Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 11, 2002 at 10:15:30 AM CET

The Renaissance of the American Indian

Interior View of the Medicine Lodge, Mandan O-kee-pa Ceremony, 1832 Mandan/Numakiki oil
On the occasion of an exhibition in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington about George Catlin, a painter of indians, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung thinks about an renaissance of the indian. The collection, worth visiting at least online, features 32 pictures the painter produced in the 19th century. They are a little bit peculiar melancolic and with simple romance. The feuilletonist of the NZZ thinks about this exhibition as remarkable and sees a renaissance of indians, beeing influenced by 9/11. The indian as noble savage build some counterpart to the evil terrorist, he writes.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 11, 2002 at 12:07:08 AM CET

At a Market in Mexiko

Our mexican reader artec writes: "I took [this photo] in San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), I hope you'll like it. By the way it was taken in a marketplace." Thanks for that!

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 10, 2002 at 10:08:04 PM CET

Tell me the Future

At dusk, an astrologer sits outside his shop talking with a customer. (Photographed by Steve McCurry while on assignment for, but not published in, “India: Fifty Years of Independence,” May 1997, National Geographic magazine)

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 7, 2002 at 4:55:35 PM CET

New Museum in Peru Devoted to Moche-King

In Peru a new museum opened, dedicated only to Lord of Sipan, a former King of the Moche Population, Yahoo reports. The Moche lived approximately between 200 B.C. and 1000 A.D. in the dry northwest of Peru. Today they are also famous for their impressive portrait art. And yes, we have books about them in the library! Via Anthropology in the News

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 6, 2002 at 1:25:42 PM CET

The Importance of Grandma

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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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 5, 2002 at 11:07:52 PM CET

Swaziland: The King, the Daughter and the Mother

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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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 5, 2002 at 10:07:25 PM CET

Indigenous People in Southamerican Politics

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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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 3, 2002 at 9:53:24 PM CET

Columbus came to an ill continent

"The health of indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere was on a downward trajectory long before Columbus set foot in the Americas, researchers say." There's also a more clearly written article in the New York Times. (If you don't have an account there, you may use this: User: "ethno", Password: "log123" :o) Via Anthropology News

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, November 1, 2002 at 4:41:12 PM CET

Piercing, Tattooing and Painting

Examples of Body Modification can be found in the galleries of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, some of it dating as far back as the 9th century B.C. Not really much to see, but nice pictures with some information anyway. Via ethno.info/

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, October 31, 2002 at 2:58:21 PM CET

Current Situation of Indigenous People in America

In commemoration of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the American continent 510 years ago Amnesty International reports, that indigenous people at this continent are still "second-class citizens in the lands of their ancestors". They have some examples of violations of indigenous people's rights for most of the countries.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, October 31, 2002 at 10:59:47 AM CET

The Cultural Diffusion of Halloween

In this german article the german newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung thinks about how the traditional american festival halloween made its way into the german culture within only five years. A nice example, that the inculturation of foreign traditions is not only a thing of vanishing cultures (or are we a vanishing culture?). And as always in such cases, the guardians of the traditional religion are not very happy with this trend. A theologian is cited, that the christian church is already fearing the loss of holidays like Sankt Martin and Sankt Nikolaus. Another article about this "new german holiday" can be found in Die Zeit. Via Netbib

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerlone, October 30, 2002 at 3:37:06 PM CET

Witchcraft Research

The site hexenforschung.de, maintained by Klaus Graf of the University of Koblenz Freiburg (Thanks, Klaus), is a really serious source for all who are interested in witchcraft, especially its history. There is a mailinglist where you can join, or its archive to browse.

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