Language and Culture on the North Coast of New Guinea

Statistical analysis of variability in assemblages of material culture obtained at different villages on the North Coast of New Guinea indicates that similarities and differences among these assemblages are most strongly associated with geographic propinquity, irrespective of linguistic affinities. When assemblage similarity is adjusted for the effect of distance, diversity in material culture appears unrelated to the linguistic relationships of these communities. This study shows that similarity in material culture assemblages can mask marked heterogeneity in language. Language, however, is frequently used to index people in Melanesia on the assumption that language is a useful key to their other human characteristics. This analysis does not lend support to this common practice, and it has implications for how prehistoric cultural complexes in Melanesia are defined and interpreted.     

A New Type of Synchronized Flashing in a North American Firefly

Continuous synchronic flashing occurs in stationary and flying male congregations of members of some firefly species in Southeast Asia. In the present paper, low-light videography and photometry was used to demonstrate that synchrony occurs in the North American genus Photuris. We found that the Georgia coastal plain firefly Ph. frontalis flashed synchronically. From a distance, the synchronic flashes of a population of flying Ph. frontalis appeared to occur in a continuous synchrony. However, when pairs of males were viewed, it was difficult to verify that their flashing was continuously synchronic. In the laboratory, caged fireflies flashed synchronically, stopped, and then flashed synchronically again. To study this flash behavior, recordings of individual and group flashing were analyzed statistically to validate the conclusions about rhythm and synchrony. Although the mass synchrony appeared continuous, the individual flying males switch on and off, coming in again on the beat. The synchrony in Ph. frontalis is common and pervasive rather than rare and sporadic, as shown by other North American fireflies. The precision of the frontalis synchrony approaches that of Southeast Asian fireflies. The intermittent synchrony of this firefly reinforces the evidence that there is a diversity of synchronies in fireflies.     

New Anthropological Perspectives on Southeastern Indians

Signs of Cherokee Culture: Sequoyah's Syllabary in Eastern Cherokee Life. Margaret Bender. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. 187 pp.
Southern Indians and Anthropologists: Culture, Politics, and Identity. Lisa J. Lefler and Frederic W. Gleach. eds. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002. 151 pp.
Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Circe Sturm. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. 249 pp.     

North American Gypsy Terms: A Comment

The author comments on a recent article by Werner Cohn concerning the kinship terms among the North American Gypsies. He suggests that since pašo, meaning wife's sister's husband, is also found among the southern Slavs, it is highly probable that it is from them that the Gypsies took the term .     

North American paragonimiasis. A case report

BACKGROUND: Paragonimiasis is a parasitic infection with a predilection for pulmonary involvement. Paragonimus species occur throughout the world and exist in nature in a snail-crustacean-mammalian life cycle. Human disease is most frequently encountered in cultures that ingest raw or undercooked crustaceans. North American paragonimiasis, caused by an endemic Paragonimus species, Paragonimus kellicotti, predominantly causes disease in carnivorous and omnivorous animals but may cause human disease if the intermediate host, the crayfish, is ingested raw or undercooked. CASE: A previously healthy, 21-year-old male was infected with P kellicotti and developed parasitic hemoptysis. The disease was contracted through the ingestion of local, undercooked crayfish. Diagnosis was established through the morphologic examination of eggs in the cytologic preparation of bronchioalveolar lavage fluid. The patient was successfully treated with praziquantel and recovered without incident. CONCLUSION: Paragonimiasis is a cause of parasitic hemoptysis worldwide. Paragonimiasis is infrequently encountered in North America and is usually not considered in the differential diagnosis of hemoptysis unless specific risk factors are known. The cytologist or cytopathologist, therefore, may be the first to encounter the diagnostic eggs and should be familiar with this disease.     

A Mathematical Theory of Horse Adoption on The North American Plains

Abstract

The horse complex and its subsequent influence on Plains culture is a major topic of Plains anthropology. Treatment of the topic has involved three trains of thoughts: 1) the process (form and rate) of horse adoption, 2) the spatial diffusion of the horse northward, and 3) the influence of the horse on Plains culture. This paper contributes to the study of the horse complex by focusing primarily on the adoption aspect of the problem and, secondarily, on the social implications for the plains area of the temporal regularity evident. The paper outlines a new theoretical explanation of the actual process of horse adoption-an S-curve hypothesis suggesting that adoption initially accelerated rapidly and then declined more slowly as all Plains tribes ultimately adopted the horse. We verify this hypothesis with documented empirical evidence on the adoption process derived from Ewers (1955). The empirical evidence and S-curve interpretation suggest: 1) two distinct groups of Plains tribes existed on the Plains, a southern and northern, separated by two webs of communication, 2) that this communication was frequent, and 3) that the two systems were well developed before the arrival of the horse.