Tag: antropologia
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Ken Livingstone
Livingstone has consistently rejected being defined under any particular ideological current of socialism. Recognising this, in 2000, the former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock asserted that Livingstone could only be defined as a “Kennist”. Livingstone’s understanding of politics arises from his studies of animal behaviour and anthropology; rejecting the idea that the human species is…
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Fluttuazioni
We tend to think that the farther back we go in history, the dirtier and less hygienic people were, and so the higher the level of infectious disease. This is broadly true if we restrict ourselves to the last 1,000 years of Western civilization. However, if we consider the broader sweep of human history, the…
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Odio per l’orticoltura
Quando esponi nella principale mostra floreale del mondo, ci si attende che tu consideri il giardinaggio come uno dei più grandi piaceri della vita. I progettisti spendono anni a pianificare il loro giardino perfetto per il Chelsea Flower Show ed è tale la popolarità dell’evento che questo è uno dei rari anni in cui i…
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C’mon, Mr. Shermer.
Michael Shermer, giornalista e scrittore noto per aver fondato la Skeptic Society, cade abbastanza nel ridicolo in un suo editoriale di due settimane fa: Life has never been so good for our species – Los Angeles Times. It is fashionable among environmentalists today to paint a gloomy portrait of our future. Although there are many…
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Tikopia
In addition to their islandwide system of multistory orchards and fields, social adaptations sustained the Tikopian economy. Most important, the islanders’ religious ideology preached zero population growth. Under a council of chiefs who monitored the balance between the human population and natural resources, Tikopians practiced draconian population control based on celibacy, contraception, abortion, and infanticide,…
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Riforma delle pensioni
The life expectancy of adults is longer than that in many more complex societies, even tough the Bushmen suffer higher infant mortality and a higher death rate from accidents because of the absence of doctors and hospitals. About a tenth of the Bushmen studied by the interdisciplinary team were older than sixty years – or…
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Transculturalizzazione
One rarely mentioned aspect of the encounter between Indians and Whites was the appeal that the Indian societies held for generation after generation of Whites. No sooner did the first Europeans arrive in North America than a disproportionate number of them showed a preference for Indian society over their own. Within only a few year…
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Win-win strategy (ma i cani non sarebbero d’accordo)
The adaptation may sometimes appear so irrational as to jeopardize the very society that practices it. An adaptation of the Koryak in Siberia, distantly related to the Eskimo, is likely to strike an outsider as extremely curious. Their religion demands that every year they should destroy all of their dogs, an apparently suicidal step for…
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Matria
The overlapping ranges and mingling at the borders of bonobo communities stand in stark contrast to how chimp groups interact. When the mist lifts from the evolutionary pressures that shaped bonobo society, perhaps we will understand how they have managed to escape what many people consider the worst scourge of humanity: our xenophobia and our…
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Cargo warfare
An anthropologist once told me about two Eipo-Papuan village heads in New Guinea who were taking their first trip on a little airplane. They were not afraid to board the plane, but made a puzzling request: they wanted the side door to remain open. They were warned that it was cold up in the sky…