playing with language and ethnicity

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123131827

Comedian Russell Peters Capitalizes On Indian Roots
 
...He is now on the road with his Green Card Tour. He spoke with NPR's Audie Cornish from New York City.

After ribbing Cornish about her family's Jamaican roots, he confessed his love for speaking in accents that are not his own.

"Sometimes I get stuck in a Chinese accent and just want to talk to everybody like a Chinese person," Peters says. "Sometimes I might even just talk like myself, but that's on a crazy day."

One of his standup routines includes a bit about the Indian accent.

all about Practicing Anthropologists

The four field approach to anthro in North America comes from its 1800s roots: trying to understanding and inter-relate the scores of Native peoples at the time and the earlier societies leaving an imprint on the land. Archeology, linguistics, biological or physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology. Later in the 20th century the fifth field was added: Applied Anthropology.

Here is a synopsis from the website of the National Association of Practicing Anthropology,
http://practicinganthropology.org/practicing-anthro/

Practicing Anthropologists

Practicing anthropologists do exciting work to understand and help people around the world. We also turn up in places you might not expect to find us, including the fields of agriculture, computer science, law enforcement forensics, and more.
Our profession is dynamic and constantly evolving into more opportunities for professional anthropologists. The links, at left, contain many examples of anthropology in action, and interesting information for the public, the press and educators. You can also locate a local organization dedicated to anthropology and share and view upcoming events related to our field.


[elipsis...]

Areas of Practice

Practicing anthropologists work in many industries and areas, including:

Agricultural Development

Business – Product Design

Business – Project Management

Business – Program Management

Business – Research and Development

Computer Science – Database Design and Development

Computer Science – Software Design and Development

Computer Science – User Interface Design

Community Development

Cultural Resource Management

Education and Training

Environment – Management

Environment – Policy

Government – Local/Regional/Federal

Government – Military

Government – International Policy

Information Technology – Human Factors Engineering

Information Technology – Localization and Globalization

Information Technology – Network Design and Administration

Law Enforcement – Forensics

Legal Practices

Medical – Health Care

Medical – Public Health

Museums – Curation

Museums – Program Managers

Organizational Management

Nonprofit – Grant Writing

Nonprofit – Management

Nonprofit – Policy

Social Services

foodways, Old Testament example

from the Bible (New International Version), Leviticus 11:20-22
cf. insect eating account by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, Man Eats Bug (2004)

20 All flying insects that walk on all fours are an abomination to you.
 
21 Yet you may eat these: of all winged creeping things that go on all fours, which have legs above their feet, with which to hop on the earth. 22 Even of these you may eat: any kind of locust, any kind of katydid, any kind of cricket, and any kind of grasshopper.

teaching anthro at US Marine Corps University

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122362543 [Jan 9, 2010 Nat'l Public Radio, Weekend Edition-Saturday]

In Class, Marines Learn Cultural Cost Of Conflict, mp3 audio download

The students in front of Paula Holmes-Eber wear camouflage and have close-cropped hair. Most of them are Marine officers, and many of them have already been to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They're here to learn the consequences of their actions.

"Should we change another culture?" she asks the class. "The reality is, the second you land on the ground with 100,000 troops eating and using the materials of the area, you've changed the economy; you've changed the environment."

"It's not should we," she tells them, "it's what are we doing — and is that what we want to be doing?"

An anthropologist, Holmes-Eber trains American warriors to be sensitive to other cultures. She teaches operational culture at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va. It's her job to get soldiers to think through how every move they make on the battlefield has a consequence — not just for enemy forces, but for ordinary people.

[elipsis]

radio treasure trove, "interfaith voices"

The archives for "Interfaith Voices" offer rich listening segments. This one includes segments about pilgrimage to sites where relics reside.

Whiskers, Bones, Toes, and Teeth

In Rag and Bone, author Peter Manseau explores the macabre world of religious relics—the bodily odds and ends of saints, gurus and prophets, scattered all around the world.  From Muhammed's beard whisker to the Buddha's tooth, it's a look at why we save and celebrate pieces of the dead. Our interview originally aired in July 2009.

Peter Manseau, author of Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead, founding editor of killingthebuddha.com

http://interfaithradio.org/node/1195

precollege Anthro curriculum launches in Britain (A-level)

http://anthropologistabouttown.blogspot.com/2009/11/special-announcement-first-anthropology.html

Congratulations colleagues around Britain for leading the way for others to follow!

iron age life in N. Europe

http://www.tollundman.dk/tollundmandens-tid.asp is about the "bog man" (Tollund, Denmark) with text, pictures, video about the time period of 500 BC to 800 AD - overlapping with the Okhotsk society along the north coast of Japan' north island of Hokkaido.

 

In S. Sweden (west of Malmo) there is a village recreation with people volunteering to live in the old ways as an experiement. Imagine this experiment with Okhotsk living, as well.

Here is the website, http://www.foteviken.se/engelsk/index_e.htm

Also on the S. coast of Sweden there is also this large monument, http://ystaddailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/02/megalithic-ship.html

 

Another village (near Stockholm) was included in the May 2000 documentary about viking society.

maligning the Canis Lupis - language & culture

http://ystaddailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/05/wolf.html -all the English language expressions about wolves seem to be pejorative (against them)
 

underwater archeology - medieval villages/Belgium

...underwater archaeology in Europe.  Today's entry on Belgium highlights past work including submerged medieval fishing villages,
shipwrecks, exhibitions, and an online maritime database: click on the "Maritime Archaeology in Belgium" link at http://www.uri.edu/mua

languages gone

The death of language?
With the number of languages steadily shrinking, what is lost when a language dies?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm
 
see also reading notes from K.David Harris' When Languages Die

lives of Margaret Mead; of Clifford Geertz

Anthropologist About Town

---

Diary for 1st October to 7th October 2009 Anthropologists who made history... In 1923 Margaret Mead set off to Samoa to conduct research on adolescence. Mead became the first anthropologist to explore the realm of anthropology of childhood, and throughout her career she helped to popularise the discipline with her writings. Her work is included as mandatory texts in undergraduate degrees in North America and Europe. In this podcast, Professor Adam Cooper and June Goodfield reflect on Mead's career, the controversies surrounding the personal and professional life, and her impact on the discipline as a whole. If you'd like to know more about Mead's life and her research, the Library of Congress has an excellent online exhibition and an extensive archive collection on Mead. After gaining a his first degree in Philosophy from Antioch College, Clifford Geertz went on to do his PhD in Anthropology at Harvard. Geertz did extensive research in Indonesia and then later in Morocco. Geertz was fascinated with the ways in which culture is expressed through ' a system of meanings embodied in symbols'. He became a founder of interpretive or symbolic anthropology, and his work was extremely influential within the discipline and beyond in other social sciences. In this podcast Byron Good, Professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School, explains the contribution of Geertz's work to the discipline. For a wonderful summary of his life and work take a look a this obituary written in the New York Times.

 

Native American dioramas cause offense at U-Michigan Museum

Michigan to Remove Indian Dioramas from Natural History Museum

Responding to objections from American Indian students and staff members, the University of Michigan will remove a set of dioramas depicting scenes of Native American life from its natural history museum, Indian Country Today reported. Some American Indian professors at Michigan said they found it insulting for them and their culture to be represented as miniaturized dolls amid the museum's dinosaur bones and fossils. "We are living, breathing, contemporary human beings," Margaret Noori, a professor of Ojibwe language and literature at Michigan, told Indian Country Today. A Michigan official confirmed that the dioramas would be removed by January.
[http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/15/qt#208267]

material culture; bodies well & ill; London ethnography

from Sept. 3, 2009 digest of Anthropologist About Town

---

The comfort of things new ethnography by professor Daniel Miller called 'The comfort of things'. Daniel Miller is an anthropologist who specialises in teaching and researching material culture at UCL. The book is the result of research he conducted on a single street in London. Dr. Miller and his researchers asked residents of a particular street to discuss the stories, histories and significance of certain objects they hold dear to them in their houses. For anyone interested in material culture this is a fascinating read! If you are interested in learning more about material culture take a look at this website. Exquisite Bodies the Welcome Collection for a look at life size wax figures whose bodies have been cross sectioned in order to see internal organs , and in some cases lifelike representations of what happens to a body when it is attacked by diseases such as tuberculosis, alcohol and drug addiction. The models were used in the 19th century for medical teaching purposes. For more information about events, activities and videos accompanying the exhibit take a look here. The exhibit will run until the 18th of October 2009. anthropological research in London? FiLo presentations by anthropologists Daniel Miller and John Eade is a growing network of anthropologists who are undergoing fieldwork in London... The workshop will include keynote talks by anthropologists John Eade and Daniel Miller, as well as poster presentations by FiLo members, discussion of future Filo projects, and a guided walk of central London. For more information and registration email:filo.network@gmail.com or visit the Filo's website.

online exhibition, first nation

virtual exhibit (British Columbia, Canada), [Doig River First Nation]
Dane Wajich - Dane-zaa Stories and Song: Dreamers and the land,
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Danewajich

hunter-gatherer societies altering their environments

hunter-gatherer societies altering their environments - intentional or not
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112124572
 
August 23, 2009
Archaeologists who study early hunter-gatherer societies are discovering that even the simplest cultures altered their environments, whether they meant to or not.
 
For example, aboriginal people in Australia burned huge areas to change the landscape so they could hunt animals more easily. Perhaps the most famous example is the way mastodons and giant sloth and other ice-age animals were killed off by roving bands of hungry humans...
[National Public Radio, npr.org]
article on coastal exploitation appears in the journal Science

thinking about Ch. Darwin's "Origin of the Species"

http://scienceblogs.com/bloggingtheorigin
[chapter by chapter modern re-reading of Darwin's The Origin of Species;
or see the original text at www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles]

physical anthro; archeology - Exhibition, "Written in Bone"

on display at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC) until February 2011,
Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17^th Century Chesapeake

and the webcomic presentation, http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/comic

 

photo preview [13 views]

Indonesian tribe picks Korean alphabet as official writing system

via Korean Studies Discussion List <http://us.mc580.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws> http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2009/08/06/56/0302000000AEN20090806001200315F.HTML [compare to] ...other instances in the past where other cultures attempted to adopt Han'gu(l / Choso(n'gu(l as their written language only to have it be rejected, no? I don't recall as it has been a long time since I read Kim-Renaud, Y-K. (ed) 1997. The Korean Alphabet: Its History and Structure. Anyway, this is a very interesting language development that *gasp* for once doesn't involve romanizations. =-=-=-= follow up: The case of using hangeul by one of Indonesian tribes as a practical systemof writing is funny. It is one more ?success? of local nationalists in theera of globalization, when the state sponsors such "experiments"! Koreanalphabet is excellent only for the Korean language, but is almost unsuitablefor the transmission of sounds, which are absent in the Korean language. Inthe Soviet Union in 1920-30?s attempts were made to create scripts fornationalities, which had no their own script on the basis of the Latinalphabet. This letter alphabet, as well as Cyrillic, is much more suitablethan Korean letter-syllabic alphabet, for transcription of all kinds ofsounds through a combination of letters or diacritics. But the grandioseexperiment failed. It is difficult to believe that the Korean experimentwill last for long. ---Lev Kontsevich [Moscow]

lesson plans - ancient Jordan, ancient Israel

Daily Life in Ancient Times: Archaeology of Israel and Jordan
July 1 - July 24, 2009
 -- directed by Rhonda Root and Gloria London --
sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities
 
http://home.earthlink.net/~galondon/NEH2009/

old bones in Spain (1.2mya)

"In the field of human evolution which is what I'm in, Atapuerca is a world reference site," Quam says. "This is the richest fossil bearing deposits in the world. And every single site in Atapuerca that has been excavated has yielded human remains, which is something that is very unusual."
Last year, the team uncovered a 1.2 million-year-old jawbone fragment from a species known as homo antecessor. It's the oldest hominid fossil ever found in western Europe.
 
Near the railway trench, another site yielded human remains of 28 individuals, dating back at least half a million years. The Spanish paleontologist believes it's a mass grave.
 
"This was a collective act, something a group did with its dead," Arsuaga says.
full story; or mp3 download
--from NPR.org Morning Edition 3 Aug. 2009

underwater archeology project (Florida, USA)

[July 23, 2009] The underwater archaeology field school in Florida continues with two new posts.  The entries cover new discoveries on the 16th century wreck, Emanuel Point II while other teams search for a third wreck from the same period.  http://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/mua/project_journals/wf09/wf09_week7.shtml 2009-07-02 intro to anthro (2004) OpenCourse online point of reference when organizing a course to introduce anthro:   http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Anthropology/21A-100Fall-2004/CourseHome/ 2009-06-28 Endangered Cultures - digital sources Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) ****************************** From: Reviews of Internet resources for Asian Studies <asia-www-monitor@anu.edu.au> PARADISEC, c/o The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia Self-description: "PARADISEC (Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures) offers a facility for digital conservation and access for endangered materials from the Pacific region, defined broadly to include Oceania and East and Southeast Asia. Our research group has developed models to ensure that the archive can provide access to interested communities, and conforms with emerging international standards for digital archiving. Our research group is composed of investigators from the four participating institutions PARADISEC collaborates with other groups to promote good practice in field documentation and digital archiving of endangered languages: Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) [http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/thieberger/RNLD/ RNLDmailing.html], the Open Language Archives Community (OLAC) [http://www.language- archives.org], the Digital Endangered Languages and Musics Network (DELAMAN) [http://www.delaman.org/] and the Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data project (E-MELD) [http://www.emeld.org/index.cfm]. At September 2008 PARADISEC's collection contains 2051 hours of digital audio and video files on 3.65 TB of disk space. A catalogue of this material is available at the link given in the right hand frame of this page. 614 languages from 60 countries are represented in PARADISEC's collection." 2009-06-12 Talking with Non-Native English Speakers This looks like a handy summary and skills list for anybody working in our mobile world of languages and societies today! 1) Be sensitive and respectful to individuals who have invested the time to learn English.  Learning a new language is a large undertaking.  They have sacrificed many years to learn English. To help you with this, try learning and using several phrases of another language. It's quite humbling.   2) Be aware of the factors that can enhance miscommunication. For example: Is the miscommunication a language misunderstanding? Is it based on differences in gender, age, national culture, or corporate culture? Is the miscommunication linked to technology malfunctions? Is it caused by more implicit variables, such as non-verbal components, context of message, or relationships based on hierarchy? By understanding the nature of the quandary, you can find more efficient solutions.   3) Pause. Native English speakers will often ask a question and not allow enough time for the listener to process the words, think about an answer, find the appropriate wording (based on their relationship to the speaker), and then execute a grammatically correct sentence. If it's information you are seeking, then pausing can work wonders!   4) When conducting meetings and conference calls, provide an outline or overview ahead of time. Give clear and simple statements of what is to be expected and define the length of discussion points.   5) Avoid slang, professional jargon, and acronyms at all costs. A statement like this can be confusing to non-native English speakers: "Please send the RFP by COB on hump day. Are we all on board?" Rephrasing can be advantageous: "Please send the Request for Proposal by 5 pm on Wednesday. Is that agreeable?"   6) Communicate with story. Often times bullet points and lists of information lack the ability to show the elusive. Example vignettes from your experiences or someone else's (including personal stories, folktales, and historical tales) can provide clarity, and at the same time, keep respect and honor for all members by not pointing out the flaws in others.   7) Have listeners rephrase what they think they heard you say. This is much better than asking, "Do you all understand?" and eventually receiving unsatisfactory outcomes.   8) Speak clearly and enunciate properly. Pausing before and after significant words can help improve communication, too. If the points above seem superfluous or unessential, then spend some time trying to make sense of the following:   Hvis du har noen spørsmål om dette emnet eller andre relaterte emner, ta kontakt med Cultural Awareness International. (Tip: You might want to use a Norwegian dictionary.)   In conclusion, the energy and time it takes to understand just one sentence may bring about feelings of frustration and confusion. However, by obtaining this point of view you will unearth the empathy needed to communicate effectively with all of your colleagues and clients worldwide.    Other helpful tips that will also enhance communication:   • Trust begins with openness and authenticity. Presenting an image of yourself with flaws and weaknesses can often times be beneficial to you. • View the world from someone else's eyes by shifting your paradigm. This can give you an advantageous viewpoint on a particular situation or problem. • Don't see the world by what's right or wrong. See what's beneficial or ineffectual. Go from there. • See the good that every individual or situation brings to your world. It is often in this place that we find satisfaction with ourselves, with others, and the communication between. Written by Gene Edgerton, Edited by Rebecca Garza and Kayla Kluempke June 2009, www.CulturalAwareness.com 2009-06-03 the Open Anthropology Cooperative - constellation sets of interest groups on the Ning platform (one sign-up allows multiple Ning memberships) http://openanthcoop.ning.com/ As of June 3, there are groups for Visual anthro, Anthro of Japan, Anthro of Brazil, Physical/forensic, and a Forum on general policy of this Cooperative intersection of groupings. 2009-05-28 What is Anthropology for? Anthropologist About Town Diary for 28th May to 3rd June 2009 Anthropologists find work in a variety of different fields ranging from working in museums, to working as business consultants, or in development and tourist agencies. Often the word 'anthropologist' does not appear in their job title, but anthropologists use the skills they have learned from their degrees, such as undertaking ethnographic research, analysing cross cultural data, doing interviews and apply these skills to their current roles. Veronica Strang, professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Auckland has written a new book called What do Anthropologists do? The book takes a close look at why anthropologists are in demand for certain roles, and the job opportunities that are open to people studying the degree. It's written in an accessible manner and is a very useful resource for people beginning their exploration of anthropology and those already studying it at university. 2009-05-09 maritime archeology - public education on the road (UK example) Archaeologists at Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology are excited to announce they have received over a third of a million pounds to promote greater public involvement in maritime archaeology. This exciting three year project will focus around the creation of a community outreach van which will be furnished with interactive displays, information and hands on activities to make learning about maritime heritage possible for all the community. For more information contact: http://www.hwtma.org.uk/education/ 2009-05-08 anthropology day (May -Wales; July -London) www.walesanthropologyday.co.uk www.londonanthropologyday.co.uk (see earlier YouTube synopsis linked there) 2009-05-05 indigenous video online http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/2009/05/01/beyond-broadcast-launching-nitv-and-isuma-tv http://www.isuma.tv/ showcases work from Inuit life along the north of Canada; 20' story of the change from living in igloos to wood houses, http://www.isuma.tv/?site/displayFilm/id/856 2009-03-26 culture of surnames- "Balls and Bottoms give way to Wangs in name game" REUTERS.COM Thu Mar 26, 2009 LONDON (Reuters) - The number of people in Britain with surnames like Cockshott, Balls, Death and Shufflebottom -- likely the source of schoolroom laughter -- has declined by up to 75 percent in the last century. A study found the number of people with the name Cock shrank to 785 last year from 3,211 in 1881, those called Balls fell to 1,299 from 2,904 and the number of Deaths were reduced to 605 from 1,133. People named Smellie decreased by 70 percent, Dafts by 51 percent, Gotobeds by 42 percent, Shufflebottoms by 40 percent, and Cockshotts by 34 percent, said Richard Webber, visiting professor of geography at King's College, London. ...full text, http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSTRE52O5IN20090326?sp=true 2009-02-15 Physical connections - Neanderthal 1st draft of DNA sequence http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100648070   [opening text] Morning Edition, February 13, 2009 · Scientists in Germany say they have drawn up a map of about 60 percent of the genetic "letters" in the genome of Neanderthals. The map is expected to shed light not only on what kind of creatures they were, but also what genetic differences allowed humans to leave Neanderthals in the evolutionary dust.   See how Windows Mobile brings your life together—at home, work, or on the go. See Now 2009-02-02 your skin color from National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100057939 [excerpt]... look at the patch of skin on the inside of your upper arm, the part of you that almost never sees the sun. Whatever color you see there is what experts call your basic skin color, according to professor Nina Jablonski, head of the Penn State Department of Anthropology.   And that color, the one you have now, says Jablonski, is very probably not the color your ancient ancestors had — even if you think your family has been the same color for a long, long time. 2009-01-28 links treasure trove for anthro from the blog, Anthropologist About Town [London-based, weekly]  Diary for 29th January to 5th February 2009 The other day on the internet, I came across this wonderful website: http:www.anthropologie.net . This website has an incredible amount of links for those interested in anthropology. There is a vast array of links from museums, research institutions, and university departments around the world, anthropology in the news sites, and a lot more! 2009-01-15 Darwin 200; YouTube content for anthro Anthropologist About Town Diary for 15th January to 21st January 2009 Evolutionary thinking Last week I mentioned the series of Radio 4 programmes on Charles Darwin, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. Today, I'll be checking out the specially constructed Darwin 200 website, which is full of resources and information about his work, as well as listing many exhibitions and events taking place around the country all year. For example, there is currently an extensive presentation of his work at The Natural History Museum in London - 'Darwin, Big Ideas' - but you can read about his impact in other parts of the country here, as well as search for other events taking place in your home town. And then you can have an animated discussion with someone about whether nature trumps nurture... Where no man has been before? Youtube has a massive amount of material related to anthropology available - watch out in coming weeks for more links - so today I'll be checking out the BBC series from last year that has been uploaded called 'First Contact'. It sought to document the phenomenon of 'ethnotourism' and investigate how and why travel companies are selling experiences for tourists where they are able to visit 'uncontacted' tribes. Some of the commentators in the programme are anthropologists who debate the ethical problems with the commercialisation of 'remoteness'. Of course the very making of the BBC film itself could be considered to be caught up in the dilemma it critiques - by filming the 'first contact' does the director become implicated himself....? 2008-12-27 audio from the National Museum of the American Indian http://www.nmai.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=collaboration&second=radio   Recordings   |   Contact NMAI  |   Links to Native American radio and web productions Audio recordings are an essential means of communication and collaboration between the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Native and indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere and Hawai'i, and the general public. Recordings are supported at the NMAI by the Community and Constituent Services Department. The department's staff works with Native and indigenous organizations and professionals to produce audio programs, products, and services that are informative, educational, and entertaining. At the same time, NMAI recordings uphold a long tradition of preserving Native oral history. The NMAI offers live radio broadcasts, audio recordings, and a radio series. 2008-12-19 new web-based documentary video source Introducing FOCAL POINT The new web-exclusive series of documentary shorts from WIDE ANGLE   In its first weeks, FOCAL POINT, the new online exclusive series of documentary shorts from Wide Angle, will bring viewers to polling stations in Pakistan, breadlines in Zimbabwe, and demonstrations in Greece, where the children of immigrants are fighting for the right to citizenship. The first episode of FOCAL POINT, From Jihad to Rehab, takes us inside a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia, where art therapy and religious re-education are being used to reform militant jihadists.   Like Wide Angle, FOCAL POINT offers a deeper understanding of forces shaping the world today through online-exclusive documentary shorts, an increasingly popular medium. This exciting new series will showcase the work of emerging and established independent filmmakers from around the world. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/from-jihad-to-rehab/introduction-from-jihad-to-rehab/3834/ 2008-12-18 top 100 anthro blogs grouped thematically for 2008, http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2008/12/top-100-anthropology-blogs/ 2008-12-13 anthro education the Social Web 2.0 way A concerted effort through the Anthropology Education Committee at the American Anthropological Association is underway to gathering teaching plans and materials at http://anthroed.wikispaces.com with discussions at http://anthroed.ning.com and link-favorites at http://del.icio.us/anthroed - Thanks to Colleen P. for making this happen!   And a bank of images and video clips is growing for classroom uses at http://k12anthro.wikispaces.com as well. blog, "Language Scraps" Lots of insights from a person working between English and Thai, http://languagescraps.blogspot.com 2008-12-11 ethnosnacker - nibbling on anthropology in daily life excerpted from Anthropologist About Town Diary for 11th December to 17th December 2008 SUNDAY 14TH DECEMBER - Snacking on Ethnography On Sunday I'll be browsing the interweb and viewing some of the work of a cyber-anthropologist who goes by the name of Ethnosnacker. Using his own youtube channel, he aims to "expose, breakdown and reconstruct ethnographic research or commercial anthropology for those who want to understand it better". His work is an interesting example of how anthropology is increasingly 'used' for commercial purposes. There is plenty of debate about whether this is an appropriate use for the discipline - his view seems to be that ethnography is suitable in any situation where it can help bring meaning to an event or activity....You can watch a introduction to the site here, as well as several interviews that both support and question his work. 2008-11-12 hobbit-sized human ancestor in Indonesia http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hobbit/ concludes with the idea that a direct descendant of 'Lucy' (australopithicus) may have lived until as recently 12,000 years ago! 2008-11-08 indigenous visual depictions; self-awareness about indigenous media research: Postma, M. and P. I. Crawford (eds.)(2006), Reflecting Visual Ethnography, Leiden & Hoejbjerg: CNWS Publications & Intervention Press. Philipsen, H.H. and B. Markussen (eds.), Advocacy and Indigenous Filmmaking, Hoejbjerg: Intervention Press Aaron Glass' work about a traditional dance of one of the NW coastal indigenous groups in North America; also with W. Osman about her film in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. PDF version of the Anthropology News (vol.47/no.9 =November 2008) at anthrosource.net The interviewer/author is Dinah Winnick. Worth & Adair's Through Navajo Eyes: An Exploration in Film Communication and Anthropology Hoque, Abdul (2006) Radio and indigenous peoples. The role of radio in the sustainable livelihoods of indigenous peoples: A case study of the Rakhaing and the Garo people in Bangladesh. University of Tromso. PamelaWilson and Michelle Stewart (eds) Global indigenous media: culture,politics and poetics 2008-10-25 Doing Anthropology (MIT video, 8 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk3-no1foTE   Thoughts on Fieldwork From Three Research Sites Cultural Anthropology is a social science that explores how people understand - and act in - the world. But what, exactly, is it that Cultural Anthropologists do? How do they approach their research? In this short film, 2008-10-24 visual approach to understanding life in Japan http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/ 2008-10-23 language & culture - K.David Harrison's book P 40.5 .L33 H37 2007 Harrison, K. David. When Languages Die. The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. London: OUP. _______________ 13 The world's 6.34B people speak, at latest count, 6,912 languages. If speakers were divided evenly among languages, each tongue would have 917,000 speakers... The top 10 biggest languages have hundreds of millions of speakers each, accounting for just over 50% of humans. If we expand this set to include the top 83 languages, we have covered nearly 80% of the world's population. 35 mankind... classifying, grouping, and describing plant and animal life, behavior, and usefulness to humans. Scientists refer to this practice as taxonomy: naming individuals and groups, sorting things into groups, discovering relations among them.   57 [reindeer words] Dongur. It is a powerful word. It means 'male domesticated reindeer in its third year and first mating season, but not ready for mating', and it allows a tribe of nomadic reindeer herders in Siberia to identify and describe with a single word what would otherwise require a full sentence.   58 ...uncle may be a mother's brother, or a mother's sister's husband, or perhaps just his parents' adult male friend. While our mind readily grasps the various types of 'uncle', English provides no ready-made, unique labels to distinguish them. Conversely, in cultures like Tofa with more socially important kinship relations, there exists no general word for 'uncle'. Five different type of uncles would have five completely different labels. By simply learning these labels, the child implicitly learns that these are distinct kinship roles. [unique identifiers]   146 [Walter Ong] Language s so overwhelmingly oral that of all the many thousands of languages --possibly tens of thousands-- spoken in the course of human history only around 106 have ever been committed to writing to a degree sufficient to have produced literature, and most have never been written at all. Of the some 3,000 languages spoken that exist today only some 78 have a literature... ...what it means to be a purely oral, non-literature culture. No grocery lists, no letters or e-mails, no memos, no text messages on cell phones, no books, no report cards, [no junk mail, direct mail, bills, email], no instructions on how to assemble artificial Christmas trees, no owner's manuals, no dictionaries, no newspapers, no libraries. This is the *normal* state of affairs for most human languages. [and therefore societies]   210 Rotokas (spoken in New Guinea by 4,320 people) reportedly gets by with a mere six consonants: p, t, k, v, r, and g, while Ingush a language of the Caucasus (230,000 speakers) boasts a whopping 40 consonants. Besides many common sounds like 'p', 'b', and 'f', Ingush uses a special series of ejective consonants that are produced by closing and raising the vocal chores to compress air inside the pharynx, then releasing the pressure suddenly to create a popping sound to accompany the consonant. Ejectives are moderately rare, occurring in only about 20% of the world's languages. To employ *seven* distinct kinds of ejectives, as does Ingush, is exceedingly rare. But even Ingush is not the upper limit: Ubykh, which reportedly had 70 consonants, lost its last speaker in 1992.      ...Ingush appears more complex, allowing multiple consonants to sit next to each other, for example, bw, hw, ljg, and rjg: bwarjg 'eye'   hwazaljg 'bird'   ==NOTES to text 243 Russian and Polish and other languages have a term that means "a whole 24 day," while English lacks this word. 246 [seven day week/calendar] first came into use in ancient Babylon, but a 10-day week was adopted by the Mayan Empire, and some Bantu civilizations in Africa adopted a six-day week. 261 [inventory of sign languages] ...about 700 sign languages in the final count   == urls: p237> Lenape words (Deleware; Delaware), www.delawaretribeofindians.nsn.us. Talking dico, www.talk-lenape.com p246 Halkomelem elders; folkbiology, www.sfu.ca/halk-ethnobiology [NW coast] p249 [Baltic: Karaim chanting prayers/religion ceremonies online] www.karaimi.home.pl/index/php?p=4 AND   http://daugenis.mch.mii.lt/karaimai/literature1.htm p250 [video clip] http://tuvan.swarthmore.edu p256 www.ethnologue.com >population estimates for many languages; e.g. India's many languages p270 Myth: Signs are glorified gestures. Online at http://facstaff.gallaudet.edu/harry.markowicz/asl/myth4.html. p278 Hawaiian Dictionary. Online at http://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.5/cgi-bin/hdict?l=en   Hillis, David M, Derrick Zwickl, and Robin Gutell 2003. Tree of Life. Online at http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/Download.html. Accessed January 2006. [As published in Science 300: 1692-1697]   Kiesling, Scott F. 2004. Dude. American Speech 79(3): 281-305.   Medin, Douglas L., and Scott Atran 1999. Folkbiology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.   Nettle, Daniel, and Suzanne Romaine 2000. Vanishing Voices: The extinction of the world's languages. New York: OUP. [ch.3 "Lost Words - Lost Worlds"]   Weisstein, Eric W. 2005. Base In MathWorld - A Wolfram Web Resource. Online at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Base.html. Accessed August 2006.   ==ALSO Ironbound Films, "The Last Speakers" (Siberia documentary). National Geographic project on endangered languages. Living Tongues Inst for Endangered Languages podcast, The World of Words, www.theworld.org/languages 2008-10-04 theme issue, White Privilege and Schooling Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Volume: 39, Number: 3 (9/2008) online from AnthroSource at http://www.anthrosource.net/toc/aeq/39/3  [subscription required for Web access] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction to Theme Issue: White Privilege and Schooling, guest editor Douglas Foley http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2008.00018.x 2008-10-01 anthro museum online presentations Anthropologist About Town Diary for 2nd October to 8th October 2008 MONDAY 6TH OCTOBER - Online museum Another website to browse today, which aims to bring the ethnographic collections of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter to a wider audience. It contains a number of interactive tools, including the opportunity to (electronically) have a go at playing a Burmese xylophone, or to create your own Polynesian barkcloth. The material is aimed at varying age groups, but all is very accessible and pretty varied in its subject matter. So for those of you not lucky enough to live besides the seaside in Exeter then it's well-worth a few hours of your time - you can view a list of subjects already online here. youth produced ethnographic film, 'Anglesea Road' ...the film 'Anglesea Road' on youtube... It was made as part of visual anthropology project between the Royal Anthropological Institute and a college in South East London, where a group of 16-19 year-olds made a mini-ethnographic film about their local area, and takes a look at a street which has a large Somali population, and what the area means to them. 2008-09-19 review of traveling exhibit, RACE - Are We So Different? Review Essay: RACE: Are We So Different? Mischa Penn, Gregory Laden, Gilbert Tostevin http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1379.2008.00015.x [subscription for online access required from library or individual]   2008-09-18 Britain Observed - cameras in *your* home? Anthropologist About Town Diary for 18th September to 24th September 2008 TUESDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER - Big Brother or Big Mother? Normally I wouldn't mention reality television on the blog, but the latest offering from Channel 4 may be of slight interest for anthropologists. 'The Family' is a Big Brother-like format, where one ordinary family had cameras installed in their house for several months, and their daily lives were observed over a period of time. Amongst the children in the family is Charlotte, who is studying social anthropology for part of her International Baccalaureate (an alternative to A-levels) -perhaps she will bring some ethnographic insight on how the family functions?! According to this preview article, the programme is also a return to more responsible and in-depth observtional film-making, which means we may learn more about our own society than in most of the other exaggerated material on television. There is a website where you can view more resources, and you should be able to watch previous episodes on 4onDemand - it is broadcast otherwise at 21.00 on Wednesdays. 2008-08-08 insider - outsider [weekly blog via London, http://anthropologistabouttown.blogspot.com] Anthropologist About Town Diary for August 7th to August 13th 2008 TUESDAY AUGUST 12TH - Strangers abroad On Saturday I'll be putting my feet up and relaxing in front of 'The Thirties in Colour', a television series recently shown on BBC4 and now available to view online using the iplayer. It focuses on the first colour films made (only by by those wealthy enough to afford the expensive past-time), and how they saw the world around them, both domestically and in faraway places. Many of their observations are steeped in the perspective of the day, with a very superior view of the 'exotic tribes' they saw on their travels. Yet for the early images alone the films are fascinating for their representation of the interaction between westerners and indigenous peoples. For an alternative point of view, you could also try getting hold of 'Cannibal Tours', an excellent ethnographic film that investigates the prejudices of those who embark on invasive tourism - the film's tagline is "There is nothing so strange in a strange land, as the stranger who comes to visit it'. 2008-08-05 movies encompassing the planet for a sense of the whole planetary scope of human activity (and its absence):   Matt Harding collected clips of his happy jigging all over the world. This set this to music. A simple but powerful statement. It is hard not to smile.   http://youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY   For anyone interested in geography, energy - water - air/space, and the places around the world, this Flash movie is vivid and powerful. www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty [that spelling error is part of the link] 2008-07-29 links page (Am.Anthro.Assoc) http://www.aaanet.org/resources/links.cfm article, Applying Anthropology to Teaching Anthropology General Anthropology Bulletin Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 2008 by Cathy Small http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1939-3466.2008.00002.x 2008-07-05 language lore - alchemy of swearing www.theworld.org/?q=node/16325 [February 28, 2008] Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with author Stephen Dodson. He's been studying languages -- and how to curse in them -- much of his life. Now he's co-authored a book called "Uglier Than a Monkey's Armpit: The Best Put-downs and Invective from Around the World." --- see also, Dodson's blog, http://www.languagehat.com/ which includes an extensive list of links to other rich language-related resources. Look for the US edition of this book in summer 2009. 2008-07-03 caution about 2008 TV series 'tribal wives' http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/01/anthropology 2008-07-01 video, Doing Anthropology (making it accessible; easy to visualize) Mass. Inst. of Technology's Video Productions has created a new video called Doing Anthropology, to promote greater public understanding about cultural anthropology and the process of fieldwork. The video, which is housed on MIT TechTV (http://techtv.mit.edu/file/663/), is streamable and can be embedded into your personal blog or website. 2008-06-28 anthropology programming (TV broadcasts) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/archive/int_anth.html gives thumbnail, individual website and resources for about 14 programs as of 6/2008 2008-06-26 tackling trash http://www.justicetalking.org/viewprogram.asp?progID=668 webpage gives links to interview segments, related books, transcripts, action items 2008-04-22 archeology? Indiana Jones--Saving or Stealing History? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89724552&sc=emaf (radio story, Monday, 4/21/2008) re-humanizing the wartime de-humanizing phenomenon radio story about the visits to U.S. high school classrooms by former members of the WW II corps of kamikaze pilots (in conjuction with the documentary film's producer).   Wings of Defeat: Kamikaze Stories, Told in Person http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89622063&sc=emaf 2008-04-21 bio. anthro "e-skeleton" project http://www.eskeletons.org/ gives 2D and 3D primate, including human skeletons 2008-04-18 ethno-doc website; Indigenous Knowledge Bank from blog Anthropologist About Town - Apr 17, 2008 Indigenous knowledge Following the film I saw yesterday I want to find out more about the different indigenous peoples of the world, so I'm going to browse the internet to see what I can discover. Anthropologists are often involved in the study of indigenous societies, and many work for organisations that campaign to uphold their rights. For example, The Peoples of the World Foundation is a group that highlights the lives of indigenous people using photography and film, in doing so hope to 'educate and enlighten' its vewers. Also worth checking out is Survival International, a non-governmental organisation that is often in the press for its work, most recently perhaps regarding their campaign to stop people referring to indigenous people as 'primitive'...and there are also many interesting films on their website from around the world. Rounding up the week is the happy news today that Ethnodoc - the visual anthropology website - have just announced that all the their film content is now viewable online for FREE! In case you haven't read about Ethnodoc on the blog before, it's an Italian organisation that aims to link people interested in visual anthropology across the globe, providing photographs, films and articles on visual material free of charge - once you've signed up for free membership. It's a useful place to look at if you're interested in the subject, and also to research links to other similar organisations and hear the latest news about conferences and events. 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