Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology

428 Pages·2011·16.26 MB·English

Conformity
and Conflict
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FOURTEENTH
EDITION
Conformity
and Conflict
Readings in Cultural Anthropology
JAMES SPRADLEY
DAVID W. M CURDY
C
Macalester College

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conformity and conflict : readings in cultural anthropology / [edited by]
James Spradley, David W. McCurdy.—14th ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-23410-3
ISBN-10: 0-205-23410-0
1. Ethnology. 2. Anthropology. I. Spradley, James P. II. McCurdy, David W.
GN325.C69 2011
306—dc22 2011015812
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Student Edition:
ISBN 10: 0-205-23410-0
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-23410-3
Instructor’s Review Edition:
ISBN 10: 0-205-06453-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-06453-3
á la carte edition:
ISBN 10: 0-205-06460-4
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-06460-1
Contents
World Map and Geographical Placement of Readings inside cover
Preface xiii
ONE
Culture and Ethnography 1
1
Ethnography and Culture 6
JAMES P. SPRADLEY
To discover culture, the ethnographer must learn from the informant
as a student.
2
Eating Christmas in the Kalahari 13
RICHARD BORSHAY LEE
The “generous” gift of a Christmas ox involves the anthropologist in a
classic case of cross-cultural misunderstanding.
3
Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS 20
CLAIRE E. STERK
Fieldwork among urban prostitutes means doing ethnography under
difficult but, in the end, manageable circumstances.
4
Nice Girls Don’t Talk to Rastas 31
GEORGE GMELCH
Interaction between a U.S. student and a Rastafarian illustrates the
destructive power of naïve realism in the fieldwork setting.
TWO
Language and Communication 37
5
Shakespeare in the Bush 41
LAURA BOHANNAN
Cross-cultural communication breaks down when an anthropologist
attempts to translate the meaning of H amlet to the Tiv.
v
vi Contents
6
Whorf Revisited: You Are What You Speak 49
GUY DEUTSCHER
New evidence supports Benjamin Lee Whorf’s contention that peoples’
mother tongue can shape their experience of the world.
7
Manipulating Meaning: The Military Name Game 57
SARAH BOXER
To frame the meaning of its military operations, U.S. armed forces try
to name them positively without offending anyone.
8
Conversation Style: Talking on the Job 61
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 69
9
The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari 73
RICHARD BORSHAY LEE
!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.
10
Eskimo Science 87
RICHARD NELSON
The knowledge developed by Eskimos to hunt successfully contains
the same basic principles that underlie a more formally structured
scientific method.
11
Domestication and the Evolution of Disease 93
JARED DIAMOND
Herd animal diseases that evolved to infect humans have ended up
killing millions of people in the old and new world.
12
Forest Development the Indian Way 105
RICHARD K. REED
South American governments could learn much about tropical forest
development from the Amazonian Indians who live there.
Contents vii
FOUR
Economic Systems 115
13
Reciprocity and the Power of Giving 119
LEE CRONK
Gifts not only function to tie people together, they may also be used to
“flatten” an opponent and control the behavior of others.
14
Poverty at Work: Office Employment and the Crack
Alternative 125
PHILIPPE BOURGOIS
Poor, uneducated Puerto 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.
15
Cocaine and the Economic Deterioration of Bolivia 136
JACK WEATHERFORD
The world market for cocaine robs Bolivian villages of their men and
causes problems for health, nutrition, transportation, and family.
16
Malawi versus the World Bank 145
SONIA PATTEN
Malawi government’s successful state subsidized fertilizer program
challenges the World Bank and IMF’s insistence on market-driven
agricultural programs.
FIVE
Kinship and Family 151
17
Mother’s Love: Death without Weeping 155
NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES
Close mother-child bonds suffered in the presence of high infant
mortality in a Brazilian shantytown although recent changes have
reduced the problem to some degree.
18
Family and Kinship in Village India 165
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.
viii Contents
19
Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife 172
MELVYN C. GOLDSTEIN
By jointly marrying one woman, Tibetan brothers preserve family
resources and the “good life.”
20
Uterine Families and the Women’s Community 179
MARGERY WOLF
To succeed in a traditional patrilineal family, a Chinese woman had to
create her own informal uterine family inside her husband’s household.
SIX
Identity, Roles, and Groups 185
21
You@Work: Jobs, Identity, and the Internet 189
BRENDA MANN
Topday’s U.S. job mobility requires “branding” one’s identity through
careful use of the Internet.
22
The Opt-Out Phenomenon: Women, Work, and Identity
in America 197
DIANNA SHANDY AND KARINE MOE
Why were young, educated professional women leaving high-paying jobs
for a life at home and what difference has today’s tough economy made?
23
Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? 208
LILA ABU-LUGHOD
Americans should work for justice in the world, not save Muslim
women from wearing burqas or following their Islamic religion.
24
Mixed Blood 217
JEFFERSON 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 227
25
Cross-Cultural Law: The Case of the Gypsy Offender 230
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.
Contents ix
26
Life without Chiefs 238
MARVIN HARRIS
Small societies based on reciprocal and redistributive economic
exchange can do without officials.
27
The Founding Indian Fathers 246
JACK WEATHERFORD
Although their contribution goes unrecognized, Indian, especially
Iroquoian, political structure may have served as a model that helped
to produce a United States federal government.
EIGHT
Religion, Magic, and World View 255
28
Taraka’s Ghost 260
STANLEY A. FREED AND RUTH S. FREED
A woman relieves her anxiety and gains family support when a friend’s
ghost possesses her.
29
Baseball Magic 266
GEORGE GMELCH
American baseball players from the game’s introduction to today employ
magical practices as they try to deal with the uncertainty of their game.
30
Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage 275
JILL DUBISCH
An annual ritual motorcycle pilgrimage from Los Angles to
Washington, DC personally transforms the Vietnam veterans and
others who ride in it.
31
Body Ritual among the Nacirema 287
HORACE MINER
The Nacirema display a complex array of body rituals aimed at
achieving health and beauty.
NINE
Globalization 293
32
How Sushi Went Global 296
THEODORE C. BESTOR
International interdependence between tuna fishermen and sushi as a
Japanese culinary style becomes popular in a globalized world.