Conformity And Conflict: Readings In Cultural Anthropology

by Spradley, James &; McCurdy, David W.

• ISBN13: 9780205449705
• ISBN10: 0205449700
• Edition: 12th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

An ideal complement to standard anthropology texts or a stand-alone text/reader, the best-selling Conformity and Conflict continues to offer students an in-depth look at anthropology as a powerful way to study human behavior and events. The 37 articles cover a broad range of theoretical perspectives and demonstrate basic anthropological concepts. The Twelfth Edition retains the accessibility of the previous editions and the view that anthropology provides a fascinating perspective on the human experience.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiv
World Map and Geographical Placement of Readings	xvi
ONE Culture and Ethnography	1	(57)
1 Ethnography and Culture	7	(8)
James P. Spradley
To discover culture, the ethnographer must learn from the informant as a student.
2 Eating Christmas in the Kalahari	15	(8)
Richard Borshay Lee
The "generous" gift of a Christmas ox involves the anthropologist in a classic case of cross-cultural misunderstanding.
3 Shakespeare in the Bush	23	(10)
Laura Bohannan
Cross-cultural communication breaks down when the anthropologist attempts to translate the meaning of Hamlet to the Tiv.
4 Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS	33	(13)
Claire E. Sterk
Fieldwork among urban prostitutes means doing ethnography under difficult but, in the end, manageable circumstances.
5 Lessons from the Field	46	(12)
George Gmelch
Fieldwork in Barbados gives students a greater understanding of their own culture and personal life.
TWO Language and Communication	58	(44)
6 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Worlds Shaped by Words	63	(13)
David S. Thomson
To what extent does Whorf's hypothesis that language creates reality apply in daily life?
7 How to Ask for a Drink	76	(9)
James P. Spradley and Brenda J. Mann
Actors in a bar use a variety of speech events and speech acts to communicate information beyond the literal meaning of their words.
8 Body Art as Visual Language	85	(8)
Enid Schildkrout
From tattoos to makeup, body art is used to signal life-changing events, group membership, and social rebellion.
9 Conversation Style: Talking on the Job	93	(9)
Deborah Tannen
On the job, men and women use distinctive conversation styles to ask for help, leading them to evaluate performance and character differently.
THREE Ecology and Subsistence	102	(40)
10 The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari	107	(15)
Richard Borshay Lee, with an update by Richard Borshay Lee and Megan Biesele
!Kung and other foragers traditionally worked less and ate better than many other people with more "advanced" food-producing techniques. Today, however, their survival depends more on drilling wells and keeping cattle than on collecting wild foods.
11 Adaptive Failure: Easter's End	122	(10)
Jared Diamond
Polynesian settlers on Easter Island prospered and multiplied until they eventually destroyed their island habitat and, with it, their civilization. Is this a harbinger of things to come for all humankind?
12 Forest Development the Indian Way	132	(10)
Richard K. Reed
South American governments could learn much about tropical forest "development" from the Amazonian Indians who live there.
FOUR Economic Systems	142	(36)
13 Reciprocity and the Power of Giving	147	(7)
Lee Cronk
Gifts not only function to tie people together, but they may also be used to "flatten" an opponent and control the behavior of others.
14 Cocaine and the Economic Deterioration of Bolivia	154	(11)
Jack Weatherford
The world market for cocaine robs Bolivian villages of their men and causes problems for health, nutrition, transportation, and family.
15 Office Work and the Crack Alternative	165	(13)
Philippe Bourgois
Purteo Rican men living in Spanish Harlem feel that the risks they run selling drugs are preferable to the disrespect they encounter as low-wage employees in New York's financial and service companies.
FIVE Kinship and Family	178	(40)
16 Mother's Love: Death without Weeping	183	(10)
Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Close mother-child bonds suffer in the presence of high infant mortality in a Brazilian shantytown.
17 Family and Kinship in Village India	193	(8)
David W. McCurdy
Kinship still organizes the lives of Bhil villagers despite economic opportunities that draw people away from the community and dependence on relatives.
18 Life without Fathers or Husbands	201	(9)
Clifford Geertz
Members of a matrilineal Chinese tribe create a society that works without marriage.
19 Uterine Families and the Women's Community	210	(8)
Margery Wolf
To succeed in a traditional patrilineal family, a Chinese woman must form her own informal uterine family inside her husband's household.
SIX Identity, Roles, and Groups	218	(42)
20 Symbolizing Roles: Behind the Veil	223	(8)
Elizabeth W. Fernea and Robert A. Fernea
The women's veil stands for everything from personal protection to female honor in Mediterranean societies.
21 Society and Sex Roles	231	(9)
Ernestine Friedl
Given access to public resources, women can attain equal or dominant status in any society.
22 A Woman's Curse?	240	(9)
Meredith F. Small
Why do cultures the world over treat menstruating women as taboo? What accounts for the high rate of menstruation among Western women?
23 Mixed Blood	249	(11)
Jeffrey M. Fish
A woman can change her race from black to "brunette" by taking a plane from New York to Brazil.
SEVEN Law and Politics	260	(34)
24 Cross-Cultural Law: The Case of the Gypsy Offender	265	(9)
Anne Sutherland
Legal cultures clash when a young Gypsy is convicted of using someone else's social security number to apply for a car loan.
25 Notes from an Expert Witness	274	(10)
Barbara Joans
Four-fields anthropological training helps an academic anthropologist achieve success as an expert witness in several court cases.
26 Life without Chiefs	284	(10)
Marvin Harris
Small societies based on reciprocal and redistributive economic exchange can do without officials.
EIGHT Religion, Magic, and Worldview	294	(46)
27 Taraka's Ghost	299	(7)
Stanley A. Freed and Ruth S. Freed
A woman relieves her anxiety and gains family support when she is possessed by a friend's ghost.
28 Baseball Magic	306	(10)
George Gmelch
American baseball players employ magical practices as they try to deal with the uncertainty of their game.
29 Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage	316	(14)
Jill Dubisch
An annual motorcycle pilgrimage from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., personally transforms those who ride.
30 Cargo Beliefs and Religious Experience	330	(10)
Stephen C. Leavitt
New Guinea cargo movements serve not only as a strategy to acquire cargo (Western goods) but also as a way to contact ancestors.
NINE Globalization	340	(46)
31 The Road to Refugee Resettlement	345	(10)
Dianna Shandy
Nuer refugees must develop the skill and determination to pass through a series of bureaucratic hurdles to reach and adjust to life in the United States.
32 Men's Pleasure, Women's Labor: Tourism for Sex	355	(15)
Denise Brennan
Dominican women flock to Sosua, an attractive Caribbean destination for European men, to act as sex workers. Drawn by the prospect of big money and a possible European visa, they most often experience degradation and disappointment instead.
33 Japanese Hip-Hop and the Globalization of Popular Culture	370	(16)
Ian Condry
Using the ethnographic approach in hip-hop clubs to understand a transnational trend, an anthropologist discovers that a form of pop culture invented in the United States can be hybridized to take on a Japanese flavor in Tokyo.
TEN Culture Change and Applied Anthropology	386	(61)
34 The Kayapo Resistance	391	(19)
Terence Turner
Using everything from airplanes to the world environmental movement, the Kayapo Indians of Brazil manage to prevent the building of a dam that would have flooded their Amazonian habitat.
35 Medical Anthropology: Improving Nutrition in Malawi	410	(12)
Sonia Patten
A medical anthropologist is part of a team that introduces milk goats to Malawi villagers.
36 Using Anthropology	422	(14)
David W. McCurdy
Professional anthropologists do everything from ethnographies of automobile production lines to famine relief, but even the neophyte may be able to use the idea of culture to understand the workplace.
37 Career Advice for Anthropology Undergraduates	436	(11)
John T. Omohundro
The ability to translate useful anthropological skills into "resume speak" is one way for anthropology graduates to find employment.
Glossary	447	(6)
Index	453