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Prior to the 1950s, motorcycle riding had what many perceived as an image; that it was
suitable for
a. average Americans.
b. women only.
c. outlaws.
d. couples.
Family and Kinship in Village India
DAVID W. McCURDY
Summary In this article, David McCurdy describes the importance of kinship among
rural Bhil tribal peoples living in Ratakote, a hill village located in the southern part of
Rajasthan near Udaipur, India. He argues that an elaborate and extended kinship system
is not only a useful way for peasants to organize their labor, land holdings, and broader
social connections, but that it is also a system that can be adapted to the
market-dominated economic system currently emerging in India.
Americans find it difficult to comprehend the importance of extended kinship, but for
the Bhils, the significance of kinship seems elementary. A wedding arranged by a
villager for his daughter in 1985 illustrates the point nicely. To begin the arrangement,
the father must consult the members of his patrilineage, who must later provide money
and labor for the wedding. He will send out word to his feminal kinthe relatives of the
women who have married into his line and the relatives of the men that women of his
line have marriedin other villages. When prospective grooms are found, the first
consideration is clan membership. Clans are large and consist of local lineages living in
many villages over a wide territory. Bhils cannot marry into their own, their mother's, or
their father's mother's clans; this constitutes incest.
Once a suitable spouse is found, negotiations commence to set a dapa (bride price), the
money and prestige goods given by the groom's family to that of the bride. Bride price
is part of an exchange for the labor and loyalty of the bride. Marriage becomes an
alliance between the two families but involves potential conflict. To clearly state that
rights to her loyalty, labor, and children shift to her husband's family at marriage, the
wedding ceremony symbolizes the bride's removal from her natal group. After
marriage, a relationship built on formal respect keeps the bride's family at a proper
distance.
Extended kinship systems seem well suited to agrarian peasant life where families best
control landholding and economic production. Today, India is industrializing and the
market economy is attracting many rural peasants to cities as well as restructuring
economic relationships in rural villages. The market economy can easily weaken
kinship systems by providing individuals with salaries and independence, causing
people to move to find work, and creating jobs that compete for time with family
obligations. Despite expansion of the market, Indians, including the Bhils described in
this article, have adapted kinship relationships to provide support as they scatter across
their country and around the world.
In his article "Family and Kinship in Village India," McCurdy argues that family and
kinship relations have been extended to provide support in the market economy.
The Chimanes Indians of Bolivia
a. are self-sufficient in many ways but still need money for goods they cannot produce
themselves.
b. are nomadic and move about the forest to hunt and gather food.
c. use an intricate system of logging roads and machinery to harvest tropical hardwood
trees from the forest.
d. are beginning to integrate more with their neighboring communities.
According to Tannen in "Conversation Style: Talking on the Job," which is not an
advantage cited by men for refraining from asking questions?
a. They avoid receiving incorrect information.
b. They learn to discover answers for themselves.
c. They can feel superior to other people by not showing their ignorance.
d. They avoid injuring the feelings of the individual sharing information.
When disputes are settled through a community meeting that provides for an informal
airing of the conflict, we term this kind of settlement process
a. an ordeal.
b. a court.
c. a moot.
d. a contest.
Family and Kinship in Village India
DAVID W. McCURDY
Summary In this article, David McCurdy describes the importance of kinship among
rural Bhil tribal peoples living in Ratakote, a hill village located in the southern part of
Rajasthan near Udaipur, India. He argues that an elaborate and extended kinship system
is not only a useful way for peasants to organize their labor, land holdings, and broader
social connections, but that it is also a system that can be adapted to the
market-dominated economic system currently emerging in India.
Americans find it difficult to comprehend the importance of extended kinship, but for
the Bhils, the significance of kinship seems elementary. A wedding arranged by a
villager for his daughter in 1985 illustrates the point nicely. To begin the arrangement,
the father must consult the members of his patrilineage, who must later provide money
and labor for the wedding. He will send out word to his feminal kinthe relatives of the
women who have married into his line and the relatives of the men that women of his
line have marriedin other villages. When prospective grooms are found, the first
consideration is clan membership. Clans are large and consist of local lineages living in
many villages over a wide territory. Bhils cannot marry into their own, their mother's, or
their father's mother's clans; this constitutes incest.
Once a suitable spouse is found, negotiations commence to set a dapa (bride price), the
money and prestige goods given by the groom's family to that of the bride. Bride price
is part of an exchange for the labor and loyalty of the bride. Marriage becomes an
alliance between the two families but involves potential conflict. To clearly state that
rights to her loyalty, labor, and children shift to her husband's family at marriage, the
wedding ceremony symbolizes the bride's removal from her natal group. After
marriage, a relationship built on formal respect keeps the bride's family at a proper
distance.
Extended kinship systems seem well suited to agrarian peasant life where families best
control landholding and economic production. Today, India is industrializing and the
market economy is attracting many rural peasants to cities as well as restructuring
economic relationships in rural villages. The market economy can easily weaken
kinship systems by providing individuals with salaries and independence, causing
people to move to find work, and creating jobs that compete for time with family
obligations. Despite expansion of the market, Indians, including the Bhils described in
this article, have adapted kinship relationships to provide support as they scatter across
their country and around the world.
According to McCurdy in "Family and Kinship in Village India," the term feminal kin
refers to the relatives of the men who have married women of one's own line, or the
relatives of the women who have married men of one's own line.
Some of the following statements about the !Kung as Lee describes their lives in 1963
are not true. Which one is true?
a. They normally live in a "core area" about 30 miles in circumference.
b. The proportion of old people to the rest of the population is smaller than that of
modern industrial society.
c. Boys and girls usually assume food-collecting activities from the time they can walk.
d. They have much more leisure time than Americans.
The people whom a policy will affect are called the
a. public.
b. faction.
c. tribe.
d. band.
Minimal categories of speech sounds that serve to keep utterances apart are called
a. morphemes.
b. minimal pairs.
c. words.
d. phonemes.
According to Mueller in "The Worst Lover: Boyfriend Spirits in Senegal," one of the
most common reasons a faru rab attaches itself to women or girls is because of their
a. beauty and style of dress.
b. sexually promiscuous behavior.
c. lack of terenga, or hospitality.
d. disrespectful treatment of their elders.
The categories and rules for combining vocal symbols are called
a. phonemes.
b. grammar.
c. sociolinguistic rules.
d. speech.
For the most part, cuartoneros illegally harvest mahogany because
a. the work is easy and brings great monetary reward for little effort.
b. the mahogany trees are easy to find in the remote areas of the Chimanes forest.
c. there are few other opportunities for the indigenous people to earn money or work off
debt.
d. legal logging companies are not interested in logging mahogany and so offer no
competition.
After becoming a Muslim, Mara Martnez believed that the best way to fight
popular assumptions that Islam and Spanishness are diametrically opposed was to
a. remind Catholic and secular Spaniards about their country's Muslim heritage.
b. write letters to the editors of local papers, demanding equal treatment for Muslims.
c. adopt traditional Muslim dress, including a hajib, whenever she went out.
d. try to convert as many Spaniards to Islam as possible.
In "Mother's Love: Death Without Weeping," Scheper-Hughes reports that about infants
died in Alto do Cruzeiro, Brazil, in 1965.
a. 100
b. 150
c. 300
d. 350
According to Shandy in "Nuer Refugees in America," Nuer boys go through a painful
initiation ceremony called the
a. IDP ceremony.
b. gaar ceremony.
c. cicatrization ceremony.
d. ngoya ceremony.
We Are Going Underwater
SUSAN A. CRATE
Summary The Viliui Sakha, a horse- and cattle-breeding people of northeastern
Siberia, live in an extreme, subarctic climate that has continuous permafrost and annual
temperature swings of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This place-based community has
adapted to many different changes over hundreds of yearsbeginning with Russian
imperial expansion in the 1600s and as recently as a result of the breakup of the Soviet
Union in the 1990s. More recently, their adaptations have been in response to local,
physical changes brought about by global climate change. In her essay, Susan Crate
outlines the most notable ways global climate change has impacted life for the Sakha,
and details their remarkable capacity to adapt to these changes.
Crate conducted surveys and interviewed elders of the community who had the
advantage of witnessing many decades of change, offering a perspective that not many
other community members could. Crate's research identified nine ways in which global
climate change has impacted the Sakha, including increased water on the land, late and
lagging seasons, a decline in certain game species, and temperature fluctuations. These
changes cannot be attributed solely to climate change; many of them have multiple
stressors. Regardless, the Sakha have had to make psychological, social, and physical
adaptations to accommodate the new reality of their physical world. Interestingly, very
few of the Sakha attribute the changes to global climate change, and instead point to
other local causes such as a hydroelectric reservoir or the overabundance of technology
and mechanization. Despite this, the Sakha will continue to adapt as they have for
hundreds of years, figuring out how to negotiate the additional water on their land,
learning how to adjust their practices to have enough hay for their cows and horses, and
purchasing electric freezers to replace the traditional buluus (underground freezers) that
are now increasingly flooded out. The Sakha and their adaptations are offered by Crate
as an example of how communities and scientists might benefit from sharing
information. Scientists have much to learn about how climate change is affecting local
environments and culture, and communities can learn from scientists how to adapt in
ways to address these local changes.
While many think of geologists and chemists as those best equipped to help the world
adapt to the effects of global climate change, Crate believes that anthropologists can
help communities weather these changes by fostering a greater understanding of how
people like the Sakha have adapted and continue to do so successfully. By identifying
and learning about those communities that are the most flexible in their responses to
local changes, communities will have a model to follow when global climate change
begins to have a greater impact on the more temperate zones of the planet.
An animistic worldview recognizes the sentient quality of humans, while excluding all
non-human entities such as animals, plants, and inanimate objects.
The famous American saying "It's not what you know, it's who you know" best
describes the primary dynamic of
a. the legal bureaucracy of the United States.
b. the civil service system of the Han Dynasty in China.
c. the patrimonial authority of Nigerian society.
d. the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom.
According to Sterk, about __________ percent of the prostitutes she interviewed were
not drug addicts.
a. 10
b. 25
c. 40
d. 15
According to Ehrenreich and Hochschild in "Global Women in the New Economy," a
Sri Lankan woman named Josephine Perera has
a. worked away from her children for 10 years in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Greece.
b. takes frequent visits back to Sri Lanka to visit her children.
c. is unable to financially support her three children who still live in Sri Lanka.
d. has been unable to find domestic work outside of her country.
According to Gmelch in "Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas," orthodox Rastafarians are
a. part of a religious sect whose members go without clothes and subsist off the land
b. part of a Muslim sect found largely on Caribbean islands.
c. a sub group practicing voodoo religious rights.
d. a monastic group that is based on a North African religious tradition.
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor is known for his early definition of
a. ethnography.
b. culture.
c. naive realism.
d. culture shock.
On the basis of her work in northeastern Brazil and on literature describing practices in
other parts of the world, Scheper-Hughes feels that
a. it was instinctual for mothers to grieve deeply over a dead son or daughter in every
society, including those with high infant mortality rates.
b. it was natural for poor mothers to maintain emotional distance from infants who are
likely to die.
c. civil authorities tried hard to improve the condition of poor women but the latter
would not help themselves.
d. poor women let their babies die despite concerted efforts by church authorities to
prevent them from doing so.
are unilineal descent groups composed of lineages. Their members recognize descent
from a common ancestor, but cannot usually trace their actual genealogical connections.
a. Ramages
b. Kindreds
c . Clans
d. Families
The marriage of one woman to more than one man simultaneously is called
a. exogamy.
b. endogamy.
c. polygyny.
d. polyandry.
A recombination of things that are known into something different is called
a. culture change.
b. innovation.
c. social integration.
d. diffusion.
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.
In "Village Walks," Guneratne and Bjork conclude that when people are the object of
the "tourist gaze," they become more aware of their own culture and group identity.
The process of change due to culture contact is called
a. diffusion.
b. borrowing.
c. acculturation.
d. enculturation.
Gift giving among family members at Christmas is an example of
a. barter.
b. market exchange.
c. reciprocal exchange.
d. redistributive exchange.
The Worst Lover: Boyfriend Spirits in Senegal
RACHEL MUELLER
Summary This article by Rachel Mueller details the unique coexistence and
cooperation in modern Senegal of the Sufi sect of Islam, and Lbou, a religious cult that
attributes inexplicable behavior, health issues, and adversity to troublesome spirits (rab)
who intentionally interact and sometimes possess girls and women.
According to Mueller, Senegal is a growing, cosmopolitan country filled with history
and a tradition of great hospitality, or terenga. By all appearancesprayer mats in office
buildings, posters and photos of Islamic holy men in the cities' taxis, and people in
prayer five times a daySenegal, and in particular, Dakar, is filled with people who
practice Islam. Sprinkled among the followers of Muhammad are individuals who
adhere to a religious tradition that involves invisible spirits roaming the earth and
interacting with humans, sometimes in an unpleasant and troublesome manner.
Mueller details the reasons these spirits are unhappy, and relates tales of their efforts to
possess young women who are beautiful and well dressed. Women and girls are
encouraged to cover their knees in public (these are a particular weakness of the faru
rab, the "boyfriend spirits" who possess and preoccupy girls and women) and dress
conservatively, even while sleeping. Islam and Lbou intersect at times, namely when
Islamic holy men are called upon to communicate with the spirits who bother women.
Significantly, however, female healers and priestesses (called an ndeppkat) also play an
important role in liaising with the spirit world. Both the Islamic holy men and the
ndeppkat, Mueller explains, learn about the rab and determine what can be done to
discourage or drive him away. The remedies may include bathing in holy water, making
animal sacrifices, and dressing in a color unpleasant to the rab. Unfortunately, these
efforts do not always work, and an elaborate ritual called an ndepp may be necessary to
exorcise the rab entirely.
Mueller elaborates on the intersection of Islam and Lbou, as well as the effect that
modernization, globalization, and the Internet might have on the future of the Lbou
beliefs and traditions. Although Senegalese with financial means now turn to Western
doctors for solutions to what they believe is rab spirit control, and some of the effects
are cured, many continue to turn to healers because the rab spirit world is so strongly
engrained in the Lbou culture.
According to Mueller in "The Worst Lover: Boyfriend Spirits in Senegal," the people of
the Lbou district of Dakar believe that faru rab have the power to, among other things,
prevent women from speaking, give them sexual dreams, and trigger infertility.
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.
In "Mother's Love: Death Without Weeping," Scheper-Hughes claims that the
installation of piped, treated water to all homes in the shantytown contributed most to
the increased survival of infants in Bom Jesus de Mata.
Eating Christmas in the Kalahari
RICHARD BORSHAY LEE
Summary In this article, Lee describes a classic case of cross-cultural
misunderstanding that occurred near the completion of his fieldwork among the !Kung
Bushmen. To thank the !Kung for allowing him to live and work among them, Lee
decided to donate an especially large ox for them to eat at their annual Christmas feast.
To his dismay, the !Kung seemed disappointed with the animal he had chosen, claiming
that it was too thin, old, and sick. Their attitude persisted even after the butchered ox
proved to be so large and fat that it fed 150 people for two days.
Only later did Lee discover that the !Kung customarily denigrate and ridicule hunters
who have killed large game in order to "cool" their potential arrogance. To Lee, the ox
meant a gift, and in American culture gifts should be reciprocated with thanks and
appreciation. To the !Kung, the ox was a large animal to be shared, something hunters
contribute regularly. For them, the provider must be kept in line lest he become
impressed by his own importance (a position related to the !Kung value on equality).
Because of these different cultural interpretations of the same act, cross-cultural
misunderstanding resulted.
As a postscript to this article, remember that the !Kung were studied by Lee in the 60s;
few live as foragers today. For an update on the !Kung see the epilogue to article 8 by
Lee and Biesele.
The misunderstanding that Lee experienced with the !Kung was based on different
cultural meanings for Lee's gift of a Christmas ox.
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," civil and
church authorities in the northeast town of Bom Jesus de Mata, Brazil, treated infant
death casually and without much concern.
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.
According to Cronk in his article, "Reciprocity and the Power of Giving," gift giving
can be used to intimidate people.
Using Anthropology
DAVID W. McCURDY
Summary In this article, McCurdy discusses some of the professional applications of
anthropology, such as in advertising, engineering, teaching, and business, to name a
few. He also argues that an anthropological perspectivecharacterized by ethnographic
research, embracing the concept of microculture, and cross-cultural sensitivitycan help
professionals perform better in a wide array of situations.
McCurdy illustrates his argument using the case of a newly appointed warehouse
manager who is called upon to improve service to customer outlets operated by UTC, a
large corporation. Instead of bringing in new rules and regulations, as most new
managers do, she chose to undertake an ethnographic approach during her six-week
"grace period." By using ethnographic research she was able to discover the detailed
nature of the problem, while building goodwill with the warehouse employees.
The educational materials handled by the warehouse had been reaching customer
outlets in poor condition and in inaccurate amounts. Warehouse employees, who had
been under great pressure to work rapidly, had felt forced to estimate, rather than count,
the materials they shipped to outlets.
By having the books shrink-wrapped and reducing the size of the shipping boxes, the
manager was able to speed up work at the warehouse, ensure that the right number of
books and other materials was being shipped, and improved the condition of the goods
at their destination.
By using an ethnographic approach, the new manager had revealed the problems at
hand. Only this made it possible to find realistic solutions.
In "Using Anthropology," McCurdy assesses that one disadvantage of using the
ethnographic approach in management is that workers come to feel that no one cares
about them.
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," finding informant
sites, making contact, dealing with self-appointed key informants, gaining rapport,
dealing with ethical dilemmas and leaving the field were all important challenges to
doing ethnographic fieldwork among prostitutes.
Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife
MELVYN C. GOLDSTEIN
Summary In this article, Goldstein discusses the functions of a rare custom, fraternal
polyandry. Along with monogamy, it is one of the most common forms of marriage in
Tibetan society. Among the Tibetans of northern Nepal, it is common for a woman to
marry two or more men who are brothers. This arrangement is generally made with the
consent of the woman's parents. The oldest brother typically manages the household,
with all of the brothers dividing the work equally and participating as sexual partners
with the wife. Although brothers in such an arrangement can quarrel with each other
and occasionally argue over sexual rights to the shared spouse, many men and women
prefer the arrangement.
All of the children of the marriage are treated equally by all of the brothers, and no
attempt is made to keep track of biological linkage. All of the children treat all the
brothers equally, in some regions referring to them as "elder" or "younger." Divorce is
possible; an unhappy brother can simply leave the main house and set up his own
household. Any children remain in the main household, even if the departing brother is
the real father.
Two theories have previously been advanced by anthropologists to explain polyandry.
One argues that the custom results from a shortage of women due to female infanticide.
The other is that polyandry correlates with a shortage of arable land. The claim is that
with polyandrous marriage, land can be held in the same male line without subdivision.
Goldstein challenges both explanations. There is not, he argues, a high rate of female
infanticide among Tibetans, and many Tibetan women live out their lives unmarried,
yet bear children. If scarce land were the problem, one would expect poor families with
little land to practice polyandry, but it is wealthy farmers who prefer the custom.
Polyandry does serve to reduce the birth rate, but Tibetans do not recognize this latent
function. Instead, for the wealthier Tibetans who practice it, polyandry is desirable
because it permits them to keep land holdings together and continue to live a more
prosperous life.
By entering into a polyandrous marriage with his brothers, a Tibetan man has access to
family land, animals, and any other inheritances. He shares any work burden with his
brothers, and thus is afforded greater security. He may not have as much personal
freedom as he would in a monogamous marriage, but what he loses in freedom he gains
in the economic security, affluence, and prestige that comes with a larger, asset-holding,
polyandrous family.
In "Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife," Goldstein argues that Tibetan polyandry
functions to reduce the birth rate.
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.
According to Jill Dubisch in "Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage," the "run" is
taken annually by a group of motorcyclists who start the ride in California, stop nightly
for rest and ritual ceremonies, and end at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington, DC.
The origin of bipedality (two-footedness) in humans is something that an anthropologist
interested in cultural ecology would study.
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," Islam is the
world's fastest-growing religion, due in part to new births in existing Muslim societies
and to new Muslims who have converted.
Malawi Versus the World Bank
SONIA PATTEN
Summary This article by Sonia Patten describes the impact of market-oriented World
Bank and International Monetary Fund policy on the subsistence farmers of Malawi.
Early on these two lending institutions adopted the "Washington Consensus," a policy
designed to reform the economies of poor nations by instituting capitalism and bringing
them into the world economy. The "Consensus" required borrowing countries to adopt
five rules in order to receive loans: (1) cut spending on health, (2) privatize state-owned
enterprises, (3) allow market set interest rates, (4) open their economies to foreign
investment and competition, and (5) manage currency rates.
Malawi is a small African nation. Ninety-five percent of its population lives on small
one to four acre plots of land typically producing just enough food (maize in this case)
to feed family members and participate in ceremonies such as weddings. Maize is hard
on the land because it requires substantial nutrients to grow properly. There is no land
left to farm in Malawi, thus no way to let some of it lie fallow to recover its fertility.
British colonial officials recognized the negative impact of exhausted land on maize
yields and started providing subsidized fertilizer by 1952, a policy continued after
independence. By the early "80s Malawi approached the World Bank for a loan because
of a balance of payments problem. By 1990 the government had ended fertilizer
subsidy programs, price controls, and regulated seed prices, and devalued its currency.
Unable to afford the cost, farmers grew crops without using fertilizer. The result was
vastly reduced crop yields, starvation and malnutrition, and a life expectancy of 37
years. Malawians responded by skipping meals, mixing brans with maize flour, adding
cassava to maize four, selling assets and land, and in some cases begging.
Before the 2007 planting season, Malawi's president reinstituted the subsidization of
fertilizer. The resulting yield that year so large that the country was able to export grain.
Malnutrition dropped and health increased. The Malawian case illustrates the impact of
macro-economic policy on a local micro economy.
In "Malawi Versus the World Bank," Patten notes that the World Bank and the IMF
required Malawi to quit subsidizing fertilizer.
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 observes that those who ride
in the Run for the Wall consciously see it as a pilgrimage.
Marriage and Adulthood in West Africa
SUSANNA FIORATTA
Summary
Across cultures, marriage is a rite of passage that confers statusboth legal and socialon
those who participate in it. Marriage often increases social status and, in some societies
such as the United States, affords participants legal protections not available through
other means. However, it is not generally thought of as something that affects an
individual's status as an adult. Individuals in the United States and other countries have
every reason to believe that they will be successful whether they marry or not. In her
article, "Marriage and Adulthood in West Africa," Susanna Fioratta describes a society
in Guinea where marriage is the only way to be considered a responsible adult.
For both men and women in the Fouta Djallon, marriage is not a choice. It is vitally
important that an individual be married in order to be considered a responsible adult
worthy of offering advice, taking on roles in the community, and being trusted with
money. Even potential leaderssuch as 72-year-old presidential candidatesmust have a
wife, children, and a home; otherwise, they are considered incapable of being
responsible, not worthy of offering advice, and unable to show sympathy or pity. In the
local Pular language, there is not even a word to describe an unmarried adult woman.
There are only words for girl or virgin (jiwo) and woman (debbo). A state of being an
adult unmarried woman is incomprehensible.
Achieving and maintaining a marriage in the Fouta Djallon is very difficult. Men must
make enough money to support a wife and family, build a house, and care for extended
family. This requires migrating to nearby countries to find work and save money.
Women, for their part, must endure painful excision to be considered eligible for
marriage. As wives, they must submit to their husbands at all times, cook and clean for
a dozen or more individuals, bear and take care of children, maintain a garden of
vegetables, and do so with inadequate funds. To make ends meet, wives often earn
supplemental income selling snacks, cloth, or other items in the village. Divorce and
premature death are not uncommon. When women are divorced or their husbands die
prematurely, their parents quickly arrange new marriages; some widows are inherited as
wives of their deceased husband's brothers.
Fioratta argues that the challenges associated with marriage are what allow both men
and women to demonstrate that they are responsible, trustworthy adults. Despite these
challenges, particularly for women, marriage is a highly sought-after status and is
necessary to becoming a respected elder in the community.
Because everyone in Fouta Djallon understands the societal importance of marriage, the
community works together to make it relatively easy to find a spouse and maintain
a healthy marriage.
Malawi Versus the World Bank
SONIA PATTEN
Summary This article by Sonia Patten describes the impact of market-oriented World
Bank and International Monetary Fund policy on the subsistence farmers of Malawi.
Early on these two lending institutions adopted the "Washington Consensus," a policy
designed to reform the economies of poor nations by instituting capitalism and bringing
them into the world economy. The "Consensus" required borrowing countries to adopt
five rules in order to receive loans: (1) cut spending on health, (2) privatize state-owned
enterprises, (3) allow market set interest rates, (4) open their economies to foreign
investment and competition, and (5) manage currency rates.
Malawi is a small African nation. Ninety-five percent of its population lives on small
one to four acre plots of land typically producing just enough food (maize in this case)
to feed family members and participate in ceremonies such as weddings. Maize is hard
on the land because it requires substantial nutrients to grow properly. There is no land
left to farm in Malawi, thus no way to let some of it lie fallow to recover its fertility.
British colonial officials recognized the negative impact of exhausted land on maize
yields and started providing subsidized fertilizer by 1952, a policy continued after
independence. By the early "80s Malawi approached the World Bank for a loan because
of a balance of payments problem. By 1990 the government had ended fertilizer
subsidy programs, price controls, and regulated seed prices, and devalued its currency.
Unable to afford the cost, farmers grew crops without using fertilizer. The result was
vastly reduced crop yields, starvation and malnutrition, and a life expectancy of 37
years. Malawians responded by skipping meals, mixing brans with maize flour, adding
cassava to maize four, selling assets and land, and in some cases begging.
Before the 2007 planting season, Malawi's president reinstituted the subsidization of
fertilizer. The resulting yield that year so large that the country was able to export grain.
Malnutrition dropped and health increased. The Malawian case illustrates the impact of
macro-economic policy on a local micro economy.
In "Malawi Versus the World Bank," Patten claims that the goal of the World Bank and
IMF is to lend poor countries money in order to build more efficient government
agencies concerned with health and the control of HIV/AIDS.
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.
In "Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS," Sterk found it was essential to
interview prostitutes in the presence of their pimps and other prostitutes in order to gain
trust.
Forest Development the Indian Way
RICHARD K. REED
Summary When Richard Reed first entered the Guaran village of Itanaram over 20
years ago, he had to make an arduous journey, first on rugged dirt roads by car, then for
two days on foot along a tropical forest trail. Only rivers and swampy areas broke the
forest canopy. The village itself was buried in the forest, with houses scattered along a
trail next to a small river. Reed's subsequent study revealed a tightly knit community
whose members were tied together by kinship and values on sharing and cooperation.
Political structure was informal; a village leader (tamoi) mediated disputes. Although
villagers exploited their tropical forest environment, they did so in a way that permitted
its renewal. Men cleared garden plots in the forest. Women burned the brush and
planted the fields with beans, manioc, and orange trees. As fields became exhausted
after two or three years, new plots were cleared and old ones permitted to lie fallow for
10 to 20 years so they could be reclaimed by the forest. Hunting and fishing provided a
significant portion of people's food and, though seemingly isolated, villagers traded
some forest products especially yerba-mate leaves, for hooks, machetes, soap, and salt
with outsiders. Results of his study were described in "Cultivating the Tropical Forest,"
an article included in earlier editions of Conformity and Conflict.
Subsequent visits to Itanaram over the intervening years reveal changes commonly
found in many areas of the Amazon drainage. Roads now bisect the forest, bringing an
influx of ranchers, farmers, traders, frontier towns, and truck traffic. Clear cutting for
farms and ranches has devastated Guaran life and its sustainable economy. Settlements
stand isolated and devoid of resources. Villagers can no longer practice slash-and-burn
agriculture; there are no animals to hunt or fish to catch. Without renewable resources,
many Indians have joined the legions of unemployed or underemployed in frontier
towns, and suicide rates, especially among young men, have skyrocketed.
Shouldn"t the Guaran simply accept the pain that accompanies modern development
and look forward to a brighter future? No, argues Reed, because the use of forestland
for ranches and farming is unsustainable. Cleared land quickly ceases to produce and is
left vacant without a surrounding forest to reclaim it, leaving a red desert. Instead, the
Guaran model for forest exploitation, even when it involves the extraction of forest
products for sale to outsiders, is more economical because it is sustainable. Persuaded
by this argument, the Nature Conservancy has recently bought and set aside 280 square
miles of forest for sustainable development using the Guaran model.
Reed claims that the Guaran depend on a slash-and-burn agriculture for 94 percent of
their dietary needs.
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," poor
women in northeast Brazil would sacrifice in every way possible to keep their children
alive.
Social acceptance of an innovation involves three steps: identification, analysis, and
substitution.
Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife
MELVYN C. GOLDSTEIN
Summary In this article, Goldstein discusses the functions of a rare custom, fraternal
polyandry. Along with monogamy, it is one of the most common forms of marriage in
Tibetan society. Among the Tibetans of northern Nepal, it is common for a woman to
marry two or more men who are brothers. This arrangement is generally made with the
consent of the woman's parents. The oldest brother typically manages the household,
with all of the brothers dividing the work equally and participating as sexual partners
with the wife. Although brothers in such an arrangement can quarrel with each other
and occasionally argue over sexual rights to the shared spouse, many men and women
prefer the arrangement.
All of the children of the marriage are treated equally by all of the brothers, and no
attempt is made to keep track of biological linkage. All of the children treat all the
brothers equally, in some regions referring to them as "elder" or "younger." Divorce is
possible; an unhappy brother can simply leave the main house and set up his own
household. Any children remain in the main household, even if the departing brother is
the real father.
Two theories have previously been advanced by anthropologists to explain polyandry.
One argues that the custom results from a shortage of women due to female infanticide.
The other is that polyandry correlates with a shortage of arable land. The claim is that
with polyandrous marriage, land can be held in the same male line without subdivision.
Goldstein challenges both explanations. There is not, he argues, a high rate of female
infanticide among Tibetans, and many Tibetan women live out their lives unmarried,
yet bear children. If scarce land were the problem, one would expect poor families with
little land to practice polyandry, but it is wealthy farmers who prefer the custom.
Polyandry does serve to reduce the birth rate, but Tibetans do not recognize this latent
function. Instead, for the wealthier Tibetans who practice it, polyandry is desirable
because it permits them to keep land holdings together and continue to live a more
prosperous life.
By entering into a polyandrous marriage with his brothers, a Tibetan man has access to
family land, animals, and any other inheritances. He shares any work burden with his
brothers, and thus is afforded greater security. He may not have as much personal
freedom as he would in a monogamous marriage, but what he loses in freedom he gains
in the economic security, affluence, and prestige that comes with a larger, asset-holding,
polyandrous family.
According to Goldstein's "Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife," it is richer Tibetans
living in Nepal who prefer polyandry.
