With apologies for the late notice, The Linguists is showing tonight at 8:30p on Detroit PBS (channel 43 on Shaw in Greater Vancouver). The film is also showing at 12:00p on Seattle PBS (channel 27 on Shaw in Greater Vancouver) on April 10. From the Vanity Fair review (posted on the thelinguists.com website): The Linguists [...]
We’ve been discussing witchcraft in the Anthropology of Religion this week. The idea that accusing someone of witchcraft may be a way of enforcing norms against wealth accumulation or self-aggrandizement came up several times in our classroom conversations. Is anyone out there (in anthropology, in the mainstream press) considering that the outrage against AIG executives [...]
Is there anything actually surprising about the observation that our behavior on Facebook changes depending on who we perceive to be watching? Isn’t this true in any social situation? Sphere: Related Content
My Anthropology of British Columbia students discussed yesterday the proposal of the BC government to legislate aboriginal rights (and title?) into existence. Their responses to the items summarized in news articles listed below were careful and insightful. We tried to consider, for example, what the government has to gain and lose. We tried to consider [...]
Update: Savageminds.org picked up on my grand theories v. local particularities question and the comments received there are helpful. With the comments here, (and others on SACC-L) I think I have some new material for reworking lecture notes on emic/etic distinctions. Thanks to all. Original Post: This semester, my students in introductory cultural anthropology and [...]
Albert Howard and Frances Widdowson offer a lengthy critique of Taiaiake Alfred’s review of their book Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry. The critique is embedded in the comments section of a previous post here on Fieldnotes. The first paragraph reads as follows: Taiaiake Alfred has a right to his opinion about our book, and we would [...]
I don’t have time to formulate my own review right now … suffice it to say I have appreciated the frankness of Widdowson and Howard’s Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry. The questions they ask about aboriginal poverty, its reasons and solutions to it should be asked — even if (especially if) they generate widely disparate answers. [...]
Frances Widdowson and co-author Albert Howard distanced themselves today from Margaret Wente’s column about aboriginal savagery. Wente had cited Widdowson and Howard at length her her article supporting Dick Pound’s ‘pay du sauvage’ remark. Sphere: Related Content
My Anthropology of Canada’s First Nations discussed the Dick Pound savagery issue in class today. I asked them to read Margaret Wente’s Globe and Mail column and Iain Hunter’s Victoria Times Colonist column. I then asked them to develop rebuttals to to Wente where warranted and to offer support for her point of view when [...]
And Even More News: Indigenous cultures rivalled those of civilizations around the globe (Globe and Mail) Call off the ignoble savaging of Margaret Wente and Dick Pound (National Post) (Includes links to a facebook group against Wente; makes the observation that savages might be noble while forgetting that the term savage does not always refer [...]
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