becoming an anthropologist

The power of a signature

2007-12-01T10:54:00.000-06:00

The Capitalist Gene?

2007-11-28T21:24:00.000-06:00

Now Social Darwinism can apparently even explain why the Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain instead of China: In Britain it was a game of the survival of the richest according to Gregory Clark, an economist at the University of California, Davis. As the poor died off, it was the entrepreneuring capitalists who sired the new generation (just like Montezuma who was "said to to have kept 4,000 concubines") that forged ahead and created the industrial revolution.

The Smithsonian Magazine reports:
"Blame the Rich"

Going quantitative?

2007-01-23T09:03:00.000-06:00

I keep receiving emails the NSF (the US National Science Foundation) about their methods courses for anthropologists. But on closer examination the methods they promise to be teaching seem quite far from what I understand as anthropological methods: instead of participant observation, interviewing techiques and gaining rapport, the NSF offers anthropologists SPSS and social network analysis. Now, I have no problem in incorporating quantitative methods into an anthropological study, but the fact that this is the only kind of methods training the NSF seems to be offering does have me wonder whether they hope anthropologists might still be coaxed into becoming more scientificcy and just pragmatically useful, instead of the at-first-glance clearly not particularly efficient and inherently vague hanging around our fieldwork tends to primarily constitute of. But then again they may just be worried about providing anthropologists skills that would help them find a job, also outside of academia. Not an easy task, as I am coming to realize after talking with friends I studied anthropology with in undergrad.

Still I do wonder what a quantitative anthropology would look like. Probably not anything like this hilarious "the root of all eval" equation a friend of mine just indulged me with. But how can you quantify social values??

Appealing to public sentiment through billboards

2006-10-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

I was just reading the news on the Indymedia site, and found an interesting news article on it about how Aracruz, a multinational cellulose company, has resorted to different forms of media to get locals on their side against attempts to designate an 11 thousand area of land indigenous lands.

What caught my eye was the billboard Aracruz has put up, in which they contrast themselves as conveyors of progress, with FUNAI, the Brazilian federal agency for indigenous rights, who according to Aracruz is giving away the land in question Espirito Santo to a group of people whose claims to indigenous identity aren't even justified. Reminds me of James Clifford's analysis of the Mashpee case here in the US. Indeed, what are the defining characteristics of an ethnic identity? What is that makes someone a representative of a particular group? And who gets to decide it? But, also, what I think is really interesting about this case is how corporate interests and indigenous rights issues come to be fought in such media as billboards that tend to be used for either political campaigns or advertising in Brazil. Aracruz is, however, not your traditional political actor. Nor is it advertising its final product, paper, in the billboards, but instead the "advantages" locals should see the company to have brought to them.

Here's the billboard:

As the Indymedia reporter continues, billboards of course are but one of the multiple means used by Aracruz to maintain their control of the area:
"Besides the billboards, Aracruz has used local media to criminalise the indigenous movement. An example of that is the note written by the “entrepreneur and writer” Carlos Lindenberg Filho, one of the directors of Gazeta Television, a subsidiary of Globo TV in Espírito Santo. The multinational also gained the support from its workers through indirect threats of losing their jobs and the support of the local population in Aracruz County, where the people now react with fear of the supposed threats and violence from indigenous groups."

For the full article and links to people you can write and protest Aracruz's campaign:
"Aracruz uses media and billboards to get people against indigenous"

Back in Chicago

2006-08-30T15:06:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Chicago again. Time to switch my mind back into English-language mode and move house. Acabaram as ferias e e hora de voltar a rotina... On Monday it's back to the grind again. I have a paper to write on my summer fieldwork by Sept. 15th already before classes start so Regenstein library, I'm back!

Yet a new kind of Nigerian scam?

2006-08-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

Today when I opened my email I found the following email. I've been receiving so many different variations of the nigerian scam emails in the past two months that maybe I'm starting to see them even in emails that are not part of the scheme. But I dont know, this one does seem suspicious. It could be a well-executed attempt to attract a completely different audience. Instead of being directed at people that can be lured in with promises of easy money and appearances of the stupidity of their African partners, this email seems to target a perhaps even more gullible audience young kids with a strong social consciousness wanting to make the world a better place. What do you think?

+++
Dear Friend,

My name is Maurin Kinsey, female, working with (WORLD YOUTH ORGANIZATION FOR HUMAN WELFARE) California, U.S.A. We are organizing a global youths combined conferences taking place from October 4th-6th 2006 at California in the United States and in ,Dakar Senegal from October 11th-13th 2006 .In our request to invite people from various countries around the world, I went in search of e-mails on the web site as a means of contacting youths and organizations .As a result, I picked your e-mail from an N.G.O`s website.

If you are interested to participate and want to represent your country, you may contact the secretariat of the organizing committee for details and information. You should also inform them that you were invited to participate by a friend of yours (Maurin Kinsey ), who is a member of the American Youths 4 Peace and a staff of (WORLD YOUTH ORGANIZATION FOR HUMAN WELFARE).

I believe that we may have the opportunity to meet if you may be willing to participate in this event. You can also inform youths & NGOs in your country about these conferences. The benevolent donors of the Organizing Committee will provide round trip air tickets and accommodation for the period of participants? stay in the U.S., to all registered participants.

If you are a holder of passport that may require visa to enter the United States you may inform the conference secretariat at the time of registration, as the organizing committee is responsible for all visa arrangements and travel assistances. Below is the contact address of the conference secretariat:

By Tel/Fax: 1-425-671-3781 or by email: info_icorcar1@usa.com

Please reply me Via. maurin_kinsey113@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Maurin Kinsey

++++

As for my flight to São Paulo, I guess I should have waited to celebrate only after having arrived in São Paulo. The day after I had my ticket changed I received a text message from Varig telling me that my flight had been canceled and that I should call their sales center. There I was answered by an already stressed-out woman who proceeded to angrily explain to me how not only did my flight not exist but neither did I?! and that basically there was nothing I could do about it.
After I hung up with her I called the airport here where the people I had talked with the previous day had been much more friendly and helpful, and was in turn reassured that my flight did indeed exist, and that yes, no matter what, they would fly me to Sao Paulo on the 25th, whether it was on a Varig plane or another company. Go figure...

The joys of flying...

2006-08-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

... or perhaps rather the zen of dealing with the pragmatics of airtravel, ie tickets and schedules, airlines etc.

I’m starting to accept the fact that flying from one place to another is no easy matter, at least when it is me flying. It seems to me now that just about every single flight I have taken over the past couple of years has involved some kind of problem or other. The first time I flew back from Brazil to Finland on Christmas Eve in 2001 my flight from Rio to Europe got canceled – after quite a lot of shuffling around I ended up in London where I caught the last flight to Helsinki before a 2-day holiday break for all airtravel to the airport. Last year when leaving from Helsinki to Chicago, someone accidentally pinched my passport and tickets from the airport security conveyor belt – some talk, and quite a few desperate smiles, and I arrived in Chicago on schedule without any other travel documents except a faded photocopy of my passport. As for my trip here I have already told you about the extra 24 hours it ended up taking. So the fact that I have spent the last 2 days running around Salvador, from one travel agency to the airport and back and then to yet another agency and once more to the airport shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to me. Varig is still having significant problems with their flights, though they claim that things will be in order in just a few more days. But at least they are flying daily to Sao Paulo from Salvador again, which in the end saved me my ticket. Of course, typical of me, wanting to make things extra complicated I wasnt willing to take the alternative flight schedule on another airline offered to me by American Airlines with whom my ticket is registered. Instead I told them that since I would be needing to change flights anyway I would like to go to Sao Paulo 4 days earlier to see a friend. Apparently my ticket wasnt supposed to allow stop-overs at all. In the end though with a little jeitinho and many wonderful people (a total stranger even allowed me to use the internet in his office when I couldnt find an internet cafe by the travel agency), and plenty of sitting on the bus riding around Salvador (just to give you an idea the airport is 1,5 -2 hours busdrive from my house), I got my ticket! The orixas must be thinking kindly of me. So I’ll be flying into Sao Paulo on the 25th and then home to Chicago on the 28th, arriving there on the 29th just in time to move house before the end of the month. (Jeez! I dont even want to think about that yet.) And now I’m back home back to work on transcribing interviews and about to celebrate my ticket having worked out in the end with a piece of bolo de aipim, my favorite cake here made with manioc.

Shaming the aggressor

2006-08-10T08:23:00.000-05:00

This Monday President Lula signed a new law for the “Enfrentimento da Violência Doméstica”. The news papers here hail the law as a significant step forward in the fight against domestic violence directed at women. Before a man caught beating his wife could walk away from the situation with minimal repercussions. Typically he would only be required to provide her with the cesta básica, an amount of rice, beans and other basic food stuffs defined by the Brazilian government as the minimum for a family. But now with the new law the aggressor is suspect to penalties of up to three years in prison. Interestingly the impact of this new law is considered not take effect so much through the length of the prison sentences but rather the shame it will put the men in amongst their friends. Apparently the previous legislation allowed these men to get away with domestic violence without anybody in their communities finding out about it, whereas the new law in sentencing them to prison would make the situation public. As Jacqueline Leite from the Centro Humanitário de Apoio à Mulher (Center for assistance for women) explained to A Tarde reporters: “Até então, o homen condenado pagava uma cesta básica e ninguém ficava sabendo. Agora eles podem ser até ridiculadas em frente aos amigos por causa da sua violência” [Until now the mand condemned for domestic violence paid a cesta basica and no-one would come to know about it. Now they may be even ridiculed in front of their friends because of their violence].

A similar view of a prison sentence in itself not being sufficient for stopping crime is central also to another campaign here. This year the local electricity company Coelba has taken the reduction of illegitimate use of electricity as one of its prime prerogatives. Ads on the penal consequences of fazer gato [plugging oneself into someone else’s power line] proliferate in the newspapers, tv and billboards. But like the ideology behind Jacqueline Leite’s comments, the final impetus of Coleba’s campaign is on the shame being imprisoned would bring to one’s family. Spending time in a Brazilian prison as people here are well-aware of does not constitute an enjoyable experience, but it seems to be the more indirect consequence of shame one would bring to one’s family if condemned to prison that at least is seen to function as more efficiently to impede crime.

A room with a view

2006-07-28T14:18:00.000-05:00

Bahia de Todos os Santos, from my bedroom window

life in Salvador

2006-07-26T18:59:00.000-05:00

It feels strange to think I've only been here a bit over a month if only for the fact that I have already moved twice since I arrived in June in Paripe. Now I am staying in my friend Marcio's wonderful apartment in Dois de Julho, right in the center of Salvador by my capoeira school and in the same neighborhood I used to live in when I was here two years ago. For the first time in years I'm living all by myself, with my own kitchen and living room and even a perfect view to the Bay of All Saints - what joy!

Mostly, however, I have been pulled not only into my old routines of living here in Salvador but also the religious activities of the people I have come to know at the candomble temples I have been visiting and hanging out at. My candomble dance teacher Ana has taken me under her wings inviting me along to the various candomble ceremonies she has been going to, and my friend Chorão's mom in Paripe has been just wonderful in trying to put me in contact with the people she knows involved with the religion. So at least over the weekends when people are not at work I'm occupied pretty much around the clock with candomble.

Its already Wednesday and I still feel I'm only just now recovering from last weekend. After a fun Friday night of capoeira and samba at an event organized by Contramestres Poloca, Paulinha and Janja at their school, on Saturday morning I headed straight to a terreiro [a candomble temple] that was to be inaugurated that evening in Aguas Claras, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Salvador. I spent the day there sitting around hanging out with Ana and the other people I know from the terreiro she is part of. They had all been invited to come and help out in the opening ceremony, to play the drums and participate in the singing and dancing as well as serving as mediums for their guardian orixas. The ceremony itself started after 10, and was indeed beautiful, as were my friends' orixas, Oxum's [the orixa of beauty and sweet waters] dance which represents her washing herself in a river is always impressive in its beauty but this time Ossain [the orixa of healing herbs] may have outdone the two Oxums with his elaborate dance moves representing the collection of medicinal herbs and their preparation.

I didnt get home until 6.30 in the morning, and after a few hours of rest I was already on my way again to the next terreiro. Chorão's uncle had invited me to the terreiro he is part of to a Saida de Iao, the public ceremony that ends the initiation period in Candomble. I was thrilled by the opportunity especially because of the paper I wrote for my Anthropology of the Body class on initiation. After having only read accounts of the saida I finally had the chance to witness the ceremony myself. And yes, I was impressed.

And then to top things off I spent Monday night at yet another terreiro observing a smaller cleansing ceremony conducted by a caboclo spirit. I finally also had the chance to discuss my research with one of these entities and at least this one promised to try to help me out. So, Matt and Neil, I guess I have my metapragmatics of interviewing spirits sorted out for one case at least ;)

I haven't only been deeply impressed by the ceremonies I've been going to though, my mind has been working too while writing up notes on them and things that I have seen now and on my earlier visits have started to come together and make more sense. Of course at the same time I am coming to realize more and more how little I do understand and know about candomble. But I guess its a good place to be especially since I'm still trying to figure out what to focus on in my work.

Fieldwork in the city

2006-07-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I bumped into a fellow anthropologist and friend who is also doing his research in Candomble here in Bahia, but in a very different setting. Unlike me here in urban Salvador, the capitol of the state, with its population of almost 3 million, he lives on top of a hill in semi-rural Cachoeira across from the people he works with. Seeing how he lives, and coming back to Salvador to try to figure out where to live in the city, really made me realize how different our fieldwork situations are. Unless I decide to work with people from only one temple, which is not what I have been planning to do the people I will be working with will be scattered all around the large city (and besides even the people who frequent one temple tend to travel to it from opposite ends of the city). So it seems that much of my time will be spent sitting on buses and the phone setting up meetings, or alternately moving from one neighborhood to another always trying to spend as much time with the people who live in the same neighborhood as I happen to be situated in at the moment. The first week and a half I was here I lived at a friend's mom's house in Paripe. She is initiated into Candomble and in result I had the opportunity to spend all my time there talking Candomble, but also, I didnt have much of a chance to do anything else. Paripe is located at the far end of Salvador, an hour's bus ride from the center. When you're there, you pretty much are there. In fact it wasnt until I managed to find a place in the center that I could really get down to contacting the other Candomble people I know here in Salvador.

But working in a city has its pros too. Most importantly of course because of my particular research interests on how and why people get involved in particular Candomble temples when faced with the broad variety provided by an urban context. But also simply because of the kind of life I can live here. Only this week there is a large DIASPORA conference in town that includes 7 African heads of state, Wangari Maathai, Stevie Wonder, Youssou N'Dour and many others as its guests, an African film festival, and plenty of concerts with people from all over the African diaspora performing. And on other weeks there are other fascinating things. And for once, unlike in Chicago where most of my time is spent in the library, I have the chance to enjoy these opportunities. Its wonderful to be going to the movies and the theatre again, training capoeira and reading fiction and even the newspaper in the mornings again. And of course just spending more time with friends too.
And in spite of these activities I have still been getting work on my research done too. For example I spent last weekend helping out and observing the preparations for a ceremony for Exu, known as a trickster messenger and mediator between humans and the orixa gods - probably one of the most impressive experiences I have had researching Candomble so far. I got to help out in cleaning the birds that were sacrificed for Exu and later on join in the sambas. I must have plucked the feathers off of at least 6 chicken last Saturday, so if I ever have to kill a chicken and prepare it for food at least I know how to. - And today I finally have my first interview scheduled for the afternoon, with many more to come in the next couple of weeks, before I plan to take some time off to do some traveling outside of Salvador. Things are going well, and life feels good.

Goal!!!

2006-06-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

Here I am back in my beloved Salvador, but what an adventure it was to get here. I think I´m still trying to get used to the idea that I actually made it. After a crazy last few days of packing, not just my stuff for here but the apartment as well, since I´ll be moving to a new place when I get back to chicago, i finally made it to O´Hare, only to miss my plane by 5 minutes, and end up being re-routed onto one leaving town at dawn to Miami. All ok, I thought, maybe I was leaving in too much of a hurry any way, but then when I got to Miami and boarded the next plane that ended up not leaving at all because of some technical problem, I began to wonder if something or someone was trying to keep me from leaving the country at all.. Especially when even my last flight almost got canceled in Sao Paulo due to problems with the airline. But, I´m here now and all is better than well. My friends rushed me to Cachoeira on Friday to spend Sao Joao weekend there. We danced samba and reggae till dawn and had a great time (hardly any forro though, which was strange since Sao Joao traditionally is all about forro). And now I´m back in Salvador where the streets are filled with people in their yellow and green clothes cheering Brazil to victory. I´m so happy to be back here! And tomorrow I get to work on my research again too. I´ve been invited to a ceremony for Xango, the orixa god of justice and thunder. He is often syncretized with Saint Peter, whose day it is tomorrow, so in addition to the Candomble there will no doubt be a bonfire.

leaving traces

2006-06-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

sitting in the library working on papers can be pretty isolating. like i wrote a couple of weeks ago, its a strange kind of sociality. you sit there with the same people days on end but dont really ever end up talking with them directly; except for the occasional exception usually inspired by some kind of romantic interest. once i had a fellow-stranger try to entice me into conversation with a muffin which was sweet :) but for the most part your impressions on other people come to be composed by the traces they leave: the books they are reading, the webpages you catch a glimpse of them browsing on. but you never talk, unless you come across each other at a party or over the internet maybe.

i have been really excited by how i have suddenly managed to come in contact with anthropologists and anthropo-philes in Norway (such as Lorenz and Tiram , Canada and even my old office mate, Antti Leppänen, at the University of Helsinki through my blog (he put up a picture of the office we shared in Helsinki on his blog and to my surprise i noticed myself longing for the time i worked there). and writing about derrida's ideas of traces (in his Différance paper) for my final paper on Candomble initiation has had me thinking about the ways in which the internet allows us to connect with people on the basis of traces they leave on the web. the interesting thing though is how, at least here at u of c, important such traces on the web seem to be for any kind of sociality - more than half of the people i know at the u of c network with their peers online whether it is through friendster, myspace or facebook, and not even to mention to stories i have heard of people meeting other u of c students through such online dating sites nerve.com, craigs list or match.com.

just last week i came across this mandala drawing in the quad, in which the artist, who identified himself as a socially awkward and shy person, invited any one who found the drawing and the text attached to it interesting to enter into email contact with him

the ethics of interviewing spirits

2006-06-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

getting irb approval for anthropological research is complicated enough as it is considering the process hasnt really been designed for participant observation at - how do you submit one and a half years of informal interview scripts before even getting to the field?? - but what if some of your "informants" turn out to be spirits possessing human bodies? surprisingly it is irb that is suddenly having me think over these questions. do i think that the spirits that possess people in candomble are really real, and thus non-human subjects that dont fall under irb at all, or are they just a kind of delusion, a bout of hysteria that originates in the possessed human agent? and even if i believe that the different spirit entities exist, what does the irb think? or since it is anthropological research should we rather just take the "native's point of view"? if candomble adepts consider the spirits to be non-human agents, shouldnt we simply bide by their views? i'm happy to see that in fact this turns out to be the irb's stance on this issue too, at least in this case... i guess i'm lucky to be at the u of c, where we just happen to have such a wonderful person in the irb machine taking care of anthropologist's applications, and who also has a good idea of the occasional futility of such bureaucratic processes. Here's his great response to my query on teh status of spirits as anthropological subjects:

"It is an interesting question and is quite
telling about the bureaucratization of ethics that such considerations are
necessary. My sense is that the spirits you are discussing do not fall
under IRB review. The IRB reviews only research involving 'human
subjects'--although the spirits are living (in the sense of active agents
in the world), they do not consider themselves human and are not considered
human by the individuals whom they are possessing. Since they are not
human, your interactions with them don't fall under IRB review (although
your interactions with mediums and other human participants in possession
ceremonies do). That said, it might be a good idea to get their
permission, as one never wants to anger spirits, whether in the context of
research or as a general rule."

Licence to kill... with laughter

2006-06-09T14:50:00.000-05:00

Yet again youtube saves my day at the library. Thanks Mary for pointing me to this wonder!
Double-O Hasselhoff if you wish to chuckle with me:

timezones and timescapes...

2006-06-01T16:52:00.000-05:00

i just realized my email account had been set to central pacific, pacific ocean that is, time for who knows how long. it's funny how disconcerting that can be, especially on a grey day like today when looking out the window doesnt necessarily help much in trying to figure out the time. but it is kind of cool too. somehow, for a second at least, just seeing i could set my account to for example Rarotonga time makes that side of the world feel a bit more tangible, as if i had a kind of a connection to there. Appadurai talks about ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes as alternatives to geographically constructed cultural spheres. It makes me wonder if we could talk about time in the same terms? Even though timezones technically are connected to particular geographical areas, our location doesnt have to stop us from abiding by another time zone. Stock brokers do this all the time, as do call centers in India. And I have to only think about the surreal experience of crossing the border from Kazakstan to Western China a few years back with the first country taking its lead from Moscow time and the latter Beijing. An enactment of Bourdieu's embodied symbolic power at its clearest.

One more week to go...

2006-05-31T16:32:00.000-05:00

As strange at it seems, I'm holed in at the library again with my fellow commiserators busy writing my final papers - Its a weird kind of sociality. We see each other every day, but we never talk, we dont even know each others names and we can only guess at what the other might be studying on the basis of the books they have in front of them. But still I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds comfort in seeing the same familiar faces one day after an another.

I dont know where this last quarter went though, it feels like I only just finished my final papers for winter quarter. But as the overwhelming heat and my sunburned shoulders tell me, it is summer now, and sooner than I realize I'll be back in Brazil spending my time dancing samba and forro, playing capoeira and of course trying to immerse myself a bit deeper into the world of candomble. Not a bad life at all...

Until then though I have to figure out how to put Derrida, Massumi, de Certeau and Bourdieu into dialogue with each other and Candomble initiation, give an hour long presentation on qualia in Candomble, and write a paper on the ways discourses of race have affected representations of Candomble, as well as find somebody to sublet my room for the summer...
(Candomble initiation à la Pierre Verger -->)

Hard Rock Hallelujah!

2006-05-20T17:21:00.000-05:00

After years as the bottom of the line in the Eurovision contest Finland finally made it to the top today, and with a band of heavy metal monsters. Apparently we just hadnt found our true voice before inspite of such wonderful kitsch compilations as Armi's and Danny's I wanna love you tender that I posted for you down below.

When Lordi, the Finnish heavy metal band which members dress up in monster masks and carry chainsaws onto the stage, was first selected as Finland's representative, both concerned Finns and Greeks, the organizers of this years contest, turned to Finland's president Tarja Halonen, asking her to veto the decision. But the tone has changed now. As Helsingin Sanomat reports the monster's have come to be considered "cute" mascots for the whole competition.

Here's the video for the winning song "Hard Rock Hallelujah!

If you want to sing along the lyrics are available here

Emotional support animals

2006-05-14T10:10:00.000-05:00

I dont quite know what to think of this. Todays New York Times had a report on what are known as Emotional support animals. Apparently now you can claim the right to bring an animal with you any where by simply saying that you need it for emotional support. In doing this you are supported by the law and also due to the disabilities act no-one can ask you for proof that your pet really is a certified support animal. On the one hand, it makes sense, I dont doubt at all that animals can help people with emotional anxieties, but how would you feel if the next time you boarded a plane, the person next to you was accompanied by an emotional support goat or duck?

To read the full article: Wagging the dog, and a Finger

Writing on Nigerian Scams

2006-05-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

This Friday I presented my very first conference paper. Its funny how nervous you can get even when you are talking to a mostly familiar audience, but everything went well, I actually even got people laughing several times. And now that I've had a couple days to calm down and let the experience sink in, I'm realizing that I really enjoyed it. So, now I'm all up for starting to compose new paper abstracts.

The paper itself was on the Nigerian Scam emails we all keep having our inboxes filled with. I finally read through one of them last February and was totally fascinated by the ways in which it played on stereotypical understandings of Africa. I started collecting all the emails I was receiving and doing some reseach into them - the U of C spam filters are really not that good, so I've had plenty data to work on. Did you know that such scams constitute the third largest industry in Nigeria, after oil and drugs? Yes, people really do fall for these in one way or other, though it seems like most of them think of themselves as conning the con-man only to realize that it was working the other way around after all. Its great stuff! Just look at this email sent to me by Princess Mawa. This is actually the one that first caught my eye in February, and that I analyzed in my paper.

****
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:33:01 +0100
From: "princessaba" Add To Address Book
Subject: Dear your kind attention please
To:

My Dear.
I greet you in the name of our lord whom we serve.
My name is Mrs.Princess Mawa.I am a widow and a mother of a girl without a male Child. I know you will see my letter to you as anembarrassment considering the fact that we do not know ourselves. I plead with you to be patient with me and give me audience because I found myself in a situation that I dont have any option than to contact you,so that you can help me in this problem I found myself into, so I feel very pleased to contact you for your assistance and business relationship. I live in Cote D'Ivoire with my only Daughter. My late husband was a loving, caring and hard working Business man who deals on OIL AND PETROLEUM BUSINESS but was killed by hired armed assasins.there is currently a civil war going on in Cote Ivoire where we are presently residing and thus my writing you this mail. Before the sudden death of my beloved husband, and father of my only daughter, my late husband intended to make an establishment through the assistance of his FOREIGN PARTNER outside A!
frica with the sum of US$10,000,000.00 (TEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) but unfortunately he died before this proposed venture without even submitting the particulars of his FOREIGN INVESTOR whom the money was to be transferred into his account who is the BENEFICIARY of the money.Following his death, his family members insisted that I am not entitled to his property (Assets and money) since I am a woman and my offspring is all girl as I do not have a male child for my late husband claiming that it is what our tradition entails. Well, because of this barbaric traditional law here in COTE D'IVOIRE which doesn't permit a woman to inherit her Husbands property incase of death if she has no male child, the relatives of my late Husband are expected by tradition to take over the management of his business and other properties including myself who automatically becomes a wife to one of his immediate brothers. Unfortunately to this wicked family members of my late Husband, t!
he US$10,000,000.00 which my late Husband intended to use in establish

ing a business through his FOREIGN PARTNER ABROAD was deposited in a Security Company In Europe named Holland unknown to his family members. I and his lawyer are the only ones aware of this money, so I and my late Husbands Lawyer have discussed this matter with a Staff of the security company that we want this money transferred claimed by you so that I can nleave this country with my only daughter to come and meet with you in your country where we wish to stay for the rest of our lives to enable me take care of my only daughters educational needs since my husband's family members vehemently opposed the furtherance of her education. According to the staff of the security company the best way to secure this funds is to proceed to their company in Holland to do the necessary required things there and claim the funds from them on my behalf, after which you clear and claim it from them it will be used for business establishment subject to the Advise of you on the kind of Invest!
ment to go into with the funds. Now at this juncture, I therefore to enable us forward it to the security company in Holland as my beneficiary whom will claim the funds from them on my behalf As soon as I get your positive response, I shall provide you with all the rest necessary detail for the conclussion of the transaction.including the documents of the deposit of the money which is in my position now. After due consultation with my Lawyer, I have decided to to give you 20% of the total money as a reward for your sincere assistance while the remaining 80% of the money will be put into any lucrative investment of your choice which of course will be under your Management and control. kindly send throug my email, your personal details as requested above including your contact information for easy communication.Please for confidentiality and secrecy because at this moment I cannot communicate freely with you through our telephone number in the house, kindly contact me throu!
gh email and I will call you when you give me your telephone contact.I

t is important I inform you that my late Husbands Attorney has assured me that he will handle the legelity of the transaction with you to the end of it so be ensured that the transaction is 100% risk free and successful. Thanking you for your anticipated co-operation and urgent response.Note that in your inability to travel to Europe Holland to conclude the transaction we can negociate with the Security Company's Staffs,so that they can deliver the funds to your verious destination.
Remain Blessed.
Yours Respectfully,
Mrs.Princess Mawa.

***

In case you want to read the whole paper, just email me and I'll send it to you.

"Wanna love you tender"

2006-04-15T19:15:00.000-05:00

Who said Finns cant dance?
A good friend of mine just sent me the link to this 80s masterpiece by Armi and Danny:

Verbal virtuosity Southern Illinois style

2006-03-27T18:15:00.000-06:00

Here are some souvenirs from our roadtrip down to the Americana of Southern Illinois, an anthropologist would really not need to go far here to find a fascinating field for studying religion and language. And if you settled in the local Cairo, Vienna, Atlanta or Nashville you could even fool your fellow anthropologists into thinking that you had left the Midwest.

Other immemorable phrases from protestant church boards included:
Paxton: "If God is your co-pilot, switch seats."
Rantoul: "Is what you live for worth dying for?"
Centralia: "Heaven - No pain, all gain."
Richview: "Faith will lead you on."
Nashville (yes, in IL): "Love will endure if it is kept pure."
And: "Be hopeful with a real basis for hope."
Pinckneyville: "Thank God for the "son" shine."
And: "Every Saint has a Past. Every Sinner has a Future."
And: "Get an After-Life"
Murphysboro: "Love is a verb before it is a noun."
Alto Pass: "God's love is so goooood!"
And: "God bless you and those whom you love."
Springfield: "Life is fragile, handle with prayer."

And here's a view from Cairo, Illinois, a town situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississipi rivers that has seen its better days. According to my Illinois guide book its founders thought the river valley resembled Egypt. Maybe, but now with more than two thirds of the town's buildings falling apart it felt more like a Wild West ghost town to me.

March against the war in Irak tonight

2006-03-18T16:24:00.000-06:00

Today the war in Irak has gone on for three full years, and for the first time Chicagoans are allowed to march legally down the Magnificient Mile to protest against it.

Assembly at Walton and State starting 6pm, ready to leave at 7.

More info at ChicagoActions.org.

Are you a nerd?

2006-03-18T16:14:00.000-06:00

I guess this is kind of the grad student sitting in the library on a saturday afternoon for the 10th day in a row must-do test. I saw it on Matt's blog who had seen it on a friend's blog, who found it I dont know where.

If you want to test how much of a nerd, geek or dork you are, you can find the test here.

So now I know, I'm a pure nerd, but I guess I wouldnt have needed a test to tell me that.

Here are my test results:
Pure Nerd
78 % Nerd, 8% Geek, 13% Dork

For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Beware THE predator?!

2006-03-15T10:38:00.000-06:00

My cousin just sent me an e-mail titled "crucial tips, especially for ladies" that contains a 9-point list of advice for avoiding THE predator. No wonder women here are scared to walk outside alone in the evenings. They're constantly warned of THE predator who is waiting out there for them to let their guard down. Last year a friend told me that she had been told by a self-defense instructor to always hold her keys in her hand with the sharp ends of the keys sticking out of the fist when walking home alone at night, apparently they were supposed to work well as a weapon against the rapists and serial killers who just waiting for the opportunity to attack.

But who is the PREDATOR? And if he, or she?, really exists, wouldnt a better means to protect oneself be to stay out of desolate places? At least that's the advice I've been given in Brazil when going into sketchier neighborhoods. When bus stations and parking lots get empty, that's when it can get dangerous, because there would be no-one to help you if something did happen. But this strategy obviously wouldnt work if everbody is so scared of each other that they wouldnt come to another person's help even if there was a need.

Last fall we read a book by a UofC professor, Danielle Allen, in which she advocated for decreasing people's fears and mistrust through talking to strangers. At the time I thought her proposal sounded silly (also I found her more general assimilationist politics disturbing), but maybe she has a point. I'm not sure being more friendly to strangers would solve the problem, but at least it might help some people to realize that not every other person they encounter on the street is a rapist or serial killer.

Dont take me wrong, I agree that its better to be safe than sorry, but such paranoia as this that basically tells every single time they set foot out of the house alone, they will be in danger of rape, abduction or murder breeds more fear, panic, mistrust and even hatred than anything else.

Here are the "crucial tips":

1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do: The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!
2. Learned this from a tourist guide in New Orleans. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away from you....chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!
3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.
4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc. DON'T DO THIS!) The predator will be watching you, and this
is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.
a. If someone is in the car with a gun to your head DO NOT DRIVE OFF, repeat: DO NOT DRIVE OFF! Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it. As soon as the car crashes bail out and run. It is better than having them find your body in a remote location.
5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
A.) Be aware: look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat.
B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.
C.) Look at the car parked on the d river's side of your vehicle, and the passenger side. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may
want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out.
IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)
6. ALWAYS take the elevator
instead of the stairs. (Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at NIGHT!)
7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; And even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, Preferably ! in a zig -zag pattern!
8. As women, we are
always trying to be sympathetic: STOP. It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked "for help" into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim.
9. Another Safety Point: Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird. The police told her "Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door."
The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, "We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door." He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of
their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby's cries outside their doors when they're home alone at night.

And just in case the recepient of the email hasnt been convinced of the existence of the predator by now, the list concludes with the following:

Please pass this on and DO NOT open the door for a crying baby ----This e-mail should probably be taken seriously because the Crying Baby theory was mentioned on America's Most Wanted this past Saturday when they profiled the serial killer in Louisiana.

musings on becoming american

2006-03-10T16:32:00.000-06:00

A friend I hadnt heard from for a few years sent me an email out of the blue asking me how I was doing. When I told him I had been living in Chicago for almost two years now working on my PhD, his first question was whether I'd become American. My first reaction was of course not, but now, maybe because I should really be working on one of my final papers for this quarter, I find myself wondering over this. Maybe I have become more American than I have realized, I have definitely changed in many ways since I moved away from Finland. But does it mean that I am less Finnish and more American now then I was before, or is it perhaps the other way round? We just read about Bourdieu's ideas of the habitus in our systems class, and I think he is right in many ways. But then again how do you define what constitutes American or Finnish habitus? On the one hand I still find eating donuts for breakfast strange and feel myself clumsy at small talk, but on the other hand I carry my laptop around with me everywhere, tend to eat sandwiches instead of a hot meal for lunch, and just this week bought myself a large travel mug so I can carry my coffee or tea around with me, just to name a few things that seemed to me as very American, or at least not Finnish, when I first moved here. Also, as you have probably noticed it is the New York Times instead the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat I tend to follow, and the language I choose to write in is English, but still I am sure to mention my Finnishness to anybody even a slight bit interested in the fact, but maybe even that is not so non-American considering how many of my "American" friends also emphasize their European roots...

Happy Women's Day!

2006-03-08T12:34:00.000-06:00

the "strangeness" of muslim sexuality

2006-03-08T12:04:00.001-06:00

It's striking how pertinent our class readings seem to be in respect of this weeks media coverage. Here we are reading Edward Said's Orientalism for Systems and the NYtimes publishes a report on Muslim dating in New York, also as a good friend of mine told me NPR just aired a program on "temporary" marriage in Iran yesterday. What is it that keeps Western writers and readers interested in muslim sexuality, whether it is presenting portrayals like Flaubert's on oriental women as sensuous but passive and submissive, or yesterday's New York Times' on the incompatibility of Islamic ideas of marriage with life in the modern world, or conceptualizations of imam-sanctioned forms of prostitution in the Middle East? Is it yet another way in which Americans try to posit Muslims as the ultimate Other, fundamentally different from ourselves? Probably, but I think there is more to it. Sexuality and marriage in general seems to be an increasingly fraught issue here in the US. Just think about the debates over same-sex marriage, rights to abortion or sex-education in schools. South Dakota only just passed a bill banning abortion in its limits and another national one seems to be in the workings that would allow pharmacists to deny the purchase of prescription medication such as the day-after pill to clients on the basis of moral reasons. But fundamentalist Christian doctrines are hard to criticize in the media when they have such strong support here in the US. Muslims on the other hand seem to provide the perfect target onto which we can project our frustrations over attempts defined in religious terms to impinge on people's sexual autonomy.

language equals race 2

2006-03-01T12:08:00.000-06:00

Then again if we do take the claim that speaking a particular way constitutes the essence of being a member of a particular race, instead of melanine transplants (recall Michael Jackson's sad attempts) we only need to become proficient in the language.

Thanks to our Language in Culture professor Michael Silverstein who just sent our class this wonderful introduction to Chicago slang I now give you the means to begin your progress towards becoming racially Chicagoan.

CHICAGO SLANG
1. Grachki (grach'-key): Chicagoese for "garage key" as in, "Yo, Theresa, waja do wit da grachki? Howmy supposta cut da grass if I don't git intada grach?"
2. Sammich: Chicagoese for sandwich. When made with sausage, it's a sassage sammich; when made with shredded beef, it's an Italian Beef sammich, a local delicacy consisting of piles of spicy meat in a perilously soggy bun.
3. Da: This article is a key part of Chicago speech, as in "Da Bears" or "Da Mare" -- the latter denoting Richard M. Daley, or Richie, as he's often called.
4. Jewels: Not family heirlooms or a tender body region, but a popular name for one of the region's dominant grocery store chains. "I'm goin' to Jewels to pick up some sassage."
5. Field's: Marshall Field, a prominent Chicago department store. Also Carson Pirie Scott, another major department store chain, is simply Called "Carson's."
6. Tree: The number between two and four. "We were lucky dat we only got tree inches of snow da udder night."
7. Over by dere: Translates to "over by there," a way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at Jewels down on Kedzie, over by dere."
8. Kaminski Park: The mispronounced name of the ballpark where the Chicago White Sox (da Sox) play baseball. Comiskey Park was recently renamed U.S. Cellular Field (da Cell)
9. Frunchroom: As in, "Get outta da frunchroom wit dose muddy shoes." It's not the "parlor." It's not the "living room." In the land of the bungalow, it's the "frunchroom," a named derived, linguists believe, from "front room."
10. Use: Not the verb, but the plural pronoun 'you!' "Where use goin'?"
11. Downtown: Anywhere near The Lake, south of The Zoo (Lincoln Park Zoo) and north of Soldier Field.
12. The Lake: Lake Michigan. (What other lake is there?) It's often used by local weathermen, "cooler by The Lake."
13. Braht: Short for Bratwurst. "Gimme a braht wit kraut."
14. Goes: Past or present tense of the verb "say." For example, "Den he goes, 'I like this place'!"
15. Guys: Used when addressing two or more people, regardless of each individual's gender.
16. Pop: A soft drink. Don't say "soda" in this town. "Do ya wanna canna pop?"
17. Sliders: Nickname for hamburgers from White Castle, a popular Midwestern burger chain. "Dose sliders I had last night gave me da runs."
18. The Taste: The Taste of Chicago Festival, a huge extravaganza in Grant Park featuring samples of Chicagoland cuisine which takes place each year around the Fourth of July holiday.
19. "Jeetyet?": Translates to, "Did you eat yet?"
20. Winter and Construction: Punch line to the joke, "What are the two seasons in Chicago?"
21. Cuppa Too-Tree: is Chicagoese for "a couple, two, three" which really means "a few." For example, "Hey Mike, dere any beerz left in da cooler over by dere?" "Yeh, a cuppa too-tree."
22. 588-2300: Everyone in Chicago knows this commercial jingle and the carpet company you'll get if you call that number -- Empire!
23. Junk Dror: You will usually find the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen filled to the brim with miscellaneous, but very important, junk.
24. Southern Illinois: Anything south of I-80.
25. Expressways: The Interstates in the immediate Chicagoland area are usually known just by their 'name' and not their Interstate number: the Dan Ryan ("da Ryan"), the Stevenson, the Kennedy (da "Kennedy"), the Eisenhower (da "Ike"), and the Edens (just "Edens" but Da Edens" is acceptable).
26. Gym Shoes: The rest of the country may refer to them as sneakers or running shoes but Chicagoans will always call them gym shoes!

language equals race?

2006-03-01T09:01:00.000-06:00

It was only yesterday that we were reading James Clifford's account of a land-claims trial in the 1980's in which the landrights of an Indian group calling themselves the Mashpee was questioned on the basis of them not being able to provide proof of their existence as a tribe. In the end the case fell apart because their continuing existence as a biologically self-perpetuating group with a language and "culture" of its own could not be proven. Clifford's point obviously was to point to the problematic understanding employed in the trial of culture as some kind of tangible essence that "real", authentic groups possess. Thus, the question became wether the MAshpee could prove their possession of some kind of Mashpeeness..

Well, apparently the US legal system is still in dire straits in dealing with questions of culture, race and language. Today, the New York Times reports that a federal court case has been filed against Arizona Spanish and Indian-language DUI court programs. The plaintiff, Andrew P. Thomas, Maricopa County attorney, claims that such language-based treatment intended to aid non-English speaking people constitutes racial segregation. Whether or not people in the Spanish-language and Indian courts actually receive smaller sentences is of course a question of its own, but the equation of language and race Thomas founds is attack on makes me cringe.

A Test of Ethnic Courts for Drunken Drivers

The sorry state of US propaganda

2006-02-15T11:58:00.000-06:00

Not only did they get busted for buying off Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-US propaganda, it appears that the US propaganda machine has fallen prey to its own specialists ability to create convincing webs of deception and lies. According to today's New York Times one of the main contractors of the US propaganda project in Iraq, the Lincoln Group is but a sham company in itself created as an attempt to take advantage of the current overflow of government funds for inculcating pro-US sentiment in Iraq.

David S. Cloud reports:
"Lincoln won its contracts after claiming to have partnerships with major media and advertising companies, former government officials with extensive Middle East experience, and ex-military officers with background in intelligence and psychological warfare, the documents show. But some of those companies and individuals say their associations were fleeting.

Lincoln has also run into problems delivering on work for the military after its partnerships with more experienced firms fell apart, company documents and interviews indicate. The firm has continued to bid for new business from the Pentagon and has hired two Washington lobbying firms to promote itself on Capitol Hill and with the Bush administration.

"They appear very professional on the surface, then you dig a little deeper and you find that they are pretty amateurish," said Jason Santamaria, a former Marine officer whom the company once described as a "strategic adviser."

I don't know if I should laugh or cry. How can the world's most influential country be so amazingly inept at checking the credentials of even its own propaganda department? No wonder they've managed to get away with basing the whole war in Iraq on bogus intelligence reports.

For the whole story:
Quick Rise for Purveyors of Propaganda in Iraq - NY Times Feb. 15

Life is like riding a bicycle...

2006-02-09T12:22:00.000-06:00

I've been feeling a bit down for the past couple of days, overwhelmed with work, worried about where I actually am taking myself with what I am doing with my life, disillusioned with how few people there are out there who actually seem to care about anything, and then today I receive an email from an old friend I hadnt heard from for a long time, and another one with the following poem by Bruno Lais de Assis. Things are back in their right perspective again now. Life feels good, the sun is shining and I'm finally managing to be excited about something we're reading for Systems - we're reading Geertz now.

Como sobreviver na caminhada da vida
Bruna Lais de Assis

A vida é assim mesmo: lágimas, sorrisos, lágrimas, sorrisos, lágrimas, sorrisos, lágrimas, lágrimas e lágrimas.
Mas nesta caminhada só sobrevivem aqueles que conseguem fazer sua própria felicidade.
Aprenda a fazer a sua. E não se esqueça: a vida é como andar de bicicleta, só cai quem pára de pedalar. E quem pára é pisado por aqueles que caminham sem parar.
Todo mal tem um lado bom, depende de como você o vê...

Maybe its a bit cheesy, and I'm not sure that I fully agree with the idea that if you dont help yourself, others will just run over your, but still it managed to help me pull myself together today and stop moping around, and, well, I'm partial to any references to biking. I really like the idea of life being like riding a bike, you have to keep pedalling if you want it to take the form you want.

Here's a cursory translation for those of you who dont read Portuguese:

How to survive on the path of life
This is what life is: tears, smiles, tears, smiles, tears, smiles, tears, tears and tears.
But on this journey only those who can make their own happiness will survive. Learn to make your own. Just dont forget: life is like riding a bicycle, only those who stop pedalling fall. And who stops pedalling will end up being run over by those who dont stop.
Everything bad has a good side, it depends on how you look at it...

Lets study kinship!

2006-02-01T12:10:00.000-06:00

I was just thinking about the difference between British stuctural-functionalist and Lévi-Strauss' theories on kinship - as our systems professor Manuela pointed out the French referent of kinship, parenté includes not only descent but also alliance, no wonder Lévi-Strauss paid much more attention to marriage than his British colleagues - and then my mom sends me a family tree she received from her cousin that traces a part of our family to the early 19th century Austria. My parents have become really interested in doing research into our family over the past few months, but what I think is especially fascinating about this new project of theirs is the discoveries they, and me as well, have found the most exciting, not who we are descended from, even though the occasional bastard aristocrat has merited attention, but the wide range of connections we appear to have over the world and to different artistic and scientific persona. As my mom wrote to me today in reference to the family tree she sent: "Aren't we an international bunch!". Last week she sent me the link to a wikipedia article in German she'd found on my great-grandfather, Felix Bryk, who turns out was an Austrian Jewish ethnologist and entomologist who wrote books on African Voodoo, and Circumcision (amazingly the books are available through Amazon). I guess I know now whose foot-steps I'm following. Of course all the discoveries are not as fun, we were all shocked to find out that Felix's physicist and chemist brothers were killed in the Nazi concentration camps. Before hearing about this the only direct connection I knew my mom's side of the family to have had with Hitler's Reich were my grandmother's stories of how she got lost in Berlin as a young girl because she was part of the Finnish gymnastic team in the 1936 olympic games.

As my fellow-classmates in Systems have been complaining anthropological studies on kinship seem so old-fashioned when you read through them; their attempts to draw up systematic rules and laws for who is supposed to marry whom or who one holds political allegiance to, seem to be so distanced from reality, both that of their respective societies and contemporary anthropology. I used to think the same when I was forced to sit through tedious hours of classes on kinship systems in introductory classes on anthropology. But now I'm not sure. Perhaps Radcliffe-Brown's, Evans-Pritchard's, and Lévi-Strauss' approaches may be out of date, but I don't think kinship as a central trope has gone anywhere. Who of you doesnt have someone in your family doing some kind of family research, or at least someone interested in knowing where your family comes from? Go Anthropology of Kinship!

Critical Mass Today!

2006-01-27T08:56:00.000-06:00

Come and ride with us in Critical Mass tonight!

Here's what my roommate wrote about it:

Today is the last Friday of the month, so it's time for Critical Mass, the anarchic bike rally ride madness thing you either know and love or are hearing about for the first time just now. Either way, you should all come. The weather is going to be great (it's supposed to hit 48 tomorrow), so there should be a good crowd. Summer and fall rides draw thousands of people, I expect this will be a couple hundred.

The way this thing works is everybody meets at Daley Plaza downtown at 5:30, and then once people get tired of standing around we launch off as a group and tool around town en masse, as it were, according to some not-always-predefined plan. January is traditionally the polka ride in chicago, so the end goal is some bowling alley in Lincoln square where a group galled The Polkaholics is playing, but since Lincoln square is a little farther than I want to ride to listen to polka and bowl even under ideal conditions (i.e. no bike ride home), we will probably splinter off and head home once things start to drift north. Also, the ride is going to stop briefly to install a ghost bike at the site where a guy who was well known in local bike circles was killed earlier this month, so those of you interested in death, commemoration, ritual, and all that stuff can write this one off as a business expense.

If we all leave together from Hyde Park we'd probably want to meet at 4:30 or so. This is by no means an athletic event. The ride tends to move at a pretty slow pace; there are generally people towing trailers with things like stereos and kegs, and nobody's going to let them fall behind. It's also very safe, as we travel in a huge group and block traffic at intersections. We'll take the lake front path up and back, so that ! will be plenty safe as well (and very nice going up at sunset). I don't know who does and does not have bikes, but we have some extras here and we can probably scrounge up more. Also, if anybody has a bike but it's been chained to a lamp post since september and you're not sure if it runs, let me know and I can take a look at it.

Argonauts of the Western Pacific and being an anthropologist

2006-01-10T11:08:00.000-06:00

I'm reading Malinowski's description or the Trobriand Kula trade for the nth time, and I'm bored, but I guess that's what you get for starting yet another program in anthropology. But I cant help laughing a bit to myself when I read his poetic descriptions of life among the Trobriand islander, having read his diary and knowing how he hated being in the field.
"As we sail in the Lagoon, following the intricate passages between shallows, and as we approach the main island, the think tangled matting of the low jungle breaks here and there over a beach, and we can see into a palm grove, like an interior, suported by pillars. This indicates the site of a village... Soon we are seated on one of the platforms built in front of a yam-house, shaded by its overhanging roof. the round grey logs, worn smooth by contact with naked feet and bodies; the trodden ground of the village-street; the brown skins of the natives, who immediately surround the visitor in large groups - all these form a colour scheme of bronze and grey, unforgetable to anyone, who, like myself, has lived among these people." (Malinowski, 51).

Being bored of reading I tried to find some pictures on the internet by Gunnar Landtman, Malinowski's Finnish contemporary who did his research in a Papua-New Guinea. Landtman took some beautiful photos that were published in a book called "Satumaa" (Story land). But I could only find this one. I'm not sure why I find it so disturbing. Maybe its not just because I find the composition with Landtman sitting on a chair and his informant lower down on the ground disconcerting (for all that I know Landtman might have offered his interviewee a chair, but he preferred to sit on the ground), but maybe its also because I'm not sure how such power dynamics can be completely avoided in anthropological research. Truth is, no matter how you think of it, in the final run, the anthropologist is in the field to extract data for a project that will advance his or her academic career. I guess the only thing you can do, is hope you can give back at least something in return to the people you work with. But how do you do that?

CTA Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil, Raises Fares Instead

2006-01-01T17:17:00.000-06:00

I'm shocked! I just can't understand why you would not accept an offer of discounted oil that is tied to giving subsidies to the poor on public transportation. Even if it is a political ploy on part of Hugo Chavez' to attract the support of poor people in the US, instead of worrying about him finding support here maybe it would be time to start worrying about why he would even be able to do this.

From Chicago Indymedia:

CTA Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil, Raises Fares Instead
by Jessica Pupovac / The New Standard (CIMC Repost) 28 Dec 2005

The Chicago Transit Authority is refusing an opportunity to alleviate commuting costs for hundreds of thousands in the Windy City's low-income neighborhoods. Instead of accepting deeply discounted fuel from the Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corporation, the city is instead raising fares to solve budget shortfalls.

In an October meeting with representatives from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the city's Department of Energy and other city officials, Citgo unveiled a plan to provide the Chicago with low-cost diesel fuel. The company's stipulation, at the bidding of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was that the CTA, in turn, pass those savings on to poor residents in the form of free or discounted fare cards.

But two months later, despite claims of a looming budget crisis, the CTA president "has no intent or plan to accept the offer," according to CTA spokesperson Ibis Antongiorgi. She gave no explanation. Read More

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T16:55:00.000-06:00

As of today I begin what I have decided will be a celebratory year of turning 30. Turning 30 should be fun, instead of something you dread. And what better moment than turning 30 is there to take a recap on your life and make sure you're living it the way you want to. I'm feeling that I'm getting too old to just float around waiting for things to happen to me. So for the first time in my life I've made a long list of New Year's resolutions. See how I do in keeping them. I'm so new at this though, that I'm starting to get a bit worried that a year might not be long enough, especially since this here is only part of my list:
* Be good to myself
* Enjoy life more
* Give more time to my friends
* Eat better and start cooking again instead of just eating sandwiches all the time
* Explore the coffee shops, theaters, art museums, bars and clubs of Chicago
* Get to know more people outside of Hyde Park
* Get involved again with a group working on social issues
* Travel in Brazil
* Exercise more
* Sleep more

Oh, yeah, I'm back in Chicago again.

Joulurauhaa

2005-12-24T10:49:00.000-06:00

wash, wash, wash, washing the christmas tree... (sing to the tune of your favorite generic christmas song)

2005-12-18T11:00:00.000-06:00

Me and my mom, we're starting a new Christmas tradition, giving a bath to the Christmas tree, and its high time: we've had our fake plastic Christmas tree for probably 15 years now, and it is starting to look more brownish grey than green. But soon, after we take it out of the water it wont only be squeaky clean, but it will also smell like a real pine - we put half a bottle of pine-scented handsoap in the bath water.

Christmas is such a bizarre time of year. First you spend weeks trying to figure out who you should give gifts to and how big, expensive, personal, practical or not, they should be, then you run around with what seems like half the population of your city trying to find the perfect gift, and then after you're done with that you just lie around the house eating too much for three days so that you need to get on a diet as soon as its over.

As you can probably tell I'm still feeling a bit strange here, but what can you expect in a city where there's only a few hours of sunlight and one of the main cultural events of the moment is an exhibition on men's underwear through the years. Ever seen batique-dyed bright pink long thermal underwear? They looked pretty cool on the news just now.

In Finland again

2005-12-16T07:28:00.000-06:00

wow, here i am again, back in finland. its only been three months since i last was here, but it feels like so much more. i feel strange meeting up with my friends at the coffee shops i used to go to all the time, almost as if i had suddenly been misplaced in time. in many ways its wonderful, we still manage to pick up on the same conversations almost as if i hadnt been living some place else for the past two years, but then all the not so little changes that have happened start to creep into the conversation, people have graduated and have started to work real adult jobs, someone's had a baby, or two, they've met new partners and old one's have gone, old group's of friends have disbanded. its a bit disconcerting especially for my still very jetlagged brain. this time i decided to skip the melatonine and try doing yoga instead in the mornings. it actually worked great yesterday, but today i was too lazy to go after having got in at 2am from a gig, and now i still feel half asleep at 4pm. but the band, the soundtrack of our lives, was definitely worth it.

tonite i've been invited to a party, i'll have to see which kind of pre-christmas party it turns out to be. the "pikkujoulu" (little christmas) parties are something of an institution here, every little club and organization, as well as workplace and group of friends tends to organize one. and they're pretty much all the same, usually you end up spending the night with people you dont necessarily know that well or would hand out with normally getting too drunk on glogi, a type of mulled wine you put almonds and raisins in.

a friend of mine just sent me this fairy-tale guide to finnish "pikkujoulu":
* Lord of the Rings -pikkujoulu:
You remember saying good-bye to your friends, meeting dwarves, fighting a lot, talking to trees, walking hellish distances and loosing your ring by throughing it down the sewer behind the main church.
* Kristoffer Kolumbus -pikkujoulu:
You don't know where you were going, and when you get there you dont know where you are, but the government paid for it all.
* Cinderella-pikkujoulut:
You come home without (even) the other shoe.
* Sleeping Beauty- pikkujoulut:
You pass out for a hundred year. You may wake up to someone kissing you, but you can bet its not a prince.
* Snow White-pikkujoulut:
You wake up in the morning inbetween seven men.
* Little Red Riding Hood-pikkujoulut:
You wake up in the morning next to grandmother. Extra points if its someone esle's grandmother.
* Winnie the Pooh -pikkujoulut:
You're so stiff in the morning that you cant reach your toes and your teeth feel like you'd washed them with hunny. The situation is made even worse by your over-energetic friend, who woke up without any kind of hang-over and is now jumping around manically around your apartment.
* Goldilocks-pikkujoulut:
You wake up to your partner asking "Who has slept in my bed?"
* Traditional Finnish pikkujoulu:
Your wallet is empty, you've lost your cell phone, tango delirium is still ringing in your head and you're afraid to see who's snoring beside you.

Living the good life

2005-12-10T13:12:00.000-06:00

Can life get more beautiful than this, brunch at home on an early Saturday afternoon after a night of dancing, listening to the Grateful Dead, the sun shining through the snowy trees and knowing that you dont have to do a thing all day if you dont feel like. I love being on break! Maybe I'll just take a nap in my hammock after I'm finished with my coffee.

Freedom at last?

2005-12-04T23:19:00.000-06:00

I can't wait till Tuesday noon. Then, Systems I will officially be over, my final paper turned in, and I'll be on break. It sounds like something completely out of this world, but I'm already fantasizing about all the things I could do both here in Chicago and in Helsinki where I'll be spending Christmas. I'll probably end up doing very little, but it even the idea of spending a whole day in a coffee-shop reading something only for pleasure or lying in my hammock listening to music, or of taking a long walk in the snow on Suomenlinna and drinking a hot glass of glögi afterwards is exhilarating. I love my work, but at times like now when I've spent the last 5 days thinking only about Hegel, Darwin and Freud and trying to figure out what they think about such a random topic as love and society it gets a bit too much.

Emerging from the depths of Systems ...

2005-11-22T12:20:00.000-06:00

It seems crazy but I don't think I've had the chance to sit in front of my computer without a couple of coldcalls (the summaries we've been expected to write for everything we read in systems, our crazy introductory course on the history of Western social theory from Saint Augustine through Montaigne, Hobbes, Kant and Nietsche all the way to Kierkegaard and Boas) and two or three dead philosophers breathing down my back since i got back to Chicago. Hence, the absolute silence. My apologies. I haven't forgotten you, even though my life seems to have shrunk both physically and socially to comprise only the minuscule part of the world that orbits Haskell Hall and the Regenstein library. But I'm not complaining, it's been tough, but then again I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and am actually feeling sad that this first stretch is now coming to an end.
Yesterday I learned (from Freud) that the first cultural act was when man learned not to put fires out by urinating in them. Apparently Freud thought that fire was the absolute symbol of masculine sexuality for primitive man against which he felt a need to compete. Strange, eh. Freud also took Jesus to be the model for the superego of Western civilization. Am I going crazy if chuckling at these absurdities constitute the highpoints of my day?

2005-09-13T01:43:00.000-05:00

The British goverment forbade its citizens from smiling in their passport photos. Apparently smiles and rumpled foreheads make using new recognition technology too difficult.
As you can see I've returned to the wonderful world of news and information. And I am truly enjoying it. For at least a couple of weeks I'm back to my routine of starting my day with a large cup of coffee and the Helsingin Sanomat (Finland's main newspaper) and finishing it with good conversations with close friends in bars or at home watching good independent documentaries and films on tv. There are so many things I love here in Finland and that I wish I could take home with me to Chicago, but most of all I will miss the people I love here. It makes me sad to realize that I won't be living with them for such a long time. Meeting once or twice for a cup of coffee is wonderful, but it also reminds of how much I would enjoy sharing my life and thoughts with such good and close friends on an every-day basis.
But, in spite of all the globalization hype and the fancy post-modern theories of place losing its importance with everybody living in a virtual connected world, you just can't be in two places at the same time. Either you're here or you're someplace else, or in the worst case lost in some kind of in-between internet limbo no-where. So, I try to tell myself that instead of worrying about how much I miss people I can't be with I just need to make the most of it when I am with them. And I think I have been doing pretty good this time around here.
In addition to n cups of coffee accompanied with good conversations I've also had the time to enjoy the lingering Finnish summer. I've been cayaking and biking and I even tried water-jogging (a new sport that a lot of my friends seem to have taken up) at the olympic outdoor pool. This last Sunday I even swam in the sea after having warmed myself up in a traditional Finnish woodsauna. The water is getting pretty cold with night air temperatures going down to the 40s. But I felt so good afterwards, a weird combination of relaxation and energy that I feel you can only get after swimming in cold water in between sweating in a sauna.

Passing through Chicago

2005-08-29T21:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I finished up my research in Salvador, came back to Chicago arriving a day late because I missed my flight in São Paulo, met up with my parents and drove up the east coast of Lake Michigan with them visiting several beautiful state parks with gorgeous dunes, came back to Chicago and graduated from MAPSS, and now I'm busy writing up a report on my fieldtrip and packing up my stuff. I move on Wednesday and then Thursday I fly to Finland. It's a bit crazy. It's been great but I am actually looking forward to when classes start again and atleast I'll be put in one place, maybe a bit too much though, considering how little time I had last year to even get out of the library.
Now that I'm home and have a proper internet connection again I can finally treat you to some of my photos.

These will be in reverse order now so the first ones are from graduation and Jimmies after the official celebrations.

And these are from the trip with my parents by Lake Michigan.

And here are some pics from Salvador. These are from the closing ceremony of my Candomblé´dance course.

And here finally are some photos of capoeira and my friends.

Only 12 days and then I fly back to Chicago!

2005-08-08T11:20:00.000-05:00

I cant´believe my time here is coming to an end already. I fly back to Chicago in less than two weeks, and I still have so much that I want and need to do, especially in relation to my research. I´m starting to feel that my research plans for this summer were way too ambitious, especially in relation to the number of interviews I was planning to conduct. But, then again, now on the other hand, the interviews I do have are really good, and more importantly, while I dont have anything as concrete as a tape to show for it, I have been able to get to know a lot of Candomble people and understand a little better how the religion fits into their lives. So, next summer when I come back I´m sure I´ll be starting from a completely different situation. I´ll already have accomplished, what I think is the most difficult part of doing anthropology, rapport, as we anthropologists call knowing the right people for your research.

Any way, now I´m going to start trying to pull things together. I´ve been invited to a tabuleiro de Obaluaie ceremony tonite. August is the month of Obaluiae, the orixa god of sickness as well as cemetaries among other things, so there are a lot of ceremonies organized for him happening in the Candomble temples, and you can also see adepts walking around on the streets of Salvador in their white clothes carrying trays for Obaluaiye on their heads. I´ve never been to a ceremony for him before, so I´m pretty excited to see what its like.

But I have also been busy with my Capoeira. This weekend we had our group´s international encounter here in Salvador, so it has been a really full last four days for me. Lots of capoeira, new and old capoeira friends and great parties in the evenings. I´m totally beat, but it was great fun. And I think I learned so much, once again. Now I just hope I can incorporate at least some of things I have going on in my head into the way I play the game. It´s really interesting how the more I do capoeira the more I realize I have to learn...

2005-07-31T13:21:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I haven´t been updating my blog for a while. Like some of you have been suspecting I have just been really, really busy. I finally managed to turn in my MA, and after I recovered from that I realized that I don´t actually have that much time left in which to pull together my research here. I still only have 3 interviews. I do have 5 more scheduled, but as expected when you don´t have that much time something else always comes up, and you have to postpone things. I´m starting to notice how busy Candomble can keep people. Something comes up - a spiritual problem with an irma de santo (someone who belongs to the same temple as you), the spirits request a ceremony or your pai or mae de santo (head of the temple) simply needs you to go and help out clean the temple - and you will have to leave everything else and go and spend several days at the temple.
But I feel I´m still doing pretty good with the research. I started a Yoruba language course for Candomble people. It is difficult, yoruba is a tonal language, so what looks like the same word can actually mean completely different thing depending on the tone. But it is great, I´ve met some new Candomble people, and learned to understand a little Candomble talk too. So many people in the Candomble community use words in yoruba in the speech that I have been having a hard time keeping up with conversations.
But it hasnt been all work. The weather has finally been getting better, and I´ve actually gone to the beach a couple of times, and the international capoeira event of my group is coming up a week from now so a lot of my capoeira friends have been coming into town in the past week, so we´ve spending a lot of time just hanging out, going out in the evenings and playing as well as talking capoeira.

2005-07-14T16:39:00.000-05:00

It´s raining again and it feels cold. But I´n sure it does me good to stay home for a change and sit in front of my computer. I finally got down to working on my thesis again yesterday, and I hope I will get it done in the next week. I am really excited about working on it, but there would be so much else to do too. But I´m trying to do my best balancing my time between writing at home and doing some anthropological fieldwork as well. So far I have two interviews under my belt and three more scheduled for the coming week. And there´s another Candomble ceremony coming up this weekend. It will be held at a teeny temple in Liberdade. I hear the place always packs up, because the ceremonies there are always so beautiful. And this one will be for the goddess of beauty and vanity, Oxum. I´m looking forward to it!
But for now, I´m off to do some capoeira. It feels so good to be training again here. I am feeling my body in a different way again after having spent the last year in the library, sweet aching pains in my muscles that tell me I´m getting strong. And my game seems to be improving too.

2005-07-07T13:52:00.000-05:00

I´m off to do my first interview just now and I´m pretty excited. Lady luck seems to be smiling at me this time around doing fieldwork. I made friends with a guy who is initiated into Candomble and works at the umbrella organization for all the temples in the area at the Candomble ceremony I went to two weeks ago. Since then he has been of great help to me introducing me to people and even taking me to a Caboclo ceremony (the one´s I´m writing my MA on) last Sunday in the periphery of Salvador. And now he has agreed to let me try out my interview questions on him.
Last Saturday was the Independence day of Bahia that is celebrated to commemorate the expulsion of Portuguese troups from here in 1833. The streets filled with people wearing the colors of the Brazilian flag - blue, green and yellow - and a huge procession led by the Caboclo and Cabocla, an Indian couple, understood as representing Brazilianness in its most authentic form.
The celebration of the Caboclos continued in the Candomble temples in the evening as well as the next day. The ceremony I went to on Saturday night, led by an articulate Caboclo spirit dressed in an enormous feather headdress, who manifested in the temple´s main priest, was probably the most luxurious Candomble ceremony I have been to yet, and quite a contrast to the humble ceremony I went to in a small temple the next day, but the songs the spirits sang and messages they were transmittin to their followers were still pretty much the same, and to my delight confirmed many of the ideas I had been unsure of in my thesis (Now I just have to get my final draft in for the thesis, and soon).

2005-07-01T16:23:00.000-05:00

It´s been a pretty busy week. I´ve been to a Candomble ceremony for Xango, danced forro at another concert of my friends´ band, done some capoeira and met up with most of my friends from last year. It warms my heart to realize how many people still remember me and are happy to see me again. But don´t worry I´m not just partying and hanging out with friends here. I started both a Candomble percussion and a dance course this week, and they are really hard. The first drumming class I was so hopeless that I wasn´t even allowed to play the drum. Instead the teacher gave me an agogo (a metal bell like the one played in capoeira, for those of you who don´t know) to strike the rhythm on. But yesterday, I did much better. I got most of the rhythms on a drum and even managed to sing some of the Yoruba-language songs that are supposed to be sung along with the drumming.
It has been great and I am feeling happy amd excited about being here.
Here are some pictures from my friends' gig last Sunday. There band is called "Eruditos". As soon as I figure out to transform my recordings into MP3s I´ll put some music on too.

Oh, I finally managed to get myself a cellphone. So, if you feel like calling or SMSing me, send me an email and I´ll send you the number.

Pics from São Paulo

2005-06-24T15:57:00.000-05:00

And here are some photos from São Paulo.

And here´s the photo of me and Lissu with Manu Chao.

Esta chuvendo

2005-06-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

It is São João, the middle of winter here and the rain is coming down. After last night's parties the city lulls in a morning-after calm. All the shops are closed and even the kids seem to lack the energy to run around. I spent last night at the house of one of my capoeira mestres, Mestre Cobra Mansa, in Fazenda de Coutos in the suburbs of Salvador. It was beautiful; people having a good time with friends, dancing to forro music and enjoying all the wonderful and oh, so fattening São João delicacies. By the time it was time to leave my stomach was so full of manioc cake, canjica, corn, peanuts and different kinds of licors that I could hardly walk. And then, of course, we were invited to the neighbors' house to eat some more.

São João in Salvador and São Paulo

2005-06-22T15:33:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have a few more minutes on me to sit down and update you all on what I´ve been up to since I left Chicago almost a week ago. It´s been a pretty crazy and full week and now I´m feeling completely beat. I think I´ll go grab a guarana soda after this. I have a capoeira class in just a bit more than an hour amd after that I promised to go listen to my friends' band play some forro. That´s the only kind of music you can hear here now. Like carnival everything else but the parties pretty much stop in the city, but this time instead of axe and samba, its all about Brazilian country music. The kids are dressed in straw hats and checkered shirts or floral dresses and the food is delicious; corn, peanuts and all kinds of sweet cakes.

My friends with the forro band picked me up at the airport here in Salvador- a wonderful surprise - took me to their house and have been taking me around the city for the past three days almost now. It´s been great just hanging out with them, sitting in small neighborhood bars in the evenings and listening to them play their guitars and sing.

Sao Paulo, where I stopped over last weekend was a lot of fun too. My friend Lissu and her friends really showed me a great time. In only four days we went to a Sao Joao party at the University of Sao Paulo, shopped at a fair, went out to a pretty wild gay club and saw Manu Chao perform live in a park for $1.50. And we got to meet Manu Chao in person, which was pretty incredible. Me and my friend Lissu even got to take a photo with him. So as soon as I find an internet cafe that has a computer with a USB port I´ll put it on here along with some other photos.

getting ready to go

2005-06-14T12:05:00.000-05:00

It looks like my MAPSS year is starting to come to a close. I bought myself a robe and cap yesterday for graduation and returned most of my books to the Reg. The atmosphere in the library was almost eerie. It was so quiet without last week's frantic hordes of students trying to finish their finals. Pretty much the only people I saw were a couple of undergrads sleeping in the comfy chairs that I'm guessing had come there in search of respite from their overheated apartments.

I still haven't got my thesis draft back. So I guess I'll just have to resign to work on it in Brazil. I leave day after tomorrow, and there's no way I could finish it before, even if I got it back right now. But a little more exposure to Candomble probably wont hurt the paper at all. I'm just afraid that I'll end up wanting to re-write the whole thing after having talked about it with the people down there.

Going back feels strange though. I can't wait to go and be back in my beloved Bahia, but this year has been so intensive that last Spring in Brazil seems like another life already. But I know I'll be back in the swing of things in no time, visiting my Candomble friends, going to dance classes and doing my capoeira. I'll do my best to keep you all posted on how things go and what I'm up to down there, south of the equator. I even bought myself a new digital camera, so you'll be in for some pictures too.

By the way, if you have any comments on how I put this blog together, I would really like to hear them. I'm completely new at this and so, experimenting with what I can do. The background pictures turned out pretty cool, don't you think :)