Human Castles

Very enjoyable and beautiful short video on a tradition I had never heard about before. The Wikipedia entry explains a bit about it.

Casteller from Mike Randolph on Vimeo.

Kreayshawn

So, it has been a little while. I’ve actually tried to have a vacation this year, so as I took some time off from work, I also took time off from blogging.  Both from this one and my other one.  But now I am back, and I hope to start updating regularly again. I have started studying for my masters degree at ITU, so we’ll see how much time I have on my hands, but some updating should be possible.

Lately I have been very interested in the Jerking scene and related subcultures. During my time spent listening to obscure rap music from around the world, I came across this girl called Kreayshawn. She is a rapper and music video director from East Oakland, and she is also a lesbian, which I don’t think is something you see within the more traditional rap scene. What I find interesting about Kreayshawn and her work is the sometimes outrageous mix of cultural signifiers snatched from different subcultures. Take for instance her own music video (directed by Aris Jerome) of her song ‘Bumpin’ Bumpin’.

Kreayshawn – Bumpin’ Bumpin’ from Aris Jerome on Vimeo.

It features elements from rave, gangsta rap and more. Her look is a mix between what you’d expect from a Suicide Girl and the latest in swag. In other words, subcultural signifiers are being recontextualised in what ever way people wants to these days, and the results are interesting.
As mentioned Kreayshawn also produces music videos. I enjoyed this one a lot:

THE BROTHERHOOD FT. YP – THEY CAN TELL from kreayshawn on Vimeo.

But you will also find other stuff from her such as this mellow video, which provides a unique and interesting glimpse into how her and her friends spend their time:

BASED IN THE ACURA from kreayshawn on Vimeo.

Find more about and by Kreayshawn here:
Twitter
Youtube
Vimeo
Tumblr
Facebook

Soy Raka

Panamanian crew out of the Bay Area doing some mix of hyphy, jerkin music and a bit of ragga. The video features many different styles of dancing currently in vogue. It is interesting how all these styles seem to melt together in this video. Via Ghetto Bassquake.

Thoughts on the Capitalist Narrative

Grant McCracken recently shared some thoughts on how capitalism doesn’t make a good story. People minding their own business and pursuing their own interests and by doing that serving others is a story that a lot of people find it hard to relate to. Here is what he wrote:

Capitalism doesn’t have heroes.  It doesn’t have people called to higher motives.  It doesn’t have noble sacrifices for the good of others.  It doesn’t, usually, have daring action on a public stage.

No, capitalism is just has some guy who owns a handful of dry cleaning outfits in a small town in New Hampshire.  He works hard, supplies a service, pays off his loans, coaches Little League, goes to church, gets his kids through college, and spends his very few disposable hours on the golf course.

Script!  Casting!  Some one call the studio!   This is appalling.  It doesn’t matter that out of these mundane activities in lots of towns big and small, played out by millions of people across the US, something remarkable will come.  This just isn’t a story anyone wants to listen to.  So no one much wants to tell it.  Not Hollywood.  Not our mythmakers.  Not our story tellers.

The economist has spoken.  It is a little clearer why we do not tell the story of capitalism.  It just doesn’t tell very well. But if the anthropologist may join in here.  Can we at least acknowledge that there is something fabulously odd about a culture that depends on capitalism but that will not ever acknowledge it in the stories it tells itself about itself.

It is a good point he is making here. Modern capitalist society is not only the most diverse society there has ever existed, the whole idea of celebrating diversity would not exist if it were not for this type of society. Strangely enough it is the most criticised and hated by cultural analysts. To me it makes a good story, but I can see that it wouldn’t make a good movie.

But there are other reasons besides it not being a story that tells well. The other day I heard a woman on the radio complaining about how the Danish prime minister had said that being green and environmentally friendly is now something that can help you gain a profit. Now, in my ears that sound good.  None of us want to live in a world full of pollution and deformed children. If businesses make better profits from going green it would mean more of them doing it and a much cleaner world. Good, right?

But to that woman it was a huge problem. You see, she complained about the very idea of people doing something for profit. That in itself was the problem. Even when people were doing something that she thought was the right thing, it was no good if they did it for the wrong reasons. So according to her the intentions would have to be pure in order for the actions to be considered ‘right’ on some level. I think she touched on one of the problems with the capitalist narrative. In order for people to become ‘heroes’ they have to to have those higher motives that McCracken mentioned.

People here in Europe often scoff at stories about people trying to fulfill their dreams within a capitalist framework. A good example is the movie The Pursuit of Happyness in which Will Smith plays a divorced poor man who lives on the street with his son while he studies to become a Wall Street stock trader. Most reviews I have read and people I have spoken to regarding the movie dismissed it as silly and ‘too american’. They couldn’t relate to the story, partly because he actually succeeds and the film has a happy ending. Even though the film is ‘based on a true story’ (theres also a book) it didn’t didn’t seem to make a connection with most European reviewers.

So is this lack of interest for stories about capitalism just because they are boring or is it because we are still driven by some sort of morality that commands us to demand purity of heart and soul? It seems that this kind of purity of intention is very widespread in society. A good example are marriages between Thai women and western men. It doesn’t fit with our concepts of romantic love or equality between the sexes. So very often we get to hear a discourse about how these women are victimised or how such a relationship is assymetrical and hence is not legitimate. The idealised purity of intention is not there and so we condemn it.

These are just some thoughts on the matter. I will surely have more as time goes on. Feel free to share your own in the comments.

Melissa Cefkin Interview

The often interesting Savage Minds blog has an interview with Melissa Cefkin about corporate anthropology. Cefkin is currently employed by IBM. It is no secret that anthropologists often have left leaning anti-capitalist opinions, but in a world where more and more cultural analysts are working for private companies rather than at universities it is a good time to realise that corporations maybe aren’t all evil and that you can actual make a bigger difference and influence people in the corporate world compared to the isolated world of academia. Very refreshing.

Documentary On Remix Culture

Here is a nice 3-part documentary on remix culture and intellectual property rights.  It’s called ‘Walking On Eggshells’ and it has some of the usual suspects, but also some of the not so usual suspects. Worth checking (via Wayneandwax)

Colours in cultures

Quite interesting and pretty graphic showing what different colours are associated with in different cultures.  Of course reality might be a tad more complicated than this graphic, but it is a cool idea none the less. From here.

Tweens and Consumption

The other day I heard a radio programme about tweens. It was about how tweens is a rather new phenomenon and how the parents of today might not be able to understand it, as there were no such thing when they were the same age. We are used to the idea of the teenager, but the tween is unknown to us. We think of them as children first and they stay that way until they grow into teenagehood.  Such programmes of course have experts and this was no exception. They had a woman on there who had been researching tweens and though she made sense most of the time, she also said something that made me take notice. She compared the tween to the teenager and stated that one of the biggest differences were that because tweens are regarded as children they have no possibility to take part in adult society except in one way: consumption. This, she added, is a passive activity. It seemed as if she understood consumption as just choosing between what is on offer. Of course the tween phenomenon is closely linked to the increased wealth of recent times and you do see companies regarding this as a specific new target group to which they can offer products so I consumption does indeed play an important role. However, the idea of consumption as a passive activity is reducing it to something that makes you blind to what is going on.

First of all, I think that focusing on consumption is not enough. We like to aquire stuff not just for consumption, but also for possesion. Anthropologists, sociologists and others that deal with modern society tend to forget this, and they also tend to forget that buying is just one out of many ways to aquire material possesions. By reducing all these things to ‘consumption’ one seems to be making some assumptions about how society works and buying into some of the ideas of the anti-consumerist left about how we are manipulated into consuming all the time. One is also missing the most interesting point which is: what do the tweens do when they aquire things and what do they do with them? It almost seemed as if the researcher didn’t quite take tween consumption seriously.

Shopping for new things can very often be a social activity. Especially for girls it seems. Of course we have all seen groups of girls walking around the shopping areas in the cities searching new garments or accessories out. Discussing what looks good or what doesn’t. But there are also other aspects of aquisition that can be shared. Today we do not only have tweens, we also have the internet and as we know the internet is great for sharing. Recently we have seen a rise in the number of fashion blogs, haul vlogs, and the like. I follow and read/watch quite a few of these and some of the girls (because it is mainly a girl activity) who make these are young enough to be characterised as tweens. Most famous is of course Tavi of ‘Style Rookie‘ fame who started fashion blogging when she was 11 years old.  Now, most girls doing this sort of thing do not become famous as Tavi, but they do enter into communities both IRL and online where they share their new aquisitions. Often these girls don’t have that much money so a lot of what you will find is that there is quite a bit on focus on where you can find cheap fashionable items. You tell each other about how you found a great piece on sale or show off what you bought for next to nothing on eBay or maybe you complain a bit about how you spent too much money on those shoes that you just had to have.  All part of creating shared experiences and communicating with others who can relate to what you are saying.

Of course not everyone blogs or tweets or even share their new aquisitions on Facebook, but what everyone does is form their identity through their possesions. This means that when tweens aquire new stuff they carefully select what they need to make them what they wish to be.  Shopping is also a form of communication with the producers of goods. Your choices tell them what you like and what you don’t like, and when goods are possesed they can be used to communicate with others around you and also to tell yourself stories about who you are. We all do this. Therefore it seems strange that some people in academia insist on labelling consumption as a passive activity when it in fact is a very social activity that is shaping ourselves and the world around us.

Tweens are taking an active part in this process and we should take their actions seriously. There is no reason to believe that an 11-year old buying Humör trousers and a New Era cap is doing something without any awareness, than there is to believe that an adult couple buying stuff for their house to make it presentable or a businessman buying a Rolex are doing so.  I think that we need to get past this anti-consumerist nonsense and instead dive into and acknowledge all these marvelous and interesting activities going on around us all the time. Reducing everyone to passive robots is just not going to cut it.

Image from here

Review: Seeing Culture Everywhere

‘Seeing Culture Everywhere – From Genocide to Consumer Habits’ is a book with a bold mission: to present the layman with some of the basic ideas and problems of anthropology.  In a world where culture is still used as an explanation whenever you can’t think of anything else this is not an easy task. However,  Joana Breidenbach and Pál Nyiri does a very good job of it, although not perfect, but then again, noone is perfect.

In the book we see the authors trying to explain that culture is not something that is ‘loose on the streets’, but a constant process always moving and changing. They have chosen to do this by focusing on certain key issues in anthropology and then using these to explore and explain how this anthropological view of culture works. Something that is not always easy. I have been in more than one discussion with essentialists or cultural fundamentalists, who have looked at me with distrust and told me that my views on culture were exotic and weird. Anthropologysimply  hasn’t been good at getting the message out there. That is why this book is indeed very welcome.

Chapter 1 of the book takes on someone who has been much more succesful in getting his ideas disseminated. His name is Samuel Huntington and the chapter deals mostly with his ideas, but also with the idea of cultural essentialism in general. They then proceed to describe how China and other opressive states have used the idea of cultural essentialism to justify their actions. Evo Morales and his ideas about culture get a mention too.  The book uses a lot of well known examples from anthropology to show  the implications of putting ‘culture’ to use in certain ways.

In chapter 2 (simly named ‘culture) we get to hear about the problems of defining culture. What exactly are we talking about when we speak of protecting culture for instance? What can be the consequences in the real world out there when we use a certain definition of culture?  This is especially important when it comes to the developing countries and the ideas behind development aid.

Third chapter is about culture and violence. Rwanda and the former Jugoslavia are the obvious choices used as examples here of how culture can be put into play and used for violent purposes. The chapter also includes information on how the US military has utilised the idea of culture when analysing conflict and is some times mentioned as a cause of war. Today the US forces receive cultural training and it is more often of the Huntington kind than in the kind of culture that most anthropologists work with today.

Multiculturalism is the theme of the fourth chapter, and with populist right wing parties frightened of islam and ‘muslim culture’ all around Europe, and discussions about headscarfs and what not abound there are plenty of issues to discuss. The chapter is a great resource of the discussions within and without anthropological circles, but will of course be repetitive to some.

Fifth chapter highlights some of the problems concerning indigenous peoples and protection of their cultures. In a time where more and more people are questioning intellectual property rights indigenous peoples (especially in the US, New Zealand, and Australia) are demanding total control of what they consider to be their culture and also the representations of their peoples. The chapter delves into the obvious problems with this kind of thought and offers a good overview of years of anthropological discussions on the subject.

Last chapter is about cultural competencies and cultural translation. Today we have people offering courses on these subjects to businessmen and the like. But how much do they know? What concept of culture are they working what and what does that mean? I have to say that in this chapter I couldn’t help feeling that the authors had a bit of an axe to grind. It’s not that the chapter isn’t serious enough or well enough researched and written, and I must say I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it just left me with that feeling. It just seemed a bit more ‘emotional’ in some places than the other chapters to me I guess.

Then comes the conclusion in which they speak of the advantages of the ethnographic method and also of the future of ethnography. They also sum up some of the important points from the book. What to think about when someone uses the idea of culture to say or do something and such. All in all I have to say that this was a very enjoyable book, and anyone who has a passing interest in culture and anthropology should read it. It could also serve as a great companion book to introductory courses on culture.

Foursquare and Perception of Space

I have been using Foursquare for some time now. For those that don’t know Foursquare is a social web based game in which you use your mobile phone or computer to check in to different locations. Every time you check in you earn points and you can also unlock different badges for completing different tasks. If you are the person with the most check ins at a location, you become ‘mayor’ of that place. When you check in at a place you can also access information about who else is at that location. In this way Foursquare can become an opening for meeting other people, that you might only know through other web 2.0 services. Say, if you follow someone on Twitter and then add them on Foursquare and you both check in at the same bar, at the same time, then you have an opening for locating that person and striking up a conversation. You can of course also see where you friends recently have checked in and if they are nearby, you can swing by and say hello. So besides the game part, which might seem a bit silly for some, Foursquare does have power to influence or social interactions with other people and can be used to make new social connections.

But there are other effects of using Foursquare that I have noticed. When I fire up my Foursquare app on my mobile it tells me my location via GPS and provides a list of known nearby venues that I can check into. If the one I am looking for isn’t known by Foursquare, I can add the venue myself and tag it with things such as ‘supermarket’, ‘bar’, ‘playground’ or whatever category the venue will fit into if I wish to do so. This has impact on the way I perceive the space around me.

First of all, when I see the list of venues, I become aware of a lot of places that I cannot see with the naked eye. It might be shops or theaters or many other things, but it can also be people’s homes or offices that I don’t have any access to, but that I can see on Foursquare. Maybe the names of these semi-private venues will hold some information. For instance at my workplace someone in one of the offices at the first floor has added the coffee machine as a venue. They check into it when they make coffee and I presume that they did it as a fun way keep check on who made coffee last or who makes coffee most maybe? Maybe they brag to each other about being the mayor of the coffee machine and try to oust each other? I don’t know for sure, but through Foursquare I became aware of this venue and the name of it set off some speculation about what they were using that venue for and gave me a new awareness of space and the people who move around in it. Every time I look at the list of venues around me I get access to information like this. But I also get reminded about ‘forgotten’ venues. Maybe it is a shop that I knew about, but had forgotten was there or it could be something else which I have certain memories about that I can suddenly remember when I see the name on the list.  In a way Foursquare gives me a sense of intimacy with the space that I travel in. As if I can get under it’s skin.

Then there is the whole competition element. You are battling for ownership of the space you move around in. Trying to get and hold on to as many mayorships as possible. In order to win a mayorship there has to be a defined venue that you can conquer. But what does it take for somewhere to be a place? At the University I attend, the whole faculty of humanities is of course a venue. When I get there, I check into the faculty. But, the faculty is a big place, and therefore I have made the classrooms and some of the other places  I frequent into individual venues. What Foursquare has done is to make me think about what ‘a place’ is, and compartmentalise space into new smaller sections in order to conquer them and show other people that I exist. This production of new venues is also a challenge to others. Because now there are new venues to conquer and compete about.  When I add a new venue I have to think about what warrants this space as a particular venue in itself. Foursquare is a way of ordering the space around you for a particular purpose, and in that process it produces new awareness of that space.

Foursquare can be thought about as an extra layer of information about the space around you which you can access through your electronic devices. In this way it does have similarities with augmented reality. But though I have AR apps on my phone, I haven’t used them for that much yet. Whereas Foursquare is something I use every day. The above are just some of the things I have noticed when using the service. If you have other thought, feel free to add them in the comments.

You can also add me on Foursquare.