A dubious defense of ‘after‐birth abortion’: A reply to Räsänen

Scholars have offered various critiques of Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva's controversial article, ‘After‐birth abortion: Why should the baby live?’ My book The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice presents four such critiques. First, Giubilini and Minerva argue from the deeply controversial to the even more controversial. Second, they presuppose a false view of personal identity called body‐self dualism. Third, their view cannot secure human equality. And fourth, their account of harm cannot account for harm found in some cases of murder. In the article, ‘Pro‐life arguments against infanticide and why they are not convincing’, J. Räsänen examines and finds wanting these four critiques. This essay responds to Räsänen's defense of infanticide and argues that his responses to the four objections fail.     

The philosophical "mind-body problem" and its relevance for the relationship between psychiatry and the neurosciences

Parallel to psychiatry, "philosophy of mind" investigates the relationship between mind (mental domain) and body/brain (physical domain). Unlike older forms of philosophy of mind, contemporary analytical philosophy is not exclusively based on introspection and conceptual analysis, but also draws upon the empirical methods and findings of the sciences. This article outlines the conceptual framework of the "mind-body problem" as formulated in contemporary analytical philosophy and argues that this philosophical debate has potentially far-reaching implications for psychiatry as a clinical-scientific discipline, especially for its own autonomy and its relationship to neurology/neuroscience. This point is illustrated by a conceptual analysis of the five principles formulated in Kandel's 1998 article "A New Intellectual Framework for Psychiatry." Kandel's position in the philosophical mind-body debate is ambiguous, ranging from reductive physicalism (psychophysical identity theory) to non-reductive physicalism (in which the mental "supervenes" on the physical) to epiphenomenalist dualism or even emergent dualism. We illustrate how these diverging interpretations result in radically different views on the identity of psychiatry and its relationship with the rapidly expanding domain of neurology/neuroscience.     

In search of Ukrainian national identity: 1840–1921

Many recent scholars, influenced by nationalist historians, intellectual trends, or political leaders, seek to antedate and create a nation or national identity when in reality none existed. They tend to apply theories based on non‐rational, emotional aspects of ethno‐nationalism to the formation of national consciousness in general. Thus, the large‐scale vertical identity of modern nationalism is projected back into an era which was characterized by a set of horizontal identities. This article seeks to explore the genesis and development of modem national identity in Ukraine during the period 1840 to 1921. Focusing on social‐structural and circumstantial conditions, it attempts to demonstrate that the appeals to ethno‐national sentiments throughout this period failed to generate a group identity and solidarity among the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian case, along with that of other subordinate ethnic groups, suggests that nationalism by itself was not operational before the emergence of the so‐called nation‐states of the ‘non‐historic’ nations of Eastern Europe. The formation of modern nations based on mass national consciousness was accomplished by the centralized bureaucratic state which, through conscious and deliberate socialization, succeeded in transforming potential nations into modern nations.     

Thalia's Revenge: Ethnography and Theory of Comedy

This article compares theories of comedy to the development of modern ethnography. The discussion begins with a review of 18th-century English satire, followed by commentary on the place of comedy in Western intellectual traditions. In considering the relationship between theories of comedy and modern ethnography, I argue that the genres have in common the regular use of literary modes of exaggeration, exceptionality, reversal, and practice. These shared modes suggest similar critical intent. Recognizing a relationship between theories of comedy and modern ethnography adds to our appreciation of the plurality of the ethnographic endeavor.     

ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF SYSTEMATICS

Abstract— Before the publication of On the Origin of Species the standing patterns of natural history—common plan, homology, ontogenetic parallelism, and the hierarchy of groups — were taken as indications of a biological order that had not yet been understood. Darwin covered all of these in chapter 13 of the Origin , arguing that his theory was the first to provide a reasonable explanation for the existence of such patterns. Since Darwin took these relations to be established by previous biology, and used them as evidence for the explanatory power of his theory, he was clearly of the opinion that they were independent of that theory. Although several modern figures have argued to the contrary, it seems that Darwin was right. The patterns listed above are recoverable from observation without reference to evolutionary theory, which theory may then be applied to provide an account of the processes by which they may have come about. That aspect of systematics concerned with the identification of the empirical patterns evidently constitutes a study prior to and independent of theories of process.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Neutral Models in Biology. —Matthew H. Nitecki and Antoni Hoffman (eds).
The Expanding Earth, a Symposium .—S. Warren Carey (Convener and Editor).
Theories of the Earth and Universe: a History of Dogma in the Earth Sciences. —S. Warren Carey.
Classification, Evolution and Phylogeny of the Families of Dicotyledons. —Aaron Goldberg.     

Modularity, comparative cognition and human uniqueness

Darwin's claim 'that the difference in mind between man and the higher animals … is certainly one of degree and not of kind' is at the core of the comparative study of cognition. Recent research provides unprecedented support for Darwin's claim as well as new reasons to question it, stimulating new theories of human cognitive uniqueness. This article compares and evaluates approaches to such theories. Some prominent theories propose sweeping domain-general characterizations of the difference in cognitive capabilities and/or mechanisms between adult humans and other animals. Dual-process theories for some cognitive domains propose that adult human cognition shares simple basic processes with that of other animals while additionally including slower-developing and more explicit uniquely human processes. These theories are consistent with a modular account of cognition and the 'core knowledge' account of children's cognitive development. A complementary proposal is that human infants have unique social and/or cognitive adaptations for uniquely human learning. A view of human cognitive architecture as a mosaic of unique and species-general modular and domain-general processes together with a focus on uniquely human developmental mechanisms is consistent with modern evolutionary-developmental biology and suggests new questions for comparative research.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Ancestry of the Vertebrates. —R. P. S. Jefleries.
The Blind Watchmaker .—R. Dawkins.
Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth. —Søren Lavtrup.     

Seminal Truth: A Modern Science of Male Celibacy in North India

Many scholars have noted that brahmacharya (celibacy) is an important concept in Hindu notions of male identity (cf. Kakar 1981, 1982, 1990; Obeyesekere 1976, 1981; for comparison, see Gilmore 1990). Although the psychological basis of this concept has been studied, there is very little in the literature on the "medical mechanics" of being and becoming a brahmachari. Nor is there a comprehensive account of the precise relationship between sex and the meaning of physical health in modern urban India. Through an examination of the popular Hindi literature on brahmacharya, interpreted within the context of therapeutic celibacy as put in practice by a modern yoga society, this article shows how a discourse about sex, semen, and health is conceived of in terms of embodied truth. Using Foucaulfs critique of Western sexuality as a contrasting frame of reference, I argue that the "truth" about sex in modern North India is worked out in somatic rather than psychological terms, in which morality is problematically defined by male physiology and gendered conceptions of good health, [celibacy, sex, yoga, health, semen, identity, North India]     

Black Jews in the Northern Province: a study of ethnic identity in South Africa

The article examines ways in which the Lemba people of the Northern Province of South Africa have used their oral history and traditional customs associated with distant Semitic origins in Yemen, to claim a modern Jewish identity in racially divided South Africa. While Lemba live in Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as in South Africa, it is only in the latter that belief in a Jewish origin is found. The article seeks to show that early white missionaries and colonial officials propagated a Semitic identity for the Lemba and in their writings emphasized the differences between the Lemba and their African neighbours through comparisons of Lemba customs with Jewish communities in Europe. Such writings contributed to an ethos of a distinct identity, through which, via the establishment of the Lemba Cultural Association, middle-class Lemba intellectuals sought to promote the Lemba. This was achieved in a situation where the apartheid regime in South Africa pursued a divide and rule policy which allowed the Bantustans to discriminate against ethnic minorities under their control.     

The paradox of black patriotism: double consciousness

This study explores the double consciousness of black American patriotism in the modern era marked by publicized police killings of blacks, widespread antiracism protests, and concern for racially motivated violence. This analysis provides timely ethnographic insights into black identities that vividly captures black voices; fuses classical and contemporary race theories and extends them into the literature on patriotism; and proposes a model for understanding how double consciousness is negotiated in personal identity construction. I conducted twenty-two in-depth interviews of black Americans. I explored three questions: (1) how they interpret patriotism; (2) whether their interpretations affirm or defy their black identity; and (3) how tensions between race and nation manifest in their patriotic identity development. Many denounced hegemonic patriotism and constructed alternative patriotic brands. These brands are situated on an “Axis of Identities”, which is comprised of four profiles: the bystander, the sycophant, the subverter, and the conscious patriot.     

The ethics of life expectancy

Some ethical dilemmas in health care, such as over the use of age as a criterion of patient selection, appeal to the notion of life expectancy. However, some features of this concept have not been discussed. Here I look in turn at two aspects: one positive — our expectation of further life — and the other negative — the loss of potential life brought about by death. The most common method of determining this loss, by counting only the period of time between death and some particular age, implies that those who die at ages not far from that one are regarded as losing very little potential life, while those who die at greater ages are regarded as losing none at all. This approach has methodological advantages but ethical disadvantages, in that it fails to correspond to our strong belief that anyone who dies is losing some period of life that he or she would otherwise have had. The normative role of life expectancy expressed in the 'fair innings' attitude arises from a particular historical situation: not the increase of life expectancy in modern societies, but a related narrowing in the distribution of projected life spans. Since life expectancy is really a representation of existing patterns of mortality, which in turn are determined by many influences, including the present allocation of health resources, it should not be taken as a prediction, and still less as a statement of entitlement.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Structure of Biological Science. — Alexander Rosenberg. 1984.
Aufgaben und Probleme stammesgeschichtler Forschung. — Willi Hennig. 1984.
Croizat's Panbiogeography & Principia Botanica: Search for a Novel Biological Synthesis. — R. C. Craw and G. W. Gibbs (eds.). 1984.     

To be Makiran is to see like Mr Parrot: the anthropology of wonder in Solomon Islands

This article lays out a general thesis for the development of a comparative ethnographic approach to the anthropology of wonder. It suggests that wonder is both an index and a mode of challenge to existing ontological premises. Through analytical engagement with the theme of wonder in Western philosophy and the anthropology of ontology, it extends this thesis to include the corollary that different ontological premises give rise to different wonders. Ethnographically, the article supports these claims via analysis of wonder discourses among the Arosi of Solomon Islands. These discourses, it is argued, both respond to and promote ontological transformations in a context where the premises at stake are neither those of the Cartesian dualism commonly ascribed to modernity nor of the relational non‐dualism commonly ascribe to anthropology's ethnographic ‘others’, but of a non‐Cartesian pluralism termed poly‐ontology.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
The Shape of Things that Come.: Sexual Selection and Animal Genitalia .—William G. Eberhard.
Die Art in Raum und Zeit: Das Artkonzept in der Biologie und Palaontologie .—Rainer Willmann     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Gentlemanly Cladistics: Phylogenetic Reconstruction in Paleontology .—Robert M. Schoch.
Coevolution and Systematics .—A. R. Stone and D. L. Hawksworth (eds.).
Systematic and Taxonomic Approaches in Palaeobotany .—Robert A. Spicer and Barry A. Thomas (eds.).
Cladistic Biogeography —Christopher J. Humphries and Lynne R. Parenti.
Chondrichthyes II: Mesozoic and Cenozoic Elasmobranchii —H. Cappetta.
Handbook of Paleoichthyology, vol. 3B, Fischer     

The Dark Side of the Moon: Conceptual and Methodological Problems in Studying Rural and Urban Worlds in Peru

Recent anthropological theories deal with conceptualizations of culture and space. This article discusses these issues in relation to material from two different periods of fieldwork among villagers and migrants from a community in the Peruvian Andes. It demonstrates that their lives can only be understood when all ties of interdependence between the two groups are included in the analysis. It concludes that in a deterritorialized culture, territory plays a crucial role in people's identity, and living a double life does not imply having a double identity.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Cladistics: Perspectives on the Reconstruction of Evolutionary History. — Thomas Duncan and Tod F. Stuessy (eds.). 1984.
Das Phylogenetische System. — Peter Ax. 1984.
Beyond Neo-Darwinism: An Introduction to the New Evolutionary Paradigm. — M.-W. Ho and P. T. Saunders (eds.). 1984.
The Great Chain of History: William Buckland and the English School of Geology (1814–1849). — Nicolaas A. Rupke. 1983     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Numerical Taxonomy. — J. Felsenstein (ed.). 1983.
The Explanation of Organic Diversity: The Comparative Method and Adaptations for Mating. — Mark Ridley. 1983.
The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography. — Janet Browne. 1983.     

Omarakana revisited,or ‘do dual organizations exist?’ in the Trobriands

Omarakana is arguably the most renowned village in the Trobriand and anthropological worlds. It is the very centre and wellspring of the North Kiriwinan universe and thus a sacred site, serving as the home of the Tabalu chiefly paramountcy. For us anthropologists, it is ground zero for our field methodology, thanks to Malinowski's pioneering research, and probably Melanesia's most hierarchical polity. Ironically, though, very little is actually known ethnographically about Omarakana's spatial layout. In this article I seek to compensate for that deficiency, arguing that Omarakana's seemingly concentric contours encode transformations of indigenous symbolism involving recurrent metaphors drawn from at least three conjoined semantic contexts of wide distribution across the Austronesian sphere and beyond: the double bisection of ‘male’ versus ‘female’; the botanical imagery of ‘base’, ‘body’, ‘tip’, and ‘fruit’; and various elements of ‘canoe’ symbolism. This alternative view of Omarakana's spatio‐temporal plan sheds new light on various additional dimensions of Trobriand sociality and cosmology while elaborating classic and contemporary anthropological theories of dualism.