As I'll be travelling a lot the following 8-10 days, there won't be so many updates as usual.

Press Release

All participants in the qualitative portion of the study found living without the Internet more difficult than they expected, and in some cases impossible, because the tools and services the Internet offers were firmly ingrained in their daily lives. Nearly half the respondents in a complementary quantitative study indicated they could not go without the Internet for more than two weeks and the median time respondents could go without being online is five days.

The qualitative portion of the study, fielded by Conifer Research, consisted of an ethnographic study in which participants chronicled their lives without the Internet for a period of two weeks. The study provided a deep view into the emotional connections consumers have with the Internet as the medium that helps them drive their lives.

Regardless of age, household income or ethnic background, all participants in the ethnographic research study experienced withdrawal and feelings of loss, frustration and disconnectedness when cut off from the online world. Users described their time offline as 'feeling left out of the loop,'and missing their 'private escape time' during the day. The survey findings demonstrate that a larger circle of social networks have developed as a result of Web access. >> continue (LINK UPDATED)

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Ethnographic Research by Conifer Research

Danny Yee's Book Reviews

Originally published in 1979, The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan is a study of the peoples of the Wakhan Corridor, the long, narrow portion of Afghanistan that reaches out to touch China. This 2002 edition adds a foreword and an epilogue.

I was only expecting to read parts of The Kirghiz and Wakhi, but I ended up reading it cover to cover. It offers all the pleasures of a well-written ethnography, along with plenty of connections to broader history and anthropology. >> continue

ZNet India interviews anthropologist Angana Chatterji

One of the most controversial "development projects" in recent years is a series of more than 3,000 dams in India’s Narmada River Valley. These dams flood vast areas and displace hundreds of thousands, mostly peasants and adivasi (tribal) people, while promises of relocation and resources usually prove to be illusory.

- National dreams and global capital have created incredible suffering and destroyed not just human life, not just part of our cultural heritage, but also the natural heritage of the Valley, says Angana Chatterji, a Calcutta-born anthropology professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco It is cruel and criminal.

- We drove to Purni, beyond which the land is engulfed by an infinite stretch of gloomy water. Narmada Sagar exemplifies the violence of nation-making in India today -- a demonic, calculated rush for homogenized, unsustainable futures. This is what cultural genocide looks like. >> continueSEE ALSO:
Information about Angana Chatterji incl articles

BBC

A new sign language created over the last 30 years by deaf children in Nicaragua has given experts a unique insight into how languages evolve. The language follows many basic rules common to all tongues, even though the children were not taught them.

It indicates some language traits are not passed on by culture, but instead arise due to the innate way human beings process language, experts claim.

The development of language has long been the focus of debate. Some people in the extreme "nature" camp believe that grammar is essentially hard-wired in the brain, while those in the extreme "nurture" camp think language has no innate basis and is just culturally transmitted. >> continue

(via Sybille Ambers Blog)

IPS News Service

Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology and History (MNAH), one of the ten most important institutions of its kind in the world, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with cocktail receptions and new exhibitions. Sadly, however, there is little to celebrate for the impoverished descendants of the peoples whose cultures are proudly preserved in the museum's halls.

The director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Sergio Raúl Arroyo, said that the MNAH has succeeded "in crafting an extraordinary bridge between the past and present, allowing us to reshape our idea of what cultural diversity means." But in Mexico today, cultural diversity is not marked by respect, but rather by the discrimination of some groups against others, according to historian Lorenzo Meyer.

"It's really paradoxical," U.S. anthropologist Teo Martens told IPS. "The museum showcases the greatness of Mexican indigenous cultures, and on the street outside you see the miserable conditions they live in." >> continue

Nepalnews.com

Professor Dr. RISHIKESHAB RAJ REGMI – who teaches anthropology at the Tribhuwan University - is a well known anthropologist of Nepal:

"The event of September 1 was very mysterious. The people who attacked mosque and Muslims are not Nepalese. I cannot believe that any Nepali who has grown up in the social harmony can do such works against their own brothers and sisters. The process of integration is very strong in Nepal. People of different religions live together respecting sentiments and sensitivities of each other.

"Two main mosques standing in front of the Palace of Hindu monarch is one of the great examples of religious tolerance existing between Muslim, Hindu and other communities. One of the main Mosques is standing side by side with Sanskrit Hostel, where Brahmin live and study, in Durbar Marg. Without supply of bangles and beads (Chura, Pote) and other ornaments by Muslims who make them, marriage of Hindu people cannot be complete. Through the marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims, the society has been further integrated and united." >> continue

SEE ALSO:
September 1 Riots: Once they were dead, then the internation press reported. Depending on where you might live in the world, accounts of the riots varied greatly

Boston University

To observe the city’s changing cuisines, Anthropology Professor Merry White White and her students travel to some of the best-known and least-known ethnic neighborhoods in the city, where they have a chance to study food as it relates to migration and community-building. They visit the North End, of course, where Italian food has become enmeshed in the promotion of Italian culture, and Chinatown, less of a tourist destination, but a neighborhood with a strong “food identity,” White says.

For White, it is a sign that her studies of cooking and culture have finally been deemed a legitimate and important part of academia. “It’s a matter of how food has come into acceptance in the curriculum in general,” she says. “In the late 1980s, I think the world wasn’t ready for it yet.” changing food trends reveal a lot about changing cultures >> continue