Pamela Erickson | University of Connecticut (original) (raw)

Papers by Pamela Erickson

Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 2006

Contemporary Sociology, 1997

Preface The Puzzles of Illegitimacy The Development of Theory The Recent Potpourri of Tangential ... more Preface The Puzzles of Illegitimacy The Development of Theory The Recent Potpourri of Tangential Theories Empirical Variations in the Control of Illegitimacy Illegitimacy, Sociocultural Complexity, and Family Structure Effects of Descent and Fraternal Interest Groups Illegitimacy and Sexual Inequality Illegitimacy and Parent-Child Ties Social Structures and Principles of Legitimacy American Illegitimacy in Cross-Cultural Perspective Appendix A: Variables Used in the Study Appendix B: Bibliography on Ethnographic Sources on Illegitimacy References Index

The root of modern human warfare lies in the lethal coalitionary violence of males in small-scale... more The root of modern human warfare lies in the lethal coalitionary violence of males in small-scale societies. However, little quantitative data exist concerning the form and function of coalitionary violence in this setting. Debates exist over how lethal coalitions are constituted, as well as the motivations and benefits for males to join such groups. Data from a lowland Amazonian population, the Waorani of Ecuador, illuminate three issues: (i) the degree to which raiding parties are composed of groups of fraternal kin as opposed to strategic alliances of actual or potential affinal kin, (ii) the extent to which individuals use pre-existing affinal ties to motivate others to participate in war or leverage warfare as a mechanism to create such ties and (iii) the extent to which participation in raiding is driven by rewards associated with future marriage opportunities. Analyses demonstrate that Waorani raiding parties were composed of a mix of males who were potential affines, actual affines and fraternal kin, suggesting that men used pre-existing genetic, lineal and social kin ties for recruiting raid partners and used raiding as a venue to create novel social relationships. Furthermore, analyses demonstrate that males leveraged raiding alliances to achieve marriage opportunities for themselves as well as for their children. Overall, it appears that a complex set of motivations involving individual rewards, kin marriage opportunities, subtle coercion and the assessment of alliance strength promote violent intergroup conflict among the Waorani. These findings illustrate the complex inter-relationships among kin selection, coalition building and mating success in our species.

Global Public Health, 2011

Mark Nichter has given us a lot to think about in this book. It is a complicated book that captur... more Mark Nichter has given us a lot to think about in this book. It is a complicated book that captures the essence of anthropology’s contribution to bettering public health while urging us all to become more interdisciplinary in our work. Nichter suggests we return to a systems approach for thinking about and addressing global health issues by incorporating syndemics and ecosocial epidemiological approaches within the context of an in-depth cultural understanding of health beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. In Part I, Popular health culture, Nichter chronicles the contributions of studies on popular heath culture, a term that encompasses ethnophysiology and local medical systems as well as local interpretations of biomedicine and public health interventions. His examples, drawn largely from his own work in South Asia, address child survival and 10 diseases from the WHO’s Tropical Disease Research programme. The rich case studies show how local ethnomedicines extend well beyond the physicality of biomedical disease causation to incorporate other levels of causation (e.g., spiritual, social and environmental) that result in a locally informed hierarchy of risk calculation and local interpretations of biomedicine that can explain why people in local context do not always respond favourably to rational, evidencebased interventions. Nichter highlights the importance of understanding and incorporating local illness categories and the local language of illness and symptomatology for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and local (mis)understandings and (mis)applications of health messages about these diseases. He also suggests the need to expand health messaging beyond single diseases that are often interlinked on the ground (e.g., malaria, dengue, malnutrition and diarrhoea) and calls for a popular epidemiology approach that involves local participatory processes that include whole communities. The final chapter in this section addresses the growing importance of pharmaceuticals and outlines an agenda for studying the social lives of medicines and their local meaning, acceptance, and use and misuse as well as the meaning attached to the context of their delivery (e.g., private/public, cost, form, and colour). Part I reflects anthropology’s long-standing and important role in translating, linguistically and conceptually, between ethnoand biomedicines which capitalises on a grounded understanding of local culture, communication and society. In Part II, Rhetoric matters, Nichter turns to the social science of international health and the ways that health problems are framed. He points out that the international health hierarchy (i.e., health and development agencies) has enormous Global Public Health Vol. 6, No. 4, June 2011, 462 464

Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, 2003

The Anthropology of Marriage in Lowland South America

The chapter records changes in Waorani marriage as acculturative forces reduce the power of young... more The chapter records changes in Waorani marriage as acculturative forces reduce the power of young people’s parents to decide whom they must marry. With the arrival of missionaries, oil workers, anthropologists, and tourists, the social world has expanded; new possibilities for marriage have been presented and indeed encouraged by non-Waorani; new residential patterns and ways of making a living have reduced the influence of parents. There are more love matches, more extra-marital pregnancies, and fewer planned alliances between families. Most ethnographers who have worked with indigenous populations have probably noticed that with contact and acculturation, one of the first things to weaken is the authority of the older generation over the sexual behavior of the younger. Because of the dramatic history of the Waorani and the ethnographic attention they have received, this case is particularly well documented and instructive.

A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the ... more A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the field in medical anthropology today. • Provides an expert view of the major topics and themes to concern the discipline since its founding in the 1960s • Written by leading international scholars in medical anthropology • Covers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and reproductive health, and other topics

This article describes the social context of pregnancy, contraceptive knowlege, past birth contro... more This article describes the social context of pregnancy, contraceptive knowlege, past birth control use and plans for future contraception for 233 adolescent women of Mexican origin and/or descent delivering their first child in one of two Los Angeles hospitals. The teenagers described here were part of a larger sample of 518 women interviewed in 1981 and 1982. Although this paper focuses on adolescents, the adult group is briefly discussed for purposes of comparison.

Page 1. (*WILEY-BLACKWELL Page 2. \mwm BI.ACKWELL COMPANIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY A Companion to Medic... more Page 1. (*WILEY-BLACKWELL Page 2. \mwm BI.ACKWELL COMPANIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY A Companion to Medical Anthropology Edited by Merrill Singer d Pamela I. Erickson ®WILEY-BLACKWELL Page 3. Contents ...

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

The International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 1998

In 1995, the Latina adolescent birth rate surpassed that of African Americans for the first time.... more In 1995, the Latina adolescent birth rate surpassed that of African Americans for the first time. This article investigates cultural and social factors affecting the initiation of sexual intercourse among Latina adolescent mothers in Los Angeles. The data are from life history interviews with forty young mothers and their partners conducted in 1994 to 1997. Results suggest that sexual intercourse is initiated within the context of the couple's developing relationship, and that the course of relationships is highly scripted. Men pressure for sex and women resist. Women should be ignorant about sex, but control access to intercourse. Sex is never discussed. Thus, it is unexpected, and contraception other than withdrawal is not used. This script places young Latinas at enormous risk for pregnancy and STDs.

Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 2004

Current Anthropology, 2016

Singer/A Companion to Medical Anthropology, 2011