Saturday, January 30, 2010

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.

Monday, January 25, 2010

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
  • Saturday, January 16, 2010

    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.

    Saturday, January 9, 2010

    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]

    Wednesday, January 6, 2010

    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