Clipmarks | michellezm's 'ethnology' clips

The Dogon of Southern Mali, West Africa

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:33:29 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Hidden in the mysterious Bandiagara Cliffs of southern Mali, West Africa, live a people who claim to be the conduit between heaven and Earth: the people of the Dogon.

The Dogon have survived for centuries, withstanding constant slave raiding parties of the successive empires of Ghana, the Sonrai, the Mossi, the Sao, the Fulani, and the Muslims from the north. Consequently, the Dogon have evolved a keen sense of cultural preservation and an ability to withstand outside forces of change.

Today, some 300,000 Dogon live along a roughly 125-mile-long (200-kilometer) swath of land against the Badiagara Cliffs. Many live among 700 or so small villages with populations of less than 500.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Our expedition had also come to witness the dances of the Dogon masks, known throughout the world

Dogon masks rank among the most respected within the world of tribal art collections and have influenced such Western 20th-century artists as Picasso and Braque, even the Cubist movement.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Tags: dogons, africa, mali, anthropology, ethnology, cultures

Faces from Africa

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:24:12 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: Some faces featured in the book "Faces of Africa" by C Beckwith & A Fisher which I have just taken out of the library. It's a stunning book about a stunning continent and its equally stunning people.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Wodaabe Man, Niger

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Surma Fighter, Ethiopia

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Masai Warrior, Kenya

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Afar Woman, Ethiopia

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Wodaabe Charm Dancer, Niger

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Afar Bride, Djibouti

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Surma Man, Ethiopia

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Adioukrou Queen Mother, Ivory Coast

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Bodi Woman, Ethiopia

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Dinka Man, Sudan

Tags: africa, ethnology, anthropology

Artist's guide to human types - Part 4

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:44:32 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: cedarseed.deviantart.com

Tags: art, anatomy, human types, anthropology, ethnology

Artist's guide to human types - Part 3

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:37:53 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: cedarseed.deviantart.com

Tags: anatomy, anthropology, art, ethnology, human types

Artist's Guide to Human Types - Part 2

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:35:07 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: View at site.

Clip Source: cedarseed.deviantart.com

Tags: anthropology, ethnology, human types, anatomy

Artist's Guide to Human Types - Part 1

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:28:16 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: cedarseed.deviantart.com

Tags: anatomy, anthropology, human types, ethnology

Scientists: Many World Languages Are Dying

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:18:03 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: The entire article is worth reading

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

WASHINGTON — When every known speaker of the language Amurdag gets together, there's still no one to talk to. Native Australian Charlie Mungulda is the only person alive known to speak that language, one of thousands around the world on the brink of extinction. From rural Australia to Siberia to Oklahoma, languages that embody the history and traditions of people are dying, researchers said Tuesday.

While there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, one of them dies out about every two weeks, according to linguistic experts struggling to save at least some of them.

Five hotspots where languages are most endangered were listed Tuesday in a briefing by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and the National Geographic Society.

Losing languages means losing knowledge, says K. David Harrison, an assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College.

"When we lose a language, we lose centuries of human thinking

Tags: languages, philology, cultures, ethnology

IWhy Scott Neeson left Hollywood to help the poorest kids on the planet

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:18:39 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: The whole article is worth the read. These are the sort of stories that thrill me.

Clip Source: www.dailyrecord.co.uk

Why ex-movie boss Scott now dedicates his life to charity work

TWO days ago as he stood knee deep in the stinking mud of a Cambodian dump, Scott Neeson's life flashed in front of him.

He was once "Mr Hollywood", a movie executive with a mansion, a 36ft yacht and A-list stars on his speed dial.

But four years on and the trappings of wealth are gone.

Scott sacrificed his opulent life to move to Phnom Penh, to set up the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) in 2003 and help Cambodia's poorest children who lead a grim existence scavenging in Phnom Penh's notorious rubbish dump.

Scott, from Edinburgh, now has 263 children in three facilities, with health care provided by Fiona McLeish, a paediatric nurse from East Kilbride.

And he has just enlisted the help of Sumner Redstone, America's 25th richest man and the media mogul famed for firing Tom Cruise.

Scott enjoyed a glittering 10-year career in LA as President of 20th Century Fox International and as head of Sony Pictures' international marketing.

Tags: humanitarianism, culture, sociology, charity, ethnology, current affairs

On-line book: Court Life in China - 19th Century

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:42:10 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: etext.lib.virginia.edu

Dowager Empress

ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND, Professor in the Peking University

Clip Source: etext.lib.virginia.edu

I
The Empress Dowager-Her Early Life

ONE day when one of the princesses was calling at our home in Peking, I inquired of her where the Empress Dowager was born. She gazed at me for a moment with a queer expression wreathing her features, as she finally said with just the faintest shadow of a smile: ``We never talk about the early history of Her Majesty.'' I smiled in return and continued: ``I have been told that she was born in a small house, in a narrow street inside of the east gate of the Tartar city -- the gate blown up by the Japanese when they entered Peking in 1900.'' The princess nodded. ``I have also heard that her father's name was Chao, and that he was a small military official (she nodded again) who was afterwards beheaded for some neglect of duty.'' To this the visitor also nodded assent.

Tags: china, history, royalty, books, books on-line, culture, ethnology

'Surrogate' alcohol is killing Russians

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:41:00 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

DRINKING 'surrogate' alcohol - such as eau de colognes and antiseptics - may be responsible for nearly half of all deaths among working-age men in Russia.

according to data from 2002, in the European subregion including Russia, 19 per cent of male mortality was attributable to all types of alcohol.

In Western Europe, the comparable figure was three per cent.

"Drinking surrogate alcohol is a very rapid way to finish yourself off."

The technique requires practice, since ingesting concentrated forms of ethanol can lead to a stripping away of lung cells if drinkers breathe in right after taking a swig.

But whether men drank hazardous alcohol was the most potent predictor of mortality, Dr Leon said.

Men who did so had an approximately sixfold increase in death compared with men who did not.

In a society that has a word for continual drunkenness lasting more than two days - zapoi - experts say the findings underline its problem with alcohol.

Tags: russia, alcoholism, sociology, ethnology, people

China in surname shortage crisis

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:52:56 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

WITH more than a billion people now sharing just 100 surnames, Chinese authorities are considering a landmark move to try to end the confusion, state media reported.

Chinese law states that children are allowed take only the surname of their mother or father, but the lack of variety means there are now 93 million people in China with the family name Wang.

In a country of around 1.3 billion people, about 85 per cent share only 100 surnames, according to a nationwide survey

Under a new draft regulation

parents will be able to combine their surnames for their children, a move that could open up 1.28 million new possibilities

For instance, a father named Zhou and mother named Zhu could choose to call their child either Zhou, Zhu, Zhouzhu or Zhuzhou

Du Roufu,

aid combined surnames had already become popular with younger couples even though such combinations were not strictly permitted by law.

the lack of variety caused trouble in daily life and the new regulation would slash repetition.

Tags: china, people, ethnology

Muslim father guilty of murdering daughter in 'honour killing'

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:07:19 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

LONDON — A father who ordered his daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called "honor killing" was found guilty of murder on Monday.

Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a back garden.

Her death is the latest in an increasing trend of such killings in Britain, home to some 1.8 million Muslims. More than 100 homicides are under investigation as potential "honor killings."

Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and his brother Ari Mahmod, 51, planned the killing during a family meeting,

During the three-month trial, prosecutors said Mahmod's father beat his daughter for using hairspray and adopting other Western ways. Her uncle once told her she would have been "turned to ashes" if she were his daughter and had shamed the family

Banaz Mahmod ran away from home when she was a teenager but returned when her father sent her an audio tape in which he warned he would kill her sisters, her mother

Tags: islam, moslem, homicide, ethnology

Uncontacted Indian Tribe Found in Brazilian Amazon

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 11:08:20 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: Oh, what a pity! They would have been safer to have stayed hidden.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Uncontacted Indian Tribe Found in Brazilian Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — An Indian tribe that has had no formal contact with Western civilization has been located in a remote Amazon region, federal authorities said Friday.

The Metyktire tribe, with about 87 members, was found last week in an area that is difficult to reach because of thick jungle and a lack of nearby rivers some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northwest of Rio de Janeiro, said Mario Moura, a spokesman for the Federal Indian Bureau, or Funai.

The tribe is a subgroup of the Kayapo tribe, and lives on its 4.9-million-hectare (12.1-million-acre) Menkregnoti Indian reservation, Moura said.

The Kayapo had no significant contact with the Metyktire until two tribe members inexplicably appeared at a Kayapo village last week, he said.

Patrick Cunningham of

Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust,

said in an e-mail that the tribe speaks an archaic version of the Kayapo language and goes naked.

Tags: brazil, ethnology, tribes, indians, south america

Albania's Sworn Virgins

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:41:12 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.jolique.com

In some parts of Albania, particularly in the north, families follow a code of ethics called the Kanun. The Kanun is not a religious document (Kanun followers may be Christian, Muslim, etc.), but is sacred nonetheless. According to the Kanun, families must be patrilineal (meaning wealth is inherited through a family's men) and patrilocal (upon marriage, a woman moves into the household of her husband's family). Marriages are arranged—often at birth, if not before, or in early childhood.

A sworn virgin is called such because she swears—takes a vow under the law of the Kanun—to become a man.

According to the Kanun, a woman is ethically permitted to become a man under certain conditions. If a woman chooses not to marry her pre-arranged husband, she may not marry anyone else. In order to remain unmarried, however, she must become a sworn virgin and dress and act as a man.

The other condition under which a woman may become a sworn virgin is if her parents deem it so due to a lack of sons.

Tags: culture, ethnology, anthropology, people, customs, albania

Clipmarks | michellezm's 'ethnology' clips

The Dogon of Southern Mali, West Africa

Faces from Africa

Artist's guide to human types - Part 4

Artist's guide to human types - Part 3

Artist's Guide to Human Types - Part 2

Artist's Guide to Human Types - Part 1

Scientists: Many World Languages Are Dying

IWhy Scott Neeson left Hollywood to help the poorest kids on the planet

On-line book: Court Life in China - 19th Century

I The Empress Dowager-Her Early Life

'Surrogate' alcohol is killing Russians

China in surname shortage crisis

Muslim father guilty of murdering daughter in 'honour killing'

Uncontacted Indian Tribe Found in Brazilian Amazon

Uncontacted Indian Tribe Found in Brazilian Amazon

Albania's Sworn Virgins

I
The Empress Dowager-Her Early Life