Enjoy these cultural anthropology web activities!

PART II HUMAN ADAPTATION AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Cultural Ecology and Consumption

1. Visit the World Food Habits bibliography. Select a geographic region and identify food topics from the bibliography that might be of interest to an anthropologist. For example, in Oceania, what foods, food preferences, food preparations, and eating practices might an ethnologist study?

2. Compare anthropological theories on this graduate student-authored website. For example, click on the link to cultural materialism to learn more about the perspective of Marvin Harris. How are emic and etic analyses important to cultural materialists' processes of data collection and organization? How is cultural materialism similar to and different from cultural ecology? Read a brief biography of Marvin Harris. What did he observe about food taboos in his 1975 book, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: the Riddles of Culture. What are some of his other contributions to the field of cultural anthropology? Browse the writings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. How are Marx's and Engels's ideas important to the theory of cultural materialism? Where do Marxist and cultural materialist theories diverge?

3. Sample the abstracts of papers given at a 1996 International Conference at Harvard University on "Changing diet and foodways in Chinese Culture." According to these papers, how are Chinese food preferences changing? Are McDonalds hamburgers and Kentucky Fried Chicken changing the way the Chinese eat? Is Western medicine changing traditional food taboos prescribed for pregnant women?

4. Read about the kuru epidemic among the Fore people of Papua, New Guinea. What is the culture of this epidemic from an anthropological perspective? Did the Fore eat human meat as food for calories? Why might an economic anthropologist be as interested in kuru as a medical anthropologist? How do kuru and cannibalism relate to mad cow disease and the dynamics of the transmission of diseases between animals and humans?

5. Read this instructional material for hospital workers on providing culturally sensitive health care and nutrition. What beliefs and values about food are hospital workers encouraged to take into account when treating patients? For example, what is the meaning of "hot" and "cold" foods in some cultures, and what is the relationship of fasting and food to health and illness? What specific food taboos does the instructional material identify?

6. Explore this rich site on the agricultural revolution, which presents archaeological, anthropological, and socioeconomic information, to understand the complex events surrounding the Neolithic Revolution and the rise of civilizations. What combination of conditions and circumstances and resources enabled people to use farming, and later intensive agriculture, as a mode of production? What were some consequences of agriculture for people's quality of life? What were some consequences for global economic and social stratification? Would you say the invention of agriculture was a mistake? Why or why not?

7. Explore the illustrations and text at this Annenberg/CPB site about the collapse of ancient civilizations. What economic and ecological factors seem to be common denominators in the decline and fall of the ancient civilizations? Are those factors still operating in the same way in the world today?

8. View Mayan archaeological sites of the Chiapas Highlands. On what food production and methods was the highland economy based? What were some consequences of slash and burn agriculture there? Explore in greater depth the Mayan economy in Zincantan. What essential natural resource did the Maya control? What trading network shaped the economy of the highlands? How did the Maya also develop a monopoly of trade in textiles made of woven feathers?

9. Read an ethnographic field report on Inuit (Nunavik) traditional ecological knowledge about beluga whales. Just click on "Reports" and select "Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Beluga Whales." What role have beluga played in the Inuit economy? According to participants at the Circumpolar Conference where this report was presented, what are the "two ways of knowing," and why is it important to preserve traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that has been passed down to Inuits through the generations? How did researchers gather this knowledge? How will the information be used? Find out more about the Inuit through this K-12 curriculum on Inuit culture, designed by and for Inuits. What is the Inuit world view and how is it expressed? What can you infer about the way Inuit people traditionally relate to each other and to their environment?

10. Survey the online Bibliography of Foraging Peoples. How could you use this bibliography to study the cultural ecology of foragers cross-culturally? What group might you select to compare with the Inuit, and why? What other bibliographies are linked to this site?

11. Survey the A to Z Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Information, created and maintained by the Bharawal Tribal Elders Association in Darwin, Australia. Click on index categories relating to food getting and consumption activities, such as fishing, gathering, food sources, hunting, and barter. Also read information about the Dreamtime. By what means did Australian Aborigines traditionally practice the conservation of plants and animals that were their food sources? Based on your exploration of this site, how would you describe the Aboriginal world view about the relationship between people and the environment?

12. Learn more about the Kayapo Indians of the Amazon, their cultural ecology, and their struggles against economic development and foreign interests. View photos of Kayapo life, and read a 1996 article about impacts of proposed Xingu River Dam projects on Kayapo home territory. What do you think future photos would show if the dam projects on the Xingu proceeded as originally planned? Use links at these sites to find out the present status of the dams.

13. Learn about the cultural ecology of the Navajo Nation at this Natural Heritage Program site. How does the present-day geography and biology of the land affect the economic resources of the Navajo people? What changes have occurred in the ways people interact with those resources?

14. Compare and contrast the programs of agencies in the UN that are related to international development, such as the Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Population Fund (UNFPA), Development Programme (UNDP), Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). According to FAO, what is the state of the world's food supply in the most recent Food Summit? According to UNIFEM, what is women's economic capacity? What characteristics of trade policies empower women?

Cultural Adaptation and Change

1. Human migration patterns are an example of cultural adaptation and change. Read this article on the populating of Oceania by the Polynesians. How did Polynesians get to Easter Island? How could Polynesian voluntary migration be explained using the push-pull theory? Then follow links at a site on Hawaiian Sovereignty. How did Hawaiians become displaced persons on their own islands as a result of contact and annexation by the U.S.?

2. Conduct an 8-day virtual ethnographic observation of the Nenets on the Discovery Channel feature, The Reindeer People. Also view the map of reindeer migration, read related articles about the Nenets' economy and culture, and sample the weblinks at this site. How is the Nenets' world of pastoral nomadism changing? How will development affect reindeer migration and other economic activities such as fishing? Is pastoralism a sustainable system in the face of rapid economic and social change? Compare the Nenets to the Samburu, pastoralists of Kenya. This Virtual Africa ethnographic site features photos, sounds, essays, and movies of Samburu people, culture, and economy. Do the Samburu face the similar challenges to their way of life as do the Nenets? Do they use similar adaptive strategies?

3. Follow links from the home page of the Carlisle Indian School to trace the school's history. When was the school founded and what was its purpose? Why was it regarded as humane, even progressive, as an educational institution? What were the experiences of children who attended Carlisle? Compare the experiences of Carlisle students with students of the Hampton Institute, a boarding school for Cherokee youths. Base your comparison on the documents and photographs linked to these sites. In what sense were Native Americans displaced persons?

4. Investigate online the removal of Japanese Americans to internment camps in Arkansas and other states during World War II. Survey photos, maps, interviews, documents, and other exhibits on Japanese relocation and internees' experiences. What is the official U.S. position today on this history of forced relocation?

5. In the 1990s Australia conducted a National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. "Separation" meant that children were stolen from their own families and raised in group homes by whites. According to materials gathered by the Reconciliation and Social Justice Project, why were these children stolen and what happened to them? What has the Australian government done about this episode in the colonization of Australia?

6. Read about Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. There were two periods of Dutch colonialism interrupted by a period of British rule and ending with Japanese occupation. How did colonialism affect Indonesian society, economic development, and politics? How did internal religious and political divisions hamper Indonesians' efforts to get rid of colonial rule? How did Indonesia eventually achieve independence?

7. Read this 1997 news article from the Weekly Mail and Guardian about a present-day crisis for the Ju/wasi and other San people of Botswana. Why were they being asked to leave their ancestral land? How much money were individuals offered to move? What are some possible outcomes of this use of money among the Bushmen? What are some possible outcomes if they move or stay? What did the First Nations Development Institute recommend? What happened?

8. Read a "Chronology of the Yanomami Genocide." How did population decline of these native Brazilian Indians occur over time? What role did Yanomami traditional warfare and new technologies play in accelerating this decline?

9. Visit the China Youth Development Foundation online. What social reforms in education does this group support? What international support does the organization seek? Also read a critical policy analysis on China's new enterprise zones. How has Mao's "model village" been transformed to reflect economic reform in China today? How adaptive is this change in the global economy? How do these reforms relate to the development of a "civil society"?

10. Investigate the role of gender in Chinese labor migration. Read "100 Million Chinese on the Move," a sociological study of patterns and trends in Chinese labor migration. According to this study, what is remarkable about the movement of rural women to Shanghai? What jobs do these women find? To what extent do they represent hidden labor? How long and in what circumstances do they stay in the labor force and in the city?

11. Investigate political developments in one of the world's "emergent nations" or "fractured states," such as the Chechens. Read a 1997 report on the Chechnya-Russian Federation. Then visit the rebel Chechen Republic Online. What is the historical background on this conflict? What factors simultaneously hinder both political unity and new state formation? What pressures toward adaptation and change are involved?

12. According to the "Broken Wings" article in Liberty Magazine, what are the three forms of female genital mutilation, and why is it practiced? Follow links at this site to "A Cutting-Edge Operation," an illustrated article from Maroodi-Jeex: Somaliland Alternative Newsletter. How is this anti-FMG Somali perspective different? Read the full text of Linda Burstyn's article in the Atlantic Monthly. What opportunities and constraints affect women who are new immigrants to the U.S. from societies that practice female genital mutilation? Visit the home pages of organizations in the U.S. that focus on new immigrant women. How do fmg.org, Equality Now, RAINBO, and the Population Action International vary in the way they address this issue?

Technology and Cultural Change

1. Visit the Tanami Network Videoconferencing Project online. What are noted as the three main benefits of videoconferencing for the Walpiri and Pentubi and other Australian Aborigine groups? Check the Conference Schedule. What questions might you ask about it? Now visit the 20000 Cows Restaurant in Lismore, one site where videoconferences in the outback are conducted. How does the name of this restaurant reflect Aboriginal philosophy, humor, and resilience?

2. What is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's commitment to indigenous radio and television programming? According to Mark Hodges in "Online in the Outback," why is Internet videoconferencing better for the Aborigines than just telephone or radio? Read an article on the Kintore Aboriginal Community Satellite Trial. What Telehealth services are being provided via videoconferencing? According to the source, what one medical specialty is not needed?

3. Visit Aborigine-owned web sites, such as WARU. What self-government and community-building resources are offered there? What does the Women's Council do? What is in the Walpiri links bibliography? Also visit Kam Yan (Message Stick). How is the name of this site an apt extension of traditional modes of intracultural communication among the Aborigines? Check out the "Proper Way." Who is the audience for this information? How else are the Aborigines using their radio, television, and web site content to mediate their relations with nonaboriginal peoples?

4. Listen to audio files of the 1997 public radio series, "Twenty Years of Test-Tube Babies," and read related articles and interviews at this site. When, where, and how was the world's first human in vitro fertilization performed? Why is reproductive technology like this of interest to cultural anthropologists?

5. Economic development is built on communication systems, especially mass media. How is this true for the Guarani tribespeople of Amazonia in Brazil, who received a computer with an Internet uplink, their first, in 1999?

6. In 1997 the African nation of Burundi went online for the first time, with one ISP (Internet Service Provider), NandoNet, and 80 initial subscribers--mainly institutions and foreign companies doing business in Burundi. Read online news about Burundi. What do you think will be the impact of this technology on Burundi society and culture?

7. Read Jules Kouatchou's paper, "High Technology: Solution to African Countries Problem." What is Kouatchou's answer to his question? What are some pitfalls in technology transfer in the course of social and economic development?

8. View "Virtually Yours Forever," an Internet site for online death memorials. Do you think you would ever post a memorial in this medium? As a cultural anthropologist, how might you analyze and explain this application of the Internet as an outgrowth of new mass media technology? How do you think this kind of application of technology might be a factor in social and cultural change in the U.S.?

9. The CyberAnthropology Home Page is devoted to the anthropology of the Internet. See also links at the Voice of the Shuttle clearinghouse on anthropology. For example, Artificial Culture: Synthetic Anthropology is a UCLA site that explores the ins and outs of experimentally creating a culture inside a computer as a complex adaptive system. What do you think would be the value of artificial culture experiments for the field of cultural anthropology? What is happening at this site now?

10. Read a 1996 online report, "The Use of New Information Technologies and Their Impact on American Households," published by the Center for Research on Information Technologies and Organizations. What kinds of impacts of information technologies does the article identify? Then explore the subject of child safety on the internet as a specific example of impacts of information electronics on family life. If you were doing research on impacts of technology on domestic relationships in the family, what topics might you investigate?

11. Read abstracts of the articles of CASTAC (Community of Anthropologists of Science, Technology and Computing. For example, read articles by Amy Bruckman, Finding One's Own Space in Cyberspace; Chris Chesher, Colonizing Virtual Reality; Mark Dery, Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs; Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas, The Baudy World of the Byte: A Postmodernist Interpretation of the Computer Underground; and Mark Postner, Cyberocracy, Cyberspace, and Cyberology: Political Effects of the Information Revolution.