Vodou healers fight hookworm

In Haiti, Vodou priests (houngans) and priestesses (mambos) use a wide variety of plant species to treat illnesses. About 20 plants are employed as a vermifuge–a medicine that expels intestinal worms.

A recent study screened 12 commonly-used plants used in Vodou treatments for intestinal parasites to detect their effectiveness against infective-stage larvae of a species of hookworm. Four of the 12 plants demonstrate inhibitory behavior against hookworm.

In rural Haiti, commercial deworming medicines are not widely available. If available, their price puts them out of reach of most people.

Vodou practitioners thus are providing valuable health care services for the poor.  Additional research on the effectiveness of various plants used could help traditional healers improve their treatments and the health of their patients.

Image: “Hookworm,” from flickr user AJC1, licensed with Creative Commons.

Anthro in the news 3/29/10

• RFPs and deliverables in Haiti’s reconstruction
Mark Schuller zings the “blan developman” (foreign development experts) and “blan ONG” (NGO foreigners) for being part of a “ritual of rubber stamping a rushed, foreign-led, top-down process ” for Haiti’s rebuilding. In contrast, he praises the work of a partnership of universities, called INURED, in Cité Soleil. Schuller is assistant professor of African American Studies and Anthropology in York College, CUNY, in New York City.

• Nokia calling anthropologists
Cultural anthropologists contribute expertise to the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, Finland’s Nokia, as members of multi-disciplinary design teams. They provide data about consumer preferences and usage patterns. The teams are based in China, Europe, and the United States.

• Political anthropology offers insights into Thailand’s “red shirts”
In contrast to widespread impressions, “red-shirt protestors” are mostly middle class and are “emerging active citizens” argues Yukti Mukdawijitra, anthropology lecturer at Thammasat University, Thailand. He says that they are agitating for negotiation and peace.

• Market women’s life stories in Ghana connect to global issues
Africa News carried a review of Gracia Clark’s new book, African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana. Clark is associate professor of anthropology at Indiana University. Jean Allman, of Washington University, comments in the review that the book provides insight into “globalization, gender and economic security, economic decline, structural adjustment, changes in family structure, urbanization, environmental degradation, new forms of spirituality, transnational migration, and the politics of memory.”

• Becoming an atheist in the Amazon
Radio NZ carried an interview with linguist/cultural anthropologist Daniel Everett about his recent book, Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes in which, among other topics, he describes how the thinking of the Pirahã Indians of the Brazilian Amazon caused him to abandon Christianity and become an atheist.

• World’s most famous finger
The media darling of the past week is an ancient little finger from a child, maybe 5-7 years old, gender unknown, who lived between 30,000-48,000 years ago. Found in a cave in Siberia, the finger’s DNA profile matches neither Neanderthals nor modern humans, indicating the possibility of a distinct stream out humans coming out of Africa sometime between Homo erectus and the Neanderthals. Biological anthropologist Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and leader of the research team, says: “This absolutely amazing.” Findings are published in Nature.

• Hoping for hope in Babylon
Ground water is now pinpointed as the most immediate threat to preserving the ruins of Babylon. The international Future of Babylon project is documenting water damage and will develop a master plan for preservation of the ancient city. An initial grant of $700,000 from the United States Department of State is financing the initial two-year study and preliminary management plan. The entire effort could take 5-6 years. As noted in an earlier post on Babylon, the financial commitment from the United States appears paltry given the damage inflicted during the military occupation of the site.

• In memoriam: Robert E. Rhoades
A founder of agricultural anthropology, Robert E. Rhoades died at age 68 on March 24. Rhoades was professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia and served two terms as department chair. In addition to his academic publications, he wrote regularly for National Geographic. In 1991 he won the National Science Writers Award for a National Geographic article about the world’s food supply and biodiversity.

Keeping our promises to children

In the words of Nicholas Kristof, “The late James P. Grant, a little known American aid worker who headed Unicef from 1980 to 1995 and launched the child survival revolution with vaccinations and diarrhea treatments, probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao and Stalin combined.”

The legacy of this “little known American” was the focus of the James P. Grant Lecture at the George Washington University on March 23, a tribute to Grant 15 years after his death. Dr. Jon Rohde delivered the keynote lecture, entitled “An Unfinished Agenda for Children.” Rohde is a professor in the James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University,  Bangladesh, and former representative of Unicef in New Delhi, from 1993 to 1997.

Rohde first offered highlights of Jim Grant’s work with Unicef: putting children on the political agenda of countries around the world, promoting a focused four-point program called GOBI (growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy, breast feeding and immunization), pursuing universal reach to all children, initiating cease-fires in war-torn countries to allow a few days for immunization of children, and unrelenting energy in carrying forward his vision to put “children first.”

A subtext running through the speech was that UNICEF, since James Grant’s death, has failed to keep his vision alive. The United States, through its lack of support for the United Nations, has turned its back on the world’s children.
Today, we have new hope for a re-commitment to children with Unicef once again taking a strong position under the leadership of Tony Grant. What would James Grant say to Tony Lake as he assumes his new position? Here are Rohde’s thoughts about what he would emphasize:

1. Focus on the unfinished agenda: reach those who are left out in order to erase social disparities in child survival.
2. Keep resources focused on children rather than on particular diseases.
3. Restore UNICEF to what it was: get UNICEF staff out into the field rather than spending most of their time doing paperwork.
4. Defend the rights of children with the same energy as adult rights are defended.
5. Promote community participation to define activities that will respond to local threats and priorities.
6. Strengthen UNICEF’s support for education, especially of girls.
7. Build alliances among all partners to eliminate competition by taking children as the integrating catalyst.
8. Plan now for the next development decade to 2025.
9. Bridge political differences in the US so that Americans can speak in one compassionate voice.
10. End the stranglehold that the military and industrial partners have over our lives and redirect the vast resources now expended on war to keep our promises to children. Rohde commented that Grant typically steered clear of issues not within his mandate for children. “Children first” was one of his mantras. Yet he knew that putting children first was incompatible with a world in which the richest country continues to dedicate vast resources to war.

In closing, Rohde remarked: “Jim Grant saw through children the chance of peace and decency for everyone. Indeed, children are a valid aim in themselves, but even more so as a means to uncover the humanity in us all and bring about a better world in the process. This is the legacy he left us – the challenge lives on.”

Blogger’s note: In a side conversation with Dr. Rohde, I asked him, “How would the US deal with all the soldiers if they are not at war?” His answer: “They can get to work rebuilding America.” Imagine soldiers helping to build schools, providing security in poor neighborhoods so that children can come and go to school without fear, participating in social programs, and providing outreach to those on the social margins. A demilitarized military working for life not death, for child survival and humanity.

Image: “Return to Innocence,” from flickr user sytoha, licensed with Creative Commons.

Cultural anthropologist opens Pandora’s box

The Internet has been labeled a modern day Pandora’s box. It can let loose on the Internet viewing public any and all knowledge and opinions. Anna Kata, a graduate student in anthropology at McMaster University, mined several Internet sites for the “social discourse” they establish concerning the dangers of vaccination.

As context, she reports that around 74 percent of Americans and 72 percent of Canadians are online. Of them, between 75-80 percent of users search for health information. Of them, 70 percent say that the information they access influences their medical treatment decisions.

Using Google as her search engine, Kata used inclusion criteria to label a particular website as “anti-vaccination.” Of these, she examined eight American and Canadian sites for content analysis.

Some of the prominent themes that emerged are:

•safety and effectiveness (vaccines are poisons; vaccines are not effective)
•alternative medicine endorsed in place of vaccines (“back to nature”)
•civil liberties (parental rights); conspiracy theories (accusations of cover-up)
•morality, religion, and ideology (go with god-given immune system)
•misinformation about vaccine studies
•emotive appeals (personal testimonies)

In conclusion, she returns to the metaphor of Pandora’s box in pointing out that the Internet releases a wide array of misinformation that is difficult to combat. Combating vaccine misinformation, she argues, with education is necessary but not sufficient. Analysis of the social discourse on the Internet can help pinpoint areas that need countering.

Image: “Vacuna influenza,” from flickr user alvi2407, Creative Commons.

Anthro in the news 3/22/10

• Yanomami blood rights and wrongs
Blood samples collected by American researchers in the 1960s from the Yanomami Indians of Venezuela are still in a lab at Penn State University. The Yanomami want their blood back. They believe that the dead cannot pass into the spiritual world until all traces of their physical existence, including their blood, are destroyed. The situation is complicated: Yanomami blood samples were also distributed to the University of California at Irvine and the National Cancer Institute, and the blood may contain viruses, so shipping the blood requires extreme care. Fabio Federico, spokesperson for the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, says that “legal procedures and political issues” have delayed the process of returning the blood. Rob Borofsky, professor of anthropology at Hawai’i Pacific University and director of the Center for a Public Anthropology, has blogged about the situation, urging students to write letters to universities, politicians, and the news media supporting the return of the samples.

• American Indians in Providence, RI, protest new board game
On Saturday, American Indians took to the streets of Providence to demand that a new board game called “King Phillip’s War” be scrapped. More than 5,000 people died in the 17th century battle, most of them Indians. Professor Julianne Jennings of the department of anthropology at Rhode Island College and a member of the Nottoway Cheroenhaka Tribe, spoke at a gathering by the waterfront where Indian prisoners were shipped to the West Indies as slaves. She urged educators to include more Indian history in their textbooks, noting that “There are still people who believe the East Coast Indians no longer exist.”

• Hail to the chef: The Obamas’ personal favorite
Rick Bayless, proponent of Mexican cooking and sustainable farming, is the Obamas’ favorite chef. Hailing from Oklahoma, Bayless did doctoral studies in linguistic anthropology at the University of Michigan before pursuing his dream of learning about Mexican cooking on location. “From the moment I stepped foot there I felt like I was home.  It was the vitality, the street life.” In 1980, he decided to take time off from his doctoral studies. He never went back. Nonetheless, it’s likely that Bayless’ study of anthropology has helped him become such a well-informed expert on Mexican traditional cooking.

• Big shoes to fill
William Safire, legendary columnist for the New York Times for more than 30 years, died in September. He has been replaced by Ben Zimmer. Zimmer studied linguistic anthropology at the University of Chicago and is a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary. Blogger’s query: Is there something in the water this week re: linguistic anthropology?

• Historical forces shape cooperation
Cultural anthropologist Richard McElreath of the University of California at Davis is a member of a multidisciplinary research team that has been studying why, in large-scale societies, strangers are altruistic. Their findings, published in Science, indicate that “small and large communities regulate cooperation… in different ways because different mechanisms of monitoring and enforcement of norms work better at different scales of society.”

• Talking mummies
China claims that Xinjiang’s western desert is a longstanding part of “China.” Therefore, it can quash separatist movements in the region. The Tarim mummies, excavated in a site in Xinjiang, tell a different origin story. Their phenotypic features (long noses, high cheekbones) connect them with the central Asian Uyghurs, not with the mainstream Chinese populations. Blogger’s note: there is oil in the western desert as well as contested mummies.

• Who let the dogs in?
A few months ago, China had the hold on this innovation. Before that, Russia/Eastern Europe was in for the prize. A new DNA study, led by Bridgett vonHoldt and Robert Wayne of the University of California at Los Angeles makes them both losers, at least for now, by demonstrating that dogs were first domesticated in the Middle East.

• Read my footprints
A study published in PLoS ONE compares modern human footprints with those preserved at Laetoli, Tanzania, which are 4.4 million years old. David Raichlen, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, says that “…the Laetoli footprints fall completely within the range of normal human footprints…[with] heel and toe depths that are relatively equal.”

• Us: a new exhibit
Several mainstream media covered the opening of the new exhibit, “What Does It Mean to Be Human” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC. Paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, explains the two parallel narratives of the exhibit as being, first, “What does it mean to be human?” and second “Why does it matter?”

• Pre-Hobbits
The discovery of stone tools on the island of Flores, homeland of the “Hobbits” (Homo floresiensis) pushes back the arrival of early humans there to at least one million years ago and may help explain known animal extinctions on the island. Findings are published in Nature.

We are what we wear

Spanish designer Miguel Adrover owns a galabia (pron. juh-LAH-bee-yuh), a long, loose-flowing gown, handmade for him by a tailor in Egypt. Wearing it in various places around the world provides Adrover with snapshot social insights. When he wears it in the Middle East, he is more integrated into society. Outside the Middle East, it signals: gay. He no longer wears it when flying to the United States since, at airports, a galabia signals: terrorist. Once in New York City, he wears it around town where it elicits a friendly response from Middle Eastern taxi drivers.

Different dress, different guy. Nice guy, gay guy, terrorist.

Same guy, different dress.

Source: “Multi-culti” in the New York Times magazine p166 (March 14). Image: Two men wearing galabias at Luxor Temple, Egypt. Creative commons licensed content from Flickr user Curious Zed.

Here’s to the Irish: sláinte!

Farming, family and fertility were prevalent themes in the cultural anthropology of Ireland in the 1980s. Over the past two decades, however, cultural anthropologists have pursued a wider range of research topics including violence, politics, heritage and language, policy and transnational issues.

I constructed the following list of references using AnthropologyPlus for the journal articles and a perusal of books in my personal library.

As with previous lists of references posted on this blog, the following is admittedly a partial collection. I offer it to you with the hope that it will inspire you to track down some of these sources, read them, and further explore the literature on Ireland and the Irish. The journal articles are not open access, so my apologies once again to readers without access to a library.

Image: Marilyn Monroe Reading James Joyce. Flickr creative commons licensed content by user I, Puzzled.

Read, enjoy, and join me in raising a glass to the Irish!

Andriolo, Karin. 2006. “The Twice-Killed : Imagining Protest Suicide.” American Anthropologist 108(1):100-113.

Bairner, Alan. 2003. “Political Unionism and Sporting Nationalism: An Examination of the Relationship between Sport and National Identity within the Ulster Unionist Tradition.” Identities 10(4):517-535.

Ballard, Linda-May. 2008. “Curating Intangible Cultural Heritage.” Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 17(1):74-95.

Best, Alyssa. 2005. Abortion Rights Along the Irish-English Border and the Liminality of Women’s Experiences. Dialectical Anthropology 29(3-4):423-437.

Brown, Kris, and Roger MacGinty. 2003. “Public Attitudes Toward Partisan and Neutral Symbols in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland.” Identities 10(1):83-108.

Bryan, Dominic. 2000. Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition, and Control. London: Pluto Press.

Cadhla, Stiofán Ó. 2001. “Fast Knocks and Nags: The Stolen Car in the Urban Vernacular Culture of Cork.” Ethnologia Europaea 31(2):77-94.

Carter, Thomas F. 2003. “Violent Pastime(s): On the Commendation and Condemnation of Violence in Belfast.” City & Society 15(2):255-281.

Carter, Thomas. 2003. “In the Spirit of the Game?: Cricket & Changing Notions of being British in Northern Ireland.” Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe 3(1):14-26.

Cashman, Ray. 2006. “Critical Nostalgia and Material Culture in Northern Ireland.” Journal of American Folk-Lore 119(472):137-160.

Continue reading “Here’s to the Irish: sláinte!” →

Anthro in the news 3/15/10

• Yo-Yo Ma’s anthropological soul

Classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma is, according to an article in the Washington Post, “one of the most recognizable classical musicians on the planet.” Besides being a star of the musical world, he is also a social activist, in his own way. “I realized late in life,” Ma says, that my twin passions are music and people. Maybe that is why I am an odd person in this profession.” The article goes on to point out that Ma’s wonderful oddness may be in part due to his liberal arts education at Harvard where he expanded his view beyond music: “I have been passionate about music … but people in my dorm were equally passionate about other things. So suddenly, it was like, oh my gosh, what a huge world.” He is still an avid fan of anthropology. Blogger’s note: Thank you, Yo-Yo Ma.

• Knowledge about domestic violence for prevention

What safety nets are in place to protect women from domestic violence/partner abuse? The recent murder of two women in Miyagi Prefecture has raised concern about how to provide protection for potential victims. The Daily Yomiuri (3/14, page seven) of Tokyo quotes Ichiro Numasaki, professor of social anthropology at Tohoku University: “Many victims of domestic violence are scared to end the relationship because they are kept under the control of the abuser … Police need to learn more about domestic violence itself.”

•”I’m done with Indian stuff”

According to an article in The New York Times, a likely American Indian site has been, or soon will be, destroyed due to pressure from local business interests to “develop” the area. Harry Holstein, a professor of archaeology, has been lobbying for protection of what was a mound. Leon Smith, the mayor of Oxford, wasn’t eager to discuss the issue with the NYT: “You’re not going to hear from me … I’m done with Indian stuff.” He plans to top off the mound, level it and build a restaurant, hotel or clinic: “It’s going to be pretty,” he said. Blogger’s note: Yet another chapter in the shameful treatment of American Indians and their heritage in the United States.

• Career skill: anthropology students love the odd

A story on NPR applauds a new documentary, The Parking Lot Movie. It’s about a parking lot in Charlottesville, Va., and the characters who populate it. Most of the workers, all male, are students from the University of Virginia. The manager, who is also the filmmaker, says: “The anthropologists are always the best. They have a perspective that allows them to look at oddness and be interested in it, and not be bored.”

• Culture and AIDS in Lesotho

The Chronicle of Higher Education carried an article on the efforts of David Turkon to push policy makers to rely more on anthropological research in combating AIDS. Turkon is associate professor of cultural anthropology at Ithaca College and chair of the AIDS and Anthropology Research Group within the American Anthropological Association.

• Freedom of speech in China

Scott Simon, associate professor of cultural anthropology at Ottawa University says that freedom of speech in China is a global issue. He hosted a discussion forum profiling three Chinese human rights activists.

• Homage to American Jewish cultural anthropologist who redefined “blackness”

A review of the 2009 film, Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, praises it as a “dense and fascinating documentary. ” Herskovits, a Jewish American cultural anthropologist, pioneered African American studies in the United States.

• Welcome to England and off with your head

Excavations for a road near the London 2012 Olympic sailing site unearthed a mass grave of 51 young Viking males. All were decapitated, and some showed multiple body wounds. The remains are dated between 890-1030 CE.

• Prehistoric climate change responders

Ezra Zubrow, professor of archaeology at the University of Buffalo, has been conducting research with other scientists in the Arctic regions of Quebec, Finland and Russia to understand how humans living 4,000-6,000 years ago coped with climate change. Zubrow is quoted in Science Daily: “…analysis of data from all phases of the study eventually will enable more effective collaboration between today’s social, natural and medical sciences as they begin to devise adequate responses to the global warming the world faces today.”

• Sick or just small? Hobbit debate still newsworthy

The Canberra Times quoted several biological anthropologists commenting on a recent publication in the Journal of Human Evolution in which Peter Brown and Tomoko Maeda argue for the position that the Hobbits (aka Homo floresiensis) were small but healthy. Dean Falk, Florida State University, supports their view. Daniel Lieberman, Harvard University, now agrees that the Hobbits represent a new species. Ralph Holloway, Columbia University, has not ruled out the disease hypothesis.

• Those bonobos are sharing again

BBC News picked up on research by Brian Hare, assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, showing that bonobos share food. He conducted research on orphaned bonobos living in a study center in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In experimental settings, the bonobos willingly share food with other bonobos. He now wants to understand why they share. His findings are published in Current Biology.

• American biological anthropologist wins Max Planck Research Award 2010

Tim Bromage has been awarded one of the two annual Max Planck Research Awards for his achievements in establishing the field in human evolution of growth, development and life history. Bromage is professor of basic science and craniofacial biology and of biomaterials and biometrics in New York University’s College of Dentistry. The award carries a stipend of $1.2 million.

Calling on Comedy Central

An article in USA Today points out that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have helped bring science to a wider public by hosting scientists who discuss an issue of importance such as climate change or their new book on a topic of public interest.

A scan of the cultural anthropologists who have appeared on both shows reveals a total of zero.

K. David Harrison, who appeared on The Colbert Report, is a linguist and ethnobotanist who does fieldwork and employs ethnographic research methods. He is an expert on endangered languages, Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge and the co-author of Book of Peoples of the World: A Guide to Cultures, published by National Geographic. But he teaches in the linguistics department and doesn’t self-identity on his website as a cultural anthropologist.

Cultural anthropologists are few in number compared to other scientists, and most cultural anthropologists do not write books targeted for a non-academic audience. So that’s part of the explanation for their being overlooked by Daily and Colbert. Other factors are probably the same ones discussed in an earlier post about the lack of presence in the mainstream media compared to biological anthropology and archaeology.  Perhaps cultural anthropology lacks shazam appeal?  Perhaps it relies too much on fieldwork and not enough on “truthiness”?

I have some ideas as to who I would invite if I were Stewart of Colbert. Paul Farmer would be at the top of my list.  So how can we raise the cultural anthropology awareness of these two great comedians?

Image: “Stephen Colbert” from flickr user lleugh, licensed with Creative Commons.