Us and Them | antropologi.info

Anthropologist studies British and American gardening traditions

Published on July 20, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, Us and Them

No place to escape from anthropologists. Not even in your own garden! Jane Nadel-Klein is researching the modern-day garden and its rubber-clogged inhabitants, according to the Indiapolis Star. The anthropologist says, that “an examination of the garden-club lady can help our understanding of humankind” because “the more we know about the history of a human practice, the more we know what we share.” >> more in the Indiapolis Star.

SEE ALSO:

Jane Nadel-Klein. Fishing for Heritage: Modernity and Loss along the Scottish Coast (Book review, Australian Journal of Anthropology)

Germanic Y-chromosomes? Racial theories still alive?

Published on July 19, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Us and Them

(via Livejournal Anthropologist Community) What? Germanic Y-chromosomes? What’s that? And “Germanic genes”? Are racial theories alive and kicking?

The BBC writes about an “abundance of Germanic genes in England today”:

There are a very high number of Germanic male-line ancestors in England’s current population. Genetic research has revealed the country’s gene pool contains between 50 and 100% Germanic Y-chromosomes.

Or what are “native British genes”?

“We believe that they [Anglo Saxons] also prevented the native British genes getting into the Anglo-Saxon population by restricting intermarriage in a system of apartheid that left the country culturally and genetically Germanised.”

We don’t get any explanations on how these genes are defined. Race – as we know – “doesn’t exist biologically, but it does exist socially,” as anthropologist Alan Goodman once said. “Human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups” (AAA-Statement on Race). But reading the articles in the BBC and New Scientist, it seems that race has become a biological reality.

UPDATE (20.7.06): Comment by Alex Golub at Savage Minds:

There are things that I find curious about the article—the assumption that ‘marriage’ and ‘reproduction’ are the same thing and that ethnic identity is always corelated with a genetic marker for instance—but there doesn’t seem to be very much to be ‘racial’ to me.

>> read the whole comment

“It will take a long time for people to grasp the illusory nature of race”

Anthropology and Race – Discussions in the Classroom

Savage Minds: Recent Debates on Race and Class

Racism: The Five Major Challenges for Anthropology

American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race” and Race – A Scholars’ Preview

(via Livejournal Anthropologist Community) What? Germanic Y-chromosomes? What's that? And "Germanic genes"? Are racial theories alive and kicking?

The BBC writes about an "abundance of Germanic genes in England today":

There are a very high number of Germanic male-line ancestors in…

New blog: Sarapen. Online anthropology on Filipino bloggers

Published on July 8, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, globalisation, internet, migration, Northern America, Us and Them, websites

(via Livejournal Anthropology Community) Jesse de Leon, Master’s student in Social Anthropology, has started blogging on his research on Filipino bloggers – a very interesting blog about migration, transnationalism, identity and internet research. In his second post he explains:

I’m what’s known as a 1.5 generation immigrant: someone who immigrated as a child old enough to remember the country they were born in. In my case, I immigrated to Canada from the Philippines when I was ten years old. I consider myself as having grown up in both countries. I know that if I had grown up entirely in the Philippines, I would be a different person than what I am today.

It’s therefore understandable that I’m interested in issues of migration, transnationalism, and identity. I’m particularly interested in what identity is like for other Filipinos who have migrated. Do they consider themselves as being completely Filipino? Or do they see themselves as being Canadians now (or American, or Australian, or so on)?

(…)

Now, this is all well and good, but lots of other people have examined these issues. What am I doing that’s new? Well, I’m investigating Filipino migration and identity, but I’m investigating them through blogs. Specifically, I’m looking at how Filipino bloggers talk about these issues. I’m also looking at how Filipino bloggers don’t talk about these issues.

>> visit Sarapen. Online anthropology on Filipino bloggers

His blog is hosted at edublogs.org – a free blog host that he recommends.

(via Livejournal Anthropology Community) Jesse de Leon, Master’s student in Social Anthropology, has started blogging on his research on Filipino bloggers - a very interesting blog about migration, transnationalism, identity and internet research. In his second post he explains:

I’m…

World Cup: Cultural representations and why patriotism is not healthy

Published on July 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cosmopolitanism, Europe, sports, Us and Them

Kambiz Kamrani at anthropology.net has made a nice post about national fotballs: How do the different countries represent themselves? Sport is bringing the world closer together, in his opinion. His list of World Cup participants “shows us the color side of globalization in the form of socio-economic and cultural contributions of each country in the form of soccer balls” >> continue reading at anthropology.net

On the website Expatica, Editor-in-chief David Gordon Smith has written an interesting comment on the recent patriotism in Germany. As also noted critically by blogger Urmila Goel:

As also All of Germany is coloured in black-red-gold. Almost all. And all are very very happy. (…) I hardly find anybody who is so utterly disgusted by all this black-red-gold as I am. ‘Nations’ are based on exclusion. They are the basis for wars, not only with weapons. I do not like this structuring of the world, and I utterly dislike its national symbols. Especially the flags.

David Gordon Smith might be nearly as critical as Urmila Goel. As a migrant, he feels excluded (for some reason, he uses the term “expat” – but you should use it as a synonym for migrant):

It is a strange feeling to live here and be excluded from the collective hysteria: when newspaper editorials write about ‘us’ and ‘our team’, they are not talking about expats. For anyone who does not belong to, or identify with, mainstream Germany, ostentatious displays of patriotism can leave an uneasy feeling.(…) If anyone gets nervous at the sight of Germans waving flags, it is because Germany waged a terrible war within living memory.

He then goes on explaining why patriotism never can be healthy for a society:

Nationalism and war have always gone hand in hand, and probably patriotism is of most use to the nation state when it comes to armed conflict. Without feelings of intense patriotism, it would be hard for the nation state to get young men (and women) to die on its behalf. Patriotic emotions may not cause wars, but they make it easier for governments to wage wars–especially wars which can not be rationally justified. If it was not for patriotism, governments would have to be much more careful about engaging in military action.

But what sort of relationship should we have to our country of origin or residence?

I would argue that in the modern world the ideal relationship of an individual to a nation state (or supranational organisation) should be objective, critical and passionless. You might agree or disagree with certain things the state does, you might even be prepared to fight to defend it, but you do not feel the blind unquestioning loyalty that comes with patriotism. The fewer young men and women who are prepared to fight and die for an idea, whether that is a particular ideology or religion or the equally constructed notion of a nation state, the safer the world will be.

>> read the whole article at Expatica

I agree, but nevertheless I wonder: Are all flag waving people patriotic or nationalistic?

SEE ALSO:

German Politicians Hail New Patriotism

Cicilie Fagerlid: Will France be more tolerant and less discriminatory and racist due to its multicoloured team?

“Germans stick to the ethnic definition more than any other European nation”

World Cup Enthusiasm: “Need for a collective ritual, not nationalism”

Per Wirtén: Free the nation – cosmopolitanism now!

For an Anthropology of Cosmopolitanism

Interview with Benedict Anderson: “I like nationalism’s utopian elements”

Flags and identity: Strong feelings, mystical rituals and equivocal messages

(updated) Embedded anthropology? Anthropologist studies Canadian soldiers in the field

Published on July 6, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, ethics, fieldwork / methods, Us and Them

(Links updated 30.7.2020) Anthropologist Anne Irwin has spent years in dangerous places with front line troops to observe how soldiers construct their identities as warriors. She wears the same combat uniform and body armour as the troops when she’s in the field. At the moment, she is researching how Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan bolster their identities by sharing their battlefield experiences through storytelling with their peers:

The storytelling not only helps forge the individual identity of each soldier, it builds interpersonal relationships that can have a bearing on how well the unit performs on the battlefield.

She says:

“These are tough, hard guys who people think of as being very one-dimensional. I guess what really strikes me is how much they really care for each other. How they can just pick themselves up and keep going.”

Irwin isn’t really “neutral”. She has spent 16 years in the Canadian Forces reserve – not as an academic. She retired as a Military Police officer with the rank of Major.

Irwin’s doctoral thesis at the University of Manchester was entitled: The social organization of soldiering: a Canadian infantry company in the field.

“Scientist studies soldiers ‘outside the wire'” (ctv.ca, 27.8.06)

Her paper “Soldiers Do It in the Field” can be downloaded as pdf.

UPDATE 1:

This story was also covered by the Livejournal Anthropology Community: “It seems like embedded anthropology to me”:

My point is that embedded anthropology would imply certain ethical and methodological problems in ethnography. These aren’t just a bunch of guys being studied, they’re a bunch of guys committing violent acts for highly-contested political goals.

(…)

In a world where journalists and spies are considered one and the same (thanks to even the military’s intel coming in directly from CNN in some cases), and with anthropology’s shadowy history of being used as cover for spying, how are anthropologists regarded in situations like these in general?

UPDATE 2: Similar problems of embeddedness might have occured in the film “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” by anthropologist Sam Dunn. He has been metal-fan and headbanger for years. Of course, his background has influenced the way he presented his findings, according to a review in The Japan Times (Link no longer working):

The film only partly succeeds in its mission, mostly due to Dunn’s dual roles here: an anthropologist, by nature, needs to have a critical distance from the society he puts under the microscope. Dunn, however, displays a missionary’s zeal in preaching the glory of metal, and explaining away its bad image. Dunn (…) appears in the film narrating, interviewing his idols, and headbanging with devil-horn fingers.

SEE ALSO:

Secret rituals: Folklorist studied the military as an occupational folk group

Anthropologist shoots down stereotypes about gun enthusiasts (Book review)

(Links updated 30.7.2020) Anthropologist Anne Irwin has spent years in dangerous places with front line troops to observe how soldiers construct their identities as warriors. She wears the same combat uniform and body armour as the troops when she's in…