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A.L. KROEBER & THE MEASUREMENT OF TIME'S ARROW & TIME'S CYCLE R. Lee Lyman & Judith L. Harpole
A.L. Kroeber invented frequency seriation in 1916 to measure the passage of time. This chronometer measured the flight of time's arrow with artifact types that changed their relative frequencies in a uniform fashion over what seemed, on the basis of other evidence, to be the linear passage of time. In 1919 and again in 1940, Kroeber sought to measure cycles of cultural phenomena over time and chose a different method for doing so. This method, now termed time-series analysis, was implemented by plotting the averages of several metric dimensions of a kind of artifact against their known age. Kroeber observed recurring averages and concluded that cultural phenomena cycled through time. Frequency seriation and time-series analysis as implemented by Kroeber comprise significant differences in the units they use, their protocols, and their analytical goals.
TOWARD A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL OF THE SELF Jeannette Marie Mageo
This article presents a multidimensional model of the self that recognizes cultural variety while providing a comparative framework-- giving translatability to difference. In this model, cultures of self can be mapped on an array of continua that represent modes of variation in a multidimensional field. These continua enable us to figure the position of one culture relative to others, while allowing for the possibility that dimensions of self do not co-vary among cultures. Continua also make it possible to plot variance in styles of selfhood within a single culture that could occur between contexts, through historical time, or among subgroups of class, caste, gender, or ethnicity. In the process of delineating this model, I interrogate theories, both venerable and contemporary, concerning experience and embodiment, ranking and gender, morality, emotion, and cognition, attachment and need, asking how these elements of self articulate with one another and in what sense their cultural divergence is meaningful.
MENSTRUATION AS A VERBAL TABOO AMONG THE AKAN OF GHANA Kofi Agyekum
This article discusses menstruation as a verbal taboo among the Akan-speakers of Ghana and considers the theory behind this phenomenon. The use of euphemisms is the most popular verbal Taboo Avoidance Technique (TAT) among the Akan, and the euphemisms used for menstruation are outlined. The article then examines the semantic and metaphorical relations between the euphemisms and what they denote. Among the Akan, euphemisms for menstruation follow two basic models: (1) negative (indisposition and seclusion of the woman) and (2) positive (transition and fertility and the arrival of a protective visitor). With urbanization, modernization, and the adoption of Western religions, some of the Akan euphemisms for menstruation have become fossilized, and others no longer have referential reality. I argue that changing patterns in the use of the euphemisms and drastic changes in the current generation's knowledge of them reveal much about societal changes in the Akan speech community.
NEW WARI MORTUARY STRUCTURES IN THE AYACUCHO VALLEY, PERU Lidio M. Valdez
Katrina J. Bettcher
L. Ernesto Valdez
Recent archaeological salvage excavations in the Ayacucho Valley of the Peruvian Central Highlands resulted in the discovery of two totally new mortuary structure forms for the region and for the Wari culture in particular. The first form consists of two rectangular mortuary chambers, each with a small east-facing entrance and holding the interred remains of several individuals. The second form consists of several cylindrical cysts, each containing the remains of a single individual. We describe both mortuary forms and compare them to other known Wari mortuary structures of the region. Since both chambers evidently were accessible, we also discuss their possible implications with regard to ancestor worship, keeping in mind that an important aspect of Inka ayllu organization was the veneration of ancestors' mummified bodies kept in accessible mortuary buildings.
BOOK REVIEWS
The Human Inheritance: Genes, Languages, and Evolution. Bryan
Sykes, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 208 pp. $24.95,
cloth.
The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth: Dental Morphology and Its
Variation in Recent Human Populations. G. Richard Scott and Christy
G. Turner II. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 382
pp. $80.00, cloth; $29.95, paper.
Gorillas Among Us: A Primate Ethnographer's Book of Days.
Dawn Prince-Hughes. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001,
130 pp., 13 illustrations. $40.00, cloth; $17.95, paper.
Constructing Frames of Reference: An Analytical Method for Archaeological
Theory Building Using Ethnographic and Environmental Data Sets.
Lewis R. Binford. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 2001, 583 pp., 360 illustrations. $75.00, cloth.
Archaeological Theory Today.
Ian Hodder, ed. Oxford:
Polity Press, 2001, 328 pp. £50.00, cloth; £15.99, paper.
Biogeochemical Approaches to Paleodietary Analysis.
Stanley H. Ambrose and M. Anne Katzenberg, eds. New York: Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000, 269 pp. $75.00, cloth.
Handbook of Rock Art Research. David S. Whitley, ed. Walnut
Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2001, 864 pp. $99.95, cloth.
Les origines de la pensée: Archéologie de la conscience.
Marcel Otte. Sprimont, Belgium: Peirre Mardaga, 2001, 136 pp.. £14.50,
cloth.
Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity,
and Differentiation. Ian Kuijt, ed. New York: Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000, 325 pp. $80.00, cloth.
Atlantis Destroyed. Rodney Castleden.
London: Routledge,
2001, xiv + 225 pp., 69 figures, 31 plates, 1 table. $19.95, paper.
Ancient Burial Practices in the American Southwest: Archaeology,
Physical Anthropology, and Native American Perspectives. Douglas
R. Mitchell and Judy L. Brunson-Hadley, eds. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 2001, 276 pp. $59.95, cloth.
Ruins and Rivals: The Making of Southwest Archaeology.
James E. Snead. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001,
290 pp. $35.00, cloth.
The Architecture of Grasshopper Pueblo. Charles R. Riggs.
Salt Lake City, UT: Salt Lake City Press, 2001, 280 pp. $40.00, cloth.
Casas Grandes and Its Hinterland: Prehistoric Regional Organization
in Northwest Mexico. Michael E. Whalen and Paul E. Minnis. Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, 2001, 250 pp., 9 halftones, 52 line illustrations.
$45.00, cloth.
Trees of Paradise and Pillars of the World: The Serial Stelae of
"18-Rabbit-God K," King of Copan. Elizabeth Newsome.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001, 336 pp. $45.00, cloth.
Children and Anthropology: Perspectives for the 21st Century.
Helen B. Schwartzman, ed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing
Group, 2001, 224 pp. $64.95, cloth.
Experimental Americans: Celo and Utopian Community in the Twentieth
Century. George L. Hicks. Champaign: University
of Illinois Press, 2001, 272 pp. $36.95, cloth.
Marketing Democracy: Power and Social Movements in Post-Dictatorship
Chile. Julia Paley. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2001, xviii + 255 pp. $19.95, paper.
Racial Revolutions: Antiracism and Indian Resurgence in Brazil.
Jonathan W. Warren. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2001, 363
pp. $64.00, cloth; $21.95, paper.
Dancing with the Virgin: Body and Faith in the Fiesta of Tortugas,
New Mexico. Deidre Sklar. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2001, 230 pp. $16.95, paper.
Female "Circumcision" in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change.
Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund, eds. Boulder, Colo.:
Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, 349 pp. $59.95, cloth.
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