• What a turn off
In an article about Egypt’s unprecedented shut-down of the Internet this past week, the LA Times quotes Charles Hirschkind, associate professor of cultural anthropology at UC Berkeley: “The Web, and in particular social media sites, have been an invaluable tool for activists seeking political and social reforms in Egypt…The Egyptian government [is] hoping that cutting off access will help to stopping the demonstrations…But it’s also apparent from the number of people in the street that people have plenty of ways to communication outside of the Internet.”

• A very strong army and more
MSNBC covered support by Minnesotans with ties to Egypt for the street demonstrations expressing political discontent. The article quotes William Beeman, professor of cultural anthropology and chair of the anthropology department at the University of Minnesota: “Mubarak has been trying to install his son as the next ruler of the country and that would continue essentially a dictatorship…The population is rebelling against him personally, but in a way against the whole super structure that he’s trying to build to secure his legacy.” Beeman also comments that it cannot be assumed that Egypt, like Tunisia, will succeed in ousting the regime: “The Mubarak Regime has a very strong army and a very strong police force. And they’ve been repressing protests for 30 years.” Beeman goes on to discuss the prospects of Mohamed ElBaradei as a replacement for Mubarak and the future of U.S.-Egypt relations.

• Securing antiquities in Egypt
The Washington Post quoted three archaeologists in an article about damage to the Cairo Museum and possible looting in sites outside Cairo. Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Council on Antiquities reported that no antiquities have been stolen from the Cairo Museum. Sarah Parcak, an Egyptologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggested the likelihood of looting at Saqqara and other sites. Brian Rose of the University of Pennsylvania implored the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to watch out for possible smuggling of antiquities into the United States.

• From anthropology to “radical art”
London-based “radical artist” Susan Hiller is profiled in the Guardian. She comments on her studies in anthropology and her disillusionment with it during the American-Vietnam war: “The Vietnam War showed me that anthropology was not an innocent practice…” She turned to art as a “value-free” medium. Blogger’s note: I have no idea what “radical art” is, but my sense is that Hiller is still an anthropologist at heart, and one with her “values” front and center. Listen to what she says: “Artists have a function. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here. We’re part of a conversation. It’s our job to represent and mirror back the values of the culture in a way that people haven’t seen before…I don’t aim for my work to be comforting to people who are already comfortable with themselves.” It could be that Hiller went to graduate school in anthropology ahead of her time.

• Newly found old tools and the “escape from Africa”
In contrast to the news-roiling stories of political protests in the Arab world last week, the big story in anthro-land was about very old stone tools in what is now the United Arab Emirates. A team of researchers have found stone tools in eastern Arabia that look like they were made by early modern humans. The fact that they are dated to over 100,000 years ago puts to question the view that modern humans left Africa around 60,000 years ago. Dozens of media outlets covered the story, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, NPR. The list goes on. Several archaeologists are quoted to provide interpretations of the tools’ significance. Blogger’s note #1: isn’t archaeology all about new finds, better dating methods, and “push back” when it comes to dates? Blogger’s note #2: The first article I read about the discovery was by Nicholas Wade, in the New York Times. As I read it, I wondered if some disaster had occurred in Africa around 100,000 years ago. Here’s why: para 1, Wade refers to when and how modern humans “escaped from…Africa;” in para 2, he uses the verb “escape” again; para 3, he uses the phrase “got out of Africa;” and para 8, again: “…escape from Africa.” Other accounts use less dramatic terms such as: migrated from, moved, travelled, spread, ventured out, forayed. Does Wade have a problem with Africa?

• Oprah supports Aboriginal women’s heritage
A documentary about how an Australian Aboriginal elder balanced preserving her ancestors’ heritage and revealing their sacred history is showcased on Oprah Winfrey’s website. The film is called Sprits in the Stone. Several archaeologists worked on the project which involves a 45,000 year old rock art site belonging to the Jawoyn people. The film will be released in December 2011. To view the film trailer, visit www.oprah.com

• Modernity and murder in a honeymoon paradise
The Mauritius brand as an ultimate destination for newlyweds took a sad twist after a recent murder there. Sean Carey, cultural anthropologist at the University of Roehampton, writes in the Guardian about high-end tourism, local inflation, crime, and international brand maintenance in Mauritius. He gives a shout out to British social anthropologist Ernest Gellner and his observations about on the pains of transition to modernity.

• Viagra for altitude sickness: beware of side effects
Medical anthropologist Theresa Graedon is a syndicated columnist and, with Joe Graedon, she writes a column called People’s Pharmacy. This past week, the Graedons responded in the LA Times to a question from a reader about whether or not Viagra is effective for altitude sickness. The response: check with your doctor before you travel since treating yourself for altitude sickness could have side effects. Blogger’s note: This is a great topic for Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.

• Archaeology of bunga bunga in Italy
A new archaeological project in Italy is excavating what is claimed to be the lost tomb of Caligula, the first century emperor famous for his debauchery and for appointing his favorite horse a senator. An Italian politician has been quoted as saying: “Compared with Berlusconi, Caligula was a prude.” Blogger’s note: another great topic for the Daily Show. What’s going on this week?

• Save Somaliland’s rock paintings
The Sunday Times of London carried a plea from British-Somali archaeologist Sada Mire for world heritage protection for ancient rock paintings she discovered in Somaliland. Poverty, looting, and road building are the major threats.

• In memoriam
Geoffrey Egan, archaeologist at the Museum of London, died suddenly of coronary thrombosis on December 24, 2010, at the age of 59 years. He was a noted medieval and post-medieval finds expert and was probably the first archaeologist to head one of the City of London’s guilds. His doctoral thesis was on lead seals used by London’s cloth merchants as a guarantee of provenance and quality.

• In Sudan: the Crusades still?
Cultural anthropologist and Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani says that the creation of a new Western sanctioned nation-state in southern Sudan — a religiously and politically contested area at the edge of the Arab-Muslim world — is proof that the jihadis are fighting an international system bent on stemming the spread of Islam. Mamdani is a professor at Columbia University and author, most recently, of Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror.

• So you think you deserve an A in this course?
In her letter to the editor of the NYT, Carol Delaney questions proposed bills in the U.S. that would allow students and professors to take guns to campus. “What professor won’t worry about giving failing grades when an angry student can march into [or her] his office and shoot him [or her]?” Delaney is emerita professor of cultural anthropology at Stanford University.

• The economics, not erotics, of the bound female foot
A Wall Street Journal article on the end of female footbinding in China includes insights from two Stanford University anthropologists: Melissa Brown, assistant professor of cultural anthropology and Hill Gates, emerita professor of anthropological sciences. Both point to the economic factors underlying the practice. In the words of Brown: “How do you get a naturally healthy 6-year-old to sit for hours? You break her feet.” The practice, in this view, forced girls and women to work at home, spinning yarn, processing tea, and shucking oysters.

• Culture through cooking
A WaPo article about Diana Kennedy’s magisterial new book on Oaxacan cuisine conveys her message to everyone that they should learn about world cultures through their food. She also specifically exhorts anthropologists to learn to cook. Blogger’s note: Whether anthropologists and people with an anthropological heart are following Kennedy’s advice or marching to their own drum, it is remarkable how many top chefs have an anthropology background including Kennedy’s nemesis, Rick Bayless.

• UBC Museum of Anthropology cancels exhibit on disappeared women
The University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology canceled an exhibit that was supposed to open in February featuring 69 massive portraits of women who vanished from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The museum director said that the exhibit was not likely to produce the kind of positive dialogue originally intended.

• Rise in juvenile delinquency in Brunei
The rise in the number of young offenders in Brunei in recent years may be related to rising birth rates and increased vigilance by law enforcement, said Professor Frank Fanselow, head of the Sociology-Anthropology programme at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Overall rates of juvenile delinquency in Brunei are low compared to rates worldwide.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 1/17/11” →

• This mine is my mine
China is pushing to establish its first wholly owned substantial mining project in Australia, in the Weld Range in the western part of the country. The Weld Range is rich in iron ore. It is also the home of Wilge Mia, the world’s oldest known continuing mining operation. For more than 30,000 years, its ochre has been mined and traded. The Australian government has told the Chinese government that it is welcome to develop its projects as long as they do not take over existing producers. Traditional owners are staking a claim to Wilge Mia and other Weld Range sites. They have engaged the Eureka Archaeological Research and Consulting Centre, a University of Western Australia-affiliated anthropology service, to assess the cultural value of the sites. They are also working with Terra Rosa Cultural Resource Management, a private group, to help define site boundaries and prevent their destruction.

• The healers: Bostonians of the year
The Boston Globe named three people Bostonians of the year, and they are all involved in founding Partners in Health in rural Haiti to deliver health care to the poor. They are Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Louise Ivers. Since the 2010 earthquake, PIH is also working to heal the local and global health system. Blogger’s note: Yes, you can make a difference, it won’t be easy, and anthro/public health is an effective combo.

• A doctor without borders
The Sunday Times (London) carried a review of Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, which was published in 2003. Eight years later, Partners in Health in Haiti has even more work on its hands, has expanded its clinics, and now incorporates micro-lending services at clinics. Kidder’s documentary of Paul Farmer continues to inspire readers around the world, and the “Paul Farmer effect” endures.

• Survival: learning from Irish Travellers
Dennis Foley, cultural anthropologist at Newcastle University in Australia, will spend several months in Ireland studying the challenges that the Travellers face and comparisons with Australian Aborigines in terms of mobile survival patterns.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 1/10/11” →

• China could abandon its one-child policy
This header is a quotation from Susan Greenhalgh’s newest book, Cultivating Global Citizens: Population in the Rise of China. Her book is reviewed by Jonathan Mirsky in the Wall Street Journal. Greenhalgh is professor of cultural anthropology at the University of California at Irvine.

• Rebuild the social in 2011
An economic downturn is a good time to think about growing a “sense of social” writes cultural anthropologist Robbie Blinkoff in an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun. He urges people (like those reading this blog) to look for “signs of the social” and build on them. Basically: have meaningful face-to-face conversations with other people. Blinkoff is managing director of Context-Based Research Group in Baltimore. His latest project is thewildpigtailproject.com, an arts and anthropology project dedicated to building a “sense of the social.”

• Here’s to healthy drinking
In an audio interview, Dwight Heath says that the Spanish provide lessons about healthy alcohol consumption patterns, and many of them start the day with a drink. Heath is professor of cultural anthropology at Brown University and author of Drinking Occasions.

• Take back the night
One segment of the National Post of Canada’s week-long series about the most interesting ideas of 2010 featured a call from a group French anthropologists to tackle “the other half of the world.” They point to the neglect of the night by anthropologists and propose the launching of nocturnity, the study of night in human affairs. They published their views in Current Anthropology. [Blogger’s note: the French group are correct that the night has been severely neglected, but not completely. One can find scattered insights about night hunting, night tag games, and nighttime sleeping patterns. As far as I know, though, the cultural anthropologists have been outdone so far by a cultural geographer, Reena Patel. She has written an excellent book based on fieldwork she conducted mainly during the night, with some scary interactions. It’s called Working the Night Shift: Women in India’s Call Center Industry].

• It’s a new beginning
In a letter to the editor of the New York Times, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, writes that Robert Kelly’s December 13 op-ed, “Bones of Contention” is misguided. Colwell-Chanthaphonh argues that the dialogue about repatriation in the U.S. over the past two decades “is a new beginning of collaborative stewardship of Native American history” rather than the end of archaeology.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 1/3/2011” →

Anthroworks’ popular feature, anthro in the news, provides a weekly summary of anthropology in the mainstream media. The following PowerPoint slides present topical highlights from 52 weeks of anthro in the news and the Maggie Awards, named after one of the world’s most famous anthropologists, and bestowed in categories such as the most noted nonhuman primate award, the most noted archaeological site award, the most noted cultural group, and more.

The presentation was prepared for the final lecture in Barbara Miller’s fall 2010 introductory cultural anthropology class.

Best of Anthro 2010 – Topical Round-up Maggie Awards http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf

• Anthro of international relations: U.S. and Uzbekistan
In a guest column in Foreign Policy, Russell Zanca looks at U.S.-Uzbekistan relations and concludes that U.S. diplomats can do little to transform a brutal totalitarian state into a democracy. He looks to history: “Nearly two decades of diplomatic engagement have resulted in a firmly entrenched, barbaric state, dangerous relations between Uzbekistan and most of its neighbors (Kyrgyzstan being the best example), a destitute population whose only realistic chance to achieve a living wage is to work abroad, and an increasingly bad perception of the United States as a champion of democracy and human rights in the eyes of Uzbeks.” Further, Zanca argues that U.S. activities in the region constitute passive support of the situation: “Our convenience in using Uzbekistan as a way station for troops, cargo, and materiel has led us to now and then turn a blind eye to the terroristic policies of the Uzbek state, while also enabling the government to dictate the terms and conditions of diplomatic or strategic engagement.” Zanca is a cultural anthropologist and professor at Northern Illinois University.

• Nepali food gets a shout-out
Food writer Colleen Taylor Sen quoted cultural anthropologist Mark Liechty in an article about the health benefits and tastiness of Nepali food: “Some of the best food I’ve had in Nepal is from Newari kitchens.” Liechty is associate professor of cultural anthropology and history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sen notes that Nepal, a small country about the size of Illinois, has over 100 distinct ethnic groups and a mainly vegetarian cuisine with meat consumed on some special occasions.

• Friend me
Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University, opined in the New York Times about how the human brain limits the number of friends one can maintain to 150. Even in the age of Facebook. For more details, see his book, How Many Friends Does One Person Need?

• Bloody child sacrifice in the Andes
Skeletons of dozens of children discovered in the Cerro Cerillos site of Peru’s northern coast were sacrificed in a way that involved slitting their throats, opening their chests, and hacking their bodies to pieces. The children may have been drugged with the plant Netandra which both paralyzes and prevents blood clotting. National Geographic news quotes Haagen Klaus, an archaeologist at Utah Valley University: “It is so beyond what is necessary to kill a person. It really gives you the chills…But we are trying to understand this on their terms, not ours…They are feeding their ancestors and they are feeding the mountains.” The study appears in the journal Antiquity.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 12/27/10” →

• Australia’s first indigenous Rhodes Scholar
Adelaide University student Rebecca Richards is the first Australian indigenous Rhodes Scholar. She will study anthropology at Oxford and pursue her passion for repatriation of objects to indigenous communities in Australia as well as survival of their languages and cultures. She has custodial responsibilities for her family site and other women’s sites in the Flinders Ranges.

• Riches from a poor country
In the 1930s, 21-year-old Alan Lomax recorded many hours of music in Haiti. Lomax went on to become a renowned folklorist and ethnomusicologist. For decades, the recordings sat in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Discovered in the late 1990s, they have been meticulously edited and annotated by Gage Averill, dean of arts at the University of British Columbia. The recordings, which were released this year as a boxed set, Alan Lomax in Haiti, have received two Grammy nominations.

• Audio on science vs humanities
An audio debate on defining anthropology as a science or not between professor Peter Peregrine, president of the Society for Anthropological Science, and professor Hugh Gusterson, executive board member of the American Anthropological Association.

• Holiday lights as social capital
The Washington Post [note: WaPo link has gone dead, here’s another one] quoted biological anthropologist David Sloan Wilson of SUNY Albany in an article about the meaning of holiday lights in public areas: “One way that neighborhoods express their feelings of neighborliness is to decorate the house, not the inside but the outside…It’s an expression of goodwill, basically.”

• Like a bridge over Stonehenge
An Aboriginal archaeological site in Tasmania, perhaps 42,000 years old, will have a concrete highway bridge built over it. The decision to allow the project comes in spite of pleas from many archaeologists including Sandra Bowdler, emeritus professor at the University of Western Australia. She compared the project to building a bridge over Stonehenge.

• Neglect may outdo Vesuvius
Pompeii is crumbling. This World Heritage site, and one of the most famous attractions in Italy, is in danger again. Lack of maintenance and heavy tourist use are taking their toll, and only 20 percent of the site is considered adequately secured. Another problem is the many stray dogs. Moreover, in the words of Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, an archaeologist who supervised the site for the Culture Ministry from 1994-2009, “Pompeii is fragile.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 12/20/10” →

• How to slow cholera in Haiti
Paul Farmer and co-authors published an article in the Lancet laying out five steps for slowing the death toll of cholera in Haiti. Several media including NPR, CNN, and the New York Times picked up on step 3: providing cholera vaccine. For more information on all five steps, see a post on this blog.

• More on Haiti: when god is too busy
Gina Athena Ulysse, associate professor of cultural anthropology at Wesleyan University, teaches a course called Haiti: Myths and Reality. She also writes scholarly articles and poems to get her message across. And she is a performer, bringing her message to the stage through her show Because God is Too Busy: Haiti, Me and the World. Ulysse combines her love of Haiti with her academic training, her singing, and her performance. The Huffington Post carried an article about her work. She will perform God is Too Busy at several locations in the next few months, including at George Washington University in late January.

• UBC-Okanagan anthro students and professor honored
The Center for a Public Anthropology gave its Public Anthropology Award to 15 students in an intro anthropology class at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan. The students wrote essays on the question: Who should be the beneficiaries of anthropological research? The professor, Diana French, was also honored with this year’s Eleanor Roosevelt Global Citizenship Award from Public Anthropology. This is the second year that Professor French’s students have swept the Public Anthropology student awards. The Center for a Public Anthropology will send French to Brazil to present a gift from her class to the Yanomami Hutukara Association.

• Public anthropology voices welcome in Australia
Lindsay Tanner is the inaugural vice-chancellor’s fellow at Victoria University, Australia, and a former federal politician. In an op-ed in the Australian, he talks about the need for more academic input into policy debates: “While disciplines such as nuclear physics and anthropology are obviously important, they’re typically not as proximate to the world of day-to-day problem-solving in business and government as areas where VU [Victoria University] is strong, such as health, transport, communications and financial services. It’s in these areas that our public debate desperately needs stronger intellectual input.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 12/13/10” →

• On the Foreign Policy list
In its December issue, Foreign Policy magazine named Paul Farmer, medical anthropology professor at Harvard and co-founder of Partners in Health, as number 35 in the list of top 100 innovative thinkers of 2010 “for showing the world what to do and what not to do in Haiti.” The four-column spread on Farmer includes 5 Lessons from Haiti’s Disaster.

Many of the FP’s great thinkers 2010 included a note about what they are reading. David Petraeus, number 8 on the list, is reading Thomas Barfield’s Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. Clay Shirky, number 67, mentioned James Scott’s Seeing Like a State.

• Wiki leaks and Chagossians
Cultural anthropologist Sean Carey of Roehampton University wrote about some of the political machinations surrounding leaked cables related to Diego Garcia in the New Statesman and he was quoted in the Express. David Vine, professor of cultural anthropology at American University, published an article describing the use of faux environmentalism to prevent the return of the Chagossians to Diego Garcia.

• Anthro’s mission possible
The Chronicle for Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed carried an article about the revised mission statement of the American Anthropological Association which deletes the word “science.” CNN, Nature, and several bloggers have chimed in.

• What the Nacirema want
Gillian Tett, cultural anthropologist and writer for the Financial Times, compares publishing books in Britain and the US. Self-deprecation, she says, sells well in Britain. In the US, however, self-doubt is not appreciated in a writer: “you must act as if you are an expert, filled with complete conviction.”

• In memoriam
C. Scott Littleton, anthropology professor and department chairman at Occidental College, died November 25 at the age of 77 years. He was known for his studies of comparative Indo-European mythology and folklore, Arthurian legends, Japanese culture, and unidentified flying objects. Littleton taught a range of anthropology courses at Occidental from 1962 to 2002 and served as chairman of the sociology and anthropology department in several stints from 1967 to 1994. After the anthropology department split off, he was its chairman from 1995 to 2000. Besides scholarly works, Littleton authored a science fiction novel, Phase Two.