humor culture; medicine culture

blog items from Anthropologist About Town (London based collection of events and observations)
 
...the Southbank Centre for a new exhibition called 'The Culture of Laughing' that opens today and runs until mid-April [2008]. Using a hilarious combination of video, photography and interactive exhibitions, the collection investigates whether humour is transferable across cultures. With 30 artists from all over the world contributing, the curator argues that whilst laughter is universal, humour is socially specific -and wants visitors to see if they can find amusement on foreign jokes without specific social knowledge.
 
...new series on Channel 4 called Medicine Men Go Wild. It follows two identical twin British doctors in their investigations of indigenous medicine in various different communities around the world. Despite the slightly silly title, the programme retains a good balance between respect for other cultural forms of medicine, and what they can contribute to western understanding... you should be able to download it soon on 4 on Demand.

Underwater Archaeology Museum - Online Teaching Resources

...Museum of Underwater Archaeology (MUA). The MUA was created to encourage underwater archaeologists to use the Internet to share their research with the general public. Since our founding in 2004 avocational, graduate student, and professional archaeologists from around the world have used our site for public outreach and education. This includes full scale exhibits, brief reports, and online project diaries written by graduate students participating in field schools.
...As we can not travel to every school we recently created a kit that we are now making available to educators from around the world that allows teachers to conduct a hands on training session on underwater archaeology. It includes a CD with ten documents including a lesson plan that guides the teacher through the exercise.
...Our first two paths, for ages 10-12 and 16-17, are now online.
...the entire site which contains exhibits and posts on projects in the United States, Japan, the UK, Australia, and France. 

 T Kurt Knoerl, Director, The Museum of Underwater Archaeology, http://www.uri.edu/mua

UK ethnobotany; Fashion from anthro lens

from anthropologistabouttown.blogspot.com
19TH JANUARY - Green fingers on the radio
Today I'll be listening again to an episode of anthropologists' favourite 'Thinking Allowed' [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/thinkingallowed_20071219.shtml] that was broadcast on Channel 4 before Christmas. It featured two anthropologists, Roy Ellen [ http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/department/staff/ellen.html] and Simon Platten [ http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/department/staff/platten.html], who are about to embark on a three year study on the 'ethnobotany of the British garden'. The importance of a finely pruned hedge to the inner workings of British society has, according to them, been long overlooked. It has even been argued, apparently, that the national obsession with gardening is a reason for the calmness of the British temperament! Like all good 'reflexive' anthropology, this programme should begin to make us question an area of our lives that is usually ignored as simply 'normal'...

21ST JANUARY - The catwalk of anthropology
Come Monday I will be looking for new ways to strut my anthropological stuff in the new collection from fashion designer Chayalan. A little random, but the Cypriot fashionista claims inspiration from 'current anthropology', as well as a host of other disciplines including migration and the philosophy of science. He wants his clothes to be seen as a part of culture, and not just an elite artistic world. Which is presumably why he has added signature drop pockets to his jeans... To read more about anthropology and fashion [ http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Anthropology&rh=n%3A267854%2Ck%3AAnthropology&page=1 ], why not check out this article [http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Anthropology&rh=n%3A267854%2Ck%3AAnthropology&page=1 ].

"the linguists" trailer for 2008 Sundance Film Fest

http://thelinguists.com/ (Greg Anderson, David Harrison)
ironbound films
cf. linguistically flavored work from www.cnam.com, The Center for New American Media

---

Share life as it happens with the new Windows Live. Start sharing!

bbc2 "Tribe" series 1-2-3

[opening snippet] "What is Tribe to me?
"Tribe has been my whole world for the last four years and is the most important thing in my life right now. It's a series about people and culture, our culture as well as others. We hope it's entertaining, because we want people to watch and enjoy, especially people who wouldn't normally tune into this type of programme, but we also hope we can communicate something important about the world." [continues, http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/bruce/index.shtml]

outside the UK the video stream will be blocked, but clips may be viewable via Discovery Channel website

foodlore & anthropology

...Indiana U is offering a unique doctoral program in the anthro of food, www.indiana.edu/~anthro/food_flash.html

Food represents an integral part of human livelihoods, biology, identity, and culture. The practical dimensions and ramifications of food production, consumption and sharing, and the symbolic and ideological meanings attached to food, have relevance across all of anthropology's subdisciplines – sociocultural anthropology, bioanthropology, archaeology and linguistics. As a theme it integrates aspects of all the four traditional subfields of anthropology.

LINKS include:

Societies:

• Association for the Study of Food and Society
• Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition

Restaurants, Market Places, Etc:

• Farmers Market
• Bloomingfoods
• The Center for Sustainable Living
• Local Growers Guild
• Community Kitchen of Monroe County, Inc
• Sahara Mart
• Slow Food Bloomington
• Grazie!
• Anatolia
• Anyetsang's Little Tibet Restaurant
• La Charreada
• Jankos' Little Zagreb
• Puccini's La Dolce Vita
• Samira
• Indiana Foodways Alliance

Other links of interest:

• World Food Habitats
• Museum of Burnt Food

from AnthropologistAboutTown

...read Cross-cultural Filmmaking - Barbash and Taylor's important study of the process - online

Pitt Rivers Museum in virtual display 360° view

http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/filmIndexByTheme.jsp?query=18 is the search result for microdocs on racism.
I watched "Regardez" about Racism in France. Wow - short but hard hitting statement, "1 in 3 people in France admit to being racist."

archeology in Japan

via W. Edwards at Tenri U. in Nara, Japan:

Noteworthy Archaeological Sites, Issue 2007 has been recently posted on the website of the Japanese Archaeological Association (URL: http://archaeology.jp/sites/2007). This is part
of a series of materials selected from the annual publication _Hakkutsu sareta Nihon retto_ (Excavations in the Japanese Archipelago), produced by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Asahi Shimbunsha.

Traditional epitaphs rest in peace

http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN0964796720071109

Visual anthropology exhibits

Visual anthropology student projects on display,

http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/visual-anthropology/gallery/photographic-projects.php

practices of death and dying

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1001143
Woodland Burials near Brighton, UK

presenting your subject as a "poster"

References that AAA offers to help structure and produce a poster session,http://www.aaanet.org/press/an/0501Fear_No_Poster.htm

audio for foreign languages

  AUDIO CLIPS OF KIDS SPEAKING DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
http://www.flat33.com/bzzzpeek/index1.html

The website is a collection of audio clips of kids who are speakers of
various languages saying the words for animal sounds in their
language (e.g., "cockadoodle-doo" is the word we use in English for the
sound of a rooster, but in French, it's something like
"quiqueriqui" -- I'm not sure of the spelling).  People can listen to the
NPR story on the NPR website if they want:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4699514 )

"borrowing" words (loan translations; calques)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque gives words now used in English that are "borrowed" from other languages, as well as the other way around: English words that have gone over to other languages.

RELIGION: The Internet Sacred Text Archive

Via e-list, EDTECH - Educational Technology [H-NET.org]
RELIGION: PRIMARY SOURCES AND DOCUMENTS: The Internet Sacred Text
Archive
http://www.sacred-texts.com/

example of shibboleth (1923 Japan)

http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2513
Sonya Ryang's article for Japanfocus.org
The Tongue That Divided Life and Death. The 1923 Tokyo Earthquake and the
Massacre of Koreans.

RACE Are We So Different - traveling exhibit

introduction, www.understandingRACE.org/

teachers/families, www.understandingRACE.org/resources/
related book, How Real is Race? A Sourcebook on race, culture and biology.

intercultural capsules to learn

Part 1: Defining Culture

• Introduction to Part 1: Defining Culture (pdf–139 KB)
• Everyone Has a Culture—Everyone Is Different (All grades)
• The Iceberg (All grades)
• The Multicultural Person (Grades 3–5)
• Cuisine and Etiquette (Grades 3–5)
• Chatter (Grades 6–9)
• Where I Come From (Grades 6–9)
• Brief Encounters (Grades 10–12)
• Becoming Part of the Community (Grades 10–12)

Part 2: Developing Global Perspectives

• Introduction to Part 2: Global Perspectives (pdf–88 KB)
• First Impressions (Grades 3–5)
• The Blind Men and the Elephant (Grades 3–5)
• Opposites (Grades 3–5)
• Is That a Fact? (Grades 6–9)
• How Accurate Is It? (Grades 6–9)
• Good News/Bad News/Who Cares? (Grades 6–9)
• Beauty (Grades 10–12)
• Perspectives on Paraguay (Grades 10–12)

Bibliography, here

Download Looking at Ourselves and Others
[102-page document here. (pdf–1.7 MB)]

source, http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/looking/index.cfm

intercultural portraits

Preview of Looking at Ourselves and Others: "Looking at Ourselves and Others
introduces students to the concepts of perspective, culture, and cross-cultural relations. The guide is designed to help students recognize and appreciate differences in perception among individuals and cultures, define culture and recognize its role in developing perceptions of ourselves and others, challenge assumptions, promote cross-cultural awareness, and provide opportunities to practice the behaviors that make cross-cultural communication possible. (Peace Corps)"

many human languages (online source)

Rosetta Project
is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers
building an online archive of all documented human languages. The
Rosetta Archive provides nearly 100,000 pages of material
documenting over 2,500 languages. (National Institutes of Health)
   

Linguists, Accents and a Cost/Benefit Equation

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10554046&sc=emaf
All Things Considered 30 May 2007· Accents are important markers of individual social identities. They can determine how we are perceived by others and whether we are considered part of the dominant culture. In California, some foreign-born speakers of English are trying to reduce their accents to avoid discrimination or advance their careers. But some linguists question why that is necessary.

language creativity - names for counting (animal) groups

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/young_naturalists/namegame/

The Name Game January - February 1997 by Janice Welsh

Most people know that fish hang out in schools and sheep gather in
flocks. But have you ever heard of a pride of lions? How about a
kettle of hawks or a charm of finches? The English language has more than
1,000 names for groups of things.
The names for groups of fish and wildlife date back to the Middle
Ages,when knights and lords on horseback chased all kinds of animals.
Many of the words used to describe groups of animals were hunting terms.
Hunters might pursue a dray of squirrels, a fall of woodcock, or
a spring of teal. Herd is one term people still use to describe a group
deer, cattle, or elephants.

Where Do Names Come From?
Many names for clusters of critters are listed below. As you look at the
names, think about what might have led someone to choose a
particular one. The choice might have been inspired by:

An animal's action - a leap of leopards
A sound the animal makes - a murmuration of starlings
A repetition of word sounds - a gaggle of geese
What people think about the animals - a richness of martens
The animal's home - a nest of rabbits
What the gathering looks like - a knot of toads
Some names are mistakes. A school of fish, for example, was first called
a shoal of fish. Fish gather in a shoal, a shallow place in a
river or lake. A long time ago someone translated shoal of fish as school
of fish and passed it along.

RACE exhibit 2007

[personal subscription or library-based connection needed]

The Public Education Project of the AAA: "Race: Are We So Different?"
Yolanda T. Moses
General Anthropology Bulletin of the General Anthropology Division,
Vol. 14, No. 1: 1-3.

http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/ga.2007.14.1.1a

------------------------------------------------------
A Tour of the AAA-Sponsored Race Exhibit
David McCurdy
General Anthropology Bulletin of the General Anthropology Division,
Vol. 14, No. 1: 3-8.

http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/ga.2007.14.1.3

languages, customs, prehistory environment

The Rosetta Project: All the languages of the world. This is a publicly
accessible online archive of all documented human languages: over 2,300
are represented, with more being added all the time. www.rosettaproject.org/

Portals to the World is a starting point for studying other countries.
Learn about the culture, economy, geography, government, history,
languages, politics, religions, and other aspects of more than 150
nations, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Find links to authoritative,
in-depth information selected by area specialists and other staff at the
Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html

Preserving Indigenous Traditions Through Storytelling,

http://beta.edutopia.org/node/3971 [Hawai'i lore and student project]

NPR 2 May 2007 Prehistoric Lifestyles: Building as Climate Allows,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9949575

NPR 2 May 2007 Climate's Role in Human Evolution,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9966090

fieldwork techniques/technology

http://www.editthis.info/fieldworkguide/Main_Page
[by a couple of ethnomusicology grad students; about fieldwork technology]

Human-chimp gene study upsets long-held view

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=5808

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Put a human and a chimpanzee side by side, and it seems obvious which lineage has changed the most since the two diverged from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Such apparent physical differences, along with human speech, language and brainpower, have led many people to believe that natural selection has acted in a positive manner on more genes in humans than in chimps.

lyrics as cultural goldmine

rich source of history, popular culture, discussion topics - LYRICS!

Yahoo Launches Online Song-Lyric Database
Most sites publish words without permission from copyright owners
By Michael Liedtke, Associated Press
MSNBC, <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18280188/>
...lyrics of 400,000 songs

online Native American sites

Native Americans - Internet Resources, http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/native.htm

children's titles - emic/etic vision

Jamie Lee Curtis. Is There Really a Human Race?
Leo Leonini. Fish is Fish.

audio slideshows

http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/ cf. http://magnuminmotion.com

NSF "front window" of research findings

People and Society links to research vignettes,
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/index.jsp?prio_area=12

language

* You are what you speak *

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6499797.stm

quote

The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human
differences. -- Ruth Benedict

[s/cultural anthro definition] ...the study of common sense... turns out
to be extraordinarily diverse, maddeningly inconsistent and highly
resistant to skepticism of any kind. It is embedded in both sensory
experience and practical politics - powerful realities that constrain and
shape access to knowledge." -- Michael Herzfeld (2001) Theoretical
Practice in Culture and Society.

JAPANESE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jaa2/journal/

Muslims in Children's Books

good article from School Library Journal, http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6367083.html&

NPR.org - Workplace Woes: He Hovers While You Work

sjmi thought you would be interested in this story: NPR : Workplace Woes: He Hovers While You Work
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9164947&sc=emaf

This message was included:

cultural factor: manager &personal space (US v Yugoslav)

*Listen to this story*
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For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page.
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http://www.npr.org/transcripts/

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language lore, URL

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/december/Swedish.html
Swedish (Svenska) - introduction

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectations.html
Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/languageList.html
Language Listing - to learn more about its history, status, sound system,
grammar, vocabulary, writing and much more...

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/aboutLanguage.html
About Language: Language Origins, The Range of World Languages, Language
Families, Endangered Languages

exhibit link "How real is race?"

http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html

archeology lessons, grades 5-12

Archaeology: History Found in Pieces (pdf 1.81 MB)
http://www.independenceparkinstitute.com/ArcheologyLessonPlans1-16-07.pdf
This is a downloadable, curriculum-based, educational program meeting Pennsylvania and New Jersey Standards. It was created by the Independence Park Institute (IPI) at Independence National Historical Park. Students take on the role of archeologists and piece together the stories of the buried past. The lesson plans have students investigate primary and secondary history resources. (Grades 5-12).

table of contents, "how real is Race"

Table of Contents for How Real is Race? A Sourcebook On Race, Culture, and Biology

• The Fallacy Of Race As Biology
  
  • Why Contemporary Races Are Not Scientifically Valid
    
  • Human Biological Variation: What We Don't See
    
  • If Not Race, How Do We Explain Biological Differences?
    
  • More Alike Than Different; More Different Than Alike
    
• Culture Creates Race
  
  • Culture Shapes How We Experience Reality
    
  • Culture and Classification: Race Is Culturally Real
    
  • Race and Inequality: Race as a Social Invention to Achieve Certain Goals
    
  • Cross-Cultural Overview of Race
    
  • If Race Doesn't Exist, What Are We Seeing? Sex, Mating, and Race
    
• Race And Hot Button Issues In Schools
  
  • Assemblies, Clubs, Slurs, and Racial Labels
    
  • The Academic Achievement Gap and Equity
    
  • Racial and Racialized Conflicts
    
  • Interracial Flirting and Dating in Schools
    
• Resources
  
  • References
    
  • Alignment with Standards
    
  • List of Teaching Activities
    
  • Illustrations List
    

mapping literature with Google Earth

http://www.googlelittrips.org/

Follow the wanderings of Odysseus, the travels of Candide, or the journey
of the Joads, among others. This site uses Google Earth technology to
locate fiction and nonfiction in real places. [cf. flickr.com "geo tags"
for pictures taken at specific locales]

NPR.org - Finding the Beauty in Skin: A Natural History

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7700603&sc=emaf

linguistic anthro, Archiving the Worlds Accents (npr story)

A Sound Idea: Archiving the Worlds Accents
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7696195&sc=emaf

Native Americans - Internet Resources

<http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/native.htm>

"Welcome to the Internet School Library Media Center Native American page.

You will find bibliographies, directories to pages of individual tribes,
history and historical documents, periodicals and general links.

The ISLMC is a preview site for teachers, librarians, students and
parents. You can search this site, use an index or sitemap.
The following sites have useful information on Native Americans. This page
revised 1/22/00.

Content Categories

Bibliographies | Directories | Historical Documents & Online E-Texts
Author Pages | Study & Teaching | History | General Sites
Periodicals

digital ethnography - uses of Web2.0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Wesch is launching the Digital Ethnography working group at
KS State Uni to examine the impacts of digital technology on
human interaction. The first outcome of this work was a short video called
"Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us." The video was released on YouTube
on January 31st 2007 and quickly became the most popular video in the
blogosphere and the #1 featured YouTube video on February 7th 2007.

Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology
SASW, 206 Waters Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506

Phone: 785-532-6866 Fax: 785-532-6978
mwesch@ksu [dot EDU]
http://www.ksu.edu/sasw/anthro/wesch.htm

NPR.org - Cherokee Tribe Faces Decision on Freedmen

Cherokee Tribe Faces Decision on Freedmen
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7513849&sc=emaf

npr Morning Edition 21 Feb 2007

Cherokee Nation - Official Site, http://www.cherokee.org/ The Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, http://www.freedmen5tribes.com/

New language for divided Cameroon (fwd)

** New language for divided Cameroon **
Cameroonian youths develop a new language known as frananglais - a mixture of French, English and Creole.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6376389.stm >

state of the state (Michigan 2007)

[Feb 10, 2007 edition of online newspaper, St.Johns Indy, http://www.miserybay.com/sjindy/text.shtml ]

State of the State
Tick-Tock

Did you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at the annual State of the State message in Lansing. Me either, but last Tuesday I had a seat on the fringes.

The final preparations for the 7 p.m. event begin early on the morning of the big event. Some of the preparations may well have changed little since Gov. Kim Sigler delivered his State of the State in 1947 and even earlier. The cast of characters may change, but the order of arrival of the dignitaries probably has remained pretty static.

The advent of television coverage opened up the State of the State to more people in Michigan. It also added more items to the list of hurdles to be negotiated by the people scurrying around in the background.

Within the last few years the Internet has made its contribution to the event by making it much easier for the press and the people at home to access the text of the Governor's address.

From the windows of the Romney Building we can watch the arrival of the various dignitaries. Because of the sinking temperatures and brutal winds, all of the visitors to the Capitol arrived looking pretty much alike. The uniform of the evening is definitely best business attire covered by a long black overcoat.

Once the timeline, entitled Tick-Tock, begins to wind down, there are still a few last minute details that need attention. When the final draft of the State of the State Address popped up on the computer screen, it is formatted and scheduled for upload. A live feed in a conference room where staff members gathere prompts quick cell phone calls across the street. "His tie is crooked," one staffer informs her counterpart across the street.

As the results of Tick-Tock's careful planning unfold, more and more staff members join the others already assembled. As the State of the State message progresses, staff members respond in much the same fashion as the Legislators and guests across the street. Although no one seems to leap to his feet, applause greets many of the Governor's remarks.

Following the close of the Address across the street, the Governor and her party return to her house for one last event, a reception for honored guests. Staffers chat quietly for a few minutes and head back to their offices before making their way home. On the way to the car we enjoy the sight of the Capitol Building lighted from lawn to dome in the cold, black night. We leave the Romney building with all deliberate speed because the all lights turn off automatically at 9 p.m. This measure was instituted several years ago as a cost-saving measure. We wondered idly if the Capitol itself will suddenly go dark at 9 p.m. too, but it is too cold to stand around and ponder imponderables on this night.

Vietnam- Chuc Mung Nam Moi! HAPPY NEW LUNAR YEAR!

greeting (card by email) from VN for Feb 15, 2007 Lunar New Year (the year of Boar)

emic etic?

http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=299

 

[m hennessey] We often talk at our book discussions about insider/outsider points of view.
Can someone NOT of a culture ever write about that culture?  Should they? [emphasis added]

...what if the "outsider" is exceptionally perceptive or empathetic, or has done great research? 
Does it mean historical fiction can never be written if the author didn't live during the time period written about?

 

And sometimes would an "insider" be biased, or just base a book on their experiences?

Britain's human history revealed [bbc news]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5317762.stm [dating to 700,000 years ago]

Uncircumcised pupils sent home [Kenya 2007]

A Kenyan secondary school sends home 20 boys because they were not circumcised, in case they are bullied.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6355447.stm

www.wikispaces.com

educators get an ad-free site for free.
You set controls on who can edit and view.
You can upload documents, images, embed video and audio.

audio recordings online now

At last I've posted session audio recordings from the 2006 annual meeting
of the American Anthropological Association.
With the help of the organizers, I got permission from all presenters from
the invited session #2-031 (Archeology Division),

Exploring Scholarly and Best-selling Accounts of Social Collapse and
Colonial Encounters.

A good deal of the discussion focuses on the successes and shortcoming of
Jared Diamond's popular books and broadcast programs, including "Guns,
Steel and Germs."

The web address with hotlinks to each presenter is

http://tinyurl.com/2m6x8a

=-=-= aaa 2006 distinguished lecture by Sydel Silverman

http://tinyurl.com/26qd3u
"anthropology in the middle decades: the view from Hollywood"

__________________________________________
see also, http://anthroview.googlepages.com