An exception to the "Image of limited good"

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An Exception to the "Image of Limited Good"

Author(s): Michael KearneySource: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 71, No. 5 (Oct., 1969), pp. 888-890Published by: Blackwell Publishingon behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/670074Accessed: 21/11/2010 18:50

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888 American Anthropologist [71, 1969]FRY, W. F., JR.1962 The marital context of an anxietysyndrome. Family Process 1:245-252.HALEY, JAY1959a The family of the schizophrenic: a

model system. Journal of Nervous andMental Disease 129:357-374.1959b An interactional description ofschizophrenia. Psychiatry 22:331-332.1963 Strategies of psychotherapy. NewYork: Grune and Stratton.JACKSON, DON D.1957 The question of family homeostasis.Psychiatric Quarterly, Supplement 31:79-90, part 1.JACKSON,DON D., ed.1968a Communication, family and mar-riage: Human communication, Volume 1.Palo Alto: Science and Behavior Books.1968b Therapy,communicationandchange:Human communication, Volume 2. PaloAlto: Science and Behavior Books.JACKSON,DON D., and JAY HALEY1963 Transference revisited. Journal ofNervous and Mental Disease 137:363-371.PITTINGER,R. E., C. F. HOCKETT,and J. H.DANEHY1960 The first five minutes. Ithaca; PaulMartineau.RUESCH,JURGEN,and GREGORY ATESON1951 Communication: the social matrix of

psychiatry.New York: Norton.SCHEFLEN, ALBERT E.1965 Stream and structure of communica-tional behavior. Philadelphia: EasternPennsylvania Psychiatric Institute Be-havioral Studies MonographNo. 1.WATZLAWICK, AUL, JANET HELMICKBEAVIN,and DON D. JACKSON1967 Pragmaticsof human communication:a study of interactional patterns, path-ologies and paradoxes.New York: Norton.WEAKLAND, JOHN H.1960 The double-bindhypothesis of schizo-phrenia and three-party interaction. InThe etiology of schizophrenia. Don D.Jackson, ed. New York: Basic Books.1967 Communication and behavior-an in-troduction. American Behavioral Scientist10 (8):1-4.

AN EXCEPTIONTO THEIMAGE OF LIMITED GOOD

MICHAELKEARNEYUniversityof California,Riverside

Research in southernMexico indicates thatthere is a general exception to Foster'sImage of Limited Good, in Mexican peas-

ant world view. The limited good con-cept holds that all desirable material andnon-material entities are seen as existinginfinite amounts which cannot be augmented.In such communities, however, it is im-plicitly assumed that one can experienceintensifieddesirable emotions without nec-essarily sufferinga loss in some other areaof life, as is implied by the Image ofLimited Good.

Accepted for publication 31 January 1969.I wish, in this brief communication,toadd a footnote to the recent dialogue in theAA, on Foster's Image of Limited Good(Bennett 1966; Foster 1965, 1966; Kaplan& Saler 1966). The argument presented heresupportsFoster's concept by demonstratingan exceptionto it.As Foster shows us, in Tzintzuntzan andother peasant communities all desirablematerial conditions and entities are in short

supply and cannot be maximized by any oneindividual without subtracting from the fairshare of others in the same community. Thisidea in turn then generalizes to other non-material things such as love, health, manli-ness, and so forth. Life as a whole is seen ingain-loss terms, such that if maximization isattempted in one area, there must be a di-minishing of resources, either the communi-ty's or the individual's, in some other areaof life. This world view is perpetuated irstof all by the poor material conditions inwhich societies that have this world viewfind themselves and second by social andpsychological patterns of institutionalizedenvy, e.g., gossip and witchcraft.Life in societies characterized by theimage of limited good is one of perennialfrustration. Indeed, the explanatory powerof the limited good concept is as great as itis because it goes to the heart of this wide-spread frustration and the sociopsychologicalpatterns that result from associated repressedhostility.But we should not be led to believe thatthe human spirit is so weak as to not con-tinue seeking some genuine gratificationelsewhere. It seems reasonable to assumethat human motivation for fulfillment is in-genious enough to find, at least, a partial so-lution to the limited good predicament. Onemight even argue that for life to be bear-


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Brief Communications 889able, some such solution must exist. By asimple processof elimination we can checkoff various possible solutions;this is essen-tially what Foster has done in his paper.When we have done so, we are left with onelogical possibilitythat can, within the rulesof the system, be safely maximized.Thisis the existentialexperiencingof life itself.Let me state this again in other words.There is, in effect, an area of Mexican cul-ture on which Foster and his critics havenot touched. This is the apperceptionofinner,affectiveexperience.WhatI suggestisthat this is one area of life that is amenableto a culturallysanctioned,no-lossmaximiza-tion of a culturally defined desired good,namelyintenseemotionalexperience.To illustrate let me draw material fromthe Zapotec town of Ixtepeji, Oaxaca, inwhich I have done fieldwork (Kearney1968). Ixtepeji,which is a subsistence evelfarmingcommunity,can be characterized sa society operatingon an imageof dimin-ishing good. Life in Ixtepeji is harsh. En-mity often outweighsfriendship,and suffer-ing is commonplacewhile happiness s rare.The main existentialattributes hat the Ixte-pejano perceivesin himself and his local so-ciogeographicenvironmentare mostlynega-tive. The land,the basis of life itself, is over-worked and becomingless productive.Thisis a rationalconclusion based on observationof decreasedcrops, soil erosion, deforesta-tion, and population ncrease.Also thereis abelief that there is less rain than before.This declinein naturalresources s seen as acause of povertyfor which there is no fore-seeablesolution. The individualsees himselfas abandoned o this existencebecause he isdestinedto be ineffective,humble, and sub-missive to superior,incomprehensiblepow-ers. He thinks himself poorly equipped todefendhimselfagainstthembecause he is ig-norant, weak, and alone. The most he cando is struggleon in the face of pain, evil,andsadness.There is, however, one culturally sanc-tioned form of respite.It is seen, for exam-ple, in the annual cycle of fiestas that fre-quently punctuate the perennial round ofwoe. Most discussion of the economics ofthe Mesoamerican iesta centers on how thesponsor impoverisheshimself paying for it.

But one aspectof the fiestathathas receivedlittle attention is the attitudesof individualsand the affective natureof the fiestaexperi-ence.From this point of view the typical Ix-tepejifiestaappearsas an attemptto createatemporary ideal environment by symboli-cally maximizing positively valued condi-tions. These predominantly male eventscharacteristicallyeginwith a largegroupofmen packinginto the sponsor'shouse to thesound of loud music and fireworks. Thehouse is inevitablytoo small, thus throwingeveryone into physical contact, somethingthat normallyhappensonly to young peopleand women.Room is then made for the mu-nicipal band. The noise level of the music,and the voices of men shoutingto be heardabove it, becomesdeafeningas windowsanddoor are shut,as thoughto shutout the out-side world and contain the atmospherewithin.The personalityof the participantsandthe content of speech at fiestas contrastsdramaticallywiththose of everyday ife. Thistransformationcoincides with ritual drink-ing. One informantexpressedhis reactiontoalcohol in such a setting as follows: Aftera few cups I feel very happy and gay andtalk better; I feel strongerand at times al-most invincible.A necessary ingredientof a fiesta is al-cohol, which is consumed to the point ofunconsciousness.The casual observer s aptto regardthis alcoholicstuporas the desiredend of fiestadrinking.But such an explana-tion of drinking s contrary o reasonsgivenby the people themselves who emphasizethat this is an undesirableand unavoidableresult that one must sufferto experiencethedesiredeffectsof drinking.Looked at in thislight, fiesta drinkingis not an escape fromlife into a drunkenstupor; t is insteada ve-hicle to transcendthe daily world of depri-vation.Escapeis achievedby anesthesia,butat the fiesta the senses are bombardedwithphysical,auditory,and emotionalstimuli,allof which serve to intensify the experienceand affirm he individual'sexistence. This isa theme pervadingMexican culture,mani-fested in an affinity for excitement, loudnoise, brightcolors, and emotionallystirringexperiences,all of which are epitomizedin


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890 American Anthropologist [71, 1969]the fiesta. One might even go so far as toargue that the Mexican predilection forhighly spiced food is consistent with this de-sire to stimulate the senses.

One objection to the above argument ispossible: The inevitable hangover that re-sults from a drinking session is in a sense aloss incurred in gaining the desirable goodof emotional experience, and therefore theimage of limited good seems to hold true inthis case also. But does it hold true in gen-eral? The male drinking-fiesta complex isonly one instance of culturally patterned in-tensified emotional experiences. Many othersinvolve no such gain-loss situation. In addi-tion to the above examples we can cite thehigh-pitched emotional content of radio dra-mas, popular music, movies, and the bullfight.This desire to intensify experience is alsoconsistent with temporal concepts, in Ix-tepeji, which are predominantly oriented tothe present and the past. Since the future isseen as uncertain, and tending to bringworse conditions, one therefore attempts toexploit present conditions and resources tothe fullest, while opportunity exists. In ac-cord with the prevalent image of diminish-ing good, Ixtepejanos believe that there areno valuable resources, which can be maxi-mized, existing in the local environment. Butone resource the individual partly controlsand can augment is personal experience,especially emotionally moving experiences.

REFERENCES CITEDBENNETT, JOHN W.1966 Further remarks on Foster's Imageof limited good. American Anthropologist68:206-210.FOSTER, GEORGE M.1965 Peasant society and the image of lim-ited good. American Anthropologist 67:293-315.1966 Foster's reply to Kaplan, Saler, andBennett.American Anthropologist68:210-214.KAPLAN, DAVID, AND BENSON SALER1966 Foster's Image of limited good : anexample of anthropological explanation.American Anthropologist 68:202-206.KEARNEY, MICHAEL1968 The winds of Ixtepeji: values, worldview, and social structure in a Zapotectown. Ann Arbor: UniversityMicrofilms.

THE SOCIAL CONDITIONING OFSYNTACTIC ARIATIONN FRENCH1JACQUELINELINDENFELD

Department of LinguisticsUniversityof California,Los AngelesThis is an attempt to correlate nonlinguis-tic and linguistic events in order to makeexplicitsome of the rules by whichmem-bers of a given society can intuitivelycategorize speakers and speech situationswithin that society. Syntactic variation inFrench, as analyzed within the frameworkof transformational grammar, is shownhere to be conditioned by both sociologi-cal and contextualfactors. This pilot studyis based on twenty-four samples of spo-ken French obtained in two differentcon-texts from subjects of two different socialclasses. The speech samples are analyzedin terms of complexity of sentence struc-ture as measured by the occurrence ofcertain transformational operations. Aclear correlation obtains betweensociologi-cal variation (socioeconomic Class I/ClassII), contextual variation (formal/informalsituation) and syntactic variation (particu-larly in terms of nominalization).

Accepted for publication 24 February 1969.

This study is an attempt to answer thefollowing question: what facts behind lin-guistic variation enable us to categorizespeakers on the sociocultural level accordingto their speech patterns? How is it that,after hearing a short stretch of speech, anattentive listener can make more or less re-fined guesses as to the social ranking of thespeakers, whatever the situational context ofthe speech event may be?2The ultimate goal of my research, hereand elsewhere, is to try to discover in whatways and to what extent the linguistic struc-ture of a person's speech contributes to ourperception of him. Reversing the problemand looking at this study from a linguist'spoint of view, it can be said to contribute tothe explanation of some linguistic variationby showing that it is conditioned by socio-cultural factors.Ideally a study in linguistic variation

should deal with all elements of language:phonology, syntax, and semantics. When welisten to a speaker in order to discover hissocial identity, we certainly use cues on all

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An exception to the "Image of limited good"