April 2, 1991

BY studying other societies, Western anthropologists have sought to derive lessons about their own, as Dr. Margaret Mead did in her classic 1928 study, "Coming of Age in Samoa." In a signficant new trend, some anthropologists in this country are focusing on coming of age here at home, using the same methods of ethnography they would apply in an exotic land. The new effort casts anthropology in the role of cultural critic, able to examine and lay bare the hidden assumptions that shape the main institutions of American culture. Among recent subjects of this sort of field work have been New York art dealers and museum curators, advertising agencies, high-energy physicists and pro- and anti-abortion groups in Fargo, N. D. There is even a study called "Coming of Age in New Jersey."

The First Executive Corporation, the insurance company hobbled by its large investment in "junk bonds," reported another large quarterly loss today. The company's auditors warned that the loss could imperil First Executive's future. Needing an infusion of cash, First Executive said it was negotiating to bring in an unidentified foreign entity as an investor.

Federal banking regulators, citing insufficient capital funds at the four largest subsidiary banks of the First City Bancorporation of Texas Inc., have ordered the banks to take several steps to shore up their lending practices and devise a long-term plan, First City said. Also, First City said its independent auditors had made a cautious assessment of the Houston-based banking company's future, citing the uncertain impact of these regulatory agreements on the company's eroding capital. The troubled banking company's disclosures were contained in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in Washington today that was also released here.

Last Monday was a great night for Kevin Costner, whose movie, "Dances With Wolves," won seven Academy Awards. But next to Mr. Costner, perhaps no one enjoyed the evening more or stands to benefit as directly from the film's success as a former Subaru car distributor whose small company is producing Mr. Costner's next film. Four years ago the executive, James Robinson, sold his Chicago-based distributorship and put about $80 million of the profits into Morgan Creek Productions, an independent film production company. Morgan Creek will make Mr. Costner's next film, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," for release in June.

At Checkpoint Bravo here in the Euphrates River Valley, Lieut. Col. Stephen Smith has the unpleasant duty of asking fleeing Iraqis to go home. More than 55,000 Iraqis have passed by this American checkpoint since the end of the war, when American forces swept the Iraqi Army out of southern Iraq and occupied 15 percent of Iraqi territory. The refugees move by bus or on foot along the highway betwen Basra and Nasiriya, two battered cities just north of the allied zone. They search vainly for sanctuary from the civil strife unleashed in those cities and elsewhere in southern Iraq after Baghdad's rout in the Persian Gulf war.