anthropology in the news | antropologi.info

“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

China’s minority fears

Published on November 5, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, indigenous people / minorities, politics, religion cosmology

BBC

Five days of pitched battles between thousands of Hui Muslims and Han Chinese villagers in Henan province left at least seven people dead, the latest in a series of large-scale confrontations that have come to light in recent weeks.

Often hidden in the past, these tensions are now bubbling to the surface, exacerbated by new problems associated with economic growth, such as the country’s widening wealth gap and increased competition for scarce resources. >> continue

BBC

Often hidden…

Biased media: Are African Students Respected?

Published on November 5, 2004 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, Europe, media, Us and Them

PRICILLA DE WET, Utropia, University of Tromsø, Norway

While watching TV within a circle of Norwegian friends and a Sudanese friend, a documentary about the living conditions in Sudan started. I couldn’t bear the look of disappointment on my Sudanese friend’s face. None of the world’s giant media companies ever dare to show such negative realities about their own countries, namely America and Europe.

The biased broadcasting of Africa by international media companies is of great concern to many Africans living in European countries. This kind of pessimism retards the progress of reaching our ethical goal as a world community for making the world a better place as it promotes disrespect for Africa’s peoples. >> continue

PRICILLA DE WET, Utropia, University of Tromsø, Norway

Anthropology of Food – one more Open Access Journal!

Published on November 4, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, journal articles / papers, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Obviously, there are more anthropological open access journals than supposed. Anthropology of Food is “a bilingual academic journal in French and English. It aims to publish results of latest research in Sociology and Anthropology of Food. This journal is produced and published by a network of European academic researchers sharing a common intellectual interest in the social science of food.”

There are articles on “The Culture of Milk in Argentina”, ” When We Eat What We Eat : Classifying Crispy Foods in Malaysian Tamil Cuisine”, “The Quest for Identities: Consumption of Wine in France”. Planned are issues on “Food, Religious groups and Conflicts of Norms and “Wine and globalisation” >> continue to the journal Anthropology of Food

Obviously, there are more anthropological open access journals than supposed. Anthropology of Food is "a bilingual academic journal in French and English. It aims to publish results of latest research in Sociology and Anthropology of Food. This journal is produced…

Teamwork, Not Rivalry, Marks New Era in Research

Published on November 4, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods, interdisciplinary, University / Academia

Los Angeles Times / KTLA TV

Teamwork across departmental lines was once a rarity at the nation’s most prestigious universities. But the practice, usually known as interdisciplinary research, is spreading rapidly. They are teaming psychologists and anthropologists with economists, laboratory biologists with computer-modeling experts, and scientists who study the brain with humanities professors who explore music and art.

One of the main reasons for the surge in interdisciplinary research is the complexity of today’s crucial issues. “For any problem that has some importance today, you find that, really, it doesn’t fit neatly into biology or into chemistry or into law” said Roberto Peccei, UCLA’s vice chancellor for research.

Still, some experts say, the quality of some interdisciplinary research is questionable. In certain cases in the humanities and social sciences, “interdisciplinary work simply provides a home for misfits, malcontents, those who are anti-disciplines without being pro-anything,” said Howard Gardner, a Harvard Graduate School of Education professor studying interdisciplinary trends. ~~(no longer available online)~~

>> read the whole article (pdf)

Los Angeles Times / KTLA TV

Teamwork across departmental lines was once a rarity at the nation's most prestigious universities. But the practice, usually known as interdisciplinary research, is spreading rapidly. They are teaming psychologists and anthropologists with economists, laboratory biologists…