Teaching Anthropology

Things White People Love: Avatar

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:06:00 +0000

No, I haven't seen it. I probably won't. I always hate it when Hollywood drives the bus--especially for two hours and forty minutes. Besides being an Avatar virgin means I don't become overly invested in my own opinions of it and I am interested in the opinions of my students this coming semester.

I noticed a very interesting Russian doll discussion about it at Savage Minds. I guess by Russian doll I mean it became more and more about "us" anthropologists and our analyses and seemed to become smaller and smaller somehow.

And then at New Year's my neighbours were enthusiastically discussing our loss of noble innocence in the modern era and I felt curmudgeonly superior with my internal snorting, ass that I am. So I am no less small, it seems.

Goodness, so much analysis: "dances with smurfs in space", Pocahontas redux, etc, etc.

Still, I remember walking by a movie theater on my first trip to Tanzania in 1985. It was really the only one I can recall seeing. On the main street in Dar, close to the American library of USIS (as it was at that time). Walking by it one day I heard huge waves of laughter spilling out the door. Using the power of my whiteness, I walked up and peered in. There was one of those low-budget Asian karate movies on the screen--no translations, no sub-titles. Those few Tanzanian (mostly) men who could afford the shillings that day were sitting there laughing hilariously at the shirtless Asian men kicking each other on the screen.

Maybe we anthropologists should be more concerned with the meaning Tanzanians attach to the movie. Third world not second life? Shakespeare in the bush, anyone? Or Sundiata a la Disney, yet again? Sad to be reminded that the myths of history are written (and analyzed ad nauseaum) by the conquerors.

But, hey, it isn't easy being blue.

Measuring Success

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:07:00 +0000

Tomorrow is my baby girl's twentieth birthday. In the artificial construct of American age, it is the last year I can refer to her as a baby girl. Next year, she will be an adult.

There has been a lively discussion on the SACC listserv about measuring educational success. Of course, I think it is all bullshit. I hate when people try to apply scientific standards to human behavior. It can't be done. Anthropology has taught me that. And then to take it one step further and tell me I need to be able to demonstrate my effectiveness to the public? Please. Get your cultural hegemony out of my classroom.

Anthropology has taught me that humans are too much fun to waste time trying to control them. Let us relish the process. Celebrate the experience.

Like parenting. Or should the public have the right to measure my effectiveness in that regard? Should I make transparent and explicit my parenting plan? Should we devise models of my effectiveness? (Did I mention she got straight A's at UT this semester?)

Oh well, time to prepare for the annual Dim Sum birthday party. We are having it one day early this year. I don't know how it came to be that she celebrated in this fashion. One year, she just wanted to do it and so we do. And have continued to do so. I don't know what it means to her personal growth but it makes me happy and I relish the process.

Empire Zits: Pow, Zap

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:24:00 +0000

So, I saw this on the Huffington Post and it was just so way cool that I had to share.

Seems that empires are like zits. First they grow, then they explode, then, eventually, they just disappear.

My favorite part is in 1960 when African independence kicks in. I so knew that was coming. Pow. Zap. Too bad so sad.

Visualizing empires decline from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo.

Happy Thanksgiving: "We got hosed"

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Tell me about your mother: how Jewish is she?

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:21:00 +0000

Interesting article at the NY Times about the legal battle brewing in the U.K. over determinations of "Jewishness" in school admission processes: "Who is a Jew?" is the central question. And the courts have tripped over the thorny issue of the inherent discrimination in the us/them reality of some religious faiths. When does religious faith become ethnic identification? For orthodox Jews ( at least those in decision-making positions at some schools): not when your mother has converted and not when she has converted Progressively. Ethnic discrimination foul, according to the British Courts.

Round 2: the attempted save of belief through practice didn't quite cut the mustard as “having a ham sandwich on the afternoon of Yom Kippur doesn’t make you less Jewish,” Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, chairman of the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue, said recently. The school seems to have ditched that evaluative measure.

Round 3: still waiting for the towel down and water splash. Any guesses?

The Linguists: For Free

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:39:00 +0000

Well this Honors gig thing is really kicking my ass but I still feel more anthropologist than low-level abused administrator so I am back at my blog. I miss it.

I still feel a bit choked up about Levi-Strauss dying. Seems so stark to type that. I suppose we should celebrate the life and all that: 100 years of distinguished living but still its death and one can only spin that so far.

Anyway, I was in Washington D.C. this past week at the National Collegiate Honors Council meetings. It was useful for my new responsibilities but the best part (Ha! I am still full-time anthropologist) was the screening of The Linguists. It was awesome. It felt like slipping on a pair of comfortable jeans. We have all had fieldwork experiences like they depict. I skipped all the panels I was to attend and stayed all the way through the questions and answers. David Harrison was there and was a joy to listen to as he thoughtfully answered questions. The film maker (Ironbound films) announced that toward the end of the month copies priced for personal purchase will be available. They reached some licensing agreements which would allow for that. He, also, pointed out, that the video is streaming for free at Bablegum. He made it clear he had no intention to exercise any demands to pull it down. So, if you haven't seen it yet. Go enjoy it now. Here. But, hey, support their efforts and if you have the money--buy a copy. I plan on it.

The Meaning of Black Hair: Chris Rock, IMF Restructuring and Curly Kits

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:51:00 +0000

I notice Chris Rock (such a bummer that the You Tube of him on Leno from a previous post was pulled--trust me it was hilarious)is releasing a documentary entitled "Good Hair" exploring the meanings and issues associated with...well..."black hair". I didn't have to go very far to read lots of stories and reviews of it. Salon has three stories, specifically, on the documentary and ancillary links that pull up stories on Michelle Obama's hair and Tyra Banks' weaves. I haven't done a full Google on it but I was playing a little a game with myself betting that if it hasn't happened already, Stuff White People Love, will have a reference soon to black hair. If Salon is so obsessed with the issue isn't that a safe bet?

If you check out the commentary added to my last post you will find an interesting discussion about the ways that anthropologists walk the thin line of "relevance". I suppose the consensus is that we all use our cultural dialogues to begin the discussions but, in the end, we all want to move beyond to achieve the ultimate "relevance". I want to thank Barbara Miller for commenting and inviting us all to use the resources which support her textbook. Here is a link to her blog, Anthropology Works. It looks awesome.

So, reading about the Chris Rock documentary was fascinating in and of itself but it was more fascinating for me because it took me back to my original fieldwork days. I think I have mentioned before that I was in Tanzania during its initial IMF restructuring. I arrived on a pre-fieldwork 3 month visit in 1985 and then returned a few months later for a full year. During that time the deal was struck and the currency devaluation, government jobs layoffs, and deregulation of the economy slowly unfolded. I say slowly maybe because of the way I perceived it. I saw small signs of it before I left Dar es Salaam and headed up country and each time I returned to Dar I would see specific and dramatic changes. I remember standing on the street in shock staring at the bars of Kenyan Cadbury's chocolate spread out on a street vendors mat. This was a country I had come to know as lacking petrol, bread (no wheat flour)...oh heck, why bother to try to list. The country had nothing. I had to boil all my water and filter it because there was no bottled water at that time. At one time, surviving as an anthropologist was awkward beyond belief trying to figure the ethics of relying on a black market currency and then under currency de-regulation the constant re-assessment of the value of my grant clashing in my head with the local perspective of value that was taking over my daily thoughts--it was all too much disconnect.

But that was all terribly selfish reflection because in the midst of this the Tanzanian people were struggling with their new world. The borders were fully open and the markets de-regulated. Consumer goods were now available (even if few could ever afford them). And Tanzanians at all educational and class levels were debating the changes and the debates centered around "black hair", specifically "curly kits": those packages of chemicals and curlers which gave one the Billy Dee Williams-Jheri-Curl-kitted-look. Tanzanians at that time called them "curly kits" and they were the one object everyone wanted and everyone hated everyone else for wanting.

I suppose every anthropologist has stories about the things they were asked to obtain from the power of their whiteness, their otherness, their wealth and power; that thing that in the closed world of our grad student minds we forgot we had until thrust into the new role of connected outsider. They have a convenient label for it in Tanzania: mzungu, the Kiswahili word for "outsider". Literally? People who go around and around aimlessly. Nuff said. One of the first personal (not shouted out) requests I got was from the wife of one of my then-husband's contacts in Dodoma. She pulled me aside and asked me for birth control and a curly kit. (For those of you interested in the birth control issue. Tanzania, at that time, had only Soviet birth control pills available. The great ole' USA wouldn't supply anything other than the wing an a prayer rhythm method. It took HIV/AIDS to get the condoms in. Don't get me started on those policies and laws. Bastards.)

Next thing I knew the letters to the editor sections of the one English language and the two (that I recall) Kiswahili papers were full of righteous indignation about the issue. I devoured the letters, struggling valiantly with Swahili in its real--non-classroom--version. The debate was early Chris Rock. People warned of the dangers of losing natural African beauty (I always think of the late, great Miriam Makeba here). The arguments quickly moved into condemnation of a system which allowed scarce hard currency to be wasted pandering to individual vanity. The country needed so much. A generation of people raised in the beliefs of pulling together for the common good and then experiencing the disillusionment of its failure can have some powerfully interesting discussions about free market economics and choice. By the time I left, I saw a few glistening curly heads in Dar but never encountered one up country. Whatever politics and sense of identity might have been associated with sporting the Billy Dee look could be afforded by too few to count. But it made for a hell of a paper debate while it lasted.

BTW, you are damn right I walked away from that Fruit and Nut Bar in a wave of sanctimony. Then turned right around, came back, paid several dollars for it, devoured it on the spot in a non-Tanzanian wave of gluttony. I can't, honestly, say that it tasted all that good having been without for months. And, no, living in my own glass house, I don't dare toss a stone at those wanting perfectly curly, perfectly shiny hair. But Tanzania does need a lot more than that.

Making Anthropology "relevant": Do we really want to go there?

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

In my Real Life, I have been given a book proposal for a new intro to Cultural Anthropology to review. Its kind of bugging me as I make my way through the proposal because the unknown author seems to feels some compelling need to make Anthropology more "relevant" to students today. I suppose someone somewhere has some deep insight into what is relevant to students today but.....no, sorry. Don't think so. We all run around pretending to know our students and giving them that monolithic designation as if they are all the same. Maybe in some land of artificial, homogeneous people that would work. But, hello, we are talking about my Real Life, here, not a cyber-constructed reality.

So, what is the author really after? It seems like there are a lot more references made to American culture: American film, American internet experiences, American Second Life experiences. Did I miss something. Aren't we pretty much irrelevant these days? Dying on the vine. Throwing juvenile tantrums in our rapidly deteriorating playpens while we are ignored by the adults who really could care less about us--we aren't their children after all. Didn't I just read that we don't even control the internets anymore? How odd to argue we should be making Anthropology more relevant to the irrelevant.

And, since when do we really think education should consist of what they want to know? Do we really teach anthropology so they can understand themselves? Some of my best (funnest and well-received) lectures are completely irrelevant to the lives of students. Isn't that the point of Anthropology. How irrelevant we (Americans) and we (individuals) are?

I still have to read more. I hope things get better soon. Or I adopt another frame of mind--something more.....relevant?

Ooooo....teachable moment alert...teachable moment alert

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:37:00 +0000

Have we all seen the recent discussion of Michelle Obama's ancestry? The New York Times has extended discussion/blog/commentary up with views of noted scholars commenting. Even one by an Anthropologist (yeah team). Its got some nice bits on race. I need to go read the others. I, totally, paused to rush back and tell you. Follow me back over there--here.

Culture, Class, and um...it was "rape-rape"

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:31:00 +0000

While the New York Times is busy parsing out all the cultural meanings of the American versus French versus German interpretations of the Roman Polanski arrest (at least according to Americans). And The Guardian reminds us to throw class into the mix (Lovely how both papers are staying true to form in the interpretations of their columnists). I am relieved to find myself embracing my inner petit bourgeosie self (denial of my lumpenproletariat status is a game I play with myself....as do others) and sharing the WTF moment with Chris Rock:

And do I need to point your way to the succinct and some would even say (ME! ME!) correct interpretation by Kate Harding at Salon which is making its way across the internets and twitters when everyone else has a moment to spare from all those Ardipithecus tweets all pointing to the same Science article--yes, yes, yes. I don't need to be told yet again. Do not keep those cards, letters, and tweets coming. I know. Really.

Culture keeps us from going crazy and killing everybody

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:08:00 +0000

I just read that on an exam I am trying to grade. Hmmmmm.....I wish culture was working better for us. On second thought, given these exams, I wish it would stop working and someone would put me out of my misery.

Back at it.

De-evolution and Evolutionary Debate

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Don't know about you but I am scheduled to cover Evolution in my General Anthropology (ANTH 2346) come this Tuesday. Not looking forward to it. 39% of Americans don't "believe" in it.

And this just in from the Daily Telegraph who is, once again, wallowing in their sense of British superiority about the rampant stupidity of their colonial backwaters. Seems the critically-acclaimed film about the life of Charles Darwin, Creation is "too controversial for religious America".

Here is the trailer:

Can't see the objection, it seems to have the proper degree of histrionics and angst. Perhaps if they ripped off some of those bodices, Americans would be more comfortable with the whole issue. *sigh*

Doing my part, as the new Honors Coordinator on campus, I have signed us up for the webcast lectures being billed as The Darwin 150 Project. Its easiest to get at them through their Facebook page. The first lecture in the series is almost sold out:

"The World Before Darwin" - Lecture 1 of "Origin of Species" 150th Anniversary Lecture Series - at Harvard University
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 from 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM (ET)

I am glad I am already signed up, fired up, and ready to go. Sign up here. If you still can.

Nat Geo has a blog up about the Facebook evopalooza. Heck, go to their Facebook page and look, I can't begin to link up all the coverage they are getting.

Has everyone seen the way-cool Evolution of Evolution extravaganza at the Nation Science Foundation? Check it out here.

Those Pyramid-Building Aliens

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:22:00 +0000

I was going to blog about the responses of our local school districts, here in the great state of Texas, to that powerful socialist force that is our President and his nefarious plan to hypnotize schoolchildren to do his bidding but it just makes me sick to my stomach.

Instead, I have been working on those pesky aliens. This semester I cried Uncle and dealt with it in a full, frontal assault.

First know thy enemy. This blog, Ancient Cosmonauts, is a lot of fun for exploring the "pyramid-building aliens" meme. This week in my Archy class, I pulled it right up in class and we had at it. A good number laughed at the pictures. They are the Stargate visualizations they grew up with, after all. Staying with the science of movies, the blog author includes this sentiment (I hesitate to call it an argument):

Do you really think this wonderful pyramid was built by the allegedly savages depicted in Apocalypto or is it more reasonable the line of Alien vs Predator?

Fun with bad archaeology time.

We played the embedded You Tube video and critiqued it, observing, for example, the legitimacy established by the "documentary narrator" voice.

Now, that was a fun one.... but here is the kind of thing you are really up against. A site with the name of Edutube with a .org address promoting this kind of stuff.

I guess most of us begin to critique this stuff from the whole Occam's Razor perspective:
As this site by the Chemical Heritage Foundation does. But I have grown to find that approach the tiniest of toe dips into the waters of where the corrective needs to go. You are, really, only using the parsimony perspective to get you to the Myths and Moundbuilders "it was the locals, stupid" meme. The Chemical Heritage Foundation link does it with the look at how cool those ancient, indigenous people were, they discovered the magical antibiotic properties of honey. Its a bit patronizing and simplistic but it is meant for school kids, after all.

Penn State's Donald Redford has a demystified explanation here which conforms, nicely, to the requirements of parsimony. It does, however, lack the sex appeal of aliens. Or if you just want some visual support without wasting the time for a whole documentary, some visualizations from the Nova documentary This Old Pyramid, are online courtesy of Creighton University here.

If you want to add greater complexity and sex appeal (if not, necessarily, undisputed accuracy), you can get into the whole ramp location debate (summarized in Archaeology magazine in 2007) in the context of Khufu and the, definitely, non-parsimonious work of Jean-Pierre Houdin for which there is a way cool 5 minute Nat Geo clip up at You Tube here.

These brief snippets aren't meant to be comprehensive. Feel free to add. Where is Bob? He could do a better job at this.

And, if all else fails, you can always give up and buy the t-shirt. Although, I prefer "Stonehenge was an inside job".

Guest Blogger, Bob Muckle, sent me the following by email. It was too long to fit on Twitter. I am going to post it up quick and since I am out late tomorrow, he won't catch me to take it down for awhile, in case he didn't intend to share. Bob is the slanty print-attach no meaning to that.

I don't routinely schedule a discussion on the pyramids, but sometimes it does come up. Like you I tackle it on a number of fronts. When I do tackle it, I usually use the framework of science to assess the explanations/hypothesis. I start with the ol' test of testablility. As in..."if you can't test it, throw it (the hypothesis/explanation) out." It is simply impossible to test for the fact that aliens built it. "How would you test for aliens?" I ask my students. They usually come up with a list of things, but I then remind them that just because you may find some previously unknown material or some such thing, one cannot make the claim that it is evidence of aliens.'

I also tackle it on the basis of compatability. That the Egyptians built the pyramids is compatabible with what we know of Egyptian civilization in general, and the evolution of funery monuments in particular. We can see the evolution in size, shape, and engineering of pryamide building.

I also use Occam's Razor.

And I remind students that it is bad science to accept one hypothesis by rejecting the others. This is what pyramidiots and others who use the "alien explanations" do all the time. Pretend to be scientific by generating a list of competing explanations and then ruling out Hypothesis #1, Hypotheses #2, Hypotheses #3, Hypothesis #4, and then concluding that it must have been aliens.

I don't use much on-line video on the pyramids, but on occasion I have pulled out "The Case of the Ancient Astronauts", a 1978 Nova production focussing on debunking the work of Erich von Daniken. It looks dated (hair cuts and cars, etc), but it is really quite good to show the alien vs. scientific/archaeological perspectives. It has a segment on the Egyptain pyramids that begins with von Daniken providing his explanation, and then it goes to critique. It also does this for the Nasca lines, statues of Easter Island, a Mayan sarcophagus lid at Panlenque, and some sites in South America. When I do show it, I provide an update (eg. von Daniken, while not so popular in North America is still writing books and going on lecture tours in Europe, and recently had a big theme park in Switzerland that I think went bankrupt). I also try to provide updates on current archaeological thinking about the pyramids, etc.

Of course there are many semi-scholarly/semi-scientific articles tacking the pyramadiots. Peter Kosso has a chapter called "The Epistimology of Archaeology" in the edited volume 'Archaeological Fanatasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public.' It is reproduced in 'Reading Archaeology' which I edited (Univ Toronto Press, 2008). A good portion of the chapter is devoted to considering explanations of the Egyptian pyramids.

Plugging In, Again: crumple, toss, next

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:58:00 +0000

The preliminary figures are in; our enrollments are up over ten percent, which puts us over 30,000 system-wide. Two weeks have gone by that I can't recall. Here seems to be a day:

8:30 arrive on Campus, pass College Democrats bulletin board on the way to office, pull down picture of Obama that looks like Heath Ledger as the Joker which has been hung by unknown idiot. Hmmmm, this one (in full color) seems to still be wet. High quality printer. Must be faculty. asshole.

8:30-10:00 answer endless emails. Sorry about your flat tire, get the notes, sorry about your grandmother there is a copy of your syllabus on Blackboard, get the notes, hmmm, free pizza this afternoon, jeez, how loud does psych prof have to scream in lecture...louder than crazy hippy-trippy philosophy dude, apparently; sorry about the loss of your last three days due to bipolar mood swing, get the notes; yes, its okay that there are 7 copies of your Discussion Board post, Blackboard does that, especially, when you click on it 7 times; yes, the deadline for Honors by Contract is September 18, yes, just like it says on the form, itself; training announcement: delete; training announcement: delete, WTF forward from fellow faculty whom I like. *snort*, a few more of those and I might make it through.

10:00-11:20 teach.....blah...blah...blah no, the pyramids were not built by aliens....blah...blah....blah..... no the pyramids were not built by aliens. blah...blah..blah

11:20-11:30 break...sorry to hear that you couldn't get parking for the last week and a half, get the notes....(need to get something to drink, need to pee) Yes, history dude, I did realize that they think the pyramids were built by aliens....shit....time to start again (need to get water, need to pee)

11:30-1:00 teach...which class is this?......blah....blah...blah

1:00...where was that free pizza?

1:00-1:01 pee (ahhh, thank god)

1:01-1:45 pester Academic Dean re:Honors Program....blah, blah, blah

1:45-2:00 panic about said Program

2:00-4:00 Honors Lounge: form updating, file processing....yes, honors student, Jim Morrison was God (note to self: NOT)....yes, Chair of English we are going to make it a goal that your Honors English Comp class will not, again, be cancelled in a record enrollment period with an enrollment of 4...here are my preliminary plans to get your class with its bitchy-ass professor to make: we are going to try the new innovative method of enrolling dead grandmothers and flat tires into all Honors classes. No, we are carefully screening to remove all students who face three day loses due to Bipolar disorder and ones who circle the parking lot for a week and a half looking for a space..Yes, I feel sure this will work, after all, the students assure me that the spirit of Jim Morrison is guiding the Honors Program as we move forward into a new blah....blah....blah....

4:00-4:01: Where was that free pizza? Need water.

4:01-6:00 Blackboard, grade, post, grade, post, grade, post....closing time...one last call for alcohol.......

6:00-6:01 remove still wet poster of Barack Obama as the Heath Ledger Joker from Democrats board......crumple, toss...next.

Too many students; too little trash

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Whew! How many of those of us who teach anthropology are back teaching anthropology? We are packed to the gills with students. If they could have suspended them from the ceiling, I believe they would have. I think every class we have must be full. I know mine are. 39 students in my Intro to Archaeology class (yes, that is 3 over our limit which at 36 is waaaaay too big) and I haven't got a seat left. I do one of those dorky trash sorting exercises in the first week of classes. I am supposed to do it tomorrow. But I don't have enough simulated trash to go around. Its midnight here in H-town. Surely, there is an all-night simulated trash for simulated archaeology sorting and making inferences about material culture store open somewhere?

BTW, yours truly was called by Herr President of Campus sometime last week--the days have all run together. You are now blogging with the Honors Coordinator for our Campus. Yep. I was stupid enough to sign on for that. 7 14 hour days later and I can't help but wonder what I was thinking.

There seems to be an interesting discussion going on at my past award-winning post (that always cracks me up) on teaching pedagogy. I assume the comments are showing up under Discursion. Have a look. I think I won't have a chance until I am done with the whole trash issue.

Carry on.

Private Thoughts and Public Labels: From Potatoes to Gender

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Houston lost a daughter. Austin gained a Longhorn. Mom still has the hedgehog; you saw that one coming didn't you?

On the road from Austin home to Houston, I passed (again) the sign for Old Potato Road, and had the same thought: is the potato old or is it the road?

Its all about the label, isn't it?

Just after Old Potato Road, NPR had a story about the controversy over Castor Semena, the South African track runner who improved a little too much, too fast sparking a flurry of rather tacky speculation about her gender; although why an improvement of 8 seconds in a year should translate into a gender identity issue is beyond me: only men can improve by leaps and bounds? Or: we are stunned; stunned, shocked, and appalled to discover that she was in fact, a man, all along even though we did not contemplate that when she was slower

But she looks muscular, has narrow hips and a deep voice. Exactly what is a woman supposed to look like?

Anyway, when classes start next week, I suppose we all have the ideal label--Castor Semena--for discussing the complexities of gender identification. Teachable Moment alert.

Juxtapose thoughts about Castor Semena with the news about the swimsuit model killed by the reality star and stuffed into a suitcase. Turns out she could only be identified by the serial number on her breast implants. What is a woman supposed to look like? Too many thoughts for me.

Cue Tammy Wynette: sometimes its hard to be a woman

...especially driving through a Texas night having said goodbye to a daughter.

Teaching Naked: Another one of those nothing new here movements

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:24:00 +0000

That got your attention didn't it. Do not picture your colleagues in this role. Not attractive. Nope.

The pedagogy debate rages on. Those of you paying attention to the Comments section will notice that the previous "lecture" versus Web 2.0 discussion (that award winning one) has become re-activated. Thanks to Informalethnographer (I don't know how he wants me to link him up and I will edit this if/when he lets me know). We have this piece from the July 20th Chronicle of Higher Education, When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom: Teaching Naked Effort Strips Computers from the Classroom The idea is that we should use our classrooms for engaging discussions. Well, duh.

The piece starts with an indictment of Power point lectures, arguing that studies show students find it "dull". But then I notice the piece goes a bit wobbly about half way through; changing up its arguments and the conclusions it draws from what students are saying, arguing for hiving off the boring lectures into podcasts to be viewed by students before coming to class. Oh...they are so doing that. Not. And, hey, logic-wise, I have a question: will podcasting make these boring lectures less boring?

How about if the whole class is a combination of lecture and interactive discussions. This isn't new.

Bottom line: students want human engagement. Small classes and caring profs give them that. How hard is that? I have been doing for over 20 years.

Why make them watch these ghastly boring podcasts from hell with no interaction and maybe not quite current. How about if we just be real old-fashioned and have them do the assigned readings before class? After all, reading is FUNdamental. Remember? Then we can lecture, discuss, lecture, discuss. Imagine that.

Two observations:

Power Point. Its a crutch for faculty, as well. World's Most Beautiful Sociology Prof and I laughed our butts off (Damn, *whips head around* sorry still there) when new faculty couldn't do lecture because "computer in class was down". Class dismissed for her. Me and WMBSP would, simply, carry on. But....we know our stuff. Cue: smug.

Student Laptops: A have had several students tell me that they purposely leave them at home because the temptation to Facebook is simply too strong and they know they need to focus. Many do support a ban.

Hey, let's all skip and go naked. And could you pedagogy people stop acting like you have some new and innovative technique that is going to transform the world? The ridiculous "aren't I cool" self-promotion is wearing thin.

Teachable Moments Clips: Fun with Animals

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Since we are, probably, all gearing up for another year, I thought I would share some of the useful clips I have found for Cultural classes. I think we would all agree that it takes some creativity to do an online Cultural class and I have worked rather hard at finding intro stuff that can generate new ways of thinking without overly-exoticizing or "tribalizing". I rather love this one on cowness (the meaning and consequent treatment thereof), I have it embedded in a wider discussion on ways of getting your groceries but do with it what you will:

How Americans treat their cattle: A Maasai perspective

Patrice Lumumba

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I am just speechless. How many moral laws were broken when Hillary Clinton opened her mouth and had the audacity to lecture the Congo on the instances of rape and sexual violence brought about by a war which, in many respects, we began and continue to fund?

Congo: The Advance Hillary Guard. Let's paint it unhealed, victimized, and plummeting and spiking

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:32:00 +0000

Hillary has made it to Congo (left Angola, not yet in Nigeria) and the main stream press paved the way. I noticed that last week (August 4) the New York Times had an article up on the phenomenon of male rape in Congo, "Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims". Like all Africanists, I sighed as I saw it. One more story about those savage Africans. It just hurts. How to begin to explain why, how to bring up objections and explanations, re-framing and re-humanizing. Re-humanizing. De-dehumanizing.

How nice to feel I am not alone in my rants.

African Politics Portal is the first up with a great piece questioning the alarmist, unfounded sensationalism of the article which is, after all, based on the experiences of 4 men without much genuine exploration of the prevalence and meaning.

But follow African Politics Portal's links to a great blog Wrongingrights and your justifiable indignation will ratchet up a few notches--at least mine did. The piece is entitled "In Which the New York Times Both Sets 'Em Up and Knocks 'Em Down" and reveals the original title of the NYTimes article (since changed) was "Congo Plummets Into Rape and Murder."

I urge you to click on through to the blog. The Lucky Charms grading system for the article is breathtakingly awesome. I award it 50 billion green clovers and 1 perfect pink heart--cause you gotta have heart to keep up the good fight.

Following Hillary: Today: Angola.....Texas Tea, Black Gold...but what happens to the hillbillies?

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Hillary Clinton has finished up in Angola and is moving on to Nigeria. Do I have that right? Can't say I follow her every move. I just assumed that because of the oil connection. Obama to Ghana=good political move, up with democracy; Hillary to Angola=oil, Hillary to Nigeria=oil. How do they say it? Oh....."enormous economic opportunity"....for whom?

First thing you know old Jeb's a millionaire. Kinfolk say Jeb move away from there. Its the standard problem of any oil-producing nation a lot of money from the crude but how to distribute it? And lets face it, all we want is for the oil to keep coming and we will do some pretty nasty things to keep it so. We are Mr. Drysdale, after all...just keep the hillbillies happy..or maybe, Drysdale's asshole son Milby who tries to screw them out of every last cent while Papa runs after him trying to undo the damage but allowing it to occur from the get go. Guess that makes Hillary the Miss Hathaway in this piece but somehow I just don't see it.

Funny how those pop cultural image resonate. Oil will transform Africa pulling them out of their hillbilly status. But, of course, the story is with those hillbillies back home. The Clampetts "get out" but those back home in unidentified hillbillyland, presumably remain in poverty and the gap widens.

There is a nice summary of the probles in a very simple, very readable book on oil in Africa, entitled Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, written by John Ghazvinian. The book was released in 2007 and a Time article from that time sums up the issues for those of who don't have the time to become economists and Africanists. I read Ghazvinian's book when it came out and although it wasn't anything new to me, I thought it was a good overview.

For those of you who want more depth Africa Focus has a great new Bulletin just posted today on the situation in Angola; wealth flowing in to the hands of a few and the masses of its population not only marginalized but also displaced to serve the needs of Texas Tea. You can find the beginning of the Africa Focus Angola piece here. Enjoy. And share with your students.

New SACC website up!

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:39:00 +0000

The Society for Anthropology in the Community College (SACC) has rolled out its new website at:

http://saccweb.net/

Go have a look, you will find all the usual background info, as well as a blog and under "Teaching Anthropology" some sample syllabi and a list of Archaeology Resources compiled by Guest Blogger and Neanderthal Admirer, Bob Muckle.

(Hope the Twitter issues are, finally, resolved. Testing, testing...)

Update: Ooo...posted too soon. Bob promises an updating of said list as soon as we are all forced (kicking and screaming--my words not his) back to our offices for another year....another semester....another rodeo.

Update 2: Correction: Bob did not promise to update the list. Bob only stated he would add it to his to-do list. Heaven forbid I be guilty of mis-quoting. Although, I am reluctant to let him off the hook on a mere technicality.

"Ghastly" Cahokia

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:43:00 +0000

I see Salon has an article/book review up on Cahokia citing 'Timothy Pauketat's cautious but mesmerizing new book, "Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi"'

Its got all the most lurid details and a nifty title:

Sacrificial virgins of the Mississippi

Women don't get no respect, can't even capitalize "virgin". Guess I better go read the article because I can't for the life of me figure out how you can determine virginity from a skeleton. Damn hard thing to do with a live woman despite what the world's people may or may not believe. Not that I am any expert, although, I did play the part one Halloween...many years ago.

Updated Feminist Rant: I'm back (not quite but a little in the Jack Nicholson way). Did you see that shit? Was I right or what? Careful discussion of the framing of "native" Americans but a perfect willingness to play fast and loose with gender stereotyping. Just slip that label "virgin" right into the title with no evidence or reason to do so. Not cool, dude.

Achieving the Dream: A North American Development Project

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:53:00 +0000

I have been wanting to write a blog post on this whole "Achieving the Dream" initiative for a long time. Its a huge topic and it keeps getting bigger. Unfortunately, although I have been tracking this initiative for several years now, I can't quite figure our what is up with it. It all sounds really nice but the creep factor is pretty high for me: little hairs go up on the back of my neck when I read between the lines. Almost everything about it from the intent to the results on the ground reads as a top-down development project, you know the stuff we anthropologists like to critique the hell out of.

I am trying to condense, here. In essence, the Sallie Mae people ended up making so much money from repaid student loans that the were left with a pile of money to do stuff with. This money started the Lumina Foundation which underwrites the Achieving the Dream movement. (And, yes, the Gates Foundation has jumped aboard.)

Check out this passage from the Lumina Foundation web site under the "Our Work" tab:

Education is the foundation for individual opportunity, economic vitality and social stability. Lumina Foundation's goal is to raise the proportion of the U.S. adult population who earn high-quality college degrees to 60 percent by the year 2025, an increase of 23 million graduates above current rates.

This is the benchmark we must achieve to compete with top performing countries. To accomplish this goal, the United States will need to graduate nearly 800,000 more students each year from now through 2025. Raising college-attainment levels is crucial to maintaining an educated workforce, especially because America's most-educated population faces retirement age. According to data prepared for the Making Opportunity Affordable initiative PDF, the United States is likely to face an unprecedented shortage of college-educated workers by 2025.

To achieve this ambitious goal of increasing postsecondary degree attainment, Lumina Foundation, in partnership with other stakeholders, is focusing on three main milestones of progress:

■Student preparedness. K-12 education systems must prepare students for college success by ensuring that students: academically prepared, have knowledge about the going-to-college process and have access to financial aid information.
■Student success. Student success depends on a high-quality learning environment where programs, policies and practices improve the likelihood that students will attain their educational goals with the skills and credentials for the needs of an evolving workforce.
■College productivity. Postsecondary institutions must embrace a college productivity agenda, thereby changing the structure and delivery of higher education so that they are better equipped to increase the number of students through the educational pipeline.

You will notice that the rhetoric is being parroted by Obama, down to the dotted i's and crossed to-a-t's.

In 2004 the Lumina Foundation gave birth to the Achieving the Dream movement. Now, we are going to drop down to my level. At my college, this has meant we apply for money to fund initiatives to improve "student success". From what I have seen the money only lasts for a start-up period and then the college assumes the cost for continuing the project/program. The big caveat is the "Culture of Evidence" angle. All initiatives must be quantifiable in the world of education statistics--and, yes, I am going to say it. Those educational people have no idea how to collect social science date, let alone analyze it. But they do know how to increase bureaucracy, create their own jobs, and spend money.

Right now, for example, we have a mandatory orientation being tested. All neww students must come onto campus to watch a 40 minute Powerpoint, take a tour, and attend a "resource fair" (a bunch of table set up by the various campus offices). Some how this is supposed to improve student retention by making connections. I suppose the selection bias will weed out the less committed and, in that, it might work in a twisted kind of way. Maybe we can then have a special initiative to seek out and recruit those students who fled because of a low tolerance for bullshit.

In order to show success, we have to meet and exceed expectations for recruitment and retention. And what do you think that means for us faculty?

I have a couple thousand critiques of this stuff. Too much for one post. For now, I will confine myself to giving a shout out to the scope of all this. Go Google "Achieving the Dream" and look at the pages and pages of schools on-board. And while you are at it, try to find one piece of obective analysis and critique of these goals and methods. Just one. Try it.

So, who is making money off this stuff? Because I would bet my windowed office that somebody is.

Corporate imperialism?

Why Mombasa?

pamelamtu@gmail.com (Pamthropologist) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:43:00 +0000

I was up on campus today and the World's Hottest Poli Sci Prof and I were talking about the latest Obama's birthday news: his Kenyan birth certificate. In my usual offhand fashion, I was laughing about it: "What kind of self-respecting pregnant white woman would be hanging out in Mombasa, anyway and at a government hospital? My gosh, the malaria rates on the coast? Hello, Nairobi was built in the high lands and all British government offices transferred up country back in the early 1900's, to save the woman and children from that shit."

Funny how the mind runs on. We were about to dismiss it, with that old caveat, why bother to look for logic in crazy but then I was reminded of that article/book chapter (?) written by the Comaroffs--had to be years and years ago--analyzing the meanings of a madman they had seen. He had quite a "look" Anybody remember that one? I recall some of the look he was rocking had to do with bits of flair reflecting the South African Railway. Any more detail would require me to find the piece. Anyway, that memory had me pondering the meaning of Mombasa.

If you are making up a version of reality, why that version of reality?

I guess its not a hard one. You couldn't think of a part of Kenya more "Arab", more "Muslim", and more "exotic". A set of associations most likely to channel the evil Hussein-centric view of Obama. Both Nairobi and the area of his father's family (actually, closer to Uganda than Nairobi) are more "British" and more "Christian" in their associations.

Cute that the myth developers, picked the government hospital for his birth, that so-called Ocean Provincial Hospital. There was/is a private hospital, the Mombasa Hospital run, originally, by the Holy Ghost Fathers, I believe. If we are making up stories, at least have her go to the more likely option: the place a "white woman" might, actually, have gone. But then the goal is not to invoke her whiteness in the attack on Obama, is it? Better to surpress that visual. At least they gave her a hospital. Very few Africans get that luxury.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President. Congratulations Hawaii. Perhaps we should all take a moment to remember Ann Dunham, mother and anthropologist. I think I would have enjoyed having a beer with her.