HISTORY OF RELIGIONS

L’unico ribelle. Il profeta Wraps-up-his-tail e l’identità Crow
by MARCO MENICOCCI

Il 5 novembre 1887 si concluse tragicamente nella riserva dei Crow nel Montana l’unico episodio di rivolta contro i bianchi che abbia interessato questa tribù. Il giovane Wraps-up-his-tail, che aveva cercato di sollevare gli indiani contro i bianchi, venne colpito alla testa dal revolver di un agente della polizia indiana della riserva.

[read the article in PDF format (50 Kb)]

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Re-thinking the contributions of Dean Maccannell. A new theory of leisure class placed under debate
by MAXIMILIANO E. KORSTANJE

Today, Dean Maccannell has become in one of most important scholars in tourism fields. Not only his contributions have been quoted in whole literature and tourism-related journals, but also had taken as an obligated referenced for all who makes tourism their object of study. Under such a context, Maccannell have constructed his state-of-the-art from an axis linked to Marx-Goffman-Durkheim-Levi-Strauss’s concerns. In consequence, he had not taken into account the different criticism and limitations this frame-work represents. The present paper shed light critically about the theoretical problems of The Tourist as well as focuses on the problems these well-known scholars remain unresolved.

[read the article in PDF format (55 Kb)]

Correlates of Family Cultural Background and Family Status and Role Between Muslim and Santal Communities in Rural Bangladesh
by EMAJ UDDIN

Family status and role, fundamental building block of family structure, are influenced and determined by family cultural background factors. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare how family cultural background factors influence family status and role between Muslim and Santal communities in rural Bangladesh. In so doing, the village Kalna, situated in the Talonda union of Tanore Upazila of Rajshahi district of Bangladesh, was purposefully selected for this study where two distinct cultural communities: Muslim amd Santal were living side by side as neighbors in the same geographical setting. In this village there were about 380 families: 300 families were Muslim’s and the rest of them were Santal’s. For this study 70 couples from Muslim community and 30 couples from Santal community were selected through cluster random sampling and then structure questionnaire method with close and open ended questions was applied for data collection on family cultural background factors and family status and role. The results of Pearson correlation without significant test of the study reveal that family cultural background factors are differentially positively or negatively related to family status and role. It is argued that there are differences in family cultural background factors that are differentially correlated to or influence on family status and role between Muslim and Santal communities in rural Bangladesh.

[read the article in PDF format (740 Kb)]

Margaret Mead. La costruzione culturale dell’identità di genere
by SILVIA BELLUCCI

Il lavoro che segue si propone di analizzare il concetto di differenza di genere così come è stato affrontato dall’antropologa statunitense Margaret Mead nel proprio saggio Sesso e temperamento in tre società primitive (1935), ripreso successivamente nelle analisi compiute dall’antropologa Mila Busoni in Genere, sesso, cultura (2000). In particolare, si analizza il rapporto tra il temperamento attribuito a ciascun sesso e i condizionamenti culturali e sociali che ne sono alla base. Il lavoro svolto costituisce l’elaborato finale prodotto per il corso in “Cultura di genere e delle pari opportunità”, svoltosi nel 2008 presso la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Perugia.

[read the article in PDF format (50 Kb)]

Landscapes and Skyscapes in Contest
by SANDRA BUSATTA

The creation of cultural landscapes can support different claims to land or territory. Some Apache conflate both conceptualized and constructed landscapes, sacred sites and archaeological ruins with the natural world. Curiously, astronomers share biospherical and biological imagery with their opponents, Apache as well as Anglo and Chicano ones. In the vicious contest of land/skyscapes at Mt. Graham, Arizona, many stakeholders share the belief that the mountain is sacred, although they understand it differently.

[read the article in PDF format (350 Kb)]


HISTORY OF RELIGIONS

Scientology: un Nuovo Movimento Religioso nell’Occidente della secolarizzazione
by GIACOMO LEPRI

Intento del saggio è la contestualizzazione del movimento religioso di Scientology, soprattutto attraverso l’analisi di ciò che concerne la Dianetica, tecnica di psico-terapia dalla quale il movimento si è sviluppato, elaborata dallo scomparso leader L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology, pur essendo perfettamente inquadrabile nella categoria dei Nuovi Movimenti Religiosi, si differenzia dalla maggior parte di questi e si caratterizza per una dottrina e una visione del mondo costruite sulla mitizzazione della scienza e della tecnologia occidentali. Emerge la spinta ad una sintesi apparentemente contraddittoria tra le risposte fornite ai bisogni religiosi e di conforto spirituale degli attori sociali nella società contemporanea e le parallele esigenze di una veste razionale e scientifica volta a giustificare e legittimare la veridicità della visione del mondo proposta da Scientology, tanto da non contraddire i parametri di marca razionalista intrinsecamente condivisi nella weltanschauung contemporanea.

[read the article in PDF format (103 Kb)]


ETHNOBOTANY

An Ethnomedicinal Study Among the Gond of Chhattisgarh: India
by DINESH MISHRA, ARTI BROKER

An ethno medicinal survey was carried out among the Gond tribal community residing in the Korba district of Chhattisgarh State, India. Gond is the largest tribal community of India. They are widely distributed all over the India. 40 traditional healers were contacted and in depth interviewed to gather their knowledge regarding medicinal plants. To know the perception of health and disease 200 Gond people have been contacted who were received treatments by these traditional healers.
45 medicinal species were recorded, which are used to cure the common ailments such as headache, stomach-ache, fever, joint pain, T.B., stone, paralysis, gynaecological disorders etc. by the Gond Community. The medicinal species used are achyranthus aspera, adhatoda vasica, asperagus racemosus, bambusa angustifolia, cassia fistula, datura alba, semecarpus anacardium etc. Bark, Root and tuber were the most frequently used plant part for the preparation of medicine.

[read the article in PDF format (36 Kb)]


HUMAN ETHOLOGY

Life at the Franco-Italian Concordia station in Antarctica for a voyage to Mars: ethological study and anthropological perspectives
by CAROLE TAFFORIN

For preparing the next interplanetary missions, this study proposes an ethological analysis of the social group building and individual strategies of a multicultural and mixed gender team in isolation and confinement conditions found in a polar mission. A model of adaptation to space environment is stated and implies physiological, psychological and behavioral levels. The behavioral observations were made weekly on the summer personnel and the winterers during a daily life activity over three months of the summer campaign and nine months of the winter period in Antarctica. They were based on a quantitative description of the team-members’ spatial behavior (social orientations, space sharing, place preferences) during the morning, midday and evening meals at the cafeteria of the Concordia station. They were completed with quantitative information (collective attendance) and temporal information (collective time). The results show a social cohesion when considering spatial indicators, expressed by an increase of the visual relationships and a more frequently occupied place per gender and nationality, in summer. In the collective activities, the meal duration draws cyclic variations every seven weeks and the meal attendance is differently organized according to the three winter periods. The discussion points out theoretical, methodological and applied issues of this pilot study, and suggests Mars mission scenarios. From a transdisciplinary viewpoint, it is related to anthropological perspectives of the future microsocieties.

[read the article in PDF format (214 Kb)] 

DIDACTICS

Comunicare la Storia Naturale dell’Uomo: ombre e luci
di ILARIO DE BIASE

This paper endeavors to explain what the issues are in understanding human evolution, mainly focusing on the teaching of Italian scholarship. What languages are more suitable to teach it? What topics should be chosen for it? Can pupils under 12 understand human evolution? All of the answers come out from the lectures of the Human Evolution and Biodiversity – Communicating Human Natural History congress held in Florence last September 2008.

[leggi l'articolo in PDF (49 Kb)]

REVIEWS

The Myth of Hero, morphology and semantic of heroic archetype
a cura di MAXIMILIANO E. KORSTANJE

One of more characteristic features of modernity seems to be the passion that citizens feel for their sports. Even though in different manners, many people are today prone to consider these types of games as a mean of social upward worldwide.
For part of the third world, families encourage their sons to play soccer or other discipline as a form of alleviating the poverty and improving material conditions wherein they live; in a same manner, in First World countries invest a considerable amount of money in training their athletes with emphasis on a good performance in international competition.
Even if classical anthropology has devoted considerable attention in the study of myths in ancient and contemporanean tribes, less attention was given to the influence of mythical archetype in modern sports.

[leggi l'articolo in PDF (23 Kb)]

To read articles in PDF format, please install the "Acrobat Reader" plug-in. You can freely get it visiting Adobe website.

To contact Authors, please send an email to Antrocom editorial board. The editorial board will not consider anonymous emails, spam, offensive texts and messages that are against the law.