The complex epistemological and methodological problems of data-quality control or ethnographer bias in anthropological research as they relate to the use of the native languages and/or the use of native-interpreter informants are critically reexamined. Summarizing the 1939-1940 Mead-Lowie debate, the paper suggests, on the basis of a close review of selected classic ethnographies of Africa, various ways by which the quality of comparative cross-cultural data could be meaningfully improved. [methodology of cross-cultural research, epistemological issues in anthropology, use of native languages in fieldwork, ethnography of Africa, history of anthropology] TOWARD AN AFRICAN CRITIQUE OF AFRICAN ETHNOGRAPHYHui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu, "Your teachings are of no practical use." Chuang Tzu said, "Only those who already know the value of the useless can be talked to about the useful. This earth we walk upon is of vast extent, yet in order to walk a man uses no more of it than the soles of his two feet will cover. But suppose one cut away the ground round his feet till one reached the Yellow Springs, could his patches of ground still be of any use to him for walking?" Hui Tzu said, "They would be of no use." Chuang Tzu said, "So then the usefulness of the useless is evident." [Fortes 1945:vi.l SINCE THE EMERGENCE in Euro-America of anthropology as a university discipline in the latter part of the 19th century, the discipline has, in a true scientific, and certainly humanistic, spirit, continued to be characterized by self-conscious efforts to improve its methods of data collection, data analysis, data organization, interpretation, and presentation. That is, it has continued to assess critically its methodological, theoretical, and epistemological foundations.Especially in the past five years or so, we have seen the appearance of a flood of very vocal and self-critical literature that has succeeded in reopening, albeit under new auspices, the inconclusive debate that Sol Tax once referred to as the "thirty years' war" of 1840-70. This was the war between "Ethnology and Anthropology; a war between those MAXWELL OWUSU is both associate professor of anthropology and associate research scientist, Center for Research on Economic Development, at the University of Michigan. He received a B.Sc.Hons. at the London School of Economics (1963) and a Ph.D. at Chicago (1968). His research and writing have been primarily concerned with Africa, particularly his native Ghana. Currently he is completing a book-length study of representation, economic underdevelopment. and political change in Ghana and is planning future research on rural and urban Africans' perception of social inequality and class formation, and on political and economic transformations of rural Caribbean populations. Owusu] ETHNOGRAPHY OF AFRICA 311who were historians and philosophers on one side and those who were for science, particularly biology (wherever it might lead one), on the other; a war between humanitarians whose science was related to their advocacy of a ...

der Nachfolge in der Mitgliedschaft in internationalen Konventionen und Organi sationen. Es würde zuweit führen, alle Fragen und Probleme aufzuzählen, denen O'Connell bei seiner Untersuchung der Staatenpraxis Beachtung geschenkt hat. Als Ergebnis ist festzuhalten, daß sich schwerlich eine einheitliche Aussage über die internationale Praxis in den Fragen der Staatennachfolge machen läßt. Um so weniger läßt sich aus der divergierenden Staatenpraxis ein einheitliches Rechtsprin zip ableiten. Gerade auch in diesem Bereich muß man der Erkenntnis O'Connells beipflichten, daß hier das Völkerrecht nicht mehr ist als ein Gehilfe der Diploma tie, und seine Regeln dazu beitragen sollen, das diplomatische Vorgehen zu erleich tern und etwaige Hindernisse aus dem Weg zu räumen (5. 24). Das Buch besticht durch die gründliche und systematische Analyse der umfangreichen Staatenpraxis. Kleinere sachliche Fehler, die hierbei fast zwangsläufig unterlaufen können, wie beispielsweise die Angabe, die V AR sei 1960 aufgelöst worden (so S. 169 und 197) statt des korrekten Datums (28. September 1961), das aber auch (S. 197) gebracht wird, sollten bei einer Neuauflage beseitigt werden. Durch seine ausführlichen In dices und Verzeichnisse der behandelten Verträge und Rechtsprechung übersicht lich ausgestaltet, kann dieses Buch als wichtiges Nachschlagewerk für die Fragen der Staatensukzession nur empfohlen werden.

Since the military coup that toppled the government of Sylvanus Olympio in Togo, West Africa, no less than seventy African leaders throughout sub-Saharan Africa have been overthrown by the armed forces. In the first two decades of independence alone, there were forty successful coups, not to mention the countless coup attempts (Meredith, 1984; Kitchen, 1985)

The fact that this new nation has succeeded in fostering economic growth and democracy under the aegis of equalitarian values holds out hope for the rest of the world. For prosperity, freedom, and equality cannot be for white men only. If they are, then they will prove to have been as illusory and impermanent as the slave-based democracies of ancient Greece.

The high frequency of low rifampin and ethambutol Cmax in our study is consistent with emerging pharmacokinetic data in children treated according to the new WHO recommendations. Higher dosages than currently recommended especially for rifampin may be necessary in children.