Lewis Henry Morgan and the anthropological critique of civilization

Mason Hersey has an M. A. in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research, and is currently working in the film industry in Los Angeles.     

A one-eyed gaze: Gender in 19th century illustration of Peru

Deborah Poole is Professor of Anthropology in the graduate faculty of The New School for Social Research.     

Recasting the mode of production

Robert Briglio is a human-rights lawyer and a student of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research.     

How do babies know their friends and foes?

The study of infant social cognition is the study of how human infants acquire information about people. By examining infants’ sensory abilities and the stimulus characteristics of people, research can determine what information is available to infants from their social world. We can then consider what social environments are appropriate for infants of different ages. This paper examines the sociocognitive competencies of human infants during the first 6 months of their lives and asks how these competencies are functional in the daily social ecology of the human infant. Select examples of research with other species are used to illustrate how the adaptive significance of sociocognitive abilities could be more fruitfully explored in studies of human infancy. Lonnie R. Sherrod is Vice President for Program at the William T. Grant Foundation. Formerly, he was Assistant Dean at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research and before that, Staff Associate at the Social Science Research Council. He received a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Yale University in 1978, an M.A. in Biology from the University of Rochester in 1974; and a B.A. in Zoology and Psychology from Duke University in 1972. He has taught at New York University and the New School and has published numerous articles and edited volumes on infant social cognition, on adolescence, and on child development from a life-span and biosocial perspective. Examples includeInfant Social Cognition (1981), edited with Michael Lamb;The Life Course and Human Development: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (1986), edited with Aage B. Sorensen and Franz E. Weinert; and “Changes in Children’s Social Lives and the Development of Social Understanding” authored with Judith Dunn (1988), in E.M. Hetherington, M. Perlmutter, and R. Lerner (eds).,Child Development in Life-Span Perspective.     

The interrelationships of disease and culture in a primitive New Guinea community

This article explores links between disease and social standing in a primitive New Guinea community. Social and cultural events have modified the incidence of certain diseases. Furthermore, the changing patterns of disease may have influenced the development and form of social distinctions.This work is based on data collected as a predoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. Fieldwork in New Guinea was done with NIH support under Training Grant 1 T01-MH11775-01 (related to 2 F1 MH301640-02), with Dr. Margaret Mead as the sponsor. Additional funding for analysis of data was obtained from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Department of Preventive Medicine of the Harvard Medical School, and the Institute for Transcultural Studies in New York.     

The VietNam war as an exemplar of American culture

Glenn Petersen is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Baruch College and its Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York City.     

The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology: Visual Methods in Social Research

The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology. Anna Grimshaw. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2001. 222 pp.
Visual Methods in Social Research. Marcus Banks. New York City: Sage Publications, 2001. 201 pp.     

Sexual Division of Labor in Agriculture

Female agricultural contributions decline with agricultural intensification. We formulate and test a theory of the processes of agricultural intensification that explains a high proportion of the variance in female contributions to agriculture. Five variables show replicable effects across two or more regions of the world. These are number of dry months, importance of domesticated animals to subsistence, use of the plow, crop type, and population density. Of these, the first two are the most powerful predictors of female agricultural contributions, while population density has only very weak effects.
MICHAEL L. BURTON is Professor of Anthropology. School of Social Sciences. University of California. Irvine. CA 92717.
DOUGLAS R. WHITE is Professor of Anthropology. School of Social Sciences. University of California. Irvine.     

A brief history of the Graduate Studies Program at The New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden initiated its Graduate Studies Program through a cooperative agreement with Columbia University in 1896. This arrangement continued until the late 1960s, when the Biology Department at Columbia chose to emphasize laboratory-related research and discontinued its organismal programs. At the time a new partnership was formed with what was to become Lehman College of the City University of New York—a program that has continued through the present. Since the inception of its Graduate Studies Program 100 years ago, the Garden has provided sponsorship, guidance, and resources to help more than 200 studients receive graduate degrees. In recent years the Garden has expanded its graduate program to include four additional university affiliates: the Department of Biology at New York University, the Institute of Systematic Botany at Cornell University, the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, and, in a new agreement with an old partner, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University.     

New and Old in Economic Anthropology

The New Anthropology . John Clammer
Research in Economic Anthropology: An Annual compilation of Research, Vol. 1 . George Dalton
Research in Economic Anthropology: An Annual compilation of Research, Vol. 2 . George Dalton
Research in Economic Anthropology: An Annual compilation of Research, Vol. 1 . George Dalton     

From bridewealth to dowry?

Significant amounts of wealth have been exchanged as part of marriage settlements throughout history. Although various models have been proposed for interpreting these practices, their development over time has not been investigated systematically. In this paper we use a Bayesian MCMC phylogenetic comparative approach to reconstruct the evolution of two forms of wealth transfers at marriage, dowry and bridewealth, for 51 Indo-European cultural groups. Results indicate that dowry is more likely to have been the ancestral practice, and that a minimum of four changes to bridewealth is necessary to explain the observed distribution of the two states across the cultural groups. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 16^th meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES), Berlin 2004. Mark Pagel and Andrew Meade provided the software, the coded linguistic data, and valuable advice on their use. LF is funded by Fondazione Ing. Aldo Gini (Italy), the ESRC (UK), and the UCL Graduate School (UK). Five anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments. The authors are based at the Department of Anthropology of UCL and members of the AHRC Centre for the Evolutionary Analysis of Cultural Behaviour (CEACB). LF is studying towards a PhD, CH is a CEACB Senior Research Fellow, and RM is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Australian Dreaming. 40.000 years of Aboriginal History . Edited by Jennifer Isaacs Radio Power. A History of 3ZZ Access Radio . By Joan Dugdale Department of Anthropology, University of Western Australia Introduction to Australian Society: A Sociological Perspective . By Donald Edgar The New South Wales Wheat Frontier. 1851 to 1911 . By M. E. Robinson Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney. Heroin in Australia . By David Hirst Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Queensland. The Quest for Gaia. A Book of Changes . By Kit Pedler Drinking Careers. Occupations, Drinking Habits, and Drinking Problems . By Martin A. Plant Northern Territory Department of Health, Darwin. Families in Former Times: Kinship, Household and Sexuality . By Jean-Louis Flandrin. Translated by Richard Southern Changing Images of the Family . Edited by Virginia Tufte and Barbara Myerhoff Department of Anthropology, Western Australian Museum. Give and Take. Exchange in Wola Society . By Paul Sillitoe Department of Prehistory and Anthropoloy, S.G.S. Caste: The Emergence of the South Asian Social System . By Morton Klass David Mearns Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide. Anthropological Structures of Madness in Black Africa . By I. Sow. Translated by Joyce Diamenti Basic Problems of Ethnopsychiatry . By George Devereux Department of Anthropology, University of Otago. Who Should Know What? Social Science, Privacy and Ethics . By J. A. Barnes Department of Sociology, University of N.S.W. Arnold Van Gennep. The Creator of French Ethnography . By Nicole Belmont Department of Prehistory anrf Anthropology, Australian National University. Man, Mind, and Science. A History of Anthropology . By Murray J. Leaf Department of Sociology, University of N.S.W. The Conceptualisation and Explanation of Processes of Social Change . Edited by David Riches School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University. Day of Shining Red. An Essay on Understanding Ritual . By Gilbert Lewis Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University. Living Archaeology . By R. A. Gould. New Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of New England Experimental Determinatiou of Stone Tool Uses: A Microwear Analysis . By Lawrence H. Keeley Division of Prehistory, La Trobe University. Archaeological Constructs. An Aspect of Theoretical Archaeology . By Jean-Claude Gardin Division of Prehistory, La Trobe University. The Performing Arts. Music and Dance . Edited by John Blacking and Joann W. Kealiinohomoku Department of Sociology, University of New England.     

Histochemical studies of rat ovarian follicular cells in vitro

Summary Membrana granulosa cells were aspirated from large follicles of proestrous rat ovaries and were cultivated as monolayers. For histochemical identification of dehydrogenases, the monolayers were incubated in various steroid substrates, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and Nitro Blue Tetrazolium. The presence of Δ^p5-3β-, 3α-, 17β- and 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases was demonstrated by the 4th day in vitro and was evident for as long as 20 days. Since none of these hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases is demonstrable in the membrana granulosa of intact follicles, it is concluded that the steroidogenic capacity of the cells, repressed in the preovulatory follicle in vivo, can be expressed upon mechanical removal from the follicle just as steroid synthesis occurs in these cells after normal ovulation. This research was supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and by United States Public Health Service Grants RR-05383-09 and AM-06918-06.     

The ‘Prof. Dr. Rómulo Lambre’ Collection: An Argentinian sample of modern skeletons

This paper describes the ‘Prof. Dr. Rómulo Lambre’ skeletal collection. The Lambre Collection is housed in the School of Medical Sciences of the National University of La Plata and it consists of skeletal remains ceded by the Municipal Cemetery of La Plata. The collection has more than four hundred skeletons, with information on age, sex, nationality, date and cause of death. It was created for teaching and research purposes in compliance with current legislation, and its management meets guidelines specified in the Declaration of the Argentinian Association for Biological Anthropology on Research Ethics on Human Remains (2007).     

Anthropology in the Margins of the State

Anthropology in the Margins of the State . Veena Das and Deborah Poole, eds. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2004. 330 pp.     

The buttressing coalition of the PNGIMR: an example of international collaborative research

Good partnerships are based on mutual benefit. This also applies to international partnerships in medical research. The Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR) has had many successful research collaborations, from which an interactive coalition has been built that is committed to supporting the PNGIMR without jeopardizing its integrity. This coalition also involves policy-makers from the Department of Health, teachers at the Medical School of Papua New Guinea and the Medical Research Advisory Committee of PNG. The PNGIMR's Buttressing Coalition supports research and training, but also assists the process of transferring research results into policy. The concept of "buttressing" is explored and the activities of the Buttressing Coalition are briefly described here. The idea of the Buttressing Coalition is a response from the international medical research community to globalization, and could be applied elsewhere, following the model developed in PNG.     

Book Reviews

The Social Fabric of Health: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology. John M. Janzen. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. xiv. 313 pp.     

Book Reviews*

The Ieland of Menatruating Men: Religion in Wogeo, New Guinea. By Ian Hogbin Anthropology in Oceania: Essays presented to Ian Hogbin. Edited by L. R. Hiatt and C. Jaywardena Habu: The Innovation of Meaning in Daribi Religion. By Roy Wagner The Chimbu: A Study of Change in the New Guinea Highlands. By Paula Brown Physical Anthropology of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. By R. A. Littlewood Change and Development in Rural Melanesia. Edited by Marion Ward A Study in Structural Semantics: The Siriono Kinship System. By Harold W. Scheffler and Floyd G. Lounsbury Three Styles in the Study of Kinship. By J. A. Barnes Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology. Edited by Philip Mayer Primitive Law, Past and Present. By A. S. Diamond The Translation of Culture: Essays to E. E. Evans-Pritchard. Edited by T. O. Beidelman Essays on the Caste Syetem. By Celestin Bouglé Religious Experience: its nature and function in the human psyche. By Walter Houston Clark Man for Humanity. On Concordance vs Discord in Human Behavior. Edited by H Masserman and J. J. Schwab. Charles C. Thomas The Emergence of Man. By John E. Pfeiffer Papers in Economic Prehistory: Studies by Members and Associates of the British Academy Major Research Project in the Early History of Agriculture. Edited by E. S. Higgs Yirawala, Artist and Man. By Sandra le Brun Holmes Science and Archaeology. Edited by Robert H. Brill Tongues of Men and Angela. By William J. Samarin. Macmillan Biology: A Search for Order in Complexity. By J. N. Moore and H. S. Slusher Moko: or Maori Tattooing. By H. G. Robley. Chapman and Hall Frozen Tombs: the Pazyryk Burials of Iron-Age Horsemen. By Sergei I. Rudenko Anthropology for our Times. By Lois Brauer Cover     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Margaret Mead and Samoa. Tb Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth. By Derek Morality as a Biological Phenomenon. The Presuppositions of Sociobiological Research. Edited by Gunther S. Stent Lumsden, Charles J. & Edward 0. Wilson. Genes, Mind, and Culture, The Coevolutionary Process The Extended Phenotype. The Gene as the Unit of Selection. By Richard Dawkins. San Francisco, W. H. Freeman The growth of Biological Thought. Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance. By Ernst Mayr. The Building of Brjtish Social Anthropology.W. H. R. Rivers and his Cambridge Disciples in the Development of Kinship Studies, 1898–1931.By Ian Langham Abstracts in German Anthropology. Edition Herodot, Gottingen North American Indian Studies. European Contributions. Edited by Pieter Hovens Schierle, Sonja. Funktion einer Survival School fur Stadtische Indianer. Heart of the Earth Survival School: Indianische Alternativschde in Minneapolis, Minnesota Der Tram als Religiose Erfahrung. Untersuchtunder Dargestellt am Beispiel der Irokesen. By Iris Anna Die Felsbilder Neuseelands. By Gottfried Kreuzer and Michael Dunn Jahrbnch des Museums fur Volkerkunde zuLeipzig. Asienwissenschaftliche Beitrage. Edited by Eberhardt Richter and Manfred Taube Mitteilungeu aus dem Museum fur VGlkerkunde zu Leipzig Die Seri hdianer von Sonora, Mexico. By John Skalle Practice and Progress. British Sociology 1950–1980. Edited by Philip Adams World-Systems Analysis. Theory and Methodology. By Terence K. Hopkins The Uses of Social Researck Soeid Investigation in Public Policy-Making. By Martin Bulmer. A Primer on Ethnomethodology. By Kenneth Building Feminist Theory. Essays from Quest, a Feminist Quarterly. By the Quest Staff. Longman Women and Splice. Ground Rules and Social Maps. Edited by Shirley Ardener Malinowski in Mexico. The Economics of a Mexican Market System. By Bronislaw Malinowski Food, Ecology, and Culture. Readings in the Anthropology of Dietary Practices. Edited by J. R. K. Robson. Gordon and Breach Ethnography of Fertility and Birth. Edited by Carol P. MacCormack. Aboriginal Conception Beliefs. By Charles P. Mountford, with a Foreword by W. E. H. Stanner Aboriginal Man Adapting. The Human Biology of Australian Aborigines. By R. L. Kirk Coastal Archaeology in Eastern Australia. Proceedings of the 1980 Valla Conference on Australian Prehistory. Edited by Sandra Bowdler A Grammar of Diyari, South Australia. By Peter Austin The Mayi Languages of the Queensland Gulf Country. By Gavan Breen. My Country of the Pelican Dreaming. The Life of an Australian Aborigine of the Gadjerong, Grant Ngabidj, 1904–1977 Australian Aborigines. The languages and customs of several tribes in the western district of Victoria. By James Dawson. The Diari. By J. G. Reuther. Wreck Bay: An Aboriginal Fishing Community. By Brian J. Egloff. All That Dirt. Aborigines 1938. Edited by Bill Aboriginal Administration in Western Australia,1886–1905. By Leslie R. Marchant. Aboriginal Land Rights. A Handbook. Edited by Nicolas Peterson. The Time of Darkness. Local Legends and Volcanic Reality in Papua New Guinea. By R. J. Rapanni: Tradition and Survival on Easter Island. By Grant McCall. Sydney, George Allen The Traditional Pottery of Papua New Guinea. By Patricia Hay and Margaret Tuckson.     

Looking at physiological anthropology from a historical standpoint

As one way of thinking about physiological anthropology, let us survey it from a historical viewpoint. At the beginning of the 19th century, Blumenbach, considered the father of Physical Anthropology, wrote his "Handbook of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology." The subsequent research conducted and papers written by researchers such as Broca and Martin pointed in the direction of physiological anthropology; furthermore, the research carried out by the American researchers Demon and Baker had a physiological anthropology "feel." The courses in Physiological Anthropology taught by Tokizane exerted a major influence on physiological anthropology in Japan. The precursor of the Japan Society of Physiological Anthropology, organized by Sato in 1978, was extremely significant in the effect that it had on the subsequent development of physiological anthropology. The holding of the biennial International Congress of Physiological Anthropology, along with the allocation of the Research sub-field of Physiological Anthropology in the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, would seem to suggest that the field of physiological anthropology is set to increasingly grow and evolve.