Religious Art in the News? Judith Butler

I always love it when I see spontaneous religious art! This piece was seen on the Bryn Mawr College campus where Judith Butler is scheduled to give three talks this month, full story here.

I vaguely remember reading her work when I studied Post-Modern theory during my Anthropology days, which honestly, I would rather forget (the theory part). However, now that I'm in another degree program, the idea of gender performance is coming up a lot.

She also spoke recently at the Occupy Wall Street site, and I was impressed:

In October 2011, Butler attended Occupy Wall Street and, in reference to calls for clarification of the protesters' demands, said, "People have asked, so what are the demands? What are the demands all of these people are making? Either they say there are no demands and that leaves your critics confused, or they say that the demands for social equality and economic justice are impossible demands. And the impossible demands, they say, are just not practical. If hope is an impossible demand, then we demand the impossible — that the right to shelter, food and employment are impossible demands, then we demand the impossible. If it is impossible to demand that those who profit from the recession redistribute their wealth and cease their greed, then yes, we demand the impossible."

Weekly Blog Round-Up - Part I

Photo of San Lazaro celebrants in Cuba, from the BBC.

Here is a fascinating discussion of Richard Ciznik (I'd never heard of him before) who is an Evangelical preacher who might be a great addition to the Obama administration, according to Framing Science, where I found the piece. Very, very interesting comments about the future generation of Evangelical voters, and what it means for us on the left who are also Christian. According to Mike Clawson at Emerging Pensees, Ciznik may be picked up by another org sooner rather than later anyways. Wild. I never knew of the intrigue! Oh the Drahms!

The rock pools of Oz are detailed in a lengthy, in-depth discussion of the rock pools of Australia, as opposed to, say, Madeira on Pruned.

A good discussion of moral ambiguity (and finagling) at work. From BlogHer.

Mercury photo at BAB best photos of 2008.

Baby steps... baby steps - Blackwater out of Iraq!

As part of my very-occasional series on God in Advertising and the implications for Religious Art (see here and here) - Gawker delivers. Here's the ad campaign at Collegiate Church.

Why Bush Will Walk - at UnCensored. This same thought came to me as I read all about the Middle Ages. I think it was Clovis I who reminded me of Bush II.

One "Carbon Neutral" day...?

I had a facial last night so I could talk with La Prima about her problems with some of her friends. "They're telling secrets." I forgot it starts this early!

Ask Obama to make Breastfeeding a priority. Posted on BlogHer

Aerophant's "a river remembered" post reminds me of my time playing in the stream with Ladybird. It was in her grandfather's pasture. We had the greatest adventures! and another little gem from Aerophant.


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Narco-Santo & Photography in 1960 Algeria - It's All About the "Gaze"

Saw this great article about the renegade santo - Jesús Malverde - on Hasta los Gatos Quieren Zapatos, which was originally from the NYT.

Religious art is a fascinating thing to me, hence the blogging. It amazes me that even mobbed up thugs want a little divine intervention on their behalf. And they will resort to buying art - and possibly giving themselves away - to feel secure in that aid. We all want to be comforted and feel that the Higher Power is on our side. Even the crooks.

"People say Malverde helped me do this or that; mostly it's people into drugs who think he'll shield them from the police," said Raul Gonzalez, owner of a botánica called Mystic Products in Compton, Calif. "It's the power of the mind, you know. They believe it, so they take chances and get away with it, but they will eventually get caught."

Indeed, drug enforcement authorities in Mexico and the United States said Malverde statues, tattoos and amulets can be tip-offs to illegal activity.

"We send squads out to local hotel and motel parking lots looking for cars with Malverde symbols on the windshield or hanging from the rearview mirror," said Sgt. Rico Garcia with the narcotics division of the Houston Police Department. "It gives us a clue that something is probably going on."

Courts in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have ruled that Malverde trinkets and talismans are admissible evidence in drug and money-laundering cases.

"It's not a direct indication of guilt, but it would definitely be used in combination with other things" like piles of cash, baggies and scales, said José Martinez, a special agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Last month, Cervecería Minerva, a Mexican microbrewery in the central-western state of Jalisco, introduced a beer called Malverde. Company officials said they chose Malverde's name and image for its label because he was the most recognizable and admired figure in focus groups.

"Drug smugglers drink it like holy water," Sergeant Garcia said.

Bris de Mots was also thinking about religious imagery this week, talking about the photography of Marc Garanger in his book, Femmes Algériennes 1960.

Apparently, Garanger's job was to photograph Algerian women without their veils for the French occupying/colonial authorities who were making identity cards. The book sounds like it is a study in culture clash, on many levels.

But the most intriguing idea from Bris de Mots was (if my French isn't too rusty!), "the reference to the judeo-christian aesthetic in a civilization which does not have the worship of the religious image occults [maybe occludes?] the dramatic reality."*

So the artist, and the French/Western/Non-Muslim viewers have a MUCH different reaction to these photographs than Muslims, or, especially, the sitters who were photographed. I've never seen this book in real life, but the cover photo shows a young woman in traditional Algerian garb - does she look saintly to you too? or is it my fascination with religious art and saints' images that gets in the way? Food for thought.



* The original text says: "la référence à l'esthétique judéo-chrétienne dans une civilisation qui n'a pas le culte de l'image religieuse occulte la dramatique réalité".

Social Science Research - IRB's

So, I'm not as up on Social Science research as I once was, back in the day, but now, working in the midst of Biomedical researchers, I am very familiar with Internal Review Boards (IRB's).

I bring this up because I just read this great article on BlogHer which discusses the pros and cons of IRB's. And I have to say, I'm not really buying the "con" argument. I agree with the author that when the Humanities, as a whole, try to get around these kinds of reviews because they are "limiting" or "intrusive," that's often the cry of poor planners. I mean, we too should have a well-thought-out methodology. And have SOME idea of where our research is leading us, and what some pitfalls might be. That even our "non-invasive" questioning of informants actually DOES have an impact. Recent use of anthropologists by the military highlights this issue in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

But what really got me thinking about this was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer a few months back about a pair of twins:

The two had been put up for adoption and separated in infancy as part of a 1960s experiment......

Their continued search for answers led them to Viola Bernard, a renowned New York psychiatrist who believed that identical twins would better forge individual identities if separated. She had persuaded the adoption agency to send twins to different homes.

They also uncovered Peter Neubauer, a prominent psychiatrist at New York University, who studied the separated twins to compare the forces of nature with nurture.

Bernard already had died, but Neubauer, who was in his 90s, met with the twins in his Upper East Side apartment. They say he revealed nothing about the study or what was learned. The results are sealed until 2066, thanks to ethical problems that became clear later.

"I had nothing to do with the separation.. . . We came in much later. All of this is documented," he said when contacted by a reporter. When asked what he had intended to learn, he said he could not talk about it.

The twins did discover that the study had included five pairs of twins and one set of triplets, and that Schein and Bernstein were dropped early on because one reportedly had grown faster than the other.

The adoptive families were told that their children would be part of a child-development study. They were never told that they had adopted separated twins.

Neither Schein nor Bernstein expressed bitterness toward the researchers, calling their actions well-intentioned but misguided. Minnesota's Bouchard said such a study would be unthinkable now, but ethical standards were different in the mid-20th century.

See, this is the kind of thing that gives social science research a bad name. What are the ramifications of our research? Just because it's "too hard" or "we don't have time" or "we aren't well-funded enough" doesn't mean we can do slap-dash research AND expect credibility. The history of Anthropology is littered with examples of mis-used research findings and discredited theories run amok. I just hope we have adequately learned from our mistakes and strive to make fewer in the future!

Prehistoric Food

Here's a good article by the blogger at Field to Feast who is currently reading, Feast: Why Humans Share Food by Martin Jones. The book looks fascinating! It's about why we humans eat the way we do by a bio-anthropologist, and how archaeologists/anthropologists reach these conclusions. I would particularly like to check out his chapter called, "Seasons of the feast".

The image is from Art Blog by Bob, another great article on the Kimbell Art Museum's current exhibit of religious art. If I ever make it to Texas before the end of March I gotta check it out!

Culture of Media

My Pal, Laura Blankenship, posted this video on her (work) blog ETC@BMC:



It was done by a Cultural Anthropology class at Kansas State University. I work in academia, but was trained amidst the 19th C classroom ideals they talk about (we all were, I guess, right?). But it really makes me wonder "what's going to happen to education"? It's a totally different ball game now!

Many of the comments I've read on YouTube (for what they're worth) talk about "these whiny kids - how about living on the street for a while?". I'm not sure how many people who have posted those kinds of comments have lived on the street either - I think the point of the video is that the way that ideas are communicated now is MUCH different than it was when books were the main mode of education. But the teaching style has not changed to keep up with the new media.

Back in MY day, people we skipping class and writing letters in class too, but we got out of school when the printed page was still the standard. It's not the standard anymore. If students don't learn this in school/college, where and when ARE they going to learn this way? Food for thought.

Have a good weekend, all.

Anthropologists Make Headlines

And not in a good way. You know, you have to be careful what you wish for.... I was hoping there would be more jobs for cultural Anthropologists out there, and this is what happens!

It's a classic dilemma for an Anthropologist. But I have to say, working for the military in a war zone is not a good idea in my opinion. The idea of "anthropologizing the military" IS a good idea. Like, have an understanding of the people we're fighting against. Yes, I'm all for that. But this late in the day? Knowing that their actions and research would put their informants directly in harm's way? I applaud the Concerned Anthropologists, and hope their cause makes some headway.