Volume 60, No. 1, Spring 2001


Culture, Politics, and Toxic Dinoflagellate Blooms: The Anthropology of Pfiesteria

Michael Paolisso and Erve Chambers

Applied anthropologists have joined forces with biological scientists in studying the community and health effects of toxic dinoflagellate blooms. This paper presents findings from a number of investigations of the cultural, political, and health consequences of Pfiesteria blooms. We argue that a unique role for applied anthropology is to identify the cultural models of pollution and health that individuals draw upon to understand complex environmental problems such as dinoflagellate blooms. We also argue that anthropology must consider the political factors that sharpen stakeholder interest in environmental events and that lead to competing policies and initiatives for natural resource management and use. We review prior studies dealing with Pfiesteria, discuss our field research, and conclude with recommendations for applying a holistic approach to the study of blooms and related environmental problems.

Key words: environmental anthropology, cultural models, political ecology, toxic blooms, policy

Cross-Cultural Applicability Research on Disablement: Models and Methods for the Revision of an International Classification

Robert T. Trotter, II, Bedirhan Ustun, Somnath Chatterji, Juergen Rehm, Robin Room, and Jerome Bichenbach

The World Health Organization (WHO) has undertaken the revision of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH), originally adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1980. The existing classification has been criticized for not meeting the modern standards of cross-cultural applicability necessary for an international classification. A field-based empirical test of a revised version of the ICIDH was conducted in 17 centers in 15 nations, following extensive discussions among WHO collaborating centers, advocacy groups, representatives of disabilities organizations, governmental health programs, consultants, researchers, and WHO staff. The ICIDH Cross-Cultural Applicability Study utilized a suite of 6 ethnographic and statistical methods chosen to test 12 different aspects of the cross-cultural validity of the classification system and the revision process. The selected methods include: 1) descriptive narratives about disablements in the local culture; 2) translation and language analysis protocols; 3) pile sorting; 4) concept mapping; 5) key informant interviews with ranking exercises; and 6) focus groups. The data produced by these methods were found to be extremely valuable in revising the ICIDH classification and in developing disability-assessment instruments linked to the ICIDH.

Key words: disabilities, handicap, impairments, international classification, ethnographic methods, ICIDH-2

Comparing Two Methods for Estimating Network Size

Christopher McCarty, Peter D. Killworth, H. Russell Bernard, Eugene C. Johnsen, and Gene A. Shelley

In this paper we compare two methods for estimating the size of personal networks using a nationally representative sample of the United States. Both methods rely on the ability of respondents to estimate the number of people they know in specific subpopulations of the U.S. (e.g., diabetics, Native Americans) and people in particular relation categories (e.g., immediate family, coworkers). The results demonstrate a remarkable similarity between the average network size generated by both methods (approximately 291). Similar results were obtained with a separate national sample. An attempt to corroborate our estimates by replication among a population we suspect has large networks (clergy), yielded a larger average network size. Extensive investigation into the existence of response effects showed some preference for using certain numbers when making estimates, but nothing that would significantly affect the estimate of network size beyond about 6 percent. We conclude that both methods for estimating personal network size yield valid and reliable proxies for actual network size, but questions about accuracy remain.

Key words: network size, hard-to-count populations, telephone survey

Finding the Field: Notes on the Ethnography of NGOs

Lisa Markowitz

Studying globalization challenges disciplinary traditions that implicitly privilege a geographically demarcated field and classic models of ethnographic fieldwork. Understanding transnational processes calls for innovative, multilocal research strategies that both capture people’s perceptions of change and analyze the interconnecting systems. Although the study of large, “southern” NGOs that link international donors and community-based groups offers one such strategy, it also generates a series of methodological complications associated with discerning the contours of the ethnographic field itself and the researcher’s position in the volatile NGO sector. These issues are addressed in relation to the author’s current fieldwork in Andean southern Peru.

Key words: NGOs, development, ethnography, transnational research, Peru

Mexican Immigrants and Informal Self-Employment in Chicago

Rebeca Raijman

This research is based on a case study of ethnic entrepreneurship in Little Village, a predominantly Mexican community in Chicago. The study focuses on Mexicans, who have been understudied in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship. Instead of focusing on individuals who operate storefront businesses, this paper addresses informal self-employment, a neglected issue in studies concerning immigrants’ incorporation into the labor market of the host society. By broadening the scope of the study to include not only business owners, but a full range of self-employment activities among Little Village residents, such as street vending, house repairs, and baby-sitting, this study dispels myths about the low propensity for self-employment among Mexicans and reveals the complexity of self-employment as a form of economic activity. This consideration is particularly important for immigrant women, who often supplement family income through informal self-employment. The data also confirm that most self-employment remains marginal. Given the precarious situation of Mexican immigrants in the host labor market, many individuals become informally self-employed when they lose their jobs. Informal self-employment provides incomes for people whose social circumstances (undocumented status or low education) deny them access to paid jobs and supplements incomes of low-wage salaried workers (moonlighters).

Key words: informal economy, self-employment, Mexican immigrants, Chicago

Pesticide Use and Safety Training in Mexico: The Experience of Farmworkers Employed in North Carolina

Thomas A. Arcury, Sara A. Quandt, Pamela Rao, and Gregory B. Russell

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the United States are now overwhelmingly immigrants from Mexico. Pesticide exposure among these farmworkers is a major occupational health concern; however, little research has considered the agricultural pesticide use and safety experiences of these workers in their communities of origin. This analysis uses survey data collected by the PACE project to delineate the farming and pesticide use experiences of Mexican-born farmworkers in North Carolina. Over 80 percent of the 277 Mexican-born farmworkers had done agricultural work in Mexico, including work on their own farms (93%) and as hired farm labor (35%). Almost two-thirds of those farmworkers with farming experience had used pesticides, but only about one-third of those who used pesticides had received pesticide safety training or information. Most of those who used pesticides had used some form of safety equipment. Those who had worked as hired farm labor in Mexico were more likely to have used pesticides and safety equipment, and to have received safety training and information. Those who spoke an indigenous language at home rather than Spanish were less likely to have used pesticides and to have received safety training and information. These results demonstrate that farmworkers coming to the U.S. from Mexico arrive with a variety of experiences with pesticide usage and pesticide safety training. Such experiences form the framework within which farmworkers understand the relationship of pesticide usage to human health. It is important for occupational health and safety programs directed to farmworkers in the U.S. to consider the experiences these workers bring from their communities of origin.

Key words: migrant farmworkers, pesticide safety, agriculture, community-based research, Latinos, North Carolina

Colonist Farm Income, Off-Farm Work, Cattle, and Differentiation in Ecuador’s Northern Amazon

Laura L. Murphy

Examination of income sources and other characteristics among agricultural colonists in Ecuador’s northern Amazon reveals economic differentiation of the frontier associated with farming, off-farm work, and cattle raising. Regression models use data from a unique, representative farm-level survey in 1990. As expected, farm income is higher on large, fertile, extensively cultivated plots near roads. Evidently, greater start-up capital helps some migrants, enabling the purchase of better land, title, credit, cattle, and other assets. Off-farm work results from positive and negative factors: involvement in low-paying agricultural work (jornalero) is common among recent settlers and those with little farm income; at the same time, wealthier, better-educated, larger, households choose lucrative nonagricultural work. In turn, they hire more farmworkers, earn more farm income, and invest in pasture and cattle. A third model examines cattle income, which is more important among households with greater start-up capital, more land, a legal title, and Sierran origins (regardless of labor availability). The varied status of frontier households is thus associated with farming, off-farm work, and cattle raising, livelihood activities that result from differentials in wealth before migrating, combined with frontier conditions and household characteristics. The settlement of Ecuador’s Oriente has thus achieved very modest success in redistributing some land and livelihood to people without land. Yet, at the same time, settlement is also providing more land to those who already had land, setting off a process of differentiation that parallels highland disparities (the Andeanization of the Amazon) as well as colonization processes across the globe. Jointly, rich and poor colonists are deforesting Ecuador’s rich “hot spot” of biological diversity through their distinctive activities. Some policies to aid small farmers, prevent further pasture extensification, and promote more ecologically sound livelihoods in this region are suggested, based on the statistical findings and supplementary fieldwork in the 1990s.

Key words: differentiation, income, deforestation, Amazon, Ecuador

Development and Tribal Agricultural Economy in a Yao Mountain Village in Northern Thailand

Li Jian

This paper examines the impact of development upon a tribal agricultural economy. Through an analysis of the major changes in agricultural orientation, production, and investment in “Greenhill,” a Yao mountain village in northern Thailand, it argues that development can both promote and retard a tribal economy, depending on its foci, orientation, methodology, implementation, and local circumstances. Using the Royal Hilltribe Development Program (RHDP) as an example, it demonstrates how development may positively contribute to a tribal people’s long-term well-being. The paper further illuminates the fact that ecological, economic, and social sustainability, the three major requirements of sustainable agriculture, often determine the outcomes of a development program. This case study contributes to the understanding of development issues in tribal societies in Thailand as well as in other parts of Southeast Asia.

Key words: development, sustainability, tribal agricultural economy, Thailand, Yao