MATCH UP DIALOGUE PARTS

PART 1 (first sentence)

Politeness is so deeply ingrained in him that he said “sorry” when he was brusquely and roughly brushed away by someone in a crowd.	I think this party’s too raucous. And James is telling too many raunchy jokes.	Did you hear what James’ gang did the other day? They drove around flashing and mooning everyone.	With my father having so many character quirks I am deprived of the opportunity to invite guests over.
I heard your brother killed himself after going heavi-ly into debt. Please accept my heartfelt condolences.	Oswald has been running up credit-card debts ever since his business lost its momentum.	Her parents, otherwise non-practising Christians, insisted that she be married in church.	What is your justification for not letting James in your school, Principal Smith?
In order to make a mortgage down-payment we had to dip deep into our savings.	It is considered undignifi-ed to cry at funerals unless you want to make a fool-ish exhibition of yourself.	Every time I hear about someone’s New Year’s resolutions, it raises a wry smile.	Why are there so many balloons in their yard?
No expense was spared at her wedding: a three-tiered cake, a band, a limo…	Is this going to be a formal bah-humbug sit-down meal?	He sanctimoniously preaches about family values yet his own promis-cuity knows no bounds.	The charity ball was disrupted when somebody set on fire an effigy of the host in the yard.

PART 2 (reply, reaction)

I am sorry, but our quota for out-of-state student has already been filled.	I know you regard it as contrived, but in Latin America a great deal of tears is shed when somebody dies.	Come on, Stephen, it’s just people striving to be better, to defeat the inner demons!	I saw him at the club the other day with a sombre expression, pointedly drinking only tea.
Yes, his behaviour does ring with hypocrisy.	Yes, ever since she was a child, she’s wanted her father to lead her down the aisle.	Not at all, it will be a bawdy party where everyone will be able to let off steam and unwind.	So, when’s the housewarming party? Some festivity is in order!
It was his younger’s son doing. He pretended it was a part of some fertility ritual.	I thought it was a bit overdone. Her parents blow it all on a flashy do instead of maybe helping them get a house.	They are celebrating and preparing to go out and sing evening carols.	Well, you can always go to a park, make a bonfire and pretend you are performing some pagan ceremony.
Yes, poor Michael! And that only a day before Uncle Remus died leaving him a lavish sum in his will.	I am sure, Mr. Parker will describe it in exhaustive detail in local newspaper where he will again say that such young rebels cannot be tolerated.	A trip to our country will cure him of his courteous manners! He if you lower your tone, your opponent thinks that you’ve given in!	Oh, don’t be such killjoy and sour-grapes! Don’t be so uptight, let your hair down a bit.

RITES OF PASSAGE

PART 2

Humour Rules

English wedding receptions – and most other rites of passage – ring with laughter: virtually every conversational exchange is either overtly or subtly humorous. This is not, however, necessarily an indication that everyone is having a happy, jolly time. Some may well be feeling genuinely cheerful, but even they are also simply obeying the unwritten English humour rules – rules so deeply ingrained they have become an unthinking, involuntary impulse.

The Humour-vivisection Rule

At funerals we are deprived of our primary social coping mechanism – our usual levels of humour and laughter being deemed inappropriate on such an officially sad occasion. At other times, we joke constantly about death, as we do about anything that frightens or disturbs us, but funerals are the one time when humour – or at least any humour beyond that which raises a wry, sad smile – would be disrespectful and out of place. Without it, we are left naked, unprotected, our social inadequacies exposed for all to see.

Earnestness-taboo Suspension and Tear-quotas

Not only are we not allowed to relieve tensions, break ice and generally self-medicate our chronic social dis-ease by making a joke out of everything, but we are expected to be solemn. Not only is humour drastically restricted, but earnestness, normally tabooed, is actively prescribed. We are supposed to say solemn, earnest, heartfelt things to the bereaved relatives, or respond to these things in a solemn, earnest, heartfelt way if we are the bereaved.

But not too heartfelt. This is only a limited, qualified suspension of the normal taboo on earnestness and sentimentality. Even those family and friends who are genuinely sad are not allowed to indulge in any cathartic weeping and wailing. Tears are permitted; a bit of quiet, unobtrusive sobbing and sniffing is acceptable, but the sort of anguished howling that is considered normal, and indeed expected, at funerals in many other cultures, would here be regarded as undignified and inappropriate. Even the socially approved quiet tears and sniffles become embarrassing and make people uncomfortable if excessively prolonged, and England is possibly the only culture in the world in which no tears at all is entirely normal and acceptable.

To be more precise (…), my calculations indicate that the optimum tear-quota at an average English funeral is as follows:

Adult males (close relatives or very close friends of the deceased): One or two brief ‘eye-fillings’ during the service, brusquely brushed away. Brave smiles.
Adult males (other): None. But maintain sombre/sympathetic expression. Sad/concerned smiles.
Adult females (close relatives or very close friends): One or two short weeps during the service, with optional sniffles; occasional eye-filling, apologetically dabbed with hanky, in response to condolences. Brave smiles.
Adult females (other): None, or one eye-filling during service. Maintain sad/sympathetic expression. Sad/concerned smiles.
Male children (close relatives/friends): Unlimited if very young (under ten, say); older boys one weep during service. Brave smiles.
Male children (other): Same as for adult males (other).
Female children (close relatives/friends): Unlimited if very young; older girls roughly double adult female tear-quota. Brave smiles.
Female children (other): None required, but brief eye-filling/sniffing during service allowed.

CALENDRICAL RITES AND OTHER TRANSITIONS

Calendrical rites include big celebrations such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and others that occur at the same time every year, such as Easter, May Day, Harvest Festivals, Hallowe’en and Guy Fawkes’ Night, as well as Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and Bank Holidays.

Rather than attempt to describe each rite in exhaustive detail, I will focus mainly on the broader unwritten social rules governing peculiarly English patterns of behaviour associated with these rites.

Although alcohol and celebration are inextricably bound together in all societies where alcohol is used, the connection appears to be stronger in ‘ambivalent’ drinking cultures – those with a morally charged relationship with alcohol, where one needs a reason for drinking, such as England – than in ‘integrated’ drinking cultures, where drinking is a morally neutral element of normal life and requires no justification. The English (along with the US, Australia, most of Scandinavia, Iceland, etc.) feel that they have to have an excuse for drinking – and the most common and popular excuse is celebration. In ‘integrated’ drinking cultures (such as France, Spain and Italy) there is little or no disapprobation of drinking, and therefore no need to find excuses for drinking. Festivity is strongly associated with alcohol in these integrated cultures, but is not invoked as a justification for every drinking occasion: a celebration most certainly requires alcohol, but every drink does not require a celebration.

Christmas and New Year’s Eve Rules

Christmas Day (25^th of December) is firmly established as a ‘family’ ritual, while New Year’s Eve is a much more raucous celebration with friends. But when English people talk about ‘Christmas’ (as in ‘What are you doing for Christmas?’ or ‘I hate Christmas!’), they often mean the entire holiday period, from the 23^rd/24^th of December right through to New Year’s Day, including, typically and traditionally, at least some of the following:

Christmas Eve (family; last minute shopping; panics and squabbles; tree lights; drinking; too many nuts and chocolates; possibly church – early evening carols or midnight service);
Christmas Day (family; tree; present-giving rituals; marathon cooking and eating of huge Christmas lunch; the Queen’s broadcast on television/radio – or pointedly not watching/listening to the Queen; fall asleep – perhaps while watching The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz or similar; more food and drink; uncomfortable night);
Boxing Day (hangover; family ‘outing’ of some sort, if only to local park; long country walk; visiting the other set of relatives; escape from family to pub);
27th–30th December (slightly strange ‘limbo’ period; some back at work, but often achieving very little; others shopping, going for walks, trying to keep children amused; more overeating and drinking; visiting friends/relatives; television; videos; pub);
New Year’s Eve (friends; big boozy parties or pub-crawls; dressing up/fancy-dress; loud music; dancing; champagne, banging pans etc. at midnight; fireworks; ‘Auld Lang Syne’; New Year’s resolutions; taxi-hunt/long cold walk home)
New Year’s Day (sleep late; hangover)

The Christmas Moan-fest and the Bah-humbug Rule

‘Christmas shopping’ is the bit many English people are thinking of when they say that they hate Christmas, and usually means shopping for Christmas presents, food, cards, decorations and other trappings. As it is considered manly to profess to detest any sort of shopping, men are particularly inclined to moan about how much they dislike Christmas. But the Christmas-moan is now something of a national custom, and both sexes generally start moaning about Christmas in early November.

There is effectively an unwritten rule prescribing ‘bah-humbug’, anti-Christmas moaning rituals at this time of year, and it is unusual to encounter anyone over the age of eighteen who will admit to unequivocal enjoyment of Christmas. This does not stop those who dislike Christmas taking a certain pride in their distaste, as though they were the first people ever to notice ‘how commercial the whole thing has become’ or how ‘it starts earlier every year – soon there’ll be bloody Christmas decorations in August’ or how it seems to get more and more expensive, or how impossibly crowded the streets and shops are.

Not all Christmas-moaners are mindless, sheep-like followers of the ‘bah-humbug’ rule. Two groups of Christmas-haters who have good reason to complain, and for whom I do have sympathy, are parents struggling on low incomes, for whom the expense of buying presents that will please their children is a real problem, and working mothers for whom, even if they are not poor, the whole business can truly be more of a strain than a pleasure.

Christmas-present Rules

A gift, as any first-year anthropology student can tell you, is never free. In all cultures, gifts tend to come with some expectation of a return – this is not a bad thing: reciprocal exchanges of gifts are an important form of social bonding. Even gifts to small children, who cannot be expected to reciprocate in kind, are no exception to this universal rule: children receiving Christmas presents are supposed to reciprocate with gratitude and good behaviour.

Actual expenditure on Christmas presents seems to be inversely related to income, with poor, working-class families tending to give more lavish gifts, especially to children, often going heavily into debt in the process. The middle classes (particularly the ‘interfering classes’) tut-tut sanctimoniously over this, and congratulate themselves on their superior prudence, while tucking into their overpriced organic vegetables and admiring the tasteful Victorian ornaments on their tree.

As with Freshers’ Week, office Christmas parties and most other English carnival rites, the extent of actual debauchery and anarchy tends to be greatly overestimated, both by the puritanical killjoys who disapprove of such festivities and by those participants who like to see themselves as wild, fun-loving rebels. In reality, our New-Year’s-Eve drunken debauchery is a fairly orderly sort of disorder, in which only certain specified taboos may be broken, only the usual designated inhibitions may be shed, and the standard rules of English drunken etiquette apply: mooning but not flashing; fighting but not queue-jumping; bawdy jokes but not racist ones; ‘illicit’ flirting and, in some circles, snogging, but not adulterous sex; promiscuity but not, if you are straight, homosexuality, nor heterosexual lapses if you are gay; vomiting and (if male) urinating in the street, but never defecating; and so on.

Minor Calendricals

Our May Day, with staid, respectable, usually middle-aged Morris Dancers and the occasional innocent children’s maypole, is a revival of the ancient pagan rites of Beltane.

Hallowe’en – fancy-dress and sweets – is a descendant of All Souls’ Eve, a festival of communion with the dead, also of pagan origin and celebrated in various forms in many cultures around the world.

The practice of lighting bonfires and burning effigies in early November is another pagan one – common at ‘fire festivals’ welcoming the winter (the effigies represented the old year) – adapted in the seventeenth century to commemorate the defeat of Guy Fawkes’s plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

Valentine’s Day – cards, flowers, chocolate – is a sanitized Christian version of the Ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, originally held on the 15^th February, which was a much more raunchy celebration of the ‘coming of spring’ (…) designed to ensure the fertility of fields, flocks and people.

Many people think of Easter as one of the few genuinely Christian calendricals, but even its name is not Christian, being a variant of Eostre, the Saxon goddess of spring, and many of our Easter customs – eggs and so on – are based on pagan fertility rites. Some otherwise non-practising Christians may go to a church service on Easter Sunday, and even some totally non-religious people ‘give something up’ for the traditional fasting period of Lent (it’s a popular time to restart one’s New-Year’s-Resolution diet, which somehow lost its momentum by the third week in January).

Holidays . . .

Summer holidays are an alternative reality: if we can, we go to another country; we dress differently; we eat different, special, more indulgent food (‘Go on, have another ice-cream, you’re on holiday!’) – and we behave differently. The English on their summer holiday are more relaxed, more sociable, more spontaneous, less hidebound and uptight.

We speak of holidays as a time to ‘let our hair down’, ‘have fun’, ‘let off steam’, ‘unwind’, ‘go a bit mad’. We may even talk to strangers. The English don’t get much more liminal than that.

English holidays – summer holidays in particular – are governed by the same laws of cultural remission as carnivals and festivals.

The English on holiday do not suddenly or entirely stop being English. Our defining qualities do not disappear: our behaviour is still dictated by the ingrained rules of humour, hypocrisy, modesty, class-consciousness, fair play, social dis-ease and so on. But we do let our guard down a bit. The cultural remission of holiday law does not cure us of our social dis-ease, but the symptoms are to some extent ‘in remission’.

Other Transitions – Intimate Rites and Irregular Verbs

Truly private rites of passage – birthdays, anniversaries, housewarmings and retirements celebrated just with chosen close friends and family – are much less predictable. There may be a few generic customs and conventions (cake, balloons, singing, special food, drink, toasts) but the interpretation of these, and the behaviour of the participants, will vary considerably, not just according to their age and class, as might be expected, but also their individual dispositions, personal quirks and histories, unique moods and motivations (…).

CLASS RULES

As you might expect, there is no such thing as a classless rite of passage among the English. Every detail of a wedding, Christmas, house-warming or funeral, from the vocabulary and dress of the participants to the number of peas on their forks, is determined, at least to some extent, by their social class.

Working-class Rites

As a general rule, working-class rites of passage are the most lavish (in terms of expenditure relative to income). A working-class wedding, for example, will nearly always be a big ‘do’, with a sit-down meal in a restaurant, pub ‘function room’ or hotel; a big fancy car to take the bride to the church; the full complement of matching bridesmaids in tight, revealing dresses; a huge, three-tiered cake; guests in glamorous, brand-new, Sunday-best outfits and matching accessories; a specialist wedding-photographer and a professional wedding-video firm; a big, noisy evening party with dancing and free-flowing booze; a honeymoon somewhere hot. No expense spared. ‘Nothing but the best for our princess.’

Lower-middle and Middle-middle Rites

Lower-middle and middle-middle rites of passage tend to be smaller and somewhat more prudent. To stick with the wedding example: lower- and middle-middle parents will be anxious to help the couple with a mortgage down-payment rather than irresponsibly ‘blowing it all on a big wedding’. There is still great concern, however, that everything should be done ‘properly’ and ‘tastefully’ (these are the classes for whom wedding-etiquette books are written), and considerable stress and anxiety over relatives who might lower the tone or bring disgrace by getting drunk and ‘making an exhibition of themselves’.

Upper-middle Rites

Upper-middle rites of passage are usually less anxiously contrived and overdone – at least among those upper-middles who feel secure about their class status. Even among the anxious, an upper-middle wedding aims for an air of effortless elegance, quite different from the middle-middles, who want you to notice how much hard work and thought has gone into it. Like ‘natural-look’ make-up, the upper-middle wedding’s appearance of casual, un-fussy stylishness can take a great deal of thought, effort and expense to achieve.

For class-anxious upper-middles, especially the urban, educated, ‘chattering’ class, concern is focused not so much on doing things correctly as on doing them distinctively. Desperate to distinguish and distance themselves from the middle-middles, they strive not only to avoid twee fussiness, but also to escape from the ‘traditional’. They choose obscure music for the bride’s entrance, which no-one recognizes, so the guests are still chattering as the bride makes her way up the aisle – and little-known, difficult hymns that nobody can sing. The same principle often extends to the food, which is ‘different’ and imaginative but not necessarily easy or pleasant to eat, and the clothes, which may be the latest quirky, avant-garde fashions, but are not always easy to wear or to look at.

Upper-class Rites

Upper-class weddings tend to be more traditional, although not in the studied, textbook-traditional manner of the lower- and middle-middles. The upper classes are accustomed to big parties – charity balls, hunt balls, large private parties and the big events of The Season are a normal part of their social round – so they don’t get as flustered about weddings and other rites of passage as the rest of us. An upper-class wedding is often a quite muted, simple affair. They do not all rush out to buy special new ‘outfits’ as they have plenty of suitable clothes already. The men all have their own morning suits and, as far as the women are concerned, Ascot may require something a bit special but, ‘One goes to so many weddings – can’t be expected to keep ringing the changes every time,’ as one very grand lady told me.

The Sour-grapes Rule

If they cannot afford a big wedding (or funeral, Christmas, birthday, anniversary) the upper-middles and upper classes will often make a rather sour-grapey virtue of this, saying that they ‘don’t want a big, flashy production, just a simple little family party with a few close friends’, rather than running up credit-card debts like the working classes, or dipping reluctantly into savings like the lower- and middle-middles. The English modesty rule, with its associated distaste for ostentatious displays of wealth, serves the impecunious higher echelons well: anything they cannot afford can be dismissed as ‘flashy’ or ‘vulgar’.

WRITE A DIALOGUE WITH THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS BELOW. TOPIC: A PARENT IS TALKING TO THE CHILD ABOUT WHAT THE CHILD WANTS FOR NEW YEAR

deeply ingrained

be deprived of

heartfelt

ring with

quota

brushed away

undignified

condolence

raucous

evening carol

in exhaustive detail

WRITE A COMPOSITION WITH THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS BELOW.

TOPIC: THE BEST WAY TO CELEBRATE HOLIDAYS

New Year’s resolution

bah-humbug

justification

pointedly

go into debt

killjoy

mooning

bawdy

bonfire

promiscuity

pagan

rebel

PART II

ADDITIONAL TEXS

CULTURE SKETCHES

Case Studies in Anthropology

By Holly Peters-Golden

The University of Michigan, 1997

Selected Fragments from the Book

THE AZANDE

Witchcraft

The Azande are perhaps better known for their pervasive belief in witchcraft than for any other aspect of their culture.

Witchcraft is thought to be an actual physical property residing inside some individuals, who may themselves be unaware of their power. It is inherited, passed from father to son and mother to daughter. Azande believe that if the soul of the father is more powerful, the child conceived will be a boy; if the mother's soul substance is greater, their child will be a girl. Thus, although every child is a product of both parents, each also has more of one particular parent's soul. And if that parent is a witch, inheriting this inherent power to do harm is inevitable.

Because this property is organic, it grows as a person grows. Therefore an older witch is a more dangerous witch. Children, whose witchcraft substance is small, are never accused of major acts of harm (such as murder). They can, however, cause minor misfortunes for other children.

Unlike sorcery, which employs charms and spells, witchcraft is deployed by sheer willpower. Witches send the spirit of their own witchcraft entity to eat the flesh and organs of their intended victims. Thus a witch may be at home asleep at the time illness or injury occurs. It is the "soul of the witchcraft" that travels through the night. This substance cannot travel great distances, however, and it is for this reason that the Azande feel more secure if they are able to live at a distance from their neighbors. The "short-range" nature of witchcraft allows the perpetrator to be more accurately identified; all those beyond the limits of a witch's capabilities, even with evil intent, may be eliminated. If a person is taken ill while traveling, it is in that location where illness struck in which the witch must be found.

Azande entertain no concept of "accidental" death. People die only as victims of murder, whether committed by witches or by the magic of revenge reserved for retaliation against suspected witches.

Despite these convictions, the Azande do not live in constant terror of witches (Nanda 1991). In fact, Douglas (1980) reminds us that Evans-Pritchard’s assessment of the Azande was that they were the happiest and most carefree peoples of the Sudan. (p. 11-13)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE AZANDE	АЗАНДЕ
witchcraft	колдовство, ведовство
witch	ведьма, ведун, колдун
sorcery	колдовство, волшебство, магия
inherent power	врожденная, наследуемая сила / способность / энергия
charms	чары
carefree	беззаботный, беспечный, легкомысленный
spell	заклинание
injury	вред, повреждение, рана
revenge	месть, отмщение
retaliation	воздаяние, возмездие, кара, расплата

THE AZTECS

Aztec History

Journey to the Valley of Mexico

The people referred to as Aztecs called themselves Mexica. Arriving in central Mexico as nomads in the thirteenth century, they had risen to a position of political and military power by the time the Spanish arrived in 1519. With Tenochtitlan as the capital of their empire, they had forged alliances with neighbors to the east and west.

Mexica migration into the Valley of Mexico began from Aztlan in the northwest some two hundred years before their eventual arrival. As they marched south, they were met with great hardship, expelled from each place they attempted to settle. Throughout the Valley of Mexico, elaborate states were already flourishing. The peoples settled here had complex and specialized technologies, including a sophisticated system of irrigation which afforded them a variety of crops in abundance. In addition, they possessed intricately organized social and economic systems. The nomadic Mexicas were not welcomed in their attempt to seek out unsettled land.

Their arduous trek was plagued with dissension from within (Berdan 1982) and treachery from without. Evidence for internal rebellion is found in numerous accounts of their journey. Along their route, whenever they stopped they constructed a temple for Huitzilopotchtli, the most revered of the deities, who provided guidance on their exodus. Among the ceremonies conducted at these sites were human sacrifices, for which the Aztecs have come to be known. Many explanations have been offered for the various sacrificial occasions in Aztec culture. Berdan (1982) suggests that those performed en route to their permanent home may have served the purpose of eliminating the dissension in the group, who were agitating to remain where they were and not continue on their journey as Huitzilopotchtli decreed.

Exemplifying the rejection they experienced from others is the response to the Mexica request of asylum from the ruler of Calhuacan. Their petition to settle in his kingdom was met with the granting of territory he knew to be infested with poisonous snakes. He was sure this would put an end to these "undesirable Mexicas" (Leon-Portilla 1992:31). Instead, they roasted the snakes, ate them, and triumphed. Apparently surprised at the Mexica tenacity and impressed by their military skills, those living in the area engaged the Mexica as their mercenaries. Coupled with some of their more aggressive customs, these martial skills elicited both fear and hatred from surrounding peoples. When a ceremony to dedicate the king's daughter as a goddess resulted in her death and flaying, the Mexica were forced to flee once more. (p. 22-23)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE AZTECS	АЦТЕКИ
nomads	кочевники
to expel	изгонять, выселять
to settle	поселиться, обосноваться
crop	урожай, сельскохозяйственная культура
unsettled land	незаселенная земля, местность
dissension	раздор, распри, несогласие
rebellion	бунт, восстание, мятеж
treachery	вероломство, измена, предательство
temple	храм
deity	божество
human sacrifices	человеческие жертвоприношения
asylum	приют, пристанище, убежище
mercenaries	наемники
custom	обычай
to flee	спасаться бегством, искать пристанища

THE BASSERI

Introduction and Ecology

The Basseri are a pastoral nomadic society in southern Iran, whose migration takes them to the mountains and steppes to the east, north, and south.

The land in which they travel spans about three hundred miles in length, and about fifty miles in width. They are never too greatly dispersed as they journey.

The province in which the Basseri live is quite ethnically heterogeneous, and it has been suggested (Barth 1964) that the tribes in the area are better distinguished from one another on the basis of political organization than by any ethnic or geographic boundaries. Using this criterion, the Basseri do form a discrete unit, operating under the governance of one chief, and they are recognized as such by the Iranian government.

Numbering about 16,000 individuals (or three thousand tents), the Basseri are associated with other groups in the area who either claim origins within the Basseri or common heritage with them.

The tribe's nomadic lifestyle was interrupted, for a time, when the reign of Reza Shah dictated enforced settlement. During this period only a small number of Basseri continued their nomadic ways. Many more remained sedentary, to the detriment of their flocks and people. Once Reza Shah's reign was concluded fifty years ago, the Basseri were able to resume their traditional life, and most did so.

Basseri territory is diverse, ranging from desert to mountain. Throughout their range there is little rain; this is concentrated in the winter months. Precipitation in the mountains falls as snow, and thus there is more vegetation and forested land in the mountainous areas. Where the land is flat and low, drought defines the summer and there is very little vegetation, limited to a thin cover of grass during winter rains and into the early spring.

For those sedentary people surrounding the Basseri, agriculture provides the main pattern of subsistence, dependent almost entirely upon irrigation. Rivers and streams in the area provide water for irrigation, and horses and oxen are also employed to pull water up from wells. Access to groundwater is gained by a series of underground aqueducts which link groups of wells, funneling groundwater from higher elevations down to the valley lowlands.

The pastures upon which the Basseri pastoral economy depends are seasonal, necessitating that they have access to an extensive amount of pasture area. The land through which they move affords them this diversity. In the winter, the northern areas are covered with snow, but the south still has usable pasture land. In the spring, areas of low and middle altitude have plentiful grazing areas. As they start to dry out, there are better areas at higher elevations. Although fall is the most tenuous time, once fields are harvested agriculturalists are pleased to have nomads graze their flocks on the land because the manure acts as excellent fertilizer. (p. 44-45)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE BASSERI	БАССЕРИ
pastoral	пастушеский
dispersed	разбросанный, рассеянный
chief	вождь
boundaries	границы
origin	происхождение
heritage	наследство; наследие
reign	правление, царствование, господство
sedentary	оседлый
flock	стадо
desert	пустыня
р recipitation	осадки, выпадение осадков
drought	засуха
subsistence	жизнеобеспечение, средства к существованию
ox ( pl : oxen)	бык
well	колодец
valley	долина, долинный
pasture	пастбище
altitude	высота (над уровнем моря)
harvest to harvest	урожай собирать урожай

THE BETSILEO

Introduction and History

The Betsileo are agriculturalists who live in the high plateau of central Madagascar, an island in the Indian Ocean, southeast of the African mainland. Currently numbering about 1.5 million, they occupy roughly 40,000 square kilometers in the southern part of the central highlands. (p. 67)

Kinship and descent

Access to land and water, labor and resources, homestead and burial ground, is dictated primarily by affiliation with descent groups. In a stratified society such as that of the Betsileo, power and prestige are importantly tied up with kinship.

The Betsileo are ambilineal - they are not limited to tracing their descent through either a male or female line. This ideally allows any individual a range of affiliative options. However, Kottak (1980) finds that the Betsileo are, in fact, disposed towards patriliny, and most married couples reside patrilocally. (p. 69)

The supernatural realm

Although most Betsileo are Christian, having been converted by missionaries in the nineteenth century, their traditional religious beliefs and practices continue to play an important part in their spiritual lives. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the attention paid to the dead. (In fact, when referring to individuals, the term Betsileo use translates into "living people," rather than merely "people." Kottak (1980:213) observes, '{t}he humanity of the dead is not forgotten; it is always necessary to distinguish living people from dead people’). Early missionaries observed that the Betsileo religion, while incorporating the notion of a creator-god, accorded much more reverence to the spirits of the dead than to this one supreme deity, who held little sway over everyday life. As maker of land and air, the god Zanahary was given his ceremonial due, but offerings to the spirits or ancestors were by far the more critical. (p. 72)

Birth, death, and afterlife

For the Betsileo, death is more an entry into another state of being than an act of finality. Both physically - through burial in the ancestral tomb - and spiritually, the dead join others in their descent group who have died before them. Each individual possesses two souls. One of these is released, after death, to wander. It resides in the hills, but may return to the village for specific purposes: to demand offerings, to seek revenge for wrongs committed against its corporeal self. (p. 73)

Sickness and healing

Concern with dead ancestors permeates the realm of illness and curing. Betsileo curers are all too familiar with sickness that is a result of ancestral displeasure. Although ceremonies are held to thank ancestors for good health or a bountiful harvest, they are often held at the urging of a diviner who has learned of an ancestor's anger. Symptoms of this may range from minor illness to death. Ghosts of individuals who are not kin may also prove dangerous if they have been wronged in life and seek revenge.

Diviners diagnose the cause of illness by "reading" the patterns formed by beans and seeds as they fall. Often, elaborate astrological charting can afford clues about how to avoid an untoward destiny. Cures are effected by ceremonial offerings, as well as decoctions derived from herbs, roots, and bark. Specialists can also offer charms for good fortune and antidotes to poison.(p. 74-74)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE BETSILEO	БЕЦИЛЕУ
homestead	участок поселенца; участок, на котором живут
burial	похороны, похоронный
descent groups	десцентные группы
stratified society	стратифицированное общество
tracing	прослеживание
to convert	обращать (в новую веру)
reverence	почтение, уважение, почитание, благоговение
offering	подношение, жертвоприношение
ancestor	предок
entry	вход, проход
tomb	могила
soul	душа
to wander	блуждать, бродить, скитаться, странствовать
to reside	проживать (где-либо)
realm	сфера, область, царство (перен.)
diviner	прорицатель, предсказатель
ghost	дух, привидение, призрак
kin	родня, родственник
destiny	судьба, предназначение
antidote	противоядие

THE KALULI

The Kaluli live in the tropical rainforest in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea on the Great Papuan Plateau. They are the most numerous of four related horticultural groups who collectively call themselves Bosavi kalu, “people of Bosavi”. (p. 77)

Economic and Political Organization

In several ways, Kaluli society stands in great contrast to other groups in the New Guinea highlands.

Both politically and economically, Kaluli society is highly egalitarian. There are no formal positions of leadership, and also no role of "big man," the wealthy individual who rises to an informal position of great influence found so widely among other highland groups.

Absent, too, is the highland pattern of elaborate exchange for personal wealth. Whether exchange be formal and ceremonial or in the context of everyday activity, Kaluli do not use it as an occasion for enhancing status. Exchanges generally engaged in elsewhere in the region revolve primarily around life-cycle events and political activity. The most significant occasion of formal exchange in Kaluli society is marriage.

Subsistence activities

The Kaluli are intimately familiar with the land they garden. Trees, hills and streams are all referred to by their own names. Not only forest growth, but also inhabitants and travelers are recognizable: Kaluli can identify the footprints not only of one another, but also of individual pigs.

Kaluli practice swidden horticulture in extensive gardens and have a rich and varied diet. Their daily staple food is sago, a starch which they extract from wild sago palms that grow along streams a short walk from each village. Bananas, pandanus, breadfruit, sugarcane, sweet potatoes and green vegetables from their gardens supplement the sago eaten at every meal. Most of the daily protein is gathered casually, by scooping up a small crayfish from underneath a rock, or dipping a hand into a brook for a small fish. Small rodents or lizards darting across a Kahili's path will be stabbed with a stick or summarily stamped underfoot.

There are fish in abundance in numerous rivers and streams throughout the area, and small game is easily come by in surrounding forests. The Kaluli may venture on several-day trips to unsettled forests where game is more abundant, but usually these treks are reserved for times when larger amounts of game are needed for an exchange. A small number of domestic pigs are kept. Forest foods are in dependable supply, particularly owing to the low population density. (p. 81-82)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE KALULI	КАУЛУЛИ
wealthy	богатый, состоятельный
highland	нагорье, плато, горная местность
exchange	обмен
inhabitants	обитатели
swidden horticulture	подсечно-огневое земледелие
breadfruit	хлебное дерево; плод хлебного дерева
sugarcane	сахарный тростник
crayfish	речной рак, лангуст
abundance	изобилие
game	дичь
unsettled	незаселенный

THE KAPAUKU

Subsistence

Large game is absent in this environment, relegating hunting and trapping to small importance among the Kapauku. There is a paucity too of small game animals; the lakes offer no edible fish. Although hunting provides distraction as sport, it is the gathering of crayfish, insects, frogs, rats, and bats that provides important supplements to the daily diet. (It is also a crucial part of the Kapauku economy in that it supplies the raw materials for construction and manufacturing.)

Kapauku subsistence is dependent on two items: sweet potatoes, the staple of the native diet, and pigs.

The Kamu Valley's two very different types of terrain demand the use of two kinds of cultivation, and each household will usually maintain some of each type of garden. Shifting cultivation, with areas cleared by burning, planted with sweet potatoes, and harvested daily, is employed in the mountainous areas. Extensive gardens on the rocky slopes are laboriously fenced off to protect them from wild boars and hungry domesticated pigs, and left to fallow when plots are exhausted.

The valley is exploited more intensively, employing two methods of rotating crops of sweet potatoes, sugar cane, taro, bananas, cucumbers, gourds, and beans. In all garden types, it is the sweet potato that assumes primacy, with ninety percent of all land devoted to its production.

The domesticated pig plays a role in Kapauku society that can scarcely be overestimated, and which is intricately tied up with other fundamental aspects of Kapauku life and culture.

Posposil explains that the sweet potato and the pig can be separated neither from one another, nor from the essence of Kapauku economy. Both people and pigs are fed on sweet potatoes. It is the sale of pigs (and pork) which contributes the largest portion of the individual Kapauku's income. And because fat, healthy, fertile pigs depend on the plentiful harvest of sweet potatoes the two are economically bound together. Each is food and each is wealth, and wealth is the driving force behind Kapauku society. Posposil reports that "the highest prestige in this society and the highest status of political and legal leadership are achieved not through heritage, bravery in warfare, or knowledge and achievements in religious ceremonialism, but through accumulation and redistribution of capital" (1963:5). (p. 101)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE KAPAUKU	КАПАУКУ
environment	окружающая среда, среда обитания
distraction	развлечение; расслабление
terrain	местность, территория
shifting cultivation	подсечно-огневое земледелие
rotating crops	чередующееся выращивание культур на одном участке
intricately	сложно, запутанно, замысловато
pork	свинина
income	доход, прибыль
fertile	плодородный, плодовитый
accumulation	накопление

THE !KUNG SAN

The San are a hunting and gathering people living in southern Africa. Their nearest neighbors are a herding group, the Khoi, with whom they shared for centuries most of southern Africa west of the Eastern Cape. San are a varied people in terms of looks and language, and include people living in Angola, Botswana, Zambia, and Namibia. (p. 120)

Settlement

A !Kung encampment consists of grass huts arranged roughly in a circle, constructed around an area of clearing in the center. Because mobility is the hallmark of !Kung life, these huts are constructed quickly and rarely used for more than a few months at a time. Camps are located near water holes, and the conventional area that a group exploits is one that can be accomplished in a day's walk, round-trip, in any direction. The !Kung houses reflect the season in which they are built. During the dry season, sites are located near dependable sources of water. Huts built for use during the rainy season are constructed with thickly thatched roofs to provide shelter from the punishing rains. During times of year with less extreme weather, camp is often set up without building shelter of any kind. A fire may be built, the group sleep, and the next day move on.

In addition to huts, other structures are erected to store belongings to keep them both out of sight and out of reach: arrow poison must not be accessible to children and dried strips of meat must be kept away from the dogs.

Characteristic of traditional camp construction was the circular arrangement of huts or sleeping position: the !Kung faced one another. In more recent days, as cattle have become important, some encampments not only are more permanent, but also are oriented with the hut doorway facing the cattle compound, rather than another hut.

Subsistence

The foraging !Kung can provide for themselves a bountiful and varied diet. Plant foods are plentiful and nutritious and make up the majority of their diet. Women have an intricate and complex knowledge of their plant environment, distinguishing more than a hundred varieties of edible plants from those that are poisonous or otherwise undesirable. A single gathering foray can result in fifty pounds of food, easily enough for ten days' sustenance. Most important in their diet is the mongongo, a protein-rich nut found abundantly on trees near every water hole. In addition to their high nutritional value and availability, mongongo nuts are also easily stored and not often affected by seasonal of environmental variation. (p. 122-123)

Kinship

The flexibility of the !Kung living arrangement is the key to its success. Membership of the group changes often. Yet flexibility must still have something beneath to give it stability. Among the !Kung that is provided by kinship ties.

The band is, at base, a "unit of sharing," which demands peace and cooperation among its members (Lee 1984:61). It must also be balanced in terms of numbers of productive adults who can provide food and labor, and young, dependent members who cannot. Thus, the composition of the group will change as patience wears thin; it will also shift as the number of children becomes too large to support, or too small to ensure a future.

The !Kung system of kinship is extremely complex, and presented quite a challenge to ethnographers attempting to understand both how people reckoned their connections to one another, and also the functions served by their associations.

All kinship relations among the !Kung are of one of two types, either "joking" or playful relationships, or "avoidance" relationship, based on "fear" or, more accurately, respect. One's actions with a joking relative are characterized by comfort, relaxation, and familiarity. With some (for example, grandparents) there is a great display of affection. With others (such as peers, and especially those of the opposite sex) there may be an element or flirtation, and even outright bawdiness. However, with avoidance relatives, manners are refined and more aloof. The relationship between parents and children falls into this category, demonstrating the authority parents have over their children, and the respect children are expected to show their parents. Parents-in-law and children-in-law are also avoidance relatives, and it is the mother-in-law/son-in-law and father-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships that are the most severely constrained. Although custom forbids conversation between them, in practice they usually do speak to one another. (Lee 1984). (p. 126-127)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE KUNG SAN	КУНГ
herding	выпас скота
encampment	лагерь
hallmark	признак
shelter	укрытие
arrow poison	яд для стрел
cattle	скот
foraging	живущие присваивающей экономикой (охота-собирательство-рыболовство)
nutritious	питательный
challenge	вызов
reckon	считать, вести отсчет, отсчитывать
avoidance	избегание
joking	подшучивание
respect	уважение
affection	любовь, привязанность, чувство близости
parents-in-law	родители супруга
children-in-law	супруги сына / дочери
mother-in-law	теща / свекровь
son-in-law	зять (муж дочери)
father-in-law	отец жены / мужа
daughter-in-law	сноха (жена сына)
to constrain	ограничивать

THE NUER

Cattle

"Their social idiom is a bovine idiom"

Cattle are the focus of Nuer life. They depend on the herds for their very existence, they delight in caring for them, and their love for cattle and zeal for acquiring them are at the core of Nuer culture. Cattle are the thread that runs through Nuer institutions, language, rites of passage, politics, economy, and allegiances.

Nuer relations with their neighbors are directed in large part by their preoccupation with the herds. They have nothing but disdain for neighboring tribes who own few or no cattle; they have entered into warfare with others solely for the purpose of stealing cattle and pastures. Internecine disputes are most often about cattle, and political divisions follow tribal distribution of pastures and water. Disputes that result from cattle are often settled with cattle: such conflict often ends in grave injury or death, and cattle is the only acceptable compensation.

Cattle are cared for by groups of families because an individual household cannot protect or herd their cattle alone. In the dry season, when huts are hastily constructed around the cattle kraal (corral), one can identify which groups own and care for cattle together. Male household heads are identified as owning the herds, but wives and sons have some rights to their use. Sons marry in order of seniority, given heads of cattle when they do. It is not until the stock has been replaced that the next son may marry and take his share. The bond between brothers, forged by co-ownership of cattle, persists even after they have married and started families of their own. The bridewealth paid for a daughter of one's brother is shared among the brothers, and kinship becomes defined in large part by reference to cattle payments. It is as if the transfer of cattle from one individual to another is equivalent to the lines drawn on a genealogy chart (Evans-Pritchard 1940). When cattle are sacrificed, the meat is divided along kinship lines.

Personal names are frequently derived from features of the herd animals. Men are often called by names that refer to the color of a favorite ox; women take names from the cows they milk. When children play in the pastures, they call one another by cattle names; sometimes these names are proper names given at birth and handed down through the generations. Evans-Pritchard remarked that the genealogies he collected during his fieldwork often resembled the cattle inventory of a kraal more than a family tree. (Evans-Pritchard 1940). (p. 142-143)

Religion and Expressive Culture

The Nuer speak of kwoth, spirit, as the creator, as a father and judge, as a guiding force and recipient of their prayers. Evans-Pritchard (1956) found that this over-arching concept could be roughly analogized to a Western notion of "God." However, there are also two other categories of supernatural beings that figure prominently in Nuer religious thought. These are the "spirits of the above" and "spirits of the below." One of the ways in which these spirits differ from the rather larger concept of God, kwoth, is that different individuals accord various spirits of the above and below varying interest and respect. A certain spirit may be significant for some individuals and families but not for others, whereas God is recognized and revered similarly by all Nuer.

Spirits of the above

Whether a person feels personally connected to any of the spirits ordinarily has to do with whether or not the individual or any family member has had direct contact with the spirit, usually in the form of possession. Sudden illness may be seen as possession and, once recovered, the sufferer may come to regard the spirit that has sent the illness as one of his or her own kuth, the term applied to all spirits. Descendants of this individual may then continue to attend to this spirit. If they do not, the inherited spirit may send a reminder to alert the family to its need for attention: when the Nuer fall sick without an obvious cause, they may realize they have been neglecting a kuth who has visited an illness as a signal that it is not happy to have been forgotten. (p. 149-150)

Spirits of the below

Spirits of the above are also known as "spirits of the air." They are "great spirits" and much revered. Spirits of the below, however, are regarded quite differently. They are believed to have fallen from above, and as "spirits of the earth" they are "little spirits" and not held in the same reverence.

Spirits of the below can be classified into several categories, the most important of which is that of totemic spirits. These attach to specific clans and lineages, and are usually described in animal form - lion, lizard, crocodile, various birds, and snakes. Plants may be inspirited too, as may rivers and streams. Each of these aspects of nature is a material representation of a "spirit of the below." (p. 151)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE NUER	НУЭРЫ
bovine	коровий, бычий
herds	стада
rites of passage	обряды перехода
disdain	презрение, пренебрежение
stealing	кража, воровство
household	домохозяйство
seniority	старшинство
bridewealth	приданое, выкуп за невесту, брачный выкуп
sacrifice	жертвовать, приносить в жертву
inventory	инвентарь, список, реестр
prayer	молящийся
possessions	собственность, имущество
to recover	выздороветь, поправиться
descendant	потомок
to rever e	почитать, боготворить, преклоняться
totemic spirits	тотемические духи
inspirited	вдохновленный, воодушевленный, ободренный

THE OJIBWA

Ojibwa Culture

The belief system of the Ojibwa centers on the important relationship between people and those who are other-than-people. Although skills and knowledge obtained from fellow Ojibwa are certainly important, there are crucial aspects of a successful life which can only be known and achieved through dependence upon those who are not human. Hallowell reports that he found "neither myth, tale, nor tradition {portraying] a human being as making any discovery, bringing about any change, or achieving any status or influence unaided by other than human persons. (1991:80)

To understand this one must first understand that in the Ojibwa conceptualization there is no sharp division between the natural and the supernatural as defined by the Western scientific cultural model. There are animate and inanimate objects. The latter category is made up largely of manufactured items (although pipes are spoken of as animate); plants, fish, animals, and humans beings are all classified as animate, as are the sun and wind and other elements. Also found among the category of animate beings are those animals that are known to exist but are rarely, if ever, seen. These include Large Snakes, Great Frogs, and Big Turtles. Of even greater importance are the Thunder Birds, whose wings make the sound of the thunder, and whose blinking eyes are the accompanying lightning. Thunder Birds are classified with other birds whose migratory patterns correspond to the stormy seasons during which thunder and lightning occur.

All plants and animals are controlled by their "owners," whose permission is an absolute prerequisite to securing them through hunting or gathering. This belief means that skillful techniques and an exhaustive knowledge of their environment are necessary but not sufficient talents for successful subsistence. To know the owners of each species, and to make certain that each plant and animal is correctly treated is the only insurance against failure. The remains of an animal, which would be killed only for a useful purpose, must be disposed of and honored with proper ceremonial respect. Failure to accord plants and animals this right would inevitably result in retribution by he owner, generally the inability to secure that plant or animal again in the future. A hunter has a relationship with the owner or the species he hunts; the "use" of an animal results in a debt owed the species' owner, and such obligations must be fulfilled. Likewise, when plants are gathered, owners must be properly addressed and an offering (usually of tobacco) is left in the ground. (p. 164-165)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE OJIBWA	ОДЖИБВЕ
unaided	лишенный помощи, без посторонней помощи
animate	одушевленный, живой
inanimate	неодушевленный
manufactured object	рукотворный, изготовленный (не природный) предмет
pipe	курительная трубка
thunder	гром
species	вид (биологический)
remains	останки
to honor	чтить, почитать
debt	долг

THE SAMOANS

Sociopolitical Organization

The aiga

Samoan villages are organized around the household and the extended family unit. Each household is headed by a man, the matai, who is responsible for those who live under his roof. (p. 176)

The matai

Electing a matai is a process of deliberation which may span weeks, and is often hotly contested. Different branches of the family each have a candidate they wish to put forth, and they offer a variety of arguments to support him. These are generally based on the man's intelligence, wealth, ceremonial knowledge, previous service to family interests, and, in recent years, both his years of formal education and his ability to negotiate with Europeans in issues of politics and economics. Generally, if a son of the former matai meets all these criteria, he will have an advantage over other candidates. However, proven service to the greater good of the family may often take precedence over purely genealogical Qualifications. It is also advantageous to have resided in the household of a matai, which affords the ability to begin participating in family service events at an early age. Men are rarely considered for election as matai before they are forty, and those young men who aspire to the position one day may begin to plan their strategy long in advance. A man may choose to live in a household where he will be the only male of his age, thereby being the likely candidate put forth by the household when the time comes. Or he may move to his wife's household, if there are no male competitors, should he currently be residing in a household where he is one of several young men.

The process of electing a new matai is under the guidance of a matai who is related to the deliberating family. He will listen to all the arguments put forth in support of each candidate, and preside over the vote. Once a new matai has been chosen, there is a feast for the family only, followed at a later date by an inauguration ceremony and feast that involves the entire village. It is at this time that the village council, with all the other matais in the village present, will observe the newly elected matai's skill in delivering a traditional inauguration address. He is expected to display not only his wisdom, but also his skill as an orator and recounter of Samoan myth. (p. 177-178)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE SAMOANS	САМОАНЦЫ
household	домохозяйство
extended family	расширенная семья
to e lect	выбирать
to negotiate	вести переговоры
advantage	преимущество, выгода
to aspire	стремиться, домогаться, устремляться
in advance	заблаговременно
competitor	конкурент
skill	навык
recounter	рассказчик

THE TIWI

Introduction and History

The Tiwi occupy Melville and Bathurst Islands, which form a cultural as well as geographical unit. Taken together, they span about 3000 square miles. Located off the north coast of Australia, they lie about thirty miles north of Darwin. (p. 196)

Sickness and healing

It is the expectation of all Tiwi that they will live a long life, grow old, and die of old age. Although they do recognize that illness or accident may strike, they still feel it is likely that they will one day be among the elderly.

Most unfortunate occurrences are thought to be brought upon the people by their own behavior, either in the form of breaking taboos, improper performance of ritual, or breach of social custom. The consequences of these infractions are varied: a hunter may have an accidental fall, or his eyesight grow dim. He may find not game, but a poisonous snake in his path. In most cases, Tiwi look no further than the individual for the source of the trouble. (Children's accidents are not subject to the same blame: they are the fault of the child's parents, whose laxity in teaching proper observation of rules is held to be the cause of a child's misfortune. It is not until children clearly know right from wrong that they can be held accountable.)

There are some occasions when bad luck, sickness, accidents, or even death are blamed on a spirit, but these are most certainly the exception. Sometimes the spirit of an individual will yearn so for a loved one that it will send illness and death out of sheer loneliness and desire for a former companion.

In general, though, the responsibility for sickness is placed squarely at the feet of the person who is ill. This being the case, it is the patient who is the focus of the treatment, because he or she is, in effect, the causative agent. {This focus on the person as agent of illness or injury extends beyond self-blame; it is also imperative that individuals take responsibility for injury they have caused others. If one Tiwi injures another accidentally, the expected course of action is that the perpetrator will inflict the same injury on himself. When one dancer's spear accidentally cuts another dancer's hand, the owner of the spear simply cuts his own hand as an indication of its unintentional nature, and the dance continues uninterrupted, with nothing more said (Goodale 1971). } The Tiwi have no ritual medical specialists, Healing is either first aid or it is preventive medicine, and both categories are common knowledge.

Bloodletting and the application of heat are considered effective in any illness, and frequently both are used in tandem. (p. 208-209)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE TIWI	ТИВИ
the elderly	старейшины
breaking taboo	нарушение табу
infraction	нарушение
dim	о взгляде: тусклый, мутный, неясный, затуманенный
laxity	небрежность, халатность, слабость
treatment	лечение
self-blame	самообвинение
spear	копье
bloodletting	кровопускание
in tandem	совместно, вместе

THE TROBRIAND ISLANDERS

Trobriand Exchange

Kula

The Trobriand kula ring is perhaps one of the best-known systems of exchange in the anthropological literature. In his classic ethnography, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Malinowski described in exquisite detail the Trobriand practice of exchanging shell goods. His writing was a turning point in the understanding of non-Western economics; previous to his description, economies of other peoples were regarded as haphazard and "primitive." Malinowski's work influenced the theoretical perspectives of many of the most important anthropologists of the twentieth century.

Malinowski recognized the centrality of kula, referring to it as "vast, complex, and deeply rooted" for which Trobrianders have "a passion in their hearts" (1922:86). While Argonauts of the Western Pacific spanned more than five hundred pages, Malinowski still referred to kula as "a very simple affair {which] only consists of an exchange, interminably repeated, of two articles intended for ornamentation, but not even used for that. . ." (1922:86). In the years since, much more has been learned about kula exchanges throughout New Guinea, and its importance has been underscored as its meaning has been illuminated.

Kula shells move through a series of islands, on a particular path. There are two types of shells used in the exchange, white armshells (mwali) and red shell necklaces (bagi). The mwali move in a counterclockwise path through the villages in which kula partners reside; the bagi pass through the same hands, but circulate in the opposite, clockwise, direction. Men who do kula have partners on other islands. If we were to begin with any one man, draw a line tracing the path of the shells, as in a picture made by connecting the dots, we would have described a circle leading back to the origin point. A shell makes this circuit in anywhere from two to five years. Men generally know their kula partners whose islands are closest to them, because they sail to these islands to trade, and they host kula sailors who arrive. Those who are more distant are not known personally, but are known by name. (p. 227)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE TROBRIAND ISLANDERS	ТРОБРИАНЦЫ
haphazard	бессистемный, случайный
article	здесь: вещь, предмет, наименование
ornamentation	украшение
circuit	замкнутая цепь, круг, цикл
to trade	торговать
to host	принимать гостей
clockwise	по часовой стрелке
counterclockwise	против часовой стрелки
to illuminate	освещать
sailor	моряк, мореплаватель

THE YANOMAMO

Trading

Trade between Yanomamo villages follows a pattern that is self-propelling; that is, rules are established such that trade leads to more trade.

All items traded must be reciprocated with items that are different. Usually these are representative of the "specialty" of the village. The return gift must be presented in the proper time frame. It cannot be immediately exchanged. The former feature serves as an "excuse" to continue trading with a particular village.

One village doesn't usually possess a resource or skill which is unique. However, claiming that ties are being maintained with another village solely because it guarantees access to a needed item functions as a face-saving mechanism. It allows interdependence - in the form of repeated visiting to trade for the specialty item-without demonstrating weakness. The element of elapsed time results in an ongoing relationship of indebtedness: one village always owes payment to the other.

Chagnon (1992) points out that these explanations for the "ulterior motives" or trading and feasting are not ones that the Yanomamo themselves readily volunteer. Outwardly, they never say "we must maintain these ties so that we can call upon them during times of war." Feasts and trading expeditions are ends in and of themselves. Likewise, the hosts of such events seize the opportunity to demonstrate their power and wealth, without overtly expressing the fact that it places them in a position of strength.

Feasting

Feasts among the Yanomamo are usually much anticipated occasions for both hosts and guests. They provide opportunities to eat, drink, and flirt; to display oneself proudly; and to affirm and deepen ties of mutuality. Given the constant undercurrent of defensiveness and opportunism, however, there is always the potential for something going awry and culminating in violence. Men take the primary responsibility for preparing food for feasts. Because one hundred or more guests may be expected, hunting, gathering, and cooking is a large-scale task. Although a messenger is sent to the guest village with an invitation only on the day of the feast, preparation at the host village starts long before.

Game meat and plantain are the main foodstuffs that are served, and large quantities of plantain are harvested and hung to ripen in anticipation. Many of these will be used to make soup, cooked in large strips of bark which is cut and fashioned into troughs of sufficient size to hold up to one hundred gallons of soup.

A hunting party is organized to secure meat, and as the hunters set off, the excitement surrounding a feast begins to build. When they return, the meat is presented to the headman, smoked at his fire, and wrapped for later presentation.

Both village and villagers are groomed for the festivities. The central village clearing is weeded and swept to prepare it for dancing. Houses are neatened and scraps from the preparation of food and gifts are disposed of. Both men and women paint their faces and bodies and decorate themselves with bright feathers. Men further prepare by ingesting hallucinogenic drugs. Guests are adorning themselves similarly, in anticipation of their formal parade into the center of the host village.

As the guest delegated to begin the processional enters the village, appreciative cheers erupt from the hosts. There is a formality in this presentation: he is elaborately painted and festooned with parrot feathers and monkey tails. Reaching the center of the clearing, he stops and strikes a predictable posture: standing still, haughty, weapons in the "visitor's pose" by his face. He maintains this stance for several minutes. He is there to be admired; but he is also there to express his peaceful intent. With his weapons held motionless and fully exposed, he declares himself to be without hostility and invites an easy shot if malice is contemplated.

This accomplished, he approaches the designated host (the village headman or his representative) and the two begin a chant that signifies the acceptance of the invitation by the guests, and officially initiates the feast. Spirited and at the top of their voices, the two dance and chant for five or ten minutes, and then the guest departs to arrange the formal entry of his village. (p. 247-248)

Yanomamo Violence and Warfare

As is evidenced by the outright choreography of the chest-pounding duel, many forms of fighting among the Yanomamo are strictly regulated. The aggression so assiduously cultivated in males is released in these formalized duels as an attempt to avoid warfare.

A step up from the chest-pounding and side-slapping duels is attacks with clubs, often the result of arguments over women and food. These are not restricted to outsiders: co-villagers can and do attack each other with clubs. Chagnon (1992) tells of an incident in which a father clubbed his son for eating some of the older man's bananas without permission. The son retaliated with his own club, and soon most of the men in the village had taken up the cause of one side or the other. The clubs are actually heavy ten foot-long poles. One end is sharpened to a point, allowing it to be turned and used as a spear should it be necessary. The most common scenario for the instigation of club fights is the accusation made by a husband that another man has been carrying on an affair with his wife. The jealous husband grabs his pole, and after accusing the other man, presents his own head to be hit. Once the accused succumbs to the challenge and strikes him, the husband may retaliate. As the first blood is drawn, much of this orchestration falls away. Most observers will yank a pole out of the framework of the house and join in the fight, soon to have blood streaming down their heads and necks.

It is not surprising that the tops of most male Yanomami heads boast a network of deep scars. Some of the men who keep the top central portion of their heads shaved do so to proudly display the impressive thick knots they have received in club fights.

Because larger villages afford more opportunity for adultery, they also are plagued with more club fighting. As sides are taken, often along kinship lines, large villages sometimes split in two over these confrontations.

An escalation to the next level leads to raids, which are considered true warfare. The objective is usually to kill as many of the enemy as possible, and escape undetected. However, if any of the attacking group are killed, the raid is considered a failure, regardless of the number of enemies dispatched before one of the invaders was killed. (p. 250-251)

Ключевые слова к тексту

ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
THE YANOMAMO	ЯНОМАМО
to reciprocate	взаимно делиться
feast	пир, пиршество
wealth	богатство, благосостояние, материальные ценности
strength	сила, сильная сторона, мощность, стойкость, крепость
mutuality	взаимность
violence	насилие
foodstuff	продовольствие, еда
to secure	гарантировать, обеспечивать, защищать
feathers	птичьи перья
motionless	неподвижный
malice	злоба, злой умысел
chest-pounding duel	состязание на удары в грудь
club	дубинка
sharpened	заостренный
accusation	обвинение
jealous	завистливый, ревнивый

ЗАКЛЮЧЕНИЕ

По окончании изучения пособия и отработки грамматического, лексического и синтаксического материала, активный словарь учащегося пополнится примерно на 1260 новых терминов и идиоматических выражений, а синтактико-грамматические знания расширятся на (примерно) 140 разобранных в учебнике мини-тем.

Из этих 1260 единиц примерно 560 перейдут в активный словарь учащегося.

Страноведческая компонента пособия позволит студенту раздвинуть следующие лингвистические представления об английском языке.

прикладные акцентно - диалектологические
стилистические
профессиональные

Антропологическая компонента пособия позволит расширить знания учащегося на 14 представленных в пособии тем.

Также, в упражнениях по переводу и при составлении диалогов и монологов, учащиеся освежат в памяти изученные ранее грамматические и лексические конструкции.

Материал, представленный в пособии, испытывался в течение нескольких лет на студентах дневного отделения факультета социальной антропологии (английский язык – первый). В общей сложности, пособие полностью прошли 3 группы студентов. Следует отметить искреннюю заинтересованность учащихся, их готовность усваивать представленные темы и довольно высокую степень удержания материала. Выучивание и отработка конструкций, как в виде диалогов, так и в виде монологов, происходила безболезненно и естественно.

Уровень интереса учащихся к пособию высок, так как в главах дается не только профессиональный, но и «неформальный», подкрепленный массовой культурой разговорный лингвистический материал.

Дата добавления: 2019-02-26; просмотров: 172; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!

Поделиться с друзьями:

⇐ Предыдущая 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 2829

Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!