I would have gone for it, personally
Wodaabe man preparing for charm dance, Niger.
Image by Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher.
Read this lovely piece by Amanda Jones about her visit to the Wodaabe in Niger. The Wodaabe fascinate me — they’re the ones with the male beauty pageants — as do their close neighbors, the Tuareg (they’re the ones whose men wear veils). Anyway, not to spoil, but read Jones’ story and tell me what you would have done when you got the “handshake.” Me, I would have been in the bushes.
7 Responses to “I would have gone for it, personally”
-
simply wondered says:
i thought the tuareg were the ones with shockingly blue eyes and large cars…
considering a career in anthropology
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pm EST -
Violet says:
i thought the tuareg were the ones with shockingly blue eyes and large cars…
Close! They have blue skin and drive Volkswagens.
-
simply wondered says:
signed up for ADVANCED anthropology!
-
Kaitlyn says:
That sounds fascinating.
There was a book I read, er-half read, called the The Genocide Files. It was in fiction, so Genocide jumped out at me.
The plot and the characters… meh.. so I gave uop half-way through.
But I learned the author’s theory (or maybe hae had it backed up with research, I told you, I couldn’t finish) on skin color. And it was interesting.
We all started with the deep brown skin of the African tribesman pictured above. But some people (I call them idiots, as they are my ancestors and we are all idiots) decided to go north. (Lost a coinflip?)
When they went north, their skin, over generations, got lighter and lighter to absorb all the sunlight possible, because these idiots were in freezing cold Europe, as opposed to nice and warm Africa.
It had a bit on why the women ruled in Africa and the men ruled in Europe – the means of gathering food, I think.
It also said, and I don’t believe this, that the reason white people are mean is because the cold weather made them bitter, so we went out and colonized the hell out of our former homes.
It was interesting, nonetheless.
I can’t wait to take anthropolgy at college – this fall!
I will have such fun in every class but math, because there is no discussion in math 2 and 2 always equal 4, unless they don’t, and then the classroom’s haunted by the evil teacher’s ghost. (The Wayside story books by Louis Sachar)
I like schoolwork, I like school, too bad my mom didn’t marry a rich asshole. (He’s merely an upper-middle-class asshole who thinks that because my immature sister has to stay at his house while mom and I got out of town that he can cut child support, because she was at his house 4 whole days in 2005, which turned into 80 days a year, if you count all the hours, according to him.)
If he was rich, I could go to school my whole life and not worry about money.
As it stands, I will get a degree in… whatever and go about matruing and growing up. And when I have the money and time, take classes at community colleges that are pass/fail so I don’t have to worry about grades, just about learning.
The world is fascinating.
-
Violet says:
Actually the Tuareg really do have a slight blueish tint to their skin; it’s because of the indigo dye in their robes. Being desert nomads, washing with water is not a big part of their lives, as you can imagine. They spend their days swaddled in blue-dyed robes and veils, and the dye rubs off on them.
-
simply wondered says:
i thought it was off the seat upholstery…
-
foilwoman says:
Oh, bushes for darn sure. Actually, the Insane Ex is from that part of the world and looks even prettier than those young men do. Unfotunately, he turned out to be insane. But he was pretty.
