Get a new perspective

[chaletours]

@bobpixel ・・・ We stop to ask for directions.. Nsawam to Aburi road is a treacherous one but the people and the view on it is amazing. Meet Klu Ocloo the farmer originally from Baata.. He pointed us the right way.. It’s a good to to step out as creative person to explore and rediscover one’s “mojo”. Thinking of where to go tomorrow.. Akosombo or Cape coast.. Stay tuned // #ghana #akwaabachale #cnnafrica

[thesociologicalcinema]

“There’s so much kickback on [Black Lives Matter]. Here’s the evidence; it’s clear; it’s right there in front of you. We’re seeing this case after case after case, and yet, there’s still kickback on the concept that we need to look at this specifically as something that’s happening disproportionately to people who happen to be of African descent. And that’s still coming back to us as something we have to dispute and explain.”

~ Danai Gurira, speaking on October 4, 2015 at “The Fire This Time: Black in the U.S.A.” as part of this year’s New Yorker Festival.

[jr-pictures-deactivated20200725]

[anthropologicalcontext-blog]

No border = no nation?

[anthropologicalcontext-blog]

A new perspective on: reactions on the refugee crisis in Europe

Looking at Europe, there is one topic that has dominated the news for weeks: more and more refugees are fleeing from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and other countries to safer regions in Europe. Especially Germany has been the main destination because of the hospitality that they were showing but things are changing there now after a lot of critics have warned the chancellor Angela Merkel that capacities are exhausted. Right wing groups are winning more supporters. Other countries have already closed their borders. Where does this fear come from? And more important: what do the people really fear? Is it the religion? The loss of jobs and the money that is spend on refugees? The fear of being pushed out of one’s own country?                All of those reasons are mentioned by critics of the open-door approach. But unknowingly, it is also a fear of the process of globalization that has been going on for the last decennia. One of the aspects of globalization is the immense increase in migration: migration of ideologies, of goods and services and migration of people. Thanks to the Schengen Agreement, people in Europe can travel through the member-states without border controls and there are thousands of flights that bring people from the one place to the other and the end of the world in just hours. Everyone in the world can order product from all around the world: we begin our morning with coffee from Papua-New Guinea, eat Italian pasta for lunch and drink South African wine in the evening. With the emergence of the internet, it has become easier than ever to share ideas and perspectives with many people around the whole globe.                This process has brought many advantages for the people but it has also diminished the meaning of the nation. Borders become more invisible the more we act internationally instead of nationally. But exactly those borders have been an important part of people’s identity. Borders have always been something that people hold on to. They are fixed whereas other aspects that form identity – like religion, ethnicity or ideology – are rather elusive concepts. Refugees are challenging the perspective of fixed borders right now. They do not care where the one country ends and where the other starts because they seek the shelter they need as it is – and always should be! – their human right. But it makes people afraid that the one of the last identifiable aspects of their identity is neglected like this. The response to the refugee crisis could thus also be seen as a fearful reaction to the ongoing process of globalization and an identity crisis.

[sociology-of-space]

Public space is the playground of society; the public realm is the playground in which society invents itself

Bunschoten (2002)

[smhijab-deactivated20170111]

Looking over Kabul, Afghanistan on Tape Nader Khan.

[stevemccurrystudios-deactivated]

NOMADS

It is estimated that there are forty million nomads in the world. With no fixed location, they move from place to place to search for game, grazing land for livestock, edible plants, or to find customers for services they provide like blacksmiths, entertainers, etc.  

Some nomads are being forced to settle to minimize ethnic tensions, and minimize friction with landowners.  

[nicoladillon-blog]

As ethnographers we are not searching for that objective truth. We are searching for what people believe and articulate to be their truth.

AnthroDesign forum thread : More on Alice Goffman Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:42 am (PDT) . Posted by: “Lisa Jane Hardy” (via nicoladillon)

[mapiverse]

American diversity map by Langston Hughes, 1940s.

This map, issued by the Council Against Intolerance in America in 1940, shows the ethnic groups living in the United States, offering a picture of their geographical locations, typical employment, and religious commitments.

Source: Slate

[anthropologicalcontext-blog]

A little introduction to the complex meaning behind the term ‘culture’.

[anthropologicalcontext-blog]

A new perspective on the detested textile industry in Bangladesh.

A lot of terrible things have happened recently in the textile sector in Bangladesh. A fire killed and injured more than 200 people and people all over the world have seen pictures of the Rana Plaza complex, where at least 1045 people died when the building collapsed in 2013. Since then, Western media has given special attention to the mostly female employees that are working in those garment factories. A lot of this attention has been critical: working conditions are very dangerous; women were paid less than men and not enough in general etc. Most of those accusations have been made towards big European textile companies that are producing their clothes in Bangladesh. There have been public demonstrations against those companies where people demanded that they should stop producing in poorer countries so that people there could not be exploited.                But one voice has not been on the media as much as those voices of ‘experts’: the voice of the women that are working in the factories. If people would have listened, they could have heard another story: the story of a social revolution, progress and hope. Women in Bangladesh have gained much more advantages from the textile sector. First of all, they have earned a voice in the political arena. When they started to work together and fight for better rights and more money in the factories, local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) recognized the increasing capabilities of working women. Through their professional help, women learned how to use their voices politically and the trainings are paying off: after gathering experience in small elections within the garment sector, Bangladeshi women started to defend their rights as humans, women and workers. Soon, laws about safety at work and about education for girls had to be adjusted under the growing pressure. Another advantage that the collective voice brought to the women was the minimum wage. 

               But even without it, women have never experienced an economic independence before the textile industry was established in Bangladesh. With the new income – even if it is little! – they have gained more domestic freedoms. Men were not able to keep the women at home anymore; their small fingers were needed in the factories. And the hard work has payed off: even with little income, women were able to get microcredits from microfinancing banks, like the Grameen Bank, and help themselves and their families to come out of absolute poverty. After working hard and gaining some money, women from rural and conservative areas were also able to move to the city and get a better payed job or start an education, where they would learn about writing, calculating as well as health and anticonception.                However, the most important change that the textile industry has brought to Bangladesh and its women was on the social level. Twenty years before, women were not even allowed to walk alone over the streets, because of the purdah, a tradition that should protect women from other strangers, especially men. But with the entry of the factories, the social norms had to change as well. And whereas women had to marry early in their lives to get supported, they were now able to support themselves with their own salaries. Personal autonomy and a more equal relationship between men and women have brought more equity to Bangladeshi women and the future could hold even more improvements.                I think that the world should stop accusing only some companies, like Primark or KIK, and stop demanding that the factories should be closed. In order to help the women to improve their lives even more, people should put pressure on all labels – Hugo Boss and other high end labels are producing in the same or similar factories like discounter companies – and ask for reforms of work safety laws. Additionally, female worker’s voices from Bangladesh should be heard more, politically and publicly. They could tell us a whole other story than those that we hear in the media.   Any reactions? Write me!

[anthropologicalcontext-blog]

The danger of a single story - Chimamanda Adichi

Chimamanda Adichie, giving a wonderful speech at TED Talks about the danger of a single story: the danger that stereotypes became ‘reality’ for others that know less; the danger that only one story shapes others beliefs. Every single person has his or her own story that is shaped by culture, circumstances and other surroundings.  Look for these stories!

[anthrostories]

source

[anthropologydaily]

“I’m not sure how anthropology fits into the contemporary market economy. But I do know that if we don’t pay heed to what anthropological knowledge can teach us, it impoverishes social life and social relations, making us less able to find a measure of well-being in life, less able to be comfortable in our skins.”

Paul Stoller (via anthropologydaily)

[anthropologicalcontext-blog]

The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences

Ruth Benedict