ANTROCOM

Volume 14, Number 2, 2018

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 From Adoption to Eviction: The Blood Quantum and the Mohawks

by BUSATTA SANDRA

Historically the Mohawks survived as a political-ethnic entity thanks to massive adoptions of people from other tribes, as well as European countries. They counted more ‘galvanized’ Mohawks than full-blooded ones already at the end of the 17th century. While they stopped adopting whole tribes after the Mourning/Beaver Wars, in the 18th century they still went on the warpath in order to take prisoners to adopt (those for sacrifice were a minority) as far as the Carolinas and Georgia. They managed to save their identity even during the 19th century, when many intermarried with the neighboring Whites, although the first cause of tribal turmoil were the repeated attempts of the ‘conservative’ minority to evict the so-called ‘mixed-blood’. After the early 1970s the policy of evictions has changed: from the aim of a group of extremist militants in order to forcibly expel the ‘non-Mohawks’, that is the mixed-bloods and their relatives from the reservations, it has become a tribal council policy, which uses the manipulation of the blood quantum, used by the Canadian and US bureaucracies to define Indians, to evict political troublemakers and to check population growth, and especially the distribution of resources.

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La parola come azione. Il malocchio in una comunità del sud
by MARCOGIUSEPPE MARIANO

The body, health and illness are part of a system of representations and symbolic practices in very close contact with the social sphere. For this reason, It is reported a study of the evil-eye figured out as a phenomenon of the body. It is useful to investigate relations and processes of power. The survey was carried out on the bodies and through them. It was a fieldwork carried out to capture the embodiment of the evil-eye in Anzi(PZ), a little village in the South of Italy.

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Canti e suoni del natale ferlese: a nuvena
by GARRO GIUSEPPE

The article analyses the christmas tradition of Ferla, a village located in the prov. of Syracuse in South Eastern Sicily. It explores them on the basis of an ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2016. In particular, it investigates the tradition and the alterations developed in the course of history. At first the study describes the different verses of oration pick up by local interviews. Secondly, the research observes the way in which the tradition dialogues whit the globalization practices that has put in crisis the nuvena’s heritage sistem.
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Porn Rock. Le origini della sessualizzazione del rock: da Elvis Presley ai Beatles
by MENICOCCI MARCO 

Pornography promotes a constant sexualization of various aspects of contemporary culture. This sexualisation can take place through direct channels, such as explicit pornography, or through the mediation of other cultural forms, such as cinema, fashion and art. Rock music played a decisive role among these channels. This paper takes into consideration the contribution to sexualization brought by the first great exponents of rock, from Elvis Presley to the Beatles, examining the ways in which they sexualized their artistic expressions and the reasons that have favored their success among the public.
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Sentimental archaeology
by . VIVIANI FRANCO

A senior anthropologist is trying to put together anthropology and art in a project, called Anthrology, that needs different steps to be concluded. One of them requires returning to the populations surveyed when the researcher was young. In the year 2018 he was able to access the sites he visited forty years ago: a former fishermen village called Telok Mengkuang (Malaysia) and three Costa Ricans villages inhabited by a native population that know is called Maleku. The first site doesn’t exist anymore, overwhelmed by industrialization, while the situation of the second is, at present, much better than many decades ago. The present testimony of the two visits is a sort of sentimental report, because good storytelling is all about emoziona connection.

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La stregoneria come discorso sulla percezione della modernità: la credenza nei kôn
by SBOCCHIA VALENTINA

Following Gonzalez Díez’s (2013 and 2014) work on Gabonese witchcraft, this article aims to understand how traditional forms of witchcraft, and specifically the transformation of people into kôn, that is zombie-like slaves laboring for their masters, is based on relationships of kinship and power. Regional variations in Cameroon and South Africa are also taken into consideration in order to highlight both temporal continuity or discontinuity as well as beliefs about the dominance of occult forces in contemporary African societies.

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Primi dati paleobiologici sugli individui rinvenuti all’interno della Tomba 3 del sito di Cap de Forma (Minorca)
by PUSCEDDU VALERIA, FLORIS ROSALBA, DEPALMAS ANNA, MARRAS GIUSEPPINA, BUOSI CARLA and SARIGU MARCO.

This paper presents new paleobiological data from the skeletal remains founded in the necropolis of Cap de Forma; the site is located on a narrow isthmus that links a 30-m-high coastal promontory in the island of Minorca (Mahon). The archeological complex, made of rock tombs called Cuevas, surrounds a complex cyclopean monument that is an atypical example of Talayotic architecture. The excavations of the necropolis were carried out between 1997 and 2001, and during these years two tombs, the number 3 and 22, respectively, were excavated. This paper describes the digging operations and the subsequent anthropological investigations focused on the analysis of the skeletal remains from the tomb 3. It was possible to identify 37 adult individuals, including 5 females and 12 males, and 7 subadults. The preliminary investigations of pathologies and stress markers reveled good health conditions characterized by an intense physical activity.

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La riscoperta della Via Flaminia e il viaggio nel mondo antico: l’esperienza della rievocazione storica
by CASCARINO GIUSEPPE

A brief account of an experience halfway between a historical re-enactment and an experiment to rediscover social relationships in the ancient world: a journey along the ancient Via Flaminia, rebuilt on maps and satellite photos, traveled on foot in 14 days from Rome to Rimini, wearing the historical dress of Roman legionaries marching towards the north. The re-enactment becomes an opportunity for reflection and study on the status and modalities of human relations in the post-industrial world, in an anthropic and social scenario that has changed significantly only for one or two centuries.

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Etnografia delle dature in Africa
by SAMORINI GIORGIO

Daturas belong to the tropane Solanaceous group of plants, traditionally used in the Old and New World for their intoxicant properties. In Africa two species – Datura stramonium, and D. metel – are used in religious, initiatory, divinatory, magic-therapeutic rites, and also as tools during trials by ordeal, in courts of law, and in criminal proceedings. The present study describes some African traditional cults and rites where daturas are involved, with a particular focus on the Bori possession cult among the Hausas of Niger, the feminine initiatory rite among the Tsongas of Mozambique, the ordeal ceremony among the Ba-Rongas of South Africa, the leba shay Abyssinian juridical institution, and the datura’s ritual complex of Senegalese marabouts.

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The Continuum of Violence
by SCHWEIZER PHILIPPE

Here we will go beyond the variety of violence to show its unity, common points and continuities. For although there are multiple forms of violence, they are interrelated: they define a continuum from trivial to extreme violence. Violence against oneself, things, living things such as plants and animals, other nations, the other, one’s fellow human beings, therefore the violence of society against its members, which returns to self-violence. Another continuum is its spiral development, with violence generating violence and pushing it to grow. Violence can also be learned, we progress ever further in violence: in gangs, in armies, in society... Everyone is capable of violence, sometimes to a good advantage as in self-defence. Here it resides in necessity, that of survival, but in general it is impunity that allows and encourages it. In closed, totalitarian, universes: family, work, hospital, army, state... The proximity and distance between the perpetrator and the victim defines yet another continuity. We will discuss the various elements that contribute to its development. And paradoxically, to see that violence also serves to avoid violence. In this way, evacuating it, refusing it, is in fact feeding it, which makes today’s violence, which is an evolution of previous violence and which prepares and defines tomorrow’s violence.

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Stereotypes in Moroccan Arabic proverbs. A Pilot Study
by MARYEME OUCHEN and YAMINA EL KIRAT EL ALLAME

The present article aims at providing an overview of a pilot study that is carried out on a corpus of stereotypical proverbs in Moroccan Arabic with the aim of investigating the variable(s) (age, gender, literacy level) that has/have the most significant impact on informants’ attitudes (awareness, use and agreement) vis-à-vis such proverbs. In line with this reasoning, 20 informants coming from different age groups, males and females and different educational background take part in this study. The study makes use of two research instruments the questionnaire and the proverb completion task to collect the relevant data. The quantitative analysis yields two patterns of result. Firstly, it shows that literacy level has the most significant impact on people’s use and agreement with stereotypical proverbs; secondly, age seems to be the most significant variable that affects people’s awareness of these proverbs.

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Religions, Trade Networks and their Marketing Infrastructure in Asia
by RUCHI AGARWAL

A number of researches outlines the relations between religions and trade but few focus on the two-way relationship shared between religions and trade networks and the role of the marketing infrastructure in facilitating this relationship. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the role of trade networks in the dissemination of Buddhism and Hinduism in China and Southeastern Asia and how these religions facilitated trade networks in expanding their businesses. Historical data reveals a strong link between the two and marketing made an important contribution in developing these links further. The contemporary religious landscape sees a stronger link between religions and trade which has led to the commodification of religions.

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Emic Categorization of the Stages of Illness: An Anthropological Study of a Peri-Urban Bangladeshi Village
by NASIR UDDIN and MUSFIKUR RAHMAN

New born and children were affected mostly from communicable illness while the adolescents, adults and old people suffered from non-communicable illness. They were not aware about the stages of illness. By a qualitative research approach the researchers have found that most respondents (58%) believed that their suffering was due to natural causes and 10 % of the local people believed that uncleanness and unhygienic practice may result in illness. On the other hand, up to 20 % people believed the “evil eye” was a most important etiology of the above motioned illness and 12% respondents believed that the causes of their suffering were supernatural. The researchers have found recurrent images or metaphors of illness showed an unseen influence transmitted by virtually any contact with an infected person and explained contagion as moral punishment..

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Ethnic Community Variation in Oversize Families in Bangladesh: 1971-2011
by A. H. M. MAHBUBUR RAHMAN

Ethnic community variations in oversize families affect not only ethnic family and community life but also influence national development and social welfare functions in Bangladesh. Based on optimum population theory the government of Bangladesh has adepte two-child (either male or female) family size policy. To achieve this goal mentioned in the policy family planning and contraceptive services have been providing to the eligible couplet since 1971. But data collected over the 1974-2011 census periods reveal that although average - oversize families are gradually shifting into smaller ones, the average family size of majority ethnic Muslim community over the census periods is higher than that in the other religious ethnic groups (e.g., Hindu, Christian Budhist). Using census 1974-2011 data this seminal paper describes ethnic community variations and changes in over-family size in Bangladesh. Based on the description new social policy-programs and social workers’ role across the individual, group, and community level are discussed to achieve optimum family size for meeting human needs and healthy ethnic family adaptation in Bangladesh..

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Pottery Unfold History: A Case Study of the Inhabitants of District Jind, Haryana (India) through the Ages
by RAJPAL

Pottery is a tangible evidence like any other archaeological find, it throws light on sociocultural, religious, economic aspect of past cultures/civilizations. It is a very important source for the reconstruction of Pre-history when written records are not available and even during historical times its importance does not diminish. With the help of pottery, archaeologists could unlock many secrets of the past, which would otherwise have remained unknown. During the course of exploration, a huge amount of potsherds were collected from sites in the region of the present study which helped determine the different cultural periods. The main ceramic industries found in the area include Ghaggar-Hakra (Pre-Harappan), Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, Late Harappan, Painted Grey Ware (PGW), Historical and Medieval. It is useful to review briefly the characteristic features and chronological sequence of the ceramics found in the study area in order to put the cultural sequence of the study area in a proper perspective. Some sites of the adjoining region were also explored and some good pottery specimens were included in the present study.

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