Sydel Silverman

Bailey's politics

Stratagems and Spoils: A Social Anthropology of Politics by F. G. Bailey. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1970. Pp. xiv + 240; £2.85 cloth and £1.50 paper. Gifts and Poison: The Politics of Reputation edited by F. G. Bailey. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1971. Pp. 318; £3.50 cloth and £2.00 paper. Debate and Compromise: The Politics of Innovation edited by F. G. Bailey. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1973. Pp. 343; £5.00.

A Social Experiment

Current Anthropology was born out of a meeting of minds of two remarkable individuals. Sol Tax and Paul Fejos were very different personalities, almost polar opposites in their biographies and temperaments, yet they had in common unusual daring, an expansiveness of vision that acknowledged few limits, and a belief in anthropology that went beyond its scholarly value. Paul Fejos, born in Hungary to once-landed gentry, was cosmopolitan, multilingual, multitalented. During World War I he rode with the hussars and flew as a pilot with the air cavalry. He completed medical school, then became a theatrical and film director, first in Europe and later, to considerable acclaim, in Hollywood (a review of his first movie was headlined “Introducing You to Mr. Paul Fejos, Genius”). He came to anthropology by chance, through ventures as an explorer, ethnographic filmmaker, and self-taught archaeologist and ethnologist. After saving the life of Axel Wenner-Gren on a tiger hunt, Fejos persuaded him to establish the Viking Fund in 1941, which 10 years later was renamed for its benefactor. Fejos was a charismatic figure, master of the extravagant gesture, five-times married, whose influence on anthropology through the Wenner-Gren Foundation (WGF) was guided as much by his own instinct as by the advice of the professionals who counseled him. Sol Tax was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Russian Jewish immigrants, secular despite their descent from rabbis, socialist in their political leanings. Tax was small and shy but also entrepreneurial as a boy (Stocking 2000, 173). He discovered anthropology through Ralph Linton at the University of Wisconsin, then completed graduate studies at the University of Chicago, later his long-time academic home. He did extensive fieldwork in Middle America, but his forte was more organizational than theoretical. Tax was earnest, hardworking, personally unprepossessing, a family man. His approach to the world, as summarized by Stocking (2000, 172), was “a mix of liberal democratic enthusiasm, relativist humility, and universalist hubris.” Fejos and Tax met up as members of the National Research

Writing Grant Proposals for Anthropological Research

Most applications will require an abstract of specified length. It should be written after the body of the proposal, as it should cogently summarize the proposals main points and cover, in brief, the three essential questions. Prepare your abstract with great care. It may be the only part of the proposal read for some purposes in the process of evaluation, and it will be used by most readers to remind them of the contents. Title. Like an abstract, a title serves to prepare readers for the contents of the proposal, to remind them later of what was in it, and to inform those who will not read the proposal itself. Choose a descriptive and straightforward title that accurately sums up what the project is about. Grandiose claims, metaphor, and clever phrasings are usually inappropriate and may mislead. Budget. In preparing the budget portion of the proposal, it is essential to review and follow carefully the budget guidelines and instructions. These will state what budget items are allowed and within what limits. Each budget category included should be clearly related to the research plan as stated in the application; if the relation is not obvious, it should be spelled out. Itemize the budget in as much detail as is realistically possible (and as space permits) and show how the budget figures were arrived at if this is not self-evident. Check all arithmetic carefully; careless errors may suggest sloppy research to follow. Although a strong proposal will not be turned down because of problems in the budget, the budget reflects on your preparation for undertaking the project. The items requested should be those necessary and adequate to achieving the aims of the project, and the estimate of costs should be realistic but economical. Most funders will have budget limits that may in effect require funding from other sources. If the funds requested in the application are intended to supplement funds from other sources, you should make this clear. It is also useful to explain how you would proceed if full funding were not obtained. Bibliography. Generally, some kind of bibliography will be needed, either for citation of literature referred to in the narrative or as a broader listing of works relevant to the project. Needless to say, a bibliography should be accurate in all details, as it will be conspicuous evidence of your scholarly habits. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.208 on Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:12:09 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Volume 32, Number 4, August-October I99 I1 489 If a project bibliography is requested, it is intended to reveal your familiarity with the relevant literature and the specific ideas or approaches that have influenced the project. The reader may also look to it for evidence of awareness of essential literature in other languages or other disciplines or literature that disagrees with the your own approach. However, the bibliography should be selective, not simply an indiscriminate list of references taken from some other source. The stated guidelines should offer a clue as to how extensive it should be, but there should be a reason for including each item. Curriculum vitae. The application instructions will indicate the biographical data to be submitted, but any statement should provide the full relevant information on your background and prior work without being inflated or overly detailed. It will be read to determine your qualifications to carry out the project proposed, your track record in producing results from earlier research (if appropriate), and evidence that the current project makes sense as a development from past work. If it is a new area of interest, there should be some indication that you have taken steps to acquire the necessary

Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914

France achieved national unity much later than is commonly supposed. For a hundred years and more after the Revolution, millions of peasants lived on as if in a timeless world, their existence little different from that of the generations before them. The author of this lively, often witty, and always provocative work traces how France underwent a veritable crisis of civilization in the early years of the French Republic as traditional attitudes and practices crumbled under the forces of modernization. Local roads and railways were the decisive factors, bringing hitherto remote and inaccessible regions into easy contact with markets and major centers of the modern world. The products of industry rendered many peasant skills useless, and the expanding school system taught not only the language of the dominant culture but its values as well, among them patriotism. By 1914, France had finally become La Patrie in fact as it had so long been in name.