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Why you always get a present you don’t want – Social Sciences and Gift-Giving

Published on November 4, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, gift economy gift giving, persons and theories, Us and Them

The Daily Telegraph

Millions of pounds are wasted each year because few understand the secret language of giving Christmas gifts. Why do we go through with it? Because the Christmas present is about kinship and power; taste and insight; symbolism and values. Over the years, it has become a rich source of PhDs, projects and papers for anthropologists, ethologists and sociologists, not to mention a legion of psychologists.

Gift-giving in primitive human societies was seen by the French ethnographer Marcel Mauss as a way of forging bonds with strangers. Decades ago, the distinguished University of Chicago anthropologist Prof Marshall Sahlins noted that the closer the kinship between the donor and the recipient, the less emphasis was placed on reciprocity and the more on sentiment. >> continue

The Daily Telegraph

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”

>> continue

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…

“Anthropologists must get more involved in IT design and security

Published on November 2, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, technology

ZDNet UK

People are the biggest security threat facing IT, a report says. That is not where the problem lies. People should come first, programmers second. We especially see it in online security, where the user is supposed to remember all manner of things – tiny yellow padlocks, checking URLs for https://, and a different password for every site.

Computer security is designed by engineers and sold by marketing departments. Neither group is known for its deep insights into human behaviour. There are two groups of people who must get much more involved in IT design, security: Humanities experts are one group – anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, graphics designers, even dramatists – while the other is the user base itself. >> continue

ZDNet UK

Religious divide grows amid Thai unrest

Published on November 2, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, religion cosmology, Us and Them

Asia Times

BANGKOK – Though southern Thailand’s ethnic-Malay Muslims are drawing closer together in the face of heavy-handed government tactics to quash a simmering separatist insurgency, religion is splitting them as Islamic fundamentalists, or reformists, challenge the prevailing Sufi Islam.

Thailand’s Muslims are a mixed bunch, comprising ethnic Malays, Thais, Indians and a smattering of others. “Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, most of the Muslims there are Malay, but there are Thai Muslim communities there as well, some local and some from other parts of the country,” says Michiko Tsuneda, a University of Wisconsin cultural anthropologist studying Thai-Malay Muslim communities in southern Thailand. >> continue

Asia Times

BANGKOK - Though southern Thailand's ethnic-Malay Muslims are drawing closer together in the face of heavy-handed government tactics to quash a simmering separatist insurgency, religion is splitting them as Islamic fundamentalists, or reformists, challenge the prevailing Sufi Islam.

Thailand's Muslims…

‘Duh! We knew that!’ – The Goal of Ethnography

Published on November 1, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods

TechnoTaste

I was reading recently in Weiss’ book Learning From Strangers, and was struck by one simple passage. It stated that the goal of any research, ethnography included, was to answer a question – to provide some information that wasn’t previously known. I think ethnography is different.

Anthropologists have developed the habit of delivering the final ethnography to the group under study, and gathering their reactions as a sort of postscript. When I have done this, I have encountered a reaction that I think many ethnographers have: the study participants all say ‘Duh! We knew that!’

In the context of ethnography I consider this the mark of success, not of failure. Here’s why >> continue

TechnoTaste

I was reading recently in Weiss’ book Learning From Strangers, and was struck by one simple passage. It stated that the goal of any research, ethnography included, was to answer a question - to provide some information that wasn’t previously…