Day 4: an inspiring talk with #HarryJenkinson of #Right2roam. We are a #nomadic species, and our capacity to care for nature depends on our political and cultural rights to be part of it -- not cut off from it.
Day 5: Dr #ToyinAgbetu, (Lecturer in Social and Political Anthropology at UCL) revisits Action Anthropology, arguing although anthropology is centred around the study of humanity, in its applied and military guises, it is not necessarily egalitarian, equitable or activist.
He had us all eating out of his ✋
Day 6: the brilliant #DenizSalali
talks about her decade of fieldwork with BaYaka children and how they become active and autonomous people in an egalitarian #huntergatherer society of the #Congo rainforest.
Day 7: #cedricboeckx, world leading researcher of the neurobiological foundations of the human #language #faculty, gave this fantastic talk on 'Hunter-gatherers of words'
Day 8: a beautiful talk with #kirstyegraham
on the extraordinary #Fongoli #chimpanzee community
Day 9: #HelgaVierich talks about ancient stories from the #Kalahari. This material is super important for anyone who wants to know about #huntergatherer #gender relations.
How do children learn to be human? Adults model behaviour and instruct morals by examples, with the help of the stories. These can be original myths, biblical and folktales, or sometimes parables, coming-of-age adventures, and legends, that illustrate good as well as bad outcomes. Here one such tale is recounted, as told to an anthropologist by a Kua storyteller in the southeastern Kalahari four decades ago. This features the Creator, a termite mound, a Buffalo wife, foolish humans, and poisonous farts. Enjoy.
#13daysofXmas #RAGtoptalks
#egalitarianism #IndigenousCosmology
Day 10: a follow-up talk from #MeganBiesele, world expert on #Ju/'hoan folklore, with the 'Story of the Elephant Girl' -- strongly similar to the Kua Buffalo Wife tale (they are some of the #oldest #stories in the world)
'Helga's story eerily echoes those Megan recorded in northwestern Botswana, also in the 1970s, of the Ju|'hoan Elephant Girl. Both address basic problems of life (e.g. that people's food prominently includes sentient beings). But her retold version appears to answer questions posed by seeming "gaps", puzzling to a western audience, in versions Megan collected.'
#13daysofXmas #RAGtoptalks
#egalitarianism #IndigenousCosmology
