Anthro Exam 3

Invisible Colour: Landscape of Whiteness and Racial Identity in International Development (Kristin Loftsdottir)

How is racial identity constructed through development encounter? "How do images of dark-skinned people in developing countries as an almost objective reality perpetuate a certain image of 'whiteness'?" Developscape -Lived practices and visual representations of development in countries that give and receive aid -Tangible and intangible elements associated with progress that are embedded in ideas about modernization -Aid donor countries: discourses about donor nation ("we are generous"); contrasting donors (saviors) with recipients (people in dire need). -Aid recipient countries: Hierarchy of who is in charge and who is subordinate; signs advertising projects; cars marked with logos of development organizations; exclusive spaces for development officials WoDaaBe Perspective -See development projects as being derived from and belonging to white people -Development racialized because it is perceived as belonging to the realm of white Europeans and Americans Loftsdottir's Point -Continuous depictions of "Third World" peoples as impoverished and helpless, plus continuous portrayal of Whites as saviors, equals "A commentary on 'whiteness' created and recreated through the discourses and actions of development institutions."

International Development

Intervention Philosophy -An ideological justification for outsiders to guide native peoples in specific directions. Today's intervention philosophy is rationalized by development. Guiding principles: industrialization, modernization, Westernization, and individualism are desirable advances ("progress") Roots of Development -Began at the end of colonialism (post WWII). New form of political-economic interaction between core and periphery. Like colonialists, developers envision themselves as agents of progress Ideological debate -Do you want to generate wealth (capitalism) or create equity (communism) Cold War -Many parts of the world characterized by huge inequities. -Fear of peasant movements and Communism MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) for bc all had nukes -Solution=development. Bring people into capitalis system. develop industries and market. Make friends through development Development Initiatives -Major growth since 1950s -Multinational organizations (UNDP). National organizations (USAID). NGO's (Gates Foundation, Save the Children). Missionary organizations Anthropology and Development: Changing Objectives -Previous consensus: role is to understand and describe other societies -Today's Consensus: Anthropologists have the skills and knowledge to help solve problems

Strategic Anti-Essentialism

The calculated use of a cultural form, outside of your own, to define yourself or your group. (George Lipsitz)

Acculturation

The exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct

The Ugly American Revisited (James Brain)

The Ugly American (1958): Book's Plot -SE Asian country facing communist insurrection (Cold War context) -The "Ugly American:" humble engineer who lives and works with villagers to develop low tech solutions (e.g., bicycle powered pumps) -efforts undermined by state dept officials living in luxury amidst poverty Cold War & US Aid -Context: Vietnam (unstated) Foreign aid ("Freedom Road") as part of foreign policy (thwart communism). Development to prevent insurrection -Support for the elite (the dictator) and development for the elite (military) cause popular resentmnet The Ugly American Revisited -Foreign aid is part and parcel of political policy -"Many of us felt guilty and even outraged that the ignorance and ethnocentrism of our aid administrators were getting us hated in the world." -Why does USAID reject projects that are small-scale, cheap, technologically simple (e.g. water pumps powered by bicycles)? Not spectacular enough (US image issue), small projects "too difficult to administer." No american institutions would make a profit (companies, contractors, universities) Context: Tanzania -USAID staff live in mansions with servants and guards, rarely speak the local language, have little (if any) understanding of local culture. Social contacts = local government elites. Job: envision and shepherd toward completion of multi-million dollar projects Why does USAID persist? "There is something in it for a lot of people." -Tanzanians (Elites): free vehicles, salaried jobs (low level), new buildings, scholarships to USA -Americans: salaried jobs (high level) with many perks (housing allowance, servants). Contracts for US institutions like companies, contractors, and universities -Vested interest: Economic - profitable for those who get contracts (universities, corporations). Good jobs for USAID officials. Benefits to powerful members of recipient nations -Vested interest: political - make allies

Expanding Interest and Audiences (Europe, USA)

White audiences wanted something authentic, representing the rural roots of the blues ("folk music"). T-Bone Walker (Call Me When You Need Me); Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Hootin' Blues); John Lee Hooker (Hobo Blues); Muddy Waters (Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had)

Biogas

converting manure into methane gas to be used for stoves health (less indoor pollution) Sanitation (safely remove human waste) Environment (cut down less trees)

Adapting technology to culture

cooking some things inside considered offensive to household's male lineage deity

Environmental Protection, Indigenous Peoples, and Land Rights

-"Fortress Conservation": Set aside protected areas and restrict usage by local peoples -Ecotourism $$$, but who really benefits? -"Community Conservation": enlist local people as managers of conservation areas -Allows indigenous peoples continuing access to their lands (e.g. agroforestry) -Potential to spread benefits more equitably

1900-1940s

-"Race Records" recorded for African-American audience. Few white people were interested. -Alan Lomax: Folklorist, ethnomusicologist. -Searching for the "origin" of the Blues (and other musical genres). -Travelled the south recording for the Archive of American Folk Song at Library of Congress. Bukka White (Aberdeen Blues); Mississippi Fred McDowell (Goin' Down to the River); Skip James (All Night Long); Son House (Death Letter Blues)

1940s-1950s

-African-American migration to northern cities (e.g., St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit). -Rural Blues moves into urban areas, goes electric. Howlin' Wolf (Moanin' at Midnight)

Indigenous Model for Sustainable Development

-Agroforestry can be sustainable and profitable -Commodities from intact forest can generate income

Whither the Anthropologist

-Anthropologists have failed to popularize ethnographic knowledge. -How many anthropologists are visible public intellectuals? How many books written by anthropologists are widely read by a non-academic audience?

Controversies

-Anti GM: hazmat strawberries, Da Terminator, Bt in breastmilk -Pro GM: for the poor! we need more food! Genetic modification has always occurred, no need for special attention

Questions for Today

-Are transnational consumer products agents of change via cultural imperialism? (Watson) -How do encounters between tourists and indigenous peoples simultaneously perpetuate stereotypes and shape peoples lives? (Régi) -What ethical and representational challenges do "ethnographic" reality programs pose for the discipline of anthropology? (Eindhoven et. al.)

Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt)

-BT naturally produces a protein that rips up caterpillar guts. Crops modified to have that same gene and also produce that same protein are called Bt crops

Price of Progress (john bodley)

-Benefits of progress for indigenous peoples are often illusory or even detrimental (there's always an agenda) -Progress ("development") pushed on people as way of getting at their resources (example, Ok Tedi Mine) Measuring Quality of life -Usual Means: GNP, per capita income, employment rates, literacy rates, consumption, doctors and hospital beds/1000, etc. -Goldschmidt: "Does progress or economic development increase or decrease a given culture's ability to satisfy the physical and psychological needs of its population, or its stability?" -Nutritional status, mental health, crime, family stability, relationship to natural resource base

Incompatibility?

-Can anthropology co-exist with reality TV on 'exotic' and 'isolated' indigenous peoples? -Anthropologists lack financial resources to compete with 'pulp anthropology.' -Should anthropologists: offer criticism from afar? Or engage in production to temper portrayals?

Complex Societies

-Earlier environmental anthropology focused on "isolated" communities (e.g. Rappaport) -Increasing recognition of interdependence through markets, resource sharing, state interventions, etc. -Local communities need to be analyzed in relation to larger systems

In Reed's model sustainable development includes three interrelated characteristics

-Environmental Perpetuity -Economic Rationality -Social justice

Agroforestry as Sustainable Development?

-Environmental Perpetuity? Long-term maintenance of biodiversity -Economic rationality? Can generate better long-term profits than monocrop agriculture and ranching -Social justice? Allow indigenous people opportunity to make a living and maintain their society and culture

3 Consequences

-Environmental: Pesticides and selection -Public health: industrial strategies on non-industrial farms -Social: Sustainability and development? informal economy so farmers buy seeds under the table and if there crops mess up they can't receive compensation for it

The Entertainment Advantage

-Ethnographic Film: Slow pace, deep intellectual content, academic "actors", making less exotic. -Reality TV: Fast pace, light intellectual content, everyday "actors", emphasizing the exotic.

Roots of the Blues

-Field songs, chain gang work songs, levee camp hollars. Johnny Lee Moore (Levee Camp Hollar, Eighteen Hammers) -Clarksdale, Mississippi: birthplace of the Blues? Charlie Patton (Spoonful Blues)

Realities and Prospects

-Forest destruction is so widespread that traditional agroforestry is unfeasible (undesirable?) -Combining subsistence farming with commercial agroforestry. Mbaracayú Biosphere Reserve -Guarani case: possible to profit from forests without undermining the environment

GMO Solutions

-Freshness: Flavr Savr tomato, strawberries, indirectly -Pest resistance: VR tobacco, papaya, cassava, squash, others -Nutrition: Golden rice, cassava Herbicide Tolerance and Pest Resistance: corn, soybean, cotton, sugar beets, canola

Summary so far

-GM crops are being promoted as a form of development -600 million small farmers are affected by this discussion, some of whom are dying for it -Diametrically opposed narratives about success

Who Benefits?

-Government officials who control land distribution, exports, etc. -Landless peasants from other areas -Commercial agricultural consortiums -Problem: Guarani manage land communally, no concept of private ownership. Easily dispossessed of land. What do they get?

Example:Proyecto Caazapa

-Govt. claim that only 10 families of Guarani inhabit target area -Free reign to clear forest -Willfully ignore anthropological knowledge -730 families, 3,800 people -World Bank (loan grantor) mandate: give indigenous people land title -Mandate ignored, Guarani left with nothing

Destabilizing Guarani Society

-Govt. sells land to outsiders -Guarani become squatters on own land or pushed to marginal and shrinking forests -Outsiders clear forests, hunt extensively -Sharp reduction in wildlife, protein lost from diet -Forest reduction decimates yerba collection -Source of cash income lost, must sell labor for money

Pros: Income improves lives

-Housing improvements -Investment in jewelry -Purchase foods (less reliance on farming) -Buffer against funeral expenses -Funds for communal rituals

Rodriquez's Research Focus

-How do individuals simultaneously insist on color-blindness and endorse a cultural form (hip-hop, rap) which is unambiguously and explicitly racial? Cultural Appropriation? -How do white youths use hip-hop to assert their identity as cool and progressive through association with African Americans? Strategic Anti-Essentialism

Economic Agenda

-Improves national economy by exporting commodities to wealthy nations -1963-1973: land sold to commercial agriculture consortiums -Forests cleared for farming and ranching -Impressive national-level economic growth through exports (soy beans, meat)

Cons: Instant income creates problems

-Increase in drinking -Increase in gambling -Binge spending -Intergenerational strife

Advertising and Global Culture

-Is global advertising a form of cultural imperialism? Does it modify, replace, or destroy other cultures? -Television (and internet) ads have immense global impact, rapid dissemination of transnational cultural values. -Messages created by multi-national corporations designed to have universal appeal. -Goal is to create or nurture a desire to consume (think Benson and Fischer).

Stephen Lansing: Balinese Agriculture

-Like Rappaport, recognition that rituals can have regulatory functions -Focus on how a resource (water) is regulated -Analysis of how multiple actors coordinate activities in mutually beneficial ways A Complex Adaptive System -Temples regulate planting, irrigation, and harvesting cycles of surrounding fields (subak) -Cycles coordinated with upstream and downstream subaks -Network of interacting agents (farmers) -Each agent (individual farmer) seeks to maximize something (crop yield) -Self-organizing system: by following behavior of more successful farmers, all eventually coordinate activities Agricultural Development -Development workers and policy makers failed to appreciate indigenous system -Green Revolution (top-down approach) increased crop yield, but only temporarily -Required massive pesticide input, led to rise in crop-eating pests Making the System Visible -Indigenous knowledge of local conditions accumulated over centuries -Hydrological system coordinated through temple system (cultural/ecological symbiosis) -Ritual regulation of a critical resource (water) results in Global Optimum -Collective: control pests. Individual: every farmer able to maximize yields

Eroding Anthropological Authority

-Nowadays NGO workers, tourists, students (study abroad) and modern media are "encroaching on the 'sacred' territory of anthropology - the 'noble savage' who inhabits 'out of the way places.'" -While anthropologists strive to make others seem less exotic, the media (and tourists, etc) strive to make them seem more exotic.

Guest Lecture (actual notes on bb)

-Obstetric Fistula: abnormal connection between the either the vagina and the rectum or the vagina and the bladder, leaving the woman incontinent, often women die in childbirth too along with the baby. 50-100,000 cases/year -Condition shrouded in obscurity -Initiatives focus on prevention, treatment, psychosocial reintegration -Niger has highest fertility rate, rated the least developed country in the world -700-800 cases/year in Niger -Victims are voiceless and shunned, seen as the lepers of the 21st century -Fistula narrative: young, powerless, pitiful, needing intervention from western donors. inexpensive and highly successful surgery. young girls forced into marriages, small stature and malnutrition fall into long labors and get fistula -Tropes: abandoned by husbands and kin, shunned and mistreated by their communities, physically isolated, emotionally abused; find physical, social, and emotional transformations at hospitals -Realities: women with fistula were more diverse, fistula was not socially destructive, surgical interventions were less successful and sometimes harmful Prevalent Trope: The "Child Bride" -The young girl who develops fistula during her first marriage which was forced, at risk for fistula bc body is not fully developed -A victim of her culture, sold off by her father to a husband -Fistula is positioned as a physical manifestation of a cultural pathology This renders women who develop fistula in their older years/later marriages invisible Age at development of Fistula for 100 women: Most below 24, but still significant amount older: 25% bwn age 24-34, 13% bwn age 35-54 -National average age at first marriage: 15.7 rural women: 15.6 poor women: 15.5 -Marriage does not cause fistula, age at first birth for women who develop fistula is 17.6 sample avg, lower than national average -Although some girls get married at 10 or 11, do not first have sex until they are like 15 bc of cultural norms to protect young girls Most women get fistula at their first birth (51%), but only 34% had 1 pregnancy, 37% 2-5 pregnancies, 27% 6-12 pregnancies How does fistula effect a woman's life? Trope: broken, valueless, cast-aside Reality: Complex networks of care, deep relationships of attachments, most women (38%) of women remained married, 23% divorced, 36% separated (but mostly due to long, sometimes years, waiting time for fistula treatment) Stigma -No word for "stigma" in Niger languages -We have to measure it based on behaviors people commit to the fistula victims -Gave survey to women to see if they felt stigmatized -Most women felt none or very little perceived external stigma/mistreatment Tropes underscore personal, psychological, and emotional burden of having the condition -Fistual narrative based on real people, but just highly selected from the very small minority (goal is to find these people to get readers and donors and funders to get $$$) -Cure proposed as miracle cure that works like 90% of the time Reality: only 36% success, 64% not -Of the 37 women "healed" of fistula, only 51% healed after first surgery. Many women have upwards of 5,6,7 even 11 surgeries -1990s: west focused on poor, dark-skinned, young girls (and their genitals) who were seen to be victimized by cultural brutality and repressive patriarchy (must ask the question what has drawn the Western gaze?) -Conceptual and concrete consequences of fistula narrative: fails to address systemic problems of systemic violence, poverty, legacies of colonization/post-colonization. Fistula campaigns discourage home births. Fistula can be caused by; -A poorly trained clinician keeping a woman at a health center too long -Refusing to refer her to a higher level of care -Referring her horizontally rather than vertically -Performing forceful inappropriate interventions in the face of an obstetric complication So women are encouraged to birth at hospitals (cultural pathology--women need to be more modern and go to the hospital) but really it doesn't always work out -Many women conceal fistulas but most narratives ignore this

Ad as Agent of Culture Change?

-Reflecting increasing spatial and economic mobility of China's youths (value of modernity). -Yet, emphasizing importance of family and filial piety (respect for elders, a traditional value). -What role does Coke play?

Authentic Experience

-Search for artists "untainted" by commercial success. -Live enactment of "political theater" that is rooted in racial themes. -Racist hypocrisies. Black nationalism. Black unity and knowledge of self

Between the survey lines

-Seed knowledge -Village bottlenecks -Permits and black markets

Music and Identity

-Symbolic Capital (Pierre Bourdieu) -Linguistic Perspective: using higher prestige dialect can result in social and economic benefits. -Listening to certain types of music can have social benefits. In specific contexts some forms of music have more symbolic capital than others. -What statement do you want to make about yourself? The Partridge Family (I Woke Up in Love This Morning); The Who (My Generation) -Blues = urban, cool, black. Country = rural, backward, white. The Blues Brothers (Gimme Some Loving, Rawhide) -Rodriquez: White consumers of hip-hop do not necessarily want to be black; "they seek to acquire the characteristics of blackness associated with being cool."

From Blues to Rock & Roll

-The Mississippi Delta: cleared and settled late 1800s, attracted labor from all over the south. -Impoverished, racially polarized.

Environmental Anthropology

-The use of anthropology's methods and theories to contribute to the understanding of local or global environmental

So>

-Thousands die each year in AP alone -Payouts insufficient -India has the greatest number of acres under cotton production and some of the lowest yields

From band to nuclear family

-Trappers and tappers

Hip Hop and Identity

-Urban, African-American critique of minority experience in stratified American society. -Symbolic capital, resistance to authority.

Transformations

-Urban-style blues became popular in white society (Europe and USA), and influenced Rock & Roll. John Lee Hooker (Boom Boom); Muddy Waters (Got My Mojo Working); Muddy Waters (Catfish Blues); The Rolling Stones (Around and Around) -From a relatively unknown (and disappearing) form of music among a marginalized minority to a mainstream form of music for youths of all backgrounds. Robert Johnson (Crossroads); Cream (Crossroads); Lead Belly (House of the Rising Sun); The Animals (House of the Rising Sun); Blind Willie McTell (Statesboro Blues); The Allman Brothers Band (Statesboro Blues); Lightin' Hopkins (Baby Please Don't Go); Aerosmith (Baby Please Don't Go)

Unsustainable Development?

-What is the long-term environmental impact? -What are the long-term social impacts? -Who benefits? Who is harmed?

The anthropological advantage

-Whereas development officials are often socially detached from those they seek to benefit, anthropologists are socially close to those they work with -Anthropologists are more likely to appreciate local knowledge, be sensitive to cultural nuances, trust locals to act in their own best interest (advantages over less-involved people)

Cultural Appropriation

Adoption of elements of one culture by members of a different cultural group, especially if the adoption is without the consent of the originating culture, and when the appropriating group has historically oppressed members of the originating culture

Final Summation

Course Objectives -Introduce basic concepts of anthropology. -Introduce basic methodologies used by anthropologists (how we gather data). -Provide some analytical tools and perspectives for understanding behaviors. -Show how anthropologists and anthropological knowledge can have positive impacts in the world. -Increase your understanding of and appreciation for cultural diversity.

Intruders in Sacred Territory (Eindhoven, Bakker, and Persoon)

Going Native? -Finding the "most primitive and isolated tribes who have little/no contact with outsiders." -Billed as anthropology for the masses or anthropology for dummies. -Why call it anthropology?!? Criticism by Anthropologists -Exploiting 'exotic' people for entertainment. -Providing minimal compensation while making a considerable profit (economic exploitation). -One-sided, distorted representations. What is a tribe? Why use that term? No mention that they live in nation-states. -Ethnocentrism. Promoting the assumption of Western cultural supremacy. Anthropological Authority -Anthropologists (e.g., Malinowski) at the forefront of debunking ethnocentric portrayals of others (by colonial admins. and missionaries). -Through fieldwork anthropologists established the authority to represent different peoples, and the ability to act as intermediaries between vulnerable/marginalized people and outsiders.

Sustainable Development?

Intergenerational Equity: Does it meet needs of present without compromising future? -Closure to outsiders limits harvest. Sealing decrees ensure spore production. Procedural Equity: Is there regulatory transparency whereby all are treated equally? -Regulations decided by village consensus. Every adult must check in prior to harvest. Everybody starts gathering on the same day. Intra-Generational Equity: Does it reduce the economic gap between rich and poor? -Perhaps, due to procedural equity. Larger households = wealthier household; more members = more potential income.

Why I Stopped Being a Voluntourist (Pippa Biddle)

Qualified to Intervene? -Are you a doctor? A nurse? A teacher? etc. Do you know their language? their culture? their society? How old are you? A sensible assessment: what she can do -Raise money, collect items, coordinate programs, and tell stories Is it benign? Voluntourism takes jobs from locals, can hinder rather than help development, perpetuates the "white savior" complex, and is more about finding oneself than helping others

Contemporary Issues: Land and Indigenous Rights, Ecological Footprint (environmental concerns and indigenous rights)

Seal Hunts -Seal hunting integral part of Inuit culture and economy (but no longer survival) -Animal rights groups opposed seal hunts (cruelty to animals); conflicts with indigenous traditional practices Of Parks and People -Some of poorest nations devote vast tracts of land to environmental conservation areas -"Fortress Conservation:" set aside protected areas and restrict usage by local people. Ecotourism $$$ (but who benefits?) -"Community Conservation:" enlist local people as managers of conservation areas, potential to spread benefits more equitably Final Summation -Environmental anthropology is an important part of Cultural Anthropology -Problem-oriented, social scientific approach -Engagement with key environmental topics -Collaboration across disciplines (biologists, ecologists, economists, demographers) -Potential to contribute important insights about human-environmental interactions

Applying Anthropology Early Endeavors

Sol Tax's Fox Project (1940s-1950s) -Native American settlement in Iowa -Originally a field school for training Ph.D. students -"You keep asking questions. But what's in it for us?" -Turn toward proactive "action anthropology" Allan Holmberg's Vicos Project (1950s-1960s) -Peruvian Andes -Goal: reduce socioeconomic stratification, integrate indigenous population into market economy -Haciendas: land grants to the elite (legacy of Spanish colonialism) -Patron: owner of an hacienda, member of elite land-owning class -Campesinos: peasants, people who worked the land and paid portion of produce to the patron -"Highly qualified success" according to the USAID assessment report (1982) -Less exploitation, more upward mobility and education, yet more internal stratification

Ethnoecology

Study of knowledge and beliefs about nature that are held in a particular culture Ethnobotany -Indigenous knowledge of plants Ethnozoology -Indigenous knowledge of animals Methodology focuses on taxonomies (ways people name and classify plants, animals, medicinal substances, soils, etc.)

Chapter 5: Indigenous Model for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development -A concept first articulated in 1980 -Defined in 1987 Brundtland report as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

Technofixes

Technological solutions to specific (but not underlying) problems -Is agriculture social or technological?

Life and Death of a Street Boy in East Africa (Chris Lockhart)

Takes place in Mwanza, Tanzania Experiential Approach -How do people experience illness? How do they express their experiences? -Focus on: stories people tell about illness. The way people feel, perceive, and live with illness. The way people make sense of illness Theoretical Perspectives -Concepts of violence broadened to include structural forces and social oppression that impact health, human rights, and dignity Multiple forms of Violence -Structural Violence (Farmer). Institutionalized inequalities that deny marginalized individuals access to critical resources for their health and well-being -Everyday violence (Scheper-Hughes). Routinized experiences of violence in an individual's life Participant Observation: established trust and rapport while gaining empathic understanding of street children Historical Context: Political Economy -Colonial emphasis on cotton production -Cash crops for export -Post-colonial economic mismanagement, stagnation, and decline -Structural adjustment policies -Reducing subsidies and opening up to market forces as condition for IMF loans -Result: rural farmers on the brink Juma's older brother's sent to diamond mines to make extra money. Juma's uncle's family moves in with Juma's family on their farm. Juma's father dies, then uncle's family kicks off Juma's family, so they end up on the streets in Mwanza. Political Economy -Broad social forces contributed to the impoverishment of Juma's family -Constraints on making a living for rural to urban migrants made family socially and economically vulnerable Structural Violence (insitutionalized inequalities) -Widows easily dispossessed of landn despite laws permitting them to inherit -Rural migrants lack skills and connections to make a living -Mother relies on "survival sex" aka prostitution to make ends meet (contracts HIV and dies) -Poverty and mother's death force Juma to the streets Juma's Everyday Violence -Street children enact violence on a regular basis. Membership in a group (Nyenga Dog) is necessary for survival -Being raped = member initiation -Raping = to display and maintain hierarchy -Fighting to protect territory and economic assets -Being beaten by vigilantes and the police as reality of street life (perpetrator as well as victim of violence) Key Insight -"AIDS and its impact on Juma's life are best understood when situated in a violence framework that critically examines the links between broader structural factors in East Africa and such things as local and household power dynamics, affiliations between immediate and extended kin, and constructions of gender and sexuality." Experiential Approach By focusing on an individual's experience the author can analyze: -The interplay between political economic forces and individual agency -How structural and everyday violence shapes illness and mortality at the individual level -The environment of risk that shapes people's perceptions of certain illnesses (HIV)

Critical Reflections (Ben Wallace)

Applied Anthropology: Shortcomings -Anthropologists have long engaged in development projects -Success and failure assessed retrospectively -Purpose: show how anthropological insights can be used to adapt projects in an ongoing manner Good Roots Project: Initial Goals -Quantify extent of deforestation -Determine causes of deforestation -Establish system so that locals can reclaim denuded land

Challenge/Response

Challenge: What is grassroots development? How to respond when local elites try to take over? Response: Ensure transparency of cash flow. Maintain diverse board representing many segments of society. Avoid outright confrontation with elites Challenge: Association of development with foreigners; perception that local board members benefit Response: Place foreigners (via study abroad) in position to listen and learn rather than to dictate. Study abroad ≠ "mission" or "saving the poor". Rather, students take on position of learner. Challenge: Sustainability: how to avoid "dependency syndrome"? Response: Facilitate ownership of projects through management boards and in-kind (e.g., 10% of funding; labor) contributions. "Recipients are more likely to take care of an item if they have a personal investment in it."

Harold Conklin's Ethnoecological Approach to Shifting Cultivation ("Slash and Burn")

Context: development in the Philippines, denigration (unfair criticism) of swidden (slash and burn) agriculture Reversing the equation: the problem is not swidden cultivators' lack of knowledge about the environment. The problem is our lack of knowledge of swidden cultivators Conklin's Swidden Studies -Empirical research revealed detailed, nuanced environmental knowledge -Documented botanical knowledge (local knowledge of plants exceed scientists' taxonomic knowledge) -Documented soil knowledge (10 basic and 30 derivative soil categories; plus familiarity with which crops grow best in different soil types)

Socioeconomic Disconnect

Development officials can be socially and economically detached from 'targets' of development

Rearing chickens for shigatse's market (rural income generating project)

State-initiated, top-down development Highly subsidized, designed to get villagers more money -give them 1,000 chickens free of cost, but 3-year commitment Villagers fatten up the chickens, go back to slaughterhouse, shipped off to city market for profit in 2006 no chickens, in 2007 everybody got in on the project 1st year net = ($600) per coop 2nd year net = $267 per coop -Villagers knew the project would fail but they did it for short-term profit and free building materials Problem: dependence on ONE non-local contractor -Lack of local capacity building Result: example of over-innovation: once the contractor pulled out (2010) and subsidies expired the entire project collapsed

Who Created this situation

The system -Institutions with competitive entrance criteria The individual -Individuals live in a world of "credentialing" - moving forward in competitive environment by collecting marks on a resume

Yartsa Gunbu in Nubri and Tsum, Nepal (Childs and Choedup)

What is it? -Yartsa (summer grass), Gunbu (winter worm)--fungus -Ophiocordyceps sinensis: fungus parasitizes and mummifies larva of ghost moth to form a fungus-caterpillar complex -Huge market growth in China -Traditional Chinese medicine (health, longevity, libido) -Important in the gift economy

Chapter 4: Contemporary Development

-Achieving economic growth (national agenda) by clearing forests to facilitate commercial farming and ranching. -An economic and a political strategy. -"It is not market contact or interethnic relations that destroy indigenous society. It is undermined by a new and unique type of economic development." Political Agenda -Paraguay cannot defend forested eastern border: fear of Brazilian encroachment. -1963-1973: land distribution to poor peasants. -Relieves political pressure: -Livelihood to potentially unrestful peasantry. -Secures border through settlement

Moving Forward

-Adopt position of openness and humility -Volunteer tourism is "frequently carried out by people with an almost total lack of prior knowledge about the people they seek to assist." -Is your primary motivation career advancement? Social status (self-image or compassionate person)? Genuine desire to help other with need?

Village Regulations (yul khrims)

-All households have equal access (pastureland is communal property). -Designated starting date. Every adult must check in for roll call four times per day prior to that date. -Tax generates fund for communal use. $1 for first HH (household) member. $53 for each addition HH member.

Development and Ethnographic Lens

-Anthropologists in ideal position to listen to concerns of development "targets". -Anthropologists gain empathic understanding of local concerns (participant observation gives unique perspective). -Anthropologists more aware of social and economic (power) differentials between developers and targets of development. -govt is corrupt and would take money away from people if it intervened

Rappaport's Lasting Contribution

-"Ritual actions do not produce a practical result on the external world--that is one of the reasons we call them rituals." (Homans) -Rituals have measurable effects in ecosystems. They can regulate domestic animal populations, frequency of warfare, ratio of land to people, distribution of food, etc.

Kottak's Suggestions for development

-"To maximize social and economic benefits, [development] projects must..." be culturally compatible, respond to locally perceived needs, involve men and women in planning and carrying out the changes that affect them, harness traditional organizations, and be flexible

Importance of Ethnoecology

-"Traditional environmental knowledge is a body of knowledge that is extensive, observationally grounded, and complementary to scientific knowledge." (Townsend p. 20) -How to use such knowledge when addressing contemporary issues

Anthropological Demography

-"While an ethnographer's census can be highly accurate, the small size of the population studied usually rules out using the statistical methods developed and used by demographers." (Townsend) -"Anthropologists leave the highly quantitative demographic research to be done by the demographers working for the national population census with large-scale survey methods." (Townsend) Demography -The scientific study of human populations, primarily with respect to their size, their structure, and their development. A set of statistical techniques used to analyze data collected in censuses, surveys, vital registration, and other population data sets Anthropological Demography -The simultaneous usage of ethnographic (participant observation) and demographic (survey; statistical analysis) methods. Focus on a small-scale population; culture as an important variable -Three examples: Van der Geest on participant observation in Ghana. Fricke and Teachman on 1st birth timing in Nepal. Prof. Childs on education and outmigration in Nepal

Medical Anthropology

-Applies the tools of anthropology (holistic approach, participant observation, focus on culture) to study human illness, suffering, disease, and well-being -Why do certain diseases and health conditions affect particular populations? -How is illness socially constructed, diagnosed, managed, and treated in different societies

Points to Ponder

-Are ads and ad agencies promoting culture change as agents of culture change? -Or are they drawing upon important cultural themes to sell their products and reflecting processes of culture change that are already underway?

Industrial Agriculture (sum)

-Capitalism: Sell cash crops, buy farm equipment including seeds. -Socialism: Produce food for the state on a collective, no private property. -Green Revolution: States and developers encourage off-farm inputs, especially popular in Africa, India, Southeast Asia

Religious Regulations (chos khrims)

-Concept of sacred geography (recall "Shielding the Mountains" video). -Sealing decrees (shag rgya). Certain areas are "sealed" off from human activities like farming, cutting timber, and gathering yartsa gunbu.

Julian Steward's Cultural Ecology

-Concern with grand theories (rejected since time of Boas) -Economic and social organization results from using specific technology to exploit particular environment -Importance of the natural environment in shaping core features of culture

Caciques as Power Brokers

-Context: from self-sufficiency as forest dwellers to dependency as farmers/wage workers -Source of caciques power = aid programs -Cacique distributes assistance (e.g. cotton), recreates Guarani-Mestizo patronage -Asymmetrical Relationship -Indebtedness to cacique repaid through cotton profits

How Can Ethnographic Research Contribute?

-Conversation: Conversing, and listening, can lead you to develop informed and sensible survey questions -Observation: "Statements contain the ideal of tribal morality; observation shows us how far real behavior conforms to it." (Malinowski) Observing context within which events occur provides basis for understanding. Observations produce further questions and correct faulty impressions Participation: But, what interests the anthropologist is often least accessible and most difficult to participate in. Get married to gain empathic understanding of marriage? Have a tryst to gain empathic understanding of illicit sexuality? Get pregnant to gain empathic understanding of childbearing?

Fertility, Migration, and Social Change in Nubri, Nepal (Prof. Childs)

-Document fertility changes over time -Document the rate and magnitude of out-migration -Project changes to the age-sex composition of the population -Investigate changing reproductive behavior in response to modern contraception and education -Explore out-migration's role in long-term family management strategy -Study social and economic impacts of out-migration Reproductive History Surveys -Determine the number of pregnancies, outcome pregnancies (miscarriage, still birth, live birth), timing (birthdate) and outcome (infant death? still alive?) of all live births Ethnography informs surveys: Patrilocal matrilocal residence, what caused child's death (categorizing local concepts of illness) Ethnographic Research Provides Insight on Change -Data indicates persistence of high fertility. Lack of birth control? -Interviews show birth control usage has started. Recent, no large statistical effect yet -Interviews illuminate gender dynamics. Who decides? Agency? Power dynamics? From 1991 to 2012 Fertility in Nubri decreased from 6.3 to 5.3 but was mostly in the 6 range Household Surveys -Determine age, sex, relationship, education, and current whereabouts of all household members Outmigration Raises Some Issues -Labor force and household subsistence? Who will take care of the elderly? Is the phenomenon a massive "brain drain?" Or will those with education return? Key questions -Is it possible to stem the migration flow or to induce return migration? -Will educated migrants return to marry and settle in their natal villages? -What types of people will return? Why? -How will parents influence that decision?

Cross-cultural understanding?

-For promotional purposes tour companies downplay challenges of navigating cultural differences -Promise of "positive, unproblematic cross-cultural encounters." -Volunteers to be welcomed with open arms by people who are depicted as "needy cultural others, generic poor people eager and grateful for the assistance of benevolent Westerners."

New Exchange Relations

-Guarani acquire land, plant cash crops -Incur debt (seed, equipment, pesticides, etc.) -Debt renders Guarani dependent on lenders. Lose bargaining power, must sell crops at lender's price -High risk of failure (crop failure, too much debt) -Engage in wage labor economy -Less risky. But, low wages (HH needs to send many workers); time lost for other subsistence activities

Political Ecology

-How do inequalities of power and wealth threaten the sovereignty and livelihoods of indigenous peoples -Why are the international companies allowed to engage in harmful practice in PNG that are strictly prohibited in their own countries?

Political Ecology (William Durham)

-IPAT is too simplistic -Need to account for structural causes of environmental destruction -"The impact of human populations upon environments is mediated by cultural and political economic forces that do not act as simple multipliers and multiplicands."

Population and Environment : IPAT (from Townsend)

-Impact=population x affluence x technology -The impact of human group on the environment is the product of 3 factors: the number of people (population size), a measure of average person's consumption of resources (more affluence = more consumption), and the environmental disruptiveness of the technologies that produce the goods consumed

Health Impacts

-Less diverse diet, more dependence on high fat and starch diet -Poor nutrition = vulnerable to disease -Increased population density -Settlement promotes infectious disease transmission -Wage labor and commercial farming -Intense exposure to herbicides and pesticides (see Prof. Benson on tobacco workers in USA)

Participation: van der Geest's affair

-Long-term fieldwork often leads to intense level of participation -Intense participation can lead to deeper level of understanding -Being vulnerable can lead to being more accepted

Sustainability Issues

-Monocrop (single specie) agriculture and grassland replace biodiversity -If fertile top soil is exposed to sunlight and rainfall it becomes infertile and erodes -Soil productivity becomes dependent on fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides -Is economic development a short-lived phenomenon?

Messages

-Most people in development emphasize successes and downplay failures. Development jobs dependent on success. Who is the primary beneficiary? (Ugly American) -"Identifying and understanding the errors in application and the errors in assessment were fundamental to the success of Good Roots."

Music and Identity

-Much of the early blues reflected unique African-American experience (Big Bill Broonzy- Black, Brown, and White) -As mainstream music, Blues became a venue to highlight the African-American experience

Specific evolution

-Multilinear (each society takes unique course) rather than unilinear -Came to be called "cultural adaptation," a term still in use today. Focus on process rather than outcome

Avoid under-differentiation

-Neglecting cultural variability and differences. "Developing countries are all the same." -Uniform approach to problem solving -"What works in Botswana must work in Bolivia." -What works in one party of this country must work in other parts of this country."

Social Impacts

-New leaders (caciques) appointed and empowered by govt., undermine role of traditional kin leaders (poaraea) -Power of caciques derives from association with institutions outside the community -New leaders act as agents of the state -Intermediaries between programs (state, NGO) and local communities -Direct resources ("gifts") to community members -Result = socioeconomic stratification

Fredrik Barth's Plural Society

-Niche concept: the place of a group in the total environment, its relations to resources and competitors -Different ethnic groups can fill specialized economic roles within the same ecosystem -Ecological relationships of ethnics groups in Swat, North Pakistan Pathan Niche -Multi-cropping (producing two crops/year) essential to support social organization -Surplus required for specialization. Occupational groups exchange services for food -Surplus required for organizing men's houses with potlatches to attract followers -Niche limited to relatively low lying areas where multi-cropping is possible Kohistani Niche -Driven from lower valley by Pathans. Single annual crop plus transhumance -Exploit both agricultural land and highland pastures Gujar Niche -Transhumance in symbiotic relationship with Pathans -Use Pathans' crop residues to feed animals -Herd Pathans' animals since Pathans consider herding a low status activity Barth's Observations -Distribution of ethnic groups related to ecological niches that each group exploits -Different ethnic groups can co-exist in stable relationships. If they exploit different ecological niches, then they can (and often do) establish symbiotic relationships

Ok Tedi Mine (Papua New Guinea, see also Kottak)

-One of the world's largest open pit copper mines -Joint effort: international corporations and PNG government. Lifespan 1980s-2025 Immediate local impacts -Economic benefits: land lease, employment, skills, infrastructure development -Social detriments: dietary changes, drinking and fighting, prostitution, STIs Downstream impacts -Chemical pollutants destroy fish and wildlife (Ok Tedi creates biologically dead river) -Chemical pollutants cause health problems -Mine tailings and excess sedimentation overflows banks, destroys forests

How Should Anthropologists Be Thinking About Volunteer Tourism? (Elizabeth Garland)

-Outgrowth of "traveler" phenomenon (1970s) -Related to concept of "gap year" (1990s) -Coincides with NGO growth -Tour companies meld "off-the-beaten-track" tourism with safe educational experiences that parents will support -Today 1.6 million annual participants Convergent Interests -NGOs: need cash and labor (get both) -Tour Companies: profitable niche in competitive global tourism market -Volunteers: way for students to distinguish themselves from peers while pursuing educational/career goals The Optimists -"Pain-free mechanism for redistributing global resources" (from wealthier to poorer nations) -Brings development benefits to places that would otherwise be excluded -Expands cross-cultural awareness; promotes transnational connections and understanding The Pessimists -Programs reinforce existing inequalities, preconceptions, and stereotypes -What Developscape is evident in voluntourism? -Ethical Issue: "One person's impoverishment is another's opportunity for adventure and personal growth" (and career advancement) -Selfpromotion for volunteers enhances inequality

Research Methods

-Participant Observation (watching people do stuff) -Surveys (quantifiable questions on what people bought) -Interviews (more in-depth questioning) -GIS mapping (where's your farm and does that matter) -Ethnobotanical survey (what other plants are around) -Focus groups AND lots of counting

Research Methods

-Participant observation and in-depth interviewing. -Goal: To understand how color-blind ideology works in the context of live hip-hop events, and how African American cultural forms are appropriated by white individuals. Talib Kweli (Get By); The Roots (The Seed); Blackalicious (Paragraph President)

Conclusion

-Participatory development is possible if fundamental principles are followed to ensure community involvement and ownership -Facilitate rather than dictate direction and pace of development

GM seeds mean more better yields but not necessarily better lives

-Problems in knowledge lead to anxiety, uncertainty -When knowledge is a commodity, experts must sell and farmers must buy

Avoid Over-Innovation

-Projects may fail because they are not economically or culturally compatible -Can't assume that people are willing to make dramatic lifestyle changes for sake of "efficiency"

Elite Capture

-Recognized as problem in development -Community elites designated intermediaries between donors and recipients -Elites appropriate resources -Elites decide who will receive/be denied resources -Can increase socioeconomic stratification -Elites + family and friends benefit most

Political Ecology

-Relationships between humans and their environment cannot be understood without considering inequities in power and wealth produced by the global economy -Most widely used approach in environmental anthropology since the 1990s

Guarani History: 1700s to present

-Repeated threats (missionaries, exploitative labor practices, slave raiders from Brazil) -1812 Paraguay wins freedom from Spain, Guarani find place in Paraguayan society -Many settle in towns and assimilate -Others remain in forest, continue agroforestry and yerba trade

The Development Process

-Road cut through forest (transportation, military) -Loggers come first: cut paths to trees -Forest divided into plots, given to settlers who use logging trails to establish farms on more fertile lands and ranches on less fertile lands -Pace of clearing forest accelerates

Summary of Impacts

-Shift from independent agroforestry to dependent commercial agriculture -Necessitates leveling of forests, destruction of ecosystem on which Guarani society depends -"Guarani communities are not simply beset by economic development, they are struggling against a particularly destructive type of development"

From nuclear family to band

-Shoshone predatory bands rise in response to white encroachment

Case Study: Shoshone of the Great Basin

-Socially fragmenting effect of cultural ecology -Family level of social organization is due to pursuit of highly dispersed food source -First come, first serve rights to resources -Cooperation and leadership emerge only in limited contexts (communal hunts)

Approach of Cultural Ecology

-Study the organization of subsistence production, including division of labor, organization, and timing of work -Study how economic behavior and social organization are shaped by and adapted to specific ecological conditions

Mission

-Support for projects conceived and implemented by people from Maragoli (not being told by the developers what they need) -Focus on small geographic area (pop. 3000) -Integrative approach: complementary projects in education, health care, and environment

Summary

-Survey research alone insufficient to understand complex demographic issues -Ethnographic fieldwork can provide a more nuanced and culturally attentive dimension

Rodriquez's Arguments

-Taking blackness out of hip-hop and replacing it with color-blind ideology. -Acknowledge salience of race as important category for other people; deny is as salient category for self (color-blind ideology) -White consumers of hip-hop do not necessarily want to be black; "they seek to acquire the characteristics of blackness associated with being cool." -Color-blind justifications "makes it easier for whites to appropriate hip-hop for themselves, taking a racially coded art form and turning it into a color blind one." (Macklemore White Privilege)

Sacred/Spiritual Ecology

-Terms used to describe research on the connection between religious beliefs/practices and the environment Natural Environmentalists -Indigenous peoples often have beliefs, practices, and cultural mechanisms that help protect the environment -What are some of those beliefs? How are they used in modern environmental movements? -What heppens when indigenous agendas clash with state or corporate agendas?

Strategic Anti-Essentialism

-The calculated use of a cultural form, outside of your own, to define yourself or your group (George Lipsitz). -Are the appropriation of Blues and hip-hop by white middle-class youths examples of strategic anti-essentialism? Frank Zappa (You Are What You Is)

Ecosystems Approach

-The study of interactions within a community of species (including humans) and the biophysical environment -Goal is to map flows of information, energy, and matter -What factors contribute to maintaining homeostasis? -What factors contribute to transforming the system

Anthropology and Development

-Theoretical Dimension: critique assumptions, practices, and discourses of development (theoretical critique of development) -Applied dimension: working with people to design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive projects (getting involved in international development)

Roy Rappaport's Ecosystems Approach

-Tracking flows of energy through the system -Isolated, closed feedback system in equilibrium -Self-regulating, sustainable Systemic Integration -Human-environment equilibrium disrupted when pigs become too numerous -Human-environment equilibrium reestablished by slaughtering pics (ecological dimension) -Temporary cessation of warfare for feasting and exchange (social dimension) -Coordinated through ritual activities (religious dimension) Critiques of Rappaport -Not most efficient means to distribute animal protein (nutritionists' perspective) -Closed system is unrealistic assumption (geographic perspective) -Homeostasis assumption is problematic due to short time frame (historical perspective) Response: Movement away from studying systems in equilibrium to systems in flux

Basic Principles Revisited

-Under-Differentiation? Ethnographic knowledge allows projects to be tailored to specific circumstances. -Over-Innovation? Build upon existing institutions (traditional medicine) rather than trying to impose something new that people do not have the knowledge or resources to make work on their own. Building local capacity to address problems through long-term education and planning.

Negative Effects

-Unskilled volunteers drive down demand for and wages of local unskilled workers -Voluntourism fosters dependency and undermine sense of local project ownership -Regular arrival of wealthy volunteers heightens sense of relative poverty -Young volunteers have a form of global mobility that is unthinkable in places where they volunteer -Short-term visits: voluntourism popular in AIDS orphanages. Instand bonding; continual abandoment

Why India?

-Was India a miserable failure that yielded poorly and put farmers in debt? -Was India a remarkable success that propelled it into the 21st century and enabled a defense against the dreaded insects -"The unprecedented high adoption of Bt cotton is due to substantial and significant benefits to farmers, successful control of dreaded bollworm pests, benefits to industry...the farmer is wiser than me." - Indian agriculture minister Shawad Pawar -"If his yield falls, he will abandon that variety regardless of what any seed company says. Forget scientists or ecologists or seed companies. The farmer knows best." - MP Sharad Joshi -"Our nation's farmers have truly created enormous value with biotechnology as a catalyst, value that has been shared by other farmers, seed and technology companies, the user industry and the nation. India's cotton success is a result of farmer-focused innovation and partnerships. " - Monsanto India Region lead Gyanendra Shukla

Dowry Deaths

-Women being killed when their families could not afford dowry

Cultural Appropriation?

-Would Blues musicians like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King have achieved such fame and fortune if the Blues had not been appropriated? -Did Blues musicians resent the appropriation of their musical genre? Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones (Manish Boy); John Lee Hooker (Boom Boom); B.B. King and Eric Clapton (Riding With the King) -Would the Blues be a relic of the past if it had not been appropriated? Robert Johnson (Ramblin' on My Mind); Eric Clapton (Ramblin' on My Mind)

How did McDonalds adapt to survive (and thrive) in Brazil? (Kottak)

Adapting to Brazilian Culture -Ad campaign centered on McD's as take-out food to eat elsewhere. Grab-and-go (drive through US model) not feasible in urban Rio where parking is difficult. -"Enjoy it at the beach." But, "hot" food inappropriate at beach where "cold" food is cultural preference. -"Lunch at the office." Midday meal is main meal (leisurely), not a rushed meal (fast food). -Once McDonald's realized that more money could be made by fitting in with, rather than trying to Americanize, Brazilian meal habits, it started aiming its advertising at that goal. Localizing McDonalds in China -Adapting to changing demographic trends: urbanization, small families, "little emperors". -Adapting to changing socioeconomic trends: more women work outside the home, rising middle-class affluence, disposable income. Changing Family System -From patrilocality to neolocality: couple lives alone, but prefers to live near wife's mother (for childcare). -Small family norm: one-child policy means all attention lavished on the singleton (2 parents, 4 grandparents). Children as Consumers -For the first time children become "full-scale consumers who command respect in today's economy." -McDonalds captures the little emperors through birthday parties (a new phenomenon in China) and play areas with Uncle and Aunt McDonald. -"The fast-food industry helped start a consumer revolution by encouraging children . . . to march up to the counter, slap down their money, and choose their own food." Converting Private to Public Space -Fast food = fast service only. Teens use as after-school hangout, elders use as mid-morning hangout Whose Culture Is It, Anyway? -Is McDonalds a leader in creating a homogenous, global culture? -Need to consider consumers' perspectives. Process of localization forces us to ask: Where does the transnational end and the local begin?

Rethinking the Biological Clock (Friese et al.)

Anthropology of Biomedicine -Critical approach to the study of biomedicine -Understanding biomedicine as a system of ethno-medicine that involves issues of power, gender, etc. (biomedicine is not just about science) -Studying processes of knowledge creation -How does knowledge acquire status of fact rather than belief -Emphasis on biotechnologies. How do reproductive technologies shape peoples' conceptions of the life course? Medicalization -Process transforms what was formally seen as a social problem into what is now seen as a medical problem (i.e. infertility) -The process by which human experiences are redefined as medical problems -Increasing demand for treatment and growth of industry leads to redefinition as medical problem Context of Societal Change -How can education and career aspirations affect a woman's reproductive years? Postponers -Expect to have children at some point, but delay through series of postponements Different Experience/Different Narrative -11th-hour moms conceive using donated eggs when age defines them as "potentially reproductive" (before menopause). Biological clock narrative shifts from "menopause" to "old eggs." -Miracle moms conceive using donated eggs when age defines them as "non-reproductive" (very close to or after menopause) Key Terms and Concepts -Ovarian reserve : the diminishing quantity (and quality) of ova -Biomedical concept that breaks connections between reproductive capacity and menstruation -In other words, reproductive capacity ends prior to menopause Rethinking the Biological Clock -New reproductive technologies influence how we view the course of life -Menopause no longer marks transition from reproductive to post-reproductive -Medical discourse on eggs truncates reproductive years (ends prior to menopause) -New reproductive technologies extend reproductive years (can reproduce after menopause)

Slide Guitar

Bukka White (Aberdeen Blues); Lynyrd Skynyrd (Freebird); The Eagles (Rocky Mountain Way)

Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop (Jason Rodriquez)

Color-Blind Ideology -"The assertion of essential sameness between racial and ethnic groups despite unequal social locations and distinctive histories." -A dominant racial ideology in USA today. -An ideology that allows people to be blind to structural inequalities and to therefore justify the status quo

Cultural Adaptations to Endemic Malaria in Sardinia (Peter Brown)

Ecological Approach -How do cultural beliefs and practices shape human behaviors (e.g. residence patterns) that then alter the ecological relationship between host and pathogen? -Cultural Adaptation (Brown): "culture traits or social institutions which function to increase the chances of survival for a society in a particular ecological context." Geographic Distribution of Malaria -Less prevalent in highlands. Cooler temps and less standing water disrupt breeding cycle (most malaria in summer) -More prevalent in rural areas. "Sylvatic nature of the Sardinian malaria vector." Sylvatic: pathogens that only affect wild (forest-dwelling) animals Social Distribution of Malaria -More men than women. Working class more than wealthy elite. Agro-pastoral workers more than urban-based occupations (merchants, artisans). Farmers more than shepherds Human Ecology -Relationship between humans and their environment -Landscape variations (altitude) influence economic practices (transhumance) -Inverse Transhumance: Permanent settlements in highlands; temporary grazing grounds in lowland -Nucleated settlement pattern (HHs concentrated rather than being dispersed). Settlements on higher, drier ground. Mosquitos in/around agricultural land where there is standing water. More work (carrying loads), but less risk of infection Social Organization -Men engage in agricultural labor: more exposed to mosquitoes. Women confined to nucleated settlements and domestic domain: less exposed to mosquitoes. Landowning class did not engage in agricultural labor: less exposed to mosquitoes Insights -Ecological approach to medical anthropology -Unit of analysis = population (contrast with Lockhart's life story of a street boy--individual=unit of analysis0 -Evidence that settlement pattern and social organization reduced risk of infection for women, aristocracy, artisans, and that inverse transhumance reduced risk of infection for shepherds

Chapter 3: Guarani Production

Forest Management -Areas thought to be 'natural' are actually managed by indigenous peoples -Planting crops within existing forests rather than clearing tracts for planting Lowland S. American Tropical Ecosystems -Biodiversity (75% of known plant species there) -Inhospitable resource base: thin top soil -Nutrients depleted by direct sunlight -Harsh rains wash away top soil -Clay soils lack fertility, hard and impenetrable -Interdependence of plant species: "woven together in tightly integrated ecosystem" -Very fragile: loss of one element disrupts nutrient flow Agroforestry -Stable production system that protects forest resources over time. Intensity varies -Variety of species. Species are interdependent. One or more plant/animal harvested for use or sale Guarani Forest Management -Shifting horticulture ('slash and burn') -Hunting, fishing, and gathering -Commercial tree cropping Indigenous Knowledge -Guarani understand interdependence of species and fragility of system -Food production mimics forest ecosystem: plants intercropped to help each other grow -Agroforestry practices ensure livelihood and ecosystem sutainability Trade -Yerba mate

Not Just a British Invasion

Frank Zappa (Black Napkins)

Summary: Anthropologists Critique Development

Goal of development = improved peoples lives -Bodley: development can have negative health and economic impacts -Garland: voluntourism can have negative impact on communities (taking jobs, creating dependency) and individuals (impact of revolving door volunteers on orphans) Goal of Development = increase equity -Brain: USAID, govt. graft, creation of local development elite. Perpetuates inequality -Garland: "programs offer volunteers a means to improve their own marketability and socieconomic power." -Loftsdottir and garland: Development can reinforce ethnic/racial stereotypes

Chapter 2: Social Organization

Guarani Leadership -Kinship-based social organization -Leadership function of age and religious knowledge -Influence legitimized through religious knowledge -Lead through example and persuasion; little power and authority -Dispersed settlement pattern Guarani Kinship -Relatives=all those with whom one shares blood relations. Consanguineal kin; bilateral descent (all your relative are either on your mother's or father's side) -Cognatic Descent Group: derived from a recognized common ancestor -Kin group exogamy (affines belong to other cognatic descent groups). -Preference for uxorilocal (matrilocal residence) -After one year of bride service (husband helping in-laws), young couple establishes own household and garden nearby Generalized Exchange (Reciprocity) -MInimal socioeconomic stratification -Give something to another person without the expectation of immediate return -Exchange = expression of personal relationship -Food, clothing, tools, and labor regularly exchanged among close relatives ("from each according to ability, to each according to need") -Everyone can assume: "when I need something, someone will provide." -Generalized exchange ensures perishables (meat, fruit) are consumed, everyone has access to diversity of food produced, everyone has sufficient labor to produce food, everyone has sufficient food and goods regardless of ability to produce (wounded hunter example). Balanced exchange (reciprocity) -Giving entails expectation that something of equal value will be returned (immediately or delayed) -Practice with distant kin in other tapyi Negative exchange (reciprocity) -Guarani produces and mestizo patrons: inter-ethnic exchanges -Hope that gift given in transaction will yield something of greater value -Try to make a profit; assume trading partner is trying to do the same -Asymmetrical relationship: mestizo traders has power and authority of the state to defend his business -Guarani at disadvantage; mestizo profits the most -Exchange among Guarani based on equality and trust. Exchange across ethnic lines characterized by power and suspicion

General Evolution

Increase in scale and complexity

There is a price of progress, but...

Macro/micro -Macro Perspective: There has been a worldwide increase in standard of living (wealth) and longevity (health) -Micro perspective: macro perspective veils rise in inequalities and marginalization that can occur with development. Not everybody benefits; those with power and wealth tend to benefit disproportionately

Mistake/Solution

Mistake: In meetings, project team viewed as "experts" - they did not listen closely to locals (socioeconomic disconnect). Solution: Became more sensitive about power dynamics (foreign/local) and how they are perceived. Mistake: Prioritize science or development? Project recipients chosen through random sampling (scientific endeavor), yet enthusiasm varied widely Solution: Shift to purposive sampling Mistake: Incorrect goals. Plan to plant forest trees did not generate local enthusiasm ("how do we benefit?"). Solution: Shift from forestry to agro-forestry. Fast growing trees that can generate income (citrus for markets) and fuel wood Mistake: Under-differentiation. Assumption that project in north could be replicated with minimum change in south. However, cultural differences (need for intense social interactions to gain rapport) and land tenure differences (tenant farmers versus smallholders). Solution: Become flexible, pay attention to site-specific details and adjust accordingly.

Look at 14.3 for graphs

More seeds does not equal higher maximum acreage More years seed planted does not equal higher maximum acreage

Tourism, Leisure, and Work in an African Pastoral Society (Tamas Regi)

Mursi Terms and Concepts -rijô: tree shade (culture), creating sociality. kiibai: sitting, cultural work. Non-active, non-mobile social activities. -su: sun (nature), uncontrollable power. deshê: working = physical work like fetching wood, grinding grain, etc Ethnic or Cultural Tourism -Encountering the "exotic" other - a popular theme in adventure tourism. -What disruptions in work and leisure routines occur when the tourist wants to see locals at work (authentic, naturalistic setting)? The tourist wants to imitate the work of locals (enhancing the experience)? The locals want to earn cash by being "authentic"? Blurring Work and Leisure -Women and kids prepare for tourist arrival by decorating bodies to look "authentic". -Competition for tourists' attention: photo opportunities and work activities = $$$. -Tourists want "authentic" encounter. Simulate work activities: "moralize and imagine a production mode different from their own." -Concepts of work and leisure become "blurred by performance." -Place of kiibai ("non-active social activities") becomes place of simulated deshê ("physical work"). -Simulated work ≠ deshê, but iwa ("means of getting $$$") implying lack of social bonds. Unfulfilled Expectations? -Murmi expect balanced reciprocity, tourists expect authenticity The Tourist Encounter -False Pretense: authentic encounter in naturalistic setting. -What does the tourist stand to gain through invention of isolation? -Why are they so difficult to film?

Myth v. Reality in Swidden Farming

Myth: Swidden farming is a haphazard procedure involving little planning or knowledge Reality: Swidden farming follows a locally determined well-defined pattern and requires constant attention throughout most of the year Myth: Usually, and preferably, swiddens are cleared in virgin forest (rather than in areas of secondary growth). Result = tremendous loss of valuable timber Reality: When possible, people prefer to make swidden fields in second-growth forests (rather than in primary forests)

Participatory Development in Maragoli, Kenya (David McConnell et al.)

Participatory Development -Response to critiques that development agencies privilege donor priorities over local needs (philanthropic colonialism). Emphasis on local control and decision-making Author's Agenda -Recognition that an African village is not an undifferentiated collection of people. Socioeconomic, religious, gender, clan, and educational divisions -Demonstrate how practicing anthropologists can contribute to development programs by supporting collaboration, partnership, and local decision-making

Chapter 1: The Guarani in South American History

Pre-History (500-1500 CE) -Forest peoples begin to produce corn and beans (imported from the Andes?) -Development of Guarani form of agroforestry -Population growth; expansion into new areas Early Reports (1550s) -"They are...the richest people of the land" -Large, independent communities. Farming (maize, potatoes, etc.), livestock (geese), hunting and fishing. Ability to muster large armies. Egalitarian leadership Yerba Mate=leaves used to make beverage that is a mild stimulant Guarani and Colonial History -Formed alliances w/ Spanish to access trade w/ Inca. After Pizarro's conquest, trade in yerba mate develops. -Conquistadors given rights over labor of Guarani. Forced labor, exploitation, and disease lead to pop. decline. -"They have carried off our brothers, sons, and subjects...Those mate forests remain full of the bones of our sons and vassals...it impoverishes and annhilates us." Guarani leader (1630)

Economic Importance

Profits from most natural resources (timber, mining) captured by the state. -Yartsa gunbu income directly to households. Requires no capital. Requires little skill (other than a good eye). Found on territories inhabited by Tibetans. Does not interfere with other economic activities. -Today, the mainstay of household economies in places where other income earning opportunities are scarce. Tsum: 83% of all household income. Nubri: 77-92% of all household income. -Thus, economic development independent of the government and NGOs.

Participant Observation in Demographic Fieldwork (Sjaak van der Geest)

The Paradox -Birth: a cold statistic for demographer, yet a subject of human emotions for the anthropologist -How do you simultaneously study and make sense of aggregate statistics and human emotions? How do you adopt an anthropological approach to demography? Surveys: A Critical Appraisal -Survey methodology (neutral prompt; natural response) defies social conventions of human interactions -Survey responses often treated as objective, truthful statements -Questions can be confusing, leading, value laden, and "double-barreled." Demographic Survey Problem -Close ended survey questions assume meanings are clear and agreed on by surveyor and respondent -Are you married? -What if husbands and wives typically do not live together (Ghana) -"Come we stay" cohabitation resembles and can lead to marriage (Kenya)? -Formal (Chang sa) vs. informal (kha tub) marriage (Nubri)? -If the question is "are you married" cannot be easily answered "yes" or "no," any statistic derived from asking the question is meaningless An Important Issue -The more sensitive the question, the more unreliable the answer -"Many issues in demographic research are too complicated, too ambiguous, and too intimate to be handled in a survey manner." (van der Geest) Why do people lie? -Survey data influenced by human perceptions and interactions. Data is not simply an "objective" -Social desirability bias: Interviewees often give answers they think the interviewer wants to hear or that are socially acceptable -"If informants want to remain polite--and many do to an incredible degree--they have no other choice than to lie."

Ad as Agent of Culture Change?

Traditional arranged marriage: meeting the potential groom. Transnational context (Non-Resident Indian). -Disrespectful of elders. Disrespectful of customs (refuses food and tika). "I'm allergic to traditions." -What role does Coca-Cola play?

Shielding the Mountains (Film by Emily Yeh and Kunga Lama)

Tibetan and Buddhist Concepts -Villagers work to protect environment because they see it as part of their culture (it is a spirit that they must ask for forgiveness and treat well) --physical and cultural realms interconnected -Connection between environmental health and individual well=being -Environmental destruction=injuring the land -Environment encompasses the physical and cultural realm -Fight to revive the Tibetan Antelope species -Container=environment surrounding us, contents=people in the environment -Western approach=certain places designated for environmental protection, Tibetan approach=all places are Combining Traditional and Modern Approaches -Traditional: Shielding the mountains" promoted by buddhist clerics for centuries -Restriction on cutting trees, mining, and hunting -Showing reverence to spirits associated with mountains, streams and springs -Modern: Environmental activism within the confines of state-sanctioned laws Spiritual/Political Ecology -The state control access to resources (forests, mining, wildlife). Big $$$ and power connected to resources -Locals have little power to limit environmental destruction ("injuring the land") except through environmental activism. But indigenous knowledge devalued as "religious activity" (politically charged in China) -The state can view environmental activism as ethnic activism

Writing the Names: Marriage Style, Living Arrangements, and First Birth Interval (Fricke and Teachman)

Tom Fricke: Major proponent of anthropological demography (1990s). Collaboration with demographers Proximate Determinants of Fertility -Biological Components: Onset of menarche and menopause, lactational amenorrhea, male impotence, infecundity -Social Components: Age at entry into sexual union, voluntary abstinence, coital frequency, use of contraception First Birth Interval -The time that elapses from marriage to birth of first child -In non-contracepting population "coital frequency" is the primary candidate to explain variation in first birth interval Tamang Marriage System -Preference for cross-cousin marriage -Mainly patrilocal; some neolocal -Mainly arranged marriages; some love marriages -Women have the power to refuse marriage Analysis -"The results...support the argument that the transition to family building within marriage pivots on the familiarity between couples and on a woman's comfort in the marital environment" -i.e. comfort in marital home increases coital frequency and decreases first birth interval -Comfort (and birth interval) influenced by woman's role in spousal choice, marriage to a relative, and/or ability to visit natal home

China's Big Mac Attack (James Watson)

Transnational Corporations -Are they the "shock troops" of today's cultural imperialism? -The march of Western pop culture (including fast food) will transform youths and create a homogenous global culture (i.e., culture loss). -"Unlike traditional conquerors, we are not content merely to subdue others: We insist that they be like us." (Ronald Steel) McDonalds as Cultural Imperialism? -No stealth advertising. No creation of a new market. Responded to the changing nature of the family system Key Question -How did McDonalds survive in a food culture dominated by rice, noodles, fish, pork? In a place where adult consumers initially found the taste of hamburgers "strange and unappealing"? -Localization: the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language and culture so that it takes on a local look and feel. Localization of McDonalds -Strategy is to become part of local culture. "Multilocal, not multinational." -Local suppliers, local entrepreneurs as franchise owners.

Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors

Who are the Guarani? -Roughly 80,000 people living in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina Indigenous Peoples: UN Criteria -Descended from the pre-colonial/pre-invasion inhabitants of a region -Maintain close cultural and economic ties to the land -Suffer economic and political marginalization as a minority group in a nation-state -Stereotyped as people who avoid contact with outsiders, resist inclusion into world system -Guarani do not fit that stereotype; history of engagement with world systems -Guarani threatened by encroachment: logging, agriculture, ranching (in the name of development) Reed's Research Methods -Participant Observation -Interviewing -Archival (history) -Demographic and economic surveys

Dynamics of Inidgenous Demographic Fluctuations (Covey et al.)

Why is 10-14 age cohort so small? -Demographic stress 10-15 years ago? Epidemic -Epidemics usually have disproportionate impact on infants and elderly. High infant mortality? -Recovery possible, but offset by timing of subsequent epidemics and bad policies -Socioeconomic disruptions that accompany epidemics (spousal loss, famine) affect reproduction. Low fertility? Why 0-4 and 5-9 cohorts so large? -High fertility (the only explanation). TFR above 8 births/woman -Demonstrates potential for demographic recovery

Diseases of Development

Work and Dietary Changes (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, heart problems) -Voluntary: adopting "prestige" foods (e.g. white rice) -Voluntary/involuntary: more time devoted to earning cash, less time to growing/procuring traditional foods. Increased consumption of processed foods -Forced: elimination of traditional foods by powerful groups (e.g. forming National Parks( Disrupting Environmental Balance (Increase in bacterial and parasitic diseases and pollutants) -Dams as breeding ground for snails that transmit schistosomiasis -Soviet cotton production, demise of the Aral Sea (completely dried out), and agricultural pollutants Overpopulation, Urbanization, and Crowding (increase in bacterial and parasitic diseases) -Urbanization as measure of development -But, urban crowding, impoverishment, lack of infrastructure = ?