• This may not work for everyone
A New York Times article in the Sunday Valentine Day’s edition collates advice (heterosexistly) for men about how to “step up their game” including the possibility of hiring a “pick-up coach” for tips on how to flirt. One coach says that laughter is vital–“it says we’re on the same page.” Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher, research professor at Rutgers University, chimes in with her advice that when you are around people who are funny and charming you tend to be more attracted to them. Hm. I am sure she has more to offer than that in her book, Why Him? Why Her? How to Find and Keep Lasting Love.
• No sex please we’re married
Yoshie Moriki, associate professor of anthropology at International Christian University in Tokyo, spoke about “Sexless Marriage in Japan” at a Conference in Bangkok. She reported that when 2,500 Japanese were asked how often they had sex with their spouses in the previous 12 months, one-fifth said “Never.” The Nation (Bangkok) quoted Moriki as saying that “We need to seriously consider the underlying meanings of marriage and sexuality…”
• Paul Farmer re Bill Clinton re Haiti
In an article about President Clinton’s hospitalization in the Washington Post, Paul Farmer said that Clinton has been working “pretty nonstop” since the earthquake and that “He’s been putting heart and soul into Haiti…Everybody who’s been working with him knows how hard he’s been working on Haiti…He’s been inspiring all of us.” Farmer is a cultural anthropologist and medical doctor based at Harvard University, co-founder of Partners in Health, and deputy United Nations envoy to Haiti.
• Selling culture
Ethno-theme parks and Native American casinos are examples of how ethnic identity has become a commodity in today’s global market place. John and Jean Comaroff, professors of cultural anthropology at the University of Chicago, explore how communities sell their traditional culture in their new book, Ethnicity Inc. They tell Laurie Taylor of BBC4 about how selling your cultural identity can be both empowering and impoverishing.
• Aspergers is autism
Richard Grinker, professor of cultural anthropology at George Washington University hails the impending merger of Asperger’s disorder within the range of autism as a good thing. The new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, prepared by the American Psychiatric Association, will no longer provide a separate category for Asperger’s disorder.
• Out of Siberia
As described in several media sources, DNA analysis of 4,000 year-old human hair found in Greenland indicates a link with the Chukchis who live in eastern Siberia. The hair belonged to a man, nicknamed Inuk, meaning “human” in Greenlandic. Inuk’s ancestors split from Chukchis 5,500 years ago and may have traveled across the northern edges of North America until they reached Greenland. The 52 person team of researchers is led by evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev and PhD student Morten Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen. They decoded the genome from four tufts of hair excavated in 1986 and kept in a plastic bag in the National Museum of Denmark. The hair was found at a site in eastern Greenland with other waste and may have been tossed aside after a haircut. The findings are published in Nature.
• Make mine rare
Discovery News picked up on the possibility of an ancient origin for steak dinners based on the finding of a million-year-old cattle skull in Eritrea associated with early human remains. Paleontologist Bienvenido Martinez-Navarro of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, reports on the findings in Quaternary International.
• Stepping on more than toes
Plans to build a the so-called Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem have run into opposition because the proposed site is that of the ancient Muslim cemetery of Mamilla. While the tombs are crumbling, they still have meaning for Arab families in Jerusalem. Several solutions have been proposed including building around the tombs and erecting a platform and glass barriers.
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