"Name that Scientist!"

First posted at Open Anthropology:

Imagine, 2008, and some foreigner travels to Barbados, and right under Barbadian noses he picks up the “world’s smallest snake,” known to native Barbadians since there have been native Barbadians, and he proclaims — without a metal helmet, bible, and cross — that he has discovered the snake, and that he will name it. The man clearly has balls, because he also decided to name the creature after his wife. S. Blair Hedges then says the naming is to establish its “genetic profile.” Apparently now his aim is to drive his wife into a murderous rage.

While some local academics tried to hush up the very negative local reactions to this latest episode of scientific imperialism (it’s no surprise that they would do so, given their dependence on academic networks owned and controlled within the dominant seats of Western power), Barbadians are clearly right to be critical.

What kind of world is it where one people gets to name the world for the rest of the world?

What kind of world is it where words from one particular, dead, European language are granted exclusive dominance in the name of “science”?

The answer: it’s a 2008 world, hardly different from a 1492 world.

So name that scientist!

▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼

Garifuna Resistance against Mega-Tourism in Honduras

A wonderful piece, from James Rodríguez's MiMundo.org, both for the beauty of the photography and the depth of sympathy for the struggle of a local Garifuna community against the invasion of tourist capital that has redefined their beaches as "wasted":

‘We have hundreds of kilometers of beaches that aren't developed, and it's a waste,’ said the then Honduran Tourism Secretary (IHT), Ana Abarca in 2001. ‘We want strong tourism. We are going after the sun and the beach.’

With a few adaptations, the dozens of Garifuna communities that populate the coast,

continue to subsist as their ancestors did: through fishing, hunting, the cultivation of yucca, beans, banana, as well as gathering wild fruits such as coconuts and jicaco (cocoplum). “Our culture is based upon establishing a harmony with our natural environment”, explains Teresa Reyes, a community leader in Triunfo de la Cruz village.

In what appears to be a renewal of old colonial enslavement and invasion, the Garifuna and their culture are now the target of development:

The neoliberal model for development, in which the Honduran structures of power base themselves in, has identified the Caribbean Coast, and in particular Tela Bay, as the perfect place to develop a mega-tourist industry: Beautiful “wasted” beaches – as described by former IHT secretary Abarca – populated by relatively few people (already perceived as exotic, easily persuaded, and who can offer entertainment as well as cheap labor) make up the perfect wish list for those within the structures of power.

The Garifuna are not passive in the face of continuous encroachments, and the state is probably underestimating the depths from which Garifuna resistance comes, having excelled at making resistance a central part of their history and culture:

Such struggle for the control of Garifuna territories began over 15 years ago. “Starting in 1992, the Marbella tourist corporation and other foreign investors, in complicity with local authorities and military personnel, began usurping property rights within the Triunfo de la Cruz community. Facing the risk of losing communal land titles, local and national organizations came together to expose the corruption and managed so suspend the fraudulent operations.” Today, the Marbella project remains at a standstill.

For the sake of foreigners to have the luxury of sinking their pink toes into Garifuna sand, the Honduran state has also disregarded the normal routes of negotiation and dialogue, resorting to force and intimidation on many occasions:

In recent years, Garifuna activists have been living under a state of siege receiving innumerable death threats, having homes burned down, and have had three community members assassinated. “We find ourselves in a what can only be conceived as a war-like situation” declares Lopez during an interview.

The state's tourism authority is planning to create a vast complex, occupying over three kilometers of beach, building a golf course (which is a source of environmental contamination), and engaging in deforestation, while trying to divide up communally held Gairfuna lands into individual plots whose deeds can be purchased.

It's a 2008 world after all, which is hardly different from a 1492 world.

“Here we will resist until our death. Only in coffins will they manage to get us out of here!” declares Santos Antonio Garmendia, who has lived in Barra Vieja since the early 1950’s.

International financial institutions, at the heart of the spread of neo-liberal development, are not far behind the state in aggressively implanting these tourist projects:

“International financial organizations are also playing a role in this conflict. The World Bank funds a land administration program known as the Program for the Administration of Lands in Honduras (PATH). Local organizations are afraid that this program is encouraging individual ownership of land at the expense of traditional communal land ownership practiced by groups such as the Garifuna. In the Tela Bay region in northern Honduras, this systemic problem is compounded by the Los Micos Beach & Golf Resort, a massive planned hotel complex funded in part by the Inter-American Development Bank.”

As one response, some of the Garifuna have banded together to offer an attractive eco-tourist alternative:

“We want a project that belongs to us. We don’t want outsiders to come and exploit us or remove us from our ancestral lands. We want to develop an eco-tourism industry which is ours and which will sustain our Garifuna cosmovision and respect the natural environment.”

For more information and to get involved:
OFRANEH: ofraneh@yahoo.com
Rights Action: info@rightsaction.org

▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼

Cuban mtDNA and Y chromosome study: maternal and paternal linkages in Cuba

First posted on DIENEKE'S ANTHROPOLOGY BLOG:

A message from this study is that Y chromosome diversity within an already settled territory can indeed be wiped out. Introduction of new pathogens or a technological differential between colonists and natives, are just two possible ways to achieve this.

Many technological innovations (e.g. farming, Bronze, Iron) originated in a very small part of the Old World and spread far and wide. I would not be very surprised if this coincided with a massive replacement of Y chromosomes. The legacy of the earlier inhabitants may, of course, endure, via mtDNA, or autosomal DNA.

BMC Evol Biol. 2008 Jul 21;8(1):213.

Genetic origin, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba.

Mendizabal I, Sandoval K, Berniell-Lee G, Calafell F, Salas A, Martinez-Fuentes A, Comas D.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Before the arrival of Europeans to Cuba, the island was inhabited by two Native American groups, the Tainos and the Ciboneys. Most of the present archaeological, linguistic and ancient DNA evidence indicates a South American origin for these populations. In colonial times, Cuban Native American people were replaced by European settlers and slaves from Africa. It is still unknown however, to what extent their genetic pool intermingled with and was 'diluted' by the arrival of newcomers. In order to investigate the demographic processes that gave rise to the current Cuban population, we analyzed the hypervariable region I (HVS-I) and five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coding region in 245 individuals, and 40 Y-chromosome SNPs in 132 male individuals. RESULTS: The Native American contribution to present-day Cubans accounted for 33% of the maternal lineages, whereas Africa and Eurasia contributed 45% and 22% of the lineages, respectively. This Native American substrate in Cuba cannot be traced back to a single origin within the American continent, as previously suggested by ancient DNA analyses. Strikingly, no Native American lineages were found for the Y-chromosome, for which the Eurasian and African contributions were around 80% and 20%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: While the ancestral Native American substrate is still appreciable in the maternal lineages, the extensive process of population admixture in Cuba has left no trace of the paternal Native American lineages, mirroring the strong sexual bias in the admixture processes taking place during colonial times.

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/8/213

The article above, “Genetic origin, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba,” is published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Their results indicate that the,

Native American contribution to present-day Cubans accounted for 33% of the maternal lineages, whereas Africa and Eurasia contributed 45% and 22% of the lineages, respectively. This Native American substrate in Cuba cannot be traced back to a single origin within the American continent, as previously suggested by ancient DNA analyses. Strikingly, no Native American lineages were found for the Y-chromosome, for which the Eurasian and African contributions were around 80% and 20%, respectively.

For discussion of the articles, also see:
ANTHROPOLOGY.NET @
http://anthropology.net/2008/07/24/
why-there-is-such-a-high-percentage-of-
amerindian-mtdna-and-european-y-
chromosome-signatures-in-the-caribbean/

and DIENEKES @
http://www.blogger.com/
comment.g?blogID=7785493
&postID=
8388391862666083549&isPopup=true

▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼

UNDOING COLUMBUS FROM THE CENTRE: Italian Day of Remembrance for the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples

ESTABLISHING MANIFESTO OF THE 11 OCTOBER COMMITTEE
for the institution of the
Remembrance Day of the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples

In the age of “forced” globalization, in which we are lead to think of as inevitable the progressive and inexorable homogenization of cultures and people, it is fundamental to give voice to all the native nations which even today, despite centuries of physical and cultural genocide, keep on existing and affirming a different way to relate to Mother Earth.

The 11 October Committee, formed by Italian groups and associations fighting for a long time for the self-determination right of the indigenous people all over the world, was constituted in Genoa on April the 13th 2008 with the purpose of spreading the knowledge of a different history from that written by the winners and to promote support initiatives to all the claims that nowadays native people laboriously undertake.

Therefore we think it is necessary to start from the awareness that a gold paved road, “discovered” by the colonizers, corresponds to another, one of tears and blood, suffered by the colonized. The metaphor can appear strong but it’s a fact, given that we are remembering a genocide perpetrated upon millions of people and thousands of nations and cultures. Today there’s no point in focusing attention and analysis on what has happened in the past, and furthermore indigenous people don't want it; however to ignore history doesn't produce pacification but grudges.

The possibility to build a future founded upon a true relationship of respect and mutual meeting has to start from the recognition of what has happened, and still keeps happening today to native people all over the world, from Botswana to Tibet, from America to Oceania.

To such aims the 11 October Committee proposes to realize, on October the 11th and 12th 2008, two days of meetings and cultural events focused on native peoples resistance, meant as proud maintenance of their own dignity and cultural identity.

The intention of the Committee is to propose the continuation of this initiative in the next years, giving voice to native peoples with the intent of beginning an exchange of thoughts, traditions and values amongst the cultures.

In this first gathering, several exponents of the American native culture (writers, artists, dancers) will be the protagonists of the events and will bear witness to how much their own culture is still alive today and to how it is important to “positively” realize autonomous spaces of sovereignty and self-determination as foreseen by the ILO 169 Convention and from the Declaration of the Indigenous People Rights recently approved by the United Nations.

For these reasons, the 11 October Committee is actively promoting a campaign insisting that the Italian government adhere to and ratify the ILO 169 Convention, which is the unique binding international juridical tool upon which native and tribal peoples can rely on in order to obtain the recognition of their rights.

Finally the event will represent the occasion to launch a campaign to ask the Italian Parliament to establish a “Remembrance Day of the Genocide of Native Peoples” on October the 11th.

The choice of this date seeks to remember, in a symbolic way, the last day of freedom of the American Indigenous People, with the hope that the broken circle can be recomposed for future generations.

Adherents to the 11 October Committee:

Associazione ECOcentrici (Roma)
Associazione A SUD (Roma)
Coordinamento Ligure Donne Latino Americane (Genova)
Coordinamento per la Difesa di M. Graham (Modena)
Associazione Gaia Terra (Roma)
Associazione Huka Hey (Pordenone)
Associazione Hunkapi (Genova)
Associazione Il Cerchio (Italian indigenous people supporter network)
Associazione Kiwani-Il Risveglio (Firenze)
Associazione Soconas Incomindios (Torino)
Associazione Wambli Glesca (Ravenna)
Gruppo Heyata (Vicenza)
Associazione Sesto Sole (Bergamo)
Associazione ECO Mapuche (Como)

Supported by:
NATIVI AMERICANI . IT