From the social to the symbolic equation: the progress of idealism in contemporary anthropological representations of kinship, marriage, and the family

This is the second paper of a trilogy, in which I investigate the development of anthropological definitions of kinship, marriage and the family, assess their limitations for the comparative study of social organization, and suggest an alternative. The analysis is predicated on the assumption that these definitions are derived from an underlying representation of groups and society, and that they will fail to be ‘universal’ as long as we do not define groups as phenomena sui generis. In a first paper (Verdon, 1980a), I studied the manner in which the evolutionists, studying groups through their ideological reflections, rooted kinship, marriage and the family in biology, and also asserted the historical and logical priority of ‘group ties’ over ‘individual ties.’ Malinowski rescued groups from ‘nature,’ only to reduce them in turn to interaction and the sentiments it generates, positing in the process the ontological and analytical primacy of ‘individual ties’ over ‘group ties’ in the analysis of ‘primitive’ society. Against this background (and studied in this paper), Rivers, Radcliffe-Brown and Fortes (1) argued that groups transcended both biology and psychology because of their ‘social’ dimension, and (2) tried to reconcile the two levels of corporate groups (group ties) and interpersonal relationships (individual ties). Despite their remarkable efforts, however, I argue that they fell short of achieving both. With Lévi-Strauss and Schneider, finally, groups are further removed from ‘society’ itself as social relations come to be perceived as ‘symbolic’ or ‘cultural’. The process of ‘idealization’ is therefore complete, from ‘practical reason’ (with the evolutionists) to ‘cultural transcendentalism’ (with the structuralists), and our conceptual tools (such as kinship, marriage and the family) are increasingly less ‘universal’ in their applicability. If the comparative study of social organization is to become more rigorous and systematic, it may have to call for an ‘operational’ solution. Cet article s'insère dans le cadre d'une trilogie, dans laquelle j'ai cherchéà dessiner l'évolution des définitions anthropologiques de la parenté, du mariage et de la famille, àévaluer leur potentiel analytique, et à suggérer une alternative. Pour ce faire, j'ai dû postuler que ces définitions sont dérivées d'une conceptualisation sousjacente de ce que sont groupes et société, et qu'elles ne seront ‘universelles’ que lorsque nous saurons dèfinir les groupes en tant que phénomènes sui generis. Dans un premier essai (Verdon, 1980a), j'ai étudiC la manière dont les évolutionistes, en étudiant les groupes à travers leurs reflets idéologiques, ont inscnt la parenté, le mariage et la famille dans le donné biologique, et ont aussi affirmé la priorité historique et logique des ‘liens de groupes’ (ou liens ‘tribaux’) sur les ‘liens individuels.’ Malinowski a réussi à arracher les groupes de ce substrat biologique, mais seulement pour les réduire à son tour au statut d'épiphénomène du comportement (donc de la psychologie), tout en postulant le primat ontologique et analytique des ‘liens individuels’ sur les ‘liens de groupes’ dans l'analyse des sociétés dites ‘primitives.’ Dans cette perspective (et formant le sujet de cet article), Rivers, Radcliffe-Brown et Fortes (1) ont Ctabli que les groupes transcendent à la fois biologie et psychologie par leur caractère ‘social’, et (2) ont essayé de reconcilier analytiquement le niveau des ‘groupes corporatifs’ (les liens tribaux d'antan) avec celui des rapports interpersonnels (les liens individuels). Malgré leurs efforts remarquables, je crois qu'ils n'ont pas tout-à-fait réussi dans leur double entreprise. Au terme de cette histoire, Uvi-Strauss et Schneider ont finalement coupé les groupes de leur support social, en considérant les rapports sociaux en tant que ‘symboliques’ ou ‘culturels’ et, ce faisant, ont achevé un processus d'idéalisation de nos concepts, de ce que Sahlins a appelé la ‘raison pratique’ (et qu'on retrouve chez les évolutionistes) à ce que j'appellerais du Rev. canad. SOC. & AnthJCanad. Rev. Soc. & Anth. 17(4) 1980 ‘transcendantalisme culturel’ (chez les structuralistes). Ceci a eu pour résultat de diminuer l'universalité de nos concepts et, si l'on tient encore à rendre l'étude comparative de l'organisation sociale plus rigoureuse et systématique, à rendre de plus en plus urgent le recours possible à une solution ‘opérationnelle.’     

Children's residence patterns and educational attainment in rural South Africa, 1997

Using data collected by the Agincourt Health and Population Programme in a rural sub-district of South Africa's Northern Province, this paper describes the residential arrangements of a population in rural South Africa, and analyses the impact of these arrangements on children's educational attainment. Children with co-resident parents generally have higher levels of schooling than those who have one or no co-resident parents. However, having a father who is away from home as a migrant appears to benefit older children whereas, for girls aged 11 to 15, having a mother who is a migrant lowers educational attainment. Children who live in households headed by Mozambican refugees have lower levels of schooling than those who live in non-refugee households. Living in a household headed by a woman is not associated with lower levels of education and, for some age-sex groups, appears to be an advantage.     

Wittgenstein, Pretend Play and the Transferred Use of Language

This essay sketches the potential implications of Wittgensteinian thought for conceptualizations of socalled fictive mental states, e.g. mental calculating, imagination, pretend play, as they are currently discussed in developmental psychology and philosophy of mind. In developmental psychology the young child's pretend play and make-belief are seen as a manifestation of the command of an underlying individualistic "theory of mind". When saying "This banana is a telephone" the child's mind entertains simultaneously two mental representations, a primary or veridical representation about the real properties of banana's and a pretend representation. It is the task of psychology to explain how this "double knowledge" does not result in conceptual chaos. Various sorts of internal mechanisms are postulated. In this essay it is argued that the threat of chaos is misconceived, and that the solutions are irrelevant. Following Wittgenstein's sparse remarks about the secondary sense of words, I argue that pretend language does not refer to underlying individual mental representations but to the child's creative transference of words used in one, primary, domain of application to another, secondary domain. The command and use of the secondary domain logically presupposes the command and use of the primary domain. Since the latter domain is necessarily public and social, fictive mental states cannot be dealt with purely individualistically as current mentalism assumes.     

Nonlinear Censored Regression Using Synthetic Data

Abstract.  The problem of estimating a nonlinear regression model, when the dependent variable is randomly censored, is considered. The parameter of the model is estimated by least squares using synthetic data. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the least squares estimators are derived. The proofs are based on a novel approach that uses i.i.d. representations of synthetic data through Kaplan–Meier integrals. The asymptotic results are supported by a small simulation study.     

Why do states enfranchise citizens abroad? Comparative insights from Mexico,Italy and Belgium

Over the past two decades, sending states have greatly increased their interest in maintaining strong connections with their citizens abroad. The worldwide adoption of external voting – understood not only as an electoral procedure that allows some citizens to cast their vote outside the national territory but also as an acknowledgement that an emigrant status is compatible with polity membership – illustrates this phenomenon. Why do states enfranchise citizens abroad? In this article, I seek to answer this question by comparing the evolution of the debates on the extension of voting privileges to citizens residing abroad in Mexico, Italy and Belgium. My central argument is that a combination of variables shapes the development of external voting in different parts of the world, as well as the content of these laws. These include emigrant lobbying, home states' desires to stimulate emigrant loyalty for economic purposes and, most importantly, the evolution of domestic politics. In discussing these variables, I also shed light on how one can shape the adoption of external voting legislation to control the impact of votes cast abroad.     

Adaptive Multiple Importance Sampling

Abstract. The Adaptive Multiple Importance Sampling algorithm is aimed at an optimal recycling of past simulations in an iterated importance sampling (IS) scheme. The difference with earlier adaptive IS implementations like Population Monte Carlo is that the importance weights of all simulated values, past as well as present, are recomputed at each iteration, following the technique of the deterministic multiple mixture estimator of Owen & Zhou (J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 95, 2000, 135). Although the convergence properties of the algorithm cannot be investigated, we demonstrate through a challenging banana shape target distribution and a population genetics example that the improvement brought by this technique is substantial.     

A Probabilistic Perspective on Re-Identifiability

A quasi-identifier is a set of attributes that can be used to re-identify entries in anonymized data sets. A group of individuals is considered about whom quasi-identifying numerical information is disclosed such as date of birth, age, weight, and height. The fraction of individuals is determined whose information is unique in that group and hence is identifiable unambiguously. Nonuniformity can be captured well by a single number, the Kullback-Leibler distance. For example sets of real microdata, given approximations based on Kullback-Leibler distances are accurate. Second, the effect of disclosing more specific or less specific information is analyzed experimentally. Third, the effect of correlation between numerical attributes is measured. A formula gives the re-identifiability level. The approximations are validated using publicly available demographic data sets.     

Les facteurs sociaux liés au degré d'information de la population du Saguenay‐Lac‐Saint‐Jean à propos des maladies héréditaires et des services disponibles*

The past few years have seen significant advances in medical genetics. These advances have in turn given rise to several important clinical applications that have targeted populations with specific historical and demogenetic characteristics. One such population lives in the Saguenay‐Lac‐Saint‐Jean region of Quebec. One might think that this population is reasonably well informed of the situation. But their knowledge of population‐specific genetic pathologies and of the services available to them happens to vary considerably from one social group to another. This article presents the results of a quantitative study aimed at determining the factors that contribute to the acquisition of such knowledge in this population. Depuis quelques années, nous assistons à d'importantes avancées en génétique médicale. Celles‐ci induisent un développement sans précèdent de nouvelles applications cliniques qui interpellent certaines populations dont les caractéristiques historiques et démogénétiques font qu'elles sont davantage concernées. C'est le cas, notamment de la population du Saguenay‐Lac‐Saint‐Jean (Québec). On pourrait penser que cette population s'avère, dans l'ensemble, largement sensibilisée mais il appert que le niveau d'information sur les génopathies régionales et les services offerts varie considérablement d'un groupe social à l'autre. Le présent article livre les résultats d'une enquête quantitative visant à connaître les facteurs qui favorisent l'acquisition de telles connaissances dans cette population.     

Parametric Estimation Procedures in Multivariate Generalized Pareto Models

Abstract.  Modelling the tails of a multivariate distribution can be reasonably done by multivariate generalized Pareto distributions (GPDs). We present several methods of parametric estimation in these models, which use decompositions of the corresponding random vectors with the help of different versions of Pickands coordinates. The estimators are compared to each other with simulated data sets. To show the practical value of the methods, they are applied to a real hydrological data set.     

The dynamics of the population sex ratio in India, 1971–96

This paper reconstructs the trend in the population sex ratio in India between 1971 and 1996 from available information on changes in sex differentials in mortality in the country since the beginning of the century. It is estimated that, although the mortality of females relative to that of males in India has improved since 1968, the population sex ratio increased between 1971 and 1981, stayed constant between 1981 and 1991, and started to decrease only after 1991. This implies that the recorded decrease and increase in the periods 1971–81 and 1981–91 respectively were both spurious and were the results of undercounts of females in 1971 and 1991. Another implication of this finding is that, owing to the lagged effect of past mortality on current trends in the population sex ratio, this ratio is a bad proxy for use in the study of changes in differential mortality by sex.