BLOOMSBURG STATE COLLEGE
Bloomsburg
Pennsylvania
Anthropology Newsletter
Vol. 3, No. 8
May 1979
Department of Philosophy/Anthropology
Anthropology Party There will be a party for all anthropology majors and participants
in the Southwest Tour on Saturday, May 12 at 5:30 p.m. at Bob Reeder's house. Reeder
lives at 235 West 11th Street. Come and get to know each other better. While Reeder
and Minderhout are providing most of the food and liquid refreshment, offers of help
will be graciously received.
Congratulations to graduating seniors Tim Eldredge, Sue Lilly, Mary Ann Rubbo, Keith
Zoba, and Trese Zoba who will graduate in May; Steve James and Jan Dunlevy will graduate
in the slUillller.
Ethnographic Facts. Malaria is the world's greatest single destroyer of human lives.
The disease seems particularly resistant to efforts at eradication. The World Health
Organization estimated in 1952 that 350 million people were directly affected by the
disease; the figure in 1976 was 2 billion. One hundred fifty million people contract
the disease each year, and in Africa alone, one million children die of malaria annually.
Malaria is a disease of red blood cells. It is caused by a protozoan belonging to the
class Plasmodium and is spread by the female Anopheles mosquito. The first clinical
manifestations of the disease are chills, shaking, and fevers that may reach as high as
107 degrees, as red blood cells rupture from the growth of the disease and spill the
toxic products of the protozoan's metabolism into the blood stream. Ordinarily the
body can combat the effects of the disease, though subsequent encounters with it can
raise the threshold of control. Children die because their bodies are unable to deal
with the disease. Cultural practices are important in the transmission of the disease.
The Neolithic Revolution is considered important in the growth of malaria since the
clearing of forests and the formation of settled communities provided an ecological
setting favorable to the mosquito. Irrigation and wet rice cultivation also provide
breeding grounds for the insect. Any movement of peoples such as labor migration,
religious pilgrimage, or even congregations of shoppers on market days spreads the
disease. And any clandestine activity which takes place at night, from rituals to love
making, provides ideal hosts for the disease. Attempts at eradicating the disease focus
on destroying breeding sites and spraying for the mosquitos (usually with DDT) as well
as the use of drugs such as quinine and synthetic preparations which control the disease.
But the areas where malaria flourishes are the poorest in the world, and often the resources are lacking for the control programs, not to mention the side effects of the
quinine (possible hepatitis) and the DDT. Then, too, like all diseases, the protozoan
may mutate to thwart efforts to deal with it. During the Vietnam War American soldiers
c on tracted a new strain of malaria which was resistant to all the known drugs. This
strain, according to Modell, "caused more disability, hospitalization, and demoralization among American soldiers in Vietnam than enemy fire did." While the disease is contained in poor, tropical areas today, Americans need not be smug. Malaria has been
controlled only comparatively recently in the U.S. and Europe, and the World Health
Organization notes that all it would take to introduce the disease here would be a few
Anopheles mosquitos hitching a ride on an airplane into this country (as happened in
Brazil in the 1930's). More information on this and the cultural background of other
diseases can be found in Human Sickness and Health: A Biocultural View by Cirinne
Shear Wood (Mayfield 1979).

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Book Review by Steve James-The Ethnographic Interview by James P. Spradley. Finally,
after all the years anthropology has been in business a book has come into print that
describes how the anthropologist does what he knows best: fieldwork. For all the
anthropology books written telling of native customs and practices, few books have
described what actually goes into an ethnographic analysis. Countless books have explained cultural world views and the structure and function of various social institutions but seldom do anthropologists reveal how they generate these explanations. Often
times the anthropologist's first encounter doing fieldwork is when he is sent into the
field to do his dissertation work. He is sent out with a trial and error type approach,
to fend on his own. Thankfully Mr. Spradley may have put an end to this.
Participant observation as a research technique in the social sciences, roughly speaking, came into fashion with Malinowski's account of the Trobriand Islanders and went
out of fashion when they found out what he really thought about the natives. Far from
being a flaw in his work it showed ethnocentrism to be a powerful force. Slowly, ethnographic analysis has been re-emerging as a viable and unique method of inquiry, this
time with a much better methodology and maturity of understanding. Its uniqueness is
couched in its ability to explain social life from the native~ view. As Spradley notes
"In our complex society the need for understanding how other people see their experiertce
has never been greater. Ethnography offers all of us the chance to step outside our
narrow cultural backgrounds, to set aside our socially inherited ethnocentrism, if only
for a brief period, and to apprehend the world from the viewpoint of other html.an beings
who live by different systems of meanings". From the quote we see the "new" ethnography
is a means of not only exploring western cultural groups but is a method of gaining an
understanding of our own cultural milieu.
The Ethnographic Interview examines the nature of fieldwork and shows how understanding
derived from fieldwork can be applied to "synchronize human needs". Much of the information and many of the procedures discussed in the book derive from the author's own
experience establishing a program to deal with the tramp problem in Seattle, Washington.
(See You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads.) Within the book such
topics as locating an informant; keeping ethnographic records, analyzing ethnographic
interviews and discovering cultural themes are discussed. These are procedures that
young anthropologists are seldom told how to do. A "developmental research sequence"
is used that guides the ethnographer through the major steps of ethnographic analysis
from entry into the field to the actual writing of ethnographies. The book's most powerful characteristic is that the sequence is designed to serve as a step by step manual
for anyone doing fieldwork. For students interested in carrying out actual fieldwork
the book is a must, and I highly reconnnend it.
The Jet Set by David M. Smith (continued) I was inclined to attribute Wiwi's strange
demeanor to the long term effects of caviar and champagne. I found it amusing, even
charming. When we stepped out into the street I found how different Jet Set behavior
really is.
Snuggled obliviously in my left arm, she led me blindly into the six o'clock traffic of
Walnut Street. Fortunately, everything came to a sudden halt until we had crossed.
Unwittingly I had just been treated to a vivid demonstration of one of the most inviolable
rules of Jet Set culture in operation. I survived long enough to uncover several more.
Following them is something else.
Rule #1: Do it! All societies have to find ways of coping with nature. Some, like the
nearly extinct Arunta, feel that the best way is to roll with it. Others, like the Romans,
Lhink it should be pounded, conquered, and changed. The Jet Set take the lofty view.

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Their rule is "Do it!" Don't worry about strategy; that wastes time. Don't worry about
consequences; the rest of the universe will come around. Not only do they step in front
of moving traffic, they buy houses without any income and paint the walls green without
considering the woodwork. They take trips without return tickets and lovers on the same
basis. It all comes out the same in the end.
Rule #2: Avoid Conflict and Unpleasantness at all Costs. If immediate gratification is
the first concern of the Jet Set, keeping the sheets unwrinkled is the second. This doesn't
mean they are pansies. If not extraordinarily hardy, the Jet Set are inordinately anesthetized. Working out conflicts just takes too much time.
The behavioral manifestations of this rule are found all over the place. If someone asks
for a date on Saturday evening, say "yes." The actual decision will be made Saturday
evening--or even Sunday morning. Always tell everyone they look divine, have lost weight,
and that their debut was smashing. Only read the gossip columns in the paper. Poverty,
war, and pestilence are boring. Never look at a menu; the prices might be listed.
Rule #3: When in Doubt, Caress. I have never seen a Jet Setter nonplussed. The
bizarre is always commonplace, the new is always old hat, and caresses are not only cheap,
they work miracles. They are useful in calming restive clan members who are on hold as
lovers and are particularly effective with children who wander through.
Caressing takes many forms and requires consummate skill. Plumbers are effusively complimented on the fluidity with which they unplug drains. Kids are enjoined to tell how
pictures should be hung. New hairdos and lovers are oohed over. "Your eyes always cause
me to go weak-kneed."
From the standpoint of the anthropologist, caressing behavior is a particularly useful
activity to record. It is used to articulate hierarchies, dominance and submissiveness.
As a rule one only caresses down. An attempt to caress up may get you a chop in the jaw.
Rule #4: Be "Passionate" About Everything (Except Sex). If you are depressed, be suicidal. Everything that is worth doing--and that's everything--should be done with relish.
Everything that's worth saying must be said in superlatives. The only exception is sex.
Serious sex is a plebian pursuit. Of course, it's sometimes there and so must be done, in
which case it should always be followed immediately with a caviar hoagie.
The vitality of this rule was demonstrated to me about a month into my research. I came
upon Wiwi in the act of painting a wicker footstool. Ordinarily Jet Setters don't get
their hands dirty--that's what people were created for. However, in this case she not
only had her hands dirty, but her arms were chartreuse up to her elbows, as was her chin
and her Nan Duskin culottes. She'd transformed the whole ugly experience into a marvelous lark.
Rule #5: Never Use the Phone Book. Phone books take up a lot of room and are ugly.
It's easier to dial 411. Besides, the operators soon recognize your voice.
Rule #6: Always Do the Unexpected. The following conversations was overheard one afternoon about six-thirty in the Garden:
"If you were a bluejay, what would you wear to the cricke_t match?"
"I think I'd like garlic bologna with blue cheese and pumpernickel."

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This is only one of the behavioral outputs of this rule. It also comes out in dress,
se ual activity, greetings, leave-taking, and New Year's. In the final analysis this
rule is impossible since it means that the unexpected is always expected. Yet high
caste Jet Setters follow it unerringly. They are equally adept at interpreting the
behavior of others.
Facility does not seem to be a function of general intelligence. At the same time, to
my knowledge, no one has ever acquired the skill. It can't be learned through pattern
drills because there are no patterns. In fact, it can't be practiced at all since there
is no way of knowing what to practice.
Thus, although you can't be born a Jet Setter (you have to start out, when born, as a
child), you can't learn to be one either.
The implications are mind wrenching. To make such a discovery in Philadelphia is of
the order of an astronomer finding a quark in his sink.
However, short of becoming a sociobiologist (sociobiologists are pseudoanthropologists
who are experts in the impossible, (they also get lots of research grants), I didn't know
what to do with it. It challenged all my cherished preconceptions about why people act
the way they do.
At this point I went back to the Garden with Wiwi for a gin and tonic. By the time Wiwi
excused herself and unsteadily made her way towards the ladies' room, the issue had
become significantly less pressing.
She never came back.
As I picked up her Gitanos to go look for her, Irene, the barmaid, offered:

just went with some dude to find cigarettes.

"Your friend
She wanted some brand I'd never heard of."

Then she added quickly, as if in response to my crushed reaction: "What a weirdo! You
know what he did? He sat there .all morning writing in a notebook and drinking tonic
water with a twist. When they left he hid his pencil in his beard."
I decided to go to Stouffer's for lunch.
See You Next Year. The Anthropology Newsletter will be back in the fall with more scintillating articles, reviews, and inte1Views. There is always a need for volunteers to
help with interviewing, articles, and manuscript preparation, so if you think you'd be
interested, say something about it to Dr. Minderhout.