Volume 58, No. 1, Spring 1999
You CAN Do Something! Forming Policy from Applied Projects, Then and Now
Robert A. Hackenberg and Beverly Hackenberg
Key words: applied anthropology, policy agenda, globalization, postnationalism, borderlands, NAFTA, World Bank, community-oriented primary care, site-and-services
Over the past half century, applied anthropology has evolved as part of the global process through which human society has been transformed. Several levels of sociocultural integration have been transcended. Applied efforts at parallel interventions have shifted from the bounded and orderly little community through the teeming chaos of the developing city to the boundless and amorphous world of the postnational map and the human ethnoscape which occupies it. We still affirm the continuing relevance today of elements of the work we have performed at each of these levels. But we will also argue that contemporary applied anthropology must refocus its concepts and methods on researach and experiments that will guide the policy agendas and the resulting ameliorative interventions of both national and international agencies. The task before us is immense. Time is short. Resources are limited. But, "You CAN do something!"
Immigrants, Migration, and Worker Turnover at the Hog Pride Pork Packing Plant
Mark A. Grey
Key words: immigrants, migration, meatpacking, working conditions
Employee turnover is pervasive in industries and services that offer low pay, low status, little career advancement, and stressful work environments. Turnover rates are particularly high in meatpacking. The focus of this article is a large meatpacking plant in Iowa that experienced annual turnover of 80%. Two themes emerged from this study: tension between the plant's predominate ethnic groups, Anglos and Latino immigrants, and working conditions. In terms of ethnic relations, Anglo workers and managers were frustrated by Latino migration strategies that attempted to recreate packing jobs as "seasonal." Difficult and dangerous working conditions led to injuries, worker exhaustion, and turnover. Managers refused to recognize that the lack of meaningful work in the plant also contributed to workers' departure. They also refused to "reskill" jobs to provide ways for workers to take control of their work environment and create a personal relationship with their tools.
Hunger and Food Security Among Older Adults in a Rural Community
Sara A. Quandt and Pamela Rao
Key words: food insecurity, nutrition, nutrition policy, rural elderly, Appalachia, poverty
Although government policies over the last several decades have addressed issues of nutrition for the elderly, elders still face problems of undernutrition and food insecurity. This study assesses the level of food insecurity and identifies predictors among 192 residents 65 years and older in rural Appalachia. Participants were recruited using a site-based rapid recruitment technique, and data were collected using structured questionnaires in face-to-face interviews. Twenty-four percent report one or more food insecurity indicator. Health, social, and material barriers all predict food insecurity in bivariate analyses. In logistic regression, taking three or more prescription drugs, eating alone, and income less than 150% of poverty level are the strongest predictors of food insecurity. The high rate of food insecurity and its predictors are examined in terms of policies aimed to reduce nutrition problems for elders, the life course experiences of elders, the economic history of the area, and more general problems in getting sufficient food faced by older rural adults.
Community Formation in Frontier Mexico: Accepting and Rejecting New Migrants
Nora Haenn
Key words: migration, Latin America, political anthropology, Mexican ejido, development
Through a comparison of two communities, this paper addresses village formation in frontier Campeche, Mexico. Mexico's village political unit, the ejido, allows farmers flexibility in deciding who may take up residence in their communities. The paper analyzes how established farmers employ ideas of ethnicity, family, and expectations of social strife to assess the long-term compatibility of newcomers. The paper further examines the role of economic stratification, village fractionalism, and development programs in structuring acceptance into a village. The findings challenge prevalent economic explanations for migration and point to the need for research into the interation of economic and political factors in intraruralmigration.
The Untouchables of Svinia
David Z. Scheffel
Key words: Roma, Gypsies, Slovakia, social problems
The article describes the problematic position of Slovakia's rural Roma. Using the example of one community, it examines mechanisms which exclude rural Roma from mainstream society. The history of a community development project designed to overcome the legacy of discrimination and ethnic segregation is reviewed.
Are Artesanal Cooperatives in Guatemala Unraveling?
Jan M. Olson
Key words: cooperatives, Guatemala, women's issues, economic development
Cooperatives are often instituted to increase socioeconomic opportunities for rural people. While this goal may be achieved in some countries, the specific historical and structural circumstances of the Guatemalan cooperative system contradict this statement. The entrance of cooperatives into the world market system and a change to a mass-marketing climate has altered relations of distribution and production. In particlar, traditionally female-organized cooperatives and industries, such as for weaving, have been especially hard hit by these changes. This paper reports the findings from a four-month study of three artesanal cooperatives in highland Guatemala and of the Guatemalan cooperative structure. These findings indicate that the adoption of federations of cooperatives to increase production for a world market has negatively altered the entire artesanal industry and has adversely affected the socioeconomic activities of the small-business weaver.
Cultural Conservation of Medicinal Plant Use in the Ozarks
Justin M. Nolan and Michael C. Robbins
Key words: Ozarks, medicinal plants, delocalization, cultural conservation, ethnobotany
While a number of recent health care studies have focused on the availability of modern health care services among rural U.S. populations, the commensurate study of access to folk medical systems has been relatively neglected. In this paper we explore the cultural conservation of folk medicinal plant use in 14 communities across the Ozark Mountain region of Arkansas and Missouri. Six relevant socioeconomic and demographic factors are examined in relation to the number of medicinal plant applications reported by expert informants in each locale. Using a multiple correlation and regression analysis, we find that the preservation of traditional medicine and praxis in the Ozarks is inversely related to community "delocalization." It is suggested that the survival of esoteric, albeit dynamic, medical knowledge and praxis among rural populations ultimately depends upon sustaining biological and cultural diversity.
Revealing, Widening, Deepening? A Review of the Existing and Potential Contributions of Anthropological Approaches to "Third-Sector" Research
David Lewis
Key words: nongovernmental organizations; anthropology, voluntary associations, nonprofit organizations
Abstract Anthropology brings a distinctive paradigm and research methodology to bear on social research. However, the profile of anthropologists and anthropological approaches in current third-sector research is relatively low. The first part of the paper reviews the status of anthropological work dealing with organizations generally before focusing more specifically on work on the third sector, focusing mainly on ethnographic reseach on voluntary organizations carried out in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Africa. This paper notes that anthropologists have more recently done less work in this area, but shows how more recent anthropological work on bureaucracy, development, and policy issues is highly relevant to third-sector research, and the second part of the paper briefly reviews such work. The paper concludes that anthropological research can: 1) reveal more of the hidden third sector by providing detailed micro-accounts (e.g., of informal groups, grassroots associations); 2) widen the scope of third-sector research by throwing light on the diversity of organizational life and challenging Western bias and ethnocentricity; and 3) deepen the analysis of third-sector research through its distinctive use of an actor-centered, processual analysis of highly complex issues, such as organizational culture, and values. The paper concludes with the observation that closer engagement with third-sector research might also benefit current anthropology, which has been critized in some quarters for losing relevance to the contemporary world.
Love Thy Neighbor: Sociability and Instrumentality Among Israeli Neighbors
Daphna Birenbaum Carmeli
Key words: Israel, middle class, community, neighboring, sociability, urban anthropology
The paper explores the tense dynamics among neighbors in a mixed middle-class neighborhood in Tel Aviv, based on three years of fieldwork (1988-1991) and a local survey. Considered within the context of the general community question, three case studies are presented as illustrations of local relationships, their ambiguities and limitations; relations shifted from daily encounters to absolute disconnection; people concealed major life plans from presumably close neighbors; in some cases, residents took official measures against a neighbor. It is suggested that intensive, prolonged relationships maintained among neighbors were not necessarily intimate personal ones. Rather, neighbor relationships seemed primarily instrumental, centering on a continuous exchange of minor services and an enhancement of one's anchor in the locality. The intimate appearance of these particular relations can possibly be attributed to general traits characteristics of Israeli culture.
Power, Rhetoric, and Partnership: Primary Health Care and Pie in the Sky
Delamie Thompson, Ann Smith, Terry Hallom, and E. Paul Durrenberger
Key words: community health advisors, primary health care, community participation, public health nursing, Chicago
Talk of "partnerships" between communities and primary health care professionals is widely recognized as a valuable selling point of programs competing for grant dollars and community sites. How the partnership manifests itself varies. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to a school of nursing, one such program was presented to a Chicago community as having two equal goals: delivery of primary health care to the community; and the education of nursing students. Community Health Advocates were hired to work in the center with a registered nurse to facilitate access to the local neighborhood. This core group maintains the daily functions of the center and are the first three authors of this paper. Nursing students and faculty from the university provide services at the site on the university's schedule to meet the university's goals. In this paper the core staff reflects on the experience and discusses the clash of professional and community standards, objectives, and perspectives, which results in fragmented service.
Advancing Applied Anthropology: Strategies and Game Plans
Robert A. Hackenberg
Commentary: Sol Tax and Tribal Sovereignty
Nancy Oestreich Lurie
