Anthropology Commons^™

Importation Of Obsidian At Cerro Palenque, Honduras: Results Of An Analysis By Edxrf, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The results of source analysis by EDXRF of obsidian artifacts from the Mesoamerican site of Cerro Palenque in Honduras are reported and changes over time discussed. Sources of obsidian include Ixtepeque, El Chayal, Jalapa, San Martin Jilotepeque, and San Barolome in Guatemala. Some Pachuca obsidian from Mexico was also found. Honduran sources include La Esperanza and La Union. The implications of the obsidian sources are discussed in the context of changes at Cerro Palenque over time as it becomes the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in the ninth century AD.

The "Many Mouths" Of Community Gossip And Social Interaction Among The Kelabit Of Borneo, Matthew H. Amster

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper considers the role of gossip and social interaction among the Kelabit of Sarawak, Malaysia Focusing on gossip in everyday life, the paper explores the tension between desires for individual privacy, concerns for group cohesion and, more broadly, desires to adopt a more modern style of living and social interaction. These tensions are vividly manifested in discourses about the problematic nature of gossip in the Kelabit community. Critical to this is a discussion of Kelabit styles of interpersonal interaction and conflict management, including the role of meditation. Offering a range of examples illustrating the social contexts of Kelabit gossip, …

Construction Of Digital Elevation Models For Archaeological Applications, Jon B. Hageman, David A. Bennett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The use of interpolation in archaeology is becoming common. As archaeologists incorporate geographic information systems (GIS) and computer mapping programs into their research, questions of interpolation become fundamental considerations in the representation and manipulation of topographic data. To date, however, few archaeologists have dealt with these questions. Uncritical use of interpolation algorithms can result in unrealistic representations of the landscape in a mapping program or can result in an inaccurate digital elevation model (DEM) used in a GIS. This, in turn, can lead to an ineffective predictive model of site location. By carefully selecting an interpolation algorithm that is well …

In The House: Maya Nobility And Their Figurine-Whistles, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Studies a large collection of clay figurines in the Copan Valley of Honduras. Describes the different kinds of figurine-whistles that high status Maya had in their houses.

Bodies Moving In Space: Ancient Mesoamerican Human Sculpture And Embodiment, Holly Bachand, Rosemary Joyce, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Judith Butler’s proposal that embodiment is a process of repeated citation of precedents leads us to consider the experiential effects of Mesoamerican practices of ornamenting space with images of the human body. At Late Classic Maya Copán, life-size human sculptures were attached to residences, intimate settings in which body knowledge was produced and body practices institutionalized. Moving through the space of these house compounds, persons would have been insistently presented with measures of their bodily decorum. These insights are used to consider the possible effects on people of movement around Formative period Olmec human sculptures, which are not routinely recovered …

Explotación Y Uso De Los Recursos Marinos Y Patrones De Residencia Entre Los Mapuches: Algunas Implicaciones Preliminares Para La Arqueología, Tom D. Dillehay, Ximena Navarro

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Las Culturas Del Pleistoceno Tardío En Suramérica, Tom D. Dillehay

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Male Wealth" And "Claims To Motherhood": Gendered Resource Access And Intergenerational Relations In The Gwembe Valley, Zambia, Lisa Cliggett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Health Needs In Two Ethnic Communities Of Humla District, Nepal, Kimber Haddix Mckay

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This report summarizes findings from a primary health care baseline study conducted in September and October of 1999, in upper Humla district, Nepal. This study establishes measures of health conditions in Humla; and constitutes a baseline against which progress in improving the health services and conditions for local people may be measured. This report is an integral piece of the process of primary health care development in Humla, a remote region with scant record of health statistics at the village level. In addition to the Ministry of Health and its staff and partners, a number of NGOs are working in …

Multigenerations And Multidisciplines: Inheriting Fifty Years Of Gwembe Tonga Research, Lisa Cliggett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grief And Burial In The American Southwest: The Role Of Evolutionary Theory In The Interpretation Of Mortuary Remains, Douglas H. Macdonald

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Evolutionary theory, in consort with Marxism and processualism, provides new insights into the interpretation of grave-good variation. Processual interpretations of burial sites in the American Southwest cite age, sex, or social rank as the main determinants of burial-good variation. Marxist theorists suggest that mortuary ritual mediates social tension between an egalitarian mindset and an existing social inequality. Evolutionary theory provides a supplementary explanatory framework. Recent studies guided by kin-selection theory suggest that humans grieve more for individuals of high reproductive value and genetic relatedness. Ethnographic examples also show that individuals mourn more intensively and, thus, place more social emphasis on …

Stuart Plattner's High Art Down Home: An Economic Ethnography Of A Local Art Market [Review], Anne Brydon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of 'Gambling On Gambling' By States And Tribes: A Critical Comparative Perspective, Sandra Faiman-Silva

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Flexible Corporation: Classic Period House Societies In Eastern Mesoamerica, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce

Anthropology Faculty Publications

House society models, based on the work of Levi-Strauss but since refined by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, provide a good model for understanding social organization among the ancient Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica based on a comparative study of societies in the Copan Valley, the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley), and the Cuyumapa Valley, all in Honduras. Social Houses are flexible, enduring social groupings that define kinship flexibly, recognizing adoption, marriage, shared residency, and other factors as ways to create ties that endure over generations.

Household Archaeology And Reconstructing Social Organization In Ancient Complex Societies: A Consideration Of Models And Concepts Based On Study Of The Prehispanic Maya, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Studies of the settlement pattern in the Copan Valley, Honduras, indicate that a House society model provides the best way to understand the social organization of the Late Classic period Maya. The House society model, based on Levi-Strauss's original work but since modified by anthropologists and archaeologists, does not replace household archaeology. Instead, the model allows archaeologists to discuss the continuation of social identity over time.

Bone Cutting, Placement, And Cannibalism? Middle Preceramic Mortuary Patterns Of Nanchoc, Northern Peru, Jack Rossen, Tom D. Dillehay

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Mortuary practices of the Middle Preceramic period (ca. 8500-4000 B.P.) are discussed for the Nanchoc region of the upper Zaña Valley, northern Peru. Careful breaking, cutting, and placement of human bones from adult males during the Las Pircas Phase (8500-6000 B.P. ) gave way to more haphazard breakage and discard during the subsequent Tierra Blanca Phase (6000-5000 B.P.). The evidence of cannibalism is considered. Bone breakage, cutting, and possibly cannibalism is believed to have been part of a broader process of ritualization that mitigated the spiritual danger of the transition from hunting-gathering to horticulture.

Este trabajo discute las prácticas mortuorias …

Merging Information Versus Speech Recognition, Irene Appelbaum

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Norris, McQueen & Cutler claim that all known speech recognition data can be accounted for with their autonomous model, “Merge.” But this claim is doubly misleading. (1) Although speech recognition is autonomous in their view, the Merge model is not. (2) The body of data which the Merge model accounts for, is not, in their view, speech recognition data.

It Takes A Village To Dismantle A Longhouse, Matthew H. Amster

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The author's long-term fieldwork among the Kelabit people informs this discussion of the decline of longhouse living in favor of nuclear households.

Sex, Aids, Migration, And Prostitution: Human Trafficking In The Caribbean, Catherine Benoît

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Study of sexual tourism in Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, where prostitution is a widespread reality. Author argues that on this island where rapid economic development is based on the tourist industry and on offshore financial services, sexual relationships are determined by geopolitical and financial (neoliberal) interests that go beyond sexuality per se. She focuses on the precarious situation of the foreign prostitutes who have no working papers.

Analytics Isomorphism And Speech Perception, Irene Appelbaum

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The suggestion that analytic isomorphism should be rejected applies especially to the domain of speech perception because (1) the guiding assumption that solving the lack of invariance problem is the key to explaining speech perception is a form of analytic isomorphism, and (2) after nearly half a century of research there is virtually no empirical evidence of isomorphism between perceptual experience and lower-level processing units.

Cebu's Basic Christian Community Movement's Alternative Plan For Sustainable Development, Kathleen Nadeau

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Based on selected indicators, Cebu has recently become one of the most booming growth centers of the Philippines. However, these indicators are mere gauges of economic growth, not development. Development pertains to a social and structural process for achieving ecological sustainability and human well being within a community as a whole. In Cebu, there may have been an economic boom which favors selected few businessmen but, for most Cebuanos, there was none to speak of. Studies show that the so-called "Ceboom" masks widespread environmental destruction caused by real estate developers. The Medium-Term Cebu Development Plan (MTCDP) has neglected to develop …

Review Of Black Elk: Holy Man Of The Oglala, Gregory R. Campbell

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Esbjörn Rosenblad And Rakel Sigurðardóttir-Rosenblad’S Iceland: From Past To Present [Review], Anne Brydon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

More On Modes Of Production: A Synthesis Of Some Debates Contextualized For The Philippines, Kathleen Nadeau

Anthropology Faculty Publications

A look into modes of production is one of many possible entry points for the study of society and economy. It was not well developed by Marx who only alluded to it here and there in his works. He introduced the idea in Capital. (1977, Vols. 1, 1974 II, and III), A Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy (1970), and in Pre- Capitalist Economic Formations (1964). While one can read this concept in his other texts, for example in German Ideology (1970), it is from the previously mentioned ones that others, most notably Althusser and Balibar in their Reading …

The Seeds Of Prosperity And Discord: The Political Economy Of Community Polarization In Greenfield, Massachusetts, 1770-1820, Gerald F. Reid

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Focuses on the process of community polarization in Greenfield, Massachusetts leading to two distinct communities in the 1816. Social and economic transformation in Greenfield in the late 18th century; Distribution of wealth; Labor supply; Expansion of trade; Immigration of skilled workers; Religious differences; Factors leading to the division of the congregational society.

Sigurður A. Magnússon’S The Icelanders [Review], Anne Brydon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Returning To The Present: Icelandic Identity And The Festival, Anne Brydon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this paper I wish to express some general thoughts about our always uneasy relationship to the past, and the role that public festivals play in our attempts to reflect upon and represent and understanding of ourselves. The annual Islendingadagurinn provides a most interesting occasion for such a discussion, since it contains within its three days of fun and celebration an image of the West Icelandic community and its relationship to Canadian society.

The Uses Of Maya Structures: A Study Of Architecture And Artifact Distribution At Sepulturas, Copan, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This dissertation presents a compositional analysis of the architecture and a distributional analysis of the associated artifacts resulting from excavation of some ninety buildings dating from the Late to Terminal Classic Period at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras. The study of all artifacts recovered from primary contexts, both in situ and redeposited, focuses first on a determination of their function, second on an analysis of their distribution within the site, and third on their associations with one another in order to identify the kinds of activities carried out at various locations. A second line of evidence used is the …

Supranational Networks: States And Firms - Expanded Version, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Deals with question: Why have so few scholars recognized the supranational system as something that is truly above the level of the state? Argues that my anthropological colleagues are, like others, bound by our own culture, traditions and narratives to such an extent that they are unable to study these pehnomena with the same "objectivity" and "relativism" with which they study the institutions of cultural systems with which they are less familiar. See especially the section on "Difficulties of Thinking Anew" (pp 3-5).

The Multinational Corporation As A Form Of Sociocultural Integration Above The Level Of The State, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper presents considerably more detail on the system, the title implying that a multinational corporation is, per se, a "form of integration" above the level of the state whereas the "form" referred to is the system generated by the interaction of multinational corporations, families, states, cities, etc.