Wednesday, March 29, 2006
I have been showing Hugh Brody’s Hunters and Bombers this week in the Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. The film shows the conflict between the Innu of Labrador (no relation to the Inuit) and the Canadian military which, in its commitments to NATO in the early 1990s, conducted training exercises of low flying over Innu [...]
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
The Spring 2006 issue of British Columbia Magazine is now available and it is always a fun read when I am stuck at my desk in Vancouver. This issue has two articles of particular interest. The first is a text and photo essay on the remote wilderness park Tatlatui, in the far north [...]
Lorenz blogs about a film by an Inuit filmmaker called The Journals of Knud Rasmussen. It portrays the impact of missionary work on Inuit people in the Canadian arctic. The film looks very worthwhile and Lorenz’s post adds links to related stories and reviews.
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Thanks to a student for pointing me towards a poster showing two Inuit students cuddling a baby cow under the banner of ‘Save the Baby Veal: Avoid Cultural Prejudice.’ Created by teacher Murray Angus, the poster plays off of the attention celebrities like Brigitte Bardot and Paul McCartney bring to Canada’s seal hunt. Many Inuit [...]
If I’ve learned anything this teaching term, it’s that it is always appropriate to have conversations with students about cultural relativity, etic/emic distinctions, and insider/outsider dilemmas despite the fact that many students protest that ‘they’ve heard it all before.’ Earlier in the term I blogged about student reactions to the film Holy Ghost People. [...]
The In-shuck-ch Nation has started a blog. It publishes a wide range of stories on issues facing First Nations people and communities in BC.
(The In-shuck-ch Nation represents three Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley First Nations (Douglas, Skatin, and Samahquam) in the British Columbia Treaty Process.)
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The Yale First Nation (Fraser Canyon north of Hope, BC) has signed an agreement-in-principle with British Columbia and Canada (click here for the BC Government’s press release). This signing is the last major hurdle in the BC Treaty Process before a treaty is finalized and ratified. It brings to seven the number [...]
The Washington Post is running a story about conflicts over parkland, people, and animals, in Kenya. Environmentalists are concerned about the effects of Masai cattle on the wildlife in Kenyan parks. Further on in the story, the continued possibility of evictions of Mursi from Ethiopian parks is mentioned.
Films and readings about the Masai [...]
I showed the film Holy Ghost People in my Anthropology of Religion class last week. The film was made in 1967 and it depicts a service in the Holiness Church in West Virginia. It in, church members are shown in trances, speaking in tongues, convlusing, and handling poisonous snakes. I use the [...]
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