Fellow Villagers Research Articles

The Show Must Go On

Exploration of the migration history of the community of Cabanaconde, in Peru’s southern highlands, and the impact of transnational migration on the fiesta system calls attention to the role of the fiesta in strengthening migrants’ ties to the networks they draw on to migrate and adapt to their new settings in the United States. It also suggests that the transnationalization of the fiesta contributes to an emerging division of villagers into those who have access to migrant networks and those who do not. By serving as a public showcase for Cabaneños’ positions in migrant networks, the fiesta not only intensifies economic and social divisions within the community but also underpins the exclusiveness of those networks and reminds them and their fellow villagers of their new social status as both transnational villagers and global cosmopolitans.

Analysing the Radius of Trust in Rural Cameroon

Survey data have generally found trust to be much lower in Africa than in developed countries. This paper analyses the extent to which trust decreases with social distance, using data from a survey conducted in a village in rural Cameroon. Participants are asked a number of questions about trust in people with varying levels of social distance: fellow group members, fellow villagers, people from neighbouring villages and people in general. The results indicate that the level of trust diminishes as social distance (the radius of trust) increases. There is more trust in fellow group members than there is in other villagers, and more trust in fellow villagers than there is in those outside the village. I also analyse the correlation between the respondents’ characteristics and trust. A substantial part of the variation in levels of trust can be explained by observable individual characteristics. The main correlates of trust are education, whether the respondent is divorced and the number of years lived in the village. Divorced persons are significantly less trusting, while increases in the number of years lived in the village are associated with increases in the levels of trust. People who have completed primary education are significantly more trusting. In only one case (trust in fellow villagers) is age significantly correlated with trust, and its effect is negative. Income is significantly positively correlated with trust in fellow villagers and trust in people from neighbouring villages as well, but uncorrelated with trust in people in general. Respondents’ personal characteristics are insignificantly correlated with trust as social distance increases.

Association of XPD/ERCC2 G 23591 A and A 35931 C polymorphisms with skin lesion prevalence in a multiethnic, arseniasis-hyperendemic village exposed to indoor combustion of high arsenic coal

More than 2,000 arsenic-related skin lesions (as at 2002) in a few villages of China's Southwest Guizhou Autonomous Prefecture represent a unique case of endemic arseniasis related with indoor combustion of high-arsenic coal. The skin lesion prevalence was significantly higher in ethnic Han villagers than in ethnic Hmong villagers. This study was focused on a possible involvement of XPD/ERCC2 G23591A and A35931C polymorphisms in risk modulation of skin lesions and in the body burden of As in this unique case of As exposure. G23591A and A35931C were genotyped by a PCR-based procedure. Total As contents in hair and urine samples as well as environmental samples of the homes of the two ethnic clans were analysed. A significant higher presentation of A/A35931 (homozygous wild) genotype in both clans was found in skin lesion patients, compared with their asymptomatic fellow villagers (67.1 vs. 46.3%, OR 2.36, 95% CI 1.35-4.14, P=0.002). Interestingly, the population frequencies of the A/A35931 genotype did not show significant differences between ethnic Han villagers and their Hmong neighbours (47.1 vs. 45.5%). Very low frequencies of homozygous and heterozygous variant genotypes of G23591A were recorded in the residents in target village. G/A23591 and A/A23591 were detected only in 3.2% (8/244) and 0.8% (2/244) of the villagers, respectively. The polymorphic status at the locus of A35931C might modulate the risk for arsenic-related skin lesions in the investigated groups.

Authority in a Serf Village: Peasants, Managers, and the Role of Writing in Early Nineteenth Century Russia

Based on numerous letters sent between a number of peasants from a small Russian serf village and the Moscow-based office that managed them for their owner, this article examines one particular disruption of normal village life—in this case a demand for an army recruit from a village with fewer than twenty men—and its larger repercussions. In particular, it examines the ways that individual peasant men and women used the written word in order to try to disrupt normal estate authority structure (between managers and the village, and between village elders and the larger peasant community). It focuses on one woman who was initially able to use writing to the advantage of her family, but whose actions in the long run, once her fellow villagers adapted their own use of writing to fit the demands of their managers, came to isolate her from the larger estate authorities.

Funny guy or village fool? Social factors of the evaluation of humour and jokes among Evenkis and Sakhas

The article demonstrates that similar actions and lifestyles of two individuals living in two villages of Yakutia (in Northeastern Siberia) evoke different attitudes in their own communities in accordance with the dissimilar social structures and communicative systems of the villages. The article focuses on the different ways the register of humour is activated and on the dissimilar assessments of extraordinary patterns of behaviour resulting in social embarrassment within the two communities. The case studies show that one of the protagonists of the paper, Konoohoi, is referred to as a funny guy about whom funny stories are circulated, whereas Logontoi is much more regarded as a strange person by his fellow villagers. The difference between the integrity of the communities (providing evaluative social talks of different characters in the settlements concerned) results in two different ways of dealing with the social embarrassment caused by extraordinary behaviours. In one of the villages the funny but di...

Bringing the ‘left behind’ back into view in Asia: a framework for understanding the ‘migration–left behind nexus’

A middle-aged man moves from the hinterland of China to the east coast to find work as a construction worker; a young woman from rural Indonesia takes up a factory job in Jakarta; a Vietnamese woman joins her fellow villagers in Hanoi to work as a scavenger . . . Migration scholars policy-makers and the public media may see in these phenomena the migrant the journey and the arrival. But for the migrants these activities also signal departure separation and leaving family members loved ones and familiar places behind. Indeed leaving behind often entails emotional and psychological struggles as well as complex rearrangements of the material aspects of daily life of a magnitude as significant as moving to and settling in places of destination. An individuals migration presents a major rupture of the inner workings and everyday life of an entire household. While it is well recognised that rural--urban labour mobility continues to rise in terms of both magnitude and geographical scope across Pacific Asia -- more people are migrating from more places to more destinations -- the left behind (by definition a much larger group than the migrants themselves) are often forgotten. (excerpt)

Comparative evaluation of parasitology and serological tests in the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in India: a phase III diagnostic accuracy study

In this phase III trial for diagnostics for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in India, we compared parasitological diagnosis with several serological tests: direct agglutination test (freeze dried; DAT-FD), rK-39 strip test, rK-26 strip test and a latex agglutination test for antigen detection in urine (KAtex) in 452 subjects from the endemic regions of Bihar, India. The subjects were segregated into four categories: 230 confirmed patients, 52 probable cases, 70 non-cases and 100 healthy endemic controls. The first two groups were used for estimating sensitivity, the latter two for specificity. Sensitivity of DAT-FD was 98.9%, rK-39: 98.9%, KAtex: 67.0% and rK-26: 21.3%. Sensitivity of DAT-FD on blood taken on filter paper (DAT-FDF) was 99.3%, which was comparable with that using serum. Specificity of serological tests was comparable and high (DAT-FD and DAT-FDF: 94%, rK-39 strip test: 97%, KAtex: 99% and rK-26 strip test: 100%). The classical 'gold standard' parasitological demonstration in splenic smear performed poorly as it missed 18.4% of cases that benefited from VL treatment. Reproducibility of the serological tests between field and central laboratories was excellent (kappa = 1.0, 0.99, 0.96 and 0.94 respectively for microscopy, DAT-FD, rK-39 strip test and rK-26 strip test). A high degree of agreement was observed between DAT-FD and rK-39 strip test (kappa = 0.986). Although DAT-FD and rK-39 strip test were highly sensitive with excellent specificity, the ease of use of the latter makes it most suitable for the diagnosis of VL in the field conditions.

Trust, trustworthiness, and risk in rural Paraguay

This dissertation looks at the relationship between trust, trustworthiness, and risk aversion in a rural Paraguayan setting. The first chapter of this dissertation looks at theft between farmers. Rural areas of developing countries often lack effective legal enforcement. However, villagers who know each other well and interact repeatedly may use implicit contracts to minimize crime. I construct a dynamic limited-commitment model in which a thief cannot credibly commit to forego stealing from his fellow villagers but may be induced to limit his stealing by the promise of future gifts from his potential victim. Using a unique survey from rural Paraguay which combines traditional data on production with information on theft, gifts, and trust, as well as with experiments measuring trust and trustworthiness, I test whether the data is consistent with predictions from the dynamic model. The results provide evidence that, in contrast with predictions from a one-period model with an anonymous thief, farmers do implicitly contract with one another to limit theft. Farmers who have more close family members in their village give fewer gifts, and farmers with plots which are more difficult to steal from give fewer gifts, experience less theft, and trust more. Gift-giving increases when trust is lower and the threat of theft is greater, turning the social capital literature on its head.

Wise words of the Yup'ik people: we talk to you because we love you

The people of southwestern Alaska were some of the last Arctic peoples to come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, language and many traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. Wise Words of the People documents their qanruyutet (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions) regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history, these distinctive wise words have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and even with non-Natives. elders chose to share these wise words during Calista Elders Council gatherings and conventions since 1998 for instrumental reasons - because of their continued relevance and power to change lives.The Calista Elders Council, which represents some thirteen hundred elders, recently spearheaded efforts at cultural revitalization through gatherings with younger community members. In describing the content of traditional instruction as well as its central motivation - 'We talk to you because we love you' - elders not only educate young people, but also open a window into their view of the world for all of us. Wise Words of the People will serve as a valuable resource for the people and those who wish to learn more about their lives and values. Ann Fienup-Riordan is an independent scholar who has lived, worked, and taught in Alaska since 1973. Her many books include Hunting Tradition in a Changing World: Lives in Alaska Today and Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: Fieldwork Turned on Its Head. Alice Rearden is a speaker and leading translator for the Calista Elders Council.

Anadolu’da Bereket Kültü ve Anadolu Türk Köylüsü Seyirlik Oyunlarına Yansımaları

Farming activities are known in Anatolia since 8th millenium B.C and this fertile land has been the craddle of many civilizations which were in reciprocal influence with one another. These individual cultures were sharing same concerns about the earth and its fruirtfulness, and therefore they endeavored to search for solutions to increase this divine gift. This effort is continued by the earliest Turkish communities and the clues of this struggle is observed in their traditions and customs. The theatrical presentations of the Anatolian fellow villagers in this context, provides a valuable source of information in the fertility cult of the ancient Anatolian civilizations.

Theft, Gift-Giving, and Trustworthiness: Honesty is its Own Reward in Rural Paraguay

Rural areas of developing countries often lack effective legal enforcement. However, villagers who know each other well and interact repeatedly may use implicit contracts to minimize crime. I construct a dynamic limited-commitment model in which a thief cannot credibly commit to forego stealing from his fellow villagers but may be induced to limit his stealing by the promise of future gifts from his potential victim. Using a unique survey from rural Paraguay which combines traditional data on production with information on theft, gifts, and trust, as well as with experiments measuring risk aversion and trustworthiness, I test whether the data is consistent with predictions from the dynamic model. The results provide evidence that, in contrast with predictions from a one-period model with an anonymous thief, farmers do implicitly contract with one another to limit theft. Farmers who have more close family members in their village give fewer gifts, and farmers with plots which are more difficult to steal from give fewer gifts, experience less theft, and trust more. Giving increases when trust is lower and the threat of theft is greater.

The Legal Revolution in Town Politics: Oaxaca and Yucatán, 1812-1825

delictuosa de unos indios, 1813,” Archivo General del Estado de Yucatan, Merida (hereafter cited as AGEY), Colonial, Varios, vol. 1, exp. 17. Wherever possible, I have modernized the names of the towns I refer to. If there was any doubt about the identification of a town, however, I left its name as written in the documents. There were some towns that I have not been able to correlate with modern towns, either because their names have changed or because they no longer exist. A further note on terminology: I have chosen to use the word

Catherine the Great and the British. A Pot-Pourri of Essays by Anthony G. s> Cross (review)

558 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 (p. 66). It is the firstof these that is problematical.It is surelythe white magic practitioner, the zhakhar'/znakharka (folkhealer) who, despite the possibilities of confusion and similarities with black magic exponents, represents the positive end of the good/evil polarity. The folkhealer was present in villages as much, if not more than, sorcerersor witches (as far as we can tell), while klikushestvo was a more sporadic phenomenon. She was an active figure for good, someone who might undo the sorcereror witch'sspell,though sorcerers could also perform benevolent magic, and, as Worobec rightly notes, terms for the two were sometimes interchangeable. None the less, the folk healer possessed beneficent powers and was closely linked to Orthodoxy (if only of the popular kind). The klikusha,on the other hand, while regarded with sympathy as an unfortunately afflicted creature, hardly represented 'good', and the redemption she gained through being cured and returned to the community from her state of limbo (assuggestedon p. 65) is not so much the returnto a state of goodness as to the normal condition of human life with its potential for sin aswell asvirtue. Establishingthe gender participation and numbers of magic practitioners in the Russian countryside is well nigh impossible, but the evidence clearly showsthat, as the nineteenth centuryprogressed,it was women who attracted more of the officialaccusationsof witchcraft.How then can one reconcile this with the ruralcustom of inviting a male sorcererto everywedding?Although the dividinglines between sorcerersand witches are fuzzy to say the least (for example, witches in Russia were more commonly called koldun'ia (sorceress) than ved'ma), it may be, perhaps, that the sorcerer existed in a symbiotic, if very uneasy, relationshipwith the restof the community, rarelyattractingthe attention of outside authorities?Those who are accused in the records the authorhas analyseddo seem quiteoften not to have been previouslysuspected of witchcraft.Iftrue,the genderbalance among practitionersof maleficmagic in the Russianvillagemay have been more even than the recordsindicate. Christine Worobec's chief contribution is in rooting the phenomenon of demoniacalpossessionin the specificculture,religiousand secular,in which it was found. By subjectingall the playersin this ritualto scrutiny(witch, fellow villagers, society, state and Church), she has managed to offer a subtle but detailed analysisof gender relationsand tensionsin imperialRussia. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies FAITH WIGZELL University College London Cross,Anthony G. Catherine theGreat andtheBritish. A Pot-Pourri ofEssays.Astra Press, Nottingham, 200I. vii + I I5 PP. Illustrations. Notes. Index. 1I3.50 (paperback). THIS volume contains ten essays, nine of them reprinted from elsewhere, either unchanged or with some revisions and/or additional material, and one on Catherine in British caricature - written for the collection. They range from a three-page 'bagatelle' reprinted from The Cricketer (I 975), where the engraver James Walker recalls a conversation in which the empress dismissed cricket as too dangerous for her grandsons, to more substantial REVIEWS 559 offerings, such as the opening piece on 'Catherine through Contemporary British Eyes' (I997), which provides a context for the articleswhich follow. The new essay (pp. 29-44) is the first systematic attempt to trace British caricaturists'treatments of Russian themes during Catherine's reign. It is accompanied by several reproductions. As Anthony Cross notes, it was Catherine's 'misfortune'that her reign coincided with the careersof Gillray, Rowlandson, Newton, Cruikshankand other satirists,providing them with good Russian material either for inclusion in set pieces about dividing up the European 'cake' and making pacts with the Devil or for more personal allusionsto Catherine/Kate asa 'shrew'being tamed, to hersexualproclivities and her bloodthirsty share in dismembering Poland and Poles. Few Western writers on the period can resist illustratingtheir books with the anonymous 'AnImperialStride'(I79I), inwhich variousworldleaderslookup Catherine's skirts,but such images were not reproducedin Russia itselfeven in the Soviet period. Only recently have they become accessible to a wider public. Other articles, all written with Professor Cross's characteristic blend of wit and erudition, explore Catherine's knowledge of English (slight, apparently),her British-inspiredexperiments in gardening and penal and medical reform, a visit which she did not make to Ireland, her reputation as an author and various views of her, including Horace Walpole's implacably hostile one. These articles...

Equal Contributions and Unequal Risks in a North-east Thai Village Funeral Society

Village funeral societies in north-east Thailand collect equal contributions from all participating households, even though some households are much more likely to experience deaths and receive money from the funeral society than others. The societies' use of the equal contributions rule is not an outcome of the asymmetric distribution of information on risks. It reflects, instead, an ambivalence over the relevance of expected returns, a willingness to subsidise fellow villagers, and the need to maximise simplicity and transparency to safeguard against mismanagement and corruption. The equal contributions rule is efficient, in that it leads to low administrative costs, has no clearly superior alternatives, and creates only minor adverse selection.

The King's Witch

Background Notes This is the story of Calon Arang, a Javanese woman of the twelfth century who was destroyed by the king; I have written the story as an operette. As tradition tells it, Calon Arang was a powerful witch from Girah, an area in the Kingdom of Kedhiri. She had a beautiful daughter named Manjali, who could find no husband; for fear of her mother, no man would have her. Calon Arang became so angered by her daughter's plight that she spread pestilence throughout the kingdom. To solve the problem, King Airlangga ordered his most respected priest, Empu Bharada, to get rid of Calon Arang-no easy task as the witch owned a book containing all the secrets of sorcery. Empu Bharada reasoned that to deprive Calon Arang of her power one had to first take possession of her book. He arranged a marriage between one of his students and Manjali. After their nuptial night, the groom stole the book, and in no time at all Calon Arang was divested of her power and destroyed. Needless to say, this traditional tale is told from the king's point of view. One can assume that Calon Arang and her fellow villagers in Girahdestroyed along with the witch-would have composed a different version. The following libretto, written for the music of Indonesian composer Tony Prabowo, starts from this premise. In my opinion, an operette should be very simple. I find European classical opera a ridiculous conceptexcept for two of Mozart's pieces, one of which is The Magic Flute-and I hate Phantom of the Opera-type musicals. I even consider contemporary operas like John Adams's Nixon in China unnecessary stage pieces. That is, I cannot imagine myself creating a theatrical work in which people communicate entirely in songs and arias. Their words should not be translated into musical notes. The music should be composed independently, not linked to the words. That's why my libretto only provides a set of images, a certain mood, allowing the composer to treat the words more as elements of sound in his total composition than as messages to be wrapped in bundles of musical notes. Tony Prabowo understands and supports this idea. He likes Phillip

Toward a Market Economy: Fruit and Vegetable Production by the Peasants of New Russia, 1850–1900

At some point in the 1850s, Andrei Gorlov planted several fruit trees on his farmstead. His neighbours in the village of Bol'shoe Kopanoe, situated on the land mass bordered by Crimea to the south and the Dnieper River to the north, responded with disbelief, envy, and ill will. Villagers broke branches off his saplings as they walked by, or otherwise damaged the trees as much as possible. Still others threatened to gather the entire village assembly and destroy his orchard. But sheer perseverance enabled Gorlov to surmount these difficulties and his steady success in planting and production won the grudging respect of his peers. Soon neighbours appeared at his door for advice on how best to plant and manage their own orchards. By the 1880s almost every one of the 457 households had orchards that averaged no less than 60 trees. Such impressive orchards attracted merchants from distant cities to purchase the harvested fruit, a portion of which was also sold in the expanding urban markets of southern Ukraine.' How extraordinary was the village of Bol'shoe Kopanoe in southern Ukraine before 1900? What motivated Gorlov suddenly to engage in commercial fruit production, and what accounted for the initial ill will shown by fellow villagers? Though we cannot answer these questions in Gorlov's specific instance, this article identifies both the obstacles and catalysts to peasant agricultural innovation in southern Ukraine before 1900. I am especially interested in the development of, and motivation behind, market-oriented agricultural specialization in vegetable and fruit production among peasants of New Russia. Until recently, little attention has previously been given to market gardening in Imperial Russia generally, or southern Ukraine specifically, despite its importance to agricultural economies. At first glance, such neglect might seem appropriate. Agriculture in New Russia was successively dominated by sheep breeding and grain cultivation in the nineteenth century, with the latter predominant by the 1850s. Yet beyond the sheep pastures and wheat fields, peasant fruit orchards flourished in the northern hilly reaches of New Russia, lush market gardens in the environs of Odessa and other cities, and vineyards in the Dniester river valley. Apiculture had made rapid gains in counties along the Dnieper river by 1900. In exceptional instances peasant agriculturalists had abandoned grain cultivation altogether. What prompted the development of peasant market oriented fruit and vegetable production, and what does it tell us about the relationship between the region's peasants and colonists, who comprised more than a tenth of the rural population while owning one fifth of all allotment lands? Finally, what role did the access to markets play in peasant agricultural history? The first half of this article explores the role that fruit and vegetable gardening played in peasant economies of New Russia before the late nineteenth century. My findings correspond with James C. Scott's about peasant villages in contemporary Asia: he calls them precapitalist societies in the sense that they are reluctant to risk and introduce innovations and are motivated by a cautious safety-first principle.4 Ironically, much of the initial expansion in vegetable and fruit production in New Russia also reflected this cautious approach. The fact that peasants of New Russia had a conservative attitude toward agricultural innovation does not mean that they maintained static practices. On the contrary, considerable evidence points to steadily expanding contact between peasant producers in New Russia and regional, national, and international markets. This expansion was stimulated by a growing transportation network, the successful modelling of new agricultural practices by the region's foreign colonists and Orthodox sectarians, and increased zemstvo activity in schools and experimental farms. The second half of the article sketches out this interaction, and the resulting transformation in one aspect of peasant agriculture. …

Political implications of stagnant agricultural productivity in Cambodia

Chad Raymond(FN*) Political Implications of Stagnant Agricultural Productivity in Cambodia Journal of Contemporary Asia v26 no3 p366-79 1996 The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited. When Cambodia gained independence from France in late 1953, the country's economy was overwhelmingly agricultural. By 1962, eighty-one percent of the productive population was still engaged in agriculture, and sixty-five percent of the productive population were rice cultivators.(FN1) Mechanization was almost nonexistent and fertilizers were expensive. Cambodian peasants utilized a variety of methods to overcome a scarcity of labor in the production process, including cooperative, reciprocal labor arrangements. Though Khmer peasants utilized reciprocal labor arrangements to overcome scarcity in the means of production, these arrangements were temporary agreements between households rather than permanent social structures. The agricultural economy was based on the family unit, which was the only clearly defined social grouping in rural Cambodia. Khmer villages had no formal associations, such as religious cults. The only social networks in the community other than blood and affective kin networks were cooperative work teams organized primarily for agricultural labor at certain stages of the rice cultivation cycle when the household alone could not supply enough manpower.(FN2) Peasants with financial needs sought out private moneylenders or rice brokers and either borrowed rice (if they had a deficit caused by a small harvest), borrowed money, or occasionally sold property. Bank credit was unavailable in rural Cambodia in the 1950s and 1960s. Nearly all short-term credit given by private banks went to commercial enterprises, instead of agricultural or industrial production. The 1963 nationalization of the country's banking system by Cambodia's ruler, Prince Sihanouk, did not alleviate peasants' need for credit, and the state's Royal Cooperative Office (OROC), designed to provide low-interest loans to cooperative farmers, was inefficient, if not blatantly corrupt.(FN3) Because fellow villagers usually did not produce enough of a surplus to extend loans in kinds, peasants commonly borrowed money to purchase rice for food or inputs needed for next year's harvest. Loans were repaid in rice. Peasants usually required loans prior to the harvest, when the purchase price of rice was high, and were forced to repay the loan after the harvest, when market prices for rice were relatively low. Interest averaged ten percent per month, and land was used as collateral. The lender usually designated which parcel was mortgaged, and normally selected the borrower's most productive land.(FN4) Though debt was common, complete loss of land was infrequent. Peasants normally paid off their debt after one year, but often borrowed again to compensate for shortages caused by repayment of the previous loan or a bad harvest. This process resulted in an endless cycle of debt for many peasants, which pushed them closer toward the limits of subsistence. Delvert found that in different provinces indebted farmers ranged from ten to seventy-eight percent of the peasant population in 1956.(FN5) A colonial survey conducted in 1952 reported that nationwide, seventy-five percent of Cambodian peasants were significantly indebted.(FN6) Widespread debt during the 1950s and 1960s did not create a large rural landless population

Entrepreneurs and Elite Formation in Rural China

Starting from very small numbers at the beginning of the 1980s, the proprietors of private rural enterprises have increased to comprise at least one in twelve rural households in 1989. This figure comes from official statistics, but the real figure may be as high as one in seven.' The political power and influence exerted by these rural entrepreneurs is now substantial in many rural communities. During field studies on private rural enterprises I was often surprised to discover the extent of their influence on daily village affairs: they sometimes dominated local decision-making via guanxi, 'gifts' and provision of employment to fellow villagers. However, this elite formation has been controversial, and towards the end of the 1980s the authorities increasingly were tightening institutional control over the private sector. The extent and effectiveness of these control measures will be discussed in this paper. First, I will discuss the social background of the entrepreneurs. I will argue that individuals who could exert political authority have benefited greatly from their influence with the local state apparatus, especially in the first half of the 1980s, but that toward the end of the 1980s a new breed of entrepreneurs was emerging, increasingly comprised of younger technically trained people. I will also argue that

“Unsre UN’ die Andre:” In-Group affiliation Among the Volga germans Of Russia and The Great plains

Isolated from their German homeland for a century and a half, the Volga Germans of prerevolution Russia displayed unusual provincialism in their dealings with fellow villagers, neighboring colonists, Russian peasants, and the world at large. Traditional allegiances greatly influenced not only the Volga Germans' existence in Russia but also the nature of their settlement patterns and adaptation on the Great American Plains. A hypo thetical model, based on five distinct levels of in-group affiliation, is offered in order to better understand the complexities and important sociocultural context of Volga German ethnicity in the Old World and the New.

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