Anthropology

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Earlier, Suite 101's Anthropology site featured a few articles on Hindu caste system, it's victims and our universal need to belong.

This week's article revisits that discussion, at least in part. Since those previous articles were published here, I have receive numerous emails in response. Since it appears that this is a popular topic, and I revisiting it seems worthwhile.

In revisiting then, I first focused on the question asked by Emile Durkheim toward the end of the nineteenth century: What hold societies together, or what is the nature of solidarity? In many cases, the social glue that keeps societies together is kinship. Many small and simple societies rely on kinship as the basis for the way they function. Shared blood is the glue that keeps these societies together. A good example of this ideology of kinship is the Hindu caste system. This system presents a fixed social order, in which kinship is determined by the link between marriage and social group. This is further linked with livelihood and the division of labour in the community and society at large, as well as with spiritual purity, which determines ones place in the social pecking order. Each person is born into a certain group and he or she marries within this group- not outside of it. He or she has a set way of making a living, also determined by the social group in which he or she is born. Ones place in the group is reinforced on a daily basis by all sorts of behaviors and restrictions thereof and further supported through an elaborate system of belief and ritual.

But what about our contemporary and complex modern societies- what is the social glue that keeps us together? Read this week's article to find out.

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Given that it's Halloween soon, I got to thinking about witches. That whole witch-hunt, what was that really about? Somehow, I've got a hunch that it had a lot to do with sex.

Just think about those poor Church fathers. Frisky as hell, but no way to do anything about it. Some of 'm got so frisky that they were just about obsessed with women. They started to think up all these stories about witches having sex with Satan. The strangest stories started popping up, about witches having sex with satanic creatures with horns, big red tails and insatiable sexual appetites. Or stories of women who put long sticks between their legs, rub on a magic unguent and fly off to have sex with some evil spirited male goat.

Nobody at the time thought of these stories as evidencing a serious mental illness. Instead, millions of pious Christians bought it.

But you see what I think is that those frisky Chucrh fathers needed an outlet. These erotic stories about witches, Satan and sex did the job. The stories they came up with made erotic art and literature an OK thing in the eyes of the Church. It was, you could say, pornography produced, sanctified and glorified by the good old Church fathers themselves. But I don't think that's the whole story.

Fascinating? Click here to read more!

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Contemporary witch hunts are, as I've argued in the articles on witches I've done so far, closely related to superstitions, poverty and natural disasters. Once you combine a steady faith in the supernatural with hunger, poverty, and unemployment, you'll undoubtedly get people to blame their unfavorable event on black magic. We just are fond of believing in the invisible, or, some might say, the irrational and in this week's article , I argue that we've believed in witches, ghosts, the devil, angels, and other invisible entities for so long and in so many different places that it has become part and parcel of the human psyche.

Sometimes this predisposition to believe in a mysterious and invisible reality has disturbingly consequences. Besides the fact that thousands of people continue to be killed because they are believed to have evil powers, in some regions, people associate AIDS and HIV with evil spirits. Rune Blix Hagen (2004) suggests for example, that at times, women are accused of being behind the AIDS epidemic. They are seen as dangerous witches who must be rendered harmless. Certain AIDS-infected men believe that evil spirits can be forced out by dipping their penises in the vaginal fluids of virgins. These ideas about witchcraft can result, says Rune Blix Hagen (2004), in the raping of young girls and the killing of older women. This phenomenon, part of larger incidents of witch-related violence, is a growing problem in some countries .

Rune Blix Hagen (2004) points out that the authorities of various African countries are trying to focus attention on peoples' tendency to relate AIDS with witchcraft. In a Malawi information campaign, for example, large road signs and posters have been erected with the message "AIDS is real... it is not witchcraft. Always use a condom and live" (Rune Blix Hagen (2004).

References

Rune Blix Hagen (2004). The Witch-hunts on African Sorcerers?by Rune Blix Hagen, Subject Librarian, University of Tromsø. Available online at http://www.ub.uit.no/fag/historie/africanwitches.htm

The Write Room

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Last week, we had the bull balls, and this week, we have penis snatchers. What do they have in common? Nothing, nada, zip. The bull ball story meant to illustrate the connections between food and culture or, in other words, the connections between what we have learnt to see as edible and what not. This learning is, of course culturally constructed, and I tried to show this by telling the story of being served "swinging beef" in Southwestern Alberta, Canada. The penis snatchers have nothing whatsoever to do with this. October is witches month in the history department of Suite 101 (at least it was last time I heard) and in my first article on "witches", I explore contemporary witch-hunt. Yep, you read it correctly. Witch-hunts are not a thing of the past. In fact, some people suggest that thousands of people die each year as the result of violence related to witch-hunting in countries such as Cameroon, Kenya, Congo, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Now what do penis snatchers have to do with this? Well, while you might have thought that witch-hunting would be an activity exclusively aimed at women, this is not necessarily so. Supposedly, eight men in Accra, Ghana, were accused of using witchcraft to snatch penises. They allegedly planned to return them in return for cash." Turns out this was a bad move. The penis snatchers were attacked by mobs. Two snatchers died and six were seriously injured. The penises of all victims turned out to be just fine, but the victims had firmly believed that the sorcerers had the power to make their genitals shrink or disappear completely. So, there you have it. Two entirely different subjects connected by male genitalia. To read them both, click here , and then here.

See also this great article on penis snatching!

Do you have a funny story that illustrates one of the infinite weird and wonderful ways in which human beings express themselves? Pass 'm on! or post in our discussion forum.

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

In this week's article, I explore the connection between food and culture, or to be more precise, the connection between what we have learnt to see as edible and what not. This learning is, of course, culturally coloured.

To illustrate this point, I told the story of my recent road trip through parts of Western Canada Once I got to the prairies (Fort MacLeod in South-Western Alberta, Canada, to be precise), I was introduced to a local delicacy, "Prairie Oysters." Prairie Oysters are also known under a variety of other names (among my favorite names are cowboy caviar and even better, swinging beef). But however referred to, swinging beef, Rocky Mountains oysters, Montana tender-groins, cowboy caviar, swinging beef or calf fires, they are what they are: Bulls' Balls.

These are removed when the bull is still young with the idea to make the bull more obedient and easier to handle. Once cut off, they're given a rinse and peeled as if they were apples, then they are rolled around in flour and pepper, and off they go in the frying pan to be fried, deep-fried whole, cut into broad or thin slices, or marinated. Then: Bon appetite! Given that I myself have been a vegetarian my whole life, I declined the delicacy.

This story illustrates French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's point: "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are". And indeed, what and how we eat is an expression of how we see the world.

The story illustrates the intricate relation between the universal and the cultural. The people at the table there in Fort Macleod were devouring the "swinging beef." My reaction was something akin to disgust. Both the delight and disgust are feelings that have been shaped by the ways in which we come to understand food. The foods we react to with delight or disgust are certainly different. Yet both - disgust and delight - are universal reactions to food, shared by us all.

Do you have a disgusting or funny food story? Pass 'm on! or post in our discussion forum.

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

The official end of summer has induced in me a post-partum depression of some sort. I am just not ready to part with what has been a long, hot and marvelous summer. And so, rather than accepting the inevitable, I turn to denial and fantasize about vacations in hot and tropical destinations. Even though the whole idea of vacationing is in some way a little curious to me.

Yet in the country of my youth, The Netherlands, vacationing is a must. Everyone vacations. The Dutch tend to explain their fondness for vacations, for being away “from it all,” as essential for their mental health. Yet it seems to me that the drive to vacation might rather be rooted in symbol of social status. And the further the better. Nowadays, a few days at the beach just don’t cut it. No, one really makes a statement when reporting on past or upcoming trips to far and exotic destinations, like Kenya, Thailand, Australia, China or India.

The Dutch also feel very sorry for those unfortunate and deprived souls who do not vacation and often, the only explanation available to them is that “they must not be able to afford it.”

As a result of this real or perceived mental or social need, the Dutch travel obsessively. De Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper, reports that in the year 2000, 70 per cent of the Dutch vacation, a stunning amount of 12 million people, vacationed. In 2004, this amount had risen to over 80 per cent. In that year, 16,2 million Dutch people traveled internationally.

Compare these numbers with 3.5 million Canadian travelers in 2000 (amounting to 11,5 per cent), and a little fewer than five million Canadian overseas travelers in 2005 (15 per cent). Europe is still the favorite overseas destination for Canadians who are traveling just for fun. These European trips account for 43 per cent of all overseas pleasure visits in 2005. But visits to the Caribbean and Mexico are a close second favorite fun destination, accounting for 39 per cent of overseas pleasure visits.

So, in light of these musings on tropical vacationing, I decided to indulge a little longer in my tropical travel daydreams and write a little on Mexico. To read the article, you know what to do. Yep, click here



References

Kerncijfers. Toerisme & Recreatie Editie (2005). Retrieved September 26, 2006 from: http://www.holland.com/files/corporate/kerncijfers/Kerncijfers%20A4%202005%20def.pdf#search=%22statistiek%20nederlanders%20reizen%20intercontinentaal%202005%22

Laszlo Buasz (2005). Vacations Sour. Print Edition 09/08/06 Page R8 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060809.HEADS09/TPStory/?query=Europe+as+top+pleasure+destination+

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

In one of my previous articles, I talked about belonging. In this week’s article , I am touching on one of the ways in which we express that belonging: Fashion. Style and fashion go hand in hand with social identification. Being a member of a social group, we learn what acceptable styles are. In other words, we learn to adapt the way we dress and adorn ourselves to our social environment. This does not mean we end up all looking the same, but it means that we learn to abide by some basic guidelines as to what styles and fashions are permissible to the people we associate with. Within these guidelines, there's some space to create our own unique style. Yet in war situations, this might change. During a war, the “basic stylistic guidelines” might be tightened to heighten nationalistic feelings.

Claus Jahnke, a dear friend of mine and member of a society who collects historic German and Austrian clothing, gives an example. He says that in the 1930s, the German fashion industry was entirely "Aryanized." The Nazi’s introduced, for example, a special label to indicate that “Aryan hands only” had manufactured that particular garment.

Jahnke's collection includes pieces from leading Jewish-owned couture houses in Berlin and Vienna. The Nazi’s closed these fashion houses during the Second World War, and much of their garments were destroyed. Jahnke’s motivation to collect these pieces is a deep-felt desire to not only teach the public about the history of fashion and textiles, but to use fashion as a means to talk about conflict resolution and peace.

Based on one of Jahnke’s exhibits at The Vancouver Holocaust Centre, a new book will appear in the fall of this year. The book will have the same title as Jahnke's exhibit: Broken Threads

The book is entirely in line with Jahnke's life work. It chronicles pre-WWII Jewish fashion design and its destruction. It is a little-known but fascinating part of the historty of fashion and of WWII history at the same time.

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Even though I just moved on after doing a series of articles on landscapes during the month of August, I just could not resist writing one more little piece on it after reading an article in yesterday’s Globe and Mail.

Grant Linney, the author, starts off by saying that the Canadian wilderness has for long been part of our mental and cultural landscape. Until quite recently, Linney states, outdoor play was an ordinary part of growing up. As a result, these kids were, says Linney, “much more aware of our intimate connections to the outdoors and its natural systems.” Linney laments that this is no longer so, and that kids today are increasingly spending leisure time indoors.

In his view, the growing trend towards indoor play is the result of our growing fear of the outdoors. If we are not intimidated by regulations, procedures and liability waivers before embarking on an outdoors adventure, then we might imagine West Nile viruses or pedophiles lurking in the bushes. Or perhaps we might imagine running into an outdoor terrorist training camp, such as the ones in the Toronto area.

The result of this fear and increasing unwillingness to expose our children to the outdoors, says Linney, quoting Louv from Last Child in the Woods, is “nature deficit disorder.”

Besides being skeptical of our ongoing need to pathologize anything unpleasant, from feelings of sadness to playing indoors, I am also skeptical of the point Linney is making.

Lack of outdoors experiences might very well contribute to our overall sense of alienation and isolation from our landscape. But it seems to me that Linney only partly solves the problem.

Linney suggests that kids will develop “ecological literacy” and become “the ecologically literate citizens that our planet so desperately needs” if they engage in a healthy dose of safe and educational experiences in the outdoors. Yet the current dismal state of our natural environment hardly proves Linney’s statement that those kids of former generations really were so “much more aware of [their] intimate connections to the outdoors and its natural systems.” Perhaps outdoor experiences are a beginning toward ecological literacy, but it's not the whole answer. Not even close.

To read the full text of Linney’s piece, check The Globe and Mail, Tuesday September 5, 2006, page A13.

References

Grant Linney. Reclaiming the Outdoors for Our Children. In: The Globe and Mail, Tuesday September 5, 2006, page A13.

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

This week’s article, the last in the series on landscape, explores the question as to how the exile of people with connections to the land and its markers, impacts the landscape of that region.

I have been interested for quite some time in the question of the suffering of ethnic German immediately following Work-War II, and so, choosing that context to explore the aforementioned question came naturally.

Several hundred thousands ethnic Germans were, immediately following World-War II, driven across the borders of Germany and Austria. Less fortunate others ended up in concentration or labor camps. During this deportation, an estimated thirty thousand Germans died in the camps, in massacres and in forced marches.

I started musing the question as to what, if any, the impact of this exile is on that suddenly abandoned landscape? How does mass deportation of people with connections to the land and its markers, impact that landscape, I wondered.

In exploring these questions, I turned to one of the many women I have spoken with over the past years. Of German descent, she was one of the many who were expelled from their homes. Her home was in an area that was placed under Polish administration during the Yalta and Potsdam Conference. She had spent most of her childhood in that area and told me the story of her return there many years later. In it, she offers an explanation as to why the landscape of her childhood – at the time so tenderly cared for and looked after-- dilapidated so much after the mass deportations.

To read the article, click here

Posted by Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Well, we’ve been talking about landscape now for a while. But many of us live in cities or suburbs. Do we refer to that also as landscape? If so, what does it contain? How estranged are we who live in the suburbs really from nature and landscape?

Unlike in years past, modern urban areas, especially those in North America, are no longer clearly distinct from rural areas. Much of the rural areas surrounding the city have been swallowed up by the rapid and relentless growth of urban areas. New housing complexes, industrial terrains, and of course, malls have gobbled up the countryside areas as well as the functional and esthetic boundaries between rural and urban areas. The landscape has become fragmented. Many of the new complexes, houses and parks are built with convenience and cost efficiency in mind. As a result, they are often isolated, surrounded by huge parking lots and accessible only by a no-man’s land of highways. No place for pedestrians and street life in these fragmented and disconnected suburbs.

Another fragmenting aspect of the landscape of modern urban life is the homogeneity that appears to be the norm in landscape planning. In my own suburban Canadian neighborhood, there are few indigenous plants and shrubs in the nicely landscaped areas around the townhouse complexes. Instead, best-selling, exotic horticulture, alien to this environment. It makes the landscape around here look like a mass-produced product that has no longer any connections with the traditional cultural and ecological realities of the place.

How does this fragmentation of our landscape affect our lives? Well, activities belonging to home, shopping and recreation have also become fragmented and isolated, connected no longer by pedestrian connections and street life, but by a web of highways and parking lots.

Having said all of that, our need for connections is powerful, even, perhaps especially, in the tangled and secluded webs of highways, parking lots and suburbs. In some places, local malls take the place of the market place and the street. Take the mall in my own community. Small literary and community-based events are organized by a local community organization (http://www.nebca.org/), and promoted by and held at the mall. Call me naive, but I just don’t buy the idea that the mall’s involvement is exclusively motivated by public relations and commercial interests (pun not intended). It might just be that our need to connect and belong to a community sometimes surpasses our greed…