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Germans critical of Santa Claus’s spread – “symbol of American commercialism”

Published on December 9, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Europe, politics, religion cosmology, Us and Them

Christian Science Monitor

To many Germans, Santa’s spread is an unwelcome reminder of the encroachment of American commercialism into Europe. “People are starting to become critical of commercialism in every respect,” says Hermann Bausinger, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Tübingen.

“Christmas has switched from being only a celebration within the family and the church to being a public event starting late in November and going on through January,” says Mr. Bausinger.

The problem, as German television celebrity Mr. Hahne sees it, is that American-style Santas are crowding out Saint Nicholas, the traditional Christmas icon of this hilly Germany village named after the 4th-century bishop. “Santa is a symbol of consumption,” Hahne says. “Nicholas was a real bishop [who] taught us what’s still very true today: giving does not make us poorer. It makes us richer.” >> continue

Christian Science Monitor

To many Germans, Santa's spread is an unwelcome reminder of the encroachment of American commercialism into Europe. "People are starting to become critical of commercialism in every respect," says Hermann Bausinger, a cultural anthropologist at the University of…

How far have we come since anthropologists began to think about magic & religion?

Published on November 18, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, persons and theories, religion cosmology

Hugh Gusterson, associate professor of anthropology at MIT, Anthropology News (AAA) November

When anthropology was established as a discipline in the early 20th century the relationship between magic, science and religion was one of its central preoccupations. If anthropologists have backstaged these issues in recent decades, today they are more than ripe for revisiting and reworking.

If Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard were alive today, they would surely be intrigued to find that, while Americans often construe their global dominance in terms of their superior science and technology, they also have a president who lists Jesus as his favorite thinker and regards evangelicals as his most important voting bloc.

As an anthropologist of science I am increasingly struck by the way that magic and science, far from being opposites, are increasingly fused at the hip. Technology itself has an aura of infallibility that makes it an instrument of magic. The stakes are bigger and the interventions more expensive, but have we really traveled so far from the complex mixture of paranoia, logic and magic that characterized Evans-Pritchard’s Azande? >> continue

Hugh Gusterson, associate professor of anthropology at MIT, Anthropology News (AAA) November

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…

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…

Modern technology helps reinvigorate traditional values

Published on October 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, books, religion cosmology, technology, Us and Them

The University of Chicago Press

An interview with anthropologist Jonah Blank, author of Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi Bohras. The Daudi Bohras are a unique denomination of Indian Muslims, with a worldwide population numbering up to one million.

“Perhaps the most important lesson the Bohras can teach outsiders is that Muslims can indeed embrace modernity while remaining true to their traditions and core beliefs.”

“Perhaps the most important way in which technology has bolstered traditional values has been by permitting Bohras around the world to have immediate and constant contact with the dai-ul-mutlaq (the spirtual leader of the community). Due to the dai’s crucial importance, Bohras have eagerly pounced on each new generation of communications technology—from fax to email to digital cellphones—to maintain close contact with the dawat (the Bohra clergy)”. >> continue

The University of Chicago Press