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 [...]
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group (southern Vancouver Island) is going to Washington DC to argue its rights have been violated before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. At heart: the slow place of land claims and outstanding grievances related to uncompensated land expropriations for a railroad in the 1880s. The HTG will be heard next [...]
Anthropology, the ‘Indian industry’, white man’s guilt and Jared Diamond have been implicated as justification for Vancouver Olympic Committee Dick Pound’s comment that 400 years ago Canada was full of savages. In a Globe and Mail column, Margaret Wente writes:
… North American native peoples had a neolithic culture based on subsistence living and [...]
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Terrace Standard reports that Nathan Cuthen’s (NDP) victory in the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding in the recent federal election was partly the result of his association with anti-coal bed methane drilling in the Klappan. Consensus among candidates against drilling appears to exist in the region. But, it seems that Cullen was better than [...]
The Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations claim Stanley Park as part of their traditional territories. Yet, for generations, the totem poles in the park have been from communities in other parts of British Columbia. Now, local First Nations have rectified that situation and erected their own gateways in Stanley Park.
The [...]
Mark Hume has a terrific article in the Globe and Mail (or here) about the politics surrounding aboriginal involvement in the environmental movement in BC. For example:
One of the ironies in Clayoquot Sound is that the native company now fighting environmentalists was saved from financial collapse two years ago by Ecotrust Canada – a [...]
Prime Minister Harper will read Canada’s apology for residential schooling in the House of Commons tomorrow. The CBC has a number of features associated with Harper’s speech. The National (CBC TV) is broadcasting special productions as part of its nightly newscasts this week. And, the CBC.ca has an extensive online historical package [...]
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Terry Glavin cautions that we must not forget the truth component of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He elaborates at theTyee.ca.
This story fascinates me — both for reasons of human interest and aboriginal rights. DNA testing has identified seventeen living relatives of an aboriginal hunter who died perhaps three hundred years ago. His remains were frozen in glacial ice in northern BC in the territory of the Champagne-Aishihik First Nations (Athapaskan). The [...]
The headwaters of the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine Rivers has made the annual list of endangered rivers. The Outdoor Recreation Council of BC does the ranking and lists the headwaters at #6 because of the possibility of coal-bed methane mining. (The Upper Pitt River in southwestern BC is #1; it is threatened by [...]
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