906 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [ 78,19761

Aerial Photography in Anthropological Field Research. Evon 2. Vogt, ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. x + 194 pp. $17.50 (cloth).

George J. Gumerman Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

This volume had its genesis at a seminar conducted by Evon Vogt at Harvard Univer- sity in 1969. The seminar evolved into a symposium at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting that same year, at which most of these published papers were presented. Eleven articles by ethnologists and archaeologists are grouped under three rubrics: (1) Changing Ecological Relationships: Prehistoric and Con- temporary; (2) Ethnographic Research and Analysis; and (3) Aerial Photography in Anthropology.

With few exceptions, such as Thomas Schorr’s article on aerial ethnography of the Cauca Valley of Colombia, Elmer Harp’s article on aerial archaeology in the Alaskan Arctic, and George Collier’s study in Chiapas, the authors address themselves more to the results of their research which utilized aerial photography as a method, rather than discussing the techniques of aerial photography or concerns with photo interpretation. Hackenberg’s paper on changing utilization of the environment in south central Arizona, for example, does not rely on aerial photographs for interpretation but simply for a description of the physical environment. G. Gossen in his article on world view and Chamula cosmology even indicates that if good, reliable maps were available within his study area, the aerial photographs he used would not have been necessary. The volume, however, as its title indicates, was not designed as a manual for aerial photography for anthropologists, but rather to demonstrate a variety of functions the aerial perspective can provide for anthro- pological research.

A collection of articles such as these demonstrates what is perhaps more important than the aerial perspective per se, that the foci of ethnological and archaeolog- ical studies have changed in emphasis. There appears to be an increasing interest in studies of man-land relationships, social network analysis, detailed environmental studies, and regional overviews. These types of concerns in effect constitute the major theme of the volume. Peripheral to this major theme is the fact that the aerial perspective is one effec- tive means of gathering data on the cultural and natural environment. What the in- dividual studies point out is that the aerial perspective is one technique in the anthro-

pologist’s bag of tricks permitting a more sophisticated and quantifiable analysis for the types of studies mentioned above, i.e., they are anthropological analyses which have used the data provided by aerial photo-

In a short review it is impossible to discuss each article in detail so I will touch on only a few points. Michael Coe, Elmer Harp, Robert Hackenberg, Thomas Schorr, and Harold Conklin have used aerial photo- graphy to understand the relationship of man to natural and social subenvironments, in some cases synchronically and in others using a diachronic framework. In most of the studies the precision aerial photographs have permitted a much more quantifiable data base than would ordinarily be feasible. For example, Conklin using aerial photo- graphs along with ethnographic inquiry was able to make precise measurements regarding land use in Luzon. These data could then be quantified for statistical manipulation. At the core of the volume are the five articles in Part 2 which were derived from the 1963 to 1969 Harvard Chiapas project in South- eastern Mexico. Vogt’s article at the begin- ning of Part 2 is in effect an introduction to the other papers which emanated from the Chiapas project. The Chiapas studies range in subject matter from Price’s study of land use to Gossen’s analysis of world view and Wren’s study of settlement and trail patterns-an impressive range of inquiry.

There is no question that many of the articles in Part 2 have demonstrated sophisticated new types of analyses and new ways of examining settlement patterns, land use, sacred geography, and social interaction. This is especially apparent with those ethno- graphic studies where the utilization of aerial photography has not had the long history it has had in archaeology.

Part 3 consists of a single article by Thomas Schorr which is a short historical sketch and a selected bibliography on re- mote sensing in anthropology. It is an excellent attempt to provide the interested anthropologist with the most pertinent literature on aerial photography and anthro- pology. In many ways the bibliography seems to be an attempt to update the volume which suffers somewhat from a long delay from the 1969 symposium and the writing of the papers until publication. The latest entry in the bibliography is 1973. Unfortunately, a five-year delay in publica- tion in a field as rapidly changing as aerial photography and remote sensing has made the book considerably out-of-date as far as many sophisticated new techniques for data gathering by remote sensing are concerned. Since, however, as I mentioned above, the

graphy.

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concern of most of the articles is with cultural and natural ecological models, rather than with remote sensing techniques, the book is not as dated as it might have been.

The volume could have used stronger editorial guidance t o make it a more cohesive package. Each article stands on its own. There is n o thread of continuity holding the articles together. This could have been provided by editorial comments to each article, introductory comments to each section, or a long introductory piece by the editor. The only introduction to aerial photography in anthropological field re- search is a one and two-thirds page preface by the editor and much of that is devoted to acknowledgments. In spite of these slight flaws, however, the volume presents an amazing diversity in the way in which the aerial perspective can be used for more elegant ethnological and archaeological in- terpretations, and it has provided a base line for further work with remote sensing and anthropology. The diversity of interests that the aerial perspective can serve is demon- strated in the various articles which range in scope from predicting prehistoric site loca- tions to an analysis of world view. I t appears that with sophisticated new techniques and global wide imagery coverage the only way that the use of remote sensing in anthro- pology can go (forgive me) is up.

Culture and Cognition: Readings in Cross- Cultural Psychology. J. W. Berry and P. R. Dasen, eds. Methuen’s Manuals of Modern Psychology. London: Methuen (distributed in U.S. by Barnes and Noble, New York), 1974. xiv + 487 pp. $17.00 (cloth), $8.50 (paper).

Michael Robbins University of Missouri

The editors have assembled and concisely introduced a useful collection of 25 articles (three previously unpublished) from anthro- pology and psychology which deal, as the title suggests, with culture and cognition (broadly defined). Allow me t o suggest a t the outset that anthropologists drawn to this area would d o well not t o overlook it. Part 1, Quality and Variation of Cognitive Processes, contains papers that imply that variations in culturally constituted experi- ence can result in the enhancement of particular cognitive and perceptual skills. Others summarize the correlates of “psy-

chological differentiation” and the outcomes of “experimental” anthropology. Part 2, Cognitive Level and Attainment, concerns cross-cultural differences in intelligence and cognitive competence. M. Wober’s paper, the best in my opinion, exemplifies the study of intelligence from the perspective of the population concerned. In Part 3, Cognitive Development: Piagetian Approaches, the studies report developmental trends in the attainment of concepts of quantity, space, length, weight, substance, volume, etc. For example, Dasen finds, as predicted from ecological and cultural functionalism, that Australian aboriginal children develop spatial concepts more readily than they d o logico- mathematical ones while the reverse is true of European-Australian children.

In brief, the volume presents a good up-to-date sampling of cross-cultural psy- chology’s endeavors in the field of culture and cognition with only a few notable omissions (e.g., those that integrate physiological functions as mediated by nutri- tion, disease, etc., into their research paradigms and those that research infant psychomotor development). If this com- pendium is any indication, it appears that psychologists are delving more and more into the cultural side of the “culture- cognition equation” and acquiring the requisite anthropological and linguistic skills. Viewing perceptual and cognitive skills as an aspect of a population’s total ecological adaptation is also very much in the fore- ground. Yet to be attained are clear demon- strations of specific ecology-culture-cogni- tion interrelationships. That is, d o certain psychological processes really convey an adaptive advantage on the populations that possess them? Or are interpopulation and individual differences all that is being described? What it is specifically about the ecocultural experience that leads t o the development and expression of certain psychological processes is a question that remains unanswered. While several factors are mentioned (e.g., language learned, arts and crafts, socialization practices, sub- sistence tasks, etc.), their relative predictive efficacy and an explanation of how they work, alone o r in concert, is not adequately documented. Finally, the conclusions of most of the developmental studies are com- promised by the dearth of time-series data.

Nonetheless, despite these problems, a few others, and some not so thoroughly modern papers from anthropology, I think it’s a good book and have found it works well in a “psychological anthropology” course.