On the Ambivalence of Orthodoxy in American Anthropology

The establishment of professional anthropology is contrasted with the flawed limits and freedom of early self-trained anthropologists working outside of the academy. The work of ethnographer and linguist Jaime de Angulo and photographer Edward S. Curtis are oppositional examples of early 20th century self-trained anthropologically informed field research. While Curtis's career illustrates how work outside of academic anthropological circles often failed to document Indian culture, de Angulo's work provides an example of a brilliant scholar producing innovative, high quality work that would have been difficult to produce under the strictures of early 20th century academic life.     

In Cloth We Trust

In this essay, I contextualize recent studies of cloth and culture in Africa, South America, and Oceania within changing anthropological concerns. Examining cloth as an important aspect of art, technology, and economy, I question how specific properties of objects are connected with cultural and social significance. Over the last two decades in particular, cloth—whether woven or nonwoven—has often been construed as an especially potent polyvalent symbol. Examining how scholars have explored this potential, I address the conceptual relocation of cloth in different, often contradictory regimes of value that join discrete physical locations, from isolated community to cosmopolitan museum.     

Culture and Power in the Anthropology of Japan

Though Japan anthropology since the 1970s has been characterized as outside mainstream anthropological currents, recent work reflects broader disciplinary debates about the relation between culture and power. The four books under review, spanning the archaeology, history, ethnography, and political science of Japan, illustrate different ways of synthesizing cultural and political perspectives. Yet, to varying degrees, they all move beyond an undifferentiated, ahistorical, and depoliticized view of culture to embrace complexity, variability, conflict, and change. In so doing, they raise important questions about knowledge construction across the subfields of anthropology and its uneasy relationship with nationalist and essentialist discourses.     

Greed and grievance in civil war

While economic agendas have been shown to be an important factor in shaping civil wars, there are several problems with prominent explanations centring on rebel ‘greed’, notably those put forward by Paul Collier. Among these are: the way proxies for ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ have been used; the lack of attention to links between ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’; and the lack of attention to ‘greed’ among elements associated with counter‐insurgencies. Why has Collier's analysis proven so popular, despite its flaws? I suggest that it represents an attractive over‐simplification with a scientific aura. It achieves a degree of simplicity by excluding many of the most important features of civil wars, even to the extent of asserting that there is no point in asking rebels about their motivations. Furthermore, it is often politically convenient in that it tends to exclude a number of western governments—and (sometimes favoured) governments in poorer countries—from serious scrutiny. By contrast, the emphasis placed by Frances Stewart and her associates on the role of economic and political inequalities between groups offers a more nuanced understanding of how civil wars are caused and shaped, an understanding that is better able to take account of the nature of grievances and of the role of abusive government‐affiliated actors in generating grievances.     

AN EVALUATION OF THE STRONG GROUND MOTION RECORDED DURING THE MAY 1, 2003 BINGÖL TURKEY,EARTHQUAKE

An important record of ground motion from a M6.4 earthquake occurring on May 1, 2003, at epicentral and fault distances of about 12 and 9 km, respectively, was obtained at a station near the city of Bingöl, Turkey. The maximum peak ground values of 0.55 g and 36 cm/s are among the largest ground-motion amplitudes recorded in Turkey. From simulations and comparisons with ground motions from other earthquakes of comparable magnitude, we conclude that the ground motion over a range of frequencies is unusually high. Site response may be responsible for the elevated ground motion, as suggested from analysis of numerous aftershock recordings from the same station. The mainshock motions have some interesting seismological features, including ramps between the P-and S-wave that are probably due to near- and intermediate-field elastic motions and strong polarisation oriented at about 39 degrees to the fault (and therefore not in the fault-normal direction). Simulations of motions from an extended rupture explain these features. The N10E component shows a high-amplitude spectral acceleration at a period of 0.15 seconds resulting in a site specific design spectrum that significantly overestimates the actual strength and displacement demands of the record. The pulse signal in the N10E component affects the inelastic spectral displacement and increases the inelastic displacement demand with respect to elastic demand for very long periods.