According to Reed’s “Forest Development the Indian Way,” until the recent incursion of
colonos (colonists, such as ranchers and farmers), Guaran villagers
a. had no contact with people in other parts of South America.
b. traded with outsiders for machetes, hooks, soap, and salt.
c. developed an indigenous market system that tied villages together.
d. worked for decades as rubber tappers to augment their subsistence economy.
How Sushi Went Global
THEODORE C. BESTOR
Summary This article by Theodore Bestor reveals the complex network of
relationships that define a global economic system. Focusing on sushi, a traditional
Japanese cuisine, Bestor shows how the international adoption of the culinary custom,
and especially its centerpiece, raw bluefin tuna, has created a global system that
involves Atlantic fishing and fish farming, national and environmental regulations,
realignments of labor and capital, and shifting markets.
The article begins with a description of a bluefin auction at a fishing pier near Bath
main. About 20 buyers evaluate and bid on three large bluefins, consulting buyers in the
Tsukiui fish market in Japan by cell phone to establish prices. Once bought, the fish are
packed in ice and flown to Japan. Japanese have a long-term affection for the bluefin, a
fish that was originally caught only for sport in the United States. The Japanese had
turned to international tuna suppliers in the past, when the world adopted a rule that
restricted fishing boats from one nation from fishing within 200 miles of the coast of
another country. Jumbo jets brought fresh New England bluefin into easy reach of
Japan, and U.S. fishermen began to catch and export the large tuna. The 1980s were
prosperous for Japan, which sustained the market for bluefin, but the economic bubble
burst in the early “90s. Just in time, North Americans developed a taste for sushi,
creating a strong market for the fish. As sushi became more and more popular in the
United States, and later Europe, the expanded market increased fishing activity all
across the Atlantic, and gave rise to fish farming, especially in Spanish and Croatian
waters. But markets rely on supply and demand; in 1999 the Japanese managed to catch
a year’s supply of tuna in three days, reducing demand and prices. Prices also fell when
environmental conditions in the Mediterranean resulted in reduced oxygen in the water.
About 800 tuna in a Spanish fish trap suffocated and were caught and processed
immediately, causing an oversupply that lowered tuna prices around the world.
Today, the market for tuna continues to thrive. The best bluefin still go to Japan where
the market is still strongest, but the rest satisfy palates in many other parts of the world.
Now fishermen often come in conflict with customers, governments, regulators, and
environmentalists around the world as they catch or farm tuna. Because tuna fishing is a
local industry, local economies based on fishing may be affected instantly by changes in
world prices for the fish.
Bestor also points out that a global market does not necessarily mean cultural
homogenization. Sushi, he argues, is considered a Japanese delicacy no matter where in
the world it is eaten.
According to Bestor in “How Sushi Went Global,” America has become the center of
the world market for sushi and bluefin tuna, and Japan is now on the periphery.
Mixed Blood
JEFFERSON M. FISH
Summary This article illustrates how the American concept of race is a cultural
construction, not a biological reality. Fish explains how there are no races among
humans, because the concept of race relates to individuals who mate but can bear no
fertile offspring. Clearly, this is not true of present-day humans. Human beings form a
single species.
Our evident variations in physical appearance around the globe has occurred through
the processes of random mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift (accidental
selection). Most traits that Americans think of as racial, such as skin color, are adaptive
to differences in environmental conditions.
If races are not biologically distinguishable groups, what are they? They are what are
known as “folk classifications” of people based on culturally selected criteria. People
everywhere classify things in folk taxonomies, but classifications of the same things
may vary from society to society. For example, Americans classify avocados as
vegetables and eat them in salads. Brazilians classify avocados as fruits and eat them
with lemon and sugar for dessert.
Although there are many ways in which people could classify each other, such as by
body shape for example, many Americans learn to group each other into “races” based
primarily on skin color (largely “white,” “Asian,” “black,” or “Latino”) and that these
groups are rooted in biological reality. Yet at the same time, there is a history of
classifying people according to hypo-descent, another social construction that is more
about perceived ancestry. Many Americans still tend to rank races; white is highest,
followed by Asian, Hispanic (Latino), and black. Children are allocated the racial
classification of their lowest- (hypo) ranking parent. If your mother is classified as
black and your father white, you might still be classified as black no matter what you
look like.
This is in stark contrast to Brazilians, for example, who classify people into tipos
(types) on the basis of what they look like. Examples include loura (completely blond),
preta (dark skin, broader nose), sarar (tight curly blond or red hair, blue eyes, broad
nose, and thick lips), and cabo verde (straight black hair, dark skin, brown eyes, narrow
nose, and thin lips). The children of a Brazilian couple could be classified into different
tipos if each child looks different.
The American conception of race is beginning to change as more people of different
“races” intermarry and immigrants whose racial identities are difficult to classify by the
American system enter the country. “Other” is a fast-growing category of racial identity.
In his article, “Mixed Blood,” Jefferson M. Fish argues that the American concept of
race is culturally constructed, not a biological reality.
Medical Anthropology: Improving Nutrition in Malawi
SONIA PATTEN
Summary In this article, anthropologist Sonia Patten describes her experience as an
anthropologist on a team of researchers working to improve infant and child nutrition in
rural Malawi, a small nation in Africa. She and colleagues from two American
universities, under the auspices of the University Development Linkages Program,
worked with faculty from a college in the University of Malawi system to develop and
implement a program addressing the mortality rate for children, a rate that at the time
was very nearly one in four.
Patten and her team members developed a plan to provide milk-producing goats to the
women of the villages, teach them how to care for and raise the animals, and show them
how to incorporate the protein- and calorie-rich milk into recipes that they could feed
their malnourished children. The team met with village leaders and elders to convince
them to allow women to own the goats, explain how the plan would work, and ensure
them that this was a worthwhile effort to help combat the malnutrition their children
faced. Once convinced, researchers identified villages that would be the best candidates
for this social researchthose with an animal-theft problem were considered too
problematic to include in the project.
A baseline survey of households that included children under five was conducted, while
scientists from the research team crossbred goats with the necessary characteristics on a
local Malawi farm. Eventually women were provided with a goat and the basic toolsa
bucket, a measuring cup, and a panto get started. Local members of the research team
taught the women how to incorporate the goat’s milk into their children’s food and made
weekly visits to villages to weigh and measure the children. The children, even those
who were receiving even small amounts of goat’s milk, all showed steady height and
weight gains, at least for a time.
The project continued to address food insecurity problems and issues that arose from
the goat-raising efforts. The researchers taught the women how to plant, grow, and
process soybeans into flour that they could use when no goat’s milk was available. All
of their efforts were sustainablewomen were asked to return their first baby goat to the
researchers and 5 kg of seed after the first harvest. The research team’s efforts worked
within the culture of the Malawi, incorporated indigenous resources, and were
conducted in the native language of the villagers.
The author concludes that the project was highly valued by rural women, as evidenced
by the number who wanted to participate. It proved that the addition of goat’s milk to a
child’s diet was valuable, and the success of the project is noted by similar projects that
were introduced by Malawi nongovernmental organizations. Additionally, Patten
elaborates on the importance of having an anthropologist on a research team, and
identifies her role and responsibilities. Her expertise proved valuable to the acceptance
of the project and the high level of participation by the Malawian villagers.
The length of the “hungry season” in Malawi has decreased in recent years.
According to Nordstrom in “Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of Amputees,”
when a woman receives the entire banking pot in her informal banking group, she often
will use the money to
a. purchase a boutique and set up a formal business.
b. build a decent home to live in.
c. buy a car and hire a driver.
d. invest in a small piece of farmland to grow and harvest crops to sell.
According to Scheper-Hughes in “Mother’s Love: Death Without Weeping,” doctors in
the Brazilian town of Bom Jesus de Mata often
a. failed to recognize malnutrition as the primary cause of illness among poor babies.
b. refused to examine poor babies.
c. prescribed drugs that their mothers cannot afford to buy for their sick babies.
d. hospitalized poor sick babies because the infants’ mothers could not care for them.
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.
According to research by Shandy and Moe, there is currently a surplus of
well-educated professional men in relationship to women.
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.”
Although designed for comfort and touring, the Gold Wing motorcycle, introduced by
Honda in 1965, was quickly adopted by sports-minded riders.
Crate’s “knowledge exchanges” that followed her research were a great success. Which
of the following was not one of the goals of these exchanges?
a. Add local knowledge to the scientific understanding of climate change.
b. Share scientific knowledge with locals to help explain the changes they are
experiencing.
c. Dispute the argument that global climate change exists.
d. Inform policy communities about how climate change is affecting local communities.
Which one of the following was not a consequence of outside development in the
Guaran tropical forests, according to Reed?
a. The Indians who stayed on the land could no longer farm.
b. The Guaran could no longer practice successful horticulture.
c. Disease and malnutrition increased.
d. The Indians could no longer hunt and fish successfully.
According to Bestor in “How Sushi Went Global,” Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABT)
a. is a nonmigratory species that lives in the Mediterranean Sea; ABT normally weigh
roughly 6 to 10 pounds.
b. is a migratory species of fish that is found in the Pacific Ocean and most often caught
with fighting tackle.
c. has been so overfished in the wild that it is now only available from seafood farms in
Asia.
d. is highly migratory; can be found from the equator to Newfoundland and from
Turkey to the Gulf of Mexico; and can weigh over 1,000 pounds.
According to Bourgois in “Poverty at Work: Office Work and the Crack Alternative,” as
reported in the 1990 census,
a. 78.4 percent of the women living in New York’s Spanish Harlem received public
assistance.
b. 48.3 percent of men living in Spanish Harlem were “officially employed.”
c. more than half the Puerto Rican men living in Spanish Harlem sell crack cocaine.
d. 42.4 percent of Puerto Rican men living in Spanish Harlem have fathered children
with women to whom they are not married.
Cuartoneros, often made up of the poorest men from the frontier town of San Borja, use
a low-tech method of locating and harvesting mahogany trees. Their method depends
on the natural resources of the forest and
a. access to logging roads.
b. a compass and portable sawmill.
c. cooperation with the larger, legal logging companies.
d. chainsaws and outboard motors.
The process of making and carrying out public policy through the use of culturally
defined categories and rules is called
a. the political system.
b. legitimacy.
c. coercion.
d. authority.
As Mueller observes in “The Worst Lover: Boyfriend Spirits in Senegal,” drumming is
an important and overpowering part of the ndepp. A drummer walks around the crowd,
interacting with the dancers, and playing a __________ with one stick and one hand.
a. tama
b. sabar
c. tam-tam
d. bakk
In his article “Forest Development the Indian Way,” Reed argues
a. for government control of forest development that eases the Indians into the modern
world economy gradually.
b. for a sustainable development program that permits the collection and sale of forest
products without destroying the original ecosystem.
c. for an Indian relocation plan.
d. for laws that require commercial lumber companies and ranchers to replant the forest
and introduce a 40-year cutting and clearing cycle.
According to Guneratne and Bjork in “Village Walks,” Tharu villagers from Pipariya
referred to tourists as
a. pests.
b. customers (of goods the villagers had for sale).
c. arrogant.
d. guests.
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.”
According to McCurdy in “Motorcycles, Membership, and Belonging,” interest groups
such as the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) provide members with a
feeling of shared interest, sense of achievement, and self-worth that they may lack in
other aspects of their lives.
According to Nordstrom in “Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of Amputees,” the
United Nations worker equated __________ to the invisible center of gravity of the
society.
a. women
b. men
c. informal economies
d. information banking systems
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.
In “Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of Amputees,” Carolyn Nordstrom
argues that an informal economyone that is not taxed or monitored by the
governmentis considered an extralegal network.
In “Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS,” Sterk found that in-depth interviews
a. worked best if she had asked a list of carefully prepared questions.
b. worked best if held in private.
c. yielded little in-depth information.
d. were the most stressful part of fieldwork.
When it is preferred that a woman marry a man from her own village, we call the
arrangement
a. polygyny.
b. exogamy.
c. endogamy.
d. polyandry.
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.
According to Miner in “Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” men engage in a daily ritual
that involves scraping and lacerating the face with a sharp object.
The provision of goods and services to meet biological and social wants is called
a. production.
b. the economic system.
c. market exchange.
d. the unit of production.
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 among the Nacirema, a ritual
specialist called a latipso specializes in the care of the mouth.
In “Motorcycles, Membership, and Belonging,” McCurdy argues that Honda company
employees take on the role of __________ as they ride along with “Wingers” as
participant observers, gaining insight on how to improve and redesign their motorcycles
to meet riders’ needs.
a. detached observer
b. ethnographers
c. respondents
d. reporters
The study of how people use their culture to adapt to particular environments is called
a. ecology.
b. cultural ecology.
c. environmental determinism.
d. physical ecology.
The logging policies established by the Bolivian government for the area in and around
the Chimanes forest
a. are sensible and workable.
b. will probably eventually lead to the forest’s destruction.
c. adequately meet the high worldwide demand for quality tropical hardwood.
d. encourage small lumber mills to work only with legal logging companies to harvest
tropical hardwood.
The process by which a cultural custom, item, or concept is modified to fit the cultural
context of a society that borrows it is called
a. globalization.
b. tourism.
c. transnationalism.
d. cultural hybridization.
According to Eames in in “Negotiating Nigerian Bureaucracies,” patrimonial practices
similar to those found in Nigerian society do occur in the United States. The use of such
practices
a. occurs solely in the political arena.
b. is considered an illegitimate way to conduct business.
c. cannot coexist within a system of bureaucratically organized, legal domination.
d. is considered a legitimate way to conduct business.
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.
In “Advice for Developers,” Alverson reports that Peace Corps volunteers maintained
an aloof distance when they talked with Tswana farmers.
Some acts of reciprocal gift giving may not always be benevolent, as in the case of
a. swapping.
b. authors’ citations in academic works.
c. potlatching.
d. scientific contributions.
In “Using Anthropology,” McCurdy argues that is an important skill that people who
study anthropology can take into daily life.
a. ethnography
b. knowledge of particular cultures
c. the ability to conduct survey research
d. knowledge of cross-cultural economics