Dancing Skeletons Life and Death in West Africa

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Dancing SkeletonsLife and Death in West Africa

• Katherine A. Dettwyler

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• http//www.odci.gov/cia/publications/
• factbook/geos/ml.html

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http//web.worldbank.org

• vulnerable to drought risks further
  desertification
• one of the world's poorest countries-rated
  174/177 in 2004, using the UNDP Human Development
  Index
• In 2004, 64 of the population (12 million
  people) lived below poverty line
• life expectancy was 52 years, infant mortality
  was 113 per 1,000 live births, and the adult
  illiteracy rate was 55

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CULTURAL RELATIVISM (early 1900s-1930s)Franz
Boas The Mind of Primitive Man (1911) WEB DuBois
The Souls of Black Folk (1903) Margaret Mead
Coming of Age in Samoa (1928)

• CULTURAL RELATIVISM Behavior in one culture
  should not be judged by the standards of another
  culture
• ETHNOCENTRICISM (opposite of relativism)
  Tendency to view ones culture as superior and to
  apply ones own cultural values in judging the
  behavior and beliefs of people raised in other
  cultures

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Chapter 1 Return to the Field

• 1. What were Dettwylers main research questions
  during her dissertation research? During her
  Fulbright research? Why did she decide to return
  to Mali?
• 2. What is culture shock? How did Katherine
  experience culture shock when she returned to
  Mali?
• 3. Do you think it was ok for Katherine to
  intervene in the case of child 104, or should
  anthropologists attempt to stay out of the lives
  of the people with whom they study? Is it
  possible to conduct anthropological research
  without affecting people with whom you study?

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Chapter 2 Of Mosquitoes and Men

• 1. Describe MAGNAMBOUGOU
• 2. How do the medical resources of Magnambougou
  compare to those available in the US? What are
  the main diseases children in Mali must contend
  with?
• 3. If malaria were still a major killer of
  people in Western, industrialized nations, do you
  think more resources would be devoted to research
  for its prevention and cure? Are there any
  differences between medical resources spent on
  diseases that primarily affect poor people and
  those that affect rich people?

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Chapter 3 4 Practice Thinking From a Cultural
Relativistic Perspective About the Following

• Sex and Sexuality
• Beauty
• Illness
• Life/death

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Chapter 5 The Grande Marche

• What is a typical economic explanation for
  malnutrition in children?
• Does this explanation help us understand
  malnutrition in Mali? Why or why not?
• Economically speaking, how do markets in Mali
  operate?

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Chapter 6 Rural Africa At Last

• What is kwashiorkor according to Western
  biomedicine? According to rural Malian
  interpretations in Ntenkoni?
• In what age range do we usually see kwashiorkor?
  Why is it rare in Mali?
• Why was Moussa so ethnocentric about the rural
  people of his own country?