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Indigenous Russians Unite Against Oil and Gas Development

Published on April 13, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, development empowerment, ecology nature, indigenous people / minorities

ZNet

Despite their small numbers, the Sakhalin aborigines are standing up to multinational energy companies that are developing oil and gas deposits on the island. On March 25-26, representatives of the Nivkh, Orok, Evenk, and Nanai peoples of Sakhalin held a congress in the town of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Roughly 3,000 indigenous people make up about 0.5 percent of the island’s total population.

The indigenous congress created a council which will represent the island’s indigenous population in negotiations with the oil companies and Russian government authorities. The council will advocate for an ethnographic study to assess the cultural impact of the oil and gas projects on indigenous peoples.

The new Shell pipeline is being constructed over a sacred Nivkh burial ground. The noise from the construction has impacted the caribou population and driven herders away from their traditional grazing grounds. The new Shell drilling platform and the pipeline connecting it to the shore is due to be constructed near the key feeding area of the endangered western pacific gray whale. >> continue

SEE ALSO:
Peoples of the Russian North and Far East (Arctic Circle)

ZNet

Laos: Massive Dam Project Could Backfire

Published on April 11, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, development empowerment, ecology nature, indigenous people / minorities

IPS News

A new dam funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB ) and hailed as a windfall for Laos may end up doing more harm than good to one of the world’s poorest nations and its vulnerable farmers, several independent development groups say. It shows that international financial institutions, spearheaded by the Washington-based World Bank, are paying little regard to indigenous people, the environment or the long-term welfare of the poor nation. This will drastically alter the character of two important rivers, displace thousands of desperately poor residents, and disrupt the livelihoods of tens of thousands more. >> continue

IPS News

A new dam funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB ) and hailed as a windfall for Laos may end up doing more harm than good to one of the world's poorest nations and its…

Women have a leading role in North Korea’s economy

Published on April 6, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, gender

Andrei Lankov, Australian National University, Asia Times Online

SEOUL – A defector from the North, a typical tough Korean auntie with trademark permed hair, smiled when asked about “men’s role” in North Korean families: “Well, in 1997-98 men became useless. They went to their jobs, but there was nothing to be done there, so they came back. Meanwhile their wives went to distant places to trade and kept families going.”

Indeed, the sudden increase in the economic strength and status of women is one of manifold changes that have taken place North Korea over the past 10 or 15 years. >> continue

(via Danny Yee’s blog)

Andrei Lankov, Australian National University, Asia Times Online

SEOUL - A defector from the North, a typical tough Korean auntie with trademark permed hair, smiled when asked about "men's role" in North Korean families: "Well, in 1997-98 men became useless. They…

Reconstructing tribal history

Published on April 1, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, history, indigenous people / minorities, Us and Them

The Telegraph, Calcutta

Tribal societies have seldom recorded their own history. They usually relied on oral transmission of events, which raises definite difficulties for mainstream historians, who have seldom given serious thought or space to tribal struggles or movements. Recently, Sussex University celebrated the 150th anniversary of the historic Santhal Hul calling for reconstruction of tribal history.

In the wake of this memorable event, a researcher should not forget that writing history has always been determined by the dominant ideologies and class interests, creating products more or less of specialised brands. >> continue

The Telegraph, Calcutta

Book review: Reindeer People – Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia

Published on March 28, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, books, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities

Ronald Hutton, Times Online

Piers Vitebsky is one of a tiny number of British experts on the region and an internationally renowned anthropologist. This book “REINDEER PEOPLE: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia” is the record of successive visits that he has made over the past 17 years to live with members of a native people called the Eveny in the Verkhoyansk Mountains in the far north-east. Like his earlier work, it shows him to be both an excellent scholar and a gifted writer, with a feeling for landscape and character and a knack for metaphor and allusion. >> continue

SEE ALSO:
Piers Vitebsky: What is a shaman? – Worlds of the Shaman (Natural History, March 1997 / findarticles.com)
Peoples of the Russian North and Far East (Arctic Circle)

Ronald Hutton, Times Online

Piers Vitebsky is one of a tiny number of British experts on the region and an internationally renowned anthropologist. This book "REINDEER PEOPLE: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia" is the record of successive visits that…