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According to Bohannan, the Tiv approved of
a. Hamlet's desire to kill his father's brother.
b. Hamlet's desire to kill Polonius.
c. Ophelia's attraction to Polonius.
d. Hamlet's mother's hasty marriage to her dead husband's brother.
A group ranked in a system of social stratification into which members are born for life
is called a
a. caste.
b. class.
c. rank society.
d. stratified society.
Nuer Refugees in America
DIANNA SHANDY
Summary In this article updated in 2015, Dianna Shandy, who has conducted
ethnographic research among Nuer refugees in the upper Midwest since 1997, looks at
what their status as refugees means, how they managed to come to the United States,
why they were located in more than 30 different U.S. states, how a people raised as
cattle herders survive and adapt to life in a U.S. urban setting, and what this tells us
about "the interconnectedness of a globalizing world and anthropology's role in it."
Although no special categories were assigned to people who first migrated to the United
States (they were all simply called immigrants), today there are at least two categories ,
migrants and refugees based on their reasons for coming here. The United Nations (UN)
defines refugees as people who have left a country because of a well-founded fear of
persecution based on race; religion; nationality; membership in a particular social
group; or political opinion. They are not merely IDPs (internally displaced persons)
who have left home but are willing to return. To manage the refugee "problem" (by
2014 there were 60 million refugees in the world), there is a UN agency headed by a
high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR). The UN and many countries see three
solutions for refugee placement: voluntary repatriation, integration into a country of
asylum, or rarely, third-country resettlement. Typically, refugees are first housed in
camps, and then certified for resettlement. The United States takes in a limited number
of refugees and employs the UN criteria for refugee certification. But decisions about
who is eligible vary, based on officials' interpretations of the criteria and ever shifting
resettlement policies. Officials also must deal with cross-cultural differences and
language barriers as they decide who is a refugee and who is an "economic refugee"
(someone whose main motive to move is for economic advantage).
The Nuer who live in the United States have made it through this bureaucratic process.
Thok Ding, who is mentioned in the article, was brought up herding cattle in a Nuer
pastoral village, experienced the death of his father when northerners attacked his
village, moved with his family to a camp in Ethiopia, attended and excelled at a
Christian mission school there, moved to another camp for further schooling, moved
back to the Sudan with his family when fighting broke out in Ethiopia, traveled back to
Addis Ababa where he joined friends, moved to a camp in Kenya, applied for refugee
status with the UN there, and was eventually accepted for refugee resettlement by the
United States. His arrival and settlement in the United States was facilitated by
Lutheran Social Services, a volunteer organization ("volag" to insiders) contracted by
the United States. Helped by the organization, he was placed in Minneapolis, settled in
an apartment, and guided toward a job. Later he left Minneapolis for Des Moines and a
job in the meat packing industry, where he hopes to continue his education, save money,
marry a woman from the South Sudan, and bring his family, with whom he corresponds
frequently and to whom he sends money, to the United States.
The case illustrates several points. Refugee issues are complex and varied, and involve
endless bureaucratic hurdles. Refugees who manage to gain resettlement (many do not)
must be tenacious, ambitious, clever, and opportunistic. The Nuer make successful
refugees because many possess these characteristics.
In "Nuer Refugees in America," Shandy reports that Thok Ding was finally resettled in
the United States after his father was killed in the Sudanese civil war; he attended
school in Ethiopia, and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya.
The Maniqui is an Amazonian tributary that
a. meanders through Bolivia's tropical lowlands to the frontier town of San Borja.
b. is used to carry cut timber up to La Paz in the highlands of Bolivia.
c. is the main mode of transport used by commercial logging companies.
d. winds through clear cut areas of the Chimanes forest.
Migration offers young men the opportunity to earn
a. levirate.
b. jiwo.
c. dpart.
d. debbo.
Gmelch notes in "Baseball Magic" that fetishes are often associated with baseball
magic. These are
a. things to be avoided.
b. repetitive actions.
c. lucky charms.
d. sayings.
A dispute that is below the level of the legal process and without violence is
a. a legal dispute.
b. an extralegal dispute.
c. an infralegal dispute.
d. a feud.
Some of the following are listed as subsistence strategies in Part 3 of Conformity and
Conflict. Which one of the following is not?
a. hunting and gathering
b. agricultural
c. manufacturing
d. horticultural
Law and Order
JAMES P. SPRADLEY AND DAVID W. McCURDY
Summary In this article, Spradley and McCurdy present law in the context of dispute
resolution, using cases drawn from anthropologist Laura Nader's work in Ralu"a, a
Zapotec Indian village located in southern Mexico.
The article deals with several concepts: the structure of legal culture, including
substantive law and procedural law, legal levels, legal principles, and cultural values.
Substantive law consists of the legal statutes that define right and wrong. This is
illustrated by the flirtation of a married man with an unmarried woman, which the
Zapotec treat as a crime. Similarly, the case of a son who harvested coffee from his
father's land without permission is also defined as a crime to be dealt with by the
community's legal system.
Legal levels refer to the ways in which disputes are settled by different kinds of
authority agents. Among the Zapotec, several levels for settling disputes exist. Disputes
can be settled by family elders, witches, local officials, the priest, supernatural beings,
or officials in the municipio. If all else fails, the dispute can be taken to the district court
in Villa Alta.
Procedural law refers to the agreed-upon ways to settle disputes, which are often
unwritten, and therefore implicit in nature. In Ralu"a, for example, it is generally
agreed that one should not take family disputes to court, and disputes between villagers
(such as an argument over the washing stone) should be taken to court only if they
cannot be settled between the disputing individuals beforehand. In this case, the dispute
was settled when the presidente (village chairman who also presides over the village
court) and other elected village officials formed a work force, improved the washing
facilities at the well, and declared that washing stones would no longer be owned by
individuals.
Legal systems reflect legal principles and cultural values. Legal principles are based
on the fundamental values of a culture; a legal principle is a broad conception of some
desirable state of affairs that gives rise to many substantive and procedural rules.
Americans put great emphasis on establishing truth, while for the Zapotec, a major legal
principle is to "make the balance." This means to encourage compromise and settlement
so that disputes disappear and disputants get along with each other in the future. This in
turn is based on the Zapotec cultural value of maintaining social equilibrium. A direct
confrontation between individuals where one loses and another wins is unsettling to
community members.
According to Spradley and McCurdy in "Law and Order," in the Zapotec village of
Ralu"a, frightening someone so that they come down with susto or magical fright, is a
crime.
According to Spradley, the belief that people everywhere interpret the world in the same
way is called
a. naive realism.
b. cultural behavior.
c. explicit culture.
d. tacit culture.
A bilateral kinship group that is most like a lineage is called a
a. family.
b. clan.
c. phratry.
d. ramage.
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," marriage allies the
families of the bride and groom, which then become equal partners in an association of
feminal kin.
Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of the Amputees
CAROLYN NORDSTROM
Summary Supporters of the use of land mines argue that they deter soldiers and protect
sensitive areas during combat. Statistics show, however, that those most commonly
injured by land mines are not soldiers, but instead children, women, and men engaged
in nonmilitary activities. These mines leave their victims without limbs, often unable to
walk, work, or eke out an existence in a part of the world where wheelchairs are
nonexistent and life is incredibly hard, even for a healthy individual.
The women of Muleque, Angola, who were injured by these land mines, at first
developed informal economies in order to simply survive. But as Nordstrom points out,
they wanted more than to merely exist. They formed their own informal banking
systems, popular in Southern Africa, and with just a few pennies, managed to raise
money to invest in farmland. Joining an informal bank group, according to Nordstrom,
is the first step on the path that women follow out of poverty and into development.
There are many steps, and the process is difficult. Women start with nothing; hard labor
is the only way to raise the small amount needed to even join an informal bank group.
According to Nordstrom's research, women are "the invisible center of gravity of
society" in Southern Africa. A man's presence is fluid; a woman is always there. She
makes the connections that create family, society, and community networks. Without
the women, according to the author, families and societies collapse. With the women at
the center, families succeed, and health, education, and trade result. The author notes
that is interesting that the women's efforts and their contributions to development go
unnoticed. According to figures from the United Nations, these informal economies
contribute $250 billion annually in imports, and this money goes directly into the
development of the country. Yet these women continue to be depicted by
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as stereotypical victims barely surviving by
selling bananas and charcoal.
According to Nordstrom in "Illegal Economies and the Untold Story of
Amputees," land mines successfully deter soldiers and protect sensitive sites.
According to Goldstein in "Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife," it is difficult for a
male Tibetan to start his own farm because
a. the government restricts access to new land.
b. there is no more land to reclaim in the mountains.
c. it is difficult to terrace new land and keep animals simultaneously without help.
d. only the eldest brother has a right to the family's estate.
The behavior that produces vocal sounds is called
a. semantics.
b. language.
c. speech.
d. phonology.
According to Fish in "Mixed Blood," the striking contrast between the very tall Masai
and the stature of the very short Pygmies, both of Africa, is representative of
a. race.
b. folk taxonomy.
c. hypo-descent.
d. human biological variety.
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.
In "How Sushi Went Global," Bestor argues that the Japanese control the world price
for bluefin tuna because the government sets prices paid for imported fish, which, in
turn, affects the economy of U.S. fishing villages.
In "Nuer Refugees in America," Shandy observes that the Nuer are most often first
aided in their quest to be resettled in the United States by
a. relatives.
b. UN officials.
c. voluntary organizations (volags).
d. U.S. immigration officials.
The way the !Kung treated Richard Lee's gift of a Christmas ox reveals how much they
value
a. male dominance.
b family solidarity.
c. identification with nature.
d. equality.
Any use of anthropological knowledge to influence social interaction, to maintain or
change social institutions, or to direct the course of cultural change is called
a. applied anthropology.
b. adjustment anthropology.
c. advocate anthropology.
d. administrative anthropology.
According to Alverson in "Advice for Developers," how do Peace Corps volunteers see
themselves?
a. They see themselves as students, there to learn from the Tswana about how to
change their American ways.
b. They see themselves are experts, there to teach the less fortunate.
c. They know that the Tswana do not want them in Botswana, but feel that they
know better than the Tswana was is good for their community.
d. They don"t want to impart Western ideas in their work with the Tswana.
The case of the Gypsy defendant described by Sutherland in "The Case of an American
Gypsy" represents a good illustration of what happens when
a. a foreign people takes advantage of a lenient judicial system.
b. greedy lawyers misrepresent their non-American clients.
c. anthropological testimony is misused in court.
d. a normal practice for one group is a crime for another.
According to Bourgois in "Poverty at Work: Office Work and the Crack Alternative,"
the unionized jobs associated with manufacturing in New York
a. provided life-time security for Puerto Rican workers.
b. were difficult for Puerto Ricans to get because they were foreigners.
c. permitted some rebellious behavior.
d. required more education than non-unionized jobs.
When a marriage ends through death or divorce, men and women
a. seek an imam's advice as to whether to marry again.
b. must actively seek to arrange a new marriage.
c. retain the same level of respect and status that they had when married.
d. live out their lives as widows and widowers, cared for by the community.
In "Negotiating Work and Family in America," Shandy and Moe note that no longer
holding a high-ranking job is a problem for a woman's prestige. What can a woman do
to retain prestige when she spends all her time at home?
a. note what her high prestige jobs had been
b. argue that being a stay-at-home mom is actually more important
c. note that she and her husband could not afford nannies
d. maintain a very clean and well appointed home
When the Tiv informed Laura Bohannan that she must be wrong about Hamlet's father's
ghost because the dead cannot talk, they displayed what anthropologists call
a. culture shock.
b. naive realism.
c. tacit culture.
d. cross-cultural solidarity.
On the basis of his student's negative experience in a Barbadian village, Gmelch
concludes in "Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas" that
a. it is difficult for U.S. women to find acceptance in Barbadian communities because
people there think they are morally "loose."
b. American students unconsciously look down on Barbadians and are unable to hide
their sense of superiority.
c. a great barrier to student research in places like Barbados is that local people view
students as tourists.
d. U.S. students assume that Barbadian communities are homogeneous and fail to
appreciate the social dynamics found in small face-to-face communities.
According to Ehrenreich and Hochschild in "Global Women in the New Economy,"
African women are most likely to migrate to ____________ for work as domestics and
nannies.
a. the Far East
b. the United States
c. Europe
d. Southeast Asia
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.
In addition to typical wet or dry seasons that most countries experience, Malawi has a
"hungry season": the period between when the last of the stored harvest is consumed
and the first of the next season's crops are harvested.
According to McCurdy in "Family and Kinship in Village India," which is the most
important structural tension associated with marriage in Bhil society?
a. the decision about how large the dapa (bride price) will be.
b. the possibility that young people will refuse to be married.
c. the shifting of a woman's loyalty, labor, and reproductive potential from her family to
her husband's family.
d. whether wives will inherit from their own or their husband's families.
According to Ehrenreich and Hochschild in their article "Global Women in the New
Economy," women who migrate for work in other countries are often
a. better educated than most women in their home countries.
b. disappointed by the small amount of money they can make abroad.
c. discouraged by their home governments to seek work abroad.
d. shunned by their community for leaving their children in the care of other people.
According to Rogozen-Soltar in "Becoming Muslim in Europe," the Spanish Inquisition
was an effort to ensure a uniform religious and ethnic population in Spain. Over the
course of several hundred years, __________ were forced to convert, or be killed or
exiled.
a. Catholics
b. Muslims and Jews
c. Catholics and Jews
d. Catholics and Muslims
According to Gmelch in "Baseball Magic," baseball players can least control
a. pitching and hitting.
b. hitting.
c. fielding.
d. arguing with the umpire.
In "Medical Anthropology: Improving Nutrition in Malawi," Patten notes that the
UDLP project to teach women how to raise and care for goats, and to incorporate milk
into their children's food, was
a. flatly rejected by the village leaders.
b. so popular that it quickly had more participants than it could accommodate.
c. too difficult for the women of the villages to undertake.
d. failed due to the theft of goats by people in other villages.
Global Women in the New Economy
BARBARA EHRENREICH AND ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD
Summary In this selection, Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild look at an
important aspect of globalization: the movement of poor women from Third World
societies to wealthier nations. Published as the introduction to Global Women: Nannies,
Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, the piece begins with the story of a Sri
Lankan woman serving as a nanny to a two-year-old child in Greece. The subject of a
documentary film, When Mother Comes Home for Christmas, Josephene Perera has
been a migrant worker for 10 years. She earns enough to support her three children at
home, but only gets to see them once a year. Over time two of her children show signs
of distress. Despite this, she returns once again to her job in Greece, trading a life of
poverty at home for money in a distant land. Put another way, she gives up her family
life to make one for parents who work full time in a wealthy nation.
The authors stress several points about the flow of immigrant workers over the last few
years. Movement has occurred between poor and rich countries. The international
workforce, once largely consisting of men, now includes a substantial number of
women, laboring as domestics, nannies, and sex-for-hire workers. The change marks a
different relationship between rich and poor nations. Once rich nations mined poor ones
for their natural resources; now they mine them for people. Four migration patterns
stand out: one is the flow of workers from Southeast Asia to the Middle and Far East; a
second from Eastern to Western Europe; a third from South and Central America to
North America; and a fourth from Africa to Europe. In many of these places, foreign
workers have taken domestic jobs once held by local people. For example, in America
maids and nannies were once largely the domain of black women. These jobs are now
largely filled by Latinas. Poor countries have come to value the money sent home by
their citizens working abroad, and some have programs to prepare female citizens for
foreign service and to find jobs abroad.
There are a number of factors that attract poor women to do overseas work. There are
plenty of jobs for domestics in wealthier countries because so many women there have
gone to work in what was once a largely male economy. Job opportunities are even
greater in First World countries, because governments have not instituted programs to
help their working women with child care and other domestic needs; men have not
stepped in to fill the gap at home; and men have created a demand for sex-for-hire
workers. In addition, as the wealth gap between rich and poor countries grows, women
from poor countries can make many times the amount of money they could earn at
home by taking jobs abroad.
Women may also be "pushed" to leave their countries in order to work abroad. Some
leave to escape abuse at home. Many women who leave are well educated but had
found no reasonably paid opportunities.
In "Global Women in the New Economy," Ehrenreich and Hochschild note that many
women from wealthy societies have succeeded in the "tough" male world but have
turned over the care of their children, elderly parents, and homes to women from the
Third World.
Public Interest Ethnography: Women's Prisons and Health Care in California
RACHAEL STRYKER
Summary In this article, Rachael Stryker describes how ethnography can be used to
affect public policy. With government sponsorship, she and a group of her
undergraduate students interviewed a number of inmates incarcerated in two California
state prisons for women. Their goal was to learn about the provision of health care from
the prisoner's perspective. Armed with the "insider's" point of view, they produced
recommendations for changes, some of which were adopted by prison authorities.
Public interest ethnography (a branch of applied anthropology) involves ethnographic
research among people who are affected by policy. It brings a human face to the impact
of policy and often seeks to empower those affected by it. The study of health care
provided in California's women's prisons is a good example. The researchers discovered
that to receive care, an inmate had to fill out a request, pay a five-dollar copay, receive a
ducat (something like a hall pass), and then see one of three people: an MTA (medically
trained correctional guard), a nurse, or a doctor. The process could take weeks and was
complicated by the fact that inmates had little money, were often treated by unqualified
health providers, and were frustrated by an inability to speak English (many inmates
spoke only Spanish). Inmates often feared medical procedures and felt that doctors
treated them with disrespect. They also told about instances of sexual harassment. Other
factors related to inmate health included poor sanitation caused by overcrowded cells,
and lack of cleaning and personal hygiene supplies. AIDS patients were housed in the
general inmate population. Food was also a problem, especially for diabetics and those
with food allergies. Finally, inmates did not get enough exercise. Inmates often
responded to these problems by treating themselves or ignoring symptoms.
The ethnographic study produced a list of recommendations. It advised the state to
simplify the process required of inmates to receive health care, reduce or eliminate the
copay because inmates had little money, eliminate the MTA position, hire more
qualified nurses and doctors, provide translators, reduce overcrowding, and improve
nutrition and sanitation. In response to these recommendations the state increased
translation services, eliminated the MTA position, and started a process to reduce
overcrowding. Other recommendations were taken under advisement.
In "Ethnography in the Public Interest," Stryker reports that a Latina inmate named
Nicole was subdued, stripped naked, and incarcerated separately when she experienced
complications related to a medication she was taking.
Poverty at Work: Office Employment and the Crack Alternative
PHILIPPE BOURGOIS
Summary The transition from a manufacturing economy to one based on office work is
more culturally disruptive to poorly educated working class city dwellers than one
might suspect. This is the conclusion drawn by Philippe Bourgois based on his three
and one-half year ethnographic study of Puerto-Rican crack cocaine dealers in New
Your City's Spanish Harlem.
When Puerto Ricans first moved to New York City, men with little education were able
to find factory work that enabled them to support their families with dignity. As time
went by, sons followed in their fathers' footsteps, quitting school in their middle teens to
take manufacturing jobs that required little formal education but provided a decent
living and a respected place in surrounding Puerto Rican working class society.
Protected by unions, their macho urban street culture could be openly expressed on the
production line without serious consequences.
All this changed, however, between 1963 and 1983 when over half the factories in New
York City either closed or moved to less expensive areas. Toughness and male swagger
that worked well on the factory production line now intimidated the better-educated
largely Anglo people who worked above them. The poor workers were often unable to
read even the simplest directions. Worse, they often found themselves supervised by
women, a rare occurrence in Puerto Rican society. Even the way they walked and
looked intimidated Anglo co-workers. Above all, they felt "dissed" (disrespected) by
office Anglos, who would often comment openly about their lack of education and
ability. Working at the minimum wage, most lasted on the job for only a few days.
Unemployed once again, many turned to selling crack in a lucrative underground
economy, which placed them on a self-destructive track of drug addiction, violence, and
arrest. Even becoming bicultural, adopting Anglo office culture at work and street
culture at home, did not work well. Friends and family members accused them of
selling out their heritage.
In an epilogue, Bourgois notes that four things changed this bleak underground work
environment in Spanish Harlem during the late 1990s: the economy grew at a high and
sustained rate providing more jobs even for the poor; the size of the Mexican immigrant
population increased significantly in Spanish Harlem; the war on drugs criminalized
many of the poor; and marijuana, not crack, became the drug of choice. As a result,
more men found work in the regular economy. But despite this turn of events, Bourgois
concludes that there is little hope in the long run for New York's inner city poor.
In "Poverty at Work: Office Work and the Crack Alternative," Bourgois argues that
Puerto Rican men feel degraded and disrespected in the entry-level service jobs found
in New York's office-bound economy.
Public Interest Ethnography: Women's Prisons and Health Care in California
RACHAEL STRYKER
Summary In this article, Rachael Stryker describes how ethnography can be used to
affect public policy. With government sponsorship, she and a group of her
undergraduate students interviewed a number of inmates incarcerated in two California
state prisons for women. Their goal was to learn about the provision of health care from
the prisoner's perspective. Armed with the "insider's" point of view, they produced
recommendations for changes, some of which were adopted by prison authorities.
Public interest ethnography (a branch of applied anthropology) involves ethnographic
research among people who are affected by policy. It brings a human face to the impact
of policy and often seeks to empower those affected by it. The study of health care
provided in California's women's prisons is a good example. The researchers discovered
that to receive care, an inmate had to fill out a request, pay a five-dollar copay, receive a
ducat (something like a hall pass), and then see one of three people: an MTA (medically
trained correctional guard), a nurse, or a doctor. The process could take weeks and was
complicated by the fact that inmates had little money, were often treated by unqualified
health providers, and were frustrated by an inability to speak English (many inmates
spoke only Spanish). Inmates often feared medical procedures and felt that doctors
treated them with disrespect. They also told about instances of sexual harassment. Other
factors related to inmate health included poor sanitation caused by overcrowded cells,
and lack of cleaning and personal hygiene supplies. AIDS patients were housed in the
general inmate population. Food was also a problem, especially for diabetics and those
with food allergies. Finally, inmates did not get enough exercise. Inmates often
responded to these problems by treating themselves or ignoring symptoms.
The ethnographic study produced a list of recommendations. It advised the state to
simplify the process required of inmates to receive health care, reduce or eliminate the
copay because inmates had little money, eliminate the MTA position, hire more
qualified nurses and doctors, provide translators, reduce overcrowding, and improve
nutrition and sanitation. In response to these recommendations the state increased
translation services, eliminated the MTA position, and started a process to reduce
overcrowding. Other recommendations were taken under advisement.
According to Stryker in "Ethnography in the Public Interest," female inmates at two
California prisons often avoided seeking treatment for their ailments, because getting an
appointment with a health care provider took so long and many inmates could not
afford the required copay.
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.
According to Patten in "Malawi Versus the World Bank," the effect of the World Bank
on Malawi was to drive people off their land and into cities where they could work in
newly established businesses.
Public Interest Ethnography: Women's Prisons and Health Care in California
RACHAEL STRYKER
Summary In this article, Rachael Stryker describes how ethnography can be used to
affect public policy. With government sponsorship, she and a group of her
undergraduate students interviewed a number of inmates incarcerated in two California
state prisons for women. Their goal was to learn about the provision of health care from
the prisoner's perspective. Armed with the "insider's" point of view, they produced
recommendations for changes, some of which were adopted by prison authorities.
Public interest ethnography (a branch of applied anthropology) involves ethnographic
research among people who are affected by policy. It brings a human face to the impact
of policy and often seeks to empower those affected by it. The study of health care
provided in California's women's prisons is a good example. The researchers discovered
that to receive care, an inmate had to fill out a request, pay a five-dollar copay, receive a
ducat (something like a hall pass), and then see one of three people: an MTA (medically
trained correctional guard), a nurse, or a doctor. The process could take weeks and was
complicated by the fact that inmates had little money, were often treated by unqualified
health providers, and were frustrated by an inability to speak English (many inmates
spoke only Spanish). Inmates often feared medical procedures and felt that doctors
treated them with disrespect. They also told about instances of sexual harassment. Other
factors related to inmate health included poor sanitation caused by overcrowded cells,
and lack of cleaning and personal hygiene supplies. AIDS patients were housed in the
general inmate population. Food was also a problem, especially for diabetics and those
with food allergies. Finally, inmates did not get enough exercise. Inmates often
responded to these problems by treating themselves or ignoring symptoms.
The ethnographic study produced a list of recommendations. It advised the state to
simplify the process required of inmates to receive health care, reduce or eliminate the
copay because inmates had little money, eliminate the MTA position, hire more
qualified nurses and doctors, provide translators, reduce overcrowding, and improve
nutrition and sanitation. In response to these recommendations the state increased
translation services, eliminated the MTA position, and started a process to reduce
overcrowding. Other recommendations were taken under advisement.
According to Stryker in "Ethnography in the Public Interest," public interest
ethnography is aimed at redistribution of wealth in the United States.
Public Interest Ethnography: Women's Prisons and Health Care in California
RACHAEL STRYKER
Summary In this article, Rachael Stryker describes how ethnography can be used to
affect public policy. With government sponsorship, she and a group of her
undergraduate students interviewed a number of inmates incarcerated in two California
state prisons for women. Their goal was to learn about the provision of health care from
the prisoner's perspective. Armed with the "insider's" point of view, they produced
recommendations for changes, some of which were adopted by prison authorities.
Public interest ethnography (a branch of applied anthropology) involves ethnographic
research among people who are affected by policy. It brings a human face to the impact
of policy and often seeks to empower those affected by it. The study of health care
provided in California's women's prisons is a good example. The researchers discovered
that to receive care, an inmate had to fill out a request, pay a five-dollar copay, receive a
ducat (something like a hall pass), and then see one of three people: an MTA (medically
trained correctional guard), a nurse, or a doctor. The process could take weeks and was
complicated by the fact that inmates had little money, were often treated by unqualified
health providers, and were frustrated by an inability to speak English (many inmates
spoke only Spanish). Inmates often feared medical procedures and felt that doctors
treated them with disrespect. They also told about instances of sexual harassment. Other
factors related to inmate health included poor sanitation caused by overcrowded cells,
and lack of cleaning and personal hygiene supplies. AIDS patients were housed in the
general inmate population. Food was also a problem, especially for diabetics and those
with food allergies. Finally, inmates did not get enough exercise. Inmates often
responded to these problems by treating themselves or ignoring symptoms.
The ethnographic study produced a list of recommendations. It advised the state to
simplify the process required of inmates to receive health care, reduce or eliminate the
copay because inmates had little money, eliminate the MTA position, hire more
qualified nurses and doctors, provide translators, reduce overcrowding, and improve
nutrition and sanitation. In response to these recommendations the state increased
translation services, eliminated the MTA position, and started a process to reduce
overcrowding. Other recommendations were taken under advisement.
In "Ethnography in the Public Interest," Stryker admits that the Women's Prison
Healthcare Project she directed unfortunately failed to produce actionable
recommendations.
Illegal Logging and Frontier Conservation
NATHAN WILLIAMSON
The Bolivian government has worked for years with NGOs (nongovernmental
organizations) to create plans for sustainable levels of managed logging in the Bolivian
lowlands to protect the Amazon rainforestin particular the Chimanes Indian
Reservefrom clear cutting by illegal loggers, ranchers, and farmers. Unfortunately, the
policies put in place have largely failed, as Williamson details in his article. His
research, beginning nearly a decade after the conservation policy was established,
shows that illegal logging continues in the lowlands in a variety of ways, fueled by
poverty, weak government enforcement, and a worldwide demand for tropical
hardwoods. As his research indicates, conservation policy must take into account how
those who live in and around the forest are using it, in addition to the goals of those
forming policy.
For the Chimanes Indians living in the Bolivian lowlands surrounding the Maniqui
River, preserving the most valuable tropical hardwoods means eliminating one of the
few ways the men in the tribe can earn money to feed their families.
For economic reasons, local tribes earning a subsistence living, bands of chainsaw
gangs called cuartoneros and even small, illegal logging companies continue to
selectively and illegally harvest mahogany and other tropical hardwood trees, leaving
behind the less valuable species.
Each group involved in illegal harvesting has a slightly different impact on the forest
than does the legal, approved logger who is restricted by the conservation policies in
place. The Chimanes Indians stay close to the river and only clear paths wide enough
for oxcarts to get the timbers to the river. Cuartoneros (chain saw gangs) use machetes,
chainsaws, and a backbreaking relay system to get the cuartones (timbers) to the river,
where they float them to small sawmills that sell the wood to larger lumber companies.
Both the Chimanes Indians and cuartoneros go into the rainforest and reemerge more
than a month later with timbers that will earn them three to five times more than the one
dollar a day that most can earn working as manual laborers. Though less destructive
than the legal methods that have more impact on the forest, they will still eventually
strip the forest of its most valuable treesthe one thing that the Bolivian government and
NGOs hope to prevent.
Perhaps a viable solution, Williamson suggests, is an international trade agreement that
controls the export of tropical hardwood and vilifies the use of illegally harvested
woods, similar to the campaigns of the fur industry. Otherwise, the Chimanes and
cuartoneros will continue to find ways to support their families, and eventually even
approved logging companies may be tempted toward more damaging ways of logging.
Numerous logging roads used to legally harvest tropical hardwoods cut up the
Chimanes Reserve, an area approximately the same size as the state of Rhode Island.
Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas
GEORGE GMELCH
Summary This article uses the experience of an American student studying abroad to
illustrate the concept of naive realism, especially the American insensitivity to the
existence of social class and the nature of small communities. Gmelch noted that one of
his students, Hanna, whose research he was supervising in Barbados, suddenly
encountered a serious fieldwork problem. Her fieldwork involved living in a rural
Barbadian community, where she worked in the village school and lived with a host
family. For several weeks her work went well. Rapport with her host mother and other
villagers was excellent and she was enthusiastic about her experience. Then suddenly
her homestay mother demanded that she move out because of what villagers were
saying about her. It turned out that she had been seen talking to a Rastafarian named
Joseph, and based on their view of Rastas, villagers had concluded that she was
smoking marijuana and bathing naked with him and other Rastas. Some even thought
she was a drug addict.
Gmelch learned that indeed she had met a Rastafarian named Joseph, spoken to him
publicly several times in the village, and visited his cave in the hills on a couple of
occasions. Hanna was puzzled why villagers would be upset by her behavior. Her
fieldwork was based around the concept that anthropologists are supposed to be
interested in different kinds of people
Her problem related to the existence of class in the Barbadian community; Rastafarians
were looked down on. People felt that Rastas often stole vegetables and fruit from
villagers and lacked good morals because they often went naked and looked bizarre.
The situation was compounded by the size and face-to-face nature of village life.
Unlike suburban and urban communities in the U.S., everyone knew each other in the
village. Peoples' behavior was a constant topic of gossip.
Gmelch dealt with the situation by talking to village elders and Hanna's homestay
mother. He explained that she did not understand their concern about Rastas, that she
had not slept with Rastas, and that she meant no harm. In the end, Hanna was allowed
to remain in the village. She learned that her U.S. suburban culture denied the existence
of class and lacked a sense of how close people in a small community can be, combined
with an American sense of personal autonomy. In short, she naively assumed that
people in rural Barbados would view her behavior by her own standards.
In a "postscript" follow up years later, Hanna explained the profound impact that
meeting Joseph had had on her sense of openmindedness, and her growing awareness of
discrimination and prejudice.
In "Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas," when Gmelch learned about the difficulties his
study abroad student was having in her homestay village, he read her field notes and
discovered that she had been talking to and accompanying a Rastafarian named Joseph.
Women in the Mine
JESSICA SMITH ROLSTON
Summary This article details the unique and complex gender roles that have developed
in the coal mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Typically thought of as full of
stereotypically ultra macho men, the coal mines in Wyoming disprove this assumption.
In addition to being comprised mostly of family men, women work alongside men as
equalsin numbers greater than in the industry as a wholein nearly every capacity.
Women miners have developed ways to build rapport with male coworkers that ensure
that they are treated with respect. This article details this complex system.
The Powder River Basin is home to a dozen coal mines that were opened in response to
the energy crisis of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Many women in the area had grown
up riding horses, fishing, hunting, or working on farms and ranches, and were quite
comfortable getting dirty and doing manual labor. Mining seemed a natural fit, and
offered high pay for those without a college education. Females employed by the mines
can make between $65,000 and $100,000, depending on experience and overtime.
In addition to having to learn the ins and outs of a new industry, women had to learn
how to succeed in a traditionally male environment. They have done so by adjusting
their identities and taking on personas at work in order to gain respect and craft
camaraderie with male coworkers. Common labels like tomboy, lady, girly girl, and
bitch have developed very specific connotations; these personas represent specific
gender identities that bring a range of emotionsfrom respect to disdain to
disapprovalfrom coworkers. Smith Rolston details how the persona a woman chooses at
the mine can have far reaching implications and how adopting a single persona is not
enough; women in the mines must constantly and strategically adjust their personas to
fit the situation, potentially changing identity mid-conversation, mid-shift, or at any
time to respond appropriately to their male coworkers' notions of femininity.
In the social universe of the mine, the term "lady" generally has a negative connotation.
A kinship group based on a unilineal rule of descent that is localized and has corporate
power is called a clan.
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 Dubisch in "Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage," the ritual for the
soldiers missing in Vietnam is especially powerful because of the mountainous location
of Limon, Colorado.
Illegal Logging and Frontier Conservation
NATHAN WILLIAMSON
The Bolivian government has worked for years with NGOs (nongovernmental
organizations) to create plans for sustainable levels of managed logging in the Bolivian
lowlands to protect the Amazon rainforestin particular the Chimanes Indian
Reservefrom clear cutting by illegal loggers, ranchers, and farmers. Unfortunately, the
policies put in place have largely failed, as Williamson details in his article. His
research, beginning nearly a decade after the conservation policy was established,
shows that illegal logging continues in the lowlands in a variety of ways, fueled by
poverty, weak government enforcement, and a worldwide demand for tropical
hardwoods. As his research indicates, conservation policy must take into account how
those who live in and around the forest are using it, in addition to the goals of those
forming policy.
For the Chimanes Indians living in the Bolivian lowlands surrounding the Maniqui
River, preserving the most valuable tropical hardwoods means eliminating one of the
few ways the men in the tribe can earn money to feed their families.
For economic reasons, local tribes earning a subsistence living, bands of chainsaw
gangs called cuartoneros and even small, illegal logging companies continue to
selectively and illegally harvest mahogany and other tropical hardwood trees, leaving
behind the less valuable species.
Each group involved in illegal harvesting has a slightly different impact on the forest
than does the legal, approved logger who is restricted by the conservation policies in
place. The Chimanes Indians stay close to the river and only clear paths wide enough
for oxcarts to get the timbers to the river. Cuartoneros (chain saw gangs) use machetes,
chainsaws, and a backbreaking relay system to get the cuartones (timbers) to the river,
where they float them to small sawmills that sell the wood to larger lumber companies.
Both the Chimanes Indians and cuartoneros go into the rainforest and reemerge more
than a month later with timbers that will earn them three to five times more than the one
dollar a day that most can earn working as manual laborers. Though less destructive
than the legal methods that have more impact on the forest, they will still eventually
strip the forest of its most valuable treesthe one thing that the Bolivian government and
NGOs hope to prevent.
Perhaps a viable solution, Williamson suggests, is an international trade agreement that
controls the export of tropical hardwood and vilifies the use of illegally harvested
woods, similar to the campaigns of the fur industry. Otherwise, the Chimanes and
cuartoneros will continue to find ways to support their families, and eventually even
approved logging companies may be tempted toward more damaging ways of logging.
The Chimanes are a nomadic people who move about the forest to hunt and fish.
As used in this book, the term status refers to a person's social rank.
Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas
GEORGE GMELCH
Summary This article uses the experience of an American student studying abroad to
illustrate the concept of naive realism, especially the American insensitivity to the
existence of social class and the nature of small communities. Gmelch noted that one of
his students, Hanna, whose research he was supervising in Barbados, suddenly
encountered a serious fieldwork problem. Her fieldwork involved living in a rural
Barbadian community, where she worked in the village school and lived with a host
family. For several weeks her work went well. Rapport with her host mother and other
villagers was excellent and she was enthusiastic about her experience. Then suddenly
her homestay mother demanded that she move out because of what villagers were
saying about her. It turned out that she had been seen talking to a Rastafarian named
Joseph, and based on their view of Rastas, villagers had concluded that she was
smoking marijuana and bathing naked with him and other Rastas. Some even thought
she was a drug addict.
Gmelch learned that indeed she had met a Rastafarian named Joseph, spoken to him
publicly several times in the village, and visited his cave in the hills on a couple of
occasions. Hanna was puzzled why villagers would be upset by her behavior. Her
fieldwork was based around the concept that anthropologists are supposed to be
interested in different kinds of people
Her problem related to the existence of class in the Barbadian community; Rastafarians
were looked down on. People felt that Rastas often stole vegetables and fruit from
villagers and lacked good morals because they often went naked and looked bizarre.
The situation was compounded by the size and face-to-face nature of village life.
Unlike suburban and urban communities in the U.S., everyone knew each other in the
village. Peoples' behavior was a constant topic of gossip.
Gmelch dealt with the situation by talking to village elders and Hanna's homestay
mother. He explained that she did not understand their concern about Rastas, that she
had not slept with Rastas, and that she meant no harm. In the end, Hanna was allowed
to remain in the village. She learned that her U.S. suburban culture denied the existence
of class and lacked a sense of how close people in a small community can be, combined
with an American sense of personal autonomy. In short, she naively assumed that
people in rural Barbados would view her behavior by her own standards.
In a "postscript" follow up years later, Hanna explained the profound impact that
meeting Joseph had had on her sense of openmindedness, and her growing awareness of
discrimination and prejudice.
In "Nice Girls Don"t Talk to Rastas," Gmelch concludes that U.S. middle-class students
do not realize that face-to-face communities like the ones where his students lived in
Barbados are homogeneous.
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 goal of the World Bank and
IMF is to loan poor countries money to help them institute capitalism and to bring them
into the global economy.
Cross-Cultural Law:The Case of an American Gypsy
ANNE SUTHERLAND
Summary This article by Anne Sutherland looks at what happens when members of
one culture live under the legal jurisdiction of another. The article describes the case of
a young Gypsy man accused of using someone else's Social Security number, and the
role played by an anthropologist in his court defense.
The young Gypsy male used the Social Security number of a five-year-old nephew to
apply for a car loan. Gypsies believe that their vitsa (clan) has rights over property such
as names and Social Security numbers, and that vitsa members can share in these
things. Although he had no intention of stealing the car or defrauding anyone, the man
was charged under a law that makes it a felony to use someone else's Social Security
number. The police also concluded that he was part of a car theft ring.
Sutherland became involved in the case as an expert witness for the defense. Her first
act was to discover whether the young man was a Gypsy and what his name was.
Gypsies take on many "American" names, which they change often. Their identities are
more typically associated with their vitsa, or clan, and a larger grouping of clans called
a natsia. During the trial she testified that the young man had no intention of defrauding
or stealing from anyone. She noted that it was usual for members of vitsas to share
American names, Social Security numbers, and other marks of identity. Despite her
testimony, however, the defendant was convicted.
Sutherland concludes her article with three points. First, Gypsies, who are a nomadic
group, do not stress individual identities, which are so important to settled Americans.
For hundreds of years the people and governments of the countries in which they live
have persecuted Gypsies. She cites ample evidence that American police also consider
them a criminal society. Hiding their identities has been their response to this
persecution. Second, Gypsies suffer in jail to an unusual extent because they believe
they are polluted there. Gypsies avoid long contact with non-Gypsies and their food
because the latter pollute (marime) them. Their own relatives shun them if this happens,
and they must go through a period of purification before reintegration into their own
society. Third, there is a clash between the Gypsy view of membership in a corporate
kin group and the usual American view of individual rights.
According to Sutherland in "The Case of an American Gypsy," Gypsies frequently take
one another's Social Security numbers in order to hide their identities.
A metaphor is an alternative word for something.
Class is a kind of stratification defined by unequal access to prestige and valued
resources but which can permit individual mobility.
