Suffering What It Must? Mongolia and the Power of the ‘Weak’

Mongolia is not a hapless object on which the great powers may act at will. Like other small states existing on the periphery of great powers, Mongolia has—and does exercise—political agency. Its policies and actions affect not only the bilateral relationship it has with each of the greater powers, but—as an outgrowth of those bilateral relations—it also exerts some influence on the relationship that the great powers, in turn, have with each other. “… you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”¹     

Demographic change and forensic identification: problems in metric identification of Hispanic skeletons

The United States (U.S.) population structure is currently in a state of flux with one of the most profound changes being the increasing number of people referred to as Hispanic. In the U.S., much of the identification criteria for a biological profile are based on American Black and White individuals from anatomical collections. Using metric data from the Forensic Anthropology Data Bank (FDB), this paper will attempt to explore several issues that forensic anthropologists face when confronted with Hispanic remains. These will involve estimation of sex, height, and ancestry, the initial components of a biological profile. Discriminant function analyses indicate that American White criteria provide poor estimations of sex when applied to Hispanics and that ancestry estimation of Hispanic crania is difficult. Additionally, a new linear regression equation is presented that estimates stature for Hispanic individuals, although population specific criteria are still needed for Hispanic individuals from diverse geographical origins.     

Socioeconomic status,unemployment experience,and political participation: A disentangling of main and interaction effects

A clarification of the effects of unemployment on political participation attitudes and behaviors is developed by contrasting the effect of unemployment experience across categories of socioeconomic status. Data on employed and unemployed heads of household are drawn from the 1976 University of Michigan national presidential election survey. The results indicate both main and interaction effects. Regardless of employment status, lower socioeconomic status respondents are less committed to voting, feel less efficacious, are less interested in politics, and are less politically active than persons of higher status. However, participation attitudes and behaviors are more adversely affected by unemployment experience among those of lower than higher status. Among higher status respondents, attitudes toward self (i.e., feelings of efficacy) and political interest—but not political activity or attitude toward the importance of participation—are altered by unemployment.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Southwestern Sociological meetings in Ft. Worth, Texas, March 1979.     

Sudden and suspicious deaths outside the deceased's own country — Time for an international protocol

Increased leisure time, international business commitments, and ease of travel have led to an increased incidence of sudden deaths outside the deceased's own country.Methods of investigation of sudden death, and the extent of such enquiries, vary greatly from country to country. The relatives of the deceased frequently make serious allegations relating to the circumstances of the death when they return to their homeland, and when the body is repatriated, a local pathologist may be directed to make an examination. This is frequently limited by inadequate police information, inadequate preservation of the organs and the absence of any autopsy report.Examples of these difficulties are presented, and suggestions offered for a basic protocol for the examination and report upon the death of a foreign national.Following the presentation of this paper at the International Association of Forensic Sciences Meeting in Bergen, considerable discussion took place and there have been further developments in the United Kingdom. These are briefly reported.