photo‘Embedded anthropologists’ in Iraq and Afghanistan have been the subject of ongoing controversy for about five years now. These professionals make at least $200 000 USD a year aiding the American military by providing cultural knowledge and advice. Time magazine has been the latest to publish an article on this topic. Zero Anthropology has had the most extensive ongoing discussion on this topic. Both Zero Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association have condemned the actions of anthropologists engaged in current human terrain work. Criticisms have reduced the number of anthropologists engaging in this type of work – other social scientists are now taking up posts as human terrain professionals.
With all of the negative attention on anthropologists engaging in human terrain work, important anthropological research on the social dynamics of war have been overshadowed. For those wishing to investigate this field (one which fits in nicely with the focus on peace in many IB schools), start by checking out the work of Carolyn Nordstrom. I would suggest using excerpts from her ethnographies (vs. the entire ethnography) with IB students. A Different Kind of War Story (1997) is written more or less as a traditional–style ethnography. It focuses on the civil war in Mozambique and looks at how humans construct their social worlds under such brutal circumstances. Nordstrom’s ethnography on Mozambique could be appropriately coupled with Lubkemann’s ethnography of the effect of Mozambique’s civil war on Ndau social networks.
Two of Nordstrom’s most popular subsequent books (Shadows of War and Global Outlaws) focus on global economic and political systems (legal and illegal) and their roles in war. Her research for these ethnographies has lead Nordstrom to develop methodologies that are somewhat unique in their efforts to protect the identities of her subjects of study. In her words, “Drugs, precious gems, human labor and sex are routinely used in international black markets to purchase everything from guns and computer-based weapons systems to antibiotics and food. The integrity of my ethnographic research and the safety of those among whom I work have rested on having to delete basic data, which erases the extra-legal from public discourse. I want to develop a form of creative non-fiction that explores the lives of real people working in this complex, extra-legal network without revealing their locations.”
Nordstrom’s work provides learners with a strong base through which they can discuss issue of conflict, human ingenuity, the ethics of economics and politics on a global scale and methodologies.
Links to the IB Social and Cultural Anthropology Syllabus…
1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, .7, 2.8
This topic also gets right to the heart of peace, conflict & intercultural understanding. The discussions around these issues are core to any IB school.
Tags: anthropology, Carolyn Nordstrom, conflict, globalization, Human Terrian, Lubkeman, war, ZeroAnthropology
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 12:26 am by triplea_lf.
