Amerindian anthropology and cultural psychology: Crossing boundaries and meeting otherness` worlds

Addressing integrative possibilities between psychology and anthropology, this paper aims to design conceptual linkages between semiotic-cultural constructivist psychology and the anthropological theory of Amerindian perspectivism. From the psychological view, it is the interdependence between the structural and processual dimensions of the personal culture that makes parallels with Amerindian perspectivism fruitful. This anthropological frame proposes an experiment with native conceptions, which I argue similar to what Baldwin (1906) called sembling. Hence, it can be considered an active imitation of otherness` viewpoint in order to approach indigenous worlds. It is supposed that this procedure leads to the emergence of new symbolic elements configuring the cultural action field of each agency in interaction. It is proposed that ""making-believe`` the Amerindian is convergent with the dialogic-hermeneutic approach of semiotic-cultural constructivism. As a result of the present integrative effort, is designed a meta-model that multiplies the genetic process of concrete symbolic objects.

Mineralization of mandibular third molars can estimate chronological age-Brazilian indices

Forensic age estimation is an important element of anthropological research, as it produces one of the primary sources of data that researchers use to establish the identity of a person living or the identity of unknown bodily remains. The aim of this study was to determine if the chronology of third molar mineralization could be an accurate indicator of estimated age in a sample Brazilian population. If so, mineralization could determine the probability of an individual being 18 years or older. The study evaluated 407 panoramic radiographs of males and females from the past 5 years in order to assess the mineralization status of the mandibular third molars. The evaluation was carried out using an adaptation of Demirjian's system. The results indicated a strong correlation between chronological age and the mineralization of the mandibular third molars. The results indicated that modern Brazilian generation tends to demonstrate an earlier mandibular third molar mineralization than older Brazilian generation and people of other nationalities. Males reached developmental stages slightly earlier than females, but statistically significant differences between the sex were not found. The probability that an individual with third molar mineralization stage H had reached an age of 18 years or older was 96.8-98.6% for males and females, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conceptual and Experimental Directions for Analyzing Superstition in the Behavioral Analysis of Culture

This paper examines the notions of illusions and beliefs, discussing some advantages offered by the study of these phenomena based on the concepts of superstitious behavior, superstition and superstitious rules. Among these advantages, the study highlights the possibility of researching these relationships in different levels of analysis, not only at the individual level, focusing on cultural level, this paper presents Cultural Materialism as an anthropological proposal for the consideration of these phenomena on the cultural level and based on adaptive principles, besides it discusses the experimental analysis of cultural practices and points Out how they can help to understand how people in groups behave such as they are being effective in the control of the surrounding environment (when, sometimes, in fact, they are not). The paper offers an integrative proposal which makes easier behavior analysts' dialogue with social psychologists and offers some routes from cultural analysis of illusions and beliefs.

Voyages as exercises of the gaze

This article focuses the relationship between journeys and photographs especially among anthropologists who travel. Having travelled to the Upper Negro River as an advisor of a PhD student, I discuss what digital photographs may mean in a context where verbal communication is impossible. Real or imaginary journeys are a source of images, reports, or travel logs in which it is difficult to discern what is real and what is fiction. After discussing a few famous scientific and literary journeys, the article focuses on some anthropological journeys and concludes that images produced by anthropologists are a result of trained intuition, a sensitive gaze, and memories of former travels. The article includes photographic essays that incorporate pictures I took in February 2012 among the Hupd'äh, in the Upper Negro River region.

Entre antropologia e medicina: uma análise dos estudos antropológicos de Álvaro Fróes da Fonseca nas décadas de 1920 e 1930

O médico e antropólogo Álvaro Fróes da Fonseca percorreu várias cidades do Brasil durante sua trajetória profissional, na primeira metade do século XX. Atuou no magistério na cadeira de Anatomia Médico-Cirúrgica, nas Faculdades de Medicina de Porto Alegre, da Bahia e do Rio de Janeiro. Como antropólogo, exerceu atividades no Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro e, já nos anos 1960, no Instituto de Antropologia Tropical da Faculdade de Medicina do Recife. Pretendo, neste artigo, resgatar a contribuição do estudioso no campo antropológico, analisando algumas de suas pesquisas desenvolvidas no Laboratório de Antropologia do Museu Nacional e outras publicadas no periódico dessa instituição entre os anos 1920 e 1930. Neste período, ele congregou cientistas, desenvolveu e orientou vários trabalhos no âmbito da antropologia física e dos 'tipos antropológicos', voltando-se para o desenvolvimento de métodos e índices de classificação racial, ou seja, para a produção de conceitos e técnicas que orientavam a prática antropológica. Refutou o racismo científico do período, motivo pelo qual as investigações desenvolvidas por Fróes da Fonseca refletiram sobre o 'problema da raça' e a questão da mestiçagem em prol do futuro do Brasil.