Non-literate Peoples Research Articles

American Indian Oral History: An Anthropologist's Note

For many years anthropologists and historians have been interested in the past of American Indians. This interest, and it extends to native societies all over the world in addition to those of Indians, has been nurtured most recently under the label of ethnohistory. It appears that ethnohistory, to most people who profess to be ethnohistorians, is simply the history of nonliterate people. Even more often it turns out to be the study of the past of nonliterate groups as gleaned from the records of literate peoples with whom they have come into contact. In other words, and in the present case, it is the history of Indians based on evidence written by someone other than Indians themselves.2 Fortunately, there is more than the one-sided, ethnocentric, documentary record to enable the scholar to piece together the past of nonliterate societies. There are the data from archaeology, from ecology, from physical anthropology, from historical linguistics and lexicostatistics, from ethnography, and from testimony upon which to draw for reconstructions. No anthropologist writing a history would consider relying solely upon primary documentary sources. In many instances, indeed, other avenues of investigation are at best supplemented by the written record, by the diaries, letters, ledgers, contemporary reports, and other such paraphernalia which are sacred as the traditional materials of historical scholarship. Working with nonliterate peoples as anthropologists generally do, they are perhaps less mesmerized by the written word than their academic colleagues. What has come, rather unhappily, to be known as history is regarded by anthropologists as a kind of testimony. Jan Vansina, in his classic work, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology, suggests that there are three kinds of testimony. These are the eye-witness account, which includes reminiscences; rumor, which gives the latest information about the present and which is also therefore current events or news; and all verbal testimonies which are reported statements concerning the past.3 In speaking of oral tradition, Vansina avoids the word which is a value-laden one for historians. Oral history, then, consists of the eye-witness account and of tradition. One of the concerns of anthropologists with eye-witness accounts and with

Major Aspects of the Interrelationship of Archaeology and Ethnology

Previous articleNext article No AccessMajor Aspects of the Interrelationship of Archaeology and EthnologyK. C. ChangK. C. Chang Search for more articles by this author Corrections to this articleErrataErrataPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 8, Number 3Jun., 1967 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/200795 Views: 12Total views on this site Citations: 32Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1967 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Alexander J. Martín and R. Felipe Sol Variation in the Structure and Role of Religious Institutions: Examples from Pre-Columbian America, Current Anthropology 62, no.66 (Dec 2021): 692–716.https://doi.org/10.1086/717777Naoko MATSUMOTO TOWARD AN INTEGRATIVE HUMAN HISTORICAL SCIENCE OF THE MIND, BODY AND MATERIAL, PSYCHOLOGIA 63, no.22 (Jan 2021): 216–224.https://doi.org/10.2117/psysoc.2021-B021Robert E. Murowchick Chang, Kwang-chih, (Oct 2020): 2172–2175.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_303Mayanglambam ManiBabu Archaeology Through Ethnography: An Academic Treatment with the Study of Human Past, (Nov 2019): 149–170.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9026-6_8Ilya Tëmkin Homology and Phylogenetic Inference in Biological and Material Cultural Evolution, (Feb 2016): 287–313.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24349-8_16Fernando Ozorio de Almeida, Bruna Rocha Uma tradução do clássico de DeBoer e Lathrap: “O fazer e o quebrar da cerâmica Shipibo-Conibo”, Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas 11, no.11 (Apr 2016): 315–339.https://doi.org/10.1590/1981.81222016000100016Roger K. Harritt Toward an archaeology of late prehistoric Eskimo bands in coastal northwest Alaska, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32, no.44 (Dec 2013): 659–674.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2013.04.001Mads Ravn Ethnographic analogy from the Pacific: just as analogical as any other analogy, World Archaeology 43, no.44 (Dec 2011): 716–725.https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2011.624781Ian Lilley Late Holocene subsistence and settlement in subcoastal Southeast Queensland, Queensland Archaeological Research 1 (Jan 1984): 8–32.https://doi.org/10.25120/qar.1.1984.205Laxman S. Thakur Bonpos of the Western Himalaya, South Asian Studies 24, no.11 (Jan 2008): 27–36.https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2008.9628679Jerimy J Cunningham Transcending the “Obnoxious Spectator”: a case for processual pluralism in ethnoarchaeology, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22, no.44 (Dec 2003): 389–410.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-4165(03)00042-4Roberto Ontañón Sols et structures d’habitat du Paléolithique supérieur, nouvelles données depuis les Cantabres : la Galerie Inférieure de La Garma (Cantabrie, Espagne), L'Anthropologie 107, no.33 (Jul 2003): 333–363.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-5521(03)00037-2Robert E. Murowchick, Lothar Von Falkenhausen, Cheng-Hwa Tsang Kwang-chih (K.C.) Chang (1931-2001), American Anthropologist 105, no.22 (Jun 2003): 481–484.https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.2.481 Cameron Shelley Multiple Analogies in Archaeology, Philosophy of Science 66, no.44 (Oct 2015): 579–605.https://doi.org/10.1086/392756Alexander von Gernet The Construction of Prehistoric Ideation, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 3, no.11 (Dec 2008): 67–81.https://doi.org/10.1017/S095977430000072XMads Ravn Reply to comments on analogy in Danish prehistoric studies, Norwegian Archaeological Review 26, no.22 (Jan 1993): 85–90.https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.1993.9965563Robert E. Dewar, Kevin A. McBride Remnant Settlement Patterns, (Jan 1992): 227–255.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2450-6_10Lewis R. Binford Seeing the Present and Interpreting the Past—and Keeping Things Straight, (Jan 1992): 43–59.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2450-6_3J. M. Levi Myth and History Reconsidered: Archaeological Implications of Tzotzil-Maya Mythology, American Antiquity 53, no.33 (Jan 2017): 605–619.https://doi.org/10.2307/281221Michael Pearson Archaeological interpretation and ethnographic analogy: the lime industry in Western Australia, Archaeology in Oceania 21, no.11 (Nov 2014): 94–102.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.1986.tb00129.xROBERT C. DUNNELL Methodological Issues in Americanist Artifact Classification, (Jan 1986): 149–207.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-003109-2.50007-6Richard A. Gould, Patty Jo Watson A dialogue on the meaning and use of analogy in ethnoarchaeological reasoning, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1, no.44 (Dec 1982): 355–381.https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-4165(82)90002-2 REFERENCES, (Jan 1982): 273–296.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-425020-8.50014-9THOMAS H. CHARLTON Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Ethnology: Interpretive Interfaces, (Jan 1981): 129–176.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-003104-7.50008-9M. J. Morwood Analogy and the Acceptance of Theory in Archaeology, American Antiquity 40, no.11 (Jan 2017): 111–116.https://doi.org/10.2307/279277Roderick J. McIntosh Archaeology and mud wall decay in a West African village, World Archaeology 6, no.22 (Oct 1974): 154–171.https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1974.9979599 Bibliography, (Jan 1974): 190–201.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-017073-2.50011-2Robson Bonnichsen Millie's Camp: An experiment in archaeology, World Archaeology 4, no.33 (Feb 1973): 277–291.https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1973.9979539Dean E. Arnold Ethnomineralogy of Ticul, Yucatan Potters: Etics and Emics, American Antiquity 36, no.11 (Jan 2017): 20–40.https://doi.org/10.2307/278020Bruce G. Trigger Archaeological and Other Evidence: A Fresh Look at the “Laurentian Iroquois”, American Antiquity 33, no.44 (Jan 2017): 429–440.https://doi.org/10.2307/278594Robert L. Schuyler The Use of Historic Analogs in Archaeology, American Antiquity 33, no.33 (Jan 2017): 390–392.https://doi.org/10.2307/278713Nicolas Peterson The Pestle and Mortar: An Ethnographic Analogy for Archaeology in Arnhem Land1, Mankind 6, no.1111 (Feb 2009): 567–570.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1968.tb00334.xRelated articlesErrata19 Oct 2015Current AnthropologyErrata19 Oct 2015Current Anthropology

The Oral Tradition, Periodization, and Political Systems

Thanks to the work of Jan Vansina, Roland Oliver, Ian Cunnison and, others, the value of the oral tradition as a source of the history of non-literate peoples is now beyond question. This value is generally judged to be greatest in areas where complex state organizations antedate contact with the Europeans. As Oliver has said, Monarchic and oligarchic states... tend to be rich in traditional laws, because it is one of the instruments of centralization, taking the place of archival and statistical services in modern, literate societies. Oral history is best preserved in kings' courts, where there is hereditary leisured class of chiefs and councillors, and where a knowledge of precedent is constantly in demand.'

Symbolic Consensus in a Fang Reformative Cult1

THE concepts of and symbol, like the proverb to non-literate peoples, appear to be for many students of human behavior work horses of theoretical discourse. Like the proverb, however, these concepts are ambiguous and almost always carry more weight than is analytically useful. Symbols surround us and when, for example, White argues that all culture depends upon the symbol (1944:235) we readily assent to their importance if we do not quite still grasp their meaning.2 As for consensus, we see its consequences clearly enough. But, beyond the raising of hands or some other significant statement of allegiance and cohesion, do we really understand what is taking place in acts of consensus? In fact, culture is not something of which everyone carries an equal burden, and the study of symbolic consensus can demonstrate the disparate portions which culture-carriers appropriate or are assigned, and the dynamic consequences that proceed therefrom. In an attempt to contribute to the understanding of these two terms and their relationship, I propose to employ them in discussing the religious ritual of an African reformative cult. I shall avoid such rubrics as common value

Eidetic Images among the Ibo

Eidetic images are defined as visual images persisting after stimulation, rel? atively accurate in detail, colored positively, and capable of being scanned (Haber and Haber 1964). On the basis of quite casual impressions and of astonishing anecdotes, it has long been opined (e.g., Jaensch 1923; Husen 1945: 84-86) that the incidence of such images among nonliterate peoples is likely to be higher than among the literate. The speculation has been based upon the assumption that the images are present among all or most children, perhaps at an early age, but that they tend to disappear in literate societies where emphasis is placed upon verbal memory. The idea behind the specu? lation is exciting: if validated, it would suggest another way in which people can store essential information in the absence of writing. The present study represents a systematic attempt quickly to explore the problem among the Ibo of Eastern Nigeria in April, 1964. So far as can be ascertained, no actual investigation of this kind had previously been carried out in any nonliterate society; interesting but scarcely relevant are findings in the United States that the proportion of eidetikers may be higher among Negro than among white or Mexican Children (Peck and Hodges 1937).

Navajo Population: An Analysis of the 1960 Census

IN 1960 THE U.S. CENSUS provided data which permitted one to isolate for the first time certain population characteristics on the Navajo Reservation. The data became available by tabulations of a new type of statistical unit, county (these are smaller than counties and larger than enumeration districts-see Fig. 1). Such information is useful in at least two ways. First, since the divisions generally agree with the limits of the Navajo Reservation, more light is shed on the largest society in the United States. Second, the data constitute one of the most complete population inventories ever compiled for a nonliterate people. The importance of this material for demographers and sociologists is apparent. Seldom do these specialists have access to such data for these kinds of cultures. But the anthropologists can profit also. Where the assumption of cultural homogeneity is not tenable or at least not completely so, some sort of measure of the extent of heterogeneity is of vital importance if the range of variation in social structure and cultural patterns is to be understood. Population data can provide such measures. There are problems, to be sure, of the validity and reliability of information collected from a scattered and relatively mobile population not yet fully accustomed to statistical enumerations. But as this paper will attempt to show, even with such problems, population data offer an equal opportunity to investigate the validity and reliability of anthropological findings. There is a feed-back in each case which could prove useful. Thus, the findings are of special interest to anthropologists, demographers, and sociologists. This paper is therefore a case study in anthropological demography with emphasis on characteristics pertaining to the Navajo family. The census county divisions are grouped into four classes for purposes of this paper. (1) The is composed of all divisions on the Navajo Reservation (excluding the Hopi division). (2) Other Indian divisions contain more than 64 percent of their population in the racial category (i.e., other than White and Negro) and are not located on the Navajo Reservation. These divisions may contain off-Reservation Navajo,' Apache, or possibly other groups. The divisions corresponding to the Hopi and Zuni Reservations are shown separately. (3) Mixed divisions contain from 18 to 34 percent races, and

The Size and Nature of Children's Peer Groups among Nonliterate Peoples: A Significant Gap in Ethnographic Literature

In defining universal categories of culture, anthropologists traditionally have, for the most part, concerned themselves with real or ideal adult behavior, often leaving unrecorded or unreported the behavior of children. Except for the writings of Dennis (1940), Hilger (1951, 1952), Mead (1952, 1953), Opler (1946), and Whiting and Child (1953), the intensive investigation of child behavior in nonliterate cultures largely has been absent, with a resulting hiatus in ethnographic literature. But even in the above works, it is difficult to elicit extended discussions of the size and nature of children's immediate peer groups, thus presenting an ethnographic lacuna of considerable magnitude. It is the purpose of this paper to examine a segment of anthropological literature with a view toward eliciting explicit, or implicit, designations of immediate peer group size among and, if possible, indications of the nature of such groups. Eighty-two works have been examined for relevant data, consisting for the most part of standard ethnographical and ethnological accounts of nonliterate peoples. The sample was selected at random in order to give as much diversity as possible of authorship and geographical location of the various cultures. The procedure taken with the majority of the works was to examine the indices for items such as children, child-rearing, boys, girls, life-cycle, play, games, sports, age-sets, agegrades, amusements, friendship, and similar categories. Those ethnographical and ethnological accounts which lack an index, of which there are quite a few, generally either have an index-type table of contents, or a chapter such as Social Organization, or Life-Cycle, from which data could be drawn.

Economic Theory and Economic Anthropology

EXACTLY 40 years ago, Bronislaw Malinowski published the book which was to have a powerful influence on the study of the economies of primitive peoples (Malinowski 1922). The influence was mixed. Malinowski did succeed in calling the attention of anthropologists to the fact that a consideration of the economic activities of nonliterate peoples required the consideration of much beyond their technologies. But his disdainful comments on what he conceived to be then contemporary economic thinking convinced many anthropologists that they had little to learn from conventional economics. Nearly 20 years later, Raymond Firth and Melville J. Herskovits independently sought to establish the respectability of economic theory in the eyes of anthropologists (Firth 1939; Herskovits 1940, 1952). Their view, which Firth sought to demonstrate with his materials from Polynesia, and which Herskovits sought to demonstrate with materials culled from a massive body of ethnographic material, was succinctly stated by Herskovits in the following terms:

Trends and Intellectual Interests in Current Austrian Ethnology

Historically oriented ethnology (cultural anthropology) in Austria is at present undergoing a critical re-examination of its methodological principles and its research findings. In connection with this, efforts are being made to achieve an improvement of methods as well as broadening the formulation of problems. To understand this, it is necessary to take a quick glance at the development of historical ethnology in Germany and Austria. The German ethnologist Fritz Graebner had a decisive part in molding its specific form. Out of a training in history, Graebner tried to put the young science of ethnology on a sound methodological basis to replace the evolutionistic speculations of the 19th century. Following the old master of German historiography, Ernst Bernheim, he emphasized that nonliterate peoples were also carriers of history, which, however, was principally conceivable only as culture history. Starting from the migration theory of F. Ratzel (1887) and the Kulturkreis concept of L. Frobenius (1898), he developed, as a professional historian, a historical method for ethnology which was published in 1911. This method was further developed in Austria by Wilhelm Schmidt, with contributions by Wilhelm Koppers (1937), and it became the guiding standard for the so-called Vienna School of Ethnology. Koppers writes:

The Role of Proverbs in Fante Culture

Opening ParagraphA Knowledge of what has been traditionally termed ‘folklore’, and more recently ‘verbal art’, has long been considered essential for any well-rounded ethnography. Among many non-literate peoples this art form sanctions and validates other aspects of culture such as religious, economic, social, and political institutions. This paper will discuss the role of one of its elements, the proverb, in a West African culture.

The Effect of Language on Verbal Expression and Recall

M ANY nonliterate people in contact with western society learn a European language or a lingua franca. They may use this foreign language in front of strangers, and their native language among their own people. Anthropologists and other social scientists sometimes interview certain informants in a European language and others in the vernacular. Is the opinion of people influenced by the language in which an issue is expressed? In some situations, acculturating people learn procedures and values which they subsequently recall either in the same or in a different language. Colonial administrators instruct people in one language who thereafter think and talk in their mother tongue. At Makerere College in Uganda all the teaching is in English. Students there discuss problems among themselves both in English and also in their own languages. Moreover, many of them later utilize in some African language what they learn in English at Makerere. Is memory affected by the difference between the language of learning or exposure and the language of recall? This investigation seeks to explore limited aspects of these linguistic problems under carefully controlled but artificial conditions. It departs from existing literature on bilingualism. That literature concentrates upon the relation between the phenomenon and a general ability like intelligence (e.g., Arsenian 1937); the measurement of bilingual achievement (e.g., Taute 1948); the problems of teaching a society's language to immigrant children (e.g., Tireman 1948); the effects upon one language of knowing another (e.g., Weinreich 1953); or propaganda in behalf of an intruding language in a foreign country (e.g., Geissler 1938).

Music in American Culture

IT SEEMS safe to say that anthropologists have paid virtually no attention to music in American culture. Partly this is because anthropologists traditionally have concentrated their efforts on the of nonliterate peoples and cultures, and partly it stems from a rather general disregard of the humanistic aspects of culture which all too frequently, and unfortunately, characterizes the study of man. Partly, too, it is in the nature of musical studies themselves, which require a double specialization for fullest resultscompetence is needed in both anthropology and music, a combination not frequently found. At the same time, the double specialization need not be a block to significant research, as a perusal of some of the articles cited here will indicate. It does not take special musical training to investigate the status of a musician in his society, the relationship of music to other aspects of culture, or the dynamics in the spread of a particular kind of music. Indeed, the research carried out by an ethnomusicologist in the field is centered about purely anthropological problems stated in terms of a particular aspect of culture. In this respect the ethnomusicologist cannot be separated from the anthropologist on any but a conceptual plane-technical analysis simply requires special skills no more abstruse than those used in studying the structure of society. It seems reasonably clear, then, that the of music in American culture has not been neglected because of the lack of specialized skills but because of a lack of specific interest. For discussion purposes, four major musical streams may be considered here: academic music, most often discussed under the misleading term classical; folk music of white communities; popular music, as distinctly differentiated from jazz and including hit tunes of the day; and Negro music, which should perhaps be subdivided to distinguish jazz from other forms of musical expression. There are not many who would insist that academic music has contributed a distinctively American art form to the world. The music of Charles Ives or Aaron Copland has a distinctive touch, but in last analysis the form and the concept are European derived even though they may have been extended somewhat. The same is generally true of the folk music of white communities; this may show specific ethnic characteristics as represented by Polish people singing Polish songs, for example, or the song texts may represent specifically American situations and concepts as in songs of the Civil War or perhaps cowboy songs of the west. But again, the music itself, the idea, the cultural tradition it represents is not significantly different from the European patterns from which it derives. This further applies to American popular song in terms of musical structure, although again in text material a mode of expression perhaps typically American has emerged.

The Use of Music in the Study of a Problem of Acculturation*

increased considerably. The result has been a number of studies of the music of nonliterate people, but as yet little theoretical application for such studies has been shown. The present paper will attempt to indicate one way in which musical investigation can be used to support anthropological theory, with the hope that its broader ramifications will become apparent by implication. For purposes of discussion let us state a hypothesis in the field of acculturation studies as follows: When two human groups which are in sustained contact have a number of characteristics in common in a particular aspect of culture, exchange of ideas therein will be much more frequent than if the characteristics of those aspects differ markedly from one another. In order to test this hypothesis let us examine the musical acculturative situation which exists, first, between Western culture and the Flathead Indians of western Montana and, second, between Western culture and urban Africa south of the Sahara with special reference to the Belgian Congo. Among the Flathead Indians the evidences of acculturation with respect to music are by no means pronounced, and those changes which can be documented appear in areas of activity surrounding the music rather than in the actual music itself, that is, in such matters as the construction of musical instruments or the use of song texts as opposed to vocal quality or scale structure. Flathead musical instruments at present include the war drum, hand drum and end-blown flageolet, a reduction in number from that indicated in earlier sources. Turney-High, for example, speaks of the whistle of bird bones which was used in courting and, more specifically, in arranging trysts, as well as rattles made by stringing deer hoofs on thongs tied to sticks, which were used both by shamans in the Camas Dance and by laymen in less esoteric dancing (Turney-High 1937:39, 83). Teit further indicates the presence of the rasp which, however, he mentions only in passing and without description (Teit 1927-28:386). The whistle and rasp are nowhere found in use today while the modern sleighbell has been substituted for the original rattle; these bells * This paper was first presented at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association at Tucson, Arizona, Dec. 29, 1953. The author wishes to acknowledge with thanks the support of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and l'Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale, which made research in the Belgian Congo possible, and the Music Foundation of Montana State University, which supported field work among the Flathead Indians.

Three cases of psychosis among the Eskimos.

The study of actual instances of psychosis among non-literate peoples can enhance our understanding of the relationship between mental illness and the society in which it occurs. Analysis of case histories may enable us to see how social, biological and psychological factors reciprocally influence each other to produce mental disease. Some light may be thrown on the question whether or not there is a common nucleus of aberration which is universally manifested.

An Estimate of Fertility in Some Yao Hamlets in Liwonde District of Southern Nyasaland

Opening ParagraphKuczynski has drawn attention to the deplorable incompleteness of censuses of colonial populations. In order to make estimates of population trends among non-literate peoples, therefore, we have to rely on the analysis of samples drawn at random from the population as a whole. The difficulties to be surmounted even for so limited an objective are considerable.

The Role of Obscenity in the Folk Tales of the "Intellectual" Stratum of Our Society

ALTHOUGH OBSCENITIES are fully functioning elements in the folk tales of all societies, they have an additional significance in connection with the tales told in modern urban America, in that they determine whether the mode of transmission of the tales is folkloristic, i.e., by world of mouth, or potentially literary. This is true because American literary tradition, for the most part, avoids obscenities. Non-obscene tales are frequently published as newspaper fillers, or in anthologies, and have a more pervasive function in providing plots, incidents, and characters for short stories of the popular magazine type; hence they soon creep out of the realm of folklore into that of literature. Obscene stories, on the other hand, have a tendency to remain in the purely oral tradition, with the consequence that almost all of the urban American folk tales that can be compared with the folk tales of non-literate peoples contain obscenities.

The Cheyenne Way: Conflict and Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence

The Cheyenne Indians, in sharp contrast to other Plains tribes, are renowned for the clear sense of form and structure in their institutions. This cultural trait, together with the colorful background of the Cheyennes, attracted the unique collaboration of a legal theorist and an anthropologist, who, in this volume, provide a definitive picture of the law-ways of a primitive, nonliterate people. This foundational study of primitive law presents the folkways in law of the Cheyennes through the technique of the American case lawyer, adjusted to the requirements of the anthropologist with his scientific understanding of human behavior and realistic sociology. Particularly appealing to the general reader are the law cases themselves. Based on individual episodes that reflect the legal procedure of the Cheyennes over a period of more than sixty years, the cases are heroic narratives in the finest tradition.