Urbanization and Identity Dissonance: A Guajiro Case

The results of this study indicate that urbanization has the effect of significantly altering the Guajiro's sense of ideal and feared identity. It was hypothesized that an attempt would be made to minimize dissonance between the ideal and the real or "true" self which the individual privately acknowledges. However, there is found to be considerable dissonance between ideal and real identities, with the latter actually including many components of feared identity. Defective socialization in the city is suggested as a possible reason for failure to achieve ideal standards.     

Intermarriage and Jewish identity: The implications for pluralism and assimilation in American society*

Born across racial lines, Cedric Dover and Barack Obama both came to identify with the African American community. By contrasting the lives and ideas of two mixed-race individuals, one born in Calcutta and the other in Hawaii, this article examines cosmopolitanism, racial formation and the promise of the ‘post-racial’. A ‘Eurasian’ intellectual born in Calcutta in 1904, Dover developed a coloured cosmopolitanism that mirrors in revealing ways Obama's approach to race. Both men embraced blackness while transcending the boundaries of race and nation. Dover and Obama developed a conception of race as freedom – not freedom from race or of a particular race, but the freedom to embrace race without sacrificing other affiliations.     

表皮生长因子受体信号通路在维吾尔族妇女宫颈癌中的表达研究

目的:随着表皮生长因子受体(epidermal growth factor receptor,EGFR)靶点治疗药物在其它肿瘤治疗中的应用,能否在妇科肿瘤中应用并取得疗效,已经得到学者们的重视。但在临床应用之前,必须明确EGFR与妇科肿瘤发生发展的关系及其机制。因此,我们来探讨表皮生长因子受体EGFR信号通路在维吾尔族不同级别宫颈病变组织中的差异表达及其临床意义。方法:应用免疫组织化学方法检测EGFR、P-EGFR、ERK 1/2、P-ERK1/2在108例子宫颈癌,47例CIN,79例正常宫颈组织中的表达,并分析其与临床病理参数的关系。结果:EGFR在子宫颈癌、CIN及正常宫颈组织中的阳性表达率分别是74.10%、66%、27.80%(P0.01);P-EGFR在三组间的阳性表达率分别是55.60%、74.50%、20.30%(P0.01);ERK1/2在三组间的阳性表达率分别是60.10%、76.60%、25.30%(P0.01);P-ERK1/2在三组间的阳性表达率分别是44.40%、66%、24.10%(P0.01),其在宫颈癌中EGFR与与浸润深度、淋巴结转移有关;ERK与肿瘤的临床分期、远处转移有关,而且在宫颈癌中EGFR与P-EGFR、ERK 1/2、P-ERK1/2的表达成正相关(P0.05)。结论:EGFR、P-EGFR、ERK1/2、P-ERK1/2的表达与宫颈癌的发生、发展相关,促进宫颈癌的浸润和转移,抑制EGFR信号通路可能为多靶点联合治疗宫颈癌提供新的方向。     

Epigenetic determinism in science and society

The epigenetic “revolution” in science cuts across many disciplines, and it is now one of the fastest-growing research areas in biology. Increasingly, claims are made that epigenetics research represents a move away from the genetic determinism that has been prominent both in biological research and in understandings of the impact of biology on society. We discuss to what extent an epigenetic framework actually supports these claims. We show that, in contrast to the received view, epigenetics research is often couched in language as deterministic as genetics research in both science and the popular press. We engage the rapidly emerging conversation about the impact of epigenetics on public discourse and scientific practice, and we contend that the notion of epigenetic determinism – or the belief that epigenetic mechanisms determine the expression of human traits and behaviors – matters for understandings of the influence of biology and society on population health.     

Child mortality and society in Morocco

Multivariate (correspondence) analysis is employed to identify socioeconomic factors affecting fertility and infant mortality in Marrakesh (Morocco), using questionnaire data from some 3000 women attending 20 dispensaries in different parts of the city. The survey was conducted in January 1982. Data were collected on age, age at marriage, menopause, monogamy or polygyny, total number of children born, number of miscarriages, number of stillbirths, number of children currently living, and contraception. Factors of the material environment (availability of water and electricity in the residence), size of a household and number of wage earners in it are pervasive and suggest a polarity between archaic elements in the society (low material comfort, polygyny, absence of contraception) and the more forward looking (monogamy, tertiary occupations). Monogamy is among the factors of a satisfactory material environment. Polygyny, on the other hand, tends to be located towards poorer material comfort, the absence of electricity and running water from the house. Fertility and child mortality variations reflect the apparent polarity. The differences that occur among the 20 dispensaries direct attention to the neighborhoods where public health measures may be expected to be most effective and rewarding. Material comfort is strongly associated with the use of a contraceptive method. There is also a strong association between the absence of material comfort, the absence of contraception, and the highest mortality rate. The 2 highest fertility classes are strongly associated with the higher mortality rates.     

Individuals and society in anthropological theory

Conclusion Though relatively little direct attention has been given by Marxist anthropologists to a theory of individual behavior and thought in relation to societal processes, the above partial summary indicates the wealth of insight that is available for elaborating such a theory. In addition, there are of course significant developments in the field of psychology, notably the attention to activity as central to individual personality [], the renewed concern with levels of integration theory [], and the burgeoning interest in Vygotsky's writings on language, thought, and culture []. There are also the continuing attempts to locate Freud's positive contributions in a historical materialist frame [].Where, then, is psychological anthropology? As always, producing a richness of suggestive materials — such as those on varying conceptions of the self — but, as a glance at the pages of Ethos will show, unfortunately not engaged in fundamental theoretical innovation. By way of illustration, let me cite Spindler's The Making of Psychological Anthropology, a collection of articles by major figures, past and present. Spindler's introductory essay is thoughtful; always the teacher, he presents with consideration and modesty the history of the field, the disfavor into which it fell (in large part due to the methodlogical travesties of national character studies), and its stubborn persistence (following from the pervasive interest in the psychological dimension that has always characterized cultural anthropology). He summarizes ongoing problems as perceived from within the field, and as the major difficulty to be overcome pinpoints cultural overdeterminism and its inadequacy for explaining variations. The solution? Not the necessity of respecting history and focussing on how individuals variously understand and relate (according to their individual histories) to the established structures whereby particular societies produce, allocate, and consume basic goods, and how they variously respond to disjunctions in these structures even as they reproduce them. Instead Spindler writes, ... if we are to escape the double bind of our cultural overdeterminism, we are going to have to go beyond culture and even ecology, to biochemistry, to physiology and neurology, to genetics — to biology in the broadest sense of the term [].In closing, let me say to the reader, do not simply turn away in dismay. One must conclude that it is imperative to continue to build a solid alternative theory of relations among individual behaviors, individual understandings, cultural values, and societal processes, or, in other words, to replace a non-historical and essentially biological paradigm with a dialectical and materialist view of human action.Eleanor Leacock is Professor of Anthropology and Chair at the City College, City University of New York.

---

     

Attractiveness and Rivalry in Women’s Friendships with Women

Past research suggests that young women perceive their same-sex friends as both facilitating the pursuit of desirable mates and competing for access to desirable mates. We propose that similar levels of physical attractiveness between young adult female friends might be one explanation for the opposing forces in their friendships. Forty-six female friendship pairs completed questionnaires about themselves, their friend, and their friendship; in addition, each woman’s picture was rated by a set of nine naive judges. Friends were similar in both self-rated and other-rated level of attractiveness. Within-pair analyses revealed that women agreed on which friend was more attractive, and the less attractive members of each friendship pair (by pair consensus as well as outside judges’ ratings) perceived more mating rivalry in their friendship than did the more attractive members of each friendship pair. We offer directions for research on women’s friendships over the lifespan.