warauduati

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Back home … but only an intermediate return! Because it is just a short four-day break from traveling a couple of weeks in West-Canada before heading off for the real field research with the Garínagu in Honduras on Friday.

Resumeé: we had a spendid time throughout Western Canada. We started our round-trip in Calgary and left in a rented RV to the South to a National Park called Waterton Lakes very close to the US border. From there we slowly moved up North again, along the Rockies. Passing through Fort Steele, Barkerville, Lake Louise, Jasper, Quesnel, and Prince George, we came as far as Stewart, Hyder just across the Canadian-Alaskan border. From Prince Rupert we took the inside passage by ferry down to Port Hardy, crossed Vancouver Island, and returned from Victoria to Vancouver back to the mainland. From there on just a few twists and turns northwards and sourthwards to finally end up in Calgary again.

It was an incredible journey. We had the most luck with the weather only counting two and a half days of rain, which is pretty unusual for these regions as we believe. Luck was also on our side to watch wildlife. Although in total it might not be competitive overall with our trip through Yukon and Alaska about four years ago, we are proud to have seen the great number of eighteen bears besides some deer, moose, elk, beaver, birds, salmon among them. Also culturally spoken it was a blast for an anthropologist getting to know at least a little bit the First Nations of West-Canada: Nisga’a, Haida, Tshimshian, Kwakiutl, Tlingit, and Coast Salish just to name a few. Especially their incredibly carved totem poles and longhouses caught our attention, but also to notice that after a long time of Canadian suppression they finally take steps to revive certain cultural aspects. Here art-work is one of the most astonishing things to see … and as some of you might know, this is just the twist of my upcoming field research in Central America. It was very interesting to see that many native people throughout the Americas bear a certain comparison within a wider theory of Cultural Revival.

But there is not only the pure ethnographical perspective on our trip but also a general Canadian history of settlement throughout the so called New World. West-Canada: with one of the highest immigration rates and enormous mutlicultural city-growths, but also with a deep history of the Wild West, its praeries, cattle farms, and an alternative lifestyle to be observed till today. Within the last decades some of the wild west „romantic“ has been replaced by the serious business of logging, the forestry industry, or let’s say an exploitation of nature in general.

More details would simply bust my blog at this moment, so for now just have a look at a few picture series I am about to post. Within almost 2.100 photos I had to pick out a few which I hope will relate exemplary to this trip. Within the next days and weeks, even time will be short, I promise to present more, especially a few shots taking steps to a more artistic way of photography. Simply enjoy … keep posted as there is more to come.

Well, everyone, this is my call to head off for field research, finally. Last days have been very busy because of all the midterm evaluation and organization to be done. I wish I could have posted more lately but I actually just finished in time just to get all my stuff ready for take-off. In about half an hour I am outta here. I hope to be able to post during the next couple of weeks and keep you updated … otherwise we will be seeing each other hopefully of best health in a couple of months.

It has almost been a week since I returned from my short-break holiday in southern France and I am already all the way up into preparation for the real gig. Besides digging my head into the correction and evaluation of the midterm exam at our department and going at it hammer and tongs to finish in time, the final organization to be done for my time in Canada and Honduras the next couple of months and all the little foretastes are what keeps me thinking in delight and beyond the approximately six hundred examination pages about Morgan, Tyler, Malinowski, Keertzer, Geertz, Evans-Pritchard, Kopytoff, Polanyi, and Sahlins, just to name a few.
Sure enough that (as a purpose of this blog) I would like to share some of the pleasant aspects of my upcoming field research with you. One of the things I will be participantly observing is somewhat called Punta – a Garínagu dance and music style. Enjoy this rather modern version and video mixing Punta with a bit of Reggae by a musician called Dayaan „Nuru“ Ellis from Dangriga, Belize, kindly provided by Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United via You Tube… „This is how we dance punta“:

Ankündigung in meiner TV-Programmzeitschrift:

„Drei Familien, drei Wochen lang bei den Naturvölkern in Afrika und Asien. Die neue Doku-Soap ‚Wie die Wilden – Deutsche im Busch‘ (23.8. in Sat.1) über einen Kultur-Clash der unterhaltsamen Art – in drei Folgen.„

Aus dem offiziellen Pressetext von Sat.1:

„Die Fußball-WM hat es auf den Punkt gebracht: Interkultureller Austausch ist mega-in! (…) Fernab der Heimat und ohne elektrischen Strom, fließendes Wasser und gemeinsame Sprache lernen sie, was es heißt, zu den Ursprüngen menschlicher Zivilisation zurückzukehren. Werden sie es unter diesen Umständen schaffen, sich als vollwertige Stammesmitglieder zu behaupten?„

Deutsches Fernsehen ist und bleibt zum K…! Die Glotze wird bald abgeschafft!

And last but not least … No. 4:

The newest debate is about the editorial of the new edition of Ethnologik, the student magazine of the Department of Ethnology and African Studies in Munich. The new crew, many thanks to them for publishing a wonderful new issue with enlightening and exciting articles (although I have to be critical about it soon), at the same time updating and designing their and the student representatives‘ new homepage, explains in a brilliant way why ethnology or cultural anthropology is not a luxury subject but a „Powerflower„!

Nevertheless the author of the editorial used the term „Ausländer“ („foreigner“, in this case it might be better to translate with „alien“, but actually it is more a debate concerning German linguistic sophistication) and already caused a debate on … well, I don’t know … on linguistic terms. Just like the debate on „culture“ just a decade ago. Once again, Zeph wrote a brilliant reponse to the matter. But please, read for yourselves … once again … „Powerflower“ – die neue Ethnologik ist da! (unfortunately only in German).

And here is No. 3:

Since my entry on Stevie Ryan aka Littleloca, the new born YouTube Star, I received tons of hits and various comments on yet another issue of stereotypes, ethnicity and identity. It would be too much to get into the whole thing again, I only use the opportunity to at least give credit to one of the commentators. What you think is your own personal business. Read for yourselves on the White Nation Network by Warren Erulian.

Here is No.2:

You might remember my post on Pirates of the Caribbean 2, there I already mentioned the discussion that is going on for quite a few weeks now, how the new episode of the movie presents Caribs as Cannibals. By now there are more comments on the original CAC Review Entry as well as other commentaries by Claire Meurens-Yashar and Cheryl L. Noralez on the same Blog.

The whole matter is also presented by a fairly new page now called Uprisingradio.org (very interesting in general to read this blog!).

Another entry you might like to read is by Simon Lindgren in his weblog on media, popular culture & social theory.