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Busy Time. Now.
I've pinched the subject title from a recent post by Unsworn. Who incidently owes me a third question in that interview meme ;-)
But it has been busy time of late. For the first time in weeks I had some company in the house, some visitors from the Australian Dental Association trying to distribute some equipment here. To say the least, the little of what exists as a dental program here has a few issues with things like sterilization of equipment. Regretfully, I've heard that Mike whom I used to share the house with and has been an active helper of East Timor (and Papua New Guinea, and the Solomons and Australian indigenous communities etc etc) for years now hasn't really recovered from the dengue fever her caught. It looks like his help of people in the tropics has come to an end. He'll certainly be missed.
The Portuguese version of the Computer Users Manual has been completed and now it's a case of sticking the graphics in the right place and sending it off to be printed. Hopefully the Bahasa version will be completed soon as well, whereupon I'll replicate the process, send it all back to the UNDP and the training programme will begin.
The past several days of thesis writing has seen the production of some 8,000 words which isn't really sufficient if I want to finish by my self-imposed deadline. It has been very difficult mental work however, dealing with methodological approaches of communication and communications technology that is supposed to account for 40,000 years of the species and in a manner that's relevant to contemporary technologies. In the process I must say I've really enjoyed re-reading Frederich Engels' "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific", for being both insightful and extraordinarily flawed and "The Origins of Family, Private Property and the State", which really has stood the test of time.
In other news, Octavia visited with Vicky the other night to prepare and cook some food for a dinner meeting with several border patrol commandants and related bureaucrats. In the process he decided to help himself to my collection of beer. Having knocked that off, he went to Vicky's sister's restaurant and tried to claim that Vicky had sent him to collect a further ten crates of beer and soft-drink. Fortunately the restaurant contacted Vicky to ensure that she had placed the order, which of course she hadn't.
I think Octavia has a problem with alcohol. Like he can't get enough of it ;-)
But it has been busy time of late. For the first time in weeks I had some company in the house, some visitors from the Australian Dental Association trying to distribute some equipment here. To say the least, the little of what exists as a dental program here has a few issues with things like sterilization of equipment. Regretfully, I've heard that Mike whom I used to share the house with and has been an active helper of East Timor (and Papua New Guinea, and the Solomons and Australian indigenous communities etc etc) for years now hasn't really recovered from the dengue fever her caught. It looks like his help of people in the tropics has come to an end. He'll certainly be missed.
The Portuguese version of the Computer Users Manual has been completed and now it's a case of sticking the graphics in the right place and sending it off to be printed. Hopefully the Bahasa version will be completed soon as well, whereupon I'll replicate the process, send it all back to the UNDP and the training programme will begin.
The past several days of thesis writing has seen the production of some 8,000 words which isn't really sufficient if I want to finish by my self-imposed deadline. It has been very difficult mental work however, dealing with methodological approaches of communication and communications technology that is supposed to account for 40,000 years of the species and in a manner that's relevant to contemporary technologies. In the process I must say I've really enjoyed re-reading Frederich Engels' "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific", for being both insightful and extraordinarily flawed and "The Origins of Family, Private Property and the State", which really has stood the test of time.
In other news, Octavia visited with Vicky the other night to prepare and cook some food for a dinner meeting with several border patrol commandants and related bureaucrats. In the process he decided to help himself to my collection of beer. Having knocked that off, he went to Vicky's sister's restaurant and tried to claim that Vicky had sent him to collect a further ten crates of beer and soft-drink. Fortunately the restaurant contacted Vicky to ensure that she had placed the order, which of course she hadn't.
I think Octavia has a problem with alcohol. Like he can't get enough of it ;-)
Re: "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific", and "The Origins of Family, Private Property and the State
To be "quite well versed" means that you must be certified by either a masters or a doctorate in cultural-anthropology (most probably) along with
a major in archeology; but also have taken courses in history, languages, biology, computer science, statistics, and geology...
Doctoral candidate in social theory, honours degree in politics, philosophy and sociology, minors in computer science and economics. Member of the Australian Sociological Association. Fluent in Tetum (Austronesian, Praca and Terik dialects), some knowledge of Fatauluku (Papuan), Makasae (Austronesian), Kemak (Austronesian) and Arrente (Austronesian-Australian). Have lived in the least developed country in the world for the past year (animists, grass huts etc).
He concluded that marriage had evolved through the centuries from group marriage to the Western form of marriage to one partner... rather demeaning (especially to women) don't you think in the light of archeological evidence to the contrary.
Firstly, I haven't encountered the archeological evidence. I keep on looking for it and it just isn't there - and in any case it wouldn't be "archeological" anyway. Despite the assertions of cultural relativists who would like to "disprove" the theory of universal developments in human society and common needs. Instead, various reports seem to indicate the contrary.
Secondly, all feminist anthropologists are supportive of Morgan rather than oppositional (e.g., Margaret Mead, Michelle Risaldo, Gayle Rubin, Pat Caplan, Evelyn Reed etc). As Engels' pointed out the original implementation of the institutional family is an example of "women as the private property of their male spouse".
There will always be those who seek common features and those who seek relative differences. For example,Boas, as a relativist, stands against Malinkowski, a universalist; and the reason is quite simple. Relative symbolic values exist with universal institutional features. Anyone who tries to engage in universal intepretation of symbolic values on a historical-evolutionary scale is engaging in an act of imperialistic arrogance. But those deny the universality of institutions that correlate according to technical and economic development of a society is an excersise in denial.