ANT 18615 Reciprocity And The Power Of Giving Lee Cronk Summary

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Textbook Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology 15th Edition

Authors David W. McCurdy, Dianna Shandy, James W. Spradley Late

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Motorcycles, Membership, and Belonging

DAVID W. McCURDY

Summary In his article entitled "Motorcycles, Membership, and Belonging," David

McCurdy discusses the ways humans form groups, identifying the more common ways

for Americans and drawing a comparison between the traditional kinship group in rural

India and the more American method of social aggregation based on shared interests.

Indian families would be surprised, McCurdy suggests, to see how American families

live in comparison to their own existence in large, close-knit groups of extended

families. Americans grow up in small nuclear families, often with parents out working.

Neighbors are often strangers, and people can appear lonely. American society values

individualism, independence, and competition.

However, McCurdy believes that Americans find satisfying social connections not from

families and neighbors, but instead from other groups: networks of friends from local

taverns, work organizations, and civic groups. He contends that these groups, as well as

those formed around shared interests, provide members with a sense of self-worth and a

safe place to express their social needs.

To illustrate his argument, McCurdy describes the Gold Wing Recreational Rider

Association (GWRRA), a group formed in 1976 by seven couples in Phoenix, Arizona,

who owned Honda Gold Wing motorcycles and wanted to connect with others for the

purposes of touring. Since then, this group has grown to include more than 70,000

members in the United States, Canada, and 10 other countries. It boasts a paid staff, an

army of volunteers, 10 deputy directors, nine American and three Canadian regional

directors, 49 district directors, and 586 chapter directors. It has an annual rally called

the "Wing Ding" that draws over 10,000 participants. Local chapters gather for a variety

of events, including monthly meetings, weekly rides, and fund-raisers.

McCurdy argues that the core values of this organization reflect the values and

symbolism of kinship groups and offer participants a framework of belonging and

opportunities to express themselves. Participation in the GWRRA brings with it a

certain expectation of behavior. Members show off their motorcycles, and are expected

to have pride in their machines, cleaning and adorning them with chrome and other

accents. Participation is encouraged and rewarded by pins and patches. Safety is of

utmost importance, and members are discouraged from showing off, driving after

drinking, and riding aggressively. Additionally, couples are a valued part of the group,

and members are strongly encouraged to participate and tour with the group, despite the

physical challenges of motorcycle riding.

McCurdy concludes that belonging to a group of individuals who share an interest

provides Americans with a feeling of belonging that many do not find at home or work.

It offers the opportunity for personal recognition, a sense of self-worth, and a way to

express themselves. For many, McCurdy argues, this organized group provides what he

calls a "non-family home."

In "Motorcycles, Membership, and Belonging," McCurdy argues that individuals in

Indian society have turned to personal networks outside of their family, including

groups of people from local taverns, civic organizations, and special interests, for

satisfying social connections.

In "Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of Amputees," Nordstrom illustrates that the

self-run, informal banking system that the women of Muleque developed was

a. based on stability, trust, and allegiance.

b. regulated to ensure that a woman did not receive all of the money and then

immediately leave the group.

c. taxed and monitored by the government.

d. unsuccessful in providing women with proceeds to invest in farming or other items.

Law and Order

JAMES P. SPRADLEY AND DAVID W. McCURDY

Summary In this article, Spradley and McCurdy present law in the context of dispute

resolution, using cases drawn from anthropologist Laura Nader's work in Ralu"a, a

Zapotec Indian village located in southern Mexico.

The article deals with several concepts: the structure of legal culture, including

substantive law and procedural law, legal levels, legal principles, and cultural values.

Substantive law consists of the legal statutes that define right and wrong. This is

illustrated by the flirtation of a married man with an unmarried woman, which the

Zapotec treat as a crime. Similarly, the case of a son who harvested coffee from his

father's land without permission is also defined as a crime to be dealt with by the

community's legal system.

Legal levels refer to the ways in which disputes are settled by different kinds of

authority agents. Among the Zapotec, several levels for settling disputes exist. Disputes

can be settled by family elders, witches, local officials, the priest, supernatural beings,

or officials in the municipio. If all else fails, the dispute can be taken to the district court

in Villa Alta.

Procedural law refers to the agreed-upon ways to settle disputes, which are often

unwritten, and therefore implicit in nature. In Ralu"a, for example, it is generally

agreed that one should not take family disputes to court, and disputes between villagers

(such as an argument over the washing stone) should be taken to court only if they

cannot be settled between the disputing individuals beforehand. In this case, the dispute

was settled when the presidente (village chairman who also presides over the village

court) and other elected village officials formed a work force, improved the washing

facilities at the well, and declared that washing stones would no longer be owned by

individuals.

Legal systems reflect legal principles and cultural values. Legal principles are based

on the fundamental values of a culture; a legal principle is a broad conception of some

desirable state of affairs that gives rise to many substantive and procedural rules.

Americans put great emphasis on establishing truth, while for the Zapotec, a major legal

principle is to "make the balance." This means to encourage compromise and settlement

so that disputes disappear and disputants get along with each other in the future. This in

turn is based on the Zapotec cultural value of maintaining social equilibrium. A direct

confrontation between individuals where one loses and another wins is unsettling to

community members.

According to Spradley and McCurdy in "Law and Order," a legal principle is defined as

an agreed-upon way to settle a dispute.

According to Lee, the most important staple in the diet of the !Kung when studied in

1963 was

a. taro root.

b. the mongongo nut.

c. giraffe meat.

d. a kind of bitter berry.

Body Ritual among the Nacirema

HORACE MINER

Summary Miner's classic, satirical article describes the body ritual of a North

American people called the Nacirema. Driven by a cultural value of the fragility and

importance of their bodies, they engage in a series of daily rituals designed to make

their bodies more presentable and long lasting. Underlying body ritual is a cultural

perception that the human body is ugly with a tendency toward debility and disease.

The Nacirema engage in complex rituals to cover up bodily imperfections and slow the

body's deterioration. They have a household shrine with a chest full of magical charms,

and a holy font located below the charm box. Charms come in many forms and are used

for many specific purposes.

There are medicine men to guide the Nacirema in the use of charms, and

"holy-mouth-men" that use various tools to purify and maintain the mouth; this in

addition to the twice-daily mouth rite done at home that involves the use of a special

brush..

More elaborate ceremonies are performed in a local temple, the latipsoalthough that is

often viewed as a place to die. Those entering the latipso are often stripped of their

clothing, handled by vestal virgins, and made to do their bodily functions in a sacred

vessel and in public. Normally, however, excretory functions are ritualized and

relegated to secrecy, as are natural reproductive functions.

There is also another practitioner, called a "listener," who has the power to exorcise the

devils that lodge in the heads of people who have been bewitched. Parents, especially

mothers, are often suspected of putting a curse on their children. For a large gift, a

witch doctor will conduct exorcism sessions, when he or she listens to the other's

troubles and fears from childhood.

Miner concludes that from the evidence above, the Nacirema are a magic-ridden

people.

In "Body Ritual among the Nacirema," Miner notes that Nacireman women regularly

visit ritual houses to have their heads baked in special ovens.

According to Goldstein in "Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife," Tibetan polyandry

a. requires a group of brothers to marry one woman.

b. is caused by high rates of female infanticide, creating a shortage of women.

c. is a response to a shortage of arable land.

d. allows for greater personal freedom than monogamous marriage.

Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of the Amputees

CAROLYN NORDSTROM

Summary Supporters of the use of land mines argue that they deter soldiers and protect

sensitive areas during combat. Statistics show, however, that those most commonly

injured by land mines are not soldiers, but instead children, women, and men engaged

in nonmilitary activities. These mines leave their victims without limbs, often unable to

walk, work, or eke out an existence in a part of the world where wheelchairs are

nonexistent and life is incredibly hard, even for a healthy individual.

The women of Muleque, Angola, who were injured by these land mines, at first

developed informal economies in order to simply survive. But as Nordstrom points out,

they wanted more than to merely exist. They formed their own informal banking

systems, popular in Southern Africa, and with just a few pennies, managed to raise

money to invest in farmland. Joining an informal bank group, according to Nordstrom,

is the first step on the path that women follow out of poverty and into development.

There are many steps, and the process is difficult. Women start with nothing; hard labor

is the only way to raise the small amount needed to even join an informal bank group.

According to Nordstrom's research, women are "the invisible center of gravity of

society" in Southern Africa. A man's presence is fluid; a woman is always there. She

makes the connections that create family, society, and community networks. Without

the women, according to the author, families and societies collapse. With the women at

the center, families succeed, and health, education, and trade result. The author notes

that is interesting that the women's efforts and their contributions to development go

unnoticed. According to figures from the United Nations, these informal economies

contribute $250 billion annually in imports, and this money goes directly into the

development of the country. Yet these women continue to be depicted by

non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as stereotypical victims barely surviving by

selling bananas and charcoal.

According to Nordstrom in "Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of Amputees,"

the Muleque woman had friends in government, as well as in the mining and

transport industries, who regularly took their wares on flights or trucks going across the

country.

In "Nuer Refugees in America," Shandy notes that the U.S. immigration service has

settled the Nuer in about 30 different states because

a. they could not find a single location for them all.

b. they feel refugees adapt better if they are scattered in small groups around the

country.

c. they hoped to prevent the Nuer immigrants from finding each other and

building communities here in the United States.

d. their safety depends on hiding them among American families so that their

political enemies cannot find them.

In "Reciprocity and the Power of Giving," Cronk, reporting on a study by Grace

Goodell, notes that monetary support of an irrigation project by the _________ served

to __________ in Iran.

a. U.S., support local level political organizations

b. World Bank, support local level political organizations

c. U.S., crush local level political organizations

d. World Bank, crush local-level political organizations

According to Gmelch in "Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas," people living in the rural

Barbadian community where his study abroad student, Hanna, was doing research

believed that

a. Rastafarians had taken vows of celibacy and young women should not talk to them.

b. Rastafarians were low class because their ancestors had come from Africa.

c. Rastafarians were lazy, pot smoking people who stole things and bathed naked.

d. Rastafarians were members of a religion that revered Islam, not Christianity.

The economic incorporation of different parts of the world into a system based on

capitalism, not politics, defines

a. world system.

b. cultural diffusion.

c. cultural hybridization.

d. multiculturalism.

From the research Patten's team conducted, they learned that

a. women in the villages headed 50 percent of all households.

b. each household had an adult male regularly living with them.

c. over 35 percent of the children were underweight for their age.

d. 20 percent of the women were illiterate.

Advice for Developers: Peace Corps Problems in Botswana

HOYT S. ALVERSON

Summary This classic article by Hoyt Alverson provides an excellent example of how

anthropology can be applied to the solution of practical problems. Although written

years ago, its message is equally relevant today as Peace Corps volunteers, USAID

workers, military personnel, and NGO (non-governmental organization) employees

engage in nation building around the world. Alverson's conclusion is clear:

development work in foreign (and even in some domestic) settings requires

cross-cultural understanding.

Alverson was asked by a program director to investigate problems with the Peace

Corps' development efforts in Botswana. Volunteers, he was told, were to introduce

development projects to Tswana farmers but found it difficult to so. The Tswana often

resisted the volunteers' efforts. They would seem to cooperate but eventually nothing

happened. Frustrated, volunteers tended to isolate themselves, failed to learn the local

language, and hung out with other Americans or Europeans. Some gave up. Others

failed to complete their two-year contracts. Many felt spiteful toward the Tswana and

some even experienced nervous breakdowns.

Alverson approached his task by looking at both the culture and perspective of the

Peace Corps volunteers, and the culture and responses of the Tswana. (Alverson had

already spent 15 months doing ethnographic research in a Tswana community.) He

discovered that volunteers had many unstated assumptions, based on culture. Often, for

example, volunteers wished to be respected for their superior knowledge and their ways

of doing things, which they believed were better. Volunteers also believed that the

Tswana had asked them to help impart their Western cultural knowledge and that they,

the volunteers, were different from colonial authorities because they did not force

people to change. The conclusion to draw from this information is simple: the

volunteers' self-perception made it harder for them to learn about the people they were

there to engage.

The remainder of Alverson's paper deals with areas of cross-cultural misunderstandings

between volunteers and the Tswana. One example is the concept of time. The American

volunteer's concept of time is lineal: the Tswana concept sees time as bounded by

events. Volunteers became frustrated when the Tswana did not show up on time.

Another example is that volunteers appreciate candor as they talk. The Tswana like

smooth, non-confrontational discourse. As a result, a Tswana may lie about something

to avoid conflict.

In sum, Alverson sees the discomfort displayed by American Peace Corps volunteers in

Botswana as a consequence of life in a very different, culturally defined Tswana world.

The implied solution is to inform volunteers about their own cultural and

self-perceptions, and teach volunteers as much as possible about the culture of those

with whom they intend to work.

Tswana farmers, notes Alverson in "Advice for Developers," fail to recognize the subtle

references about sex, age, and class in the English language of Peace Corps volunteers.

Negotiating Work and Family in America DIANNA SHANDY AND KARINE MOE

Summary In this article, Dianna Shandy and Karine Moe explore the complexities of

the latest research on how generations of women have handled the challenges of

negotiating work and family in America. By combining labor statistics, interviews with

more than 100 women, focus groups, and surveys of nearly 1000 college graduates, the

authors explore the advances of women in the workforce, their experiences juggling

families and careers outside of the home, and the subsequent choices new generations

of women are making in this area.

Anthropologists used to view the gender relationship between men and women as one

of inherent male domination. Ernestine Friedl, however, argued that control of publicly

distributed resources was key to women's power. Among the Hadza of Tanzania for

example, men and women gather food equally, and subsequently relate to one another

with relative gender equality. In contrast, when men supply virtually all of the food,

such as among the Inuit of the Arctic, there is significant gender inequality.

Similar cultural ranking exists in the United States. In the United States one's

occupation determines relative rank. Today, women hold positions previously reserved

for men onlypositions that include leadership, management, and business ownership.

Women make up half of the workforce on all U.S. payrolls, and own one third of the

businesses in the United States. Additionally, women now account for more than 50

percent of all college students and are the majority of those enrolled in graduate or

professional schools. Women have made great strides toward gender equality in the

workplace over the last few decades, but many are still opting out when they have

children.

Many gender-related factors both push women out of the workforce and pull them

toward family and home, such as a woman's "second shift" or experiencing a "glass

ceiling" (the proverbial barrier preventing advancement to a higher position). Unlike

other industrialized nations, women in the United States of at least three generations

have experienced and continue to experience significant structural barriers to flexible

and affordable childcare.

Given the low cultural ranking given of the occupation of "full-time motherhood,"

women often struggle to maintain a sense of gender equality, prestige, and power while

at home. Some do so by forming strong social groups. Still others describe themselves

as career women taking time off to stay home with kids.

In "Negotiating Work and Family in America," Shandy and Moe argue that even when

men and women work at the same jobs, men always have domination over women.

Without ________ it is nearly impossible for a man or a woman in the Fouta Djallon to

be considered an adult, let alone a successful and responsible one, by others in the

community.

a. a marriage

b. a career

c. an education

d. a prosperous business

What factor do Shandy and Moe point to in "Negotiating Work and Family in America"

as the most important in understanding why women with unprecedented access to

education, jobs, and income, "opt out" of the workforce?

a. gender

b. income

c. education

d. generation

!Kung expressed disappointment with the ox Lee gave them for the Christmas feast

because

a. the animal was too thin and old.

b. this was their way to "cool" a giver's potential arrogance.

c. the animal came from an outsider.

d. they were afraid that Lee would take the animal back if they showed approval.

According to McCurdy in "Using Anthropology," the first thing a new manager at UTC

did after assuming a new position was to

a. shrink-wrap books in the warehouse.

b. ask warehouse workers, customer outlet staff, and other employees about problems

and procedures.

c. ask previous warehouse managers for advice.

d. change the counting and shipping procedures in the warehouse.

According to Nordstrom in "Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of Amputees," the

efforts of the amputee women to group together, form banking systems, and move from

local subsistence to international profitmaking

a. were a haphazard reaction to their circumstances.

b. were part of a carefully crafted plan of development.

c. brought significantly less money into the country than unauthorized diamond mining.

d. were not central to the economy of the country.

In "Body Ritual among the Nacirema," Miner points out that the fundamental belief that

underlies Nacireman body ritual is

a. that the human body is ugly and subject to disability and disease.

b. the concern about the beauty of the body.

c. that the health of the body depends on the health of the mind.

d. that disease of the body is caused by a person's failure to take care of it properly.

Public Interest Ethnography: Women's Prisons and Health Care in California

RACHAEL STRYKER

Summary In this article, Rachael Stryker describes how ethnography can be used to

affect public policy. With government sponsorship, she and a group of her

undergraduate students interviewed a number of inmates incarcerated in two California

state prisons for women. Their goal was to learn about the provision of health care from

the prisoner's perspective. Armed with the "insider's" point of view, they produced

recommendations for changes, some of which were adopted by prison authorities.

Public interest ethnography (a branch of applied anthropology) involves ethnographic

research among people who are affected by policy. It brings a human face to the impact

of policy and often seeks to empower those affected by it. The study of health care

provided in California's women's prisons is a good example. The researchers discovered

that to receive care, an inmate had to fill out a request, pay a five-dollar copay, receive a

ducat (something like a hall pass), and then see one of three people: an MTA (medically

trained correctional guard), a nurse, or a doctor. The process could take weeks and was

complicated by the fact that inmates had little money, were often treated by unqualified

health providers, and were frustrated by an inability to speak English (many inmates

spoke only Spanish). Inmates often feared medical procedures and felt that doctors

treated them with disrespect. They also told about instances of sexual harassment. Other

factors related to inmate health included poor sanitation caused by overcrowded cells,

and lack of cleaning and personal hygiene supplies. AIDS patients were housed in the

general inmate population. Food was also a problem, especially for diabetics and those

with food allergies. Finally, inmates did not get enough exercise. Inmates often

responded to these problems by treating themselves or ignoring symptoms.

The ethnographic study produced a list of recommendations. It advised the state to

simplify the process required of inmates to receive health care, reduce or eliminate the

copay because inmates had little money, eliminate the MTA position, hire more

qualified nurses and doctors, provide translators, reduce overcrowding, and improve

nutrition and sanitation. In response to these recommendations the state increased

translation services, eliminated the MTA position, and started a process to reduce

overcrowding. Other recommendations were taken under advisement.

As indicated in "Ethnography in the Public Interest," the ethnographic project Stryker

directed recommended that prisons should eliminate the medically trained guard (MTA)

position.

Village Walks: Tourism and Globalization among the Tharu of Nepal

ARJUN GUNERATNE AND KATE BJORK

Summary Arjun Guneratne and Kate Bjork focus on what it was like for an ethnic

group, the Tharu, to become the objects of tourists' curiosity (the "tourist gaze"). The

article describes tourists arriving in Pipariya, a Tharu village located near the Chitwan

National Forest in Nepal's tarai region in 1989. They report on what the tour guide says

and how the tourists and villagers respond. The so-called "village walk" is a good

example of cultural tourism (there is also recreational, medical, religious, eco-, and sex

tourism). It is usually one stop on a more broadly structured tour of Nepal's mountains,

cities, and the Chitwan forest itself. The authors stress the importance of the

anthropological study of tourism as a significant part of globalization research. They

point out that nearly 100 million people go on tour every year and spend billions of

dollars. Their impact on local economies as well as on people's ways of life represents a

significant globalizing force.

From the Tharu's point of view, the way they are characterized by Nepal's tourist

industry is both significant and humiliating. Originally the tarai was a heavily forested

area bordering the foothills and valleys of the Himalayan Mountains. Despite the land

made inhospitable by malaria, the Tharu still managed to settle there, tilling small forest

plots and hunting for their subsistence. All this changed in the 1950s when the

insecticide DDT largely eradicated the mosquitoes that carried malaria. As a result,

settlers from Nepal's hills and India's plains soon infiltrated the area and cleared most of

the land for cultivation. Settlers soon outnumbered the Tharu, who adapted to the

newcomers. Tharu now worked in tourist hotels and farmed in the same way as other

rural Nepalese, and their children attended school. For the tourist industry, however, the

Tharu past seemed like a natural tourist attraction. Tourist brochures claimed that the

Tharu were "a primitive native people" who were "untouched by civilization." Tour

guides echoed this view as they walked tourists through Pipariya. In addition, most

guides belonged to Nepal's two highest-ranked ethnic groups, the Brahmin and Chhetri,

and treated the Tharu as inferiors. They brought tourists into Tharu houses without

permission and treated those inside with disrespect. Tourists themselves were largely

ignorant of the Tharu and occasionally treated villagers like zoo exhibits. From the

Tharu perspective, tourists could usually be tolerated as guests. (There is no word for

"tourist" in their language; they call them "guests.") Their greatest concern was the

negative way they were portrayed by the tourist industry.

In 2009, one of the authors revisited Pipariya and encountered a different picture. The

Tharu had constructed a small museum. Museum exhibits represented how they used to

live, successfully divorcing their past from the present. (The "tourist gaze" often makes

people more aware of their culture and its past.) The museum was the first place that

tourists visited and deflected most of them away from the village's residential

compounds. Globalization had also impacted the Tharu in other ways. Many young men

have gone to work in foreign countries and send money home regularly. A few have

even managed to acquire green cards for work and residence in the United States.

According to Guneratne and Bjork in "Village Walks," most Tharu men from Pipariya

wore Western-style clothes, whereas many Tharu women continued to wear their

traditional dress.

The idea that human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings they have

for them is a tenet of

a. naive realism.

b. explicit culture.

c. tacit culture.

d. symbolic interactionism.

If a society uses irrigation, its food-getting (subsistence) system would best be

classified as

a. agriculture.

b. horticulture.

c. pastoral.

d. hydraulic.

According to Boxer in "The Military Name Game",,the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff

created a __________ nicknamed __________ to generate names for military

operations.

a. military command committee, "COMAT"

b. computer program, "NICKA"

c. three-service bureau, "BOCAB"

d. military swat team, "SWATNOM"

Religious specialists who mediate between people and the supernatural are called

a. witches.

b. shamans.

c. diviners.

d. priests.

An important point stressed by Lee about the Ju/"Hoansi !Kung he studied in 1963 was

that

a. both adults and children had to work every day to ensure a sufficient food supply.

b. the !Kung had to use virtually all of the edible plants and animals in their

environment in order to survive in the desert.

c. life in the state of nature was not necessarily nasty, brutish, and short.

d. meat provided more calories in the !Kung diet than other foods.

According to Stryker in "Ethnography in the Public Interest," the prison position of

MTA was held by a

a. nurse practitioner.

b. medically trained guard.

c. medical appointment secretary.

d. designated prison doctor.

According to Eames in in "Negotiating Nigerian Bureaucracies," bribery

a. terminates a personal relationship.

b. can lead to arrest in Nigerian society.

c. initiates a personal relationship.

d. is very uncommon in Nigerian bureaucracy.

A rule of relationship that links people together on the basis of reputed common

ancestry is called

a. affinity.

b. descent.

c. patrilineality.

d. social organization.

Mother's Love: Death without Weeping

NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES

Summary In this article, Nancy Scheper-Hughes argued that under conditions of

extreme poverty where there are high rates of infant mortality, it is a natural human

response for mothers to distance themselves emotionally from their dead and dying

infants.

Scheper-Hughes based her conclusion on 25 years of fieldwork, starting in 1965, in the

shantytown of Alto do Cruzeiro on the edge of Bom Jesus de Mata, a market town in

northeast Brazil. Poverty in the shantytown produced a life expectancy of only 40 years,

largely due to high rates of infant mortality.

Scheper-Hughes first encountered women's reactions to infant death in 1965 when 350

children died in a "great baby die-off." Mothers seemed strangely indifferent to the

deaths of their children. It was then that Scheper-Hughes concluded that mothering in

Alto do Cruzeiro meant learning to abstain from forming emotional ties to their infants

who were sick or weakthose who were likely to die.

Social conditions were marked by brittle marriages; single parenting by women was the

norm. Most had no choice but to work in the "shadow economy"; babies were

frequently left home alone because infants could not be taken to work. Midwives and

other women supported mothers in their detachment. Even civil authorities and the

clergy discouraged the attachment of mothers to their babies. Registration of infant

deaths was short and informal. Doctors did not recognize malnutrition and, instead of

treating a child at risk of dying, merely tranquilized them. The church did not hold

ceremonies for dead children, and infants were buried without headstones in graves that

would be used over and over again.

In an epilogue added by Scheper-Hughes for this edition, the author notes that by 2008

much had changed in Bom Jesus. The advent of a democratic government brought a

national health care system, a change in Catholic beliefs about infant death, an

under-the-counter "morning after" pill, and most important, the installation of water

pipes throughout the city. The result was a dramatic decline in both infant birth and

death rates. Mothers who once were resigned to "letting go" of sickly babies now "hold

on" to their infants. Unfortunately, high infant mortality has been replaced by a new

form of violence: the killing of young men, by gang leaders, banditos, and local police.

According to Scheper-Hughes in "Mother's Love: Death Without Weeping," the doctors

and clergy of the Brazilian city of Bom Jesus de Mata worked hard to save the lives of

poor children born in the shantytown of Alto do Cruzeiro but failed because of the

indifference of the infants' mothers.

Food-getting strategies have little impact on the structure of society.

Becoming Muslim in Europe

MIKAELA ROGOZEN-SOLTAR

Increased globalization has brought people of different backgrounds in contact with one

another more than ever before. In "Becoming Muslim in Europe," Mikaela

Rogozen-Soltar argues that this has created conflict, mutual influence, and increased

intercultural and interreligious marriages. These marriages, particularly in countries

such as Spain, where religion and national identity are deeply entwined, can be very

difficult to navigate and highlight basic cultural differences. Rogozen-Soltar identifies

and discusses one of the biggest cultural differences that exists today, that of Muslim

and non-Muslim marriage partners. Her article illustrates the unique challenges faced

by Muslim converts in Spanish culture, where Catholicism is seen as part of one's

"Spanishness."

Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion based on new births and converts to the

faith. Spain has a rich, 800-year-old Muslim history, easily found in historic landmarks

like the Alhambra, and in Spanish dance, music, and cuisine. However, over several

hundred years since the Spanish Inquisition, and Francisco Franco's enforcement of

Catholicism as the national religion from 1939 until 1975, most Spaniards equate

"being Spanish" with being Catholic. Additionally, many Spaniards view Islam as a

threat to Spanish identity and fear its resurgence in Spain.

In recent years, as Muslims have migrated to Spain and married Spanish women, some

Spaniards have been forced to reexamine their understanding of what it means to be

Spanish. Rogozen-Soltar recounts the experience of Maria Martinez and her evolution

from a Spanish woman with stereotypical views of Islam, to someone in love with a

Muslim man, to one who chooses to convert to Islam. Her experience illustrates the

judgment she and other converts to Islam face in Spain.

The experiences of Maria and other converts to Islam highlight how importantand how

entrenchedcultural identities and memberships in social groups can be. Even though

Maria initially could not imagine how she, a Spanish woman, could become a Muslim,

her growing knowledge of Islam eventually allowed her to shift her view of her cultural

identity. This led to a different perspective of Spain's Muslim history than that of the

majority of her countrymen. Now she tries to educate others about her changed views

by reminding Catholic and secular Spaniards of Spain's Muslim heritage, while

reinforcing the normalcy of Islam. She is careful not to try to convert friends, but

instead focuses on creating understanding by drawing parallels between the two

religions. For example, she equates Insh"alla (God willing) with si Dios lo quiere (God

willing), a phrase commonly heard in Spain.

According to Rogozen-Soltar in "Becoming Muslim in Europe," Spain was part of

the Muslim empire for 800 years and evidence of that history is seen in cities such

as Granada, buildings such as the Alhambra, and in Spanish cuisine, music, and dance.

Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage

JILL DUBISCH

Summary Starting in 1996, sociologist Raymond Michalowski and anthropologist Jill

Dubisch joined a group of motorcyclists riding on a trip called the Run for the Wall, a

pilgrimage (ritual passage) from California to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in

Washington, DC.

The Run for the Wall was started by a group of Vietnam veterans in 1989 and has

occurred every year since. It requires its participants to ride motorcycles from

California to Washington, DC, although many join or drop out along the way. The run

takes 10 days and includes stops for rest and ceremonies. Communities along the run's

route welcome run members and often feed and house them for free. Riders see the run

as a pilgrimage that helps heal wounds caused by the war, and serves to honor the dead

and "those left behind" (POWs and the missing in action).

Dubisch introduces the concept of pilgrimage as a journey that has a purpose, with a

destination that has special meaning. The destination may get its emotional power from

its location or symbolic meaning. Pilgrimages are rituals, defined (in Davis-Floyd's

words) as "patterned, repetitive, and symbolic enactments of a cultural belief or value."

Personal transformation is a key result. Rituals often reenact social myths. They,

according to anthropologist Victor Turner, have two poles the ideological and the

sensory that can be changed and modified regularly. Pilgrimages are a kind of ritual.

They create what Victor and Edith Turner call a liminal state, which is a special period

of time between normal routines. Travel is one way to mark such a liminal period.

The Run for the Wall began as a way for veterans to deal with the physical and mental

wounds caused by their participation in the Vietnam War, and the indifference and

hostility that greeted them when they arrived home. Motorcycles have been associated

with veterans' groups since World War II. They symbolize freedom, self-reliance,

patriotism, and individualism. Patriotism is especially important to those who make the

run and is symbolized by the U.S. flags and eagles that adorn their motorcycles. Riding

motorcycles gives a feeling of political power to participants. The machines are not an

ordinary way to travel. Riding them also involves danger and hardship; suffering for the

cause increases openness to personal change and an eventual feeling of

accomplishment.

Dubisch describes several ceremonial events along the run that evoke strong emotions.

The wall itself has special power, meaning, and emotional impact. It causes outbursts of

grief and recognizes both the individual dead and the departed as a whole. Some riders

say they hear the spirits of the dead talking at the wall when they are there at night. This

pilgrimage has a lasting, transformational effect on its participants, and illustrates the

importance of feelings and emotion associated with religion and ritual.

In "Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage," Dubisch argues that pilgrimages rarely

affect people who are well adjusted and content with their lives.

Nuer Refugees in America

DIANNA SHANDY

Summary In this article updated in 2015, Dianna Shandy, who has conducted

ethnographic research among Nuer refugees in the upper Midwest since 1997, looks at

what their status as refugees means, how they managed to come to the United States,

why they were located in more than 30 different U.S. states, how a people raised as

cattle herders survive and adapt to life in a U.S. urban setting, and what this tells us

about "the interconnectedness of a globalizing world and anthropology's role in it."

Although no special categories were assigned to people who first migrated to the United

States (they were all simply called immigrants), today there are at least two categories ,

migrants and refugees based on their reasons for coming here. The United Nations (UN)

defines refugees as people who have left a country because of a well-founded fear of

persecution based on race; religion; nationality; membership in a particular social

group; or political opinion. They are not merely IDPs (internally displaced persons)

who have left home but are willing to return. To manage the refugee "problem" (by

2014 there were 60 million refugees in the world), there is a UN agency headed by a

high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR). The UN and many countries see three

solutions for refugee placement: voluntary repatriation, integration into a country of

asylum, or rarely, third-country resettlement. Typically, refugees are first housed in

camps, and then certified for resettlement. The United States takes in a limited number

of refugees and employs the UN criteria for refugee certification. But decisions about

who is eligible vary, based on officials' interpretations of the criteria and ever shifting

resettlement policies. Officials also must deal with cross-cultural differences and

language barriers as they decide who is a refugee and who is an "economic refugee"

(someone whose main motive to move is for economic advantage).

The Nuer who live in the United States have made it through this bureaucratic process.

Thok Ding, who is mentioned in the article, was brought up herding cattle in a Nuer

pastoral village, experienced the death of his father when northerners attacked his

village, moved with his family to a camp in Ethiopia, attended and excelled at a

Christian mission school there, moved to another camp for further schooling, moved

back to the Sudan with his family when fighting broke out in Ethiopia, traveled back to

Addis Ababa where he joined friends, moved to a camp in Kenya, applied for refugee

status with the UN there, and was eventually accepted for refugee resettlement by the

United States. His arrival and settlement in the United States was facilitated by

Lutheran Social Services, a volunteer organization ("volag" to insiders) contracted by

the United States. Helped by the organization, he was placed in Minneapolis, settled in

an apartment, and guided toward a job. Later he left Minneapolis for Des Moines and a

job in the meat packing industry, where he hopes to continue his education, save money,

marry a woman from the South Sudan, and bring his family, with whom he corresponds

frequently and to whom he sends money, to the United States.

The case illustrates several points. Refugee issues are complex and varied, and involve

endless bureaucratic hurdles. Refugees who manage to gain resettlement (many do not)

must be tenacious, ambitious, clever, and opportunistic. The Nuer make successful

refugees because many possess these characteristics.

According to Shandy in "Nuer Refugees in America," the UN looks at three possible

solutions to the refugee problem: voluntary repatriation to the country of origin,

integration into a country of asylum, or third-country resettlement.

Reciprocity and the Power of Giving

LEE CRONK

Summary Cronk argues that everywhere in the world, gifts are used positively to

establish and maintain social relationships, but also negatively to intimidate and fight

others. These characteristics apply just as fully to gift exchange in industrial societies as

they do for other peoples.

Anthropologists learned about the complexities of gift giving through first-hand

experience during fieldwork. Richard Lee's !Kung informants criticized his gift of an

ox, saying the ox was thin and inadequate when clearly it was not. (See article 2 in

Conformity and Conflict). Rada Dyson-Hudson met with a similar reaction when she

attempted to give pots to her Turkana informants. Cronk also experienced the same

reaction when he gave clothing to the Mukogodo, who elaborate the act of gift

exchange more than do most people. In every case, informants attached different

meanings to gift giving than did the anthropologists..

Gift giving has several dimensions, including how the gift is received and how it is

reciprocated. Often "to reciprocate at once indicates a desire to end the relationship,"

Cronk points out. He also notes that some gift giving arrangements, such as hxaro

among the !Kung, are designed solely to maintain a friendly relationship. In addition,

the worth of gifts may not be taken into account. The Trobriand kula ring, involving

shell necklaces and armbands, represents one of the most elaborate gift exchanges ever

described by anthropologists.

Gift giving may not always be benevolent. The Kwakiutl potlatch, where rivals tried to

"flatten" each other with gifts, is a good example. Potlatching actually became a

substitute for war after the Canadian government suppressed real fighting.

Reciprocal gift giving is also important in U.S. society. Examples include a form of

benevolent gift giving, called swapping among African Americans living in an area of

Illinois called the flats. Scientific papers, usually referred to as contributions, are really

gifts and have higher value than those papers written for money. Even the citations of

other people's work so liberally scattered throughout academic papers may be viewed as

a form of gift exchange.

Gifts may also be used to manipulate people, as Grace Goodell documents for a World

Bank-funded project in Iran. The gift of an irrigation project crushed local level

political organizations and shifted control to the central government. International

relations often involve gift giving. The "concessions" made between the U.S. and Soviet

governments during disarmament negotiations several years ago are a good example.

Cronk concludes by pointing out that American Indians understood the gift's power to

unify, antagonize, or subjugate and that all of us would do well to learn the same lesson.

In "Reciprocity and the Power of Giving," Cronk argues that gift giving is an important

way for people to initiate and maintain relationships in every society.

The term "supernatural" labels people's irrational beliefs about power in inanimate

objects.

Women in the Mine

JESSICA SMITH ROLSTON

Summary This article details the unique and complex gender roles that have developed

in the coal mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Typically thought of as full of

stereotypically ultra macho men, the coal mines in Wyoming disprove this assumption.

In addition to being comprised mostly of family men, women work alongside men as

equalsin numbers greater than in the industry as a wholein nearly every capacity.

Women miners have developed ways to build rapport with male coworkers that ensure

that they are treated with respect. This article details this complex system.

The Powder River Basin is home to a dozen coal mines that were opened in response to

the energy crisis of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Many women in the area had grown

up riding horses, fishing, hunting, or working on farms and ranches, and were quite

comfortable getting dirty and doing manual labor. Mining seemed a natural fit, and

offered high pay for those without a college education. Females employed by the mines

can make between $65,000 and $100,000, depending on experience and overtime.

In addition to having to learn the ins and outs of a new industry, women had to learn

how to succeed in a traditionally male environment. They have done so by adjusting

their identities and taking on personas at work in order to gain respect and craft

camaraderie with male coworkers. Common labels like tomboy, lady, girly girl, and

bitch have developed very specific connotations; these personas represent specific

gender identities that bring a range of emotionsfrom respect to disdain to

disapprovalfrom coworkers. Smith Rolston details how the persona a woman chooses at

the mine can have far reaching implications and how adopting a single persona is not

enough; women in the mines must constantly and strategically adjust their personas to

fit the situation, potentially changing identity mid-conversation, mid-shift, or at any

time to respond appropriately to their male coworkers' notions of femininity.

Gender divisions in the Powder River Basin coal mines are very rigid and make it

difficult for women to work alongside men productively.

If a religious specialist were to use a powerful saying to cure a sick individual,

anthropologists would label him or her a shaman.

The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari

RICHARD BORSHAY LEE

With an update by Richard Lee and Megan Biesele

Summary Basing his conclusions on an extensive study of !Kung subsistence activity

and nutrition in 1963, Richard Lee challenges the notion that hunters and gatherers

lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Despite residence in the Kalahari Desert, where there

is an average yearly rainfall of only six to nine inches, !Kung managed to lead a

remarkably stable, relaxed existence. They resided in camps located at permanent water

holes. They frequently visited relatives in other camps but rarely moved long distances

to hunt and gather.

Overall, hunter gathering provided over 85% of subsistence needs. A key to assured

subsistence was the availability of vegetable foods, particularly the mongongo nut. !

Kung could subsist entirely on such foods although they preferred meat. Vegetable

foods made up 60 to 80 percent of their diet. The abundance of their sparse environment

was revealed by the fact that !Kung ate selectively, consuming only some of the edible

plant and animal species found around them. A significant number of !Kung lived

beyond the age of 60, and approximately 40 percent of the population did no productive

work. !Kung spent only about two and one-half days a week in productive activity,

using the remainder of their time for leisure activities. Lee concluded that for many

hunting and gathering groups, a dependence on plant foods produced a stable, effective

way of life.

The way of life described for 1963 has changed, however. By 1994, most Ju/"Hoansi !

Kung were living in permanent settlements, eking out a living by herding, farming, and

craft production. Hunting and gathering now only supply about 30 percent of their

subsistence needs. The spread of commercial ranching on the areas in which they

traditionally foraged may soon reduce this figure to zero.

Over the 30 years since Lee first described them, the Ju/"Hoansi !Kung have come to

live in permanent villages and have become much less dependent on foraging to meet

their subsistence needs.

Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS

CLAIRE E. STERK

Summary This article discusses ethnographic fieldwork as a processentering the field,

making contact, and developing rapport, as well as ethical dilemmas and stress.

Undertaking fieldwork in a Western microculture (in this case the culture of prostitute

life), illustrates how participant observation, originally developed to discover the

content of non-Western cultures, can be adapted for use at home. Sterk's goal was to

learn about the lives of prostitutes from the women themselves. Her subjects comprised

180 "low end" prostitutes--those who worked on the streets and in the crack houses of

Atlanta and New York in the 1980s and 1990s.

Sterk learned that gatekeepers (initial contacts who give you access to other informants)

can become less important with time. Some self-nominated key informants had access

to only part of a cultural scene. Encouraging women to have some control over the

research process enhanced rapport; this meant letting informants tell their own stories

and refraining from judgement. Interviews were conducted in private and required

consent forms, which perhaps surprisingly Sterk was able to obtain. Abusive figures

who controlled prostitutespimpssometimes presented an impediment to research.

Fieldwork involved stress, which was partially relieved by being able to leave the field.

Leaving the field, however, led to feelings of guilt.

The article ends with six observations about prostitutes and their culture. Prostitutes

often blame past experiences for their current status and alienation from "normal"

people. There are different kinds of prostitutesstreetwalkers, women who became

hooked on drugs after they started in the profession, women who entered the life

already addicted to drugs, and women who turned tricks as payment for drugs.

Contracting AIDS was a great risk for prostitutes, but condom use was often rejected by

their customers and pimps. Men are often violent toward prostitutes. Finally, women

did sometimes leave this microculture, but their past often followed them.

According to Sterk, "Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS," 30 prostitutes she

Interviewed were college graduates and 75 percent of her informants had graduated

from high school.

Becoming Muslim in Europe

MIKAELA ROGOZEN-SOLTAR

Increased globalization has brought people of different backgrounds in contact with one