Suchergebnisse

Area studies undertaken without sound knowledge of 'the entire body of established ways of the inhabitants of the area' must be looked upon with considerable reservation. Anthropology provides the area researcher with both concept and method. The concept of culture is involved as embodying 'a series of limits to sanctioned variation, rather than a single approved mode of thought and conduct.' Aspects of culture (economic, political, social, religious, aesthetic, etc.) represent responses to geographical and biopsychic needs of man. Such aspects represent cultural universals, unities which characterize all human groups. Through a knowledge of the culture learning process we may gain psychological insights important in the action programs of area studies. Such problems as acceptance of new forms of technology, political organization, etc., may be handled by an analysis of enculturative experience. The primary methodological contribution of cultural anthropoloty to area studies lies in the relativistic approach. Hence, cultural anthropology `because of the breadth of its conceptual system and the techniques of cross-cultural analysis has come to act as the integrating element in interdisciplinary area research and teaching. R. J. Murphy.

Considers the imperfections in the system of scholarship that is social and cultural anthropology, and how they might be addressed. Believes that socio-cultural anthropology depends for its very life upon interdisciplinarity. (SJO)

Imperfections in the present system of sociocultural anthropology scholarship are addressed, & twenty-two immediate challenges facing the field are identified. Emphasis is on the need to reinforce interdisciplinary linkages, improve education & communication, integrate fundamental & applied knowledge, & unite the academic & professionalized traditions. Challenges arising from technical research considerations & from the evolution of the discipline itself amid increasing social pressures are discussed. 2 Photographs. K. Hyatt

Every society can be understood in terms of tension between two realms: transcendence, embodied in art & philosophy, & the bestiarum, embodied in inhumane & destructive institutions. Barbarism is a condition in which transcendence is no longer successfully maintained. Liberal capitalism is not barbarism as transcendence remains actively present in society. Naziism & fascism, on the contrary, bring the bestiarum to the fore. The bestiarum of real socialism, or dictatorship over needs, is often identified with the GULAG system, but also includes brutal indifference, mob-like rudeness of personnel, an atheism without moral values, & a Jacobinism embodied in hostility to personal conscience & collective moral slandering of the enemy. Techniques that create this bestiarum include: mobilization of the infinity of time against the finiteness of individual life; abandonment of target groups to nature; & subordination of the body to the soul, as in confinement of dissidents in insane asylums. Real socialism is a neurotic social pattern, whereas Naziism was a hysterical one. This new barbarism appears unlikely to give rise to any new transcendence. W. H. Stoddard.