ethics | antropologi.info

New book critizises ethnographic methods in market research on children

Published on April 14, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, corporate & business anthropology, ethics, youth

D. Murali in the The Hindu Buisiness Line

“Children have become conduits from the consumer marketplace into the household, the link between advertisers and the family purse,” writes Juliet B. Schor in his book “Born to Buy”. Marketers have “set their sights on children” — not for the odd trinket and toy as in those good old days, but also for the big money that this niche group can yield by influencing buying decisions.

What is depressing is the amount of specialised research that companies unleash on children. “They’ve gone anthropological, using ethnographic methods that scrutinise the most intimate details of children’s lives. Marketers are videotaping children in their private spaces,” laments Schor. Quite shockingly, “Researchers are paying adults whom kids trust, such as coaches, clergy, and youth workers, to elicit information from them”? Prying happens online too.

The last chapter springs a hope that childhood can be decommercialised, though the job is not going to be easy. Some of the changes that Schor proposes involve Government regulation of ads and marketing. >> continue

D. Murali in the The Hindu Buisiness Line

"Children have become conduits from the consumer marketplace into the household, the link between advertisers and the family purse," writes Juliet B. Schor in his book "Born to Buy". Marketers have "set their…

“When somebody’s rights are diminished, as anthropologist, I have to speak out”

Published on December 3, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, ethics, indigenous people / minorities, Native American, politics

Lawrence Journal World

It seems more the stuff of an action movie than an anthropology professor’s field work. But Kansas University professor Bart Dean found himself in the middle of a violent showdown between corrupt Peruvian officials and the indigenous Cocama-Cocamilla people.

Seven months later, Dean has become embroiled in a nationwide controversy in Peru and is working with a group of KU students to document the abuses on the Internet. “My general sense is that when somebody’s rights are diminished, mine are as well,” Dean said. “As a concerned citizen and as a professor of anthropology, I had to speak out.”

Earlier this week he and his students unveiled a preliminary version of an Internet site, www.cocama.org, that eventually will contain video footage, photos and other information about the attack and political problems in Peru. >> continue

UPDATE 1.8.05PS: Their website is no longer accessible

Lawrence Journal World

It seems more the stuff of an action movie than an anthropology professor's field work. But Kansas University professor Bart Dean found himself in the middle of a violent showdown between corrupt Peruvian officials and the indigenous Cocama-Cocamilla…

Stolen remains coming home to Aborigines

Published on September 6, 2004 by lorenz Posted in aboriginees, anthropology in the news, ethics, indigenous people / minorities

The Australian/ eniar

THE skeletal remains of up to 18 Aborigines, stolen by a Swedish anthropologist 90 years ago, will be returned to Australia this month in a landmark repatriation agreement. Aboriginal elders from Western Australia, Queensland, NSW and Victoria will travel to Stockholm in late September to receive the ancestral remains and begin the process of spiritual healing.

Most of the remains – which are held in Sweden’s Museum of Ethnography – were removed from the Kimberley by Swedish anthropologist Eric Mjoberg between 1910 and 1911.

Mjoberg’s methods were said to include bribing Aborigines to lead him to remains and then smuggling the skeletons out of Australia by telling authorities the bones were from kangaroos. >> continue

The Australian/ eniar