Clarence C. Gravlee

The growth of the Internet opens new possibilities for web-based data collection in cognitive anthropology. This study examines whether free-list data collected online are comparable to those collected with face-to-face interviews or with self-administered paper questionnaires. We collected free lists for two cultural domains in the United States: one diffuse (“things that mothers do”) and one relatively well defined (“racial and ethnic groups”). We selected a purposive sample of 318 university students and randomly assigned participants to provide free lists for one of these domains using a web-based survey, a face-to-face interview, or a self-administered paper questionnaire. All three modes identified the same set of salient concepts in each domain. Median list length per respondent varied across modes in response to a standard free-list question and to supplementary probes. For the well-defined domain of “racial and ethnic groups,” supplementary probes widened differences among modes; for the more diffuse domain of “things that mothers do,” probes erased evidence of mode effects. Collecting free lists online is viable but may yield different results depending on the study population and attributes of the cultural domains.

Objectives: Our goal was to assess the relative roles of education and genetic ancestry in predicting blood pressure (BP) within African Americans, and to explore the association between education and BP across racial groups.

Methods: We used t-tests and linear regressions to examine the associations of genetic ancestry, estimated from a genome-wide set of autosomal markers, and education with BP variation among African American participants in the Familial Blood Pressure Program (FBPP). We also performed linear regressions in self-identified African Americans and Whites to explore the association of education with BP across racial groups in FBPP.

Results: Education, but not genetic ancestry, significantly predicted BP variation in the African American subsample (B=-0.51 mmHg/year additional education, p=0.001). Although education was inversely associated with BP in the total population, within- group analyses showed that education remained a significant predictor of BP only in the African American subsample. A significant interaction (B=3.20, p=0.006) was found between education and self-identified race in predicting BP.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that racial disparities in blood pressure may be better explained by differences in education than by genetic ancestry. Future studies of genetic ancestry and disease should be careful to include measures of the social environment.

Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual’s actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002-2006 inclusive) from 791 adults in one society of foragers-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane’. We estimate the association between a standard measure of individual achievement of the cultural model, cultural consonance, and three indicators of body morphology. Drawing on research suggesting that in societies in the early stages of economic development an increase in socioeconomic status is associated with an increase in mean body mass, we expect to find a positive association between cultural consonance and three anthropometric measures. We found the expected positive association between cultural consonance and anthropometric measures – especially for men – only when using ordinary least square (OLS) regression models, but not when using fixed-effects regression models. The real magnitude of the association was low. The comparison of estimates from OLS and fixed-effect regression models suggests that previous findings on the effects of cultural consonance on body morphology using cross-sectional data should be read with caution because the association might be largely explained by fixed characteristics of individuals not accounted in OLS models.

The ubiquity and consequences of childhood growth stunting (<-2 SD in height-for-age Z score, HAZ) in rural areas of low-income nations has galvanized research into the reversibility of stunting, but the shortage of panel data has hindered progress. Using panel data from a native Amazonian society of foragers-farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane'), we estimate rates of catch-up growth for stunted children. One hundred forty-six girls and 158 boys 2 age 7 were measured annually during 2002-2006. Annual height in cm and in HAZ were regressed separately against baseline stunting and control variables related to attributes of the child, mother, household, and village. Children stunted at baseline had catch-up growth rates 0.11 SD/year higher than their nonstunted age and sex peers, with a higher rate among children farther from towns. The rate of catch up did not differ by the child's sex. A 10% rise in household income and an additional younger sibling lowered by 0.16 SD/year and 0.53 SD/year the rate of growth. Results were weaker when measuring height in cm rather than in HAZ. Possible reasons for catch-up growth include (a) omitted variable bias, (b) parental reallocation of resources to redress growth faltering, particularly if parents perceive the benefits of redressing growth faltering for child school achievement, and (c) developmental plasticity during this period when growth rates are most rapid and linear growth trajectories have not yet canalized.

Among adults of industrial nations, growth stunting (<−2 SD height Z score) is associated with worse indicators of adult well-being (e.g., income). Does adult stunting also inflict private costs in traditional societies? Adult stunting penalties or height premiums might only emerge when traditional societies modernize. Here we estimate the association between adult stunting and indicators of adult well-being using data from a panel study in progress among the Tsimane’, a foraging–farming society of native Amazonians in Bolivia. Subjects included 248 women and 255 men ≥age 22 measured annually during 5 consecutive years (2002–2006). Nine outcomes (wealth, monetary income, illness, access to credit, mirth, schooling, math skills, plant knowledge, forest clearance) were regressed separately against a stunting dummy variable and a wide range of control variables. We found no significant association between any of the indicators of own well-being and adult stunting. Additional analysis showed that stunting bore an association only with poorer mid-arm muscle area. Height premiums and stunting penalties, though evident and marked in modern societies, might not be common in all traditional societies.

Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual’s actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002-2006 inclusive) from 791 adults in one society of foragers-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane’. We estimate the association between a standard measure of individual achievement of the cultural model and (a) four indicators of psychological well-being (sadness, anger, fear, and happiness) and (b) consumption of four potentially addictive substances (alcohol, cigarette, coca leaves, and home-breed beer), as indicators of stress behavior. After controlling for individual fixed-effects, we found a negative association between individual achievement of the cultural model and psychological distress and a positive association between individual achievement of the cultural model and psychological well-being. Only the consumption of commercial alcohol bears the expected negative association with cultural consonance in material lifestyle, probably because the other substances analyzed have cultural values attached. Our work contributes to research on psychological health disparities by showing that a locally defined and culturally specific measure of lifestyle success is associated with psychological health.

Background
The role of race in human genetics and biomedical research is among the most contested issues in science. Much debate centers on the relative importance of genetic versus sociocultural factors in explaining racial inequalities in health. However, few studies integrate genetic and sociocultural data to test competing explanations directly.
Methodology/Principal Findings
We draw on ethnographic, epidemiologic, and genetic data collected in southeastern Puerto Rico to isolate two distinct variables for which race is often used as a proxy: genetic ancestry versus social classification. We show that color, an aspect of social classification based on the culturally defined meaning of race in Puerto Rico, better predicts blood pressure than does a genetic-based estimate of continental ancestry. We also find that incorporating sociocultural variables reveals a new and significant association between a candidate gene polymorphism for hypertension (α2C adrenergic receptor deletion) and blood pressure.
Conclusions/Significance
This study addresses the recognized need to measure both genetic and sociocultural factors in research on racial inequalities in health. Our preliminary results provide the most direct evidence to date that previously reported associations between genetic ancestry and health may be attributable to sociocultural factors related to race and racism, rather than to functional genetic differences between racially defined groups. Our results also imply that including sociocultural variables in future research may improve our ability to detect significant allele-phenotype associations. Thus, measuring sociocultural factors related to race may both empower future genetic association studies and help to clarify the biological consequences of social inequalities.

Forces such as the opening of trade, globalization, multinational corporate resource extraction, urbanization, acculturation, and colonization catalyze economic, ecological, and sociocultural change, which can threaten the well‐being and habitat of native Amazonians. Understanding these forces is of paramount importance to improve the well‐being of native Amazonians and to foster the conservation of biological diversity, yet most analyses of these forces rely on cross‐sectional data. Though adequate to describe the association between variables at one point in time, cross‐sectional data do not allow one to estimate changes in well‐being over time. We collected data annually during five consecutive years (2002–2006, inclusive) from a foraging and farming society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’) to estimate annual rates of change for seven indicators of adult well‐being. Indicators encompassed both objective and subjective measures of well‐being that included economic, health, psychological, and social dimensions that overlap well with Tsimane’ notions of well‐being. The annual rate of change in the inflation‐adjusted (hereafter real) value of food consumption (+6.35%), body mass index (+0.71%), and incidence of anger (−10.40%) show significant improvements over time, but the annual rate of change in the self‐reported number of recent ailments (+7.35%) shows a significant deterioration. Trends in other indicators of well‐being (smiles, real wealth, social relations) show positive but insignificant rates of change. Results did not vary by sex and were consistent when using other indicators of well‐being.

The current debate over racial inequalities in health is arguably the most important venue for advancing both scientific and public understanding of race, racism, and human biological variation. In the United States and elsewhere, there are well-defined inequalities between racially defined groups for a range of biological outcomes—cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, certain cancers, low birth weight, preterm delivery, and others. Among biomedical researchers, these patterns are often taken as evidence of fundamental genetic differences between alleged races. However, a growing body of evidence establishes the primacy of social inequalities in the origin and persistence of racial health disparities. Here I summarize this evidence and argue that the debate over racial inequalities in health presents an opportunity to refine the critique of race in three ways: (1) to reiterate why the race concept is inconsistent with patterns of global human genetic diversity; (2) to refocus attention on the complex, environmental influences on human biology at multiple levels of analysis and across the lifecourse; and (3) to revise the claim that race is a cultural construct and expand research on the sociocultural reality of race and racism. Drawing on recent developments in neighboring disciplines, I present a model for explaining how racial inequality becomes embodied—literally—in the biological well-being of racialized groups and individuals. This model requires a shift in the way we articulate the critique of race as bad biology.

In this article, we argue for the increased use of panel data in cultural anthropology. Panel data, or repeated measures from the same units of observation at different times, have proliferated across the social sciences, with the exception of anthropology. The lack of panel data in anthropology is puzzling, since panel data are among the best for analyzing continuity and change—central concerns of anthropological theory. Panel data also establish temporal order in causal analysis and potentially improve the reliability and accuracy of measurement. We review how researchers in anthropology and neighboring disciplines have dealt with the unique challenges of collecting panel data and draw lessons for minimizing the adverse consequences of measurement error, for reducing attrition, and for ensuring continuity in management, archiving, documentation, financing, and leadership. We argue that increased use of panel data has the potential to advance empirical knowledge and contribute to anthropological theory.

Researchers across the health sciences are engaged in a vigorous debate over the role that the concepts of “race” and “ethnicity” play in health research and clinical practice. Here we contribute to that debate by examining how the concepts of race, ethnicity, and racism are used in medical–anthropological research. We present a content analysis of Medical Anthropology and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, based on a systematic random sample of empirical research articles (n = 283) published in these journals from 1977 to 2002. We identify both differences and similarities in the use of race, ethnicity, and racism concepts in medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines, and we offer recommendations for ways that medical anthropologists can contribute to the broader debate over racial and ethnic inequalities in health.

We compare blood pressure and hypertension between adult men on the USA mainland and in Puerto Rico born during 1886–1930 to test hypotheses about the link between cardiovascular health and large socioeconomic and political changes in society: (a) 8853 men surveyed in Puerto Rico in 1965 and (b) 1449 non-Hispanic White men surveyed on the mainland during 1971–1975. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and hypertension were regressed separately on demographic and socioeconomic variables and cardiovascular risk factors. Mainland men not taking anti-hypertensive medication showed statistically significant improvements in systolic blood pressure and hypertension at the beginning of the century and men in Puerto Rico showed improvements in diastolic blood pressure but only during the last two quinquenniums. An average man born on the mainland during the last birth quinquennium (1926–1930) had 7.4–8.7 mmHg lower systolic blood pressure and was 61% less likely to have systolic hypertension than one born before 1901. On average Puerto Rican men born during 1921–1925 had not, vert, similar1.7 mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure than men born before 1901. Analyses of secular trends in cardiovascular health complements analyses of secular trends in anthropometric indicators and together provide a fuller view of the changing health status of a population.

The popularity of direct or systematic social observation as a method to evaluate the mechanisms by which neighborhood environments impact health and contribute to health disparities is growing. The development of measures with adequate inter-rater and test–retest reliability is essential for this research. In this paper, based on our experiences conducting direct observation of neighborhoods in Detroit, MI, we describe strategies to promote high inter-rater and test–retest reliability and methods to evaluate reliability. We then present the results and discuss implications for future research efforts using direct observation in four areas: methods to evaluate reliability, instrument content and design, observer training, and data collection.

This article evaluates the use of handheld computers for systematic observation of the social and physical environments. Handheld computers, also known as personal digital assistants (PDAs), make the advantages of computer-assisted data collection (CADC) more accessible to field-based researchers. In particular, CADC with handheld computers may improve data quality, reduce turnaround time, and enhance research capacity for community-academic partnerships. Here, we describe our experiences using handheld computers for the Healthy Environments Partnership’s Neighborhood Observational Checklist, an instrument for systematic observation of the social and physical environments. We discuss hardware and software considerations, observer training and implementation strategies, and observer attitudes toward using handhelds in the field. We conclude that handheld computers are a feasible alternative to pen-and-paper forms, and we identify ways that future researchers can maximize the advantages of CADC with handheld computers to advance our understanding of how neighborhood context relates to individual-level outcomes.

Objectives. Our understanding of the relationships between perceived discrimination and health was limited by the cross-sectional design of most previous studies. We examined the longitudinal association of self-reported everyday discrimination with depressive symptoms and self-rated general health. Methods. Data came from 2 waves (1996 and 2001) of the Eastside Village Health Worker Partnership survey, a community-based participatory survey of African American women living on Detroit’s east side (n=343). We use longitudinal models to test the hypothesis that a change in everyday discrimination over time is associated with a change in self-reported symptoms of depression (positive) and on self-reported general health status (negative). Results. We found that a change over time in discrimination was significantly associated with a change over time in depressive symptoms (positive) (b=0.125; P<.001) and self-rated general health (negative) (b=–0.163; P<.05) independent of age, education, or income. Conclusions. The results reported here are consistent with the hypothesis that everyday encounters with discrimination are causally associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes. In this sample of African American women, this association holds above and beyond the effects of income and education.

Objectives. We tested competing hypotheses for the skin color–blood pressure relationship by analyzing the association between blood pressure and 2 skin color variables: skin pigmentation and social classification. Methods. We measured skin pigmentation by reflectance spectrophotometry and social classification by linking respondents to ethnographic data on the cultural model of “color” in southeastern Puerto Rico. We used multiple regression analysis to test the associations between these variables and blood pressure in a community-based sample of Puerto Rican adults aged 25–55 years (n=100). Regression models included age, gender, body mass index (BMI), self-reported use of antihypertensive medication, and socioeconomic status (SES). Results. Social classification, but not skin pigmentation, is associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure through a statistical interaction with SES, independent of age, gender, BMI, self-reported use of antihypertensive medication, and skin reflectance. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that sociocultural processes mediate the relationship between skin color and blood pressure. They also help to clarify the meaning and measurement of skin color and “race” as social variables in health research.

The description and explanation of racial and ethnic health disparities are major initiatives of the public health research establishment. Black Americans suffer on nearly every measure of health in relation to white Americans. Five theoretical models have been proposed to explain these disparities: a racial-genetic model, a health-behavior model, a socioeconomic status model, a psychosocial stress model, and a structural-constructivist model. We selectively review literature on health disparities, emphasizing research on low birth weight and high blood pressure. The psychosocial stress model and the structural-constructivist model offer greatest promise to explain disparities. In future research, theoretical elaboration and operational specificity are needed to distinguish among three distinct factors: (a) genetic variants contributing to disease risk; (b) ethnoracial or folk racial categories masquerading as biology; and (c) ethnic group membership. Such elaboration is necessary to move beyond the conflation of these three distinct constructs that characterizes much of current research.

This article presents a systematic ethnographic study of emic ethnic classification in Puerto Rico, including a replication and extension of Marvin Harris’s (1970) seminal study in Brazil. I address three questions: (1) what are the core emic categories of color? (2) what dimensions of semantic structure organize this cultural domain? and (3) is the assumption of a shared cultural model justified? Data are from two sets of ethnographic interviews in southeastern Puerto Rico, including 23 free listing interviews and 42 structured interviews using Harris’s standardized facial portraits. Results indicate a small core of salient emic categories with well-defined semantic structure and high interinformant agreement, reflecting shared cultural understandings of color. I discuss how systematic ethnographic methods can contribute to comparative research on ethnic classification.

Darker skin color has been associated with higher average blood pressure in several African-derived populations in the Americas. This pattern has been interpreted as evidence of genetic, physiologic, or sociocultural mechanisms, but existing evidence does not provide an adequate means of evaluating these alternatives. This paper introduces a measurement strategy to isolate the cultural and biological dimensions of skin color, and it develops a specific hypothesis regarding the cultural significance of skin color in Puerto Rico and its relationship to arterial blood pressure. Data come from a face-to-face survey in southeastern Puerto Rico (N = 100). There is no association between blood pressure and skin pigmentation, as measured by reflectance spectrophotometry. However, the discrepancy between self-perceived color and skin pigmentation, a measure we call color incongruity, is associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) through an interaction with socioeconomic status (SES) (P = 0.009). For low-SES respondents, darker self-ratings of color relative to skin pigmentation are associated with higher mean SBP. For high-SES respondents, however, darker self-ratings of color relative to pigmentation are associated with lower mean SBP. We interpret this pattern as evidence that the relationship between skin color and blood pressure is mediated by sociocultural processes, and we highlight the need for testable hypotheses and appropriate measurement operations in research on racial inequalities in health.

In two recent articles, we and another set of researchers independently reanalyzed data from Franz Boas’s classic study of immigrants and their descendants. Whereas we confirm Boas’s overarching conclusion regarding the plasticity of cranial form, Corey Sparks and Richard Jantz argue that Boas was incorrect. Here we attempt to reconcile these apparently incompatible conclusions. We first address methodological differences between our reanalyses and suggest that (1) Sparks and Jantz posed a different set of questions than we did, and (2) their results are largely consistent with our own. We then discuss our differing understandings of Boas’s original argument and of the concept of cranial plasticity. In particular, we argue that Sparks and Jantz attribute to Boas a position he explicitly rejected. When we clarify Boas’s position and place the immigrant study in historical context, Sparks and Jantz’s renalysis supports our conclusion that, on the whole, Boas got it right.

Franz Boas’s classic study, Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, is a landmark in the history of anthropology. More than any single study, it undermined racial typology in physical anthropology and helped turn the tide against early-20thcentury scientific racism. In 1928, Boas responded to critics of the immigrant study by publishing the raw data set as Materials for the Study of Inheritance in Man. Here we present a reanalysis of that long-neglected data set. Using methods that were unavailable to Boas, we test his main conclusion that cranial form changed in response to environmental influences within a single generation of European immigrants to the United States. In general, we conclude that Boas got it right. However, we demonstrate that modern analytical methods provide stronger support for Boas’s conclusion than did the tools at his disposal. We suggest future areas of research for this historically important data set.

Computer-assisted data collection in survey research offers potentially lower costs,quicker turnaround time, and improved data quality as compared to traditionalpaper-and-pencil methods. The proliferation of handheld computers in recent yearsnow makes these benefits more accessible to field researchers. Handheld computersare inexpensive, portable, and energy efficient, making them ideal field instruments.In this article, I review a new software product designed for mobile computer-assistedpersonal interviewing (MCAPI) with Palm OS handheld computers. Basedon my experience with MCAPI in the field, I conclude that version 3.0 of Entrywaresoftware is a robust tool for face-to-face or self-administered structured interviewsin field settings. I also consider some implications of this new technology for fieldresearch, including respondents’ reactions and data quality.