ANTROCOM

Volume 6, Number 1, 2010

---

 Attacco al Re. Berlusconi, il Papa e il Savoia canterino

by SANDRA BUSATTA

Molti pensano all’antropologo come a uno che studia civiltà semidimenticate e piccole comunità di ‘primitivi’, pittoreschi da vedere nei documentari, ma che non hanno nulla a che fare con la nostra vita quotidiana. L’antropologia contemporanea, invece, si interessa a tutti gli aspetti della vita umana e ai nostri rapporti quotidiani, cioè come vediamo il mondo, ci rapportiamo agli altri e questi a noi. Così può accadere che quello che sembra un episodio di cronaca politico-criminale oppure di gossip mediatico, nasconda invece interessanti aspetti di mitologia ‘popolare’, messi in luce dall’interpretazione ‘letterale’ da parte di uno squilibrato dei concetti di ‘corpo politico’, ‘sacerità’ e ‘regalità’.

[Read the article in PDF format (49 Kb)]

---

Cross-Cultural Family Structure between Muslim and Santal Communities in Rural Bangladesh: A Review
by EMAJ UDDIN

Family structure is a fundamental part of social structure on which human beings immemorially adapt from one generation to another to environment. In recent years cross-cultural studies around the world are increasing to seek universal knowledge on family structure. Based on relevant literatures review this study focuses on differences in family structure between Muslim and Santal communities in rural Bangladesh. In so doing family structure is elementally classified into family size and pattern, family status and role, ownership of family property, family authority and communication. Relevant literatures reviewed suggest that there are wide cultural variations in the elements of family structure between the two communities in rural Bangladesh. Empirical research should conduct on why the elements of family structure are different between the two communities in Bangladesh.

[Read the article in PDF format (42 Kb)]

---

Food Security and Sustainability of Agriculture in India: A Human Right Appraisal
by ALOK CHANTIA and PREETI MISRA 

It very hard to imagine that a living creature can live without food. It may vary at the level of amount which it consumes but food is necessary for survival even every food plant get its food supplement from the earth. So it is a chain, which is woven at each and every moment. Herbivores are those who present themselves as food supplement before the carnivores. In the same way we can sketch a chain of herbivores, insectivores, carnivores as food security chain on this earth. Human being is omnivores but without proper food for herbivores and aqua creatures, it is not easy to maintain such quo status of him.
[Read the article in PDF format (53 Kb)]

---

Palmar C- Line Variation Among Yerukula, a Nomadic Tribe of South India
by DEVA S.R.S. PRAKASH and GODI SUDHAKAR 

The present paper reports the variation in the terminations of palmar C- line among the Yerukula, an Andhra tribal population. It is based on the bilateral palmar prints of 130 men and 130 women. The C-line terminates frequently on ulnar side followed radial side, except right hands of men. Among a small proportion of men and women the C-line is either terminated proximally or totally absent. The difference between males and females is significant and bilateral differences are not significant. The distribution in the present study tribe is similar to several tribal populations of Andhra Pradesh.
[Read the article in PDF format (34 Kb)]

---

Astri gelosi e fanciulle lascive La Crisi Cosmica nella mitologia Crow
by MARCO MENICOCCI

Il saggio analizza due miti Crow che evocano, per superarla, una crisi cosmica: il livello celeste e quello degli uomini rischiano di perdere le distinzioni, con risultati caotici, poiché un essere celeste è stato rifiutato da una fanciulla umana. I miti consentono di portare luce su alcuni dei codici dei Crow e sulle relazioni tra questi codici. In particolare sono fondate la separazione tra il livello umano e quello celeste e gli usi matrimoniali che caratterizzano gli uomini. L'analisi dei miti mostra anche come i Crow abbiano deliberatamente scelto di configurare i limiti del loro cosmo come ambigui, mai perfettamente delineati, allo scopo verosimilmente di poter affidare all'istituto della visione il compito di poter giocare su queste ambiguità per risolvere le singole crisi individuali.
[Read the article in PDF format (42 Kb)]

---

Il principale ingrediente nella cucina del sacrificio greco… in Francia.

 Presenza ed importanza del Saggio sul misticismo greco di Dario Sabbatucci negli studi di Marcel Detienne e Jean-Pierre Vernant
by ALESSANDRO TESTA

Starting with a presentation about the conclusions of the important and innovative book Saggio sul misticismo greco (1965) by D. Sabbatucci, this article attempts to review the state which was that of the studies on Greek mysticism - and similar matters such as orphism and dionysism - in France between the sixties and the eighties. The text continues analysing the influence and the weight of Sabbatucci's thesis over M. Detienne's and J.-P. Vernant's works about those topics. The last pages actually try to highlight the scientific debt these French scholars have incurred towards the Italian historian of religions. .

[Read the article in PDF format (63 Mb)]

---

Tra Comunità e l’Altro: appunti di Antropologia Culturale
by MICHELE F. FONTEFRANCESCO

L’interrogativo circa il ruolo svolto oggi della ricerca antropologica rispetto le culture studiate si lega all’evoluzione epistemologica del concetto di Altro in Antropologia culturale. Ripercorrendo l’evoluzione di tale categoria, l’autore vuole proporre una soluzione a tale interrogativo sul piano teoretico e pratico capace di contrapporsi al pessimismo antropologico delle più recenti critiche alla Modernità.

[Read the article in PDF format (129 Kb)]

---

Genetic identity in Mauritius
by SYLVIE MAURER

Mauritius is a small island of 1,865 square kilometres. This is equivalent to a third of the surface of Savoy. It is situated in the Indian Ocean at 20° south of the equator, on the east of Madagascar. Mauritius is a land without any evidence of human habitation until the seventeenth century. As a result, Mauritius has no indigenous population in the traditional sense, according to the definition from the United Nations.

[Read the article in PDF format (162 Kb)]

---

Youth Problems, Their Development and Empowerment in Bangladesh
by ANWAR HOSSAIN

Youth in a country is the most viable and potential human resource not only in population structure but also in social structure. Without proper and integrated bio-social development of the youth a nation cannot achieve her human goals intended. Based on literatures reviewed this paper describes youth’s problems in their proper development and empowerment in Bangladesh. Although the Government of Bangladesh has formulated policy, plans and programs for youth welfare and implementing these programs through GOs and NGOs relevant literatures suggest that youths in this country, irrespective of all age-grades and regions, face a lot of sociocultural problems in which they cannot develop and empower themselves properly. As a result, they cannot play their significant roles in country’s socio-economic development and change. To overcome the youth’s problems in relation to their development and empowerment, some suggestions are formulated.

[Read the article in PDF format (168 Kb)]

Psycho-Social Aspects of AIDS as a Chronic Illness: Social Worker Role Perspective
by TANZIMA ZOHRA HABIB and SIDDIQUR RAHMAN

Illness is an inevitable fact of human life. Man does not live in a vacuum. Therefore, like all other events of his life, illness is influenced by socio-cultural as well as biological factors. Illness refers to biological, psychological or social conditions that are often understandable in a social or cultural context. According to Kleinman (1988) “illness refers to how the sick person and the members of the family or wider social network perceive, live with and respond to symptoms and disability.” Disease, on the other hand, is the problem from a practitioner’s perspective. In the biomedical model, disease refers to an alteration in biological structure or functioning.

[Read the article in PDF format (176 Kb)]

---

Evoluzione e Paleoneurologia
by EMILIANO BRUNER

L’aumento del record fossile e delle informazioni di dettaglio sul processo evoluzionistico (da quelle molecolari a quelle anatomiche e morfologiche) è stato piuttosto limitato, se proporzionato all’enorme sforzo logistico e economico del progresso scientifico moderno. Al contrario, ciò che sembra presentare incrementi sostanziali e a volte salti discreti in questo cammino culturale, è l’interpretazione dei dati, la forma di leggere (o meglio di rileggere) le informazioni, e soprattutto la capacità di correlarle tra di loro in associazioni nuove e più complesse. Lo scenario paleontologico offre spesso quadri frammentari e molto incompleti, a causa della scarsa reperibilità dei fossili, dei problemi associati al loro stato di conservazione, e delle incertezze associate al contesto di ritrovamento.

[Read the article in PDF format (580 Kb)]

---

Ideology and Prejudices. Exploring the roots of religion
by MAXIMILIANO E. KORSTANJE 

The role of religion in our secularized world has been studied by countless scholars. However its nature still remains underexplored. The present essay is aimed at debating the pervasive relationship between religion, power and social prejudices. Our thesis is that the inception of sovereignty and territory emerge from the need of forecasting and reducing the contingency. The adequacy of the instruments people use for doing these tasks depends on each culture and society. However, on all them, religion may be very well considered as a key factor to comprehend what is uncompressible. The death of children or relative is an archaic feeling that predisposes societies to religion. The power and religion seem to be two side of the same coin. The former re-signifies the attachment of humanity with territory and time. Once of the things that concern persons are not the possibility to die, but also such an event was unexpected and possible to happen again. The power and legitimacy work as efficient mechanisms capable to bestow certain stability in the life of citizenship. Leaderships upsurges in moments of uncertainty or shortage.
[Read the article in PDF format (133 Kb)]