Dept. of Publications, zephyrin, July 2, 2003 at 11:37:04 AM CEST

Visual Culture and a glance into the shadow

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

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

Dept. of Publications, warauduati, June 26, 2003 at 1:07:11 PM CEST

75th Birthday of Che Guevara

The Che & Chandler Versandbuchhandlung made a little tribute page to Che Guevara. Sure, it's commercial but someone may find a book on Che or on Cuba which he/she hasn't seen! Additionally there are several other links to Guevara Pages, Cuba, Magazines, etc.

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

Dept. of Publications, zephyrin, June 4, 2003 at 11:08:42 AM CEST

OUP's developing countries offer

Oxford University Press has set up a program wherein scholars from developing nations are eligible for free or greatly discounted electronic access to a large number of professional journals. Have a look at the complete information.

SMITH, R. 2003. "Closing the digital divide," in: British Medical Journal 326(7383): 238.

delivers an introduction to the rationale behind programs such as OUP's. via Anthro-L

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

Dept. of Publications, nick name, June 2, 2003 at 3:00:58 PM CEST

Debt cancellation in Iraq?

In German magazine "Spiegel" there is an article about debt cancelation in Iraq. It's not an anthropological article, but it's interesting for political background information.

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

Dept. of Publications, age-man-eight, May 27, 2003 at 10:18:18 PM CEST

Ethnomathematics

At this personal page from a US scholar you can find short reviews of ethnomathematical books like Marcia Ascher's book Ethnomathematics: A Multicultural View of Mathematical Ideas. Quote from the review: "She has no intention of claiming that the mathematics developed in the cultures she discusses had any influence on developments elsewhere. Her main goal is simply to show that mathematical ideas, even if not developed by those called mathematicians, can be found in many societies if one only knows where to look."

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

Dept. of Publications, Dijon, May 27, 2003 at 10:20:19 AM CEST

University Library Munich - online-library

The University Library of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich offers as a special service an online-library of dissertations. The University Library offes a tool for publishing dissertations online. Technical questions are to be addressed to Mr. Volker Schallehn, Tel 089 2180-2144 / e-mail: volker.schallehn@ub.uni-muenchen.de. Access through as Munich University Library dissertations online.

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

Dept. of Publications, zephyrin, May 20, 2003 at 11:16:18 AM CEST

Evolutionary Psychology -- Biology Impoverished

The following review is worthwhile to read, as it sums up a lot which time and again resurfaces in discussions:

ROSE, STEVEN. 1999. "Evolutionary Psychology -- Biology Impoverished", in: Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (London) 24 (3).

This essay reviews 'Divided labours: an evolutionary view of women at work' by Kingsley Browne (70 pp., ISBN 0 297 841408), 'The truth about Cinderella: a Darwinian view of parental love' by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson (68 pp., ISBN 0 297 841610), 'Shaping life: genes, embryos and evolution' by John Maynard Smith (50 pp., ISBN 0 297 841386), and 'Neanderthals, bandits and farmers: how agriculture really began' by Colin Tudge (53 pp., ISBN 0 297 842587), published in 1998 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson at E4-99 each.

"These four little books, in a series called Darwinism Today, may represent the only tangible memorial to the Darwin Centre at the London School of Economics, which flourished for a few years in the mid 1990s, and was committed to publicising the fashionable theses of what was once called sociobiology but is now named evolutionary psychology (EP). The declared aim of EP is to provide explanations for the patterns of human activity and the forms of organisation of human society which take into account the fact that humans are animals and, like all other currently living organisms, are the present day products of some 4 billion years of evolution. Whilst there is nothing in principle wrong with such an agenda, EP bases its worldview on a peculiarly narrow version of ultra-Darwinism pursued with singleminded and almost religious fervour. It does seem to be the fate of all great and innovative thinkers, religious, political, or scientific, to have their ideas adopted and oversimplified to the point of being traduced by later followers. This is certainly the case with the current coterie of so called Darwinists.

Apart from Darwin himself, EP's modern hero figures are, from the classical sociobiological period of the 1970s, Richard Dawkins, Robert Trivers, and E. 0. Wilson, and, more recently, the social psychologists Leda Cosmides and John Tooby and the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, around whom have been grouped a heterogeneous collection of camp followers, including real philosophers such as Daniel Dennett, manque philosophers such as Helena Cronin (organiser of the Darwin Centre and coeditor of this series), and journalists such as Matt Ridley. All are prolific writers and their popular books will be familiar to many. [...]".

The complete review can be read here, and the discussion thread which developed from it here. via Anthro-L

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

Dept. of Publications, kerleone, May 14, 2003 at 1:54:32 PM CEST

Small Collection of Chilean and Argentinean Colonial Maps

Cartografía Colonial de Chile y Argentina, Siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII.

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

Dept. of Publications, Dijon, May 12, 2003 at 4:03:27 PM CEST

Science Consult Sabine Vetter, Weilheim

A former student of our institute, Dr. Sabine Vetter, after publishing her thesis, Wissenschaftlicher Reduktionismus und die Rassentheorie von Christoph Meiners : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der verlorenen Metaphysik in der Anthropologie. Diss. Univ. München, Philos. Fak. für Kulturwissenschaften, Achen und Mainz 1997, 259 S. ISBN-ISSN-ISMN : 3-89653-230-8, actually is presiding the following Science Consult, founded by herself: link zu Sabine Vetter - Science Consult

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

Dept. of Publications, zephyrin, May 8, 2003 at 1:03:32 PM CEST

How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices

LAWRENCE, PAUL R. AND NITIN NOHRIA. 2002. Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [ISBN 0-7879-6385-2.]

Keith S. Harris, Ph.D., Research Director, Department of Behavioral Health, San Bernardino County, CA, USA, wrote a review: "It is not the laboratory but the workplace that is the ideal setting to study human nature, according to Lawrence and Nohria. This book seeks to examine the common drives that shape human behavior, and to show how they evolved, what they evolved to accomplish, and how they still operate in both small and large-group settings. Although this book has much to say about human psychology, authors Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria are not psychologists. Both are professors of organizational behavior at Harvard, and they well know that the individual human cannot be understood distinct from his or her reciprocity groups, of which the epitome is the modern tribe known as an organization." The full text of the review, which was published in Human Nature Review 2003 Volume 3: 263-265 (8 May) is available online. via Anthro-L

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

Dept. of Publications, zephyrin, May 7, 2003 at 1:20:53 PM CEST

Visual Art as Adaptation

COE, KATHRYN. 2003. The Ancestress Hypothesis: Visual Art as Adaptation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Craig T. Palmer from the Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado has written a review of Coe's book: "This book is one of a growing number of attempts to provide Darwinian explanations for such aspects of human culture as religion, literature, and in this case, visual art. However, it is much more than simply an evolutionary explanation of visual art because the "ancestress hypothesis" is a much broader concept. It has far reaching implications for not only many aspects of human physiology and culture, but also evolutionary theory itself. Many readers will probably find the book less than convincing in some of its arguments about these more general issues. However, its main thesis about visual art is so cogently argued and thoroughly supported with evidence, that the possible implications for the more general issues will be hard to ignore. [...]" The review has been published in Human Nature Review 2003 Volume 3: 254-256 (7 May) and can be read in full here. via Anthro-L

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

Dept. of Publications, zephyrin, May 7, 2003 at 10:22:14 AM CEST

Archaeology of Eastern India

SENGUPTA, GAUTAM AND SHEENA PANJA (Eds.). 2003. Archaeology of Eastern India: New Perspectives. Kolkata: Centre for Archaeological Studies & Training, Eastern India. [viii, 623 p. ills. (partly col.). maps. 23 cm. List Price: $ 40.00, ISBN: 8190149903]

For more books on India see K. K. Agencies, the "online store for Indian publications". via Anthro-L

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