AN    INTERNATIONAL     JOURNAL     OF
CULTURAL  AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Volume 37, no. 3 (Summer 1998)

GROUP IDENTITIES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE 1943 RESCUE OF THE DANISH JEWS

Andrew Buckser
Purdue University

The rescue of the Danish Jews from the Nazi roundups of 1943 has become the defining image of Judaism in Denmark, both within the country and to the world outside. This article examines the way in which this story about the past has been constructed, focusing particularly on its portrayals of the types of groups involved and on the motivations of the rescuers. It argues that the dominance and durability of this story in defining Jewish identity in Denmark stems from the type of relationships it posits between Danish Christians, Danish Jews, and worldwide Jewry. Anthropological studies of tradition could be enriched by a greater focus on such collaborative constructions of the past. (Denmark, Jews, history, identity, invention of tradition)

THE MAASAI ORNITHORIUM: TROPIC FLIGHTS OF AVIAN IMAGINATION IN AFRICA

John G. Galaty
McGill University

During the transition following ritual circumcision, Maasai boys kill, stuff, and mount decorative birds and wear the pelt rack as a headpiece. Recalling Evans-Pritchard's question of why Nuer equate twins and birds, this article asks why Maasai initiates kill birds; moreover, decorative birds, not birds of character with adult personality. The former index the liminality of initiates, in contrast to the lion-mane and ostrich-feather headdresses worn by warriors. But in the form of birds skinned and mounted, we also see an iconic replica of the initiates' symbolic death and rebirth in the experience of circumcision. (Initiation, transition, Maasai, ritual symbolism, identity, ethno-ornithology)

HISTORY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE: A STUDY OF THE SEFWI RESIDENTIAL SYSTEM (GHANA)

Stefano Boni
Linacre College, Oxford

The article reviews studies concerning the Akan (Ghana) residential system with particular reference to Fortes's Time and Social Structure. Fortes's work is criticized for its lack of historical perspective, for assuming the structural identity of kin groups, and for ignoring the political and economic importance of the father-child relationship. The author presents a survey of the Sefwi residential system in which domestic units are differentiated according to their historical role. The economic and political importance of the father-child relationship is acknowledged in the transmission of land rights and in the dynamics of household foundation. (Matrilineal kinship, residential system, history, Akan, Ghana)

RULERS AND RAINMAKERS IN PRECOLONIAL PARE, TANZANIA: EXCHANGE AND RITUAL EXPERTS IN POLITICAL CENTRALIZATION

N. Thomas Håkansson
Uppsala University

This article applies Bourdieu's notion of symbolic capital to an analysis of political processes in the small chiefdoms of South Pare Mountain in northeastern Tanzania between 1700 and 1900. Regional exchange of cattle and exotic goods interacted with other social processes to create political change in societies with incipient political centralization. Political legitimization was based on the symbolic capital of ritual pre-eminence which demanded investment of economic resources. Regional exchange and the development of long-distance ivory and slave trade on the East African coast increased the cost of symbolic capital and exacerbated competition for political power. (East Africa, South Pare, history, political economy, chiefdoms, exchange, politics, ritual)

AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE: CROSS-CULTURAL ASSESSMENTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL HYPOTHESIS

Michael Winkelman
Arizona State University

Ecological, religious, and social predictors of institutionalized human sacrifice are assessed through cross-cultural analysis. While human sacrifice has no significant correlations with measures of agricultural potential, protein, total food, food storage adequacy, and famine risk, there are significant positive correlations with population density, population pressure, and war for land and resources. Population pressure and war for land and resources have independently significant correlations with human sacrifice, and together account for 38 per cent of its variance (multiple R=.62, p<.006). A measure of low hierarchical focus of religion provides significant additional explanation of variance (multiple R=.72, R2=.51, p<.000), suggesting human sacrifice may play a role in ideological integration. (Sacrifice, cannibalism, religion, ethnology, ecology)