31 nvirttletter comparable to the now existing programs in the other human science disciplines, many more academically employed anthropologists would be needed than now exist, or are now contemplated. That it will be difficult to convince non anthropologists that anthropology is as valuable as the other disciplines should not prevent the attempt. Of course, the academic iob market should not have to absorb all those trained or educated in anthropology, and graduate students and graduate programs should not be restricted to filling academic jobs. However, anthropologists should choose )obs outside academia because they have the interest and the ability to do them, not because many schools have little or no anthropology in their program Opportunities outside academia shou d be expanded so that anthropologists can do other things, not |ust because they are forced to do other things if they are to work at all Today, great numbers of students who would choose to be introduced to anthropology if it were available to them, do not have this opportunity. Giving them the opportunity to take anthropology classes at their schools, just as they can take other human science courses, would also give many more anthropologist the opportunity to teach and hold academic iobs. Benefiting students and anthropologists would also benefit society by expanding the number of members with anthropological understanding. This seems to be a worthwhile goal for the association President, the Executive Board and every anthropologist Finally, the great increase in the numbers of anthropologists, if it occurs, would allow an infusion of ideas and approaches from those thousands of new anthropologists of all ages and backgrounds. Present anthropologists should welcome the need to deal with this exciting prospect, not fear it As I have said above what I am suggesting will not be easy, but anthropology hou'd not assume defeat before even beginning to try Eugene D Katona Voting Member Engineers Pledge Support for Archeological Preservation As a state official who daily receives notification of all federal, state municipal and privately funded development projecls in Vermont, it was with gre it pleasure thai I read that another body from the public sector has pledged support to the presi rvation of 00/ The Board of archeological resources. Direction I sic I of the Amei ican SocuMy of Civil Engineers approvi a resolution in September 1976 inviting all engineers or construction projects 11-spon I pledge ihen active particip ilion in the preservation of salv.iqmg of archeological and peleonlolC' iral sile: .ind requests all members ol thi society to support such <i< livily" (June 1977 Civil Enginei ring ASCE p 621 With thi Mi|i|)orl cil iiMidrii/iiiinns such i< th« ASCE, whoie membership is involviil ivilh pl'imtinq iii w l l /n with construction. vol IS no 7 our preservation efforts may ultimately be successful. The efforts of the ASCE are to be commended. Giovanna Neudorfer Division of Historic Preservation Vermont An Anthropologist Who Did Work for the White House Margaret Mead's suggestion to have an anthropologist in the White House is a very good one The President needs advice on human affairs I was assigned that 10b in February 1941 by President Roosevelt I worked for him until he died My main assignment was as Director of M' Project, a secret world survey of migration and settlement and the refugee problem, in consultation with Isaiah Bowman, Advisor to the Department of State and also Governor Lehman of New York I had a staff of 20 people, half of them a 'Brain Trust, which read at least twelve languages, so that we could tackle a problem in Japanese, Russian and German We prepared 66 volumes of 665 titles being a total of 30,000 pages. These copies were distributed throughout the government, a very limited edition Number One was delivered to the White House to Grace Tully for the President I was also a member of a spec 1 a intelligence unit for the White House under John Franklin Carter We were like a flying squad of Scotland Yard We could be assigned a problem and go to work at once. For example, a Major came to see me in my Study Room 115 in the Library of Congress Annex with the order from the President in Canada to make a map showing the number and distribution of the Germans east of the Volga. We had 24 hours to have it ready, as the Maior was returning to Quebec the next evening. A map was made and carried to the Quebec conference. After a weekend with President Roosevelt at Shangri-La now Camp David, he asked me to prepare his report for him to study on the way to the Teheran Conference his first meeting with Stalin This report would deal with minority problems and reforestation in the USSR The latter would be a natural exchange of agricultural information thro g the USDA There was one more anthropologist working for the White House at that time. This was Philleo Nash, who was in charge of minority problems He had order to inform the President of any potential militant activity at once. Many of our assignments are still classified My Reports are in the FDR Library with all my papers Henry Field Harvard Studying the USA I would <i k• 1.1 ni ike a bnet comment on Maruyama's Itttai (March 1977) concerning the anthropological study ot Contemporary USA Whili I agree uiui disugret with many of the author's points, I would like to restrict my commenis piiniiiiily to one point which was mentiont i( The letter said "It [Contemporary USA study] should include application of anthropology to public policy, national, regional and urban planning and community design by private enterprises." J want to clearly state that there are two sides to this point. The first is that anthropology should develop data and a perspective which can aid in the development of public policy. The second is that ethnographic skills should be applied to study the process of public policy making itself. It is the second point which I believe needs a clear articulation, even though it has been said by others (Nader, Wolf, Adams, etc). If anthropology is to be truly holistic (as Maruyama says it should be we must study not only those groups who might be affected by policy decisions, but we must also study the decision makers themselves. I believe this is particularly essential in a contemporary USA study, as the decisions of USA policy makers have a tremendous impact on the fabric of social and cultural life of peo: le not only living in the USA, but in many societies we study. For example, consider the impact of those decision makers who are developing Energy policy, Welfare policy, National Health Care policy. If, as Maruyama suggests, Contemporary USA study needs to include an anthropology of "Future cultural," and I must add future, social, economic and political, "possibilities, and alternatives options ethnographers, should seriously consider that some of our research priorities should include the study of the people and processes which, at least in part, determine the 'possibilities, o tions and alternatives of the future Finally, I would like to state that anthropology has a unique and valuable contribution to make in both making public policy and studying the policy process. I only hope that both will be pursued vigorously. David Setter Health Policy Program San Francisco Anthropologists and Research Areas Magoroh Maruyama (March 1977 Anthropology Newsletter proposed some unexplored for anthropological research in areas American society. I would like to add to his list of neglected topics by American anthropologists. It is a pity that despite our claim to a holistic approach, we have virtually ignored, for one reason or another, the following topics' (1) The "anthropology of the rich and the powerful" (or what political scientists and sociologists call the study of elites), this group may include Boston Brahmins, corporate enecu lives. Fords and Rockefellers, US presidents, power-holders in education, diplomacy, health, etc Thi* type of research will undoubtedly complement our traditional concerns, tribes, peasants, minority (H00**5etc. (2) The "anthropology of the anthropologists or the largest and most powerful anthropological tribe in the US. the American Anthropological Association. Here one can study drinking behavior tribal values, IMF nage and divorce among anthropologist!. newnietter 35 September IU77 serial monogamy, sex and repression, sexism and racism, academic tribal relations (alliance system, friendship, joking relations, fictiv/e kinship, head-hunting, professorial "kidnapping," empire-building, etc.), academic markets (sale and distribution), grantsmanship, reviewmanship etc), anthropology of retired chiefs (retirees). Mario D. Zamora William and Mary in Virginia The Male "Wife" Problem Identified Morris Simon's problem (March 1977) is simple—he is being asked to perform the role of anthropologist's wife for which he evidently has little preparation But before we bestow this title we must be certain that the applicant meets all the requirements. Did he accompany his spouse to the graduate school of her choice or did she select from those schools within driving distance of his job and their nearby home? While at graduate school, did he and his spouse reside in the campus community thus allowing her to become fully involved in the academic informational and social network—or did she regularly commute a distance of some 60 miles? Was her choice of a fieldwork problem dnd site guided primarily by professional considerations or by her husband's compatibility with occupational and personal And when she "needs'Vpreferences? completes her degree will she freely pursue all available job leads secure in the knowledge that her spouse will relocate in the interest of her professional advancement7 Perhaps Simon does qualify for the title of anthropologist's male 'wife"—although his ITM teaching job in Selangor presumably leaves him little time to keep house and collect field data from natives of his own sex. In any case, it is clear that while there are numerous female 'wives of anthropologists one would be hard-pressed to find a non-anthropologist male 'wife '—an obvious consequence of which would be the virtual absence of anthropologists who could qualify as female 'husbands. So before we shed tears for the suffering Simon we might more seriously evaluate the professional handicaps which come from being a female ' wife to a male non-anthropologist 'husband " Carol C Mukhopadhyay UC Riverside You've Got It All Wrong, Sister In the June issue of the Newsletter Janice A Hogie responded to a letter which had been written by my husband Morris Simon. In her letter, Hogle showed some degree of unawarenets of the bajic realities of field research which must be faced by a woman researcher '" a developing country (specifically Malay Ui. I do not know if women anthropologists before me experienced these same problems: *eir self-image and expectations developed at times earlier than these were perhaps different born those | gained in the late nxties and leventies, and they may not have reacted as I do- Because of this, it may be instructive to look into this situation more i losely. For one thing, Hogle seems to judge Morris Simon's attitude as if he were acting within an American context. If I were accomplishing my research in the States and had this been his frame o"f mind, it would indeed have proven unacceptable-had he been in the US. However, knowing him as I do I seriously doubt that he would have But, Hogle, he and I are in Malaysia, not Missouri. The social consciousness of the position rights and capabilities of women is far different in the US than it is here in Malaysia Perhaps contributing to this is the fact that news of feminist developmental activity in the United States is extremely slow in arriving here (eg, the average Malaysian seems to believe American feminists are still rabidly burning bras on street corners). But then, an amazing number of young educated Malaysians sincerely believe that it is 'impossible for Negroes in America in 1977 to (1) get into any university; (2) buy homes which are not in slums; (3) find middle income employment ' USiS (United States Information Service, a branch of the US Embassy), where are you' Whatever the US today, Malaysia is a country whose society is still explicitly male-oriented, where Islam is the national religion, and where a woman is commonly regarded as simply helpmate to her husband de she washes clothes, cooks meals, cleans house and bears children) Such is the society in which I unwittingly began my doctoral research as an idealistic young feminist why an unwitting, idealistic feminist' Simply because I entered the squatter settlement with the zeal and blinders of an enthusiastic graduate student, intent on accomplishing dissertation research. However, when I sought to explain the presence of this childless young American married woman in an essentially illegal community, as being one merely oriented toward research, blank stares were the response, or stares of mistrust (with some women instantly suspecting I had designs on their husbands* Why else would a Western woman, who by nature is locally defined as wealthy, wish to spend time in such an unattractive area?). It would seem that a woman with designs on a PhD is out of the purview of many rural-urban migrants like my informants. It was only after a series of painful starts and stops that I came to understand my predicament a basic contradiction between my own definition of self and that of persons who were to become my informants. Whereupon I had the blessed inspiration to enlist my husband's assistance as my "fall guy" he became the explanation for my unexpected appearance in the squatter settlement—he wanted me to learn to speak Malay well, to study the Malay way of life since we would be living in Malaysia for three years With such justification, I was accepted more easily, but of course I had to produce him eventually as proof of my claims of his desire that I do this. He came he fell on the d.nk paths, and he conquered the hearts of my informants. Thus, due in part to his support, I have accomplished this fieldwork I idolize that some persons may cuticle this approach to field resenrrh True il may not have been as straightforward as would be hoped, as a man might have done (but I am sure that he could never have collected in a coffee shop the same rich data I did on Malay social life as I sat on the kitchen floor with the women once' with Morns' help, I was proven to be a harmless woman) and this is one instance where I doubt if an unmarried woman (for reasons implied above and others) could have done the same research. It all adds up to a difficult situation about which a woman does not learn in graduate school. I think that, using wit, I devised a solution to the problem with which I was confronted, a solution which admittedly, may have been suitable only for my unique case and my personality, but it worked and something can perhaps be gamed by a review of the case. Still, this is only a brief synopsis of some of the details of the circumstances of my field experiences, it is rather amusing now that I am removed from it by some time and I can look back in hindsight I hope to be able to share more of these experiences with colleagues when I return to the States. But the role of Morns Simon in this whole affair? Hogle you too lightly dismiss the redeeming value of my spouse's humour1 For any American accomplishing an extended period of field research in a non-Euroamerlcan culture is a demanding undertaking, one which is undoubtedly fraught with very unusual tensions, but I think it may be even more difficult for a woman to do so. I therefore consider myself fortunate to have with me in the field a professional colleague, also my spouse who could see the humour of my predicament as an American woman in a Malay squatter settlement. Hogle, you 'as did some others who responded to his letter) completely misinterpret his intent. Morris was not so much complaining outright that he had to make his way on dark nights into an unlit squatter settlement to attend kompang lessons, as he was pointing up, for the information of my colleagues who have never done field research in Third World societies completely alien to our own American one, the old-fashioned, male chauvinistic world within which my role was defined and in terms of which I have had to function if I was to be an acceptable person in their eyes since I was married, my informants expect mv husband to be constantly concerned about my activities The humour in his letter was Morris inimitable way of chortling with me and telling me that I should not let it depress me. When month after month, in intimate participant observation relationships, people treat a woman as inherently less significant than a man a good laugh can be truly healing. I don't know about anyone else but I sure had a good laugh over Morris Simon's letter. Fellow Anthropologists and Sister Anthropologists, I proudly nominate Morns Simon as the first President of Anthropological Husbands' (Ms} Veronica M Fr-et- Problems Contacting 10th ICAES Recounted HBS anybody else been having trouble making contact with the o<cta<xi?ers ot th« 10th International Congress of Anthropo logical and Ethnological Sciences in India'