Diary for 17th-23rd May 2007

THURSDAY 17th MAY - Reading forensic anthropology novels!


Today I thought I would try out one of Kathy Reichs's novels about the work of fictional forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (who is also the lead character in the TV series Bones on Sky One).

The author Kathy Reichs is actually quite a famous forensic anthropologist herself. She works for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Quebec and is also Professor of Anthropology at the Univerisity of North Carolina.

I don't know what the books are like yet, but I do know that they are inspired by her own experiences, so the forensic anthropology in them is authentic. Kathy has worked as a forensic anthropologist all round this world - she has testified in Rwanda at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, helped identify individuals from mass graves in Guatemala and done some forensic work at Ground Zero in New York. If you are want to find out more about this kind of anthropology, this might be an interesting way to do it!


FRIDAY 18th MAY - Free Native American film screening at the British Museum









The British Museum, as part of it's exhibition "A New World - England's first view of America," is holding a special Native American film screening on Friday, in association with the Royal Anthropological Institute. From 3pm until 6pm they are showing 2 anthropological films: "Techqua Ikacha: Aboriginal Warning" about Indigenous Hopi people resisting oil and mining interests (Director: Alan Georg, 2006)and then "The Spirit of Crazy Horse" about the struggle to reclaim the ancestral homeland of the Sioux, from the battle of Little Big Horn to the 1960s and 70s (Director: James Locker, 1990). The films are free, but booking is advised. See the British Museum's website for details.



After the non-fiction screenings, you can stick around to watch "Smoke Signals" at 6.30pm. This road movie was the first feature film to be written, directed and co-produced by a Native American (Director: Chris Eyre, 1998). Admission £3.










SATURDAY 19th MAY - Exploring ideas about the body in Brighton Museum


On Saturday I'm heading to Brighton to explore the anthropological collections of the Brighton Museum. They have a particularly great gallery called "the Body gallery" (the pictures on the left are of objects from the gallery) which explores, through objects, how we interpret our own and other people's bodies. The museum is open from 10am-5pm on Saturdays. See their website for more info.









SUNDAY 20th MAY - Viva! film festival at the Curzon Mayfair, London

As part of the VIVA film festival, the Curzon Mayfair is showing Un Franco, 14 Pesetas (Crossing Borders) by Director Carlos Iglesias. 2pm, Curzon Mayfair.

This film explores the complexities around migration, a subject often studied by anthropologists. The description on the Curzon website says:

"TV actor Iglesias turns début writer-director to recount this story of his childhood when thousands of Spaniards emigrated to North Europe to escape unemployment and poverty in Franco’s Spain. In 1960, Martín (director Iglesias) and Marcos (Gutiérrez) leave behind their families in Madrid to seek a wage to send home. Switzerland confounds their expectation, with its freedoms and its open, bright spaces. Despite the inevitable cultural misunderstandings, they find work and settle in to enjoy their new lives. But when Martín’s wife and son and Marcos’ girlfriend María suddenly arrive to join them, it becomes apparent that some are better suited to this new life than others."



MONDAY 21st MAY- Free anthropology and film in a London bar!

On Monday, check out the first of several ENCORE! film screenings at London's Roxy Bar and Screen. As an encore to the London International Documentary Film Festival we featured back in March, the organisers are showing some of the festival's films again at Roxy's Bar and Screen a really nice and relaxed place to see a film, get something to eat and chat about the film afterwards with people from lots of different backgrounds, inclduing anthropologists. The first film to be shown is Sargy Man (Director Peter Mann 2006).

Sargy Mann is a successful figurative painter who, despite being registered blind since 1987, has continued to make work about what he sees. In May 2005 Sargy Mann undertook a research trip to Spain with his son, the film's director. As he begun work on a new series of paintings the artist, who has very partial vision in one eye, went completely blind. Despite this, he continues to paint recreating motifs from memory.

This film, directed and shot by the artist’s son, shows how an artist has overcome an apparently insurmountable obstacle, i.e. total blindness. Filmed over a period of more than a year and centred on the making of one painting, it tells a unique story and is a fascinating insight into the creative process. Both Sargy Mann and Peter Mann will be available for a Q and A after the film.

8pm, Roxy Bar and Screen, London. See www.pocketvisions.co.uk for more details.



TUESDAY 22nd MAY - More anthropology of food!

Last week I featured a talk on the anthropology of cooking at Cambridge University and it's the last in the series of these talks this Tuesday. The final talk is called "The Pleistocene journey: humans as the cooking ape" and is taking place from 5-6pm in the Seminar Room in the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the university. Directions can be found here.

• The talk by Richard Wrangham, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University is free and open to the general public.
  

WEDNESDAY 23rd MAY - State Britain: art and protest at the Tate Britain.


Brian Haw became famous for his sustained protest outside the Houses of Parliament against the economic sanction in Iraq which he started in 2001. A year ago today, following the passing of the 'Serious Organised Crime and Police Act' prohibiting unauthorised demonstrations within 1km radius of Parliament Square his protest was removed. Now artist Mark Wallinger has
painstaking recreated the 600 banners, photographs, peace flags and teddy bear used in Brian's protest displays over the years inside the Tate Britain.

I've put this exhibition in the blog because anthropologists are often interested in what is sometimes called the 'politics of representation' and Mark Wallinger's work raises lots of interesting issues about this. You can also watch a clip from an ethnographic film about Brian Haw's protest by Goldsmiths Visual Anthropology student Delphine Gibson on YouTube.

Diary for 10th - 16th May 2007

THURSDAY 10th MAY - Art inspired by anthropology in Manchester

An exhibition called: The Uncertainty of Identity: the Biographies of Things, is currently running at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. The exhibition is inspired by the work of anthropologist Igor Kopytoff and features Jacob Epstein's radical marble figure Genesis. This radical work aroused great controversy - in 1931 it was described as 'unfit to show, a vision of ugliness' by the Daily Telegraph. In 1958 it was bought by Tussaud's Waxworks on Blackpool's Golden Mile to show 'the horrors of modern art'. Since 1999 it has been part of the Gallery's permanent collection. The exhibition explores how the identities and meanings of art objects such as this are not fixed but rather take their meaning from the contexts in which they are exchanged/used/displayed.


FRIDAY 11th May - Opening of the 9TH Festival of World Culture in London




Starting today there's a really exciting festival of world culture going on in several venues around London, including the Institut Francais, the Ritzy Cinema and Greenwich Picturehouse. Mosaiques 2007 is a mixture of documentary and feature film, talks, discussion and even a Balkan music/electronica night. Full details are here.








SATURDAY 12th May - Wales Anthropology Day

On Saturday you might like to book a place at the Wales Anthropology Day, an anthropology taster day held at the University of Wales, Lampeter on the 22nd June. Full details are on their website and workshops will include everything from the anthropology of humour to the Scottish Beltane Fire Society. Staff from the BBC Wales series Tribe will also be there to give a behind the scenes look.




SUNDAY 13th May - Made in Korea: film and Director's Q and A.

As part of the festival mentioned above the Ritzy Cinema is screening "Made in Korea: -A One-Way Ticket Seoul-Amsterdam?" by Documentary maker Soo Radstake who was one of 5,000 Korean children adopted by Dutch families in the 1970s. The film documents his search to reconnect with the other Korean adoptees on board the flight that brought him for Seoul to Amsterdam 26 years earlier and which throws up unexpected discovers that leads him to question his Dutch identity. The screening on Sunday is followed by a Q and A with the director.




MONDAY 14th May - student films on the net

Today, I'm watching some films made by visual anthropology students on the Internet. Goldsmiths, University of London has recently put up a gallery of film clips made by their students on their website. The films are pretty interesting, plus it's a good way to get a taste of visual anthropology.





TUESDAY 15th May - Anthropology and Food!

On Tuesday you can go to a public lecture at the University of Cambridge on the anthropology of cooking! Richard Wrangham, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University is giving a talk called "The Mind of the Cook: why we eat so nicely." This is part of a special lecture series called "The Natural Cook: a theory of Human Evolution." 5-6pm, Seminar Room, Overwhelm Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, , the Henry Wellcome Building, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge CB2 1QH. For more info see: www.talks.cam.ac.uk





WEDNESDAY 16th May - Girl street gangs in Cairo

Another film from the Mosiaques 2007 festival of world culture. "These Girls" by Tahani Rached follows a band of girls living on the streets of Cairo. Previously shown at the Cannes, Toronto and New York film festivals. Screening at the Roxy Cinema in London. See the Mosiaques website for more details.








COMING UP!

A series of anthropology films are soon to be shown at London's Roxy Bar and Grill, near Borough Market as an encore to the London International Documentary Film Festival held at the British Museum in March. The first one will be on the 21st May. More details coming soon, but for the moment have a look here.

Diary for 3rd-9th May 2007

After being off-line for a few weeks, the diary’s back! Here is the diary of interesting anthropology-related events coming up over the next week and things to look out for in the future!


THURSDAY 3rd MAY - Anthropology Taster Day for students

Today, if you are a Year 12/13 or FE student interested in studying anthropology at university, you should add yourself to the waiting list for a free place at the next London Anthropology Day at the British Museum on the 9th July 2007. It's been incredibly popular so all places are currently booked up, but there is a waiting list you can sign up to. Lecturers from 16 different anthropology university departments will be running workshops on topics from the anthropology of fairy tales to studying wild chimpanzees. Click on the link above to go to the website where you can find out more. If any of you (student or otherwise!) aren’t quite sure what anthropology there’s also a really nice short film about anthropology you can watch on the website, filmed by Ed Owles and Cinizia Roochi.


FRIDAY 4th MAY - Anthropology and reality TV!

On Friday I’m staying in and checking out the BBC programme Castaway (BBC3 7-8pm). I’ve discovered they have a resident anthropologist, Mary-Anne Ochota who has been commenting on their website on things like conflict and community building among the Castaway contestants. Mary-Anne has a degree from Cambridge University in Anthropology and was chosen as one of the expert commentators on the programme. I’m intrigued! Click on her name above to see a short video about her and read her blogs on the BBC Castaway website.


SATURDAY 5th MAY- Contemporary art, anthropology and the Pacific!

I’m heading to Cambridge on Saturday afternoon to explore the Pasifika Styles Exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge (free and open from 2-4.30pm on Saturdays).

This is an exhibition celebrating contemporary art work inspired by Maori and Pacific Island culture and unites a new wave of contemporary Pacific art with the museum’s historic anthropology collections. These pictures are taken from the exhibition. Far left: Wise Men, Grey Semu. Near left: Polynisation,Niki Hastings.

Also watch out for the Pasifika Styles Festival at the end of May (29th May -1st June) when there will be loads of activities and events from short films, to theatre, to an activity day. at the museum. Full details www.pasifikastyles.org.uk


SUNDAY 6th MAY - An intriguing museum and a free Voices of Slavery concert

Another anthropology museum, but this time in London! The Hornimam Museum in Forest Hill has a fantastic anthropology collection and is open for exploration daily from 10.30-5.30pm. They’ve recently opened up the Centenary gallery to explore 100 years of collecting. You can look at how the ways in which anthropologists collect objects has changed over time. Full details about the museum are on www.horniman.ac.uk

Plus, if you go this Sunday, you can also catch the free Voices of Slavery Concert (3-4.30pm in the Conservatory), which is part of the museum’s Bicentenary events. The concert features music by former slaves Ignatius Sancho, ‘Blind Tom’ Bethune and arrangements of spirituals and plantation songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, HT Burleigh and other distinguished Black composers of the early 20th century. Booking is not required but as places are limited you might be wise to arrive early.


MONDAY 7th MAY- An anthropologist in charge of the Young Vic!

Okay, so I know this is probably a tenuous anthropology connection, but on Monday I’m going to see a play called Vernon God Little at the Young Vic in London. The reason this has made it onto Anthropologist About Town is that David Lan, the Artistic Director of the Young Vic, is actually a rather famous anthropologist who wrote a book called “Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe (1985) that is on nearly every undergraduate anthropology reading list in the country (you can buy it on Amazon).

You can read an archival 2005 interview with David Lan in the Guardian about how an anthropologist ended up as a theatre director here.





TUESDAY 8th MAY - film screening in Kent about elephant handlers in Nepal

On Tuesday I’m going to Canterbury to the University of Kent to a special film screening. Piers Locke, who has recently completed a PhD in the department, will be introducing and showing his ethnographic film Servants of Ganesh about the handlers of the Khorsor Elephant Breeding Center in Chitwan, Nepal, and the training of a juvenile elephant called Paras Gaj. As part of his PhD Piers trained to become an elephant handler in Nepal.

The film screening will be at 4.30pm in the DICE Room (Marlowe Building). Directions to the university can be found at www.kent.ac.uk and you can find out more about the film on www.oneworldfilms.com. Members of the general public welcome. Any queries contact Piers on pl21@kent.ac.uk


WEDNESDAY 9th MAY - Anthropology on the Radio

On Wednesday I’ll be tuning in to Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed with Laurie Taylor from 4-4.30pm. Laurie often has anthropologists on the show, which discusses the latest social science research. They haven’t posted the topic for next week yet, but if there’s no anthropology you can always listen to old shows on the website.

The one from the 14th Feb 2007 is particularly interesting with anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes talking about the controversy over late broadcaster Alistair Cooke’s remains.



BITS AND PIECES

There has been lots of anthropology in the news recently as Bob Geldof unvield his plans to work with the BBC on the Dictionary of Man project and The Human Planet TV series. Google Bob Geldof, Dictionary of Man and anthropology to find out more!

Free tickets to Romuald Hazoume talk on Thurs!

Hi everyone,

Following the Art of Remembering event at the October Gallery on Friday 9th March which I ran (see listing for 9th March) Charlotte at the October Gallery has very kindly offered us some complimentary tickets to a talk by one of the artists! The talk is at the Tate on Thursday and full details are below. If you would like a ticket please send me an email on education@therai.org.uk with your full name and I'll let Charlotte know to put your name on the door list. First come, first served!

Gem
(Royal Anthropological Institute Education Officer)

Romuald Hazoumé: Artist's Talk
Thursday 22 March 2007, 18.30–20.00








Romuald Hazoumé ARTicle 14 2005October Gallery, London © Romuald Hazoumé

One of West Africa’s leading visual artists, Romuald Hazoumé has worked with many media throughout his career, from discarded petrol canisters, oil paint and canvas, to large-scale installation, video and photography. As the British Museum presents the UK premiere of his major work La Bouche du Roi, Hazoumé talks with Christopher Spring, artist and curator of the Museum’s African Collections, about the people, ideas and materials that have shaped his extraordinary career.

Humorous and wryly political, Hazoumé’s practice often engages deeply with local and international history to deliver incisive social commentary. In the mid 1980s he began sculptural experiments with black plastic jerry cans, ubiquitous in Benin for transporting black-market petrol from Nigeria. Weakened from being expanded over flames to increase their capacities, the full jerry cans are typically transported in great clusters on motorbikes, often resulting in fatal explosions. Hazoumé has used the cans as a potent metaphor for all forms of slavery, past and present, drawing parallels with the vessels’ role as crucial but faceless units within commercial systems, dangerously worked to breaking point before being discarded. In the installation La Bouche du Roi, he expands and builds on this metaphor to haunting effect.
Romuald Hazoumé was born in 1962 in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin, and now lives in the coastal town of Cotonou and works in Porto Novo. His work has won widespread critical acclaim, and has featured in exhibitions from the Saatchi Gallery's 'Out of Africa' to, more recently, the Menil Collection in Texas, the international touring exhibition 'Africa Remix', and installations at the World Museum, Liverpool, the Guggenheim, Bilbao and the Musée Quai Branly, Paris. Currently he is also participating with a major outdoor sculpture in the exhibition Uncomfortable Truths: the shadow of slave trading on contemporary art and design at the Victoria & Albert Museum and with panoramic photographs in the exhibition From Courage to Freedom at the October Gallery, London.

In collaboration with Africa Beyond and October Gallery, London

Tate Modern Starr Auditorium£7 (£5 concessions), booking recommended

For tickets book onlineor call 020 7887 8888.

Diary for 15th- 21st March 2007

Here is the diary of interesting anthropology-related events coming up over the next 7 days and things to look out for in the future!

THURSDAY 15th MARCH

On Thursday at 4pm you can go go to a free film screening at the Royal Anthropological Institute buildings at 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. We are screening Mao Mollona's Steel Lives. Mao is a lecturer in anthropology Goldsmith's College, University of London. He made this film as part of his PhD. The film looks at the working lives of men who earn a living in what remains of the Sheffield Steel Industry.

The film's producer, Margaret Dickinson, will be on hand at the screening to answer any questions. The screening is specially designed for people new to anthropology.

To book a free space email Gem at education@therai.org.uk, 0207 387 044.

On Thursday you can also go and explore the Anthropology Library at the British Museum. Not many people know this, but the British Museum has one of the biggest collections of anthropology books and journals in the world - and any member of the public can wander in and have a look (although you can't take books out of the library!). Thursday is the library's late opening days and it's open from 12pm to 7pm. The library is located at the Montague Entrance of the museum and has some very helpful staff! It's great is you are thinking about studying anthropology at university and want to read some introductory books, but it's also a great place to explore if you want to read a little more about the topics of any of the events listed here. You can always email me at writetolucy@googlemail.com if you've been to an event and want a recommended book title to find out more!

FRIDAY 16th MARCH

On Friday, it's the last of the Royal Anthropological Institute's ESRC Festival of Social Science free film screenings and we're showing Duka's Dilemma at 4pm, 50 Fitzroy Street, London, W1T 5BT, (reserve a seat at education@therai.org.uk, 0207 387 0455).

Duka's Dilemma by anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Lydall is an intimate and personal family portrayal of the life of Duka, from the Hamar community of Southern Ethiopia. Jean Lydall has been making films with this community since the 1970s and in 2001 she returned with her daughter and grandson to follow the continuing life story of Duka, especially what happens when her husband decides to take a second wife.

The Hamar were featured in the BBC series Tribe and this is a good chance to see the difference between anthropological documentaries and documentaries made for "entertainment."

SATURDAY 17th MARCH

There are EVEN more film screenings in London on Saturday when the anthropological film screening group Pocket Visions introduces Conversations in Film - the London International Documentary Film Festival held at the British Museum, London. Check out their dedicated website: http://www.lidf.co.uk/ for full details.

Lots of the films screened are made by visual anthropologists, it's cheap (£3 a film) and there should be lots of interesting discussion, which will hopefully be accessible to non-anthropologists.

SUNDAY 18th MARCH

On Sunday I'm heading to the National Portrait Gallery to see their Between Worlds exhibition (open 10-6pm, free admission). The exhibition explores the stories of non-Europeans who, from the seventeenth century onwards, visited or were brought to London and whose visits caused great excitement, interest and curiosity. In the words of the NPG, "the exhibition examines the complexities and ambiguities of their time in London through the images and objects that were produced in the period."

I'm particularly interested in this exhibition because some of those people bringing non-Europeans over to London were the predecessors of today's anthropologists. Sometimes these people were brought to the Royal Anthropological Institute meeting rooms (then known as the Ethnological Society) and "studied" at meetings. In our archives we have the minutes of these meetings. In Anthropology Today (vol 20, no. 4, p. 24) Sarah Walpole, the Royal Anthropological Institute archivist writes "...exhibitions of native people were very popular at the time [18th century] and attendance at meetings increased enormously when such individuals were presented for examination: in 1851-52 Chines, "Kaffirs," Polynesians and "Esquimaux" were all brought to the London rooms of the society. Their thoughts on the matter are not recorded."

Obviously anthropologists today would never ever do this kind of thing! A good book to read to find out a little more about it (and anthropology's problematic role in it) is Roslyn Poignant's Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle (2004, Yale University Press)

MONDAY 19th MARCH

Today I'm off to Liverpool for something completely different - a free public lecture on biological anthropology that links Oscar Wilde and Tooth Development ! I think you'd better read about it yourselves http://www.liv.ac.uk/think

TUESDAY 20th MARCH

Back to film screenings again, but this time it's Oxford that has an International Documentary Film Festival (10th-25th March). Their website http://www.oxdox.com/ has full details of screenings, but the one on Tuesday at Milton Keynes Cineworld that I'm particularly excited about. The Cineworld is showing Kim Longinotto's and Jano Williams "Gaea Girls," about the grueling and mental exhausting training regime of several young wanna-be Gaea Girls, a group of Japanese women wrestlers. Kim Longinotto often works with anthropologists when making her documentary films and in fact you can buy/rent many of them from the Royal Anthropological Institute.

WEDNESDAY 21st MARCH

Another Kim Longinotto/Jano Williams film as part of Ox Docs (http://www.oxdoc.com/), Dream Girls is being shown, but this time in Oxford at the Old Fire Station. Dream Girls explores the spectacular world of the Takareazuka Revue, a highly successful musically theatre company in Japan. Each year, thousands of girls apply to enter the male-run Takareazuka Music school. See website for full details.

LOOKING AHEAD

3rd April 2007 - Seeing Everything in Black and White: the origins of sectarian violence and the problems of small groups" a public lecture by renowned anthropologist Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, run by the Young Foundation and University College London. Booking ahead recommended. See http://www.youngfoundation.org.uk/node/429 for full details.

9th July 2007 - next London Anthropology Day for Schools: www.londonanthropologyday.co.uk

FRIDAY 9th March : Art of Remembering

The Art of Remembering: photography, art and anthropology in Ghana @ the October Gallery
9th March, 2007, 6.30-10pm

24 Old Gloucester Street, WC1N 3AL

In the week of the 50th Jubilee anniversay of the independence of Ghana, the Royal Anthropological Institute's Discover Anthropology programme brings you an evening of film screenings by visual anthropologists, plus a chance to explore the October Gallery's current exhibition of work by leading West African artists El Anatsui, Romauld Hazoume and Owusu-Annkomah. The event will be compered by Paul Basu, an anthropology lecturer from Sussex University, who worked in TV and film before becoming an anthropologist. After the main screening of "Future Remembrance: photography and image arts in Ghana" by Nancy du Plessis and Tobias Wendl, vistors can explore the gallery, chat to the anthropologists, watch short films about Ghana by students or have a free glass of wine.

This event is free, but booking highly recomnended as space is limited: To book a free place email Gem on education@therai.org.uk, 0207 387 0455.

Doors open 6.30pm, Main screening 7-8pm.

Future Remembrance is a fascinating documentary about the social, economic and cultural contexts of the work of studio photographers, sculptors and coffin makers in Ghana. Visual anthropologists are interested in all aspects of representation including performance, museums, art, indigenous media as well as the production and reception of mass media. They ask questions abot how people use different kinds of media to think with and express identites. As one of the photographer's featured in the film says: "pictures talk in silence, they don't make noise but they talk a lot."

SATURDAY 10th March - Ghana Study Day at the British Museum

Free afternoon of discussions and presentations on different topics surrounding Ghanaian culture and social change over the last 50 years since Independence. This is event is being held at the Centre for Anthropology at the British Museum. Several of the speakers are anthropologists, including Jonathan King who is Keeper of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum. The day is open to everyone (you don't have to be an academic!).

To book a free place contact Laura Rooke on 0207 323 8908 or lrooke@thebritishmuseum.ac,uk