Volume 59, No. 3, Fall 2000
Malinowski Award Lecture: A Role for Anthropology in Sustainable Development in Costa Rica
MarÌa Eugenia Bozzoli
Maria Eugenia Bozzoli is professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Costa Rica. She is also an elected member of the University Council of the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED), Costa Rica, representing the Costa Rican national community. Heartfelt thanks to my friends Dr. Anita Herzfeld, Dr. Sheila R. Brutten, Professor Eugenia Ibarra, and Dr. Margarita BolaÒos for reading this presentation and making important suggestions to improve it.
Keeping Ethnography Alive in an Urbanizing World
Roger Sanjek
How do we preserve wide-ranging ethnography, and not retreat to interviews alone, in the dense and increasingly enormous cities of our urbanizing world? Interview-based fieldwork presents several dangers, as well-delineated by Barth. On the other hand, rising demands for historical, political-economic, and theoretical contextualization threaten to overwhelm the distinctive contribution of systematic ethnography. As one solution, several settings for productive urban fieldwork that were utilized in a team study of a multiethnic New York City neighborhood are discussed--commercial locations, houses of worship, secular rituals, and local political fields and arenas. In conclusion, ways are identified in which research in such settings is generative of new fieldwork, more precise contextualization, and more powerful theory.
Keywords: ethnic relations, fieldwork, interviews, urban anthropology, New York City
The Exotic and the Domestic: Regions and Representation in Cultural Anthropology
Paul Shankman and Tracy Bachrach Ehlers
Regional scholarship is an enduring feature of cultural anthropology. But how does work from different regions compare in terms of published scholarship? This article offers some preliminary answers based on a longitudinal study of ethnographic articles in major English-language journals over the past seven decades. The dominance of North America in the early decades of the twentieth century has given way to articles on more exotic areas, especially Oceania, Asia, and Africa. A preliminary explanation of this shift involves graduate programs and academic career paths that favor exotic and "pure" research in contrast to "domestic" and applied research
Key words: regional scholarship, ethnographic representation, graduate programs, applied anthropology, North America
Sowing Discord, Planting Doubts: Rhetoric and Reality in an Environment and Development Project in Honduras
William M. Loker
This paper reports results of a quasi-formal monitoring of a major "environment and development" project in the El CajÛn region of central Honduras. This region is a largely rural, agricultural area that has been greatly affected by the construction of the El CajÛn hydroelectric dam, the largest dam in Central America. The dam flooded extensive areas of prime agricultural land and, due to mismanaged resettlement efforts, the vast majority of local residents remained in the region. After years of neglect by the state, the area around the reservoir has recently been the site of a major project designed to improve both the management of natural resources and the quality of life of rural residents. This paper reviews the problems associated with the newly implemented development project. It explores the social causes of project failure and suggests what role social scientists might play in improving project performance.
Keywords: environment, development, reforestation, Latin America, Honduras
Who Are Brazil's IndÌgenas? Contributions of Census Data Analysis to Anthropological Demography of Indigenous Populations
David P. Kennedy and Stephen G. Perz
With the goal of fostering discussion of anthropological demography, we assess Brazil's indigenous population using data from the 1991 census. We assert that an anthropological demography that includes the use of census data can help maximize the validity and reliability of social research. Despite problems with the conceptualization, coverage, and reporting of indÌgenas in Brazil's 1991 census, the first part of the analysis shows that census-based and key-informant-based estimates of indigenous populations in Brazil match very well. Given that the census data are no worse than those of other sources, the last part of the analysis projects Brazil's indÌgena population, and the results indicate rapid growth, from 294,000 in 1991 to 386,000 in 2001. These findings bear implications for ethnographic research on Brazilian Indians, the role of anthropologists in census enumerations, political strategies of Brazil's indigenist movement, and changes in state Indian policies.
Key words: anthropological demography, indigenous population, indigenism, Brazil
Shooting Galleries, Dope Houses, and Injection Doctors: Examining the Social Ecology of HIV Risk Behaviors Among Drug Injectors in Dayton, Ohio
Robert G. Carlson
The social contexts in which drug injection occurs, the social roles drug injectors assume, and associated risk behaviors for infection with blood-borne pathogens remain inadequately understood. This study is based on over 10 years of ethnographic research among drug injectors in Dayton, Ohio. Specifically, fieldnotes from participant observation and semistructured interviews are used to deconstruct what constitutes a "shooting gallery" from the perspective of drug injectors. In addition, the social role of individuals who inject others for a fee--"injection doctors"--is examined. Results demonstrate that shooting galleries differ significantly from the accepted epidemiological concept which highlights the presence of needle renting-a practice that increases risk for infection with HIV, HBV, and HCV. Results suggest that needle renting did not occur in Dayton's shooting galleries after 1989. Shooting galleries differ significantly across geographic space, thereby suggesting that quantitative studies based on a common definition may be misleading. Because injection doctors assume significant control of the injection process, they should be targeted in AIDS prevention efforts. Ethnographic examination of social roles and the social contexts in which drug injection occurs can complement epidemiological studies and improve AIDS prevention efforts.
Keywords: AIDS prevention, injection drug use, HIV risk behaviors, injection doctors, shooting galleries, U.S.
Food Insecurity among Low-Income Hispanics in Hartford, Connecticut: Implications for Public Health Policy
David A. Himmelgreen, Rafael Perez-Escamilla, Sofia Segura-Millan,Yu-Kuei Peng, Anir Gonzalez, Merrill Singer, Ann Ferris
During the last two decades hunger has reemerged as an important social issue in the United States. As a result, efforts were initiated to adequately define hunger and food insecurity (i.e., limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods) and to develop appropriate indicators for their measurement. The purpose of this study is to examine hunger and food insecurity among low-income Hispanic families with children in Hartford, Connecticut, using the Radimer/Cornell Scale. Additionally, the association of specified sociodemographic and food-assistance variables with hunger and food insecurity in this population are examined. Findings are compared to local and national data and implications for public health nutrition policy are discussed. More than 41 percent of households were food insecure, 25.4 percent of the adult participants were food insecure, and 20.9 percent of the study children (1-6 years) suffered from periodic hunger. These data corroborate an earlier study conducted in Hartford during the late 1980s, and the finding on child hunger is similar to that reported in national studies. Specific variables associated with hunger and food insecurity included: female caretaker being the household head, female caretaker being older, study child not being enrolled in a preschool/kindergarten program, and household running out of food stamps before the end of the month. Although not statistically significant, household seeking emergency food assistance was also associated with hunger and food insecurity. By using estimates and risk factors of hunger and food insecurity, policy makers can monitor prevalence rates, better target food programs intended to alleviate hunger, and make informed decisions on public health nutrition policy. This is particularly important in light of recent welfare reforms. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first application of the Radimer/Cornell Scale to U.S. inner-city Hispanics.
Key words: food insecurity, hunger, inner city, Hispanics, United States
Rationality and Solidarities: The Social Organization of Common Property Resources in the Imdrhas Valley of Morocco
Peggy Petrzelka and Michael M. Bell
Dominant theories of common property resource systems (CPRs) draw principally from the rational choice tradition. While this perspective has contributed to our understanding of common property issues, there are still missing features. The one we believe can both contextualize rationality and CPRs within the larger social system is recognition of the social dynamism between solidarities based on interests and solidarities based on sentiments. We argue that collective action is an interactive process where both interests and sentiments mutually constitute and reconstitute each other through a dialogue of solidarities. Using this approach, we examine two Imazighen communities in southern Morocco and the social organization of their CPRs. While both communities have the same established rules for managing their CPRs, there are distinct differences in what occurs on them. These differences are due to more than individual actors' private calculations of personal gain. They can be equally attributed to the character of social ties in each community as a whole--ties of interests and sentiments seemingly far removed from the particular CPR. We present the dialogue of solidarities as an important point of analytic entry into the dynamics of CPRs.
Key words: common property resources, community, Morocco
Revisiting Lofoten: Co-Managing Fish Stocks or Fishing Space?
Petter Holm, Bj¯rn Hersoug, and Stein Arne RÂnes
The Lofoten fishery has become a paradigmatic case of co-management. In light of the recent changes in the regulatory system in Lofoten, this paper takes a new look at the management institution in the Lofoten fishery. Our main interest lies not in empirical observation, however, but in the use to which the Lofoten case has been put in the co-management tradition. In what sense does the Lofoten fishery represent a co-management system? What is "co-managed" in Lofoten? We argue that co-management in Lofoten is more about fishing space than fish stocks. Furthermore, we argue that the misreading of the Lofoten case reflects a more general weakness of the co-management literature of not taking seriously the inherent problems of fisheries resource management.
Keywords: fisheries, co-management, common property theory, Norway
Advancing Applied Anthropology: Joe Hill in Cyberspace: Steps Toward Creating"One Big Union":
Applied Anthropologists amidst Immigrants, Insurgents, and Corporate Raiders
Robert A. Hackenberg
Globalization and Anthropology: Expanding the Options
David A. Cleveland
Key words: globalization, objectivism, constructivism, sustainability, epistemology, indigenous knowledge, agriculture
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