A Novel Technic for High School Magazines

Inspired by ideas that Levi-Strauss (1955) presented in Tristes Tropiques, the author discusses music and early childhood in Brazil from educational, historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives. She begins with a short history of early childhood education in Brazil, including changes in educational policies, teacher preparation, and recent statistics. Next, a brief history of music teaching and learning is followed by a discussion of Brazilian children's current musical practices. In this section, the author discusses teacher training, curriculum, religion, wealth, local culture, and the role of the media. The author concludes with suggestions for the development of both early childhood music education policy and practice in Brazil.     

"Showing roughness in a beautiful way": talk about love, coercion, and rape in South African youth sexual culture

Sexual violence within as well as outside sexual relationships has far-reaching public health and human rights implications and is a continuing focus of popular debate, media coverage, and research in postapartheid South Africa. Partly because it has been shown to affect individual vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, sexual violence has in recent years become framed as a global public health issue. International research efforts to document the scale of this personally and politically sensitive problem can encounter conceptual, definitional, and methodological difficulties that anthropology is well placed to assist in alleviating. This article offers an ethnographic exploration of the spectrum of practices relating to sexual coercion and rape among young people in a township in the former Transkei region of South Africa. Contextualizing meanings of sexual coercion within local youth sexual culture, the article considers two emic categories associated with sex that is "forced": ukulala ngekani: "to sleep with by force" or ukunyanzela: "to force," both usually used to describe episodes occurring within sexual partnerships; and ukudlwengula, used to describe rape by a nonpartner or stranger. The article discusses the semantic content of and differences between these two key categories, demonstrating that encounters described as "forced sex" encompass not only various forms of sexual coercion but also, particularly in the narratives of young men, instances of more consensual sex. Of importance, in turn, in defining an act as "rape" rather than as "forced sex" are the character of the relationship between the two parties and interlinked ideas relating to exchange and sexual entitlement, love, and the importance of "intention," violation, and "deserving" victimhood.     

The "amazing" fertility decline: Islam, economics, and reproductive decision making among working-class Moroccan women

Often it is understood that Islam prohibits family planning because the Qur'an does not explicitly address contraception. Public health and development officials have recently congratulated the Muslim world for decreases in fertility given the supposed constraints placed on reproductive healthcare by Islam, while popular culture writers have warned the West of threats by young Muslims if the population goes uncontrolled. This article draws on data collected through interviews with working-class women seeking reproductive healthcare at clinics in Rabat, Morocco, and with medical providers to challenge the link between Islamic ideology and reproductive practices and the correlation among Islam, poverty, and fertility. Morocco, a predominantly Muslim country, has experienced a dramatic decrease in fertility between the 1970s and today. I argue that patients and providers give new meanings to modern reproductive practices and produce new discourses of reproduction and motherhood that converge popular understandings of Islam with economic conditions of the Moroccan working class.     

Resituating the Place of Educational Discourse in Anthropology

This critical essay examines the place of educational discourse in contemporary anthropology. I address the growing influence of "cultural studies" frameworks in anthropology—especially in research on popular culture, media, and identity—and the corresponding neglect of specifically educational discourses and practices, in and out of schools. To illustrate, I briefly examine recent research by four noted cultural anthropologists who mention the effects of schools at their field sites but pay insufficient attention to complex educational discourses and practices. Then I address the reasons why most contemporary anthropologists outside the subfield of "anthropology of education" ignore or downplay the role of modern schools in structuring identities and power relations, both locally and globally. I end with a programmatic synthesis: to recognize and account for the continuing power of schools in most contemporary ethnographic sites, even as we broaden our vision of "education" and extend our analytic tools well beyond schools. This resituating of educational discourse in anthropology might accomplish two important things. First, it could arrest the trend toward subfield specialization and provide a more unifying research program. Second, it would promote anthropology's renewed engagement with some of the most pressing problems of democracy and public policy, fostering an organic link between our multiple roles as teachers, researchers, and institutional actors, [education, identity, cultural studies, ethnographyJ     

"Kissing a Baby Is Not at All Good for Him": Infant Mortality, Medicine, and Colonial Modernity in the U.S.-Occupied Philippines

Feminist scholars have begun to consider the ways indigenous practices of child rearing were and are challenged in (post)colonial discourse and practice, and how these practices have become a terrain on which definitions of nation, state, and economy are contested. In this article, I adopt a historical anthropological approach to consider how Filipino child-rearing strategies were described and stigmatized in educational, public health, and public welfare discourses in the U.S.-occupied Philippines in the early 20th century. I demonstrate how public health practices and discourses that were generated as part of a "benevolent" campaign against high rates of infant mortality were strategically used as a weapon against Filipino arguments for independence. I also consider how discourses constructing Filipino caregivers as overly indulgent were linked to metropolitan concerns about production of the "new industrial man" and were used to develop a racialized critique of the cultural practices of Filipinos.     

Manufacturing Flexibility: Assessing Managerial Perception and Utilization

This paper presents an empirical study of how consumer electronics companies in Brazil deal with the issue of manufacturing flexibility. The main purpose is to provide an understanding into how flexibility is being perceived and utilized in a newly industrialized country. It begins by explaining the relevance of this study. The participation of Brazil in the world economy is important. Here, companies can be very flexible, based on low cost and an abundant skilled work force, yet flexibility has not been addressed. The paper explains how indicators were established to obtain an analytical structure with which to assess the managerial perception and the actual industrial use of flexibility. Finally, we show the most relevant results of our investigation of 16 leading firms in Brazil, including multinational ones. The findings are divided according to managerial perception of flexibility and effective utilization of flexibility in the organization. The paper concludes that firms in the consumer electronics industry in Brazil do not use flexibility practices in the same proportion that they perceive its importance.     

"Interracial" Sex and Racial Democracy in Brazil: Twin Concepts?

Racial democracy is maintained in Brazil through both scholarly and popular discourses that consider "interracial" sex as proof of Brazil's lack of a racial problem. In this article, I scrutinize the discourse that asks, "How can we be racist when so many of us are mixed?" I argue that racial discourses are embedded in everyday interactions, but are often codified or masked. "Race" is especially pertinent to sexuality, yet the two have hardly been analyzed together. In fact, it is not the belief in a racial democracy that is at the heart of Brazilian racial hegemony, but rather the belief that Brazil is a color-blind erotic democracy. Using my ethnographic data, I illustrate that "race" is embodied in everyday valuations of sexual attractiveness that are gendered, racialized, and class-oriented in ways that commodity black female bodies and white male economic, racial, and class privilege. [Brazil, race, sexuality, poverty]     

Parental Strategies in Contrasting Cultural Settings: Families in México and "El Norte"

A "culturally relevant pedagogy" has been recommended to enhance the achievement of Latino students in American schools. In practice, this pedagogy is often based on a view of the home culture as static and in conflict with mainstream culture. The present study compares the child-rearing practices and values of Mexican immigrants raising their children in the United States with those of their siblings who are raising children in Mexico. The study contributes to the theories of culture, documenting the dynamic nature of cultural practices on both sides of the border and examining the implications of cultural change of different types for practice in language minority education.     

"Quit Talking and Learn English!": Conflicting Language Ideologies in an ESL Classroom

This article addresses the relationship between educational theory—as manifested in particular ideologies of teaching and learning—and classroom practice. Based on an ethnographic study of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learning at a Canadian senior public school, I outline a conflict between two language ideologies that give shape to, and are shaped by, the classroom practices of the ESL teacher, his assistants, and the students. I discuss the implications of this ideological conflict in terms of the opportunities ESL students are given, and that they create for themselves, to practice speaking English. I end by outlining how these findings can be used to shape educational policy as it relates to ESL classroom curricula in order to create a more equitable learning environment for ESL students.     

Practices of change in the education sector: professionals dealing with ethnic school segregation

ABSTRACT

This article looks at second-generation professionals in the education sector in Sweden, France and the Netherlands, whose parents were born in Turkey. In their stories, ethnic school segregation appears as an important topic that coincides with other inequalities in society and signals educational injustice. This so-called wicked problem is used to understand how second-generation professionals assert influence in their quest for educational change. The analysis, based on semi-structured interviews, shows that influence and change are conditional. Second-generation professionals are constrained by the structural boundaries of the sector, which seem particularly fixed because of the way in which the education sector is entangled with state policies. Simultaneously, they are aware of these boundaries, and of the nation-specific change-opportunities existing within them. Using their “in-betweenness” as second-generation social climbers, with their knowledge of the education system, they apply varying practices of change focused on moderating the negative effects of ethnic school segregation.     

Fertility Politics as "Social Viagra": Reproducing Boundaries, Social Cohesion, and Modernity in Italy

In this article, we investigate the delicacy of adopting pronatalism as a public position in Italy. Mounting scientific and political knowledge about the demographic "problem" exposes a new hegemonic formation that low fertility is dangerous. Drawing on ethnographic contexts, political debates, media publications, and policy documents, we trace the "demographic emergency" and compare two policies: a monetary baby bonus and a law restricting assisted reproduction. The coexistence of incentives to counter superlow fertility with prohibitions on high-tech baby making reflect the contested governance of "social cohesion." We conclude that scholarly and popular discourses serve as a sort of "social Viagra." Ultimately, both policies sought to rejuvenate family norms. Both aimed to fortify the political terrain of a nation-state struggling to achieve and maintain modernity against a backdrop of immigration and aging. Modernity became a weapon of the state to exert control over Italian fertility practices and of its critics to deploy orientalizing representations of backwardness.     

Not just in the past: Racist and sexist biases still permeate biology,anthropology, medicine,and education

In the past decades, it has been increasingly recognized that some areas of science, such as anthropology, have been plagued by racist, Western-centric, and/or sexist biases. Unfortunately, an acculturation process to racism and sexism has been occurring for generations leading to systemic inequities that will take a long time to disappear. Here, we highlight the existence of current examples of racism, Western-centrism and sexism within: (1) the most popular anatomical atlases used in biological, anthropological and medical education; (2) prominent natural history museums and World Heritage Sites; (3) biological and anthropological scientific research publications; and (4) popular culture and influential children's books and educational materials concerning human biology and evolution.     

The same old mistakes in aquaculture: the newly-available striped catfish <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pangasianodon hypophthalmus</Emphasis> is on its way to putting Brazilian freshwater ecosystems at risk

In the state of São Paulo in southeastern Brazil, a dangerous decree allows the culture of hybrids and non-native extralimital fish species in the Paraná and East Atlantic River basins. We recorded the illegal importation and sale of the non-native striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus in northeastern, central-western, southeastern, and southern areas of the country. This species is already consumed across Brazil and is cultivated for ornamental purposes. Besides escapes from fish farms and ‘fish and pays’, P. hypophthalmus can reach natural environments through aquarium dumping and ornamental ponds, motivated by its large size that reach after being sold at small size. The species has been introduced in many countries, and if established in Brazil, could put native Brazilian biodiversity and ecosystems at risk. Although importing specimens of P. hypophthalmus is prohibited by law, Decree 62.243/2016 in the state of São Paulo creates a new opportunity for invasion. In fact, once a novel fish species is moved to a new continent, it is irrational to supposed that it will stay static just in the area for which it was intended. In general, the fish disperse in the novel area on their own, by escapes from captivity or deliberate and illicit releases by persons or associations. The unwise attitude of Brazilian decision-makers and lay people in their attempt to develop aquaculture with non-native species goes against the objectives of responsible aquaculture based in native species.     

Exploring the global decline of music education

This article seeks to explain the disjuncture between the decline of music education in schools and the importance music has in popular youth culture and in creativity within the new knowledge economy. The data discussed in this article have been derived from analyses of major documents on curriculum reform as well as e-mail responses from music educators around the world. This analysis reveals that these music educators agree with the perception of a demise in music education around the world, as well as the significance of the disjuncture alluded to. The four major reasons found for the decline in music education are: (1) the model of curriculum supported in educational reforms; (2) an emphasis on standardized evaluation; (3) less resources available; and (4) a wrong approach on music advocacy.     

"Critical Ethnocentrism" and the Ethnology of Ernesto De Martino

Italian anthropologist, folklorist, and historian of religions Ernesto De Martino was an eclectic and creative intellectual who fostered a whole generation of studies on popular culture in Italy. In this article, I focus on one particular aspect of his work, a method referred to as "critical ethnocentrism," attempting to situate De Martino's concerns in the historical moment of postwar ideological struggles. De Martino's approach, however, has a wider relevance to understanding the relationships between the ethnographer and the subjects of the research, as well as the historical and political contexts in which they meet.     

Giving birth to gonolia: "culture" and sexually transmitted disease among the Huli of Papua New Guinea

The "culture concept" has been challenged on a number of fronts, both by medical anthropologists researching AIDS and in the discipline of cultural anthropology more generally. Medical anthropologists have argued against the "etiologization" of culture, and cultural anthropologists have taken issue with the tendency to treat beliefs and practices as static and seamlessly shared. Using the narrative of one Huli woman's shifting explanation of a diagnosis of syphilis, this article argues that, rather than avoid the notion of culture, we should strive for representations that demonstrate how individuals use discourses in expedient, ad hoc, and yet deeply felt ways. This article also argues for the importance of a sociology of knowledge approach to understanding local notions of etiology. The woman's understanding of her situation was strongly influenced by her entry into a new "community" of women who had similarly been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease.     

Assessment of the nursery species pool for restoring landscapes in southeastern Brazil

Brazil has committed to fulfilling international restoration goals and to enforcing environmental legislation that will require private landowners to undertake ecological restoration of 21 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes. To support a broad range of restoration practices, a well‐established supply chain capable of representing regional plant diversity is essential. This study investigated the restoration species pool in native plant nurseries in São Paulo state, located in southeastern Brazil, and evaluated their geographic distribution, similarity of their plant stocks, and the proportion of species represented from regional floras. Despite a lack of technical assistance and a significant presence of nonnative species (126 species, average 7.5 species/nursery), we found an impressive native species richness in plant nurseries (561 species, average 86.4 species/nursery) from both the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado domains, representing 38–44% of regional floras. There was a huge bias toward tree and shrub species (96.6%) and an absence or underrepresentation of other growth forms, as well as of savanna specialists, animal‐dispersed, and threatened species. The dissimilarity of species observed among the different nurseries surveyed highlights their role in representing regional diversity, which reflects their regional seed collection practices. Effective assistance and training are essential to address issues related to misidentification of species, underrepresentation of most functional plant groups, and the presence of nonnative species, as well as to support the supply chain, which is currently undergoing a market downturn.     

Community arts: (Re)contextualizing the narrative of teaching and learning

ABSTRACT

Education in the United States is often characterized by testing and standardized outcomes, and bears little relevance to the culture and the community that surrounds both students and teachers. Conversely, community arts connect the philosophies of art and education to the larger spheres of culture and community. The community thus becomes an educational space in which both the teachers and students are motivated to learn from each other through a reciprocal relationship that changes the dynamic of both teaching and learning. Consequently, the (re)contextualization of art and education within culture and community has distinct policy implications regarding both what we teach and the way we teach it. There is an opportunity to increase the significance of art education in a democratic society if we embrace practices that empower preservice teachers to analyze how artmaking practices shape their own sensibilities and those of the communities in which they live. This article suggests a field experience model for informing cross-cultural understandings of community-based pedagogy, participation, and collaboration that challenges existing educational policy while informing the values and beliefs of the preservice teacher. It presents the opportunity to develop socially relevant programs for use in the teaching of art that include community, social justice, democracy, collective responsibility, activism, and equity—among others—that confront established perceptions of both art and education.     

"In the Clique": Popular Culture, Constructions of Place, and the Everyday Lives of Urban Youth

This study focuses on two teens, Tony and Rufus, and how they used key popular texts to construct a sense of place in the small city where this research was conducted. These two teens mobilized these popular texts in very specific ways, both finding specific thematic links between and across them and also using them to index their relationships with biological and extended family in this city and "down South." This study highlights the complex, emergent, and messy relationships many young people have with popular culture.     

Teaching "Species"

A clear understanding of the term "species" is fundamental to the subject of evolution. However, introductory textbooks often fail to address this topic until one of the later chapters, after having used the term species in all preceding chapters. Furthermore, definitions of terms critical to a clear understanding of this subject are often vague or absent in chapters on species concepts. We feel the popular notion of a "species problem" has been unnecessarily inflated by this less-than-effective educational approach. Clearly addressing this essential subject at the beginning of a course on evolution will prepare students to learn the details and complexities of evolution. Here we provide the background for an alternative approach to this foundational topic, followed by an outlined lesson plan. We emphasize early introduction of this subject in texts and courses using unambiguous terminology and including the historical development of species concepts.