Jules J. Wanderer

1967 Riots: A Test of the Congruity of Events

The stereotypical conception of crowd behavior as bizarre and incongruous is empirically examined through the development and analysis of a Guttman scale of riot severity for 75 civil-criminal disorders. It is found that certain aspects of civil-criminal disorders fail to support some of the assumptions about collective behavior made in the spirit of the LeBon tradition.

Black magic beliefs and white magic practices: The common structure of intimacy, tradition, and power

In this article, black magic beliefs and white magic practices among a group of Mexican-American women are shown to share common multidimensional organizing principles, uncovered in a smallest space analysis to be: intimacy, tradition, and power. A subsequent analysis of intimacy permits a reexamination of the role-location of the curandera in the healing hierarchy.

Film Award Choices Critics and the Academy

Three sources—domain experts, consumers, and professional film critics—engage in the recognition and validation of cinematic excellence. Each signals its approbation with awards, ratings, reviews, and lists of the best. Notwithstanding a generous body of research, congruence among these sources remains unclear. For example, research findings show the influence of critics’ reviews on box office receipts—consumers—vary from strong to nil. Some studies report similarities in critics’ and consumers’ cinematic taste; others report differences. This article seeks a clarification of one facet of the role of critics in the recognition of cinematic excellence by comparing critics’ film award choices—not their ratings—with Oscar awards, in four categories: best actor, actress, director, and film. For each pair of award categories, chi-squares were performed on cross-classifications of the frequency of critics’ choices matching Oscar’s. Cramer’s V sheds light on auteur theory, actress–actor differences, and coat-tail effects of best film awards.

Curanderismo and childhood illnesses

Abstract While classification schemes of beliefs about adult folk illnesses are found in the literature on curanderismo, scant attention has been given to folk-related childhood illnesses, such as caida de la mollera (fallen fontanel), mal aigre (evil air), mal ojo (evil eye), susto (magical fright), and tirisia (anxiety). This paper reports results of a factor analysis of beliefs held by Hispanic women that are used to (1) examine how well patterns of childhood illnesses are described by classificatory schemes of adult folk illnesses; and (2) provide a basis for the development of a classification of beliefs about childhood illnesses.

Community Size and Participation in Great Decisions

At the outset, it should be noted that this report is not based upon information obtained from a representative sample of participants, but rather, upon data supplied by volunteers. Consequently, the following comments apply only to those persons who are kit-purchasers and questionnaire returners. This qualification is necessitated by the character of the sampling procedure which, in turn, reflects conditions dictated by the program. Characteristically, participation in Great Decisions is anonymous, that is to say, persons typically purchase kits at public places without having to identify themselves in any way. Further, under certain circumstances, persons need not purchase a kit in order