RSS 1.0Arizona Anthropologist: Issue #11 (1994)
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
The Arizona Anthropologist is a competitive high-quality annual journal designed, reviewed and published by an editorial board of graduate students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. The open access archives are made available as a collaboration between the Arizona Anthropologist and the University of Arizona Libraries.
QUESTIONS?
Visit https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/arizanthro for more information about this journal, or contact the editors at arizonaanthropologist@gmail.com.
Recent Submissions
-
Arizona Anthropologist Number 11, Fall 1994University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology, 1994
-
The Household Production of Health and Women's Work: New Directions in Medical Anthropology and Households ResearchRecent discussions on the household production of health focus on how health and illness are produced in the household. New economic models of the household view it as a site where both production and consumption take place; neo-Marxist refinements have demonstrated that the household may also be characterized by conflicting interests, which often involve gender and age inequalities. This type of micro-level analysis is important in improving the understanding of health behaviors, which may then be used to increase the effectiveness of international health programs, many of which have been thus far criticized for their ineffectiveness. An analysis of women's roles towards this end is paramount as women are typically health managers in the domestic economy, a situation that is often noted, but on which research is scant. Recent studies have examined the impact of women's work, both inside and outside the home, on the production of household health. It is also essential to assess how resources (e.g., money, time, food, knowledge, health treatments, power) are distributed in the household and how this distribution may differentially affect the health of household members, especially women and children. Important topics which warrant further exploration in the household production of health literature include the impact of the domestic life-cycle, examination of the household production of health in female-headed households, and greater understanding of the role of men in household health, especially how it may inform international health policies.
-
"Chico Bento": Linguistic Marking and National Identity in Brazilian ComicsThe main character of the popular Brazilian comic book Chico Bento is a country boy whose speech is depicted in an eye dialect of caipira, a rural dialect centered in the interior of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, states in Southeastern Brazil. The author highlights Chico's speech in order to describe social difference and relations resulting from widespread rural-urban migration. This linguistic marking is essential to the location of caipira culture in Brazilian national identity. The caipira is portrayed as a source of nostalgia, representing a common, rural past, and as such serves as a resource for nation building; however, caipiras are also depicted as an obstacle to modernity in contemporary Brazilian society.
-
Maya Royal Ritual: Architectonics as a Key to Political OrganizationThis study considers the spaces occupied by Maya royal rituals as a means of testing the application of models of political organization. Investigation of the architectonics of several temple pyramids at the sites of Copan, Tikal, and Seibal indicates that Maya political organization does not resemble that required by either the galactic polity or segmentary state models. Comparison with large Mesopotamian temples from Early Dynastic levels at Khafaje and al-'Ubaid suggests that the royal rituals of the Classic Maya are indicative of a city-state political organization.
-
The Dialogic and the Semiotic: Bakhtin, Volosinov, Peirce, and SociolinguisticsThis paper addresses the correspondences between two current approaches in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis: Peircian semiotics and Bakhtin/ Volosinov's dialogism. Peirce's contribution to sociolinguistics has been the insight that language, though arbitrary, relies upon indexicality and iconicity to be meaningful. In their critiques of abstract objectivism, Bakhtin and Volosinov similarly argued that language is tied to the social contexts in which it is spoken (or written). Both approaches share three concerns. First, language is both arbitrary and socially and contextually grounded. A second issue is the relationship between social diversity and linguistic differentiation. Third, the role of language in the construction and transmission of ideology will be discussed.
-
Judging the Mark of an Individual: An Investigation of Design Variation in Prehistoric Pottery from Grasshopper Pueblo, ArizonaArchaeological research on ceramic styles has become a mainstay of archaeological investigation wherever collections are available. This trend has gained momentum in recent decades as traditional applications (e.g., dating sites and identifying patterns of regional interaction) have gradually been eclipsed by more dynamic explorations of style as "nonverbal" communication. Despite this positive course of research, recent essays (e.g., articles in Conkey and Hastorf 1990, Hegmon 1992) have noted the unchecked variability manifest in the methodologies and interpretations offered in the literature on this subject. Indeed, with no "unified" theory of style, researchers are free to define style and its meaning (at any level) however they prefer, and often they do so on the basis of unsound assumptions concerning the seemingly inaccessible, multifarious operation of style in prehistoric communities. The present study seeks to explore an alternative method for the study of ceramic styles, focusing on objectively delimited design structures as revealed by aspects of "sub-design" variability. A collection of late prehistoric decorated ceramics from eastern Arizona are used as a preliminary case study to investigate variation in design structure patterns between multiple production centers. En route to a more "unified" approach to style in prehistory, this essay attempts to provide an alternative, less subjective means of reconstructing prehistoric cognitive processes and relating these to meaningful correlates in sociocultural organization and interaction.
-
Paradox, Process, and Mystery: An Exploration of Anthropology and HealingThis paper examines anthropological studies of healing. It asserts that since healing is not merely a cognitive undertaking, research which addresses only intellectual realms will be incomplete. An abbreviated review of the history of anthropology and healing begins with a summary of the development of medical anthropology and ethnomedicine and continues with a discussion of six topical areas related to research on healing. These are the symbolic, performative, psychological, processual, political-economic perspectives, as well as that of efficacy. The processual nature of healing is investigated, especially in regards to its relationship with ritual. Finally, directions for further research are explored. It is argued that patient-healer relations are central to successful healing interactions, and that the presence and agency of participants can be a point of departure for research. Furthermore, attention to ambiguity, aesthetics, and death is needed in order to situate the practice of healing. A call is made for self-reflective, engaged, meaning-centered research on healing.
