03.08.05: The blog has moved to www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/, and several broken links have been corrected
Here are the most recent posts on the new blog location:
Saturday, November 06, 2004, 08:10
On Katherine Verdery's new book on the return of the peasantry in Romania
Transitions Online Book Review
Unusual things are happening in the countryside in Romania. While in other parts of the world megacities and megaslums are increasingly the norm, in Romania as well as in some of its neighbors, there has been an overall increase of the rural population and in the numbers of small farming plots.
In earlier studies of rural Central and Eastern Europe, Western commentators were often not very polite, usually referring to the peasant economies as "backward" or "primitive." A recent book by American anthropologist Katherine Verdery, written after 30 years of fieldwork research in Romania, offers some alternative versions of the changes in rural life and reasons behind the supposedly irrational behavior of rural people.
One of the aims of her book, which is principally an anthropological account of property, is to show how social relations, between individuals and between groups, have a profound impact on how people can actually use their property.
>> continue
Friday, November 05, 2004, 08:20
The Poorbuthappy Guide to Ethnography in Design and Business
This site's layout looks like as if it was last updated in the early 90s, but this is because it is a traditional wiki - a site that everybody is allowed to edit. Besides the guide "How to do Ethnographic Research", you'll also find a list of "Companies That Do Ethno" >> continue
Friday, November 05, 2004, 08:18
"Reindeer People" Resort to Eating Their Herds
National Geographic
Ghosta is a shaman who lives with his reindeer in the remote forests of northwestern Mongolia. He believes these sacred forests will die if he and his dwindling tribe of Dukha reindeer people abandon their ancestral homeland.
Yet if the Dukha do leave, it's they themselves who are almost certain to die out.
This, at least, is the conclusion of Hamid Sardar, a Harvard-trained anthropologist with the Geneva, Switzerland-based Axis-Mundi Foundation. Sardar recently spent three years on the trail of Mongolia's last nomadic reindeer herders. >> continue
Friday, November 05, 2004, 08:15
China's minority fears
BBC
Five days of pitched battles between thousands of Hui Muslims and Han Chinese villagers in Henan province left at least seven people dead, the latest in a series of large-scale confrontations that have come to light in recent weeks.
Often hidden in the past, these tensions are now bubbling to the surface, exacerbated by new problems associated with economic growth, such as the country's widening wealth gap and increased competition for scarce resources. >> continue
Friday, November 05, 2004, 08:10
Biased media: Are African Students Respected?
PRICILLA DE WET, Utropia, University of Tromsø, Norway
While watching TV within a circle of Norwegian friends and a Sudanese friend, a documentary about the living conditions in Sudan started. I couldn’t bear the look of disappointment on my Sudanese friend’s face. None of the world’s giant media companies ever dare to show such negative realities about their own countries, namely America and Europe.
The biased broadcasting of Africa by international media companies is of great concern to many Africans living in European countries. This kind of pessimism retards the progress of reaching our ethical goal as a world community for making the world a better place as it promotes disrespect for Africa’s peoples. >> continue
SEE ALSO
Culture clash on campus: Is there a gap between Norwegian and international students? (Utropia)
Thursday, November 04, 2004, 12:01
Anthropology of Food - one more Open Access Journal!
Obviously, there are more anthropological open access journals than supposed. Anthropology of Food is "a bilingual academic journal in French and English. It aims to publish results of latest research in Sociology and Anthropology of Food. This journal is produced and published by a network of European academic researchers sharing a common intellectual interest in the social science of food."
There are articles on "The Culture of Milk in Argentina", " When We Eat What We Eat : Classifying Crispy Foods in Malaysian Tamil Cuisine", "The Quest for Identities: Consumption of Wine in France". Planned are issues on "Food, Religious groups and Conflicts of Norms and "Wine and globalisation" >> continue to the journal Anthropology of Food
SEE ALSO
antropologi.info's special on Open Access Anthropology
Thursday, November 04, 2004, 09:42
Teamwork, Not Rivalry, Marks New Era in Research
Los Angeles Times / KTLA TV
Teamwork across departmental lines was once a rarity at the nation's most prestigious universities. But the practice, usually known as interdisciplinary research, is spreading rapidly. They are teaming psychologists and anthropologists with economists, laboratory biologists with computer-modeling experts, and scientists who study the brain with humanities professors who explore music and art.
One of the main reasons for the surge in interdisciplinary research is the complexity of today's crucial issues. "For any problem that has some importance today, you find that, really, it doesn't fit neatly into biology or into chemistry or into law" said Roberto Peccei, UCLA's vice chancellor for research.
Still, some experts say, the quality of some interdisciplinary research is questionable. In certain cases in the humanities and social sciences, "interdisciplinary work simply provides a home for misfits, malcontents, those who are anti-disciplines without being pro-anything," said Howard Gardner, a Harvard Graduate School of Education professor studying interdisciplinary trends. >> continue
Thursday, November 04, 2004, 08:10
Why you always get a present you don't want - Social Sciences and Gift-Giving
The Daily Telegraph
Millions of pounds are wasted each year because few understand the secret language of giving Christmas gifts. Why do we go through with it? Because the Christmas present is about kinship and power; taste and insight; symbolism and values. Over the years, it has become a rich source of PhDs, projects and papers for anthropologists, ethologists and sociologists, not to mention a legion of psychologists.
Gift-giving in primitive human societies was seen by the French ethnographer Marcel Mauss as a way of forging bonds with strangers. Decades ago, the distinguished University of Chicago anthropologist Prof Marshall Sahlins noted that the closer the kinship between the donor and the recipient, the less emphasis was placed on reciprocity and the more on sentiment. >> continue
Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 08:12
Tibet Films At Himalayan Film Festival in Amsterdam
International Campaign for Tibet
A Himalayan Film Festival being held in The Netherlands from November 6 to 7, 2004 will feature several Tibet-related films, including those like The Spirit Doesn’t Come Anymore and We’re No Monks, which are produced by Tibetans. >> continue
Wednesday, November 03, 2004, 08:05
New Slideshow: The Colours of Rajasthan
Charu from A Time To Reflect (formerly "Peek into my mind") has put online beautiful and colorful pictures from Rajastan and other travels in India. He writes:
"Rajasthan must be the most vibrant and colourful place in India, if not the world. And this, despite the harsh conditions in which people there live... Kota, Bundi, Jaipur and Jodhpur - October 2004" >> continue
Tuesday, November 02, 2004, 08:08
"Anthropologists must get more involved in IT design and security
ZDNet UK
People are the biggest security threat facing IT, a report says. That is not where the problem lies. People should come first, programmers second. We especially see it in online security, where the user is supposed to remember all manner of things – tiny yellow padlocks, checking URLs for https://, and a different password for every site.
Computer security is designed by engineers and sold by marketing departments. Neither group is known for its deep insights into human behaviour. There are two groups of people who must get much more involved in IT design, security: Humanities experts are one group – anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, graphics designers, even dramatists – while the other is the user base itself. >> continue
Tuesday, November 02, 2004, 08:05
Religious divide grows amid Thai unrest
Asia Times
BANGKOK - Though southern Thailand's ethnic-Malay Muslims are drawing closer together in the face of heavy-handed government tactics to quash a simmering separatist insurgency, religion is splitting them as Islamic fundamentalists, or reformists, challenge the prevailing Sufi Islam.
Thailand's Muslims are a mixed bunch, comprising ethnic Malays, Thais, Indians and a smattering of others. "Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, most of the Muslims there are Malay, but there are Thai Muslim communities there as well, some local and some from other parts of the country," says Michiko Tsuneda, a University of Wisconsin cultural anthropologist studying Thai-Malay Muslim communities in southern Thailand. >> continue
Monday, November 01, 2004, 21:10
TechnoTaste
I was reading recently in Weiss’ book Learning From Strangers, and was struck by one simple passage. It stated that the goal of any research, ethnography included, was to answer a question - to provide some information that wasn’t previously known. I think ethnography is different.
Anthropologists have developed the habit of delivering the final ethnography to the group under study, and gathering their reactions as a sort of postscript. When I have done this, I have encountered a reaction that I think many ethnographers have: the study participants all say ‘Duh! We knew that!’
In the context of ethnography I consider this the mark of success, not of failure. Here’s why >> continue
Monday, November 01, 2004, 08:05
In Mexico: A constant struggle between Halloween and Day of the Dead
NY Newsday
Along with other U.S. institutions such as Wal-Mart, Domino's pizza and Hollywood movies, Halloween has made such gigantic inroads in Mexico in recent years that some purists slam it as a crass cultural invasion. Their fear is that it is subverting Day of the Dead.
Fernando Híjar, an anthropologist at the National Museum of Popular Culture here, acknowledged "there is a constant struggle in Mexico between Halloween and Day of the Dead." "But I don't think Day of the Dead is going to lose the competition," he added. "Over the centuries, Mexicans have been savvy in how they incorporate foreign influences."
More significant than Mexico's Halloween craze, according to some observers, is the growth in Day of the Dead celebrations in areas with burgeoning Mexican communities such as New York. "Culture flows across the border in both directions," Híjar said. >> continue
Saturday, October 30, 2004, 10:49
Open Source Anthropology : Are anthropologists serious about sharing knowledge?
Anthropologist P. Kerim Friedman, Temple University
Concerns over the ethnical dilemmas involved in producing knowledge about the “other” have, in the past few decades, radically changed how anthropologists conduct research and write ethnographies. Unfortunately, they have not changed how we publish.
While it is true that many anthropology journals never recoup their publication costs, the system of barriers which serve to protect their meager revenue comes at the expense of accessibility. These barriers make it all but impossible for those outside of well-endowed academic institutions to access that knowledge, undermining the lofty goals of producing a “shared anthropology.”
Anthropology lags behind other disciplines, especially the medical sciences, in adopting new models of financing and distributing peer-reviewed journals, known as “Open Access” which allow everyone to access journal articles freely online.
If anthropologists are serious about sharing knowledge, it is essential that we begin thinking not just about the nature of the knowledge we produce, but also how we publish and distribute that knowledge. Do we want our intellectual contributions to be hidden in dusty archives, or available to anyone who can Google? >> continue
NOTE: You can edit his text online. He published it as a wiki. He wrote a text on Citations and why anthropologist should use wikis
SEE ALSO EARLIER ENTRIES
Shaping a culture of sustainable access to anthropological information
On Copyright and taboo and the future of anthropological publishing
Marshall Sahlins wants to make the Internet the new medium for pamphleteering: "I truly lament the various forms of copyrights and patents"
UPDATE (31.10.04): Comment by Alex Golub: He proposes - here an excerpt from his blog - "... to make the electronic text cannonical. Rather than produce the book first and then worry about getting it online, make the online article the definitive version of the text and then publish the book form wherever needed." >> continue
UPDATE: (1.11.04) See my special on Open Access Anthropology (multilingual)
Friday, October 29, 2004, 12:11
maitres-fous.net - a Website devoted to ethnographer Jean Rouch's films
maitres-fous.net
The filmmaker and ethnographer Jean Rouch died in northern Niger on February 19, 2004. He was 86 years old. He left behind a legacy of over 120 films - the bulk of which were recorded in West Africa.
Rouch's work in Africa is characterized by what is referred to as "shared anthropology" and "ethno-fiction." Rouch's films illustrate a keen rethinking of the practice of both ethnography and filmmaking. Rouch's practices blur the distinctions between subject and observer, reality and fiction.
Rouch elaborated a style of filming through which he not only recorded events, but also participated in their creation. According to Rouch, the relationship between the filmmaker and his subject reaches its creative zenith when the filmmaker "can really get into the subject"- when he slips into what Rouch called a ciné-trance. >> continue
Thursday, October 28, 2004, 09:00
San court case against Botswana govt to resume
Afrol News
- The landmark court case against Botswana's government by evicted communities of the San people is to recommence next week. The case was adjourned in July. The San communities are fighting for their right to return to their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
While authorities in Gaborone quote the need to protect the environment and to develop the San people, activists claim that the real reason behind the eviction is the reserve's potential for diamond mining and safari tourism. During the July hearings, the court was told by anthropologist George Silberbauer that the San indeed were the indigenous inhabitants of the extensive Central Kalahari Game Reserve >> continue
Wednesday, October 27, 2004, 08:05
On Copyright and taboo and the future of anthropological publishing
Alex Golub, who recently interviewed Marshall Sahlins on the future of academic publishing on the internet for Creative Commons (see here) , discusses alternative licencing on his own blog:
"I’m firmly convinced that alternative licensing and electronic distribution of texts is the future of academic publishing, and I’m truly gratified to see Prickly Paradigm and Creative Commons are working together to move us into a world where academic ideals of the free flow of information are reflected not just in the practice of research and debate, but in the realities of publishing and distribution." >> continue
You can even download his essay "Copyright and taboo" and all the other articles in Anthropology Quarterly's issue on "Culture's Open Sources". >> continue
Tuesday, October 26, 2004, 08:13
Shaping a culture of sustainable access to anthropological information
Myra Appel and Brita Servaes, Anthropology News (AAA)
Recently libraries have begun to assume another role, that of publisher, and to provide new opportunities for scholars to disseminate their research freely, inexpensively and fairly.
In response to the growing crisis of unsustainable access to scholarly content, the California Digital Library (CDL) developed the eScholarship Repository that offers free access and permanent electronic archiving for working papers and peer-reviewed articles alike. Other institutions, such as Cornell University or Indiana University with its Digital Library of the Commons, have developed similar venues.
Anthropologists have the opportunity to take part in shaping a new culture of sustainable access to scholarly information. In fact, anthropologists with their cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary interests are especially well-poised to take a significant role in charting the directions for change in the systems of scholarly communication. >> continue
SEE ALSO:
The Campaign Create Change: Supporting faculty and librarian action in scholarly communication
Marshall Sahlins wants to make the Internet the new medium for pamphleteering: "I truly lament the various forms of copyrights and patents"
Tuesday, October 26, 2004, 08:10
Challenges of Providing Anthropological Expertise: On the conflict in Sudan
Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Anthropology News, AAA
What is an anthropologist-expert to do in this highly charged international political situation where an anthropologist’s understanding of realities conflicts with the major media and political analysis of events?
A Darfur Task Force was initiated by UCLA anthropologist Sondra Hale at this year’s Sudan Studies Association annual meeting. This task force has drafted resolutions calling for consideration of the complexities and advocating an African solution lead by the African Union. >> continue
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