… is the title of a new book by Lucy Norris of the Department of Anthropology, University College, London. The blurb: In today’s globally connected marketplace, a wedding sari in rural north India may become a woman’s blouse or cushion cover in a Western boutique. Lucy Norris’s anthropological study of the recycling of clothes in Delhi… Read More »
By FT’s Gillian Tett: … in just a few years, sushi has colonised urban centres with startling speed. The first wave of sushi restaurants cropped up in California in the 1970s, partly to service the estimated one million Americans of Japanese descent. But now they are ubiquitous, serving Caucasians too: teenagers take sushi to school;… Read More »
The Chinese market in fake European classical art is growing. Steadily. Something they bring to it? Industrial efficiency. The village of Dafen in southern China has become the centre of a big industry, with about 8,000 artists responsible for creating 60 per cent of the world’s oil paintings.
A well-researched piece in Intelligent Life Magazine. Concludes with: Sport has infected other fields with its values. Everything from hairdressing to accountancy now has its own awards ceremony, making mere workers into winners and losers. The recent British election was dominated by televised debates between the main party leaders, which turned a four-week campaign into… Read More »
Bars of soap, lipstick and pitta bread are out; hair straighteners, garlic bread and Blu-ray disc players are in. The latest shake-up of the shopping “basket” used to measure UK inflation shines a light on Britain’s changing spending habits. Check the article here. Anybody knows of any contemporary anthropological studies of changes in consumption/spending habits?
The clothes are being produced in a “green” factory in Sri Lanka – the first in the world to be awarded a gold rating for environmental responsiblity by LEED, the international green building certification system. And they are: made from end of line Tesco stock which would otherwise end up in landfill…. Full article.
Confusion over the names of two similar-sounding African countries may have helped boosted oil prices to near $80 a barrel this week as traders rushed to buy oil after reports of a military coup. A Reuters reporter received a flustered phone call from a hedge fund partner who had heard animated discussion in the market… Read More »