An Exception to the "Image of Limited Good" Author(s): Michael Kearney Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol.

71, No. 5 (Oct., 1969), pp. 888-890 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/670074 Accessed: 21/11/2010 18:50
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FRY, W. F., JR.
HALEY, JAY

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1962 The marital context of an anxiety syndrome. Family Process 1:245-252. 1959a The family of the schizophrenic: a model system. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 129:357-374. 1959b An interactional description of schizophrenia. Psychiatry 22:331-332. 1963 Strategies of psychotherapy. New York: Grune and Stratton. 1957 The question of family homeostasis. Psychiatric Quarterly, Supplement 31:7990, part 1.

ant world view. The limited good concept holds that all desirable material and non-material entities are seen as existing in finite amounts which cannot be augmented. In such communities, however, it is implicitly assumed that one can experience intensified desirable emotions without necessarily suffering a loss in some other area of life, as is implied by the Image of Limited Good.
Accepted for publication 31 January 1969.

JACKSON, DON D.

I wish, in this brief communication, to

add a footnote to the recent dialogue in the AA, on Foster's "Image of Limited Good" & Saler 1966). The argument presented here

JACKSON, DON D., ed.

1968a Communication, family and marriage: Human communication, Volume 1. Palo Alto: Science and Behavior Books. 1968b Therapy, communicationand change: Human communication, Volume 2. Palo Alto: Science and Behavior Books. 1963 Transference revisited. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 137:363-371.

(Bennett 1966; Foster 1965, 1966; Kaplan

JACKSON, DON D., and JAY HALEY

R. E., C. F. HOCKETT,and J. H. PITTINGER,

DANEHY

1960 The first five minutes. Ithaca; Paul Martineau.

BATESON RUESCH,JURGEN,and GREGORY
SCHEFLEN, ALBERT E.

1951 Communication: the social matrix of psychiatry. New York: Norton.

PAUL, JANET HELMICK BEAVIN, which societies that have this world view WATZLAWICK, and DON D. JACKSON find themselves and second by social and

1965 Stream and structure of communicational behavior. Philadelphia: Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute Behavioral Studies Monograph No. 1.

As Foster shows us, in Tzintzuntzan and other peasant communities all desirable material conditions and entities are in short supply and cannot be maximized by any one individual without subtracting from the fair share of others in the same community. This idea in turn then generalizes to other nonmaterial things such as love, health, manliness, and so forth. Life as a whole is seen in gain-loss terms, such that if maximization is attempted in one area, there must be a diminishing of resources, either the community's or the individual's, in some other area of all by the poor material conditions in

supports Foster's concept by demonstrating an exceptionto it.

of life. This world view is perpetuatedfirst

WEAKLAND, JOHN H.

1967 Pragmaticsof human communication: a study of interactional patterns, pathologies and paradoxes. New York: Norton.

1960 The double-bind hypothesis of schizophrenia and three-party interaction. In The etiology of schizophrenia. Don D. Jackson, ed. New York: Basic Books. 1967 Communication and behavior-an introduction. American Behavioral Scientist 10 (8):1-4.
AN EXCEPTIONTO THE "IMAGE OF LIMITED GOOD"

psychological patterns of institutionalized envy, e.g., gossip and witchcraft. Life in societies characterized by the image of limited good is one of perennial frustration. Indeed, the explanatory power of the limited good concept is as great as it is because it goes to the heart of this widespread frustration and the sociopsychological patterns that result from associated repressed But we should not be led to believe that the human spirit is so weak as to not con-

hostility.

University of California, Riverside Research in southern Mexico indicates that there is a general exception to Foster's Image of Limited Good, in Mexican peas-

KEARNEY elsewhere. It seems reasonable to assume MICHAEL

tinue seeking some genuine gratification

that human motivation for fulfillment is ingenious enough to find, at least, a partial solution to the limited good predicament. One might even argue that for life to be bear-

Brief Communications
able, some such solution must exist. By a simple process of eliminationwe can check off various possible solutions; this is essentially what Foster has done in his paper. When we have done so, we are left with one logical possibility that can, within the rules of the "system,"be safely maximized. This is the existential experiencingof life itself. Let me state this again in other words. There is, in effect, an area of Mexican culture on which Foster and his critics have not touched. This is the apperception of inner, affectiveexperience.What I suggest is that this is one area of life that is amenable to a culturallysanctioned,no-loss maximization of a culturally defined desired good, namely intense emotionalexperience. To illustrate let me draw material from the Zapotec town of Ixtepeji, Oaxaca, in which I have done fieldwork (Kearney 1968). Ixtepeji, which is a subsistencelevel as farming community,can be characterized a society operating on an "image of diminishing good." Life in Ixtepeji is harsh. Enmity often outweighs friendship,and suffering is commonplacewhile happinessis rare. The main existentialattributesthat the Ixtepejano perceives in himself and his local sociogeographicenvironmentare mostly negative. The land, the basis of life itself, is overworked and becoming less productive. This is a rationalconclusionbased on observation of decreased crops, soil erosion, deforestation, and populationincrease.Also there is a belief that there is less rain than before. This decline in naturalresourcesis seen as a cause of poverty for which there is no foreseeable solution. The individualsees himself as abandonedto this existence because he is destined to be ineffective, humble, and submissive to superior, incomprehensiblepowers. He thinks himself poorly equipped to defend himself againstthem because he is ignorant, weak, and alone. The most he can do is struggle on in the face of pain, evil, and sadness. There is, however, one culturally sanctioned form of respite. It is seen, for example, in the annual cycle of fiestas that frequently punctuate the perennial round of woe. Most discussion of the economics of the Mesoamericanfiesta centers on how the sponsor impoverisheshimself paying for it.

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But one aspect of the fiesta that has received little attention is the attitudesof individuals and the affective nature of the fiesta experience. From this point of view the typical Ixtepeji fiesta appearsas an attemptto create a temporary ideal environment by symbolically maximizing positively valued conditions. These predominantly male events begin with a large groupof characteristically men packing into the sponsor'shouse to the sound of loud music and fireworks. The house is inevitably too small, thus throwing everyone into physical contact, something that normallyhappensonly to young people and women. Room is then made for the municipal band. The noise level of the music, and the voices of men shouting to be heard above it, becomes deafeningas windows and door are shut, as though to shut out the outside world and contain the atmosphere within. The personality of the participants and the content of speech at fiestas contrasts with those of everydaylife. This dramatically transformationcoincides with ritual drinking. One informantexpressedhis reactionto alcohol in such a setting as follows: "After a few cups I feel very happy and gay and talk better; I feel stronger and at times almost invincible." A necessary ingredient of a fiesta is alcohol, which is consumed to the point of unconsciousness.The casual observeris apt to regardthis alcoholic stuporas the desired end of fiesta drinking.But such an explanation of drinkingis contraryto reasons given by the people themselves who emphasize that this is an undesirableand unavoidable result that one must suffer to experiencethe desired effects of drinking.Looked at in this light, fiesta drinking is not an escape from life into a drunkenstupor;it is insteada vehicle to transcendthe daily world of deprivation. Escape is achievedby anesthesia,but at the fiesta the senses are bombardedwith physical, auditory,and emotionalstimuli, all of which serve to intensify the experience and affirmthe individual'sexistence. This is a theme pervading Mexican culture, manifested in an affinity for excitement, loud noise, bright colors, and emotionallystirring experiences, all of which are epitomized in

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the fiesta. One might even go so far as to argue that the Mexican predilection for highly spiced food is consistent with this desire to stimulate the senses. One objection to the above argument is possible: The inevitable hangover that results from a drinking session is in a sense a loss incurred in gaining the desirable "good" of emotional experience, and therefore the image of limited good seems to hold true in this case also. But does it hold true in general? The male drinking-fiesta complex is only one instance of culturally patterned intensified emotional experiences. Many others involve no such gain-loss situation. In addition to the above examples we can cite the high-pitched emotional content of radio dramas, popular music, movies, and the bull This desire to intensify experience is also consistent with temporal concepts, in Ixtepeji, which are predominantly oriented to the present and the past. Since the future is seen as uncertain, and tending to bring worse conditions, one therefore attempts to exploit present conditions and resources to the fullest, while opportunity exists. In accord with the prevalent "image of diminishing good," Ixtepejanos believe that there are no valuable resources, which can be maximized, existing in the local environment. But one resource the individual partly controls and can augment is personal experience, especially emotionally moving experiences.

THE SOCIAL CONDITIONING OF

IN FRENCH1 SYNTACTIC VARIATION

JACQUELINE LINDENFELD

fight.

Department of Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles This is an attempt to correlate nonlinguistic and linguistic events in order to make explicit some of the "rules"by which members of a given society can intuitively categorize speakers and speech situations within that society. Syntactic variation in French, as analyzed within the framework of transformational grammar, is shown here to be conditioned by both sociological and contextual factors. This pilot study is based on twenty-four samples of spoken French obtained in two different contexts from subjects of two different social classes. The speech samples are analyzed in terms of complexity of sentence structure as measured by the occurrence of certain transformational operations. A clear correlation obtains between sociological variation (socioeconomic Class I/Class II), contextual variation (formal/informal situation) and syntactic variation (particularly in terms of nominalization).
Accepted for publication 24 February 1969.

This study is an attempt to answer the following question: what facts behind linguistic variation enable us to categorize speakers on the sociocultural level according to their speech patterns? How is it that, after hearing a short stretch of speech, an attentive listener can make more or less reREFERENCES CITED fined guesses as to the social ranking of the BENNETT, JOHN W. speakers, whatever the situational context of 1966 Further remarks on Foster's "Image the speech event may be?2 of limited good." American Anthropologist The ultimate goal of my research, here 68:206-210. and elsewhere, is to try to discover in what FOSTER, GEORGE M. 1965 Peasant society and the image of lim- ways and to what extent the linguistic strucited good. American Anthropologist 67: ture of a person's speech contributes to our 293-315. perception of him. Reversing the problem 1966 Foster's reply to Kaplan, Saler, and and looking at this study from a linguist's Bennett. American Anthropologist 68:210- point of view, it can be said to contribute to 214. the explanation of some linguistic variation KAPLAN, DAVID, AND BENSON SALER showing that it is conditioned by socio1966 Foster's "Image of limited good": an by cultural factors. example of anthropological explanation. Ideally a study in linguistic variation American Anthropologist 68:202-206. should deal with all elements of language: MICHAEL KEARNEY, 1968 The winds of Ixtepeji: values, world phonology, syntax, and semantics. When we view, and social structure in a Zapotec listen to a speaker in order to discover his town. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. social identity, we certainly use cues on all