anthropology | Pandaemonium

BATTLES OVER ANCIENT BONES AND MODERN IDENTITIES

June 24, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Last week a paper in Nature by Rasmussen et al threw new light on the question of the genetic origins of Kennewick Man, a 8,500 year old skeleton whose bones were discovered in July 1996 by two teenagers in the Columbia River, near Kennewick, Washington State, in north-west USA. It was a rare find, nearly a complete skeleton, and one of the oldest human discovered in North America. The bones became the focus of an intense, fractious battle, both scientific and […]

Categories: Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, cultural ownership, cultural repariation, david hurst thomas, human remains, identity politics, indigenous culture, kennewick man, nagpra, native americans, racial science, unesco, vine deloria

FROM THE VAULTS: DARKNESS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

March 4, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I am in the death-throes of finishing a book, so have little time to tend Pandaemonium. Rather than abandon it, however, I thought I would raid the vaults, as it were, for old material that I have not published here. Given that it is book-writing that is keeping me away from blog-writing, it seemed only appropriate that I republish some old book reviews. And given thecurrent controversy over Napoleon Chagnon, both over his new book Noble Savages, and his election […]

Categories: Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, derek freeman, margaret mead, napoleon chagnon, racial science, scientific bias, sociobiology, yanomamo

SCIENCE, MYTH AND HISTORY

December 21, 2012 by Kenan Malik

This is the third in a series of extracts that I have been running from my book Strange Fruit. The extracts tell the story of ‘Kennewick Man’ and explore what the debate around a 9000-year old skeleton reveals about current ideas of culture and race. The first extract looked at questions cultural ownership, the second at the issue of race. This third extract links the two in a discussion of the relationship between science, myth and history, and the way […]

Categories: Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, clovis, creation myths, human origins, indigenous culture, jonathan marks, kennewick man, native americans, paul martin, racial science, racism, romanticism, vine deloria

ANCIENT RACE WARS AND MODERN RACE SCIENCE

December 18, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I published last week an extract from my book Strange Fruit which looked at the ‘Kennewick Man’ controversy and at what that controversy told us about contemporary ideas about cultural identity and cultural ownership. The Kennewick Man debate gets also to the heart of another major contemporary controversy: that over the meaning of ‘race’. In this extract from Strange Fruit, I look at how discussions about a 9000-year old skeleton laid bare our understanding (and misunderstanding) of race. My own […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, craniometry, earnest hooton. ainu, human origins, kennewick man, native americans, race, racial categories, racial science

THE BATTLE OF THE BONES

December 15, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I published recently a transcript of a radio documentary I had made that explored the question of ‘Who owns culture?’. Perhaps the most fractious of recent debates around this question has been over ‘Kennewick Man’, an ancient skeleton found on the banks of the Columbia River in America’s Washington State. The 9000-year old skeleton became the focus for two major controversies: What is race? And who owns history? I tell the story of Kennewick Man in my book Strange Fruit: […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, creation myths, cultural ownership, cultural repatriation, culture, david hurst thomas, human origins, human remains, indigenous culture, kennewick man, nagpra, native americans, unesco, vine deloria

WHO OWNS CULTURE?

December 11, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I mentioned in my last post the attempts by the UN, UNESCO and WIPO to give certain groups, particularly indigenous groups, control over traditional culture, and of the dangers inherent in such an approach. I am publishing here the transcript of a BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme that I wrote and presented in 2004 which explored the issue of ‘Who owns culture?’. You can listen to an audio of the programme, too. ‘Who owns culture?’, Analysis, BBC Radio 4, 29 July […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: anthropology, british museum, broadcasts, cultural ownership, cultural policy, cultural repatriation, culture, human remains, indigenous culture, museum of london, museums, neil Macgregor, unesco

WHY BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG IN THE RACE DEBATE

March 4, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Is race a biological reality? Or is it a social construction? It is a debate that shows no sign of being resolved. The more that we know of the genetics of human differences, ironically, the more fractious the debate seems to get, and the more entrenched the various positions seem to be. The latest issue of the magazine American Scientist contains a review by the biologist Jan Sapp of two books that insist that race has no biological validity. Sapp agrees. ‘The […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, cavalli-sforza, ernst mayr, genetics, jerry coyne, jon entine, population genetics, race realism, racial categories, racial science, sally satel, scientific classification

IS IT ANTIQUATED TO BELIEVE IN SOCIAL PROGRESS?

September 3, 2011 by Kenan Malik

In June I wrote a post questioning Brazil’s ‘no contact’ policy towards uncontacted Amazonian tribes. A version of that blog post was published as an essay in Göteborgs-Posten. The essay (like my post) attracted a lot of critical comment. It led to a short debate last week on the pages of the newspaper between myself and Dan Rosengren, associate professor of social anthropology at the Institute for Global Studies at Göteborgs University. The Swedish version of the debate is not available […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: anthropology, brazil, culture, dan rosengren, ethics, modernity, progress, racial science

NO CONTACT

June 25, 2011 by Kenan Malik

The Prime Directive. As any self-respecting Trekkie knows, it is Star Trek‘s most important ethical rule. And possibly the most stupid. ‘Thou shalt not interfere with the natural evolution of another culture by giving primitive peoples technology or knowledge beyond their years.’ Or as Starfleet Regulations put it: As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: anthropology, brazil, culture, ethics, george stocking, herder, levi-strauss, modernity, progress, racial science, romanticism, star trek

ANTHROPOLOGY IN DARKNESS

February 28, 2011 by Kenan Malik

A decade ago the American journalist Patrick Tierney published an incendiary book called Darkness in El Dorado. Tierney had spent more than ten years investigating the work of the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, and of Chagnon’s mentor, the geneticist James Neel. He accused Chagnon, among other things, of scientific fraud, sexual abuse, political corruption and, most sensationally, of genocide. Chagnon was one of the most distinguished anthropologists of his generation, who had made his name as a pioneer of sociobiology and […]

Categories: Academia, Science & Technology • Tags: anthropology, napoleon chagnon, sociobiology, yanomamo