With an increasing number of persons entering old age and having longer life expectancies, there has been a consequent alteration of family dynamics, such that middle aged individuals frequently provide support to their older parents. At the same time, the middle aged person is often in the midst of raising his or her own children, attending to personal aspirations, and enacting the role of spouse.

This study investigated support from middle aged offspring to elderly parents in a rural Mennonite community. Information on the expectation for and consequences of support to parents was gathered from pastors and middle aged family members in two Mennonite conferences, as well as from a Lutheran sample with a similar historical background.

Pastoral interviews showed no differences in doctrinal beliefs regarding familial care of parents, although the institutional church responses varied. Middle aged offspring in the Lutheran congregation reported less involvement in religious practice than did members of either Mennonite congregation. Burden of caring for elderly parents felt by middle aged people showed no statistically significant differences between congregations; however, greater reported religiosity was associated with lesser burden.

Ethnoarchaeological data from contemporary Wanka villages in the Mantaro Valley of the Peruvian Andes provide new perspectives on the use and discard of ceramic cooking vessels. We present a regional survey of ceramic vessel use and discard with household consumption as the focus of study. A mathematical model determines vessel uselife from the age distribution of in-use vessels. We examine the number of vessels per household, their volume, their uselife, and their reported discard. A typical Wanka household cooking vessel assemblage consists of four or five ollas, two large ollas, one chata, and one tostadera. As family members are added to a household, the number of household ollas slightly increases, as does olla volume and the overall rate of olla discard. Large families have fewer chatas, and the rate of chata discard is uncorrelated with household size. Large and small families alike have only one tostadera, but in large families, a shortened tostadera uselife increases their discard rate. Distributing the same population into small or large households will result in significantly different rates of total sherd accumulation. Bulk sherd accumulation is a better indicator of the number of households rather than of the total number of persons. Household size can be estimated from the relative proportions of discarded ollas, chatas, and tostaderas.

Prehistoric ceramic containers were tools used in culinary and ceremonial activity. The archaeological record preserves fragmentary remains of these ceramic tools, challenging the archaeologist to interpret their use and function from potsherds rather than from whole pots. We introduce the two-curvature method for reconstructing ceramic vessel shape and volume from assemblages of potsherds. Each point on a ceramic vessel or sherd has two dimensions of curvature, profile and axial. Profile curvature is sensitive to vessel shape, and axial curvature is sensitive to vessel diameter. Since vessel curvature and sherd curvature are the same, measuring profile and axial curvatures of potsherds provides information on parent-vessel shape and size. The two-curvature method is tested with replicated vessels, and its accuracy for measuring vessel parameters from sherd curvatures is assessed. Vessel parameters are estimated accurately from average-sherd-curvature measurements. Data gathered by using this method, on an archaeological assemblage of Kumeyaay ceramics from southern California, show that Kumeyaay pottery consists of 85–90 percent open-mouth hemispherical bowls and 10–15 percent closed-mouth spherical ollas. Through time, Kumeyaay vessel volume increased while vessel shape remained consistent.

A quantitative model of discard is presented. It is directed toward resolving the difficulty in relating frequency of archaeologically observed material objects to occurrences of past behavior. Schiffer’s (1976) Pathway Model is revised and expanded as the basis of this analysis. Mathematical expressions are developed relating frequency of cultural deposition to past behavior. The pathways of deposition considered are use-related discard, accidental loss, and deterioration during storage. Application of these relations to specific archaeological problems will require estimates of certain variables that should be based on ethnographic and experimental data.

As indicated by the voluminous professional and popular literature published over the past decade, there is now widespread interest in steps toward economic and political integration on a wide variety of regional and global bases. In this paper I intend to examine some of the issues arising from integration efforts. The geographic and functional bases of current integrational efforts are indeed numerous. It is fascinating to review the many reasons or motivations behind these striking developments of which the Central American Common Market is one important example. The reasons behind these developments are not new to this decade, but rather are the results of a more general concern or awareness of current problems and current possibilities. Attitudes and values are also undergoing changes.

President Kennedy, in his inaugural address, spoke of an “Alliance for Progress” with Latin America and more recently of an expanded Latin-American aid program. His phrase “Alliance for Progress” underscores the fact that the U. S. chooses not to be identified with blind defenders of the status quo but to support evolutionary change calling for political, social, and economic reform.

What motivates U. S. citizens to tax themselves to help the underdeveloped countries help themselves? One observes an interesting mixture of goals with respect to U. S. aid programs. There is no single enforced purpose handed down from higher authority. Each citizen indicates and advances his own preferences with some sort of compromise or majority view prevailing when necessary. One peculiarity of a democratic society is the pluralism of motivations and purposes.