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In his article in last week's New Yorker, Seymour Hersh made headlines with pointing out that the background for torture in Abu Ghraib didn't lie in inclinations of a few soldiers, but in decisions taken in the highest echelons of the US military. He also depicts the concepts about how to treat Arab people, how to dominate and humilate, which are en vogue among the neo-cons. A book valued for its insights is said to be "The Arab Mind," a study of Arab culture and psychology, first published in 1973, by the late cultural anthropologist Raphael Patai. "The bible of the neocons on Arab behavior", it helped them to understand that "Arabs only understand force and that the biggest weakness of Arabs is shame and humiliation". Jonathan Raban wrote an essay in last weeks Guardian, trying to explain why Abu Ghraib sparked less outrage in the Arab world than one might think: because "it is precisely what they expected from America". And last: read a shorter article in today's Independent about the latest pictures and - how orientalist mind frames continue to inform Western politics.

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Alessandro Monsutti vient de publier aux Editions de l'Institut d'ethnologie de Neuchâtel "Guerres et migrations: réseaux sociaux et stratégies économiques des Hazaras d'Afghanistan". Version remaniée de la thèse qu'il obtint (summa cum laude) à l'Université de Neuchâtel en 2002, le livre est préfacé par Dale Eickelman (on peut lire la préface en format pdf). L'Afghanistan de tous les jours, les Afghans qui vivent ensemble, qui se font confiance, qui commercent, qui partent et reviennent, après quelques mois ou quelques années. Les spécialistes trouveront leur compte dans les chapitres techniques, et les personnes moins initiées liront des pages très vivantes, nourries par les notes prises à chaud dans des auberges pour voyageurs ou sur le pont d'un camion bourré de marchandises. Formé à l'Institut d'ethnologie de Neuchâtel, enseignant à l'Institut universitaire d'études du développement de Genève, Alessandro Monsutti a fait de sa thèse de doctorat un pétillant récit de voyage. Derrière le rôle économique que les migrations jouent pour les habitants du Hazarajat, région ingrate au coeur de l'Afghanistan, on goûte aux impressions et aux émotions ressenties par l'auteur pendant les nombreux mois passés sur le terrain, en Afghanistan, au Pakistan et en Iran. Dans Guerres et migrations, les Afghans et les Afghanes nous ressemblent, travaillent pour leurs familles, avec les préoccupations communes à toute l'humanité. Est-ce que l'aide humanitaire extérieure a permis au pays de survivre pendant ces deux dernières décennies? Non, répond ce livre, ou alors seulement de façon minoritaire. Ce sont les Afghans eux-mêmes qui s'adaptent en permanence

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Thomas Hauschild, cultural anthropologists, wrote an article in the FRR (german) about such notions as "honour" and "disgrace" and what they might have to do with torture and terror in Iraq.

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The "Students for Development" in Oxford organise annually a student conference on development issues. They call for postgraduate and PhD students to present their papers:: "Following the success of the first two SfD Conferences, organised by postgraduate students at QEH in 2002 and 2003, this year?s conference seeks to tackle the broad theme of North-South power relations within development. The aim of this broad approach is to maximise active participation from as diverse an array of presenters as possible. As in revious years we hope to combine postgraduate students presenting their own work in a relaxed environment of research-exchange with a number of speakers from both academic and practitioner backgrounds. further information.

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The 'Work Group Anthropology & Tourism' at Munich University is organizing a visit to the tour operator Hauser exkursionen in Munich. We will be introduced to the tour operator’s codes of conduct, its agendas on ethics and sustainability, etc., and we can discuss anthropological questions with a few staff members (including an anthropologist). The event will take place on Thursday, May 27ths, 2004. Everybody interested is welcome to join!! For more information see this Aushang (application/msword, 38 KB) ...

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Today the organisation of the students of our institute handed over a revised version of the position paper II (application/pdf, 106 KB) (german). The institute is still in danger of loosing the main professorship due to radical cuts by the government of bavaria. The paper is a description of the aims and goals of anthropology at our institute, from the viewpoint of the students.

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"In 1978 Edward Said's landmark "Orientalism" did something that the vast majority of books, even great ones, fail to do: It literally changed the way we understand the world. By developing a system for conceiving and deconstructing the long and tangled relationship between East and West -- a relationship that Said argued was marked, throughout the colonial era, by the West's systematic portrayal of the East as culturally and racially primitive, exotic, backward and inferior -- Said virtually created an entirely new field, post-colonialism, which continues to have profound effects on academia and international politics to this day.

The new book "Occidentalism" expressly positions itself as the Western-looking counterpart to the Said classic. Its authors want us to believe that it, too, will shatter myths, define a new genre of thought and study, and change the way we understand the world." Read more at Salon.com (Requires watching a commercial for free day pass).

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The term 'culture' is definitly the most discussed term in anthropology. But the debate is always about the scientific meaning. In german (in english also?) there are also other meanings, which are not part of this debate, except to express, that we don't mean this meaning. The problem is, that if we have to talk about this 'external' meaning, we don't have a term for it. My question: Is there any term for culture as it's meant in daily life, expressing institutionalised culture like classical music, theater etc.? Bettina Beer describes it in the article "Ethnos, Ethnie, Kultur" (1)Beer, Bettina: Ethnos, Ethnie, Kultur. In: Fischer, Hans: Ethnologie. Berlin : Reimer, 2003, S. 60. "Kultur im Sinne von Kultur-behörde und Kultus-ministerium oder im Sinne des Feuilletons als Musik, Theater, Literatur, Architektur und bildende Kunst." A shorter term? My ideas:

• bürgerliche Kulturverständnis
• institutionalisierte Kultur Any other suggestions?

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The title of the weblog "Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends: How new technologies are modifying our way of life" is self-explaining, I guess. via mosaikum

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The International Crisis Group (ICG) reports that the crisis in Darfur, Sudan has become so terrible that it looks now as if "only" 100,000 people are expected to die from disease and malnutrition in the next few months; tens of thousands of people are already dead and over a million have been displaced. Some groups are beginning to label this conflict a genocide. Take a moment to read the ICG webpage about "what you can do" that also includes a background on the conflict.

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The global icon of US American consumer culture is the topic of an independent movie called Super size me. Director Morgan Spurlock has done an experiment with himself and has eaten only McDonalds products for one month. Find out about the consequences and have a look at the official webpage or at this article in the spiegel

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