• Symbols of trauma and spirituality in ruins in Haiti
Rebuilding symbolic structures and spaces are an important part of helping Haiti recover from the earthquake disaster. In Port-au-Prince, the National Cathedral, the presidential palace, the parliament building, the United Nations headquarters, and local churches have collapsed or are in ruins. An article in the National Post comments that the collapsed presidential palace in particular is now a potent symbol of a country in deep distress. But it’s a complicated symbol. Douglass St. Christian, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, is quoted as saying, “The presidential palace is a source of great pride, but it’s also a reminder of the absolute horror of Duvalier’s (dictatorial) rule…So the Haitians are, on the one hand, going to be traumatized by the ruin of something that’s come to represent their emergence from that regime, and on another hand, glad that it’s gone.” More clearly traumatic is the loss of so many churches, since 90 percent of Haitians practice Catholicism. St. Christian urges that, during the reconstruction phase, international attention be given to restoring meaningful structures and spaces to help the social and psychological healing process.
• Grief and trauma counseling: one size does not fit all
Medical sociologist Ethan Watters, in a radio interview on KCBS, comments that mental health support in Haiti offered by Western organizations needs to take care to pay attention to the cultural specifics of the Haitian people. Most research on trauma and PTSD, he says, has been done on Americans and it drives the assumption of mental health experts that this knowledge is universally applicable: “Anthropologists know that there are great differences around the world in how to think about trauma, the meaning you attach to trauma…Those experiences are simply not the same the world over. We could do great damage and harm when we rush into another culture with our notions of PTSD and our notions of healing.” He recommends that counselors study the culture before they try to help and that they provide support to existing systems.
• Iranian political culture shifting
In an article in the Los Angeles Times, William Beeman, professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota and expert on Iran, explains the growing momentum in Iran for political change: “Iran is a hierarchical society. Folks in the superior position must care for those in the inferior position or they will be toppled. The folks in the lower position will cease to support them — in fact will work to undermine them.”
• In the army now
An article in the National Defense Magazine notes that the army’s anthropology teams are in demand. So far, 27 teams have been developed and fielded. Col. Mark Crispi, director of project development for the program says: “The mission of the human terrain system is to support the combat unit.”
• Don’t send in the clowns
An essay in the Guardian prompts thought about the complexity of clowns in healing contexts. Some people claim that clowns are universally recognized as symbols of happiness. Medical anthropologist Linda Miller Van Blerkom of Drew University, New Jersey, cautions in an article in Medical Anthropology Quarterly that small children are frequently afraid of clowns. A UK study by Penny Curtis, senior lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery of the University of Sheffield, confirms that even depictions of clowns on hospital walls can cause alarm. The UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, which funded Curtis’ study, issued an alert to hospitals: “Children’s wards — don’t send in the clowns.”
• Cargo cults in Vanuatu
Smithsonian Magazine carried an article called “In John They Trust” about the John Frum movement on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. This article will serve as an antidote to popular understandings of Vanuatu as promoted by the reality TV series “Survivor.”
• Beer and the rise of civilization
According to an article in The Independent, the desire to consume beer may have provided the motivation for people to settle down and start farming. Biomolecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania is the leading expert on the prehistory of alcoholic beverages: “Alcohol provided the initial motivation…Then it got going the engine of society.”
• Who to bash now that Neanderthals are us?
In an essay in The Guardian, Zoe Williams argues that the latest painted shell evidence from Spain proves that Neanderthals weren’t “numbskulls” and therefore we modern humans will have to find a new target of “downward comparison.” If we can’t bash Neanderthals, Williams asks, who will we bash? This blog has posted abundant evidence that bashing of “others” will likely continue to thrive without Neanderthals as targets.
• More on Neanderthal jewelry
National Public Radio (US) did a story on the painted Neanderthal shells found in Spain and their meaning for how we understand Neanderthals. Anthropologist Alison Brooks of George Washington University reported surprise at the discovery: “OK, Neaderthals went up a notch in my thinking…This is certainly the oldest and strongest evidence for Neanderthal symbolic behavior beyond just pigment use.” The story goes on to say that incursions of modern humans may have put pressure on Neanderthals to communicate socially or, even more, to “look their best.”
• Sophisticated Congo chimps
The research of primatologists Dave Morgan, research fellow at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and Crickette Sanz, assistant professor in the Anthropology Department at Washington University, is highlighted in an article in the February issue of National Geographic.
• Study human neighbors to protect gorillas
Melissa Remis, professor of biological anthropology at Purdue University, studies gorillas in the Central African Republic. Science Daily provides an update about how Remis is teaming up with Rebecca Hardin, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources, to better understand the wider context that affects gorilla preservation. Some of their findings have been published in Conservation Biology.
• Judith Freedman 1921-2009
Judith Freedman was a social anthropologist who nurtured the Jewish Journal of Sociology after the early death of her husband, Professor Maurice Freedman who helped establish the journal. Freedman completed her doctoral research in 1955 at the London School of Economics under Raymond Firth. The topic was kinship and marriage within Singapore’s Malay community. It resulted in two influential monographs. During her editorship of the journal, she maintained impeccable standards and an insistence on “plain English.” She devoted all her energies to the journal over many decades until a few weeks of her death on December 20, 2009.
• Primates are a sharing species
Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University, responds in the Huffington Post to Nicholas Kristoff’s column in the New York Times about how people feel good when they do good. De Waal’s perspective is that primates, including us, are spontaneously altruistic, not selfish as extreme Darwinists argue. De Waal is Director of the Living Links Center and C.H Candler Professor of Psychology and author, most recently, of the book, The Age of Empathy.
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