Volume 61, No. 4, Winter 2002
Anthropology and Development: Evil Twin or Moral Narrative?
David D. Gow
The academy has chosen to categorize development anthropology as the discipline’s evil twin, since the livelihoods of those in the academy depend upon the intensive study of those whom development anthropology would change forever. But development anthropology can also be viewed as a project that provides a moral narrative, based on ethical concerns, that justifies involvement in the fate of others. These concerns are examined through four lenses: the postmodern critique of anthropology, an examination of what development anthropologists really do, the argument for an engaged anthropology, and the contribution of development ethics. By embedding development anthropology in this broader philosophical and historical context, it can then be viewed, and perhaps appreciated, as the discipline’s moral—rather than its evil—twin.
Key words: values, ethics, praxis, meaning, engagement, development anthropology
Strengthening Rapid Assessments in Urban Areas: Lessons from Bangladesh and Tanzania
James L. Garrett and Jeanne Downen
Understanding urban issues is extremely important for programming, especially for organizations that have traditionally focused on assisting poor households and communities in rural areas. Development organizations and governments frequently use rapid assessment methods because they have limited resources and little time to devote to longer-term, more complex research projects. Generally these methods employ qualitative techniques to solicit information from relatively small numbers of people in a short time. Researchers have raised questions about the reliability of these methods, and policy makers and other development practitioners, the primary audience for the findings if they are to have impact, sometimes doubt the validity of findings. This paper holds up CARE’s experiences with rapid assessments in Bangladesh and Tanzania to widely accepted criteria for sound social science research: basically, whether feasible and ethical methods can generate accurate, valid, and reliable results that others, such as programmers and policy makers, will find useful. Experiences in Bangladesh and Tanzania suggest that the principal challenges to the validity of rapid assessments in urban areas can be met through use of representative samples; integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches; incorporation of team members with a variety of perspectives, knowledge areas, and professions; and linkages with local organizations and community members who are familiar with the economic, political, social, and cultural context of the city.
Key words: rapid assessment procedures, urban, research methods, livelihood security, Bangladesh, Tanzania
Tracking Pastoralist Migration: Lessons from the Ethiopian Somali National Regional State
Ben Watkins and Michael L. Fleisher
The droughts that ravaged many of the pastoral lowland areas of the Horn of Africa from 1997 to 2000 have drawn attention to the seemingly intractable problem of preventing famine and promoting development in these areas, which are frequently wracked by both natural and man-made calamities. Pastoralists are often among the most vulnerable groups in a society, and yet conventional approaches to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, basic services, and developmental investment are maladapted to pastoral populations, many of whom practice perennial migration utilizing patterns of movement that are only partially understood outside pastoral communities themselves. In this paper, we maintain that special models for service delivery need to be developed to meet the particular demands of pastoralists. Drawing on experiences in the Somali National Regional State of Ethiopia, we advocate for the establishment of a migrant tracking system and trace out the main components of such a system, arguing that any method for collecting and interpreting information on migratory patterns must be driven by a deep analysis of ethnic identity, group structure, and indigenous knowledge systems.
Key words: pastoralism, migration, humanitarian assistance, Ethiopia, Somali
Does Marking Tone Make Tone Languages Easier to Read?
H. Russell Bernard, George N. Mbeh, and W. Penn Handwerker
Among designers of orthographies for previously nonwritten languages, the prevailing wisdom is that native speakers of tone languages need to see at least some tones marked to achieve full literacy in those languages. A counter argument is that marking tone confuses native speakers of tone languages. We report here on an experiment on tone marking in Kom, a language of the Grassfields region of Cameroon. The results show that, for Kom at least, tone marking makes written sentences harder to figure out initially, harder to say, and harder to say correctly. Comparative research using refinements of the methodology described here will help us answer important questions, like whether or not these effects vary with the number of tones in a language or with the linguistic function of tones. The knowledge gained from comparative experiments will help speakers of the world’s nonliterary languages achieve popular literacy in those languages. Popular literacy, we argue, is one of a small number of things that promotes the survival of language diversity.
Key words: tone languages, orthographies, indigenous literacy, field experiments, Kom
Putting the Community Back Into Community-Based Resource Management: A Criteria and Indicators Approach to Sustainability
David C. Natcher and Clifford G. Hickey
Advocates of community-based resource management often depict indigenous communities as homogeneous sites of social consensus. While proving successful at advancing local involvement in the management and decision-making process, these idealized images fail to represent the plurality of values and personal interests nested within indigenous communities. By failing to account for internal diversity, indigenous communities that are now regaining management responsibility for their traditional homelands risk furthering the traditional “top-downism” long inherent in institutionalized resource management. However, in regaining these responsibilities, indigenous communities have an opportunity to implement new and locally defined approaches to management. This paper describes one such community-based process and builds upon the experiences of the Little Red River Cree Nation of Alberta, Canada, to illustrate the challenges and opportunities involved. Specifically, through the use of criteria and performance indicators, derived from multiple community perspectives, the Little Red River Cree Nation has developed a self-improving forest management system that is proving responsive to the values, expectations, and changing needs of community members.
Key words: community, pluralism, co-management, indigenous, sustainability, Cree, Canada
Unofficial Sister Cities: Meatpacking Labor Migration Between Villachuato, Mexico, and Marshalltown, Iowa
Mark A. Grey and Anne C. Woodrick
The meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, is heavily dependent on production workers from one Mexican community. Not only has this plant developed a dependence on these immigrants, but the migrants, their families, and their home town have become economically and socially dependent on the plant. The result of this symbiotic relationship is the establishment of an unofficial “sister city” relationship between Marshalltown and Villachuato, Mexico. This article explores the emergence of this relationship and its consequences for both communities. It also explores some of the implications for the future of rural midwestern communities that depend on transnational migrant labor.
Key words: labor migration, immigration, transnational communities, Mexico, Iowa
Erin Brockovich Doesn’t Live Here: Environmental Politics and “Responsible Care” in Mobile County, Alabama
Mark Moberg
Since the 1950s, the small rural community of Axis, Alabama, has become one of the Southeast’s largest sites of chemical production. Residents attribute numerous public health anomalies to emissions from its chemical plants. Cancer mortality rates in Axis are far greater than state averages, yet organized or individual opposition to the manufacturers has been nearly nonexistent. This paper examines the apparent acquiescence of community residents to elevated rates of cancer and other diseases. Heralded by the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) as an attempt to improve its relationship with hundreds of “host communities” worldwide, the CMA’s “Responsible Care” initiative has enabled the manufacturers in Axis to preempt environmental and health complaints that might threaten their operations. Such strategies are representative of an emergent environmental paradigm that privileges corporate interests over those of nearby residents.
Key words: environmental protest, cancer, chemical industry, Responsible Care, Southern U.S.
2000 Peter K. New Prize Recipient
The Long Haul from Deregulation: Truck Drivers and Social Capital in the Louisiana Oilpatch
Andrew M. Gardner
Southern Louisiana has played host to the oil industry for nearly a century. While much of the contemporary activity is offshore, the communities of southern Louisiana provide labor and support to this vast enterprise. Truck-based transportation is one component of this support industry. In the past, the trucking industry meshed with the social and familial networks of the region, but state-level deregulation has rendered these connections inert. Based on interviews with truck drivers and truck company owners, this paper maps the historic importance of these social networks and gauges the impact of deregulation in social, rather than economic, terms. While the paramount impact of deregulation has been significant losses of power and control by local communities, the aftermath of these policy changes has opened up the trucking industry to new ethnic, geographic, and gender groups.
Key words: truck drivers, oil industry, social capital, Louisiana, Acadiana
