More media coverage of the HTS

Here is a different perspective of the HTS from the right wing Weekly Standard.

The author doen't like the HTS because the army does not need it. They already know a lot about counterinsurgency I guess. The article points out some flaws in how things are going with the HTS right now.

More at Savage Minds.

Oh, and the AAA blog has no new posts, the news section is not adding any more new news (at least has not done so lately). I'll be surprised to see any more comments. Although with the AAA meeting coming up who knows.

Definition of Anthropology

I saw this interview with Associate professor of Anthropology at UC Davis, Alan Klima, linked here:

How do you define anthropology?

Sociocultural anthropology is the study of all alternative world knowledges. Political knowledges, religious knowledges, scientific knowledges, medical knowledges - that there are a lot of different ways to think about things.

Good example of the idealistic bias in anthropology. First of all he is asked to define anthropology but he only defines sociocultural anthropology. And his definition is all about what is in people's heads and says nothing about what they actually do. Our job is to just to identify and classify the ways in which people think about things. We put them into these discrete categories and call them knowledges. I prefer to think that anthropologists in general and sociocultural anthropologists in particular have a lot to say about what people actually do, why they do those things, whey they think certain things, how does thinking relate to doing, etc. This is like defining a biologist as a taxonomist. Although, not really because at least taxonomists are systematic in how they seek to classify the entire range of variations of species and try to organize them and generalize across species types. I doubt there is a parallel in the study of knowledges.

PS My spell check does not like the word knowledges. I have something in common with my spell checker.

Day 9

Day #9 here on the official "Will the AAA news blog ever have a second post" watch. We're up to 72 comments now.

Comment #71 (a rebuttal to #70) contained this well-informed argument:

“Good” or “bad” war, these anthropologists, however, are undermining the fundamental principles of trust and respect that are the foundation of our approach to understanding people and their cultures. We should be operating more on the principles and philosophy of, say, the Red Cross in its clear neutrality, or of journalists who like us depend on a reputation of trust and confidentiality; imagine what it would do to “journalistic integrity” if there were a program in the military that recruited journalists to gather ‘intelligence’ to help a side win its battles! You don’t have to be a journalist who is opposed to war, or to a particular war, in order to advocate and defend journalistic integrity. Any journalist should recognize the severe implications for such integrity should she/he apply her/his professional skills to spying for a side in a war. It baffles me that anthropologists can’t see this in relation to our own profession and its principles as well.

I tried commenting to this comment but for some reason I couldn't get it to go through. So I'll post my comment here.

Funny thing is that the military has had journalists working for them for decades. Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite were journalists for the army in World War II. Al Gore was a military journalist in Vietnam. We don't have to use our imaginations...there is in fact a program in the military that is recruiting journalists. The horror!

I don't ever remember hearing any journalists making a big deal out of the involvement of journalists in the military. I certainly have not seen any "severe implications" to the profession. Does that mean that this argument is ironically making the opposite case? That members of a type of profession can in fact be employed by the military without sullying the entire profession? My guess is that Brian D-L will not consider this possibility.

Afghan book 1 responded to this post in comment #72.

I don't recall stating that war is good or bad, such a statement would show a lack of understanding about the realities of war and the causes of it. War is inherently negative, nonetheless it is a reality of life that is not ever going to go away regardless of our desire to see it vanish. That being said, anthropologists have an opportunity to influence military and intelligence thinking in a manner that can positively influence traditional conduct in war. The goal of course is not to provide "spies" from the anthropologist world as brian d-l states, but to influence decision-makers mentality when taking the target population's culture and point-of-view into mind. Currently our military and intelligence officials approach war and conflict from their traditionallyy ethnocentric states of mind. Wouldn't it be a positive step if they were to begin approaching conflict from the mindset of the population in which the conflict will most directly affect?

In my own opinion, having an anthropologist on an intelligence staff who is assertive with anthropological theory and practice would be of great benefit to ensuring that our military and intelligence officials approach conflict with the victim in mind. Let's face it, war is not going away and to think that it is possible to simply protest it rather than take measures to influence our leaders conduct in it in order to end it quicker is simply naive. War is as old as man's congregation in like-groups.

The current role of anthropologists in intelligence is in fact to gather cultural intelligence in order to give our leaders a better understanding of the people we are dealing with. It's not spying, it is intelligent learning in an effort to ensure those in the position of command are taking the victims into consideration, to me that is rather ethical in a rather unethical situation. It is not a flawed premise to dupe anthropologists into aiding and abetting in an immoral war.

Like it or not, there is a role for anthropology in intelligence and the military. That role may be to influence our leaders decisions by forcing them to consider the culture and people in whose homeland they are operating. Think about it this way, wouldn't have been nice if the U.S. military knew that an Arab's primary source of pride and power was the home and family, and that "kicking in doors" was an afront to their honor? One might think this is common sense, but then they would be over estimating the traditional thinking of the military in war. You can be an anthropologist and opposed to the war, while at the same time participating in the process with the hope of influencing our operators midset to the benefit of the culture being attacked. There is certainly little that is unethical about looking out for the protection of the victim population. It is certainly more ethical than leaving the military and intelligence world to simply violate the populations honor and trounce on their rights without even making an attempt to stop it.

New AAA Blog HTS Comment

Still no additional posts. Comment #70 is a pretty good summary of how I feel about the situation. I figured I'd put it here because who knows who is still reading the AAA blog.

While I certainly understand the AAA Communities disdain for the war and I share those sentiments myself, I hardly see such disdain and ethical problems with the previous conduct of the war and the original decision to go to war as a reason for the anthropological field to completely boycot any participation with the military. In fact, I tend to think it would be a serious mistake for the AAA to render such a commendation; particularly since anthropologists would be leaving themselves out of the opportunity to change and mold how the military acts in the future, both for this war and for future conflicts.

Given the new found respect for culture and tradition within the military, there is still much resistance among the senior level analysts and leaders who tend to fall back on the "old way" of doing things, out of their fear of the "new way." In my opinion it would be ethically irresponsible of AAA and the anthropology community to simply bar participation due to 'political' opposition to the war when there is the opportunity to force real change upon the mentality of the armed forces and how they conduct operations. It would be more ethical to take advantage of the opportunity to influence our military leaders and members way of thinking by infusing greater cultural awareness and compasion, something that is severally lacking in the military culture. Don't simply write off the military's attempt to change because you ethically disagree with the war, that will only get us more of the same, a self-fullfilling prophecy of sorts. Exploit the window of opportunity available to exact real anthropological change. Having served in the Marine Corps I can say that such windows rarely open, we may not have another chance for many wars to come.

The only other thing I have to add is that whatever ethical concerns that anthropologists have about the hypothetical situations that the HTS will be encountering, now is the time to shape the ethical standards. If anthropologists are involved in the HTS, then they will have a chance to influence the process. If not, the HTS will train other social scientists to do what anthropologists are supposedly experts at doing and may or may not incorporate ethical standards that would satisfy anthropologists.

Methodologically, I'm not so sure that the HTS is losing much in this deal as they would have to train anthropologists the same as non-anthropologists. Anthropologists are not known for their broad range of methodological skills. Most anthropologists I come into contact with at conferences and through their writing make no sense to me and I typically have no idea what research methods they used, if any, so I'm not sure what they would have to offer something like the HTS.

In the end I think the ethical issue is a red herring. I really think the AAA statement is merely a proxy war protest done in the safest, least productive way possible: by directing the protest at their own members.

If only someone would take a picture of me with my skulls...

Dear Qual and Quant

Dear Qual and Quant,

I am going to my second annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. I need advice for how I can stay awake during sessions. I had a hard time last year. Some of the papers were interesting, but I had to sit through some really boring ones to get to the good ones and I found myself nodding off. Any ideas?

Sleepy

Dear Sleepy,

You keep your mind alert by doing an activity during AAA sessions. Try playing bingo with a bingo card customized to the AAA (below). Listen for these key words. When you hear one, mark your card. If you get 5 in a row, you have bingo!

Better yet, try playing with a friend or a group of friends. Print out a different Bingo Card (below) and attend several sessions in one day. Bet drinks from the hotel bar on who gets the most Bingos that day. You might even start looking forwrad to attending sessions!

Enjoy!

Bless their hearts...

A recent comment on the AAA HTS blog (still limited to one post):

Why the silence from Montgomery McFate now? She has been bragging about Human Terrain for months and now she does not even step forward to defend her program from this criticism. Has the

Is the army just going to keep doing the human terrain program as it was originally designed, but now it will just do so with a greater level of secrecy?

I think the army is now going to start ignoring the American Anthropological Association twice as hard.

Here is another one from a few days ago:

Why did the government and the military not listen to anthropologists with speciality in the Middle East before launching this war? Many of us were writing, in the popular press, the alternative media, and in articles like Mahmoud Mamdani's AA piece, "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (2002 or 03) about the dangers of this war.

The situation in Iraq is now so dire and deleterious that anthropologists cannot be of any help. In addition to the solid ethical and logistical arguments that support the AAA statement, there is also the pragmatic dimension to be considered. The war there has now passed the tipping point and there are no easy answers. Anyone who thinks there is, is dreaming.

I can't, for the life of me, explain why the military was not reading the American Anthropologist for guidance on international policy.

Here is the abstract from Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism by Mahmood Mamdani in the American Anthropologist, September 2002, Vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 766-775

ABSTRACT The link between Islam and terrorism became a central media concern following September 11, resulting in new rounds of "culture talk. This talk has turned religious experience into a political category, differentiating 'good Muslims" from "bad Muslims, rather than terrorists from civilians. The implication is undisguised: Whether in Afghanistan, Palestine, or Pakistan, Islam must be quarantined and the devil must be exorcized from it by a civil war between good muslims and bad Muslims. This article suggests that we lift the quarantine and turn the cultural theory of politics on its head. Beyond the simple but radical suggestion that if there are good Muslims and bad Muslims, there must also be good Westerners and bad Westerners, I question the very tendency to read Islamist politics as an effect of Islamic civilization—whether good or bad—and Western power as an effect of Western civilization. Both those politics and that power are born of an encounter, and neither can be understood outside of the history of that encounter. Cultural explanations of political outcomes tend to avoid history and issues. Thinking of individuals from "traditional" cultures in authentic and original terms, culture talk dehistoricizes the construction of political identities. This article places the terror of September 11 in a historical and political context. Rather than a residue of a premodern culture in modern politics, terrorism is best understood as a modern construction. Even when it harnesses one or another aspect of tradition and culture, the result is a modern ensemble at the service of a modern project. [Keywords: Muslims, culture talk, Islamist politics, political identities, terrorism]

If they only listened.

Technology Challenged

I just realized something about the AAA Blog to discuss their statement about the Human Terrain System. At first it seemed out of character for anthropologists to be starting a blog because they are typically technology challenged. Although they started the blog to discuss something that was already decided (shoot first ask questions later I guess), it did seem admirable that they were at least using an appropriate technology to accomplish the task of fostering discussion.

However, I just realized that they still have no idea how to use this technology and I doubt that this blog will be anything other than a placeholder for venting for this particular issue. The executive board is commenting along with the members in the comment section of the one post on that blog. The statement about the removal of the job ad was breaking news, yet they still did not create a new post to advertise this decision. It seems silly to have a blog to discuss ongoing newsworthy items but only have one post with a growing string of comments. Now that the pace of commenting has slowed, I doubt that many people will return to the blog and it will eventually wither away. I could be wrong but I bet that it will be a long time before another post is made on that blog.

Here is how they describe the blog:

AAA News and Information
The American Anthropological Association has set up this blog as a service to our members and the general public to provide news and information to the anthropological community.

I'll keep an eye on this to see what they do to provide this service.

AAA job ad suspended

I just saw this comment posted on the American Anthropological Association's blog to discuss their statement condemning the Human Terain System:

Announcement:

In light of the statement adopted on October 31, 2007 by the AAA Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association disapproving the Human Terrain System (HTS) program, (www.aaanet.org/blog/resolution.htm) we are suspending any postings of job ads for the HTS program on the AAA website pending future discussion by the Executive Board.

Bill Davis
AAA Executive Director

Here is the job ad they removed:

Description
The Human Terrain System is a new Army program, designed to improve the military’s ability to understand the local socio-cultural environment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Knowledge of the local population provides a departure point for a military staff’s ability to plan and execute its mission more effectively using less kinetic force.

The Human Terrain System is comprised of Human Terrain Teams, supported by a Reach-back Research Cell, a Subject Matter Expert Network, and a Mapping the Human Terrain (Map-HT) Toolkit. The five person Human Terrain Teams are attached to Army Brigade Combat Teams and USMC Regimental Combat Teams, and are comprised of military specialists, social scientists and area studies specialists.

In addition to drawing upon their own experience and expertise, field social scientists, as members of a Human Terrain Team, will leverage the available body of relevant scholarly literature and gather additional data from a variety of sources operating in theatre (conventional military patrols, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, civil affairs units, special forces, etc.). The teams assist commanders in understanding the operational relevance, or ‘so what?’ of socio-cultural information as it applies to the military decision-making process. The expectation is social scientist’s evaluation of the human terrain will allow the commander to make decisions that are more effective in reducing support for the insurgency and increasing support for host nation government and forces.

The Human Terrain Teams, whose tours of duty are carefully managed to overlap those of the supported units, will also be critical to the maintenance of an ever-growing “unit memory” and a smooth and complete transfer of local area knowledge and previous lessons learned during unit rotation.

Applicants selected will be subject to a government security investigation (which requires that applicants report their employment, residence and lifestyle activities for the past 10 years) and must meet the eligibility requirements for access to classified information. Applicants will also undergo a 3 month training program, including orientation, counterinsurgency theory, in-depth country briefings, and multi-disciplinary social science methodology.

NOTES: 10 openings
The following information is provided by the employer in accordance with AAA policy. AAA is not responsible for verifying the accuracy of these statements. They are not part of the actual position description submitted for publication by the employer.

This employer does prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation/preference.

This employer does prohibit discrimination based on gender identity/expression.

This employer offers health insurance benefits to eligible same and opposite-sex domestic partners.

This employer does not appear on the AAUP list of censured institutions.

Requirements
* PhD. in Cultural Anthropology or related field such as sociology, political science, history, theology, economics, public policy, social psychology or area studies.
* Experience living or working overseas for extended periods.
* Ability to travel to Afghanistan and/or Iraq
* Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance
* Ability to work in a team environment
* Ability to work with social scientists from other disciplines
* Willingness to work with the military

Prefer to have skills:
• Experience living or working in the Middle East
• Arabic language skills
• Former military service

Employer Information
About BAE Systems

BAE Systems Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, an international company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defense and aerospace systems in the air, on land, at sea and in space. Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, BAE Systems, Inc. employs some 45,000 employees in the US, UK, Sweden, Israel and South Africa generating annual sales….

Re: SfAA

The other day I got an email that was accidentally sent to the entire Society for Medical Anthropology email list when it was intended for the board of the SMA. An apologetic email followed stating that this was an accident and that the email should be ignored by those not on the board.

I waited for a horrible flood of email. However it did not come. SMA members must have learned something from the Great Spam Email Exchange of 2007...

EDIT: Unfortunately, I did not make up any of the responses below. They are REAL with the actual time-date stamps of the emails.

Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:40 AM
RE: SfAA

Hello everyone and sorry to be so last-minute, I did not realize that I was to organize a meeting for us at the SfAA, assuming that some of us will be attending. Please let me know as soon as possible if and when you will be at the meeting and the best day/time for us to meet, given your schedule. Ruth________ would like to meet with us concerning the 2008 meeting in Memphis. Apologies again--I can now unequivocally state that it is a bad idea to spend two weeks in Timbuktu at the beginning of the semester, in case anyone was considering doing so. It's very disruptive to one's schedule! Best, Carolyn


Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:59 AM
RE: SfAA


To everyone who got this email by mistake: it was intended for the SMA Board Members, so please don't worry about obligations if you are NOT a boar member. Carolyn

Thursday, March 01, 2007 8:45 AM
RE: SfAA

To the SMA members who probably wonder why they elected me: I do NOT think you are all boars. I probably need to take a nap. Sincerely,
Carolyn

Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:36 AM
RE: SfAA

Sorry, Carolyn, but my plans have changed and I won't be coming to SfAA. I'm taking that 2 weeks your took but in mid-semester to "celebrate" my daughter's last spring break before she finishes high school and goes off to college with a special family vacation and it encroaches on the conference time.

Thursday, March 01, 2007 1:49 PM
RE: SfAA

But: some of us will be at SfAA meeting - so can those of us there meet with Rutbeth about the memphis meeting - seems sensible.
Lenore

Thursday, March 01, 2007 4:43 PM
RE: SfAA

are we gonig to have a meeting

Thursday, March 01, 2007 6:56 PM
RE: SfAA

some members of the board will meet with Ruthbeth - as I understand it - not an SMA general meeting though .. Lenore

Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:23 PM
RE: SfAA

do you all realize that these emails are going out to a wide group of people?

Thursday, March 01, 2007 8:07 PM
RE: SfAA

My apologies to everyone else on the smamembers list.

Would the board please stop replying to Carolyn's earlier message. Your emails keep going out to all of the members.

R

Friday, March 02, 2007 5:46 AM
RE: SfAA

I am not on the board so you may want to take me off this list.

Elzbieta

Friday, March 02, 2007 6:39 AM
Re: SfAA

It's a delight to hear from people I've lost touch with and to find out their new email addresses, but everyone should know that when you hit "reply all," everyone gets your email--including those of us who are not on the Board.

Laurie

Friday, March 02, 2007 8:05 AM
Re: SfAA

Could you please remove the smamembers when you send this email. We are all getting spammed

Friday, March 02, 2007 7:55 AM
Re: SfAA

I also should not be on this list.
Thanks,
Lorna

Friday, March 02, 2007 8:11 AM
Re: SfAA

Yes, me too please. XXX@XXX.edu. Thank you.

Friday, March 02, 2007 10:57 AM
Re: SfAA

Me neither. Tom

Friday, March 02, 2007 11:19 AM
Re: SfAA

Please remove me from the list as well.
Thank you,
Ladson

Friday, March 02, 2007 11:31 AM
Re: SfAA

Hello, friends,
Please change my email address in your system to xxxx@xxx.com so you messages don't get blipped out by my spam machine. Thanks

Friday, March 02, 2007 12:07 PM
Re: SfAA

Yes, me too!

Friday, March 02, 2007 12:30 PM
Re: SfAA

I am not on the board and should not be on this list. Thank you, Kari

Friday, March 02, 2007 1:28 PM
Re: SfAA

me neither Brigit

Friday, March 02, 2007 1:16 PM
Re: SfAA

Please remove me too. Too many emails.


Friday, March 02, 2007 1:18 PM
Re: SfAA

Me too. Thanks.

Friday, March 02, 2007 1:39 PM
Re: SfAA

Me, too, thanks

Friday, March 02, 2007 2:05 PM
Re: SfAA

Please take me off the list as well.

Friday, March 02, 2007 1:58 PM
Re: SfAA

Colleagues,

Please take me off this email exchange!

Thanks,

Steven

Friday, March 02, 2007 2:13 PM
Re: SfAA

me too--thanks!

Friday, March 02, 2007 2:19 PM
Re: SfAA

PLEASE, STOP SENDING THESE MESSAGES TO EVERYONE ON THE LIST!!!! If you want your name off a list, contact the responsible person in a direct email. This is becoming very annoying.


Friday, March 02, 2007 2:24 PM
STOP hitting REPLY ALL

Friday, March 02, 2007 2:51 PM
To the general SMA membership

Hello!

Sorry to interject another message here, but please believe me, we can all ignore (do not respond) to the recent spat of emails regarding the SFAA meeting.

I'm not an SMA board member. However, the recent message regarding the SFAA was clearly accidentally sent to the general SMA membership (as opposed to the SMA board).

Things like that happen.

Best regards,

Kevin

Friday, March 02, 2007 2:31 PM
RE: SfAA

Excuse me… but I’d like to recommend that everyone stop responding to these emails (even if to be asked to be removed from the list). I think the SMA members list-serv is supposed to reach of all us – it’s simply that many of these emails were intended for the board and NOT for the SMA members list.

I don’t think asking the whole SMA-list-serv to be removed is helping the issue (this means each message is reaching 100s+ of people, I imagine).

Perhaps a list-serv moderator can identify themselves so that people who would in fact like to opt out of the SMA members list-serv can do so by contacting them directly.


Friday, March 02, 2007 3:20 PM
STOP REPLYING TO EMAILS

To the Membership: PLEASE do not hit reply to tell me you would like to be removed from this list. I meant to email the SMA Board and emailed the entire membership. I will never do this again!!! Presumably you do not want to be removed from the SMA list. I am not removing anyone but

DO NOT reply to all. Thanks so much. Carolyn

Friday, March 02, 2007 3:41 PM
Re: SfAA

Ok,
Everyone please stop replying to this. I hope this is the last email of this series

Friday, March 02, 2007 3:51 PM
Re: SfAA

Me too.

Friday, March 02, 2007 7:42 PM
Re: SfAA

Take me off too.

Friday, March 02, 2007 10:41 PM
apologies for the SMA "email Friday"

Dear SMA Members,

I want to extend my apologies for the raft of unintended emails that arrived in your inboxes yesterday. As you now know, an email intended for the SMA board was sent to the entire SMA listserve, which I control. I was not on-line yesterday, and so did not know that numerous emails would be sent back and forth all day. Perhaps I could have stopped this sooner. At any rate, to the best of our abilities, this won't happen again--we promise!

At this point, PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND to xxx@xxx.edu. When you do this, you are writing to more than 1,000 medical anthropologists around the world. We will all get "spammed." Personally, I have had to remove more than 6,000 undelivered emails from my inbox.

On a happier note, all of these emails remind us that there are many medical anthropologists "out there." We want you to participate in our Global Medical Anthropology Directory. If you haven't entered your data, please do so at your earliest convenience. I found that the form took me about 10 minutes to complete. It was very easy, even fun. Once we all do this, we will have a wonderful, searchable resource for our professional community and beyond.

Sorry for the way that March began for us. But we hope that the rest of the year proves to be a good one for medical anthropology.

With best regards,

Marcia

Monday, March 05, 2007 8:15 AM
RE: SfAA

Please also remove me from the list.
Thanks,
Cecilia

Monday, March 05, 2007 4:26 PM
Re: SfAA = enough already!

Enough with the "me too" to the whole SMA list, please! You're creating worse spam than the initial conversation.

Comments

I just realized that my comments were turned off. I hope they work now.

testing blogging from email

This is a test of blogging from email.  I’ll be going to the American Anthropological Association and I want to be blogging about the conference while I am there.

---

This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

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Original Dear Qual and Quant Articles

Here are links to the original DQ&Q articles that originally appeared in the Anthropology News titled "To Wit" column.

January 2003
November 2003
December 2003

I put these links over to the side of the blog, but I thought I'd draw as much attention to them as possible.

Team Based Qualitative Research

Greg Guest and Kate MacQueen from Family Health International have just published a handbook about Team Based Qualitative Research. I purchased the book recently but have not read it yet because I have been lending it out. It looks like a good overview of conducting analysis projects with multiple coders and analysts.

Here again...

You've waited so patiently...I'm going to start blogging on this site again. I'm thinking of making it a blog including useful information about qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in addition to mocking imaginary anthropologists. I finally decided that mocking imaginary anthropologists for imaginary blog readers was just too one-dimensional to sustain a blog. I might even throw in fun-poking of actual anthropologists while I'm at it to show off my blogging range.