Rent 9780205449705 | Conformity and Conflict : Readings in Cultural Anthropology | Spradley, James &; McCurdy, David W. @knetbooks.com

Summary Table of Contents

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.

Preface

xiv

World Map and Geographical Placement of Readings

xvi

ONE Culture and Ethnography

(57)

1 Ethnography and Culture

(8)

... MORE

James P. Spradley

To discover culture, the ethnographer must learn from the informant as a student.

2 Eating Christmas in the Kalahari

(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

(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

(13)

Claire E. Sterk

Fieldwork among urban prostitutes means doing ethnography under difficult but, in the end, manageable circumstances.

5 Lessons from the Field

(12)

George Gmelch

Fieldwork in Barbados gives students a greater understanding of their own culture and personal life.

TWO Language and Communication

(44)

6 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Worlds Shaped by Words

(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

(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

(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

(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