408 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [as, 19811

the Tallensi”) and Claude Uvi-Straw (“Pytha- goras in America”). Fortes, to be sure, accom- plishes a detailed description of Tallensi sym- b o b and emotional life. However, aside from one hesitant acntence (p. 88), he appears resolutely unwilling to explore the potuible un- conscious meanings buried within his rich eth- nographic data. Uvi-Straw’s chapter mani- fests the opposite shortcoming: fully accepting of unconscious cross-cultural categorizations, he entirely ignores the role of affect in their crea- tion. In the present c a ~ this predictable over- sight is especially unfortunate given that he a h to show the relationship between highly evocative categories such as life, death, genitalia, and sexual identity on the one hand, and food staples on the other.

Probably the most thoughtful, probing con- tribution to the volume is A. L. Epstein’s “Tam- @: the Shell-money of the Tolai.” Epstein begins with the curious verbal association be- tween shell money and taboo (both are termed tambu), which is symptomatic of the highly charged unconscious meaning accorded shell money. The author’s lengthy symbolic explora- tion leads him to a consideration of Tolai ritual, mythology, marital patterns, ethnic identity, commercial exchanges, and child-rearing prac- tices, among other domains, all of which con- vincingly derive sigmfkance from tambu. It is a testimony to the thoroughness of Epstein’s research that he is able to carry out this subtle analysis dapite, as he says, having become “alive to the problems with which this paper d e b only after I completed my fieldwork and began to ponder the data” (p. 199). Epstein’s rtunning essay actually belies Devereux’s theoretical position (as summarized in the book by Ariane Deluz) that “explanations on . . . two levels of discourse, socio-cultural and psychological, cannot be offered at the same time,” and that there exists a “logical im- W b i l i t y of a synthesis of the two” (p. 14).

Another valuable piece is Michael Jackson’s elegant comideration of myths of dynastic suc- ceMion. His analysis exemplifies a fine fusion of structuralist and psychoanalytic principles, and his suggestion that structural concepts (like transformation and mediation) are parallel to psychological ones (like displacement and pro- jection) merits future consideration. L. Bryce Boyer’s exploration of “Stone as a Symbol in Apache Folklore” and Derek Freeman’s “Severed Heads that Germinate” provide in- triguing complementary examples of genital symbolism, the former as embodied in ex- pressive systems, the latter as manifested in

mia l action. Any anthropological opera buff would appreciate L. R. Hiatt’s refreshingly off- beat contribution: an application of Australian aboriginal material to Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” demonstrating how ethnographic data, combined with psychoanalytic insights, yield a convincing interpretation of what is otherwise a totally inconsistent libretto. There are doubtless other libretti whose intelligibility would be en- hanced under Hiatt’s scrutiny.

Of the basically theoretical essays in Fantasy and Symbol, the most stimulating is Weston LaBarre’s “Species-specific Biology, Magic, and Religion,” in which he advances the position that “magic and religion are near ubiquitous resporws in human societies becam they repre- sent universally human experiences in individ- ual ego growth’ (p. 61). The essay moves inex- orably toward his characteristically direct con- clusion: “Only longdependent infants can in- vent magic. Only oedipal apes can have religion” (p. 63). The chapters by Devereux and Hook, the volume editor, are largely devoted to summarizing specific aspects of psychoanalytic theory, with no readily discernible innovations. However, Devereux’s autobiographical pas- sages, as well as his lucid exposition of the necessary complementarity between fantasy and reality, demonstrate his thoughtfulness and deep compassion.

Hook is to be praised for compiling these essays and bringing them to print. They are a welcome corrective to the tendency that Spiro identified. Readers would have benefited, however, if participating authora had cross- referenced one another or if there had b u n some editorial attempt to synthesize and recon- cile the varying approaches. At the very least, the essays might have been grouped, whether by ethnographic theme (e.g., religion in the ar- ticles by Epstein, LaBarre, and Alfred Cell) or topical scope (e.g., child-rearing in the chapters by Boyer and Margaret Mead). As the book now stands, each of the individual essays makes a specific contribution to knowledge, though they fail to unify into a single. coherent volume.

The Performing Am. John A. R. Blacking and Joann Keali’inohomoku, eds. New York: Mouton, 1979. Vii + 344 pp. n.p. (cloth).

Thomas Johnston University of Alaska

This volume is part of the World Anthropol- ogy series (eight titles to date) edited by Sol Tax,

GENERAL AND THEORETICAL 409

and its 24 chapters are papers from the Per- forming Arts Session of the International Con- gress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Chicago, August, 1973. If ethnomusi- cology is indeed a social science as is, say, clinical psychology, then the six-year delay in the publication of this book does injustice to the immediacy of its findings.

The volume’s strong points are its two editors’ contributions, and its substantial Third Worid authorship-remedial to anthropology’s hither- to colonial role.

Part 1 theorizes on music and dance; part 2 comprises three East European studies on dance; part 3 examines the performing arts cross-culturally; part 4 comprises six Asian and East European case studies in music and folklore; part 5 addresses musical perception, motor patterning and tactility, and musicolin- guistics; part 6 deals with music and dance in Africa and the New World.

What the book lacks in thematic unity it gains in diversity, While Vietnamese folksongs communicate political issues, Igbo funerary music involves costly display which redistributes the surplus wealth of the deceased. But identify- ing such social function, Blacking writes, does not explain choice of mode and interval, tonali- ty, melodic movement, harmony, timbre. rhy- thm, meter, intensity, and form.

Are musical and cultural forms homologous? Uchida shows that while Korean and Japanese rice-planting music share function, the sound characteristics differ greatly. While Petrosian shows that Armenian totemic dances change with changing social conditions, Putilov shows that musical instruments in Bongu (New Guinea) have not changed in a century, despite social change.

It is not culture in general that transcends changing social formations, but very specifically affective culture. Certain systems of significant symbols undergo reinterpretation of function but not necessarily of form. Keali’inohomoku points out that Hawaiian music was tied to religion and hierarchical politics now thought undesirable, and serves today to reinforce cultural identity. Blacking sees no contradiction between the development (dynamic) of a society and the preservation (static) of its affective culture, and further notes that changing histor- ical and environmental factors influence musical sound only by choice of its practi- tioners.

Because sound is central to musical events, some of the books contributors attempt context-sensitive analyses of deep and surface

musical structures, some implying that while music is born of culture, it may also have biological origins. Blacking considers that the innate structure of the body plays a part in the transformation of feelings into patterns of sound, and he notes that Uvi-Strauss tried to relate the inner experience of organic rhythms to the external rhythms of music.

Music is made by man, but because of its emotional intensity and quality of experience it may be said to make man (by releasing creative energy and expanding consciousness). It is therefore an ideal field for the study of relation- ships between patterns of social interaction and the invention of cultural forms. For ethnomusi- cology, Blacking rejects use of a linguistic model, for it doesn’t handle the variety of musical forms; likewise he rejects a general model of communication, for it irons out quali- tative musical differences and hence features that matter most. Music and dance, he suggests, should each be viewed as primary modeling systems.

The book is innovative, broad in scope, and somewhat Marxian in its plea for “releasing more human potential” and “making some cor- ner of the world a better place.” It is handsome and well produced, despite some typographical errors. As a musiddance ethnography and as a theo-

retical/comparative overview of the performing arts, the book represents a substantial contribu- tion on the part of 24 specialists to our understanding of the function and nature of nonreferential symbolic systems.

Development and the Problcmr of Village Nutrition. Sue Schofield. Institute of Develop- ment Studies. London: Croom Helm, 1979.174 pp. n.p. (cloth).

Dorothy J. Cattle University of California, Berkeley

Schofield argues for selective, carefully targeted nutrition programa in developing countries and supports a current trend in devel- opment fields, decentralization of planning and administration. This decentralized develop- ment approach to a micro-level of nutritional problems is called the village-oriented approach used by the Village Studies Programme (VSP) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Great Britain. This will strike neither anthropologists nor many field- seasoned nutritional scientists as new territory.