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Coming Back Around to Culture – an anthropologist’s thoughts about Technology

Published on October 25, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, culture traditions, design anthropology, technology

TechnoTaste

I have come back around finally to the reason I came to School of Information Management Systems in the first place: a belief that the tools and perspectives of anthropology are useful and needed.

In the face of all the new technologies and applications today it’s easy to forget that behavior drives technology. If culture drives behavior, at least to some degree, then it ought to be essential, not only to the way we understand the uses and contexts of technology, but to its design.

It’s not useful to take for granted that there is something fundamentally new about the informational, technical world in which we live. I have a sneaking suspicion that a great deal more is the same than is different. Culture is too important – too pervasive and immutable – to respond on a whim to the development of new technologies, even if they fundamentally change the way we live. >> continue

TechnoTaste

I have come back around finally to the reason I came to School of Information Management Systems in the first place: a belief that the tools and perspectives of anthropology are useful and needed.

In the face of all the new…

Thousands of Creoles throng Seychelles’ capital, showcasing a dying culture?

Published on October 25, 2004 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, culture traditions, globalisation

Utusan Malaysia Online

Women dressed in bright yellow and green swirling skirts joined men in straw hats and colourful cummerbunds, while musicians playing instruments made from bamboo and goatskins led a procession through Victoria.

“The Creoles are a tiny population worldwide, making up only a few million people,” said Jean Claude Mahoune, an anthropologist and expert on Creole culture at Seychelles’ ministry of culture. “With globalisation and strong western influences, our culture and our language is endangered, if we don’t do something to keep everything that is Creole alive,” he said. >> continue

Utusan Malaysia Online

``The Creoles are a tiny population worldwide, making…

Identity Issues in Mongolia – or The Meaning of Surnames

Published on October 23, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, language

Los Angeles Times / Yahoo

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — School principal Baast chose the name “Nomad” in keeping with his wandering spirit. Defense Minister Gurragchaa — the only Mongolian to venture into space — settled on “Cosmos.” And anthropology student Vanchigdash picked the Mongolian word for wisdom. “It makes me feel rather wise,” he said. “I’m very proud of my new name.”

Mongolians, long used to using only first names, are reshaping their identities under a government-led initiative to add surnames. First names worked reasonably well in an isolated, nomadic culture. But officials say surnames are now needed to avoid confusion in a more modern society, to help uncover long-buried roots as people delve into their clan histories and to prevent the inbreeding that occurs when you’re not sure to whom you’re related.

Choosing second names — including the mad dash to name themselves after Genghis — is also helping Mongolians reconnect with their history and rekindle national pride after decades of relative isolation. “A man who doesn’t know his ancestors is like a monk lost in the woods” is a popular proverb here. >> continue

Los Angeles Times / Yahoo

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — School principal Baast chose the name "Nomad" in keeping with his wandering spirit. Defense Minister Gurragchaa — the only Mongolian to venture into space — settled on "Cosmos." And anthropology student Vanchigdash…

The Anthropologist as Barman – Durham Anthropology Journal fulltext online

Published on October 17, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, Europe, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers, music, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, tourism

Adam R. Kaul, Durham Anthropology Journal

My doctoral research looks at the way in which tourism is changing and interacting with the performance and meaning of traditional Irish music. I carried out over 14 months of fieldwork in a small, rural Irish village of under 600 people, called Doolin, in northwest County Clare.

Anthropologists and sociologists are relatively new to the field of tourism, but I would argue we have some powerful qualitative tools at our disposal that can contribute to a much richer understanding of tourists and tourist destinations. This is true not just for tourist populations, but for other mobile or shifting groups like asylum seekers or economic migrants.

We need to start discussing the everyday realities of doing fieldwork, the potential problems and opportunities, in much more detail in the literature, and how they might be used as units of analysis in and of themselves. >> continue

SEE ALSO
More articles in Volume 12 / Issue 1 Durham Anthropology Journal (Formerly Dyn)

Adam R. Kaul, Durham Anthropology Journal

A secret writing system used only by women in China’s Hunan province

Published on October 15, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, gender, language

The Straits Times Asia

MADAM Yang Huanyi, 98, died in a remote part of China’s Hunan province last month. There was nothing unusual about her death, except that she was the last person on Earth who had mastered a secret writing system used only by women in that region.

Today, the number of people who understand nushu well comes to less than 50 worldwide. Most of them live in Madam Yang’s Jiangyong county. The residents there want to exploit its potential as an attraction for tourists. This has alarmed linguists, anthropologists and other experts, who are worried that the ancient writing system will be defiled through such commercial exploitation.

Nushu, believed to have been invented almost 2,000 years ago, was used exclusively by women in western Hunan and parts of adjoining Guangxi region. (article no longer online)

MORE INFORMATION
A language by women, for women. Scholars try to save unique Chinese script (MSNBC / Washington Post)
Links to more websites at Yahoo

The Straits Times Asia

MADAM Yang Huanyi, 98, died in a remote part of China's Hunan province last month. There was nothing unusual about her death, except that she was the last person on Earth who had mastered a secret writing…