First‐world clinical anthropology and third‐world health issues

Golde, Peggy & Demitri B. Shimkin, eds. Clinical Anthropology: A New Approach to American Health Problems. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1983. xxi + 456 pp. $17.75 (paper).

Morgan, John H., ed. Third World Medicine and Social Change: A Reader in Social Science and Medicine. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1983. ix + 317 pp. $26.25 (cloth), $14.00 (paper).     

Medical anthropology: A comment on recent publication

George M. Foster and Barbara G. Anderson. Medical Anthropology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978. 302 pp. Bibliography and index. $14.95.

Eleanor E. Bauwens, ed. The Anthropology of Health. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby, 1978. 200 pp. Index. $10.50, paper.     

Transnational corporations and anthropology

Richard J. Barnet and Ronald E. Müller. Global Reach: The Power of the Multinational Corporations. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974. 508 pp. Tables, appendix, bibliography, and index. $4.95 paper.     

David Warren Sabean. Landbesitz und Gesellschaft am Vorabend des Bauernkriegs: Eine Studie der sozialen Verhältnisse im südlichen Oberschwaben in den Jahren vor 1525

In conventional approaches to computer analysis of historical sources, one must represent the data in structured formats in which content and context are discarded. Extensible markup language (XML), developed for data transfer on the Internet, permits preservation of the full text of irregular historical sources without sacrificing the ability to conduct systematic analysis. Related querying tools offer most functions of a relational database management system, including data transformation facilities for coding, standardizing, and aggregating nominal data. An XML database permits multiple interpretations of the data because the unit of analysis and the coding schemes are not defined at entry. In a case study of probate inventories, the author demonstrates how structured analysis of domestic interiors can be performed and introduces approaches to studying semistructured data.     

Neurognostics Question: An American Neurophysiologist,Pioneer of Electromyography,A President of Universities and Scientific Advisor to United States Presidents

The semantics of pain are an important and interesting aspect of any language. Ancient Greek and Latin had multiple words for pain, which makes scrutinizing different meanings problematic. The ancient physician Galen approached this issue through the use of adjectives to describe the qualities for pain, instead of the words for pain themselves. The medical texts of Celsus and Caelius Aurelianus reveal that Latin also vested particular significance in qualifiers to distinguish between different types of pain. This article looks at the qualifying terms used for pain in the ancient Greek and Latin languages to reveal a sophisticated Greco-Roman vocabulary for pain.     

Beyond the Property Rights Approach: Welfare Policy and the Reform of State‐Owned Enterprises in China

During the pre‐reform era, Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) operated not only as firms, but also as mini‐welfare states, providing employees with lifetime employment, inexpensive housing, free health care, and pensions. Since China’s market transition began in the late 1970s, however, SOEs have had to bear increasingly heavy burdens for welfare provisions to their employees. The steep increase in welfare spending has not only eroded the base of state revenue, but has also impeded further SOE reforms. To lighten welfare burdens upon SOEs and to remove institutional obstacles to marketization and privatization embedded in the existing welfare system, the Chinese state has imposed many welfare reforms aimed at shifting responsibilities for welfare provision from SOEs to a combination of government, enterprises, communities, and individuals. This article examines the belated welfare reforms in China’s state sector and their impact upon the reform of SOEs. It finds that reform implementation has been sluggish. To achieve the policy goal of welfare reforms, high degrees of state autonomy and capacity are needed.     

Concentration Effects,Spatial Mismatch,or Neighborhood Selection? Exploring Labor Market and Neighborhood Variations in Male Unemployment Risk Using Census Microdata from Great Britain

A classification of census enumeration districts has recently been added to the 1991 British Census 2% Sample of Anonymised Records (SAR). Through the use of multilevel modeling techniques, the area classification information on the SAR is used to investigate geographical differences in unemployment. Previous research has indicated that where a person lives can affect their propensity to unemployment. However, the understanding of these relationships are confounded by the reciprocal nature of the relationship between unemployment, housing, and geographical location. This paper examines the relative importance of the individual, the type of neighborhood of residence, and the local labor market in which one lives in explaining variations in unemployment risk. It also examines the role of housing tenure at an individual and contextual level in mediating this relationship. Two competing hypotheses are evaluated. The first is that local concentrations of unemployment are the result of the process of neighborhood selection. The other suggests there are contextual affects on unemployment risk, which may include access to job opportunities and “concentration effects.” The paper concludes that most neighborhood level variation in unemployment is due to housing market effects, particularly neighborhood selection. As well as offering insights into the relationship between unemployment and geographical location, this paper aims to demonstrate methodological innovations in the analysis of census microdata. In particular it shows how area classifications can be used in conjunction with microdata in a multilevel modeling framework, to get a better understanding of the role of individual and contextual factors in social processes.