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Pop goes Japanese culture

San Francisco Chronicle

Five years into the millennium, Japan’s most visible export isn’t economic, but cultural. The jury’s still out on whether anime (Japanese animation), manga, toys, gadgets and fashion will sweep across middle America. “This stuff is getting globalized like never before,” says Anne Allison, chair of cultural anthropology at Duke University, whose examination of the subject, “Millennium Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination” (University of California Press) will be out in 2006.

“In the last decade, especially in the last five years, Japanese pop culture, particularly youth culture — anime, manga, Pokemon, kids cards — has circulated not just in the United States, but in Western Europe, East Asia and South America.” >> continue

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Interview with anthropologist Anne Allison about her research in Japan (Japan Review)
Book review: Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture (Japan Review) , see same book reviewed by H-Net Review

San Francisco Chronicle

Five years into the millennium, Japan's most visible export isn't economic, but cultural. The jury's still out on whether anime (Japanese animation), manga, toys, gadgets and fashion will sweep across middle America. "This stuff is getting globalized like…

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Book review: Mahmood Mamdani: "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim"

Media Monitors Network

A valuable new contribution to unearth and interpret America’s bizarre conduct is Mahmood Mamdani’s study “GOOD MUSLIM, BAD MUSLIM”. The author, a distinguished political scientist and anthropologist, explains that the book grew out of a talk at a church in New York after 9/11 when to bear an identifiably Muslim name was to be made aware that Islam had become a political identity in America.

Perhaps the heart of this book can be found in the first chapter titled “Culture Talk; Or How Not To Talk About Islam And Politics”. The author is able to penetrate the limits of conventional discourse on democracy and dictatorship, poverty and wealth and also succeeds in locating “culture” within the chasm of globalisation. >> continue Link updated 29.5.18

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Interview with Mahmood Mamdani (Asia Source) Link updated 29.5.18

Media Monitors Network

A valuable new contribution to unearth and interpret America's bizarre conduct is Mahmood Mamdani's study "GOOD MUSLIM, BAD MUSLIM". The author, a distinguished political scientist and anthropologist, explains that the book grew out of a talk at a…

Read more

U.S. exposure to foreign literature promotes tolerance in multicultural world

The Soth End Newspaper

It seems every aspect of American life is undergoing a “Globalization” except one — our literary culture. Explanations for this phenomenon vary, from lack of interest to lack of availability, but one thing is certain: A majority of Americans have a profound disinterest in the literary and cultural works of other countries. >> continue

The Soth End Newspaper

It seems every aspect of American life is undergoing a “Globalization” except one — our literary culture. Explanations for this phenomenon vary, from lack of interest to lack of availability, but one thing is certain: A majority…

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“Pop culture is a powerful tool to promote national integration”

RedNova News

WHEN reality television show Malaysian Idol came under attack last year, Dr Wan Zawawi Ibrahim, a professor of social anthropology, was one of the few academics who came to its defence. He is optimistic of pop culture’s positive effect on national integration and the creation of new identities among the young.

“Malaysian Idol is an example of pop culture which has created social spaces for youngsters of different ethnic groups to come together,” says the 57-year old researcher. The notion of pop culture as a social binding tool is not new. It has proliferated in local films, music or theatre years before the Idol series was even conceptualised.

Wan Zawawi also wants more social spaces for youths to come together. “Malaysian Idol, the National Service programme, cybercafes and even designer coffee outlets like Starbucks and Coffee Bean are social spaces for youths of various ethnicities to interact with each other,” he adds. >> les mer

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Malaysian Idol – “a space for young people of different ethnicity to interact”

RedNova News

WHEN reality television show Malaysian Idol came under attack last year, Dr Wan Zawawi Ibrahim, a professor of social anthropology, was one of the few academics who came to its defence. He is optimistic of pop culture's positive effect…

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Urban anthropology Inc. shares stories of Milwaukee’s homeless people

Greater Milwaukee Today

Over a three-year period of time from 2000-2003, Urban Anthropology Inc., a Milwaukee nonprofit organization, deployed a handful of anthropologists, anthropology interns and former homeless individuals to document 109 stories of homelessness. The subjects, who were paid $5 and agreed to be tape recorded described life before being homeless, the path that led to their homelessness, life as homeless and, where applicable, how they got off the streets.

Dr. Jill Florence Lackey, Urban Anthropology executive director, says the homeless study fits into her organization’s mission of preventing and abolishing racism/ethnocentrism and creating bridges among cultural groups >> continue

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Homepage of Urban Anthropology Inc. (UrbAn)

Greater Milwaukee Today

Over a three-year period of time from 2000-2003, Urban Anthropology Inc., a Milwaukee nonprofit organization, deployed a handful of anthropologists, anthropology interns and former homeless individuals to document 109 stories of homelessness. The subjects, who were paid $5…

Read more