Anthropology News March 2001 S E C T I O N N E W S

Society for Anthropology in Community Colleqes LLOYD MILLER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Bargaining in Cuanajuato

By Lloyd Miller Here is an abridged version of a 1990 field trip experience, originally published in SACC Notes, Spring-Summer 1993. It may be of interest to those of you attendmg the Oaxaca Conference.

We entered the Jardin de la Unih, a small plaza encircled by open-air cafes and tourist shops, and sat down at a table. One of the ven- dors, strolling slowly about the plaza, greeted us and asked if we’d like to buy a rug.

”Good moming, sefiores. These are pure wool and very cheap.”

“No, gracias,” I responded. “We accept travelers’ cheques, bank cards,

promissory notes of credit,” he quipped, obvi- ously in good humor and ignoring my rejection.

A short time later he approached again, ex- tending a large rug of many pastel colors, with the same friendly smile. “Here’s one that will surely dress up a room in your home. Pure wool, made entirely by hand in San Miguel de Allende. If you buy it there, it will cost you 400,000 pesos but here it’s yours for 296,000.”

“It is very beautiful but we’re really not inter- ested in buying rugs,” I said, trying to match his friendliness while firmly establishing our credi- bility as noncustomers.

(Ignoring my comment) “Since there have been few tourists and I haven’t made a sale yet this moming, I’ll let you have it for 200,000,’’

(Still friendly, st i l l firm) “That’s very generous of you but we really aren’t in the market for any

At this moment, his younger colleague a p proached, displaying a lovely white rug about half the size. . . . The older vendor said, “This rug normally sells for 150,000 pesos but I’m going to give it you for 90,000.”

“That’s very generous of you,“ I said, “but we truly have no use for a new rug now.”

“This can also be hung on a wall or used as a bed spread.” (Extending it once more) “See how beautiful it would look.”

(I, less firm and hoping to change the subject). . . . “You know, you‘re a very good salesman.”

“NO, sefior. You’re very kind, but if I were a good salesman, I’d have sold you this rug already.” (We both laughed). “You can have this one for 80,000 pesos . . . ”

“Sefior, you really are a topnotch. . . and your rugs are very lovely, but we truly do not want to buy any. We need to save our money for other things, the expensive food, the high cost of trav- eling. . . ”

(He, laughing confidently, as if none of our pre- vious conversation had taken place). “No prob

rugs.“

lem, you can even pay in small installments, take as long as you want. Perhaps you’d like to throw in your watch.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t get much with this one,” I said, waving my goldcolored, $30 dollar Lorus analog. . . . We talked a bit more about watches and then he and his younger associate drifted back to their bench, leaving the rug on our table, a few inches from our drinks.

At this point, my companion said, stroking the merchandise, “You know, this white wool rug would actually look good in our den.“

“Are you really interested in buying it?” I asked.“After all my efforts at trying to convince them that we’re not in the market?”

“Well, I know, but if we were going to buy a rug for the den, I’d like this one, and the price is

The older vendor now retumed and planted himself firmly in front of us. “60,000 pesos, sefior. You said I’m a good salesman. If you don’t buy the rug for this price, you can have it as a

“If you gave it to me as a gift, you’d be a saint!” I responded. He burst out laughmg, crossed him- self and repeated what I had said to his friend. . . . I looked at my companion, she nodded, and I said that if he would accept 50,000 pesos, we’d take the rug.

He hesitated, did some quick mental calcula- tions and responded “let’s make it 55,000.”

We completed the deal. The younger man fetched a plastic bag for the rug and the four of us amiably parted company. . . .

good.”

glft.”

Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness CONSTANTINE HRISKOS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR As we get closer to our spring meeting in Seattle, I encourage those of you who are organizing pan- els and presenting papers to send me some infor- mation regarding the issues, ideas and research with which you are engaged. There are only two columns left in this academic ye ar...p lease e-mail me at c-hriskos@yahoo.com.

This month I am pleased to present a synopsis and a review of a paper given by one of our board members and former President. When it was pre- sented, this paper was entitled, “Formulating Drug Abuse Management and Rehabilitation Pro- grams Based on Cross-Cultural and Psychobio- logical Perspectives.” For this column, however, it has been re-titled as follows:

Alternative and Traditional Medicine Approaches for Substance Abuse Programs: A Shamanic Perspective

By Michael Winkelman (Arizona State U) Analysis of the relationship of altered states of consciousness (ASC) to culture and human psy- chobiology provides guidance for new approach- es for addressing substance abuse and depend- ence. While Western cultures have a long history of repressing ASC, cross-cultural research illus- trates the ubiquitous human drive to alter con- sciousness and the near universality of institu- tionalized healing practices based on ASC. There is evidence of the potential effectiveness of ASC procedures for treating substance dependence in ethnomedical treatments of addiction, the addic- tion literature, Alcoholics Anonymous and the physiological effects of shamanistic practices. A review of shamanic therapeutic mechanisms illustrates their applicability to addressing the psychodynamics of drug addiction. Clinical research on the treatment of drug dependence through the use of meditative practice and mod- els of their psychobiological dynamics demon- strates the utility of natural ASC practices to re- duce substance dependence problems. Shamanis- tic practices induce a relaxation response, en- hance theta-wave production and stimulate en- dogenous opioid and serotonergic mechanisms and their mood elevating effects. Directions of a shamanic based ASC therapy for drug depend- ence are suggested based on preliminary inter- vention programs established in drug rehabilita- tion programs.

Many thanks to Michael for this review of a very important area for future research. Every so often we realize that anthropology just might have somethmg practical to offer. Some insight that might alleviate the pain and suffering of oth- ers. This is something that I would like to see more of, especially from the heights of our field where what we usually get is a headache when we try to wade through the latest in “stylistic“ advances (how many words does it really take to say so very very little?) generated by our less and less relevant luminaries. But one need only read Hegel to realize just how intellectually shallow all that writing really is. How much posturing is involved, how self-absorbed it is? The least some of these individuals could do is turn to fiction so that we could measure their penchant for writing against those who really are great authors instead of continually flourishing their pens in our faces and asking us to be amazed. I think it unfortu- nate that so few of us have actually read great lit- erature; and compared to that, how weak the prose of anthropologists does seem! Alas, neither great philosophers nor artists can they be. What then should we label what they write: Intellectual diaries, cocktail chatter, anthropological cross- word puzzles for the elite? As for me, I’d rather curl up with a good book than try to actually keep up with all this idle blather.

Contributions to this column should be addressed to the conbibuting editor at c-hriskos@yahoo.com.

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