• Being a citizen anthropologist
In an essay in the Huffington Post, Julia Hammett described her involvement in the Occupy movement in Reno, Nevada, and her role as a citizen anthropologist: “I have been an Occupier in Occupy Reno (OR) since it began last October. Many view Occupy as a youth movement, with Occupy Wall Street (OWS) as its epicenter, because of the financial meltdown; but its traditions are deep-rooted in human history, and Occupiers target social injustice worldwide. Each occupation acts independently according to its own governing processes, yet Occupiers are interconnected through social networking…” Hammett is a professor of anthropology at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and has conducted research in four regions of North America: California, the Great Basin, the Southeastern United States, and the American Southwest. Her research combines ecological, archaeological and historical data to analyze landscapes and land use patterns

• What is anthropology?
S.L. Malik, head of the anthropology department at Delhi University, published an article in The Hindustan Times describing the scope of anthropology.

• It’s getting older all the time: European cave art
An international team led by Alistair W. G. Pike of the University of Bristol has determined that the red disk in the cave known as El Castillo, Spain, is at least 40,800 years old. That makes it the earliest cave art in Europe, 4,000 years older than the paintings at Chauvet, France. In a report published online in the journal Science, Pike and his colleagues noted that the El Castillo art is “nonfigurative and monochrome (red), supporting the notion that the earliest expression of art in Western Europe was less concerned with animal depiction and characterized by red dots, disks, line and hand stencils.” [Blogger’s note: the new/older dates prompt serious rethinking of the accepted narrative of the winner modern humans arriving in Europe (very smart, great tools) versus the loser Neanderthals (not so smart, not such great tools) who supposedly succumbed in the face of the smarter incomers…but…maybe not such a simple takeover story?].

• Baby talk the gorilla way
Mother gorillas use “baby talk” in their facial and hand gestures when communicating with their infants, according to Eva Maria Luef of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, She filmed 120 hours of footage of gorillas at the Leipzig Zoo and two wild animal parks in Britain. The footage shows that adult female gorillas use more tactile gestures when playing with infants than they use with other adults, suggesting that “…older animals possess a certain awareness of the infants’ immature communication skills.” The research has been published in the American Journal of Primatology.

• Bonobo genome mapped, and so?
The media hopped on the news that scientists have now mapped bonobo DNA. According to a report from MSNBC, findings indicate what we already knew: modern humans (us) “are as close genetically to the peace-loving but little-known bonobo as we are to the more violent and better understood chimpanzee.” The study, published in the journal Nature, says that bonobos and chimpanzees share 99.6 percent of their genomes. Yet bonobos and chimps have distinctly different behaviors. Bonobos display what might be thought of as our better angels, said Duke University anthropologist Brian Hare. [Blogger’s note: I am sure there is a lot missing here in the msnbc coverage, and other mainstream media coverage, in terms of the bonobo genome…and what it might mean for human evolution].

• Excuse me, are you a woman?
Some female athletes who will be competing at the Olympic Games this summer are undergoing treatment to make them less masculine. Others are being secretly investigated for “displaying overly manly characteristics.” Sport’s medical officials are attempting to quantify and regulate the hormonal difference between male and female athletes. Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was so fast and muscular that many suspected she was a man, hit the news three years ago. Now similar cases are emerging all over the world. Semenya, banned from competition for 11 months while authorities investigated her gender, is back, vying for gold. She and other women like her face a complex question: Does a female athlete whose body naturally produces unusually high levels of male hormones, allowing them to put on more muscle mass, have an “unfair” advantage? In a move critics call “policing femininity,” recent rule changes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), state that for a woman to compete, her testosterone must not exceed the male threshold. In South Africa, ground zero of the debate, about 1 per cent of the population are born “intersex.” Semenya, who remains the unwilling poster girl for the issue, says: “I have been subjected to unwarranted and invasive scrutiny of the most intimate and private details of my being.” Elaine Salo, anthropology professor at the University of Pretoria who has a poster of Semenya on her office door, says: “She’s truly a hero and a leader and a role model in this country. I don’t think we celebrate her enough…What is athletics if not the ability of the biological body to extend itself?”

• Progress for Chagos dawning at Downing Street?
The U.K. has a great opportunity based on realpolitik and human rights to restore the Chagos archipelago to its rightful owners according to Sean Carey, regular anthropologyworks contributor, in an article in The Guardian. A recent meeting at 10 Downing Street may indicate hope for Chagos.

• French-Tuareg relations
An article that discusses French-Tuareg relations quotes from the blog, Bridges From Bamako, in which Bruce Whitehouse, an anthropologist at Lehigh University in the U.S., noted: “It’s certainly true that the Tuareg have a sympathetic following among the French and that rebel spokesmen have frequently appeared in the French media.” In a shock announcement on Saturday, May 26, the secular MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad) announced its merger with Ansar Dine, an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group, declaring that the two groups had agreed to turn northern Mali into an Islamist state. Days later, as analysts were attempting to study the implications of the new development, a top MNLA official emailed a statement that categorically rejected the organization’s merger with Ansar Dine due to differences over the two groups’ interpretations of sharia law… hours later representatives from both groups insisted their organizations were still bound by the May 26 in-principle agreement. “The situation has been changing almost every minute; it’s very dynamic,” said Jeremy Keenan, a professorial research associate and cultural anthropologist at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. According to Keenan, the real question is: “In the beginning, we were hearing that the MNLA controlled between 2,000 and 3,000 men returning from Libya, whereas Ansar Dine had only about 100 to 200 fighters. So, where are the MNLA’s great, battle-hardened fighters?” The question has to do with a region the size of France, where various groups control different areas within a city. The question remains: does the MNLA have Islamist or al Qaeda links?

• The importance of baskets
The Sequim Gazette of western Washington state highlighted a new book on baskets of the Olympic Peninsula with focus on the culture and artistic abilities of local American Indian tribes. Cultural anthropologist Jacilee Wray of Olympic National Park hopes readers will gain a new appreciation for basketry and the local craftsmen who have created baskets for centuries through her book, From the Hands of a Weaver: Olympic Basketry through Time. She has worked for years compiling it with help from researchers and tribal basket makers to explore the history and how-to-process of baskets within the Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Skokomish (Twana), Quinault, Hoh, Quileute and Makah tribes.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 6/11/12” →

• Nuclear militarism: Review of Nuclear Savage
Barbara Rose Johnston reviewed the film Nuclear Savage in CounterPunch, launching her comments with a question to the reader about how to make sense of recent nuclear news about toxicity in Japan. Some extracts: “… Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1 is a poignant, provocative, and deeply troubling look at lingering and lasting effects of nuclear disaster and the human consequences of US government efforts to define, contain, and control public awareness and concern. Nuclear Savage recounts the experiences of the Marshallese nation in the years following World War II, as they played host to the US’s Pacific Proving Grounds and served as human subjects in the classified, abusive pseudoscience that characterized the US government medical response to civilian exposures from the 1954 Bravo Test, the largest and dirtiest hydrogen bomb detonated by the United States…in the populated nation of the Marshall Islands.” And… “It is this story of human subject experimentation with unwitting subjects that forms the core of the Nuclear Savage film, illustrating both the abusive disregard and human consequences of experiments that violate US law, the Nuremburg Code, and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states that ‘no one shall be subject without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.'” Barbara Rose Johnston is a cultural anthropologist and senior research fellow at the Center for Political Ecology. She is currently assisting to document the human rights consequences of nuclear militarism in the Marshall Islands, and supporting advocacy efforts to bring Marshallese citizens to Geneva so their voices can be heard.

• Remembering Mabo
It has been 20 years since Australia’s High Court “Mabo decision” which overturned the doctrine that the land belonged to no one before white settlement. Native title groups are still struggling and many indigenous groups lack the tools to benefit when their claims for native title of their lands are recognized. Toni Bauman, an anthropologist and co-editor of a book to be launched at the upcoming anniversary celebration, says that while groups have done very well out of agreements, many “are really, really struggling.”

• Michigan’s Abu Ghraib?
Brian McKenna, assistant professor at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, published an article in CounterPunch describing his experiences teaching introductory anthropology in a women’s prison in Michigan. He says, “Every prison has a story. We need prison stories (investigative journalism) for every town in America. And we need more prison teachers.”

• More cultural anthropologists needed in T&T
An article in The Trinidad Express notes a major gap between the “uniqueness and potential for Trinidad and Tobago to become a well known area of study and role model for other nations” and the lack of cultural anthropologists to “uncover, record and preserve our national heritage.” Further, the image of anthropology as useful needs to be promoted: “Anthropology as a discipline is scorned and in my own experience includes blank stares and mutterings about ‘a waste of time’. It is definitely not a waste of time to understand where we came from, why we are the way we are and where we are going.” [Blogger’s note: the author of this article is not an anthropologist but is an MSc candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics.]

• Social capital in spaghetti dinners
The Superior Telegram carried an article about an anthropologist’s focus on “ubiquitous spaghetti dinners” in the Northland in her class on Community Anthropology. Deb Augsburger, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, noticed how many social benefits involved spaghetti dinners, so she decided to use it as an example in her classes: “…these meals that are very important…they mean a lot, they have a lot of symbolism…and they’re forms of social interaction and support.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 6/4/12” →

• “We” are not normal
According to a new study, hunter-gatherer and horticultural populations have significantly lower age-related increases in blood pressure and less risks of atherosclerosis than “modern” populations. Researchers followed 2,296 indigenous adults in 82 Tsimane (pron: see-mah-nay) villages in Bolivia’s Amazon lowlands. An article in the Wall Street Journal quotes Michael Gurven, study author and anthropology professor and chairman of the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit, as saying: “Surprisingly, heart disease and stroke aren’t necessarily inevitable with age.”  The research indicates that lifestyle factors of the Tsimane include substantial physical activity and lots of fruits and vegetables in the diet, both of which protect them from what the article refers to as “normal aging phenomena, high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries.” [Blogger’s note: it’s disheartening and scary that so many people still take “us” moderns as the “norm”…let’s hope that being studied and otherwise connected to “us” doesn’t damage the Tsimane’s health.]

• Film series on global mental illness
“Afflictions: Culture & Mental Illness in Indonesia” is the first film series to look at mental illness in the developing world. It is an award-winning compilation of six films about the lives of men, women and children living with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, anti-social personality disorder and Tourette’s syndrome in Bali and Java. Directed by anthropologist and documentary filmmaker Dr. Robert Lemelson, “Afflictions” is screening as an official selection at conferences and festivals worldwide and is available for purchase at Amazon. See article.

• Co-sleeping in question
The Huffington Post carried an essay by Rickey Bower, former fire fighter and current health care consultant, with a B.A. in Anthropology from Marquette University and pursuing graduate education. Bower was inspired by the recent cover of TIME showing a woman breast-feeding her 3-year-old son, President Obama’s recent statement that same-sex marriages do not weaken families, and Gia M. Hamilton’s blog about being a single parent. Bower takes the discussion forward by examining parent-child co-sleeping practices in America. Continue reading “Anthro in the news 5/28/12” →

• Goodby Dartmouth
The Huffington Post carried an article about a speech by World Bank President-Elect Jim Yong Kim at the Chicago Dartmouth Club, on May 9, where he stated that it was “incredibly painful” for him to step down after barely three years as the Ivy League’s first Asian-American college president. He becomes World Bank Group President July first. Dr. Kim is a physician, public health activist, and cultural anthropologist.

• Hello anthropology
The Chronicle for Higher Education included an article (closed access) about Glenn Petersen, professor of anthropology at Baruch College. He is quoted as saying, “I had no idea, as my plane dodged antiaircraft fire in the skies above the Tonkin Gulf, that our aircraft carrier’s voyage home would bring me a much greater and more meaningful adventure. I have long understood that my time in Vietnam was the backdrop for my career in anthropology, and that it was the tropical islands I encountered on that trans-Pacific trip home that inspired me to choose the field.

• Family matters: parenting while single
The Huffington Post carried an article by Gia M. Hamilton, an applied and visual anthropologist on single parenthood. She says, “It is not enough that I am bold enough to bring a child into this chaotic world, but three, well now that’s just downright obscene. I will add that more than eyebrows raise when I talk about possibly having more… “Children?” I am asked. My response is always the same, “Why yes, of course, I love being a parent… it’s the hardest most rewarding job I’ve ever had and I do it for free!” Hamilton, a native of New Orleans, is the founding director of Gris Gris Lab, Inc., a holistic consulting group and creativity lab that explores issues of community building and sustainability through art and culture, education, urban agriculture, urban planning and the intersection of these industries in areas across the United States. For the past thirteen years she has applied her training by re-organizing niche community groups using Social Magic, a process developed to assess, engage and facilitate change. “Social Magic, put simply is the ability of the community to effectively utilize and leverage the resources and assets already present.” Her most recent projects as the ethnographer and curator of The Black Boy Experiment include an in depth cross cultural and multidisciplinary study and visual analysis of the childhood differences of black male youth. Hamilton studied cultural anthropology at New York University and Applied Anthropology at CUNY Graduate Center. She and her Social Magicians can be reached by email at gia@grisgrislab.com or follow her on twitter @grisgrislab. Continue reading “Anthro in the news 5/21/12” →

• Remembering the mother of POTUS
An op-ed in the Washington Post explores the relationship between President Barack Obama and his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, a cultural anthropologist. It concludes that she shaped his “essence” in many ways including multilayered, multiethnic experiences and empathy. [Blogger’s note: on Mother’s Day, one can only wish she had lived to see her son’s presidency].

• What do the evangelicals want?
Cultural anthropologist Tanya Lurhmann, professor of cultural anthropology at Stanford University, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times discussing views of evangelical Christians in the United States and how candidates in the upcoming U.S. presidential election might better communicate with them. Luhrmann is author, most recently, of When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God.

• Kinship studies revisited
The Irish Times carried a review of a new book by cultural anthropologist Maurice Godelier, Directeur d’études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in France. The review is written by Fiona Murphy, a cultural anthropologist and co-author of Integration in Ireland: The Everyday Lives of African Migrants. She says: “It is this constellation of world views and ways of being that we meet in Maurice Godelier’s powerful and often provocative new book, The Metamorphoses of Kinship. In this timely and challenging study, Godelier heralds the revival of kinship studies within the discipline of anthropology… The book argues that kinship, once the key focus of anthropology, is no longer visible on university course lists; not vanished or vanquished, he insists, however, but merely transformed.”

• Breast is best but for how long?
USA Today joined the discussion in response to a Time magazine cover photo this week of a mother nursing her 3-year-old son. Noting that breast-feeding children older than one year is rare among mothers in the United States, and mentioning some online comments calling it “perverted” and “dangerous” to nurse a 3-year-old, it then turns to discussion of cross-cultural practices. The article quotes Katherine Dettwyler, professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware: “It’s normal for our species. It’s not perverted; it’s not sex; it’s not women doing it for some perverse need. It’s normal like a nine-month pregnancy is normal.” Her research on breast-feeding around the world shows that most children are breast-fed for three to five years or longer in sharp contrast with babies in the United States.

• Forensic anthropologist meets mystery writer
The Independent carried a double interview with Sue Black, professor of anatomy and forensic anthropology at the University of Dundee, and mystery writer, Val McDermid. Black has led the way in human identification in conflict zones such as Kosovo and has appeared in the BBC2 factual series, History Cold Case. Black comments, “I don’t read crime novels – it’d be like a chef watching food programmes – so I didn’t know much about Val until I was asked to do a radio programme with her about death and dying, in the late 1990s. We were chatting away before we went on air when I made the mistake of saying, ‘If at any point in the future you need to ask me about anything, feel free.’ You make one offer and she’s in there.”

• What a dive
The New York Times Science blog covered the work of Lisa J. Lucero, professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is studying ancient Maya underwater offerings in central Belize under the auspices of the Belize Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 5/14/12” →

• The Occupy movement
May 1st is International Workers Day. This year it was also an occasion for the Occupy Wall Street movement to demonstrate and expand support for the movement. According to coverage by Voice of America, demonstrators in New York City started “banging drums early despite rainy skies.” According to one Occupy activist, “If the NYPD [New York Police Department] can’t stop us, Mother Nature can’t stop us…You can’t stop the truth.” VOA quoted David Harvey, an anthropology professor at the City University of New York: “We’ve got this situation where we don’t have the money power…The only power we have is people…”. The New York Times had the carried an article called, “Academics Enthralled by Occupy” in its Arts section where it quoted Jeffrey Juris, associate professor of anthropology at Northeastern University, who is studying the movement, as commenting the connections between research on the movement and being an activist: “Everybody I know doing this is an activist of some sort.” [Blogger’s note: other articles in the Arts section covered ballad singing, theater, and television. So what is serious research on a major political movement doing in the Arts section and being referred to as enthrallment? I guess the best response from the anthros is to say that coverage in the NYT Arts section is better than no coverage in the NYT].

• Nepali youth drug addiction in Hong Kong
The South China Morning Post reported on drug use problems among Nepali youth in Hong Kong. Researchers at Chinese University have found that Nepalis have a bigger problem with drug abuse than do members of any other ethnic minority in the city. While drug abuse in Hong Kong has fallen in recent years, the number of Nepali addicts has risen. Most started taking drugs between 10 and 19, with more than 90 per cent of them hooked on heroin, according to a study led by anthropology professor Maria Tam Siumi: “The government’s anti-drug campaigns also don’t really reach them because of the language barrier…Their community is small and isolated, so there isn’t a way out for young people. They also do not have equal opportunities in education, employment or social and medical services.”

• Debt, social inequality, and politics in the U.S.
The Huffington Post published an article by Richard H. Robbins, Distinguished Teaching Professor in Anthropology at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, on debt as an issue in the U.S. presidential election: “What will likely be absent in the debate, however, is any consideration of the relationship of debt to the requirement for perpetual economic growth and its role in the dramatic increase in economic inequality in the United States and the rest of the world.” Robbins asks, “How did we get into this dilemma?”

• Rethinking marriage in the U.S.
The Huffington Post carried a piece by Richard Feinberg, professor of anthropology at Kent State University in which he places current political debates in the U.S. about same-sex marriage in the context of anthropology’s cross-cultural findings about the institution of marriage: “After years of argument a half-dozen states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage. Several more, including my own, are considering it. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates, right-wing columnists and talk show hosts, evangelical pastors, and recently even Pope Benedict have called upon Americans to halt the spread of ‘immorality.’ Family values, we are told, require us to defend marriage as ‘traditionally defined.’ As an anthropologist I find this whole discussion rather odd.”

• Where is the language gene
NPR covered Dan Everett’s anti-Chomsky perspective that there is no innate language organ or module in the human brain dedicated to the production of grammatical language: “So goes the argument in Language: The Cultural Tool, the new book I’m reading by Daniel Everett. Next week, I’ll have more to say about the book itself; this week, I want to explore how Everett’s years of living among the Pirahã Indians of Amazonian Brazil helped shape his conclusions — and why those conclusions matter.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 5/7/2012” →

• Breivik trial in Oslo
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, professor of social anthropology at Oslo University, figured prominently this past week in reports about the trial of Anders Behring Breivik which opened in Oslo last week. One issue revolves around the very conduct of the trial itself, as discussed in an article in the New York Times: the fact that the officers of the court took time to shake Breivik’s hand, offering courtesy and even deference to someone who had openly boasted of killing 77 people last summer. According to Eriksen, “The decency and openness of the trial is our defense against him.” Several media sources, including USA Today and the New Zealand Herald carried an article in which Ericksen comments that by treating the trial with “respect and decency,” Norwegians are showing defiance against Breivik by standing up for values at the core of their national identity. When Ericksen called Breivik “pudgy” in Norwegian media before the trial, Eriksen said some people took offense: “I received mail from people who said “you shouldn’t say that about his appearance. He has a mother. We have to treat him with respect.” In an interview with Eriksen that is videorecorded, he says that the self-confessed killer “…does not seem to be very successful in distinguishing between the virtual reality of World of Warcraft and other computer games, and reality.”

• The social life of AIDS
The New York Times published an extended review of a new book on AIDS in Africa by Craig Timberg, a journalist for The Washington Post, and Daniel Halperin, an epidemiologist and medical anthropologist. It leads with a quotation from physician/anthropologist/humanitarian activist Paul Farmer, who writes in “Partner to the Poor,” that “the failure to contemplate social and economic aspects of epidemics stunts our understanding of them.” The reviewer goes on to say that “Timberg and Halperin’s book constitutes a strong warning to those who would disregard the cultural specificities of those one is trying to serve, whether individuals or entire societies.”

• Military operations in Mali
After months of fighting in northern Mali, the Mouvement National de Libération de L’Azawad (MNLA) – National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad – declared an end to military operations. The rebels refer to the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu in northern Mali as Azawad. However, following international and regional condemnation of the movement’s declaration of independence on 6 April, several factions have emerged, exposing deep divisions among several groups. Africa News carried an interview about the current situation and prospects for the future with three specialists in Tuareg issues including Naffet Keita, professor of anthropology at the University of Bamako.

• From the kula to Wall Street
An article in The Guardian discussed the contributions of several cultural anthropologists to understanding contemporary financial markets, noting that an “…anthropological perspective on how bankers function can help challenge our reliance on discredited neoliberal economics.” Specific mention was made to Karen Ho‘s work on the culture of Wall Street and Gillian Tett who has been hailed as “the most powerful woman in newspapers.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 4/30/12” →

• WB choice
Many articles in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere discussed the announcement of Jim Yong Kim as the next president of the World Bank. While many did not mention the fact that Kim has a medical degree and a doctorate in anthropology, some did. The news from Africa News (Lagos) was not positive, as highlighted in the headline: “World Bank – Okonjo-Iweala Loses to America’s Kim.” The article comments, “The World Bank, yesterday, chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington’s grip on the job and leaving developing countries questioning the selection process.” [Blogger’s note: No one should disagree on that point, and my bet is that the next round will be more open, as it should be for the IMF presidency as well]. The Guardian (London) presented a more favorable view, quoting the outgoing World Bank Group President, Robert Zoellick, in congratulating Jim Yong Kim for being chosen to become the 12th president and offering his support in ensuring a successful handover: “I am pleased to work with Jim Yong Kim during the transition. He is an impressive and accomplished individual. Jim has seen poverty and vulnerability first-hand, through his impressive work in developing countries.”

• New policy research institute at Oxford will include anthropologists
Oxford University has opened a new economics research institute to help prevent future global financial meltdowns and euro-zone debt crises. The INET@Oxford centre will be part of the Oxford Martin School, a research unit that seeks solutions to the world’s most pressing problems in medicine, environment and technology, among others. It will draw on the expertise of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a New York-based non-profit think-tank founded by the business magnate George Soros. The center aims to promote “urgently needed” innovative thinking on economics and educate the next generation of economists, business leaders and politicians. Among the academics involved are physicists, psychologists, anthropologists and biologists. Professor Ian Goldin, director of the Oxford Martin School, said the centre hoped to make “major advances in key areas of economic theory and policy” and would focus on some of the greatest economic challenges we face, “from avoiding future financial crises to ensuring that the positive potential of globalisation is realised and its risks mitigated”.

• Women having a baby at 40 find happiness
Once older mothers get through IVF and warnings of difficult pregnancies, what follows is a joyful elixir of youth, according to a new study covered in the Guardian. The subject of pregnancy at 40-plus tends to be described in terms of risk and negatives, with the emphasis on getting safely through delivery. Andrea Cornwall, professor of anthropology and development at the University of Sussex, says that younger women face “…a minefield of expectations in figuring out when and whether to have a child…And when they do have children, theirs is all too often the lot of a constant juggling of career and childcare, and niggling resentments as once-equal relationships are frayed with the encroachment of gender gaps in pay, in domestic labour and in self-esteem. Not so the older woman. Motherhood can be a satisfying new direction after years in the working world, a welcome addition to a secure and settled career. Among older mothers there is a joy and a lightness of being that comes of having had the time to enjoy other pleasures, and now being able to savour this one.”

• Kalinga tattoos
Analyn ‘Ikin’ Salvador-Amores is the first Filipina scholar to obtain a masters degree and a doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Hertford College, Oxford University. She was supported by the International Fellowships Program of the Ford Foundation. A native of Baguio, she pursued a research topic closest to her heart, Kalinga’s traditional tattoos in diaspora. She told ABS-CBN Europe during her graduation rites in Oxford: “I feel there is greater contribution when I return to the Philippines because we become cultural leaders in our own fields and anthropology is a discipline that needs beefing up in the country. Philippines is a very anthropologically interesting place to study, especially in the Cordillera region.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 4/23/12” →

• Miscommunication affects U.S.-Iran relations
William Beeman wrote in the Huffington Post that “The United States is about to enter into another round of negotiations with Iran. Previous attempts have been limited and unproductive. One major difficulty is that Iranians and Americans after 40 years of estrangement have forgotten how to talk to each other. Americans often miss subtleties of communication in dealing with other nations for two important reasons. First, we do not appreciate the importance of status differences. Second, we believe that contrition is honorable and a precondition of improving personal relations.” Beeman is a cultural/linguistic anthropologist and chair of the anthropology department at the University of Minnesota.

• Haiti’s message to the Tea Party
Mark Schuller wrote in the Huffington Post about the current situation in Haiti and how, among other things, more foreign aid should go to bolstering the government so that it can do good for its people: “Undoubtedly, NGOs can do good work. But NGOs’ work has limits, and they can never be expected, or attempt, to replace responsible governments. This said, foreign donors only sent 1 percent of emergency aid to the Haitian government.” Schuller is assistant professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at York College of the City University of New York. He edited a new volume of essays about post-earthquake Haiti called Tectonic Shifts.

• What some women in Afghanistan say
Melissa Kerr Chiovenda wrote in the Huffington Post about Afghan women, culture, and development. She explores the question of “how much progress has been made with respect to improving the lives of Afghan women?” She reports on her findings from interviews with women about how military operations are making women’s lives more difficult, at least in the short term. Chiovenda is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Connecticut.

• Blogging Mali
A cultural anthropologist has become a sought-after Internet blogger in the wake of the recent coup Mali. Bruce Whitehouse, a Fulbright scholar from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, offers in-depth analysis, historical background, links, and local reaction to events in Mali. A recent post on the “Bridges from Bamako” blog is titled, “Light at The End of the Tunnel?” It analyzes a recent statement by coup leaders on transferring power to civilian rule. Another popular post was about the coup leader’s wardrobe with pictures showing Captain Amadou Sanogo wearing a dyed shirt under his fatigues and carrying a stick. According to Whitehouse, “People were very interested in how this young army officer was presenting himself and how he appeared in public…they were commenting on the uniform and this garment that he was visibly wearing underneath his fatigues, and they were commenting on the fact he was carrying a stick around.” The shirt represents a hunter’s cloth and the stick represents power.

• Gun in hand makes a bigga man
A new study shows that holding a gun makes a man appear bigger and stronger than he actually is. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, asked hundreds of people to guess the size and muscularity of four men by looking at photos of the men’s hands holding a number of easily recognizable objects: a caulking gun, an electric drill, a large saw, or a handgun. The study participants consistently estimated men holding guns to be taller and stronger than men holding the other objects. Daniel Fessler, associate professor of anthropology at UCLA, said “Danger really does loom large — in our minds.” The study, published in PLoS One, is part of a project funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to learn about how people make decisions in potentially violent situations.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 4/16/12” →