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Multiple Husbands Serve as Child Support and Life Insurance in Some Cultures Says MU Researcher

By Guest PostAugust 4, 2012Cultureamerican women, anthropology, culture, economic repercussion, extra husbands, India, kathrine starkweather, marriage structure, multiple husbands, nepal, non classical polyandry, polyandrous cultures, polyandry, raymond hames, tibet, united states, university of missouri, university of nebraska, women

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Marrying multiple husbands at the same time, or polyandry, creates a safety net for women in some cultures, according to a recent study by a University of Missouri researcher. Extra husbands ensure that women’s children are cared for even if their fathers die or disappear. Although polyandry is taboo and illegal in the United States, certain legal structures, such as child support payments and life insurance, fill the same role for American women that multiple husbands do in other cultures.

“In America, we don’t meet many of the criteria that tend to define polyandrous cultures,” said Kathrine Starkweather, doctoral student in MU’s Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Science. “However, some aspects of American life mirror polyandrous societies. Child support payments provide for offspring when one parent is absent. Life insurance allows Americans to provide for dependents in the event of death, just as secondary husbands support a deceased husband’s children in polyandrous societies.” (more…)

Preserving a Language

By Guest PostApril 13, 2012Culture, Educationamerican indian, brady willette, culture, dictionary, english, eugene stillday, extinction, james parente, john nichols, larry smallwood, leona wakonabo, louise erdrich, minnesota ojibwe, native language, ojibwe, ojibwe language, persia erdrich, ponemah, preserving language, red lake indian reservation, rick moore, talking dictionary, travis zimmerman, tribal language, wade

U launches groundbreaking new Ojibwe-English ‘talking’ dictionary.

Eugene Stillday was born in Ponemah on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, where he grew up speaking Ojibwe. That is, until his public school teachers forbade him from the practice and punished him and his classmates for speaking the only language they knew.

“[So] we developed a system,” Stillday says. “We’d be talking to each other in Ojibwe, and when the teacher came nearby we’d just naturally swing into English, and when she left, you know, right back to Ojibwe.” (more…)

Joint Palestinian-American Dig Near Jericho Yields Clues About Early Islamic Culture

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2011Cultureamericans and palestinians, archaeologists, artifacts, bananas and lush vegetation, Bible, byzantine empire, caliph, christian and islamic communities, citrus fruits, city, culture, donald whitcomb, early islamic site, forbidden in islam, gil stein, hamdan taha, hisham palace, iconic site, ipads, islam, islamic civilization, jericho, joint palestinian american project, joshua, khirbet al mafjar, mafjar project, michael jennings, middle east, nephew, north of jericho, palestinian, palestinian director of antiquities, qasr hisham, rome, rule of caliph hisham, spatial relationship, sub tropical environment of palms, Technology, the tree of life, walid

As the Byzantine Empire was in decline, Islam began to dominate the Middle East, with a remarkable culture that showed a command of technology and an appreciation of art and decoration, research by archaeologists shows.

In order to study Islamic civilization in its earliest days, Donald Whitcomb, who directs the Islamic Archaeology project at the Oriental Institute, is undertaking a project with Palestinian colleagues to further excavate an early Islamic site north of Jericho that contains a palace, a bathhouse and what was probably a settlement to the north. (more…)

MU Archeologist Finds Oldest 3-D Statue In Western Hemisphere

By Guest PostMay 21, 2011Culture, Science3 d statue, americas, ancient agricultural society, ancient south american cosmology, andean people, andean zodiac, andes mountains, archeologist, buena vista, bust of a figure, culture, december solstice, foxes, hugo ludeña, lima, louanna furbee, myths and symbols, peru, pyramids, radiocarbon dating, robert benfer, temple of the menacing disk, university of missouri, zodiac signs

*Statue at temple in Peru helps us understand ancient culture, myths*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A University of Missouri archeologist has found a 4,000-year-old statue in Peru that gives new insight into an ancient agricultural society.

Robert Benfer, a professor emeritus of anthropology, said the mud plaster bust – a bust of a figure blowing a trumpet and another mask-like image flanked by foxes – was found at the “Buena Vista” site in the Andes Mountains, about 30 miles north of Lima, Peru. Radiocarbon dating indicates the bust was created around 2,000 B.C, making it the oldest 3-D statue found in the Americas. (more…)

Taking Safety Personally

By Guest PostApril 30, 2011Environment, Generalbp disaster, bp explosion, culture, culture of safety, deepwater horizon oil rig, disaster, geller, individual freedom, message, oil spill, psychologists, safety personally, scott geller, video, virginia tech

A year after the BP explosion and oil spill, those trying to find someone to blame are misguided, says psychological scientist E. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, and author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Geller has spent much of his 42-year career developing interventions to keep people safe, particularly helping companies develop a culture that promotes occupational safety. (more…)

Tag Archives: culture

Multiple Husbands Serve as Child Support and Life Insurance in Some Cultures Says MU Researcher

Preserving a Language

Joint Palestinian-American Dig Near Jericho Yields Clues About Early Islamic Culture

MU Archeologist Finds Oldest 3-D Statue In Western Hemisphere

Taking Safety Personally