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Arctic refuge saved from oil drillers – Inuit divided

Published on December 22, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Arctic / Northern Regions, ecology nature, inuit

Good news (for environmentalists) before the Christmas New Year-break: There will be no oil drilling in the Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife reserve. Republicans have battled to allow drilling in the reserve for 25 years. Although they pledged to try again next year, the defeat was expected to remove the issue from the agenda for a decade, according to The Age.

The region is home to hundreds of polar bears, and tens of thousands of caribou and other animals. Interesting how the concept of beauty differs. Alaska’s 82-year-old senator Ted Stevens is quoted. The wildlife refuge was a “barren, frozen wasteland”, with “constant tundra, no trees, no beauty at all”.

>> read the whole story

Concerning oil drilling, the Inuit are divided as ethnic US Americans: Oil of course means money, therefore Nunatsiaq wrote some years ago: Alaskan Inuit support oil drilling in the ANWR.

In an Guardian article we meet Bruce Inglangasak, an Inupiat Inuit. He describes one of the consequences of the oil drilling in another Alaskan region – it’s smog:

“When the wind blows from the west, a yellow-brown smog goes right across the horizon. In the summer, when I go fishing, it burns my eyes. It’s not just the air. Every time it rains our fish get it and our whales get it. You can feel the difference when you hold the fish now. The flesh is not as firm as it once was.”

The article goes on, telling that the oilfields have not turned out to be the ecological showpieces the Inupiat were promised:

More oil was found than expected and the drilling rigs, roads and pipelines now dominate the landscape. There is an average of more than one toxic spill a day; 43,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides are released into the air each year, more than in Washington DC.

Nevertheless, he is not against the drilling:

For all his unease about the contamination of his ancestral lands, Mr Inglangasak needs a job. He has an eight-year-old daughter, and hunting and fishing are not enough to keep her clothed, housed and educated.

Seems to be more a problem of capitalism!

>> read the whole Guardian-story: Oil clouds gather over Alaskan eden

The Arctic is changing. An environment at risk. By Mark Nuttall (TheArctic.is)

Zebedee Nungak: Arctic Christmas – The then and now (very nostalgic column in the Windspeaker about the commercialisation of Christmas)

Good news (for environmentalists) before the Christmas New Year-break: There will be no oil drilling in the Alaska's Arctic national wildlife reserve. Republicans have battled to allow drilling in the reserve for 25 years. Although they pledged to try again…

Sosialantropologi fjernes ikke fra læreplanen i den videregående skole

Published on December 21, 2005 by lorenz Posted in antropologi allment, politikk, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark, utdanning

Det nytter å kommentere blogg-innlegg. Her en gladnyhet fra Norsk antropologisk forening. Halvard Vike skriver:

På bakgrunn av et leserinnlegg av Jardar Seim i aftenposten.no den 4. desember 2005, har nettstedet antropologi.info følgende overskrift på en nyhetssak: ”Videregående skole: Sosialantropologi fjernes fra læreplanen.” Denne saken førte til noen kommentarer med kritikk av foreningen for ikke å følge opp høringsutkastet. Norsk Antropologisk Forening beklager at saken ikke har blitt grepet fatt i tidligere. Men vi har nå vært i kontakt med Arne Otto Refsdal ved Prosjekt Læreplan i Utdanningsdirektoratet, og kan meddele at sosialantropologi fortsatt vil være med i læreplanen.

>> les hele saken

Det nytter å kommentere blogg-innlegg. Her en gladnyhet fra Norsk antropologisk forening. Halvard Vike skriver:

På bakgrunn av et leserinnlegg av Jardar Seim i aftenposten.no den 4. desember 2005, har nettstedet antropologi.info følgende overskrift på en nyhetssak: ”Videregående skole: Sosialantropologi…

Neues Buch: Wie der Tsunami das Leben in „meinem“ indischen Dorf veränderte

Published on December 21, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Asien, Bücher, Ethnologie Sozialanthropologie Kulturanthropologie, Natur und Umwelt

Ethnologin Hilde K. Link lebt seit acht Jahren zwischen ihren Arbeitsplätzen in München und Chinna-mudaliyarchavadi – „ihrem“ Dorf in Tamilnadu, Südostindien. Auch am Tag der großen Flutkatastrophe war sie dort. In ihrem neuen Buch “Nach der großen Flut. Wie der Tsunami das Leben in „meinem“ indischen Dorf veränderte” beschreibt sie, das Katastrofenhilfe nicht so einfach, wie viele es gerne hätten. Darauf macht uns Wolfgang Wohlwendt auf ethno::log aufmerksam:

Bei allem guten Willen, welchen die Leute hinter diesen Aktionen haben, vergessen sie häufig , dass die Betroffenen zwar Opfer sind aber alles andere als unselbständig und unwissend um die beste Strategie wie ihre Probleme zu lösen sind.

Link zeigt auch auf, schreibt Wohlwendt, wie der Ausnahmezustand die betroffenen Menschen zum Umdenken bringt und Wertvorstellungen verändert.

>> weiter bei ethno::log

Webseite des Hilfsprojektes

SIEHE AUCH

Hilfe für ein indisches Fischerdorf – ein Projekt von deutschen Ethnologen

Nach dem Tsunami: Noch eine Hilfsaktion von einem Ethnologen

When applied anthropology becomes aid – A disaster anthropologist’s thoughts

Eksotisk norsk kultur: St. Lucia-feiring i USA

Published on December 21, 2005 by lorenz Posted in innvandring migrasjon, Kultur tradisjon kunnskap, nordmenn, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark, USA, vi og de andre

Sosialantropologistudent Mona Rekve visste lite om Kitsap County utenfor Seattle i USA. Hun skulle gå på feltarbeid der for å studere hvordan lokalavisa formidler nyheter. Lite ante hun at hun var i ferd med å entre en komprimert utgave av Skandinavia, skriver hun i Hallingdølen:

Riktignok var det kjent for meg at mange norske og svenske emigranter valgte å bosette seg nordvest i USA på 1900-tallet, men at den norske «kulturen» skulle være så sterkt tilstede som jeg opplever den, er overraskende og ikke minst fascinerende. Som antropologistudent er dette vel så spennende som fjerne, rurale områder de færreste har hørt om.

Hun skriver at det er norske flagg langs hovedveien, gater er oppkalt etter medlemmer av det norske kongehuset. Men som hun sier: “Det er ingen overraskelse at i diaspora blir identitet og tradisjoner ofte forsterket”.

Hun skildrer så Lucia-feiringen som framsto som “et resultat av en miks av ulike Skandinaviske tradisjoner ispedd et snev av USA”.

>> les hele saken (link oppdatert)

Merkelappen Norge blir faktisk brukt for å markedsføre denne regionen.

Nettsiden av en eiendomsmegler (link oppdatert) roser området slik:

Nowhere in the Pacific Northwest can visitors enjoy breathtaking scenery and a variety of attractions than in. “Little Norway on the Fjord.” Nestled in a valley between the majestic Olympic and Cascade Mountain ranges, this authentic Norwegian community invites you to experience nature’s beauty, Scandinavian hospitality and old world charm, Combined, it makes it an enriching and captivating place to visit. Poulsbo proudly displays its Scandinavian heritage in street names such as Moe, lverson, Lindvig and Fjord; its annual ethnic events such as Viking Fest, Scandia Midsummerfest and Yule Fest and unique rosemaled storefronts.

Poulsbo blir beskrevet som “Little Norway” som er kjent for den populære Viking Fest

SE OGSÅ:

Studerte norske ghettoer i Dubai

Norsk innvandring til Spania skaper et jordskjelv i lokalsamfunnet

Det løfterike landet – Norsk utvandring til Amerika og norsk-amerikansk historie 1825-2000

New anthropology blog: Fieldwork on cosmopolitism and migrants in Paris

Published on December 19, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cosmopolitanism, Europe, fieldwork / methods, migration, Us and Them

Cicilie Fagerlid, anthropologist at the University on Oslo, has started blogging from her fieldwork in Paris. After the youth protests, she writes, her research question is “more justified than ever”: What influences senses of belonging and community making in a cosmopolitan city like Paris?

She comments on the recent protests in the suburbs of Paris, shares her impressions from demonstrations against French immigration policy and her observations among “banlieue bloggers” and internet forums.

She’s just moved to Paris and therefore still wondering how to carry out her fieldwork:

So far, I’ve considered, and rejected, three possible approaches: 1) Hanging around in a (multi ethnic) music or artist collective, preferably with political objectives. 2) A neighbourhood study in the cosmopolitan area Belleville. 3) Participating in two (multi ethnic) political groups working towards recognition of the colonial era in France. Yesterday, when I asked to local (Maghrebi) baker if he would help me with my research, I messed it up a bit and confused my three approaches. It was easier when I just asked the greengrocer what he thought about the present situation… Anyway, now it seems to me that I just have to live with the information overload some more time, to see what will happen.

>> visit Cicilie Fagerlids blog “Cicilie among the Parisians”

PS (23.1.06): Due to spam attacks, comments are closed for this post.

Cicilie Fagerlid, anthropologist at the University on Oslo, has started blogging from her fieldwork in Paris. After the youth protests, she writes, her research question is "more justified than ever": What influences senses of belonging and community making in a…