Michael H. Logan

Ethnography and bioassay: combined methods for a preliminary screen of home remedies for potential pharmacological activity

This paper introduces a combined set of anthropological and biological research techniques that allow a single researcher to conduct a field-based screen of ethnopharmaceutical resources, even under difficult field conditions. The results of one such screen, presented here, indicate that the most commonly used remedies in an ethnomedical system are also those most likely to contain active constituents. Several pragmatic and theoretical considerations deriving from these results are discussed.

Variations regarding Susto causality among the cakchiquel of Guatemala

George Fosters model of ‘personalistic’ and ‘naturalistic’ disease theories is employed in the present analysis of fright-sickness among Cakchiquel villagers in highland Guatemala. Field data from Panajachel and San Antonio Aguas Calientes suggest that pronounced intrasocietal competition favors personalistic interpretation, with sorcery cited as the ultimate source, rather than naturalistic interpretation, which emphasizes chance or destiny. Village differences in subsistence ecology and internal competition apparently underlie variations in both the social function and assumed etiology of fright-sickness.

New lines of inquiry on the illness of Susto

The folk-illness of susto has long captured the interest of anthropologists. A review of the literature reveals a multitude of competing ideas as to its biological basis, its epidemiological patterning, and why it persists as it does. The present essay offers not only a summation of much of the research done on fright-sickness to date, but also suggests a number of new lines of inquiry that, when completed, will advance our understanding of this widely spread, yet still to be fully understood, ethnomedical disease category.

Why Does head form change in children of immigrants? A reappraisal

We test two specific hypotheses that explain the cranial changes Boas observed in Hebrews and Sicilians, namely that Hebrew change results from abandoning cradling of infants in America, while in Sicilians it results from impaired growth in America.

An evolutionary perspective on maladaptive traits and cultural conformity

The problem of maladaptive cultural traits is explored through the notion of adaptive psychological mechanisms. It is suggested that the theory of a specific conformity mechanism is plausible, supported by multidisciplinary data, and helpful in explaining the proliferation and persistence of human maladaptive behavior.

Prevalence of endoparasitic infection in children and its relation with cholera prevention efforts in Mexico

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether increased knowledge and use of public health measures promoted for cholera prevention is reflected in lower prevalence of parasitic infection in households in a community in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, that is close to the border with the United States of America. METHODS Between 1994 and 1997, fecal samples from 438 children were collected through convenience sampling and then examined for helminth eggs/larvae and protozoan cysts as biologic indicators of household compliance with recommended cholera prevention measures. The suggested measures were to wash hands before meals and after defecation, to drink purified water, to wash fruits and vegetables, and to eat well-cooked food. In addition, information on the knowledge of and the use of cholera preventive measures was collected by interviews with adult informants in 252 households (186 of those households also provided a fecal sample for analysis). RESULTS Parasitic infections occurred in 131 of the 438 children (30%), who resided in 79 of the 186 households (42%) that provided fecal samples. Giardia lamblia accounted for 12.5% of all infections. Infections with Hymenolepis nana, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Enterobius vermicularis, Ancylostoma/Necator, Strongyloides stercoralis, Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba hartmanni, Entamoeba histolytica, Endolimax nana, and Iodamoeba bütschlii were also noted. Infected children were older and more often had an infected sibling. Households with three or more children were also more likely to have an infected child. The primary caregivers in the households where at least one child had a parasitic infection were distinguished by their inability to list at least three cholera prevention measures from memory. CONCLUSIONS The 42% household prevalence of parasitic infection was relatively high and indicates that some residents of this community may not have fully embraced the public health education efforts promoted for prevention of cholera. The occurrence of nonpathogenic protozoan parasites such as Endolimax nana, Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba hartmanni, and I. bütschlii are important bioindicators for the persistence of unhygienic behaviors that increase the risk of cholera and other infectious diseases dependent on fecal-oral transmission. Information obtained by similar studies can be useful for monitoring compliance with community health and hygiene programs and may indicate the need to intensify educational efforts for the prevention of diarrhea associated with enteric pathogens that cannot be controlled by drugs alone.

Cranial modification among 19th century Osages: Admixture and loss of an ethnic marker

Abstract Among 19th century Osage full-bloods, a modified cranium, specifically a flattened occiput, was an integral part of ethnic expression. An early archival source documenting this practice is a sculpted bust of Black Spirit, who, along with five other members of the Osage tribe, toured Paris in 1827, where a local artisan skillfully crafted this marble likeness of an exotic visitor from America’s frontier. When viewed in profile this bust clearly depicts a tabular occiput. Comparative study of 124 Osages measured by Franz Boas and colleagues at the close of the 19th century reveals that the majority of mixed-bloods did not possess altered crania, while full-bloods did. It will be demonstrated thatlndian-white marriages created a domestic environment where parents chose not to utilize a cradleboard as part of infant care. Their probable motives for this decision will also be explored. The craniometric data analyzed in this report document an important form of culture change among admixed Osage Indians at the close of the 19th century.

Fluidity of Meaning: Flag Imagery in Plains Indian Art

american indian quarterly/fall 2002/vol. 26, no. 4 559 The history of Indian-white relations reveals a seemingly endless succession of losses endured by Native Americans: their autonomy, most of their lands, and much of their traditional cultures. By 1900 the population of peoples indigenous to North America had fallen from a precontact base estimated as high as 10,000,000 to an all-time low of 375,000 for the continent and 237,196 for the United States.1 For many smaller tribes the synergistic effects of introduced diseases, indiscriminate slaughter, famine, and cultural disruption proved to be insurmountable. Their fate, sadly, was extinction, with the Yahi of northern California being the most widely known case of white-induced Native American genocide.2 Tribes managing to escape this plight weathered the same hardships in addition to new ones: relocation, broken treaties, economic dependency and racism, imprisonment, forced schooling, and denial of our country’s constitutional rights. Native Americans today are the heirs, more so victors, of five centuries of brutal mistreatment by the U.S. government, state militias, and, earlier, American-born colonists as well as colonists, military troops, and explorers from Britain, France, Spain, and other foreign countries. Given the undeniably harsh nature of Indian-white relations, the emergence of flag imagery in late-nineteenth-century Plains Indian art represents one of the most intriguing paradoxes confronting scholars who specialize in the analysis of Native American material culture.3 Use of the flag motif was neither an infrequent nor geographically isolated practice among Indian peoples during the late 1800s and early 1900s. An examination of the two major publications on this topic—Toby Herbst and Joel Kopp’s The Flag in American Indian Art and Richard Pohrt’s The American Indian, the American Flag—reveals that nearly forty tribes from nine different culture areas utilized flag imagery to a greater or lesser degree.4 Many northeastern tribes, as well as the Navajo of the Southwest, used the flag motif primarily on objects that were to be sold in the curio trade. Flag imagery, however, appears most commonly in Plains Indian art and, more specifically, in Lakota (Teton or western Sioux) quill embroidery Fluidity of Meaning

The origin of tribal styles: An evolutionary perspective on plains Indian art

Herbst, Toby, and Joel Kopp. The Flag in American Indian Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1993. 120 pp. including references.

Inverted Flags in Plains Indian Art: A Hidden Transcript

40.00 cloth,