Category: Culture

Everything cultural that interests me: music, reading, science, arts in general, news, photography…

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… ; )

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.

Compte-rendu de séminaire [en]

Pour ceux que ça intéresse (on peut toujours rêver!), voici le compte-rendu de mon séminaire sur le cosmos chez Maeterlinck.

Bonne lecture…

A Rape in Cyberspace [en]

I’ve just finished reading My Tiny Life: A Rape in Cyberspace. It is long (it’s actually the first chapter of a print-book), well-written, and it is very interesting.

Julian recounts a case of “virtual rape” involving characters in an online community. It shows how much impact “online events” have on the real people behind the keyboards. It also shows an anarchic community struggling to get organized for dealing with the rapist.

In my online life, I have been faced by people who look upon online interaction as an “experiment” – who don’t care about their fellow chatters because they are “not real”. I think this text shows just how wrong these people are.

As an aside, I’m developing another pet peeve: haikus. Don’t get me wrong, I love japanese haikus. But this trend of sticking haikus everywhere on websites is so… “web”. I mean, short attention span and all that.
It’s a bit “easy”.

Grandma and Bagha [en]

Each time I sit down to write one of these Life entries, I think of my Grandma. She lives in England – not that far off but still quite far.
My Grandma is over 70 now, and she logs onto the Internet regularly to visit my website. I know that what she looks for are these little (rare) Life entries.

So today I had two rather long phone calls with England. One with my Grandma – who will hopefully soon be fit to fly over and meet my animals – and one with Somak.

Speaking of animals, Somak told me he received an email from IUCAA with a rather intriguing signature:

When you find life is coming down on you, think of Bagha.

Well, Bagha was quite well known in IUCAA – particularly for breaking into people’s fridges and hanging around the canteen. And obviously, the word has spread that he emigrated from India and is now a lucky Swiss citizen. I’m sure he’ll be glad to learn that his fate helps members of the IUCAA staff lift their spirits during the hard times.

I should be going back to India beginning of August. I’m actually starting to miss India. I have cravings for dreadfully hot Marathi food (the kind of stuff I found simply dreadful when I first tasted it).
I will have a Hindi course in Rishikesh again, and I hope to be able to spend a couple of weeks in Pune before that. That means I’m going to have to work hard to get my October exams ready before I leave ; )