The Meaning of Death in Northern Cheyenne Culture

Abstract

Death is a process in Northern Cheyenne culture, not an event, and the process of death reverses the process of development of the human person. Death marks the end of the association between spiritual self and physical body for human beings, but not the anihilation of the self. The Northern Cheyenne lives in a “great society” in which humans are not the only kind of participant, and deceased tribal members generally retain both tribal membership and personhood. Death, here, is transformation even transmigration and only those who have sinned or who die in a bad way will forfeit their place in the tribal community. Yet even a good death brings intense loneliness to those who remain, and fear of that loneliness is the greatest fear associated with death in the Northern Cheyenne community.     

Priest and Shaman on the Plains: A False Dichotomy?*

Abstract

For a number of years, anthropologists have tended to classify religious leaders of more or less primitive peoples into shamans on the one hand, and priests on the other. Such terms are analytically useful, but like many polarities of their kind, they tend to break down when applied to “real world” situations. The Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indians of Montana provide interesting contrasts in this area, where two powerful religious themes - the tribal Sun Dance and the individual Vision Quest-- interact in various societies to produce a wide range of ceremonial expression. The literature on these two societies combines with modern field observation to suggest that in one case, shamans prevail entirely - while in the other, a real stage of separation between priest and shaman has developed, with one man serving in both capacities at various times.     

Cheyenne Soldier Societies

Abstract

There has been considerable ambiguityas to the identity of the Cheyenne soldier societies. This paper examines all known original sources and on the basis of internal evidence, comparatively analyzed, establishes the identity and characteristics of the Cheyenne military societies.     

A Possible Origin for the Cheyenne Sacred Arrow Complex

Abstract

This paper examines known origin myths and describes how the four Sacred Arrows were utilized by the Cheyenne in time of hunger and battle. By combining the existing folklore with an examination of Cheyenne prehistory, a more precise time and geographical point of origin of the whole Cheyenne Sacred Arrow “complex” is developed.     

Native American Resistance To Integration: Contemporary Confrontations And Religious Revitalization

Abstract

Most studies dealing with North American Indian integration often focus upon efforts directed at tribal groups by a dominant society in forced acculturation. This paper seeks to examine current trends initiated by tribal groups and members to resist integration. Aspects for consideration include confrontative efforts - Alcatraz, Wounded Knee II, and the “Longest Walk.” The recent efforts of religious revitalization as the Sioux Sun Dance, which forms a part of enhanced efforts toward developing a new “native ethic” in combatting integration and assimilation, will be assessed as an increasing ethnic marker to many Native Americans.     

Evolution And Historical Reductionism

Abstract

In response to Hoebel's criticism (1980) of the use of a dialectical model to interpret Cheyenne history, this article examines Hoebel's own views on kinship, politics, and social change. It is argued that Hoebel confuses descent with residence, and is committed to a methodology which necessarily gives inconclusive results. Most importantly, it is argued that Hoebel's theoretical perspective, characterized as “historical reductionism,” imposes a rigidly normative structure onto a society that was undergoing radical social change in the nineteenth century.     

The Identity of La Salle’S Pana Slave

Abstract

In June 1682 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was presented with a “Pana” boy by the Illinois Michigamea Indians. The boy told La Salle of his history as a captive in four Indian tribes. He described Indian village locations and listed the tribes which had “many” horses. The significance of the information for which he was the source depends on the tribal identity of the captive. It has been suggested in anthropological literature that “Pana” indicated “Pawnee,” Ponca, Arikara, Wichita, even Apache. After examination of evidence-linguistic, cultural, historical - it seems most likely he was a Southern Pawnee, a Wichita. If this was so, then his information substantiates the theory of Kroeber, Brant and others that some Kiowa Apaches were still living in the southern Plains in the late 17th century.     

The Plains Agon - A Gross Typology

Abstract

In the prevailing view of Plains experts the classic post-horse, post-gun agon (the total physical and psychological military complex) consisted of either two or three different types of military event, generally divided into “scalp raids” and “horse raids.” The literature on Plains agonistics indicates, however, that the Equestrian pattern of intergroup hostilities consisted of at least seven disti net types of military operations.     

Companion Animal Attachment and Military Transfer

Abstract

Human attachment levels to companion animals were compared to whether a companion animal accompanied a military family at transfer time. Attachment levels were measured by combining preexisting subscale instruments to form a 21-item pet attachment scale. Data were collected through a mail survey (67% response rate) of registered pet owners who were to transfer within six months from 13 military installations. Attachment levels to companion animals were positively associated with taking the pet upon transferring (X²=11.44, p <.01).

A semantic differential scale was employed to measure “perceived” attachment levels, which were compared with the attachment levels from the combined subscale instrument. These two scales had a strong association with each other (X²=65.70, p<.001). Factor analysis of the combined subscale instrument yielded two factors, “pet companionship” and “pet affection,” and reliability analysis estimated Cronbach's Alpha of .95.     

The Organization and Role Of an Amateur Archeological Society

Abstract

The roles and functions of amateur archeologists and archeological societies are critically assayed in constructive terms.

A lot of ink has been spilled recently about “amateurs”, “pothunters”, “professionals”, “nonprofessionals”, and the like, on the pages of American Antiquity, the Plains Anthropologist and other publications. There is no question whatsoever that many professional archeologists have had unpleasant experiences with nonprofessionals, but my opinion is that the current published comments are doing little to help the situation. I object, not from the standpoint of a nonprofessional archeologist, which I am--one whose feelings have been hurt--but from the standpoint of one who is seriously interested in improving the situation.     

Losses and gains to the Scottish Flora

Summary

Several examples are discussed of plants which have been exterminated from or introduced to Scotland as a result of human activities, and an attempt is made to draw lessons from these case histories. Four rare or threatened Scottish plants, Homogyne alpina, Mertensia maritima, Primula scotica, and Pteridium aquilinum ssy. latiusculum are considered to illustrate future plant conservation imperatives. Threats to the Scottish flora of a more “institutional” nature are discussed, and it is suggested that these point to the need for botanical societies to consider a more “campaigning” role.     

Introducing “Strangers”: towards a transatlantic comparative research agenda on migrant “integration”?

ABSTRACT

In “Strangers No More” Richard Alba and Nancy Foner present the most comprehensive cross-national comparative study of migrant integration to date. Their achievement is significant with a remarkable depth and coverage of integration fields and scope, covering the four major northern European countries and the US and Canada. This review assesses their contribution to the discipline by setting a cross-national comparative agenda for research on migrants' “integration” to their societies of settlement that covers Europe and North America.     

On Hayden's List of Cheyenne Military Societies

Hayden's list provides a cross-reference on diffusion of societies, cults, and dances between portions of the Northern Cheyenne and Dakota tribes that had intermarried. It is the earliest list known of the five well known military societies of the Cheyennes and one society that early became extinct. Only one, the Elks, may be seriously questioned.     

From Bachelor Threat to Fraternal Security: Male Associations and Modular Organization in Human Societies

Humans live in modular societies with a minimum of two levels of organization, the conjugal family and the local community. Yet any human community is likely to contain at least one other social unit whose evolutionary significance has not always been recognized: a same-sex association, such as a men’s “club” or “brotherhood.” The purpose of this article is to explore the role of all-male associations in relation to the conjugal families that are often taken to be the main constituents of human groups. What has been called bachelor threat in other mammalian species is a major problem in human societies, which may include follower males as well as all-male units. Yet tensions between married men and bachelors are often eclipsed by the need for warriors to defend the local community. The ethnographic record includes many cases in which fraternal security takes precedence over conjugal bonds, resulting in the physical segregation of the sexes, including husbands and wives. At the extreme, a husband usually sleeps at a men’s house while making regular visits to his conjugal family. Though this pattern is classically associated with tribal Amazonia and Melanesia, it is seen here as part of a continuum of variation in small-scale societies worldwide. These societies reflect a series of historical compromises, it is argued, between bachelors and elders, on the one hand, and between men’s associations and conjugal families, on the other.     

Gendering ethnic conflicts: minority women in divided societies – the case of Muslim women in India

ABSTRACT

This article explores the practical and theoretical significance and long-term consequences of the failure to incorporate women’s interests in post-conflict negotiations by examining the case of Muslim women in India. Analyses of deeply divided societies must recognize that political competition and political violence do not affect all citizens equally. Also, the “larger picture” depicted by inter-community conflicts should not overshadow the effects of intra-community conflicts, which are no less important. Evident within each community conflict are the winners and the losers of the political accommodation process, in which the marginalized and weaker sections of each “side” of the conflict may be the real “losers”. Gendered analysis of ethnic conflicts and ethnic conflict resolution demands a reorientation of the concepts of conflict and security – Whose conflict is being solved and who is being secured?     

An evolutionary perspective on physical attractiveness

Everyday experience suggests that physical attractiveness is important in personal—and especially sexual—relationships. This impression is confirmed by a large body of social psychological research.^1,2 Cross-cultural surveys and ethnographic accounts show that concern with the attractiveness of potential mates is also common in non-Western societies and in tribal and peasant cultures.³ However, social psychologists and anthropologists have often had a hard time explaining why attractiveness should count for so much, or why some features rather than others should seem particularly attractive. The theoretical difficulties in accounting for physical attraction are brought out in a Brazilian saying, “Beleza nâo pôe na mesa” (“Good looks don't put anything on the table”), which points to the absence of any evident practical advantage to choosing an attractive mate. Faced with these difficulties, a growing number of researchers in biology, psychology, and anthropology have turned to the modern theory of sexual selection, which has been highly successful in explaining nonhuman animals attractions to traits of no direct ecological utility. In this article, I survey recent efforts to apply the theory of sexual selection to human physical attraction.     

Individual fertility rate among minor tribal populations from Andhra Pradesh,India

Abstract

The Individual Fertility Rate (IFR), a measure of current fertility status in small and illiterate preindustrial societies, is estimated for five tribal populations from Andhra Pradesh, India. The Andhra tribes exhibit high individual fertility rates ranging between 49.62 ± 1.76 (Konda Dora) and 66.63 ± 3.16 (Manzai Mali) and fall in the high‐fertility category. The differences in IFR values between affinal and consanguineous couples are not significant. A direct positive relation between IFR and tribal hierarchy is observed with relatively higher IFR values recorded for socially higher‐ranked tribes in an ascending order from lower‐ to higher‐ranked groups.     

Bringing the “General Strike” Back In: DuBois,Slavery and Emancipation

ABSTRACT

The “general strike” of slaves in the Civil War was a direct action that involved millions of small and large acts of defiance by slaves. These actions pushed President Lincoln from hesitation to full on military action, although this chapter of history has been neglected. The work of W.E.B. Du Bois reinserted the agency of slaves in their own liberation through the “general strike” but this analysis has also been pushed to the margins. David Roediger's “Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All' is an important corrective to this historical omission.     

Association of ABO and Rh blood groups with breast cancer

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine the association of “ABO” and “Rhesus” blood groups with incidence of breast cancer.MethodsIn this study, we identified 70 research documents from data based search engines including “PubMed”, “ISI-Web of Knowledge”, “Embase” and “Google Scholar”. The research papers were selected by using the primary key-terms including “ABO blood type”, “Rhesus” blood type and “breast cancer”. The research documents in which “ABO” and “Rhesus” blood types and breast cancer was debated were included. After screening, we reviewed 32 papers and finally we selected 25 research papers which met the inclusion criteria and remaining documents were excluded.ResultsBlood group “A” has high incidence of breast cancer (45.88%), blood group “O” has (31.69%); “B” (16.16%) and blood group “AB” has (6.27%) incidence of breast cancer. Blood group “A” has highest and blood group “AB” has least association with breast cancer. Furthermore, “Rhesus +ve” blood group has high incidence of breast cancer (88.31%) and “Rhesus –ve” blood group has least association with breast cancer (11.68%).ConclusionBlood group “A” and “Rhesus +ve” have high risk of breast cancer, while blood type “AB” and “Rhesus –ve” are at low peril of breast cancer. Physicians should carefully monitor the females with blood group “A” and “Rh +ve” as these females are more prone to develop breast cancer. To reduce breast cancer incidence and its burden, preventive and screening programs for breast cancer especially in young women are highly recommended.