From 12. to 15. December 2002 there will be a workshop called "Negotiating Power, Contesting Violence, and Assessing Perspectives for Transcultural Approaches: Gender and Nation State in Muslim Societies" at the Carl-von-Ossietzky-University in Oldenburg, Germany. "This workshop aims to examine gendered power relations in contemporary postcolonial nation states and national movements within Muslim societies. Fused with power, force, and violence on theoretical, structural, and institutional levels, the nation state also constitutes notions of masculinity and femininity. Thus, analyses of gender and the nation state must encompass processes of construction and maintenance as well as strategies of subversion, violation, and mediation. [...] This workshop will bring together researchers from the Mashreq, the Maghreb, South Asia, Europe, and North America with the overall aim to assess perspectives for transcultural approaches, discourses, and networks." The following panels will take place: "Frameworks: Gender (In-)Equality and Trajectories of Nation States", "Strategies against Violence: Acting within National Legal Systems", "Masculinity and the Nation State in the Middle East", and "In the Name of the Nation: Between Sacrifice and Agency". Registrations should be in by November the 15. 2002.

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For anthropologists and ethnographers of yore, grandmothers were crones, an impediment to "real" research.(...) But [now] for a growing number of evolutionary biologists and cultural anthropologists, grandmothers represent a key to understanding human prehistory, and the particulars of why we are as we are. This article in the New York Times also reports about some anthropological research about grandmothers in rural Gambia. If you don't have a free login for the NYT, use this one: User:"ethno" Password:"log123")

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Wired did another interview with the cyberspace-thinker Howard Rheingold about his new book "smart mobs". In eight chapters, Rheingold chronicles how "smart mobs," defined as "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other," are reshaping the way societies organize and interact. My comment: He always cooks the things too hot. And the praise of the mobile internet he does: I don't believe this hype. Nobody is watching TV although we have mobile TV-devices. We're just not a mobile society - so why should the internet get us to be more mobile? Would be something different, if you give mobile internet devices to nomads.

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A half century of artificial-sight research has succeeded. And now this blind man can see. Wired with an impressive, well written (but long!) story about an american lab, that is working with cameras that bring vision directly by cables into the brain of a blind.

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Wanna let your daughter go with this one? It's King Mswati III, already having three wives, and if you are from Swaziland, you probably have to give him another one from your children, if he wants: A woman who sued Swaziland's monarchy to prevent the king from marrying her daughter postponed her lawsuit indefinitely Tuesday, saying she doubted she had any chance of winning, writes Wired.

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There's a very ambitious project trying to archive all languages of the world, called the Rosetta Project. I was very surprised to find also information on seldom languages like shipibo, although it's not much. But for a lot of indigenous languages like Sirion, Pampanagan or Tadaksahak (no, I don't know them either ;-) they even have short word lists. And it's an open source project, so they need assistance. More information about the project in an recent article at Wired.

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There are two articles at latinamericapress [.org] about indigenous peoples and current elections in Peru and Ecuador. Ecuador: "Indigenous candidates aim for Congress " - While most Ecuadorans were apathetic about the elections, the indigenous movement saw it as an effort to further establish its political legitimacy, despite internal rifts that resulted in two indigenous candidates running for president on different tickets. Peru: "Indigenous candidates" - For Peru’s indigenous people, participating in politics is both an individual and a collective right. It's also about the electoral quota for native communities.

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Munich: Tonight the "Workgroup ethnological film" -- a workgroup powered by students of our institute -- shows two movies on the topic "Aids". Both films were made on location in Mauretania by Stephanie Benyr, who collaborated with mauretanian youths to get the movies done. Miss Benyr will be present tonight, give an intro speech on her films and translate, as the films are in the languages Pular and Hassanyia. The films are shown at our institute in room Nr. 1.05 and start at 19.45h.

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Forarea, a bavaria-based, interdisciplinary community of about 200 scientists, concerned with the understanding of 'other cultures', has launched a computer game called Xenophilia [= "the liking of the other"]. The game's aim is to mediate an understanding of people who were socialized in cultures different from the 'western' one. Children and teenagers are to be reached by the game's message. Xenophilia was presented at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair and instantaneously was awarded the Giga-Maus, a german software award. Two versions of Xenophilia are available: One for everyone and one specially designed for the use in schools.

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There's a new (german) book from the publisher "Heise" (which is also well known for the most important IT-News-Service of Germany, Heise.de): "Virtuelle Welten -- reale Gewalt". Different authors are reflecting about the connection between violent computer games and real violence. The books stated goal is to show, that the effects of violent games are far more complex than the sketchy assumptions the mass media has done after amok runs like in Erfurt.

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Arabic Groove, a Munich-based group, offers a monthly e-mail newsletter on events, speeches, TV-programs and other arabic-related stuff. You can order the newsletter here. Arabic Groove's website itself is available in german, english and french -- not yet in arabic :o)

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On Friday the 29. November 2002 Dr. Jürgen W. Frembgen (the "islam-specialist" at Munich's museum for ethnography) will give a speech on "Islamic cosmologies" at the "Kulturzentrum im Gasteig" (Raum 0115) in Munich, Germany. Dr Frembgen's speech will start at 18.00h. Admission: 5 Euros. Via Arabic Groove

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