From Sherlock Jones to the Mysteries of the Cracked Bell: Anthropological Reflections in and on America
by Tristram Riley-Smith
Head of the Centre for Science, Knowledge, & Innovation in the British Government’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure
When: Tuesday, November 30, 6 – 7 pm
Where: 1957 E Street NW, 6th floor, Lindner Family Commons
The Elliott School of International Affairs
George Washington University
Free and open to the public
Please RSVP here
Fiji is going for the big three and it’s not lions, tigers and bears. It’s firewalking, water, and casinos.
The government of Fiji recently advertised for “expressions of interest” in the development and operation of its first casino (Economist Nov 13). According to the ad, the government seeks to engage “internationally successful full-casino developers/operators who would enhance Fiji’s brand.”
So now entire countries, perhaps especially small ones, must have a brand.
And the Fijian route to creating a brand is to look both inside at “traditional” cultural practices that are economically profitable and outside to the global marketplace. Cultural anthropologists have insights on the Fijian “big three.”
On firewalking and the branding of Fiji, read a journal article entitled “We Branded Ourselves Long Ago: Intangible Cultural Property and Commodification of Fijian Firewalking” by Guido Carlo Pigliasco of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Pigliasco writes about how Fijian firewalking has managed to indigenize the power of the foreign though a Maussian principle of the social gift: “The gift of firewalking has allowed its custodians to locally sustain their community, to gain a reach and respect across the nation and beyond, and to intensify the group’s social sentiment and social capital.” In other words, so far, firewalking is maintaining its value to Fijians as more than just a revenue earner.
On Fijian water, read a journal article entitled “Fijian Water in Fiji and New York: Local Politics and a Global Community” by Martha Kaplan of Vassar College. Kaplan discusses how Coca Cola first came to Fiji with American soldiers during World War II, and how Fijian water now flows out. Starting with a case study of local water bottling company in Fiji, she traces the changing commodity career of Fijian water.
On casinos: As Fiji invites the arrival of casinos, it should consider seriously what cultural anthropologists have learned from their studies of casinos elsewhere in terms of how to steer benefits to the local people and protect local people and their culture from possible negative effects. For one, Kate Spilde Contreras has written extensively on the economic and social impacts of American Indian casinos in California. There are lessons to be learned in the anthropological literature.
The Department of Anthropology at Purdue University and Purdue Press are excited to announce that they are accepting submissions for the 2011 volume of the Journal of Contemporary Anthropology. The journal is a peer-reviewed outlet for innovative graduate student research and provides an opportunity for graduate student professionalization.
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• Floods, drones and misery
Saadia Toor, assistant professor of anthropology and social work at the College of Staten Island and member of Action for a Progressive Pakistan, talks about the relief efforts, the role of the Pakistani military in the crisis, and the escalating use of drones by the US and NATO.
• Spotlight on Sabiyah Prince
The Atlanta Post launched a new series exploring the work of African-American professors around the US. An interview with Sabiyah Prince, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at American University in Washington, DC, offers insights about her use of history and cultural anthropology to explore changing patterns of racism in Harlem, Washington, DC, and elsewhere.
• Get down and dirty
Students at universities in China are being required to spend time in villages for a period of time as part of community service and learning how others live. The Guardian quotes Zhou Daming, professor and dean of anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University: “It is good for them to go and learn about another kind of life.”
• Ourselves, our wars, our woes
Roy Richard Grinker, professor of cultural anthropology at George Washington University in Washington, DC, comments on the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and notes the effect of war on changes in categories and labels.
• Australian Indigenous runners in New York Marathon
A group of Australian Indigenous runners competed in the New York Marathon, among whom, Central Australian Charlie Maher crossed the finish line first and is believed to be the first Australian Indigenous runner to finish the New York Marathon.
• Sleeping around in Amazonia
Robert Walker, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, in collaboration with two other biological anthropologists, Mark Flinn of Northwestern University and Kim Hill of the University of Utah, has found that sexual promiscuity was the norm in “traditional” Amazonian societies. It was also acceptable for a child to have several fathers. Findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Imagine that you live in a region that comprises Washington, DC, and Maryland (roughly the size of Haiti). Then imagine that you are one of many experiencing extreme poverty, lack of education, and other forms of deprivation. If that’s not bad enough, then imagine an earthquake of the magnitude that struck Haiti in January. Then picture 1.3 million people living in tents in the DC area.
With this thought exercise, Ray Offenheiser, President and CEO of Oxfam America, opened his talk on October 20 at the Elliott School of International Affairs of George Washington University. His presentation was titled “Let’s Start with Haiti: Making President Obama’s New Vision for Development Work.” It was sponsored by the Elliott School’s Culture in Global Affairs (CIGA) Program. Robert E. Maguire was moderator. Maguire is associate professor of international affairs at Trinity Washington University in DC; Chair of the Haiti Working Group of the United States Institute of Peace; and a Visiting Fellow with CIGA. To watch a video of this talk, click here.
After that stark opening, Offenheiser turned to considering President Obama’s new approach to international development in the context of Haiti. Speaking at the United Nations in September, President Obama argued that the United States needs to change the way it handles development aid. This speech proposed the first ever global development policy of the United States and offered the only major rethinking of the approach established in 1961 by President Kennedy to shape development during the Cold War.
In this new approach, Offenheiser explained, America is redefining development. Instead of controlling development through a focus on aid, it will take a comprehensive approach to sustainable development. America is now poised to focus on results, especially long-term results that support institutions rather than providing assistance in perpetuity. Broad-based economic growth is a goal through support to market infrastructure. Mutual accountability between the US government and partner countries is the new goal for bilateral aid relationships.
Offenheiser hailed Obama’s vision as breathtaking and most welcome in its emphasis on country ownership: countries must own the process of development, the investments, and the partnerships. The rationale is that poverty can only be solved by poor people and their governments, in partnership with other countries. In the past, too little attention was given to the hopes, dreams, and plans of people in developing countries. Aid projects were likely to be driven by earmarking in the US. From now on, aid will go toward investing more in country-designed ideas.
Guest post by Graham Hough-Cornwell
Are there any debates more heated than two barbecue enthusiasts hailing from different corners of the country going at it over whose style of ‘cue is better? From the vinegar tang of pulled pork in the Carolinas to the dry rubs of Memphis ribs to the earthy mutton of Kentucky to the sweet beef brisket of Texas, few foods are the subject of such enthusiasm and regionalism. But why stop there?
People across the globe use smoke and fire to coax new flavors out of food. American barbecue is itself the result of influences from all over the world, and this is no more apparent than in the writing and recipes of Steve Raichlen. His first book, The Barbecue Bible, was more than just recipes: compiled over the course of four years and 200,000 miles of world travels, it covers backyards, street stalls, seaside fires, and hickory pits from Georgia to, well, Georgia.
Since then, he’s been expanding an American barbecue vocabulary once limited to burgers and Boston butts to include banana leaves and branzino. After four successful seasons hosting “Barbecue University” on PBS, he has kicked off a new show, “Primal Grill” and released his 27th book, Planet Barbecue!: 309 Recipes, 60 Countries. He is the recipient of the IACP Julia Child Award and two James Beard Foundation Book Awards.
I am grateful to Steve Raichlen for taking time to answer my questions on culture and barbecue around the world and to explain how one turns a background in French literature into grilling expertise.
GHC: Why is barbecue so compelling to you, compared to other ways of preparing food?
SR: Four reasons: flavor, drama, history, and culture.
Nothing intensifies flavor like the high dry heat of the grill. Especially when you grill over wood or charcoal.
Nothing has the drama of cooking meat (or any food) over the dancing flames of a live fire.
Barbecue is intimately intertwined with human history, in ways both obvious and unexpected. For example, the discovery of eating meat cooked with fire by a human ancestor called Homo erectus about 1.8 million years ago had a profound effect on human evolution. Advanced reasoning, speech, our communal social system, technology, and even the division of labor–all stem from barbecue (in the sense of cooking meat with live fire).
Continue reading “Grilling culture: an interview with Steve Raichlen”
Anthropology, Human Rights, and the Ethics of the Ethnographer’s Lament
Presentation by Mark Goodale, Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Anthropology, George Mason University
• UN troops as the source of cholera in Haiti?
Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist at Harvard University and co-founder of Partners in Health, told the Washington Post that it is important to find out what caused the recent outbreak of cholera in Haiti. His comment is in response to a statement from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that it is not possible to pinpoint the source and further investigations detract from fighting the disease. Farmer said, “That sounds like politics to me, not science.”
• Anthro of suicide bombers
A book review in The Sunday Times (London) discusses Scott Atran’s book, Talking to the Enemy: Violent Extremism, Sacred Values, and What It Means to Be Human. Atran, a cultural anthropologist, is Director of Research, ARTIS Research and Risk Modeling, and Research Director in Anthropology at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris. He is also Visiting Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan and Residential Scholar in Sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City. Atran’s book is based on research carried out around the world. One of his arguments is that the power of commitment to one’s buddies spurs suicide bombers rather than religious fanaticism. According to the review, the book also “tells us that we are not winning and why.”
• Organized crime and government in Mexico
The Christian Science Monitor carried an article on the links between organized drug criminals and politics. It quotes Alberto Aziz Nassif, a specialist in democracy and civil society at the Center for Research and Higher Education in Social Anthropology in Mexico City: “Organized crime has not just penetrated police bodies but [also] government space at all levels…It is one of the biggest problems complicating the fight against drug trafficking…There are no clear boundaries. The boundaries have been erased by corruption and impunity.”
• It’s my thong and I’ll wear it if I want to
Baseball rituals may include wearing a thong. In an article on baseball players’ seemingly bizarre behavior, The Montreal Gazette interviewed cultural anthropologist George Gmelch, professor of anthropology at the University of California at San Francisco, former first-baseman for the Detroit Tigers, and author of a classic article called “Baseball Magic” which discusses players’ fetishes and magical practices. Back to the thong: it’s about San Francisco Giants first-baseman Aubrey Huff and his habit of wearing a red thong under his uniform. Gmelch says, “It may appear wacky to the fans, but it serves a basic human need for stability in uncertain circumstances.” In his article, Gmelch argues that baseball players who are positions involving the most uncertainty are the most likely to use magical practices.
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The Concept Studio is a customer-centered innovation group with the mission of providing Pitney Bowes with rich customer and market insights to discover new business opportunities and guide decision-making.
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Queen’s University Belfast – School of History and Anthropology
Available from 1 February 2011 to 31 August 2012 to cover a career break, to teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, to assist primarily in the current research activities of the Institute of Cognition and Culture, and to undertake research in line with the School’s research strategy.
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