Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist

Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist. Fran Markowitz and Michael Ashkenazi. eds. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999.230 pp.     

T. S. Eliot, Anthropologist and Primitive

T. S. Eliot (1888–1965), a poet of genius, closely followed developments in the social sciences. From the viewpoint of early modern anthropology, important features of his poems resemble the qualities of the "primitive mentality" conjectured by Lévy-Bruhl, whose work (along with Tylor's, Frazer's, Wundt's, Durkheim's, and Rivers') Eliot carefully and critically studied. To recover fundamental cultural unities, Eliot became, in effect, a philosophical anthropologist and, in poetry, a quasi-primitive as well . [anthropology and literature, history of anthropology, T. S. Eliot, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl]     

Julian Steward and the Great Basin: The Making of an Anthropologist.

Julian Steward and the Great Basin: The Making of an Anthropologist. Richard O. Clemmer. L. Daniel Myers. and Mary Elizabeth Rudden. eds. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999. 288 pp.     

The Cultural Problem of the Cultural Anthropologist

An intensive analysis of Malinowski's diary reveals an ethnocentrism hitherto unnoticed in our discipline. Ethnocentrism is common to all societies and cultures, but what anthropologists have so far failed to understand is the very basic distinction between positive ethnocentrism and neutral ethnocentrism. Malinowski, being rooted in white European society and culture where positive enthocentrism prevails, suffered from some peculiar defects in perception of non- Western behavior that vitiated some of his theories, such as those on religion and culture change. This paper shows that some of his shortcomings are still with us today and indicates what we can do to remedy them. [religion, ethnocentrism, positive or neutral, Trobriand Islanders, mental hospitals, internal versus external impetuses to culture change, Christianity, Islam, proselytization, Primeval Flood myth, comparative studies, China, Europe, national character, methodology]     

大型哺乳动物的趋势监测:青海野牛沟和甘肃阿克塞国际狩猎场的案例

大型野生动物种群数量估算的理想条件是使用数学模型以及严格的实验设计来选择样本。可是,野外条件状况往往违背数学模型假设前提,不可能随机地选择样本。于是,计算的结果不但不可靠,而且很可能没有意义。就野生动物管理来说,不需要获得一个准确的种群数量,只需一个长期的数量趋势,就足以指导相关管理工作。在中国大型哺乳动物长期监测还没有纳入常规。本文报道了位于青海省野牛沟和甘肃省阿克塞县两个野生有蹄类动物种群数量的长期趋势监测项目。我们这些年里一直用相同的方法持续监测,并明确了监测数值结果包含有不确定性。尽管存在不确定性,仍可以发现监测地点野生有蹄类动物种群变化趋势,这些结果可以帮助野生动物管理者据此变化及时作出相应管理计划。     

Women as Healers; Women as Clients: The Encounter Between Traditional Arab Women Healers and Their Clients

Interviews conducted with Arab women in Israel who sought treatment from traditional women healers show that such women undergo a change of both a personal and a social nature after the visit. This study enumerates and analyzes the aspects of this change and concludes that visiting traditional Arab women healers constitutes a coping path that empowers clients. Such empowerment, achieved primarily by clients who maintain regular, extended contact with healers, is not social but personal and follows traditional norms without challenging them. This is a model of practical empowerment that derives from the accepted norms of its culture, implying the existence of an empowering agent and an individual who are involved in a process of growth in a social context that embodies numerous restrictions.     

Diffuse Optical Characterization of the Healthy Human Thyroid Tissue and Two Pathological Case Studies

The in vivo optical and hemodynamic properties of the healthy (n = 22) and pathological (n = 2) human thyroid tissue were measured non-invasively using a custom time-resolved spectroscopy (TRS) and diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) system. Medical ultrasound was used to guide the placement of the hand-held hybrid optical probe. TRS measured the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients (μ_a, μ_s′) at three wavelengths (690, 785 and 830 nm) to derive total hemoglobin concentration (THC) and oxygen saturation (StO₂). DCS measured the microvascular blood flow index (BFI). Their dependencies on physiological and clinical parameters and positions along the thyroid were investigated and compared to the surrounding sternocleidomastoid muscle. The THC in the thyroid ranged from 131.9 μM to 144.8 μM, showing a 25–44% increase compared to the surrounding sternocleidomastoid muscle tissue. The blood flow was significantly higher in the thyroid (BFI_thyroid = 16.0 × 10^-9 cm²/s) compared to the muscle (BFI_muscle = 7.8 × 10^-9 cm²/s), while StO₂ showed a small (StO_{2, muscle} = 63.8% to StO_{2, thyroid} = 68.4%), yet significant difference. Two case studies with thyroid nodules underwent the same measurement protocol prior to thyroidectomy. Their THC and BFI reached values around 226.5 μM and 62.8 × 10^-9 cm²/s respectively showing a clear contrast to the nodule-free thyroid tissue as well as the general population. The initial characterization of the healthy and pathologic human thyroid tissue lays the ground work for the future investigation on the use of diffuse optics in thyroid cancer screening.