Hello all!Welcome to another great weekly link review! The 'development' section features some interesting material including whether the mistreatment of children in conflict zones is a perverse form of acceptable child abuse, how advocacy campaigns can have an impact and the role of IR scholars and scholarship and the war in Iraq. There are two excellent pieces on the impact of voluntourism on children in Ghana and the rituals of UN policy summits (this time it's the Commission on the Status of Women). There's also a special 'not-really-development-related-but-still-interesting-section' this week to change things a little bit...the pieces on how to critically engage with 'research', how to deal with advice and how to work in the post-employment economy are all worthwhile reads. Finally, in 'Academia' an anthropology adjunct talks about his professional dead-ends and why getting a tenured job feels like becoming a Broadway dancer!Just a final gentle reminder that I updated the forms for email subscription and RSS - so you will hopefully never miss a post again ;)!Enjoy! New on aidnography4 reasons why MOOCs should be discussed in international developmentAs MOOCs are gaining more and more momentum, I am more concerned what the rise and the growing interest in/from developing countries may mean for local higher education institutions that are already often underfunded and are struggling to meet the demands for adequate education in the 21st century. On local partnerships, mistaken teaching for 'academia', digital brain gain & why investigating in higher education is still a development issue!Development New Routes - peacebuilding in small spacesThe opening article reflects on the relations between governments and civil society, especially in peacbuilding. In another article, Roger W. Foster and Jayne S. Docherty, Eastern Mennonite University, point to situations when ‘smallness’ in itself is an advantage. James A. Paul, Global Policy Forum, and Henning Melber, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, in their respective articles, picture the UN’s and governments’ attitude towards civil society. Pauliina Parhiala, ACT Alliance, takes up a human rights perspective in her discussion on the challenges of civil society. A number of examples of peacebuilding activities in small spaces are given from former Yugoslavia, Burma/Myanmar and Israel/Palestine.Life & Peace Institute's latest publication.Acceptable Child Abuse? For some reason this targeting of children is not designated as child abuse. Yes, it is not sexual in nature and I assume is not done for personal sexual gratification, but it seems odd that we compartmentalise one set of harms to children and see it as entirely separate from another set of harms. This strikes me as illogical, but very convenient for a lot of military and political leaders. If these people were treated as child abusers then they would be taboo. They would be persona non grata. Think of the photos of world leaders gathered at UN or G20 summits – there would be quite a few gaps if the child abusers were removed. But, for some reason, many people find the killing and maiming of children acceptable but sexual abuse unacceptable. This seems to be like the most appalling double standard. Both are wrong and we should call the targeting of children what is really is: child abuse.Roger Mac Ginty presents a short and very provocative argument: What if political and military leaders were labelled as 'child abusers' if their actions contribute to the suffering of children?Advocacy in Conflict: Do public advocacy campaigns make an impact?Brauman believes focused advocacy that addresses a specific issue tends to be more effective, and their impacts can be more closely measured. Taub noted the value of targeted international attention to protect at-risk human rights defenders. She also encouraged US advocates to focus greater attention on their own government’s human rights abuses and lamented the divide between foreign and domestic human rights activists. Seay, who teaches a course on advocacy, emphasized that the key is a realization that advocacy is not about the activists – it’s about people actually in conflict-affected communities. Seay said, “I don’t like the phrase ‘voice for the voiceless.’ It’s condescending and implies that people who don’t have big platforms don’t have opinions.” Finally, de Waal discussed his work in the anti-landmine campaign. The creation of an international treaty and the award of the Nobel Peace Prize – considered major successes by most – resulted in his view, in the premature demobilization of the movement because the victories implied that the movement had already reached all its objectives.Great summary of a discussion on public advocacy and conflict featuring well-known bloggers (among many other great things...) Laura Seay and Amanda Taub.Iraq 10 Years Later (1): How Culpable is Academic International Relations?The second question then, assuming you think the war was a an error – and I bet many of us think it was a downright catastrophe – is how culpable IR is. Last year, I argued: “To our credit, just about everyone in IR was uncomfortable with the Iraq War before it started. (Remember that ad in the NYT against the war?) It’s true we didn’t oppose it that much, but at least we didn’t become the cheerleaders for it as happened at the big op-ed pages and DC think-tanks. The national security state clampdown at home makes us fairly uncomfortable (especially as academics strongly committed to free speech), as does the inevitable nativism and militarism stirred up by a decade-plus of war. The US public’s indifference to the huge numbers of brown Muslims we have killed in the last decade is horrifying (‘we don’t do body-counts’), a point Vikash has made again and again. US basing is way beyond any reasonable threat assessment to the US homeland. My guess is that most of us not only empirically think retrenchment is coming, but also desperately want it too. We may have shared the neocon intoxication with US power for a few years after 9/11, but my sense is that IR now is really, really nervous about what the GWoT is doing to America.An interesting and well-presented analysis on IR scholar and scholarship in connection with the war in Iraq. As much as I agree with the analysis and sometimes difficult moral choices and standpoints in issues of war, conflict and democracy/'democracy' I also think that Robert Kelly simply overestimates the influence of (liberal) IR scholarship on actual policy-making and the multi-billion military-industrial complex. Where are the children? Orphanage voluntourism in GhanaVolunteer tourism might create opportunities for temporary social interaction, but it does not broaden the social networks of the children or make information more accessible for them. Further, it does not appear to create sustainable bridges between the two communities. And finally, it does not provide the children with the emotional care and support they need in order to develop into healthy individuals with a bright future. As a result of the usage of their orphanage as a volunteer tourism site, the children I spoke with are spoiled but poor. Is this the best outcome for the children and is it the best way to use the energy, motivation and good intentions of volunteers?Fascinating summary of an MA research project on the impact of voluntourism in Ghana!57th Commission on the Status of Women – should we care?  From an advocacy perspective these meetings are a dud. The ‘Agreed Conclusions‘ document that is adopted at the end of the two week meetings have no teeth, no accountability mechanisms and rarely (if ever) get translated into government level policies. In fact  the few General Assembly discussions i have had the misfortune to attend were dull affairs where countries of the world, in alphabetical order, regaled a dozing audience with stories of what they do to help/protect/promote/mention women. At certain points this becomes an almost comic affair as countries who are well known for their complete disregard to women’s rights and countries that have been chosen multiple times as ‘the worst place to be a woman’ or some such, stand up and give a 10 minute brief on their dedication to the issue. (...)During the two week meeting the big INGO’s get together with the UN agencies who bring an OECD mission along so they can all hug each other on a panel discussion. So the well known allies of women’s groups get together and celebrate themselves, while certain governments work in advance to create a blocking vote that derails any attempt at passing more action oriented conclusions.(...)seriously though, wouldn’t it be great if women’s organizations got together (what a pipe dream huh?) and boycotted the whole thing? or held an alternative CSW, like the World Social Forum, but for women and girls? then we would spend two weeks naming and shaming governments, creating real alliances based on a feminist political consciousness that didn’t shy away from challenging the old power bases and spoke about girls rights in terms other than ‘what a great investment’ (read – more consumers for our free market systems).Keshet Bachan is not impressed with the rituals of UN meetings and global, non-binding, feel-good policy-making.GET TO KNOW :: Marianne Elliott {Zen Peacekeeper}At the heart of every useful thing I’ve ever done was a story. And these days that’s what captures my imagination most of all. How to gather, craft, tell, spread and amplify stories that help us all see ourselves, each other and the future in a new and beautiful light.Whether I’m writing a report on violence again women in Afghanistan, raising funds for a great cause, helping a client share their good work with the world or writing my memoir – my craft, my medium and my passion is story. To end the 'development' section on a more positive note, I can recommend the interview with Marianne Elliott on the power of wonder, storytelling and creating your development-wellbeing enterprise. The not-really-development-related-but-still-interesting-section for this weekSifting Through the “Research”But this is just one of many research sins committed by those eager to hype their findings. In my latest column in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, I suggest five simple questions readers should ask when reading research about the nonprofit sector: What was the methodology used? Is the conclusion warranted? Is this really research at all? Has other relevant research been done on this topic? Who paid for it?While I focus in the Chronicle on the nonprofit sector, I’d argue these questions are just as important when reading Harvard Business Review as Stanford Social Innovation Review.(...)But I am amazed by how much in the business and social sector press is put out that purports to be research but simply isn’t—where there is little or no actual data collection or rigorous analysis. Too often, consulting firms, in particular, dress up their anecdotal experiences with clients as “research” when it is nothing of the kind. And too often, it’s difficult for the reader to even find out that what is being touted authoritatively is based on just a few consulting engagements.Not everything that says 'research' really qualifies for it and the broader claims that often go along with it; in fast moving sectors like digital media, technology and innovation it is tempting to create generalized findings from very little 'data'. Real research takes time, is sometimes boring and oftentimes doesn't have spectacular findings...David Farland’s Kick in the Pants—Mining for Good AdviceSometimes even stellar authors give bad advice. On Friday I noticed a link to a column from one of my favorite authors—a bestseller, an award-winner. I linked to it, hoping for a gem of wisdom. His eight pieces of advice could be summed up in a few words: “Don’t ask me, just get off your butt and write.”To me, the author seemed rather contemptuous of struggling authors. This person knows a great deal about writing, and revealed none of it. If you followed his advice, you would at least get something written, but it would be no better than if you had never listened to a word that he said.Hemingway was much the same. He gave notoriously bad advice. When one would-be author asked what kind of chair he preferred for writing, it was obviously a dumb question, so Hemingway said, “I don’t sit when I write, I stand.” So writers began standing at their desks. Hemingway lied, (Note pictures of Hemingway’s writer chair here, and a picture of him writing at his desk in Africa here.) He sat, people. It’s conducive to meditation.Although this is a piece on writers and how to deal with advice when writing fiction I found it quite relevant to the context of development and academia as a lot of the work deals with advisory roles of different kinds and the good and bad memories that come with giving and receiving advice...98% Can't Identify With The NewspaperAnd this is despite that newspapers in Norway have a much better connection with their readers than most newspapers in other countries. The Norwegian newspaper market is a lot stronger than in the rest of Europe and the US.So if 98% of your potential customers can't identify with your product, and if 94% don't think it's even relevant, the chances of you being able turn them into subscribers are... zero.This follows several other studies, like a study from October 2012 that found:80% think journalists are too focused on sensational stories.70% think journalists are focusing too much on the negatives.86% think journalists are misleading them.The problem here is the editorial focus. The newspapers are simply not making the right kind of news. And as Amedia wrote, "How long are they going stick around if we do not create the content they need?"I found this research on the Norwegian newspaper market quite fascinating for two reasons: First, what does that say with 'our' aim to publish in mainstream newspapers? Second, how do we make sure that 'youth' stays positively engaged with development issues when newspapers are quickly using their young customers? I think this story is indirectly linked to the whole Kony 2012 business and how young people spread a development idea outside the established news media and channels.A Day in the Life of a Digital Editor, 2013But here's the weird thing: While the top six or seven viral hits might make up 15-20 percent of a given month's traffic, the falloff after that is steep. And once you're out of the top 20 or 30 stories, a really, really successful story is only driving 0.5 percent or less of a place like The Atlantic's monthly traffic. But that's the best-case scenario. In most cases, even great reported stories will fizzle, not spark. They will bring in 1,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 visitors. You'd need thousands of these to make a big site go.  (...)But the fact is, a lot of people *do* get stuff out of it. They're changing careers into journalism, say. Or they're a scholar who wants to reach a broader audience. Or they've got a book coming out. Or they're a kid who begs you (begs you!) to take a flier on them, and you have to spend way too much time with her, but it's worth it because you believe she's talented, even if you know the story isn't going to garner a big audience.All this to say: As a rule of thumb, it sucks to take free work from people who are freelancing for a living. Agreed. But this is not a law of the universe and I would hate to see this imposed on me by anybody out of an obligation to a theoretical journalism where this hurts everybody. Can't we take it case by case? Interesting comment from The Atlantic on site traffic and the challenging environment around poorly or unpaid freelance articles. Probably rings a bell with the development blogging community...Managed expectations in the post-employment economyThe economic crisis is a crisis of managed expectations. Americans are being conditioned to accept their own exploitation as normal. Ridden with debt from the minute they graduate college, they compete for the privilege of working without pay. They no longer earn money - they earn the prospect of making money. They are paid in "connections" and "exposure". But they should insist on more.I understand why they do not. When the Atlantic story broke, many journalists were tempted to write about their own mistreatment. Some did, but others held back. They did not want to seem angry or ungrateful. They did not want to risk losing what little they had. They were told to pay their dues, and now they are paying for it with their dignity.In the post-employment economy, is self-respect something we can afford? Or is it another devalued commodity we are expected to give away?Sarah Kendzior is an anthropologist who ads an interesting perspective on the debate around The Atlantic freelance payment issues and broader issues for the 'post-employment economy' which may even ring more bells for academics and development colleagues...AcademiaAdjunct Voices: Matt Thompson [video]If completing a PhD is like running a marathon, getting a tenured job is like winning the lottery(...)Becoming a college professor at the tenure-track level is something like moving to New York City and trying to become a dancer on Broadway.Matt Thompson hit a nerve given the amount of 'likes', comments and shares that he received on the Chronicle of Higher Education website. But I also found the comparison with the Broadway dancer a bit to simplified: Matt knows that teaching is only a small part of your application for a tenure-track job and that a lot depends on your research profile. So wouldn't you focus on your research then? It sounds a bit as if a Broadway director would say 'Sorry, we don't have a job for you-but maybe you can work as a Yoga instructor in the meantime to hone your dancing skills?'. Would you follow this piece of advice or would you dance and train more to be a better candidate for the next rehearsal?! It's complicated...

Have you read Past President, Alan Goodman’s recent Huffington Post piece – Biophobia Not. Biology and Science in Anthropology? AAA has a contributing relationship with The Huffington Post. AAA members are encouraged to contribute to this unique relationship. Blog posts should be written geared toward a public audience; a conversational, informal style is ideal. News-driven, [...]

Back out on the limb I go...It isn't often that I seek to disparage the work of people I know and of whom I'm fond [not necessarily, but frequently, mutually exclusive subsets of humanity]. So, I won't do it today, either. But I do want to query the authors of two papers having to do with the Neanderthal eyeball, one of which was published yesterday. [Was it only yesterday? Seems like I've been thinking about these two for way longer than that. Ah, well. On we go.] Get out your slide rule ... erm ... graphing calculator. [By the way, did you know that the iPhone calculator is just like a regular number pad in portrait, but it switches to a scientific calculator when you turn the phone to landscape mode???? I think that's way kewl. What's that you say? "Small things amuse small minds." What's your point?] Grab your calculator, and hold on!Yesterday's publication isEiluned Pearce, Chris Stringer and R. I. M. Dunbar,"New insights into differences in brain organization between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans." Proceedings of the Royal Society B[iological Sciences], 280, 20130168, published 13 March 2013And the earlier one on which yesterday's is partly based is similar, but not so similar that even I'm compelled to ask questions. The preceding paper isEiluned Pearce and Robin Dunbar, "Latitudinal variation in light levels drives human visual system size." Biology Letters 8, 90--93, 2012. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0570 first published online 27 July 2011Kayso in the oldest of the two articles the authors looked at some modern human skulls from different latitudes and arrived at the data presented below. In (a) you see the tight correlation between latitude and orbital volume [a proxy for eyeball size---a reasonable assumption]. Their sample comprised 55 healthy adult people like you and me ['cept these ones were dead---so, not that much like you and me (although, there have been days...) nor, under the circumstances could they be described as being very healthy. So, I'm sure the authors meant something else ;-) ]In the graph below you see that orbital volume varies between about 22 ml and 27 ml [roughly 27 cubic centimetres (cc)]. The samples were drawn from 12 populations at different distances from the equator. A scatter plot of orbital volume against latitude shows that the further away from the equator one lives, the larger one's eyeballs will be. Someone living at about 65 degrees north latitude has the largest eyeballs. Ahh. But there's more to this comparison than *cough* meets the eye, as I'll explain on the other side of this graph.From Pearce and Dunbar 2012.The authors attribute this variability to microevolutionary adjustments to varying levels of ambient light, which, they say, becomes dimmer and dimmer the further away you are from the equator. Therein lies my first question. Surely the average ambient light at 60 degrees and above---which amounts to nearly constant daylight for upwards of 6 months---would beat out the roughly 50/50 day--night split at the equator. I think the Inuit might have a different tale to tell, especially when you consider that what llight there is gets reflected and multiplied such that in the daylight in the winter, those wandering about outside the igloo had better have their sunglasses on or risk snow blindness and ultimately persistent blindness. And what about the rainforest dwellers who rarely see the sun? There should be plenty of variability, even holding latitude constant, dependent on average actual ambient light. So how do the authors arrive at such a compelling distribution of eyeball size and latitude? Follow me! ... Um. Better bring an umbrella---there might be fallout from the following. [Fallout from the following. That's practically poetry.]The data for the above graph are given in the supplemental material. I reproduce it here to illustrate my point.From Pearce and Dunbar 2012. I compared mean orbital volumes for each of the 12 groups graphed above, taking into account sample size and sample variance [i.e. standard deviation]. As I suspected, at the 99% probability level one finds that those means between about 23 and 27 are not statistically different from one another. In other words, it's impossible to argue that those 8 or 9 samples weren't drawn at random from a single population having a mean somewhere between 23 and 27. The same can be said for those means between about 22 and about 26. Depending on where you cut, there might be two populations with statistically different means. Certainly nowhere near 12.All in all, the mean values of orbital volume vary so little from the equator to 60 degrees latitude, and the within-group variance is often so great that the authors' conclusions in this paper are severely undermined. To provide a more robust dataset they would need to sample more individuals at each latitude such that mean orbital volume was statistically different for each group in comparison to the others.So much for my questions about Pearce and Dunbar 2012. Now it's on to yesterday's publication.Pearce, Stringer and Dunbar (Yesterday) examine the orbital volumes and endocranial volume of 'Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens' (AMHs) and Neanderthals. They report significant differences in cranial capacity between AMHs and Neanderthals, and adduce the difference to different evolutionary pathways wherein the Neanderthals devoted more grey matter to ocular efficiency (in the form of larger eyeballs) in the face of latitude dependent reduced ambient light. On the other hand,  those wicked AMHs said we're gonna get along fine without better eyesight as long as we can live in larger social groups. [I won't get into what I think about that conclusion.]Here I'm reproducing Table 1 from Pearce et al. 2013, to illustrate a bit of arithmetic that might make me three new enemies of two and a half friends. [The half is for Pearce, whom I know not, but because Pearce works with Robin, it's like what? Two degrees of separation? Heck! We're practically family.]From Pearce et al. 2013The first bit that caught my eye is the orbital volumes of the two kinds of Homos. A whopping 34.15 ml (cc) for the Neanderthals. Moreover, by comparison with the earlier work by Pearce and Dunbar the AMHs in this study also have a whopping orbital volume. In their earlier paper the largest sample mean for us was just shy of 27 ml (cc). That was for someone living above the Arctic Circle. My first question is: where did you find these AMHs? At the North Pole? So that's why Santa sees you when you're sleeping---he has way bigger eyeballs than you and I put together? Well, sort of. Actually. Maybe not. Okay. Call a spade a spade. No way.Keeping in mind what I said earlier regarding the mean orbital volume in the Pearce and Dunbar paper, have a look at the means, standard deviations and sample sizes upon which Pearce et al. hang their conclusions about Neanderthals and AMHs. In the table above the mean orbital volume for the Neanderthals is given as 34.15 cc (s.d. 3.39; n=5). That of the AMHs is 29.51 cc (s.d. 2.07; n=4). Seems substantial. No? No. Do a difference of means test and whaddayaknow? They're statistically indistinguishable at the 99% level. I.O.W., statistically speaking, the two results cannot be distinguished from two separate samples drawn at random from a single population with mean of X and s.d of Y. So, what does that do to their thesis about eyeballs and brain size and evolution and stuff?I'll let you break it to them.All right. To use a quaint saying of British origin, I'm knackered. And I think it best if I lay low for a while.So, fare ye well until we meet again!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.

The English edition of Heriberto Araujo and Juan Pablo Cardenal’s The Silent Chinese Conquest, which was apparently published under the title China’s Silent Army, has been reviewed by Bristol University psychology lecturer and blogger Zeng Biao, who also owns a consultancy on Chinese-British relations, for the newspaper 21st Century Economic Herald. Zeng notes the author’s “betrayal” [...]

Extending Panel Submission Deadline

Now What I Actually Meant to Say Was… My previous article has attracted intense disagreement, for many good reasons (and sometimes not). Apparently I was too careless in conveying the impression that the new pope would be some kind of revolutionary, when really my special interest was in the strategic nature of the choice of [...]

G.S. sent in this snapshot of a news-stand display: The sign juxtaposes teasers for two different stories, one the election of Pope Francis, and the other a multiple murder and suicide in Umbria. If we ignore the color-coding and run everything together with the implied punctuation, we get: Tutto la verità sull'assassino del Broletto: È Francesco, il nuovo Papa. which means something like "All the truth about the Broletto killer: It's Francis, the new Pope." G.S. submitted this under the heading of "Crash Blossom", but it's really a new form of journalistic misinterpretation. Following the pattern of naming such phenomena after the index case, we could call this a "Killer Pope".

James Mullooly invented the word Scrogg, meaning something along the line of “anthropologist who catch geneticists playing fast and loose with the data.”  In my experience, Scrogging is fairly easy to do on open-source turf of the Biological Sciences journals where there are often places for comments.  These comments are typically reviewed by editors, and while not strictly “peer-reviewed,” would in my mind contribute to the academic record of aspiring academics.  The editors I have had contact here and here were fair and open to critiques of articles which were well-done technically, but missed out on a more social scientific perspective, as do many articles about human population genetics.  The editors were  quick to respond to me—it seems the biological sciences are much quicker than the social scientific journals at making editorial decisions.   I got away with two Scroggings because population geneticists wrote about a group that I knew just a little about, the Mlabri of Thailand.  But I knew enough to know that lab-based geneticists who missed key points, and did not cite standard ethnographies.  I am sure that there are many sociologists, anthropologists, and others who have similar experiences with geneticists writing about groups with which they are familiar.  What I would encourage you to do is to go into Google Scholar, and PubMed and search for genetic studies of ethnic groups you are familiar with as a result of your field and library work.  Then evaluate carefully how the data (typically blood samples) was handled on its way to the lab.  Does the “sample” reflect social relations on the ground?  Is it consistent with historical, geographical, and anthropological data with which you are familiar?  If not, the article deserves a carefully written Scrogg highlighting how conclusions might have been different if anthropological data were also considered. Scrogging by cultural anthropologists should result in a number of well-reasoned postings.  More to the point, it is hoped that geneticists will be more careful about how they handle data, and editors more consistently solicit ethnographers and cultural anthropologists as peer reviewers.  While scrogging, of course, be as narrow, precise, and gracious as possible given the circumstances.  The point is not to embarrass, but to highlight the importance of cultural anthropology and qualitative data in evaluating populations.

      ‘Batumbil and I drove food out to Rrorruwuy yesterday to visit Yethun. It was wonderful to see her. Unfortunately she has a terrible flu and little gaminyarr has a few boils. Nevertheless, they seemed happy and relaxed. … Continue reading →

This photograph was taken at the northern train station in Changchun, China: The sign reads: kāishuǐ jiān 开水间 ("water between"). We recently encountered similar signs in "Opens the waterhouse; open water rooms", where the same kāishuǐ jiān 开水间 as here was translated as "open water rooms". Since we've already fully dissected that mistranslation and explained the cultural background behind the Chinese fondness for hot water, we know that the correct translation for kāishuǐ jiān 开水间 is something like "room for boiling water". There's not much to add on this occasion, except to say that we see increasing evidence that, as the level of English overall rises, China's netizens themselves point out such errors and make suggestions for improvement, as here, where they offer as alternatives to "water between" the following: Water Heater Room、Boiler Room、Hot Water Room. As to how "water between" came about in the first place, the translator simply paid no attention to kāi 开 ("open; boil; start", and many other diverse meanings), while they chose the wrong meaning of jiān 間 ("between; among; within a certain space; room; separate; divide"). [Hat tip to Cheng Fangyi]

Nancy Sullivan & Associates Ltd.  HELP FOR KARAWARI CAVE ARTS UNDER THREAT PRESS RELEASE 15/3/13  Dear Friends: We are appealing to the public for help  in preventing Rimbunan Hikau and Pristine #18 from acquiring a mining exploration license (ELA 2008) in the Karawari region of East sepik, Papua new Guinea, over the majority of an area also known as the Karawari Caves. These caves are ofgreat archeological and cultural importance to the people of Papua New Guinea as they contain stencils that probably date back 20,000 years (dating is yet unconfirmed). A team of PNG ethnographers and fieldworkers has been working to record these sites and the stories associated with them---they number over 300—and assisting the extremely remote people who own them. Some of these cave owners continue to dwell in their caves, as they are amongst the lastsemi-nomadic peoples of PNG. Our company, Nancy Sullivan and Assoc Ltd., has supplied school fees, primary school equipment, teachers, solar panels, cocoa pods, construction materials, and basic health services for these communities over the last 7 years, pursuant to their own desires to remain on their land and become more sedentary gardeners. Indeed, their ability to subsist andprosper on their land is crucial for the conservation of these caves as cultural heritage---free from commercial intervention and open to PNG scientists who can help uncover the secrets of their history within their middens, relics and stencils.  In January 2012 The National Geographic Society published a story about these people and their caves, the beautiful phots from which can be found ere [ngm.nationalgeographic.com] Just days ago a joint venture between a Western Australian company and the Malaysian logging company, Rimbunan Hijau (well know in PNG for its environmentally and social destructive practices; see for example [www.greenpeace.org] and [www.forestnetwork.net] ), arrived by chopper to meet with these people about an application they had taken out to explore for gold throughout their land.Exploration does not require landowner consent, only the approval of the Mining Ministry. Despite the protracted requests by villagers that the NOT explore for mineral in their land, but leave them to thrive on the land and protect their important cave sites, the company Pristine #18 has lodged an application to explore (ELA 2008). Please check out the Facebook page Karawari Cave Arts for more information and images from these sites. See also the petition and an interview transcript on  [ramumine.wordpress.com] .  We need your help now. First, to sign a petition that we will give the Prime Minister and Minister for Mining, both reasonable and empathetic men, in behalf of the general public who wish to preserve these international cultural heritage sites. Say No to Mining of the Karawari Caves [t.co] Second, we need material assistance. Those of you who can donate petrol and two-strokemotor oil will be providing an important service to our field teams who nowhave to travel through the five communities on a regular basis to monitormorale and security. We also plan to hold a Penale tribe-wide meeting on 6April about this threat and fuel, and transportation expenses of all kinds arebeyond our means right now. Internet costs in PNG, for example, are amongst thehighest in the world. Domestic flights are as expensive as internationalflights in Europe these days.   Our budget depends entirely on conservation grants from overseas institutions.These are always earmarked months in advance for specific needs, and cannotlegally be diverted to emergency assistance. We have sought funding through anemergency relief fund at the World Heritage (UNESCO) organization, but becauseour application to be listed as a World Heritage site is still at the earlystages (and the WH Committee within PNG has not met or paid its dues), weremain ineligible. Nor are we eligible for several other emergency fundingoptions----largely because we have yet to establish a non-profit entity toaccept donations (again, a matter of bureaucratic pacing).  We are a private consulting company based in Madang which has been recording andexploring the caves for the past 7 years, acquitting grants in this regard to donors like The National Geographic Society, The Christensen Fund and others. Our work has also been rewarded with grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Firebird Foundation and others. We are not running a scam of any kind. Please check our web site www.nancysullivan.net  (but beware---www.nancysullivan.org is ascam---they stole our domain name three years ago and have been raising moneywith it since). See also our blog about this issue and our work in the caves: [nancysullivan.typepad.com]  www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2014/04/the-meakambut-penale-ewa-alamblak-and-sumariop-get-a-check-up.html www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2013/03/rh-descends-on-the-meakambut.html   [nancysullivan.typepad.com] http://nancysullivan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/02/dr-samiak-the-karawaris-wokabaut-medic-.html If you are able to help us please contact Nancy at nsullivan@ online.net.pg  for information on how to direct deposit in the US or PNG. Alternatively, she can direct you to the company accountant who will also accept funds on our behalf for this emergency effort alone. We will acknowledge every single donation in all our media and publications.  Sincerely, Nancy Sullivan

What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall on March 23, 2013, when the Friends of the Big Bear, California Library host Adella Schroth, Curator of Anthropology at the San Bernardino County Museum, and Director of the Calico Mountains Archaeological Site Project. Ripped from the headlines of Big Bear, California's Big Bear News, an online service of Big Bear's KBHR 93.3 FM. The March 15, 2013 edition is almost cautious in its mode of presentation---as if they know too well what to expect:The dating of the site is still controversial as is [sic] the artifactual constituents. This lecture will introduce the Calico site and address two controversies. It is up to the audience to draw their own conclusions. Seating is limited. Best show up early to get the good seat.I'm sorry. I can't help myself. As it is I've spent the past three minutes biting my tongue so hard it's bleeding! Talk about Zombie Archaeology. I thought this one had been bayed by a crucifix and staked through the heart at least 50 years ago. Evidently not.I don't doubt that one or two of the younger readers, and those of any age whose interests or places of residence happen not to include North America, will be unfamiliar with the tale of Calico Hills. Maybe this'll help.On the left is the discoverer of the Calico Hills site, Ruth DeEtte Simpson. On the right is Louis S. B. Leakey---Mary's husband, Richard's father, and so on.They're happy 'cause they think they've found a Lower Palaeolithic (i.e. Acheulean) (i.e. Homo erectus) site in California.The back story on the above photo. Leakey's fame led Ruth Simpson to contact him about a site she'd located in California. Leakey thought it'd be worth a look. So, he got some National Geographic money, and for several years until his death in 1972, he ran the investigations. Claims for the antiquity of the site ranged anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 years. And, in places, it's possible to find dirt that's that old. Something I did not know until this moment... In her autobiography  Mary Leakey allowed that Louis's involvement was "catastrophic to his professional career and was largely responsible for the parting of our ways." Bottom line: the site has for a very long time kept a small coterie of devotées archaeologists busy, and not many serious archaeologists will accept an age for the site much, if any, in excess of 15 kyr. It would indeed be interesting to hear what Adella Schroth will say about it at the talk in Big Bear on March 23rd.The nearly vertical bank of an arroyo at the Calico Hills locality.Sadly the depositional history of the site is the sort that has bedevilled many an archaeologist. It's part of a complex of alluvial fans that are subject to anything from a light rain to high-energy debris flows. These high-energy events are more than capable of causing rocks to fracture in ways that mimic simple stone artifacts. Those so-called geofacts---found in ancient contexts---coupled with the light sprinkling of modern human presence in the area for most of the last 15,000 or so years, said to Simpson and Leakey: This is one really old site.As it is plainly visible in the stratigraphic column illustrated below, the geology of the area is very much net-aggradational, although, as one can see from the view above of the wadi/arroyo/dry gulch/wash, such structures are often multiplex coalescent, spatially and time-transgressive phenomena and often new alluvial activity downcuts through older sediments. Thus, as one traverses one of these huge landforms it's quite possible to see, at the surface, cultural material from the entire span of human presence in the area, and beyond. And as you probe the fan itself you're likely to find an unsorted diamicton, comprising all sizes of rock, and including numerous highly angular gravel, pebbles, cobbles, boulders and everything in between.I hope that the Friends of the Big Bear Library have their thinking caps on at the March 23rd talk.The rugged, sere, landscape in which the Calico Hills site is located [red pushpin in centre of view]. The active alluvial fans occur in sediments that were themselves alluvial fans in an earlier epoch. Sites in places like these are riddles, wrapped in mysteries, carried inside enigmas. [Apologies to Winnie Churchill.]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.

Media Life 2013 from Mark Deuze Related posts: Akademik Bilişim 2013 konferansı- 23-25 Ocak 2013 tarihlerinde Akdeniz Üniversitesi’nde EFD Rights Watch: Freedom House Report 2013 for Turkey SocialBakers Report: February 2013 Social Media Report: Facebook Pages in Turkey A massive cyberculture roundup: EFF on Spotify; wired vs. wikileaks; social media friends turning into real life ones; on digital literacies… A massive cyberculture roundup: EFF on Spotify; wired vs. wikileaks; social media friends turning into real life ones; on digital literacies…

“Pipes, People, and Politics: Dis/Unconnected Urban Infrastructure and Community Responses” American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, 2013 Meeting theme: Future Publics, Current Engagements November 20 – 24, 2013 Chicago, IL [www.aaanet.org] Session Organizers: Lucero Radonic and Angela Storey, The University of Arizona. Be it formal or informal, large-scale or small-scale, present or absent, urban infrastructure … Continue reading »

I somehow missed this Bizarro comic when it first appeared:

T.L. writes: One of my wife's pet peeves is the use of "there's" instead of "there are," as in the last line here. What's up with this? It's very common. Is it simply easier to articulate? "Plural there's" was discussed a few years ago on LL: "Leading questions and frickin' cooks", 8/31/2005 "When 'there's' isn't 'there is'", 9/1/2005 In those posts, I present some evidence to support Arnold Zwicky's suggestion that …"there's" + <plural noun phrase> should really be characterized, in current English, as merely informal/colloquial, rather than nonstandard. Millions of people (like me) who wouldn't use "there is two people at the door" are entirely happy with "there's two people at the door". The same thing seems to be true of "here's" — thus today's Google News returns these counts: here is a few 6 here's a few 256 here are a few 684 here're a few 1 As for why this is true, I don't have a good answer. The obvious answers (like "It's hard to pronounce the re-articulated /r/ sounds in there're) seem like post-hoc rationalizations to me — the rhyming part of there're is exactly the same as error and terror, and there's no evidence that those words are disfavored as a result.

  I’m pretty happy about my post about Max Weber, and Luigi Cavalli-Sforza.  Getting geneticists to at least acknowledge the existence of the patron saint of Sociology is big thing!   From an academic standpoint, Weber is one of my favorite topics, even though no one else seems to agree with me.  I’ve been writing about the Old Dead German for years, usually to piss and moan about people from UC Berkeley.  For any of my fellow UC Davis Aggies (like Razib Khan), or for that matter anywhere else in the world who also complain a lot about the pretentiousness of UC Berkeley, this is the essay that tells you why you think Berkeley games the ranking game:  Why I think that Chico State is a Better College than UC Berkeley.  It also tells you why you why Davis and Berkeley students repulse each other in the mating game–definitely a topic for geneticists.   Trust me, by the end of the essay, not only will you be laughing at UC Berkeley. You will also be joining me in the Max Weber fan club, and trying to figure out how to apply complex regression equations that will tell the world about how the Neandertals over at UC Berkeley manage to hide UC Davis’ honor from US News and World Report.

Remember Rick Scott? The Florida State Governor, Rick Scott? The Rick Scott who as much as said that anthropology is about as valuable to society as screen doors on a submarine? That Rick Scott? Yes.Florida Governor R. Scott. The Bloomberg caption reads: "Florida Governor Rick Scott proposed linking more than $167 million of the state university system’s $3.8 billion budget to performance standards that include the percentage of recent graduates with jobs, the cost of their education and their salaries."Our collective ass is grass."Anthropology Mocked as U.S. Governors Push for Employable Grads"That headline in Bloomberg.com announces the impending doom of the affordable liberal education. If, that is, Rick Scott and like-minded politicians get their way.Just feast your eyes on this thinly veiled misogynist, anti-intellectual bullshit from out the mouth of North Carolina's governor [I refuse to call him by his given name's diminutive] McCrory.“If you want to take gender studies, that’s fine,” McCrory, 56, said in a January radio interview. “Go to a private school and take it. But I don’t want to subsidize that if it’s not going to get somebody a job.”I'm sorry. Did I say thinly veiled? I meant bald-faced. This dick-head and many more like him are hoping to turn public universities into vocational institutes.But, get this. If you looked up 'ironic' in the encyclopaedia there'd be a picture of this guy looking back at you. From the Bloomberg article:McCrory, a graduate of North Carolina’s Catawba College, a private liberal-arts school, defended the type of education he received yet said the state shouldn’t subsidize some courses -- gender studies and philosophy -- now offered at Chapel Hill.And the shoe drops. This salient member of the North Carolina upper class could afford to take his own advice. He went to a private college. They're really expensive and none but the very best applicants receive financial aid. Something tells me McCrory wasn't one of them, if, an indeterminate number of years afterward he can gleefully work to turn public universities into glorified apprenticeships.It's not all gloom and doom. The Bloomberg article also includes this:[McCrory's] comments prompted critical newspaper editorials, an Internet petition and a letter from faculty inviting McCrory to learn more about the university.Ooooooh. I'll bet the 1% are shakin' in their Gucci loafers. Okay. It doesn't really come close to dimming the gloom or the doom. Letters? Petitions? I'd think torches and pitchforks are needed! After all, how far is righteous indignation gonna go to slow the already precipitous decline---the dumbing of America? The answer may lie in this very telling bit of background. The implications don't make me feel any safer. You?The university has been a target of Republican criticism before, including by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, founded by the family foundation of McCrory’s budget director, Art Pope. One headline on the center website reads: ‘‘Teaching Marxist Subversion at UNC.’It's the same Republican shit: "liberal" equals "socialist" equals "Marxist-inspired" equals "We don't want any uppity women or [must be said with barely disguised contempt] 'people of colour' either!"Wish all of us in the 99% "good luck." We're gonna need a big fat pile of good fortune to surmount the even bigger pile of crap that's being thrown into the path of those who'd like, eventually, to become members of an informed electorate!Have a look at what McCrory, Scott and their other U.S. of A. Republican gubernatorial pals have been doing to the public [read 'affordable' and 'accessible to minorities'] universities in the past decade or so. Be very afraid.Copyright belongs to BloombergLinking funding to jobs. That's gonna be hard to do if there aren't any god-damned jobs! Oh. Yeah. Sorry. That's beside the point.Kayso, let me see. Gender studies is out. Anthropology, too, no doubt. Whaddayathink? Economics? No sense letting the rank and file know how badly they're being screwed by the banks. Sociology? Prolly on the chopping block, too. After all, who needs a bunch of effete, bleeding-heart do-gooders telling us how ass-backward our penal and other social systems are, or worse, suggesting that medical marijuana is a good thing?I know that the 'slippery slope' argument is fallacious, philosophically speaking. But as a metaphor it's still a very powerful one. How far down this slippery slope will the U.S. [and other fascist governments] take the populace? I shudder to think of it.Clench your buttocks. Looks like it's gonna be a bumpy ride.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.

Veerbadhra Mishra, at the Krishna Lila, Tulsi ghat, Varanasi, 1997.   I was saddened to hear the news this week of the death of Mahantji’s, and it led me to dig out the picture of him at his beloved Krishna lila and the following which I wrote for a collection about him late last year. The news item from the Times of India speaks to his international and national profile. The following is more of a personal reflection of my memories of him. I came to know Mahantji when I lived in Varanasi between August 1996 and December 2007. I had the good fortune to find lodgings with his maternal nephew and through these connections was able to experience Mahantji’s work and influence on the neighbourhood, the wider city and his extended family. Often I would end my day by visiting Mahantji in his ‘receiving room’ at Tulsi ghat. Having wiped my brow and removed my gamcha I would be ushered in, to be greeted by a picture of serenity, far removed from the hustle and bustle of the streets. Of course I was never alone for these audiences. More often than not there were other supplicants and visitors keen to discuss various matters with Mahantji and I was always struck by his kindess with his time and his willingness to listen to people’s problems or points of view. Indeed his ability to listen before making a judgment or offering advice was never lost on those who had sought his opinion – even if, as often seemed the case, they didn’t hear what they would have liked from Mahantji, for he did not suffer fools gladly. I think the strongest impression I have of Mahantji is his generosity. Much of what is written about him and his work focuses, quite appropriately, on his work to find a permanent solution to the on-going pollution of the Ganga. However, Tulsi ghat always struck me – and I use the word struck advisedly – as the centre of a project of cultural patronage. The cultural and religious intensity of Varanasi is in large part the result of the spiritual and financial investments of people such as Mahantji whose patronage provides the basis for some of the most signification events in the religious and artistic calendar of the city. I’m thinking especially of the Krishna lila (play), the Sankat Mochan music festival and the countless other festivals, such as the Dhrupad mela, and events which, with his financial and spiritual support, mark out the cultural rhythm of the city. The crowds at these events make it clear that these are not minority interests, even in an era when mass media (my object of study during my years in the city) compete for their attention. The cultural intensity of the city is in large part due to the leadership of people like Mahantji whose acts of patronage provide the basis for much of what has, over may centuries, made Varanasi a distinctive city with a undeniable performative richness Many of the guests at Tulsi ghat had travelled from far beyond the city to have their audience with Mahantji. Academics, journalists and those interested in his work on cleaning the Ganga were often to be found in attendance. These guests often seemed fascinated by contradiction presented by a professor of Hydrological Engineering committed to the cause of the Ganga’s pollution, and a devout Hindu who would bathe in its pure waters each morning. It always struck me that there was little point in trying to understand Mahantji in terms of this apparent contradiction because for him there is no tension in the idea that one can be a devout Hindu and an engineer. Instead we can see that his life’s work was devoted to one substance – water – that is at the heart of the beliefs and daily practices of Hindus, and his beloved Varanasi, and is the ultimate sustainer of life on earth.  In that sense Mahantji’s work and life transcends distinctions between the secular and the spiritual, or the worldly and other wordly. His life was one of profound unity.    

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