Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, April 9, 2003 at 12:21:21 PM CEST

Rights Groups Urge Peru to Protect Isolated Peoples

Now the presence of the loggers may force them into unwanted contact and potentially lead to their demise. The only reason the isolated peoples have so far avoided contact is that they are living in the most remote areas of the Amazon. Large industrial operations and farmers have not been able to reach those areas, report National Geographic. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has additional information on that case, and also some video and audio files for download.

This article from National Geographic also reports from that case.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, April 8, 2003 at 3:39:16 PM CEST

Scientific Information, Maps and Publications to South Pacific

Take a look at the Österreichisch-Südpazifische Gesellschaft, located in Vienna, they have a nice website with lots of information, history, maps, events publications and some photographs for that region.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, April 7, 2003 at 12:35:45 PM CEST

Anti-War Professor in USA Caused an Uproar

Nicholas De Genova, Assistant Professor at anthropology at the university of Columbia, made some critical remarks about the war in Iraq. He called for the defeat of U.S. forces in Iraq and told an anti-war gathering that he wanted to see "a million Mogadishus" -- a reference to an operation in Somalia in 1993 in which elite U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force units were pinned down in a fierce firefight. Now 104 Republican House members are urging the firing of the professor, reports Newsday. But meanwhile Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia, repeated on Wednesday an earlier statement that while he was horrfied by Mr. De Genova's remarks, they were protected by academic freedom, reports the New York Times. The case is discussed with great agitation in the american press.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, April 6, 2003 at 7:07:08 PM CEST

Huge Database: "Growing Up Sexually"

Diederik F. Janssen from the University of Nijmegen kindfully provided me with a link to his recently online published database Growing Up Sexually (World Reference Atlas & The Scripting of Sexual Development). He writes: "It comprises of a two-volume, bimodal overview of cross-cultural material relevant for the study of preadult sexual behaviour curricula and trajectories. The first volume (Atlas) consists of an annotated bibliography using a rough geo-/ ethnographical organisation. The outcome is a heterogeneous collection of accounts of sexual behaviour trajectories that may be or have been typical for given communities within a given ethnohistorical space or time span. The second thematic volume tentatively elaborates on this collection, by (1) organising and challenging traditions, theoretical paradigms, and meta-scientific positionings pertaining to sexual development issues provided by anthropologists; which, together with (2) the influx of (non-) cross-culturalist sociological data and perspectives, is to accommodate (3) a cross-cultural presentation of Atlas data within a polythematic format."

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, April 4, 2003 at 12:19:47 PM CEST

Battle Over Fate of Iraqi Antiquities Begins

Scientists are fearing that in a post war iraq the cultural heritage may be posed to danger. A week ago more than 100 Scientistists published a declaration in the Science Magazine. The scholars from US and UK are not just worried about the impact of bombs and tanks, but the looting that could accompany any breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of the war, reports The Guardian.

Meanwhile, a pressure group from the United States (lawyers, antique and art dealers, scientists and curators) are already trying to open the trade with Iraqui Antiquities after the war, reports the german Süddeutsche Zeitung. You may also read about this in the Science Magazine, if you have a subscription.

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Dept. of ethnologica, fabulous, April 2, 2003 at 3:36:34 PM CEST

American Indians on the Web

not only links to American Indians can be found on the page of the University of Arizona Library, but a lot of links to native groups. I found this link on the main page of Anthropology there.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, March 27, 2003 at 5:46:41 PM CET

Land Conflicts in Amazonia / Isolated Tribes

Here are a bunch of recent articles about amazonas tribes, amonge them the Awa, Yora, Yine, and Amahuaca, and their land conflicts with companies. The first one is especially dealing with so called "uncontacted tribes".

Amazon Tribes Isolated by Choice? National Geographic News (3/10/03) Outside Pressures Threaten Isolated Amazon Cultures National Geographic News (3/12/03) Loggers vs. Invisible Tribes Secret War in Amazon National Geographic News (3/12/03) Land Victory for Amazon Indians BBC (3/11/03)

Via Anthropology in the News

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, March 20, 2003 at 4:05:46 PM CET

Bio-Piracy: Stealing Indigenous Knowledge

Multinational pharma companies are patenting the traditional medecine of indigineous people. Now activists have created a prior-art website to foil these acts of "bio-piracy." Read more at BBC.co.uk. Via BoingBoing

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Dept. of ethnologica, fazia, March 19, 2003 at 6:51:09 PM CET

Finnish Naming Traditions in Namibia

Helsingin Sanomat has an article about a doctoral thesis by Minna Saarelma-Maunumaa. Many Namibians of the Ovambo tribe have Finnish names. That can be traced to missionaries who first arrived arrived in the region in 1870. "I wanted to study what happens when a traditional African name system and the European, Christian name culture are combined. The first thought was that the name practices will become more European, but it turned out that it was not so simple", Saarelma-Maunumaa explains.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, March 17, 2003 at 12:09:03 PM CET

Africa and the Oil

Die Zeit reports about the little state island of São Tomé. The ocean around is rich of recently discovered mineral oil, and international companies are now very interested in the up to date poor country. Can the country handle the new richness better than Nigeria or Angola?

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, March 14, 2003 at 6:53:21 PM CET

Study: Maya Decline Forced by Drought

A new study from swiss and us-american scientist shows, that the end of the middle american maya population probably was at a high rate caused by three draughts in the years 810, 860 and 910 a.D. The Spiegel reports in german, and Science for subscribers.

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Dept. of ethnologica, kerleone, March 10, 2003 at 12:48:16 PM CET

A "educational" Website about Ancient Southamerica

AncientMexico is a nice website informing in a multimedia style about ancient cultures of mexico, peru and chile. Not quite a scientific ressource, but you could give the adress to your children for educational purpose, in case you're having children - which is in fact a serious trend among anthropologists ;-) Via Presurfer

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