DISCUSSION AND DEBATE a49

the Invoking of Family Roles. Ameri- can Anthropologist 74:231-241.

The Free Press.

Parsons, Talcott

Thomas, W. I.

1951 The Social System, New York:

1928 The Child in America. New York: Knopf.

Schools, Disciplines, and Reviews

JUDITH LYNNE HANNA Columbia University

Arens’ review of Urban Dynamics in Black Africa: An Interdisciplinary Approach (AA 75:1828-1828) is disturbing in a t least two respects-my co-author terms these “academic ideological bias” and “oceanic presumption.” (I leave aside the fact that the main themes of the book are never men- tioned.) First, it displays a lack of sympathy with the main thrust of contemporary social science: the attempt to establish empirically based general statements about human be- havior. Thus, after he quotes an introduc- tory statement that “heavy reliance is placed upon general statements,” he condemns such an effort: “Unfortunately, this sentence too adequately characterizes what follows.”

The two paragraphs in the book which follow the quoted statement elaborate what was attemped and show how it fits into a wider effort among social scientists:

This approach is designed to maximize the usefulness of the analysis presented herein to an understanding of all urban areas in Black Africa or any randomly selected one, whether or not specifically covered in the text. Obviously, com- parable detailed information about every town could not be obtained. Therefore, the generalizations presented should be viewed as a series of working hypotheses.

While the emphasis here is upon general statements, it is of great im- portance to recognize that Black Africa’s urban areas and the perspectives and prac- tices of their inhabitants vary consider- ably and that the illustrations we present do not take the place of systematic tests of the working hypotheses (p. 5).

Submitted for publication March 21 ,1974 Accepted for publication April 1, 1974

Some of the general statements we made strike the reviewer as being “selfevident” or “not very startling discoveries.” (By implica- tion, there are some “startling discoveries.”) It should be noted that although most re- search findings are not surprises, what ap- pears through common sense to be obvious may turn out upon investigation not to be

It seems to me that our attempt to generalize and synthesize is compatible with at least one recognized “school” of anthro- pology, not to mention the dominant view in sociology, economics, psychology, and political science. Such books as Perti J. Pelto’s Anthropological Research: The Structure o f Inquiry (1970) and Raoul Naroll and Ronald Cohen’s A Handbook of Method in Cultural Anthropology (1970) are in part pleas for more generalizing work. They point out that both the case study and the nomothetic approaches have their place in the development of a scientific under- standing of man. Pelto, for instance, notes “that data from a single society can only be used for suggesting higher-order relation- ships: establishing more abstract theoretical propositions depends on some kind of trans- formation of primary descriptive data, through a process involving information from many different societies” (1970:7).

Urban Dynamics in Black Africa was not meant to be the final word-our effort was instrumental. Having conceptually synthe- sized the literature (including selected results from our own urban field research, a com- parison of the town-centered communities of Umuahia and Mbale, reported in Hanna and Hanna 1966, 1967, 1969), we call for “additional theoretical development and empirical research so that our understanding of Africa, urban areas, and change itself will be further advanced” (p. 208). This instru- mental thrust was noted by a number of the book’s reviewers. Political scientist Marc Ross writes that the book “is an important first step towards developing systematic generalizations about African city life . . . we can see more clearly phenomena which ap- pear t o be nearly universal in Africa, as well as ways in which particular cities are distinc- tive or even ‘unique”’ (1973). Africanist and urban anthropologist Kenneth Little points out that “the Hannas’ discussion of townward movements and their implications

so.

850 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [76,1974]

for urban life puts these phenomena in per- spective. It should encourage the study of migration in terms of the relevant encom- passing socioeconomic system instead of treating migration as some kind of social problem” (1972). Alvin Magid thought the chapters on “Bases of Political Integration” and “Patterns of Change” were particularly imaginative exercises in concept formation and theory construction which “ought to generate some fruitful micropolitical re- search” (1969).

Second, Arens’ review is disturbing be- cause of its multidisciplinary presumption. He thinks we d o “little justice” to the con- cerns and contributions of disciplines other than political science. Fortunately, the book has had at least 15 reviews by experts repre- senting different disciplines and different “schools” within the same discipline. Some of these have been already referred to.

Quotes from a few representatives of sociology and economics underscore the re- viewer’s perhaps questionable decision to speak for the world of social science. From sociology, Igolima T. D. Amachree wrote, “This book.. . contains a veritable mine of information and is a compendium that should be valuable to all scholars, but par- ticularly those interested in urban Africa” (1972). Economist Diawa-Mory Traore writes, “Reading Urban Dynamics in Black Africa-with African eyes-reveals an excel- lent contribution and use of theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and re- search skills in an attempt to synthesize the relevant knowledge on African towns and townsmen in mid-twentieth century” (1973). And in an unsigned review from the Journal of Economic Literature:

This book provides a detailed analysis of the effect of external intervention and socioeconomic modernization upon the birth and development of Africa’s new urban areas and the rapid expansion of its established cities. I t also explores the effect of urbanization on the individual, especially his decision to migrate to towns and remain there. Another notable feature is an explanation of how ethnic and nonethnic ties serve as the bases of a system of political integration unique to polyethnic communities. Finally, a sum- marizing commentary is offered (at an abstract level) to bring together and ex-

plain all the primary relationships and re- lated patterns of urban change (1972). Urban Dynamics in Black Africa does not

present all possible general and conditional statements, all empirical evidence from all types of localities, all perspectives from all disciplines. We may not, as the reviewer charged, “appreciate the complexity and diversity of rural social systems” [emphasis added]. Time, resources, and undoubtedly personal deficiencies prevented such an ef- fort. We did not, as did Arens, spend sixteen months studying an unusual Tanzanian vil- lage founded in 1920 which included members of almost seventy “tribal groups” in a population of 3500 (Arens 1970). But in 208 pages of text plus an extensive bibli- ography, we tried to pull an enormously diverse body of literature together in a way that would introduce readers to urban Africa and inspire scholars to conduct research which would help to fill the many knowl- edge gaps. Fortunately, a large number of readers have found value in this effort, I sincerely regret that Arens did not.

References Cited Amachree, Igolima T. D.

1972 Journal of Developing Areas, Octo- ber.

Arens, William Edward 1970 Mto Wa Mbu: A Study of a

Multi-Tribal Community in Rural Tan- zania. Unpublished doctoral disserta- tion, University of Virginia.

Hanna, William John, and Judith Lynne Hanna

1966 The Problem of Ethnicity and Fac- tionalism in African Survey Research. Public Opinion Quarterly 30: 290-294.

1967 The Political Structure of Urban- Centered African Communities. In The City in Modern Africa. Horace Miner, Ed. New York: Praeger. pp. 151-184.

1969 Polyethnicity and Political Inte- gration in Umuahia and Mbale. Zn Comparative Urban Research. Robert T. Daland, Ed. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. pp. 163-202.

1971 Urban Dynamics in Black Africa: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Chica- go: Aldine-Atherton.

1972 Africa (October). Little Kenneth

DISCUSSION A N D DEBATE 851

Magid, Alvin Correction to the Stout Bibliography Naroll, Raoul, and Ronald Cohen, Eds.

1969 Publisher's review.

1973 A Handbook of Method in Cultur- a1 Anthropology. New York: Colum- FRANKLIN 0. LOVELAND bia University Press. Ge ttysburg College

1970 Anthropological Research: The The bibliography of David Stout which Structure of Inquiry. New was appended to his obituary (AA 76: 73-75) Harper and Row. fails to include Sun Blas Cum Acculturation:

An Introduction, Viking Fund Publication Ross, Marc Howard No. 9, 1947. Since this monograph has been 1973 Journal of Modern African Studies

(September). Traore, Diawa-Mory important to researchers in the area of lower

1973 Journal of Economic Literature Central America, i t should be added to his (March). list of publications.

Pelto, Pertti J.