In the June edition of Current Anthropology, Adam Kuper discusses the essentialisms that are present in the current struggles of "indigenous" people for their rights and the contradictions that arise from the assistance of international organizations, development agenices and NGOs. quotation: "As always, our conceptions of the primitive are best understood as counters in our own current ideological debates. The image of the primitive is often constructed today to suit the Greens and the anti-globalization movement. Authentic natives represent a world ... in which culture does not challenge nature. at the same time, the movement exploits the very general European belief that true citizenship is a matter of ties of blood and soil." Kuper's paper is followed by comments in the "CA Forum on Anthropology in Public" the contents of the whole issue you can view online. The printed version is accesible in Oettingenstr. 67, Munich.

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New examinations have disproved present theories of the death of Iceman Ötzi in Südtirol/Italy, who died about 5300 years ago.

Die Wahrheit liegt manchmal im Darm: in Form von Pollen der Hopfenbuche zum Beispiel. (...) Eine menschliche Leiche, die unversehrte Pollen der Hopfenbuche im Bauch hat, kann daher unmöglich im Herbst gestorben sein. An sich wäre das eine Randbemerkung der Forensik, ginge es nicht um einen besonders merkwürdigen und seit Jahren intensiv erforschten Todesfall.

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Something different, but interesting and up-to-date as I think! The Süddeutsche Zeitung published a short article today on the "dispute about special needs" in Greece.
Athens wants to loosen the restrictions on the oldest business of the world just because of the Olympics 2004. But the Orthodox church is "excited" !!! ...

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It looks like the University of Washington is some steps before other universities regarding research about and with the internet (see also prev. post). They also have an Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies: "The Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies is an online, not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to research, teach, support, and create diverse and dynamic elements of cyberculture." In short you can find book reviews, courses, events and links on their page.

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The University of Washington has/had a course on Ethnography of On-Line Role-Playing Games. On their site I found a lot interesting 2000+ literature. Read this weblog post from a student of this university to get an overview. BTW, interesting to see, that this university is using weblog technology for their students.

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Our institute's Frank Heidemann and Ulrich Demmer have published their article "Visual Culture of the Jenu Kurumba" (in german) in the scientific Electronic Magazine "Schattenblick". It's in the pool 'Sozialwissenschaften\Fakten' as 'Forschung/035: Die Visuelle Kultur der Jenu Kurumba (Demmer/Heidemann)'. Now how to access it? You have to write an e-mail to Schattenblick and purchase their access software which comes with a handbook. After that you never have to pay anything again. The idea behind this is to reduce online-fees, as you can download everything and read offline. Since seven years Schattenblick offers an overview of current developments in a vast array of scientific disciplines.

[My two cents: "Schattenblick" means "look into the shadow" -- and IMHO this magazine really dwells in the shadow, as it isn't readily accessible online, their server says 'access forbidden', my search on the net and the e-mail they sent us (concerning the publication of Heidemann's and Demmer's article) didn't give more information than what I've written above. I'll write the guys an e-mail and try to get more info on access, costs and so on. To be continued ...] --zeph

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