Newsletter home |
Susan Abbott (U of Kentucky) SCCR Presidential Address: THE SCCR IN THE APPROACHING MILLENIUM: IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIETY DEMOGRAPHICS FOR OUR FUTURE, Friday, 5pm
Susan Abbott (U of Kentucky) WHEN LOCAL PRACTICE AND EXPERT OPINION CLASH: THE CASE OF APPALACHIAN KENTUCKY PARENTS' CHILDREARING PRACTICES, Thursday, 1pm
Local childrearing practices in Appalachian Kentucky clash with the accepted expert opinion of pediatricians as expressed in advice manuals they write for parents and textbooks they prepare for training aspirants to the pediatric profession. This paper examines this conflict, describing both local practices and the relevant professional literature. It concludes with recommendations for educating both professionals and lay persons on ways to ameliorate the concerns these conflicts raise.
Akkari Abdeljlil (U of Fribourg, Switzerland & U of Maryland) IDENTITIES AMONG YOUTH IN A MULTICULTURAL NEIGHBORHOOD, Friday, 1pm
In this study we investigated the identities of youth, ages 11-12, who live in a multicultural neighborhood in Geneva, Switzerland. Exploring identities is a particular sensitive topic when we have peoples from many different cultures (rather than one other culture) sharing the same public services such as schools. Other researchers have studied youth identities, primarily using questionnaires and structured interviews. However, these investigations were based on a methodological approach that is dependent upon particular ethnic categories in the US, and social and national origin categories in Europe. Inherent in this is a strong tendency to dichotomize social systems (e.g., American/non-American, Black/White, Catholic/non-Catholic). These categories are very strong and can blind observers to other important aspects of the identities of youths. In an attempt to capture these multiple dimensions of identities, we developed a methodological approach that allows participants to describe themselves in their own terms. Using the metaphor of a flower with many petals we developed a "cultural flower" in which respondents use many petals to describe many dimensions of themselves. In addition to this open-ended qualitative approach, a sociometric questionnaire was also administered. Three main categories emerged from this study: territorial identities, social group identities, and ties with origins. From these findings it is suggested that the identities of youth in our sample cannot be described by using one aspect such as ethnicity. Rather, these findings suggest that youth have multidimensional identities that may be expressed in "youth culture": music, clothes, and sport. Our study contributes to the debate on intercultural relations by highlighting commonalties among youth from varying cultural backgrounds who live in a context like Geneva, where people from around the world live together harmoniously. Individuals may see themselves through a variety of lenses, in ways that are not always consistent. The idea of the self as a simple and unitary (or centered) concept is replaced by "de-centered" subjectivity.
Noelle Abrams (Middlesex Community College) and William Divale (York College, CUNY) PARENTAL REJECTION IN CHILDHOOD AND GRIEF TOLERANCE AMONG JAMAICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN, Saturday 8:30am
Based on Divale's findings that there was (1) significantly more parental rejection for a "Black" sample (Composed of African-American and West Indian children in New York) versus American Hispanic children, and (2) the African-American sample had more difficulty tolerating grief, the first author collected data from four different schools in Jamaica. The sample represents both genders and includes working, middle and upper-class children. One hundred students were administered the Grief Experience Questionnaire (Barrett 1989) and the Parental Acceptance/Rejection Scale (Rohner 1991) during the summer of 1997. The grief scale was modified to measure grief over the loss of a pet. Analysis compares the difference between Jamaican children by gender and social class, as well a comparison with Divale's sample.
Leonore Loeb Adler (ICCES & Molloy College), S. Patricia Clark (Molloy College), Florence L. Denmark (Pace U), Teelyon Kim (Ewha Women's U, Ramadan A. Ahmed (Menoufia U), Suneetha S. de Silva (Southern Illinois U of Edwardsville), and Stephen Salbod (Pace U) Similarities and differeneces of attitudeds in cross-cultural comparions, Friday, 8:30am
The present research was conducted in Kuwait, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, and the U.S.A. It investigated men and women of three age groups regarding some of their attitudes on living and dying. The results showed many similarities between countries and cultures, but also some differences between the genders and the age groups.
Keith R. Alward (Author and Lecturer, Berkeley, California) PLAY AS A FORM OF SOCIAL AGREEMENT, Thursday, 3:15pm
In previous presentations to TASP, I explored the role of play in child development. In the first, I examined the role of play in children's development as revealed in the works of major developmental theorists. In the second, I analyzed Piaget's work Play, Dreams, and Imitation to tease out its implicit social theory. In the third, I examined the role of social experience in conceptual intelligence. In this fourth paper, I explore Piaget's contention in Sociological Studies (1995) that social development proceeds through stages of disequilibrium and equilibrium and achieves by middle childhood a level of coordination similar to groupements. However, the research questions which might follow from this proposal were never tested by Piaget. Nor was he forthcoming regarding the form such research might take. His writings suggest, however, that agreement between interlocutors is a form of social equilibrium. I want to explore the implications of this interpretation for our understanding of play and its contribution to development, and how play research might further this analysis.
Daniel J. Amick (U of Illinois-Chicago) CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES ON THE HIV-AIDS PANDEMIC: THE EPICENTERS OF THE CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA, Saturday 8:30am
Latin America and the Caribbean have accounted for 1.5 million or 7 percent of HIV-AIDS cases. Their cultural heterogeneity is large and the rapid spread of HIV among common at-risk groups is threatening, e.g., sex workers, homosexual males, individuals with multiple sex partners, and injecting drug users. The pandemic is a collection of several different epidemics with varied social epidemiology, which are in good part attributable to the cultural diversity found in different regions of the world.
Myrdene Anderson (Purdue U), Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Play II Panel, Friday, 1pm
Anait Azarian (Bradley Hospital) and Vitali Skriptchenko (Connecticut College) CULTURAL IDENTITY CONFLICTS IN INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTED CHILDREN, Friday, 1pm
More than 10,000 children from Eastern Europe have been adopted by American families since 1990. Their culturally related problems have not been adequately explored. This paper presents cases of cultural identity conflicts observed in a five-year-old boy from the former Soviet Union and a nine-year-old girl from Romania. It shows that young children can experience deep and painful identity crises when they are at the "cultural crossroad." They may exhibit shame, guilt, time-space confusion, denial of native identity, and ego-splitting.
Herbert Barry, III (U of Pittsburgh) PAINFUL SOCIALIZATION THROUGHOUT CHILDHOOD ASSOCIATED WITH ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, WARFARE, AND OTHER CULTURAL BEHAVIORS, Thursday, 1pm
A scale of painful socialization throughout childhood combines an independently coded measure of presence instead of absence of substantially frequent or severe pain in three stages of childhood. The measures are pain inflicted on infants, corporal punishment of young children, and corporal punishment of adolescents. The scale of painful socialization ranges from 1, where it is absent in all three stages, to 4, where it is present in all three stages. The standard cross-cultural sample of 186 societies includes 47 with a code on all three measures. Painful socialization is associated with animal husbandry, warfare, and several measures of cultural complexity. These associations are stronger with the scale that combines all three measures than with any one or two of the components. Painful socialization appears to be either a source or expression of stressful and antagonistic social behaviors.
Betty Beach (U of Maine) THE PUBLIC PLAY OF RURAL CHILDREN, Thursday, 3:15pm
Idyllic images of rural children at play in fields, woods and village neighborhoods frequently provide a backdrop for contemporary concerns about the erosion of children's play. Legitimate questions about the increasingly materialistic, solitary, adult-manipulated and age-segregated nature of children's play often contrast implicitly with nostalgic assumptions about rural children's more unfettered play lives. Although historians have attempted to examine this imagery more closely, few social scientists have undertaken contemporary analysis of rural children's play. This report describes findings from a naturalistic study of play in public rural settings (town with fewer that 2,500 residents.) Based on more than 50 hours of observations and numerous interviews (in progress), it categorizes the types of play, implements, locales and age/gender groupings of rural children. Analysis of findings suggests both support for and contradiction of popular assumptions while emphasizing the importance of the community ecology of children as players.
Patrick Biesty (County College of Morris) PLAY AS FORMATIVE PROCESS, Thursday, 3:15pm
A definition of play is proposed that weaves strands from various perspectives, the historical/cultural view of Huizinga, the social psychological view of George Herbert Mead, and current research on self in developmental psychology. Play as an end in itself becomes a less solipsistic concern when it is seen as embedded in, dependent on, a synthesis of, and transformed by the frames of action. Play is defined as formative action in willful embrace of the gravity of its frames.
Nils Boe (BA), see Tom Sorensen (U of Oslo) Sherri A. Brothers and Ronald P. Rohner (U of Connecticut) PERCEIVED PARENTAL REJECTION, PSYCHOLOGICAL MALADJUSTMENT AND BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER, Saturday, 8:30am
Paul Brunswick and William Divale (York College, CUNY) THE USE OF NON-WESTERN FOLK HEALERS BY WEST INDIANS, Sunday, 9am
This reports an exploratory study on the factors influencing the use of non-western folk healers (e.g., Shaman, obeah in Jamaica, hougan or mambo in Haiti, Santaria in Puerto Rico, etc.) Our working hypotheses are that greater use of folk healers would occur among females, among less acculturated immigrants, and among individuals with more religious orthodoxy, greater religiosity, and a more external locus of control. 300 West Indians from Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico were examined as to the frequency of use of non-western healers and the reasons these healers were used: illness, relationship problems (missing persons, spouse conflicts, in-law difficulties, love triangles), material problems (career, money), or sub-conscious reasons (dreams).
Sandra Carpenter (U Alabama-Huntsville) & Phani Radhakrishnan (U Texas, El Paso) COGNITIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF FRIENDS: INFLUENCES OF CULTURE, Friday, 8:30am
Collectivists' representations of people contain more social and situational descriptors than do those of individualists. We hypothesized that the greater importance of in-groups to collectivists influence this pattern (e.g., cognitive resources necessary for making situational attributions may be expended for important targets). Representations of important in-groups were also expected to be more entitative (i.e., unified). These hypotheses were tested by comparing 44 Hispanics and 34 Euro-Americans who described their friends. As predicted, collectivism affected the perceived importance of friends, which mediated perceived entitativity. Importance directly affected situational references and collectivism directly affected social references.
Ruth K. Chao (U of California-Riverside) MAKING SENSE OF CHINESE PARENTING: PARENTING STYLES, GOALS, AND PRACTICES, Thursday, 1pm
In response to more recent studies demonstrating the positive effects of authoritarian parenting for ethnic minority families in the U.S., I had proposed a more culturally-relevant parenting style for Chinese based on the notion of "training". In the current study, parents' socialization goals as well as practices are also examined to determine the broader level cultural values as well as parental behaviors that are related to training for the Chinese. Comparisons of 140 Chinese- and 64 European-American parents on the parenting measures revealed that Chinese endorsed more collectivist socialization goals as well as training. Then, in looking at the conceptual relationships among the measures using Pearson's correlations, there were some important differences as well as surprising similarities across the two ethnic groups.
Shu-Fen Cheng (U of Texas) TEACHER ROLES IN CHILDREN'S PLAY, Friday 2:30pm
The purpose of this study was to examine preschool teachers' perceptions of their roles in children's play. In particular, the research sought to ascertain in what way teachers value the free-play time, toys, and equipment indoors. The participants were two lead-teachers and an intern at a Child Care Center in Austin, Texas. The methods of data collection consisted of observational notes and interviews, reflective journals, member checking, and peer debriefing. The results showed that these three teachers have strong perceptions of their roles in children's play. Since teachers are primarily responsible for managing the equipment and environment, this study suggests some applications for future studies.
Garry Chick (U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) WHAT IS PLAY FOR? TASP Keynote Address
Numerous writers (e.g., Fagen 1981; Smith 1982) have extolled the virtues of the evolutionary approach in understanding play. This had almost always meant that play has been viewed as an adaptive response to environmental conditions that has become manifest as the result of natural selection. However, there are both logical and empirical problems with this approach. Logically, adaptationist explanations often sound much like Kipling's "Just-so" stories while, empirically, the evidence that play enhances problem solving, social development, or other presumably useful skills among humans is mixed. However, Darwin proposed two other engines of evolutionary change, in addition to natural selection. These are artificial selection and sexual selection. In this paper, I will examine the utility of looking at play as a consequence of artificial and/or sexual selection.
Garry Chick (U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and John W. Loy (U of Otago, New Zealand) MAKING MEN OF THEM: MALE SOCIALIZATION FOR WARFARE, COMBATIVE SPORTS, AND SEXUAL AGGRESSIVENESS, Thursday, 8:30am
In several cross-cultural studies, we have looked at relationships among frequency of warfare, combative sports, aggression, and sexual aggression by males directed at females (Loy 1992; Loy & Chick 1993; Chick, Loy, & Miracle 1994, 1996, 1997; Miracle, Chick, & Loy 1994, Chick, Miracle, & Loy 1995). We have found strong relationships between the frequency of warfare and forms of combative sport, specifically an activity that we termed "sham combat." We found the presence of rape to be related to the number of sham combats extant in societies and to cultural variables such as the ideology of male toughness and the belief that women are inferior to men. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationships among warfare frequency, the presence of combative sports, sexual aggressiveness by men, beliefs that abet these activities, and adolescent socialization into male roles.
Garry Chick (U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Play I Panel, Friday, 8:30am
James F. Christie (Arizona State U) PLAY AS A LEARNING MEDIUM - REVISITED, Friday, 8:30am
In the mid-1970s, Doris Bergen (Sponseller) published an influential book, Play as a Learning Medium, which helped to establish play as a legitimate component of the early childhood education curriculum. This paper updates the conception of play as a context for learning, drawing upon recent Research on literacy-enriched play environments. This research has demonstrated that, when literacy is connected with play activities, children have opportunities to acquire a variety of literacy concepts and skills. They can learn about the functional uses of literacy, concepts about print, emergent forms of reading and writing, alphabet recognition, sight word recognition, letter-sound relationships, etc. In addition, linking literacy with play provides multiple avenues for acquiring these skills and concepts. Children can learn through observation, active exploration and experimentation, peer collaboration, teacher scaffolding, and playful repetitive practice. This broad spectrum of learning outcomes and processes helps ensure that all children have opportunities to learn relevant literacy skills in a developmentally appropriate manner.
Cindy Dell Clark (U of Pennsylvania PLAYING DOCTOR: MEDICAL PLAY IN THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRONICALLY ILL CHILDREN, Saturday, 8:30am
In the practice of medicine in U settings, it is now widely accepted that play can be helpful in the successful care of hospitalized children. Programs using the Child Life approach, that incorporate play therapy to deal with pediatric illness, are now increasingly widespread. This presentation deals with children who face chronic illness treated outside the hospital (diabetes and severe asthma). Photographs and field notes from extended ethnographic research with 46 families will be drawn from to demonstrate how play is spontaneously incorporated into home routines of chronically ill children. Spontaneously evolved play 1) enhance children's security and trust; 2) increases acceptance of boring and painful treatments; and 3) in a peer setting of summer camp, allows children to jointly reframe the experience of illness. Children's own use of play serves broader personal goals than does play engendered by the medical establishment. Implications for improving the treatment of chronically ill children, deriving from their own play, are considered.
Margaret Clyde (Balwyun, Australia), Play Issues In Early Childhood Education, Friday 1pm
Ben-Zion Cohen (U of Haifa) WILLINGNESS TO SEEK HELP: A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON, Thursday, 8:30am
Building on previous research that provides the basis for treating the willingness to seek help as a stable attitudinal set, present in varying degrees in different persons and predictive of behavior, this study addresses two questions: first, to what extent is the willingness to seek help associated with culture? Second, how do the factors influencing willingness to seek help differ across cultures? Young adults in Hungary, Israel and the U.S. (N=380) participated in the study. The results indicate differences between the three countries both in the overall willingness to seek help and in the variables predictive of the willingness to seek help.
Anna Laura Comunian (Padua U) & Uwe P. Gielen (St. Francis College) AN ITALIAN RESEARCH PROGRAM ON MORAL REASONING, Friday, 8:30am
We are reporting on an Italian research program concerned with the development of moral reasoning, various behavioral correlates of moral reasoning, and attempts to improve moral reasoning and social role-taking. In six studies we used an adapted version of John Gibbs's Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form (SRM-SF) with male and female primary, secondary, and tertiary students. The research results suggest that a) stages of moral reasoning can be reliably identified in Italian culture; (2) moral reasoning is related to prosocial and antisocial actions, and (3) moral reasoning and social role-taking can be improved in university courses focused on group dynamics.
Anthony J. Cortese (Southern Methodist U), Morality Across Cultures Symposium, Friday, 8:30am
David E. Cournoyer (U of Connecticut) WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?, Saturday, 8:30am
Where does the human need for warmth and acceptance fit into the operation of a residential facility for adjudicated delinquent youth? Where does race/ethnicity fit into the process? These are a two of the questions posed by multi-method study- a five year longitudinal study of over 500 boy who were 12-16 at the time of placement, and eight months of participant observation focused on organizational climate, social roles, and bonding. As expected, youths' perceptions of maternal/acceptance rejection correlate significantly with behavioral problems and psychological adjustment during the program and adjustment following discharge. However, direct observation and informants description suggest that successful adjustment following discharge is strongly predicted by the presence of strong bonds with staff or other boys. The program provides a climate conducive to the formation of such bonds by creating a climate where respect and concern are key components of social roles throughout the organization. A side effect of this climate seems to be strong bonds between staff as evidenced by a strong sense of community, frequent ritual celebrations, strong mutual support during crises, friendships that extend to out-of-work settings, and a higher than expected rate of marriage and cohabitation among staff.
David E. Cournoyer (U of Connecticut) Session chair Gems of Cross-Cultural Research, Friday 8:30am
Gary Cross (Pennsylvania State U), Kids Stuff: Toys And The Changing World, TASP Invited Authors Symposium, Saturday 8:30am
Joseph J. Dambrauskas (Evanston, Illinois) THE PLAY AND CULTURE OF THREE COUNTRIES: AUSTRIA, LITHUANIA AND AMERICA, Friday, 8:30am
The play of children in three countries will be presented - from Austria, Lithuania and America. Observations were made in public settings and covered a wide demographic sampling of the population. At least thirty observations for a given major metropolis of population size 100,000 - 300,000 were recorded and analyzed. Analyses of the play included descriptive types of play; a social typology consisting of the affiliative/socializing - competitive/individualizing dimension; and the discovery of culture-specific themes. The correspondence between culture-specific play themes and the social typology within each given culture is presented as well in terms Of an assessed core cultural complex arrived at through a separate and lengthy analysis of each culture (which will not be a focus of discussion here.)
Theia C. DeLong (Institute of Marine Sciences/U of Southern Mississippi) CETACEAN PLAY BEHAVIOR: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Thursday, 8:30am
Cetaceans' behavior is extremely difficult to observe and understand, due to the marine environment in which they live and their complexity. In particular, any "play" behaviors are mostly unknown. The few species available to be observed in captivity are frequently in more recreation-based than research-oriented institutions. Behaviors in captivity cannot be taken as identical to those in natural settings for reasons such as human training, regular feeding and lack of predator pressure. As a result of these difficulties, information on most species' play behavior is sketchy. This is illustrated in the lack of literature concerning cetacean behavior in general. In a National Information Services Corporation (NISC) search at the Maury Oceanographic Library, Stennis Space Cenert, MS, utilizing the key word "ceteceans," 418 matches were found. Of these, only 6% (24) were concerned with behaviors of some sort, and only 2% (10) discussed social (potentially play) behaviors. Further research development in cetacean play behavior is indeed needed.
Terry Diak (Children's Crisis Stabilization Services) and Harold Takooshian (Fordham Univeristy) Treating survivors of child abuse, Friday, 1pm
Although child abuse is an age-old and global problem (Finkelhor, 1994), it is typically a hidden one, until its harmful effects surface later in adult pathology (Hunter, 1995). The recent United Nations Convention on the Right of Children tries to address this. Sadly, most therapists lack training in recognizing and treating this specific problem. This is a comparative review of what are the most current U.S. methods for treating adult/child survivors of child abuse, including common errors that therapists might make and ways to avoid these.
William Divale (York College, CUNY) PARENTAL REJECTION IN CHILDHOOD AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN MANAGING GRIEF, Saturday, 8:30am
This paper explores the notion that children who perceive they were emotionally rejected by their parents are less able to cope with stressful events later in life. The postulation explored here is that emotionally rejected children are less able to cope with stressful events later in life. Specifically, emotionally rejected children are less able to cope with grief over the loss of a loved one. A culturally diverse sample of 148 high school freshmen were administered the Grief Experience Questionnaire (Barrett 1989) and the Parental Acceptance/Rejection Scale (Rohner 1991). The grief scale was modified to measure grief over the loss of a pet. Results indicate that teenagers with higher Parental Rejection scores had greater difficulty experiencing grief with nine of the eleven grief sub-scales. Comparison by cultural groups showed significant differences. Individuals who identified themselves as Black experienced significantly more parental rejection than individuals who identified themselves as Hispanic. There were significant correlations between rejection and grief difficulty scores for Black teenagers while no relationship was found among Hispanic teens. Cultural preferences also exist for choice of pet: Blacks prefer dog ownership while Hispanics prefer cats (Gamma =.69, N=42, P=.01). The greater expressiveness of dogs perhaps accounts for some of the findings since greater emotional ties may exist between dog owners over cat owners, and hence greater difficulty experiencing grief.
Arlene T. Dodd (U of Memphis) THE PLAYFULNESS OF TODDLERS IN ADULT-DIRECTED, ADULT-ASSISTED, AND EXPLORATORY PLAY CONTEXTS , Friday, 2:30pm
The goal of this study was to investigate adult interaction styles and outcomes in terms of toddlers' playful dispositions in a specific context. Playfulness was defined as a psychological construct involving the disposition to play. Forty toddlers-ages 16 to 26 months-were observed interacting with a teacher in conditions of adult-directed play, adult-assisted play, and exploration. Play behaviors were observed and coded from videotapes. In the adult-directrd play condition, children were more playful than in the adult-assisted play condition. Although pretend play rarely occurred, the number of times children engaged in pretend play was also higher in the adult-directed play condition than in the adult-assisted play condition. In the exploration condition when there was little or no communication between the adult and the child, several children appeared more distressed than in the other conditions. The present findings corroborate the work of Howes (1992) who found that toddlers were more active participants when the play partner was an expert. This might account for the higher pretense scores in the adult-directed condition than in the adult-assisted play condition. The adult was apparently more of an expert in the adult directed play condition because of increased control and communication. This may also explain why several children appeared more distressed during the exploratory play conditions when there was little or no communication between the adult and child.
Juris G. Draguns (Pennsylvania State U) SCCR Keynote Address: PSYCHOTHERAPY ACROSS CULTURES: FROM DESCRIPTION THROUGH CONCEPTUALIZATION TOWARD INVESTIGATION, Thursday, 5pm
A number of expectations and hypotheses are formulated in order to connect cultural dimensions such as individualism-collectivism and Confucian dynamism to the preferred techniques and the styles of psychotherapy. A program of studies is suggested for exploring these hypotheses. As a final goal, a pattern of worldwide universals for psychotherapy is envisaged and the specification of culturally variable features of psychotherapeutic intervention is anticipated.
Juris G. Draguns (Pennsylvania State U), Session Chair: Clinical And Therapeutic Issues, Friday, 1pm
Nina Eduljee (St. Joseph's College) A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF COLLEGE STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS COMPUTERS: UNITED STATES AND INDIA, Friday, 8:30am
The rapid increase of computers in schools and colleges makes it essential that we examine students' attitudes towards computers. Computers have now become a crucial part of many students' lives. Computer use is on the increase in both the United States and India. With the widespread prevalence of computers, it is imperative that researchers examine and monitor the responses (attitudes) of individuals who utilize computers or are being encouraged to utilize them. In this study, attitudes of college students from a U in the northeastern region of the United States (n = 341) and the U of Bombay, India (n = 284) were examined. The results indicate that overall both groups of students had positive attitudes towards computers with students in India having more positive attitudes than students in the United States. Future research should continue to conduct cross-cultural research with more diverse populations.
Carol R. Ember (Human Relations Area Files) SOCIALIZING BOYS FOR WAR: A CROSS-CULTURAL EXPLORATION OF PARENTAL STYLES, Thursday, 8:30am
War is frequent in the anthropological record. Previous research suggests that socialization for aggression is a consequence, not a cause of war. It appears that the more war a society has, the more parents encourage aggression in their boys. But how do they do so? There appear to be a variety of styles. In some societies, fathers appear to take explicit pains to teach their boys warrior skills. In others, boys are left alone with their peers and appear to get into mischief. In still others, warrior training appears to take place in adolescent rites of passage. This paper explores why the methods of socialization vary from society to society.
Melvin Ember (Human Relations Area Files) and Carol Ember (Human Relations Area Files) Strengthening results without cheating, Friday, 1pm
This paper discusses a procedure to strengthen results based on coded ethnographic materials, whether or not more than one coder was involved. The objective is to reduce the amount of random error in the data and we describe how we apparently have done so in our own research (on consonant-vowel alternation, and on war and peace). Stronger results allow us to be more confident about our conclusions. Our confidence can be enhanced further if we can show parallel results in several language families. A way to do that is also spelled out here, with examples from our own and others' research.
Marjorie Marcoux Faiia (Rivier College) NEPAL: Sabbatical fieldnotes, Thursday 8:30am
Framed by an interpretive approach that understands cultural anthropology more as a humanistic enterprise than as an objective scientific one, this sabbatical study utilized feminist pedagogy and an emic perspective. This study focused on women and their interpretations of their roles and relationships. Following Clifford Geertz's teachings, the researcher combines learning about people under study with learning about the self. This presentation will be an informal review of some data gathered and an initial assessment of meanings.
Jack Farrell (Shepherd College) THE SACRED MEAD: TRANCE INDUCTION BY POETRY, Sunday, 9am
Most of the significant poetry written in English is either hypnotic or hypnoidal. Until the 1920's this effect was achieved through the strong regular rhythms produced by rhyme and meter. As free verse has replaced traditional poetry, poetry continues to induce trance but the mechanisms have become closer to those of clinical hypnosis. The trance induced by poetry amplifies the response of the audience, especially in vividness of internal imagery and suspension of disbelief. The trances induced by poetry occur universally and are seen in both indigenous and technologically advanced cultures. There are references to these effects in ancient as well as modern cultures, and this provides additional evidence that the art of poetry originated in the chants and incantations of shamans during the Stone Age.
Jefferson M. Fish (St. John's U) THE CHURCH, CARNIVAL, AND BRAZILIAN SEXUALITY, Saturday 8:30am
Brazilian "dual consciousness" is a way of simultaneously engaging with the world in two parallel but contradictory modes: the official, bureaucratic, formal way of doing things and the unofficial, informal "jeitinho" way of getting things done. Brazilian sexuality can be seen as an important domain of "dual consciousness," in which simultaneous contradictory ideals coexist. These are sexuality limited to procreation within monogamous marriage (the formal idea of the Roman Catholic Church) and sexual passion that knows no rules (the important ideal of Carnival).
Sandra T. Francis (U of Pennsylvania) THE ROLE OF DANCE IN A NAVAJO HEALING CEREMONY: HOW CAN DANCING MAKE A PERSON WELL?, Sunday, 9am
For centuries the Navajo people have used elaborate ceremonies to promote healing and well being. Dance is a component of some of these ceremonies, but it is an aspect that has received little scholarly attention. This paper focuses on the masked dancing of the powerful Nightway ceremony. The dancing was found to effect healing by: (1) attracting good, (2) demonstrating correct cosmic order, (3) bringing a legendary healing event to life and causing it to happen again, and (4) and by causing the patient to become identified with the hero of the legend.
Harry Gardiner (U of Wisconsin-La Crosse) and Alice Schlegel (U of Arizona) SOCIALIZATION OF ADOLESCENT BOYS: ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES, Thursday, 8:30am
This interdisciplinary symposium explores the experiences and socialization of adolescent boys, including the roles of "sham combat", parental styles, self-concept and sports. From an anthropological perspective, Garry Chick will address relationships among warfare, combative sports, and sexual aggressiveness, and Carol Ember will discuss varied approaches to socializing boys for war. From a psychological perspective Deborah Stiles and her colleagues will describe the self-images of boys from three contemporary societies including their emphasis on sports. A psychologist, Harry Gardiner, and an anthropologist Alice Schlegel will serve as discussants.
Newsletter home |