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Primitive Racism: Reuters about “the world’s most primitive tribes”

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, Us and Them

(via ethno::log) Looking for another example of everyday racism? Read reuters story about “the worlds most primitive people”:

Members of one of the world’s most primitive and isolated tribes have killed two fishermen who strayed on to their island in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, a senior government official said on Monday.

(…)

A group of about 20 Sentinelese tribes people were surrounding them, Negi said. “They (the tribals) were naked and carrying bows and arrows,” he told Reuters by telephone.

The Indian government has banned anyone from going near Sentinel Island where about 250 tribe members live a hunter-gathering lifestyle little changed since the Stone Age.

UPDATE: Story no longer online. >> Read the same story in The Times where the India correspondent even dares to write “Described by anthropologists as a lost tribe of Stone Age aborigines, the Sentinelese…”

Our obsession with the notion of the primitive society

“Stone Age Tribes”, tsunami and racist evolutionism

Ten Little Niggers: Tsunami, tribal circus and racism

(via ethno::log) Looking for another example of everyday racism? Read reuters story about "the worlds most primitive people":

Members of one of the world's most primitive and isolated tribes have killed two fishermen who strayed on to their island in India's…

The Anthropology of Biopolitics and the Laboratory for the Anthropology of the Contemporary

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers, Northern America, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Judd Antin at TechnoTaste recently informed us about two new anthropology centers. One of them Laboratory for the Anthropology of the Contemporary seems to take knowledge sharing more seriously than other research centers. You can click on and read every article on their list over publications.

The introductory paper Steps toward an anthropological laboratory by Paul Rabinow starts promising:

The challenge is to invent new forms of inquiry, writing, and ethics for an anthropology of the contemporary. The problem is: how to rethink and remake the conditions of contemporary knowledge production,
dissemination, and critique, in the interpretive sciences?

They continue explaining the background for their research methods at the new center, dedicated to the invention of new modes of collaborative work among and between social and natural scientists:

Given that the social sciences and humanities disciplines in the U.S. university system are essentially those of the nineteenth century, and there is little motivation from within the disciplines to abolish themselves, we are not optimistic that new work can be exclusively based in the university. The university (or restricted parts of it) remains a source of employment, of resources such as libraries, and of pedagogy. In that light, we imagine new hybrid organizations, adjacent to and in many parasitic on, the university.

(…)

It is quite remarkable that the contemporary self-understanding of anthropology includes few examples of collective work. (…) New forms of collaboration and coordination among and between anthropologists (and other knowledge workers) is unquestionably going to be required to adequately address the scope, complexity, and temporality of contemporary objects and problems.

>> read the whole text by Paul Rabinow (pdf, 19pages)

>> overview over all publications (much on biosecurity)

“The White House should hire an anthropologist”

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, ethics, politics

Anthropologist Fazia Rizvi points to an article by Maureen Dowd where she argues that the White House should hire an anthropologist:

Corporations have begun hiring anthropologists to help them improve product designs and interpret markets. And clearly, the Bush foreign policy team doesn’t understand any of the markets where it is barging around ineptly trying to sell America and democracy.

(…)

It’s stunning that nearly four decades after Vietnam, our government could be even more culturally illiterate and pigheaded. The Bushies are more obsessed with snooping on Americans than fathoming how other cultures think and react.

One smart anthropologist reinforcing the idea that “mirroring” – assuming other cultures think like us – doesn’t work would be a lot more helpful than all of the discredited intelligence agencies that are costing $30 billion a year to miss everything from the breakup of the Soviet Union to 9/11 to no WMD to Osama’s hiding place to the Hamas victory.

>> read the whole story in the SGVTribune

Anthropologist Fazia Rizvi points to an article by Maureen Dowd where she argues that the White House should hire an anthropologist:

Corporations have begun hiring anthropologists to help them improve product designs and interpret markets. And clearly, the Bush foreign…

Book review: Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of Identity

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities, Us and Them

It’s “a strong volume and potentially an excellent teaching text for those interested in exploring case studies in cultural heritage and representation”, anthropologist Jamie Brandon concludes in his review of the book Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethic Identity by Barkan, Elazar and Ronald Bush .

He writes that the book attempts to cross-cut multiple disciplines (including archaeology, physical anthropology, literature, cultural studies, ethnomusicology and museum studies) and offer perspectives regarding disputes over the definition and ownership of cultural properties.

This part of the review caught my eye

In the United States, Ross tells us, “to belong to a particular race is to possess copyright in that race; the right to turn a profit—or not—on the reputation credited to that race; the right to image the race in particular ways; the right to hold property, invest in, and profit from one’s racial “stock” (p. 260). Ross charts the struggle over these rights through efforts of African-Americans to challenge and control popular images of blackness.

>> read the whole review on the blog “Farther Along”

Indigenousness and the Politics of Spirituality: “Cultural ownership may lead directly to essentialization and racism”

It's "a strong volume and potentially an excellent teaching text for those interested in exploring case studies in cultural heritage and representation", anthropologist Jamie Brandon concludes in his review of the book Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property…

Hovedoppgave om ubeskyttet sex og fattigdom i Thailand

Published on February 6, 2006 by lorenz Posted in Asia, fattigdom, kjønn, master-/ hovedoppgaver, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark

Å ha ubeskyttet sex kan være en lønnsom strategi for thailandske barjenter. Det er ikke nødvendigvis noe de gjør etter press fra kundene. Det å ikke bruke kondom kan være et virkemiddel for å få forholdet til å føles som ekte kjærlighet og innlede et varig forhold med vestlige menn. Det er altså heller en strategi for å komme seg ut av fattigdommen, skriver sosialantropolog Kristianne V. L. Ervik i en kronikk i Dagbladet. Ervik tilbrakte åtte måneder i Thailand i forbindelse med sitt hovedfag i sosialantropologi. >> les hele saken

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