anthropology in the news | antropologi.info

The BBC sponsors African blogs

Published on August 9, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, internet, websites

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices

The BBC has a long tradition of encouraging readers and listeners of their Africa service to talk about their views of the continent. BBC is going a step further, looking for people with interesting stories to tell, arming them with digital cameras and encouraging them to get posting. >> continue to Global Voices (many links to recommended blogs!)

>> go directly to BBCs “My Africa – Africa Diaries”

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices

Summer anthroblog round-up

Published on August 8, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, books, corporate & business anthropology, fieldwork / methods, Us and Them

(Post in progress)

Here a short summary of some stories published during the summer break:

Most discussed: Jared Diamond’s book “Guns, Germs and Steel” and the reasons for differences in progress for different societies

From a summary of the debate in Inside Higher Education (via Keywords):
Diamond focuses on the impact of geography — whether food and other key items were plentiful, whether and how disease spread, and how these developments led to different levels of industrialization, and wealth. “The book overlooks a fundamental issue: the inequality within countries as well as between them,” Kerim Friedman writes. “I assure you that logging industry executives in New Guinea live better than you or I do! Both New Guinea and the United States are far more unequal (by some measures) than is India.” >> read more in Inside Higher Education

>> read the whole debate at Savage Minds (116 comments!!!)

Field Work at Mac Donalds Drive-Through. Coca-Cola hired an anthropologist to find out how to sell more Coke to car drivers and the anthropologist didn’t have more than 40 seconds per informant >> read the whole story “Ronald, patron saint of ethnography” by Grant McCracken (inkl lots of comments!)

Online-Research on age cohorts Charu writes: “I am very curious about what experiences we grew up sharing…. Internet ? Technology ? Liberalization ?” Her idea: to understand the events, ideas, values that have shaped her generation (mid-70’s born, the over-20, 30 ish) and to experiment with the possibility of blogs as a tool for primary research…. >> continue to her post on “A Time To Reflect”

Ethnographic Research on African Village in the Zoo published Nina Glick Schiller, Data Dea and Markus Höhne (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany) did some fieldwork in the zoo. One of their findings: “Organizers and visitors were not racist but they participated in and reflected a process that has been called racialization: the daily and often taken-for-granted means by which humans are separated into supposedly biologically based and unequal categories.” >> read the summary and download the report

( >> earlier posts on the African Village)

(Post in progress)

Here a short summary of some stories published during the summer break:

Most discussed: Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the reasons for differences in progress for different societies

From a summary of the debate in Inside…

How Media and Digital Technology Empower Indigenous Survival

Published on August 6, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, indigenous people / minorities, internet, journal articles / papers, media, Regions, technology

(via Putting People First) Worldchanging has “tracked projects that use new technologies to empower indigenous cultural survival — from digital applications using Inuktitut, the Inuit native language, to the Aboriginal Mapping Project, which harnesses the power of GIS to help indigenous peoples manage their lands and resources, to the networked reindeer tracking of Saami Networked Connectivity Project”. Additionally, they point to the latest volume of Cultural Survival Quarterly. It is devoted to Indigenous Peoples Bridging the Digital Divide. Much to read! >> continue to Worldchanging

PS: Worldchanging is a blog devoted to “Models, Tools, and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future” and Dina Mehta (Conversations with Dina) is one of the contributers

Modern technology revives traditional languages

Internet and development in India

(via Putting People First) Worldchanging has "tracked projects that use new technologies to empower indigenous cultural survival -- from digital applications using Inuktitut, the Inuit native language, to the Aboriginal Mapping Project, which harnesses the power of GIS to help…

Book review: Witchcraft in South Africa

Published on August 5, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, books, culture traditions, religion cosmology

Gary Kynoch, H-Net reviews Witchcraft, Violence and Democracy by Adam Ashforth

Many Northern academics, along with their African counterparts, are reluctant to engage with the concept of witchcraft for fear of appearing to label Africans as primitive. However, like it or not, notions of magic and witchcraft often play a prominent role in politics, armed conflict, perceptions of health and sickness, and all manner of social relationships. Instead of ignoring this basic reality, we need to acknowledge and investigate these dynamics.

Adam Ashforth embraces this challenge with his declaration that “no one can understand life in Africa without understanding witchcraft and the related aspects of insecurity”. Beyond simply describing the purchase that witchcraft has on life in Soweto, Ashforth sets out to examine the relationship between witchcraft beliefs and democracy in South Africa. >> continue

Gary Kynoch, H-Net reviews Witchcraft, Violence and Democracy by Adam Ashforth

Many Northern academics, along with their African counterparts, are reluctant to engage with the concept of witchcraft for fear of appearing to label Africans as primitive. However, like it or…

Understanding the ‘Natives’ at a Big University: Anthropologist studies students

Published on August 4, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, ethics, fieldwork / methods, University / Academia, youth

Gil Klein, Media General News Service

WASHINGTON – When most anthropologists do field work, they head off to places like Indonesia to study such things as 20th century head-hunting rituals. But when Rebekah Nathan wanted to study a foreign culture, she turned in her faculty parking pass, enrolled at her own university as a freshman and moved into a dorm.

“I had to learn a new language, a new speed of talk,” Nathan said. “Much quicker, much more shorthand. It comes from IM-ing (instant messaging). Even the number of “likes” in a sentence marked my age. I had to put a lot more in … so I talk like I know how he was like …”

Rebekah Nathan is not the anthropologist’s real name. She’s not saying where she teaches and did her research — or even where she was during a telephone interview. Her methods have raised a buzz in the academic community even before the September release of her book, “My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student.” After an article and excerpt appeared in the “Chronicle of Higher Education,” she was criticized for involving students in her research without their “informed consent.” >> continue (Link updated)

Rebekah Nathan: An Anthropologist Goes Under Cover (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29.7.05)

Undercover Freshman (Inside Higher Education, 13.7.05)

An anthropologist’s undercover project raises ethical hackles (The Boston Globe, 7.8.05)

Gil Klein, Media General News Service

WASHINGTON - When most anthropologists do field work, they head off to places like Indonesia to study such things as 20th century head-hunting rituals. But when Rebekah Nathan wanted to study a foreign culture, she…