Anthropology’s Science Wars Insights from a New Survey

In recent decades the field of anthropology has been characterized as sharply divided between proscience and antiscience factions. The aim of this study is to empirically evaluate that characterization. We survey anthropologists in graduate programs in the United States regarding their views of science and advocacy, moral and epistemic relativism, and the merits of evolutionary biological explanations. We examine anthropologists’ views in concert with their varying appraisals of major controversies in the discipline (Chagnon/Tierney, Mead/Freeman, and Menchú/Stoll). We find that disciplinary specialization and especially gender and political orientation are significant predictors of anthropologists’ views. We interpret our findings through the lens of an intuitionist social psychology that helps explain the dynamics of such controversies as well as ongoing ideological divisions in the field

Work requirements and welfare participation: Analyzing the effects of the JOBS program.

The 1996 welfare reform relies heavily on work as an antidote to "dependency." But have we any reason to expect work requirements to spur people to leave welfare? Recent experience provides an opportunity to analyze the effects of work requirements. The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program was created as part of the Family Support Act of 1988 (FSA), a welfare reform that established work requirements for recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). JOBS can be thought of as a case study in work requirements. Since the 1996 reform relies on work requirements to reduce welfare participation, it is easy to justify a search for empirical evidence of that connection. This research analyzes the impact of the JOBS program in the American states. The effects of work requirements are estimated within a quantitative model of AFDC participation that draws heavily from two theoretical perspectives.The results generally support development and rational choice theories. However, work requirements associated with the 1988 reform have not significantly affected AFDC participation rates. The estimate of JOBS' impact is negative, as expected, but quite small. A percentage point increase in JOBS participation is associated with a decline in AFDC recipiency the following year of just 0.008 percentage points. When the model is applied to a real case, the magnitude of JOBS' effect on AFDC participation ranks ninth among ten variables

Work and Welfare in the American States: Analyzing the Effects of the JOBS Program

This research seeks to determine whether the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills GOBS) program (established under the 1988 Family Support Act) was successful in reducing the number of welfare recipients among U.S. states for the period 1984 to 1996. Within the context of two theoretical perspectives-developmental and rational choice-we assess the impact of JOBS on AFDC participation rates using a pooled time-series design. At best, JOBS had a minimal effect. We estimate that states with higher proportions of their AFDC populations enrolled in JOBS programs had only slightly lower rates of participation in AFDC. Other forces were far more influential in reducing welfare participation. In particular, states with higher per capita income, lower female unemployment rates, lower poverty rates, and higher wages for low-paying jobs had the lowest welfare recipiency The AFDC participation rates of neighboring states had a significant effect, as well. The analysis showed that more generous AFDC benefits exerted strong upward pressure on a state's welfare rolls.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

The Pull of the Marketplace: Colonia Growth and Regional Migration in Guerrero, Mexico

Analysis of a survey administered in 2006 reveals that colonia residents in Chilapa, Guerrero, Mexico, are more likely to have migrated from rural areas within the city\u27s traditional marketing hinterland than from equally nearby villages that orient their trade to other regional marketplaces. The study suggests that the regional marketing systems, rather than municipal jurisdictions, are the major institutions channeling rural to urban migration in the fieldsite. The article also explores the occupational shifts associated with the transition to life in the urban colonias

Who Participates in Mexico\u27s Program for Migrant Agricultural Workers? Explaining the Distribution of Sending Communities in Ahuacuotzingo, Guerrero

This paper examines participation of residents from the Montaña Baja region of central Guerrero, Mexico, in the Mexican government\u27s seasonal migrant laborer assistance program. The program has many functions, most notably serving as the hub linking migrant workers with agribusinesses elsewhere in Mexico. An archive of regional registrants for the 1999–2000 agricultural season is analyzed to infer patterns of local labor mobilization. We test the hypotheses that residents from larger communities and communities alongside roads are more likely to participate and we offer an explanation for their recruitment. Our explanations draw on understandings of patronage networks and the recruiting strategies of labor contractors. Our findings are significant and provide insight into the impact of clientelist networks on labor mobilization

Gender and Politics Among Anthropologists in the Units of Selection Debate

In recent years evolutionary theorists have been engaged in a protracted and bitter disagreement concerning how natural selection affects units such as genes, individuals, kin groups, and groups. Central to this debate has been whether selective pressures affecting group success can trump the selective pressures that confer advantage at the individual level. In short, there has been a debate about the utility of group selection, with noted theorist Steven Pinker calling the concept useless for the social sciences. We surveyed 175 evolutionary anthropologists to ascertain where they stood in the debate. We found that most were receptive to group selection, especially in the case of cultural group selection. The survey also revealed that liberals and conservatives, and males and females, all displayed significant differences of opinion concerning which selective forces were important in humanity’s prehistory. We conclude by interpreting these findings in the context of recent research in political psychology