Society for Economic Anthropology, Atlanta, GA -- 2004 Annual Meeting, April 22-24, 2004. CALL FOR PAPERS: Fast Food -- Slow food: Social and Economic Contexts of Food and Food Systems. The Society for Economic Anthropology seeks proposals for papers and poster presentations for our 2004 annual meetings, which will be held in Atlanta. The topic of the meeting will be food and food systems, at scales ranging from the personal to the global, and over time from hominid origins to the future globalization of food systems. The SEA meetings provide a rare opportunity for a focused and coherent program of presentation, with time for critical discussion in a convivial intellectual setting. About 15 papers are selected from abstracts for a program that allows 20 minutes for presentation and 20 minutes for discussion in a single plenary session over two days. 20-30 additional abstracts will be selected for an afternoon poster session. The conference organizer then edits a conference volume which appears in the SEA book series, published by Altamira Press. We will have a food-oriented tour in Atlanta, an informal workshop on teaching and curriculum innovations, and of course, opportunities for fine dining. Fast food and slow food represent two visions of the future of food, two modes of analysis, two ways to connect food to other social and economic phenomena. Fast food is efficient, technological, homogenized; the product of an aggressively expanding global political economy. The slow food movement, on the contrary, is about aesthetics, conviviality, domesticity and local cultural knowledge. Both are equally modern. We seek papers that go beyond the traditional anthropologies of food that focus on the role of food in group identity and social integration, emphasizing the division between traditional and modern foodways. We encourage approaches that cross disciplinary boundaries, use innovative methods, and explore connections between food and the cultural economy. Possible topics for papers include (but are by no means limited to): " Food systems and the global division of labor " Food circulation and exchange as gifts and commodities " Food, domesticity, gender & household " The origins of complex food systems " Food market systems, localization & sustainability Send an abstract for paper or poster of 400-600 words to Richard Wilk, Anthropology Dept., Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405, or by e-mail. Deadline for Abstracts is October 1, 2003. via Anthro-L

... Link (1 comment) ... Comment

The complete edition from 1911 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is online -- because of copyright-law it isn't anymore mentioned on the site, that it actually is the Britannica. The site-maintainers are allowed to put the contents online, but not to use the label "Encyclopaedia Britannica"! I guess the freedom of science allows me to put this information here. (?) Anyway: "The best encyclopedia ever written was published over 90 years ago! And now you can find right here on the web! This 1911 encyclopedia is filled with historical information that is still relevant today. It fills 29 volumes and contains over 44 million words. The articles are written by more than 1500 authors within their various fields of expertise. As a research tool, this 1911 encyclopedia edition is unparalleled -- even today." Read more about this edition at Wikipedia.

... Link (6 comments) ... Comment

In Cultural Anthropology you sometimes have to look at the historic descriptions of a ethnic group. For this, searches for antiquarian books may be helpful (you can order the books still a your local library, if available). The german Zentrales Verzeichnis antiquarischer Bücher as well as the American Antiquarian Society have excellent online search forms. I just found a lot interesting book using "travel patagonia" as keyword.

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

"We at Rhizomes oppose the idea that knowledge must grow in a tree structure from previously accepted ideas. New thinking need not follow established patterns. Rhizomes promotes experimental work located outside current disciplines, work that has no proper location. As our name suggests, works written in the spirit of Deleuzian approaches are welcomed but not required. We are not interested in publishing texts that establish their authority merely by affirming what is already believed. Instead, we encourage migrations into new conceptual territories resulting from unpredictable juxtapositions."

A special-issue of Rhizomes, "Cultural Studies in emerging knowledge" is forthcoming, papers are still accepted: "RETRO-FUTURES" (Spring 2004) A special issue on historic utopias, nostalgic speculations, neo-traditions, modern primitives, archaic science fictions, being/becoming, new urbanism, invented traditions, primitivism, futurism, retro fashion, futurology, back to basics, neo-paganism, origin/destiny, simplicity, the classics, the space age, and any other combination of the old and the new is under construction at <a href="http://"www.rhizomes.net">Rhizomes. Testing the boundaries of cutting-edge and the timeless, the newfangled and the obsolete, “Retro-Futures” will peer into the culture and politics of temporality and everyday life." Abstracts by November 15th, 2003. Papers by January 15th, 2004. Send email attachment and/or html/web pages to davinheckman@hotmail.com or to dheckman@reconstruction.ws or see the contact page. via Anthro-L

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

"During the past 20 months, more than 10,000 Persian weblogs have been emerged. Their authors mostly live in Iran, where the number of Internet users hardly exceeds a half million. This means that blogging is extremely popular ... (read more".

It's a paper from Hossein Derakhshan, who will be talking at the weblog conference BlogTalk in Vienna, Austria. Via Mediatic

... Link (1 comment) ... Comment

... Link (2 comments) ... Comment

In August-September 2003 the Malakoffturm Migration (in Bottrop) is organizing in cooperation with the Network Migration in Europa e.V. (www.network-migration.org), Humboldt University Berlin and the Center for International Relations, Warsaw (www.csm.org.pl) a German-Polish summer school on the issue of “Migration and Integration in Modern Societies.“ Among others the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart and the Historical Society Bottrop will financially support the summer school.

The event is targeted at students in the humanities and social sciences (sociology, political sciences, geography, history, law, languages, cultural and social anthropol-ogy etc.), who have already successfully completed at least three semesters at a German or a Polish university, and who have a specific interest in the topic of the summer school.

Apart from engaging with the academic knowledge about migration and integration, students will be exposed to readings, lectures of experts and site visits of relevant institutions. At the end of the summer school session they will be expected to carry out independent field research in bi-national teams.

Further information in english and german, and polish

... Link (1 comment) ... Comment

"From the Lacandon rainforest of Mexico and Guatemala to the Amazon and La Plata rivers in Brazil and Argentina, governments and multinational companies plan to exploit the hydroelectric potential of the region?s rivers and carve water "highways" through their basins. There are plans for hundreds of dams in the region, including more than 400 in Brazil, 70 in Mexico?s Chiapas state, 100 in Costa Rica, 13 in Nicaragua and 10 in Chile. Virtually all of the proposed projects threaten indigenous communities "... read more at Latin American Press.

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

Pelau Java, a far northern island in Polynesia (Solomon Islands) went online some days ago, reports the People First Network. The interesting thing is that this is done by a special short wave radio technology, which is use also to connect other islands. It's seems to be part of a UN-funded project to develop distance learning in rural regions and to higher information flow between the islands people. And don't forget: "When sending messages, please write the name of the person in the subject line, as this is a community facility." :-) Via ITW

... Link (1 comment) ... Comment

"TechnoSphere is a 3D model world inhabited by artificial lifeforms created by WWW users. There are thousands of creatures in the world all competing to survive. They eat, fight, mate and create offspring which evolve and adapt to their environment. When you make a creature it will email you to let you know what it has been getting up to in its world. Using the creature tools you can find out how your creature is surviving, what it is doing at any time, and where it is in the terrain" As an anthropologist you might ask: " Do those little lifeforms show any kind of rituals or culture ?" Link: www.technosphere.org.uk

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

"Today in Japan there are over 40,000 sites that can be viewed on Internet-capable mobile phones. A recent addition has been an Internet service via cell phone that calls on smokers to "enjoy the challenge of quitting smoking." When a smoker who has been hit by the desire to smoke presses a few buttons on his or her phone, words of encouragement and advice show up on the screen, complete with illustrations." :-)) The japanese seem to love it because : "Sotsuen Netto was launched on February 1, 2001, and in just a month close to 2,000 people applied for membership" You can find it at: jin.jcic.or.jp

... Link (1 comment) ... Comment

The University of Hamburg has a exemplary online database of meanwhile 800 dissertations online (most of them in german). You can browse them by department or search for keywords. And yes, you can read them completely online. I just stumbled over a thesis about the universality of the human rights, but there are also works about for example african families in exile or tourism and socio-cultural change in Madagaskar. Sadly, there are not many doctoral theses from anthropology.

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment