Search

This article presents information related to various sociological affairs. The journal "American Sociological Review," plans to publish a special issue on Small Groups Research, as the October, 1954 issue. Fred L. Strodtbeck has consented to act as editor for this number. Papers are solicited from all who are engaged in current research in this field. They may be sent to the Editorial Offices, 116-A Smith Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. William O. Brown, formerly Chief of the Division of African Affairs in the U.S. Department, has been apointed Professor of Sociology in charge of the new African Studies Program. Prior to assuming his active duties in September, Brown spent several months in Europe and Africa surveying the resources for African studies. David R. Mace, Professor of Human Relations, has been invited by the Director of Social Affairs of the South African Government to visit the Union of South Africa in the spring of 1954. The main purpose of his visit will be to help build up the marriage guidance services throughout the Union.

There is much evidence to support the contention that discrimination against the blacks in the Union of South Africa is more far-reaching, more cynical, than in any other self-governing country in the modern world. The Negro in America is at least by law considered a citizen, whose rights are identical with those of any other citizen. The disparity between theory and practice is regarded by men of good will as a blot upon America's honor, so that constant pressure is exerted to abolish discrimination. That goal is far from being achieved, but candor compels the admission that the status of the Negro has, for all its present limitations, enormously improved in the past quarter century. In South Africa, on the other hand, the Native (as he is called) is not a citizen. There is no statement in any official document that he is the equal of the white man, nor any pretense that he has equal rights with whites. He and his fellows constitute a group apart, with special legislation to govern every aspect of their life. With minor exceptions, the Native may not vote, own land, bear arms in defense of his country, enter an occupation of his choice, live where he pleases, nor leave the Union.

The article discusses the psychological conditions and factors, which affect the relations of white and coloured people in Great Britain. A substantial proportion of English people hold antipathetic or prejudicial ideas and attitudes towards coloured people, and are averse to any fairly close social contact with them. English people are prejudiced more often against persons of African origin than against other coloured nationalities, and that such prejudice is generally more wide spread if accompanied with the idea or suggestion of closer physical proximity. English people fear losing social status through association with coloured individuals. Individual and unpleasant experiences tend inevitably to augment this situation and to make the coloured persons concerned less willing to seek fresh white contacts, which possibly would modify their hardening views about English people in general. Emotive factors usually play a larger part than in the English case in the development of the coloured person's racial attitudes. The coloured person who remains, or who resides in this country, has a longer experience of English life and social interactions, and consequently both a greater spur and a greater opportunity, in some cases, for making psychological adjustment and social accommodation.

The article examines the significance of magic and sorcery in playing football or soccer among the Zulu in South Africa. Each football team employs an inyanga, or Zulu doctor, who strengthens his own team by magic and ritual and forestalls the sorcery directed at his team by rival inyangas. The success or failure of a team depends on the skills of the inyangas aside from the natural talent of the players. The inyanga is replaced when a team constantly loses instead of the players. A goat is slaughtered before a season opens to invite good luck, and another is slaughtered to mark its end.

The article outlines a study on personality and sociocultural prejudices in intergroup attitudes in an attempt to gain a cross-national perspective on both factors. The study focuses on two areas in the world where the manifestation of prejudice is evident including the Union of South Africa and the southern U.S. Authoritarianism and other externalization factors are associated with prejudice in South Africa and the southern U.S. The extensive racial prejudice of individuals from both areas are directly linked with the antiblack mentality of the two cultures.

Highlights the pediatric practice in a South African mission hospital. Evolution of the mission hospital; Nutritional diseases treated in the hospital; Background on the pediatric unit of the hospital.

The article focuses on the influence of cultural background on the sorting of attitude statements. After L.L. Thurstone first developed the technique of scaling attitudes by the method equal-appearing intervals, Stuart A. Rice raised the fundamental question of the constancy of the scale-values assigned to the items in attitude tests constructed by the Thurstone method. Rice claimed that not only the "equal-seeming interval" but the order of propositions itself may differ considerably among different groups, on the average, as a result of differences in cultural background. Responding to Rice, Thurstone agreed that this was a fundamental problem in the scaling of attitudes but predicted that empirical tests of the question would reveal only insignificant differences in the scale-values and in the rank order of the items. Rice's hypothesis that marked differences in cultural background may produce significant differences in sorting. A really crucial test of this hypothesis would require a comparison of scale-values obtained when groups of judges from very greatly different cultural backgrounds are used. An almost ideal instrument with which to test this hypothesis is afforded by the test of Attitudes toward the Native developed by I.D. MacCrone in a South African cultural setting. This test, which was constructed by the method of equal-appearing intervals, was used in an adapted form in this country by Robert K. Merton. The article discusses this test.