Historic Preservation Program / Bureau of Arts and Culture / Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs / Government of the Republic of Palau. This position is under the supervision of the Palau Historic Preservation Officer (HPO) and provides guidance and advice to the HPO relating to Oral History and Ethnography. The primary responsibilities include assisting and supervising (when required) the Oral History/Ethnography Section of the Bureau of Arts and Culture/Palau Historic Preservation Office to record and index the oral histories and traditional laws of Palau for the purposes of preservation and education, and to assist in meeting the responsibilities mandated by the Title 19 of the Palau National Code (PNC), and Section 106 of the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act (16 USC 470). The Palau Cultural Anthropologist will also be responsible for other program-related tasks that may be required by the Palau Historic Preservation Office.
This is a national level contract position funded by a Historic Preservation Fund Grant administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service (NPS). Compliance with all applicable U.S. federal laws and regulations is required in the course of duty.
**APPLICANT MUST BE A U.S. CITIZEN OR CITIZEN OF AN ASSOCIATED PACIFIC ISLAND NATION (Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Republic of the Marshall Islands). Continue reading “Position: cultural anthropologist/ethnographer”→
The aim of this open-access lecture series is to summarize the evidence on Indigenous wellbeing, with a particular focus being an examination of the variation in measures of wellbeing across the life course. The series will suit students and policy makers working on or researching Indigenous issues, as well as academics with an interest in indigenous people’s wellbeing.
Each lecture is available on as a PDF document with presentation slides and embedded audio, along with an accompanying short formal paper addressing the lecture’s subject.
The series was created by Dr. Nicholas Biddle, a Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University (ANU). He has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) from the University of Sydney, a Master of Education degree from Monash University, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the ANU where he wrote his thesis on the benefits of and participation in education of Indigenous Australians.
The Department of Anthropology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland welcomes Daniel Everett (Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University) and author of Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, for a public lecture in Cole Cinema from 4:15 – 5:30PM. The title of his talk is Beyond Human Nature: Understanding Ourselves as the Unpredictable Species.
Abstract for the talk: Humans are neither a blank slate nor a full slate at birth. Though humans clearly have an innate endowment that distinguishes us from other species, the hallmark of Homo sapiens is our unpredictability. Drawing on a new body of research emerging in philosophy, evolutionary theory, anthropology and linguistics, I argue that there is no such thing as “human nature” that has any deep explanatory value.
Peggy R. Sanday, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article on CNN about gang rape in the U.S. with reference to the gang rape in Steubenville, Ohio, in August 2012. Some young men continue to believe that when a girl gets drunk, staging a sexual spectacle for their mates is part of a night’s fun. They don’t think of it as rape. Some of their buddies, however, disagree. In their transition to manhood, they are able to name rape when they see it. This split opinion is illustrated in the video posted a few days ago by Anonymous showing a young man — presumably an eyewitness — egged on by others, telling his version of what happened. The video footage is disturbing, to say the least. Sanday is the author of the book Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus and A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial. This important book documents how privileged, but perhaps nonetheless insecure, young men forge bonds with each other through gang rape and abuse of “outsider” women at a fraternity house in a major U.S. university.
• On gang rape in India
Two cultural anthropologists published a “letter to the editor” of the New York Times concerning the December gang rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi, in response to an op-ed by Sonia Faleiro called “The Unspeakable Truth about Rape in India.”Carol Delaney, professor emerita of Stanford University, commented, “Finally, women are speaking out. The highly publicized violent acts of rape against two young Indian women in the last two weeks have drawn the sympathy and attention of the world. That the police suggested marriage to one of the rapists as the solution rather than prison for the perpetrators is simply outrageous. Lawrence Rosen of Princeton University said, “Sonia Faleiro’s courageous statement about violence to Indian women…, like the actions of those who have taken to the streets, is indeed heartening. But are we missing the larger protest against corruption, a police force that is tone-deaf to popular needs and an elitist government that ignores many of its less fortunate citizens? All of these were also true in the period before the Arab Spring. If so, the consequences of the present demonstrations may — and perhaps should — go far beyond the requisite justice for rape victims.” Continue reading “Anthro in the news 1/7/13”→
This presentation examines the differences between moments of mass-mobilization and the long term process of activist mobilization that precedes them. Ukraine in 2004, Egypt in 2011, and Argentina in 2001 represent cases where a history of activist coordination was the basis for, and key instrument in, the mobilization of “ordinary” people. The presenter will argue against the predominant focus on exogenous and economic factors and instead emphasize local actors and political variables in explaining the presence or absence of mass-mobilization.
Olga Onuch received her DPhil in Comparative Politics from the University of Oxford in 2011. She is currently the Newton Prize Fellow in Comparative Politics (awarded by the Royal Society & British Academy) at the School of Interdisciplinary and Area Studies and is a Non-Stipendiary Fellow at Nuffield College, both at the University of Oxford. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Revolutionary Moments and Movements: Understanding Mass-mobilization in Ukraine (2004) and Argentina (2001),which is anticipated to be published in 2014.
When: Wednesday, January 9, 2013, 4:00 – 5:00 pm Where: Voesar Conference Room, 1957 E Street NW, Suite 412 George Washington University Washington, DC 20052
From the blogger: Here is the last aitn for 2012. I had to work hard to find any mainstream media mention of cultural anthropology, whereas archaeology continues to attract substantial media attention, and we can almost always count on something about Neanderthals to attract interest. Please check out anthropologyworks’ short piece on the cultural anthropologist who was most in the news in 2012. Stay tuned for 2012 highlights from aitn and my top dissertation picks for 2012. And Happy New Year!
Debt by David Graeber• Debt as a best book of 2012
The Global and Mail (Canada) asked several writers and avid readers to comment on their top book of 2012, from contemporary fiction to classic literature and nonfiction. Novelist Sheila Heti chose Debt: The First 5,000 Years.
“I can’t think of anyone who shouldn’t read David Graeber‘s paradigm-shifting book on the ethics of debt. He’s an anthropologist and one of the Occupy movement’s greatest thinkers. Here, he shows how debt has been a central economic, political, and social tool throughout human history. It’s an essential read, particularly for those who, in the wake of the financial crisis, believed we were at the beginning of “an actual public conversation about the nature of debt, of money, of the financial institutions,” and were stunned not to see that conversation happen.” Heti’s most recent book is the novel How Should a Person Be?
• Hadrian’s auditorium found under streets of Rome
Several media sources, including the BBC, covered the findings in Rome of an ancient auditorium 18 feet below one of Rome’s most-trafficked junctions. Italian archaeologists announced the discovery of a 900-seat arts center dating back to the second-century reign of Emperor Hadrian.
Hadrian bust, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Capitoline Museums/Wikipedia Archaeologists believe the structure was an arts center or auditorium, built by Hadrian where, beginning in 123 C.E., Roman noblemen gathered to hear rhetoricians, lawyers, and writers recite their works. According to the archaeologists running the excavation, Hadrian’s auditorium is the biggest find in Rome since the Forum was uncovered in the 1920s.
• 800 year-old skeletons unearthed in Cholula, Mexico
The skeletons were discovered as the archeologists supervised the installation of a new drain in an old neighborhood of Cholula, a city located 120 kilometers north of the Mexican capital. They were found buried just a few centimeters below a paved section of asphalt, said archeologist Ashuni Romero Butron, who added “fortunately they were not damaged by erosion before the paving.” He said most of the 12 skeletons are complete and laboratory analysis is ongoing.
Ramesses• Judean temple found
Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a rare temple and religious figurines dating back to the Judaean period nearly 3,000 years ago. The discoveries were made at Tel Motza, outside Jerusalem, during archaeological work ahead of new highway construction in the area. Anna Eirikh, a director of the project, said the discoveries were rare evidence of religious practices outside Jerusalem in the Judaean period. The findings date to the 9th-10th century B.C.E.
• Death of a pharoah
Scans of the mummy of Ramses III reveal that his throat was slit. The pharaoh Ramses III ruled Egypt in the 12th century B.C.E. A plot by his wife to kill him in order to place her son on the throne is documented in an ancient papyrus, but the exact circumstances of Ramses’ death have been unclear. ”The big cut is in his throat, and it was very deep and large,” said Albert Zink, an anthropologist at the European Academy, who was involved in the research. ”It would have killed him immediately.” Zink and colleagues from Egypt, Italy and Germany, published their findings in the British Medical Journal. [Blogger’s note: so now we know the immediate cause of death, but we still don’t know who did the deed].
• 4,000 year-old spear heads found in Sinaloa, Mexico
Credit: INAH Researchers have discovered 4,000-year-old spearheads and other artifacts at a site in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Archaeologist Joel Santos Ramirez said that the find “will change the chronologies of the antiquity of human settlement in the northwest of the country.”
• Neanderthal genome mapping update
According to a piece in CBC news, renowned archaeological geneticist Svante Paabo is almost finished with the mapping the DNA of Neanderthals, a distant cousin of modern humans.
Paabo has found that many people today carry within their DNA about 3 to 5 percent in common with Neanderthals. Paabo says it is important to learn more about Neanderthal DNA to reveal the differences between us and them, differences that have seen modern humans survive and thrive over the millennia while Neanderthals have become extinct.
Svante Paabo with reconstructed Neanderthal skull. Frank Vinken/Max Planck Gesellschaft He is quoted as saying: “I really hope that over the next 10 years we will understand much more of those things that set us apart. Which changes in our genome made human culture and technology possible? And allowed us to expand and become 7, 8, 9 billion people and spread all over the world?”
• In memoriam
Glenys Lloyd-Morgan died at the age of 67 years after a career devoted to the understanding of Roman archaeology. She graduated from the archaeology department at Birmingham University in 1970 with a dissertation on Roman mirrors. In 1975, she joined the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, where she catalogued collections and did re-enactments as a Roman lady. Later, she became a finds consultant specializing in Roman artifacts. She was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1979.
The cultural anthropologist most in the news in 2012 was Jim Yong Kim. Kim was trained as both a physician and medical anthropologist, one of the first students to go through Harvard’s joint Ph.D./M.D. program. Later he became chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and then president of Dartmouth College from 2009 to 2012. Along with Paul Farmer, he is co-founder of Partners In Health.
Jim Yong Kim. Source: World Bank website When President Barack Obama nominated Kim for the presidency of the World Bank, policy insiders expressed widespread dismay, with much commentary pointing to his being an anthropologist as a discrediting factor for the position.
After his appointment was approved, however, talk of his anthropological credentials died down. In other words, a connection with anthropology was taken as a weakness by his opponents. Now that he is president of the World Bank, his identity as an anthropologist has been quietly erased.
Dr. Kim, president of the World Bank, physician and medical anthropologist, is anthropologyworks’ anthropologist of 2012.
Aw’s Sean Carey published two articles in The Independent about the recent consideration of the Chagossians‘ claim for a right to return to their homeland.
Chagos. Source: refusingtokill.net In his first piece, he reviews the marathon battle that began in 1998 in the British courts, led by electrician Olivier Bancoult, the newly appointed leader of the Chagos Refugees Group. Although all of the judges in the lower courts unanimously found in favor, in 2008 the Law Lords decided against the Chagosssians’ right of return by a narrow 3-2 majority. The islanders are supported by the former British High Commissioner to Mauritius, David Snoxell, novelist Philippa Gregory and conservationist Ben Fogle.
In his second article, Carey reports on the decision: “Yesterday, there was huge disappointment amongst Chagossian communities in Port Louis, Mahe, Crawley, Manchester, Geneva and Montréal. A seven-judge chamber of the European Court of Human Rights decided by majority that the case regarding the right of return of the exiled islanders was inadmissible. Geographically and legally, it has been a long journey with many twists and turns for the islanders, the descendants of African slaves and Indian indentured labourers. The decision by the Strasbourg court means that they continue to be barred from returning to their homeland in the Chagos Archipelago, after their forced removal by the British authorities between 1968 and 1973, so that the US could acquire Diego Garcia, the largest and southernmost island, for its strategically important military base.” After eight years, a decision of inadmissable.
• Declining monkhood in Thailand
In Thailand, Buddhist temples grow lonely in villages as consumer culture rises and there is a shortage of monks. According to an article in The New York Times, monks in northern Thailand no longer perform one of the defining rituals of Buddhism, the early morning walk through the community to collect food. The meditative lifestyle of the monkhood offers little allure to the distracted iPhone generation. Although it is still relatively rare for temples to close down, many districts are so short on monks that abbots here in northern Thailand recruit across the border from impoverished Myanmar, where monasteries are overflowing with novices.
”Consumerism is now the Thai religion,” said Phra Paisan Visalo, one of the country’s most respected monks. He continues, ”In the past people went to temple on every holy day,” Mr. Paisan said. ”Now they go to shopping malls.” William Klausner, a law and anthropology professor who spent a year living in a village in northeastern Thailand in the 1950s, describes the declining influence of Buddhist monks as a ”dramatic transformation.” Monks once played a crucial role in the community where he lived, helping settle disputes between neighbors and counseling troubled children, he wrote in his book, Thai Culture in Transition. Klausner says that today most villages in northern Thailand ”have only two or three full-time monks in residence, and they are elderly and often sick.” Continue reading “Anthro in the news 12/24/2012”→
Throughout the Balkan region, some women take on male roles and appearance. They are referred to, in English, as sworn virgins. Slate, among other publications, carried a photo essay of several sworn virgins of Albania. The anthropological and related literature on sworn virgins is thin. Some studies refer to the women as “cross dressers,” which seems to be an inadequate label. It is unclear whether the practice is dying out or continuing as always.
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