Us and Them | antropologi.info

Modern American family: Strained and losing intimacy

Published on March 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, Northern America, Us and Them

The intimate moments that once were the glue of American family life are disappearing amid job demands and nonstop activities. Scientists at UCLA Center on Everyday Lives of Families have spent the past four years observing 32 Los Angeles families in a study of how working America somehow gets it done. Day after day. “We’ve scheduled and outsourced a lot of our relationships,” says the study’s director, Elinor Ochs, a linguistic anthropologist. “There isn’t much room for the flow of life, those little moments when things happen spontaneously.

For Ochs, the most worrisome trend is how indifferently people treat each other, especially when they reunite at day’s end. In her view, the chilly exchanges repeated in so many of the study’s households suggests something has gone awry. >> continue

Race again: Anthropologist Kerim Friedman comments on controversial article

Published on March 16, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, persons and theories, Us and Them

A few days ago, Armand Marie Leroi, an evolutionary developmental biologist at Imperial College in London, wrote a controversial article in the New York Times. She claimed, that contrary to what anthropologists have to say on the subject, perhaps “race” isn’t a purely social construct, but does have some scientific validity after all.

Anthropologist and blogger Kerim Friedman comments on this article:

“The sad fact is that race is not simply a shorthand for Leroi’s maps with elevations, contour lines, and reference grids, but refers to all kinds of cultural and political differences that have nothing to do with genetics. More importantly, these genetic difference map rather poorly on to our common sense notions about “race,” in ways that do nothing to help us understand the many important genetic issues that Leroi believes the term will help us face.”

He invited population biologist Fredrick Gentz, a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University, to comment on the article.
>> read more on Kerim Friedman’s blog

Anthropology and Race – Discussions in the Classroom

American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race”

What is Civilization?

Published on March 15, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, persons and theories, Us and Them

Anthropik Network

When asked this question directly, many people answer that a civilization is simply a synonym for “society”–that a civilization is simply a group of people living together. This definition is betrayed when you press the point with borderline examples. Are you comfortable with the phrase “Inuit Civilization”? Or “!Kung Civilization?” Or “Australian Aborigine Civilization”? Most people are not. There is no doubt as to whether the Inuit, !Kung or Aborigines constitute societies, but we waver on the question of their civilization. Obviously, then, the two words are not the synonyms some would claim. >> continue

Read also the most recent entry The Meaning of Civilization

Anthropik Network

When asked this question directly, many people answer that a civilization is simply a synonym for "society"--that a civilization is simply a group of people living together. This definition is betrayed when you press the point with borderline examples.…

Collision of cultures? Somali immigrants share New England’s small-town values

Published on March 13, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, migration, Northern America, Us and Them

St.Petersburg Times

As almost 1,400 Somali refugees poured in this nearly all-white New England town, the natives weren’t quite sure what to make of them. Here were people who looked different, spoke little English and had little money. And expected this city of 35,000 to find them jobs and places to live.

But these Muslims from Africa, it turned out, shared many of Lewiston’s small-town values. The Somalis wanted to raise their kids in a safe, quiet community where faith was important. As both groups discovered, things as simple as potluck dinners and henna hand painting can go a long way toward bridging a vast cultural divide.

Heather Lindkvist, an anthropologist at Bates College, has studied the local Somali migration to Lewiston, Maine.
>> continue

St.Petersburg Times

As almost 1,400 Somali refugees poured in this nearly all-white New England town, the natives weren't quite sure what to make of them. Here were people who looked different, spoke little English and had little money. And expected this…

Anthropology and Race – Discussions in the Classroom

Published on March 10, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, persons and theories, Us and Them

Interesting thoughts by Alex Golub incl. links to articles.

“I spend a lot of the class slowly unprying my student’s idea of race. “Why are so many african americans professional athletes?” becomes “Why are so many professional athletes african american?” (because there are millions of african americans and very very few professional athletes).

Then I try a thought experiment: if excellence in athletics is explained by genetic endowment, perhaps Australia’s dominance in Rugby League is due to the Australian Rugby gene? Obviously not, say my students, since Australians are white, and our weirdo American intuitions only like genetic explanations for non-white people.”

>> continue

Interesting thoughts by Alex Golub incl. links to articles.

"I spend a lot of the class slowly unprying my student’s idea of race. “Why are so many african americans professional athletes?” becomes “Why are so many professional athletes african american?” (because…