Tedium and creativity: the valorization of manioc cultivation and piaroa women

Through an exploration of Amazonian ethnographic material, this article challenges the idea that tasks normally associated with women are invariably considered to be less valuable than men's activities. I argue against the claims made by Rivière that manioc cultivation is devoid of creativity or differentiation. I find the process of manioc cultivation to be profoundly social; indeed, it provides a critical means by which prestige is attained, maintained, and expressed by Piaroa women. By gardening, Piaroa women create their own spaces and infuse the landscape with meaning. By processing manioc and thus providing the safest and most basic of staple foods, they create and re-create sociality and the conditions for humanity. Finally, I explore the ways in which the region's rapid and far-reaching economic and cultural transformations may affect the role of manioc and of women in Piaroa society.     

Piaroa Manioc Varietals: Hyperdiversity or Social Currency?

The maintenance of exceptionally high numbers of folk varieties by the Piaroa people of the Venezuelan Amazon is considered. We cataloged 113 manioc folk varieties, their nomenclature, use and relevant characters, revealing significant insights into the role of manioc in Piaroa social life. Through a qualitative investigation of the cultivation, processing and symbolic significance of manioc (Manihot esculenta) in two Piaroa regions over a period of 18 years, we have found that such agrobiodiversity can only be fully explained by a combination of multiple factors, including pragmatic and ecological considerations, the subtle and complex diversity of Piaroa manioc preparations and a variety of sociocultural factors, such as manioc’s role as a mediator of social relationships and as a marker of cultural and social heritage.

四川凉山彝族传统民俗中的植物及其文化意义

凉山彝族传统民俗植物文化在当地彝社会中广泛存在,表现了丰富多彩的文化多样性,集中反映在法术仪式、礼仪、节日庆典等方面。采用关键人物访谈、半结构访谈、参与式观察等方法研究了凉山彝族传统民俗中使用的植物,共调查到102种,其中,跟婚礼相关的植物21种,葬礼植物24种,成人礼植物11种,日常礼仪植物3种;火把节植物14种,彝族年植物15种;法术仪式植物91种。这些民俗植物的文化含义主要表现在驱鬼、生殖崇拜和祖先崇拜三个方面,这与当地彝族崇信鬼神和其崇拜万物有灵的原始宗教有关,是其自然原始宗教和毕摩文化的重要组成。     

Idioms of distress: Alternatives in the expression of psychosocial distress: A case study from South India

This paper focuses attention on alternative modes of expressing distress and the need to analyze particular manifestations of distress in relation to personal and cultural meaning complexes as well as the availability and social implications of coexisting idioms of expression. To illustrate this point the case of South Kanarese Havik Brahmin women is presented. These women are described as having a weak social support network and limited opportunities to ventilate feelings and seek counsel outside the household. Alternative means of expressing psychosocial distress resorted to by Havik women are discussed in relation to associated Brahminic values, norms and stereotypes. Somatization is focused upon as an important idiom through which distress is communicated. Idioms of distress more peripheral to the personal or cultural behavioral repertoire of Havik women are considered as adaptive responses in circumstances where other modes of expression fail to communicate distress adequately or provide appropriate coping strategies. The importance of an idioms of distress approach to psychiatric evaluation is noted. Dept. of Psychiatry University of Hawaii     

Plants among Yi People’s Traditional Folk Customs and Their Cultural Significance in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture,Sichuan

The culture of plants used in Liangshan Yi people’s traditional folk customs is widespread. These plants represented rich cultural diversity, mainly existing in witchcrafts, rites and festivals. A community based study and an extensive field surveys had been carried out. The methods including Key Informant Interviews, Semi structured Interviews and Participatory Observation were adopted in the study. The plants in traditional folk customs used by the Yi people in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture and their cultural contexts were documented and inventoried. The results showed that there were 102 plant species used in Yi people’s traditional folk customs and expressed diversity and richness in terms of cultural meanings. The plants were used for witchcrafts and rites, social rituals, festive events, including 21 species used in wedding, 24 in funeral, 11 in the adult ceremony, 3 in daily life; 14 in the Torch Festival, 15 in the Yi National new year, 91 in witchcrafts and rites. The folk plants’ cultural meanings are mainly reflected in exorcism, reproductive worship and ancestor worship. The main reasons are that the Yi people advocate ghosts and believe the animism of primitive religion in Lianshan region. The cultures of folk plants are an important component of the natural primary religion and Bimo culture. It is an indispensable part of the traditional culture of the Yi people.     

Indigenous Shifting Cultivation and the New Amazonia: A Piaroa Example of Economic Articulation

This article argues against the idea that indigenous cultural change and knowledge loss are inevitably bonded to one another, with particular reference to agro-productive transformations. This view has not only ignored the potential of these productive systems—well documented in recent decades—but has often threatened them by promoting development policies based on mistaken premises. It is suggested here that some indigenous peoples’ productive responses to market integration may in fact offer alternatives to the paradoxes of development in seemingly fragile tropical environments. This article reports, in particular, on the strategies developed by the Piaroa, from southern Venezuela. Contemporary large and permanent Piaroa communities, which resulted from their involvement in aspects of national society, have been able to sustain the forests on which they depend while satisfying their food and market necessities. This has been possible due to a series of market strategies based on their agroforestal tradition, which have emphasised the commercialization of secondary forest products. The article proposes that these strategies have been underestimated due to the market conditions in which Piaroa farmers are immersed, and from which they have learnt the very principles of “capitalism.” Oil dependent and saturated with corruption, the Venezuelan market hampers their full economic integration, contributing to the idea that their agroforestry system can only produce at subsistence levels.

Ethnobotany of Mangroves among Jing People’s Folks

Mangrove plants are closely connected with folk customs of Jing ethnic group, and it is one of the symbols of Jing people as marine people. However, rapid economic development and globalization have brought about critical challenges to the cultural traditions of Jing people, and traditional knowledge of mangroves is being lost among Jing ethnic group. To protect folk customs on mangroves of Jing people, we have conducted a series of surveys on mangrove plants which have been used for folk customs of Jing people via ethnobotanical and taxonomical methods. The results showed that there were 14 mangrove plant species used in Jing people’s traditional folk customs. Four species of mangrove plants were used for religious belief, 11 species used in social customs and 7 species for material customs. Avicennia marina, Acanthus ilicifolius and Rhizophora stylosa are with the highest relationship with folk customs for Jing people. Our research can provide more comprehensive interpretation for characteristic on marine culture of Jing people, and improve the knowledge on ethnobotany of mangroves.     

Negotiating Individualist and Collectivist Futures: Emerging Subjectivities and Social Forms in Papua New Guinean High Schools

This article explains the academic disengagement of a critical mass of high school students in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, as resulting in part from emerging personal subjectivities and new social networks. Based on a year of ethnographic research in 1994–95, the article describes the authority these young people attributed to their own perceptions of the limited opportunity structures facing them and to the idealized village-based egalitarian student identity being circulated through peer networks. As such, it illuminates the educational implications of youth culture, and demonstrates how local and global processes are mediated through the social fields of high schools.     

Dynamics of alliance formation and the egalitarian revolution

Background

Arguably the most influential force in human history is the formation of social coalitions and alliances (i.e., long-lasting coalitions) and their impact on individual power. Understanding the dynamics of alliance formation and its consequences for biological, social, and cultural evolution is a formidable theoretical challenge. In most great ape species, coalitions occur at individual and group levels and among both kin and non-kin. Nonetheless, ape societies remain essentially hierarchical, and coalitions rarely weaken social inequality. In contrast, human hunter-gatherers show a remarkable tendency to egalitarianism, and human coalitions and alliances occur not only among individuals and groups, but also among groups of groups. These observations suggest that the evolutionary dynamics of human coalitions can only be understood in the context of social networks and cognitive evolution.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here, we develop a stochastic model describing the emergence of networks of allies resulting from within-group competition for status or mates between individuals utilizing dyadic information. The model shows that alliances often emerge in a phase transition-like fashion if the group size, awareness, aggressiveness, and persuasiveness of individuals are large and the decay rate of individual affinities is small. With cultural inheritance of social networks, a single leveling alliance including all group members can emerge in several generations.

Conclusions/Significance

We propose a simple and flexible theoretical approach for studying the dynamics of alliance emergence applicable where game-theoretic methods are not practical. Our approach is both scalable and expandable. It is scalable in that it can be generalized to larger groups, or groups of groups. It is expandable in that it allows for inclusion of additional factors such as behavioral, genetic, social, and cultural features. Our results suggest that a rapid transition from a hierarchical society of great apes to an egalitarian society of hunter-gatherers (often referred to as “egalitarian revolution”) could indeed follow an increase in human cognitive abilities. The establishment of stable group-wide egalitarian alliances creates conditions promoting the origin of cultural norms favoring the group interests over those of individuals.     

Good Samaritans in Networks: An Experiment on How Networks Influence Egalitarian Sharing and the Evolution of Inequality

The fact that the more resourceful people are sharing with the poor to mitigate inequality—egalitarian sharing—is well documented in the behavioral science research. How inequality evolves as a result of egalitarian sharing is determined by the structure of “who gives whom”. While most prior experimental research investigates allocation of resources in dyads and groups, the paper extends the research of egalitarian sharing to networks for a more generalized structure of social interaction. An agent-based model is proposed to predict how actors, linked in networks, share their incomes with neighbors. A laboratory experiment with human subjects further shows that income distributions evolve to different states in different network topologies. Inequality is significantly reduced in networks where the very rich and the very poor are connected so that income discrepancy is salient enough to motivate the rich to share their incomes with the poor. The study suggests that social networks make a difference in how egalitarian sharing influences the evolution of inequality.     

Shifting Boundaries of “Nativity” and “Modernity” in South Asian Women’s Clothes

In the last two decades the postmodernist (POMO) scholars have popularized the concepts of subjectivity, authenticity, modernity, and nativity in academia while rejecting the role of larger structural, institutional and historical forces (referred as meta-narrative) in understanding social and cultural issues. This essay challenges POMO scholar’s approach by focusing on the case of South Asian women’s personal experiences and choices (subjectivity) historically with their every day clothes (everyday culture), both nationally and trans-nationally. This essay highlights the role of various local, historical, social, economic, political, colonial, and international forces that contributed in creating particular dress code and style (social reproduction of customs) for women of different social groups in South Asia in different historical times. With this approach it was possible to eliminate the binary concepts of nativity/modernity, progressive/primitive, developed/undeveloped etc., and treat all societies in the world with the same yardstick, while at the same time acknowledging the unequal relationship between the colonizers and colonized. This essay is also an attempt to suggest how everyday cultural issues can be historically explained in an inclusive manner without sacrificing the role of human agency, (human creativity, human capabilities, actions, and subjectivity), the role of imagination (creativity), the role of structural and institutional forces (meta-narrative), and the role of cultural forces (religion, nationalism, customs, and others), and cultural experiences in everyday life. At the same time everyday cultural issues are contextualized historically (time and space—locally and globally), politically, culturally, and economically as well.     

The idea of health: history,medical pluralism,and the management of the body in Emilia-Romagna,Italy

Basic beliefs about health in north central Italy derive from an approach to the personal management of the body that is not just reactive but also proactive. This article examines a complex field of health factors in relation to historical processes and a system of medical pluralism. Rapid demographic and social changes over the past century have brought an accommodation of ancient medical beliefs to more recent germ-oriented principles. An enduring belief in the permeability of the body leads to an emphasis on moderation in personal conduct to prevent debilitation, whether by atmospheric insults, microbial infection, or modern-day miasmas such as pollution or additives in food. The idea of health itself is analyzed to show how biomedicine varies across societies and how historical processes have shaped contemporary cultural patterns and led to generational continuities and differences in beliefs and behaviors. This information may also improve interactions between patients and health care providers.     

Social Learning and the Maintenance of Cultural Variation: An Evolutionary Model and Data from East Africa

Human societies maintain between-group variation despite mixing of people and ideas. In order for variation to remain, migrants or their children must preferentially adopt local norms, customs, and beliefs. Yet the details of how cultural variation is maintained, despite mixing, remain unknown. This article addresses this problem by using a simple model of the evolution of cultural learning to interpret the results of a study of cultural variation in a small region of East Africa. I argue that the manner in which migrants of two diverse regions adapt to local beliefs and behavior depends on the costs and accuracy of learning in each domain. Observational studies are never definitive tests of any hypothesis, but these results suggest that conclusions about the significance of cultural learning for understanding individual attitudes and behavior depend strongly upon the domain of investigation.     

拉祜族食用花卉的民族植物学研究

应用民族植物学的方法,对拉祜族的食用花卉进行了调查和研究,发现有相当多的花卉种类在一个狭窄的范围被一个单一的民族食用,实属罕见;首次全面报道了拉祜族食用花卉92种,分别属于37个科。其食用过程中的加工方法和烹调技巧都有讲究,食花的部位也有所选择。探讨了地域差别与食用花卉的异同,发现同一民族在不同地域环境或具有一定地理距离时,其选择的食用花种类有很大的不同,这与他们的生活习惯、居住环境及海拔高度有着极为密切的关系。有些植物分布区域很广,但不是分布区域内的同一民族都会选择食用它们;有些植物在不同的区域内虽然都被食用,但食用的目的和意义并不如一。还探讨了拉祜族食用花卉的重要性,以及其文化意义及开发利用前景。     

An individual-orientated model of the emergence of despotic and egalitarian societies

Single behavioural differences between egalitarian and despotic animal societies are often assumed to reflect specific adaptations. However, in the present paper, I will show in an individual-orientated model, how many behavioural traits of egalitarian and despotic virtual societies arise as emergent characteristics. The artificial entities live in a homogeneous world and only aggregate, and upon meeting one another and may perform dominance interactions in which the effects of winning and losing are self-reinforcing. The behaviour of these entities is studied in a similar way to that of real animals. It will be shown that by varying the intensity of aggression only, one may switch from egalitarian to despotic virtual societies. Differences between the two types of society appear to correspond closely to those between despotic and egalitarian macaque species in the real world. In addition, artificial despotic societies show a clearer spatial centrality of dominants and, counter-intuitively, more rank overlap between the sexes than the egalitarian ones. Because of the correspondence with patterns in real animals, the model makes it worthwhile comparing despotic and egalitarian species for socio-spatial structure and rank overlap too. Furthermore, it presents us with parsimonious hypotheses which can be tested in real animals for patterns of aggression, spatial structure and the distribution of social positive and sexual behaviour.     

Cross-cultural differences in the management of children and adolescents with diabetes

Glycaemic control deteriorates frequently in adolescents with diabetes. There is a considerable body of work on the effect of psychological aspects of management in this age group, but few randomized controlled trials of the effect of specific behavioural therapy and lifestyle modification on the improvement of glycaemic control. Of recent interest have been the observations from the Hvid?re Study Group on cross-cultural differences in glycaemic control. The average glycosylated haemoglobin in 22 centres, across 18 countries, varied in young people, with HbA1c levels ranging from 7.6 to 10.2%. No obvious differences in management were identified in this survey that could account for the disparities in glycaemic control. Data from the Scottish Study Group demonstrated similar variation in average glycaemic control in centres across a single culture. Using the qualitative methodology of anthropological research, some specific factors were identified that appear to influence young people's response to diabetes management and strategies employed by health professionals in their advice and care of the diabetes, particularly in relation to intensive insulin regimens. The main cultural factors influencing glycaemic control appear to be communication, reciprocal support between young people and professional heart carers and family structure within an individualistic, as against an egalitarian, society. Shared beliefs about teenage risk behaviour together with the medicalization of adolescence within medical culture also appears to be highly influential. The aim of this educational discussion group was to explore how a variety of health care professionals from distinctive cultures approach diabetes care delivery in this age group. The specific success and difficulties in different cultures in managing the young person with diabetes were investigated. Also discussed was how qualitative research methodology may generate further research in this area.     

Greek and Egyptian dreams in two Ptolemaic archives: Individual and cultural layers of meaning.

A cultural comparison is made of dreams in the archives of an Egyptian (Hor) and a Greek (Ptolemaios) in second-century BCE Egypt. The content of the dreams is discussed with reference to actual events in the lives of the dreamers as known from their archives and to ancient Greek and Egyptian dream books. The possible social phenomena which might account for differences and similarities between the dreams are discussed. It is found that the dreams in Hor's archive generally reveal a stronger cultural layer with a deep immersion in a specifically Egyptian environment. In contrast, those in Ptolemaios' archive generally have a stronger individual layer and are more concerned with personal struggles reflecting social and economic factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“We are more open when we are naked*

Finnish people are noted for their shyness. Shyness and a sense of independence restrict the ease with which they are able to meet strangers. This public persona need not map on the private persona, which may be warm and open to interdependence. Certain cultural institutions articulate the public and private arenas. Paramount among such institutions is the sauna, where Finns realize their responsiveness to personal and communal needs. Even in the sauna, however, norms regulate social behavior.     

How an Egalitarian Polity Structures Tourism and Restructures Itself Around It

ABSTRACT

Korowai of Papua, Indonesia, are famous in tourism and mass media circles for their ‘tree houses’, and for other ways they match globally circulating stereotypes of primitive humanity. This article examines how tourism intersects with Korowai egalitarian politics. Korowai spatial dispersion and concern with equality mean that tourists' visits to the land of certain people and not others is politically sensitive. I describe new forms of differentiation arising around tourism, such as emergence of clans specializing in hosting tour groups, and of individual Korowai specializing as tourism mediators. Across these and other areas, what is most striking is how Korowai people's egalitarian political sensibilities have fostered complex forms of interlocal cooperation around tourist visits, innovated and agreed upon in a decentralized manner. This case illustrates a broader pattern that intersocietal articulations are often mediated by the social organization of difference and heterogeneity in people's home locations.     

An ethnomedicine study among women in Uremia (North-West Iran)

During the recent years, ethomedicine has attracted a great deal of attention among the investigators throughout the world. Although ethnomedicine seeks, in the first place, to compensate for a biological need through providing cures for disorders, it, however, is of a cultural nature, too, in that it investigates people's behaviors and reactions toward health and the issues related to it. Consequently, traditional health must be counted as a component of a society's culture. Investigations of people's views toward traditional medicine are capable of throwing light on acquaintance with their conducts, customs, traditions and behaviors, as well as the social-economic conditions prevailing in their environment. In addition, such investigations of public medicine bring about familiarities with gradual developments in traditional medical methodologies as introduced by culture, economic, or social factors, first into the society, then medicine. Familiarizations with cultural diversities in relation to medicine are the end results. The present paper comprise an anthropological approach toward investigation of ethnomedical practiced by women of Uremia (North-West, Iran).