Medical Anthropology as Cultural Anthropology

Book reviewed in this article:
Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective . Byron J. Good.
Knowledge, Power, and Practice: The Anthropology of Medicine and Everyday Life . Shirley Lindenbaum and Margaret Lock, eds.     

The Anthropology of Globalization: Cultural Anthropology Enters the 21st Century

The Anthropology of Globalization: Cultural Anthropology Enters the 21st Century. Ted C. Lewellen. Westport: Bergin and Garvey, 2002. 282 pp.     

Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology through Film

Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology through Film (book and video). Karl G. Heider. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. 347 pp.; 190:58 running time, VHS, color.     

Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology through Film

Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology through Film. Karl G. Heider. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. 347 pp.,. videotapes.     

Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology

Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. H. Russell Bernard. ed. Walnut Creek. CA: AltaMira Press. 1998. 816 pp.     

Perceptual Anthropology: The Cultural Salience of Symmetry

In this paper, I advance the position that knowledge about the universals of form perceived by the visual system is fundamental to a theory of how art communicates. I focus on how the perceptual system uses the universal property of symmetry to recognize and classify form. I propose that the symmetries that structure design parts in non-representational geometric patterns metaphorically encode a culture's fundamental relationships about the world. This metaphorical use of the property of symmetry is illustrated by showing how bifold symmetries in ceramic design embody Puebloan concepts of life. [symmetry of pattern, perceptual universals, worldview in design structure, metaphorical readings]     

Plains History and Cultural Anthropology

Abstract

Recent cutbacks in research funding and the burgeoning population of anthropology graduate departments may soon force cultural anthropologists to recognize what their archaeological colleagues have long known: their own “backyard” is a field for fertile research. Specifically, cultural anthropologists may turn increasingly to using long-neglected data sources - rich in documentation - on Anglo-Saxon America. This paper briefly investigates some reasons for the study of American historical data and presents a preliminary analysis of some data.     

The Cultural Keystone Concept: Insights from Ecological Anthropology

The concept of the keystone species has a long history in ecological analysis, although its validity remains controversial. Anthropological researchers have recently coined the term cultural keystone species, but have not demonstrated any significant differences from existing treatments of culturally important species. We define cultural keystones according to their systemic function, as having essential roles in maintaining any level of complexity within a social–ecological system. Examples include bitter cassava consumption among lowland South American groups such as the Wapishana in Guyana, and commercial cultivation of carrots in Rurukan Village in Minahasa, Indonesia. These examples are both essential at one level of systemic reproduction: within the domestic and village economy in the cassava case, and carrots within regional markets. While each is centred upon a single biological species, the cultural keystone itself is not this species, but a complex incorporating several material and non-material system elements.     

An Application of Dimensional Analysis in Cultural Anthropology

Lawlike generalizations can be developed only for variables exhibiting strict constancy in concept formulation. By considering anthropology a space and its basic concepts as dimensions and borrowing from ecology, cultural materialism, and social, political, and cultural anthropology, we develop a 14-dimensional space defined by 42 scaled variables. Dimensional analysis performed yields 14 equations and 28 dimensionless expressions that satisfy them. Additionally, we derive a set of 28 ethnological expressions. Entering scaled data from five societies, we solve for each. Twenty-one expressions yield significant order-ings. Examination of their performance confirms that they function holistically.     

Book Reviews: Social/Cultural Anthropology

Book reviewed in this article:
Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California . James Diego Vigil
Chicano Ethnicity . Susan E. Keefe and Amado M. Padilla