Thursday, June 6, 2013

google maps for tribal stories (Memory Places)

Not just for U.S.A. Civil War conflict sites, but also in the people of the Amazon to annotate the online maps with "les lieux de memoires" (memory places that Pierre Nora first described in 1993):
 
minute 23:20 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMBJ2Hu0NLw

Thursday, May 23, 2013

San Francisco, CA (underwater) archeology - Whaling Ship

Breaking the Candace: The 300 Spear Street Project
     The Candace was a whaler built in Boston in 1818 that was discovered buried beneath San Francisco that was excavated by Dr. Jim Allan and
archaeologists from William Self Associates,  Fresh from a voyage to the Arctic, the Candace limped into San Francisco leaking badly.  It was
condemned and never sailed again.
     The archaeological investigation revealed not only the Candace but also a ship breaking yard where Chinese laborers dismantled vessels and recycled
their component parts.  All these aspects of 19th century life in San Francisco are covered in the three galleries that comprise the online exhibit.  Breaking the Candace features a video introduction by Dr. Allan, slideshows, an interactive poster, site plans, a PDF version of the report, and video footage of the wreck being lifted from the site.

Tour the exhibit by clicking the link at the MUA, http://www.themua.org/

Thursday, March 7, 2013

online "Saving 10,000 lives" at YouTube

On March 6, 2013 the director, Dr. Rene Duignan, presented his 51 minute movie about the high rate of suicide in Japan to members of the news media & the National Diet. He documents the problem, the causes, the solutions, and the social consequences. Mental health professionals, researchers, teachers, friends and family members may benefit from this open discussion of a difficult topic.

http://tinyurl.com/saving10000 [full movie just uploaded], http://www.saving10000.com [website, including trailer for movie]

Friday, March 1, 2013

New short film: The Huala of China's Sanchuan Region

See the huala (trance mediums/ shamans) among the Mangghuer people of the Sanchuan Region, on the northeast Tibetan Plateau. The movie is intended for a general, rather than an academic, audience, so please feel free to share the link with your students, neighbors, grandmas, etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUjLwtix2_U

The Gods Incarnate - The Huala of China's Sanchuan Region

This film is about ordinary people who incarnate deities. These people are called huala in the Mangghuer language. Huala are found in the Sanchuan Region, on the northeastern Plateau, in China
 [G. Roche]

Monday, December 17, 2012

rock song of USA, Japan cliches

Here is a highly polished, context-free, series of icons and stereotypes presented in the form of a music video from USA expat in Japan, A. York.


The presentation includes a playful, self-aware, ironic or parodic dimension.
But as an example of a Cultural Production, it is heavily laden with popular, commercial or commoditized meanings.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Mayan calendar talk, end of 2012 viewpoint

Friday, November 30, 2012

small town photo albums online - social analysis & visual anthro fodder?

http://miserybay.usanethosting.com/wordpress/category/features/album/

Comes from the weekly online newspaper, The St. Johns Independent, or sjindy.
Citizen reporters supply some of the photo sets.
And while there is little context or captioning, still there is some social & cultural information that can be extracted from these sources.
To locate this county seat in middle Michigan, USA, map search by postal (Z.I.P.) code 48879.
The population is about 7,000 and in 2006 it celebrated 150 years since its foundation in 1856.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Egyptian Archaeology, podcast 'academic minute'

In today's Academic Minute, the University of Toronto's Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner describes some recent finds from an archaeological excavation in Abydos, Egypt. Wegner is assistant professor of Egyptian archaeology in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at Toronto. She also serves at Project Director for the North Abydos Votive Zone Project. Find out more about her here. A transcript of this podcast can be found here.




Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/audio/2012/05/21/egyptian-archaeology 
Inside Higher Ed 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

archeology from satellites


In today's Academic Minute, Jason Ur of Harvard University explains how archaeologists are using declassified satellite images to locate previously unknown ancient sites. Learn more about the Academic Minute here.

link: http://www.insidehighered.com/audio/2012/05/15/satellite-archaeology

Friday, March 30, 2012

languages live and die

Recent feature stories on (Internet audio & transcripts) Radio:

There are some 7,000 spoken languages in the world, and linguists project that as many as half may disappear by the end of the century. That works out to one language going extinct about every two weeks. Now, digital technology is coming to the rescue of some of those ancient tongues.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/14/135402002/dying-language-speakers-wont-talk-to-each-other [4/2011]
Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez are the only two people in the world who still speak Ayapaneco. This centuries-old language of Mexico is in danger of becoming extinct, and yet, the two aren't talking. An anthropologist working on a dictionary with the two aging men described Segovia as a "little prickly" and Velazquez as "more stoic."

Shoshone is one of many American Indian languages that is in danger of becoming extinct. But 10 Shoshone high school students from rural Idaho, Utah and Nevada hope to become future guardians of the language. This summer, they're spending six weeks at the University of Utah for the Shoshone Youth Language Apprenticeship Program.

A study based supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages identifies regions around the world where languages are dying. We hear some words from these disappearing languages.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

music class - bringing in diverse human experiences

While visiting a high school choir class, the anthropologist in me found ways to introduce vocal art to illustrate some of the variety of music expression. Surely there are more or better references to sample, but these came first to mind:

 
-(Japan) Noh theater solos
-(Polynesia? Micronesia?) hymn in quarter tones
-(Swiss; USA) yodeling
-(USA) work songs to synchronize group exertions
-(USA) Sacred Harp (shape note singing) in hollow square
-(USA) rapping (cf. Bobby McFerrin vocal percussion)
-(USA) vocal jazz 'scat singing'
-(Scotland) mouth music (imitating instruments)
-(ancient Britain) slaves brought to Imperial Rome: novelty of singing in 3rds
-(Bulgaria) women's chorus singing in 9ths and 7ths
-(Central Asia) Tuva "throat singing"
-song circles for healing
-(India) mantra repetitions

 
These could be extra-credit assignments for students to report to the class (or in writing to the teacher), for the teacher to playback samples (Wikipedia; Wikimedia), to demonstrate and challenge students to produce each of these.

Why don’t other animals produce or consume such things as dance, music, visual art...

Humans feel motivated to create and consume many artistic forms. Why don't other animals produce or consume such things as dance, music, visual art, verbal arts of story and lyric and declamation?

 

Recognizing patterns and relationships, then applying ones known by experience to new material is something that characterizes human minds and hearts. In abstract terms this search for meaning is an extension from the core motivation in spoken (and thus also written) language. For some reason a given musical phrase, movement sequence, or choice of words stands out in a person's mind. It "means" something or resonates with a feeling or concept in one's own mind, as yet perhaps not articulated into a definite form. The artist answers a specific itch by producing sequences of pattern and meaning. The audience may dwell on a novel piece of work to grasp it, or in dim recognition of knowing it from another place or medium. Alternatively the audience may be actively seeking something to touch the itch they feel, and therefore browse rapidly through the works until they find something partly or fully connected to the meaning they are seeking. In the case of visual arts, the elements of composition, light, texture, narrative (intertexuality) or context could spark the feeling of recognition and personal meaning attached to the work. In other words the meaning can be perceived indirectly, incidentally and thus unintentionally.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

radio on Fridays, "Science Friday" each week

Sunday, December 18, 2011

"the Indians" and "the colonists" in 1750s N. America

Discussion of interaction between colonists in North America and the native peoples, as written in Fur and Fortune: in Part III (after the French and Indian wars of 1750s-60s) the narrator (of the audio book version) refers to "The Indians." And yet this catch-all phrase sweeps together groups big and small, ones friendly and hostile to "The Europeans" or to "The English Speakers." Elsewhere there are some smaller categories such as Five Nations or Algonkian tribes. But it would probably be more true to experience of those on the ground at the time to refer to themselves not as categories of some abstract Nation (which is the label we organize citizens by today) but according to their location, local leader or some other term of limited scale. For the author perhaps the analytical goal of grouping anonymous souls into competing interests is useful, but probably this corresponds little to the local experience that motivated and guided the people being so labeled. Forever there is a tension between analytical abstraction and anonymity on the one hand and names and faces of individual lives and significance on the other hand.

[reference, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America]

 

Friday, December 9, 2011

grouping the colors according to one's language/culture

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

underwater cultural resources (conference reports)

The Inaugural Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage begins next week in Manila, Philippines (http://www.apconf.org/).
The Museum of Underwater Archeology will post the proceedings online (over 80 presentations and posters) at the MUA's new research tool website in the coming weeks, http://www.themua.org

Saturday, October 29, 2011

underwater archeology - diver's photos

The MUA is excited to announce a new research tool based on experimental crowd-sourced image collecting. In an effort to capture the changes over
time on an in situ shipwreck, sport divers and archaeologists have contributed photographs of a single wreck over the span of several years.
Our goal is to recruit additional images from divers who have visited the site. As the image collection grows so too will the opportunity to study
site formation processes over time.

Our inaugural shipwreck subject is the SS Yongala, submerged in Australian waters. Some of the submissions received so far lack detailed information
regarding the specific area of the wreck pictured. We strongly encourage anyone with additional knowledge of individual photos, the wreck in
general, or further images to contribute to contact us at research@themua.org . We will also consider creating additional galleries
to highlight other appropriate wrecks if there are a sufficient number of submissions.

This is an experimental project for the MUA; we will continue to refine the look and feel of the tool based on the level of public participation.
The gallery can be viewed by clicking on the link on the home page here: http://www.themua.org

Monday, October 17, 2011

what is anthropology about?

October 2011 the department of anthropology at University of South Florida was threatend with closure, so graduate students there created a beautiful response to answer the question, "what is anthropology for? [relevance]: http://prezi.com/vmvomt3sj3fd/this-is-anthropology/

Monday, August 22, 2011

amazon basin & archeology sites world-wide (Google "street view")

Using the well tested array of cameras facing in multiple directions, Google Streetview goes to the Amazon ecozone as well as to cultural heritage sites worldwide,

APPLIED ethnography of the libraries in Illinois

Here is an example of using anthropology to answer some basic questions of the Taken-for-granted contexts that we find ourselves immersed in unreflectively.
 
[excerpt] The ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) project -- a series of studies conducted at Illinois Wesleyan, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois's Chicago and Springfield campuses -- was a meta-exercise for the librarians in practicing the sort of deep research they champion. Instead of relying on surveys, the libraries enlisted two anthropologists, along with their own staff members, to collect data using open-ended interviews and direct observation, among other methods.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

radio story from the annual Crow Fair (5-day festival in S.E. Montana)

2011-08-10 096 Crow Fair I: Gathering the Tribes

A century ago the six Crow Reservation Districts came together for a cultural gathering with other Great Plains tribes. The Crow Fair honors that tradition with a "giant family reunion under the Big Sky." Every third weekend of August the Apsaalooke Nation puts on a five-day festival in southeastern Montana, with a parade, Pow Wow, rodeo, and traditional and fancy dancing. In 1977 a team of NPR producers and recordists spent a week collecting sounds and interviewing people at this annual event. This early ambient sound-portrait breathes with the arts and activities of the Crow people.

 

Part one of two. Listen…

Thursday, July 28, 2011

bronze age - so many dolmens on the SW Korean peninsula

www.dolmen.com has an option for English and Japanese, too. The site dates to 2001, so there is not a lot of video, blog feedback or panoramic views and maps, but it does introduce this wealth of ancient society, quoting that 19,000 of the world's known 55,000 dolmens are located in the Jeollanam-do (sw province) of South Korea.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

socio-linguistics, American English: Getting on well, thanks

** American English: Getting on well, thanks **  http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/world-us-canada-14285853

The debate over the use of Americanisms has divided readers of these pages in recent weeks. Here, American lexicographer and broadcaster Grant Barrett offers an American perspective.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Politicization and Archaeology

Fears About Politicization of Israeli Archaeology

The heads of four major archaeological institutes at Israeli universities have written to Limor Livnat, the country's culture minister, to ask that she withdraw proposed changes to the Antiquities Authority Law, Haaretz reported. Currently the chair of the Antiquities Authority Council must be a scientist who is a member of the Israel's National Academy of Sciences. Livnat has argued that the pool of candidates isn't large enough, and she wants to be able to select someone after consulting with the National Academy of Sciences, but not necessarily from that body. The academic institute leaders argue that this shift is an attempt to put a right-leaning scholar in charge of the council and its work.

[from Inside Higher Ed.com, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/22/qt#265849 ]

Monday, July 18, 2011

crossing Neanderthals and H.Sapiens Sapiens 35,000 years ago?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

naming a baby - what does it mean or indicate?

Naming Trends And How Parents-To-Be Face 'Baby-Name Hostility'

[excerpt] from radio, www.npr.org
When people find out they're expecting, choosing a name for their baby can be one of their most stressful tasks.
Part of that stress is because there has been a "baby-naming revolution" over the last half-century, says Laura Wattenberg, who wrote The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

archeology; graffiti; Israel

Archaeologists Unscramble Ancient Graffiti In Israel

June 19, 2011 Tomb graffiti is "a spontaneous verbal outburst" that can help archaeologists learn more about ancient communities. The history sleuths decipher the messages and learn about the personal and private lives of ancient Jews.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

London Anthro Days 2011; also at U.Manchester

University of Manchester School of Social Sciences
'Discover Social Anthropology': 30th June 2011

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/socialanthropology/undergraduate/discover/
This is a departmental open day to enable teachers and 6th form students to discover what social anthropology and its new A-level is all about and can mean for their teaching/studies.
 
[L.A.D. 2011 DETAILS TO FOLLOW]

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

linguistics quirk, "foreign accent syndrome"

wherein a damage suffered to a specific spot in the language processing region results in systematic shifts in vocal production so that the person gives the impression of speaking with a foreign accent:
 
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/01/136824428/a-curious-case-of-foreign-accent-syndrome
 
[excerpt]
When Karen Butler went in for dental surgery, she left with more than numb gums: She also picked up a pronounced foreign accent. It wasn't a fluke, or a joke — she'd developed a rare condition called foreign accent syndrome that's usually caused by an injury to the part of the brain that controls speech.
 
Butler was born in Bloomington, Ill., and moved to Oregon when she was a baby. She's never traveled to Europe or lived in a foreign country — she's an American, she says, "born and bred."

Monday, May 9, 2011

online journals of anthropology around the world

...web listings for most of the anthropological journals in the world.  This information has been placed on the World Council of Anthropological Associations webpage
http://www.wcaanet.org/
The journals are listed under "Publications," with some 500 journals in all, a proportion of which offer free access to all of their articles on-line.

Monday, April 25, 2011

local identity - Cornwall in England

via radio on April 25, 2011:
 
In England, Cornwall Pays No Mind To Royal Wedding
Prince William, who's second in line to the British throne, is marrying Kate Middleton on Friday. The images and voices that will fill the airwaves that day will portray a kingdom full of loyal and joyous subjects. But in Cornwall, where the map says it is part of England, they don't feel very English.
 
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135697378/in-england-cornwall-pays-no-mind-to-royal-wedding

Monday, April 11, 2011

toys and gender and language

Gender stereotypes woven into language of toy ads

(word cloud to visually represent which words are most often used to market/package toys)

Friday, April 8, 2011

linguistic fun. FW: LOL

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12893416

LOL around the world

  • mdr (and derivatives)
French version, from the initials of "mort de rire" which roughly translated means "dying of laughter"
  • ×—×—×—‎/×”×”×”
Hebrew version. The letter ×— is pronounced 'kh' and ×” is pronounced 'h'. Putting them together makes "khakhakha"
  • 555
Thai variation of LOL. "5" in Thai is pronounced "ha", three of them being "hahaha"
  • asg
Swedish abbreviation of the term Asgarv, meaning intense laughter
  • mkm
Afghan abbreviation of the Dari phrase "ma khanda mikonom", which means "I am laughing"

Thursday, April 7, 2011

mapping Online Dating word choices

Visualizations of online dating language, http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/05/visualizations-of-on.html

R. Luke DuBois... became fascinated with the language used in the profiles. So he overlaid data from 19 million online dating profiles onto US maps.
 
[interview with Turnstyle magazine] ...In addition to color-coded maps by gender, he also scanned a Rand-McNally Road Atlas into his computer and replaced the city names with unique words. "Not the word people used the most [in their dating profiles] – but the word that was used uniquely in that place – the word that shows up there more than anywhere else," said DuBois.  The atlas maps are labelled with 20,000 unique words. He rattled off some combinations:
 
Dallas – "rich"     Houston – "symphony"     Santa Cruz – "liberal"
Atlanta – "God," "company," "coca," "jazz," "protestant"

GIS and underwater archeology - example from Florida

David Conklin, a recent graduate of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, describes his work at Little Salt Spring in Florida.  David used GIS and videography to produce a photomosaic image that could be used for recording context within an excavation level.
 
Clicking the link on the home page of the Museum of Underwater Archeology, http://www.themua.org

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

pronunciation and identity - British Regions

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12619718

[excerpt] ...This is because US audiences tend to identify the British accent with notions of social standing and refinement rather than geographical location, according to London-based film critic Ray Bennett of the Hollywood Reporter magazine, who spent 30 years living in North America.

"I'm from Kent, and people would ask me if I knew the Beatles," he says. "They think a British accent is like that of Alistair Cook. They aren't particularly conscious of regional differences.

"To them, an English accent is, basically, one that connotes class."

Saturday, February 19, 2011

about endangered languages (UNESCO Redbook project)



sample entry for VULNERABLE level of endangerment within the boundaries of Peru (62 languages endangered; 10 of these at the vulnerable level; example - the Quechua spoken in and around Cusco)









Saturday, February 12, 2011

qualitative methods (ethnography) book

via the Council for Anthropology and Education (Am.Anthro.Assoc section):
 
Subject: [CAE_listserv] RE: Book for Qualitative Methods
 
...At the risk of being immodest, I would recommend the second edition of "Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research," which is book one of the seven volume, exhaustive, Ethnographer's Toolkit. Book One is designed to be a comprehensive overview of qualitative and ethnographic research, from when it's appropriate through how to collect AND analyze data to issues of interpretation and ethics specific to such data. Jean J. Schensul and I have authored the entire series, minus book four, which is an edited volume of chapters describing cutting edge supplementary ethnographic methods, written by various authors who are experts in the use of those specific techniques.

The first edition of the entire Toolkit (1999) is available from Altamira Press, which is a division of Rowman and Littlefield. They also are publishing the second edition of the Toolkit; Book One is done and available for purchase; Books 2-5 (conceptual frameworks (2), essential data collection techniques (3: interviewing, observing, participant observation, and confirmatory ethnographic surveys), complementary data collection techniques and issues (4), and data analysis and interpretation (5)) will be available in early summer, and the final two books, Ethics and Relationships in the Field, and Team Research and Research Partnerships, will be available in fall. The latter two books are entirely new for the second edition, as are a number of the chapters in book 4.


Take a look at Book One; I think that it's what you would want for your course; I've used it myself for the same purpose and students loved the profuse examples and the reading level. We attempted to keep the content at a very high level, but make the text itself quite accessible. So while it's a "primer", we didn't dumb it down

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

big archeology in Indiana

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/03/132412112/the-prehistoric-treasure-in-the-fields-of-indiana
 
It's 1988. Workers building a road in Mt. Vernon, Ind. damage an ancient burial mound, causing a treasure trove of silver and copper to pour from the ground.  A bulldozer operator decides to grab some of the treasure. He ends up in prison for looting.
 
It sounds like the plot of an Indiana Jones film, only it's not a movie. The treasure belonged to a mysterious and advanced culture that flourished in the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. nearly 2,000 years ago. Because it predates the written record, this prehistoric culture doesn't have a Native American name but in the 1800s, archaeologists dubbed it the Hopewell Tradition.
 

An exhibit of artifacts from the Hopewell site, curated by the Indiana State Museum and on display at the Angel Mounds State Historic Site in Evansville, Ind. through Jan. 14, is raising some fresh questions about these ancient Americans.

 

[opening excerpt from radio on Jan. 3, 2011]

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

homo sapiens sapiens from 400,000 years ago instead of 200,000?

via yahoo news this week; includes a few "related content" stories at the foot of this feature story from Israel,
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ancient_teeth

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Fall issue of AnthroNotes (Smithsonian Inst.)

Table of Contents, fall 2010 includes:

Tourists and Strangers: An Anthropological Perspective by Lyra Spang

Going Native: The Anthropologist as Advocate by Robert Laughlin

Backyard Ethnography: Studying Your High School  by Carolyn Gecan

Being a Refugee: Humanitarianism and the Palestinian Experience by Ilana Feldman

Friday, December 17, 2010

anthro mix of insider-outsider viewpoints

anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, who had this to say about his mentor at Penn, Frank Speck:
          
 Great ethnologists do more than record: they reveal…they entered their subjects emotionally,
 intellectually, then revealed what they experienced within…What was needed, he said, was
 the power of language, harnessed to humanistic ends 'by men who, if such exist, possess both
 the scientific mind and the literary touch'.

 
[source] Edmund S Carpenter.  1991. "Frank Speck: Quiet Listener."
In: The Life and Times of Frank G. Speck, 1881-1950.
Roy Blankenship, ed. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania Publications in Anthropology, Pp.78-83.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

kerfuffle - What is Anthro... Science or Humanities?

excerpts from some well considered responses to the early December exchanges on blogs and op-ed columns of NYTimes, which ultimately led to statement by the American Anthropological Association on Monday, December 13: http://www.aaanet.org/about/WhatisAnthropology.cfm
 
[W. Beeman] Nor do we beat our breasts over the investigative excesses of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The world is a very different place than in the colonial era, and anthropologists, like all seekers of knowledge, must shake off the past and move forward trying to pursue our discipline--the most humanistic of the sciences and most scientific of the humanities and social sciences.
 
[H. Lewis] ...Indeed, it was the founder of American anthropology, Franz Boas, who most fully exemplified the scientist engaged in the struggle for human rights.

Friday, October 22, 2010

podcasts with Practicing (applied, mainly private sector anthropologists)

as listed to date at http://www.aaanet.org/cmtes/copapia/Profiles-in-Practice-Podcast-Series.cfm
 
The podcast series features interviews with:
  • [Listen] Patricia Clay, a fisheries anthropologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • [Listen] Judy Tso, owner and consultant of Aha Solutions
  • [Listen] Kevin Bialy, an international program officer at the National Institutes of Health
  • [Listen] Megan Hawkins, a cultural resource specialist with the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, where she is working with the US Army
  • [Listen] Lee Cerveny, a research social scientist at the US Forest Service
  • [Listen] Cheryl Levine, a social science analyst at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

using films to illustrate anthro experiences/observations

via e-list for CAE, council for anthropology and education
 
 
(1) The French film "The Class" about a first year teacher is a great one about cross cultural communication.  It has a few great scenes with a boy who is from Burkina Faso and he has to translate his own expulsion interview from a Parisian public school to his mother.  Language has a lot to do with all of the events that lead up to his expulsion as well.  

(2) I have used the Star Trek (The Next Generation) episode "Darmok" in which the captain of the Enterprise must communicate with an alien who communicates using only metaphors. I use it to engage intro classes with linguistic concepts. The conversation (unless you have dedicated anti-Trekies in the class) usually highlights relativism and the need to understand context in any communication.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

bride prices - child marriage essay

Among the many disturbing and thought-provoking audio slideshows at mediastorm.com is this one about girls being wed before reaching adulthood in many countries [7 minutes 34 seconds] http://www.mediastorm.com/clients/the-bride-price-for-icrw

[caution for younger viewers: 2/3 of the way along is the self-immolation attempt]

Monday, September 13, 2010

losing in translation

http://funnytranslator.com/ lets you type in a phrase, then it translates to another language, then back to English. This cycle repeats for the number of round-trip translations you specify. This vividly illustrates what happens in literal (word-level, not full context-level) translation.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

materials and experiences from Peace Corps lives

Activities and lessons based on Peace Corps Volunteers' cross-cultural experiences
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/

Building Bridges: A Peace Corps Classroom Guide to Cross-Cultural Understanding
Thirteen exercises for grades 6–12 to help students understand other cultures and promote tolerance for them.

Uncommon Journeys: Peace Corps Adventures Across Cultures
Compelling stories from Peace Corps Volunteers about cultures around the world, with standards-based lessons for language arts, social studies, and geography classes.

Voices From the Field: Reading and Writing About the World, Ourselves, and Others
More Peace Corps Volunteer stories about their service overseas, with standards-based lessons for classes in reading and writing literature.

CyberVolunteer Letters: Stories From In-service Peace Corps Volunteers
A collection of letters written by actively serving Peace Corps Volunteers from 2000 to 2005 for students in the United States. The authors of these evocative stories, who sent their letters by e-mail, were known as CyberVolunteers.

Insights From the Field: Understanding Geography, Culture, and Service
Readings and exercises that focus on the Dominican Republic as a vehicle to help students learn about geography, culture, and service—a quest that can lead anywhere in the world.

Looking at Ourselves and Others
Activities and readings prompt students to define culture, to achieve new perspectives on their own culture and other cultures worldwide, to recognize differences in perception among cultures, and to challenge assumptions.

Culture Matters: The Peace Corps Cross-Cultural Workbook
Designed for Peace Corps Volunteers, this practical, hands-on guide is also a rich and useful resource for students who want to look into their own culture and become more understanding of people of other cultures.

Folk Tales: Stories From Peace Corps Countries Around the World
Folk tales often represent the soul and history of a place. Peace Corps Volunteers hear these stories woven into conversations and daily life. Here, Volunteers retell some of these remarkable tales from more than 25 countries.

Crossing Cultures: Peace Corps Letters From the Field
A newly gathered collection of letters written by Peace Corps Volunteers capturing the adventures and challenges, joys and sorrows, trials and rewards of service in another land.

Friday, September 3, 2010

anthro education

Anthropologist About Town [excerpts]


Diary for September 2010

Thursday 16th September- Wales Anthropology Day

Similar to the London Anthropology Day, the Wales Anthropology Day is a free open day for teachers, students and the general public who are interested in learning more about what it is like to study anthropology at university. On the day, participants will be able to take part in a series of workshops run by University of Lampeter staff and talk to students currently studying anthropology. To find out more and book your free place visit the following website.

The controversial art of representation...

Melville J. Herskovits (1859-1963) was a pioneering and controversial American anthropologist who played a prominent role in shaping African Studies as a distinct discipline. Herskovits's academic work was both influential and controversial and still emerges in on-going debates on questions of identity and representation. Herkovits at the Heart of Blackness is a documentary which tracks the development of Hervokits's career in relation to African American and Jewish experiences of exile, political oppression and exclusion. The film gives a critical review of anthropologist's role in representing and documenting other societies. Take a look at a preview of the film here.


Small Places Large Issues

The third edition of Thomas Eriksen's book is now available. Small Places Large Issues has become a classic for introduction to social anthropology for undergraduate students as well as those who are new to anthropology. It gives an excellent overview of topics such as kinship, ethinicity, ritual and political systems. The new edition has updated information and has increased emphasis on the interdependence between societies. Take a look here for other introductory texts to social anthropology.


Anthropology Education


The September issue of the American Anthropological Association's official newspaper Anthropology News is entirely devoted to topics concerning anthropology and education. The issue includes articles on pre-university education, online courses, pedagogical standards and assessment models and much more. Take a look here for more information.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

future shock today

Here is a discussion prompt re: the pace of change.
 
Every so often, it hits home that we are actually living in one of those science-fiction worlds that I read about as a young nerd in the 1970s. Not, it turns out, one where we commute with jet packs; nor are Soviet and American colonists bantering about just how red the Red Planet should be. But now, while putting my keys in my pocket, I will sometimes accidentally hit a button on the BlackBerry that causes a robotic female voice to bark, "Say a command!"
 
Never having gotten around to programming any in, it always feels like I'm letting her down.

We're all walking around carrying devices that are in contact with unimaginably vast systems of information. You get used to it. It ceases to seem strange – which is, arguably, the strange part. Future shock becomes second nature. (To remember what things were like before requires something like the exact opposite of the willing suspension of disbelief.) And discussing any of this with friends or colleagues in their 20s is out of the question. It leaves me feeling like I have become my own grandfather...
 
source, Surrendering to Tomorrow [September 1, 2010 by Scott McLemee]
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee305

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

underwater archeology in fresh water

from Lake Michigan's cold clear water, the Walter B. Allen project:

Thursday, August 19, 2010

six anthropologists in profile -what do they do?

Meet six Smithsonian anthropologists and learn what inspired them to go into the field and why they love what they do...
 
--cf. the webpage, Careers in Anthropology, http://www.aaanet.org/profdev/careers/
additional information on careers in anthropology:

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

archeology on land and water

research essay from The Museum of Underwater Archeology (August 2010): Great Lakes, USA.
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/mua/in_the_field/road_trip.shtml

child anthropologist observes USA life

 
People play on computers.
People grill on a grill.

People read books.
People talk to people.
People write on paper.
People write and read papers.
People read magazines.
People lay on couches.
People can talk and see.
People can be a boy or a girl.
People have flowers.
People have houses.
People love people.
People have lives.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

9000 BCE home in Britain

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/digging-up-britains-oldest-house/6ratcl5?rs=Archaeology&from=en-us_msnhp&gt1=42007

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

2010 anthro-day (London, July; Wales, September)



Diary for August 2010


Monday 30th August- Booking Ahead for Wales Anthropology Day

Many of you who were not able to come to this year's London Anthropology Day will be happy to know that there is a sister event happening on the 16th of September in Wales. Every year the University of Wales Lampeter organises a free university taster day of anthropological workshops and films aimed at Year 12, 13, FE students and teachers. To find out more and book your free place visit this website.

London Anthropology Day 2010 Photos now Online!

The London Anthropology Day 2010 is a university taster day for Year 12,13 and FE students, career advisors and teachers. Organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute's Education Programme in collaboration with the British Museum and participating universities the event was held on 8th July. This year's event included 18 universities from England, Ireland and Wales and over 350 participants making it the largest London Anthropology Day to date. Take a look at the this year's photos along with other anthropological events on this website.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

online Anthro News

via Yahoo, http://news.yahoo.com/topics/anthropology-and-archaeology
 
and
 
Special Series on National Public Radio, "The Human Edge"
::Discover what's made us the most versatile and powerful species on Earth::
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128245649

Friday, June 18, 2010

excavating meanings from a single photograph (1937 England)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127859150 [discussion about the following article]
 
 
For 70 years, this picture has been used to tell the same story – of inequality, class division, "toffs and toughs". As an old Etonian closes in on Downing Street, it is being trotted out again. But what was the story behind it? Ian Jack investigates
 
[From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Spring 2010; http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ian-jack/5-boys]
 
Almost since its invention, photography has had the habit of turning people into symbols by accident. A painter might spend a year on a canvas, working up the personification of an abstract idea to its full visual glory ("Truth Triumphant" or "Temptation Denied"), but a camera could capture a scene in a fraction of a second, and if the scene was somehow striking and memorable – in its composition, its subject matter, its light – it might become "iconic", meaning that its particulars might be understood to suggest much more general emotions, conflicts and problems. When the shutter clicked, such a metaphorical future was rarely suspected either by the photographer or his subjects, who might not even be aware that a picture had been taken. The moment could be ordinary or extraordinary: a couple kissing in a Paris street, a sharecropper and her children in California, a burning child running down a road in Vietnam. It could happen anywhere, to anybody. It might happen even at an old-fashioned English cricket match.

Navaho - sheep - ecology & worldview

Sacred Sheep Revive Navajo Tradition, For Now

June 13, 2010 For as long as anyone can remember, Churro sheep have been central to Navajo life and spirituality. Yet the animal was nearly exterminated by the federal government, which deemed it an inferior breed. Now the Churro is making a comeback, but the old Navajo ways may not.
[National Public Radio broadcast, Sunday, June 13, 2010]

Thursday, June 17, 2010

underwater archeology, 1600s armed merchant, Poole Harbour (UK)

Bournemouth University in the UK recently started work on a rare and historically important northwest European armed merchant ship. It was wrecked in the approaches to Poole Harbour in the early 17th century. With almost 40% of the port side of originating ship being present this project has the potential to yield important information about merchant vessels from this time period.   The Swash Channel Wreck team has posted
its first two entries on the MUA and will provide periodic updates over the next few months.

project journal, ttp://www.uri.edu/artsci/his/mua/project_journals/swash/swash_intro.shtml

posted on edtech e-list, www.h-net.org from
The Museum of Underwater Archaeology, http://www.themua.org

Friday, May 7, 2010

news story, Neanderthal genes 'survive in us'

Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.
The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.
 
The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome - the "instruction manual" describing how these ancient humans were put together. Between 1% and 4% of the Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals.
 
BBC story (excerpt). Full story, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/8660940.stm

Monday, April 26, 2010

primates mourn lost mates

Chimps May Mourn Lost Ones, Study Suggests

Deciphering what death means to chimpanzees has always been difficult, as they usually die without a human witness. Two new papers in Current Biology offer a glimpse into the minds of chimps as they confront death. In one case, when an older matriarch died, the researcher says the chimps were subdued for several weeks after she passed.
[National Public Radio on 26 April 2010]

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

connections of people to their land

from the on-air, online (radio) essay series, "This I Believe"
 
A Reverence for All Life

Friday, March 26, 2010

using education technology in classes

National Council for the Social Studies (USA) Ning, http://ncssnetwork.ning.com/
EdTech Teacher, http://edtechteacher.org
Tips, sources, techniques, http://sites.google.com/site/big1file/edtech

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

body image - Hidden World of Girls

via National Public Radio, March 22, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124700865

Hidden World Of Girls - Taking Surprising Risks For The Ideal Body 

In Jamaica, like all over the world, there are deep conversations about the ideal body type. While there are competing norms of beauty, some women are using extreme methods to fit their vision of beautiful, like ingesting chicken pills for broader hips and butts, and bleaching their skin to be whiter. And they're taking health risks to do so.

Friday, March 19, 2010

underwater long ago in Sweden

Ancient Shipwrecks A Wonder Of 'Baltic Triangle'

March 13, 2010 A dozen ancient shipwrecks have been discovered in the Baltic Sea, just east of Sweden. The well-preserved ships are hundreds of years old. The oldest wreck may date back 800 years. [National Public Radio]

Saturday, March 6, 2010

archeology underwater - wrecks of Belgium

Our series on maritime archaeology in Europe continues with sites in Belgium. 
...sites from various time periods including the Doel Cog, the
eighteenth-century Buiten Ratel wreck, and the early twentieth-century
French military vessel Bourrasque.
 
The main webpage for all projects of the Musuem of Underwater Archeology is at

Thursday, February 18, 2010

language - possible or probably Made-up Words

...from "The Meaning Of Liff", a creation of John Lloyd and Douglas Adams:

Aberbeeg: Of amateur actors, to adopt a Mexican accent when called upon to play any variety of foreigner (except Pakistanis - from whom a Welsh accent is considered sufficient).

Ewelme: The smile bestowed on you by an air hostess.

Liff: A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. 'This book will change your life'.

Meathop: One who sets off for the scene of an aircraft crash with a picnic hamper.

Peoria: The fear of peeling too few potatoes.

Scraptoft: The absurd flap of hair a vain and balding man grows long above one ear to comb it to the other ear.

Thrupp: To hold a ruler on one end on a desk and make the other end go bbddbbddbbrrbrrrrddrr.

Ventnor: One who, having been visited as a child by a mysterious gypsy lady, is gifted with the strange power of being able to operate the air-nozzles above aeroplane seats.

Yarmouth: To shout at foreigners in the belief that the louder you speak, the better they'll understand you.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

jobs to get with anthro training

eye-opening poster by Pearson textbooks

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

    Tuesday, December 29, 2009

    language - Hopi Teens Worry About Loss Of Culture

    For nearly 1,000 years, the Hopi people have lived on the same three mesas, land now considered part of northeastern Arizona. For all that time, they have been speaking the Hopi language, which is slowly dying. There are many hurdles standing in the way of preserving Hopi, including, for Hopi teens, the choice between preserving their culture and adopting a modern lifestyle.

    http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2009/12/20091229_atc_04.mp3?dl=1
    [29 Dec 2009 National Public Radio broadcast; produced by Youth Radio: 5 minutes]

    Thursday, November 19, 2009

    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!

    Monday, November 16, 2009

    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.
    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.