An annotated history of kuru

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Understanding kuru: the contribution of anthropology and medicine

To understand kuru and solve the problems of its cause and transmission required the integration of knowledge from both anthropological and medical research. Anthropological studies elucidated the origin and spread of kuru, the local mortuary practices of endocannibalism, the social effects of kuru, the life of women and child-rearing practices, the kinship system of the Fore and their willingness to incorporate outsiders into it, the myths, folklore and history of the Fore and their neighbours, sorcery as a powerful social phenomenon and way of explaining the causation of disease, and concepts of the treatment of disease. Many scientists from different disciplines, government officers and others have contributed to this chapter of medical history but it is the Fore people who have contributed the most, through their suffering, their cooperative and reliable witness to kuru, and their participation, in various ways, in the research process itself

Learning to Believe in Papua New Guinea

This chapter examines how witchcraft and sorcery beliefs are reproduced among the educated working and middle classes in Papua New Guinea. In a context where tertiary schooling is accessible only to a tiny segment of the population, many educated people in PNG feel anxious about their social position and worry that their upward mobility will provoke envy and resentment in the less fortunate. This anxiety is projected most strongly onto the “ples lain” or rural population, who are thought to maintain many traditional practices, including witchcraft and sorcery. Drawing on ethnographic research among nursing students in the Eastern Highlands, I examine the ways that class identity and Pentecostal social forms coalesce, giving students resources for narrating, understanding, and resisting the dangers they face as social outsiders and (future) employees of a neglectful state. Looking specifically at events during a nursing practicum in rural Eastern Highlands Province, I describe how students and their teachers collapsed different forms of invisible violence—both traditional and contemporary—into a generic evil to be discerned and resisted. Following Robbins (2009) I argue that witchcraft talk is exceptionally socially productive—in this case, productive of a distinctly Christian, professional class identity in which the problems created by “the villagers” and “pasin tumbuna” (ancestral practices) are objects of profound concern.falseAccepte

The impact of women's social position on fertility in developing countries

This paper examines ideas about possible ways in which the extent of women's autonomy, women's economic dependency, and other aspects of their position vis-à-vis men influence fertility in Third World populations. Women's position or “status” seems likely to be related to the supply of children because of its links with age at marriage. Women's position may also affect the demand for children and the costs of fertility regulation, though some connections suggested in the literature are implausible. The paper ends with suggestions for future research.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45660/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124382.pd

Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd

B. Johnson Clay, Pinikindu. Maternal Nurture, Paternal Substance

Lindenbaum Shirley. B. Johnson Clay, Pinikindu. Maternal Nurture, Paternal Substance. In: L'Homme, 1979, tome 19 n°3-4. Les catégories de sexe en anthropologie sociale. pp. 257-258

Santé et maladie au Pakistan oriental.

Lindenbaum Shirley. Santé et maladie au Pakistan oriental.. In: Études rurales, n°32, 1968. pp. 94-103