Responding to racialized divisions within the workforce ‐ the experience of black and Asian police officers in England

Sociological studies of police relations with black and Asian people have mostly been concerned with the differential use of legal and other powers. Social processes that mould the phenomenal forms in which race and ethnicity are perceived have been neglected. In this article, data from interviews with black and Asian serving police officers and resigners are used to discuss the different ways in which they responded to racialized categories sustained within the police workforce. It is argued that the occupational cultural context within which responses to racialization occur is central to such an analysis. The reflective approach of officers to assigned ethnic categories is equally central. Diversity rather than a similarity of responses is found. This, however, does not mean that a wholly situational account of racialized relations is desirable. Further studies of the type described here, undertaken in different occupational and organizational contexts, might identify essential forms and processes of social exclusion.     

Shaping the Tourist'S Gaze: Representing Ethnic Difference in a Nepali Village

A certain practice associated with the tourism industry in Nepal's Chitwan district, the 'village walk', has become one way through which ethnic status can be expressed and claims to modernity made by local people. This phenomenon illustrates how globalizing processes reinforce the particulars of locality by providing people with new frameworks through which to interpret their societies. Thus, the ideology of modernity has replaced that of caste as the way in which Tharus and Brahmans in rural Nepal understand inter-ethnic relationships. Foreign tourists serve as a foil for this reinterpretation through the practice of the village walk, in which high-caste tourist guides conduct tourists on cultural tours of Tharu villages. The representation of Tharus as 'primitive', 'jungly', and living in another time meets both the desire of tourists for exotic experiences and that of high-caste Nepalese who wish to represent themselves as belonging to the modern world from which the tourists presumably come.     

Roadwork: expertise at work building roads in the Maldives

This article engages critically with concepts of ‘skill’, ‘expertise’, and ‘capacity’ as they operate as markers of distinction and domination and shape migratory labour relations among road construction workers from across South Asia in the Maldives archipelago. The article examines roadwork at three levels: the professional biographies leading to ‘flexible specialization’ rather than technical expertise amongst Maldivian managers; the technical expertise and social incorporation of ‘skilled’ Sri Lankan supervisors; and the key material expertise of ‘non-skilled’ Bangladeshi labourers in precarious employment. Whilst discussions of South Asian labour migration have been dominated by caste and class, this article argues that it is important to consider how the cultural production and understanding of concepts such as ‘expertise’, ‘capacity’, and ‘exposure’ at worksites can (also) become distinguishing factors in (hierarchical) migratory labour relations.     

Organization of work in the honeybee: a compromise between division of labour and behavioural flexibility

Although the caste concept has been central to our understanding of the organization of work in social insect colonies, the concept has been the subject of considerable recent criticism. Theoretically, it has been suggested that temporal castes are too inflexible to allow a colony to rapidly reallocate labour in response to changing conditions. In addition, several authors have suggested that task switching is so prevalent that it precludes even the possibility of a rigidly controlled temporal caste system. This study addresses these two criticisms by presenting and testing a revision of the temporal caste concept that recognizes two categories of tasks: those that require a physiological specialization for their efficient performance, and those that all workers are equally able to perform. Only those tasks requiring a physiological specialization are relevant to the temporal caste concept. Two castes of honeybees were shown to vary in response to increased nectar influx, which requires a physiological specialization, but not to heat stress, which requires no specialization. This work suggests that the organization of work in social insect colonies reflects a compromise between selection for the benefits of division of labour and opposing selection for flexibility in task allocation.     

Patronage and 'community': the role of a Tamil 'village' festival in the integration of a town

Focusing on the festival of 'village' goddesses in two small towns in Tamilnadu, South India, the article investigates how the urban organization of temples and festivals reflects characteristics of the organization of similar festivals in villages, whilst at the same time the 'acts of patronage' of wealthy local industrialists increasingly shape the nature of the 'community' generated at festival and other times. Building on idioms of village community and pre-colonial kingship models, industrialists are central to the formation of a sense of community which transcends the borders of caste and class. It is argued that the formation of community boundaries cannot be understood outside the context of the wider social and economic relationships and, in this case, the labour relations which lie at the heart of South Indian textile industries.     

Translation, Value, and Space: Theorizing an Ethnographic and Engaged Environmental Anthropology

In this article, I argue for placing the politics of translation and theories of value and spatial production at the center of environmental anthropology. For the past ten years, the Gimi-speaking peoples living in Maimafu village, Papua New Guinea, have taken part in an integrated conservation and development project attempting to foster a local system of valuing "nature" by tying biological diversity to economic markets through the creation of "eco-enterprises." However, the project fails to consider how Gimi produce, theorize, transmit, and express knowledge. Using ethnographic material concerned with hunting and song composition, I show that Gimi understand their forests to be part of a series of transactive dialectical relationships that work to produce identity and space. I also demonstrate that, as part of this project, Gimi social relations with their forests have been translated in ways that fit their beliefs into generic and easily understandable categories. This has been detrimental to the conservation project and it is politically problematic for an engaged environmental anthropology.     

Urban markets and diversity: towards a research agenda

In this paper we advocate the study of local street markets to explore fundamental issues about the relationship between economy and society. This relationship evolves over time and we believe that it has been recast in an age of increasing cultural diversity and neo-liberal state regulatory structures. In street markets we can see how diversity and the nature of economic transactions become mutually constitutive. We argue that cultural diversity propels local markets, while everyday interactions in markets influence intercultural relationships. These complex processes are affected by the spatiality of markets and the regulatory environments within which they operate. We conclude by framing a research programme on street markets and discuss a number of methodological complications that would need to be addressed in this endeavour.     

Supply-Side Sushi: Commodity, Market, and the Global City

Urban anthropology has been simultaneously challenged and transformed as forces of globalization—variously defined in economic, political, social, and cultural terms—have been theorized as "de-territorializing" many social processes and trends formerly regarded as characteristic of urban places. Against a seemingly dis-placed cityscape of global flows of capital, commerce, commodity, and culture, this paper examines the reconfiguration of spatially and temporally dispersed relationships among labor, commodities, and cultural influence within an international seafood trade that centers on Tokyo's Tsukiji seafood market, and the local specificity of both market and place within a globalized urban setting. [Tokyo, markets, food culture, globalization]     

Crescent‐shaped lime‐spatulas from British New Guinea

This paper situates hill sheep farming within the context of the encompassing British state and the E.E.C. and thus within a cultural world dominated by a technological ontology. Through an analysis of co‐operative work activities, it is shown how the use of modern equipment for increased production inflects the class experience of farmers and shepherds as a hermeneutic relation between whole and part. This provides an understanding of the cultural processes—complementing the historical and economic factors— of class domination by locating it in the experiential linkage of farmers with the encompassing E.E.C. Accordingly, this paper develops an analytic perspective for class relations based on an encompassing‐encompassed model, derived from the work of Dumont.     

Caste fate conflict in swarm-founding social hymenoptera: an inclusive fitness analysis

A caste system in which females develop into morphologically distinct queens or workers has evolved independently in ants, wasps and bees. Although such reproductive division of labour may benefit the colony it is also a source of conflict because individual immature females can benefit from developing into a queen in order to gain greater direct reproduction. Here we present a formal inclusive fitness analysis of caste fate conflict appropriate for swarm-founding social Hymenoptera. Three major conclusions are reached: (1) when caste is self-determined, many females should selfishly choose to become queens and the resulting depletion of the workforce can substantially reduce colony productivity; (2) greater relatedness among colony members reduces this excess queen production; (3) if workers can prevent excess queen production at low cost by controlled feeding, a transition to nutritional caste determination should occur. These predictions generalize results derived earlier using an allele-frequency model [Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. (2001) 50: 467] and are supported by observed levels of queen production in various taxa, especially stingless bees, where caste can be either individually or nutritionally controlled.     

Labrador Inuit Subsistence in the Context of Environmental Change: An Initial Landscape History Perspective

In this article, I examine the subsistence economy of the contact-period Labrador Inuit (17th to 19th century) to investigate the relationships of elements of specific cultural changes to environmental change, the effects of cultural interactions, and internal social processes. I apply paleoclimate and sea-ice records and zooarchaeological studies of life history and seasonality of ecologically sensitive species to reconstruct histories of change in particular elements of the physical landscape and of their use. I associate the use of communal houses by the Labrador Inuit and their modification of settlement patterns during the 18th century to a limited phase of environmental moderation and stability during the Little Ice Age and suggest that these changes reflect, in part, economic strategies oriented toward surplus production.     

The New Face of Debt-Peonage in the Bolivian Amazon: Social Networks and Bargaining Instruments

The debt-peonage system is an agreement between patrons and laborers in different economic activities worldwide. A common feature is social exploitation of laborers that generate profits to the patrons. In recent literature it has been argued that debt-peonage can be an economically sound arrangement that secures the needs of actors. The paper evaluates to what extent traditionally strong debt-peonage in forest-dwelling communities in the Bolivian Amazon, has developed in a way that better secures the needs and economic interest of multiple actors. Case studies in sixteen communities yielded qualitative information on debt relations between peasants, traders and former patrons. Debt-peonage changed from a mechanism to provide and keep workforce indebted to new social relationships, equitable commercial links, opportunity to access work capital and production chain diversification. This rapid shift was caused by important changes in land and forest regulations.     

Branching,blending, and the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations

It has been claimed that blending processes such as trade and exchange have always been more important in the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations than the branching process of population fissioning. In this paper, we report the results of a novel comparative study designed to shed light on this claim. We fitted the bifurcating tree model that biologists use to represent the relationships of species to 21 biological data sets that have been used to reconstruct the relationships of species and/or higher level taxa and to 21 cultural data sets. We then compared the average fit between the biological data sets and the model with the average fit between the cultural data sets and the model. Given that the biological data sets can be confidently assumed to have been structured by speciation, which is a branching process, our assumption was that, if cultural evolution is dominated by blending processes, the fit between the bifurcating tree model and the cultural data sets should be significantly worse than the fit between the bifurcating tree model and the biological data sets. Conversely, if cultural evolution is dominated by branching processes, the fit between the bifurcating tree model and the cultural data sets should be no worse than the fit between the bifurcating tree model and the biological data sets. We found that the average fit between the cultural data sets and the bifurcating tree model was not significantly different from the fit between the biological data sets and the bifurcating tree model. This indicates that the cultural data sets are not less tree-like than are the biological data sets. As such, our analysis does not support the suggestion that blending processes have always been more important than branching processes in cultural evolution. We conclude from this that, rather than deciding how cultural evolution has proceeded a priori, researchers need to ascertain which model or combination of models is relevant in a particular case and why.     

Ethnogenesis of South Asia with special reference to India

An attempt has been made to illustrate the quite complicated process of ethnogenesis in South Asia from the viewpoint of physical anthropology. The numerous invading waves which reached the Indian subcontinent from the northwest played an important role in this process. Most important for the ethnogenesis of South Asia was the invasion of Indo-Aryan groups in the middle of the 2nd millenium B.C. known from historical sources. In large parts of the Indo-Pakistan region they assimilated the aboriginal population in ethnic, cultural and linguistic respects in the course of time. Furthermore, the ethnogenesis of the Indian region is determined by the caste system of Hinduism which, however, is not as rigid as generally assumed. There are numerous evidences that since more than 2000 years a slow but steady process of assimilation and integration of tribal groups, living in the forest areas of Central India, into the Hindu caste system took place, a process which is still going on. It is intended to demonstrate to what degree the ethnogenetic processes in South Asia, known from prehistoric and historical sources, can be traced in human skeletal findings of different time periods as well as in the anthropological structure of the living population. Finally, hypotheses and theories, especially those of Risley and von Eickstedt are discussed, who attempted to interpret the great variability of anthropological and morphological traits in the Indian subcontinent by taking into consideration the existence of different old population substrata and their mixing and assimilation.     

Phylogenetic evidence for a single,ancestral origin of a ‘true’ worker caste in termites

Phylogenetic analysis based on sequence variation in mitochondrial large‐subunit rRNA and cytochrome oxidase II genes was used to investigate the evolutionary relationships among termite families. Maximum likelihood and parsimony analyses of a combined nucleotide data set yield a single well‐supported topology, which is: (((((Termitidae, Rhinotermitidae), Serritermitidae), Kalotermitidae), (Hodotermitidae, Termopsidae)), Mastotermitidae). Although some aspects of this topology are consistent with previous schemes, overall it differs from any published. Optimization of ‘true’ workers onto the tree suggests that this caste originated once, early in the history of the lineage and has been lost secondarily twice. This scenario differs from the more widely accepted notion that workers are derived and of polyphyletic origin and that extant pseudergates, or ‘false’ workers, are their developmentally unspecialized ancestor caste. Worker gains and losses covary directly in number and direction with shifts in ‘ecological life type’. A test for correlated evolution which takes phylogenetic structure into account indicates that this pattern is of biological significance and suggests that the variable occurrence of a worker caste in termites has ecological determinants, apparently linked to differences in feeding and nesting habits.     

The cultural nature of risk: Can there be an anthropology of uncertainty?

In risk research, culture has been used mainly as a 'black box' of unknowns into which 'irregularities' of risk perceptions that could not be otherwise accounted for can be referred. In social anthropology it has been taken for granted that what is to be considered a 'risk' depends entirely on cultural settings and assumptions; risks are culturally defined and selected. This article takes a critical stance towards any such simplistic ideas about risk and culture. Culture is approached from a perspective of cognitive theory and is hence understood as shared schemata that define categories, relationships and contexts, making it possible to process meanings and order information. It is argued that if we are to succeed in investigating risk contextually, without ending up in a relativistic muddle which merely acknowledges myriads of diverse risk perceptions, it is necessary to problematize the assumed simplistic cultural nature of risk.     

Chance, Necessity, and Mode of Production: A Marxist Critique of Cultural Evolutionism

Cultural evolutionism and historical materialism are two fundamentally divergent theories of evolution. The nonrecognition by cultural evolutionists of Marx's distinction between "social formation" and "mode of production" has led them to interpret his thesis of the determination of superstructures by economic base as "techno-economic change begets new levels of general evolution." In fact, Marx's actual thesis was aimed at explaining the interrelationships between superstructures and economy within a previously established mode of production. As a consequence, Marx's analysis of how a new mode is "given" has been consistently ignored. Marx poses the problem of the origins of capitalism, not in terms of economic determinism, much less technological fatalism, but in terms of chance and necessity. In this paper, I attempt to draw the theoretical implications of such an approach in respect to general cultural evolution . [Marxism and cultural evolutionism; mode of production; economic determinism criticized; capitalism, rise of; cultural evolution, chance in]     

Poison de flèches de l'Indochine française

Through an examination of business relationships in the textile industry of Surat, a city in western India, this article evaluates different theories about the importance of social trust in economic development. The case study of Surat raises questions about models that posit a necessary expansion of broad civic ties or legal‐bureaucratic structures at the expense of close personal ties as a basis for industrial development. Surat's business people rely most strongly upon relationships to particular kins‐people, caste‐mates, and co‐religionists rather than broader civic bonds, formal legal controls, or bureaucratic systems as foundations for business trust. Although the expansion of the city's textile industry has created a greater need among the local population for impersonal, universalizing types of social trust, this article argues that these forms, show little sign of replacing personalized trust as the primary basis for local economic activity.     

Ecological gradients as a framework for analysis of land-use change in East Africa

This paper discusses the ecological gradient as an organizing framework to assist understanding the complex interactions between societal and ecological processes underlying land-use change in East Africa. Detailed case studies on the gradients of the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Kenya show how land-use change is responsive to the dynamics of both local and external driving forces. The study has shown that the distinct ecological conditions at the extremities of gradients are associated with specific land uses which may be different within livelihood systems such as for wet and dry season grazing. Access to water for cultivation, domestic use, livestock and wildlife is critical in determining the nature and distribution of livelihood systems. Land-use systems interact across the different ecological zones of the gradients characterized by vigorous spatial, cultural and economic interactions. Sometime conflicts occur between or within land-use/livelihood systems. There is strong evidence that the areas of higher economic potential remain advantaged compared with areas lower on the gradient. The ecological characteristics have been found to influence human activities and distribution. Interactions between societies are important in terms of trade, social relations and access to resources.     

The Indian stratification debate: A discursive exposition of problems and issues in the analysis of class,caste and gender

Conclusion In order to analyze the interrelationships between class, caste and gender, it is essential to analyze the relationship between anthropology and political economy. In non-Marxist anthropology, elitism, cultural relativism, and evolutionism are still influential. The tension in Barrington Moore between a materialist and idealist view of the class/caste relationship is finally resolved in favor of idealism. Moore's idealism sharply contrasts with much contemporary work on peasant struggles in India, in which the peasants are no longer denied access to the historical stage. This shift in focus to the oppressed is only partially reflected in the field of gender, caste and class. While some work on gender, caste and class is both evolutionary and elitist in focus, the emphasis is now changing, and giving way to a more critical historical materialist perspective in which the historical subject is not permanently and inexorably relegated to the wings. Kate Currie is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster.

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