Diary for 12th February to 18th February 2009

THURSDAY 12th FEBRUARY - Javanese Music

I am going to reserve myself a place in advance for the Javanese Gamelan and Sung Poetry Day on the 21st of February at the Southbank Centre . From 10:15am -7:00pm there will be workshops on sounds of the gamelan ( beautiful Javanese percussion orchestra) most of which are free and will teach you how to follow and create the rhythms and sounds of the traditional Javanese songs. For more information about the day's programme and registration visit this website. If you want to learn more about Gamelan and the Gamelan network take a look here.



FRIDAY 13th FEBRUARY- A goldmine of anthropology links

The other day while on the Internet, I came across this wonderful website: www.anthropologie.net. This website has an incredible amount of links for those interested in anthropology. There is a vast array of websites from museums, research institutions, and university departments around the world, anthropology in the news and lots more! This is a very useful tool especially for those interested in archeology and exploring anthropology beyond the UK.







SATURDAY 14th FEBRUARY- Love and Anthropology

Is romantic love universal? Is it something that can be recognized amongst people of different cultures despite barriers to communication and understanding? "For decades anthropologists and other scholars have assumed romantic love was unique to the modern West" says anthropologist Dr. Leonard Plotnicav." Anthropologists came across it in their field work but they rarely mentioned it". There have been a growing number of anthropologists in recent years however who have chosen to focus on love as their main research topic. One biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fischer, has made it her life work. Considered to be a world expert on the topic of love, Dr. Fischer has been studying sex, love, marriage and gender differences for over 30 years. She was hired by match.com to help build chemistry.com, another pair matching site. She has just published a new book called Why Him? Why Her?: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type...perhaps it is really this simple?



SUNDAY 15th FEBRUARY - Iran past and present

How do great leaders who have influenced major transformations in social, economic and political domains in the past, affect our present understanding of a country and its cultural traditions? Following on from its series on great rulers of the ancient world, the British Museum is launching the Shah' Abbas The Remaking of Iran. In collaboration with the Iran Heritage Foundation, the exhibit contains objects such as mosque lamps, paintings and carpets, many of which have not been seen outside of Iran. The exhibit runs from the 19th of February to the 14th of June. Admission is 12 pounds for adults and 10 for students.








MONDAY 16th FEBRUARY- Un voyage a Paris...

I've decided to rid myself of the winter blues by booking myself a ticket to Paris for some Anthropology Parisien style. For those of you who speak and understand french, on 11th and 12th of March at the Musee du Quai Branly, in the Levi-Strauss theatre, there will be an international symposium entitled Performace: Art et Anthropologie. The symposium will feature contributions from well known performance artists, and filmmakers as well as anthropologists such as Lucien Taylor and George Marcus. For more information and a link to the programme visit this website. For further enquiries and registration email Caterina Pasqualino: cpasqualino@noos.fr




TUESDAY 17th FEBRUARY- The Politics of Religion in Turkey

Turkey provides a compelling example of the tension and overlap that exists between politics and religion and how they are expressed in various public spheres. Today Professor Istar Gozaydin from Istanbul Technical University, will give a lecture exploring the different demands and needs of various social groups in Turkey, roughly defined by their political standpoints as secularists and pro-Islamists. The lecture is free and open to all. No registration is necessary. The lecture will take place in the Council Room at Birkbeck University's main building at 6:30pm.



WEDNESDAY 18th February - Polyphonic China

Polyphonic comes from the Greek words 'poly' which means many and 'phoni' which means sound or voice. Polyphonic China is a free screening- seminar series of new independent Chinese documentary films that are being premiered in the UK. Running from the 10th of February till the 31st of March the evening events are held from 6:00pm- 9:00pm at the NLT2 Lecture Theatre 1 & 2 (Old Cinema), Regent Campus, University of Westiminster. The next screening will take place on February 24th. You can find more information about the series here. For any further enquires please email: t.yu@westminster.ac.uk