•  The coup in Mali
Africa News carried a conversation with several experts about the current political situation in Mali including cultural anthropologist Isaie Dougnon who is a professor at the University of Bamako and currently a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florida.

•  Christians and Jews together in Indianapolis
The New York Times reported on anthropological research that is reuniting former residents of Southside, Indianapolis. “Upward mobility, Interstate 70 and the construction of a football stadium hollowed out the neighborhood starting in the late 1960s, scattering its residents and severing bonds of commerce and friendship.” Over the last four years, Susan B. Hyatt, an anthropology professor at Indiana University-Purdue University, has searched for former Southsiders and worked to restore ties through social events and reciprocal worship services at a church and a synagogue.

•  Nominee for World Bank president termed “hard left”
An editorial in the Washington Times claims that the U.S. nominee for the next president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, would take the Bank on a hard left turn:  “Dr. Kim, an American, is a physician and anthropologist with a significant background in public health and almost no knowledge of economics. Worse, as New York University’s William Easterly has pointed out, Dr. Kim has displayed considerable skepticism about the impact on the poor of what he calls ‘neoliberalism.’ He prefers to ignore the mountains of evidence that economic growth is the most effective way to reduce poverty.” [Blogger’s note: In the meantime, the price on amazon.com of Kim’s edited book, Dying for Growth, has skyrocketed to $293.14 for a new copy and $96.82 for a used copy.] Continue reading “Anthro in the news 4/9/12” →

• What the World Bank needs now
The media has been abuzz with opinions about Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. nominee for the next director of the World Bank. Gillian Tett writes in the Financial Times, that Kim is a much-needed Renaissance man. Others, in the go-for-growth camp claim that Kim is too narrow to handle the breadth of the World Bank portfolio which is growth through building roads and ports which, as we have all heard many times, will perforce will help the poor. All Africa News is pro-Kim:  “Since its inception in 1944, the World Bank has largely been governed by a politician or a celebrated Wall Street Banker or Economist…None, at least out of the last 11 presidents, has had a first-hand experience of the real challenges that face the developing world… Dr. Kim has rubbed shoulders with the poor, mingled with the most destitute and sought sustainable solutions for some of their problems…Dr. Jim Kim will be taking on this multilateral body with a different kind of experience, one that is crucial in making the institution more responsive to the needs of the developing world.” The Wall Street Journal chimed in with an editorial  applauding President Obama’s nomination, noting that “…Kim will face stiff challenge in reforming misguided lending programs;  regrets only that [this] outmoded institution will not be shut down.”

•  Failure in the time of cholera
The New York Times carried an extensive article on the cholera epidemic in Haiti which included  substantial commentary from Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist/physician/and health equality advocate :  “Dr. Farmer of Partners in Health… said he wanted  ‘health equity” — for the developed world to respond to cholera in Haiti as it would at home.” Partners in Health initially requested potable water be trucked in so that a traumatized population would not have to filter and treat its water. Purification tablets were delivered instead because it was considered cheaper and simpler. He said he kept thinking about the many water stations at the New York City Marathon: ”That’s for a sport, for heaven’s sake. You’re telling me the giant humanitarian aid machine can’t do that in an epidemic?”

• Murder, caste and class in the American south
An article in the New York Times about the murder of Trayvon Martin mentioned cultural anthropologist John Dollard’s pioneering research in the 1930s in a small town in the American South. Dollard, a white northerner from Yale University, was told by local people that soon enough he would “…feel about Negroes as Southerners do.” [Blogger’s note: Dollard did not get that feeling]. Continue reading “Anthro in the News 4/2/2012” →

• “Surprise” nomination for World Bank President
Surprise, surprise! Not a financial player, not an economist, not a white male. The White House on Friday named Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a global health expert, as its nominee to lead the World Bank.

The nomination received widespread international coverage, including an article in the Independent by British-born economist and Dartmouth professor  David Blanchflower. He writes: “There always the sense in the Dartmouth community that he was not going to be with us for long as he was headed for a big international job. I do have a sense that his appointment to the World Bank is a better match given his global interests. Assuming Jim Kim is appointed, which seems likely, although he is not an economist, he will be the first leader of the World Bank with any development experience. He also has the advantage that he is non-white, non-Wasp and he’s not Larry Summers.” ”

An article in the Washington Post quoted economist Nancy Birdsall, director of the Center for Global Development, DC think tank, as saying “This nomination suggests, on the face of it, a vision of the bank that is narrower than might be ideal.” She said that Kim has experience with individual programs in very poor countries, but it is not clear how he will tackle transnational issues such as climate change and corruption. [Blogger’s note: a “double doc” physician, anthropologist, and hand-son development practitioner is defined as “narrow” compared to previous World Bank presidents who have rarely stepped outside a limo and a 5-star hotel in a poor country?].

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 3/26/12” →

• Explaining human language heats up
A big debate exists among scholars who study human language. The extreme poles can be summarized as the Noam Chomsky position of innatism and a “language organ” and the basic similarity of all languages. On the other side is the constructivist, relativist position championed by Daniel Everett, a linguist and anthropologist at Bentley University in Massachusetts. Everett has published a new book called Language: The Cultural Tool. In it he argues that language is not the product of a “language organ” but an extension of general intelligence and contextually responsive. Everett began his career as a Christian missionary but abandoned his faith because of his extended conversations with the Pirahã Indians of Brazil. In his new book, he argues that speakers craft their languages to meet their needs. The Pirahã have no numbers beyond two because they have no money, engage in little barter trade, do not store food for the future and do not think about the distant past.

According to coverage in the Guardian, the language of the Pirahã is a unique cultural tool – like their knowledge of plant toxins, and their ability to fish with a bow and arrow – adapted for their particular circumstances. [Blogger’s note: stay tuned for more media coverage of Everett’s work: according to an email from Dan to me on Saturday, a film from the Smithsonian Channel will come out in May called Grammar of Happiness [this film has just won the Young Europeans Jury Award at the FIPA film festival in Biarritz]; this upcoming week the New York Times will have a feature article on him, his book, and the controversy surrounding his work; and the next week the Chronicle for Higher Education will carry a feature article].

• Homophobic language and gay men’s mental health in Ireland
The Irish Times reported on a four-year study of gay young men in Cork, Ireland, by Swedish anthropologist Felicia Garcia. She focused on suicidal men and learned that homophobic language inhibits gay men from talking about their feelings compared to young men she had interviewed in Venezuela. In the Cork city area, young men have suicide rates four times higher than young women. The article notes that, according to Garcia: “Young Irish men internalise the belief that they are untrained to cope with stressful situations and they also suffer from the perception that women are the mentally stronger sex.” [Blogger’s note: this piece is directly related to the findings of Nancy Scheper-Hughes in her first book, Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics.]

• Illegal organ trade
Several media outlets including ABC picked up on a recent publication by Monir Moniruzzaman, assistant professor of anthropology at Michigan State University, who studied trafficking in human kidneys and the experiences of those who were victims of organ trafficking. He interviewed 33 kidney sellers in Bangladesh and found they typically did not get the money they were promised. They are also plagued with serious health problems that prevent them from working as well as shame and depression. The study appears in the Medical Anthropology Quarterly. “This is a serious form of exploitation of impoverished people, whose bodily organs become market commodities to prolong the lives of the wealthy few,” said Moniruzzaman who delivered his research findings and recommendations on human organ trafficking to both the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

• Mothers are key
The Huffington Post praised an article in this week’s Times Higher Education supplement by anthropologist Eric Michael Johnson on the critical importance of mothers in the long-term wellbeing of children: “Johnson’s article is a powerful read. He suggests that effective motherhood, where emotional bonds are made early and encouraged by society is likely to lead to happier and better functioning humans. His point is clear. Mummy is the key.” [Blogger’s note: March 18 was Mother’s Day in the U.K. Happy Mother’s Day to all!] Continue reading “Anthro in the news 3/19/12” →

• News coverage of Iran contributes to misunderstanding
An article in the New York Times quotes cultural anthropologist William Beeman as saying that he believes The Times’s coverage has contributed to a dangerous public misunderstanding of the situation. Beeman is professor of cultural anthropology and chair of the anthropology department at the University of Minnesota and author of the book, The ‘Great Satan’ vs. the ‘Mad Mullahs’: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other. The article provides a critique of The Times’ coverage of Iran’s nuclear program including that The Times has given too much space to Israeli proponents of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, has failed to mention often enough that Israel itself has nuclear arms, has sometimes overstated the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has repeated the questionable assertion that Iran’s leaders seek the eradication of Israel, has failed to analyze the Iranian supreme leader’s statement that nuclear weapons are a ”sin,” and has published misleading headlines.

• Patriotism and voting in Iran
In a tv interview about the recent elections in Iran, William Beeman says: “When a population is under pressure from the outside, they do not rise up and overthrow their own government, they rally behind their leaders and this is, I think in this particular case when we take a look at the elections, I think we will find that the Iranian people have not been discouraged by the sanctions that have been leveled against them, but in fact have shown their patriotism and their love of their own country.”

• Relevance of anthropology debated
A symposium in honor of cultural anthropology professor Laura Nader, University of California at Berkeley, was held at the Berkeley campus. It was called “Anthropology in the World.” Two notable speakers were Governor Jerry Brown and Ralph Nader, consumer activist, frequent presidential contender, and sister of Laura. Ralph Nader talked about “Anthropology from Margaret Mead to 2012.” Coverage in the Sacramento Bee did not provide details on Governor Brown’s comments in the debate.

• Take that anthro degree and….
…become a world class figure skater. Meryl Davis and Charlie White are the only American ice dancing team to ever win the world championships. An article in the New York Times described their style, skills, and daily routine. It also mentioned that both are part-time students at the University of Michigan where she is double majoring in anthropology and Italian while he is majoring in political science. Both, however, are determined to bring home the gold at the 2014 Games in Russia.

…become a politician. Nick Clegg is the British Liberal Democrat Leader and the Deputy Prime Minister. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he expresses shock to find hundreds of people in Britain are earning millions every year but paying little tax: “There are hundreds of people earning millions per year who are barely paying 20 per cent tax, forget 40 per cent, forget 50 per cent, forget 30 per cent. They are not even paying 20 per cent.” He is proposing a tycoon tax, a legal minimum tax rate that everyone should pay on their earnings. You may wonder where the blogger is going with this piece, so here you go: Clegg studied archaeology and anthropology at Robinson College, Cambridge University.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 3/12/12” →

• On school shootings
Katherine Newman is the James B. Knapp Dean of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a cultural anthropologist by training. In a special report for CNN, she writes about how and why the “quiet kid” whom no one really notices erupts into murderous violence. She brings to this question findings from team research on the rash of school shootings in the U.S. in the late 1990s which she suggests may be useful in understanding what happened at Chardon High School: Initial reports suggest the shooter was a “loner” but were quickly followed by claims that he had friends. The community was taken by surprise, but we learn the shooter texted at least one person about his intentions. These contradictions are consistent with the findings in our book, Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. Further, Newman says that high school shooters are rarely loners but instead are “failed joiners.” Their daily social experience is of rejection and frustration, not isolation.

• Accordian and solo households revealed
The New York Times Book Review section carried a double review of Katherine Newman’s The Accordian Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition, and Eric Klinenberg’s Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. Both books focus on changing households forms, mainly in the U.S., but with attention to global changes as a wider context. Newman holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, but is known more as a sociologist and academic administrator. Her book addresses the high and rising rates of adult children living with parents. Klinenberg holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, but his doctoral dissertation committee included doyenne cultural anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and he clearly has an anthropological heart.  [Blogger’s note: I have read only the NYT review, not the books themselves, but it seems apparent that both Newman and Klinenberg use cultural anthropology methods including qualitative, in-depth interviews to provide a more fine-grained perspective to complement and enrich the wider global, political, and economic frame in which such household changes are occurring.]

• Paul Farmer, the Global Fund and CCMs
All Africa carried an opinion piece arguing that the funding model employed by the Global Fund is not working for grassroots organizations: “The Global Fund and other international donors need to think from the margins, not just the centre, to find new ways to get funds into the hands of people on the front lines of the epidemic.” The author argues that the Global Fund should consider other approaches: “In his recent New York Times op-ed, Paul Farmer called for increased funding for the Global Fund. He is right. But to really put muscle into the fight against HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund needs to change its top-down approach and find new ways to get funding to grassroots groups. As Farmer points out, the Global Fund has succeeded in getting antiretroviral medicines to millions of people, thus saving many lives. It did this by leveraging multilateral funding to strengthen health ministries and medical services for people living with HIV/AIDS, and insisting that civil society be part of the process of grant management. Yet civil society continues to be marginalised in many countries…”.

• Tracking U.S. corporate abuse of workers in China
Hanqing Chen, a reporter for Asia Blog, is studying journalism and anthropology at New York University. The Atlantic picked up on her article about corporate practices toward labor in China. She interviews corporate social responsibility expert Richard Brubaker, founder of Shanghai-based Collective Responsibility. He points out that abuses are particular to Apple products.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 3/5/12” →

• Possible cholera spike in Haiti
Paul Farmer of the Boston-based group Partners in Health says  that Haiti could see a spike like the one that occurred last year. The number of cholera cases nearly tripled from almost 19,000 last April to more than 50,000 two months later. Partners in Health will launch a vaccination campaign in the coming weeks to stem the spread of the waterborne disease. Haiti has the highest cholera infection rate in the world. Health officials say more than 7,000 people have died and another 522,000 have fallen ill since the disease surfaced in Haiti months after the January 2010 earthquake.

• Tracing Kuki origins in Manipur, India
A team of the Kuki Research Forum has carried out an expedition to three cave sites in the Sajik Tampak area of Chandel district, Manipur state, India. Speaking to The Sangai Express, vice chairman of the Forum, anthropologist Helkhomang Touthang said that the cave expedition was conducted to understand the history and activities of the early Kuki people.

 

• Very old Mexican gameboard

Archaeologists carrying out restoration at the Dzibilnocac site in the southeastern state of Campeche discovered a Mayan game board dating from more than 1,000 years ago, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said. A member of the team that found the artifact, Heber Ojeda, estimates the board was used between the 7th and 10th centuries during the Late Classic period of Dzibilnocac. Etched into the surface of the board are 58 rectangles of varying sizes and players would have used beans as game tokens. A member of the team that found the artifact, Heber Ojeda, estimates the board was used between the 7th and 10th centuries during the Late Classic period of Dzibilnocac. Judith Gallegos Gomora is quoted as saying that the board was designed for patolli, a game of chance described in Mayan codices and colonial Spanish chronicles.

 

• Neanderthals taking an exit
New findings from an international team of researchers show that most Neanderthals in Europe died off around 50,000 years ago. The previously held view of a Europe populated by a stable Neanderthal population for hundreds of thousands of years up until modern humans arrived is therefore thrown into question. This perspective comes from a study of ancient DNA published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. The results indicate that most Neanderthals in Europe died off as early as 50,000 years ago. After that, a small group of Neanderthals recolonised central and western Europe, where they survived for another 10,000 years before modern humans entered the picture. The study is the result of an international project led by Swedish and Spanish researchers in Uppsala, Stockholm and Madrid. “The fact that Neanderthals in Europe were nearly extinct, but then recovered, and that all this took place long before they came into contact with modern humans came as a complete surprise to us. This indicates that the Neanderthals may have been more sensitive to the dramatic climate changes that took place in the last Ice Age than was previously thought,” says Love Dalén, associate professor at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 2/27/12” →

• Two-part interview with David Graeber
The Boston review carried an extensive interview with cultural anthropologist David Graeber, author of the recent book entitled Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Among other topics, Graeber discusses student debt.

• Aboriginal treasures found in a basement
ABC news Australia reports that anthropologists at Perth’s Berndt Museum have discovered treasures in a basement that could change the lives of Aboriginal people. They will become part of an exhibition. This link will take you to a six-minute video.

• Double major in cultural anthropology for sports star
CSB Sports carried an article describing how a college sports star decided to double major in anthropology through inspiration from international travel. Mason Plumlee took a class on China last spring to help him prepare for his team’s trip to China in August. Plumlee enjoyed the class and trip so much that he decided to major in cultural anthropology in addition to his first major in psychology.

• Finding gender in fingerprints
Research conducted by Kewal Krishan of the anthropology department of Panjab University, India, along with his student Chitrabala, shows fingerprints found at a crime scene can help in determining a person’s gender. The research has been accepted by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFC) and will be presented in the 64th annual conference to be held in Atlanta. The study is based on the hypothesis that female fingerprints have finer ridges than male’s and a greater ridge density within a given area.

• Aztec findings in Mexico City
A total of 23 pre-Columbian stone plaques dating to 550 years ago were discovered by archaeologists in front of the Great Temple of Tinochtitlan in downtown Mexico City, according to the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH). Archaeologist Raul Barrera said the remains are of great archaeological value because they are the first such pieces to have been found within the sacred grounds of Tenochtitlan.

• A kiss is just a kiss?

It’s that time of the year again with articles and blog posts popping up all over, addressing various romantic topics as we approach Valentine’s Day. For starts, an article in the U.K.’s Independent is titled “Pucker Up” (it goes on from there). No surprise: the subject is kissing. Among other tidbits dropped into the piece is a nod to the vast cultural variation in what makes sex exciting and fulfilling: “In 1929, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski visited the Trobriand Islands and discovered that lovers there would go through several phases of sucking and nibbling during intercourse before biting off each other’s eyelashes at the point of orgasm.” And, to keep everyone happy, also a nod to biological determinism: “According to Rutgers University Anthropologist Helen Fisher, kissing evolved to facilitate three essential needs: sex drive, romantic need and attachment. Each is a component of human reproduction and kissing bolsters all three. In this theory, kissing helps people find a partner, commit to them and stay with them long enough to have a child.” [Blogger’s note: more research needed on the function of kissing in keeping a partner committed?]

• Republicans and Democrats in the bedroom: so close but so far apart?

Helen Fisher is cited again in a Washington Times article describing new research from the University of Binghamton’s Institute for Evolutionary Studies. A survey conducted in conjunction with match.com includes over 5,000 adults in the United States. Respondents were asked 135 questions about their romantic attitudes and lives as well as their political party. Fisher, a consultant on the study, comments: Liberals and conservatives are looking for entirely different things…their attitudes toward romance and how they court are really dramatically different. There’s almost no overlap.” [Blogger’s note: Just thinking…there may be some overlap that the study has missed? In any case, the political culture of lovemaking is another topic that requires more research].

• The science of love
An article in London’s Sunday Times on changing patterns of emotional relationships mentions new research by Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University. His new book, The Science of Love and Betrayal, will be coming out in April. In it, he defines five key criteria for emotional closeness: having the same sense of humor, the same interests and moral values, a similar level of intelligence, and having grown up in the same area. [Blogger’s note: it’s not clear from the article what Dunbar’s source of data is. So you may have to buy the book].

• Down turn on high street?
Sean Carey, regular contributor to anthropologyworks, published an article in the Guardian about how to transform the U.K.s declining high streets into a welcoming space.

• U.S. family law a rude shock to some immigrant men
The Daily Nation (Kenya) carried an article about Kenyan immigrants living in the United States and marital struggles taking place in a new legal culture: “Kenyan women quickly discover that the US takes violations of women’s rights very seriously…” Kenyan men pointed to state laws that require a man to continue paying child support for a child even if he discovers later that he is not the biological father. The article mentions a 2006 study published by Current Anthropology reporting that two per cent of married men who thought that the child they were bringing up was theirs in fact were not biological parents after paternity tests were conducted. [Blogger’s note: I am trying to trace this publication; in the meantime, just be happy knowing that The Daily Nation had heard about our flagship journal].

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 2/13/12” →

• Honor killing or femicide: the label is important
The term “honor killing” creates false distancing of a crime that is in fact murder of females according to Homa Hoodfar, professor of anthropology at Concordia University, Montreal. She co-authored an article in the Montreal Gazette examining the media coverage of the Shafia trial in which Mohammad Shafia, his son Hamed Shafia and his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, were found guilty of participating in what the judge called “cold-blooded, shameful murders” of their three daughters and Shafia’s first wife. The three accused were sentenced to life in prison. The article critiques the media’s labeling of the murders as honor killings and the association of honor killings with particular cultures. It also raises the question of how so-called honor killings are different from other murders of family members/intimate partners. If the label is changed and honor killings are combined with other cases of gender-based murder, then so-called “honor killings” do not stand out as highly unusual: “It does not take a genius to see that comparing 12 or 13 [honor killings] against the hundreds of women and children who were victims of familial violence serves only to frame ‘honour killing’ as peculiar, when in reality it is part of a larger pattern of violence against women.”

• Let’s get down to bases
David Vine, assistant professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C., co-authored an article in Defense News describing the intriguing example of cross-party consensus in the U.S. on the issue of closing overseas military bases. The unusual coalition includes Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Democratic Senator Jon Tester, Republican presidential candidate Representative Ron Paul and outgoing House Democrat Barney Frank.

• Breaking up and social media
A radio interview with cultural anthropologist Illana Gershon describes her research on how U.S. college students handle romantic relationships, especially break-ups, via social media. She talked with many Indiana University students as part of her research on social media and relationships. For example, she posed this question to one of her classes: “If you and your sweetie are “Facebook official,” what happens when the relationship ends? Whose job is it to change the relationship status: the person who got dumped or the person who did the dumping?” She found student habits and values to be unpredictable on this and other questions: “In every interview I’d have a moment where I’d want to say, you do what?!” she says. The results of her research are presented in her book, The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media .Comments on the radio interview are invited.

• Messing around back then
New genetic analyses indicate that modern humans had reproductive relationships [Blogger’s note: that’s my euphemism of choice versus “they mated”…] with at least two groups of ancient humans in relatively recent times: the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia, dying out roughly 30,000 years ago, and a less-known group called the Denisovans, who lived in Asia and most likely vanished around the same time. The New York Times quotes Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist and research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in London: “In a sense, we are a hybrid species.”

• Altai homeland
More findings from DNA studies about human origins were highlighted in the media this past week. Archaeologists have long thought that American Indians came from Asia, migrating to Alaska during a time of lower sea levels, making it possible to walk over the Bering Strait. New findings based on genetic profiling tie American Indians to a group of people living in a small region of Russia called the Altai, near the borders of Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan. The results are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.