"As far as we know, life is the one feature that makes our planet unique, and life's vast diversity is perhaps its most impressive trait. Most of the world's political, economic, and health problems, present and future, are intimately linked to the way we manage the world's immense variety of wildlife and natural resources. It is not too late to save a large amount of the earth's remaining biodiversity, but time is running very short." Dobson, A (1996:vii)

Our biological diversity is so important and apart from the fact that it is in a great danger it has so much to offer and some people just do not seem to realise that. I know that it is very easy to make statements and claim that looking after our biodiversity is of paramount importance, but it is more difficult to get something done (unfortunately). We might do our best to contribute to the well-being of our planet, however it is up to the economists, politicians and corporate leaders to put some plans in place. Interestingly, the mentioned professionals not always have the necessary knowledge, they are not aware of the facts and figures related to the biodiversity, therefore no actions or strategies can be devised by them...
Dobson, in his Conservation and Biodiversity mentions a few reasons why biodiversity is precious that can be quite understandable and clear for professionals that do not have a lot to do with biodiversity conservation issues. Some of them are: 1] large potential of creating new business opportunities (such as drugs needed for various diseases) 2] opportunity of creating new jobs (labour-intensive industries, management, reconstruction of nature reserves) or 3] maintenance of human health and economy through natural ecosystems!The unique biological diversity has lots to offer! Let's hope that plans will be put in place for it to survive and possibly expand

xxx

ref:
- Dobson, A (1996) Conservation and Biodiversity, Scientific American Library, USA

Nearly all "girly" magazines encourage young women to drink loads! Some 2 litres of water a day! And actually, last week, my Human Physiology and Disease lecturer told us that all this advice is not completely accurate! Because our gut has got the ability to absorb water from the food that we eat. Therefore, there is no need for us to drink lots of liquids as the only thing this will do is make us wee a lot ! The most important is to drink sensibly during the day (cups of tea or coffee but not too strong).

simple

xxx

Do have a look at this article called: "Why people believe weird things about money" by Michale Shermer, it's really good and talks about how evolution played an important role in how people now perceive money. The author starts off by giving the reader a choice: "Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same." He then goes on and reveals that the majority of people who took part in the survey chose the first option! how crazy is that? I think I'd go for the second option - it's always more money, and it really doesn't bother me that others earn more as long as I can afford to live without financial problems. It's quite surprising that some people would choose the first option, I bet this is something to do with superiority... anyway here is the link:

www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-schermer13jan13,0,2616027.story?track=mostviewed-sectionfront

a good article...

xxx

ref:
http://www.suck.uk.com/photos/breakglass1.jpg

I think we all ask the "meaning of life" questions. Stuff like: what happens when I die, what am I here for or are we alone in the universe. There is of course no definite answer, we have however religions or various theories that (we think) give us clues. I happened to be discussing this with Simon the other day. And instead of making presumptions and digging deeper in the unknown he gave me a very good example of a metaphor for life, I loved it!

It goes like this: Take an orange and hang it on a thread, then place an ant on the orange. The insect will go around the orange about four or five times and then stop... and look up at you.

Isn't it so accurate? People's lives are like journeys or mysteries... We all live and then stop every now and then to think about where we actually are, what for etc. Just like the ant we look up trying to figure out what's going on and go back to our day-to-day tasks not being able to find a definite answer. See, the ant keeps going back to the same point and eventually stops to have a look around and see what's going on.
And honestly, I have no idea whether this is true, I am planning to check this little experiment and see for myself if an ant would really stop and look up. But it does sound very convincing and accurate

While on the topic, here are some more metaphor for life that I found on www.mentalhealth.about.com:

"A Battle - Everything is a competition or a struggle. We are always either winning or losing.
A Garden - Relationships are cultivated like flowers or vegetables. We see things as growing, flowering, producing.
A Mission - We believe that we have the truth and we need to convince others that our point-of-view is right.
A Journey or an adventure - We travel from place to place meeting new people and exploring.
A Building - Starting with a solid foundation, then adding floors and rooms.
A Roller Coaster - Life consists of ups and downs, and we are along for the ride.
A Stained-glass window - full of light and colors.
A Mountain Climb - Life consists of hierarchies. We are always climbing the corporate ladder.
A Race - always finding the fastest route, "keeping up with the Jonses."
A Courtroom - Everything in life should be fair.
Stepping Stones - We barely get comfortable where we are before we are looking for better job or a bigger house.
A Prison - Feeling like we don't have choices, like others have all the power.
A Classroom - There are always new lessons to learn.
A Battery - Every encounter seems to drain energy. We need the weekends to recharge."

ref:
- http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/selfhelp/a/metaphors.htm

- http://www.rheegold.com/1-1-06/1-1-07/September_07/Graphics/state%20of%20the%20art2.gif

Jamie, Simon and I were having a conversation on vegetarianism/veganism. Is it absolutely necessary that meat-eating people should at least try killing a chicken or a pig themselves? Is it not enough that they accept the fact that animals are killed by humans and know more less what the procedure looks like... I myself definetely would not be able to kill a chicken or anything else, there is absolutely no way I'd do that! however... I do enjoy crispy chicken wings or burgers and I do know how this food gets to shops and on my plate... yet still my over-sensitivity wouldn't let me kill a pig or a cow. Is this something wrong? - that I enjoy eating it, but wouldn't kill it with my own hands. Simon and Jamie gave me a lot to think about last night...

Isn't it the way world works? food chain...

ref:
-http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/shr0066l.jpg
-http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mbl/lowres/mbln23l.jpg
-http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/tbr/lowres/tbrn82l.jpg

I never really looked at some actions as rites of passage. It is amazing how some simple things can have deeper meanings. Obviously, rituals such as the one relating to manhood among the Nuer are typical ones that anthropologists study thoroughly. in my own culture I can find some examples too... such as marriage, becoming a mother even graduating from uni. It's the processes that we go through and which change our social status. So among the Nuer - boys become men, and within my culture - a woman becomes a wife, a mother or a student becomes a doctor. These examples seem to be quite obvious. How about if we applied the rites of passage to some different actions. For example - travelling? Would this be accurate? Let's have a look:
I'm in the UK - I'm a resident of the UK
then I get on a plane (this is the part called "liminal")
I finally get off the plane and become... a tourist/ traveller/ foreigner!

interesting... great stuff!

xxx

ref:
- http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/jun2_crone_hotflash.jpg

Every now and then someone asks this very random question: do you believe in ghosts?... Every now and then I watch these movies that include magic... What is magic? Does it actually happen/exist?

In the Western societies and most movies nowadays, magic is the Harry Potter with his wand or the beautiful fairy. Something or someone associated with unsual powers rather impossible and surreal, and most of us do not take these seriously... We all wish we could make things happen or add zeros to our bank accounts within one second...

There are however societies that do not perceive magic as flying stars, wishes becoming true etc. One of the societies are Azande people, who live in the north central Africa. Evans- Pritchard, a British famous anthropologist studied the Azande's culture and looked at their own "magic". In one of his books, he brought to our attention some interesting findings. "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande" is a beautiful ethnography describing the Zande magic. Namely, Azande believe that every single unfortunate thing that happens in their lives is caused by witchcraft. And it's not some extreme events, but even situations such as getting ill or falling over. Witchcraft in their case is a form of science. And it is not something unusual, but a normal part of their existence, it's something everyone's aware of. In their society, there are witches - people causing harm not knowing they hold the responsibility. Anthropologocially speaking theare are two approches to the Azande witchcraft - 1] Azande find the meaning of the world in witchcraft 2]Witchcraft is a form of social control. We all have our own beliefs and notions, different cultures do things differently. Anthropology explores that and gives us goosebumbs... Do you believe in magic?

x

just for clarification: Zande - singular, Azande - plural

ref:
- http://www.sciencecamps.psu.edu/images/cartoon_science_magic.jpg

This is so exciting!...

Here are a few names of Polish anthropologists and brief descriptions of what work they did! I'm so proud...

I am of course going to start with Bronislaw Malinowski who I wrote about in one of the previous notes. He is definetely the most famous social anthropologist ever, the founder of social anthropology itself.

- Bronislaw Malinowski: studied reciprocity, proclaimer of the "participant observation", most famous work done in the Trobriand Islands;
- Maria Czaplicka: social anthropologist, worked on Siberian shamanism, interestingly she left Poland accompanied by Bronislaw Malinowski;
- Jan Czekanowski: anthropologist and linguist, author of the "Lehrbuch der Anthropologie", did work on statistics and race
- Andrzej Zajączkowski : social anthropologist, did work on developing countries (sociology), worked in Africa;
- Sara Benetowa aka. Sula Benet: anthropologist, worked on Polish and Judaic customs and traditions.

aawww...

xxxx