Volume 53, No. 1, Spring 1994
Informed Consent in Anthropological Research: We Are Not Exempt
Carolyn Fleuhr-Lobban
Key words: ethics of research, informed consent
The article examines the history of the informed consent idea and attempts to explain why anthropologists have not incorporated it. Arguments that have been raised to challenge the relevance and utility of informed consent guidelines to anthropological research are discussed, with the central idea conveyed that the spirit and intent of informed consent is compatible with academic and applied research in anthropology. A discussion of "Informed Consent without Forms" attempts to show that the spirit of informed consent can be fulfilled without the intrusive and unnecessarily legalistic use of a signed form. Informed consent is ultimately viewed as a process that encourages greater openness and disclosure on the part of the researchers, empowers voluntary participants in social research, and engenders a more collaborative relationship between researcher and researched.
The Illusion of Local Sustainabaility and Self-Sufficiency: Famine in a Border Area of Northwestern Zambia
Art Hansen
Key words: famine, food security, sustainability; Africa, Northwestern Zambia
Sustainability is a complex and sometimes fragile condition, as shown by this case study from Zambia's North-Western Province. The long-term evolution of a cassava-based agricultural system provided enough staple food for a rapidly growing population of immigrants and refugees, but a mealybug invasion in 1985-1989 destroyed much of the cassava and triggered a famine for many people. The famine, caused by the interaction of ecological, political, and economic factors, demonstrated that locally self-sufficient sustainability was an illusion. Affected villagers tried to cope by growing maize and buying maize imported from other regions. But if they used only local resources, many people could not protect themselves, and they suffered severe food shortages. By 1989, the mealybug had apparently been controlled by a biological control program (as much political as technical) that coordinated institutions on three continents. This case demonstrates that: (1) resourceful villagers are an essential dynamic element in evolving food-production systems and in coping with famine; (2) localities are ecologically, polictically, and economically incorporated and vulnerable, rather than being isolated and self-sufficient; and (3) biodiversity is essential in a world of not-yet-recognized pests (and diseases).
The Authentic Interior: Questing Gemeinschaft in Post-Industrial Society
Catherine M. Cameron and John B. Gatewood
Key words: cultural tourism, images of community, urban development; US, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a city whose economy was once based exclusively on steel production and heavy manufacture, is now developing its historical and cultural amenities and is marketing itself as a tourist destination. This paper explores the basis of the city's appeal to visitors with an examination of one of the major tourist events, the annual Christmas program. The research suggests that visitors are lured by Bethlehem's small town charm and the suggestion of an authentic urban community. This nostalgia apparently engages not only big-city tourists, but also those from the suburbs and small municipalities. The paper describes this case of cultural tourism in which the principal attraction seems to be a vicarious experience with gemeinschaft-like community.
The Secretary: Invisible Labor in the Workworld of Women
Mary Anne Wichroski
Key words: clerical workers, emotional labor, gender and organizations, secretaries, women's work; US
Previous studies of secretarial work in organizations have reported a discrepancy between formally acknowledged roles and actual labor performed. In addition, many clerical jobs have been neither successfully routinized nor rationalized. As in other areas of women's work, articulation and categorization of tasks has been stunted by lack of language to adequately describe them. This analysis examines the character of secretarial work based on data from secretaries working in organizations of different size at various levels of bureaucratic control. A typology of secretarial labor is presented that reflects a corresponding continuum of clear definition and formal recognition by organizations. Some of this ambiguity is accounted for by the fact that gender expectations are interwoven into the work role. Much of secretarial labor, including intellectual and emotional aspects of the work, is "invisible" to organizations, yet is essential to fulfilling organizational and professional goals.
Interviewing Early Adolescents: Some Methodological Considerations
Linda R. Weber, Andrew Miracle, and Tom Skehan
Key words: adolescents, interviewing, methods; US
Adolescence poses some distinct challenges to the interviewing process. Applied social scientists frequently use the inteview as a tool for the gathering of information from adolescents, but the paucity of information in the literature renders a discussion of adolescent issues particularly appropriate. Developmental issues, methodological issues surrounding the construction of and conducting of the early adolescent research interview, and legal and ethical issues are all reviewed in this paper. Particular emphasis is placed on the highly structured group inteview. The authors' multi-year experience working with young adolescents and anecdotal information from a nation-wide longitudinal study of "at risk" youth form the basis for this interview.
Reifying the Body through the Medicalization of Violent Death
David Kozak
Key words: critical theory, medicalization of death, Native Americans, Tohono O'odham; US, Southern Arizona
This article suggests that the violent deaths of American Indians are being medicalized. The biomedical classification of violent death (suicides, homicides, accidents) subverts the social elements of causality in favor of identifying individual culpability. It is here argued that the biomedical nosology known as the International Classification of Disease (ICD) has entered the everyday, commonsensical discourse of those who investigate these deaths (police, EMTs, medical examiners). After presenting a theoretical framework I offer four ethnographic vignettes to illustrate how death has been medicalized among the Tohono O'odham Indians of southern Arizona. These vignettes, though not statistically significant, reveal how cause is inscribed on the bodies of the deceased. In other words, the classification of violent death reifies the individual body at the expense of the social body. Five recommendations for further research and consideration are then offered.
Multiplying Glimpses, Gleaning Genres: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Change among Navajo Peoples
Howard M. Behr
Key words: interdisciplinary methods, narrative, Navajo, paradigms, social change
Disciplinary specialties and boundaries may impede as well as facilitate understanding. Standard scholarly orientations to the study of Navajos and other ethnic populations manifest many biases of ethnocentrism and a general tendency to stereotype. Specific observer-related tendencies to distort are noted, among them tendencies to understate social dynamics and the degree to which Navajos are functioning parts of wider social systems. The literature on Navajos is a product of changing tools in the hands of changing observers applied to changing communities in the context of ongoing change in the wider societies of both observer and observed. It is argued that "multiplying glimpses," or increasing the number and types of observers and the variety of disciplines and paradigms represented, may reduce observer and position biases that distort existing views of Navajo society. An overview of the massive literature on the Navajo leads to the identification of 21 distinct genres. These genres and other Navajo texts may profitably be viewed in the perspective of textual analysis, broadly defined. Issues of meaning and interpretation are considered, including the reality-language-text nexus, construction of texts, text-context patterns, and the interaction of text, situation, and analyst in interpretation. Appropriate use of existing texts is socially responsible "green research" and should not be professionally stigmatized. It substitutes resource-efficient recycling of discarded and underanalyzed texts for the old expensive, obtrusive colonial patterns of work.
Shrimpers, Processors, and Common Property in Mississippi
E. Paul Durrenberger
Key words: economic anthropology, fishing, maritime anthropology, policy, US, Mississippi
Many factors determine the decisions and actions of Mississippi shrimpers. What appears to be a typical problem of an open access resource--overexploitation--is not a consequence of shrimpers' decisions. The demands of processors shape the fishing methods and gear of fishermen as well as the number of fishermen. Fishermen sell their catch to processors who offer them access to credit and docking space. Local, state, and national policy affects shrimpers and processors. Such policy may be directed at inappropriate elements of the system if policy makers do not understand how the system works. Because statistical or economic analysis alone may be quite misleading, such understanding requires ethnographic and historical insight. In this paper I examine the relations among indebtedness, dependency, ethnicity and locale among Mississippi shrimpers in the context of the system.
Commentary: Proaction versus Reaction: Integrating Applied Anthropology into Fishery Management
Christopher L. Dyer
Commentary: Studying the Social Impact of the Texas Shrimp Closure
James M. Nance, Nina H. Garfield, and J. Anthony Paredes
Commentary: All the King's Horses and All the King's Men: Some Persoal Reflections on Ten Years of AIDS Ethnography
Michael C. Clatts
