May 7, 2013
"The show’s accent was firmly on bringing tradition and modernity together in a new synthesis. It made a conscious and sustained effort to work out a way to engage with the traditional folk music of the Subcontinent using the vocabulary of Western music, which is more accessible and familiar to the younger audience. Through Coke Studio many folk musicians and their work has been introduced to a new generation and allowed them to access a deep and rich cultural heritage that was withering on the margins."

— Bilal Tanweer at Chapati Mystery. Coke Studio by Bilal Tanweer

12:55am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxkQSBne
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Filed under: music Pakistan culture 
April 24, 2013
How Cuban Villagers Learned They Descended From Sierra Leone Slaves

The amazing story of the traditional songs and dances, passed down over hundreds of years, that have tied a small Caribbean ethnic group to a remote African tribe

1:01am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxjQ3rsF
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(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: history culture reunion 
March 31, 2013
"At the root of many of our spiritual problems today is the strong belief that each of us “possess” the truth. No one “possesses” the truth. We can only “pursue” the truth with all sincerity and diligence. There is a vast chasm that separates these two concepts. When we feel we possess the truth, we shut our minds and live in ignorance. This leads to disrespect for others, discrimination, oppression and aggression. If, on the other hand, we are committed to pursuing the truth, our minds are open, accepting, respectful, and welcoming."

— Arun Gandhi at The Network of Spiritual Progressives. One God, Many Images By Arun Gandhi

1:31am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxhXoTDD
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(Notes: 8)
  
Filed under: religion culture 
March 31, 2013
"Gender roles gain their power from the fact that they appear natural and eternal. By looking to the past, we can draw aside this veil and see these categories for what they are—made by people, and able to be changed by people."

—

Alyssa Goldstein at AlterNet.  When Women Wanted Sex Much More Than Men

And how the stereotype flipped.

1:28am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxhXntsk
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(Notes: 69)
  
Filed under: gender culture 
March 28, 2013
"And the mosquito nets are having a significant knock-on benefit for families: in Kisii, preliminary results show that farmers are reporting 40 percent fewer cases of malaria in their homes. While Kenyans often attribute illness to malaria without knowing the true cause, a direct human health benefit shouldn’t come as a surprise."

—

Sociolingo at SocioLingo Africa. Netting flies and mosquitoes protects livestock, boosts milk yields

 @sociolingo on Twitter

1:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxhImkM8
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Filed under: malaria nets health culture 
March 28, 2013
"In many other societies, people do not see the same sharp division between nature and culture. And all human societies have systems of kinship, which Sahlins defines as “mutuality of being,” meaning that “kinfolk are members of one another, intrinsic to each other’s identity and existence."

— David Moberg at Dissent. A Thousand Kinds of Life: Culture, Nature, and Anthropology

12:58am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxhIm7OI
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(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: culture anthropology 
March 25, 2013
"If penis stealing seems beyond-the-pale weird, consider what people in Tiringoulou might think upon hearing of Americans who starve themselves near to death because their reflection in the mirror convinces them they are fat."

—

Louisa Lombard in Pacific Standard Magazine. Missing Pieces

Africa’s genital-stealing crime wave hits the countryside.

Via Kerim Friedman at Sunday Reading

12:29am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxh3S4gH
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(Notes: 11)
  
Filed under: psychology health culture 
March 22, 2013
"

But the recursive argument method and the college were not inventions of Classical Arabic civilization.

Both were first developed many centuries earlier in the ancient Central Asian Buddhist civilization, and appear as physical texts and buildings in the Kushan Empire period. When the Buddhists of Central Asia converted to Islam, evidently around the tenth century, their institutions were not abandoned by the people (the former Buddhists) and then miraculously reinvented by the very same individuals (the new Muslims); the institutions and practices were simply converted to Islam along with the people themselves.

"

— Christopher Beckwith at berfrois. How Western Europe Developed a Full Scientific Method

12:42am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxgq8Ovp
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(Notes: 5)
  
Filed under: culture science history 
March 21, 2013
More Men Raped Than Women In US?

Steve Hynd at Not the Singularity.

As one prisoner wrote, “Sadism results from there being no possibility of real accountability,” and that’s really the key to the whole thing, whether in prison or among pampered and sheltered jock “rape crews”. It’s a massive problem that is not necessarily rooted in oppressing any one gender, but rather in our society’s cultural blinkers, our wish to turn away. We as a society have an empathy gap, one that also allows us to ignore the deaths of innocents at the hands of our military, under our government’s orders, in far-off lands.

I bolded “our wish to turn away” because I know that’s me. There’s an awful lot about what goes on that I can’t take much. When I come upon descriptions of violence I often skim over, noting there’s a part of an article I’m intentionally turning away from. Sometimes I go back and read the piece again, usually after standing up and pacing awhile. But I rather need to force myself to look.  Being willfully blind leads to stupidity, but it’s not easy to look.

5:58pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxgoGcK9
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(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: prison rape culture 
March 18, 2013
"The larger tragedy is that lots of people (not just middle class creative professions) will eventually be rendered economically superfluous. The hope is that this will result in a critical mass of folks demanding a solution. The solution, which seemed obvious to people when they discussed the coming “cybernetic revolution” in the 1970s, is to find a way to (or an excuse to) distribute wealth to those rendered economically obsolete. This notion has been rendered taboo by a decades-long reactionary campaign to instill a visceral horrified response to any claims that displaced people should be “entitled” to anything."

— R.U. Sirius at The Verge. Information wants to be free, but the world isn’t ready

1:48am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZEy4qxgXLPFf
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(Notes: 13)
  
Filed under: P2P culture making a living 
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