Category: cultural anthropology

Kurdistan Regional Autonomy and the Twentieth Century State

Guest post by Tashi Rabgey
Dr. Tashi Rabgey with Professor Dosky, University of Duhok - Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq

While traveling in Iraqi Kurdistan last week, I had the opportunity to give a talk at the University of Duhok on the problem of twentieth century statehood.  The question of what will become of the project of rule we know of as the “nation-state” seemed particularly apt in the city of Duhok, given the raging civil war in neighboring Syria, mounting Turkish air strikes on the PKK along the Iraqi border and chilling developments in Iran to the east — all, rather disconcertingly, within easy driving distance of this ancient Kurdish town.

Yet even with Kurdish refugees from Syria streaming daily into Duhok as a reminder of the precariousness of contemporary statehood, the faculty and scholars I met with, both in the capital Erbil and in Duhok, were most animated by questions concerning the flip side of statehood — that is, the more humdrum business of governing and everyday practices of rule.  How can the abundant natural resources of the region be best developed and their social benefits better distributed?  In what ways can Kurdish language use in higher education be further advanced?  What might be some prospects for global partnerships in cooperative research and strategic policy studies?

Faculty and scholars of the University of Duhok

These questions pointed to an extraordinary achievement.  With little fanfare, Iraqi Kurdistan has become a fully autonomous political entity within a reconfigured Iraqi state.  Legally recognized as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) since the revision of the Iraqi constitution in 2005, the autonomous region has proven its mettle over the past seven years, navigating the treacherous geopolitics of the region while attracting major foreign investment from neighboring Turkey, formerly the loudest detractor of even the idea of an autonomous Kurdistan region within the state of Iraq.

Turkey, of course, has its own unaddressed Kurdish question, with a good part of its southeastern territories being composed of Kurdish lands, and its population of 15 million Kurds having been resistant to Turkish rule throughout the twentieth century.  Indeed, the remarkable success of the Kurdistan autonomous region in Iraq only underscores the larger Kurdish question that remains unanswered in Turkey, Iran and Syria.  Not only have Kurdish areas been subsumed within these states, the Kurds themselves have long been locked in a bitter struggle for their right to exist as a people. Longer term regional stability will require a political commitment to address the issue far beyond Erbil and Baghdad.
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Event in Washington, DC

 

The Woodrow Wilson Center is hosting a book discussion: “Is There A Place for Uzbeks in The Kyrgyz Republic?: Lessons from ‘Under Solomon’s Throne: Uzbek Visions of Societal Renewal in Osh'”

 

October 04, 2012 // 3:30pm — 5:30pm

Ethnic Uzbeks in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) attempted to create a place for themselves in the Kyrgyz-dominated nation-state since its independence in 1991.  For a while, there were reasons to be optimistic about this minority community.  Even though they felt ethnic discrimination, local Uzbek leaders labored through the 1990s and 2000s to build institutions that serve the Uzbek communities within the framework of their Kyrgyzstani citizenship.  That model of ethnic community-building now lies in tatters after the massive conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010.  What now for Uzbeks in the Kyrgyz Republic?  This talk evaluates their prospects in light of sixteen years of detailed ethnographic work among Osh Uzbeks.

The speaker, Morgan Y. Liu, is a cultural anthropologist studying Islamic revival, postsocialist states, and social justice movements.  An Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, at The Ohio State University, he teaches about the Middle East, Central Asia, Islamic revival and social justice, and cultural theory. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Society of Fellows, Harvard University.  His Ph.D. is from the University of Michigan in Anthropology.

His 2012 book, Under Solomon’s Throne: Uzbek Visions of Renewal in Osh (University of Pittsburgh Press), concerns how ethnic Uzbeks in the ancient Silk Road city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan think about political authority and post-Soviet transformations, based on research using vernacular language interviews and ethnographic fieldwork of urban social life from 1993 to 2011.
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It’s all on your head

By contributor Sean Carey

In many rural and urban areas in countries in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Latin America and elsewhere, loads are routinely carried on the head. If a young person has learned the technique well from their elders and is well-practiced,  head porterage is a very efficient method of transportation.

a team of zulu girls carrying water in buckets on their heads
Zulu girls carrying water in buckets on their heads

Research carried out over a quarter of a century ago at the Catholic University of Louvain found that Luo and Kikuyu women of East Africa were able to carry loads of 20 per cent of their body weight without increasing their energy consumption. For heavier loads, there was an increase in the amount of energy used: a 30 per cent load increased energy consumption by 10 per cent, while a 40 per cent load caused an increase in energy consumption of 20 per cent. Additionally, they were far more efficient than army recruits carrying equivalent loads in backpacks.
More recent research published in 2005 by the same team,  investigating the Sherpas of Nepal, found that men typically carry 50 kg loads and women 40 kg loads. In an emergency, they carry  80 kg and 60 kg respectively over relatively short distances, which is more than their own body weight. Female Sherpa porters were more efficient by a metabolic cost of around 25 per cent at carrying loads than the sample of East African women studied a quarter of a century earlier.

Nevertheless, not all of those accustomed to head-load carrying can perform it efficiently. Research in Ghana in the early 1990s found that among some  305 head porters (164 males and 141 females) cervical spondylosis was not exclusively a function of age, but a consequence of heavy load carrying on the head. More recent research carried out on 24 Xhosa women, in South Africa, by researchers from the University of Abertay Dundee  called into question whether head porterage is more efficient than carrying loads in a backpack.
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Standing on two feet – the anthropology of keeping still

By contributor Sean Carey

In post-industrial societies, where the generation of wealth is focused on the creation and manipulation of signs and symbols, fewer and fewer people have to stand to make a living. The majority of employees sit for large parts of the day and press the keys on computer and mobile devices, often communicating with people digitally or over the telephone, but with whom they have never had a face-to-face encounter.

Others, typically senior and middle-managers, spend their time sitting in an endless round of meetings with people they know very well – perhaps too well they might feel on occasion –attempting to finalize decisions or close deals.

Photo credit: David Stowell
Branscombe, Devon, Great Britain

So, it does not come as a huge surprise to find that over the last decade in the U.S. and a number of other countries including Australia, Canada and the U.K. “stand-up” meetings, also known as the “daily scrum.” have been introduced.  This so-called agile practice  are increasingly fashionable in companies, large and small, especially in fast-moving sectors of the economy like tech and financial services where time is at a premium and long-winded orations are seen as an obstacle to efficiency and service delivery. Instead of key personnel sitting round a conventional conference table, leaders and team members stand. Exceptions are made for those who are sick, injured and pregnant, of course.

Agreement about decisions and strategy is made quickly by metaphorically and literally keeping people on their toes.
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Call for anthropological expertise on Harley-Davidson motorcycles and American culture

I am looking for an anthropologist in the Washington D.C. area who can speak to me about American culture and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I work for a documentary film company called Kensington Communications, and we are producing a series called Museum Secrets. It is broadcast through History Television, National Geographic, BBC World, and others.

In each episode we feature a different world famous museum focusing on a few select artifacts in their collection. Our current episode is on the Smithsonian where they have several Harley-Davidson’s.

We are interested in doing a story about one of the bikes where we would look at the motorcycle’s history and the distinctive features of the bike (its sound, for instance), but also use the artifact as a way into the bigger story of Harley-Davidson’s influence on American society.

Ideally we are seeking someone who has looked at the culture of Harley-Davidson enthusiasts, but anyone who has studied American popular culture and can speak about the influence of motorcycles on American society will also be of interest.

I can call any interested anthropologists at their convenience to explain the project in more detail. I can be reached by telephone at 416-504-0001, ext. 236 or by e-mail seann@kensingtontv.com

This website should provide you with a sense of the approach to the series: http://www.museumsecrets.tv

Seann Gallagher
Museum Secrets
Kensington Communications
416-504-0001, ext. 236
445 Adelaide St. W.
Toronto,  Ontario
Canada
M5V 1T1

Toward community based conservation: An interview with Douglas Hume

One hundred years ago, in the early days of cultural anthropology, anthropologists studied and then described cultures “on their own” as if they were isolated wholes. No doubt many cultural groups were more isolated than they are now. Important questions driving research now are how multiple groups, interests, and values meet and, often, are in contestation with each other, in a rapidly globalizing world. Factors of ecology, environment, and ways of making a living in this changing landscape are some of the most urgent issues.

Douglas Hume

Douglas Hume is assistant professor of anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy at Northern Kentucky University. His core interest is understanding how humans interpret their environment and how their interpretations may influence their practices in the context of  agricultural development. Hume uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore how cultural models vary within and between groups. He recently published an article about the transition from shifting horticulture (swidden) to irrigated agriculture in Madagascar. This interview follows up on that article to learn more about his research in Madagascar.

How did you first get interested in doing fieldwork in Madagascar?

I became interested in Madagascar because of my interest in conservation and Africa. It just so happened that there was a professor in my graduate program that had spent several decades doing research in Madagascar.  After speaking with him, I was convinced that Madagascar was the optimal location for my own research interests due to the lack of anthropological work on the conflict between conservation projects and subsistence farmers in eastern Madagascar.

Did you need to learn a local language and/or dialects? And did you also need to use interpreters?

As an undergraduate, I had several years of French studies and I spent a summer at the Alliance Française in Paris studying French.  Before I began fieldwork in Madagascar, my advisor gave me an instruction manual for learning Malagasy (in French), which was not much use out of the context of the spoken language.  While in Madagascar I spent three months in intensive language study with a faculty member from the University of Antananarivo. During my research in Madagascar I hired local field assistants/interpreters to work with me, a different person each of the three field seasons. They each assisted me with introductions to local people and the interviews.
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Is it wise to invest in Facebook?

By contributor Sean Carey

I have a confession to make: I don’t have a Facebook page. A few years ago I was encouraged to sign up by friends and colleagues when Facebook was primarily used by university students and lecturers. I resisted on the grounds that I was busy enough. I also reckoned that I knew enough people. In any case, if I wanted new friends and acquaintances it was best to meet them face-to-face.

Flickr/marcopako

I now realize that I am in a very small minority. A few weeks ago I asked a group of undergraduate students, aged between 19 and 34, how many had Facebook accounts. All of them put their hands up. Then I enquired whether any of them had accounts which had lapsed. It turned out that all of them had live accounts. This led me to ask how many in the class had used Facebook that day. All the students reported that they had logged on at least once before attending the lecture, which began at 11 AM.

I was intrigued. Although the group of students, mainly from the Greater London area, are not representative of the age (or social class) cohort within the general U.K. population, the fact that around 20 students in the lecture room were committed Facebook users is indicative of an extraordinary social phenomenon – the recent emergence of diverse social media platforms in connecting individuals – sometimes friends sometimes strangers – with one another.

A few days later, I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Facebook has 900 million users worldwide and made a profit of around $1 billion in 2011. Social media is definitely here to stay.

So what to make of the news that Facebook has just raised the price at which it will make an entry into the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday from $28-$35 to $34–$38, which will value the company at over $100 billion?

Certainly, the growth in value of Facebook, which only launched in 2004, is extraordinary by historical standards, especially when compared to companies operating in the manufacturing sector. Furthermore, a high-tech brand that has managed to keep growing while other social media sites like Bebo and MySpace have fallen by the wayside must be doing something right.

So is it down to good luck or good management? The latter I would say, especially because in the development phase in 2003 when it was known as Facemash, the social networking site developed by Zuckerberg, while he was a student at Harvard, was in competition with very similar services that were being created by contemporaries at other universities in the U.S.

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Magical iPads: Why did we believe Mike Daisey?

Guest post by Peter Wogan

We now know that Mike Daisey’s theatre show was based on solid research about Apple Inc.’s labor practices in China, but key scenes were manipulated or fabricated for dramatic effect. I’d like to explore what this scandal tells us about culture, magic, and technology.

Every tall tale requires an audience. And one that succeeds on a massive scale requires a storyteller with a subtle understanding of the audience’s unconscious needs and assumptions. So what were the cultural blindspots that Daisey played on? In particular, why was the scene of the Chinese man with the mangled hand considered to be one of the most moving parts of the whole show?

I’m referring to the scene where Daisey supposedly met an old Chinese man whose “right hand is twisted up into a claw” because it got crushed in a metal press while making iPads. In hushed tones, Daisey describes the man’s reaction when he got to use an actual, working iPad for the first time:

Using a finger to operate the iPad. Flickr/kennykunie

“I reach into my satchel, and I take out my iPad. And when he sees it, his eyes widen, one of the ultimate ironies of globalism—at this point there are no iPads in China. Even though every last one of them was made at factories in China, they’ve all been packaged up in perfectly minimalist Apple packaging and then shipped across the seas, so that we can all enjoy them.

He’s never actually seen one on, this thing that took his hand. I turn it on, unlock the screen, and pass it to him. He takes it. The icons flare into view, and he strokes the screen with his ruined hand, and the icons slide back and forth. And he says something to Kathy [Daisey’s translator], and Kathy says, “He says it’s a kind of magic.”” –Mike Daisey, excerpt played on the radio show “This American Life.”

Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life,” referred to this scene as “the most dramatic point in Daisey’s monologue; apparently onstage it’s one of the most emotional moments in the show.” Yet Kathy, Daisey’s translator, later said that this scene “is not true. You know, it’s just like a movie scenery.” She’s right—it has that Hollywood feel. So to figure out why this episode was so moving to audiences, aside from the obvious way that it elicits empathy for the injured man, the best place to begin is with movie tropes.

Daisey was echoing a familiar movie scene that depicts native awe in the face of Western technology. We’ve seen this image, for example, in The Gods Must be Crazy, where an African tribe is over-awed when they encounter a Coke bottle for the first time. Other such encounters can be found throughout Western cinema, from the gramophone that amazes the Eskimos in Nanook of the North to John Smith’s compass in Pocohantas. These scenes validate a Western sense of identity based on superior technology, and they play off the vicarious thrill of seeing others surprised by novel situations.

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New online courses for cultural anth research methods

The Research Methods in Anthropology program is taught by top instructors in the field of anthropology. It is designed for current anthropologists and those seeking to become anthropologists, who are looking to strengthen their skills in research methods. The emphasis in each course is on skills for collecting and analyzing the many kinds of data that anthropologists work with. For more information, including how to apply and registration dates, click here.