Social Research in North American Moisture-Deficient Regions.

Five papers presented at the 9th symposium held during the 42nd annual meeting of the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science are: (1) "Do We Need a Sociology of Arid Regions"?; (2) "Deficit Creating Influences for Role Performance and Status Acquisition in Sparsely Populated Regions of the United States"; (3) "Ecology, Economy and Society in an Agricultural Region of the Northern Great Plains"; (4) "The Problem of Drought Perception"; and (5) "Technological Conservatism in Cattle Ranching as an Adaptive Process". The papers, centering on an ecological viewpoint, aim to suggest possibilities of basic research on sociological adaptations in moisture-deficient regions. Discussions cover modern agrarian and town populations in the Great Plains and neighboring semiarid regions. (NQ)