Anthro in the news 7/22/13

• The trail of undocumented migrants to the U.S.

“Since 2009, anthropologist Jason De León has led groups of students from across the U.S. and Canada through the Sonoran Desert to study unauthorized migration using archaeological and anthropological methods. The project has collected and cataloged more than 10,000 artifacts left along the way by those trekking the desert,” reports the Arizona Daily Star‘s Perla Trevizo. “He can usually tell how old the site is or how far the migrants walked by the objects found. For instance, black shoe polish tells him it’s an older site from a time when migrants painted their water bottles to attract less attention. Now, they buy them already black.”

De León, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, started the Undocumented Migration Project to record history and get a fuller picture of what’s happening: “Undocumented migration is a complex phenomenon…I want to provide reliable information to help the public see behind the curtain.”

Half of the research is done by walking the same trails migrants use. The other half is spent talking to border crossers staying in the migrant shelters in Nogales, Sonora, or getting ready for their journey in the town of Altar, Sonora.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine included a spread with photographs taken by De León’s colleague, Richard Barnes. De León’s research was covered recently by NPR.

• Racism and pesticides harming U.S. farmworkers

Indian Country published a review of a new book that shows how racist discrimination against indigenous Mexican farmworkers in the United States is literally making them sick.

Medical anthropologist and UC Berkeley assistant professor of health and social behavior, Seth Holmes, has just published Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. The book chronicles Homes’ in-depth study of the lives of indigenous Triqui farmworkers who travel from Oaxaca, Mexico to the western states of the United States and back, and how these farmworkers experience unfair treatment, inadequate healthcare and horrible living conditions.

Holmes lived and worked with a group of Triqui farmworkers for over one and a half years, traveling with them during an illegal cross of the Arizona-Mexico border, then on to picking berries in Washington state, pruning vineyards in California (along with a week of homelessness living in cars), and harvesting corn in Oaxaca, Mexico, the home state of the Triquis.

Discrimination against Triqui farmworkers, Holmes said, can be seen starting with the jobs they are given on farms: “The Triquis were given the hardest jobs, picking strawberries in Washington state for instance … This work involved putting their bodies into repetitive positions, crouched and picking, under stress and all weather, seven days a week, exposed to pesticides and insects that made them get sick more often.”
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Call for proposals from Wellcome Trust on “sustaining health”

From the Wellcome Trust website:

Sustaining Health

Humanity faces profound questions about how our planet can sustain nine billion people by 2050.

With the trend of urbanisation, the majority of the world’s population now live in cities. There is a global nutrition crisis, with dual problems of undernutrition and obesity. Meanwhile, environmental and population changes have major implications for issues including food and nutrition security, access to clean water and sanitation, and natural disasters. In meeting these challenges and delivering culturally, socially and economically appropriate solutions, research has a critical role to play.This is a call for applications for pilot projects that aim to gain a deeper insight into the issues at stake and develop strategies to prevent and mitigate the risks to human health.

We welcome proposals from a broad range of disciplines and we particularly encourage applications from cross-sector collaborations involving academic organisations, industry/business, non-governmental organisations and/or government agencies. Applicants may be based anywhere in the world.

We will not normally support pilot projects that last longer than two years or that seek funding of more than £250 000 (although exceptionally, we may consider awards of up to £500 000).The deadline for concept notes is 27 August 2013.

› For more detail on this call, please visit our website.

Contact us
E sustaininghealth@wellcome.ac.uk

Canada to support women’s political leadership in Middle East, North Africa

According to a statement from the Canadian government, the Honorable Lynne Yelich, minister of state (foreign affairs and consular), has announced Canada’s contribution to two projects that will encourage the participation of women in the political process in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

“Women’s participation in decision-making processes is essential to ensure that democracies are truly representative of their populations … Canada will continue to support the development of women’s leadership skills and increase their active participation in elections so that more qualified women will be elected. These activities will strengthen the voice of women in emerging democracies at all levels of government.”

Canada's Ambassador to Afghanistan Attends Training Session on Leadership for Women's Rights, Oct. 1 7, 2012. Flickr/Canada in Afghanistan

“As the Middle East moves to a new era of political development, women have a great responsibility to shape the debate on how their societies will be run,” added Tami Longaberger, chair of the Arab Women’s Leadership Institute. “The Arab Women’s Leadership Institute is proud to partner with the Canadian government to increase the number of female elected officials who will contribute to this debate in Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia.”

The projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen will support the development of women candidates’ electoral campaigning skills and help to expand recognition of women’s rights as these countries continue to undergo political transitions. They will contribute to Canada’s efforts and interests in promoting democratic transition and increasing the political participation of women in the MENA region.

Anthro in the news 7/15/13

• A bold target for the World Bank

The Globe and Mail (Canada) carried an article based on a lunch conversation with Jim Yong Kim, medical doctor, medical anthropologist, and former university president, marking the end of his first year as president of the World Bank. The article discusses the pros and cons of targets. Targets, even wildly improbable ones, can inspire action and achieve change, even if the target is not achieved. Or they can create embarrassment when failure is seen as the outcome.

World Bank Washington DC — The World Bank in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2013. Flickr: Simone D. McCourte/World Bank

Kim explains his dedication to a new World Bank target of eliminating extreme poverty worldwide by 2030. He is quoted as saying, “What would be really frightening to me is if people like me, people like the World Bank staff, were so concerned about their own lives that they would not grab the opportunity to set a bold target … It took a very long time to convince people that we should have this target, but now that we do, I just see it as a huge gift…”

[Blogger’s note: no one would argue that eliminating poverty, especially extreme poverty, is not a laudable goal. The question arises, though, of the chosen policy pathways toward the goal. Unfortunately for many small scale communities in developing countries, Kim plans to promote large dam construction and hydroelectric development which will destroy such people’s livelihoods].

• World Bank in Africa on the decline?

The New York Times published an op-ed on the declining importance of World Bank loans to Africa in spite of new World Bank efforts, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The authors argue that: “The World Bank has done important work in promoting good governance and evaluating reform efforts. But its latest pledge of aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo sends a very mixed message, coming at a time when the International Monetary Fund has been cutting its loan programs to the country because of concerns about poor governance.”

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon share stories while waiting for the state dinner in Kinshasa — World Bank Pres. Kim and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon laugh in Kinshasa. But the Bank's loan programs in Africa are declining. Flickr/World Bank Photo Collection

World Bank Director Jim Yong Kim is quoted as saying: “There are always going to be problems and downsides with the governance of places that are fragile [but he adds that through investment and aid]…we can both reduce the conflict and improve governance.” The authors point out that Kim’s argument assumes that more World Bank spending means better government. Despite the billions in aid the D.R.C. has already received, however, “Kinshasa has not felt compelled to improve. It’s not clear why the bank’s new effort will be different.”

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 7/15/13” →

Are laptops the best way to educate children in Kenya?

One Laptop per Child at Kagugu Primary School, Kigali, Rwanda/Wikipedia

Several media sources carried an article about the response in Kenya to a proposed project, to be funded by Microsoft, to provide laptops to school children.

Musau Ndunda, of the Kenya National Association of Parents, said that the program is bound to fail in a country that lacks enough teachers and where others strike regularly for better pay. He pointed out that currently teachers do not have the capacity to implement the laptop project because they have not been trained and the government has not developed a curriculum for the project.

Further, the laptops may be lost or stolen. Ndunda cited a recent scandal in which 70 million textbooks in a free primary-school education program went missing: “If they are able to lose such an amount of textbooks then with the laptops it might be worse.” He wondered how the laptops will be safe in households among the country’s poor, saying “You cannot keep such a gadget in your house if you don’t have something to eat.”

For related reading, see this recent UNESCO report about how the major donors are pulling back funding for basic education in developing countries: Schooling for millions of children jeopardized by reductions in aid.

Blogger’s query: What about the power grid needed for all these laptops? They don’t work on solar energy, as far as I know.

From the field: Reflections of a Yangon intern

Guest post by Julia Collins

The pounding rain muffles the sounds coming from the neighboring construction site. It is the rainy season in Southeast Asia and development season in Myanmar. With Myanmar’s recent debut on the global scene, it is the place to be for members of the development community.

World Economic Forum on East Asia 2013 — Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Myanmar, 6/7/13. Photo: Sikarin Thanachaiary

In a recent edition of the Bangkok Post, Myanmar was mentioned more than three times in the business section alone. The articles reported on Japanese investment, Thai cement factories, and Norwegian sustainable tourism in Myanmar. Aid workers, foreign investors, economists, human rights activists, education specialists, you name it, everyone has caught Myanmar-fever.

The international spotlight is firmly fixed on this resource-rich, relatively untouched Southeast Asian country.

I intern at an independent policy research organization dedicated to the economic and social transformation of Myanmar. Led by Burmese economists, the think-tank recommends policies related to economic reform, poverty-reduction, and good governance. Professor Christina Fink, was instrumental in helping me find my internship. Her assistance along with the generosity of the Freeman Foundation Fellowship, enabled interning to become a reality, and for that I am deeply grateful.

I arrived in early June and am one of seven interns — four are also master’s candidates studying at Columbia’s SIPA, one is a law student from Yale and one a Burmese-American from Michigan State. We are fortunate to work alongside incredibly hardworking and intelligent Burmese research assistants, former political exiles, professors as well as a few foreign economists and lawyers. We often have internal trainings ranging from tax reform in Myanmar to media laws and hate speech to Myanmar’s role in the WTO to inform our research and endow us with a more comprehensive understanding of Myanmar’s reform process.
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Anthro in the news 7/8/13

• What’s going on in Haiti?

Mark Schuller, assistant professor of anthropology and NGO development leadership at Northern Illinois University, contributed an article in The Haitian Times in response to the question: What’s going on in Haiti? How is the progress, after three and a half years and billions of dollars?

Haiti Marriott — One thing going on in Haiti: rendering of Port-Au-Prince Marriott, scheduled to open in 2014/NY Times

After a recent trip there, he comments that it’s particularly difficult to respond: “…when you get off the plane, there are signs of progress. The airport has been renovated. The roads around Port-au-Prince are being repaired. For those in bright t-shirts on their way to the provinces, travel times have been considerably reduced. Stopping en route in a guarded, air conditioned restaurant or supermarket offers the appearance of relative affluence with customers stopping to inspect shelves full of packaged imported food. If one has the funds, a private vehicle and the inclination to go to a night club or restaurant in the affluent Pétion-ville, the trip home is safer…”

Schuller considers the president of Haiti, Michel Martelly, who as a popular musical performer was known as “Sweet Micky,” and says that “…as head of state, he is performing progress (as noted anthropologist and artist Gina Athena Ulysse puts it)”..and: “The performance appears to be working..” given positive reviews from development agencies, NGOS, foreign governments, and some members of Haiti’s poor majority who have gotten jobs.

• Life after civil war and genocide

The Daily Mail (UK) and many media reported on recent findings about genocide among the Ixil Maya of Guatemala that have been largely ignored by authorities for centuries.

An unidentified Ixil Mayan in a mass grave. Photo/AP, Daily Mail

The Ixil came under the spotlight after a Guatemalan court found former dictator Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide on May 10 for the scorched-earth policies used against them during his rule in the 1980s. The conviction was annulled 10 days later following a trial that did nothing to change their lives of the Ixil people.

Byron Garcia, a social anthropologist who has worked in the area for a decade and who now lives in the Guatemalan capital, said Ixil Maya live in the same poverty as always: “People have been relegated to less productive places, places where you can’t grow food, to the mountains made of stone…The young people who can, sow plots of land. And when they can’t, they migrate.”

And, further, he said that victims feel a need to tell their stories, to be heard, to be indemnified, to find the bodies of their loved ones and be able to bury them. [Blogger’s note: the Daily Mail article includes some amazing photographs].
Continue reading “Anthro in the news 7/8/13” →

“Thinking Allowed Award” for ethnography

The BSA (British Sociological Association) is delighted to announce it has teamed up with BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed to create a new annual award for ethnography. The inaugural Thinking Allowed Award for Ethnography will aim to recognize the study that has had the biggest influence in ethnography, having made a significant contribution to our knowledge and understanding of a relevant area of research.

The Award is open to all U.K. residents currently employed as a teacher/researcher or studying as a postgraduate in a U.K. institution of higher education, so if you are completing/or will have completed ethnographic research this year we are keen to hear from you!

Judging the Award will be Professor Dick Hobbs, Professor Henrietta Moore, Dr. Louise Westmarland, and BSA member Professor Bev Skeggs, with BBC Radio 4’s Professor Laurie Taylor acting as Chair. They will be looking for work that demonstrates sound methodology and clarity, as well as flair and originality, before selecting six finalists to compete for the prize.

From this shortlist, the Panel will choose an overall winner to be announced at the BSA Annual Conference in April 2014, where the winner will be presented with a check for £1,000.

For further information and details on how to enter, please visit the BBC Thinking Allowed webpage.

Anthro in the news 7/1/13

• DOMA and beyond: it’s complicated

The Los Angeles Times published an article by Rosemary Joyce, professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. She is quoted as saying: “One doesn’t have to go far afield to question the idea that marriage has always been defined the same way.”

The Huffington Post published an essay by Tom Boellstorff, professor of anthropology at the University of California at Irvine. He offers four points, the first of which echoes Joyce’s:

January 10, 2009 Chicago protest of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Flickr/Kevin Zolkiewicz

social scientists and historians have shown that many forms of marriage and kinship exist, and have existed, around the world, and heterosexual marriage itself takes many forms;
the victory is bittersweet given the Supreme Court’s finding of a key element of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional;
both the DOMA and Proposition 8 decisions were 5-4 rulings and this split represents divisions in society and suggests that heterosexism and homophobia will not disappear with these court rulings;
finally, it is important to anticipate questions about what is “normal.”

• Structural violence and popular revolts

A Brazilian news source carried an article about the uprisings there and mentioned cultural anthropologists Paul Farmer, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and Philippe Bourgois.

The article points to how social exclusion plays a role in fomenting protest and predicts that given structural limitations, the government, even if it wants to, cannot resolve the major issues on the table in the short term. [Blogger’s note: the article is in Portuguese; my thanks to my colleague, David Gow, for this synopsis].
Continue reading “Anthro in the news 7/1/13” →

Anthro in the news 6/24/13

• Tsetse flies in African health and development

: A distribution of the Tsetse fly./ Wikimedia Commons.

The Boston Globe highlights the research of an economist/doctor on the role of the tsetse fly in African poverty and illness and mentions the influence of medical anthropologist Paul Farmer on her work. Marcella Alsan, who recently completed her Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University, may have solved a puzzle that has long challenged scholars, development specialists, and policy makers: Why is the land-abundant, resource-rich continent of Africa so poor? The answer comes out of Alsan’s graduate research on the tsetse fly’s effect on poverty in Africa. Using geospatial mapping software to mine data gathered by missionaries and anthropologists in the 1800s, Alsan found that the fly, which exists only in Africa and is lethal to livestock, drove precolonial Africans to use slaves instead of domesticated animals for farming, limiting crop yields and ability to transport goods.

• Jim Kim on climate change

Jim Kim, anthropologist and president of the World Bank, wrote that global policy makers must confront climate change, in an article in The Huffington Post:

“To help our clients prepare for the risks of a warming planet, we asked the scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytic in Germany to examine the impacts of climate change on three tropical regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. Yesterday, we published the results of that study.

Modeling a scenario of 4°C warming, the study reconfirms a climate picture we know well: extreme storms, prolonged heat waves, critical food and water shortages and widespread social and economic disruption. These impacts will interact to generate powerful climatic events, such as a significant sea-level rise and intense cyclones, which will cause intense and widespread damage. This is a future of enormous suffering.”

The article includes a video. A link to the World Bank study is here.

• Occupy movement update

: David Graeber/ Wikimedia Commons, David Graeber.

The New Statesman carried an article on the “democracy project”/Occupy movement, noting cultural anthropologist David Graeber‘s key role. A memorable quotation in the article: “The sole piece of evidence we had at the time that the Occupy movement was important was the clear determination of various world governments and much of the mainstream press to erase it from existence. It was not enough for the camps to be torn down and the protesters evicted, not enough that thousands of people, most of whom had done nothing more egregious than dare to question austerity in public, were beaten and gassed and arrested and imprisoned.”

• “New” language “discovered”

A “new” language has been discovered in a remote indigenous community in northern Australia according to Science Daily. The new language, called Light Walpiri, has developed from a combination of elements from other languages. It is documented by University of Michigan linguist Carmel O’Shannessy and reported on in the journal Language (not open access). Light Walpiri speakers are found in one community called Lajamanu where speakers readily switch between languages — from Warlpiri to English and Kriol (an English-based creole). In the 1970s and 1980s, children internalized this switching as a separate linguistic system, and began to speak it as their primary code, one with verb structure from English and Kriol, and noun structure from Warlpiri as well as new structures that can be traced to Warlpiri, English and Kriol, but are no longer the same as in those source languages. As these children grew up they taught the new language to their own children, and it is now the primary code of children and young adults in the community.