Regional Sociology Commons^™

"You Best Read It To Me My Dear": Methodological Issues With Marginally Literate Subjects, Donna L. Davis

Great Plains Sociologist

An analysis of case examples from a study of women's experience of menopause in a New found land fishing village, demonstrates the problems inherent in using questionnaires among marginally literate or illiterate populations. Evidence demonstrates that not only are the questions misunderstood by the respondents but also that questionnaires by themselves may inadvertently generate their own peculiar form of native menopause lore. Special consideration is given to describing the methodological problems of anthropological fieldwork in a small community.

Front Matter

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Table of Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Keith Fernsler
Crime and Justice in Two Societies: Japan and the United States
Ted D. Westerman and James W. Burfeind

Kathleen A. Tiemann
Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems
Joel Best (ed.)

Jon Flanagin
The Age of Information
Stephen Saxby

Geoffrey Grant
Breaking Chains: Social Movements and Collective Action Comparative Urban and Community Research, Vol. 3
Michael Peter Smith (ed.)

Harlowe G. Hatle
Military Organizations, Complex Machines: Modernization in the U.S. Armed Services
Chris C. Demchak

Terry E. Huffman
Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America
Richard D. Alba

Thomas C. Lanham
Sacred Cows and Hot Potatoes: Agrarian Myths …

"Women And Crime" In Criminology Textbooks, Patricia Ann Wasely Lomire

Great Plains Sociologist

The purpose of this research note is to encourage both students and faculty to critically evaluate assumptions regarding the limited coverage of "women and crime" topics in contemporary criminology textbooks. The specific objectives are 1) to briefly review the research findings of Richard A. Wright's 1987 article entitled "Are Sisters in Crime Finally Being Booked? The Coverage of Women and Crime in Journals and Textbooks"; 20 to evaluate the coverage of female related topics in 631 articles form Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Journal -- The Official Publication of the American Society of Criminology, (1970-1989); 3) to critique a variety of explanations …

Do Rural North Dakotans Have A Negative Mindset?, Curtis W. Stofferahn

Great Plains Sociologist

North Dakota residents experienced two memorable events in 1989: the centennial anniversary of statehood and an agonizing debate about the economic future of the state. It was not incidental that these two events were coincident. As we celebrated our past, we looked to the future. But as we looked into that future was none too bright. Indeed, the title of the Vision 2000 committee's widely disseminated summary report was "Is North Dakota Dying? Will We Stand By and Watch?". Studies commissioned by the vision 2000 Committee concluded that a major obstacle to the state's economic development was the resident's negative …

Attitudes Toward The Environment: How Do The Attitudes Of Conventional, No-Till, And Organic Farmers Compare?, George A. Youngs, David L. Watt

Great Plains Sociologist

One of Che key dynamics in today's increased interest in alternative fanning is concern for the environment (Beus and Dunlap, 1990). Many advocates of alternative farming argue that conventional farming harms the environment and may even destroy the future of agriculture. The implicit, and often explicit, notion associated with this view is that conventional farmers are less concerned about the environment than are alternative farmers. The present study will test this notion by comparing the attitudes toward the environment of conventional farmers with two types of alternative farmers, organic and no-till. By definition, conventional farmers are those farmers who practice …

Ideological Currents Of The Rural Crisis: The Fats, Small Town, And Rural Peoples' Conf, Thomas C. Langham

Great Plains Sociologist

The rural crisis of the 1900s plowed a deep furrow across the economic, political, cultural, social, and psychological landscape of the Upper Midwest. Rooted in the financial problems of farmers, the crisis rippled not only through farm families but also into the region's small towns (Buttel, 1909; "Farm Crisis," 1986; Cinder et al., 1986; Heffernan and Heffernan. 1986; Rosenblatt, 1990: 3-13). Responses to the crisis were many and varied. Some people, although in actual numbers only slightly greater than the previous fifty years, followed perhaps the most traditional response to rural crisis and fled in search of work to more …

Political And Economic Class Practices In U.S. Farmers ' Mobilizations: Continuities And Discontinuities, Patrick Mooney

Great Plains Sociologist

Carl C. Taylor's publication of The Farmers' Movement: 1620-1920 constitutes one of the few attempts by a single author to review the history of farmers' movements in the U.S. More significantly, Taylor hypothesizes a continuity that links these various farmers' movements to one another. Indeed, Taylor (1953:2) contends that "the various farmer revolts have only been the high tides of a Farmers' Movement which 'is as persistent as the Labor Movement'. Taylor's thesis stands out against a literature that is primarily oriented Coward analysis of each episode of agrarian mobilization as a distinct, historical event. Taylor's thesis provokes "a framework …

Front Matter

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editor Notes
Table of Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Geoffrey W. Grant
Crime in Biological, Social, and Moral Contexts
Lee Ellis and Harry Hoffnan (Eds.)

Thomas C. Langham
Sociological Practice: Community Development and Other Community Applications, Volume 8
Alvin S. Lackey (Ed.)

Jerome R. Rosonke
Mirrors of Madness: Patrolling the Psychic Border
Bruce Luske

Kathleen A. Tiemann
Social Control and Deviance: A Critical Approach
Nanette J. Davis and Clarice Stasz

Harry Hoffman
Can Modernity Survive?
Agnes Heller

Janet Kelly Moen
Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques
Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin

Patricia Ann Wasely Lomir
The Sociology of Gender
Laura Kramer (Ed.)

John Flanagin
Maiginal …

Trend Analysis Of Rural Underemployment: An Example From North Dakota, Curtis W. Stofferahn, Cordell A. Fontaine, Lonny A. Borgerson

Great Plains Sociologist

The unemployment rate continues to be the major criterion used in selecting counties for special economic assistance. But the official unemployment rate is not a valid measure of either the quality or quantity of the rural labor force. The continued use of the official unemployment measure leaves rural areas at a disadvantage compared to urban areas in the distribution of economic development assistance. Home, et al. (1974) found that selecting counties on the basis of unemployment omitted many countieswith both the greatest labor potential and economic need for expanded industrialization. They found that under-employment was a much better indicator of …

Recent Changes In Hutterite Colony Expansion, William L. Smith

Great Plains Sociologist

Two thirds of present day Hutterians reside in the following four Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British,Columbia.- The remaining one third have settled m five northern states of the U.SA.: South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Washington, and Minnesota. The number of Hutterites vary according to the sources quoted but the best current estimates indicate that there are approximately between 33,309 (Anderson, 1989) and 32,850 (Raber, 1987:55) as compared to 21,521 in 1974 (Hosteller, 1974) and 16,931 listed in a 1969 census of Hutterite members (Friedmann, 1970:101) and 16,500 in 1965 (Hostetler and Huntington, 1980:1).

Assessing The Myth: A Study Of Eligible Athletes' Grade Point Averages, Dave Vilhauer, Jerome Rosonke

Great Plains Sociologist

There is a common notion that athletes are not highly intelligent. For instance, the label "dumb jock" is often applied to an athletic competitor, and the phrase "big like-tractor, dumb like tractor" has been used to describe linemen in football. There is little question about society's view of athletes, however what is debatable is just how valid these stereotypes are. This research project is a study of athletes during a one-year period at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. (hereafter referred to as NSU). The institution of higher learning is located in the upper midwest in an agricultural environment, with …

The Effects Of Nonmetropolitan Net Migration Rates On Selected Demographic And Economic Characteristics, A. Olu Oyinlade, Linda L. Bear

Great Plains Sociologist

This study focused on the effects of net migration on employment in the non-metropolitan sectors of the Agricultural Western Plains Division of the West North Central Region between 1970 and 1980. The states that constituted the division are North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.

An Application Of The Massacre Model To A 700 Year Old Mystery, Larry Zimmerman, James R. Stewart

Great Plains Sociologist

During the 1978 field season, the University of South Dakota's Archaeological Laboratory was contracted by the Corpsof Engineers, Omaha District, to remove what were thought at that time to be several burials from the end of the fortification ditch. The steep-sided area had been made unstable by a looter's hole. As a consequence of stepping-back the excavations so that the area could be stabilized, the remains of nearly 500 people in one large bone pile were exposed. Paramortem paleopathology of the massacre victims (Zimmerman, Gregg and Gregg 1981) indicated that every individual had been badly mutilated and many had been …

Gender And Perceived Severity Of Informal Sanctions: A Case Study Of Convicted Dui Offenders In Cass County, North Dakota, Terry D. Stratton, James H. Larson

Great Plains Sociologist

The use of informal sanctions as deterrents to socially undesirable behavior is not new. Particularly at a time when individuals (especially public figures) are subject to growing scrutinization, the breadth of public censure is expanding to envelop a seemingly wider array of moral and legal violations. Minor law-breakers, too, are being made increasingly aware of the public's social monitoring role a role which functions as a dynamic reference point by which individuals, on the basis of certain actions, are deemed to be "deviant" or "respectable" (Douglas, 1970). "What is relatively new, however, is the "formalization of the informal sanction"; that …

Front Matter, Clifford L. Staples

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter

Free Trade Or Managed Trade: Implications For North Dakota Farmers, Curtis W. Stofferahn

Great Plains Sociologist

Agricultural trade conflicts have escalated as major western economies have begun to subsidize their farm exports in an effort to gain or retain market shares. At the heart of this agricultural trade conflict is the escalating subsidies race between the United States and the European Economic Community. Total US farm exports soared in just ten years (1971-1981) from $8billion to $45 billion (Figure 1). Since then they fell dramatically to $28 billion in 1986. Simultaneously, the Economic Community expanded its value of agricultural export trade from $5 billion dollars in 1971to $28billion in 1981. By 1986, the EEC value of …

Affordable Rural Coalitions For Health (Arch): An Application Of Sociology, Richard L. Ludtke, Kazi Ahmed, Jack M. Geller

Great Plains Sociologist

The rural context for health care systems has been experiencing substantial stress in recent times. The population, from which providers must obtain patients, is no longer growing as it had during the 1970s, but rather is likely to be either stable or decline where agriculture or energy are the primary economic sectors (Agresta, 1985, Johnson, 1989). Accompanying depopulation, in farming and energy producing communities an economic stagnation or depression has also been occurring. Both the loss of population base and restricted economies serve to limit patient use of clinics and hospitals, reducing their revenues and contributing to a further limitation …

The Farm Movement In America's Heartland: A Profile Of Leaders, Their Power, And Problems, Suzan F. Pearson, Thomas C. Langham

Great Plains Sociologist

A body of new farm leaders emerged during the mid-1980s in response to the farm crisis in the Upper Midwest. This paper explores the influence of these leaders in shaping the direction of their groups. It does so through examining the farm leaders' socio-demographic characteristics, their use of power, and the way they confront problems. The leaders of two groups, the Farm Crisis Committee (FCC) and Groundswell (GS), are studied. The data for this paper were collected through use of a nonrandom-purposive sampling method. They were gathered through administration of a survey questionnaire in 1986 and intensive interviews during 1986-87. …

Front Matter, Clifford L. Staples

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter

Transnational Corporations: A Question Of Power, Ronald E. Stover, Melanie Eldridge-Lichty, Mansour Haghighatain

Great Plains Sociologist

pe important social processes that occur in modem societies —whether industrial or in currently industrializing societies —either originate in, or ^e strongly mediated by, formal organizations (Perrow, 198S:vii). Since World War II, a new and logically distinct organizational form — the transnational Corporation (TNC) — has arisen. With the ability to shift operations anywhere within a corporate domain that includes several countries, TNC's represent an extreme powerful organizational form. But in discussions and presentations about TNC s, communication relevant to their power and influence is sometimes inadequate. The purpose of this paper is to present a graphic illustration of the …

The Relationship Between Reservation Economic And Educational Structural Characteristics And Cultural Traditionalism: A Research Note, Terry E. Huffman

Great Plains Sociologist

The economic and educational structural characteristics of Indian reservations generally have been well documented. American Indians are among the poorest and least educated of America's ethnics. The 1884 Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economies (PCIEIE) reported that in 1883 the unemployment rate for Indians living on reservations was 22 percent. Furthermore, the Commission cited Census information as indicating that in 1880 around 408,000 Indians (or approximately 27 percent of the total Indian population) were living below the poverty line. Educationally, Indians appear to be faring better than in years past. However, PCIRB reported that in 1880 about one-third of the …

Marxist Feminist Theory: A Review, A Critique, And An Offering, Patricia Ann Wasley Lomire

Great Plains Sociologist

The relationship between gender and stratification is one of the most problematic areas in social science (Crompton and Mann, 1988). A review of stratification theory suggests that, in general, main-stream theories are inadequate since they often ignore the independent positions of females in stratification systems (Acker,. 1973, 1980; Lenski, 1988; Tyree and Hodge, 1978). In particular, Marxist feminist theories are limiting since they are unable to explain the origin and persistence of gender domination (Balbus, 1982; Crompton and Mann, 1986; Goldthrope, 1983; Halby, 1986). Although Marxist feminism is "the most prevalent feminist framework" (Jagger and Rothenberg, 1984), it is becoming …

A Study Of The Relative Contribution Of Selected Sociocultural And Personality Variables To The Exploration Of Prejudice And Discrimination In South Dakota, Dan Peterson

Great Plains Sociologist

An extensive amount of scholarly research has been done on the subjects of prejudice and discrimination. The vast majority of this research in the United States has focused on Blacks and Jews and very little on the American Indian. The general public had very little knowledge of the situation on Indian reservations or the relationship that existed between the Indians and Whites until the early 1970s when American Indian activists began to engage in protests. That emerged from these protests were images of white racism and bigotry, separatist movements and a general climate of hostility in those areas where protests …

Excessive Infant Mortality: An Exploration Of Factors Contributing To South Dakota Indians' Life Chances, Dana Dewitt, Donald Arwood, Linda Baer

Great Plains Sociologist

The consequences of racial inequality are clearly delineated in an analysis of social indicators between racial groups. Among the more direct indicators of social inequality are infant and general mortality rates (Anderson, 1973:286). Indeed, "no cold statistic expresses more eloquently the difference between a society of sufficiency and a society of deprivation than the infant mortality rate" (Newland, 1981:5). Societies of deprivation that produce higher rates of infant mortality are characterized by low levels of education (Bertoli at al., 1984; Heoht and Outright, 1979), poor health care (Gortmaker, 1879), lower socioeconomic status (Fordyce, 1977), and other problematic environmental conditions. South …

To Dehumanize And Slaughter: A Natural History Model Of Massacres, James R. Stewart, Larry J. Zimmerman

Great Plains Sociologist

The phenomenon of massacre appears as a blight on the history of mankind, and history is replete with numerous examples. Despite their apparent barbaric nature, however, massacres have probably been more common in the contemporary world. A concept of massacres is often evaluative based principally on public perception. Newspaper headlines detailing the gore of My Lai and Sabra-Shatilla captivated and titillated readers throughout the world. Reported, but not documented, examples of "mass murder" in Cambodia, Uganda and Afghanistan also attested to its prevalence. What combination of factors - sociological, psychological, political, or economic - produce this extreme form of group …

Front Matter, Harlowe Hatle

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter

Why Do Females Remain In Violent Dating Relationships?, David Olday, Jennifer Legg, Beverly Wesley

Great Plains Sociologist

Recent interest in the study of physical aggression/coercion in dating violence follows more than a decade of research on marital violence and violence against children. In the 1980's, studies have shown the frequency of violence in dating relationships to be approximately as high as in marriage (Makepeace, 1981, 1983; Laner and Thompson, 1982; Gate, et. al. 1982 and others). These studies revealed 20% or more of those sampled reported at least one incident of dating violence. Consistent with studies of marital violence, incidents are usually perceived as being relatively mild, involving slapping, pushing, and shoving (Henton, et. al., 1983; Makepeace …

Research Note: An Assessment Of Documentary / Bibliographic Resources Available For The Study Of Corporate Control, Jack Niemonen

Great Plains Sociologist

The study of the structure of power in advanced capitalist society has a controversial history, particularly in relation to the question "Who controls the largest industrial corporations in the United States?" Any attempt to answer this question requires that the concept of "control" be operationalized and that the appropriate data be gathered. Given the problem of corporate secrecy, and perhaps an inherent distrust of sociologists, such an investigation does not lend itself well-to traditional data gathering techniques. Documentary/bibliographic research shows promise for such investigations, but few systematic statements have appeared in the literature showing where to find data and outlining …