Like clockwork (or a comet, perhaps), the noisiest problem in anthropology makes its return every few years. And this year we are blessed with the two noisiest comets in anthropology returning together. Both Diamond and Chagnon have new books and, more importantly, new book campaigns with money for appearances and exposure to media outlets. Even better, they both have stone axes to grind.
The worst slur slung by both Chagnon and Diamond is that cultural anthropology is an unrepentantly anti-scientific activity that has intentionally turned away from the dominate paradigm in the biological and behavioral sciences in favor of navel gazing. The obvious follow-up question on the lips of bloggers and journalists alike becomes: What the hell is wrong with cultural anthropology?
The hyperbolic leader in this round of hippie bashing is Razib Khan whose blog bio says he has “an academic background in the biological sciences.” In a lovely post entitled Against The Cultural Anthropologists, Khan writes, “The reason I post about cultural anthropology now and then isn’t that I want to argue or discuss with cultural anthropologists. Rather, I want to aid in spreading the message the discipline should be extirpated from the academy, just as Creationists have been extirpated from biology.”
Sidebar: I make the hippie bashing comparison jokingly, but I think the comparison isn’t far off base. The metaphors and sentiments are similar. At the very least, there is the sense that the moral economy, and particularly the scientific establishment at the center of the moral economy is somehow under threat from an unwashed (literally) group of skeptics.
While the line between self-reflection and narcissism may be thinner than anyone wants to admit, cultivating a critical attitude towards knowledge production should be accepted as the starting point for scientific inquiry, not as an obstacle to it. As the field of STS studies has demonstrated time and again, the process of scientific inquiry, even in the controlled environs of a laboratory, is messy business. And the field further demonstrates that there is always a gap between the lived reality of an experiment and its idealized reconstruction in reports and journal articles.
That cultural anthropologists have long been concerned with exposing some of what Pickering termed the “mangle” in their practice is not a sign of laggardness or a slouch into solipsism, but rather an institutionalized form of critical practice. And, it must be this way in cultural anthropology because the position of researcher to researched is far complex and nuanced than it is for laboratory science, or those like Chagnon and Diamond who believe that they are doing science in a laboratory idiom.
The recent #overlyhonestmethods topic on Twitter would seem to hilariously demonstrate that quite a few “hard” scientists are fully aware of the uncomfortable gap between their practice and what they are institutionally allowed to report.
For the last 18 months I have been conducting research in a DIYBio lab, and I have worked on several projects over that span. In the laboratory, it is routine to make nature uniform so that experimental results can be predicted and repeated. The importance of a hypothesis rests precisely on the assumption that, for a brief moment, the workings of some small part of the world can be made uniform. Away from the bench, in the world of language and social life, this illusion quickly falls apart. It also falls apart when some piece of lab equipment malfunctions, but that is another story.
But, what of the dominant paradigm that Chagnon and Diamond use and which cultural anthropologists deny? Certainly this must be SCIENCE as it was meant to be. The paradigm that informs Chagnon, Diamond and their chorus of supporters in the blogosphere is an adherence to the modern synthesis in evolutionary biology. To be more specific, they are both, more or less, sociobiologists who believe in genetic determinism.
For fields like population genetics, evolutionary psychology and sociobiology, the gene is a unit of calculation in the exact sense formulated by Johannsen in 1909. This is unproblematic if one understands that in this conception, a gene is more rhetorical topic than scientific fact. And, like Geertz noted of “mind”, when deployed in this sense by Diamond and Chagnon, a “gene” is a social concept which explains behavior, values, attitudes and social mores.
The problem comes in considering the gene as a unit which transmits determinate behavioral traits on a one-to-one basis, which is precisely what Chagnon does. Why are the fierce people so fierce? Because they inherit the genes from the most violent males among them. Note also, that in Chagonon’s formulation, women are of little import except as carriers of genetic information.
In contrast, the molecular view of the gene has undergone what can only be called a deconstruction since 1909. In the molecular view, the gene, as a unit, can be located in multiple spots (some quite mysterious) and behave in any number of surprising ways. It is, in the molecular view, far from the kind of determinate factor which Chagnon and Diamond rely upon for their analysis. At best, the molecular gene fuzzily transmits traits, more or less.
For example the definition of a gene given in the 4th edition of Molecular Cell Biology is “the entire nucleic acid sequence that is necessary for the synthesis of a functional polypeptide.” In other words, a gene is a string of macromolecules that code for a protein. Note that the one-to-one correspondence between gene and behavior is absent and in its place has been substituted a definition which leaves open questions of the relation of elementary to complex phenomena.
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Ethnography.com: Gene Promoters: On Chagnon and Diamond
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C L O S E R: Zwarte Piet, Black Pete – The Documentary
Closer Blog: "Black Pete, Zwarte Piet: The Documentary" by Shantrelle P. Lewis. A film about the blackface tradition of Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands. Problematic? Or are the Dutch just having holiday fun? Read more: Zwarte Piet, Black Pete – The Documentary
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Keywords: World of Birds
You’d think that Hualien, perched against the Pacific Ocean and separated by mountains from the concrete jungles of Taiwan’s West Coast, would be as far as one can get from where I grew up: New York City. And, indeed, it sometimes feels that way: like when I want a bagel, or an off-broadway play, or to hear John Zorn make some noise on his saxophone. But sometimes Hualien can remind me of home… in the most unexpected ways.
A couple of times a week I go hiking in the mountain behind my house. A well maintained state park, the trails are nearly empty most of the week and you can clearly hear the sounds of the forest. Sometimes you hear monkeys, or insects, but most of the time you hear birds. Birdwatching in Taiwan is impossible if you aren’t trained to identify bird songs — the thick vegetation makes it impossible to see the birds, you can only hear them. A friend once bought me a CD of Taiwanese bird calls, but I never had the time to study them.
["World of Birds." Photo by John Dunstan. See photo on Flickr.]
How is it that the sounds of a tropical forest in Taiwan could remind me of New York City? The answer lies in my annual childhood trips to the “Lila Acheson Wallace World of Birds” at the Bronx Zoo. Designed by Morris Ketchum and Associates in 1972 the building’s brutal exterior hides the rich open aviary inside. The second you walk in you hear the birds. I don’t remember the various bird species they had or even where they were from, but do I remember visiting the zoo as a kid and loving to spend time inside that magical world behind the concrete walls. Now, when I walk up the mountain behind my house, I sometimes feel like I’m still a kid at the zoo. As if my whole life is a dream and I’m still there, asleep on a bench in the World of Birds…
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trinketization: STREET MUSIC: POEMS with Mike Marqusee Goldsmiths 21.3.13
One of Britain’s best-regarded social observers will be reading a selection from his recent collection of poetry. This deeply personal collection of poems from one of Britain’s most highly regarded left-wing writers and social observers represents the author’s first foray into verse and a landmark in his writing career. Mike Marqusee was born and raised [...]
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trinketization: Algeria, Mali: Another Chapter in the “Global War On Terror”? SOAS 9.3.13
Saturday March 9th at 4:30pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG [www.facebook.com] [www.opendemocracy.net] As the dreadful hostage crisis at the BP-operated In Amenas gas plant in Algeria came to an end on January 19th, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron claimed, like George Bush Jr and Tony Blair before him, that the country faced an [...]
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Shenzhen Noted: walls and sun
Today I walked the OCT Eastern Group buildings between meetings.
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AAA blog: AAA Office closed today
The AAA office is closed today, Wednesday, March 6th, due to the snowstorm the DC area is currently experiencing. Have a warm and safe day! Filed under: Association Business
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Erkan in the Army now...: The Peace Process in Turkey goes like this: PM criticizes media/threatenes media freedom, slams opposition leaders, Opposition insults back and labels him as traitor…
MEMO FROM DIYARBAKIR; Turkey Renews Focus on Ending Its Long Conflict With Kurds
from NYT > Turkey by By TIM ARANGO; Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Diyarbakir, and Ceylan Yeginsu from Istanbul.
One of the region’s most intractable conflicts may be nearing a close, thanks to the determination of the prime minister, yet ending violence will not end tension
Turkish PM Erdoğan slams opposition parties over “peace talks”
from Hurriyet Daily News
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan strongly criticized opposition parties.
Turkish PM Erdoğan continues harsh criticism of media
from Hurriyet Daily News
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today maintained his angry criticism.
İmralı leak fuels political fight over press freedom
from Hurriyet Daily News
The media cannot hide behind freedom of the press if it upsets the country’s “national interests,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday.
Turkish PM’s media criticism concerning: International Press Institute
from Hurriyet Daily News
Harsh criticism by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Is serious journalism still possible?
from Hurriyet Daily News
Almost exactly the same time as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan was grilling daily Milliyet.
Leaking politics
from Hurriyet Daily News
Another bomb was blasted on the path of the peace process, when documents of the recent talks.
Kışanak: PKK Will Release State Officers
from Bianet :: English
“We have met KCK Executive Secretary Murat Karayılan in Qandil Mountain who pledged the release of Turkish state officers captured in 2011,” Peace and Democracy Party Co-Chairperson Kışanak said.
Turkey: The prisoner on Imrali
from FT.com – Analysis
Ankara is negotiating directly with the Kurds to end a deadly conflict but doubts about the prospects for a historic deal linger. By Daniel Dombey
When Peace Is a Bigger Threat Than Insurgency
from Kamil Pasha by Jenny White
In an unprecedented move after three decades of PKK insurgency and violent retaliation by the Turkish military that has killed more than 40,000 people, the Turkish government is talking to the PKK about peace. Official talks between the Turkish government and the PKK through its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan are proceeding despite what appear to be attempts within the PKK to stop them (the recent assassinations of three Kurdish women activists in Paris, including an important figure close to Ocalan) and opposition in Turkish parliament.
Turks and Kurds look to Good Friday accords as template for peace
from World news: Turkey | guardian.co.uk by Ian Traynor
Both sides visit London, Belfast and Dublin to learn methodology and psychology that led to negotiations breakthrough
While Turkish and Kurdish leaders wait for the music to start in their fragile “peace process”, they have already jointly taken to the dance floor, warily exploring whether enemies can become partners.
Whose heads will roll after ‘Apoleaks’?
from Hurriyet Daily News
The Ankara visit of the new US Secretary of State John Kerry took place on an interesting day.
Does BDP favor presidential system?
from Hurriyet Daily News
The echoes of the meeting held by Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies Pervin Buldan
Turkey’s Erdogan rules out amnesty for Kurdish rebels
Turkish PM Erdoğan regrets lack of support from opposition for resolution
from Hurriyet Daily News
In the last two decades, both governments and opposition parties have preferred postponing.
Turkish PM slams media over Kurdish talks leak, denounces ‘dark operation’
from Hurriyet Daily News
Turkish PM Erdoğan blasted on March 2 the leak to the Turkish press of details of a meeting between the jailed leader of PKK..
PKK could release captives in the next 10 days: BDP co-chair
from Hurriyet Daily News
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Gültan Kışanak said that the captives abducted by the PKK could be freed in the next 10 days.
Turkish PM Erdoğan, PKK leader Öcalan are Siamese twins: Nationalist leader
from Hurriyet Daily News
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli describes PKK leader..
Related posts:
Öcalan says finalization in 2-3 weeks, Erdoğan says peace process starts after PKK militans leave Turkey…
Heavy snow, earthquake in the Agean region..While gov’t-PKK peace talks continue.. Politics roundup…
As “Turkey enters key week in Kurdish solution bid”, “Angry Mob Winds Up Kurdish Deputies in Sinop…
The Economist article: “Erdogan and his generals”… ‘Imralı process’ continues…
No EU, No opposition in AKP congress, PM Erdoğan hosts Hamas leader, Iraqi leaders, calls on Germany, France to take action against Islamophobia…
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trinketization: ANTI-WAR RETROSPECTIVE OF THE LAST DECADE – 15.3.13 Goldsmiths
Ten years since the invasion of Iraq, what is the state of the anti-war movement? TriContinental Anti-Imperialist Platform TriContinental Anti-Imperialist Platform is a newly set up organisation that seeks to champion the causes of the peoples of the GlobalSouth through GlobalSouth Diaspora leadership for people-centred progress and the central challenges to the GlobalSouth which remains [...]
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The Global Sociology Blog: The Visual Du Jour – A Mystery
What? What could possibly explain this trend?
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tabsir.net: Blushing among the qat leaves: a Yemeni poem
The following Yemeni poem about qat (Catha edulis), accompanied by the photograph above of a Yemeni girl, was provided by a friend.
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The Naked Anthropologist: The Em- of Empowerment: Neoliberal missonaries and maternalism
I remember where I first heard the word empowerment. It was a poor, not very attractive place, the kind celebrities visit to have feel-good photos taken of themselves hugging children who appear to adore them. The girls at Somaly Mam’s over-visited home for ex-victims of trafficking are regularly required to perform the emotional work of gazing happily at rich visitors from abroad (as in this shot the US State Department has the nerve to call ‘diplomacy’).
Celebrity Rescuers like Shay Mitchell imagine they are experiencing Love:
My friends and I went to [a Mam] center, and we literally got out of the truck and the younger girls were running to me and my friends. They hadn’t met us before, they had no idea who we were. They didn’t care. It was just the fact we’d come to visit — that was enough for them to come up and give us a hug. They were saying, “Sister, sister.” That was unconditional love like I’ve never felt in my entire life.
That’s a lot of naiveté, even for a missionary. Do these folks actually not know that oft-visited residents have learned how they are meant to greet fat-cat visitors? And there’s a jolly neoliberal proposition:
Somaly has heart-and-hand necklaces . . . They’re survivor-made products and when you purchase them, you’re helping a survivor become financially self-sufficient.
Self-sufficient – Is she kidding? Mam’s website is characterised by statements like We help victims of sex slavery to become survivors, and empower survivors as part of the solution. Thirteen years ago I wrote the following piece daring to doubt the idea of empowerment, and I haven’t changed my mind today. (More repellent feel-good photos here, if you can stomach them. Below, I do believe some of the faces from another Mam photo shoot are the same as above)
The Em- of Empowerment: Injecting pride in unwilling subjects?
Laura Agustín, Research for Sex Work, 3, 15-16.
The verb is transitive: someone gives power to another, or encourages them to take power or find power in themselves. It’s used among those who want to help others identified as oppressed. In Latin America, in educación popular, one of the great cradles of this kind of concept, the word itself didn’t exist until it was translated back from English. To many people, if they know it at all, the word empoderamiento sounds strange. It’s an NGO word, used by either volunteer or paid educators who view themselves as helpers of others or fighters for social justice, and is understood to represent the current politically correct way of thinking about ‘third world’, subaltern or marginalised people. But it remains a transitive verb, which places emphasis on the helper and her vision of her capacity to help, encourage and show the way. These good intentions, held also by 19th-century European missionaries, we know from experience do not ensure non-exploitation.
In the current version of these good intentions, ‘first-world’ people and entities use their funds to help or empower those less privileged. They spend money to set up offices and pay salaries, many to people who remain in offices, often engaged in writing proposals that will allow them to stay in business. These organisations have hierarchies, and those engaged in education or organisation at the grassroots level often are the last to influence how funds will be used. Those closer to the top, who attend conferences, live in Europe or have career interests in the organisation, know how proposals must be written to compete in the crowded funding world. This condition of structural power should not be overlooked by those concerned with empowerment, who more often view themselves as embattled, as non-government, as crusaders situated against conservative policies. Yet, when a concept like empowerment comes from above in this way, we needn’t be surprised at the kind of contradictions that result—literacy programmes that don’t keep people interested in reading, AIDS education that doesn’t stop people from refusing to use condoms.
To empower me as a sex worker you assume the role of acting on me and you assume that I see myself as an individual engaged in sex work. If I don’t see myself this way, then I am disqualified from the empowerment project, despite your best intentions. The identity issue here is crucial; funders and activists alike are currently interested in valorising cultural and individual difference. While it is a great advance to recognise and ‘give voice to’ human subjects who were before marginalised or disappeared, the problem remains that if you want to inject pride in me that I am a worker and supporter of my family and I don’t recognise or want to think of myself that way, the advance won’t occur, in my case.
But, you say, those are the real conditions, we live in a world of funders and partial successes. We’re doing the best we can, and we acknowledge that these empowerment projects often fail. Since it’s to no one’s benefit that successes be quite so partial, let’s consider whether there is any way which this empowerment concept might be conceived differently, forgetting for the moment the funder and his funds.
In educación popular, in programmes sometimes called capacitación [capacity-building], people get together to talk, sometimes with the encouragement of a person from ‘outside’. This person might be called an animadora or an educator, her job to facilitate conditions where subjects might realise they have a problem in common which, if they acted together, they might be able to move toward solving. I’m describing a very fundamental, ‘pure’ version, perhaps, now complicated in many places in many ways by different histories, international contacts, hybrid forms. Still, it’s worth considering what the most basic idea always has been.
Here, the most the outsider does is provide the suggestion of a time and place, with perhaps a very basic reason for getting together, perhaps just ‘meeting neighbours’. Who finds out about this meeting? Everyone who lives there, if it’s a village or small barrio and people talk to each other fairly freely. Letting people know can be an important task of the outsider. Sometimes, in larger places, an ‘identity’ is targeted, but it can be a very general identity, such as everyone concerned to improve conditions in the community.
The educator/animator might suggest the group talk about a topic such as how to get running water, bus service or rubbish collection—topics of concern to everyone, including sex workers. Or she might present a question—such as why everyone is talking about migrating to work somewhere else—and hope people will respond. But if they don’t, and if nothing seems to happen, her job is to resist the temptation to push the conversation. The hope is rather that if people feel free to talk, they will, eventually, if only to see if others share their feelings. This process can be extremely slow and even invisible, and no money or materials from outside are required. The profound assumption is rather that people themselves already know a lot—what they want, what they need. If they agree after some time that a technical fact or help is needed that none of them possess, then they might feel ‘empowered’ to search for that fact on the outside.
Does the ‘outsider’actually need to be there during this process? The answer depends on the person, on how quietly encouraging she is, on how patient and undisappointed if the group doesn’t take off, agree on anything or if it agrees to a programme the opposite of what the funders want.
Can this vision be applied when funders seem concerned solely with the sex organs of people assumed to ‘identify’ themselves as sex workers? If educators must ‘target’ prostitutes as those who come to a meeting? Perhaps, if the same kind of mostly undirected sharing of experiences is encouraged. Many times sex workers will then be heard to discuss not sex, clients and condoms—the topics always brought up by funders—but all the other aspects of their lives, which are not peculiar to them as sex workers. They might talk about a new song, a new dress, a new club—or a new idea for getting together to protect and help each other.
–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist
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Museum Anthropology: Student Spotlights: Human Evolution Traveling Trunk Kit at New Mexico State University
Student Spotlights: Human Evolution Traveling Trunk Kit at New Mexico State University
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Aidnography - Development as anthropological object: Links & Contents I Liked 66
Hello all,First a rather technical announcement: Since I have received a few messages regarding subscription options I have updated the forms for email subscription and RSS - so you will hopefully never miss a post again ;)!Now back to the contents! This week's list has a bit of a 'critical journalism' topic, ranging from critique of The Observer's portrait of Kony 2012's Jason Russell to (more) critique of Nick Kristof's reporting and new research on Mother Teresa that casts her legacy in a more complex light. An American war resisters story is well worth the read, followed by a 'link I disliked': The story of Ernst & Young's corporate volunteering program is an interesting example of elite language and corporate discourses creeping into their 'corporate responsibility' approach. 'Reaching those beyond big data' is my Women's Day recommendation as it combines ethnography, critical research on and around big (digital) data & engaging with + empowering women on the margins of society. Finally, two great posts on the value of 'student evaluations' in academia and how alternative metrics can enhance your reputation even further... Enjoy!New on aidnographyIs silence still golden? The curious case of Jim Kim's World Bank leadershipHave you heard from the World Bank recently? Or, more precisely, have you read much about the Bank recently? I haven’t.Given the amount of debate during the nomination process, Kim’s first months in office have really turned out well for the Bank – from an organizational communications standpoint.Any question about the legitimacy of the nomination process, accountability of the Bank or other criticisms all but died down when the Korean-American medical doctor/anthropologist took over the leadership of the Bank in July 2012.So what can ‘we’ (development researchers, political scientists, blogger) learn from this ‘golden silence’ that has since engulfed the Bank and took it out of the critical headlines? Development Taxation and foreign investment: Some counterintuitive evidence from ChileThe conclusion is not, of course, that higher taxes attract foreign investors. It is, though, that the serious and economically sophisticated international investor looks at a host of factors, including the availability of raw materials, the quality of the labour force, the institutional and legal context, and the investment climate as whole, of which taxation is only a part, and clearly not a deciding oneDespite years of repeating the mantra, companies do not just focus on taxation when deciding about investments. If they are interested in the product and can still make a good profit after tax they are likely to still invest!The Guardian’s thoughtless interview with Kony2012 creator Jason RussellAll very luvvy. Seduced by Southern California, by new media, by Americans who “care”, Cadwalladr gloriously misses the point. There is nothing heroic about running a cushy, big-spending non-profit that works hand-in-glove with the CIA and the US military. Russell’s central proposition — parroted by Cadwalladr — that he has succeeded in making Joseph Kony famous, is completely absurd. The man has been the ICC’s most-wanted since 2005, and was globally notorious many years before that. As usual, there’s no mention of the fact that the US, alone among Western nations, still won’t ratify the Rome statute — why would that be relevant? Critics of Kony2012 are caricatured and dismissed. Vicious online bullies of the well-intentioned chap who tried to organize America’s teenagers to take part in the world’s biggest manhunt. Cadwalladr hasn’t done a whole lot of thinking about Kony2012 and race, and she is clearly absolutely ignorant about Uganda. I know that The Observer is not the Guardian, but the interview really made me wonder how seriously these publications development issues really take. I don't mind a 'pop culturalized' portrait of the Kony 2012 affair per se, but the editors and journalists from the Observer apparently don't talk to the development colleagues 'next door'?! At least to get a tokenistic critical quote from them?! So is 'development' just confined to a Gates-supported filter bubble on the Guardian's website?!Mother Teresa: anything but a saint... Mother Teresa was generous with her prayers but rather miserly with her foundation's millions when it came to humanity's suffering. During numerous floods in India or following the explosion of a pesticide plant in Bhopal, she offered numerous prayers and medallions of the Virgin Mary but no direct or monetary aid. On the other hand, she had no qualms about accepting the Legion of Honour and a grant from the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Millions of dollars were transferred to the MCO's various bank accounts, but most of the accounts were kept secret, Larivée says. “Given the parsimonious management of Mother Theresa's works, one may ask where the millions of dollars for the poorest of the poor have gone?”(...)Despite Mother Teresa's dubious way of caring for the sick by glorifying their suffering instead of relieving it, Serge Larivée and his colleagues point out the positive effect of the Mother Teresa myth: “If the extraordinary image of Mother Teresa conveyed in the collective imagination has encouraged humanitarian initiatives that are genuinely engaged with those crushed by poverty, we can only rejoice. It is likely that she has inspired many humanitarian workers whose actions have truly relieved the suffering of the destitute and addressed the causes of poverty and isolation without being extolled by the media. Nevertheless, the media coverage of Mother Theresa could have been a little more rigorous.”Interesting summary of a study from the University of Montreal (and I openly admit that this is the first time I have heard of a 'Deparment of psychoeducation'...); it's probably not just Mother Teresa and her work, but much of the pre-Internet age is to some extent hidden from view and shaped by powerful mainstream media and institutions (BBC & catholic church) rather than a critical blogger who wrote from the heart of Calcutta...Op-Ed: Nicholas Kristof and the Politics of Writing About Women’s Oppression in Darker NationsKristof never really explores in depth in his book, documentary, or his columns about how his position as an American, white, male journalist or how his power and privilege as a New York Times columnist allow him to trespass other cultures and become an observer to human tragedies. How does he get to interview a young girl from Somaliland about genital cutting?(...)Prior to their arrival on the scene of emancipation, it seems there were no other social movements in Africa and Asia. Half The Sky is a brilliantly constructed heroic narrative of American saviors, who in one stroke, manage to erase over 200 years of efforts by South Asians and Africans to resist the brutality of European colonialism and their struggles for women’s upliftment, human rights of Dalits, anti-corruption movements, and the like.Sunil Bhatia (a man at an American higher education institution) makes some excellent points about some of the shortcomings of Nick Kristof's work...maybe 'the Internet' is not simply changing the power of mainstream media and discourses and today's Mother Teresa may team up social media-savvy charities to spread her work?!Making a game of Nick Kristof’s Half the Sky movementIn a conversation via email, Moore said that they game was detached from reality because it forces the player into binary decisions. “You’re given these binary options that, in real life, wouldn’t really be binary. Admittedly this format would be impossible to actually use as a tool of empowerment, but the damage could have been lessened if the options were neither binary nor market-based,” she explained. Other questions were raised by individuals who would not speak on the record. These people questioned the efficacy of the money spent on the project. It applies a multi-platform version of storytelling called transmedia storytelling. Half the Sky takes the next step into Transmedia Activism by engaging its viewers to become activists in women’s empowerment. The $15 million budget represents what appears to be the largest amount spent on a such a campaign. There were also questions about the portrayal of the characters in the game. Radhika with her larger head and oversize anime-style eyes is seen as a caricature, a ‘Disneyification” of women and girls that contributes to, rather than argues against, objectification. Some even felt them borderline racist. Moore raised questions about the production of the game citing it as an industry with few women and even fewer opportunities for them.Tom Murphy does an excellent job in reviewing the pros and cons of the gamification of Half the Sky and broader issues of the 'movement' started by Nick Kristof and his writings.Foreign Funding of NGOsFor several thinktanks, it is often hard to figure out something as basic as the nature of the legal entity through which they conduct their activities. Are they societies, associations or trusts? More pertinently, why is the Government not pushing for a stricter transparency regime? A major stumbling block may be the fact that these thinktanks are set up under state laws and it is difficult for the Central Government to coordinate a nationwide transparency regime. However, given that most are beneficiaries of income tax exemptions, it may be possible for the Centre to use the Income Tax Act to demand comprehensive disclosures. Since they enjoy tax benefits, they might also qualify as ‘public authorities’ under the Right To Information Act, 2005. Another reason that disclosure of funding is important is to inform the analysis of people who usually see NGOs as selfless entities dedicated to nothing but a higher cause. While this may be true of some NGOs, many leaders of these set-ups have personal stakes in ensuring certain outcomes. After all, future donor grants often depend on sustaining one’s influence in the policy space. Many of the institutions described in this article have been regular recipients of funds from the same sources year after year.Interesting piece on the emerging Indian Think Tank and NGO sector-as new donors arise, some rather traditional questions around transparency and accountability are also emerging in the 'BRIC' context.A war resister speaks from the heartInstead of returning to Fort Hood Texas after my two-week leave, I left for Canada thinking it would be better than risking my life again or killing for unjust reasons. The Canadian people were very kind and I fell in love and had a beautiful child with a Canadian citizen. I had a job and then after living free with a clearer conscience for three years, I received a letter of deportation from the Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper when my son was only months old. First person stories like this one by Rodney Watson are always an important reminder that the dynamics of resisting war have to be fought by every single soldier who goes 'AWOL' and who struggles to rebuild a life.Fostering Adaptability and Change Through ICVAs the world becomes increasingly interconnected, resilient dynamism—a flexible and energetic approach to solving problems everywhere—is an increasingly valuable quality for people and organizations. ICV programs can help to encourage adaptability in the people who volunteer and the companies they work for, and at the same time help emerging economies develop new approaches to growth.Quite frankly, this is not really a 'link I like'...I'm sure think that Ernst & Young really has the greater good in mind with its corporate responsibility approaches; but the depoliticized, managerial language, at some points close to an artistic arrangement of fancy buzzwords, hides the 'heart and soul' of these initiatives really well...this short article comes off as super-elitists and straight out of a boardroom presentation at Ernst & Young and based on an understanding of volunteering as a continuation and perpetuation of their day-to-day business practices...I would really advise the people and organizations involved to communicate differently...Tipsheets and tutorialsThe CAR conference offers something for everyone, from beginners to those on the cutting edge of digital reporting. We'll offer everything from the basics on using spreadsheets, databases and online mapping to data science and the latest technological advances. You'll come away with, story ideas, plenty inspiration and tools to help you overcome typical data hurdles. Learn from the best in the business in panel discussions and during hands-on training sessions. Bypass the budget issues in your newsroom by taking classes in free software. Get a look at what the biggest names in data-driven reporting are using to make a major impact online.The tipsheets from the recent Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR) conference look also very useful for development communication in its broadest sense!AnthropologyObama picks Gina McCarthy to lead EPA She's a pragmatist with an anthropology degree. McCarthy majored in social anthropology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 1976, a decision that wouldn't seem to put her on track to become EPA administrator 37 years later. But she also got a joint master's degree from Tufts University in environmental health engineering and planning and policy, and those who know her say her natural pragmatism makes her well-suited to lead the EPA. On a side-note: Just because 'anthropology' pops up somewhere in your CV that doesn't 'make' you anything necessarily...Reaching Those Beyond Big DataIn spending more time with them and testing concepts and language, often in Mad Libs style, we figured out what would register: passports. Most trafficked persons had had their passports confiscated, as a means of control. Here was something they wanted back, more than “getting out of trafficking”.(...)As humans, we are biased toward looking for information in places where information is quick to find and easy to work with––these days, that largely means digital and online. Or we tend to get information from familiar sources and people. But, I’d ask us to consider who we miss in the process. Many of us are working hard to build a more open, connected, and efficient world, but I hope we don’t lose sight of those like Fatou who will never be captured in our datasets.Ethnography, critical research on and around digital data & engaging + empowering vulnerable women - this is clearly my International Women's Day recommendation from my favorite anthropology blog! AcademiaThe Unnecessary Agony of Student EvaluationsI liked European attitudes toward student evaluations. But I wouldn’t want to live with them. They were dismayingly unhelpful. Still, students are not customers, and professors are not service providers. American universities use the myth of consumer power to sell themselves. Few professors are fired because of student evaluations—except those who are most vulnerable, that is, adjuncts at the very lowest rungs of the academic industry. But all of us internalize the responses we get; we’re told to be tough inside when they are negative. We somehow believe them, as if they are truths objectively obtained. Students once ourselves, we hunger for grades and approval. Regardless of how many times our colleagues tell us not to worry over the bad evaluations, and not to let the good ones go to our heads, we are still very much students inside, seeking grades.Good post about the thin line between useful student feedback and the neoliberal construction of 'customers' and 'service providers' in academia.A Measure of ‘Readability’Tim anticipates that this new kind of readability metric will also help him when it comes to the “business-side” of science writing.“Granting agencies need to know, ‘if we’ve funded you in the past, did you publish anything? And, if you published something, did anyone read it?’ That’s a new facet of the whole grant application process: to include some evidence that people are reading your work. That’s why Academia.edu is potentially very, very useful to build confidence in yourself, in your team, and in your potential granters.” As newly tenured faculty member, Tim adds, “that, for me, is the next chapter.”The new Academia.edu blog does an excellent job so far to highlight some of the new tools and approaches of reputation building and 'impact' that alternative sites like theirs can help when you need to prove your impact in academic settings.
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The Subversive Archaeologist: More on Blombos Bombast at ScienceNow
Michael Balter's latest at ScienceNow, about some more shell-bead bombast from Blombos Cave:Human Ancestors Were Fashion ConsciousMy comment can be viewed here.SA announces new posts on the Subversive Archaeologist's facebook page (mirrored on Rob Gargett's news feed), on Robert H. Gargett's Academia.edu page, Rob Gargett's twitter account, and his Google+ page. A few of you have already signed up to receive email when I post. Others have subscribed to the blog's RSS feeds. You can also become a 'member' of the blog through Google Friend Connect. Thank you for your continued patronage. You're the reason I do this.
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AAA blog: Touch in the Classroom: Should Schools Teach Students to Give Each Other Massages?
Written by Elisa (EJ) Sobo Every semester, I teach a college course exploring the interrelationships between human culture and biology. Feedback loops connecting culturally-patterned behavior and body chemistry, such as in the stress response, provide a handy example of our bioculturality. So, among other topics, I have a well-developed unit in my course (and related [...]
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Nineteen years and counting in Papua New Guinea: We implore you Hon MP Byron Chan
Dear Sir:
I work in the Karawari region of the East Sepik where, forthe past 7 years, I have been leading a group of PNG ethnographers andarchaeologists in recording and conserving the enormous cave art system thatriddles the northern escarpment of Mt MacGregor as it falls down the headwatersof the Arafundi and the Karawari Rivers.
Some of the people we work with are amongst the last nomadichunter gatherers in PNG, and the continue to live in these caves with stencilsand images that date back, we believe, 20,000 years. As yet we haven’t had theexpertise to confirm their age, but they are very similar to caves found inBorneo and Western Australia which have been dated to that era. Our efforts arefully endorsed by the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby, and wehave written numerous articles on their importance. The National GeographicSociety, which assists us with small grants, published a story about theMeakambut people in the January 2011 magazine (attached).
For a couple of years we have been aware of gold speculatorstraveling through the area and talking about mineral exploration on both theKarawari and the Arafundi Rivers. Just recently a company called Pristine No18, which is partly owned by Rimbunam Hijau, had applied for an ELA 2008covering the majority of these historic caves and the rainforest where theMeakambut still live and thrive. The northern tip of the ELA includes landowned by neighbours, the Alamblak Yimas peoples, who have very little land toexpand upon and are apparently happy to have their swamplands explored forgold.
But the Meakambut and the entire Penale tribe are adamantlyagainst the exploration. They know that once Pristine #18 has invested inexploration, they will find it impossible to evict them from their lands andforests. And they know what is at stake: Our company, Nancy Sullivan &Assoc, has spent the past 7 years paying all the school fees (and now projectfees), establishing a primary school, and bringing health services (in regularpatrols by a pediatric surgeon from Wewak) to the area. This is our quid proquo for allowing us to study their caves and ultimately produce a book aboutthem. Thus far we have received Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Christensen Fundgrants, as well as National Geographic support. Our interest in the region issincere and longstanding; we have a project that should continue for decadesyet and provide these communities with the income from scientists and communitydevelopment for their future.
For moreinformation about the company and what we do, please see www.nancysullivan.net and forimages of the work we do in the caves, please see the following: www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2014/04/the-meakambut-penale-ewa-alamblak-and-sumariop-get-a-check-up.html
For details aboutthe Pristine # 18 meeting in the village recently, see our blog:
www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2013/03/rh-descends-on-the-meakambut.html
We have the support of Ludwig Schulz, the Angoram MP, and awide swatch of his constituency who have benefitted from our work.
For the MRA representative who attended the meeting, weunderstand that Pristine #18 has 2 weeks to assemble an exploration applicationfor the Ministry’s approval. We seek to circumvent this right away, in theinterest of all the Penale as well as the Ewa and Sumariop people whoseprecious caves and histories will be disturbed by this venture.
To date, we have presented powerpoints on the caves to receptive audiences in Korea, the USA, Australia, Italy and the UK. Because of our high international profile, we will have nochoice but to begin a media campaign in support of our request to keep RH andcommercial mining out of these forests and away from the NATIONAL CULTURALPROPERTY within them. The Ewa people of the upper Karawari have suffered at thehands of art dealers who emptied their caves of carvings before independence andleft them with next to nothing as compensation---while their father’s carvingscontinue to fetch 6 figure prices on the Oceanic art market and can be seen inmuseums across the US and Europe. They too would be victims of this short termgreed if the exploration went forward. It is the government neglect of thisregion for decades that has left the Karawari people so vulnerable toexploitation. They are growing cocoa and other small crops we assist them with,and we continue to raise funds for development projects that would keep them intheir land, where they wish to remain. In an area where there are virtually noaid posts or schools, and where no provincial or national government has heardtheir cries for assistance since Independence, we are confident that aninternational campaign to save the region would go viral quite quickly.
I would be loathe to embarrass the ministry by embarking ona campaign like this. But we have no other choice but to reach out to theMinistry now and ask that you OPPOSE THE APPLICATION BY PRISTINE #18 FOR ELA2008 IN THE Karawari.
Nancy Sullivan
Photos above by Amy Toensig for National Geographic; below by Nancy Sullivan
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hawgblawg: godfather of mahragan ('Adawiya)
via CULTILAXAnd here is one of his best tracks.
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hawgblawg: misc. kufiyas: Paul Robeson in "Jericho" (1937) (+ Princess Kouka)
Robeson as Jericho, Princess Kouka as Gara I've not yet seen it, a friend (Bob) just recommended it to me. It is supposed to be one of Robeson's best film roles. He plays a US GI who gets court-martialed, ends up in North Africa, hooks up with the Touareg, marries into the tribe, marries a Touareg woman, and becomes their leader. And leads them to victory. Can't wait to see it, it's coming soon via Netflix. Bob says that the exteriors were shot in Cairo and that the crew was there a month and that Robeson was looking forward to making another movie with Umm Kalthoum.Meanwhile, Princess Kouka, pictured above, is a well-known Egyptian actress, born Tahia Ibrahim Bilal. Among other things, she appears in the wonderful 1955 film A Cigarette and a Glass (Sigara wa Ka's), starring Samia Gamal and Dalida. Kouka plays Azza. You can rent it from Netflix, and I highly recommend that you do so.Here's a scene for the film. Kouka sings the title song while holding, yes, a cigarette and a glass. And Samia Gamal dances. Of course it's sublime.Dalida also has a great, sultry singing scene in the film.
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Erkan in the Army now...: Emre Cem Pelister (@cempelister): KOCAMAN’DAN TARAFTARA PLZEN HEDİYESİ
KOCAMAN’DAN TARAFTARA PLZEN HEDİYESİ
Dalgalı denizlerin adamı Aykut Kocaman ne yaparsa yapsın patronu ve mürettebatı dışında herkes her fırsatta onu eleştiriyor, hatta Patronu bile hata yapsa “Sen de suçlusun kaptan” deniyor. Kesinlikle hataları olduğuna da inandığım Aykut Kocaman ne yaparsa yapsın kimseye yaranamıyor. Girizgah sonrasını okumayacaklar adına tek bir cümle etmek istiyorum o da, bir rakip takım, bu kadar stresli ve yorucu bir dönemde ancak bu kadar iyi analiz edilebilirdi, tebrikler hocam !
Günün özlü sözü şu “Plzen Napoli’yi nasıl yenmiş ki” Cevabı da çok net ! O Plzen bu Plzen değil çünkü o Plzen’de Limbersky sahadaydı, evet; “o bir sol bek, ne kadar etkisi olabilir ki” seslerini duyar gibiyim. Çok etkisi var çünkü bu takımın alternatifi yok ! Bir sol bek eksikliği yüzünden bu takımda kaç taş yerinden oynadı buyurun birlikte resimde görelim
NAPOLI’YE KARŞI PLZEN
FENERBAHÇE’YE KARŞI PLZEN
Fenerbahçe’ye karşı çıkan 11’e bakacak olursak kare içindeki oyunculardan sadece Rajtoral
Fenerbahçe’ye karşı çıkan 11’e bakacak olursak kare içindeki oyunculardan sadece Rajtoral kendisine yabancı bir bölgede değil fakat o da bu sene en çok verim alındığı bölge olan sağ hücum bloğunu Duris’e emanet etti. Limbersky’nin yokluğunda Sol beke geçen Reznik ise sağ ayağıyla sol bekte bir şeyler yapmaya çalıştı fakat muvaffak olmadı, birçok kez pas hatası yaptı. Hele ki beklerin hücumun bel kemiği olduğu Plzen’de Limbersky’nin yarısı kadar aktif olamadı. Bütün bunların yanında Türk basınının Sol Bek alternatifi olarak gördüğü “FORVET” oyuncusu Duris ise alışkın olmadığı sağ bölgede oranın gerçek sahibi Rajtoral’in katkısına rağmen yetersizdi. Bunlar Plzen tarafanın kendi handikaplarıydı
Bu handikapların sonrasında da Kocaman’ın futbolculara öğrettiği sabır devreye girdi. Herkes Plzen’in kendi yarı sahasında beklediğini, her dengesiz gördüğü savunmayı katledebilecek bir potansiyele sahip olduğunun bilincindeydi ve o fırsatları çok nadir verdi.Fenerbahçe beraberliğin bile altın değerinde olacağı bir maçta doğru analiz ile Plzen’i hiç oynatmadan tur biletinin yarısını cebine koyup döndü ama bu takımın 1-0’ı alt etmek için ne yapacağını hiç kimse bilmiyor ve Limbersky’nin dönüşüyle dişliler yerine oturursa “Taraftarsız” bir maçta hangi sonuçlar çıkar tahmin yürütmek cahillik olur. Umarım “3-0 4-0 bile olablirdi, rakibi çok büyüttük İstanbul’da kolay galibiyet alacağımızı düşünüyorum” diyen Caner Erkin gibi düşünen o takımda sadece Caner Erkin’dir diyerek uzun zaman verdiğim ara sonrası yazdığım bu yazıyı noktalıyorum ve Aykut hocam sana takım elbise çok yakışıyor demek istiyorum.
FENERBAHÇE’YE KARŞI PLZEN
Fenerbahçe’ye karşı çıkan 11’e bakacak olursak kare içindeki oyunculardan sadece Rajtoral
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