warauduati

The reason for stumbling across Gloria Rosales‚ weather forecast (below) was my subscription to Betomango (Betoman Studios at La Ceiba) at YouTube, who posted a rather more interesting video back in March 2007. Yankee Col, La Vieja Escuela, and the here on various occasions featured Aurelio Martinez had joined together to participate for the official song and video for the Gran Carnaval Internacional Ceibeño 2007 with a musical fusion of the popular Reggaeton and garifuna Punta. „Fiesta en Carnaval“, directed by Jardiel Quezada and Roberto Zelaya, is one of these examples of musical creolization throughout all the afro-latin-world that are more and more en vogue.

The rhythm of Punta was also used by the winners Douglas Guardado and the Gold Star Band in „Mi Novia en Carnaval“, which somehow states my thesis of how politics and society are currently using the image of multicultural diversity more than ever to promote tourism in Honduras. Besides a higher awareness level there’s unfortunately not much of improvement to be felt and seen within the actual communities concerned.

I have no clue, why everything has to be posted at YouTube, but I found it funny enough and enjoyed the Honduran forecast by Gloria Rosales at 45tv. Sunny moments in wintertime.

Linda Radford, believe it or not my host mom during my student exchange year in 1994/95 in Bismarck, Missouri, has engaged herself in a very neat little project. Co-authored by her lifelong friend Linda Derby, currently residing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but also born and raised in the bluff only about one hour south of St. Louis, she is trying to reveal the unique history of the town.
Titled Bismarck: Hometown USA the volume „surveys the history of the area from the earliest inhabitants of the 19th Century to the modern era. The book traces the early settlements, its people, and community life in a small but not so sleepy train town“.

The „City“ of Bismarck is located in St. Francois County and has a total population of about 1,500 inhabitants. Surrounded by the Saint Francois Mountains, formed by volcanic activity and seen as an outcrop of Precambrian igneous rock mountains rising over the Ozark Plateau as well as one of the oldest exposures of igneous rock in North America, there are quite a few worthily remembered natural highlights such as Elephant Rocks State Park, the Johnson`s Shut-Ins and the Taum Sauk Mountain. St. Louis, what was once Cahokia as a center of the Mississippi Culture, became the gateway of western exploration in the late 18th century. Controlled by French and Spanish during colonial times Missouri was especially a main focus of German migration later in the 19th century, Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch maybe one of their most prominent representatives of German impact.

Aspects might partly be assessed and retrieved in Bismarck: Hometown USA as the project is based especially on „stories and legends handed down and preserved by historians of the previous generation“ as well as life stories of young and old within the town. Being a cultural anthropologist I might would have hoped for a trace back to the first inhabitants and not the „earliest“ of European settlements, but as an enthusiastic reader and researcher of North American History I am looking forward not only on a personal side to see behind the curtain of lively history of an exemplary bluff in the heart of the United States of America. Publication is scheduled for late spring.

„This video was shot in el Triunfo de la Cruz, Honduras, by Carlos Valladares for Ecos Latinos. Numada was written by Angel Rios (violinist) and he recog- nizes the struggle that the Garifuna people goes through, to keep their tra- ditions, language and culture alive. Numada is part of the CD „Music of the 3 Americas“ produced by the harpist Patrice Fisher with special guests from Brazil: Chiko and Rogerio (vocals and guitar), Tontoy (percussion), Alegria (bass); and from Honduras: Eduardo Lopez (garifuna drum) and Angel Rios (Violin). The garifuna dance group: Black Man Soul. This is part of a project called: „Music of the 3 Americas“ produced for Ecos Latinos through Musicians for Music.“ (via Ecos Latinos at YouTube)

The students of the Department of Ethnology and African Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München have just published their new edition of Ethnologik. Various articles and interviews are not only available online now, they may also be commented and discussed thanks to the new structure of ethnologik.de. In the magazine’s category „Normal in München“ the focus zooms in on the ongoing matter of integration within the city. My personal favorite to be debated: Menschenrechte (Human Rights) by my dear friend Jens.

Kudos to the whole crew !!!

Almost a shame that, as being an afficionado of his work, I hadn’t noticed till now, and only via antropologi.info, that Maximilian Forte launched a new blog just about a month ago: Open Anthropology.

Known from KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology as well as The CAC Review, he currently is a professor in Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal. Careful readers of warauduati might also recognize his name from the debate on Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Open Anthropology now is an epistemological and political project developed along Cyberspace, Open Access, Decolonization, Liberation, Resurgence, Collaboration, Advocacy, Accountability, Transparency as well as Restructuring Knowledge and Reconfiguring Subjecthood.

„A project designed to liberate anthropology from the confines of discipline, profession, and institution, as a new form of knowledge acquisition and production, in a changing world, and in the struggle to create a new world.“

„Open Anthropology arises from a dissastisfaction with the state of knowledge in contemporary and classical anthropology, and is meant to significantly restructure and move anthropology beyond its current confines, beyond the constraints of professionalization and institutionalization, transcending the very ‚disciplinari- ness‘ of a discipline that has often foundered on its own shoals since its inception as ‚anthropology‘.”
(Maximilian Forte introducing his new project on 11th of October 2007)

Maximilian Forte’s main research focuses on indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and their current cultural and political resurgence, in the past especially in Trinidad and Tobago. His theoretical interests include questions of indigeneity, nationalism, indigenous self-representations, ritual and tradition, and the indigenious translocalism and transnationalism of the Caribbean. His latest books are „Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean: Amerindian Survival and Revival„, New York: Peter Lang, 2006, and „Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs: (Post) Colonial Representations of Aboriginality in Trinidad and Tobago„, Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2005.

„Lastly, and at least for now,“ he states, „Open Anthropology will be only an illusion of a ‚one man show.‘ Behind and beneath this project is a wellspring of criticism, enthusiasm, and vision that is brought to bear here from numerous sources of encouragement.“ I wish him all the best with his new project. There is already lots and lots to read and think about …

.:*~*:._.:*~*:. Snow Falls Softly At Night .:*~*:._.:*~*:.

.:*~*:._.:*~*:. When I Woke Up It Was White .:*~*:._.:*~*:.



.:*~*:._.:*~*:. Na, na, na, na, na, na, naaaa .:*~*:._.:*~*:.



.:*~*:._.:*~*:. Na, na, na, na, na, na, naaaa .:*~*:._.:*~*:.

Always a good one – Tom Wilson and Bob Lanois – Dig it!
Greets and cheers to my Canadian friends …