Abraham Rosman

The Evolution of Exchange Structures and Ranking: Some Northwest Coast and Athapaskan Examples

The evolution of the matrilineal societies of the northern Northwest Coast is discussed in terms of a structuralist approach which seeks their antecedent structure. This hypothesized prototype is derived from a synchronic analysis of these societies. Neighboring Athapaskan societies retain this antecedent structure as their dominant structure.

The Past and the Future of Anthropology

TODAY, MANY ANTHROPOLOGISTS ask whether anthropology has a future. Others see the discipline in a stage of disintegration and fragmentation into myriad subdisciples, subspecialities, and interest groups, all of which emphasize their differences and uniqueness rather than what they have in common. Perhaps only the foolhardy would try to contemplate the future of anthropology. Whether anthropology has a future depends to a large extent on whether the parts into which the discipline is fragmented still have some common epistemological base. This paper will explore the current anthropological scene in an attempt to answer that question. No one entering anthropology in the early fifties questioned the coherence of the field, the Boasian four-field approach, or the necessity of the broad training it encompassed. In 1953, it was possible, and deemed appropriate, to summarize everything known in the field in a single encyclopedic volume, Anthropology Today, edited by A.L. Kroeber. But even at that time, no uniform theoretical approach dominated the field. Though different theoretical approaches existed, there was general agreement on anthropological concepts and their meanings, on the topics of concern, and on the basic techniques to be used in the discipline. Most agreed that the concept of culture was central to the definition of the field, but there were hundreds of definitions of this concept (Kroeber and Kluckhohn 1952). In retrospect, we now recognize that anthropologists at that time paid little attention to how anthropological knowledge was produced. Neither the relationship between the fieldwork and the final ethnography nor the effect of the fieldwork situation on the individual anthropologist were considered important opics. Nor did anthropologists attend to the political (colonial) context of the fieldwork and its situation in an ongoing history (see Smith, this issue). The decade ended with the Darwinian centenary and the promise of a growing body of cross-cultural generalizations about human behavior.

Powdermaker's Lesu

Powdermakers study of Lesu was done while she was a student of Malinowskis at the London School of Economics. As such, it reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the functionalist approach. Powdermakers ethnographic description of Lesu treats it as though it was a bounded society unrelated to a wider context. We examine Powdermakers Lesu from the theoretical perspective of anthropology today, as a village within a region having a particular colonial history.

The Evolution of Central Northwest Coast Societies

The evolution of cognatic societies (Kwakiutl, Nootka, and Bella Coola) of the Northwest Coast is derived from a prototype which resembles the social structure of Salish-speaking peoples of the interior of British Columbia (Lillooet and Thompson River).

Chapter 5 Ethnonationalism, Nationalism, Empire: Their Origins and Their Relationship to Power, Conflict and Culture Building

This chapter explores the concepts of ethnic identity, ethnogenesis, ethnonationalism, nationalism and multiculturalism, linking them to a critical analysis of the selective revival of the past. In particular, it looks at the meanings of the concept of ethnonationalism, and at its historical origins, in terms of how it relates to the history of nation building and national culture building, which ethnonationalism represents. Drawing on comparative ethnographic analysis, the chapter examines two opposite processes; the ways in which new ethnic groups are created through a selective reading of the past, and the way in which larger polities are imposed on very different ethnic groups.

Marriage rules and the structure of relationships between groups in New Guinea societies

The marriage practices of New Guinea societies have been seen as almost infinite in their variety. In actual fact, as we shall demonstrate in this paper, a consideration of a sample of New Guinea societies reveals several basic patterns of marriage structure. Further, these patterns represent a series of transformations. The diagnostic variables to be used in our analysis will be introduced in the context of our discussion of Banaro society. It is interesting to note that the comparative literature on New Guinea societies rarely if ever, includes consideration of the study of the Banaro by Richard Thurnwald. This perhaps may be because it is so difficult to make analytic sense of what are seen to be exotic marital and sexual customs. It is not out of perversity that we begin our discussion with the Banaro, but because in the following analysis they represent the basic structure from which other forms will be derived.