Central issues in anthropology : a journal of the Central States Anthropological Society最新文献

With Mexico as example, this article discusses various problems associated with attempts to eradicate malaria. It is shown that present methods do not even provide sufficient control of the disease. It is suggested that the interaction between the eradication program personnel and the inhabitants of the community be studied. In such future studies, emphasis should also been given to the knowledge of the people in the community about the disease, its cure, and prevention. Such studies might enable the development of a better approach to long-term malaria control.

Population movement is discussed within a framework of geographical and cultural step migration using the Maltese immigrants of Detroit as an example. Barriers to assimilation experienced by migrant groups such as race and religion are examined and their impact within this particular group discussed. A brief ethnohistorical account of Maltese culture at the point of origin is compared to the ethnically mixed atmosphere of Detroit and factors which have accelerated Maltese assimilation are described. Extensive participant observation within the Detroit Maltese community has indicated that assimilation occurs along a continuum with response clustered at the end points. Some assertively maintain a separate cultural identity while most actively seek assimilation. The author concludes that the specific history of the group at the point of origin predisposed the majority of Maltese to rapid assimilation once having arrived in a receptive environment.

The socio-economic evolution of Irish Canadians from landless rural subjects to New World peasants to urban proletarians to entrepreneurs and professionals is examined as having been shaped by the opportunity structure afforded by westward immigration of the past 140 years. That process and its attendant erosion of ethnic identity are chronicled in the context of the political economy of pre-famine Ireland, of early Canada, and of recession-prone Great Lakes border communities of the United States and Canada. Fully assimilated in mainstream North American culture, ethnic identity persists yet within the lineage on a situational basis.

In order to evaluate the beneficial support functions of multigenerational extended families, a research and demonstration effort was developed to focus on the management of a chronic disease, hypertension. Conducted in central Mississippi, high blood pressure management self-help groups were established in 4 white and 9 black extended families. An influential member of each family was trained to monitor the blood pressures of all family hypertensives and a self-help group of related hypertensives formed. An 18-month formative evaluation showed that 90% of hypertensives participating in the family-based self-help groups achieved a controlled blood pressure.

This article will examine ethnic relations in the countryside as a cause of rural/urban migration among the Maya Indians of western Guatemala and will question the inevitability of such migration by looking at a contrasting course of development among the Maya of southern Mexico. Comparison of Zinacantan in Mexico and Aguacatán in Guatemala suggests that rural development may be an alternative to migration to cities, but only if such development breaks the political and economic domination of non-Indians in rural communities.