On Cheyenne Sociopoutical Organization

Abstract

In a recent (1974) article John H. Moore has challenged the validity of earlier ethnologies of the Cheyenne Indians, with respect to their presentation of Cheyenne sociopolitical organization. Moore advances a dialectic model, positing matrilineal, matrilocal uterine bands from which were drawn the Peace Chiefs, who constituted a uterine tribal council. In frequent opposition, were the military societies, which Moore identifies as agnatic units of organization. Viewed historically, power shifted from the “uterine” bands and tribal council to the “agnatic” military societies.     

Dance and glance: Visualizing tribal identity in Highland Yemen

This paper is a study in the ways that esthetic markers—dancing, poetry, clothing, food—underlie, define, and construct conceptions of the tribe in the northern highlands of Yemen. As the rural Yemeni economy has changed from economic and political self‐sufficiency to dependence on the world market and a strong central government, so has the significance of tribalism. Ironically, nationalism is presented by the Yemeni media in tribal terms. While rural expressions of tribal identity have declined, use of tribal markers has intensified in towns and cities even by those who were not formerly defined as tribal. The significance of esthetic phenomena in the formation of identity and the construction of culture is addressed.¹     

The Northern Cheyenne Sun Dance and the Opening of the Sacred Medicine Hat 1959

Abstract

In 1959, after several years of teaching the Northern Cheyenne on the Tongue River Reservation in Montana, the writer was able to observe the annual Sun Dance in some detail, to photograph it, and to be present at the rare opening of the Sacred Medicine Hat Bundle which followed. This account reports the main events which took place, and establishes that the Northern Cheyenne Sun Dance has not only survived but has undergone relatively little change since it was reported by Grinnell in 1910. Marked similarity is also seen with the older Southern Cheyenne ceremony recorded by Dorsey in Oklahoma in 1903.

The Medicine Hat, still an object of much veneration, was inspected after a series of misadventures to determine whether its contents were safe, and thus was provided an opportunity to view for the first time in more than 25 years an old and famous object of significance in Plains religion.     

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.     

Governing disaster: The politics of tribal sovereignty in the context of (un)natural disaster

Disaster is a fruitful field of study for Native scholarship – and Indigenous Studies for disaster scholarship – because it happens in the medium of land, water and air, which is the original medium of oppression, or colonization, for Native people. Using a framework ‘beyond disaster exceptionalism’, this article examines recent changes in US tribal disaster policy to explore implications both for discrete disaster events that occur on reservations and for the ongoing disaster of colonization. I use the case of a recent wildfire on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana to highlight the challenge of materializing government-to-government relations through federal tribal policy. During the course of the wildfire fieldwork, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act was passed by Congress, giving tribes the right to request a disaster declaration directly of the US president. The events of the Ash Creek fire suggest that sovereignty requires economic justice, and that legislated sovereignty remains an oxymoron.     

Giving Away: the Ceremonial Distribution of Goods Among the Northern Cheyenne of Southeastern Montana

Abstract

The Northern Cheyenne, like most Plains reservation tribes, frequently hold public distributions of goods called give-aways. Give-aways occur throughout the year in order to honor individual Cheyennes and, through the obligation of reciprocity, intra-tribal and inter-tribal ties are established and maintained. The give-away exchanges and their functions are analyzed utilizing Marshall Sahlins’ typology of primitive exchange.     

The embodiment of sorcery: Supernatural aggression,belief and envy in a remote Aboriginal community

Anthropologists have long attempted to come to grips with Indigenous Australian sorcery beliefs and especially with the idea that acts with no understandable efficacy bring about illness and death. In this ethnographic interpretation of sorcery beliefs in the remote community of Numbulwar, I follow those few who have attempted to find a link between these apparently harmless acts and real physiological consequences, arguing that the fear of sorcery that pervades Numbulwar contributes directly to the stress of daily life and indirectly to the premature morbidity and mortality of too many lives. Belief is posited as the mechanism whereby the human stress response is activated to a harmful extent, a process in which the projection of envious feelings may often be critical.     

The temporal dynamics of the fourteenth-century Black Death: new evidence from English ecclesiastical records

Recent research has questioned whether the European Black Death of 1347-1351 could possibly have been caused by the bubonic plague bacillus Yersinia pestis, as has been assumed for over a century. Central to the arguments both for and against involvement of Y. pestis has been a comparison of the temporal dynamics observed in confirmed outbreaks of bubonic plague in early-20th-century India, versus those reconstructed for the Black Death from English church records--specifically, from lists of institutions (appointments) to vacated benefices contained in surviving bishops' registers. This comparison is, however, based on a statistical error arising from the fact that most of the bishops' registers give only the dates of institution and not the dates of death. Failure to correct for a distributed (as opposed to constant) lag time from death to institution has made it look as if the Black Death passed slowly through specific localities. This error is compounded by a failure to disaggregate the information from the bishops' registers to a geographical level that is genuinely comparable to the modern data. A sample of 235 deaths from the bishop's register of Coventry and Lichfield, the only English register to list both date of death and date of institution, shows that the Black Death swept through local areas much more rapidly than has previously been thought. This finding is consistent with those of earlier studies showing that the Black Death spread too rapidly between locales to have been a zoonosis such as bubonic plague. A further analysis of the determinants of the lag between death and institution, designed to provide a basis for reexamining other bishops' registers that do not provide information on date of death, shows that the distribution of lags could vary significantly by time and space even during a single epidemic outbreak.     

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.     

Home visits to the elderly in Leiden: an investigation into the effect on loneliness

In this article the research results are presented of the pilot intervention project 'Elderly support home visits'. The aim of this experiment was to reduce loneliness among older persons who make use of extramural care. The intervention was accompanied by quantitative effect measurements, followed by a qualitative study of the process. To determine the effectiveness of the intervention, data on loneliness were collected among those persons who have made use of the welfare services (the experimental group) and those who were not interested in these services (the control group) on three different times: during the first home visit and approximately six and twelve months later. The main finding is that the intervention did not lead to a substantial reduction in the loneliness score in the experimental group. Feelings of loneliness among the participants did reduce, but this decline was small and not significant and did not continue in the long-term. The process evaluation suggests some explanations for this result. This article concludes with the limitations of the research design and suggestions for improvement of the intervention.     

Diferencias en función de la edad y la autopercepción del envejecimiento en ansiedad,tristeza, soledad y sintomatología comórbida ansioso-depresiva durante el confinamiento por la COVID-19

ObjectivesTo analyze differences by age group in anxiety, depression, loneliness and comorbid anxiety and depression in young people, middle aged adults and older adults during the lock-down period at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the association between negative self-perceptions of aging and psychological symptoms controlling by age group.MethodParticipants are 1501 people (age range 18 to 88 years). Anxiety, sadness, loneliness and self-perceptions of aging were assessed. The sample was divided according to the age group and quartiles (lower, intermediate levels, and higher) of anxiety, sadness, loneliness and self-perceptions of aging.ResultsOlder adults reported lower levels of anxiety and sadness than middle aged adults, and middle aged adults reported lower levels than younger participants. Middle aged adults reported the lowest loneliness, followed by older adults and younger participants. For each age group, those with more negative self-perceptions of aging reported higher anxiety, sadness and loneliness. More comorbid anxiety and sadness was found in younger adults and less in older adults; more depressed participants in the middle aged group, and more older adults and less younger participants were found in the group with the lowest levels of anxiety and sadness. For all the age groups, participants with high levels of comorbid anxiety and sadness are those who report the highest scores in negative self-perceptions of aging.ConclusionsOlder adults reported lower psychological anxiety, sadness and loneliness than the other age groups. Having negative self-perceptions of aging damage psychological health irrespective of the chronological age.     

Four Ways Life Extension will Change Our Relationship with Death

Discussions of life extension ethics have focused mainly on whether an extended life would be desirable to have, and on the social consequences of widely available life extension. I want to explore a different range of issues: four ways in which the advent of life extension will change our relationship with death, not only for those who live extended lives, but also for those who cannot or choose not to. Although I believe that, on balance, the reasons in favor of developing life extension outweigh the reasons against doing so (something I won't argue for here), most of these changes probably count as reasons against doing so. First, the advent of life extension will alter the human condition for those who live extended lives, and not merely by postponing death. Second, it will make death worse for those who lack access to life extension, even if those people live just as long as they do now. Third, for those who have access to life extension but prefer to live a normal lifespan because they think that has advantages, the advent of life extension will somewhat reduce some of those advantages, even if they never use life extension. Fourth, refusing life extension turns out to be a form of suicide, and this will force those who have access to life extension but turn it down to choose between an extended life they don't want and a form of suicide they may (probably mistakenly) consider immoral.     

How the Tiwi Construct the Deceased’s Postself in Mortuary Ritual

ABSTRACT

In this paper I will discuss Tiwi mortuary rites as a transformative, relational process in which the deceased’s postself is created. The deceased’s self is fashioned and manifested after death through a series of ritual practices performed by specific relatives. This approach allows me not only to stress the concern Tiwi people show about being remembered after death but also how this concern defines each participant’s ceremonial role and constitutes one of the mortuary ritual’s major aims. The deceased will be remembered as portrayed in the final rites.     

Differential indicators of loneliness among elderly. The importance of type of partner relationship, partner history, health, socioeconomic status and social relations

Using data from the 1992 NESTOR-survey 'Living arrangements and social networks of older adults' (N = 4494), the aim of the present study is to identify specific categories of older adults who are most vulnerable to loneliness. By looking at different types of partner relationships (first, second, and third marriages; consensual unions; partners who are not household members) and at partner histories (never married, ever divorced, ever widowed, remarried), this study elaborates on previous research which has tended to look only at the presence versus the absence of partner relationships. Findings indicate that different types of partner relationships provide differential protection against loneliness. There appears to be a 'shadow of the past' of a previous divorce or widowhood in second and third partnerships, which accounts for generally higher levels of loneliness. Single men tend to be more lonely than single women. Moreover, there are no differences in loneliness between men who have always been single and those previously married. Among single women, differences in partner history are relevant: never married single women tend to be least vulnerable to loneliness. The differences in loneliness between older adults with different types of partner relationships and partner histories are only partially attributable to network and social participation differences. The latter independently contribute to the explanation of loneliness. The role of non-social determinants (health and socioeconomic position) is also examined. The results underscore the socially isolating effects of sensory impairments. Older adults with functional limitations, and those with visual or auditory problems tend to be more lonely, findings which are only partially attributable to differences in the number and quality of social relationships. Socioeconomic circumstances primarily have an indirect influence on loneliness. Those with higher levels of educational attainment and higher incomes tend to have more extensive social networks and are therefore less prone to loneliness.     

End Stage Renal Disease Predicts Increased Risk of Death in First Degree Relatives in the Norwegian Population

BackgroundIncreased risk of end stage renal disease (ESRD) and death in Norwegian living kidney donors has been reported, most of the donors were related to the recipient. The present study investigates risk of death in first degree relatives of ESRD patients.MethodsThe Norwegian Population Registry, The Norwegian Cause of Death Registry and the Norwegian Renal Registry were linked. All citizens born in Norway, alive in 1960 and with at least one registered first degree relative were included; individuals who died during the first year of life were excluded. A cohort-design was used, ESRD in a first degree relative was the main exposure variable and death and causes of death were the main outcome variables. Cox regression statistics were used to investigate mortality risks.Results5 130 600 individuals were included, 27 508 had at least one first degree relative with ESRD. 828 022 died during follow-up, of whom 4105 had a first degree relative with ESRD. Adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for death was 1.13 (1.09–1.16) in individuals with a relative with ESRD compared to those without a relative with ESRD. Excluding known hereditary renal disease, aHR decreased to 1.12 (1.09–1.15). Cardiovascular death aHR was 1.15 (1.10–1.21), of which cerebrovascular death 1.34 (1.22–1.50). aHR for death due to non-hereditary renal/ureteric disease was 2.29 (1.81–2.91) with renal failure 1.80 (1.26–2.56) and glomerular disease 5.69 (3.88–8.34) as main contributors. Diabetes mellitus death aHR was 1.68 (1.35–2.10). Absolute mortality risks increased most for the oldest cohorts with excess mortality of 148 per 100.000 person years for the cohort born 1920–39 and 218 for the cohort born 1900–1919.ConclusionsESRD in first degree relatives was associated with increased hazard ratio for death. Death due to cardiovascular disease, renal disease and diabetes mellitus increased the most.     

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.     

The sacredness of human life

Christian De Duve''s decision to voluntarily pass away gives us a pause to consider the value and meaning of death. Biologists have much to contribute to the discussion of dying with dignity.Christian de Duve''s voluntary passing away on 4 May 2013 could be seen as the momentous contribution of an eminent biologist and Nobel laureate to the discussion about ‘last things''. In contrast to his fellow scientists Ludwig Boltzmann and Allan Turing, who had made a deliberate choice to end their life in a state of depression and despair, de Duve “left with a smile and a good-bye”, as his daughter told a newspaper.What is the value and meaning of life? Is death inevitable? Should dying with dignity become an inalienable human right? Theologians, philosophers, doctors, politicians, sociologists and jurists have all offered their answers to these fundamental questions. The participation of biologists in the discussion is long overdue and should, in fact, dominate the discourse.We can start from de Duve''s premise—expressed as a subtitle of his book Cosmic Dust—that life is a cosmic imperative; a phenomenon that inevitably takes place anywhere in the universe as permitted by appropriate physicochemical conditions. Under such conditions, the second law of thermodynamics rules—prebiotic organic syntheses proceed, matter self-organizes into more complex structures and darwinian evolution begins, with its subsequent quasi-random walks towards increasing complexity. The actors of this cosmic drama are darwinian individuals—cells, bodies, groups and species—who strive to maintain their structural integrity and to survive as entities. By virtue of the same law, their components undergo successive losses of correlation, so that structures sustain irreparable damage and eventually break down. Because of this ‘double-edge'' of the second law, life progresses in cycles of birth, maturation, ageing and rejuvenation.Death is the inevitable link in this chain of events. ‘The struggle for existence'' is very much the struggle for individual survival, yet it is the number of offspring—the expression of darwinian fitness—that ultimately counts. Darwinian evolution is creative, but its master sculptor is death.Humans are apparently the only species endowed with self-consciousness and thereby a strongly amplified urge to survive. However, self-consciousness has also made humans aware of the existence of death. The clash between the urge for survival and the awareness of death must have inevitably engendered religion, with its delusion of an existence after death, and it might have been one of the main causes of the emergence of culture. Culture divides human experience into two parts: the sacred and the profane. The sacred constitutes personal transcendence: the quest for meaning, the awe of mystery, creativity and aesthetic feelings, the capacity for boundless love and hate, the joy of playing, and peaks of ecstasy. The psychologist Jonathan Haidt observed in his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion that “The great trick that humans developed at some point in the last few hundred thousand years is the ability to circle around a tree, rock, ancestor, flag, book or god, and then treat that thing as sacred. People who worship the same idol can trust one another, work as a team and prevail over less cohesive groups.” He considers sacredness as crucial for understanding morality. At present, biology knows almost nothing about human transcendence. Our ignorance of the complexity of human life bestows on it both mystery and sacredness.The religious sources of Western culture, late Judaism and Christianity, adopted Plato''s idea of the immortality of the human soul into their doctrines. The concept of immortality and eternity has continued to thrive in many secular versions and serves as a powerful force to motivate human creativity. Yet, immortality is ruled out by thermodynamics, and the religious version of eternal life in continuous bliss constitutes a logical paradox—eternal pleasure would mean eternal recurrence of everything across infinite time, with no escape; Heaven turned Hell. It is not immortality but temporariness that gives human life its value and meaning.There is no ‘existence of death''. Dying exists, but death does not. Death equals nothingness—no object, no action, no thing. Death is out of reach to human imagination, the intentionality of consciousness—its directedness towards objects—does not allow humans to grasp it. Death is no mystery, no issue at all—it does not concern us, as the philosopher Epicurus put it. The real human issue is dying and the terror of it. We might paraphrase Michel Montaigne''s claim that a mission of philosophy is to learn to die, and say that a mission of biology is to teach to die. Biology might complement its research into apoptosis—programmed cell death—by efforts to discover or to invent a ‘mental apoptosis''. A hundred years ago, the micro-biologist Ilya Mechnikov envisaged, in his book Essais Optimistes, that a long and gratifying personal life might eventually reach a natural state of satiation and evoke a specific instinct to withdraw, similar to the urge to sleep. Biochemistry could assist the process of dying by nullifying fear, pain and distress.In these days of advanced healthcare and technologies that can artificially extend the human lifespan, dying with dignity should become the principal concern of all humanists, not only that of scientists. It would therefore be commendable if Western culture could abandon the fallacy of immortality and eternity, whilst Oriental and African cultures ought to be welcomed to the discussion about the ‘last things''. Dying with dignity will become the ultimate achievement of a dignified life.     

In Memoriam

Abstract

We are saddened to report the death of Professor Richard T. Walker of the University of Birmingham, England, on November 20, 1997. His passing is both a professional loss to the scientific community and a personal loss to those of us who knew him.     

A Longitudinal Test of the Belief that Companion Animal Ownership Can Help Reduce Loneliness

ABSTRACT

The widely held belief that companion animal ownership can help to reduce loneliness was tested using a quasi-experimental longitudinal design. Over a six-month period, 59 participants completed the UCLA-Loneliness Scale when they were seeking to acquire a companion animal. Participants' loneliness was measured again six-months after their initial recruitment, by which time 35 of the 59 participants had acquired a new companion animal. There was no evidence that companion animal acquisition helped to reduce levels of loneliness, irrespective of whether participants already owned a companion animal at the time of seeking to acquire a new companion animal, or the type of companion animal that was acquired. There was no evidence that participants who ultimately acquired a new companion animal differed from participants who did not, suggesting that the findings were not a consequence of a self-selection bias. The perseverance and apparent strength of the belief that companion animal ownership can alleviate loneliness is discussed in relation to the current findings.     

Nationalism as meaningful life projects: identity construction among politically active Tamil families in Norway

Abstract

For many years Northern Ireland has been a divided society where members of the two main religious groups, Catholics and Protestants, have limited opportunities to interact due to segregation in their social lives. Attempts have been made to encourage religious mixing through integration in schools, housing, and workplaces predicated on the theory that bringing people together can improve community relations and remove prejudices – known as the ‘contact hypothesis’. However, little is known about those who enter into mixed-religion partnerships often against the wishes of their families and communities. This paper examines the characteristics and attitudes of mixed-religion couples and suggests that they differ in their socio-demographic characteristics and in their attitudes from those who marry within their own religion. These findings add to the weight of evidence from other countries in conflict suggesting that intermarriage has a role to play in contributing to less sectarian views and improved community relations.