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The Marxist tradition's ability to serve as an adequate method of approaching social conditions is questioned, based on the analysis of the current world situation recently outlined by Rajni Kothari ("Survival in an Age of Transformation," Praxis International, 1983, 2, 4, Jan, 371-388). The Marxist critical tradition has been flawed in its consistent employment of a universalist conception of human existence, derived from its heritage in philosophical anthropology. This universalism has consistently blinded it to the actual, widely varying conditions of human existence, & has caused critical theorists to undervalue the importance of subjectively specific experiences, eg, those associated with racism, sexism, & other forms of oppression not directly accessible through Marxist theories of SC struggle. It is asserted that critical social theorizing must be revised to reflect an openness to the importance & authenticity of the particularities of varied social groups, based on universal acceptability, & finding expression in a praxis beginning with a stronger commitment to open dialogue. J. Weber.

A Community Studies tradition based on the theory and methods of a functionalist social anthropology has since the 1930's been the dominant one in both characterising the social structure of rural Ireland and in theorising social change in Ireland in general. This social anthropological method, while of possible utility in the study of primitive cultures and peoples, confronts certain difficulties when attempts are made to employ pure ethnographic analysis as a method for studying social change in either urban or rural settings in industrialising societies like Ireland. Despite attempts to do so, the Community Studies tradition has been unable to establish a coherent method for the study of local social systems and their structural relations of dependency on wider social, economic and political forces at play in capitalist social formations. Instead, it has fallen on an isolationist approach to studying local areas. In Irish sociology this abstractionism is inevitably undergirded by some variant of the modernisation thesis in which 'traditional life and culture' is progressively 'threatened' by the onslaught of urban‐industrial modernity.

A comparison of models of cognitive organization in the personality descriptors of three languages indicates that common conceptual themes underlie the meanings and uses of personality descriptors cross‐culturally. Two crosscutting dimensions, interpreted as solidarity/conflict and dominance/submission, consistently organize the interrelation of trait‐descriptors in a number of distinct languages. This finding leads to the speculation that these dimensions represent a universal conceptual schema produced by the interaction of innate psycholinguistic structures and fundamental conditions of human social life, for example, the potential for concord or discord in the goals and actions of multiple actors (solidarity/conflict), and for the asymmetrical influence of one actor upon another (dominance/submission). The appearance of similar structures in other types of vocabulary used to describe and explain interpersonal behavior (such as terms for emotions and social roles) suggests that these conceptual dimensions reflect basic themes in folk interpretations of social behavior. [cognitive anthropology, language, universal, personality, interpersonal themes]

Book reviewed in this article:Newby, H. (1979), Green and Pleasant Land? Social Change in Rural England,Galjart, B. F. (1976), Peasant Mobilization and Solidarity,Dalton, G. (ed.), (1978/79), Research in Economic Anthropology: An Annual Compilation of ResearchNelson, N. (1979), Why Has Development Neglected Rural Women? A review of the South Asian literatureMuller, P. (1979), Analyse von Bevölkerungswanderungen im Verflechtungsbercich cincs Oberzentrums im ländlichen Raum ‐ Am Bcispiel TrierShaw, J. M. editor (1979), Rural Deprivation and Planning,Hirsch, G. P. and Maunder, A. H. (1978), Farm Amalgamation in Western Europe,Moore, D. (editor), (1979), Disadvantaged Rural Europe: Development Issues and ApproachesBernal, A. M et al (1979), Tourisme et développement régional en Andalousie,Cortot, J. (1978), Croissance et développement dc la petite hotellerie en Languedoc‐Roussillon,Hanel, A. und J. O. Müller, (1976), On the Evaluation of Rural Cooperatives with reference to Governmental Development Policies ‐ Case Study Iran.Lüpertz, V. (1979), Entwicklungcn und Reformen in dcr peruanischen Landwirtschaft 1969–1976.Cernea, M. M. (1979), Measuring Project Impact: Monitoring and Evaluation in the PIDER Rural Development Project ‐ Mexico.Agricultura Y Sociedad,

Abstract. The principal recent contributions from economics toward the understanding of behavior that is, or seems to be, altruistic, are discussed. Relevant developments in anthropology, biology and psychology are also introduced. Most of these models rely on some form of sophisticated goal maximization (attainment of power, genetic propagation, long‐term influence or even material benefit by means of a complex dynamic game strategy) and hence describe quasialtruistic behavior which is, in fact, consistent with individual welfare maximization. When looking at the public sector, government redistributive programs are considered by some to be expressions of collective altruism but these in fact have their roots in an implicit social contract enforced by the coercive power of the State. Genuine altruism must be action taken without expectation of reward or coercion and it is not to be found in models of concealed requirement or in forcible redistribution. A subsequent article discusses the area in which private activity can achieve more efficiently the redistributive objective.

Abstract. Hill and Rouse's formulation of Mannheim's framework for the sociology of knowledge as a means of examining the history of economic thought is rejected although it is held that they render an important service to economics by arguing the need for employment of the sociology of knowledge as a research tool. They have not appropriated Mannheim's categories authentically and they apply them in an overly simplified and undialectical manner. Even Mannheim's authentic formulation of the sociology of knowledge suffered limitations which more recent work enables us to overcome. What is believed to be a superior sociology of knowledge framework for investigating the evolution of economic thought is constructed by joining the Berger‐Luckmann model of legitimation with Habermas's philosophical anthropology. Increasingly economists are recognizing that their discipline is in a state of crisis. The crucial issue is how we can better understand the sociological nature of economic thought—its social functioning—to enable us to formulate our own economic theory so as to maximize human welfare.

Over the years, studies of materials about Africa, especially in the fields of religion, history, anthropology, culture, and sociology, have contributed to the reconstruction of the predominant modes of thought and reason that led to the rise of the people's belief systems, values, and religious doctrines. Though limited in many ways and still in the most rudimentary stage, the study of African religion has helped in some ways in the understanding of the basis of thought and action which determine African cognitions and total experience, in other words, African consciousness of his universe, feeling, and understanding of the state of being. It is important that interest in the study of African religion should be sustained, for one is still confronted today–often by those who should know–with derisively cynical questions such as: Is there an African religion? What in fact is it if there is one? Isn't it really the worship of ancestors? Is not African healing merely the practice of magic and mumbo-jumbo?

Book reviewed in this article:The Growth of Crime by Sir Leon Radzinowicz and Joan King.Penal Policy‐making in England Papers presented to the Cropwood Round‐Table Conference December 1976) edited by Nigel Walker with Henri Giller.Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault. Translated by Alan Sheridan.Predictive Sentencing by L. H. Whinery, T. J. Nagy, G. A. Sather and K. D. Fisher.Justice and Punishment edited by J. B. Cederblom and W. L. Blizek.Peacekeeping: Police, Prisons and Violence by Hans Toch.Integrating Social Work Methods edited by H. Specht and A. Vickery.Psychology and The Law edited by G. Bermant, C. Nemeth and N. Vidmar.Social Anthropology and Law (A.S.A. Monograph No. 14) edited by Ian Hamnett.Intermediate Treatment by Social Work Service Development Group.Intermediate Treatment—Planning for Action by Social Work Service Development Group.Justice for Juveniles (The 1969 Children and Young Persons Act: A Case for Reform?) by P. Priestley, D. Fears and R. Fuller.

In its eagerness to become scientific, political science has in recent decades tended to lose contact with its ontological base. It has tended to treat political events and phenomena as natural events lending themselves to the same explanatory logic as is found in physics and the other hard sciences. This tendency may be understood in part as a phase in the scientific revolution, as a diffusion, in two steps, of ontological and methodological assumptions from the strikingly successful hard sciences: first to psychology and economics, and then from these bellwether human sciences to sociology, anthropology, political science, and even history. In adopting the agenda of hard science, the social sciences, and political science in particular, were encouraged by the neopositivist school of the philosophy of science which legitimated this assumption of ontological and meta-methodological homogeneity. More recently, some philosophers of science and some psychologists and economists have had second thoughts about the applicability to human subject matters of strategy used in hard science.

A study of the Irish 'gombeenman' (Gibbon and Higgins, 1974) is likely to claim the interest not only of social scientists but also of historians who have encountered prototypes and variants of some of the basic themes. The present paper while using the above study as the principal focus for discussion, also embraces some of the major related contributions on the topic of Irish rural indebtedness. In the course of rejecting many of the propositions presented by both historical and contemporary critics an alternative interpretation is outlined. In relation to the particular study by Gibbon and Higgins it should be made clear in advance that, while the joint authors' broad speculative comments on political anthropology are interesting, an evaluation of their merit is left to writers more familiar with that field. However, to the extent that this theorising proceeds from a thin empirical base of less than uniform quality, a cautious reception seems in order. We begin by looking at this base in some detail.

The scientific study of religions began with M. Muller's investigation of mythology, which accounted for them as due originally to linguistic confusion in the description of natural processes. This was challenged by alternative hypotheses tracing the origins of religion to the animist belief that all objects have souls, or to various preanimistic sources. Gradually, the importance of materials from historical ethnology came to be recognized. By the end of the nineteenth century, three fields had emerged as sources of studies in this field, all focused on the relation beween myth & ritual: classical studies, anthropology, & Old Testament studies. Psychoanalysis contributed to the study of religion in particular by its stress of unconscious meanings of actions & symbols. Sociological, ethnological, & interdisciplinary approaches have also been important. It is now generally recognized that it is impossible to define the origin of religion, & that the results of such varied disciplines as history, sociology, psychology, & phenomenology must be synthesized to understand religious forms. W. H. Stoddard

The Natiosalisation of British Industry 1945–51. By Sir Norman Chester, C.B.E.Power, Violence, Decision. By W. J. M. Mackenzie.Explorations in Government, Collected Papers 1951–1968. By W. J. M. Mackenzie.Oswald Mosley. By Robert Skidelsky.The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy 1933–1940. By Maurice Cowling.The Transfer of Power, 1942–47. Edited by Nicholas Mansergh. Volume V, The Simla Conference, September 1, 1944‐July 28, 1945.The Past Masters: Politics and Politicians 1906–1939. By Harold Macmillan.Committees of Inquiry. By Gerald Rhodes.The Parliamentary Ombudsman. By Roy Gregory and Peter Hutchisson.Sociology and Social Policy. By P. Townsesd.Social Policy and Administration Revisited. By D. Donnison et al.The Political Ideas of Marx and Engels: Vol. 1: Marxism and Totalitarian Democracy 1818–1850. By Richard N. Hunt.Marx Without Myth. By Maximilien Rubel and Margaret Masale.Marxian and Post‐Marxian Political Economy. By Arun Bose.Marx and Modern Social Theory. By Alan Swingewood.Marxist Analyses and Social Anthropology. Edited by Maurice Bloch.The Study of Government. By F. F. Ridley.

In terms of the numbers of professional social scientists & social science publications, the social sciences are thriving in Japan because of the expansion of higher education & the high literacy rate of the Japanese public. Problems still exist; before these can be discussed, it is necessary to present a brief historical background of the social sciences in Japan from the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) to the post-war period. The present institutional framework of social science education & research (mainly in the U's) is described. Some of the current issues with regard to the development of the social sciences in Japan are: (1) insufficiency of research funding, (2) excessive reliance on government sources (as opposed to nongovernmental foundations) for funding, (3) rigidity of the faculty system which prevents the establishment of some of the newer disciplines such as cultural anthropology & international relations, & (4) lack of knowledge outside Japan of the work of Japanese social scientists since their works are not published in English. Perspectives for the future are discussed. J. N. Mayer.

The prehistoric archaeology of the Reese River Valley in the central Great Basin strongly indicates that a Shoshonean‐like settlement pattern has existed for approximately 4500 years in this vicinity. A comparison of the prehistoric demography and ecology with similar patterns among modem primitive groups suggests that the post‐marital residence pattern of the prehistoric Shoshoneans was most probably bilateral and rather flexible, as originally suggested by Julian Steward. If this interpretation is correct, then it contradicts Elman Service's 1962 hypothesis of patrilocal bands among the preconlact Shoshoneans. No attempt is made to confront the ideological models of the prehistoric Shoshoneans, for modern scientific archaeology can presently consider only etic phenomena.If archeologists and ethnologists are to overcome the limitations of their observational fields and contribute to the general field of anthropology, they must develop methods which will allow explanatory propositions regarding the operation of cultural systems to be tested by both archeological and ethnographic data. [L. R. Binford 1968a:269]

The historic appearance of the social sciences as an intellectual activity seeking to be scientific is directly tied to the birth and development of industrialization in Europe and in other areas taken over by Europeans, notably North America. If one opens a treatise on sociology, for example, one sees that all the founding fathers of the discipline are men of European culture. It is true that in the last few years Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) had often been cited as one of the forerunners of scientific thought, but he is a forerunner, and not a founding father like Conte, Durkheim, Marx, etc. The principal preoccupations of these figures were obviously those of their society, which at that time was going through a phase of upheavels connected with industrialization. But with the colonial expansion, which is one of the principle concequences of that industrialization, the curiousity of European scholars in social sciences overflowed the limits of their own society; thus was born ethnography, ethnology, and later, anthropology.