Diary for the 21st - 27th June 2007

THURSDAY 21ST JUNE - Observing Britain

Today I'm going to apply to become a writer for Mass Observation. It's an organisation that was set up in 1937 by three men who wanted to create an 'anthropology of ourselves'. Mass Observation recruits volunteer observers from all over the country to submit their ideas on two or three subjects a year. You can write as much or as little as you like, and there is absolutely no pressure to stay involved. Recent projects have included writing about the smoking ban and the London bombings last year - you can find out more information here.

I want to get my application off in time for an event that Mass Observation are holding in Brighton on 28th June (more details in next week's blog) to celebrate the project's 70th anniversary. If you would like to attend it's best to get in touch with the organiser, Dr Amanda Claremont, now on a.l.claremont@brighton.ac.uk or 01273 642288

FRIDAY 22ND JUNE - Anthropology in Wales

There's a fantastic-looking event happening today at the University of Wales in Lampeter. The Wales Anthropology Day is jam-packed with workshops, films and information about studying anthropology at university. There are talks on a huge range of topics that anthropologists have studied - from cars to shamanism to bling culture. There's also a special session by staff from the BBC TV series Tribe and friend of Anthropologist about Town, Gem Jones, the education officer at the Royal Anthropological Institute. The day lasts from 9.30 to 16.30 and you can register here - if you're interested in studying anthropology in Wales then it looks like an event not to be missed.

On Friday you can also go to the opening of a new exhibition at The Sesame Gallery in London. Past and Present is an exhibition that explores our relationship with the past and its stories. One of the artists featured is Guy Barton, whose paintings are reinterpretations of old anthropological photographs from colonial days. The exhibition runs until the 13th July but you can get yourself invited to the private view tonight, starting at 18.30, by emailing the organisers at info@sesameart.com

SATURDAY 23RD JUNE - From Tibet to the Arctic

On Saturday afternoon, there's a couple of things going on. There a film made by one of the most influential and interesting documentary makers alive today, Werner Herzog. He is renowned for his unusual and intense approach to his subjects - and the level to which he immerses himself in his subject is often compared to the work carried out by anthropologists.

Wheel of Time is about the largest Buddhist ritual to promote peace and tolerance, and includes an interview with the Dalai Lama as well as footage of previously unseen rituals. Ritual is especially important to anthropologists because it is a form of symbolic behaviour that can help us to understand wider society. The film is showing as part of 'The Worlds of Werner Herzog' and is on at 15.30 at the ICA in London. Tickets cost £8 and if you miss the film today it's screening again on the 26th.


Also on Saturday is the fourth talk in the Freeze Frame series that I mentioned a few weeks ago, all about The Cape Farewell Project. There will be a panel of experts, including film-maker and anthropologist Hugh Brody discussing Art, The Arctic & Climate Change - an project about how humans have contributed towards the world's environmental problems. Members of the project - ranging from artists to scientists - have traveled several times to the Arctic to try and express how we can live in a greater harmony with the planet. The talk is in the National Maritime Museum, starts at 15.15 and tickets are £7.50.



SUNDAY 24TH JUNE - The anthropology of corridors!

Today I want to listen again to Radio 4's Thinking Allowed programme from last week. It featured Rachel Hurdley, who has just finished doing some unusual ethnographic research into corridors and the how the meetings and relationships that occur in that space can be important in the lives of the people working there. She has previously done similar work on mantelpieces, and her research is a good example of how anthropologists can examine 'culture' in the most unlikely places. The programme also reviewed the life and times of Margaret Mead and Mary Douglas with anthropologist Adam Kuper from Brunel University. You can listen to the show here.


MONDAY 25TH JUNE - Robin Hood or con man?

This evening is the latest installment in the Pocketvisions season of the best films from the London International Documentary Festival. This week Con Man Confidential will be screening - it is a film about the social and cultural factors that lead people to become con artists and how they feel about their lives. The film is showing at the Roxy Bar & Screen in Borough at 20.00 and entrance is FREE.


TUESDAY 26TH JUNE - Why did the chicken cross the road?

Tonight I'm going to watch the third in the 4 part series of Lenny's Britain. Lenny Henry has teamed up with an anthropologist, Dr Marie Gillespie, at the Open University to investigate the variety in sense of humour around Britain and what that says about us as people. Dr Gillespie spent 6 months researching what jokes can tell us about our society and what we think about the world, using a traveling joke booth.

This week's episode is about humour on holiday and looks at whether the slap-and-tickle stereotype of British humour is justified. Based in Blackpool, Lenny talks to a variety of people from chambermaids, to drag queens and hen nights to investigate how important humour is to our leisure time. stress or long working hours in jobs ranging from a call centre to being a parking attendant. The programme is on BBC1 at 21.00 and you can also read an interesting article on the research here.


WEDNESDAY 27TH JUNE - Film festival begins!

The long-awaited 10th International Festival of Ethnographic Film starts today with a fascinating range of films from all over the world. On Wednesday there's a selection of entries to the student film prize being shown. I particularly want to see Ordinary Lives at 10.00 about a 10 person family living in a Mumbai slums and then, at 14.00, Into the Field about the daily life of a community of Romanian nuns.

In the evening, there's the official launch of the festival followed by the 2007 Forman lecture, which always provides an interesting point of view on the challenges of film-making. This year the director of The Last King of Scotland, Kevin Macdonald, is speaking about his career in documentary making. It's still not too late to get tickets for the festival, so make sure you don't miss out and register here.

Diary for the 14th - 20th June 2007

THURSDAY 14TH JUNE - Imagining America

On Thursday I'm going to another event at the British Museum linked to the 'A New World: England's first View of America' exhibition. It's a three day conference called 'European Vision: American Voices', examining the work of the artists on show and how their first pictures of America have influenced how we see the country today.

As usual, there will be an impressive panel of experts at the conference, including anthropologists. They will be looking at how representations from a Native American point of view are often missing in similar exhibitions. The event runs from Thursday until Saturday and entrance is FREE for the first 50 students that email the organiser at ukhuhlemann@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk



If that's got you thinking about living in America, it's worth knowing that some anthropology degrees offer exchange programmes with American universities. Oxford Brookes is just one uni that thinks anthropology students may benefit from time spent living and studying in another culture.

On the same day there's also a free anthropology talk called 'Images of the ancestors: Aesthetics and Moai being-in-the-world' at the British Museum Centre for Anthropology Seminar. Moai is the name for the giant statues carved from volcanic ash that are found dotted around Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. The talk starts at 10.00 and you can find out more details by emailing anthropology@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk






FRIDAY 15TH JUNE - Women who become men

Today I'm going to listen again to anthropologist Antonia Young's appearance on Radio 4's Women's Hour last week. She was discussing her new book, 'Women who become Men' about women in the mountains of Northern Albania who decide to become 'honorary' men. Doing so requires a vow of celibacy and gives them greater respect within both their community and family. On the other hand, it also means they are expected to resolve blood feuds by whatever, often armed, means are necessary.
The book is a really interesting study of how issues like gender and concepts of honour can cut across all other aspects of society.


SATURDAY 16TH JUNE - Art & anthropology

On Saturday I'm going to the new Castaways exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. The exhibition is a multi-media show of 'sculptural paintings' made from environmental material from the coast of Ghana together with a film & audioscape by anthropologist Andrew Feld, from the University of New Mexico.

Sounds intriguing, but I'm a little unclear of what it's all about at the moment. Luckily, at 2pm there's an interactive guided tour by Dr Rupert Cox (brother of film director Phil featured last week) who runs the Visual Anthropology department at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology in Manchester. The talk is free and you can also see the exhibition at the RAI film festival in coming weeks.


SUNDAY 17TH JUNE - Spotting statues

The plan for Sunday is to check out Blind Light - Anthony Gormley's new exhibition based in the Hayward Gallery, and featuring a range of his iconic sculptures. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing of these is Event Horizon, a series of 31 life-size moulds of Gormley himself, that he has located around London, from rooftops to ground level. Antony Gormley studied anthropology at university and has often claimed that the 'anthropological' is central to his work. You can read an article here by another famous anthropologist, Hugh Brody, about the sense of 'belonging' and community he sees in Gormley's latest exhibition. The exhibition runs until mid-August and tickets are £8 (half-price concessions) for an hour inside the gallery - booking ahead is highly recommended.


MONDAY 18TH JUNE - Refugees planting roots

This week is Refugee Week and there are cultural, artistic and educational events being held all over the UK to celebrate the place of refugees to UK society, and encourage greater understanding between communities - something anthropology often ends up doing too! Refugees are studied by anthropologists because they are frequently at the margins of mainstream society and can help us understand where cultural differences arise.



A couple of events especially caught my eye. Firstly, there's an exhibition running at the St Mungo Museum of Life & Art in Glasgow called 'A Glasgow Story'. It's the result of a collaboration between photographer Roddy Mackay and Glasgow's large African & Caribbean population and portrays aspects of African life and culture in the city. It runs on until the end of July and entrance is FREE.

Secondly, this week sees the release of a film called Grow Your Own. Based on a true story, it is about a group of asylum seekers in Liverpool who are given plots on an allotment in the midst of members of the local community. The film examines the interaction between this diverse group of people and how they come to terms with their different cultural backgrounds. Grow Your Own is showing in cinemas nationwide.

Also today, for those of you feeling like a bit of exercise, anthropologist Lionel Sims from the University of East London will be hosting a guided tour of the Avebury monuments in Wiltshire. Avebury is the site of several stone circles and a large henge and its historical purpose is still not fully understood. Dr Sims has been studying henges for most of his academic career and recently produced a documentary for Channel 5 on Stonehenge. If you would like to attend - be warned the walk is a hefty 6 hours long! - then meet at East Kennet village at 11am. The walk is part of the Radical Anthropology Group's annual trip to Avebury. RAG is a weekly evening class in anthropology open to everyone. Check out the link for more details.


TUESDAY 19TH JUNE - Feeling peckish?

There's a really different and interesting series of talks today in Cambridge. Given by experts from a variety of subjects, they are centred around 'Foodomics' - the study of what we eat and why. Dr Manpreet Janeja, from the Department of Social Anthropology, is giving a short talk - 'What did you eat today?' on the Culture of food choices at 11.50 in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

I'll look forward to understanding the reasons behind the sandwich I decide to buy for lunch (strictly no sweetcorn) after the talk, and may head down to the CUP bookshop to see if they've got any books on the anthropology of food. You can also study the anthropology of food at a postgraduate level at SOAS - see here for more tasty details.


WEDNESDAY 20TH JUNE - Peering at the Pitt-Rivers Museum

Tonight I want to go to the Annual General Meeting at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. If that sounds a bit stuffy, then rest assured the main reason I'll be there is for the lecture that follows the meeting entitled 'Seeking knowledge, seeking life: PRM collections and First Nations communities in Canada'. It will be given by Dr Laura Peers who regularly gives fascinating talks about the representation of indigenous North Americans in museums. Yow can read an article by Dr Peers on one of the museum's collections (also well worth a look) here. The meeting and talk take place at 18.15 in the museum's extension, with refreshments available from 17.45.

Diary for 7th June to 13th June 2007

THURSDAY 7TH JUNE - Pots, pop & philosophy from across the pond

Tonight I'm going to a talk down at the British Museum. A panel of experts including Simon Schama will be discussing how the British have represented America over the last few hundred years and the cultural differences that are portrayed in everything from pop culture to political philosophy. The session - 'America: The View from here' starts at 18.30 in the BP lecture theatre and entry is £5.

If you are particularly interested in the Media, several universities offer specialised degrees in Anthropology and Media. Check out Goldsmiths (Anthropology and Media), Sussex (Anthropology and Media Studies) as well as joint media and anthropology courses at Oxford Brookes, Lampeter, and Roehampton.

Also on this evening is a talk by anthropologist and potter Dr Natalie Tobert. Dr Tobert spent two years observing the potters of Darfur, Sudan, and their creative techniques. She will be recounting her experiences from 19.00 onwards in the Austen Building at Harrow College. It's advisable to phone ahead first on 0208 909 6185 if you're thinking of going.






FRIDAY 8TH JUNE - Getting into the Native Spirit

There's a feast of interesting documentaries showing today at Riverside Studios as past of the Native Spirit film festival I mentioned last week. Starting at 11am, I'm going to watch some more fantastic, but rarely seen, films about the indigenous peoples of North, South and Central America.

Highlights on Friday include the 13.00 screening of 'ABA' about the gathering of 2000 indigenous peoples at the place where the Portuguese colonisers first arrived in Brazil and an evening showing of 'We Are The Indians' about the daily lives of Argentina's remaining Guarani Indians.




Both films will be followed by a Q and A session with the directors. Phil Cox, director of We are the Indians, studied Visual Anthropology in Manchester's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology before entering into a career in film-making. Tickets are £6.50 for each film.





SATURDAY 9TH JUNE - Imagining the English

On Saturday I plan to spend the day ambling around a new exhibition on at the Tate Britain. How We Are is the first major exhibition of photography they've ever held and images from the entire historical spectrum of British photography are on show from the 1830s to the present day. It's particularly worth looking out for some early anthropological shots in room 1. I'll also be taking my digital camera along with me - if I get a few pictures on the journey to the Tate there's the opportunity to join the exhibition by uploading photos to Flickr in How We Are Now.

Tate Britain is open from 10.00 until 17.40, and entrance to How We Are is £7.50. You can read some thoughts on the exhibition here - especially interesting is Homer Sykes' article on capturing British customs on camera.

SUNDAY 10TH JUNE - Groundbreaking film from Australia

On the back of the inaugural Native Spirit film festival I'm really enthused about the future of indigenous film, and so today I'm off to see Ten Canoes. This is a ground-breaking cinematic production - it's the first ever Australian film made originally entirely in indigenous languages and starring only Aborigine actors. Set in pre-contact times, it tells the tale of ten men preparing their canoes for the annual hunt. The elder, Minygulu, discovers that one of the younger men has designs on his third wife. To restore village order, the old man offers the group a 'morality tale' about a similar situation involving their ancestors many generations before. One of the Associate Producers for the film was an anthropologist, and much of the cinematography was inspired by the photography of early anthropologist Donald Thomson.

The film uses colour film for the distant past, underlining the importance of oral history to the Aborigines, and black and white for the near past, with the footage closely based on Thomson's images from the 1930s. It is showing in London at the Curzon Renoir, the Odeon Covent Garden and the Barbican. In Manchester on Sunday, the Cornerhouse is hosting a special evening screening of the film followed by a 'making of' documentary at 18.10. You can also listen to an interview with the film's director on Radio 3's Night Waves programme here.




MONDAY 11TH JUNE - More great films in your pocket

There are two highly-recommended films showing tonight as part of Pocketvisions' summer season of the best films from its' London Documentary film festival earlier this year.

The films start at 20.00 at theRoxy Bar & Screen in Borough, London. The Everyday Life of Roma Children from Block 71 is a portrait of a Roma family living in a Belgrade skyscraper and presents an alternative and more intimate understanding of Roma life than is often portrayed. It is followed by a short film about another group of marginalised people; The Seeds gives an insight into the lives of a family living in the Siberian mountains and their struggle to get by.


TUESDAY 12TH JUNE - What a load of rubbish...

Today I'm heading down to sunny Cornwall to visit an exhibition running at the Eden Project. 'kNOw trash' is a collection of objects from all parts of the globe - often where money and resources are in short supply - that illuminates the creative ways people recycle waste materials. It's on show in The Core education building throughout the summer - entrance to the whole of the Eden Project site is £14 for adults.





Anthropologists are very interested in what the study of objects can tell us about people. There is even an anthropology of rubbish! In fact, students in an anthropology class at the University of Arizona inn 1971 kick started the Garbage Project (still going on today) which uses rubbish and landfill sites to find out about American lifestyles. Proffessor of Amthropology, William Rathje, together with Cullen Murphy have written a fascinating book called "Rubbish! : the archaelogy of Garbage" about the project. You can also read an article of the anthropology of Polish Christmas rubbish on the website www.anthropologymatters.com


(The picture is of Professor William Rathje doing some research!)








WEDNESDAY 13TH JUNE - Recording identity through photography

Today I'm heading down to a favourite place of mine - The Horniman Museum for some more fascinating photography. One of their exhibitions at present is a photographic documentation of Creole architecture - it's an interesting example of an attempt to 'record' social artefacts that are fast disappearing. The photos are from Freetown, taken by Sierra Leonians, and represent the first archival project of its kind in 21st century Sierra Leone - an effort to recognise the importance of cultural heritage for future identity. The exhibition runs until 1st July and is open from 10.30 to 17.30.

Diary for 31st May to 6th June 2007

THURSDAY 31ST MAY - From fa'afafine films to trailblazing talks...

A bumper start to the week for anthropologists about town everywhere. The Pasifika Styles Festival at the Cambridge Arch & Anth museum continues with two days of plays and films from New Zealand. Today, I thought I might go along to the lunchtime screening of the documentary Siva Pasifika (directed by Lisa Taouma) which charts the migration of Pacific dance across Polynesia. The screening takes place on the top floor gallery at 1pm, and entry is free. If I enjoy it, I may well come back for Lisa Taouma's film showing tomorrow about the fa'afafine community - same time, same place.

After that, there should be time to jump on the train down to London for an evening discussion centred around the National Portrait Gallery's latest exhibition 'Between Worlds: Voyagers to Britain 1700-1850'. Panel members, including anthropologist Claude Ardouin (Head of the African Ethnography at the British Museum), will be debating 'What Should Museums Display?'. They will be trying to get to grips with the extent to which cultural institutions are duty-bound to present distressing images from the past, and whether such presentations risk perpetuating the abuse of bygone eras they seek to document. Admission is free and the event starts at 19.00.

Next up, Professor Robin Dunbar, who I mentioned on last week's blog, is giving another interesting talk at Durham University in the Birley Room, Hatfield College at 17:15. Entitled, 'What can evolution tell us about religion?' he will discuss how much evolutionary theory can explain humanity's capacity for religious belief. Professor Dunbar also appeared on Radio 3's Nightwaves programme last Tuesday discussing similar matters. You can listen again by clicking here.


Also, today is your last chance to get reduced rates on tickets for the 10th Ethnographic Film Festival in Manchester, that runs from 27th June until 2nd July. If you needed any more encouragement, it's just been announced that Kevin Macdonald, director of The Last King of Scotland, is giving the festival's flagship Forman lecture. At the moment tickets for the whole weekend are £49 or £29 for students. See www.raifilmfest.org.uk for more details.





FRIDAY 1ST JUNE - Maori theatre in Cambridge

On Friday, I'm back at the Pasifika Styles festival with a hard choice to make between two fascinating theatre productions showing in Cambridge. At the ADC in Park Street, Niu Sila is a play about the friendship that develops between two children of different cultural backgrounds come to live in the same area in 1970s New Zealand. It promises to be "funny and poignant, irreverent yet touching". Alternatively, 'and what remains' at The Playroom, St Edward's Passage is set in the near future of New Zealand (2010) and portrays a New Zealand where all its indigenous Maori population have died or fled. All, that is, bar a young woman called Mary awaiting her flight to leave also. They story uses her personal journey to explore the links between land and people and should be a challenging play.

Whichever one I go for, they both start at 7.45 and cost £7.


SATURDAY 2ND JUNE - Gypsy music, African languages and anthropologists in the Artic.

I've been meaning to go along to 'The 1000 Year Journey' festival of gypsy and Roma music and film at The Barbican in London for some time now. On Saturday, there are two films showing - at 14.00 there's Latcho Drom, a road movie that celebrates gypsy life and culture across Asia and Europe; and then at 16.00 Transylvania, a love story between two strangers. Both films are priced at the reduced rate of £6 if you also have a ticket for the evening concert that starts from 17.00 and stars 'The Destroyers', a gypsy-jazz group from Birmingham and the main event which is a collaboration of some of Greece and Turkey's most renowned musicians. Tickets range from £10 to £20 and you can hear samples of the music on the Barbican website.

Also starting today is the Word from Africa - a London-wide celebration of Africa and its many languages and cultures– in literature, music and arts. The launch event takes place from noon until 20.00 on Saturday at the British Museum. Entry is free, but pre-booking recommended. Make sure to look out for African Poems on the Underground this week too.



Finally, Freeze Frame, a five-week lecture series at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich starts today, in celebration of International Polar Year 2007. It comprises a series of talks by explorers, artists, historians, anthropologists and scientists looking at the environmental threat to climate change. Look out for anthropologist Hugh Brody's contribution later this month on the way indigenous communities are adapting. The talks run on consecutive Saturdays from 15.15 to 17.30 - prices vary depending on many you want to attend!



SUNDAY 3RD JUNE - The Elvis of cultural theory

Today I'm planning to catch a new film 'Zizek!' at the ICA in London about the eponymous Slovenian sociologist and cultural philosopher who has been labeled, for better or worse, the 'Elvis' of his field. I think this is more because of his energetic thinking and challenging writing than a penchant for blue suede shoes, but he often pops up in anthropology so it would be good to know more about the man behind the ideas. The screening is at 1pm, and I may well stick around for a documentary later that day about life in a Haitian slum, Ghosts of Cite Soleil. Both films cost £8, or slightly less if you're a member of the ICA



MONDAY 4TH JUNE - Opera-inspired study of marginality

On Monday, I want to make my first trip to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Newcastle. At the moment, there's an video installation exhibition by Portuguese artist Vasco Araujo produced together with local musicians and community leaders called About Being Different. Inspired by a Benjamin Britten opera about the persecution of a fishermen by his village, it promises to explore ideas of community and marginality in an original and thought-provoking way. The Baltic is open from Monday-Sunday, 10.00-18.00 and entrance is free. About Being Different runs until 28th June.




TUESDAY 5TH JUNE - Native America history and 1st UK Native Spirit Film Festival

At lunchtime today I'm going to the British Museum's temporary exhibition "A New World: England's First View of America" to listen to a free gallery talk by anthropologist Max Carocci. Max's talk is entitled: "Who were the Algonquins?" and begins at 13.15. As well as knowing a lot about Native American history Max recently completed a really interesting PhD at Goldsmiths University called 'Two Spirits: Being Gay and Native American in San Francisco, California.


After looking into some Native American history at the museum, I'm getting a little more contemporary and going along to some of the films in the Native Spirit Film & Video Festival of the Indigenous Peoples of the Three Americas.(4th-10th June, various locations around London).

This festival, organised by the Latin American Association, is really exciting because it's the first festival of its kind in the UK, showcasing some outstanding and innovative films about the indigenous peoples of North, South and Central America. The festival aims to offer the British public a fresh cultural viewpoint and the unique opportunity to learn about some of the world's oldest surviving and most marginalised communities. The film on Tuesday is "Atanarjuat/The Fast Runner (2001)," screening at 7.45pm, Canada House, Free. This a feature film telling an ancient Inuitlegend of survival. It was made by Isuma, Canada's first Inuit production company. You read all about the film, including the production diary and interviews with the actors and Inuit cultural advisers here.



WEDNESDAY 6TH JUNE - Reading religiously

On Wednesday, I want to browse for a few hours around the exhibition 'Sacred' at the British Library. It is a display of religious texts from Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths and examines the differing ways each religion has developed scripturally over their respective histories. Entrance is free, and there are a range of associated talks and events to attend. For more details see the British library website.