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Open Access to Indigenous Research in Norway

More and more theses in Norway are published in digital archives and are freely available in full text. In MUNIN – the digital library of the University in Tromsø (Northern Norway), you can download eight master theses in indigenous studies. They look very interesting, so here they are:

Sargylana Zhirkova: School on the “move”. A case study: Nomadic schooling of the indigenous Evenk children in the Republic of Sakha Yakutia (Russian Far East)
Abstract: It seems strange that in a modern time the indigenous people decided to return not only to their traditional culture but also to the type of schooling which was used by their parents. The first nomadic school in Russia was created in the 1930s and now this kind of school starts to work again in nomadic communities. I have decided to write about the nomadic school because education is an important aspect of life of the indigenous people: it opens doors for indigenous people. Today the nomadic school is a new educational institution for the indigenous nomadic children.

Abdul Hoque: Radio and indigenous peoples. The role of radio in the sustainable livelihoods of indigenous peoples: A case study of the Rakhaing and the Garo people in Bangladesh
Abstract: Radio has the strong role in the sustainable livelihood of indigenous people. Promoting the recognition and practice of mother language media, especially radio, has its distinctive role. (…) Rakhaing has no radio programme of their own. So their language and culture has no significant development, even diminishing day by day. Study findings showed that the Rakhaing feel them excluded from the world; and only a single programme in radio can give them a feeling of being a member of the world.

Gilbert Ansoglenang: Rural women and micro-credit schemes. Cases from the Lawra District of Ghana
Abstract: The study concluded that micro-credit schemes help reduce rural poverty and empower women. Despite the enhanced and visible roles assumed by these women due to the credit schemes, there were serious operational lapses. (…) In the light of this, inter alia, the study made the following recommendation towards the empowerment of women: an appreciable increase in the loans, prioritizing girl-child education, developing and encouraging the use of appropriate technology, and engendering the loan scheme or helping rural women side-by-side their men folk.

Priscilla Felicity De Wet: “Make our children proud of the heritage”
A case study of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic communities in SA with specific reference to the emerging Khoe and San indigenous peoples in the Republic of South Africa

Victoria Phiri: When knowledge is not power. The integration of traditional midwifery into the health system. The case study of a traditional midwife among the Toka of Zambia
Abstract: In this thesis, I argue that what the traditional midwife practices is knowledge. Based on the local experiences and traditions, this knowledge may be different from what is commonly called “western” knowledge.

Sundar Bhattarai: The bola or parma of the Newar in Manamaiju Village. The significance of a farm labor exchange system among indigenous peasants in Nepal
Abstract: The key queries of this study are: what does the bola system look like in the village; and, how are they maintaining it as a successful living practice when there is a liberal economic policy in front of them?

Ciren Yangzong: The household responsibility contract system and the question of grassland protection. A case study from the Chang Tang, northwest Tibet Autonomous Region
Abstract: I attempt to demonstrate how common property systems have traditionally served and benefited the Shenchen nomads, and how they have traditionally co-existed with the wildlife using this system. (…) I analyze how HRCS is working in my particular area; especially in the Chang Tang conservation area and whether it is having an effect on nomad’s culture and environment.

Abebe Gizachew Abate: Contested land rights. Oromo peasants struggle for livelihood in Ethiopia
Abstract: Based on the contemporary ethnographic and historical data from Oromia regional state of Ethiopia the study examines complex relationships and contradictory processes of the effects of resource based-development policies of the Ethiopian regimes on land rights related to Oromo peasant livelihoods, environment and development. (…) Analytically, a new ethnographic paradigm of approaching the notions of land rights, power and resistance that problematize custom as static culture vs. dynamic understanding of culture opens up a more dynamic, practical , contextual and relational understanding of ` rights`.

>> overview over all theses

>> information on the Master Degree in Indigenous Studies

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More and more theses in Norway are published in digital archives and are freely available in full text. In MUNIN - the digital library of the University in Tromsø (Northern Norway), you can download eight master theses in indigenous…

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What happened at the AAA-conference in San Jose – a round up

I haven’t been at the annual meeting of tha American Anthropological Association but some other anthro-bloggers have (no journalists, though!). Information is scarce. Nevertheless, a few new reviews and blog posts have appeared since my first round up First news from the AAA-conference? one week ago:

See also earlier posts about the AAA meeting

First news from the AAA-conference?

San Jose: American Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of Iraq

I haven't been at the annual meeting of tha American Anthropological Association but some other anthro-bloggers have (no journalists, though!). Information is scarce. Nevertheless, a few new reviews and blog posts have appeared since my first round up First…

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More book reviews: Publishers are approaching bloggers

Columbia University Press recently approached Savage Minds, asking if we would like to review new books from their catalog”, Kerim Friedman writes and begins reviewing the first book “The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on popular politics in most of the world” by Partha Chatterjee.

I (and some other anthropology bloggers) have received this email by Columbia University Press (CUP) as well and you can expect reviews of their anthropology books here on antropologi.info as well (the first book has arrived).

“The new trend is getting bloggers to write about you”, according to marketing consultants. This seems to be true as I was approached by an Norwegian publisher only a few days later and the first review was published by guestblogger Syeda Rahima Parvin (in Norwegian). Earlier this year, a museum in Germany has taken contact with me.

Of course, journalistic standards apply here in the same way as in newspapers (no advertising!).

There has been some discussion on this subject, see:

How to approach bloggers about products

Best ways to approach bloggers for product reviews

Columbia University Press recently approached Savage Minds, asking if we would like to review new books from their catalog", Kerim Friedman writes and begins reviewing the first book "The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on popular politics in most of…

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“YouTube clips = everyday ethnography”

To decipher consumers’ needs, corporate ethnographers review countless Youtube clips and read scads of blogs. “Viewing a film about the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon rain forest in Anthropology 101 is like seeing a Youtube clip where a little kid in Peoria is sticking marshmallows in his face,” Robbie business anthropologist Blinkoff says in The Baltimore Sun.

And by following Flickr an anthropologist can “see what tools people use on a daily level,” as well as how their living arrangements in the same room may change over the course of several years, our fellow anthro-blogger Kambiz Kamrani says:

As consumers around the world proactively post to their blogs, stream if not lead parts of their lives online, virtual anthropologists now vicariously ‘live’ amongst them, at home, at work, out on the streets.

>> read the whole article in The Baltimore Sun

UPDATE: Kambiz Kamrani has blogged about this in the meanwhile: I’ve been quoted in the Baltimore Sun’s “Common realities”

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To decipher consumers' needs, corporate ethnographers review countless Youtube clips and read scads of blogs. "Viewing a film about the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon rain forest in Anthropology 101 is like seeing a Youtube clip where a little kid…

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Cameroon: "Ethnic conflicts are social conflicts"

According to official statistics, Cameroon’s population of about 16.5 million encompasses 350 ethnic groups. The sporadic eruption of inter-ethnic conflict in Cameroon has prompted concern about the future of this Central African country, according to IPS writer Sylvestre Tetchiada.

The first notable tensions between ethnic groups, he writes, date back to the beginning of the 1990s, also the time when single party rule came to an end in Cameroon.

However, anthropologist Charly Gabriel Mbock cautions that there is more to ethnic conflict than meets the eye. He says:

“Most of the so-called ethnic conflicts are the consequences of poorly-studied and poorly-resolved social problems. The conflicts, before they are called ethnic, are initially — and remain essentially — social.

Ethnic divisions are often exploited for political and religious gain:

“The elites of Cameroon…instigate or worsen inter-ethnic divisions for personal gain. The public powers clearly draw an advantage from the disorder provoked by the elites, to the extent that ethnic manipulation has become a business for most politicians and senior government officials.”

>> read the whole story at IPS News

>> Democratization and Ethnic Rivalries in Cameroon (Collection of papers denouncing the different faces of the political corruption of ethnicity in Cameroon, since the early hours of democracy. Examines the role played by the media in the exacerbation of ethnic rivalries; the survival of ethnic taxonomies in the post-colonial state etc)

>> News from Cameroon

Links updated 5.9.2019

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According to official statistics, Cameroon's population of about 16.5 million encompasses 350 ethnic groups. The sporadic eruption of inter-ethnic conflict in Cameroon has prompted concern about the future of this Central African country, according to IPS writer Sylvestre Tetchiada.

The first…

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