Category: Culture
Everything cultural that interests me: music, reading, science, arts in general, news, photography…
Breastfeeding [en]
Breastfeeding in a Capitalist Society by Rebecca Blood.
I’ll just add that modern western culture is the only one not to find long-term breastfeeding normal, and that Nestlé et al. didn’t put baby food on the market that long ago.
It has also been shown that breastfed babies are exposed to a much wider variety of flavors (mother’s food influencing the taste of milk) than formula-fed babies.
Trop Cool [en]
Vous serez certainement ravis d’apprendre que je fais un pityriasis rosé de Gibert. Charmant, non?
La bonne nouvelle, c’est que ce n’est pas grave du tout, ni incommodant. La mauvaise nouvelle, c’est que je n’ai probablement pas atteint le sommet de l’éruption. Je vais donc laisser mes décolletés dans l’armoire pendant encore quelques semaines!
Cool [en]
I’m sure you’ll be very interested to know I have pityriasis rosea.
; )
Site [en]
Now that I’ve finally got my CD player up and running at home (it took me over six months!), the “radio song” list has been replaced by a list of CDs. If you hover your mouse over the entries, you’ll get a little information on each one.
Mi-maître, mi-esclave [en]
Mais quand on est seul
On est mi-maître, mi-esclave
D’une liberté indiscutable
La fin du monde est pour demain
Véronique Sanson
Women's Work [en]
Women’s Work : The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elisabeth Wayland Barber is a book of Aleika’s that I read in India, and that I started reading again this afternoon during Akirno’s nap.
This book is definately a must-read for anybody interested in gender issues, textiles, prehistory, anthropology or women.
Elisabeth Wayland Barber’s account of women’s work with textiles throughout the times makes a fascinating read. It is amazing how much information from our past can be deduced from a few bits of string or cloth.
The author’s basic assumption is that the division of labour between men and women is mainly related to childbearing. I think that in today’s rush towards equality, this is an issue which is sometimes rather hastily walked past by some – especially in this age of formula bottles, cribs, pacifiers, prams, nurseries and tv-baby-sitting.
Certainly, a woman doing the same job as a man should earn the same salary. There is no question for me about that. I don’t either think that women should stay at home doing nothing but cook and sew and raise the children. But women and men will never occupy the same place in society. Some jobs will always be occupied by men rather than women. Women will always bear and nurse the children.
A man with a young child can technically hold a management job which keeps him in the office 70 hours a week. A woman with a nursing baby can difficultly do the same thing, can she? And even if she did so before her maternity break, how much time will go by before she is up to it again? And – maybe more important – what consequences are there for the child’s development when her mother goes rushing back to her busy life after 12 small weeks of mat’ leave?
Do you still wonder that more men than women occupy this kind of position? I don’t.
Birmingham franco [en]
Une petite note à l’intention des francophones égarés à Birmingham, qui regrettent la piètre qualité de la cuisine anglaise (capable de produire des abérrations telles que “baguette fourrée de poulet baignant dans lait de coco à l’aneth”) et dont le palais aimerait retrouver quelques saveurs plus familières.
Chez Jules (off New Street) vous propose un assortiment de bons petits plats tout à fait français. Et même très bons. Et même pas chers.
En prime, vous avez droit au serveur qui parle anglais avec un tel accent que l’on passe très vite à la langue de Molière… ; )
England [en]
<holiday class="at_last" target="england">
I’m taking off tomorrow morning. Don’t be surprised if this place isn’t updated as often as usual during the coming week – but then, who knows?</holiday>
Aryan Invasion [en]
The Myth of The Aryan Invasion of India, by David Frawley.
My classes on Indian culture have often put to doubt the famous “Aryan invasion” theory. My own observations of its use today by Indians to justify just about anything (superiority of fair people, caste system, North vs. South, superiority of Dravidian culture… and so on) have also brought me to cast on it a very critical eye.
Here is my account of Frawley’s article – maybe not the best nor the last writing on the subject, but nevertheless interesting and convincing.