Katherine Dettwyler
Autor von Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa
Über den Autor
Werke von Katherine Dettwyler
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Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1955-02-03
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- USA
- Wohnorte
- Delaware, USA
- Ausbildung
- University of California, Davis (BA|Anthropology|1977)
Indiana University, Bloomington (MA|Anthropology|1981)
Indiana University, Bloomington (PhD|Anthropology|1985) - Berufe
- anthropologist
- Organisationen
- University of Delaware
Texas A & M University
State University of New York, Plattsburgh
University of Southern Mississippi
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
American Anthropological Association (Zeige alle 10)
Council on Nutritional Anthropology
National Union of the Women of Mali
Council on Biological Anthropology (Nominations Committee)
Council on Nutritional Anthropology (Chair ∙ Policy and Liaison Committee) - Preise und Auszeichnungen
- Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching (Texas A&M ∙ 2001)
La Leche League International Award of Recognition (2007)
Phi Kappa Phi
Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
Listen
Auszeichnungen
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Statistikseite
- Werke
- 7
- Mitglieder
- 282
- Beliebtheit
- #82,539
- Bewertung
- 4.0
- Rezensionen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 9
Dettwyler has been there long enough she’s treated less like a tourist and more like an honoured guest–at times being brought special (if stomach-churning to Western palates) foods and feted at dances–at other times she’s treated like just another person walking around. There’s clearly a mutual respect between the woman and her subjects. At times, they’re more than just subjects.
Other stories are heartrending. Mali is a country with less-than-adequate medical facilities and education on the best practises for proper healthcare. This leads to higher rates of childhood disease and death. Malaria, for example, can even be drug-resistant. Something Dettwyler finds out first-hand, unfortunately.
Overall, the attitude of the people Dettwyler met was one of accepting life as it was–whether it was the child who had what we’d call Down’s Syndrome, or the woman who had such severe mental disabilities she was going to allow her child to die from malnutrition. In the Down’s Syndrome child–no one ostracised the child in anyway–she simply went about her life as happy and carefree as possible–something that wouldn’t happen in the West. In the latter case–social services would take the child from the mother immediately. But in Magnambougou there was an acceptance that some children die from malnutrition and this child would be one of them.
The most challenging chapter was probably the one about female circumcision. It follows on from the acceptance in that, when asked about it, people said it was simply the way it has always been. They usually did it when the girls were six months old so they didn’t remember it and all the girls had it done. The boys were all circumcised, as well, so it only seemed right that the girls were, too. When Dettwyler (an American) said she wasn’t circumcised, the woman she was speaking with was shocked. After all, if everyone you know. And everyone in your entire culture has forever done something, how absolutely bizarre is it to find someone who doesn’t? And then to be asked, well, why don’t you?
It’s a slim volume, but is a fascinating look into a culture quite different from the one Westerners are accustomed to. Though it’s somewhat academic, I’d still recommend it for fans of Mary Roach or people interested in anthropology in general.… (mehr)