok assert that, if studied diachronically, it usually can be proven that the language or dialect has only evolved away from Latin and then back closer to it. They give specific example using Italian and Spanish.
In close the authors claim that this hypothesis can be applied without fail to other geographical regions. They admit that there will be exceptions but that mostly a majority will fit the norms. They feel that “the age and area hypothesis is a valuable tool of the social scientist which can be trusted” and used in all fields.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
ELLA BROOKE BULMER University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Bonfante, G. and Thomas A. Sebeok. Linguistics and the Age and Area Hypothesis.American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 382-386
Bonfante and Sebeok wrote this article in response to Margaret T. Hogden’s article, Geographic Diffusion as a Criterion of Age, which states that there is no evidence that the age and area hypothesis is valid and that an exhaustive inquiry is necessary before it is accepted or rejected. Bonfante and Sebeok are making the argument that this exhaustive inquiry has been taking place for a while. Furthermore, an entire branch of linguistics has successfully used the age and area hypothesis for over fifty years. They argue that the elements of a language are cultural traits and therefore it is logical to assume that this may apply to other cultural traits as well. They feel that this could be of use to social anthropologists and ethnologists, to explain the diffusion of particular cultural traits, chronologically and geographically.
Bonfante and Sebeok trace the principles of the age and area hypothesis to Matteo Bartoli. They demonstrate the validity of these principles with the Romance languages, because of the wealth of historical documentary evidence to verify the effectiveness of the technique. They have included illustrations to support each of the four principles. The first principle is that isolated areas retain older linguistic features than other areas. Second, lateral areas retain older linguistic features than central areas, in which change happens more quickly because of higher levels of interaction. Third, the older features are spread over the larger area, unless it is in an isolated region or is “the sum of both lateral areas”. Fourth, the older features are spread to and retained in later occupied areas or colonies. Bonfante and Sebeok make the point that these rules or principles, although very useful, cannot be applied, successfully, in every case. There are always exceptions, but they feel that they are very valuable to the social scientist.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
PHILLIP UNDERWOOD California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Densmore, Frances. Traces of Foreign Influences in the Music of the American Indians.American Anthropologist 1944 Vol.46:106-112.
Densmore begins his article by stressing the importance of music in representing a “heritage of the past” and the “cultural entity” of a race. Using his emphasis on American Indian songs, he states that native melodies contain bits of historical information and cultural events cataloged in the words. He goes on to suggest that information found within songs may not be related to the race specifically, but through diffusion, contains themes from outside cultures as well. From this point, he stresses that Indian songs must be discovered and transcribed before they disappear; for unlike pieces of physical anthropological data, songs can never be resurfaced after they have been sung.
During his fieldwork, Densmore noticed similar patterns and techniques in songs between various, unconnected cultures. He first emphasized a relation to historical themes found in the words of Indian melodies. He recognized verses within lyrics that were incorporated with historical data from hundreds of years past. Generally, the singer knew nothing of the events about which he sang, but repeated the words diligently as he had been taught by previous generations. Densmore noted additional references from other cultures as well. Some traces he detected were themes related to Biblical stories and a number of European fairytales. Singing styles were similar between societies also. Densmore observed the multicultural use of vocal drones and many leveled pitches. Though words didn’t change, the tune of a song would vary. Singers were free to improvise melodies with different singing styles as long as they sang the words verbatim. As a final similarity, Densmore found a range of like instruments amongst various races. The most striking comparisons he noticed were between the uses of pipes and whistles.
This paper is an interesting collection of anthropological findings and cultural research, but there are no notes or references listed. Densmore’s technique is similar to Boaz as he emphasizes participant observation and the importance of history. However, he completely opposes Boasian Cultural Relativism by stressing a comparison of many cultures. The paper is speculative with no defined theory. Yet Densmore seems to follow the idea of diffusion with his emphasis of ideas spreading amongst cultures. The article is not very clear and the main ideas are difficult to follow throughout the paper.
CLARITY: 2
ANGELA KUHLMANN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Embree, John. Community Analysis–an Example of Anthropology in Government. American Anthropologist 1944 Volume 46: 277- 291
Embree chooses to address anthropology in government by discussing the War Relocation Authority (WRA), which was in charge of relocating Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans to internment camps during the war. One of the problems that originally plagued the WRA was poor administration. He uses two examples of preventable unrest in the camps: Poston and Manzanar. In the Poston crisis, poor lodging and general settling process contributed to the unrest, as did the establishment of young community leaders instead of more respected and older residents. During the crisis, the military was not called and the situation was peacefully resolved. Manzanar had the same problems, but the space was much more cramped (it was supposed to be a temporary housing center) and the surrounding communities were very hostile. Unfortunately, the military was called to resolve this crises and there were two deaths and numerous injured. The administration was also transferring from San Francisco to Washington, which meant that there was sometimes poor communication between officials. Embree contests that the deaths at Manzanar could have been prevented if the administration had employed people with a background in social sciences.
After the riots, Embree, who was a writer at the WRA, proposed “a section of community analysis” to help gain a better understanding of the communities within the camps. His idea was welcomed, especially after the preventable casualties at Manzanar, and he then needed to think of the practical applications of the section. Embree discusses the problems experienced while setting up the section. For example, the administrative position was an important decision and was based on sensitivity to the evacuees’ needs.
Embree discusses the jobs of the Community Analysis section. These included determining the reasons military force had caused such problems, the reasons behind unrest in the camps, and ways to segregate the camps without crises.
By reviewing the administrative positions and duties, Embree tries to illustrate how anthropology has a place in government.
CLARITY RANKING:4
BROOKE BURNS California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Ewers, John C. The Blackfoot War Lodge: Its Construction and Use. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:182-192.
John C. Ewers’ article provides a detailed account of Blackfoot war lodges, their construction, how they were used, and why they were needed. He begins by showing references to these lodges made in the 1805 journals of Lewis and Clark. He then writes of the ingenuity of the Blackfeet in their construction and uses of their war lodges, where they were built and how they were repeatedly used. He writes how thelodges were constructed, the leader choosing the site and overseeing the construction. He goes on to showexactly how the lodge would be formed. The construction was a group project and Ewers explainswhat can happen to a person who is lazy and chooses not to help. Ewers then describes other types of warlodges and why they might be used. He writes of the uses for the war lodges mostly through the accounts of two informants who have taken part in war parties in the past. Publications in the past have stressed twouses of the lodges but according to his informants there are five, which he goes on the list anddescribe. He concluded that articles on this region in the past have focused too much on the individual inthe war party instead of the group activities during warfare. He also wished to contradict the idea ofPlains tribes as “incessant wanderers,” instead believing that they were more dependent on the timberareas than previously thought.
Throughout the article, Ewers appears to stick closely to the facts provided by his informants. Itis in his conclusion that his motivation for writing this article becomes clear. He wishes to dispelassumptions that are made about the Blackfeet Indians, including the nature of their war parties as well astheir more sedentary lifestyles. This article is written in a very straightforwardfashion, utilizing information provided by the informants with the only analysis by Ewers provided atthe end. Instead, a level of respect is evident toward the Blackfeet Indians. He speaks in one line ofpossible diffusion in the style of one type of structure, and the functionality of these lodges canbe seen throughout the article, but it is without any underlying theoretical perspective. Still, Ewersprovides a large amount of detail that would have won the approval of Boas himself.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
MICHELLE STOUT California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Fenton, William N. Simeon Gibson: Iroquois Informant, 1889-1943 American Anthropologist 1944. Vol. 46:231-234.
A description of Simeon Gibson and his contributions to anthropology as an Iroquois informant are given in this obituary. Simeon, the son of a Seneca chief, served as a key informant to most of the anthropologists visiting the area, while passing up the opportunity to obtain a leadership role of his own. Simeon served as an informant to such names as Goldenweiser and Saphir. He worked openly with researchers, helping them in any way possible, and in return, was highly respected in the field. Eventually, he became concerned with documenting and preserving his culture, which he realized was rapidly changing. Simeon was so accustomed to and understanding of his role as an informant that in his later years he was amused as he looked back at how he and his brother had introduced anthropologists into the field.
The researcher-informant relationship is vital in ethnographies for a number of different reasons. For example, from a research perspective, this relationship is sought after for purposes of validity in data received. The greater the rapport, the more likely truthful information will be given. Further, from an ethical perspective, mutual respect seems to be the key.
Beyond highlighting the importance of the researcher-informant relationship, the fact that an informant’s obituary is included in an authoritative journal brings attention to the importance of the informant in the research process. After all, the research is to some extent dependant on them.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
BRIAN ARMENTA (bearmenta@csupomona.edu): California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Garth, Thomas R. Jr. Kinship Terminology, Marriage Practices and Behavior Toward Kin Among the Atsugewi. American Anthropologist 1944 vol. 46:348-361
Garth provides an example of high correlation between kinship terminology, marriage patterns and actual behavior in response to a paper published by W.L. Warner dealing with kinship terminology and marriage forms, but of the Australian Murngin population, where correlation between terminology and marriage forms was noted. Garth is concerned with the functional correlation of kinship terminology, marriage practice and its play in the actual behavior of the population. He discovers however, that the relationship is not perfect and that actual behavior varies. He does state that the relatives “(1) were aligned on generation levels, (2) that behavior toward parents-in-law, the joking relationship, and the relationship between a man and his sisters-in-law were general behavior patterns applied to large groups of relatives, (3) that there is a tendency toward reduction of terms in extended amital/avuncular and grandparental relationships and that (4) the forms of marriage correlate fairly closely with kinship terminology.” He goes on to state that the kinship system record for American tribes is not complete and that genealogies should be obtained to understand the kinship relationships. The article is well-organized and clear, unlike many works that deal with kinship, where the over use of terms can make one become lost in a sea of mothers, brothers, cousins, great grand-parents, nieces, sisters, various in-laws and what not. While Garth is clearly a functionalist, he has Boasian qualities of acknowledging the need to document vanishing Native American society and does not definitively postulate anything, only giving an account, acknowledging his weaknesses and speaking only of possibilities.
CLARITY:5
MICHAEL RAMIREZ California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Garth, R. Thomas. Kinship Terminology, Marriage Practices And Behavior Toward Kin Among The Atsugewi. American Anthropologist. 1944 Vol. 46:348-360
Thomas R. Garth, Jr., in Kinship Terminology, Marriage Practices, And Behavior Toward Kin Among The Atsugewi, states that the Atsugewi Indians used a bilateral system of kinship that aligned relatives on generation levels. He gives relationships within the family and how these relationships are molded through the use of kinship terminology.
Garth concludes that there is a high correlation between kinship terminology, marriage practices, and relatives behavior toward each other. Garth sets out to prove that how one in the Atsugewi tribe is labeled may it be parent-child or parent-in-law and child-in-law of opposite sex dictated the treatment, respect, and closeness of the relationship.
Garth uses relationships in the kinship structure to demonstrate the actions associated with the different relationships. He uses parent-child, brother and sister, brother and brother, sister and sister, grandparent and grandchild, husband and wife, parent-in-law and children-in-law of the same sex, and parent-in-law and child-in-law of the opposite sex.
Garth wrote of the parent-in-law and child-in-law of opposite sex that if they were to meet walking down a trail they would yell “Grizzly” and one of them would get out of the way. This was a matter of respect towards the other. He also states that the brother and brother relationship is the strongest because of the patriarchal society. Garth states that these facts were acquired by direct questioning. His main point was to show how the terms of kinship directly related to the treatment of those involved.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
JAMES CANADY ANDERSON University of Georgia (Prof. Peter Brosius)
Gifford, E. W. Miwok Lineages. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:376-381.
This article is Gifford’s rebuttal to an article written by Dr. Mischa Titiev in which Titiev states that the information in a previous article written by Gifford would prove that Miwok lineages are based on location and common residence instead of blood ties as Gifford had intended it to show. To this argument,
Gifford replies that, in fact, the nature of his first article was too general for his point to be made clearly so he is now presenting a more detailed description of how he came to his initial conclusion that Miwok lineages are based on blood ties. Gifford goes on to give lists of the lineages for which he has collected information. He states that this information was collected for a study on Miwok ceremonies, not lineage. Still, it was able to prove his hypothesis, further establishes its credibility.
Gifford then attacks Titiev’s paper saying his attempt to show co-residence as the basis for lineage is weak. Gifford asks, if co-residence is the basis for lineage, then what is the basis for co-residence? The answer would be blood relationships. Gifford goes on to show the rest of Titiev’s argument also to be weak. Gifford wishes to further establish his first hypothesis, that Miwok lineages are based on family relations, by providing the information he used to create the generalizations in his first article. Not only does he wish to further establish his own hypothesis but also to debase any other articles which attempt to refute his argument.
To establish his argument Gifford lays out his information for the reader to see for him/herself, and therefore, Gifford believes, see the validity of his ideas. He then proceeds to discredit the opponent to his hypothesis, Titiev, by sequentially discrediting the arguments he makes. Gifford makes Titiev’s argument appear to be based on circular reasoning, making the “tail wag the dog,” as he put it. In doing this Gifford further establishes the hypothesis that Miwok lineages are based on blood relationships rather than co-residence.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
MICHELLE STOUT California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Gillen, John. Cultural Adjustment. American Anthropologist June, 1944 Vol.46:429-448.
In this article John Gillen attempts to distinguish a “pure culture” from culture that has previously been studied by social scientists. Gillen is suggesting that social scientists have previously studied cultural phenomena and cultural factors which, when clearly analyzed are actually non-cultural. He deduces that cultures possess independent characteristics that can lead to discoverable laws or principles. If social scientists discover these generalities that result in a “pure culture”, we can then have a set of tools to explain aspects of culture.
Gillen takes the position that “culture in general is a type of patterning which applies to and is associated without exception with all types of customs”. Through empirical observation Gillen identifies three types of customs: Actional, Representational, and Symbolic. He also states that a cultural system has within itself an adaptive or adjustment aspect and it is up to the culture whether the system is either well adjusted or maladjusted. Every cultural system has general conditions to which adjustments must be made and these components are a set of complex factors. These components include: Hominid, Social, Environmental, Psychological, and an Artifactual that includes material products. The test of a “good” cultural system is how it satisfies the desires of the human beings involved in the situation and how the system adjusts to the previously mentioned components. Other terms such as Gillen’s consistency form are elaborated to further test the success of a cultural system. All in all, the article has been written to invent some general theory of cultural adjustment to situational and internal requirements. This article is an attempt to develop a guide in which to analyze cultural systems.
CLARITY: 1
THOMAS MELZER California Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Gillin, John. Cultural Adjustment. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:429-447.
John Gillin’s article states that culture is shown through the activities that the people in a given culture do and analyzes the system of culture. He discusses the adjustments and maladjustments of the patterns in customs, and his goal is to give a general guide of the system that can be applied to all societies and a better understanding of the pattern of culture. He admits that everything he says in the article is solely his hypothesis and has not been validly proven.
Gillin argues that all customs are divided into three types –representational, actional, and symbolic- and each can be affected by and sometimes substituted with the others, e.g. symbolic activities can be related using the behavioral activities. According to the author, all social groups have these categories and a similarity in structure and content; although, the patterns of the customs can vary. Through these patterns, a society is governed and adapts to the conditions in which it lives. A culture whose patterns are adapted to their specific needs is adjusted, but one whose patterns are incompatible is maladjusted. This is what Gillin calls the Principle of Compatibility and the Principle of Consistency and discusses these principles in terms of the Hominid component, the Social component, the Psychological component, and the Environmental component and how each of these components contributes to the pattern. He then goes on to explain how the custom pattern are carried out in order to satisfy innate needs and requirements and to create, arouse, and satisfy the acquired desires of humans.
Patterns are composed of a starting point, a course, and an end point and each has a goal and perhaps sub-goals. The formation of pattern series leads to a pattern train, which in turn forms an orientation. Orientations form trends, and trends form objectives. It is important for all of these parts to be consistent with one another in order for a culture to adjust and adapt.
Gillin gives several specific examples to support his argument from the Western culture as well as foreign cultures and from past cultures as well as contemporary cultures. He provides outlines of the importance of the consistency of the patterns and the categories of the customs. He concludes that his overall goal was to develop a consistent theory that embraced all scientific approaches and points of view to study man.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
ELLA BROOKE BULMER University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Greenlee, Robert F. Medicine and Curing Practices of the Modern Florida Seminoles.American Anthropologist. 1944. Vol. 46: 317-328.
Robert F. Greenlee’s article examines the roles and rituals of medicine men among Florida Seminole Indians. He explains how their curing practices are different from those of white physicians. Greenlee and his wife went to Florida where the Seminoles reside and gained their information from a well-respected medicine man by the name of Josie Billie. He examines how medicine for the Seminoles in more than just physical diagnosis, but also used for bodily ills and mental problems.
He begins by explaining that a medicine man is not just like a doctor but an important member of society because he takes on a variety of tasks including handling white-Indian relations. He goes on to tell the sacredness and old medicine that goes along with Seminole medicine. He also shows that Seminole medicine men are not paid in money, but through gifts such as cloths and pigs. Next he explained how Seminoles view medicine differently from whites because they believe that drugs can’t thoroughly cure you but the procedures of the medicine man will, like blowing on medicine pipes. Instead of using pharmaceutical drugs for curing, the Seminole’s use different chants for different disease. In this essay, Greenlee lists different diseases and their cures, like concoctions and chants. Next he explains another way in which they are different from white doctors, by telling how Medicine men can also do magic along with curing. There is good magic like love medicines, and also bad magic like black magic. Greenlee talked about the relationship between Seminoles and white physicians. If the medicine men feel that they cannot cure one of their patients they send them to the white doctors. Even though they do go to white doctors, the Indians won’t go unless they are near death, they even give birth on the Seminole settlements.
Greenlee explains that due to our changing and growing population, the practices and rituals of the medicine man is changing; they need to rely on white physicians more and more. And as this contact with the white medical world continues, the use of the medicine man will decrease. Also with each death of the old traditional medicine man, is the lose of old knowledge of curing practices.
This article will be of interest to those who are interested in Southeastern Indians and their curing practices. It also opens our eyes to our changing society and how it affects the traditions of our surrounding cultures.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
JOANNA M. ROTCHFORD University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Greenlee, Robert F. Medicine and Curing Practices of the Modern Florida Seminoles. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 317-328.
Greenlee’s article relates the various duties and practices requisite to members of the healing professions among the Seminole Indians during the latter half of the 1930s. We quickly learn that the duties of the Seminole medicine man differ significantly from the duties of a “white physician.” The concept of medicine is not limited to the administration of drugs and stimulants in an attempt to restore or maintain health. The diagnosis and curing of illness, both physical and mental, are still of primary concern, but the medicine man also holds a ceremonial position. Under the healer’s guidance ceremonies concerned with birth and death, and benevolent and harmful magic are administered. The medicine man is also responsible for preserving and teaching tribal history. Further, this individual acts as a liaison for the tribe in matters relating to Indian and non-tribal relations.
Greenlee introduces us to four prominent medicine men: Josie Billie, his brother Ingram, Frank Charlie, and the late John Osceola. Each of these men is in possession of a fragment of the “old war medicine” which they each inherited from some of their clan members. There are other men who practice healing, but they lack the aforementioned “old war medicine” and are refered to as “merely doctors.”
Although medicine men possess some level of status within their local group, not all young men are interested in pursuing the position. To be a medicine man, or doctor, one must possess a “suitable temperament.” And the profession is not restricted to men. Women may make medicine concerned with childbirth and are allowed to perform small ritual rites “requiring no special preparation.”
The rest of the article consists of a synopsis of diseases diagnosed, herbs used to make medicine, the manner in which medicine is made, and other ritual aspects associated with the practice of the Seminole medicine man. We also learn that Greenlee’s informant, Josie Billie, brings patients to a Dr. Pender of Everglades City when they are too ill for him to care for. In Greenlee’s view when a “white doctor” has cured a patient, the Seminole healer takes over the case and, “Upon a speedy recovery, which often ensues, the Indian doctor assumes more than his share for the result.” Such objectifications aside, the article is reminiscent of the “salvage” ethnography practiced by Franz Boas, and should be of interest to anyone concerned with the practices of medicine men of the southeastern United States, as seen through the eyes of a mid 1940s anthropologist.
CLARITY: 5
WILLIAM R. GILLEAN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark W. Allen)
Hall, Edward Twitchell, Jr. Recent Clues to Athapascan Prehistory in the Southwest.American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 89-105.
Twitchell’s article is an account of the research that had been performed in the northwest corner of New Mexico in an attempt to explain the origins of the Navajo. The article takes into account both what Twitchell has dubbed the direct historic approach—which basically follows Navajo society from European contact until the mid 1730s and the author’s and others archaeological research into pre-contact Athapascan society, dendrochronologically dated as early as 710 A.D.
The first part of the article is basically an attempt by the author to locate the Navajo in north-west New Mexico—he points out known areas of settlement: Governador, along the San Juan River basin, and Gallina and Cabezon just to the east of the Continental divide—and the fact that there is little evidence of radical change for the 400 year period of post-contact. Twitchell states, “The striking thing considering the time involved and the cultural contacts open to the Navajo in this period (Pueblo, Ute, Comanche, Spanish, and American) is the small degree of change that actually took place in the Navajo culture.”
The pre-contact era is broken into two phases: the Rosa Phase, which dates from about 650 A.D. to roughly 950 A.D., and the Largo Phase at 1106 to 1254 A.D. The author notes the roughly 150 year gap between the Phases, but notes that none of these are considered terminal dates and there may be a great deal of overlapping. Also, traits of one Phase or the other may be present in different regions of the state at different times.
This article should be of interest to anyone concerned with the possibility of an Anasazi presence, or warfare in the pre-contact southwest. Twitchell believes that the Largo Phase represents a “marginal manifestation” of Anasazi culture. The author states that a few traits alien to the southwest, such as Woodland-like pottery, a specialized shaft straightener, and “copious use of antler” are evidence of an alien presence. Further, the fact that all of the Gallina region houses excavated showed evidence of having been burnt to the ground—with many of them containing skeletal material with the occipital region of the skull either punctured or crushed—this assumption may be warranted. However, the author fails to give any indication of where this “alien” presence may have originated.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
WILLIAM R. GILLEAN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark W. Allen)
Hall, Edward Twitchell Jr. Recent Clues To Athapascan Pre-History In The Southwest.American Anthropologist January-March 1944 Vol.46(1 Part 1):89-105.
Edward Twitchell Hall’s article challenges the prevailing consensus opinion that the Athapascan Navajo culture is a relatively recent arrival to the Southwest, corresponding to a period just before or concurrent with the Spanish conquest. Instead, he presents a variety of archaeological evidence to suggest that the Navajo actually have roots in the Southwest dating back to the ninth or tenth century AD.
Hall’s approach is to re-examine the evidence of other archaeologists and to add his own work to revise the analysis of Navajo occupancy of northwestern New Mexico. His work in the Governador area pushes back the date of Navajo presence in that site from the eighteenth century to the tenth century. Hall notes that even with a variety of cultural contacts during this long period (from Pueblo, Ute, Comanche, Spanish and American) there is little change in the Navajo culture. Thus, he is able to use a few distinctively Navajo cultural traits such as specific pottery styles and hogan-type housing to trace Navajo occupancy.
Hall presents data on pointed bottom pottery collected by Mera and Hibben in Gallina that suggests the arrival of an alien culture around the ninth century. He also presents evidence of the addition of a few new cultural traits into the region at this time, including a specific kind of shaft-straightener and the widespread use of antler. Hall combines the ceramic and other artifact data along with evidence of violent warfare against the Rosa people in the Gallina region between 900-1000 AD to assume the presence of a nomadic alien group, who he believes are the Navajo. He also assumes that the warring peoples sometimes traded and probably intermarried with each other.
Hall points out that the possibility of the earlier presence of the Navajo corresponds well with the Pueblo period of building large pueblo structures in Chaco Canyon. Thus the same alien culture that cause abandonment of the Governador site and brought in pointed bottom pottery, may have also caused the Pueblo people to consolidate into large pueblos for their protection. Hall recognizes there are some gaps in the evidence, including having no absolute proof that it was the Navajo who brought pointed bottom pottery to the southwest and also having no evidence of Navajo hogan-style structures in Gallina area dating to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However, the persistence of certain Navajo cultural patterns throughout the southwest and evidence of warfare and protective measures taken by Pueblo communities suggests a much longer period of Navajo presence than was earlier hypothesized.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
JAMES SIEGEL University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Hill, W.W. The Navaho Indians and the Ghost Dance of 1890. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:523-527.
W.W. Hill’s article takes a social approach in examining the Navaho Indians limited belief in and support of the Ghost Dance of 1890, in which participation was accepted and seen as advantageous by most other Indian tribes in the western United States at this time.
A collection of Navaho accounts on the subject, which Hill includes in the article, support his theory that the Navaho were weary to support or even believe in the messianic dance rumored to bring back the dead, expel the white man, and return America to it’s pre-colonial state, not because they did not grasp the beneficial possibilities of such claims, but solely because they doubted the source from which this myth came. This doubt, Hill theorizes, is brought about by a healthy fear of the dead and anything associated with the dead. Such fear of the dead is not as prevalent in other Western American Indian cultures, explaining the differing views of the Navaho as a whole.
Text of interviews with Navajo informants show that even men extremely skeptical of the dance had an underlying fear of witchcraft. This fear revolved specifically around the resurrection of the dead. Hill continues defending his theory by stating that the intense fear of the dead overshadows all implications of the Ghost Dance and consequently any aspirations of life returning to it’s pre-European state for Native Americans.
The spiritually conscious Navaho peoples simply did not accept the potentially benevolent myth. No one within the people knew, with any certainty whatsoever, the provenance of the movement, which affectively bound up the diffusion of the phenomenon.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
WILLIAM PARKER University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Hill, W. W. The Navaho Indians and the Ghost Dance of 1890. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 523-527.
Hill was inspired to write this article after reading the work of Bernard Barber and Ralph Linton. In Barber’s paper Acculturation and Messianic Movements, he argued that the Ghost Dance had a heretofore-unconsidered social aspect. In Ralph Linton’s Nativistic Movements he outlined a research design that involved the dynamics associated with revivalistic aspects of cultures. After reviewing his notes on the Ghost Dance of 1890 among the Navaho, Hill found great discrepancies from the accounts of other tribes. To Hill’s knowledge, the Navaho never actually participated in the Ghost Dance, though “this messianic development reached the Navaho and the impact registered profoundly on the minds of the individuals of the period.”
The Navaho were cognizant of the most identifiable aspects of the Ghost Dance, resurrection of the dead, disappearance of the whites, the reestablishment of the old order of life, and protection through compulsory belief and participation. But in interviews with informants the most significant, i.e. troubling, aspect of the Dance was the reported, and anticipated, return of the dead.
Hill goes on to aver that the failure of the Navaho to embrace a movement so widely adopted by other North American groups is a “situation holy unique in the history of messianic movements.” Further, his thesis is that interest in the movement had more to do with anxiety over the accuracy of the accounts that reached them. Hill’s informants related concerns over strange weather conditions, and fears of witchcraft in connection with perpetrators of the dance. But the greatest reason for concern, finally, was the return of the dead.
Hill’s article is succinct and suits his point. It is a psychological character study in the same vein as the work performed by Ruth Benedict. Was fear of the return of the dead the only reason the Navaho rejected the ghost dance? Maybe. As an appendix to the article Hill lists accounts of several informants who express this anxiety. This of course begs the question: How reliable are informants? Do they reveal what the anthropologist wishes to hear, or do they reveal the truth? Or, more importantly, do these twain ever truly meet?
CLARITY RANKING: 5
WILLIAM R. GILLEAN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark W. Allen)
Hassrick, Royal B. Teton Dakota Kinship System. American Anthropologist. 1944 Vol. 46:338-347.
Royal Hassrick describes how kinship functions for the individual at band level Teton-Dakota society. He uses the fieldwork material of others, particularly from the Rosebud Reservation during 1940-1942 to portray the kinship pattern as it was mid 19th Century.
The Teton-Dakota were divided into seven divisions (or five after 1850) of varying sizes: Oglala, Brule, Hunkpapa, Blackfoot, Sans Arcs, Minniconjou, and Two Kettle. Each division was made up of several bands that were composed of extended family units.
It is stressed that all of the individual’s appropriate behavior toward others in the band are learned from the interaction between ego and three generations: grandparents, parents, and siblings. Because of the bilateral character of the family system, generational terminology and behavior patterns were the most fundamental and earliest acquired.
People of the same generation and sex are given similar kin terms and treatment. For example, the term “father” includes ego’s father and anyone whom ego’s father calls “brother” while the term “uncle” includes anyone ego’s mother calls “brother”. The individual learns indirect reciprocal relationships, in other words: how your grandparent treats you is how you will treat your grandchild, and so on.
Three types of kin relationships – lineal, collateral, and affinial – interact with sex and generation so that the individual learns several distinct behavior relationships based on where a person falls into these categories. Hassrick uses a scale from the joking relationship (marked by those closest to ego’s own category) to complete avoidance (out of respect). He gives some examples: siblings of the same sex have a much more informal relationship than siblings of the opposite sex; a man shows his brother more love and devotion that his male cousin; reserve and respect were shown to aunts and uncles; and strict avoidance was adhered to with parents-in-law. He also provides thirteen terms that the individual must learn in order to address kin in accordance with this system. All ties are important for group unity at the band level.
Hassrick seems to stress the stability of the kinship system while ignoring modern changes by the time this was written. One in left to wonder whether he saw the social structure deteriorating from how it was “suppose to be” in his opinion and why he chose to focus on an ethnographic present already so far in the past.
CLARITY RANKING: 2
LEANN MOORE California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Hu, Hsien Chin. The Chinese Concepts of “Face”. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol.46: 45-64.
In her article Hsien Chin Hu is analyzing the various concepts of “face” that are utilized in Chinese societies. She focuses essentially on two concepts or words, mien-tzß and lien, and the implications that each of these carries in certain social situations. To give the reader a fuller understanding of what she is speaking about, she begins the article with a brief history of these two concepts, emphasizing geographical and temporal differences. She continues by going into a fairly detailed account of the different types of lien and mien-tzß and the conventional implications that each hold in society at large. The main point that she is attempting to make is that these two concepts essentially form a ‘code of ethics’, which in turn function as a mechanism to drive social solidarity. These two vary in purpose in a very basic way. Lien, is tied more closely to each individual and is a quality that they are born with. Mien-tzß, on the other hand is more closely related to ones status. Inherent in the status is the implication of family. Mien-tzß is a reflection of the whole and, of the two, has more tangible qualities. Mien-tzß can be shared, barrowed, struggled for, etc. Hu essentially points out the various functions that each of these concepts play and their importance in the maintenance of Chinese culture.
In an indirect manner, Hu argues that the concept of “face” is an additional means through which the social solidarity of Chinese culture is enforced and maintained. Through these concepts cultural models of appropriate behavior are instilled in an individual and reinforced by the entire community. She gives several examples to illustrate their effectiveness and the influence they have over people. Also her style and tone of writing, give the reader that this concept is not taken lightly, and that it is a great source of honor among people.
In this article, Hsien Chin Hu, is essentially defining these concepts as she has been exposed to them, providing examples throughout to help the reader understand. Her information appears to come from one source, a Dr. Meng-hsiu Chang, and there appears to be no first hand experience. The conclusion to the article provides a reiteration of key facts, and the final paragraph provides additional insight into the temporal period in which she was writing. The world was at war and in the last sentence she emphasizes that positional advancements that disregard lien are fundamentally doomed to fail.
CLARITY: 4
DIANA R. FERREE California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark W. Allen)
Hu, Hsien Chin. The Chinese Concepts of “Face”. American Anthropologist January-March, 1944. Vol. 46: 45-64.
Hu’s article orbits around two Chinese words, lien and mien-tsu, which both mean “face” (in the physical sense) but which each have distinct figurative usages. Her goal is to penetrate into the Chinese concepts of prestige and honor through a linguistic analysis. She notes in the introduction the relevance of the article to both psychologists and anthropologists; she notes also that conceptualizations of seemingly universal aspects of human life (such as these) may vary along societal lines. The article consists almost entirely of linguistic data and also contains comparisons of the two words along with analysis in the context of occupational and class status. The article seems to this reviewer to also have a minor goal of presenting a more enlightened picture of wider Chinese culture and world view to the uninitiated American reader.
After introducing her article, she begins the body with a brief introduction to the words lien and mien-tsu. She then gives a brief etymology of the words, and reports on the prominence of the words, and how each varies regionally in China. Following this is her linguistic data on the two words, treating each separately in respective sections.
The section over lien contains five cases of vernacular use (e.g. Tiu lien “to lose lien”, Mei-yu lien “to have no lien”, etc). For each case she gives an explanation of what is meant by the statement, and often cites examples of use, either anecdotal or from native folklore (several of these short snippets are quite vivid and lively), and analyzes what is precisely meant. The section over mien-tsu begins with a list of four definitions of mien-tsu in which it refers to a concrete label (e.g. the physical “face”, or the “face” of a thing like a clock), and then moves to discuss the figurative meaning; a similar list to the one presented for lien is given of twenty-one vernacular uses of mien-tsu (e.g. Ku mien-tsu, “to consider mien-tsu”, Tseng-chia mien-tsu, “to add to one’s mien-tsu”, etc) and a discussion of each phrase is given as in the preceding section. Hu in several passages in this section uses her analysis of a phrase as a launch into more broad information about China, dipping in short passages over Chinese philosophy or history.
Her conclusion begins with a 1/2 page comparing and contrasting of the two words. She emphasizes that lien is of great and fundamental importance to the Chinese, as it is a reference to how others see one’s basic moral constitution, and that it is not generally in flux; she notes that mien-tsu is the reference to how others see one as a value or commodity to the community, and that it can be built up in life through social contacts, job obtainment, achievement, etc. She notes how the concepts are correlated to class and occupational status: she discusses what each concept means and how each word is used by and in regards to the poor, by the rich, by the middle class, by businessmen, by outlaws, etc.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
LUCIUS SCHOENBAUM University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Kluckhohn, Clyde and Mowrer, O. H. “Culture and Personality”: A Conceptual Scheme.American Anthropologist January, 1944. Vol. 46 (1):1-29.
Discontent with the ways that theorists have been analyzing human personality, the authors of this article propose a complex model for future investigation. They claim that, although recognizing culture as a determinant of personality is a great advancement, some researchers have attempted to set forth oversimplified explanations. These explanations seek to describe any given personality trait as either biologically or culturally determined. This oversimplification, the authors suggest, may stem from the character structure of Americans to search for absolutes. This line of research is not claimed to be invalid; it is merely claimed to be underdeveloped. The authors claim that the biology/culture dichotomy is in fact a good basis for a model of personality investigation, but is an inadequate explanation in and of itself.
On the vertical axis are placed the first-order determinants of personality. These are biological, physical environment, cultural environment, and social environment. On the horizontal axis are placed the second-order components of personality development. These are universal, communal, role, and idiosyncratic. The first-order personality determinants are more essential to personality development while the second-order components are further categorical abstractions. The authors claim that any aspect of personality can be examined as the effect of two or more determinants and components, at least one first-order and one second-order. The article follows with a number of examples to support this model.
The proposed model answers the initial problem set forth by the authors. That is the oversimplification of personality explanations as either biologically or culturally determined, as set forth by other researchers. This article highlights the growing recognition of the interaction between biological and environmental factors in personality research. Further, it brings to light the multiple factors of these key determinants.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
BRIAN ARMENTA California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Kluckhohn, Clyde and O. H. Mowrer. “Culture and Personality”: A Conceptual Scheme. American Anthropologist January-March, 1944 Vol. 46: 1-27.
Clyde Kluckhohn, in “Culture and Personality”: A Conceptual Scheme, attempts to go beyond a duality in the slogan “Culture and Personality.” Kluckhohn undertakes the task of showing that culture and personality are not entities that are separate from our influences in society. However, there are many determinants and components of a personality that can best be explained through a conceptual scheme. Kluckhohn draws from May’s definition of a personality as a human’s effect upon others as the starting point to make a objective statement about the relation of factors on a personality.
Kluckhohn divides the determinants of personality into four main categories: universal, communal, role, and idiosyncratic determinants. He then crosses these four with another set of determinants: biological, physical-environmental, social, and cultural. These determinants create a number of ways that a personality can be developed and used. Personalities, according to Kluckhohn, have variable elements that can change based on the cultural or physical or social environment that one encounters. There are also constants within a personality that can either be universally- or communally-based.
Along with these determinants, there are also four components or layers of a personality that Kluckhohn describes. These are parallel to the determinants, namely, universal, communal, role, and idiosyncratic components. These components are personality traits that can be separated from the whole person. Again, like the determinants, one component can be seen over another component by the observer. In other words, the observer would use an individual component of a personality to describe the entire group or culture instead of looking at the personality as a whole. Kluckhohn goes on to describe a personality as a sort of mask that a wearer uses in order to adjust to the many elements of society. A participant in society will change his masks according to the social situation only somewhat allowing for his idiosyncrasies to show. Klukhohn describes how a person only has a personality based on what type of culture and environment he is around.
Klukhohn believes by dividing the personality into these components and by describing their corresponding determinants the field of “culture and personality” is more sound. The way in which a person’s personality is analyzed will be based on these determinants and components and will eliminate the problem of ascribing “accidental” causes in a change in personality.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
CHERYL STAUGAITIS University of Georgia (Peter Brosious)
Lee, Demetracopoulou D. Categories of the Generic and the Particular in Wintu. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 362-369.
In this article, Lee follows the Boasian tradition of historical particularism. He describes the results of the linguistic analysis he conducted on the North American Wintu tribe. Nominal categories of the generic and the particular are the subject of Lee’s paper. Lee set out to describe the rules that are applied, to distinguish what form of a noun (generic or particular) is used in a specific sentence.
Lee’s analysis has found that in some cases the distinction between the generic and the particular are found when the word is seen as either animate or inanimate. He also states that the particular form of a noun may be used by the -um suffix, and when the suffix is absent, the generic form is used. Lee also notes that a “large number of nouns were assigned, apparently at will, to either of the groups.” The “irrationality” of a language, the interest, and mood of the speaker are all considerations that Lee has come across in his study. From all of the information that Lee has collected, it seems that most of the time the people of the Wintu tribe do not have any specific rules for their use of the generic and the particular.
Lee demonstrates the difficulty one may have when they are trying to analyze components of another culture. The reader of this article should carefully look at all of aspects Lee has covered in his analysis.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
VANESSA RAMOS California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Lowie, Robert H. Jean Basset Johnson (1916-1944) American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:528-529
Jean Basset Johnson was on of many regrettable casualties of World War II. During the war, many anthropologists were hired for the purpose of cultural typing or for their linguistic skills. After attending the San Diego Army and Navy Academy, he entered the University of California where he majored in anthropology. Typical of him, he avoided narrow specialization and covered a wide range of knowledge, including linguistic studies. His languages of study at the time included Arabic, Ancient Egyptian and others. After graduation, he performed fieldwork in Mexico and several years’ graduate work in anthropology at Berkeley, where he hoped to attain his doctorate. The war however, found him in the U.S. Naval Reserve in communications where his duties took him to New Caledonia and eventually, to North Africa. His death was a result of an automobile accident in Tunisia.
With an engaging personality and nimble mind, he was reported to be excellent company. He had a great talent with languages and easily picked up practical knowledge of them. Possibly with the guidance of his father-in-law, he directed most of his efforts towards the study of Mexican Indian linguistics. With a talent for writing, he was already well published, having produced sixteen works. Had his life and career continued, he would most certainly have been a prolific writer and a successful, possibly influential, anthropologist.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
HUNTER N. KELLEY California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Lowie, Robert H. Jean Basset Johnson (1916-1944) American Anthropologist. 46: 528.
This obituary by Robert H. Lowie reflects on the life of Jean Basset Johnson, a casualty of war, who passed away April 4, 1944. Jean Basset Johnson was killed in an automobile accident in Tunisia while working for the Navy. Johnson was born in Moscow, Idaho and attended college at the University of California where he majored in Anthropology. Upon graduation he completed several years of graduate work at Berkeley, where he devoted much of his time to the study of Mexican Indian linguistics. He was prematurely drawn away from his doctoral work to join the war effort in New Caledonia and North Africa.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
TIFFANY RINNE University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Mason, J. A. The Third Round Table Conference In Mexico. American Anthropologist 1944 vol. 46:118-123.
The conference took place between August 25 and September 2, 1943 in Mexico City with the main topic of discussion on “Northern Mexico and the Relationship between the Cultures of Middle America and those of the Southeast and Southwest of the United States”. Papers were presented by anthropologists, on the previously stated theme with emphasis on the architectural, linguistic, physical, and cultural origins of native peoples as diffusion from central Mexico. They refused to or could not comprehend the idea of a poly-genesis of ideas and a psychic unity of mankind which would account for only superficial similarities between cultures. The topics of the papers give insight into the times, not only through their lack of archaeological data but also their diffusionist idea of a single origin of “high” culture. The writer acknowledged the lack of archaeological data but expressed his opinion that it would be found and it would correlate the theory of Southeastern and Southwestern United States cultures either originating or receiving great influence from Central Mexico. The physical anthropologists were trying to find the origin of the Native Americans through skull identification and were bewildered by the apparent lack of South American “dolichocephalic types” in Middle America, making its appearance in South America confusing. They chalked up this deficiency of evidence to the same reason why there was an “absence of early archaeological cultures in Mexico”. These early anthropologists did lay the groundwork by identifying, studying and comparing the cultures of Mexico, the Southwest and Southeast. While some of their theories may be discredited today, the data accumulated is still in use.
Clarity Ranking: 4
MICHAEL RAMIREZ California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Mekeel, Scudder. An Appraisal of the Indian Reorganization Act. American Anthropologist June, 1944 Vol.46: 209-218
This American Anthropologist article discusses the policy changes of the Indian Reorganization Act passed by Congress in 1934. Also known as the Wheeler-Howard Bill, the act is an attempt to: (1) restore to the Indian management of his own affairs; (2) prevent further depletion of his material resources; (3) build up an economically sound basis for livelihood. The administration, under John Collier, is said to be a humane act and one that no social scientist could quarrel.
There are however some innate problems with the new act. The Natives are responsible for constitution and charter making, keeping of ledgers for money loans, and other related procedures that are very foreign to most Native Americans. Many of the individuals that are able to perform such tasks are generally of mixed background and are semi-assimilated into the white culture. This developed into a division among the Indian communities between those of full-blooded and those of a mixed race. With the new Act brought a division among the Indian tribes themselves and many Indians felt that this Act was simply a scheme to get more land from the Indians.
Since the policy was created in Washington, a field team was necessary to make sure the act was carried out properly. This created many jobs for individuals with a social science background, particularly those in anthropology. Another problem arose when this newly formed team of social scientists was sent out into the field with government employees appointed prior to 1934. The majority of those already in the field were to force assimilation on the Indians, while the newly hired field team sought to understand and work with the Indians.
This article basically outlines the objectives of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, but it’s an example of how anthropology can be applied. By the 1940’s, there was a significant increase in jobs for trained anthropologists. This article exemplifies how careers in anthropology increased and how it can be applied in a real world setting.
CLARITY: 3
THOMAS MELZER California Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen).
Montagu, M. F. Ashley. Ales Hrdlicka, 1869-1943. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:113-117.
In this obituary, Ashley Montague offers a glimpse into the life of Ales Hrdlicka who was born in Czechoslovakia and migrated with his family to New York at thirteen. A serious illness brought him in contact with a physician, Dr. M. Rosenblueth, who encouraged young Ales to pursue a medical career.
His first research position was at the State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane, where he faced the problem of measuring the human body and the brain. His anthropometric interests, particularly in cranium measurements, blossomed in the midst of an era where cranial shape and size were being used by evolutionists in anthropology to justify the concept of race. Montague does not say whether Hrdlicka’s research focused on racial characteristics from his skull measurements, but only that he studied the origin and evolution of man and then later the problem of the antiquity of man in the Americas.
Montague points out his passion for bones, “particularly in the external details of their variation” which he would record tirelessly without any real attempt to explain their importance or interpret their significance. He had an eye for detail and considered anthropology to be a descriptive science as opposed to an experimentally minded one like Franz Boas. In fact, Hrdlicka was the main proponent behind Boas’ removal from the American Anthropological Association, which Montague fails to mention.
On a trip to Mexico, Hrdlicka came into contact with Indigenous people there, and became interested in American anthropology. He then took charge of the physical and medical anthropological research on one of the Hyde Expeditions for the American Museum of Natural History.
In 1910, he was appointed full Curator at the National Museum in Washington, where he helped obtain the most complete collection in physical anthropology at that time. He described in detail the greater part of the craniological collection in six “Catalogues of Human Crania in the U.S. National Museum”.
Hrdlicka’s other accomplishments include the founding of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 1928, and subsidizing the foundation of a chair in Anthropology at the Charles University in Prague. One of his most influential works was The Skeletal Remains of Early Man, considered by Montague to be the best account of skeletal remains up to the year 1930.
Unfortunately, Ales had little knowledge of mathematics and genetics at a time when statistical methods were being developed and when genetics would soon be on the forefront of physical anthropology. While he was a pioneer in physical anthropology, the author mentions his old-fashioned attitudes towards sex and women. Montague’s personal knowledge of and admiration for Ales Hrdlicka allows us a closer look at the man considered America’s most distinguished physical anthropologist when he died in 1943.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
LEANN MOORE California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Montagu, M. F. Ashley. Ales Hrdlicka, 1869-1943. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 113-117.
Ales Hrdlicka, referred to in this 1943 obituary as “America’s most distinguished physical anthropologist,” was born in Bohemia in 1869 and later studied medicine in New York. His position at New York’s State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane aroused an interest in anthropometric methods which were necessary for his autopsy work at the hospital. Hrdlicka’s later appointment at the Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals allowed him to further pursue physical anthropological research. In 1898 Hrdlicka traveled to Mexico, which inspired him to take a position with the American Museum of Natural History and subsequently with the National Museum in Washington, D.C., where his studies as a physical anthropologist took him all over the world.
While Hrdlicka’s The Skeletal Remains of Early Man was quite influential, his methodology was criticized for being more 19th-century than 20th-century; “he was passionately interested in bones” but had little knowledge of the statistics and the genetics which would have provided the tools to interpret his observations. However, while Hrdlicka lacked scientific imagination, he served as a sort of guardian of physical anthropology during the early-1900s. Despite his tendency to pontificate, he was respected by his colleagues and regarded as a “good and noble soul.”
CLARITY RANKING: 5
CAROLINE WEATHERS University of Georgia, Athens (J.P. Brosius)
Mook, Maurice A. The Aboriginal Population of Tidewater Virginia. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 193-208.
Mook’s article is an attempt to use early 17th Century contemporary documentary sources to discern the native population in Tidewater Virginia. The two main 17th Century sources used are Smith’s Map and Description of Virginia (1612) and Strachey’s Historie of Travaile into Virginia Brittania (c. 1616). Mook is doing the work of a historian in this article; analyzing and critically interpreting primary sources. He also uses Mooney’s research in Handbook of American Indians and Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1781) as reference points of comparison. Mook concludes that Smith is the more accurate of the two for various reasons, including the facts that Strachey appears to copy some of Smith’s figures, other figures of his are plainly too high, and that he had much less contact with the natives than Smith. Mooney concluded that the Powhatan confederacy was approximately 8500, while Jefferson calculated only 8000. Mook concludes that Jefferson was closer than Mooney to the actual population and reflects Smith’s data more accurately.
Mook attempts to reconstruct the tribal geography of the area using two maps; Tindall’s map of 1608 and Smith’s map of 1612. He concludes that more dense populations lived along the fall line of tidal rivers rather than at their mouths. It is a possibility that these areas were more densely populated because they are transitional zones that provide easy access to a wide variety of resources from multiple ecological zones. The introduction of agriculture shortly before Contact, also, shifted population distribution away from the coastline. Mook concludes that the relationship between geography, population, and culture support Kroeber’s ideas that (a) richer ecology leads to higher population density, (b) population density does not necessarily increase with the advent of agriculture, (c) inland areas are less densely populated than their adjacent coastal counterparts, and (d) generally speaking, a more complex and diversified culture can be directly associated with a greater population density. Some of Mook’s conclusions are hard to understand and are not always supported by the data he presents.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
PHILLIP UNDERWOOD California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Mook, Maurice. The Aboriginal Population of Tidewater Virginia. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 193-208.
In his book, Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America, Kroeber points out the need for “primary data”–documentary sources of local population estimates and historical and ecological conditions–in order to compare and interpolate for “less-accurately described areas” in anthropological studies. By using Smith’s Map and Description of Virginia and Strachey’s Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, both early-17th-century accounts based on several years of residence in the area, Maurice A. Mook attempts to use this sort of primary data to account for population density among the “Algonkian aboriginals” of Tidewater Virginia.
Mook concedes that while primary data sources are rich in ethnological data, one must be careful to recognize any exaggerations in the accounts, such as Strachey’s estimates of the number of warriors in the aboriginal populations. Smith, who did not live in the area as long as Strachey, nonetheless traveled the Tidewater area exhaustively, and his work is generally regarded as an accurate assessment of early population dynamics. Mook compares maps and population figures from several sources (most intensively those of Smith and Strachey) to ascertain that the population distribution in the Algonkian population areas was guided as much by history as ecology. While it is possible that the native populations accumulated along the fall line because of more varied resources, this does not explain the westward and southward shifts of population density. These shifts are most effectively explained through an historical examination of agricultural changes, the presence of the English, and the conquests of Powhata (the leader of the Algonkian confederacy).
Mook suggests that Kroeber’s attempts to analyze population and culture in the interpretive method, which accords an increasing numerical value to more “complex” culture, could be validated through methods similar to the one presented here, which takes “physiography, population and the know culture of the area” into account. Cultural differences could be tested according to population and ecological differentials.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
CAROLINE WEATHERS University of Georgia, Athens (J.P. Brosius)
Opler, Morris Edward The Jicarilla Apache Ceremonial Relay Race American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:75-97
Morris Edward Opler attacks the argument of diffusion versus independent invention directly in this article. Can similar ideas be independently created by separate cultures, or must they spread from a single source? Opler finds a possible answer with his search for the source of the ceremonial relay race (a.k.a. “racing” or “rocks”) of the Jicarilla Apache. His findings seem to indicate a combination of the two concepts working together, supporting his belief that many of the aspects of the ceremony diffused from neighboring cultures while other aspects were independently created by the Jicarilla Apache themselves, leading to an overall set of concepts that form a unique system.
Applying the Boasian methodology, Opler’s approach is holistic and historical. He performed his own extensive fieldwork and developed a list of traits for comparing this ceremony with other ceremonies of neighboring cultures to find those traits that may have diffused. His use of historical information is quite helpful here as he is able to show where older forms of aspects of the ceremony may have diffused. He also utilizes the Jicarilla Apache’s own myths about the creation of the race and of the people as guides in rooting out the various sources of the ceremony.
This article is written quite well and is an easy, entertaining read. It is very well annotated and contains many citations to other works on similar matters and drawings of many of the important visual aspects of the ceremony. Until the writing of this article, the ceremonial relay race of the Jicarilla Apache was only poorly documented. This article goes a long way toward alleviating this deficiency.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
HUNTER N. KELLEY California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Opler, Morris E. The Jicarilla Appache Ceremonial Rely Race. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:75-97.
The main objective behind this detailed description of the Jicarilla ceremonial racing is the author’s concern with a poorly studied Native American fiesta employing source materials wherever possible. Opler wants to show that simplistic assertions that this ritual may be a simple borrowing from the Pueblos, obscure the complex Jicarilla-Pueblo and inter-Pueblo cultural relations. He compares various Pueblo ceremonials to prove that strictly diffusionist inquiries cannot fully explain the Jicarilla development.
The first part of the article deals with the description of the rely race which is held in the autumn with the participation of unmarried male youths. These are divided in two groups representing a weakly developed tribal dichotomy into eastern and western bands. One band represents the sun and the animals and the other stands for the moon and the plants. The friendly contest is carried to insure a balanced and regular dual food supply among these primarily hunting and gathering peoples. This elaborate three-day ceremony requires timely preparation and guidance from experienced and knowledgeable masters. It involves feasting, social dancing, praying and singing.
The second part of the article deals with the origin of the Jicarilla rely race.
Based on Apachean materials and internal evidence, the basic patterns and traits seem intrusive. After dismissing any influence from Non-Pueblo peoples of the Southwest as well Keresan and western Pueblos, Opler compares various descriptions of the ritual among Towa, Tiwa and Tewa-speaking Pueblos and refutes Parson’s suggestions concerning Tanoan influence of the Jicarilla. The author tentatively concludes that the Jicarilla ritual has been a long standing feature and that it is a creative and refined elaboration of different Pueblo traits.
The article is mostly descriptive. Opler employs sound primary ethnographic sources from his own research and careful scrutinizes available secondary sources to support his arguments. The article is easy and pleasant to read. The evidence is presented in a clear and orderly manner.
CLARITY RANKING: 4.
JUANA CAMACHO University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Opler, Morris Edward. Cultural and Organic Conceptions in Contemporary World History. American Anthropologist 1944, vol. 46: 448-460.
This article written by Morris Edward Opler is concerned with the notion that the organic theoretical view in fact can be used as a basis for racist concepts. Many opponents have attempted to connect the two together making all those who agree susceptible of falling under the umbrella of a racist theoretical perspective. Even though it is apparent that some racist do share the same ideas of biological properties that also fit the organic form, it is not correct to make the assumption that all organist are racist themselves.
Opler defends the organist through a wordy article that attacks and counter attacks his opponents who feel that the racist doctrine is a direct product of the organic point of view. His defense builds on the idea that humans have not advanced biologically in the past 30,000 years but culture somehow kept advancing. This continued cultural evolution is the direct social response to the pressures that modern man has placed on society. These pressures halted the biological evolution of humans by what he terms a “cushing effect” created by all the multitude of inventions and cultural changes that have been brought on through history. Human history is the story of the diminishing importance of the human body and the growing importance of culture instead. Opler’s superorganic views are the basis of his theoretical defense.
Principles of Nazi Germanys theories are used to give examples of how one can twist and interpret the organic view into racist ideologies. Various other references to this subject in which some do support the author and other don’t, are used to make since of this subject which was an important issue when this WWII era article was written. Opler’s superorganic theory says that men should be judged by their character and not by their physical being marks a good example of what direction the social climate was heading.
Clarity Rating: 2.5
ETHAN JACKSON California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Opler, Morris Edward. Cultural and Organic Conceptions in History. American Anthropologist 1944. Vol. 46:448-459.
Written during World War II Opler’s article offers an explanation of the ideological impetus behind the rise of Nazi Germany, asserting that similar social phenomena can arise in any society given similar socio-economic circumstances. Opler places the rise of Nazi Germany in a historical context that is characterized by an ongoing struggle between two groups of people who hold different views on the essential determinate of human nature (i.e., “organic” vs. “cultural”). The first group believes that the biological characteristics of humans determine their nature. The second group holds that culture is not merely a key variable in determining human nature but that it is the essence of what it is to be human.
Opler purports to differentiate his broader term, organicism, from racism, which he promulgates as a variant of the former, however his defining statements for the two concepts share the same key element. That some groups of people, due to their biological make-up, are innately superior to others and are thus better equipped to be the leaders in society. Opler takes an explicit stand against the organic point of view, noting that there is no evidence to suggest that particular biological characteristics make some humans more capable and thus superior to others. He asserts that character and morality are not connected to physical type but are products of culture.
The article notes that organicism is widespread and held not just by Germans, but also by people in other countries such as England, France, and the United States of America. He asserts that the concept of organicism gains popularity during times of societal instability and despair when people have lost faith in the ability of humans to “…regulate social institutions thoughtfully…” and maintain stability. In supporting his argument he refers to the works of scholars, such as Jacque Brazun and Bertrand Russell. Opler quotes Brazun, noting that “…the great racial ideas have come from disappointed men…” (e.g., Tacitus, Gobineau, Nietzsche, Fichte).
Opler’s article culminates in a discussion of the rise of organicism in Germany prior to World War II. He asserts that poverty and despair characterized life in Germany after World War I and that this context fostered the growth of organicism. He closes his article with a warning that organicism may still gain a strong foothold in the US, and that a military victory over Germany “…will not guarantee that human dignity everywhere will be honored.” Opler notes that this will only come about when organic thinking is defeated.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
JOHN PRIMO University of Georgia (J. Peter Brosius)
Voegelin, C.F. and E.W. The Shawnee Female Deity in Historical Perspective. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:370-375
C.F. and E.W. Voegelins’ article explores the change of sex of the Shawnee Supreme Deity between the years 1824 and 1944. They note that the change was not sudden, but that it was precipitated by many factors–including the introduction of Christianity to the Shawnee. The Voegelins’ article does present a good case for the mutability of religion and how drastic changes can be effected within a relatively short time.
The Voegelins begin their analysis by presenting the current Shawnee belief and myths of the Shawnee Creator and how she created the world. They then report on two documents that were a recent find and that dictate the creation myth as it was believed in 1824. According to those new documents, in 1824 the Shawnee believed in a male Supreme Being and that he alone created the world and everything in it. After presenting the two versions of the creation myth, the Voegelins field three possible explanations as to why and how the Shawnee Supreme Deity’s sex was changed from male to female.
In their analysis, the Voegelins do not try to convince the reader of the validity of one explanation over the other two; but rather, they present the information for the reader to cogitate upon. In the article, the two writers use information gleaned from their own fieldwork along with some of the work of their contemporaries and the two documents that were so recently found. The article itself is fairly neatly organized and easy to read and understand, though the title is a tad bit misleading–initially leading the reader to think that the article discusses Shawnee female deities and their role in tribal worship over history.
The main purpose of this article was to inform the reader of the change of sex of the Shawnee Supreme Deity from male to female and to give the possible reasons for the occurrence. This article would be useful for the individual studying changes in religion over time and the things that might instigate such a change.
CLARITY RANKING: 3
AUDREY M STEWART University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Voegelin, C.F and E.W. The Shawnee Female Deity in Historical Perspective. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46:370-375
This historically important article illustrates a style of ethnographic inquiry that is no longer used. In the investigation into the “characteristics, accomplishments, and position,” of the Shawnee female Deity Voegelin and Voegelin found that this particular deity had changed over time. Through second hand sources and interviews as well as ethnographic questioning of informants, they discovered that in 1824 the female Deity was actually male. Only in the1930s were the researchers able to attain a list of these characteristics of the Shawnee Female Deity.
The researchers then compared the two lists and came to the conclusion that the Deity who was the Great Spirit in 1824 was the same Deity as the creator Grandmother. The style of research done in this particular area of Oklahoma was very typical of this period in American anthropology. The authors outline three different possibilities for the development of the characteristics. The theoretical frameworks and approaches they used include diffusionist and somewhat evolutionary perspectives. They cite the borrowing of characteristics of Iroquoian language and missionary influence as factors that could possibly have led to the changes in the stories and myths surrounding the Shawnee female Deity. The last sentence of the article indicates that at the time of the writing of the article only one of the informants asked knew the previous status of the Deity. This style of ethnography obviously leaves a lot of room for speculation and misinformation. If a later investigation was made into this same question I could imagine the conclusions would be much different.
A historical perspective was very popular at the time this article was written due to the overwhelming influence of the historical particularist school credited much of the work of Franz Boas. This article was quite short, clear and to the point. It may be a bit superficial yet, clear and an easy read.
CLARITY RATING: 5
TAMER SARIELDIN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
White, Leslie A. Morgan’s Attitude Toward Religion and Science. American Anthropologist June, 1944 Vol. 46 (2):218-230.
Leslie A. White’s article examines Lewis Henry Morgan’s controversial attitude toward religion and science. More specifically, White compares Morgan to Charles Darwin and seeks to reconsider the commonly accepted idea that Morgan was a pious church member and on the side of the clergy during the struggle between science and theology in the late nineteenth century. By comparing the works of Darwin and Herbert Spencer to that of Morgan, White succeeds in casting doubt on the accepted belief that Morgan was an anti-evolutionist.
White begins his work with three quotations; by Dr. Bernhard J. Stern, Professor Ralph Linton, and Professor A.R. Radcliffe- Brown; that attest that Morgan was a conservative Biblicist who opposed the idea of evolution in biology and culture. White recognized the contradiction that exists in the picture of Morgan as a devout Christian in opposition to Darwinism and also as a distinguished scientist. White states that in the time in which Morgan lived, the intellectual world was split between the theological and the scientific; those who opposed Darwinism did not make contributions to science. Seeing as how Morgan made significant contributions to science and in his time one could be either in favor of science of in favor of theology, White argues Morgan was on the side of science and, in turn, evolution.
White points out that in Morgan’s own works, he recognized the extreme antiquity of man and that the lowest stage of human existence was hardly distinguishable from that of other animals. White also displays Morgan’s attack on the Degradation theory, which states that after the Fall of Man, various cultures deteriorated to savage status.
White continues his argument by discussing the contents of letters written to Morgan from his friend Rev. J.H. McIlvaine of the First Presbyterian Church of Rochester. The relationship between Morgan and McIlvaine proves to reveal Morgan as a stubborn non-believer because of his refusal to confess Christ publicly. White goes on to quote Morgan’s offense to the Immaculate Conception, the Roman Catholic Church, the representation of God in human form in artwork, and sacred relics of cathedrals.
This article will interest those who are familiar with the controversy between religion and evolution. White convincingly illustrates the need to look closer at the facts surrounding Morgan and the nature of his work.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
SARAH GRAHAM University of Georgia (Pete Brosius)
White, Leslie. Morgan’s Attitude Toward Religion and Science. American Anthropologist 1944 vol. 46:218-230
The author of this article, Leslie White, addresses the issue of myths that surround well-known American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan. White claims that other scholars have perpetuated false propositions about Morgan. This has created a situation where there is now some misunderstanding of his life and certain theoretical perspectives. According to the author, fellow well-known Anthropologist Ralph Linton, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown is guilty of such scholastic slander. In this article White sets out to combat those who have chosen to misinterpret and misinform others with regard to Lewis Morgan. According to the author, some have characterized Morgan as a devout Christian and an opponent of Darwinism. This work is a concerned attempt to discredit those whom fall into this category of Morgan opponents.
Tracing Morgans steps through his work (Ancient Society in particular) and contextualizing his views to the relative times he composed this article in, White was able to present evidence used to support his claims. Quotes from Morgan’s work effectively bolster the claims of the writer. They portray him as a deep thinker who wasn’t at all against the idea of evolution as a cultural mechanism. The quotes selected show that Morgan did in fact agree and support crucial principles of evolution and even agreed with Darwin, which contradicts the claims of Brown and Linton. Morgan’s personal relationship with long time friend Rev. McIlvaine also disproves the myth that Morgan was a devout Christian.
Through thorough investigation, White was able to expose valuable evidence that supports her argument. They concisely present an honest insight into Lewis Morgan as a person and theorist. The evidence clearly supports the contrary to those who have felt the need to proliferate the untrue misconceptions about one of the most influential anthropologist of all time.
Clarity Ranking: 4
ETHAN JACKSON California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Whiting, Alfred. The Origin of Corn: An Evaluation of Fact and Theory. American Anthropologist. 1944 Volume 46: 500-515
In this article, Whiting tries to analyze the origin of corn based on several theories. He first debunks the theory that teosinte was the ancestor to corn. He states that this was a makeshift solution and was not based on any scientific research. Whiting examines three theorists: Weatherwax, Mangelsdorf, and Longley. Weatherwax’s theory is that corn, teosinte, and tripsacum are evolved from a common, unknown ancestor. Mangelsdorf states that a wild, knobless corn was crossbred with Tripsacum which produced teosinte and corn. He had conducted botanical and chromosomal research and were able to “prove” that teosinte was not an ancestor to corn. Longley believes that corn is a derivative of teosinte.
Whiting then goes on the analyze each of these theories based on botanical knowledge. When corn was domesticated, changes occurred in its size and in the toughness of the stem. This is attributed to the common ancestor (Weatherwax), Tripsacum (Mangelsdorf), and to the domestication and mixed breeding influences (Longley). Corn is assumed to be about 20,000 years old, though Weatherwax contests that, since the strawberry only took 600 years to domesticate, corn should not take 20000 years. Unfortunately archeological evidence did not have the means to support any of these theories at that time. Whiting assumes, based on pervious studies, that the corn originated somewhere in the cultural centers of Middle or South America.
While Whiting has been proven incorrect (teosinte has been proven to be the ancestor to corn) his research is an excellent example of multidisciplinary anthropology.
CLARITY RANKING:5
BROOKE BURNS California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Whyte, William Foote. Sicilian Peasant Society. American Anthropologist January-March, 1944 Vol. 46: 65-74.
William Foote Whyte’s article elaborates on work done by Dr. Giuseppe Pitre about the life of the people of Sicily. Whyte’s work more specifically concentrates on the social organizations of society and its relation to sacred beliefs and practices. By drawing primarily from three volumes of Pitre’s work and Whyte’s own interview with a Sicilian peasant, he draws a description of the functions of society based on their association with religious practices.
Whyte begins his study by looking at the stratification of Sicilian society. These stratifications were extremely important in Sicilian society, especially among the peasants where social distinctions could place a limit on who one was able to marry. Whyte discusses how this is important because like many other peasant societies, family is the most vital social group. He then goes on to discuss how the idea of family ties into the religious ideas of the society. This could be best seen in Whyte’s analysis of the annual festa that each village had in order to celebrate its patron saint.
Whyte’s examination of the festa brings him to the conclusion that Sicilian society is based on a hierarchy that is matched in the world of the sacred. In order for a person to succeed in this society, a man had to make connections with those in a greater position than he who could intercede for him. This is the structure for both secular and religious hierarchies. Whyte then goes on to use the example of the life of a woman through engagement, marriage, childbirth, and death show this connection between secular and sacred. He explains how through every step of the engagement process and even through marriage, the woman is subordinate to her husband and can not move in her position. However, Whyte explains, that once she becomes pregnant, her position improves dramatically as she is seen to enter the realm of the supernatural world.
Whyte’s article clearly demonstrated how closely ever action within the social organization is tied to the peasant system of sacred beliefs. As one participated in social activities more intensely, the more central one’s position in society became, and hence the closer to an intimate relationship with the supernatural. Whyte concludes that ever movement upward in the social direction was tied to an upward movement in a spiritual direction.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
CHERYL STAUGAITIS University of Georgia (Peter Brosius)
Whyte, William Foote. Sicilian Peasant Society. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol. 46: 65-74.
Whyte’s article on the organization of Sicilian Peasant Society reads as a prime example of armchair anthropology. He draws upon three works by Dr. Giuseppe Pitre: Usi e Costumi Credenze del Popolo Siciliano, Feste Patronali in Sicilia, and La Famiglia, La Casa, La Vita. Although he conducted his own interview with a Sicilian peasant immigrant whom he met in the United States, Whyte makes no attempt to hide the fact that, at least while conducting research for this article, he never actually visited the island. Whyte states that it is not his intention to “simply summarize” the work of Pitre, he avers to focus his research upon Sicilian social organization and its relationship with the sacred beliefs and practices of the Sicilian people.
According to Whyte, the most apparent facet of Sicilian society is its system of social stratification. He cites an unpublished manuscript by Charlotte Gower, Milocca. Gower suggests that there are four main classes in Sicily: the nobility, the landlords, well-to-do businessmen and the artisans. Pitre suggests that there were two distinct peasant classes, the burgisi who owned their own land and the viddani who were farm laborers.
The article continues to highlight various aspects of Sicilian social life. Whyte discusses the importance of the Godfather-Godchild relationship in the suppression of vendettas, and he shares the knowledge gained from his immigrant informant that society is hierarchically organized because that is the way it is in the sacred world.
The rest of the article is devoted to the changes in position the individual endures in his social group during his lifetime. An individual’s position in the social group will change at the same time his relations with the sacred change. Pitre finishes the article with a hypothetical story line concerning “boy” and “girl” and their journey from courtship, to marriage, from the wedding night, through pregnancy and childbirth.
Sicilian Peasant Society is an article written in the tradition of the Mead and Benedict national character studies and, except for the lack of actual field research of the author, a good representation of the Culture and Personality school of ethnographic research.
CLARITY RANKING: 5
NO NAME California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)
Willems, Emilio. Acculturation and the Horse Complex Among German-Brazilians. American Anthropologist April-June, 1944 Vol.46(2):153-161.
Willems addresses the acculturation of German immigrants and Brazilian born German-Brazilians. Through one particular example he explains why certain traits, vocabulary and Brazilian conventions were adopted or adapted, while others were excluded. Willems situates the phenomenon historically, and culturally, regarding both German and Brazilian cultures, to ultimately illustrate the acculturation process in southern Brazil in the 19th century.
German immigrants and Brazilian born German-Brazilians faced a difficult position early on. Because Brazil was participating actively in the slave system, and ascribed slave-like status associated with the manual labor (pastoral and agricultural) of German-Brazilians, overcoming this position necessitated adoption of Brazilian culture. Willems illustrates this transformation in the horse complex. In Germany, ridding horse are associated with nobility, but were relatively common among the guachos, therefore all the language and culture associated with this complex was adopted. However, this was not the case with the mule, or ass, associated by the Germans with their homeland’s lower classes from which they aspired to separate themselves. Such adaptation aided in the ultimate creation of a middle class, higher social status and acceptance, by way of Brazilian culture, of the immigrants and their descendants.
Drawing from literature, research and evident familiarity of German, Brazilian, and German-Brazilian culture, Willems fluidly walks through the acculturation process within the historical and cultural context. In addition, he provides a brief list of Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary associated with the horse complex and the German-Brazilian adaptations, and he also provides English translations. This information, as well valuable information contained within footnotes, demonstrates Willems’ comprehension of the situation and dynamics of acculturation through exposition of the horse complex among German-Brazilians.
CLARITY: 4
CHRISTOPHER M. ECKENROTH University of Georgia (J. Peter Brosius)
Willems, Emilio. Acculturation and the Horse Complex Among German- Brazilians. American Anthropologist April-June, 1944 Vol.46 (2): 153-161
Emilio Willems article is an ethnographic overview of the acculturation process. After spending some time in Brazil, Willems decided that German immigrants were a perfect study group for his research paper. German settlers started to immigrate into Southern Brazil during the early nineteenth century, where Brazilian natives met them with suspicion and scorn. Willems examined the German struggle for higher status, and the process of borrowing cultural traits.
Willems gives numerous examples of functionalism in his paper. A good example of the cultural borrowing between the two groups is the “horse complex.” The horse complex was considered to be “one of the most outstanding characteristics of the pastoral culture”, and this represented higher status and position to the German immigrants. German settlers accepted the saddle horse, not only because of the higher status of the gaucho, but also because of the prestige which horse ownership held in their homeland. Willems explains in his article that along with the acceptance of material traits, behavioral patterns were also acquired. Some of the behaviors that the German-Brazilians demonstrated were the peculiar fighting patterns of the gauchos, and the gambling complex of the horse race.
The horse race is “one of the most popular traits of German-Brazilian culture”, but the most significant part of the acculturation process was that of the corresponding Portuguese vocabulary. The adoption of the Portuguese language, led to the “breakdown of cultural isolation” and it made the “struggle for status much easier.” Willems article gives the reader a detailed look into the life of a hard working and determined social group that acquired certain characteristics to survive in a new environment.
CLARITY RANKING: 4
VANESSA RAMOS California State PolytechnicUniversity, Pomona (Mark Allen).
Wyman, Leland C. and Bailey, Flora L. Two Examples of Navaho Physiotherapy. American Anthropologist September, 1944 Vol. 46(3):329-337.
The authors describe two Navaho healing ceremonies – fumigant-burning and repairing ceremony, both of which include an element of physiotherapy. The fumigant-burning ceremony involves heat treatment (sudoresis) and the repairing ceremony a massage. Both are used occasionally as emergency treatment for an organic condition and have been described only in passing in previous literature, so justifying a more detailed study. In case studies, both were observed to provide relief from pain, stiffness and (in the case of the repairing ceremony) hysteric catalepsy.
The authors’ discussion of the fumigant burning ceremony begins with a clarification of the etymology of the name and a description of the condition treated by this method: in Navaho terms sexual infection. Other forms of fumigation ceremonies are compared and each associated with larger ‘chantway’ ceremonies (e.g. the Lifeway), with which they may be incorporated. Two ‘performances’ are described in detail, including: 1. the diagnoses of the patients (chronic arthritis and retinal damage), 2. botanical and zoological ingredients utilized, 3. preparation of the materials and ceremonial site, 4. the execution of the ceremony.
The repairing ceremony is primarily used to treat cataleptic hysteria, and the symptomatic, cultural and legendary components of this condition are discussed. Comparison with the “tromba” of Madagascar leads the authors to suggest that the condition is at least partially a culture-bound syndrome of psycho-social and auto-suggestive origin. Indeed, in some cases the condition is caused by a preceding portion of a healing ceremony, particularly the frightening procedure. The use of the repairing ceremony alongside various chantway ceremonies in contemporary and legendary accounts is described. Again, case studies of two performances are recorded in detail, including the importance of the various tools used in the procedure.
The authors conclude that the physical benefits expected of the two physiotherapeutic procedures were confirmed in their observations. Furthermore, the repairing ceremony is described as a blend of physical and suggestive therapy, suited to a condition of similarly mixed etiology.
CLARITY: 3
TOPHER DAGG University of Georgia (Pete Brosius)
Wyman, Leland C. and Flora L. Bailey. Two Examples of Navaho Physiotherapy. American Anthropologist 1944 Vol.46:329-337.
In this article, Wyman and Bailey, discuss and describe in detail two Navaho healing ceremonies: Fumigant-burning, or boiling, and the repairing ceremony. According to the Navaho, fumigant burning is a heat treatment used for sexual infection. Sexual infection is caused by improper or excessive sexual behavior and brings on symptoms such as headaches, eye trouble and arthritic pain. To treat a person who ails from the maladies, a mixture of various plants and ingredients is sprinkled over heated rocks and a patient sits nearby to breath in the resulting steam and smoke.
The repairing ceremony is believed to heal a variety of conditions, but most specifically “swooning” seizures known as catalepsy. Symptoms of catalepsy include shaking, foaming of the mouth, and rigid body spasms. Wyman and Bailey suggest that the “illness” is a conditioned response expected from an individual during the ceremony. It can be a way of obtaining attention for those who have less conspicuous roles in their society or are disapproved of socially. Referring to an example given, first wives without children are discriminated against and will be prone to catalepsy, whereas first wives with children are commended and will not be provoked to become cataleptic. The procedure for the repairing ceremony includes ritual singing, frightening techniques, and massaging of afflicted parts of the body. Though the ritual is performed for specific individuals, any one of the members presented may start to show the signs of the illness.
Wyman and Bailey follow the ceremonial definitions with observed objective behavior. They give descriptive details of each ceremony without adding personal theories or translations and recorded only what they saw performed during the two events. The article compliments Boas’s cultural relativism and the importance of strenuous data gathering techniques in extensive fieldwork. They made an effort to hold an objective view of the culture they studied and to catalog only the basic facts they observed.
CLARITY RATING: 4
ANGELA KUHLMANN California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Mark Allen)