• In Sudan: the Crusades still?
Cultural anthropologist and Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani says that the creation of a new Western sanctioned nation-state in southern Sudan — a religiously and politically contested area at the edge of the Arab-Muslim world — is proof that the jihadis are fighting an international system bent on stemming the spread of Islam. Mamdani is a professor at Columbia University and author, most recently, of Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror.

• So you think you deserve an A in this course?
In her letter to the editor of the NYT, Carol Delaney questions proposed bills in the U.S. that would allow students and professors to take guns to campus. “What professor won’t worry about giving failing grades when an angry student can march into [or her] his office and shoot him [or her]?” Delaney is emerita professor of cultural anthropology at Stanford University.

• The economics, not erotics, of the bound female foot
A Wall Street Journal article on the end of female footbinding in China includes insights from two Stanford University anthropologists: Melissa Brown, assistant professor of cultural anthropology and Hill Gates, emerita professor of anthropological sciences. Both point to the economic factors underlying the practice. In the words of Brown: “How do you get a naturally healthy 6-year-old to sit for hours? You break her feet.” The practice, in this view, forced girls and women to work at home, spinning yarn, processing tea, and shucking oysters.

• Culture through cooking
A WaPo article about Diana Kennedy’s magisterial new book on Oaxacan cuisine conveys her message to everyone that they should learn about world cultures through their food. She also specifically exhorts anthropologists to learn to cook. Blogger’s note: Whether anthropologists and people with an anthropological heart are following Kennedy’s advice or marching to their own drum, it is remarkable how many top chefs have an anthropology background including Kennedy’s nemesis, Rick Bayless.

• UBC Museum of Anthropology cancels exhibit on disappeared women
The University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology canceled an exhibit that was supposed to open in February featuring 69 massive portraits of women who vanished from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The museum director said that the exhibit was not likely to produce the kind of positive dialogue originally intended.

• Rise in juvenile delinquency in Brunei
The rise in the number of young offenders in Brunei in recent years may be related to rising birth rates and increased vigilance by law enforcement, said Professor Frank Fanselow, head of the Sociology-Anthropology programme at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Overall rates of juvenile delinquency in Brunei are low compared to rates worldwide.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 1/17/11” →

• This mine is my mine
China is pushing to establish its first wholly owned substantial mining project in Australia, in the Weld Range in the western part of the country. The Weld Range is rich in iron ore. It is also the home of Wilge Mia, the world’s oldest known continuing mining operation. For more than 30,000 years, its ochre has been mined and traded. The Australian government has told the Chinese government that it is welcome to develop its projects as long as they do not take over existing producers. Traditional owners are staking a claim to Wilge Mia and other Weld Range sites. They have engaged the Eureka Archaeological Research and Consulting Centre, a University of Western Australia-affiliated anthropology service, to assess the cultural value of the sites. They are also working with Terra Rosa Cultural Resource Management, a private group, to help define site boundaries and prevent their destruction.

• The healers: Bostonians of the year
The Boston Globe named three people Bostonians of the year, and they are all involved in founding Partners in Health in rural Haiti to deliver health care to the poor. They are Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Louise Ivers. Since the 2010 earthquake, PIH is also working to heal the local and global health system. Blogger’s note: Yes, you can make a difference, it won’t be easy, and anthro/public health is an effective combo.

• A doctor without borders
The Sunday Times (London) carried a review of Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, which was published in 2003. Eight years later, Partners in Health in Haiti has even more work on its hands, has expanded its clinics, and now incorporates micro-lending services at clinics. Kidder’s documentary of Paul Farmer continues to inspire readers around the world, and the “Paul Farmer effect” endures.

• Survival: learning from Irish Travellers
Dennis Foley, cultural anthropologist at Newcastle University in Australia, will spend several months in Ireland studying the challenges that the Travellers face and comparisons with Australian Aborigines in terms of mobile survival patterns.

Continue reading “Anthro in the news 1/10/11” →