Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The "Tiny Islands": A Comparable Impact On The Larger Discipline?, Terence E. Hays Dec 2012

The "Tiny Islands": A Comparable Impact On The Larger Discipline?, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

This assessment by Terence Hays looks into the impact of the discipline of Anthropology. While the discipline has seen an evolution into increased topical specialization, of cultural anthropology by geographical location. Hays believes that many of the peoples studied are so well known in anthropology that specific peoples can be automatically thought of by their location, in the world.


Vernacular Names For Tubers In Irian Jaya, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Vernacular Names For Tubers In Irian Jaya, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

In this ethnobiographic study Terence Hays continues in the vein of Dutton's cultural vocabulary study of the Papua New Guinea languages. Hays specifically looks at the vernacular terms for tuberous food crops which are the "staple foods of contemporary Irian Jaya societies." Hays utilizes the research method of an ethnobiologist to gain prehistorical cultural knowledge by bringing to light information that was once unrecoverable. Hays also looks at different issues that can ffect the procedures and looks into the variables that affected and contributed to the people's language evolution and diffusion.


Interest, Use, And Interest In Uses In Folk Biology, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Interest, Use, And Interest In Uses In Folk Biology, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

In this work on folk biological taxonomy, Terence Hays the author, calls upon various works of previous field studies conducted over a long-term period including those by Bulmer, Everyman, Hunn, Brown, and Hymes. Hays looks back to works by Ralph Bulmer and his co-workers where taxonomies of five or six levels deep were not surprising. Hays points out that this is a stark contrast to Everyman, Alexander Portnoy's study regarding the simplicity of Westerners folk systems and then posits why "the folk" classify their environment in great detail. Hays brings to light that it has much to do with the …


Utilitarian/Adaptationist Explanations Of Folk Bioglogical Classification, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Utilitarian/Adaptationist Explanations Of Folk Bioglogical Classification, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

Attempts to explain the complexity of folk biological classification systems may benefit from utilitarian or adaptationist arguments, focusing on the utilitarian or adaptive value of the behavioral consequences of folk distinctions among organisms. To adequately assess such perspectives it is necessary to resolve a number of theoretical, methodological empirical problems, which are identified and outlined in this paper as a first step toward the construction of such theories of ethnobiological classification.


Some Cultivated Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence E. Hays Nov 2012

Some Cultivated Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

This paper reports on the cultivation and uses of 47 species of minor food crops and other useful plants in Habi'ina village, a Tairora speaking community in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea.


The Cinematic Griot, Peter S. Allen Apr 2012

The Cinematic Griot, Peter S. Allen

Peter S. Allen

In the Sahel, a griot is a bard who collects and recounts local history. He is the "custodian of society's traditions... linking past and present" and "master of the word" in a society where words are revered and "endowed with occult power" (p. xvi). For the Songhay of Niger, Jean Rouch is a griot, a cinematic griot who preserves on film essential aspects of Songhay history.


A Genealogical And Historical Study Of The Mahas Of The "Three Towns," Sudan, Richard A. Lobban Jr. Apr 2012

A Genealogical And Historical Study Of The Mahas Of The "Three Towns," Sudan, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Richard A Lobban

The Mahas (a Nubian ethnic group) in the central Sudan have made a fundamental contribution to the Islamization and urbanization of this Afro-Arab nation. Their building of the first permanent structures in the "Three Towns" (Khartoum area) may be claimed as the start of the modern process of Sudanese urbanization. The Mahas leaders who became teachers and advisors to the Funj state were also centrally responsible for the spread of Islam along the Blue and White Niles at their confluence at the "Three Towns" in communities which have been occupied continuously for about five centuries.


Arab Society, Richard A. Lobban Jr. Apr 2012

Arab Society, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Richard A Lobban

Having studied the Arab world for three decades, I have noted the contemporary gridlock on many pressing regional, social, economic, and religious issues. This has often generated a parallel intellectual paralysis. So, I picked up the edited work by Hopkins and Ibrahim with some hesitation. How could there be any fresh insights? For a reviewer this sense of cynicism was not good.


Repetition And The Symbolic In Contemporary Japanese Ancestor Memorial Ritual, Jason A. Danely Dec 2011

Repetition And The Symbolic In Contemporary Japanese Ancestor Memorial Ritual, Jason A. Danely

Jason Danely

Ancestor memorial rituals, including mortuary ceremonies for the dead, periodic grave visits, practices at home altars, and the like, constitute the most popular form of religious participation in contemporary Japan, encompassing an increasingly diverse number of ritual forms. This article examines a common theoretical framework used to describe this diversity by categorizing rituals in terms of continuity vs. change or tradition vs. invention. This article proposes an alternate framework for understanding processes leading to the transformation of rituals like ancestor memorial. This framework is centered around the process of repetition and its role in the production of the symbolic. Drawing …