Category Archives: Uncategorized

On the Struggle to Understand and then Communicate Gender Issues in Forests

I sit at my desk, piles of books on gender and forests surrounding me, more articles and books stored more tidily in my EndNotes files, even more scattered here and there, less tidily, on my computer.  I have spent the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on On the Struggle to Understand and then Communicate Gender Issues in Forests

The Coming of Fall (and the US Presidential Election) 2012

Last week, I began noticing a few trees with leaves of red or gold, though the countryside still looked green.  But each day since, I have been paying special attention to the panorama as I drive here and there with … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Coming of Fall (and the US Presidential Election) 2012

Doing Ethnography in One’s Own Culture

A short article with the peculiar title of “Visibilization of the Anthropologies of the South” (Krotz 2012) reminded me of a minor controversy from my days in grad school at the University of Washington in the late 1960s.  We had  … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Doing Ethnography in One’s Own Culture

Our Tar Paper Shack

When I was a little girl, we lived in Bloomington, Indiana, where my parents were both enrolled in Graduate School at Indiana University.  We lived in a trailer, in a trailer park peopled primarily by poor and relatively uneducated workers … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Our Tar Paper Shack

On Familial Obligation in America

Parker Shipton wrote a book entitled The Nature of Entrustment, which deals with the action implications of trust (“entrustment”) and of intergenerational and intra-familial obligation, among other things.  Although his book, which I’m only halfway through, focuses on western Kenya, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on On Familial Obligation in America

Women’s Reproductive Desires (and Rights)

I remain perplexed—by global (but particularly American) resistance to addressing population and family planning issues.  It is my impression that every woman I’ve ever met—certainly every woman I’ve ever discussed population and family planning issues with (which is quite a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Women’s Reproductive Desires (and Rights)

Shifting Cultivation, Gender and REDD+

‘Shifting Cultivation, Gender and REDD+’* is the name of a meeting I attended yesterday at the office of a USAID contractor in Washington, DC.  It was a refreshing combination of GIS and remote sensing experts on the one hand, and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Shifting Cultivation, Gender and REDD+

The Quarterback of Chaos

I have just left the home of my aging mother, after a one month stay, and—after hearing of my day last Thursday—my husband lovingly referred to her as the “Quarterback of Chaos”.  The ‘quarterback’ moniker dates back to a comment … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

What ‘Eldercare’ Really Means

Moments of utter boredom as I wait for my pseudo-stepfather’s foot to make it—ever so slowly—from the side of his chair, past the table leg, to a position under the table; or walk at a snail’s pace, up the driveway … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on What ‘Eldercare’ Really Means

On Professional Life, with Special Reference to Mothers

Anne-Marie Slaughter recently wrote a long article in the The Atlantic, entitled ‘Why Women Still Can’t have it All’.  It describes the difficult dilemmas and decisions that professional women (and men) have, trying to combine their responsibilities to their jobs … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment