Volume 55, No. 2, Summer 1996
Living in Limbo: Bosnian Muslim Refugees in Israel
Fran Markowitz
Key words: refugees, Muslims, Bosnia, Israel
Challenging the idea that all refugees need to reestablish a new home in their country of refuge in order to avoid social disorganization and collective losses of identity and self-worth, this article shows that Bosnian Muslim families in Israel maintain family cohesion and their ethno-national identity while they live in limbo. This limbo, however, is relatively secure and stable, and due to the policies of the Israeli government, it is family and work oriented, ensuring that Bosnian family heads can provide for their children, maintain gender complementarity within the household, and play out their hope that the war will end soon. Unlike their counterparts in refugee camps, Bosnian refugees in Israel have not become dependent or typified by the malaise and social disorganization that often accompanies displacement. The article ends by suggesting that the policy of creating limbo, rather than forcing long-term commitment to a new country, may indeed prevent cultural clashes and social problems, especially among war-torn refugees.
Talkability, Sexual Behavior, and AIDS: Interviewing Male Moroccan Immigrants
Paul van Gelder
Key words: sexuality, AIDS, interview methods, ethnic minorities, Netherlands, Morocco
Based on ethnographic data on 46 male Moroccan immigrants, this article focuses on various methodological complications of making verbally explicit sexual relationships and risk reduction behaviors. To elucidate how sexuality and AIDS were made into subjects suitable for discussion in this population, the concept of "talkability" is introduced. The author examines a variety of relational and discursive strategies used in interviewing Moroccan men about such topics which they normally consider "shameful." Based on the interviews, three specific types of sexual discourse, indicating three 'ways of sexual disclosure' are distinguished: 1) "shameful," 2) "humanistic," and 3) "masculine oriented." The last type of discourse, in particular, leaves ample room for interviewing about sexuality and AIDS in great detail.
Applying Anthropology to the Prevention of AIDS: The Latino Gay Men's Health Project
Merrill Singer and Luis Marxuach-Rodriguez
Key words: AIDS, ethnography, gay men, Hispanics, Latinos, risk behaviors, US
The rate of AIDS transmission through gay contact is 1.7 times greater for Latinos than for Whites, while among bisexual men the relative risk for Latinos is 2.5 times higher. Yet, Latino men who have sex with men remain a poorly understood population. This paper describes the Latino Gay Men's Health Project, an anthropologically informed effort to reduce AIDS risk among Latinos by: ethnographically documenting risk patterns; using community outreach to recruit project participants; and, enrolling participants in a community based program designed to assist them in enhancing positive identities as Latino gay bisexual men, acquiring and using AIDS prevention information/skills, and building social support.
Street Baptism: Chicano Gang Initiation
James D. Vigil
Key words: initiation, urban gangs, Chicano youth, US, California
Initiation into Chicano barrio street gangs has developed over the years into a kind of "street baptism," functioning as a rite of passage for the initiate and a rite of solidarity for the gang. At the same time, it fulfills a pragmatic need to screen potential new members for fighting skills and courage valued by the gang as well as some of the psychological needs for youths attempting to cope with adolescent age and gender role identity crises. Most gang members are initiated at about age 12 or 13 and, for a majority, the ritual simply formalizes the membership toward which participation in street activities had long been preparing them. The initiation typically involves several gang members attacking the prospective member at the same time; the initiate is expected to fight back, but cannot show any fear or weakness. The severity of the beating inflicted depends both on the initiate's prior standing with the gang (those who grew up with the gang members or who have relatives in the gang fare better) and on the mind-set of those conducting the initiations (severe beatings are far more common when the participants are intoxicated, for example.) Similarities between the "street baptism" and male initiation rites in pre-industrial tribal societies suggest that both address similar problems in youths' gender and age role identity resolution.
Cultural Factors in Criminal Defense Proceedings
Michael Winkelman
Key words: cultural defense, legal anthropology, Hispanic Americans, US
Anthropologists' understandings of cultural factors affecting behavior can assist in the development of criminal defenses as a basis for establishing exculpating, extenuating and mitigating circumstances. While the cultural defense is generally not recognized as a specific defense, cultural factors are admissible within traditional defenses. In general, cultural factors are used to mitigate circumstances or reduce charges, rather than exculpate guilt and to influence prosecutorial and judicial discretion at the charging, plea-bargaining and sentencing phases. Cultural factors are also relevant in establishing mens rea (state of mind) and function through traditional defenses such as mistake of fact, and excuses such as duress, defects of knowledge, reasonable deficiency, and nonresponsibility. This article orients anthropologists to their potential contributions in criminal defenses by reviewing the legal context for establishing the relevance of cultural factors, with specific reference to the Model Penal Code. The article also reviews case materials where the author was appointed as an expert witness to illustrate how cultural factors may serve to establish mitigating circumstances during the preliminary, guilt and penalty phases of trials.
Kin Support and Family Stress: Two Sides to Early Childbearing and Support Networks
James C. Cramer and Katrina Bell McDonald
Key words: childbearing, kinship, social networks, stress, teen mothers, US, California
Family assistance helps many teenage or young unmarried mothers to cope with poverty and the challenges of child rearing. Kin support to young mothers, while beneficial, should not be romanticized. It also often entails conflict, stress, frustration, and disappointment due to interpersonal tensions, or conflicting interests, or relatives' limited ability to provide support. Nearly always the underlying issue is a discrepancy between the young mother's expectations and her support network's performance. We describe three sources of unrealistic expectations: relatives' initial reactions to her pregnancy, a history of early childbearing by relatives, and desires for a relationship with the baby's father.
Servants and Daughters: Out of Wedlock Pregnancy and Abandonment of Women in Bangladesh
Margot Wilson-Moore
Key words: out of wedlock pregnancy, abandonment, poverty, women's shelter, servants, exploitation, Bangladesh
Abandonment of women and children represents a socially sanctioned solution to the problem of out of wedlock pregnancy in Bangladesh. Our research discusses what predisposes women to out of wedlock pregnancies and what dictates their abandonment after the pregnancy occurs. These social problems are deeply embedded in the religious, cultural, and economic structure of Bangladesh. Thus, without broader changes in societal attitudes toward women in general and toward women who become pregnant out of wedlock in particular, abandonment of women and children can be expected to persist.
Patients Who Get What They Want: Policy and Power in the Context of Prenatal Care
Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli and Yoram S. Carmeli
Key words: amniocentesis, health care, prenatal care, Canada, Ontario
This article examines a request for amniocentesis, a prenatal screening test, for a middle-class, professional couple in a major city in Ontario, Canada. The unfolding of this case over time permits analysis of some practices employed in the Canadian and in the U.S. health care systems, especially insofar as these practices can be influenced by participants' technical knowledge, social networks, and willingness to persevere in the face of bureaucratic obstacles to "get what they want."
Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods to Model Infant Feeding Behavior among Navajo Mothers
Mark Bauer and Anne Wright
Key words: decision models, infant feeding, methods, Native Americans, US
Anthropologists have long discussed the value and limitations of various methods of describing and understanding behavior. This article demonstrates that utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods can improve our understanding of complex behaviors. Ethnographic interviews were used to create a decision tree model of the choice of breastfeeding or formula feeding for Navajo women. This preliminary model was tested with reference to the initial feeding decisions of 250 post-partum women. Errors in the model and statistical analysis of correlates of feeding behavior were used to improve the decision model, which was subsequently tested on a new sample of 52 mothers. The final model accurately predicted the initial infant feeding behavior of 96% of women in the new sample. This combination of techniques proved useful in developing a breastfeeding promotion program which targeted specific groups for education and addressed local concerns and perceptions.
The Current and Intergenerational Impact of Child Fostering on Children's Nutritional Status in Rural Mali
Sarah E. Castle
Key words: fostering, child care, child health, Fulani, West Africa, Mali
The article assesses the determinants of child fostering and its effect on children's nutritional status among the Malian Fulani. Anthropometric evidence indicates that nutritional outcomes are more strongly associated with the reasons for the child's transfer rather than with the fostering per se. These effects persist inter-generationally with the biological children of mothers who were themselves fostered under forced circumstances exhibiting poorer nutritional outcomes than children of mothers who were actively requested by their foster parents during childhood. A bio-social model is presented to understand the inter-generational determinants of these effects and their pathways of influence.
Acculturation and the Persistence of Indigenous Food Avoidance in the Ituri Forest, Zaire
Robert Aunger
Key words: acculturation, biocultural, food avoidances, foragers, horticulturalists, Africa, Zaire
A biocultural evolutionary approach is used to investigate whether acculturation is leading to the demise of food avoidances in a population of foragers and horticulturalists living in the Ituri Forest of Zaire. Multivariate statistical models, based on variation in these traditional cultural beliefs as well as their nutritional consequences, show that schooling and Christianity (the primary acculturating forces introduced into the area by Western missionaries), are associated among horticulturalists with a decline in the authority of social sanctioning systems that sustain traditional restrictions against food consumption. Nutritional deficits resulting from the practice of food avoidances are also sufficient in some cases to compromise fertility. Thus relatively acculturated horticulturalists enjoy both cultural and biological advantages which should reduce the future viability of the food avoidance system in this group. However, among foragers, the transmission of new avoidances from horticulturalists overwhelms any disparagement of traditional beliefs associated with schooling and Christianity. This leads acculturated foragers to increased observance of food avoidances. The biocultural evolutionary approach thus provides quantitative estimates of the relative strength of various acculturating forces so that predictions about the future course of cultural change can be made, even though data was collected at a single point in time.
Traditional and Pastoral Strategies in a Modern World: An Example from Northern Kenya
Eric Roth
Key words: drought, livestock, pastoralism, Rendille, East Africa, Kenya
Traditional pastoral economies of sub-Saharan Africa are frequently characterized as ecologically insensitive. Particularly vilified is traditional herd maximizing behavior, by which pastoralists allegedly overstock rangelands to buffer against drought-induced livestock loss. This study analyses household herd data for Rendille pastoralists of northern Kenya to evaluate the effectiveness of herd maximizing behavior and consider its socio-ecological concomitants. Results indicate that maximization remains an effective buffering strategy. However, in the present situation it combines with decreased herd mobility, increased commercial exchange and herd diversification to place additional stress on the modern, sedentary Rendille pastoral economy. Despite this last finding maximizing behavior may aid the future viability of East African pastoralism by providing a reservoir of highly adapted, surplus animals for restocking programs.
The Informal Economy in Martinique: Insights from the Field, Implications for Development Policy
Katherine Browne
Key words: class, development, informal economy, planning, undeclared economic activities (UEAs), Caribbean, French West Indies, Martinique, Fort-de-France
The informal economy is a growing phenomenon in cities of developing countries, a fact which has aroused the attention of many development planners who view it as the key to solving urban poverty. This article presents new research on the cross-class dimensions of informal economic activity in Martinique, French West Indies. Research result about the cross-class linkages of informal exchanges suggest obstacles for planners who consider poor informal economic actors to be ripe targets for development. I argue that effective development strategies will require planners to take into account empirical field studies based on ethnographic as well as quantitative approaches.
Commentary: Informed Consent and Ethical Exemptions
C.D. Herrera
Commentary: Reply to Herrera
Murray Wax
Commentary: Rejoinder to Wax and Herrera
Carolyn Fleuhr-Lobban
Commentary: Benevolent Altruism or Ordinary Reciprocity? A Response to Austin's View of the Mindinao Hinterland
Oona Paredes
Commentary: A Response to Timothy Austin's "Filipino Self-Help and Peacemaking Strategies: A View from the Mindinao Hinterland"
Kathy Nadeau and Vel Suminguit
Commentary: A Rejoinder - In Regards to Critiques of My Research on Filipino Self-Help and Peacemaking the the Mindinao Hinterlands
Timothy Austin
