Papers in Honor of Melville J. Herskovits: Gossip and Scandal Author(S): Max Gluckman Source: Current Anthropology, Vol

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Papers in Honor of Melville J. Herskovits: Gossip and Scandal Author(s): Max Gluckman Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Jun., 1963), pp. 307-316 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2739613 . Accessed: 28/07/2011 12:56

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http://www.jstor.org Papersin Honor of MelvilleJ. Herskovits

Gossipand Scandal

byMax qluckman

IT HAS TAKEN the developmentof anthropological individual... the same rightto indulgein slander, interestin the growthand break-upof small groups gossip,outbursts of conceit,jealously, etc., that he has to putgossip and scandalinto their proper perspective, to givevent to themore respectable emotions." Radin's as among the most importantsocietal and cultural theorywas thusmuch less acutethan his observations phenomenawe are called upon to analyse.Perceptive of gossip.He may have confusedthe maintenance of anthropologistsdealt withthese phenomena from the a surfaceof goodrelations between leaders with actual early days of field observation.Paul Radin, in his good relations,but he clearlydetected how theycom- PrimitiveMan as a Philosopher(1927:177-8), described peted throughgossip, without being able to weave theway in which this into a theory.This is partlyunderstandable in primitivepeople are indeed among the most persistent and termsof the backgroundof analyticalideas at the inveterateofgossips. Contestants for the same honours, pos- timehe wrote,though a yearearlier, Malinowski had sessorsof thesacred rites of thetribe, the authorized nar- presentedhis theoryof mythas a social charterfor ratorsof legends,all leaveyou in littledoubt as to the existingsocial arrangementson the basis of a man's characterand proficiency oftheir colleagues. "Ignoramus," boasts that he had theprivilege to tell a certainmyth "braggart,"and not infrequently "liar" are liberally bandied (Mythin about. PrimitivePsychology, 1926). Radin commentedthat therefore"some observers In his study of a Trinidad Village (1947:185), have drawn the conclusionthat not love, kindness, Herskovitsprobed much more deeply into gossipas and forbearance,but envy,slander and hate are the a culturalphenomenon. He discusseshow prosecutions dominantatmosphere of a primitivecommunity." He and jailingof a sectcalled the Shouters"give riseto arguedthat this was incorrect,because the "unkind gossip about the eventsthat led to the suppressed and slanderousremarks so frequentlybandied about meetings,tales that are told and retoldwith a mixture do not engenderfeuds and that oftenthe principals of relishand sympathy."He proceedsto show how concernedare on verygood terms."Radin dismissed popular attitudesand pointsof view influencethis the idea that this contradictionwas to be explained gossip,so that"fantasy supplements or evensupplants by "suppressionor sublimation";but he fellback on factin orderto weave moreclosely a new motifinto a meagrepsychological thesis, that tribal society has a the old patternof grievanceagainst discrimination." theoryof freedomof expressionwhich gives "every Thus oft-repeatedgossip blamed the local ministerfor a firstseries of arrestsof Shouters,for it was alleged that he was piqued becausethe Shoutershad drawn MAX GLUCKMAN is Professor of Social Anthropologyat the Victoria Universityof Manchester,England. Born in 1911, he away his own congregation.Prominent laymen of a was educated in Johannesburgand as a Rhodes Scholar at recognizedchurch were accusedin gossipof leading Oxford (D.Phil., 1936). He carried out lengthyfield research the police to a Shouters'meeting. Herskovits relates among the Zulu and the Barotse and shortersurveys in other this gossip to allegationsby those of lower socio- Rhodesian tribes. He was Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone economic Institute'of Social Studies in British Central Africa (1939- positionthat the discriminationof larger 1947), beforebecoming a UniversityLecturer at Oxford (1947- and wealthierdenominations had achievedthe passing 9), whence he established the Department of Social Anthro- of theordinance forbidding the Shoutersin order"to pology and Sociology at Manchester.He has been editor of the suppressa dangerousrival in the questfor souls." Rhodes-LivingstoneInstitute publications. In anotherstudy Herskovits connects with Gluckman's main publications are on politics and law, in- gossip cluding a series of books and essays on the Barotse and a the maintenanceof morals.In his Life in a Haitian number of essays on the Zulu, as well as collaborativework Valley (1937:74f) he analyses songs sung at the on the Rhodesian Tonga and Lamba. Also, he has published working-bees-thecombites: general theoretical work, including Custom and Conflict in Africa and Rule, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society (in press), Atthe combite a man not only learns all thegossip of the with contributionsto Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations day,but enjoys learning and singing the songs which caus- and Closed Systemsand Open Minds: The Limits of Naivete ticallycomment on theshortcomings ofneighbours, or eval- in Social Anthropology(in press), both of which last he edited. uatethe hospitality of thosewho have called combites, or A collection of his essays has just been published under the detail title Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa. scandal,phrased with sufficient directness to allow Max Gluckman's paper is the third in a series, edited by thereference of thesong to remainctear, but warily, so as Francis L. K. Hsu and Alan P. Merriam specially prepared to notto givethe individual grounds for direct recrimination. honor Melville J. Herskovits.The entireseries, when completed, As we shallsee, all thelessons of successfulscandal- will constitutea new type of Festschrift(CA 4:92). mongeringare compressedin Herskovits'few words. Vol. 4 * No. 3 * June 1963 307 He goes on to explainhow thismakes the leaderof against the canons of the Church. Yet it is possible to thesongs feared, for as one Haitian expressedit, "The show that among relatively small groups, gossip, in simidor[leader] is a journalist,and everysimidor is all its very many varieties,is a culturallydetermined a Judas!"Herskovits-anticipating here the analysis on process, which has its own customaryrules, trespass whichI shallmainly depend-gives examples of these beyond which is heavily sanctioned. I propose to songsto showhow theyfind favour "among a people illustratethe social affiliationsof this process and to to whosenatural love of gossipis added a patterned suggestthat gossip, and even scandal, have important relishfor oblique public statement of individualshort- positive virtues. Clearly they maintain the unity, comings."He thencites songs which scorn inhospitality morals and values of social groups. Beyond this, they and meanness,a love affairbetween two firstcousins, enable these groups to control the competingcliques and an impendingquarrel where a suspicionof magic and aspiringindividuals of which all groups are com- practicesentered, and finallya song which was a posed. And finally, they make possible the selection challengein whichthe singerboasted of his equality of leaders without embarrassment. withanother. The one theme of my argumentwas clearly ex- The connectionof gossipwith the maintenanceof pressedin Jane Austen'snovel, Emma, that penetrating the unityof groupsand theirmorality was takena analysis of the small village of Highbury in Surrey. stepfurther by JamesWest in hisstudy of Plainsville, You may rememberthe passage when the elite of the U.S.A., (1945:99-107, 162), a Middle West town; village were to gather for Christmas dinner at Mr. and thisis the firstbeginning of an analysiswhich Weston's house. Among themwas Mr. JohnKnightly, demonstratesthe pervasiverole of gossip in com- who had left Highbury to practise law in London. munitylife.' West describesvividly the "loafingand As he was driven throughthe snow to Mr. Weston's, gossip"groups of Plainsville,and createsthe sugges- he grumbledto his companions: tive title"gossip cells." There are groupsof old men A man musthave a verygood opinionof himselfwhen and old women,and men can only enterthe store he asks people to leave theirown fireside,and encounter wherethe old womensit by indulgingin a joking- sucha day as this,for the sake of comingto see him.He relationship,marked by sexual innuendo.He also mustthink himself a most agreeablefellow; I could not describesyounger cliques, one of youngmarried women do sucha thing.It is thegreatest absurdity-actually snow- and one of four"fast" young married couples. He says ingat thismoment! The follyof people's not staying at home thatin the groupsof old people thereis exchanging whenthey can! If we were obligedto go out on such an and garblingof all news, thoughthe old men are eveningas this,by any call of duty or business,what a the womenthink. He states,too, hardshipwe shoulddeem it;-and herewe are, probably kindlierthan young with ratherthinner clothing than usual, settingforward thatthese groups are on thewhole against progressive voluntarily,without excuse, in defianceof the voice of developments.Finally he (p. 162) writesthat naturewhich tells man, in everythinggiven to his view or religionseems to permeate the air. . . as a vitalconcern with his feelings,to stay at homehimself, and keep all under thenegotiations onmoral conduct which the churches set up. shelterthat he can;-here are we settingforward to spend The religiouscontrol of moralsoperates mainly through five dull hoursin anotherman's house,with nothingto gossipand thefear of gossip.People report, suspect, laugh say or to hear thatwas not said and heardyesterday, and at, and condemnthe peccadilloes of others,and walkand may not be said and heard again tomorrow.Going in behavecarefully to avoid beingcaught in any trifling dismalweather, to returnprobably in worse; fourhorses misstepsof theirown.... and fourservants taken out fornothing but to conveyfive idle shiveringcreatures into colderrooms and worsecom- Takingthese passages in conjunctionwith the book pany thanthey might have had at home. as a whole,one beginsto geta feelingof a community whichis partlyheld together and maintainsits values Five idle creatureswere being taken that night to by gossipingand scandalizingboth within cliques and spend their time in idle gossip with other idle crea- in general.We mustgive West full credit for his great tures.That day theyhad chattedthe same idle gossip. pioneeringachievement; but perhapsbecause he was And on the followingday, they would engage in the a pioneerhe was not able to graspthe full importance same idle gossip. Now, obviously, in the kind of out that society describedby Miss Austen-the countryupper of his own discoveries.He did not bring of gossipdoes not have isolatedroles in communitylife, circles early nineteenthcentury England-gossip but is part of the veryblood and tissueof thatlife. was not idle, though the creatureswere. In fact the BeforeI examinea studywhich demonstrated this more idle the creatures,the less idle was the gossip. fully,I glancein generalterms at our problems.Their These were people living on land, rents and gilt- importanceis indicatedby the fact thatevery single edged shares,marking themselves off from othersby day, and fora largepart of each day, mostof us are talking about one another. And talking about one engagedin gossiping.I imaginethat if we were to anotherwas what helped maintainthem as a group- keepa recordof howwe useour waking-time, gossiping an elite-in the wider society in which they lived. would come only after"work"-for someof us-in Mr. John Knightly had left this society to practice thescore. Nevertheless, popular comments about gossip law in London; hence he was intolerantof its gossip. tend to treatit as somethingchance and haphazard His moreintelligent, and very high-principledbrother, and oftenas somethingto be disapprovedof. It is joined in the gossip with interest,for he was still fully absorbed in the social life of the village. But the right to gossip idly was severely restrictedeven 1 J draw attentionto Simmel's brief referenceto "gossip" as within the circle; so that Mrs. Elton, the Rector's importantin the nuances of human interaction,but he is led off bride from Bristol, was pert and impertinentwhen from analysis by emphasisingthe betrayalof secrets,even though this is most importantin communitygossip (The Sociology of Theshe joinednovelist in that Frank gossip Swinnerton too freely pointedand too out quickly. that Georg Simmel, 1950, p. 334).

308 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Jane Austen uses gossip as a means of interrelating Gluckman: GOSSIP AND SCANDAL her charactersin a commonsocial intercourseso skillfully, that Mr. Perry, the apothecary, never once position. Gossip here is a two-edged weapon; for it appears in person during the course of the book, yet also means that you have no ancestorsin the group in the gossip of others we see him as an individual, to be attacked through-in short that you have no influencingtheir dealings with one another(1939:16). ancestors. And each time that someone in your Gossip of this kind is one of the chief weapons presence refersto a scandal about another'sancestor, which those who considerthemselves higher in status or even his own ancestor,he is gentlyrubbing in the use to put those whom they consider lower in their fact that you have no ancestors and do not belong proper place. Huntin', fishin' and shootin', in them- properlyto the group, and are a parvenu. selves, as expensive recreationalactivities, may have The third type of exclusive group is that which been-and may be-among the chiefsymbols by which has exclusivenessthrust upon it-either by being in a certain sets in England mark themselves off from minority,by isolation of locality, or by other distin- others.But with the activitiesgoes a large measureof guishing criterionwhich the members cannot over- gossip which makes huntin', fishin', and shootin' a come. I shall illustrate the function of gossip and constantand endurin' bond between those who prac- scandal in this type of group in detail, since here (as tice them-against those who do not. The Sphere, the far as I know) theseimportant phenomena were most Tattler, and other magazines bear witness.The gossip fully subjected to an illuminating anthropological which accompanies these activitiesis interwovenwith investigation.This was in Elizabeth Colson's study of a separate technical Janguage.I remembertaking up the Makah Indians (1953). I have selected her study the sportsof ridingand sailing,and having to struggle for its detailed presentationof my centraltheme, and to acquire these new technical languages which help of some of the complicatingpeculiarities that enter make one a member of the fellowship. But when into the gossip of each type of group, because she it came to riding, I was never able to acquire the made manifestto me that gossip and scandal have gossip among thosewho rode-even in the small circles theirvirtues. of Johannesburg-and I always felt lost in the group. The Makah Indians were a small group of Red I was glad when the time came for me to slink away Indians residentin the Puget Sound area at the tip with my horse to carry out my field research in of Cape Flattery,opposite Vancouver Island. It was Zululand, until there again I found myselfexcluded estimated that -in 1780 they numbered some 2,000 from groups because I did not know enough gossip. people. A centurylater, smallpox and othervicissitudes Gradually I learnt the gossip; but I never acquired had reduced them in number to under 700 and in enough certainty in knowing when and, more im- 1942, when Dr. Colson studied them,there were 400- portantly,when not to use it, ever to become a mem- odd on the tribal roll. The Makah belonged to the ber of Zulu society. NorthwestCoast group of American Indians, famous The more exclusive the group, the greaterwill be in anthropologicalliterature for theirperformance of the amount of gossip in it. There are three formsof the potlatch. A potlatch was a ceremonial feast to social group which test this hypothesis.The one is the which one group or individual invited social rivals in professional group, like lawyers or anthropologists, order to demonstratefamily prerogatives.The host whose gossipis built into technicaldiscussion so tightly aggressivelyasserted his and his family's ownership that the outsidercannot always detect the slightper- of particular propertyin resources,titles, songs and sonal knockdown which is concealed in a technical ceremonial privileges while feasting and making recital,or the technical sneer which is contained in a presentsto the visitors.The visitorsthen had to give personal gibe. This is, therefore,the most irritating a returnfeast on a biggerscale or lose face. kind of group to crash into, because one has no clue Beforethe Makah came under Americanprotection to the undercurrents,no apparatus for taking sound- and care by treatythey lived in five villages, divided ings. And this is why old practitionersof a subject into longhouses in which dwelt extended families. can so easily put a comparative newcomer into his The people were divided into chiefs,commoners, and place, can make him feel a neophyte.They have only slaves. to hint in a technical argumentat some personal fact The AmericanIndian Serviceset out a centuryago to about the person who advanced the theorydiscussed, turnthe Makah 'intoAmerican citizens-agriculturalists to make the eager young studentfeel how callow he in an environmentsuitable only forfishing, hunting and is. Again, the more highly organized the profession, collecting;Sunday School addicts, aware of the value the more effectiveis the role of gossip here. of moneyand averse to destroyingtheir own property, I have glanced already at the second type of highly living in houses by small families, wearing clothes, exclusive group-that feels it has high social status eating off tables and the like. Children were taken by from which it wishes to exclude parvenus. But compulsion from their parents and sent to boarding- we mnustnotice that these groups tend to become school to cut them off fromtheir parents and Indian hereditary; and once they are, it means that each tradition. All things Indian were prohibited by the group comprisesnot only the presentmembers of the local agent of the Indian Service. This process of group, but also the past dead members.And here lies indoctrinationwas kept up until 1932, when the great scope for gossip as a social weapon. To be able policy of the Indian Service changed,and it began to to gossip properly,a memberhas to know not only encourage the development of Red Indian cultural about the present membership,but also about their individualitywithin the general Americanpattern. forbears.For memberscan hit at one anotherthrough Colson tried, in her study, to assess how far this their ancestors, and if you cannot use this attack process of Americanizationhad succeeded. She found because you are ignorant, then you are in a weak that the Makah in practice had made a satisfactory Vol. 4 * No. 3 * June 1963 309 adjustmentto the modern American world. From the Makah. Here we have a very small group (400 people) beginning, they had paid their way economically, set against the mightymass of the American popula- unlike the Plains Indians, who had been put on tion. They are hostile in many ways to the Whites Governmentrations after the destructionof the buf- with whom they associate. They feel that the Whites falo. The Makah were protected in a part of their have robbed them of a cultureand a way of life that ancient territoryby their treaty with the United was theirs,that the Whites have despoiled them and States Government;and from their Reservation they their Indian brothers of land, and so forth. One had been able to earn a living firstat sealing, and would expect that they would array themselvesin then at fishingfor halibut, and also by working for unity in order to maintain their independence and the lumber company exploiting the forests on the their identityas Makah. Far from it. They are torn Reservation. by internal dissension and strugglesfor status and By thistime the tribehad ceased to be pure-blooded. they constantlyuse the tongueof scandal to keep one Not only were theremany half-breedsin it, but many anotherin proper place. membersof the tribe had considerably more white Colson, knowing that the Makah had previously blood than Indian blood. Most of the younger and been divided into chiefs, commoners, and slaves, middle-agedpeople spoke English and few had a good sought to establish the nature of this ranking in the knowledge of Makah. The overt practice of Makah past. She found great certainty about the rules as custom and ceremonialhad died out. More than this, expressedby various people. But, unfortunately,some most Makah were subject to the intensivepropaganda rules contradictedothers, and the application of each of what are technically called, "mass media com- was always uncertain. Someone would tell her that munication," i.e. cinemas, radio, newspapers, maga- chieftainshipwas determinedabsolutely by birth,both zines. They were also in intensivecontact with Ameri- on father's and mother's sides; and add, of course, cans. Some of these Americanslived in the Neah Bay that he was thus descended.Others would corroborate settlementinto which all Makah had moved. Many these rules, but would point out that the first in- Makah cQntinuously,if periodically, moved out of formantwas descended froma Nootka slave woman, the Reservation and scatteredin the cities and farm- and thereforewas low class. Then others would say lands of the West Coast wherethey earned theirliving that birth was of some account, but it was more in the same ways as any other Americansof parallel importantthat a man, to be high-class,should achieve skill. In 1942, Neah Bay was filled by additional somethinghimself, by being a doctor or whale-hunter, Whites,come to the wartimenaval base and associated or the like, and of coursehis fatherwas a greatwhale- constructionalactivities. Again, the Makah were on hunteror doctor or the like. Yet others would then good terms with many of these Whites. Indeed, in run down thesepretensions. Again, under the potlatch many cases Dr. Colson found it impossibleto detect system,a man had had to give feasts to show his whethera man was Makah or White by his surface greatness;so today a man ought to be generousif he relations with others. Many Makah were Christians is to be esteemed. But now that anyone can earn and associated with Whites in worship. money,if a man gives feastshis rivals can say that he Colson saw that the Makah were able to adapt is a nouveau riche tryingto cover his low-class and themselvesto the new conditions and that this was that the real high-classpeople do not need to do this possible because they were able to earn a good living since their status is well known. Others will then from the sea and fromwork on theirReservation as accuse them of meanness,inappropriate to high-class, well as outside it. Yet they still cling togetheras a until they become prodigal, when they are nouveau group, partly because they have economic interests riche. Finally, you can always down another by in being Indians. As wards of the United States alleging that his familyis addicted to sorcery(poison- Government,they cannot be taxed by State or local ing). And to use sorcery means that one is of low authorities,either directly or throughpurchase sales class-for the man or woman who is secure in social tax, entertainmenttax, petrol tax, etc. They are not positiondoes not need to use sorceryto securehis ends. subject,while on the Reservation,to certainprocesses Everyone is likely to accuse othersof being sorcerers of law, such as garnishee orders on their wages or and to be accused in turn. attachmentof goods acquired by hire purchase and Thus Colson says (pp. 204-5) that hardly had she taken on the Reservation. They are entitled to free been in the village a week, when she heard that there dental and medical treatment,and their children to was a class system free lunches at school as Whites are not. There are advantages in being an Indian and also in being ... and it was highlyimportant. 'We Indiansare just like many Whites.We classup. Thereare high-class people and middle- a Makah. This entitles a man to free rights in the class people and thenreal low-classpeople. Most people Makah Reservation and ultimatelyto a share in the herecome from the lower class though they don't like it to proceeds when the Reservationor parts of it are sold be said. You can tell the differencethough when you meet as provided in the Treaty. Therefore the Makah people. Only the high-classpeople know how to act. The collectively and theoretically strive to keep their othersnaturally don't know anythingabout how things numbers low in total, in order that shares shall be shouldbe done.They had no old peopleto teachthem. Just greater, though in practice individuals will try to certainfamilies know.' Each personsaying this then said, insure that the descendantsof theirown relatives are of course,that his familywas of upper-classstatus and had on the tribal roll, whatever their parentage, while been so fromas far back as Makah traditionwent, and proceededto warnme againstfamilies which he called low they try to keep the descendantsof othersoff. class. I have su~mmarizeda beautifullypresented argument and analysis to give a backgroundto Colson's percep- These in turn warned her against the others. Dr. tion of the virtues of gossip and scandal among the Colson sums it up:

310 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY So it went fromperson to personuntil I found that Gluckman: GOSSIP AND SCANDAL everyonein the village accused othersof beinglow-class and notentitled to speakfor the Makah or to hold up their The whole pictureof rivalryfor position gives the im- heads in frontof the reallygood people. pressionthat the class concepts of theMakah are completely The resultis thatin Neah Bay todaya classsystem theo- unconstructiveand workonly to disruptthe smoothfunc- reticallyexists, but it is impossiblefor the observer to place tioningof the group.That is not entirelytrue. The desire any singleperson in his properclass becausethere are no for prestigeand for social positioncontributes something generallyaccepted standards as to what constitutesa valid to triballife. Indeed,the incessantgossip and back-biting claim to class status.Nor is thereany generallyaccepted whichgoes on can be viewedas an importantfeature holding placingof individualsin variousclasses recognized by all Makah in a set of social relationshipwhich is distinctive Makah themselves.Yet, theyare consciousof class and it withinwider American society. entersinto theirthinking with referencesto otherMakah It would be too simpleto characterizethe bickering and to an extentthat is incomprehensibleto a newcomer.Each snipingas 'in-groupaggression' [as Barnouwdoes among the individual claims high-classstatus for himselfand his Chippewa]and let it go at that.The Makah criticizeothers immediateancestors; each usually deridesthe claims of in termsof a setof values which operate within the group to otherMakah unlessthey happen to be close relatives-and governthe behaviour of membersof thegroup. The constant even a close relativeis not safe sincehis claimsto status criticism,gossip and backbitingis a reassertionof these can always be deridedon the groundthat throughsome values,which today can be expressedin no otherway. If linenot shared with you he descendsfrom low-class people, theyrepressed the gossipand back-biting,the values them- or it may be claimedthat he has not achievedenough to selveswould disappear,and withthem much of thefeeling justifyhis equal positionwith your own. thatthe Makah are a distinctpeople. has becomean end Makah also attach great value to the theory that To someextent the back-bitingitself in itself,a systemof behaviourinto which the Makah have kinsmenshould help one another,and for pride's sake thrownthemselves with a zest and a determination,which to maintain theirsocial standing;they go out of their have broughtthe art of verbaldenigration to a highpeak. way to assistdistant kin. So that the poor Makah who Certainlythe malicious statements of theirfellows give rise runs a store or restaurantis compelled to give credit to hatredand to unhappinessand to a retreatfrom public to his kin, and they do not feel it necessaryto pay view, but fromthe zest with which they recounttheir their debts. He cannot, on the other hand, make a experiencesin thefield of slander,it is apparentthat they living out of people who are not related to him; for have developedthis type of behaviourinto a gamewith its unrelated people will not buy from him because if ownrules and interest.[She footnotes:"Makah were experts recogni- he becomes rich he will rise in status. They preferto in 'Lifemanship'3before this art obtainedgeneral tion."]Like all artists,or sportsmen)the Makah delightin buy from Whites and make Whites rich. Similarly, playingwith their technical skill. And onlyothers of their when the Makah try to run any political activity, own communityhave the technicalknowledge to compete those who take the lead are sniped at by vicious, in thegame, or to appreciatethe skill with which a pointis scandal, to underminetheir rise in status, until they scored. abandon the activity. This has happened to the Pre- In this analysis Colson clearly establishesthe im- sidentand otherofficers of the Makah Tribal Council portantpoint that specificand restrictedgossip within institutedby the United States Government.Scandal a group marks it off from other groups, both like also attacked and drove frompublic life a numberof and unlike. The gossip and scandal which are so Makah who tried to run an Annual Makah Day, biting in Makah life unite them into a group outside during which so-called traditionalMakah dances and of general American society.And, as she points out, ceremonieswere staged.2 since this gossip and scandal involve the criticismand Historically, it is easy to see how this situation assessmentof people against the traditionalvalues of arose. In the old days the chiefs' statuswas validated Makah society, they maintain the tribe as Indians by their control over economic resources and over against Whites, and as Makah against other Indians. theirsubordinates. This statuswas periodicallydemon- These Makah values and traditionslargely persistin strated throughceremonial prerogativesexhibited in the gossip and in no other way. To be a Makah, you potlatch feasts. Today anyone can pay his way by must be able to join in the gossip, and to be fully a earning money and can give feasts.Lines of ancestry Makah you must be able to scandalize skillfully.This are blurred by intermarriageand connectionsoutside entails that you know the individual family histories of marriagewith Whites and other Indians and ulti- of your fellows; for the knowledgeablecan hit at you mately, all Makah are probably interconnectedby throughyour ancestry,and you mustbe able to retort blood with each other. At the moment, there are in kind. You have also have got to have some knowl- certain groupingsof closely related kindred but new edge of the old ways of the Makah tribe. marriagesand new birthsmay change the alignment. In the specificsituation of the Makah, it seemsalso Hence it is impossibleto demonstratestatus by refer- that theirbiting scandal is used to maintain the prin- ence to the past. That the Makah should still put so ciple of equalitybetween all members.What the group much energyinto this factiousstruggle for class status seems to be unable to do is to admit that one person may largelybe a relic of the formerranked potlatching is superiorin any respect.The Makah foughta Wash- competition.It may also be the intrusionamong them ington State law to protect the breeding of fish, by of American class-ideas. But I venture to go beyond claiming the right to fish out of season in a certain Colson's analysis and suggestsomething more. river on the groundsthat they fished therewhen the Colson concludes her discussion(p. 228): Treaty of the Reservation was signed. To win their case, theyhad to admit that one familyhad hereditary 2 Colson contraststhe situationof the Makah with the situation describedby V. Barnouw in "Acculturationand Personalityamong the Wisconsin Chippewa," Memoirs American Anthropological 3 Stephen Potter, Lifemanship (1950) and One-Upmanship Association,No. 72 (1950). (1952). Vol. 4 * No. 3 funeJ 1963 311 rightsin the river.They preferredto lose theircase. communalactivities which symbolized this desireto It appearsto be in the natureof theirsituation, that be a community:village choir,brass-band, dramatic they refuseto admit to Americansany inequality society,football club, carnival.These activitieswere amongthemselves-nor dare theyclaim it publiclyas run in succession,not at the same time. For it seems individuals.They are a smallgroup, whose members that each activity in time became so bedevilled by move with equal freedomin the large Americanso- the internal group and personal feuds in the village ciety.The groupis too smallto sustainany division that it could no longerbe pursuedsuccessfully without of status within itself, and none of them in their leading to irremediablebreach of relationshipsbetween dealings with other Americans would admit that a villagers.Therefore as the brass-bandfailed, the choir fellow is his superior. What they are clinging to is was started; as the choir failed, a football club was the status of Indians, as wards of the United States founded; when that failed, an annual carnival was Governmentwith the privilegesof wardship,and the instituted.And as each failed, the villagers felt they status of Makah, with its rightsin the Reservation. could make a freshstart, with old animositiespurged To maintain this status, they have all to be equal, with the failingactivity. But the animositiescontinued lest anyone who acquires superioritygets more than into the new activity. This is a fascinatingstory in his share of privilege.Old traditionsand presentam- itself. But what I want to emphasize here is that bitionsdrive individuals to assertthemselves and their the strugglesbetween villagers are not foughtopenly status; Makahship, through the weapon of scandal, in committeemeeting until crisesare reached. Instead, keeps themin practice equal. differencesof opinion are foughtout in behind-the- The desire to remain Makah, with its attendant back tattle,gossip, and scandal, so thatmany villagers, advantages, explains why people do not try to break who are actually at loggerheads,can outwardlymain- away fromthe group. Otherwise,it seemsthat at least tain the show of harmonyand friendship(cf. Radin the lighter-colouredMakah could disappear into the above). They remain a community,despite the verbal American population: probably many have in fact cut-and-thrustin the dark, where they tryto advance done so. But this desire is felt by the individuals and theirseparate causes againsttheir ostensible friends who extended families which make up the Makah tribe. are theirenemies. Some accommodationis thusreached. And the interestsin the Reservation are competitive In this gossip they evaluate people as leaders, as good between them,because if it is sold it will bring in a villagers, and the like, so that gossip also serves to limited amount of money. Hence, I suggest,Makah bring,conformity with village values and objectives. gossip does not show merely that general interestin Eventually, when a crisis is reached, a stranger5to the doings,and the virtuesand vices, of others,which the village is thrustinto the position of appearing to characterizesany group. The gossip passes beyond this take the decision which forces one party out of the stage and becomes vicious scandal, aimed at demon- currentactivity; and gossip can blame this stranger stratingthat the other parties are not worthy to be for destroyingvillage unity: "We would be happy if Makah. The differentgroups and individuals in the foreignersdid not make trouble!" After one such tribe fight an unceasing battle to demonstratetheir crisis,when a strangerhad proposed the critical,and own true Makahship, as against the failuresof others Ccobjectively"sensible, motion in open committee,a to attain Makahship. But this involves them in a woman said: ccAllstrangers should be shot!" continual process of remaining Makah, which (as Here, too, the outsider cannot join in gossip. The Colson says) gives highimportance to the scandalizing poor anthropologist,before he understood this, got itself,as a mechanismfor maintainingthe Makah as into trouble. His landlady and some friends,after a a group encystedin the Americannation, whose other whist drive were criticisingthe play of a certain membersare excluded fromthis war of scandal. And woman. The anthropologistafter a while joined in with the practice of this scandal is developed to a high art, an example. His landlady turnedon him and reminded culturallydefined. Scandalizing is one of the principal him that he was referringto her prospectiveson-in- means by which the group's separatenessis expressed, law's grandmother.He was oftenrebuked for criticis- even thoughit is also the principal mannerin which ing distant cousins. Thus, though the villagers were internal strugglesare fought. This combination of kind and friendly,he was reminded often that he functionsof scandal makes the hostilityitself a mode was a foreigner.He sums up by saying that ccvillagers throughwhich the tribe remainsunited. did not hesitate to make accusations against and This analysis of gossip passing into scandal brings ridicule theirfriends and relatives,but outsiderswere out some of the general characteristicsof gossip, as a not allowed this privilege." Frankenbergfound, as culturally controlled game with important social Colson had among the Makah, that the constant functions.It also shows that in differentkinds of crit-cism-of those who tried to run village affairs groups the role and functionof gossip will vary with punished anyone who appeared to get too much theirspecific histories and theirsituations in the larger prestigeas a leader. The membersof the village were society. Colson's penetrating study has lessons for equal against the overwhelming onslaught of the us all as observersof life around us. We learn from modern industrial world. The brass-band could not it that gossip is not idle: it has social functionsand it has rules which are rigidly controlled. Ronald Frankenberghas applied Colson's analysis to a Welsh Tradition and Change: A Study of Banbury (1960), with some attentionto the restrictedcirculation of gossip, but without full village (1957) which was strugglingto remain a com- analysis. munity,though most of its men now go to work in a 5 The definition of "stranger," and the differencebetween town some miles away.4 The villagers ran a series of "strangers"and "outsiders," is a very complex problem,discussed at lengthby Frankenberg.The criticalproposal may be put forward 4 "Gossip" is mentionedin studies such as those of Williams by a "stranger"to the set of social relationshipsinvolved. I have to The Sociology of an English Village: Gosforth(1956), and Stacey, simplifyin order to compress.

312 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY run, though-they had the instruments,because neither Gluckman: GOSSIP AND SCANDAL of the conductorsin the village dared tell his fellows how to play. A local lad could not captain the village an opponentbehind his back, if yourallegations are football team as he did not dare give orders to his at all open, to his face, you mustbe delicateand mates: they had to import a West Indian from a nevergive him ground to statethat you have insulted nearby town to be captain. Again the anthropologist him.For insultsof thiskind, if open,make impossible has been able to show that dispitethese disputes, quar- the pretenceof group amity. Similarly,misplaced rels, gossip and scandal, and the restrictingof the behind-the-backgossip may forcethe groupeither to privilege to talk thus, have the effectof maintaining expelthe person slandered or to turnon thegossiper. the village as a village and of preventingit from Morethan this, the process of scandalenables a group, becominga collectionof houses,like a housingestate. to evaluatepeople for theirwork, their qualities of Town planners are very anxious to turn housing leadership,and theirmoral character,without ever estatesinto communities:they should develop scandal confrontingthem to theirfaces with failuresin any in them.Perhaps it is theirduty to providecause forit. sphere. Thus animositiesbetween individualsand Gossip and even scandal unite a group within a cliquesare builtinto the largersocial orderthrough larger society, or against another group, in several the culturaltechniques of gossipand scandal. ways. Firstly,all groups try to thrusttheir roots into I beg of you, therefore,if you are convincedby the past; scandal by creating a past historyfor the thisanalysis, not to feel that it is easy to fulfilthe membersin relation to one another,into which new- importantobligation that lies on you to scandalize comers have to be inducted if they are to be full about yourfellows. As Colson says,it is an art and members,achieves this; Secondly, no groups are com- a skill and a technique.We do need cca school for pletely undifferentiated.All of them consist in the scandal"-as Her Majesty'sInspectors of Education firstplace, of individuals,and, secondly,most consist have seen. I foundin the LondonTimes of October of smaller groupings of individuals, cliques. These 13th,1954, the following: individuals and cliques may be competitivelyaligned A recommendationthat children in WestRiding schools against each other. They struggle for status and shouldbe encouragedto gatherin smallgroups for cgossip' prestige. These struggles have to be kept within sessions,as an aid to learningEnglish, is madeby the Edu- bounds, while the general values of the group are cationCommittee Inspectors, who haveconcluded an in- asserted, if the group is to survive. The values of spectionof modern secondary schools throughout the coun- the group are clearly asserted in gossip and scandal, try.They make the recommendation in a memorandumon since a man or woman is always run down for ctheteaching of Englishin secondaryschools.' failing to live up to these values. But the struggles The inspectorsclaim that emphasis on oral expression to fulfil those values by individuals and cliques are canbe achievedby allowing children to talk naturally about also restrainedbecause the methodsof achievingthem thingswhich interest them.... are defined by gossip and scandal: and the3e them- Thus earlybegins this interest of oursin our fellows, selves punish any excess. For they control disputation and a markof thatinterest is our willingnessto talk by allowing each individual or clique to fightfellow- about them.To Gamesmanshipand Lifemanshipwe members of the larger group with an acceptabile,. must add Gossipship.The rules of Gossipshipare socially institutedcustomary weapon, which blows somewhatas follows: back on excessivelyexplosive users. For the battle of The importantthings about gossip and scandalare scandal has its own rules,and woe to him who breaks thatgenerally these are enjoyedby peopleabout others theserules. By the act of carryinghis scandalizing too with whom they are in a close social relationship. far, he himselfoversteps the values of the group and Hence when we try to understandwhy it is that his scandal will turn against him, will prove that he people in all places and at all timeshave been so or his small clique is unworthyof the larger group. interestedin gossipand scandalabout each other,we And the scandal will in fact redound to the creditof have also to look at thosewhom they exclude from the person attacked, since he will have been unfairly joiningin the gossipingor scandalizing.That is, the assailed. Colson tells (233-34) the storyof two Makah rightto gossipabout certain people is a privilegewhich women who were on bad terms.On one occasion one is onlyextended to a personwhen he or sheis accepted woman in the streetshurled stringsof insults at the as a memberof a groupor set. It is a hallmarkof other, who kept walking along, singing, ccThe bear membership.Hence rightsto gossipserve to markoff went over. the mountain." ccBothwomen knew that a particulargroup fromother groups. There is no one was behaving like a clow-class'person, the other easierway of puttinga strangerin his place thanby like a "high-class'person, and the advantage lay with beginningto gossip:this shows him conclusively that the one who ignored the insults." Thus the gross he does not belong.On theother hand, if a man does scandalmongeroverreaches himself and is hoist with not join in the gossipand scandal,he showsthat he his own slander. (Similarly, gamesmanshipis the art does not acceptthat he is a partyto therelationship; of winninggames without actually cheating.)6In this hencewe see thatgossiping is a dutyof membership way, the internalstruggles within the group are fought of thegroup. That is whyit is good mannersto gossip with concealed malice, by subtle innuendo, and by and scandalizeabout yourdearest friends with those pointed ambiguities.Yet all of these have their own who belong,even thoughit be theirdearest friends- moral norms, which must not be overstepped. The butit is bad manners-whichis a moraljudgment and main moral norm is that you must scandalize about hencea sanction-totell unpleasant stories about your friendsto strangers.For whenyou gossipabout your 6 See StephenPotter, The Theoryand Practiceof Gamesmanship, friendsto othermutual friends you are demonstrating or The Art of Winning Games withoutActually Cheating (1947). that you all belong to one set which has the duty to Vol. 4 No. 3 * June 1963 313 be interestedin one another'svices as well as virtues. very exclusive. I grew up among them, and woven Whenyou gossipabout your friends to strangersyou into their legal shop is a considerable amount of are eithershowing the strangersthat they do not scandal about other lawyers. Colleges at Oxford and belong,or you are admittingthem to a privilegeand Cambridge are similar. In some Oxford colleges there to membershipof a group withoutconsulting the is a taboo on talkingat dinnerabout work or women otherpeople involved.So that if you want to run -the sanction at Exeter College is that the offender down a friendto a strangeryou shouldfirst ask that must try to drink 5 pints of beer at one draught. If friend'spermission. You do notneed his permission to he fails, he pays for that beer and for a refill of the runhim down to mutualfriends-provided that they large sconce which is passed around the table. Talk of are in the same set of relationshipswith yourself.I women introducesan element into College life that thinkit would be bad mannersto run two people is hostile to its united monasticism,expressed in the down to one another,even thoughthey are mutually ritual of commensalism;talk of work divides members acquainted,if you are not associatedwith them in the of the College according to their academic interests, sameway. So it wouldbe bad mannersto gossipabout and the College as an associationis hostileto organiza- yourUniversity fellow to a memberof anotherUni- tion in termsof common scholarship. versity,even if the two of themlived in the same I am, of course,aware that gossip and scandal will village.For scandal is only virtuousif its aim be to not contributeto the cohesion of a groupingof per- demonstratesome kind of social unity.Scandal when sons, unless these persons are united by a sense of directedby membersof a groupagainst another group communitywhich is based on the fairly successful is unifyingin another,and an obvious,way-it asserts pursuit of common objectives. In his study of a thesuperiority of the scandalizinggroup. housing estate in Coventry (Living in Towns, 1953), I am surethat if -you reflect on yourown experience Leo Kuper and his colleagues noted that the new you will realisehow sound Colson's analysisis. Its settlers in the estate were afraid of, and resented, significanceemerges most clearly if we considerthe the gossip of their neighbours.This can be related way in whicha new memberof a groupis inducted largely to bad design of the houses: the two master- into the group.He may learn the rulesof technique bedrooms in the semi-detachedslay back to back, whichkeep the groupin being,and he may be on without a soundproof wall between, so that each excellentterms with the othermembers of the group, couple was bound to overhear practically everything but he does not belongto the groupuntil it is im- done by theirneighbours, a source of great embarrass- possiblefor him to be rude to one of its members ment. Moreover, each house looked into the other's unintentionally.That is, he mustknow so muchabout livingroom.There was constanttrespass on the essen- eachof themembers' histories and likingsand dislikes, tial intimacies of family life. No group life could thathe will neversay somethingwhich is hurtfulto emergehere. I was told by the wife of a University anyoneunless he wantsto hurthim (or her).Corres- lecturerthat in a betterdesigned estate in Newcastle pondingly,the badge of membershipis thata person neighboursformed themselves into gossip cells which can quite allusively,and apparentlynaively, cut an- got along very happily-except for her. Foolishly she othermember to the quick by a seeminglyinnocent thoughtthat there were more importanttopics than statement.And of course,it is importantthat the personal gossip; and she was sent to Coventry-meta- personoffended knows that the allusionis intended phorically,I mean. In a housingestate in Essex where but not be able to pin it down,and thatthe injurer I lived, gossip cells were again determinedby the shouldknow that the offendedknows, and that the sociometricrules of neighbourliness-plus a compli- offendedshould know that the injurer knows that the cated evaluation of social status-and together we offendedknows-and so on ad infinitum. formeda happy and united scandalizing community, Thereforea mostimportant part of gainingmem- with constantfights going on between our secondary bershipof anygroup is to learnits scandals: what you modern schools to emphasize our overall unity. Here can say withapparent innocence and what you may I observedgossip and scandal biulding up community say by indirectrude allusion. Anthropology is a very life. tightlyknit profession: it is one of thefew professions When a group, even one with a united history, whichstill has an initiationceremony. You musthave begins to fail in its objective, gossip and scandal studiedsome exotic community.We maintainour accelerate the process of disintegration.Anthropol- tightbonds of friendshipby a vast storeof scandal ogists have analysed how if joint families and sub- and gossipas well as by legends.A mostimportant sistencevillages increasetheir numbers they are bound part of my duty in trainingresearch workers is to to disintegrateor hive off segments.This process is teach themthe scandals. I believe I am not alone often accompanied by charges of sorceryand witch- amongsenior anthropologists in findingit morein- craft.African customaryjudgments assert that as this terestingto teachstudents about anthropologists than occurs scandal and back-biting increase. Hence as about anthropology.It is worthnoting here that the Junod reportedmany years ago for the Tsonga, the Greek Lexicon defines"an anthropologist"not as barrierof magic to keep out the witch is breached by "anthroposplus logos,"a "studentof man,"but only internal gossiping and grumbling.7These processes as "a scandalmonger;"and in theNicomachean Ethics, within the group make possible the entryof an out- Aristotle-whoanticipated us all-says of the great- side witch, though in Tsonga society witches do not souledman: "He is no scandalmonger(anthropologos): directlykill theirown kin. In Central Africa,witches he will not talk either about himself or another do kill theirown kin and here gossip and back-biting person." are additionallydangerous. In his analysis of Th;e Yao What applies to anthropologists,applies to all pro- Village (1956:1328) Mitchell writes that: fessions.Lawyers are supposed to talk shop and to be 7 The Life of a South African Tribe (1927; reprinted1962).

314 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY An interestingvariation of the dangerof sorceryis the Gluckman: GOSSIP AND SCANDAL beliefthat sorcerers take the opportunity of squabbles within a matrilineageto kill one of its members.The rationale packet of tobacco may take me twentyminutes. But behindthis is that the diviner'sinstruments are unableto this field of gossip and scandal still awaits study of detectthe origin of thesorcery beyond the immediate cause. the kind A divinerwill indicatethat the cause of deathof, say, a deployed by Colson upon the Makah. Mean- child is sorcery,but thatthe witchis obscuredbehind the while, for small groups alone, my conclusion is that quarrellingwords of some relative.Consequently, danger we mightformulate a law to say, the more exclusive to a matrilineageensues when one of its membersgoes to an a social group is, the more will its membersindulge outsider[note: to an outsider-bad mannersindeed] and in gossip and scandal about one another. And the grumblesto him about the familysquabbles and quarrels. more persistentlywill they repeat the same gossip The outsiderthen takes the opportunity of usingthis squab- again and again and again withoutgetting bored." We ble to introducehis sorceryinto the lineage. The Yao are back in the carriages driving throughHighbury greatlyfear backbiting [as Mitchelltranslates the Yao word, to Mr. Weston's house. miseci]because of theirdread of sorceryand nonedreads it morethan a villageheadman, a wardenof a sorority-group, Outsiders frequentlycomplain that anthropologists or a personin theposition of havingto keepa matrilineage are able to find that anything social has a useful or sectiontogether. These people are constantlyadjuring the functionand theymay thereforeconclude that anthro- womenunder them-for it is thewomen who are believed pologists approve of everything.Thus it has been to be themain culprits-not to fightamong themselves; and argued that the criminal classes are as importantas if theydo, not to take theircomplaints to an outsiderbut the police for the maintenanceof law in a society; to thesenior member of the matrilineage.The Significance they provide people who commitcrimes but who can of thisin relationto lineageunity is plain enough. easily be caught by the police and publicly tried. Later (p. 170) Mitchell recountsduring the history Their trials demonstrateto the society at large, and of a long dispute within a lineage, how a woman's particularlyto its growing youngsters,not o-nlythat friendshipwith another woman was frowned on be- crimeis wrong-which is true,but also that crimedoes cause friendshipleads to gossip and this mightopen not pay-which is not true. Amateur criminals,less the way to sorceryby the member of the opposing easily caught,are not so useful.But this does not mean group.8 we approve of crime. We argue only that the com- I note finallythat I have discussedgossip only with- mission of a crime, provided that the criminal is in small groups. Gossip about royalty,by the lower caught, tried, and punished, serves useful ends in classes about the upper, and the upper by the lower, maintainingthe law, and thereforesociety. My argu- has to be related to other areas of social relations. ment about gossip and scandal is similar: if I suggest I think we can say that men and women do wish to that gossip and scandal are socially virtuous and talk about personal matters,for reasons on which I valuable, this does not mean that I always approve am not clear, and in the great conurbationsthe dis- of them. Indeed, in practice I find that when I am cussion of, for example, stars of film and sport, gossipingabout my friendsas well as my enemies I produces a basis on which people transitorilyasso- am deeply consciousof performinga social duty; but ciated can find somethingpersonal to talk about. that when I hear they gossip viciously about me, I Frankenbergreports that when he was studyingthe am rightfullyfilled with righteousindignation. Welsh village, the first time he went to buy a loaf of bread he was back in five minutes. His landlady said scornfully:"Back already? It takes me an 9 Richard P. Werbner has supplied me with the following hour to buy a loaf of bread." When Frankenberghad beautifullyillustrative passage from Carl Carmer, Stars Fell on been in the village for some time, as soon as he went Alabama (1940, p. 12): into a "Aside from these the main diversions of the Alabamians are shop, the tea-kettlewas put on the fire: after love-makingand gossip. The constant social chatter dealing in all, as anthropologos,he was the scandalmongerpar personalitiesat firstannoys and bores the stranger.Gradually, how- excellence. And I myselfhave found throughmy in- ever, as he picks up the threadsof the relationshipsthrough which terestin soccer and cricket,that I have steadily ex- it sometimesseems that the entire sLate is bound into one family, panded my commercialtransactions with shopkeepers he becomes not only tolerantbut an eager participant.The propor- tion of malice in this talk is not greaterthan in other communities. into warm friendships,even into a kind of blood There are the usual Mrs. Grundysand meddlesomescandalmongers. brotherhood,in which our ritualalliance movesjerkily But the majority of Alabamian gentlefolktake a strong interest from elation to despair with the fate of our city's in people that is not unlike that of a novelist.They are entertained teams, and our county eleven at cricket. To buy a and instructedby the antics of their fellow-beings-theylike to speculate on motivations.And talk about an individual takes on added zest when (as frequentlyhappens) he is a cousin in whom flows the blood of a commonancestor. 8 Contrastthis sophisticatedapproach with Kluckhohn's simple As for love-making,it is the accepted basis of all social activity. treatmentof the relationbetween gossip and witchcraftin Navaho Even very little boys are trainedto be gallant and the ambitionof Witchcraft(1944). every daughter'smother is that her girl shall be a belle."

ReferencesCited CARMER, C. 1940. Stars Fell on Alabama, FRANKENBERG, R. 1957. Village on the London: Lovat Dickson and Thompson. Border, London: Cohen and West. BARNOUW, V. 1950. 'Acculturation and COLSON, E. 1953. The Makah Indians, HERSKOVITS, M. 1937. Life in a Haitian Personalityamong the Wisconsin Chip- Manchester:Manchester University Press; Valley, New York: Knopf. pewa,' Memoirs of the AmericanAnthro- Minneapolis: University of Minnesota --. 1947. Trinidad Village, New York: pological Association,No. 72. Press. Knopf. Vol. 4 - No. 3 * June 1963 315 JUNOD, H. A. 1927. The Life of a South POTTER, S. 1947. Gamesmanship,or the STACEY, M. 1960. Tradition and Change: African Tribe, London: MacMillan. Re- Art of Winning Games withoutActually A Study of Banbury, London: Oxford printed, 1962. New York: University Cheating, London: Hart-Davies. UniversityPress. Books. --. 1950. Lifemanship,London: Hart- SIMMEL, G. 1950. The Sociologyof Georg KLUCKHOHN, C. 1944. Navaho Witchcraft, Davies. Simmel, translated,edited and with an Papers of the Peabody Museum of --. 1952. One-Upmanship, London: Introductionby K. H. Wolff, Glencoe, American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hart-Davies. (The firsttwo, withSuper- Illinois: Free Press. xxii, No. 2. manship,republished by Penguin Books WEST, J. 1945. Plainsville,U.S.A., New KUPER, L. et. al. 1953. Living in Towns, of Harmondsworth,1962). York: Columbia UniversityPress. London: CressetPress. RADIN, P. 1927. PrimitiveMan as a Philo- WILLIAMS, W. M. 1956. The Sociology MITCHELL, J. C. 1956. The Yao Village, sopher,New York: Appleton. Reprinted of an EnglishVillage: Gosforth,London: Manchester:Manchester University Press 1957. New York: Dover. Routledge and Kegan Paul. for the Rhodes-LivingstoneInstitute; New York: Humanities Press.

Erratum: Vol. 3, No. 5, Dec. 1962, top of p. 479. The last sentence beginning in column 2 and ending in column 3 should read, "I sometimes get the feelingthese days that we have entereda stage of evolutionwhich can be identifiedmore or less directlywith a revivalist cult whose practitioners claim to be able to transforma theist into a materialistby the very rapid turningof thepages of AncientSociety to the accompanimentof suitable in- cantations."

316 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY