Cover caption(s)
A positive, albeit anthropomorphized, view of badgers appears in this illustration for the original edition of the children's classic Wind in the willows. Badgers are shortly to be culled in north Pembrokeshire as part of a Welsh Assembly Government campaign against bovine TB. Pat Caplan's article in this issue discusses the arguments around the cull and the reasons behind the varying positions held by local people on this issue.
Witchcraft and Child Sacrifice
Above: a poster (supported by NGOs including Save the Children Uganda) against ‘child sacrifice’ in Uganda, a current topic of concern both to Ugandans and to anthropologists who have criticized media representations of this issue.
Below: a Save the Children poster publicizing the main principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by 191 countries. These rights include, among others, the rights to: be protected from being hurt or badly treated in any way; not be kidnapped or sold; be protected from being taken advantage of or exploited in any way; not be punished in a cruel or hurtful way.
The article by Pat Caplan in this issue discusses a number of recent BBC broadcasts focused on allegations of witchcraft and child sacrifice, and asks what anthropologists have to offer in terms of understanding such topics. Caplan notes that they can not only contribute their knowledge of the occult in many societies, but also contextualize this realm in terms of historical processes and more material concerns. In addition, anthropologists can suggest links between apparently disparate issues and thereby go beyond surface manifestations.
While anthropologists have no monopoly on truth claims, they can sometimes offer alternative explanations and show that things are not always the way they first seem. In order to play an effective role as public intellectuals in this regard, anthropologists need to be willing to grapple pro-actively with such matters of public concern, not least by engaging constructively with the media.
Contents
Brian V. Street 1
Advancing anthropology in schools: The accreditation of the Anthropology A-level
Pat Caplan 4
‘Child sacrifice’ in Uganda? The BBC, ‘witch doctors’ and anthropologists
Florian Mühlfried 8
Citizenship at war: Passports and nationality in the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict
Pat Caplan 14
Death on the farm: Culling badgers in North Pembrokeshire
Alisa Perkins 19
Negotiating alliances: Muslims, gay rights and the Christian right in a Polish-American city
Conferences
Aliaa Remtilla 25
Anthropology, reciprocity and love
David S. Leitner 26
AAA 2009: Building skills
Jonathan Mair 27
AAA 2009: Knowing about not knowing
Insa Koch 28
Representations and ‘realities’
Andrew Irving 28
A cosmopolitan anthropology?
NEWS 29 CALENDAR 30 CLASSIFIED 31
