338 American Anthropologist [59, 19571

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1 338 American Anthropologist [59, mentale). As Weidenreich pointed out, the most essential formation causing the projection of the mentum osseum is the mandibular incurvature (1936: 31). It is the existence of such an incurvature which points strongly to the conclusion that even though a sarcomatous growth has rendered indistinct and indeterminable the general region of the lower half of the anterior portion of the Kanam mandible, it nevertheless remains highly probable that at one time it possessed a well-developed chin. M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU, Princeton, New Jersey REFERENCES CITED KLAATSCII, H Kraniomorphologie und Kraniotrigonometrie. Archiv flir Anthropologie 36 (N. F. 8) : LAWRENCE, J. W. P A note on the pathology of the Kanam mandible. In L. S. B. Leakey 1935: 139. LEAKEY, L. S. B The Stone Age races of Kenya. London & New York, Oxford University Press Adam s ancestors. Methuen, London. 4th edition. MONTAGU, M. F. ASHLEY 1951 An introduction to physical anthropology. 2nd edition. Springfield, Illinois, Thomas. SCHOETENSACK, Der Unterkiefer des Homo Heidelhergensis. Leipzig, Engelmann. VIRCHOW, H Die menschlichen Skeletreste aus dem Kampfe schen Bruch im Travertin von Ehringsdorf bei Weimar. Jena. WEIDENREICH, F The mandibles of Sinanthro#us Pekinensis: a comparative study. Palaeontologica Sinica, Series D, Fascicule 3,s: 163. THE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF WHITING AND CHILD S Child Training and Personality Child Training and Personalily (Whiting and Child 1953) represents an important advance in the application and exposition of quantitative methods in anthropology. The book will go far in explaining statistical reasoning to the layman in quantitative methods. The use of independent ratings, such as found in this research, has been infrequent in anthropological investigations. We wish to comment on two aspects of the statistical analysis of this research. In the first place, we are puzzled by the use of rankings within each society. For each people the judge was asked to order the five systems of behavior (oral, anal, sexual, dependence, and aggression) on socialization anxiety and to make a second ranking for each group with regard to initial satisfaction. The objection to the use of rankings within societies is that when we consider a given child-training area for all groups, these ranks do not necessarily represent an ordinal scale. The statistical methods used assumed such a scale. The judges were also asked to rate the behavior systems of each society on a seven-point scale. Fortunately, primary reliance was placed on these ratings, which do have an ordinal meaning.

2 Brief Communications 339 Our second comment concerns the problem of analyzing the data to determine the kind of relationships between training practices and beliefs concerning causes of illness. Whiting and Child show that theories of disease of a given kind tend to occur together with high socialization anxiety in a given behavior area; e.g., more societies with severe weaning attribute disease to oral causes than societies with mild weaning. This kind of relationship was predicted in terms of negative fixation. An unexpected finding was that low initial satisfaction was also associated with presence of the corresponding beliefs of disease causation; e.g., a greater proportion of societies with nonindulgent attitudes toward dependence of infants had dependent theories of illness than did those with indulgent attitudes. Whiting and Child comment (cf. p. 169) that these latter results may actually suggest new support for the conclusion that explanation of illness is related to anxiety during childhood. However, initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety have an appreciable negative correlation with each other. That is, societies with low initial satisfaction tend to have high socialization anxiety; e.g., nonindulgent nursing tends to be followed by customs of severe weaning. The authors correctly point out (cf. p. 169) that this correlation leads to difficulties in drawing conclusions concerning the relation between training practices and the explanations of disease. To clarify this problem, Whiting and Child turn to dependence, the one area where the negative correlation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety is insignificant. (The correlation for dependence was -.18, whereas the corresponding coefficients for the four other systems of behavior varied from -.60 to -31.) For dependence, societies with low initial satisfaction tend to have dependence explanations of disease more frequently than those with high initial satisfaction. Whiting and Child could have performed tests in areas other than dependence by means of analysis of covariance. From this analysis one could test two hypotheses which are more or less stated in their discussion. The first proposition is that low initial satisfaction in a given behavior area tends to occur together with disease explanations of the given kind to a greater extent than can be accounted for by the correlation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety and the correlation of socialization anxiety with explanation of disease. The second hypothesis is that, after the correlation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety has been allowed for, high socialization anxiety would tend to be associated with presence of explanations. The first hypothesis implies that, given a group of societies having the same degree of socialization anxiety in some behavior area, a higher proportion of those with low initial satisfaction in that area would have the corresponding explanations of illness than those with high initial satisfaction. For example, suppose we were concerned only with societies having a practice of mild weaning. The prediction is that oral explanations of disease would occur in a greater number of groups where nonindulgent nursing was the norm than where the nursing was indulgent.

3 340 American Anthropologist [59, In Tables 1 and 2 are shown mean ratings after adjustment to remove the effect of the correlation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety. (These results were obtained by analysis of covariance.) The correlation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety was negligible in the case of dependence, as noted above, but dependence has been included in Tables 1 and 2 for completeness. Tables 1 and 2 were prepared so as to parallel tables on pages 164 and 168 of Child Training and Personality. In Table 1, our hypothesis leads us to expect that the adjusted mean rating of initial satisfac- TABLE 1. RELATION BETWEEN INITIAL SATISFACTION AND EXPLANATIONS OP ILLNESS Dependence Aggres- Oral Anal Sexual sion Adjusted mean rating for societies where corresponding explanaof illness is Present 14.2 Absent 15.9 Difference between adjusted means t 2.1 Number of societies 27 Probability of chance difference this large or larger in predicted direction * a *.30 DifIerence was opposite of predicted direction. (The means have been adjusted for the correlation between socialization anxiety and initial satisfaction. The prediction is that each mean for explanations present will be less than the mean for explanations absent.) tion for societies with explanations present would be lower than the corresponding means for groups lacking the disease explanations. This hypothesis is only weakly supported since only one of the t s is significant (dependence) and two differences are in opposition to the predicted direction. For Table 2, our prediction would be that for each behavior area, societies with explanations present would have a higher adjusted mean rating of socialization anxiety than societies without explanations. We note significant t s in two areas, oral and dependence. The other differences in Table 2 are in the predicted direction, but fail to achieve significance. From the above results we find no support for the notion that: High satisfaction potential might genuinely have some slight tendency to produce the corresponding explanations of illness, a tendency which is simply completely covered

4 Brief Communications 341 up by the opposite effect of the relation of these two variables to socialization anxiety (p. 169). Except for dependence we could not disprove the null hypothesis that: The negative relationship between explanations of disease and initial satisfaction is essentially due to the fact that socialization anxiety is related positively to the former and negatively to the latter (p. 169). Contrary to our prediction, except for dependence, all of the relationship between initial satisfaction and explanations of disease can be accounted for by the correlation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety. TABLE 2. RELATION BETWEEN SOCIALIZATION ANXIETY AND EXPLANATIONS OF ILLNESS Dependence Oral Anal Sexual Aggression Adjusted mean rating for societies where corresponding explanation of illness is Present Absent Difference between adjusted means o 1.3 t 1.'I Number of societies Probability of chance difference this large or larger in predicted direction.05.01, (The means have been adjusted for the correlation between socialization anxiety and initial satisfaction. The prediction is that each mean for explanations present will be greater than the mean for explanations absent.) Partial support was obtained for the hypothesis that the tendency for high socialization anxiety in some behavior area and the corresponding explanations of illness to occur in the same societies could not be attributed solely to the correiation between initial satisfaction and socialization anxiety. Does not the analysis indicate that events during the socialization period (late infancy) have greater effect on adult.personality than those during the initial period? The analysis does not rule out this anti-freudian interpretation, but it does not clearly support it. These data would also substantiate an argument that the association of high socialization anxiety with explanations is due in part to the fact that low initial satisfaction tends to bring about the

5 342 A merican Anthropologist [59, corresponding explanations of disease and that harshness during the initial period tends to be followed by harsh socialization. This analysis does indicate that we improve our prediction of adult personality when we include data on training methods in late as well as early infancy. Our statistical analysis (like all correlational analysis) does not permit us to assert what the essential causal relationship is. THURLOW R. WILSON, University of New Mexico NOTE * We wish to acknowledge helpful suggestions given by Harry Basehart and John Whiting. Computational assistance was made possible by a grant from the University of New Mexico. REFERENCE CITED WHITING, J. W. M., and I. L. CHILD 1953 Child training and personality: a cross cultural study. New Haven, Yale University.