Transcript Why Conduct Qualitative Research?

Review for Exam 3 (final)
ANT 2000
Fall 2006
Economic systems
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Hunter-gatherers
Horticulturalists
Agriculturalists
Pastoralists
Highland cultivators of the New World
Asian agrarian civilizations
Industrial economies
Harris’ TEE ratings for cultures
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Technoenvironmental efficiency ratings
for:
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!Kung (Botswana, S. Africa. H/G)
Genieri (Gambia. Horticulture)
Tsembaga Maring (New Guinea. Mixed
horticulture and domesticated pigs
Luts'un (China 1947. Irrigated agriculture
USA (Industrial agriculture)
Chayanov's rule
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The largest number of producers
relative to the number of consumers in
a family yields less work per producer.
But .. This rule does not apply in
industrial economies where the cost of
children is high.
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Hunting and gathering people, like the
!Kung, have a great deal of leisure,
while people in the U.S. work more
today than they did 30 years ago.
Americans work longer and longer to
pay for food.
Reciprocity
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Generalized and balanced reciprocity.
Hunters and gatherers best exemplify
generalized reciprocity.
The Kula Ring is an example of
balanced reciprocity.
Negative reciprocity is jargon for getting
back less than you give in a transaction.
Wealth leveling mechanisms
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The Potlatch of the NW Coast
The cargo system in Latin America
Note that the means of production are
not distributed, only the temporary
surplus.
Money
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Some monetary systems in so-called
primitive societies:
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Yap money wheels
Iroquois wampum
Cowrie shells (Sudan)
Diwara shells (Melanesia)
Optimal foraging theory
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Over time, people learn how much of
their time and other resources to put
into hunting and collecting various
commodities.
We examined the case of the Aché in
Paraguay and the case of coupon
shoppers in the U.S.
Political systems
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Levels of sociocultural integration:
bands, tribes, chiefdoms, states.
Just 3000 years ago, most peoples were
still hunters and gatherers.
We discussed the causes and
consequences of the development of
hierarchical political and economic
systems.
Consolidation
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Despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, and
the former Yugoslavia, there are fewer and
fewer autonomous political units in the world
over time.
NAFTA and the EU are indicators of continued
consolidation of political units.
Today, there are only ~200 autonomous
political units.
War
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War is not universal.
Some societies are more prone to war than
others and the distribution of war events is
not random.
Democracies tend not to go to war with one
another, for example.
We discussed the causes of increased warfare
in New Guinea.
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Most cultures are patrilineal.
Some cultures are matrilineal, but there
is no record of a matriarchal society.
Women hold political office in many
cultures.
Cognitive and psychological anthropology
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Psychological anthropologists test the extent
to which ideas about human nature can be
generalized from studies of Western societies.
Cross-cultural studies show, for example, that
adolescence is not universally a period of
rebelliousness.
In this society, adolescent rebelliousness is
good training for independence and
neolocality.
Hands-on
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Children in the U.S. spend much of their
day in cribs or playpens.
Children in the industrial West and in
Japan are touched or held from 12% to
20% of the time they are awake.
Children in the U.S. typically spend their
nights alone, too.
Holding and trust
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The study of the Logoli by the Munroes
shows that infants who are held more
by their mothers become more trusting
and more optimistic by age 5.
The number of different holders added
to the trust effect, not the time held by
different holders.
Response to crying
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Among the Efe of Nigeria, a 3-month old gets
a response within 10 seconds of crying 75%
of the time.
In the U.S. we ignore crying 45% of the time.
Infant mortality is less than 1% in many
industrialized societies (Sweden, Japan, U.S.,
Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand) and up to
35% in some nonindustrialized societies.
Preoperational
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Are preindustrial people preoperational?
Think of two-week hunting trips in the
Amazon; trans-Pacific canoe trips;
eight-section kinship systems in
Australia; the distribution of meat in
H/G societies.
Are there culture free tests? How does
schooling affect test response?
Collectivism vs. individualism
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What accounts for collectivist and individualist
societies?
When people live in cramped spaces, they
punish children more for fighting with others.
Agricultural and herding societies stress
obedience, while hunting and gathering
societies stress self-reliance and individuality.
We are foragers in the U.S.
Mental illness
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Edgerton asked people in four East African
societies to list the traits of people who have
severe mental illness.
Five traits accounted for about 60% of all
traits listed. There was much overlap across
these five traits.
"The Africans in these four societies,"
Edgerton said, "do not regard a single
behavior as psychotic which could not be so
regarded in the West."
Cultural expression of mental illness
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Hallucinations were almost never listed
by Edgerton’s informants.
Schizophrenia is biochemically based,
but it is manifested differently across
cultures.
Windigo psychosis
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Windigo psychosis is a culturally defined
mental illness.
From Marano's work, the best
explanation is that under conditions of
stress, the Ojibwa and Cree triaged
their population and increased the
chance for survival of all.
Pseudopatients
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Rosenhan's study of pseudopatients in
mental hospitals showed the power of
labeling.
Expressive culture: visual art
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The most superstructural feature of
culture is expressive behavior.
Patricia Rice and Ann Patterson
examined the bones found in 90 caves
(Lascaux, etc.) where late Paleolithic art
is found.
Rice and Patterson
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Most common bones: bovines, horse,
reindeer, ibex, deer, mammoth.
Most common paintings: reindeer,
horse, bovines, deer, ibex, mammoth.
The number of portrayals and the
percentage of bone matter are
correlated r=.41.
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Larger species (mammoth, horse,
bison) are overportrayed.
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The correlation between species weight
and bone prevalence is r=.76
Nineteen experts ranked species for
danger in hunting.
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The correlation of average ranked danger
and species weight is r=.96
Fischer’s hypothesis
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Egalitarian societies will have art based
on repetition of simple elements and
plenty of empty space.
The art of stratified societies will (a)
combine elements into complex designs
and (b) tend toward the baroque.
He tested this on a sample of cultures.
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Art was part of everyday life for most of
human history.
Secular art is part of our everyday life.
However, obscurity of meaning, rather
than faithfulness of reproduction of art
is valued.
This is the result of mass production.
Expressive culture: folklore
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Kluckhohn found that there are five recurrent
themes in folklore around the world:
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catastrophe (mostly floods), slaying of monsters,
incest, sibling rivalry, and castration.
These themes, however, are not distributed
equally around the world.
With unpredictable food shortages, for example,
natural catastrophes are not likely to be
mentioned.
Expressive culture: music
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Alan Lomax found that some components of
music are related to social complexity.
Counterpoint and polyphony are most
frequent among hunter-gatherers where
women supply most of the non-protein food.
In societies where women contribute much
less than men do to food production, the
tendency is for single melodies sung by men.
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Leadership in song reflects social complexity.
Wordiness is associated with social complexity
Barbara Ayres: a strong relationship between
the preferred rhythms in a society and the
method of carrying infants.
Slings and shawls produce regular, repetitive
rhythms, while cradles produce either free or
irregular rhythms.
Games and social organization
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John Roberts found that games of strategy
(chess, cards) are associated with complex
political organization.
Team sports were invented by Native
Americans, probably in Mexico.
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Hockey originated in the northeast of North
America, and was probably an adaptation of the
ball game developed by the Mexicans.
The distribution of gambling, however,
remains unexplained.
Religion
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Distinguish among magic, religion, and
science.
All are systems for controlling
supernatural and natural forces.
Complex societies, with hierarchical
organization, are more likely to have a
high god.
Globalization of culture
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Today, music and art are syncretic, a
phenomenon that is a consequence of
globalization.
As the infrastructure and structural
features of the world converge, we
expect a convergence of the
superstructure.
Culture change
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Culture is always changing.
Innovation, through discovery and
invention, is important, but diffusion is
the most common way in which cultures
change.
Cultures come into contact through
trade, battle, occupation, and
missionary activity.
Tobacco and paper
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Tobacco went from the east coast of the U.S.
to the west coast by going around the world
between the mid-16th and mid-17th
centuries.
Paper was invented in China in the second
century BCE.
It took a thousand years to reach Spain, and
then moved across Europe over the next few
hundred years, spurred by the invention of
moveable type.
Primary inventions
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One example of a primary invention
that occurred twice, independently, is
the keystone (and the dome that a
keystone makes possible).
It was invented by Inuit (Eskimos) and
Romans at different times and different
places.
Colonialism
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Much culture change today in the developing
world is the legacy of the Colonial era.
Colonialism transferred diseases,
technologies, and crops.
It produced massive voluntary and
involuntary migrations, and we can see the
voluntary migrations continuing today.
Applied anthropology developed as part of
the colonial experience in England.
Theories of modernization
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Several theories have been proposed to
account for the lack of modernization in
countries in Africa and Latin America
that were colonies of European states:
modernization theory, dependency
theory, and the world systems theory.
The second demographic transition
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A hallmark of modern industrial economies is
the dramatic all in fertility.
Japan will face a dilemma: import labor, put
more women to work, or increase
productivity.
Note that some less industrialized countries,
like China, have relatively high longevity and
low infant mortality, despite a relatively low
GNP per capita.
Cultural materialism and the
Educational model of social change
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The social change industry employs
thousands of people around the world.
Based mostly on the educational model of
change:
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using information to change people's behavior.
This works when the behavior one wants to
change is tied to the superstructure.
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The educational model of change does not
work when the target behavior is tied to the
structure of the infrastructure of society.
Asking people to give up their cars when
there is no public transportation and when
there is no affordable housing near their work
is bound not to work.
The educational model also works when it is
the curriculum for raising children.
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For the most part, TFR is related to
infant mortality and inversely related
both to PCGDP and to longevity.
Anomalies like China and the UAE are
the result of anomalous structural and
infrastructural conditions.
Inequality continues to grow.