Peter Morley

Abstracts and Reviews : 1. General and Theoretical Issues: SEMANTIC ANTHROPOLOGY edited by DAVID PARKIN. London: Academic Press, 1982. Cloth

canons of Western science and epistemology. But, as Scholte (1969) has correctly observed, anthropology &dquo;is never only scientific&dquo;. Indeed, it is &dquo;expressive or symptomatic of a presupposed cultural world of which it is itself an integral part&dquo;. By now it should be accepted that scientific traditions should not be taken for granted. Rather, they should be subjected to reflexive understanding, hermeneutic mediation and philosophical critique. It follows, argues Scholte, that &dquo;epistemological reflection (the assessment of ethnological assumptions entailed in the possibility and constitution of any anthropological knowledge whatsoever) must complement, if not precede, scientific activity proper&dquo;. The rise of the so-called New Ethnography, as represented by Pike (1954) signalled an attempt to improve ethnographic description and analysis through the systematic application of linguistic paradigms particularly as these apply to phonology and grammar. This attempt to operationalize the semantic framework of description, while replete with epistemological problems, did focus ethnographic attention (albeit within the tradition of cultural idealism)

30.00, Paperback

mental Health, Cultural Values, and Social Development reports the results of the 1981 Manila Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health. One cannot avoid noting a certain troubling irony in such a humanistic enterprise taking place in a country where the government tends to regard human rights with considerable contempt. Indeed President Marcos in his &dquo;welcome remarks&dquo; appears to have suddenly achieved enlightenment when he exclaims that &dquo;it would not be wrong to say that a nation’s state of mental health is

18.00, 410 pages

ed by: A.M. Ghadirian

Abstracts and Reviews : 1. General and Theoretical Issues

ed by H. B. M. Murphy

Abstracts and Reviews : MENTAL HEALTH AND HISPANIC AMERICANS; CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES edited by ROSINA BECERRA, MARVIN KARNO, and JAVIER I. ESCOBAR. New York: Gune and Stratton, 1982.

The task the authors have set for themselves is large: an examination of an aflluent Eskimo community &dquo;newly class stratified, economically powerful, and burdened by alcohol.&dquo; In Part I, the historical and sociocultural context of the study is presented. &dquo;North Village&dquo; (a pseudonym), 450 miles north of the Arctic Circle and less than an hour by air from Prudoe Bay, is described and its colonial history, economic development, and the development of United States federal policy toward the native population are discussed. Of particular interest is a discussion of North Village as a &dquo;colony within

24.50, 232 pages

ed by Erika Bourguignon

Abstracts and Reviews : 4. Europe and North America: "MISPLACED PERSONS" — THE CRISIS OF EMOTIONAL SEPARATION IN GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY AND UPROOTEDNESS: A CONTEMPORARY GRAPES OF WRATH IN THE AMERICAN SUNBELT by HOWARD F. STEIN. Paper presented at the Third Annual Con ference of the High Plains Regional Section, Society for Applied Anthropology, 18-20 February, 1983, Denver, Colorado. Mimeo graphed, 32 pages

ed by Peter Morley THE VULGARIZATION OF OCCAMS RAZOR: TANAINA ETHNOPSYCHIATRY, PAST AND PRESENT by ARTHUR E. HIPPLER. Manuscript, 17 pages. The Tanaina Indians are a Na-Dene speaking Athabaskan group living in south central and southwest Alaska. This paper follows nine previous articles by Hippler on the subject of Tanaina cultural personality. His research is based on ethnographic observations as well as on numerous Rorschach protocols and Thematic Apperception Test protocols obtained in the field and analysed by George DeVos and Richard Day. His thesis is that previously elaborate Tanaina ethnopsychiatric beliefs have been replaced by a paucity of theory about emotional disorder. The sole surviving dynamic aspect of traditional explanation is a system of spirit beliefs which reflects fatalistic punitive projections. The elaborate traditional Tanaina culture has been trimmed down by a vulgar &dquo;Occams Razor&dquo; to minimal elaborations which the author proposes reflect parallel changes in cultural personality. Aboriginal Tanaina ethnopsychiatric beliefs were based on theories which stressed spirit possession and sympathetic magic and combined herbal remedies, bloodletting, and shamanistic practice. For example, hot compresses of utical lyallii were used for rheumatism, and no doubt the thermal effect was often beneficial. Other herbs were used in infusion and in topical applications of pastes. Psychiatric disorders were, for the most part, treated magically by transferring the offending spirit into a &dquo;devil doll.&dquo; Sometimes shamans sucked magical

ESKIMO CAPITALISTS: OIL POLITICS AND ALCOHOL by SAMUEL Z. KLAUSNER and EDWARD F. FOULKS. New Jersey: Allan- held, Osmun and Co., 1982. 343 pages,

ed by Peter Morley