NEWS

 

“Human Rights Bulletin” 
The Institute of Federalism of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland


The Institute of Federalism, founded in 1984, has established itself as a centre of competence renowned worldwide in the field of federalism, state organization, democracy and human rights. The International Research and Consulting Centre (IRCC) is part of the Institute of Federalism of the University of Fribourg and focuses on research, international cooperation and knowledge exchange. Additionally the IRCC provides its expertise to States engaged in democratization or decentralisation processes in the form of consultancy, support for the strengthening of democracy, rule of law, power sharing and the protection of human or minority rights.

The Human Rights Bulletin is released every 3 months in the form of a Newsletter. It results from a mandate of the Swiss Government intending to encourage the Sino-Swiss dialogue on human rights with the main focus on democracy, decentralization, human rights, minorities and freedom of religion. The Human Rights Bulletin puts together interesting literature in the areas mentioned above.

The Institute of Federalism is pleased to provide detailed information and summaries if requested about the literature listed in the review as well as in the Human Rights Bulletin.
In order to facilitate the reception of the Bulletin interested persons are invited to register for the Institute’s Human Rights Bulletin on
 
 
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Sensational Bone Discovery:
A New Human Relative from the Siberian Mountains
 
By Cinthia Briseño
 
Have scientists identified a "homo incognitus" -- a previously unknown human species? Finger bones dating from 30,000 years ago were unearthed in southern Siberia. Its genes differ from those of modern humans as well as Neanderthals, and German scientists think they are onto a sensation.
John Krause checked his findings again and again. Somehow he couldn't believe what the analysis was showing. The scientist wanted to make sure he was right before phoning his boss, the renowned evolutionary genetics specialist Svante Pääbo. Did the DNA really stem from a previously unknown human form?
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig had just 30 milligrams of bone powder available to carry out its genetic analysis. From that sample, Krause and his colleagues isolated the DNA of a primitive human who had lived anywhere between 30,000 and 48,000 years ago in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. The scientist began with low expectations, seeing the job as a "routine investigation of an ancient fossil," Krause told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "That piece of bone was sold to us as a specimen from early modern humans." Russian scientists had unearthed the fossil fragment in 2008.
 

[See full article at http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,685630,00.html ]

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The 109th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans/Call for Papers

In 2010, the AAA will conduct the 109th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, where the river meets the sea. New Orleans channels flows into the heart of a continent, and out across oceans, around the globe. The boundary between river and sea, between water and earth, is shifting and unclear. The circula­tion of people and other living organisms, of material things, and of ideas in such zones of passage constitutes some of the central social and physical processes of concern to all kinds of anthropologists, historically and in the present.

New Orleans has inspired the theme of the 2010 AAA Annual Meeting: "Circulation." This theme is meant to encourage us to think about what happens when movement is the orga­nizing trope of our questions, methodologies, analyses and accounts. We can think in terms of circulation across time as well as space, through different organizing principles, and in a variety of shapes and forms.

The idea of circulation invites us to consider what triggers, facilitates, constrains, disrupts or stops flows; what is at stake in these processes, and for whom; and what their consequences might be for humans and for the environment. It opens up questions about what exactly circu­lates: signs, objects or bodies. Do different things circulate in different ways? Do they change or remain constant? What new phenomena, arrangements and inequalities does circula­tion produce? How are resources and ways of understanding them identified, made sense of, produced and distributed in the process? How and why do rates and types of circulation vary across time and space? What crystallizes and what continues to flow and reshape?

"Circulation" also invites us to think across boundaries, whether those are boundaries orga­nizing phenomena we seek to describe and explain, boundaries within and across disci­plines, or boundaries among anthropologists or other social groups. It asks us to turn our attention to zones of encounter, conjunctions and liminal passages. It also requires us to ask whether "circulation" is a helpful trope for the production of anthropological knowledge. What light does it shed on the (increasingly widely circulating) concept of "culture"—argu­ably the central organizing construct of anthro­pology—and on anthropology itself?

We are interested in bringing together papers reflecting the perspectives of all subfields and forms of anthropological practice, or across them, investigating this theme with data, method and theory oriented to all temporal and spatial horizons.

Click here for details on Call for Papers: http://www.aaanet.org/meetings/program/upload/2010CFP.pdf

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Minzu University Delegation Visits Scripps College

 

   

 

CLAREMONT, Calif. (January 29, 2010) — A delegation of professors from Minzu University of China's School of Ethnology and Sociology will participate in a weeklong series of roundtable discussions and forums sponsored by Scripps College. The talks focus on the role of ethnology and anthropology in modern China and are free and open to the public.
Speakers in the series include:
• Yang Shengmin, Ph.D, Dean of the School of Ethnology and Sociology;
• Liu Mingxin, Ph.D, Associate Dean of the School of Ethnology and Sociology and Associate       Professor of Ethnology;
• Wu Xiaoyan, Ph.D, Associate Dean of the School of Ethnology and Sociology;
• Ding Hong, Ph.D, Professor of Ethnology;
• Wang Qingren, Ph.D, Professor of Ethnology; and
• Dan Smyer Yu, Ph.D, Visiting Professor of Anthropology.
Minzu University is China's top academy of ethnic studies and is home to each of China's 56 distinct ethnic groups. With 70% of its 15,000 full-time students considered an ethnic minority, it "serves as a microcosm" of China's diverse ethnic background.


List of Events
• Monday, February 1st, 4:30 pm, Hahn 101 Pomona
Pacific Basin Institute co-sponsored Roundtable discussion, "Ethnic Identity in China: New Perspectives and Research"
• Wednesday, February 3, 12-1:00 pm, Vita Nova Conference Room
Interviews with Prof. Ding Hong, Prof. Dan Smyer Yu, and Associate Dean Wu Xiaoyan
• Wednesday, February 3, 2:45-4 pm, Scripps Humanities Auditorium
Medical Anthropology in China with Prof. Wang Qingren
• Thursday, February 4, 2:45-4 pm, Scripps Vita Nova Conference Room
Oral History of Minzu University School of Ethnology with Dean Yang Shengmin

 

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Ethnic Identity in China: 

     New Perspectives & Research

 

A Roundtable Panel discussion with faculty delegation members from the School of Ethnology & Sociology,

Minzu University of China, Beijing. 

 Sponsored by the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College and Scripps College, California

             

          Professor Yang Shengmin presents his research

 

Monday, February 1

4:30 - 5:30 pm

Hahn 108

420 Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA  91711

Pomona College

 Panel participants include:

 Yang Shengmin (杨圣敏), Ph.D., Dean of the School of Ethnology & Sociology, Distinguished Professor of Ethnology, specialist on Environment and Ethnology of Northwest China;

Ding Hong (丁宏),

Ph.D., Associate Dean/Professor of Ethnology, specialist on Islam in China and Central Asia; Wang Qingren (王庆仁),

Ph.D., Professor of Medical Anthropology, specialist on Chinese traditional medicine and the Yijing (I-Ching);

Wu Xiaoyan (武小燕),

Ph.D., Associate Dean, specialist on history of ethnology and ethnic education in China; and

Dan Smyer Yu,

Ph.D., Visiting Professor of Anthropology/Senior Researcher, the Ethnic Minority Study Center of China, specialist on Tibetan Buddhism and ethnology of Qinghai. Resident Professor, CIEE Language & Cultural Studies Program, Beijing

 

        

 Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, President of Scripps College and Hao Huang, Scripps’ Professor of Music, presents a letter of exchange intent to Professor Yang Shengmin, Dean of the School of Ethnology and Sociology

           

Professor Yang Shengmin gives a talk in Professor Nancy  Chen’s anthropology class at Scripps College

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