Medical Anthropology, a journal dedicated to publishing papers that examine human behavior, social life and health in an anthropological context, has recently made available a number of articles published since the inception of the journal in 1977. The journal provides a global forum for inquiring into and elucidating the social and cultural, ideational, contextual, structural and institutional factors that pattern disease, shape experiences of illness and wellbeing, and inform the organization of and access to treatments.
In anticipation of the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Education Outreach Programme has launched an Anthropology of Sport Photo Contest.
The photo contest is open to anyone interested in anthropology, photography and sport.
Deadline for submissions is December 10, 2010.
For further information and submission guidelines please click here.
• Investment banking works for her Insider Higher Ed carried an article about Gillian Tett’s presentation at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in which she described her use of anthropological training when she entered the world of investment banking (she has a doctorate in social anthropology from Cambridge University). Tett is the US managing editor and an assistant editor of the Financial Times. For her coverage of world financial markets, she was named Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in March 2009. She is the author of the prize-winning book, Fool’s Gold. During her AAA talk, she urged cultural anthropologists to move out of their comfort zone and to get engaged in new arenas.
• Shaping the new philanthropy
The new philanthropists want to do more than make a donation: they want to make a difference and they choose a DIY approach. A connection at a dinner party with Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist and co-founder of Partners in Health, informed one such philanthropist of how to connect to an ongoing health care program run by Partners in Health in Rwanda. She dined, she met, she gave.
• Anthro of humanitarianism
A new series of the Times of Trenton, called Profiles in Knowledge, profiled Didier Fassin, the James Wolfensohn Professor at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. A cultural anthropologist and sociologist, Fassin has done fieldwork in Senegal, South Africa, Ecuador, and France. He studies the ethics and power relationships in humanitarian intervention.
• Thumbs up for home brew in India
Felix Padel, the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin, is quoted in the Times of India as favoring a local alcoholic beverage, mahua, over scotch: “it is not only good for health but also economical and great to taste.” Padel has been active in anti-mining movements in India and was in India to look at the economics of coal mining in Jharkhand. Drinkers beware: adulteration is a problem in some local brews.
A new short video is now online featuring UMBC anthropologist Bambi Chapin tackling the question of what makes a good mother.
Chapin is co-editor of the December issue of Ethos on “Mothering as Everyday Practice,” which explores not just what mothers say about parenting, but what they actually do and why. Chapin undertook this research while parenting her own child in the field, and she describes how others’ reactions to her mothering had unexpected effects on her fieldwork.
Proposed Panel: Designing for Diagnosis and Affect: Modernity and the Future of Feeling
This panel will theorize the unique interplays of affect and temporality within the expert and knowledge epicenters of late modern life. The organizers, Noelle Molé, Phd (Princeton) and Mark Robinson (Princeton) invite papers that explore these and related themes for a panel at the Society for Psychological Anthropology’ conference in Santa Monica, CA during the dates of March 31-April 3, 2011.
Please submit abstracts to nmole@princeton.edu by Tuesday, November 30, 2010.
The 5th Annual UBC ethnographic film festival is calling for films. The 2011 UBC festival will honor innovation in enthnographic film. Submissions are being accepted from now until December 15th. Visit http://anthfilm.anth.ubc.ca/events.html for more information.
Thanks to Photoethnography blog for sharing this information.
Cultural anthropologist Magnus Fiskesjö of Cornell University recently published an update in Anthropology Today to his masterful essay about the political symbolism of the Thanksgiving turkey pardon. As in his pamphlet (available for free on the Internet), he masterfully carves up savory morsels of insight.
In President Obama’s first turkey pardon in 2009, he narrated the obligatory account of the English settlers and invoked their divine protection. Obama diverted, however, from the usual script by mentioning American Indians as contributors to the nation. A slight nod to “inclusiveness,” but Fiskesjö opines that faint recognition is better than none at all.
Sarah Palin with decapitated turkey in background; Photo Credit: AP/KARE-TV
The tradition of the turkey pardoning began in 1980 as a national ritual. Very few state governors pardon turkeys, though it has been regularly done in Alabama since the 1940s where it originated as a governor’s ritual. So Sarah Palin’s 2008 turkey pardon was particularly noteworthy. And all the more so, since she made the mistake of performing the pardoning ritual at a turkey farm in Alaska surrounded by hundreds of slaughtered turkeys and others awaiting their death. Clips of the event, with the backdrop of turkey carcasses, went viral on the Internet.
The fate of the pardoned turkey(s) has been transformed since the national pardoning ritual began. From the 1980s to 2004, the turkeys were taken to a petting zoo in Virginia near Washington, DC, called, ironically, the Frying Pan. After a period of time on display, they were killed. Starting in 2005, President George W. Bush had the birds flown to Disneyland, Florida, where the National Turkey rode on a special float in a procession. In 2006, the turkeys were flown to Disneyland, California, to demonstrate regional impartiality. Whether they go to Florida or California, after their display as the “happiest turkey on earth,” they are retired to a Disney animal ranch and later killed.
Domesticated turkeys are bred to have massive bodies such that their legs can barely support their weight; Photo Credit: Lee Ann L., Creative Commons Licensed on Flickr
Fiskesjö packs many more fascinating insights into his brief article in Anthropology Today including why pardoning pigs doesn’t work and the complications of birds as US national symbolism—notably, turkeys, eagles, and hawks. While the article is not open access, the pamphlet is, and it is highly recommended reading either before, during, or after an upcoming feast.
Blogger’s update: this year, the White House has decided to cancel the trip to Disneyland. After a brief stay at the posh Willard Hotel, the turkeys will be taken in a horse-drawn carriage to George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.
Guest post by Julia Friederich, Jessica Grebeldinger, Stephanie Harris, Jacqueline Hazen, and Casey McHugh
The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Philippe Bourgois, the Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology and Family and Community Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Barbara Miller conducted the interview on October 26, 2010, as part of her introductory cultural anthropology class at the George Washington University. Her 280 students had just finished reading In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, and several of them submitted questions for the interview.
Skyping with Philippe. Photo credit: Elliott School of International Affairs, GW
BDM: First, please tell us why you decided to do your dissertation fieldwork in the United States?
PB: I didn’t! I began my dissertation research with the Miskitu Indians in Nicaragua. But the Nicaraguan Revolution, a popular guerrilla movement that eventually overthrew the Somoza dictatorship, was trying to develop an independent socialist government at the time, and the US, through the CIA, destabilized the situation. The CIA distributed machine guns among the people and it turned into civil war. So I went to Costa Rica and Panama where I did research on the United Fruit Company’s banana plantations, and really that’s what eventually brought me to East Harlem. I thought if I can study ethnic conflict in Central America, I should study ethnic conflict and its political economy in my own country. I wanted to look at segregation and what I call “de facto inner city apartheid” in the US. So I went up to East Harlem in New York City and started my new research project there while I was writing my dissertation about the ethnic divide-and-conquer strategy of a US multinational corporation in Costa Rica and Panama. It became my first book: Ethnicity at Work: Divided Labor on a Central American Banana Plantation.
• Haiti in the time of cholera Foreign Policy magazine quoted medical anthropologist Paul Farmer as saying that it is important to seek the source of cholera in Haiti and that the reluctance of international organization to investigate further is politically motivated. Farmer, a co-founder of Partners in Health, is a public health advocate and UN deputy special envoy to Haiti.
• Water security in Haiti
Paul Farmer appears again in the media, this time pointing to the need for water security in Haiti to ensure people’s health though clean water for drinking, food preparation, and bathing.
• Anthro major is Rhodes Scholar
Tracy Yang, a senior majoring in anthropology and focusing on health disparities at the University of Georgia, is one of 31 Rhodes Scholars. She plans to study for a master’s in global health sciences while at Oxford.
• Foraging for a Thanksgiving meal NPR carried an article about American Indian foods in the Maryland area including a discussion with archaeologist Bill Schindler of Washington College.
• Stonehenge makeover to “restore the dignity”
The famous site topped a recent list of Britain’s most disappointing tourist attractions. Major new funding will address such 20th century indignities as a car park, gift shop, and the A344 and its constant traffic and fumes.
An essay in Nature raises the heretical question of why economic growth should be every “developed” country’s goal. Such heresy is of course welcome to cultural anthropologists, archaeologists, and others who have ground-level data and experience on why “growth” is a dangerous and destructive idea.
And it will prompt Bhutanese readers to smile knowingly as they continue to support the growth of happiness.
anthropologyworks 