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More on the return of spies to college campuses

Published on June 6, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, ethics, politics, University / Academia

As posted earlier, the CIA is sponsering anthropologists to gather sensitive information during their fieldwork.

The Kansas City Star provides more detailes about the spies on the campus. Among others, they interviewed Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, who leads the American Anthropological Association’s Committee on Ethics. She says:

“It’s the secrecy that runs afoul of our ethical code.When you don’t own up — when you don’t honestly say who you are, and for whom you’re working — then you’re not doing social science. You’re doing espionage.

Furthermore, we read that Felix Moos who defended the CIa-program in Anthropology Today says, that he “has fielded hundreds of electronic letters and interview requests from around the world and that “about 60 percent realize I’m on the right track”. He adds:“About 40 percent feel it’s government intrusion into the universities. You know, the usual suspects …”

>> read the whole article in the Kansas City Star

As posted earlier, the CIA is sponsering anthropologists to gather sensitive information during their fieldwork.

The Kansas City Star provides more detailes about the spies on the campus. Among others, they interviewed Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, who leads the American Anthropological Association’s Committee…

Why American shopping culture is rejected in India

Published on June 6, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, Asia, corporate & business anthropology, culture traditions

Daily Telegraph

It is easy to see why multi-national giants such as Wal-Mart, French rival Carrefour and Tesco, all of which are active in China, are so attracted to India. The country has the world’s second largest population after China with over 1bn inhabitants. But the largest problem for Western retailers hoping to enter India is cultural, and stems from the disparate nature of the retail scene.

Simon Roberts, an anthropologist specialising in India and founder of Ideas Bazaar, a research consultancy, says that attempts to create a shopping mall culture – so established in the West – have so far failed. Although chain stores will appeal to certain bourgeois communities in India’s so-called “million cities” (those with more than 1m residents), Roberts says that the demand could be limited because of families’ lifestyles.

Many families have domestic staff who do the shopping, and the concept of the “weekly shop” simply does not exist. India is also a deeply religious society, with doctrinal conventions governing behaviour. “An Indian woman in Varanasi might not leave the house except to go to the temple, so do you expect her to suddenly pop off to Wal-Mart?” he says. >> continue

PS: Exciting to read an article about an anthropologist you know – or think you know, because you’re a reader of his blog. That’s the effect of blogging – as Andrea Ben Lassoued explains in “blogging and the “big men” in anthropology”

Daily Telegraph

Weblogs are sweeping the political and social landscape of Iran

Published on June 3, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, internet, media, Middle East, politics, technology

Hadi Ansari, OhmyNews International

Only four years have passed since Hossein Derakhshan, Iran’s leading blogger and Internet activist, published a guide to making a weblog in Persian. Now the influence of weblogs has spread to every aspect of Iranian people’s daily lives. Farsi has become the third most prominent language of bloggers on the Net, despite the fact that Farsi speakers around the world number just 100 million (including Afghans and Tajiks who speak Farsi). >> continue

Skypecast – Interview about Blogging in India with Dina Mehta

Ethnographic study on bloggers in California & New York

Hadi Ansari, OhmyNews International

Only four years have passed since Hossein Derakhshan, Iran's leading blogger and Internet activist, published a guide to making a weblog in Persian. Now the influence of weblogs has spread to every aspect of Iranian people's daily…

“War on terror”: CIA sponsers anthropologists to gather sensitive information

Published on June 3, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, ethics, fieldwork / methods, Northern America, politics

“A CIA scheme to sponsor trainee spies secretly through US university courses has caused anger among UK academics, the BBC reports. The Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program pays anthropology students up to $50,000 (£27,500) a year. They are expected to use the techniques of “fieldwork” to gather political and cultural details on other countries. Britain’s Association of Social Anthropologists called the scholarships ethically “dangerous” and divisive.”

“Undergraduates taking part in the scholarship programme must not reveal their funding source and are expected to attend military intelligence summer camps.”

The CIAs activities are defended by an American anthropologist (Felix Moos, University of Kansas). He wrote according the BBC in Anthropology Today: “The United States is at war. Thus, to put it simply, the existing divide between academe and the intelligence community has become a dangerous and very real detriment to our national security at home and abroad.” >> read the whole article (BBC)

Let’s hope anthropologists say NO to the CIA!

This story reminds me on Montgomery McFate’s controversial article Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of Their Curious Relations where she urges anthropologists to cooperate with the military and Dustin M. Wax’s comments: “a functioning anthropology can never be on the side of U.S. forces”.

UPDATE 2 (6.5.05): More on the return of spies to college campuses in the Kansas City Star

PS: By the way. Check what kind of definition of anthropology the BBC uses on their website: “the study of esp. primitive peoples”…

The CIA’s Campus Spies. Exposing the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program (Dave H. Price, Counterpunch, 12.3.05)

Anthropologists as Spies (David Price, The Nation, 20.11.00)

"A CIA scheme to sponsor trainee spies secretly through US university courses has caused anger among UK academics, the BBC reports. The Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program pays anthropology students up to $50,000 (£27,500) a year. They are expected to…

Most searched words: Zoo Augsburg african village. Newspapers start to report

Published on May 31, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, Europe, internal notes, Us and Them

Just a short note on what people search: “Zoo Augsburg african village” are the most searched words at the moment. It’s quite striking how often this site is visited by people (from countries all over the world!) searching for news about the planned exhibition of Africans in the Zoo in Augsburg, Germany. The news has spread mainly via the internet. Only two newspapers (update 1.6.: now it’s three – no four!) in Germany have been interested in this issue so far. It is widely debated on German language blogs and forums, though.

Here I’ve collected updated news and links:

>> African village in the Zoo: Protest against racist exhibition

>> Bewusster oder unbewusster Rassismus? Proteste gegen “African Village” im Zoo

Just a short note on what people search: "Zoo Augsburg african village" are the most searched words at the moment. It's quite striking how often this site is visited by people (from countries all over the world!) searching for news…