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THE DOMINANCE OF ONE AND ITS PERILS: CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP AND BRANCH STRUCTURES IN UTOPIAN COMMUNESChristoph Brumann While utopian communes-- groups that voluntarily live together and share all their property-- are notoriously unstable, some of them achieve long durations. Based on a broad comparison of cases, I show that charismatic leaders in communes inhibit survival if they are too dominant, as when they are attributed quasi-divine properties and absolute power over members. By contrast, a branch structure-- a number of semi-independant settlements instead of a single one-- is often associated with long-term survival and institutional vigor. Branches restrict settlement sizes to a favorable level (75-500 persons), while mutual economic support, social control, and the testing of innovations in clearly bounded subunits may proceed undiminished. None of the branches may be too dominant, however, so that the same structural principle as for charismatic leaders applies. The comparative study of real-life cases with different degrees of success offers the most promising path to a general theory of cooperation. FOOTBALL IN NEWLY UNITED YEMEN: RITUALS OF EQUITY, IDENTIY, AND STATE FORMATIONThomas B. Stevenson Abdul Karim Alaug Anthropologists generally recognize that beyond being contests, sports contain important sociopolitical symbols. Several recent studies suggest ritual is an appropriate framework for both analyzing the symbolic messages transmitted through sports contests and explaining why these messages are powerful and evocative. This article contributes to this discussion by analyzing data on two sports events in the newly united Republic of Yemen. The analysis focuses on how the ritual structure is an essential component in symbolically generating a new national identity, demonstrating equal participation in the new government, and advancing the formation of the state. GUT MORPHOLOGY AND THE AVOIDANCE OF CARRION AMONG CHIMPANZEES, BABOONS, AND EARLY HOMINIDSSonia Ragir Martin Rosenberg Philip Tierno Meat-eating primates avoid scavenging for dietary protein and micronutrients even when carrion is relatively fresh. Chimpanzees, baboons, and modern hunter-gatherers supplement their diets of high-energy, low-protein fruit with protein obtained from leaves, insects, and animal prey. Most primates, especially leaf-eating primates, digest the cellulose cell walls of ingested plant material in a well developed caecum and/or large intestine through fermentation caused by enzymes released by their normal gut flora. The primate digestive strategy combines a rapid passage through the stomach and prolonged digestion in the ileum of the small intestine and caecum, and this combination increases the likelihood of colonization of the small intestine by ingested bacteria that are the cause of gastrointestinal disease. Carrion is very quickly contaminated with a high bacterial load because the proces of dismemberment of a carcass exposes the meat to the bacteria from the saliva of the predator, from the digestive tracts of insects, and from the carcasses' own gut. Thus, the opportunistic eating of uncooked carrion or even unusually large quantities of fresh-killed meat by nonhuman primates or humans is likely to result in gastrointestinal illness. We propose that among meat-eating primates, carrion avoidance is a dietary strategy that develops during their lifetime as a response to the association of gastrointestinal illness with the ingestion of contaminated meat from scavenged carcasses. This has important implications for our understanding of early homonid behavior. THE FORMATION OF THE AURIGNACIAN IN EUROPEJanusz K. Kozlowski Marcel Otte In order to understand the Aurignacian phenomenon in Europe, one must clarify definitions and then consider it both in its territorial entirety and within the complexity of its origins. Moreover, the Aurignacian appears to be a composite phenomenon, articulated in a series of phases with varying geographic limits. The "classic" sequence defined in Western Europe is from now on insufficient to support an intelligible model. We propose here to explain certain essential characteristics useful for this new idea. TESTING THE NATURE OF TEOTIHUACAN IMPERIALISM AT KAMINALJUYU USING PHOSPHATE OXYGEN-ISOTOPE RATIOSChristine D. White and Michael W. Spence Fred J. Longstaffe and Kimberly R. Law Oxygen-isotope ratios of enamel phosphate from a sample of first and third molars from burials in the important state of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, have been used to identify individuals who were born in foreign regions or who relocated during late childhood. The goal of this research is to clarify the nature of the influence exercised by the larger Mesoamerican state of Teotihuacan, Mexico. A baseline that is isotopically distinct from the Valley of Mexico (Teotihuacan), the Valley of Oaxaca (Monte Alban), and the Peten (Rio Azul/Rio Bravo) has been established for the Kaminaljuyu environment using burials assumed to be representative of the local population from the Preclassic (1000-500 B.C.) to Postclassic (A.D. 1000-1500) periods. As expected, the greatest degree of isotopic variation is found in the Middle Classic period, but "foreigners" are not restricted to the well-known tombs in Mounds A and B, which exhibit many Teotihuacan material culture affinities. Only one skeleton has a d18O value in late childhood that is consistent with Teotihuacan values; it is a principal tomb occupant. Therefore, it is unlikely that Mounds A and B represent a group of Teotihuacan immigrants, whether rulers, traders, or ambassadors. In addition, the d18O values indicate the presence of a second group of foreigners or foreign sojourners for whom a homeland is not yet identified. BOOK REVIEWS Evolutionary Principles of Human Adolescence. Glenn Weisfeld.
New York: Basic Books, 1999, 401 pp. $25.00, paper; $65.00,
cloth.
Genomic Diversity: Applications in Human Population Genetics.
Surinder S. Papiha, Ranjan Deka, and Ranajit Chakraborty,eds. New York.
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999, 248 pp. $135.00, cloth Devil Sickness and Devil Songs: Tohono O'odham Poetics.
David L. Kozak and David I. Lopez.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1999, 190 pp. $45.00, cloth. Reading and Writing the Lakota Language: Lakota Iyapi Un Wowapi Nahan Yawapi.
Albert White Hat, Sr. Salt Lake City: University of Utah,
1999, 272 pp. $24.95, paper; $50.00, cloth; $12.95, tapes; $34.95, paper and
tapes. A Historical Dictionary of indain Food. K.T. Achaya. Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1998, xvi + 347 pp. $35.00, cloth. Any Time is Trinidad Time. Kevin K. Birth. Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 1999, 224 pp. $49.95,
cloth. The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective. Anthony
Oliver-Smith and Sussannah Hoffman, eds. New York: Routledge, 1999, 334 pp. $27.99, paper;
$80.00, cloth. Settlement Pattern Studies in the Americas: Fifty Years since Viru.
Brian R. Billman and Gary M. Feinman,
eds. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution, 1999, 328 pp. $65.00,
cloth. "I, Too Am America": Archaeological Studies of African American Life.
Theresa A. Singleton, ed. Charlottesville: University Press of
Virginia, 1999, 448 pp., illustrations. $19.50, paper; $59.50, cloth. Race and Affluence: An Archaeology of African America and Consumer Culture.
Paul R. Mullins. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999, 217 pp. $59.95,
cloth. Manifesting Power: Gender and the Interpretation of Power in Archaeology.
Tracy L. Sweely, ed. New York: Routledge, 1999, 210 pp. $24.99,
paper. Reading the Body: Representations and Remains in the Archaeological Record.
Alison Rautman, ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1999, 272 pp. $22.50, paper; $45.00, cloth. Assembling the Past: Studies in the Professionalization of Archaeology.
Alice B. Kehoe and Mary Beth Emmerichs, eds. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 1999, vi + 241 pp., 1 line drawing. $49.95, cloth. Time, Culture and Identity: An Interpretive Archaeology. Julian
Thoams. New York: Routledge, 1999, xiii + 267 pp. $27.99, paper; $80.00,
cloth. Julian Steward and the Great Basin: The Making of an Anthropologist.
Richard O. Clemmer, L. David Myers, and Mary Elizabeth Rudden,
eds. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999, 288 pp., 6 photographs,
5 maps. $45.00, cloth. The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest.
Stephen H. Lekson.Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 1999, 233 pp.
$23.95, paper; $48.00, cloth. Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas. Elsa M. Redmond,
ed. Gainesville: University press of Florida, 1998, 416 pp., 34 line art, 3
tables. $55.00, cloth. Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa. Susan Keech
McIntosh, ed. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 176 pp.
$64.95, cloth. Rethinking World-Systems: Diasporas, Colonies, and Interaction in Uruk
Mesopotamia. Gil J. Stein. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999, xv
+ 206 pp., 2 photographs, 22 illustrations. $40.00, cloth. Crusader Archaeology: The Material Culture of the Latin East. Adrian
J. Boas. New York: Routledge, 1999, 208 pp., 24 line figures, 78 half tones.
$50.00, cloth. L'Abri du Pape: Bivouacs, Burials, and Retreats along the Upper Belgian
Meuse, from the Mesolithic to the Low Roman Empire. J.M. Leotard, L.G.
Straus, and M. Otte, eds. Liege: ERAUL 88, 1999, 365 pp. 1500 Belgian francs,
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