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Tomorrow in Sweden: “Lucia” , the bearer of the light , is no longer blue-eyed

Published on December 12, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, Europe

All over Sweden, schools, workplaces, towns and homes are planning their Lucia celebrations. Lucia, the bearer of light in the dark Swedish winter, has been celebrated in Sweden for centuries. Lucia used to be blonde and blue-eyed. Isolde Palombo, 21, a molecular biology student, is far from blonde. But that didn’t stop Stockholmers voting her Lucia this year, according to sweden.se.

Agneta Lilja, lecturer in ethnology at Södertörn University College Stockholm, says festivities are far more civilized than they used to be:

“In agrarian society people used to dress up as monsters and wander through the neighborhoods, singing and drinking. It has become a cultural phenomenon because we have honored the tradition for so long, especially in schools.”

>> read the whole story

Katrina disaster has roots in 1700s / Earthquake disaster in South Asia man-made

Published on October 16, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, culture traditions, development empowerment, ecology nature, Northern America

As noted before, disasters have their cultural aspects: Disasters are embedded in cultural practices of societies. “Disasters do not just happen.”

Anthropologist Anthony Oliver-Smith says in an interview about the earthquake in South Asia:

People often believe that nearly all environmental disasters are natural disasters when in fact many are the result of human actions, such as unsustainable use of natural resources. Even in the case of the recent earthquake in Pakistan, the majority of the deaths and displaced people can be attributed to the failure of building structures and their location.

A recent expert panel at Louisiana State University stated that the Katrina disaster actually has roots in 1700 when the French settlers started building levees in an attempt to stop flooding from the Mississippi River. Hurricane Katrina’s effects are the consequences of natural forces combined with the way people have engineered the landscape as far back as the early 1700s:

“It was not just a meteorological event, it was a social event as well,” said Craig Colten, professor of geography at LSU.

John Pine, interim chair of LSU’s department of geography and anthropology, said rebuilding will need to include recognizing how people have changed the landscape around New Orleans and how that could affect flooding and storm damage in the future. In doing that, he said, it’s important to include the unique culture and heritage of neighborhoods instead of imposing outside ideas on people.

Helen Regis, associate professor of anthropology, agreed.

“The people who live in New Orleans are the main experts on how to rebuild,” Regis said.

>> read more in The Advocate (Louisiana) (copy of article)

“Disasters do not just happen” – The Anthropology of Disaster (2)

New website: Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

Globalvoices: South Asian earthquake blogging highlights

South Asia Quake Help Blog

As noted before, disasters have their cultural aspects: Disasters are embedded in cultural practices of societies. "Disasters do not just happen."

Anthropologist Anthony Oliver-Smith says in an interview about the earthquake in South Asia:

People often believe that nearly all environmental…

“Aboriginal knowledge is science”

Published on October 7, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities, Northern America

10 aboriginal and four non-aboriginal graduate students from the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) are working with First Nations elders, community leaders and educators to identify science content elements of aboriginal knowledge and determine the most culturally appropriate and effective ways of teaching and learning science, according to University paper The Ring:

Using case studies, field studies, surveys, informal interviews and ethnography (such as elder circles, songs and traditional stories) the graduate students are investigating topics as wide-ranging as how elders transmit ecological knowledge and wisdom, how science is taught through traditional storytelling, and how to use digital video as a learning tool for retaining and transferring aboriginal knowledge.

“The big, central questions here are what is science, and is aboriginal knowledge science? We’re saying it is science, and that every culture has its own science. Right now, there’s a complete blank—traditional knowledge is not only devalued, for most teachers it doesn’t exist”, Gloria Snively, associate professor of science, environmental and marine education, says.

>> read the whole story

UPDATE. Comment by Kerim Friedman:

How can we keep creationism out of our science classrooms if we simultaneously embrace “aboriginal science”? The answer is we can’t.

(…)

It is true that many things aborigines know through their traditional forms of knowledge have, in fact, been proven to coincide with scientific knowledge as well. But some have not. This alone shows that traditional forms of knowledge can never be coterminous with science.

(…)

The solution to the relative status of traditional knowledge compared to science is not to simply label knowledge as “science.” It is to find ways create space within which it can find legitimate expression in our society and be accorded a status other than “superstition.” It is also to better educate people about scientific knowledge and its limits, so that all citizens can better distinguish between good and bad science.

>> read Kerim’s post and the discussion on Savage Minds

New Research Study about Traditional Folk Knowledge related to Plants in Albania

Local taboos could save the seas

“Disasters do not just happen” – The Anthropology of Disaster (2)

Published on September 8, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, ecology nature

“Nothing Is Just”, anthropologist Dustin M. Wax wrote in one of his first posts on Savage Minds: Filmmaking isn’t “just” making movies: Marriage isn’t “just” a marker of committment. Family isn’t “just” the people you are related to. Giving gifts isn’t “just” a form of exchange.”

The same can be said about disasters like the Katrina hurricane. In the book “Catastrophe & Culture. The Anthropology of Disaster” (2002), Susanna M. Hoffman and Anthony Oliver-Smith stress cultural aspects of disasters, that disasters are embedded in cultural practices of societies. “Disasters do not just happen”, they write in their introduction:

“Many societies in their native practices, before colonialisation, globalisation, and other interferences, had knowledge and strategies to deal with the nature of their physical platform, to the extent that a disaster, at least up to certain extremes, might not even constitute a “disaster” to them, but simply part of their lifeways and experience (Schneider 1957). For example, Sahelian nomads for centuries adapted to the periodic droughts of their region through interethnic cooperative linkages with sedentary farmers and by altering migration routes (Lovejoy and Baier 1976). In contemporary conditions, these strategies often have been disrupted by such things as governmental policies, economic development, population increase, or nation-state boundaries, such that maladaption, conditioned by the outer world, now hovers near (see McCabe, this volume)”

(quoted from page 8-9) (to be continued in later posts)

"Nothing Is Just", anthropologist Dustin M. Wax wrote in one of his first posts on Savage Minds: Filmmaking isn’t “just” making movies: Marriage isn’t “just” a marker of committment. Family isn’t “just” the people you are related to. Giving gifts…

Book review: Who owns native culture – A book with an excellent website

Published on September 2, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities, journal articles / papers, Native American, Northern America

Very interesting review by David Trigger in the August-edition of The Australian Journal of Anthropology. Michael F. Brown’s book “Who Owns Native Culture?” discusses Indigenous assertions of ownership of cultural information. These can be in tension with the claims of non-Indigenous people who may wish to access particular sites and land areas, discuss certain areas of Indigenous knowledge without being censored etc. According to David Trigger, Michael Brown seeks a balance between ‘the interests of indigenous groups and the requirements of liberal democracy’.

Michael Brown shows how this conflict is more complex than it might seem at first glance. Early in the book, he asks why the incorporation of native cultural forms should be defined as theft, when native peoples themselves (as with all societies) have selectively appropriated Christian and other symbols and religious practices. How does the ownership claim over usage of Indigenous cultural ideas and designs sit with the creative mixing of cultures often termed ‘hybridity’ or ‘creolisation’ by scholars? Are New Age adherents, for example, really guilty of ‘blasphemy and cultural aggression’, when embracing their own versions of such rituals as sweat-lodges (derived from certain North American Indian cultures)?

>> continue (Link updated with copy)

The book has its own website with lots of news, articles, reviews and links related to the book! Excellent!!!!!!!!!

READ ALSO Indigenousness and the Politics of Spirituality where anthropologist Sabina Magliocco argues against cultural ownership: “Taken to its logical extreme, it leads directly to essentialization and racism”

Very interesting review by David Trigger in the August-edition of The Australian Journal of Anthropology. Michael F. Brown's book "Who Owns Native Culture?" discusses Indigenous assertions of ownership of cultural information. These can be in tension with the claims…