Olive Pink and the Encounter with the Academy

Olive Pink studied anthropology at the University of Sydney under Professor A.P. Elkin. Although she did fieldwork among the Northern Aranda and Wailbri of Central Australia, she became disenchanted with anthropology and lived a reclusive life in Alice Springs. In this paper I present a brief outline of her life, particularly during the 1930's I point to the problems she encountered and suggested that she needs to be relocated within her discipline.     

Globalisation and the Genesis of Values

This talk was delivered as an Inaugural Lecture in Anthropology at the University of Sydney on the evening of August 22, 2001. It was sponsored by the Arts Association of the University of Sydney. In it I present an overview of my career, noting the consistencies between my work in philosophy and in anthropology, and between what may appear as two quite disparate field sites, urban Jamaica and central Australia. A method that involves a sociology of value, and an historical anthropology, brings these research areas into interesting relations, as does a growing concern with women's roles in the course of change.     

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace The British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), well known as co‐discoverer of the “Darwinian” principle of natural selection, came from an ordinary background. Wallace left school aged 14 and never attended University. He became a land surveyor and studied, in his spare time, the works of the most famous naturalists of his age. After extensive expeditions (Amazon, 1848–1852; Southeast Asia, 1854–1862), Wallace spent the rest of his life in England as a free‐lance science writer. His contributions to systematics (he discovered/described many new species), evolutionary biology, zoogeography, anthropology and other branches of the live sciences are summarized in his 22 books and ca. 700 papers. Since Wallace became an adherent of spiritualism and mixed up supernatural phenomena with scientific facts in some of his later books, he remains a controversial figure in the history of the life sciences.     

Australian Anthropology,Ideology and Political Repression: The Cold War Experience of Frederick G. G. Rose

It is more than half a century since Frederick G. G. Rose (1915–1991) published his classic text, The classification of kin, age structure and marriage amongst the Groote Eylandt Aborigines: A study in method and a theory of kinship (1960) in the former German Democratic Republic. Although the fieldwork for his thesis had been carried out in Australia on Groote Eylandt in 1938 and 1941, a conservative academic establishment and the political climate of the Cold War postponed its publication until 1960. Why were Rose's fieldwork findings suppressed by the powerful gate-keeper of Australian anthropology, Professor Adolphus Peter Elkin (1891–1979)? Moreover, why was Rose later denied a government permit to revisit Groote Eylandt and Central Australia to further his research? This paper examines the early work of the communist anthropologist, Frederick Rose, within the broad context of Western post-war anthropological developments, an expanding capitalist economy and the political tensions of the Cold War era. As a communist and public servant from 1938 to 1954, Rose was forced, after the Petrov Royal Commission cast him under a cloud of suspicion, to seek institutional support for his academic career in the German Democratic Republic.     

Camelot at Yale: The Construction and Dismantling of the Sapirian Synthesis, 1931-39

For a brief shining moment in the 1930s, Edward Sapir stood at the forefront of a new synthesis of Boasian ethnology and linguistics. But his call to Yale in 1931 was a mandate taken up against formidable odds, and the grand synthesis soon began to unravel. George Peter Murdock, who became chairman in 1939, moved the department toward science and "verified theory." In the period immediately following World War II, Sapir's program was not revived, but its legacies have come to us by way of the Yale ethnoscience and linguistic anthropology of the 1960s, and his synthesis remains a viable option for Americanist anthropology at the millennium.     

Height and reproductive success in a cohort of british men

Two recent studies have shown a relationship between male height and number of offspring in contemporary developed-world populations. One of them argues as a result that directional selection for male tallness is both positive and unconstrained. This paper uses data from a large and socially representative national cohort of men who were born in Britain in March 1958. Taller men were less likely to be childless than shorter ones. They did not have a greater mean number of children. If anything, the pattern was the reverse, since men from higher socioeconomic groups tended to be taller and also to have smaller families. However, clear evidence was found that men who were taller than average were more likely to find a long-term partner, and also more likely to have several different long-term partners. This confirms the finding that tall men are considered more attractive and suggests that, in a noncontracepting environment, they would have more children. There is also evidence of stabilizing selection, since extremely tall men had an excess of health problems and an increased likelihood of childlessness. The conclusion is that male tallness has been selected for in recent human evolution but has been constrained by developmental factors and stabilizing selection on the extremely tall. The National Child Development Study is carried out by the researchers of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, London. The data are housed at the Data Archive of the University of Essex, from where they were obtained under license for the present study. I am grateful to Paul Preece for his assistance with data processing, and to Benjamin Campbell and two anonymous referees for invaluable advice which has, I hope, improved the quality of this paper. Daniel Nettle is lecturer in biological psychology at the Open University. With a first degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in biological anthropology, his work has been concerned with the application of evolutionary models to such topics as language (e.g., Linguistic Diversity, Oxford University Press, 1999) and individual differences (Strong Imagination, Oxford University Press, 2001).     

N.W. Thomas and colonial anthropology in British West Africa: reappraising a cautionary tale

As the first government anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office, Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868‐1936) has earned a place in the footnotes of anthropological history. Historians of the discipline have discussed his career in West Africa in their wider explorations of the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Through this work, an orthodox account of Thomas has emerged as an eccentric dilettante who damaged the reputation of the discipline, setting back its adoption as a practical science of value to colonial governance by a generation or more. Adopting a micro‐historical approach, closer scrutiny of the archival evidence challenges this orthodoxy, and places Thomas more centrally within the professional networks and practices of British anthropology in the period 1900 to 1915. As well as correcting the record concerning Thomas's professional reputation, a more complex picture emerges regarding the colonial authorities’ attitudes towards anthropology and the reason why this early experiment in colonial anthropology failed.     

Parent-offspring conflict and the cultural ecology of breast-feeding

Lactation constitutes a major focus for research in international health because of its dramatic impact on child survival; evolutionary biology has investigated lactation as an important aspect of parenting strategy, with implications for understanding parent-offspring conflict. These perspectives are brought together in an attempt to develop integrated models for an issue of key international health concern: the duration of exclusive breast-feeding and the timing of weaning. This analysis highlights the relevance of evolutionary theory for practical problems in public health, and it suggests the utility of public health outcomes for addressing evolutionary questions. Thomas McDade received his Ph.D. degree in anthropology from Emory University in 1999 and is currently an assistant professor in the anthropology department at Northwestern University. His research interests include biocultural perspectives on issues related to health and human development, with current attention focused on the cultural and evolutionary ecology of human immune function.     

Mythologising culture

In western Sydney, I found an extreme version of what I propose is a national Aboriginal mythopoeia, that is, a powerful system of beliefs and practices in relation to Aboriginal people and culture. A reified Aboriginal culture is promoted at institutional sites and in reconciliation discourses that evokes the presence of something precious and mysterious that must be re‐read into local Aboriginal people, but which assiduously avoids their actual circumstances and subjectivities. The awkward relationships and avoidances evident in a western Sydney reconciliation group are posited as a benign example of this mythology, born of a ‘sentimental politics’ of regret and reparation at work in Australia. Unity between the state and civil society is evident here, thus requiring an analysis that goes beyond a critique of government policies and programmes as intentional and rational, and grasps the nature of the widespread desire for Aboriginality. Through ethnographic attention to the actual relationships of Indigenous people and others, anthropologists can avoid being complicit in this regressive, separatist construction.     

The ‘Thailand Controversy’ Revisited

The so‐called ‘Thailand controversy’ divided the anthropological communities of Australia and the US in the early 1970s. In the heat of opposition to the Vietnam War, allegations were made that some anthropologists and institutions, particularly the Tribal Research Centre in Thailand, had worked hand in glove with the military/intelligence establishment and contrary to the interests of the minority peoples who lived in the hills of north Thailand, who were the subjects of research. The author was one of those so accused and the paper presents his view of the episode. It traces the genesis of the Tribal Research Centre, the publication of an inflammatory article in the US, and the subsequent escalation of the controversy there. It then details its impact on the Australian anthropological community, with particular reference to the Sydney University Department. Finally, it describes the climax of the controversy in the Australian Association of Social Anthropologists, and the American Anthropological Association. In conclusion, it argues that the confused intensity of the affair was a product of a mix of political passions, ethical considerations, and different views about the role of academics in society.     

The human breast and the ancestral reproductive cycle

This paper, using modern Darwinian theory, proposes an explanation for the increasingly high incidence of breast cancer found among pre-and post-menopausal women living today in westernized countries. A number of factors have been said to be responsible: genetic inheritance (BRCA-1), diet (specifically the increased consumption of dietary fat), exposure to carcinogenic agents, lifetime menstrual activity, and reproductive factors. The primary aim of this paper is to demonstrate the value of a perspective based on Darwinian theory. In this paper, Darwinian theory is used to explore the possibility that the increased incidence of breast cancer is due primarily to the failure to complete in a timely manner the reproductive developmental cycle, beginning at menarche and continuing through a series of pregnancies and lactation. On the basis of comparative data, we assume that most women in ancestral populations began having children before age 20 or so and tended to remain either pregnant or nursing for most of their adult lives. If a woman did not have a child by age 25 or so, she probably would never have one. Therefore, selection would probably not have acted against deleterious traits, such as cancer, that appeared after that age, just as it does not act against such traits in old age. This article is based upon a paper presented at the Sixth Annual Scientific Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, June 18th, 1994, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Kathryn Coe is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at Arizona State University and project director of an NCI grant focusing on cervical and breast cancer in Hispanic women. Field research for her doctoral dissertation focused on the health, fertility, and culture of the Chachi Indians of the coastal rain forest of Ecuador. Lyle Steadman is an assistant professor of anthropology at Arizona State University. He has conducted research for more than two years among the isolated Hewa of Papua New Guinea. His research interests include evolutionary theory and culture, particularly religion and kinship.     

Mythologising culture

This second part of Mythologising Culture examines the responses of Aboriginal people in western Sydney to the valorizing of Aboriginality by the Australian nation. As Aboriginal culture has become the object of restitution, regret and reconciliation, Aboriginal people are being called upon to represent and produce Culture in iconic forms such as painting, dancing and other performances and representations. These activities, often depicted as remedial, are seldom initiated and controlled by Aboriginal people, but rather disturb cultural adjustments and established social relations. I discuss a range of responses elicited by these post‐colonial activities, from enthusiastic embrace to the rejection of state sponsored culture. Further, I consider the structural implications of suburban Aborigines being offered the chance to distance themselves from the anonymous suburban poor.     

Discursive Formation,Ethnographic Encounter,Photographic Evidence: The Centenary of Durkheim's Basic Forms of Religious Life and the Anthropological Study of Australian Aboriginal Religion in His Time

Historical research on the work of Émile Durkheim has often been confined to textual analysis aiming to reconstruct his research in the context of anthropological discourses at the turn of the 20th century. As radical changes in the visual culture of the late 19th century shaped the formation of anthropology as an academic discipline, the ambition of this article is to elaborate the ways Durkheim's use of ethnographic data and visual material formed the foundation of the theoretical and methodological design of his approach to religion. By tracing features in his Basic Forms that emphasize visual material and prioritize religious practice, I submit that the photographic evidence given in Spencer and Gillen's account of Aboriginal religion allowed Durkheim to theorize religion primarily through ritual. Photography, as a visual means of representation, enhanced the study of religion by focusing on ritual without necessarily demanding consideration of its mythical narratives and cosmological accounts. Based on a thorough analysis of his Basic Forms, this article argues that Durkheim used the photographs of the Aborigines of Central Australia systematically and that this use of photographs consequently guided his ethnographic depiction and his selection of theoretical concepts and methodological procedures.     

Some foundations of contemporary methods for culturing preimplantation embryos; a personal account

This article traces the history of the work on mammalian embryos carried out by the author, his students and related scientists. It traces the work from the initial experiments at the King Ranch Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania in 1966, the set up of an embryo culture laboratory at the Department of Veterinary Physiology, University of Sydney and the work within that laboratory from 1967 to 1974. This is followed by an account of the author's subsequent work at Murdoch University from 1975 till his retirement in 1996. The significant role of some of the author's graduate students in human IVF is also documented.     

Visual anthropology's contribution to the field of anthropology

This is an account of the movement of photography as art into the objectivity of the camera image as scientific evidence. On arrival at Cornell University, Collier did not appreciate the extreme flexibility of this department, primarily dedicated to applied anthroplogy, and thereby more open to diverse human data than other branches of the field. The action‐problem‐solving Cornell students and behavioral specialists leapt over theoretical obstacles and directly utilized photographic insights both projectively and in precise content analysis. But the future challenge of visual anthropology came with the text of the moving image and the completeness of filmic understanding.     

The hybrid economy and anthropological engagements with policy discourse: A brief reflection1

This article advocates a crucial role for economic anthropology in the twenty‐first century. The use of anthropological techniques for primary data collection is essential for understanding the complexity of diverse local economies. This is demonstrated with reference to a remote Aboriginal economy in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia, using a ‘hybrid economy’ model that includes the customary sector as well as market and state sectors. This empirically grounded model is contrasted with a very different theoretical construct: the ‘real’ economy that is dominating Indigenous affairs policy discourse. Although the hybrid economy model is currently subordinated, mainly for ideological reasons, examples are provided to demonstrate its policy and legal influences.     

Tunnel Vision: Part One – Resisting post‐colonialism in Australian anthropology

This essay is based on my conviction that Australian ethnography's narrow purview and anthropology's theoretical limitations need exploring and explaining. While internationally the discipline developed new sites, new theoretical fields and new political ideas in the post‐colonial era from around 1970, classicism continued to dominate research in Australia. New forms of Aboriginal social life and politics created by changing ‘post‐colonial’ conditions largely escaped ethnographic attention, but anthropology was rescued from irrelevance with the emergence of opportunities to assist the courts and Aborigines with land retrievals. By examining selected ethnographies and exceptions to the discipline's main trajectory, I hope to encourage reflection and expansion so that the discipline might realise its potential as the most radical and critical of the social sciences.     

W. Montague Cobb (1904–1990): Physical Anthropologist, Anatomist, and Activist

William Montague Cobb's life and work reflect a profound integration of art, literature, social activism, and science. This article presents some of the highlights of his academic development and professional contributions. We have considered his early academic development within the contexts of the formative years of American physical anthropology, Howard University Medical School, and the social issues in American society that influenced Cobb. His approaches to teaching, anatomical and anthropological research, and medicine are unique, and yet are closely reasoned and creative reflections of the major currents of academe and the broader society with which he dealt. Imbued with a sense of social responsibility, Cobb's applied anthropology involved the accumulation of extensive data on the one hand, and the formation of organizations for social activism on the other. It was directed toward solving problems of health care and racism. His work thereby served to balance the widespread distortion and neglect of medical and racial problems facing A fro-America between 1930 and the present day. He was also a principal builder of black medical and scientific institutions, and he preserved the record of his coworkers' contributions through his many biographies. This work represents no more than a sketch of his rich and prolific career (during which he produced more than 1,100 publications); the emphasis of this biographical study has been to ascertain the circumstances and attitudes that helped mold the first Afro-American Ph.D. in physical anthropology.