John Paddock

Violence and Sociality in Human Evolution [and Comments and Replies]

A high gain digital phase comparator which in digital phase lock loop systems can give a thousand-fold reduction in ripple and close-in noise sideband amplitudes. The comparator is of the sample-and-hold type but the normal ramp reference waveform is replaced by a trapezoidal waveform with a very steep rising or falling slope generated by a trapezoidal waveform generator. This slope is sampled by a sampling circuit coupled to said generator and its steepness gives the increased gain of the phase comparator leading to the reduced noise and ripple. Additional logic and switching circuits are added to make the comparator operate only during a rising edge of the trapezoidal waveform.

Engendering Tomb 7 at Monte Alban: Respinning an Old Yarn [and Comments and Reply]

A contextual analysis of material culture recovered from Tomb 7 at Monte Alban suggests a radical reinterpretation f the gender identification of the tombs principal individual. Spinning and weaving implements found with the burial, previously interpreted as a male, indicate the strong possibility that the individual was gender-female. A reinterpretation fthe skeletal remains as presented in the published accounts further indicates that the osteological evidence is ambiguous at best and the skeleton may have been of a biological female. Finally, the total assemblage is considered in reference to the religious and gender ideologies of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to suggest that Tomb 7 may have been an important shrine to Lady 9 Grass, a principal member of the Mixtec Mother Goddess complex. This paper points up the necessity of periodic reevaluations of accepted wisdom that may have been developed under theoretical paradigms that minimized cultural diversity.

The Prehistory of the Southeastern Maya Periphery

THE VERITABLE EXPLOSION of archaeological research activity in the Maya area during the past 15 years has affected primarily the core areas of prehistoric Maya cultural development: the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala and the lowlands of Guatemala and Yucatan (Adams 1969). Contrary to this trend, the investigations of the Chalchuapa Archaeological Project have focused upon an important population and ceremonial center on the periphery of the Maya area in the southeastern highlands of El Salvador. Despite its long characterization as a frontier between Maya and non-Maya peoples (Lothrop 1939, Longyear 1947), this area has never been subjected to the systematic problem-oriented archaeological investigation necessary to the discovery of the actual nature of this region in pre-Columbian times. The investigations of the Chalchuapa Archaeological Project provide for the first time data bearing upon the entire prehistoric time-span of a major site in this Maya frontier region (fig. 1). The research coincided with the important excavations by Andrews (1970) at

Ecological Theory and Cultural Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca [and Comments and Reply]

A number of researchers have recently challenged the usefulness of cultural ecology for explaining pre-Hispanic ultural evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca. We address those criticisms and attempt to show how a rather traditional ecological model is at least consonant with the data. Our aim is not so much to demonstrate the greater explanatory power of our model in comparison with the arguments of the researchers of the Valley of Oaxaca projects as to show that the published data do not permit he rejection of either.

The Economic Systems of Ancient Oaxaca: A Regional Perspective [and Comments and Reply]

Archaeological data from a regional settlement pattern survey of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, are used to monitor how scarce goods and resources were allocated to members of society through eight phases from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1520. The goal is to determine how distinct historical social structures performed economically in terms of the goods and resources recoverable archaeologically. Measures utilized include land use and settlement characteristics, domestic architectural space, public architecture, pottery, obsidian, and a number of other artifact classes. The results show consistent linkages between specific land use and population variables and specific artifactual items in ways suggesting that political control, or lack thereof, structured the economy in patterned ways. Other factors, including urbanization and boundary permeability, are influential but not as persistently involved as political power. These results show how regional-scale archaeological data can be used to sharpen theoretical understanding of the evolution of political/economic systems.

The Hypoglycemia-Aggression Hypothesis: Debate versus Research [and Comments and Reply]

In a critical evaluation of work by Ralph Bolton on the relationship between hypoglycemia and aggression among the Qolla of Peru, Ted Lewellen has argued that the Qolla are not highly aggressive, that they have been the victims of pseudoscientific stereotyping and prejudice, that they are not especially prone to problems in glucose homeostasis, and that whatever aggression they display can be explained in large part by their consumption of alcohol. This article offers a refutation of Lewellens claims. Following an examination of the evidence on Qolla homicide rates, the author discusses Lewellens explanations for the inconsistent conclusions of different ethnographers concerning levels of aggression in Qolla society. He rejects Lewellens hypotheses and proposes alternatives. A review of the literature on the hypoglycemia-aggression hypothesis shows that, contrary to Lewellens assertion, there is considerable support for a relationship between these two phenomena. The article concludes with a discussion of the problem of stereotyping and of ethical issues related to research with strong policy implications.

The Alleged Diffusion of Hindu Divine Symbols into Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: A Critique [and Comments and Reply]

Parallels between certain religous symbols in Hindu and Mesoamerican cultures have been drawn by three modern writers and adduced as evidence suggestive of trans-Pacific diffusion of Hindu influences dating to about the mid-1st millennium A.D. and later. The symbols concerned are those of the deities of the lunar asterisms and the planets-the naksatra and navagrahah series, respectively-of the Hindus as compared with the structural features and symbolsof the 20-day period in the 260-day Tzolkin/Tonalpohualli sacred calendar of Mesoamerica, with a series of nine lunar hieroglyphs of the Maya, and with certain groups of deities of the Aztecs and the Zapotecs. These comparisons seem feeble not only because they are superficial and intrinsically contradictory, but also because they are opposed by a vast body of variations in Hindu religious symbolism. Furthermore, they are chronologically incompatible with historical events and, for these several reasons, are rejected. The arguments against these comparisons of imagined parallels have broader implications concerning the totally independent development of astronomical-astrological beliefs among pre-Columbian societies isolated from the Old World, and they illustrate the hazards of utilizing a veneer of religious data that would obscure this independence.

Comments and Replies

S ociologists Peterson and Berger (1975; henceforward PB Anderson et al. 1980). In fact, Peterson and Bergers work was mentioned by Douglas Greer, an expert witness in Federal Trade Commission v. Warner Communications, Inc. (1984, U.S. District Court, Central District, CA), as evidence that a proposed merger between Warner and Polygram would have deleterious effects on consumer welfare because the merger would result in higher industry concentration and hence less product diversity. I develop a new measure of product diversity and use it to present evidence that contradicts one of P&Bs primary results. According to P&B, market concentration affects the diversity of products offered in a linear fashion: The more concentrated the industry, the less the diversity of product. My findings suggest that both low and high levels of market concentration are associated with decreased product diversity, and that maximum diversity results from a moderately concentrated market structure.