My cousin Malcolm Jamar, a hip hop artist, came to California and will soon be returning back to Indianapolis. As a souvenir, I directed and co-produced a music video for his song, Dreamin'
In the story, a small town boy travels to California to pursue fame by trying on different California film and video personas. He finds true acceptance by being himself. Hope you enjoy! Share widely.
Savage Minds just published my (Dori Tunstall) and Jennifer Esperanza's article, Decolonizing Anthropology Textbook Covers, on their blog. It presents seven visual strategies for presenting images that reflect the diversity of the audiences, instructors, and practices of contemporary anthropology:
Read and let us know what your DIY anthropology cover would be. #DIYAnthroTextbookCovers
Upon reading the Emerging Future's Lab newly released report Borderland Biashara (2016), you will quickly realize that everything you think you know about trade and the informal economy on the Kenya/Uganda borderlands is probably wrong.
I have always been interested in what is labeled the informal economy. As an African American, de facto segregation and discrimination meant that my parents, and especially grandparents, operated in the informal economy. They hailed gypsy cabs before there was Uber. One grandfather was a money lender, so there was a preference to deal in cash not bank accounts. Wages could be paid under the table. Holiday presents may have "fallen off a truck." They operated in a gray zone of legality and illegality, when American laws were prejudicial against black people.
I more directly experienced the informal economy when I spent my formal anthropology career in East Africa (1993-1999), specifically in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. But this was before the cultural shifts happening in Africa due to access to mobile technologies. To understand the dynamic quality of entrepreneurship on the Kenya and Uganda border today, you must read the Borderland Biashara Report because it does two things extremely well.
First, the report does an excellent job of providing an in depth description of the interconnections between personal relationships, which, by definition of being part of the informal economy, are not mediated by formal contracts, and the success of a trader's business. This is due to the ethnographic approach of the research team: Niti Bhan, Emerging Future's Lab Director, Rinku Gajera, Research Lead, and Michael Kimani, Research Associate.
One of the key insights of the report is HOW different kinds of informal traders improve the quality of their family, financial, transport, information technology, and customer networks in order to improve their businesses. You could feel the hustle and bustle of the traders' various socially-driven economic activities whether it is calling, texting, or transferring money on M-pesa for agents or family on their mobile phones; visiting a supplier via a matatu, or sitting under a specific tree where customers will know where to find them. Good social networks are good business.
Second, the report selects a trader segment, which the team calls the Hidden Middle, as a focus for their nuanced analysis of the relationship between formal and informal structures in support of the traders' business. I hate to break it to the banks out there hoping to cash in on the informal economy in Kenya and Uganda--you are seen to provide limited ROI in terms of these trader's business value and your fees make no sense. The team's insights into Hidden Middle's optimization of both systems present a break through for those in development to understand when formalization works or does not work as a driver of entrepreneurship.
The Emerging Future's Lab Borderland Biashara Report demonstrates the best of what design thinking--although I think their work is more aligned with my seven principles of design anthropology--can do in helping organizations to better understand the dynamics and non-exploitative opportunities that exist in various alternative economies in the world. I hope to see the team presenting their report at all the design and ethnography conferences next year (EPIC, Core77, HOW Design Live, Ico-D) in recognition of their project's accomplishments.
Beloit College Anthropologist, Associate Professor Jennifer Esperanza was feeling frustrated. Why is there always images of "exotic" peoples on the cover of anthropology textbooks? "Why can't there be images of, for example, a group of white American women eating salads, on the cover?," she asked.
A quick Google image search of "anthropology textbooks" demonstrates her point: image 1.
Stephen Nugent (2007: 132) in his book, Scoping the Amazon: Image, Icon, and Ethnography, describes:
Much of the writing on anthropological photography has sought to redress the indexical bias according to which Western image making of non-Westerners has, to put it as crudely as possible, objectified anthropological (and other) subjects.
The aim of the Rebranding Anthropology Textbooks is to offer a critique not just in words, but in counter images that make stark the construction of identities and the owner/subjects of the anthropological gaze in anthropological photography. For me, it is part of two larger projects in which I have been involved. The first is the Decolonizing Anthropology project, which was first articulated by Dr. Faye Harrison in 1991. Since becoming an anthropologist, I have accepted her challenge to work "to free the study of humankind from the prevailing forces of global inequality and dehumanization and to locate it firmly in the complex struggle for genuine transformation" (Harrison 1991: 10). The second is the Rebranding Anthropology project that I initiated in 2005 with other applied anthropologists. This project culminated in a 2006 workshop with the American Anthropological Association to reposition the field from its traditional stereotypes to its contemporary practices and competitors. It also led to the redesign of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology branding and logo mark in 2008 by University of Illinois at Chicago graphic design students.
The design brief that I offered to my former Swinburne Design Anthropology postgraduate students was the following:
Greetings Danthro Alums. I have a quick weekend project for you to do as a favor. A friend of mine pointed out how all anthropology textbooks have these "exotic" images of others on the covers and never an image of "white women eating salad".
Me, being Dr. Smarty Pants, said, "Wouldn't it be great to replace those exotica images with those of middle class American/Australian Caucasians doing stuff, maybe even using stock photos?"
So, I would ask you to select a cover from a cultural anthropology textbook and replace the "exotica" image with an image equivalent of "white women eating salad." I would suggest creative commons instead of stock images so that we can use them in an article about this topic.
I selected as my template the textbook, Anthropology: What Does It Mean to Be Human by Robert Lavenda and Emily Schultz, 3rd Edition: image 2.
Then, I recreated the textbook with a set of two new images: image 3. The first image is one of my own and has the same Western "anthropological gaze" exotic style as the original textbook image. I used one of my own to avoid any future copyright issues in the reproduction of the project's images in articles, books, and exhibitions. It was also a good reminder for me of how many of the images in my iPhoto library adhered to the National Geographic style of representing the people and places where I have traveled for research. The second image is a decolonized version that shows a similar topic but with Western cultural practices as the subject. I downloaded the image from a Flickr Creative Commons image by colorblindPICASO.
Design anthropologist, business coach, and branding specialist, Julie Hill accepted the challenge and produced nine images for the project. She describes her experience below:
I found this exercise interesting and fun to explore. Especially focusing on the shift in the lens, from traditional anthropology to contemporary ethnography, and what that means. The longer I did it, the more interesting it got - I accessed deeper cultural themes, such as beauty, festivities or core cultural values. I liked the one where the North African guy is using modern technology (ipad) and the Western woman is practicing yoga, but maybe it would have been more effective if I had put a traditional Indian woman practicing yoga and then a western woman practicing yoga, to demonstrate a difference.
APA Citation: Tunstall, E. (2016, April 7). Rebranding Anthropology Textbooks [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://dori3.typepad.com/my_weblog/2016/04/rebranding-anthropology-textbooks.html.
Up until the age of twelve, I wanted to be a lawyer. My quick memory and logical argumentation skills made it a good choice for me people said. The summer when I was twelve, I took a summer enrichment program on law and Greek mythology. In the law program, I got to read old law cases, observe court, and discuss how I would trial and judge law cases. After taking to lawyers and judges, I came to the realisation that the law was about the law and not about justice. I was only interested in justice.
Because I have been overseas, I have not been able to follow too closely the Zimmerman trial. I was shocked to see how much it dominated the news when I arrived in NYC two weeks ago.
The verdict released last night in the Zimmerman trial reminds me of that hard lesson I learned at 12 years-that the law is about law and not about justice. A juror of six non-peers made the choice to protect the Stand Your Ground law in Florida over the life if Trayvon Martin. How do we explain to our young nephews that this verdict puts them in danger because the law has said it is okay for a man to stalk, fight, and then shoot you without consequences? How do we channel the well deserved collective rage that should not just be in the black community but in every persons heart for the injustice carried out last night?
Yesterday, one of my young nieces asked why is it that a white girl can where skimpy clothes and no one day anything, but is she wears short shorts she is called a slut. I explained to her that as a young black woman people will pre-judge her before they know her as a representative of the race. The racism that exists means that she has to decide whether she will feed into or contradict those prejudices. She balked at the unfairness of having to tone down who she is just to appease white people and resents the idea of having to live that way all of her life. She was 100% correct, but the reality is that racism exists in the US, and we have to respond to that reality.
It makes me angry to listen to the struggles of my Aunts and Uncles against racism and yet still have to have these conversations with my young relatives.
It makes me angry that fear of an unarmed black boy by a white man with gun led to the young man's death.
It makes me angry that our law system is not about justice for all because the people in the system (and the system itself) is racist.
This anger fuels the struggle for justice that has been the goal and the burden of the Black US communities.
My heart goes out to Trayvon's family with a promise to continue the struggle until our laws are about justice.
Mornings like this make me realise that I was born to live in Manhattan. A bagel and cream cheese, green smoothie, book and thou.
Today we visited the National Geographics office and saw an amazing exhibition on pirates. Did you know that in most cases 50% to 100% of pirate crews were Africans or of Africana heritage? Me neither. Thus Captain Jack Sparrow should have been played by Djimon Hounsou. Oprah needs to make a movie about the black pirates.
We then went to Georgetown for lunch at a cool restaurant. Excellent food. Then we went home and I took a nap.
Then we went to a friend's place to watch fireworks.
Today we visited the National Geographics office and saw an amazing exhibition on pirates. Did you know that in most cases 50% to 100% of pirate crews were Africans or of Africana heritage? Me neither. Thus Captain Jack Sparrow should have been played by Djimon Hounsou. Oprah needs to make a movie about the black pirates.
We then went to Georgetown for lunch at a cool restaurant. Excellent food. Then we went home and I took a nap.
Then we went to a friend's place to watch fireworks.
The reason why I know this is not Beijing is that they use the traditional not simplified Chinese.
Arrived in NYC. Had friendly service everywhere this morning. US Post Office where I shipped a box of books given to me in China. T-mobile store to get my miniSIM card. Now heading to meet Saki for lunch in the Village.
I have had the most amazing time in Beijing. I have learned so much and am so grateful to Dean Wang Min, Prof Xu Ping, Prof. Hang Hai, Zhou Bo, Zhang Rui, Hu Xiaomei, Wu Xioaxi, Liu Dian, Lin Fan, and Wang Han of CAFA for making me feel welcomed, well taken care of, and exchanging so much knowledge about Chinese cultures. I will see you all in September.
Not a good day to be outside, so will have to spend the day completing digital errands like updating CV, writing memos, etc.
Today is the highest it has been since I arrived. My eyes are burning but I cannot taste it yet.
Thanks to Zhang Rui, I know the difference between Song, Ming, Yuan, and Qing Dynasty pottery. Song pottery is probably more of my taste with its subtle blue porcelain. The Ming pottery is very refined. It is this pottery which the Dutch sought to emulate. The Yuan pottery is more broad with bold rather than refined flower motifs. The Qing Dynasty pottery is either poorer copies of Song and Ming pottery or brightly blinged out pottery with many colors and gold overlays. Qing Dynasty is not my taste at all.
Today I went with Zhang Rui to the Beijing National Museum. We only got through the Ancient China Gallery, the Revolution Gallery, and the Chinese Pottery Gallery in the seven hours we were there. China's history is amazing in terms how far back certain motifs like the dragon and the Phoenix go back.
I am fascinated by the female historical figure Fu Huo, who was a queen and military general during the Shang Dynasty. Her tomb dates to 1200 BCE. Most of the most famous bronze artifacts of that period come from her tomb.
Yesterday were the final presentations for the CAFA research methods intensive that I taught. I am sad that it has ended.
I am winding down my lessons. Friday is the last class which makes me very sad. I have learned a lot from the students.
Sunday was graduation at CAFA. I went to the photo session and then the reception in the main hall. It was cool to see people's happiness in terms of completing their degree but sadness in terms of leaving their friends.
The pretty girl in the photo is XiaoXi, who finished her Masters this year. She has been working as the translator for my class. She took me to an amazing vegetarian buffet across from Confucius's Temple for dinner.
Mr. Chin told me a urban legend of being served fish with the head and tail still moving. The last day in IM we went to a restaurant known for its fish. They have a special table which had a huge wok pot built into it. They said that in the countryside, the stove would be connected to the bed to keep it warm.
They picked out five live fish who were cut up and thrown into the pot with water and spices. The wood fire was lit with a pink bar of solid alcohol.
We selected a variety of vegetables and some thick noodles. The fishes tail was still moving when it was in the pot. It only stopped moving when the heat was too hot. So not an urban legend at all.
The fish soup was the best that I ever tasted. They baked bread on the sides of the wok pot which was delicious as well.
We had gone early but around noon groups of women in their 40s and 50s arrived and chatted loudly. Later families of parents, toddlers, and grandchildren arrived. It seemed a nice place for lunch.
The museum in Holhot had the most amazing dioramas. From natural history ones of animals (the wolf is the totem here), mining operations, traditional family life on the steppe, life in the mountains, to the court of Genghis Khan, you felt like you were in the middle of these vast scenes. And because they were not behind glass, they felt more tangible and real. Eventually these will be done with holograms, but it was cool to experience first hand.
One thing I observed was how very few people were at the museum.
