Volume 55, No. 4, Winter 1996
The Social Construction of Whiteness in Shellcracker Haven, Florida
Jane W. Gibson
Key words: race, whites, poverty, racism, identity theory, U.S., Florida
This article examines the ways in which socially constructed racial categories are operationalized. It challenges popular and scholarly representations of the meanings of "whiteness" and considers processes of identity formation in the production of white poverty. The primary thesis is that poor whites, exemplified in a case study of Shellcracker Haven, Florida, are racially denigrated in the context of the historically specific, social, political, and economic processes that pauperize them. These processes are necessarily unique because, unlike visible minorities whose distinctive physiognomy facilitates socially constructed differentiation, the distancing and devaluation of poor whites require other tactics. These include construction of stereotyped images, behaviors, and values which create social distance, and "explain" white poverty. A secondary thesis holds that racial denigration of poor whites intensifies racism. Racism acts as a unilateral (and seldom reciprocated) assertion of membership in privileged white society. It also blocks identification with others who, by way of historically specific and parallel paths, also find themselves poor and disenfranchised. By promoting racism aimed at non-white social groups, racism aimed at poor whites protects the status quo of the distribution of power and privilege in the U.S.
Homelessness among Older American Indians, Los Angeles, 1987-1989
B. Josea Kramer and Judith C. Barker
Key words: Native Americans, aging, urban, Skid Row, ethnic minority, US, Los Angeles
For decades, American Indians of all ages have been over-represented among the urban homeless but thus far no studies have examined how homelessness affects elderly American Indians in cities. A survey of 335 older American Indians living in Los Angeles County in 1987-1989 revealed that a large proportion, 16% (n=53), were homeless. Compared to domiciled older American Indians, homeless older American Indians were younger (median age of 53 years rather than 58 years, using the local American Indian community definition of "elder") yet self-reported higher rates of physical and mental health problems, including hypertension, shortness of breath, diabetes, chest pains, alcoholism, depression, sadness, and loneliness. Of homeless elders who reported usual habitat, all those aged 60 or more years (n=7) lived on the street year-round; in contrast, 11 of 37 (30%) people aged 60 years or less at least occasionally rented rooms for shelter. Institutional and cultural barriers prevented some homeless individuals from accessing social and welfare services.
The Expansion of Large Scale Hog Farming in Iowa: The Applicability of Goldschmidt's Findings Fifty Years Later
E. Paul Durrenberger and Kendall M. Thu
Key words: farming, industrialization, development, United States, Iowa
Using county level socioeconomic and agricultural data from all counties in Iowa, we assess Goldschmidt's findings that measures of economic well-being are better with the presence of more smaller farms rather than fewer larger ones. We ethnographically situate our examination in terms of statewide discussions concerning the desirability of large scale swine production. Contrary to state economic development rhetoric, our analysis indicates that the organization of hog production and not market share or numbers is a key to rural welfare. We conclude that it is more advantageous for Iowa to have more hog farmers rather than more hogs.
Land-Use Strategies in the Amazon Frontier: Farm-Level Evidence from Ecuador
Francisco J. Pichón
Key words: farms, frontier, settlement, land-use strategies, Amazon, Ecuador
This article uses farm-level data to assess the role of ecological factors, household characteristics, and policy factors in shaping overall land-use strategies among settler farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The survey data which form the basis for the analysis were collected by the author in 1990 from a probability sample of 450 colonist households. A descriptive cluster analysis is used to highlight the differences across and within the observed land-use strategies regarding the underlying resource base available to farmers, the socioeconomic characteristics of farm households, and the policy environment that affect them. The findings question the inevitability of a generalized pattern of forest clearing over time constrained by a "straitjacket" of natural resources and suggest that the range of land-use options open to farmers is narrowed or widened under different socioeconomic circumstances and policy factors. The results given are exploratory and intended to stimulate further discussion.
Transnational Labor and Refugee Enclaves in a Central American Banana Industry
Mark Moberg
Key words: immigration, banana workers, refugees, transnationalism, Central America, Belize
During the 1980s, more than three million immigrants fled to other countries from the political and economic crises affecting Central America. The influx of displaced Central Americans has had major demographic and cultural effects in Belize, the only officially anglophone country of the region. This article assesses the origins and migration plans of immigrant workers in the Belizean banana industry. Despite diminishing conflict in their homelands, most immigrant workers do not intend to return home permanently.They nonetheless retain a transnational orientation through sustained contact with their native communities. Workers' immigration status, nationality, marital status, and length of residence in Belize are significant determinants of their settlement intentions. Policy recommendations are made that would alleviate the abusive conditions to which many immigrant workers are subjected.
Popular Education in the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army
John L. Hammond
Key words: Guerrilla war, peasant war, popular education, literacy, El Salvador
During its twelve-year guerrilla war, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) of El Salvador attempted to educate its troops, most of whom, recruited from the peasantry, were illiterate or barely literate. Education covered three main topics: basic literacy, technical training - both of which gave combatants skills necessary to the war effort - and political orientation, regarded as reinforcing their motivation to fight. The FMLN worked with the techniques and assumptions of popular education, according to which many teachers are only slightly more educated than their pupils, political content and pedagogy are combined, and everyone is urged to learn and assumed to be capable of learning, regardless of background. Educating peasant combatants was an expression of the FMLN's egalitarian ideology but at the same time highlighted differences due to social origin and between men and women. The educational process contributed importantly to the FMLN's relative military success and had a major impact on the combatants.
Education for Global Integration in Japan: A Case Study of the JET Program
David L. McConnell
Key words: internationalization, cultural conflict, educational anthropology, intercultural education, Japan
At a time when nations around the world are struggling with ethnic unrest, Japan is under international pressure to solve a problem of precisely the opposite order: to "create" diversity and to expose its insulated population to foreigners in keeping with its growing status as a world economic leader. This article, based on two years of fieldwork in Japan, examines the contradictions and ironies in a high-profile government policy to transform the nation's vaunted "internationalization" campaign from rhetoric to reality. With an annual budget of over $300 million, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program invites nearly five thousand college graduates each year from primarily Western countries to team-teach foreign language classes and foster international perspectives in secondary schools throughout the country. Many observers thought the JET Program would equal Japan opening up to the West and freeing itself of biases; this article, however, chronicles the many ways in which the foreign teachers are treated according to Japanese cultural norms and bureaucratic priorities. While Japanese teachers and administrators at all levels see JET as a "cause" and are willing to salute the flag of internationalization, there is a striking gap between the abstract symbolization of internationalization and the day-to-day priorities of prefectural offices of education and local schools. Nevertheless, as with Peace Corps, the program has been very successful in generating a feeling of "closeness" towards Japan in the minds of some of the foreign teachers.
Persuasion in a Toxic Community: Rhetorical Aspects of Public Meetings
Dana S. Kaminstein
Key words: public meetings, rhetorical analysis, toxic wastes, US, New Jersey
Rarely do scholars or activists employ a rhetorical framework to help uncover and discover the persuasive aspects of public meetings. This paper examines meetings held in Pitman, New Jersey, site of the country's number one toxic waste dump. This analysis looks at three rhetorical aspects of the presentation of scientific information to the public: 1) the content of the public meetings; 2) the form of the meetings; and 3) what was excluded from these public meetings. By better understanding the rhetorical aspects of public meetings, we can help to prevent the democratic process from ignoring, quieting, or suppressing dissent.
Industrial Zones and Arab Industrialization in Israel
Michael Sofer, Izhak Schnell, and Israel Drori
Key words: Arab settlements, economy, industrialization, Israel
Since the 1970s there has been increased integration of the Arab sector into the Israeli economy. This integration has been characterized by the increase in industrial entrepreneurship in the Arab settlements. Critical to the industrialization process are factors related to the availability of industrial zones and the infrastructure which supports industrial production. The main factors are: limited reserves of land for industry; lack of a land market; the structure and pattern of land ownership; entrepreneurial culture which does not encourage neither using bank loans nor the commercialization of land; the absence of allocation of industrial zones in the settlements master plans; low level of infrastructure and absence of public support for the development of industrial infrastructure; and the fact that the legislation for the encouragement of capital investments has not been applied in Arab settlements. These factors may be divided between external factors partly affected by government discriminative policy which does not support Arab industrial development, and internal factors related to the specific features of the Arab economy. Together, these factors reduce the attractiveness of the Israeli Arab periphery for the arrival of core located major industrial plants, and have a negative impact on Arab internally initiated industrial entrepreneurship.
Commentary: British Anthropology in Policy and Practice: A Review of Current Work
Cris Shore and Susan Wright
Commentary: Anthropologists, Development, and Situated Truth
Suzanne Autumn
Commentary: Ethical Standards for Medical Anthropologists Consulting on Ethnomedicine
Robert Anderson
Commentary: Preventing AIDS in Communities of Color: Anthropology and Social Prevention
Merrill Singer and Margaret R. Weeks
Commentary: Asylum, Violence and the Limits of Advocacy
Cynthia Keppley Mahmood
Commentary: Fuelwood Consumption and Deforestation in the Philippines
Terence E. Bensel and David M. Kummer
Commentary: Fuelwood Consumption and Deforestation in the Philippines: A Rejoinder
Ben J. Wallace
