General Inquiry Research Articles

An Ethnographic Perspective

T HESE CONTRIBUTIONS are linked by the question Is there a universal basis for the notion of literature? In varying degree, they suggest strategies for answering the question. These issues are in principle part of a general inquiry into the nature and organization of the means of speech in human communities, and their meanings to those who use them, an inquiry being pursued with increasing vigor by participants of many disciplines.' The ethnographic approach on which I shall draw is not as rich in known content as literary criticism, but it has an indispensable place, as I shall try to show. At the end I shall argue that literary criticism has in turn an indispensable place in ethnography. I shall begin and end with articles in alphabetical order of their authors' names, because, as it happens, these give me the frame within which I can consider the rest.

Safety Training

Safety legislation is under review. In March 1970 a small but high‐powered body was set up to conduct a general inquiry across the whole field of safety legislation under the Chairmanship of Lord Robens. A review is certainly needed: ‘more than three lost day’ accidents in industry occur at a constant rate of around 1 000 per day, while it is suspected that other minor accidents are ten times as great as this. Every working day we manage to kill two men at work, yet there are firms which regularly record over 100 000 man hours of work without accidents. The discrepancy between the best firms and the worst in the same industry is unbelievable.

Inscribing the city: a flâneur in Tokyo

A recent topic for fascination in architectural theory has been Walter Benjamin’s work on the flâneur of Charles Baudelaire’s Paris. This figure, more than just a wanderer, shopper or tourist, characterises one aspect of the modern city-dweller’s condition, as found in the Parisian arcades. This meandering, aimless ‘Man Without Qualities’ so informs how we understand the city, for example, as a prototype for both the cinematic subject and audience. Flânerie also has its uses as a thinking tool. City-based artistic movements in the 20th century, from the Dada and Surrealists through to Fluxus and the Situationists have all exploited similar modes of distracted attention in traversing the city. This trajectory takes us to the Situationist International in particular, who engaged with the city in a fashion analogous to the paper support for a drawing, equip us with new ways of understanding the experience of the city. As a part of my general inquiry into the role of drawing and notation in creative practice, the graphic representation of the city forms a case-study of particular interest. How do these alternatives to the traditional tools of architecture and urbanism aid or reconfigure our understandings of cities? This final section shall outline some of my own working practices. Drawn from the tradition of the architectural fantasy, which traces its history from Piranesi through Ferriss and Constant to Tschumi, Koolhaas and MVRDV. By considering architecture as a practice of representation as well as of space- and place-making, the architectural fantasy or paper project offers distinctive possibilities beyond what is commonly assumed to be simply an ‘unbuilt’ or ‘unbuildable’ project. As such, I place my reflections upon Tokyo into this tradition – I will explore the process I have worked through in re-presenting a journey taken through Shinjuku station.

The ‘Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson's Bay’: A Study of the Founding Members of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1665–1670

In this year of the tercentenary of the incorporation of the Hudson's Bay Company it is appropriate to examine the founding membership of what may still be called “The Great Company.” It is surprising that the literature which chronicles the early adventures of the Company in the northern reaches of Canada has largely neglected a close scrutiny of the founders. The purpose of this article is to examine the early partnership, note the walks of life and social groups from which the adventurers came, and identfy those who formed the nucleus of leadership in planning and executing the endeavors for which the Hudson's Bay Company became renowned.In general, the men who established the Hudson's Bay Company were representative of the era of extensive oversea expansion that characterized Restoration England. They were essentially promoters and imperialists. Yet they were not the first of their kind, for in the thirteenth century merchants had formed regulated organizations for prosecuting the cloth trade. Nor did they ever possess the financial power or parliamentary lobby of the East India Company. Nonetheless, their interest in the fur trade, in a Northwest passage and in general scientific inquiry prompted these men to lay the basis of a firm that by the height of its influence in the early 1840 was engaged in business throughout most of British North America as well as on the Pacific slope south to San Francisco Bay, in the Pacific islands, and in Canton. Today this organization remains the oldest merchant trading company in the world and the oldest business firm on the North American continent.

On the Order of Development: A Case Study of Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Vondrozo, Madagascar L. JAMILA

Despite the omnipresence of the term ‘sustainable development’ in policy arenas, methods of its successful implementation have been less widespread. As a general research inquiry this paper addresses the question of how social and economic development can proceed alongside environmental conservation. Specifically, the paper questions whether community-based natural resource management is an appropriate means to increase the welfare of a population while simultaneously protecting natural resources. A theoretical discussion regarding sustainability, beginning with the Brundtland report, offers a critical view of the poverty-environment nexus, leading into the introduction of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) as a method of combining development and conservation efforts. This paper draws on a case study of CBNRM in the Fadriana-Vondrozo Forest Corridor (COFAV) in Madagascar, concluding that CBNRM in Madagascar is a positive step in making the system more resilient to systemic change. Among the challenges that exist are the transfer of knowledge and complex roles of governance, which lead to an unpredictable future for CBNRM in Madagascar.

The Sixty-Second Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians

AT THE meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Philadelphia, April 17, 18, and 19, 1969, thirty-six sessions explored a variety of subjects under a common title, State of American History: A General Inquiry.' Thirty centered upon single papers, one was divided among four brief papers, and five were panel discussions. Each of these sessions without restrictions assessed a broad area of concern to the American historian. In sum they verify the reasonable hypothesis that such a bold title would merely disguise a tangle of problems in the garb of a declaration. This report discusses the sessions in categories that derive from the way participants posed these problems. The meeting included strikingly few sessions that accepted their subjects as given, as recognized areas of research primarily awaiting extensions or

How Library Schools Respond to Inquiries

ONE PHASE of recruitment activity that library schools are responsible for is the type of responses made to inquiries from prospective students. This phase is important in drawing more and possibly better students into the library schools and the profession. An attempt is made here to evaluate these responses through a survey. The author wrote to the 44 library schools accredited by the American Library Association and to 11 non-accredited schools.* Each school received a general inquiry on a postcard, without mention of age, and a letter, which stated that the applicant was 41 years old. The postcards and letters were mailed, from different addresses, February 15, 190, and the last day replies were considered was March 31, 1969. The schools were grouped according to size of enrollment, area of the country, and type of support (private, public). Only the significant figures relating to these groupings will be mentioned below. Some data will be compared to that included in an unpublished survey conducted by Normand Dumont, Shirley Edsall, and Annmarie Hug in 1955. Catalogs usually contain such information as admission requirements, history of the school, graduate study requirements, courses offered, fees, faculty, and financial aids, information used by inquirers

A Comment on Rowe’s “Duffusionism and Archaeology”

The authors express regret that Rowe's article tends to perpetuate emotional aspects of diffusion-independent invention controversy. They feel that Rowe places too narrow limits on kind of evidence he will consider that he is either unaware of or ignores published works pertaining to this controversy. It is pointed out that, contrary to Rowe's contention, much evidence exists proving possibility of early oceanic voyaging that, in view of this evidence, large numbers of shared traits argue for diffusion. Rowe's contention that general presentations of diffusionist principles are lacking is refuted by citations of such presentations, it is argued that diffusionism's threat to comparative studies is exaggerated is irrelevant to its validity as an explanation. Rowe seeks to show bias on part of by suggesting that they ignore Mediterranean-American similarities while emphasizing circumpacific but authors cite examples of studies suggesting transatlantic contacts. WE MUST express our regret that an article (Rowe 1966) in a scholarly journal should be filled with such imputations directed at professional colleagues as strident claims, fantasies, evasion, selection, nonsense, 16th-century thinking, so forth. We must agree with Rowe's (1966: 334) statement that the general public tends to assume, with a touching innocence, that scholar with a Ph.D. can be trusted to present evidence fairly; we feel that Rowe's article amply proves this lack of fairness (though doubtless in a different fashion that Rowe intended) by perpetuating same lack of objectivity which he decries in diffusionists, by which he apparently means those suggesting cultural diffusion (especially within or to New World) over long distances, particularly by ocean voyaging. His allusions to Ecuador Japan, etc., demonstrate that he includes among diffusionists even such careful cautious workers as Meggers, Evans, Estrada (1965). We agree with Rowe's (1966: 337) statement, What is needed is an impartial general inquiry into significance of cultural parallels, but we feel that remainder of his article belies this professed attitude of objectivity. The diffusionism-independent invention controversy has for too long been a conflict in which, as Hamblin (1964: 70), describing another controversy, has put it, scholars have put forward one doctrinaire type of explanation or another, and then (have) sat back with cocked typewriters in a sort of literary High Noont, ready to fire at other typewriter that moved. We agree that many fanciful diffusionist theories have been put forth (as well as many imagination-straining claims of independent invention), but we feel that there has been too much reflex reaction to new ideas which threaten entrenched ones. Attachment to ideas of one's teachers, of one's colleagues, or of one's own has too often led to an unreasoned resistance to innovation. Rowe seems afraid that young archaeologists in United States are being seduced from traditional isolationist viewpoint by biased presentations of diffusionist theories warns (1966: 337) that any innocent archaeologist who comes away . . . convinced that transpacific contacts are wave of future is sadly deluded; we disagree that these presentations are particularly biased would warn equally against antidiffusionist indoctrination, or, indeed, against indoctrination of stripe. We believe in letting facts speak for themselves; we believe that doctrinaire diffusion doctrinaire anti-diffusion should both be obsolete. There will doubtless be many cases in which a definitive conclusion will be impossible, in which some will prefer diffusion as an explanation, others independent invention. But honest opinions of scholars should be respected no matter how divergent they may be from

Sheeting and exfoliation in the granites of Sermersôq, South Greenland

A study of sheeting structures in post-tectonic granites on the island of Sermersôq indicates that: 1) sheeting in the Precambrian granites of Sermersôq occurred mainly, if not exclusively, at the end of a second glacial stage on that island, i. e. during the Pleistocene; 2) this recent large-scale sheeting must have occurred spontaneously in a geologically speaking very short time interval; 3) there is no relation between the recent sheeting at a niveau immediately below the high-level erosion surface on Sermersôq and the removal of rock load above this surface by erosion; the latter erosion surface was formed in pre-Tertiary, Mesozoic or possibly Paleozoic times; 4) there are no relations between sheeting and primary structures in the granite; 5) the relation between sheeting and the most recent glacial geomorphological forms is very conspicuous; 6) sheeting has affected granites which were free or very poor in pre-existing open joints; the majority of all types of joints in the relevant granites were not opened before the period of spontaneous sheeting; 7) the cause of sheeting cannot be exclusively attributed to textural or compositional characteristics of the rocks; 8) sheeted granites in recently deglaciated areas may represent an early stage in the process of granite disintegration, which tends to the formation of a mature granite landscape with typical woolsacks and/or spheroidally exfoliated boulders. A review of the literature indicates that the following relations exist: a) large-scale deep sheeting, widespread exfoliation of boulders, and woolsacks are frequently associated phenomena characteristic of post-tectonic granites; the same combination of phenomena may occur in other rock types only when spatially associated with post-tectonic granite massifs; b) large-scale sheeting in granite areas is commonly preceded by regional uplift. A general inquiry into the cause and origin of sheeting and exfoliation leads to the following conclusions: Insolation, weathering, climatological conditions, textural and compositional properties of the rocks are secondary factors in causing the large-scale sheeting of rocks. Dilatation subsequent to release of pressures is the main cause of sheeting and exfoliation. However, the compressive pressures are not mainly due to overlying rock loads and the release of pressures is not exclusively or mainly due to the removal of superincumbent rock load by erosion. The inadequacy of the current "load pressures and relief of load by erosion" hypothesis is discussed especially with regard to conditions on Sermersôq. Large-scale sheeting and widespread exfoliation are related to an inherent property of post-tectonic granite massifs. Due to the mass deficiency represented by these massifs, gravitational body forces tending to raise the deficient masses above their surroundings originate, and during longer times these forces keep exerting an axial compression on the higher levels of the granites and the overlying or immediately adjoining country rocks. During epeirogenic uplift the vertically working forces are temporarily augmented by the epeirogenic forces, while subsequently the actual elevation of the area and the contemporaneous updoming of the granites tend to compensate the existing gravitational anomalies and to reduce the gravitational body forces. Thus, when regional uplift ceases or slows down temporarily, a relative decompression of the combined gravitational and epeirogenic forces occurs rapidly, which enables the rocks near the surface to exfoliate spontaneously by dilatation in a direction normal to the free surface or topography.

The Output of the British Woolen Industry in the Eighteenth Century

As part of a general inquiry into the economic growth of die United Kingdom, an attempt is being made to estimate long-term trends in output of individual industries over as long a period of time as the data allow. Throughout the eighteenth century wool was the major English manufacturing industry. It is the purpose of this article to consider the evidence of contemporary estimates of the value of the woolen manufacture, with a view to using them as a basis for an assessment of the broad trends in its output over this crucial period of Britain's industrial history.

The Effect of Curvature on the Centre of Shear

A considerable amount of attention has been devoted to the study of the position of the centre of shear for straight beams but there appears to have been Uttle or no consideration of this position for beams of which the centre line is either shghtly or heavily curved. The reasons are probably twofold. Firstly, no demand for such an investigation has been made by designers, and secondly, and probably not least, any very general inquiry into this problem will lead to complex expressions which would not only be difhult and tedious to evaluate but will also be of uncertain accuracy.This problem of taking beam curvature into account starts from the point where it normally ends for most mechanical engineers, who usually require to estimate the bending stresses in members of large curvature such as hooks and chain-links. Now the classical theory of elasticity applied to these latter members has yet to be seen to conform with experimental results to such a high degree as makes the added labour attending such methods worth while.

What Does the First Amendment Mean?

HT HE FIRST AMENDMENT to the Constitution is, I believe, the most significant political statement which we Americans have made. And yet, just because it is so fundamental and revolutionary, its words are strangely confusing and paradoxical. By contrast with older forms of governing, the Amendment declares that the people of the United States are to be free-free from certain forms of governmental control, to govern themselves in ways which they may choose, to control those governing bodies which they have established as their agents. But the words free and government, when used in such statements as these, are torn away from their earlier meanings. Freedom,'' after the Constitution was adopted, did not mean what it had meant before. Nor did government. And, for that reason, the interpretation of the Amendment is constantly involved in deep and perplexing ambiguity. The Amendment means, I am sure, what it says. But there is a sense in which it does not say what it means. At any rate, it does not say it to us unless we practice eternal vigilance in the criticism of our words and meanings. And, in that situation, the task of interpreting the Amendment, of discovering and formulating what its meaning is, what it has become, belongs primarily to the Supreme Court of the United States. It is the purpose of this paper to ask whether, under the strains of world war and domestic conflict, recent opinions of the Court have cleared away confusion and error about our freedom or have increased those evils. And, as a representative instance under that general inquiry, we will examine specifically the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Frankfurter in Dennis v. United States.'

HYPOCALCEMIA IN THE NEONATAL PERIOD

THE STUDY to be reported arose as part of a general inquiry into the occurrence and significance of hypocalcemia in infancy and childhood. An earlier investigation¹had indicated that a wide symptomatology, transcending by far the range of symptoms usually described for rachitic tetany, is associated with hypocalcemia in the postacidotic period of infantile diarrhea. It appeared of great interest to extend the inquiry to the problem of neonatal tetany. Not until 1913 was the syndrome of neonatal tetany described by Kehrer, an obstetrician.²He reported 6 cases with spasms, accompanied by edema, vomiting or fever. Therapy with calcium chloride was dramatically effective. From the literature of the next two decades two reports, although not dealing with typical cases of neonatal tetany, should be mentioned because of their documentation by chemical data. Powers, in 1925,³described a case of persistent tetany in a 5 week old infant,

The Placing of Children in Families

THE Advisory Committee of the League of Nations has issued a report upon this subject (“The Placing of Children in Families”. Geneva, 1938. Vol. 1, price 3.; Vol. 2, price 5s. Messrs. Allen and Unwin, 40 Museum Street, W.C.I). To begin with, the Child Welfare Committee of the League planned a survey on the placing of children in families as part of its general inquiry into the treatment of neglected and delinquent minors, but it was afterwards decided to treat independently the whole problem of placing in families as a method of child care. The first volume of this report presents the principles accepted as underlying provisions for child care, the characteristic features of the different systems employed in various countries, and the organization of social services to direct ‘placing’. Vol. 2 describes the various systems of placing children in families that are now employed in different parts of the world.

The heavier accessory minerals in the granites of Scotland

Early in 1915 a trial separation of the heavy minerals from a specimen of granite from one of the apophyses of the Benrinnes mass disclosed the presence of monazite, zircon, anatase, garnet, etc. Quite a number of crystals of monazite, some of them of considerable size, were found in the residue, and as only two occurrences of that mineral,1 so far as known, had previously been recorded from Scottish rocks, the result was considered of such importance as to suggest a general inquiry into the distribution of that and other heavy accessory minerals in the granites of Scotland. Since then about 200 specimens of granite and kindred rocks have been examined from as many different localities throughout Scotland and the results are given below. Apart from the wide distribution of monazite disclosed by the investigation, many other interesting facts have come to light, both as regards the distribution and association of other heavy minerals in the granites examined; and though monazite was the primary object of search, it was soon discovered that a number of other interesting facts, regarding the character, association and distribution of such commonly occurring minerals as zircon, apatite, garnet, etc., were gradually being accumulated. Some of the points in regard to the different minerals will now be briefly discussed. 1. Monazite. —The mineral has been found in about half of the number of specimens of granite from different localities that have been examined—in 85 out of 178. The mineral is found to occur in varying but always

The Cytological Aspects of The Determination of Sex in the Diœcious Forms of Lychnis

ABSTRACT The present research is part of a more general inquiry into the conditions of sex determination in the genera Lychnis and Silene. This paper consists of an account of the cytology of the diœcious forms of Lychnis with special reference to sex chromosomes. Lychnis Flos-cuculi is referred to at times for the sake of comparison. The somatic number of chromosomes in L. dioica, (agg.), as well as in L. Flos-cuculi L. F los-Jouis, and Silene péndula, is twenty-four. The hybrid L. alba × L. dioica behaves in a perfectly regular manner and is practically indistinguishable cytologically from its parents. In Lychnis dioica (agg.) the pollen mother cells show a particularly close synizetic knot from which the spireme never opens out fully. Just before the second contraction the spireme becomes differentiated into thicker and thinner portions of which the thicker clearly represent the chromosomes. The thread becomes much shorter and stouter and, as the contraction figure, opens out, the chromosomes separate off in pairs forming typical bivalents lying either crossed or parallel. The reduction is thus typically telosynaptic and there is no trace of a split thread at any stage. As the bivalents contract, one pair is seen to be larger than the rest and to consist of two unequal portions, both of which are larger than the other chromosomes. At diakinesis, the bivalents become completely dissociated, once more giving twenty-four separate chromosomes. L. Flos-cuculi differs in haying ring-shaped chromosomes, both at diakinesis and on the equator of the heterotype spindle. In L. dioica (agg.), the large pair of chromosomes lies at the periphery of the metaphase plate and is seen to consist of one very large hooked member and one smaller, more pear-shaped, chromosome. Anaphase figures show the larger chromosome in the form of a cross, as seen from above, suggesting a double structure. There is no difficulty in distinguishing which member of the unequal pair is present in any given daughter plate. In the interkinesis there are two points worthy of note, (1) Several nucleoli are present, in place of the usual single one typical of all other stages. (2) The twelve chromosomes separate completely into halves, thus giving twenty-four bodies lying within the membrane, just as in diakinesis. At the ensuing metaphase the X and Y chromosomes are again most distinct, especially when the two spindles lie parallel. Megaspore development is briefly described. Meiosis is similar to that found in the male plant, except in relation to the large chromosomes. The large chromosomes are equal in size, and by careful comparison of size and shape, are shown to correspond to the small one of the unequal pair in the male. The Y chromosome is thus larger than the X, quite contrary to expectations based on the condition in animals. It is also probably double in nature though it does not separate into two parts, as far as has been observed. A brief review of the literature shows that in Rumex there is a pair of Y chromosomes ; in Humulus and Vallisneria a double structure is presumed to be the X element, but on the basis of Lychnis may possibly turn out to be the Y instead. The cytological results above are shown to corroborate the results of the experimental work of Shull and Correns on the same forms.

On the relation between barometric pressure and the water-level in a well at Kew Observatory, Richmond

The investigation which forms the subject of the present communication must be regarded as forming part of a general inquiry into the mode of action of the well at Kew Observatory, Richmond. The well was sunk during the course of some extensive alterations to the building about four years ago, and the water-level has been continuously recorded since the end of July, 1914. The mean level for each day expressed in centimetres above Ordnance Datum has been published in the ‘ Geophysical Journal,’ and the extreme values for each month have usually been given in the Monthly Weather Report. After being in action for two years, it was thought desirable to undertake a somewhat detailed examination of the records which had accumulated. The most interesting feature of the inquiry proved to be the periodic variations of, level, which were to be attributed to the tidal oscillations of the neighbouring River Thames. The most noteworthy response of the well was found in the case of the lunar fortnightly oscillation, which could, indeed, be plainly seen by merely plotting successive daily mean levels on a fairly open scale. The solar and lunar diurnal, semi-diurnal, ter-diurnal, ..., oscillations were sought for by forming solar and lunar diurnal inequalities at two-hour intervals and analysing the resultant variations. During the course of this work, it soon became evident that the extent of the solar diurnal variation was very much greater than one had any right to expect, and one inferred, that the solar tides were not alone concerned in its production. The effect of barometric pressure suggested itself as a likely factor, and an investigation was accordingly taken in hand.

Volcanoes and Radio-activity

IN the Popular Science Monthly for June Major Dutton has an interesting article on the above subject, which was noticed in a recent issue of NATURE. Having been occupied lately with the study of volcanoes in connection with a more general inquiry into the cause of earthquakes, it occurs to me to point out that Major Dutton has overlooked the recognised distribution of volcanoes about the sea coast, which seems completely to invalidate his theory. If radium, which the researches of the Hon. R. J. Strutt have shown to be so abundant in typical rocks of the earth's crust, such as granite, were an exciting cause of volcanic activity, we should expect to find an abundance of active volcanoes in the interior of continents, such as the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Brazil, which is contrary to observation.

The quartic curve as related to conics

A characteristic feature of the plane curve of even order, 2n, is the one-to-one correspondence set up by it between curves of class n and curves of order n. Givenl a fundamental curve of order 2n, every curve of class n has a definite polar curve of order n, every curve of order n has associated with it a definite curve of class n whose polar it is. In the following this correspondence will be studied with special reference to the quartic. Sonme simultaneous irrational invariantive forms of the system of two quartics will be considered, the method used being an extension to the ternary domain of that employed by HILBERT t for binary forms. A generalization of the configuration known as the self-polar triangle for n = 1 will be treated. The first section will be devoted to an investigation of an error contained in a statement of CLIFFORD,4 an error originally pointed out by Professor MORLEY. The facts there obtained suggested the more general inquiry which follows. Forms of order n will be denoted in general by.fl, gf, etc., or symbolically by ax flA, (ax= axl1 + a2 ;2 + a3 x3 ) those of class n, by Fn, C' n or by alt, bt, * *; and cI,I will be the general expression for an invariantive form of f4 of degree t, order K and class 1.

On skin currents.—Part I. The frog's skin

The principal object of the following observations was to investigate in the case of skin an electrical reaction by which it is in general possible to determine whether an animal or vegetable tissue is alive or dead. A side issue raised in connection with the general inquiry was whether or no the test is applicable to the human body; this obviously led to a detailed study of skin effects upon man and upon animals.