Social integration on the Upper Canadian frontier: elements of community in Essex County 1790–1850

Individuals settling new areas have had to rely on a variety of resources, including the social structures inherent in their culture. This study focuses upon the elements of family, kinship and origin in part of nineteenth-century Ontario. It approaches them from the perspectives of interaction over distance and of sociological institution, the particular institution being that of land conveyancing. Data drawn from the surviving parts of the personal and agricultural schedules of the Census of Canada for 1851/52 were searched for the propinquity of individuals to one another. Social interaction seems to have occurred within two miles for most people. Random samples and a series of t-tests suggest that there were no differences in proximity for the members of the different cultural groups but that there were differences between immigrant and established groups with respect to the desires of kin for proximity to one another. These differences were paralleled by differences in the structure of the family. Kinship was also important in determining to whom land was sold; most sales occurred within the particular community. That this was so suggests, according to the model of Steeves, that the level of integration in mid-century Essex was simply embryonic.     

AN ETHNOGRAPHER'S TALE: ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN NETHERLANDS (WEST) NEW GUINEA (1950 – 1962)1

A major part of the ethnographic literature concerning present-day Irian Jay a is based on research dating back to the 1950s and 1960s. Following the independence of Indonesia, West New Guinea remained a separate Dutch colony between 1950 and 1962. The Dutch colonial administration had had little ethnographic interest in the area since the beginning of the century, so that interest in knowledge concerning the indigenous population had yet to develop. Lack of manpower, finances and time to instigate adequate research meant that the resulting search for ethnographic data became itself a complex social process. People from a range of backgrounds and training - not only academic researchers, but also administrative and missionary personnel - became involved in the gathering of ethnographic material, often while engaged in quite different duties. In this article some light is shed both on the resulting structure of research and on the motivations behind the separate research efforts. At the end of the article some conclusions are drawn concerning the nature of the material gathered.     

Illicit Drug Production and Supply-side Drugs Policy in Asia and South America

This paper examines the feasibility of current policies of supply limitation as an instrument for the control of dangerous drugs (principally South American cocaine and Asian heroin). The structure of production and distribution is examined, and revenue estimates are made. A range of supply-side policy options are evaluated by means of a simple game-theory approach. In all cases, it is concluded that supply-side policies are likely to prove ineffectual as a means of drug control.