A very wonderful Valentine’s Day to you all! I am celebrating… handing in a chapter! For context: my dissertation has several required chapters — the Introduction and Conclusion, of course. A Literature Review, which is required to show that I’ve done the research on the subject I’m writing on, and nobody’s covered precisely it, though…
Writing up interviews is not easy! From an anthropological perspective, there’s always the worry that I’m committing the ethical crime of appropriating someone else’s subaltern culture. Racially I’m white, and I don’t want to even accidentally appear to act like I’m either stealing the words of, or attempting to speak for, any of the minority…
As the holiday season approaches, I’ve been asked by several folks what I want for Christmas. There are the easy answers, which I suspect I will not receive despite all my dreaming: a white Christmas, rational national leadership, world peace, and all my student loans magically wiped away. :-D When I’m stuck, I’ll often send…
This makes me feel bad — so it must be bad! On deeper examination of this issue, I believe the selfish desire to profit regardless of the pain or damage it causes others is behind the deliberately inaccurate reframing of cultural appropriation as something good. For example, I’ve seen terms such as “cultural evolution” and…
But why does it matter? Well, I feel it’s always easier to understand something when it’s personal… so let’s do a little thought-exercise. Yes, I know what this example will most properly describe is something more like a copyright issue, but work with me here; I’m trying to explain something conceptual in an emotive matter,…
A few years ago I was in a class about being a good ally to people of color, or POC. It is a sad fact that often any such class on allyship is least well attended by those who most need it. As a white woman I can certainly understand that — had it not…
Just got back from another personal first: a town hall meeting with my Congressional representative, Zoe Lofgren, at the Mt. Pleasant High School. She’s a Democrat and has been this area’s Congresswoman since 1995, if I heard her correctly. She mentioned returning home (this area) each week, and she’s got that smooth way of responding…
Well, PantheaCon is concluded for another year! Also, our ritual/performance of The Descent of Inanna was enormously successful — “House of Inanna” has been asked to do it again! There were far more audience members than we expected, which was a real delight — they filled the room and we even had folks standing in…
I did a thing! Well, I painted a thing — for my ATS bellydance troupe’s upcoming ritual of the Descent of Inanna, taking place this Sunday at Pantheacon. Woo! This is my first time creating stuff for the stage, so I’m really quite pleased with how it all came out. The object in question is…
I found myself somewhat disturbed when the older white male speaker confidently asserted that Gandhi was the first person to really codify nonviolence. Had the speaker never heard of the extensive uses of nonviolence, both interpersonal and inter-clan, by many of the indigenous peoples of North America? The Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) in particular leap to…