Anthro in the news 5/11/15

Disasters never really end

An article in The Indian Express about India’s efforts to help Nepal recover from the April 25 earthquake quotes Edward Simpson, professor of social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London: “An earthquake does not conclude. It lives in metaphor and history, passing in and out of popular consciousness.” In addition to dealing with loss as survivors try to put their lives back together, they know that future earthquakes are inevitable.

Buggy debate: Amish cultural rights vs. road safety

National Public Radio (WRVO) reported on a recent vote by the St. Lawrence County Legislature to table a resolution that would ask the state of New York to require Amish buggies to display orange, reflective triangles. People on both sides of the buggy debate spoke at the meeting. The group supporting the resolution is focused on road safety. Karen Johnson-Weiner, professor of anthropology at SUNY Potsdam and studies the Amish, said the Amish will not use the orange reflectors:

“It’s bright. I’ve heard some say the three-sided reflects the trinity…I’ve heard some say it’s putting belief in a man-made symbol that’s too gaudy for them, they don’t use those bright colors, and at the base those things that are against the Ordnung — the rules each Amish church group sets for themselves — are against their understanding of how they should be as Christians in the world.” [Blogger’s note: some Amish groups have accepted the placement of the orange triangle on their buggies while others do not. Non-Amish drivers should perhaps be asked to bear a symbol of their high speed and assertiveness…not sure what it would be].

Bugs for dinner tonight?

The Huffington Post carried an article on how eating bugs has not spread in Western cultures in spite of attempts to promote them as an edgy new food source in high end restaurants. It points out that, while millions of people around the world rely on insects as part of their diet, people in Western cultures typically don’t seek out insects to eat. The article draws on commentary from Julie Lesnik, an associate professor of anthropology at Wayne State University who specializes in entomophagy. She points out the cost factor which makes a steak dinner more expensive than a specialty insect dish at a restaurant. In addition is what she calls the ick factor: many Westerners have been taught from a young age to associate insects with the spread of disease or to think of them as agricultural pests, “a stigma translated into disgust and then we don’t eat them.” From an evolutionary perspective, Lesnik notes that when humans first arrived in Europe and North America, it would have been covered in ice and so insects were not available as an edible resource. She feels that the chances of major growth in insect consumption in the United States is not likely to happen since she knows of no example of a group who stopped or drastically reduced eating an affordable, readily available protein (such as beef) in favor of a more expensive, less available one (such as crickets). Continue reading “Anthro in the news 5/11/15” →

My village in Nepal is gone

By Kathryn March

My heart is heavier than the Heart Sutra, which is usually translated as: “Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Gone. Gone. Gone beyond. Gone altogether beyond.”

Mhanegang, Nepal, where David Holmberg, Ph.D. ’80, professor of anthropology, and I have worked for 40-plus years, is gone.

Nepal6_460 — Students dance with Mhanegang villagers.

According to our longtime friend, host and research partner, Suryaman Tamang, all the houses in Mhanegang have been destroyed. They already have lost 17 people in this one small community. Up the mountain, in Balche,Jay Tamang reports that 30 people were killed by a single landslide. And at the head of the valley, according to Sarita Lopchen Himdung, the large, dense community of Bomtang was flattened. Cremation pyres have been burning almost nonstop throughout the entire Salankhu Khola valley, where these villages are located, in the very severely hit Nuwakot District.

I can almost hear the keening of mourners all the way here in Ithaca.

It is incredible to me that we were just in Mhanegang a few weeks ago. The Cornell Nepal Study Program (CNSP) students and faculty were with us there a few weeks before that. We sang and danced well into the night: The CNSP students showed everyone the macarena and square dancing; the Mhanegang villagers taught the CNSP students Tamang line and circle dancing. There were newborn goats and fried doughnuts. The students bathed at the spring in the sun.

Mhanegang, like all of Nepal, was, of course, very lucky that the first earthquake occurred at noon, when few people were asleep or in their houses, and on a Saturday, when no one was at school. Most people were relaxing or working outside with family and friends. They are not lucky now. Everything they had is buried under the rubble of their houses. They are not on anyone’s relief radar. And the quaking continues.

Nepal460 — A village man tries to salvage belongings through collapsed roof after the Nepal earthquake.

The initial quake was centered a bit to the west of Mhanegang near Barpak, but according to geologists, the shallow nature of this quake meant that its greatest devastation rippled out to the east – right toward Mhanegang. And, of course, hundreds of other villages. Estimates are that 90 percent of the houses in Rasuwa district were destroyed. U.S. Fulbright Scholar Austin Lord gives a vivid account of how terrifying it was to be in Langtang during the earthquake. Yale anthropologist Sara Shneiderman, Ph.D. ’09, and anthropologist Mark Turin report extensive damage in Dolakha. Roshan Phyuba Tamang visited his home village of Darkka in Dhading and posted photos of the damage, which are still among the only pictures available from the region between the epicenter and Kathmandu.

Unfortunately this earthquake isn’t done yet either. The U.S. Geological Survey reports a total of 40 separate quakes/aftershocks, including three “significant” ones: the original 7.8 quake, followed by a 6.6 roughly 3 hours later a little further east, and the next day by a 6.7 one at Kodari, following the pattern of movement observed by the geologists – from the original epicenter east and a little north.

And it’s not just the ongoing repeatedly quaking earth that is shocking – although it must make everything seem very terrifyingly impermanent indeed. The people in Mhanegang and the other villages most directly in the path of this earthwreck are going to become very desperate very soon. They need medical attention, blankets, tents and food. Their water systems and sanitation need to be fixed. They will need almost unimaginable amounts of help rebuilding their homes. And lives. And hearts. As a village friend of Shneiderman said, “My heart can’t stop shaking.”

Kathryn S. March, Ph.D. ’79, is a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She has worked on questions of anthropology, gender and social change in Himalayan Asia since 1973.

Note: this post is republished from the Cornell Chronicle, with permission.

Anthro in the news 5/4/15

Getting help to Nepal’s rural poor

Cultural anthropologists Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin published an op-ed in The Globe and Mail (Canada) urging that mechanisms be put in place in Nepal “to ensure that the relief reaches far beyond the capital of Kathmandu to remote, rural areas, where the devastation is least reported but most widespread. The loss of world heritage sites in Kathmandu’s urban center is visually striking, but it is now time to look elsewhere.” Shneiderman is assistant professor in the anthropology department at the University of British Columbia, and Mark Turin is chair of the First Nations Languages Program and associate professor of anthropology at UBC.

Helping earthquake victims vs. protecting material heritage

Newsweek described the situation in Kathmandu, where temples collapsed and stone sculptures and other valuable material heritage items lie in heaps. The article quotes cultural anthropologist and Nepal expert, Sara Shneiderman of the University of British Columbia, about the possibility of theft, in spite of many official and volunteer guards: “I wouldn’t be surprised if people were taking advantage of the current situation…There is a long history of stolen temple art, much of which turns up in auctions and so forth. And in a situation where people are desperate to secure their own resources, you can understand why people might do this.” In terms of the trade-off between helping people and protecting material heritage: “I think it is right that police should be focused on relief efforts and not necessarily on protecting statues,” says Shneiderman. “Though it would be sad if there were some loss in that regard.”

Nepal’s challenge in managing aid influx

The Hays Daily News (Kansas) carried an article about the possibly insurmountable administrative challenge to the country of Nepal after the earthquake. Sara Shneiderman, anthropology professor at the University of British Columbia, said possible corruption and weak links between Kathmandu and rural areas, where approximately 90 percent of Nepal’s 28 million people live, could make it difficult for officials to set priorities: “Most people’s first impulse is to do the best they can, but with large funds there is always that risk (of misallocation).” Continue reading “Anthro in the news 5/4/15” →