• Stanley Ann Dunham: her story
The New York Times magazine‘s cover story this week is about President Obama’s mother who was a cultural anthropologist. The article is adapted from a forthcoming book on Dr. Dunham called A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother. Last year, Duke University Press published her study of artisans in rural Indonesia. There is much to ponder in the fact that instead of having a white, Texas oil family son in the White House, we are fortunate to have the mixed-race son of a cultural anthropologist who lived in different cultures and experienced discrimination as a dark-skinned child in Bali.

• Presidential support for anthro
Last year, President Obama gave $2,000 to the University of Hawaii Foundation as part of an endowment fund to honor his mother, cultural anthropologist Stanley Ann Durham.

• Vive la différence: mixed marriages and cultural tolerance in Quebec
An editorial in the Montreal Gazette describes findings from a study of 80 married couples in Quebec. In couples involving an immigrant partner, both partners were found to embrace cultural differences. Cultural anthropologist Deirdre Meintel was involved in the research and is co-author of the editorial.

• Anthro not so bourgeois after all
An article in the Guardian describes how young activists in Havana, associated with the Cuban Institute of Anthropology, draw on anthropology to bring new life to politics in Cuba through connecting to the global justice movement.

• Campus politics and the F word
University of Iowa professor of anthropology Ellen Lewin’s email to the College Republicans at her university has created a stir. The campus Republicans sent an email blast announcing “Conservatives Coming Out Week.” Lewin replied: “F*** YOU, REPUBLICANS.” The university president has asked everyone to be respectful of others.

• She walked in beauty
The face of a princess of China’s Tang Dynasty has been restored by digital archaeology. She died in 736, perhaps of an illness and was buried in a royal tomb in Xi’an. According to the reconstruction, she has a high forehead, round face and almond-shaped eyes. Her tiara, which requires no digitization to attest to its beauty, was decorated with gold, silver, copper, agates, pearls, amber, turquoise and other semi-precious stones.

SOURCE: Korea Times, April 20 “Face of Tang Dynasty Princess Restored” – website unavailable at time of posting

• Archaeo fashion line perhaps going too far?
Among the many controversies surrounding Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass is the latest: his association with a line of men’s fashions. He says all profits will go to a good cause.

• Ethics controversy at the Smithsonian
Several archaeologists in the U.S., including members of the National Academy of Sciences, are calling for cancellation of an exhibition of artifacts from a Tang Dynasty shipwreck. The main issue is that a commercial treasure hunter mined the artifacts and did not follow academic standards.

• In memoriam
Esther Pressel, retired professor of anthropology at Colorado State University, died at the age of 74 years. She taught at CSU from 1968 until her retirement in 2003. A medical anthropologist with interests in healing, ritual and spirit possession, she conducted fieldwork in India, Russia, Nigeria, and Brazil.

• Ask an anthro

Two articles in the mainstream media this past week recognized the relevance of cultural anthropology to major global issues.

An article in the Guardian discusses the importance of family planning for improving women’s health and reducing poverty in developing countries. It quotes J. Joseph Spiegel: “If you ask anthropologists who live and work with poor people at the village level … they often say that women live in fear of their next pregnancy. They just do not want to get pregnant.”

A review of a new book in the Times (London) (requires login) titled Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven includes a quotation by Lieven: “To understand how Pakistan works, it is necessary to draw heavily on the field of anthropology” because “kinship and patronage” permeate almost all aspects of life in Pakistan.

Blogger’s note: thanks for the shout out to anthropology. In fact, all cultures are equally cultural and therefore inscrutable without a cultural anthropology lens, which can be gained through formal training as well as long-term immersion in a culture other than one’s birth culture. It’s likely that many Pakistanis would view the “West” as “hard” — or something else equally reductionist and view the “West” as lacking kinship values. Depending on one’s definitions, patronage, political favor-giving, and corruption may be widely shared cultural features of state-level societies.

• What would the Buddha say?

The Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan is reputedly stunningly beautiful. It was even more beautiful before two 1,500 year-old monumental Buddhas were blasted to dust by the Taliban. Ten years later, here come Chinese mining companies seeking profits from the area’s copper deposits. A team of French and Afghan archaeologists are working in Mes Aynak to document the cultural richness of the area and to retrieve as many of the portable artifacts as possible. They hope to prevent the mining operation by documenting the cultural value of leaving the area intact. The Independent (London) says that: “What happens in Mes Aynak will have implications across the country. Buried beneath Afghanistan’s mountain ranges are more deposits of copper, iron, gold, lithium, worth $1 trillion…”

Blogger’s note: So, what would the Buddha say? I think he would ask the miners to keep out.
Continue reading “Anthro in the news 4/18/11” →

• Bernie, let’s chat
Gillian Tett is the Financial Times’ US managing editor and a cultural anthropologist with a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. This week she co-authored an article published in the FT on Bernard Madoff, based on a chat with the swindler himself.

• Friend me
The subject of animal-animal friendships prompted a network television news magazine to seek out William & Mary anthropologist Barbara King to provide context to the phenomenon. She appeared April 10 on a segment of CBS News Sunday Morning. King is the author of a number of books, including Being With Animals, an anthropological exploration of the evolution of humans’ relationship with animals.

• Gay caveman
A team of Czech archaeologists say they have found the remains of a gay man from 2900-2500 BCE, near Prague. Question: What is the evidence of gayness? Answer: Burials during the Copper Age were gender-marked in terms of placement of the body and items interred. The person in question was buried on his left side, head facing east, no weapons, and household jugs at his feet–all characteristic of women’s burials at the time. Archaeologist Katerina Semradova said that this “third gender” discovery mirrors an earlier one in which a female warrior from the Mesolithic period was buried like a man.

• A bigger boat
The Irish Times carried an article about one of Ireland’s great objects: the Lurgan canoe. This massive oak boat resides in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, where it is too large to be photographed as a whole. Dating from around 2200 BCE, the boat is made from an oak tree far bigger than what could grow in Ireland today. It is thus evidence of climate change (the climate was cooler and moister in the past). Check out this link to see a photo taken in 1902 when the boat was brought to Dublin. (Bloggers note: Read latest AW post for more about the Lurgan Canoe).

• Make it with bamboo
An experimental study shows that it is possible to make complex tools, including knives, from bamboo. This research supports the possibility that early ancestors in East Asia used bamboo and wood for tools rather than stone. Findings of the study will be published in the journal, Quarternary International.

• Who looks like who?
Cranial features of contemporary men and women may be more similar than they were in the past. This finding is based on analysis of hundreds of Spanish and Portuguese skulls from the 16th century forward. Ann Ross, associate professor of anthropology at North Carolina State University, notes that the findings have implications for forensic analysis.

• Kudos
Katherine Reedy-Maschner, anthropology professor at Idaho State University, has been appointed to serve on the Scientific and Statistical Committee for the U.S. North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC). The NPFMC is one of eight U.S. regional councils that oversees management of U.S. fisheries.

Herbert Maschner has been appointed as director of the Idaho Museum of Natural History. Maschner has served as the Interim Director since June and is a member of the anthropology faculty at Idaho State University.