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Anthropologist explores the history of the flush toilet – an “icon of modernity”

Published on November 14, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, history, technology, websites

Francesca Bray, UCSB Department of Anthropology

We live in a “technological age”. But which technologies have played the most important roles in producing our modern civilization? Which have most radically transformed our lives? Industrial engineering, the space research program, computers and communications technology? Of course, yet certain unobtrusive everyday technologies have been just as fundamental in producing the modern self: try to imagine your life without the toilet.

The flush toilet (WC) is recognized globally as an icon of modernity. Sometimes aspiring families in poor countries will install a porcelain pedestal in their house as a demonstration of their modern mindset, even if there is as yet no piped water connected to make it work.

Americans believe that American toilets are the best, and that American toilet practices are top of the evolutionary or civilizational scale. This display explores some of the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of American toilet practices >> continue

(Link via Ideas Bazaar)

Francesca Bray, UCSB Department of Anthropology

We live in a "technological age". But which technologies have played the most important roles in producing our modern civilization? Which have most radically transformed our lives? Industrial engineering, the space research program, computers and…

Forget suburbia, this is ethnourbia!

Published on November 12, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, migration

space and culture has collected links to a newer phenomenon called “ethnourbia”, a term coined in the 1990s by geographer Wei Li:

“Suburbs are bland, right? They’re boring, monotonous, devoid of life and culture: homogeneous. Nope. Suburbia is becoming increasingly diverse. More and more middle-class immigrants are skipping traditional ethnic enclaves and heading straight for the boonies, where strip malls are now filled with ethnic businesses, bubble-tea parlours dot the landscape and schools fill up with kids from any number of different backgrounds. Forget suburbia; this is ethnoburbia.”

“Unlike traditional ethnic neighbourhoods, ethnoburbs are affluent and diverse, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups and income levels. Instead of diluting the ethnic presence, the rise of the ethnoburb has actually made ethnic minorities more visible.”

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(via purse lip square jaw by Anne Galloway, another blogging anthropologist!)

space and culture has collected links to a newer phenomenon called "ethnourbia", a term coined in the 1990s by geographer Wei Li:

"Suburbs are bland, right? They’re boring, monotonous, devoid of life and culture: homogeneous. Nope. Suburbia is becoming increasingly diverse.…

In Britian: The local pub is the heart of the community

Published on November 10, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, culture traditions, Europe, fieldwork / methods, Us and Them

Manchester Online

MOST people believe the local pub is far more important to their community than the church, according to a survey published today. Kate Fox, social anthropologist and co-director of the Social Issues Research Centre, was asked to comment on the findings.

She said: “The survey confirms the status of the pub as a central part of British life and culture, a unique institution, vital for sustaining local communities. The bar of the pub is one of the very few public places in England where it is socially acceptable to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger,” she said.

“At the bar, the normal unwritten rules of privacy and reserve are suspended – we are granted temporary `remission’ from our conventional social inhibitions, and friendly conversation with strangers is regarded as entirely appropriate and normal behaviour.” >> continue

Manchester Online

“Reindeer People” Resort to Eating Their Herds

Published on November 5, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities

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

National Geographic

New Slideshow: The Colours of Rajasthan

Published on November 3, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, websites

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. She 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”

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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. She writes:

"Rajasthan must be the most vibrant and colourful place in India, if not the…