India's Untouchables

In the rural village of Jawalke, India a health project by the name of the Comprehensive Rural Health Project is beginning to change the face of India's caste systems. Before the program women of the untouchable caste were not allowed shoes or even to touch the community water pump. Now they are delivering babies and treating village health problems. The project takes lower caste women and educates them on common rural health problems and sanitation. In turn the women alleviate much of the suffering that comes with poverty for members of the village. It was not a simple thing to do to gain these lower caste women entrance into the homes of the sick, but after a few medical success the village began to accept them.
With the introduction of these village health workers much of the infant mortality and leprosy that was common in the village has been done away with. One worker stated that she has delivered 551 babies and has yet to lose a single mother or child. Now almost all the village children receive vaccinations. These women who have received little to no education, hold no medical degree of any kind, and were as of a few years ago considered untouchable are slowly transforming rural India into a place of acceptance and health. These small steps have and continue to allow rural Indian culture to evolve into one that prides itself on it's preservation of the human rights that it used to deny to the poor, destitute, female, young, and/ or uneducated members of it's society.

Information obtained from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/community-doctors/rosenberg-text/1 and http://www.jamkhed.org/impact.shtml.

Brazilian Fertility Rates

As of recently something odd has been happening to the Brazilian fertility rate - it has been dropping, and it has been dropping fast. The national fertility rate currently hovers around 1.9. This is even lower than the two children per woman fertility rate of the United States. When looking at this situation without a familiarity of the Brazilian culture you would probably see nothing odd about a drop in fertility rates. After all, its happening to all evolving nations right? Well yes, but not like this.
Brazil is a country that takes its religion seriously. That religion is Catholicism. So how might you ask, is a country where abortion is illegal, Catholicism reigns supreme, and no federal birth control polices have ever been enforced dropping its fertility rate faster than flies? The short answer is, they have embraced the concept of "girl power". Brazil's rapid industrialization has led to a serious attitude change by Brazilian women. By providing them with access to education, contraceptive methods, and new female stereotypes of strong career women Brazilian society has changed the face of it's women forever. The women that used to have have six to eight children are now educating early, reproducing late, and ultimately stopping altogether after the first or second child. They are pursuing careers and becoming equals with their male counterparts. What took other countries a century and a handful of federal birth control policies Brazil has done in twenty five years with rapid industrialization, strong soap opera women, and an unregulated pharmaceutical market.  


Information obtained from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girl-power/gorney-text and http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/brazil-family-planning-birth-rate-women-health. 

Get in, and drive

When you think about the changes that have occurred as a result of the car you probably get visions of NASCAR, shiny engines, (and if you are like me) smog, and an over reliance on fossil fuels. Cars have impacted humanity in another crucial way though, a way you probably never stopped to think about. They changed the concept of a family completely in a matter of years. Before cars families were something you stayed close to. Now families are something you go back to.
As cars became more popular it became easier for mothers to work, children to go off to college, and whole families to uproot themselves and start fresh. In modern families it is rare to see the concept of a "family home" embraced anymore. Recently I met a woman who told me that she lived in the same home she and her mother were born in. I was in awe. It is hard to find someone who lives in their childhood home anymore, and the car is the culprit behind this.

Thirst

Every day millions of poverty stricken women walk an average of 3.7 miles to get a few gallons or so of murky water. The driving force behind this symbolic yet necessary migration? Thirst. In under funded, water scarce regions of the world for many women their live's purpose has become to hydrate. It is for this purpose that many women give up their education, and as a result the possibility of a better life. These same women do not have enough water to wash their hands. They have enough water to do laundry about once a year. If these women warriors in the war on thirst had something as simple as a faucet they could spend their time doing something other than fetching water. The possibilities of what could be accomplished are endless. These women could obtain educations, raise more livestock, start businesses, or spend time with their children. With this concept in mind something as primitive as a community well could transform whole societies. The women who for millions of years had time enough only to give their families a drink could suddenly obtain a career. Everything that particular society ever knew about its women could be changed in a matter of years. Not many people think of water as having the ability to transform whole civilizations, but its been doing just that since the beginning of time. For these women it is the main thing standing between them and a life free from oppression.
Aside from the cultural issues that arise from these treks for water many biological issues continue to weaken water starved communities as well. As human population soars and pollution spreads less and less water is available to these women and their families. This growing epidemic forces more families to obtain their water from dangerously polluted and bacteria ridden sources. It is because of this that a Konso, Ethiopia clinic treats 70% of their patients for water born diseases. An approximate 3.3 million die from these same diseases every year. Outreach programs have slowly started to change the face of these statistics though. The Pur company has recently made a powder that kills bacteria and clumps dirt, metals, and parasites so that they can be easily filtered. Aid groups are currently working to distribute this powder to areas in need. A Swiss water disinfection system called SODIS is being taught to communities worldwide. The process involves removing the label from a plastic PET bottle, filling it with water that inst overly murky, and placing it in direct sunlight for six hours. This process has led to a drop in absences at the Ndolela Primary School in Tanzania. Because of this the number of students passing their 6th grade exams has risen 80%.
Aid groups all over are working to bring water closer to families, and help them clean it. When societies have easy access to clean water social and cultural evolution is jump started. Societies previously infamous for oppression can suddenly become famous for their cultural leaps that took developed countries centuries to make. What are your thoughts on the ability of water to cause social and cultural evolution? Please feel free to comment, question, and criticize.

Information obtained from April 2010 issue of  National Geographic and water.org

The Revolution Called Agriculture

As the first official posting of "For the Love of Humans" I have decided to choose a topic that encompasses the soul of the concept of beginnings. This being the beginning of my blogging journey, and this blog  being a blog on humans I see no better topic than the topic of the agricultural revolution. It is in short the beginning of the modern human. Sure we know that modern Homo sapiens began to appear around 200,000 years ago, but those were not humans - not as we know them anyway. The humans we know today came about as a result of the revolution caused by our acknowledgement of the ability to farm - the agricultural revolution.
There are mixed emotions about the agricultural revolution. Some believe it is one of the best things that happened to humans. Some believe that it, in short, was not. I am one of those people. Do not get me wrong, I am a big fan of the advances that have come as a result of the agricultural revolution. I am however not a huge fan of some of the social changes that it brought about, especially regarding attitudes towards women.

Before we entered the agricultural revolution we lived for over 2,000,000 years as hunter-gatherers. Many people have a misconception about this time period. They think it to be a savage period full of struggling to find inadequate food, starvation, and short unhealthy lives. This however is untrue. In a study of one of the few modern hunter-gatherer groups it was found that they had an average daily intake of 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein (40 to 70 grams is a daily allowance). This same group also spent an average of only 12 to 19 hours a week obtaining food. That means that they are not only consuming a variety of foods and exceeding their nutritional needs, but that they also have quite a bit of leisure time on their hands. 

         Our entering into the agricultural revolution at first seems to be a move towards healthier living, but on second glance we see that it is just the opposite really. The first thing we notice is the change in life span. Before the agricultural revolution the average life was 26 years long. After the agricultural revolution it was 19 years. Unlike their hunter-gatherer predecessors, people of the agricultural period relied heavily on just a few starchy crops to provide their nutrients. They also preformed backbreaking labor to harvest and plant their crops. This led to malnutrition, anemia, and degenerative conditions.  

         Aside from the health issues that arose from their new found dietary habits, people in agricultural communities began to encounter the health hazards that arise from crowded living. Hunter-gatherers where nomadic so they left an area before their wastes could reach toxic levels. They also kept childbearing to a minimum so their communities were small. Farmers stayed in the same place as their waste began to build up, and due to the need for more hands in the field populations sky rocketed. This meant infection and disease could spread at an alarming rate. 

         The adverse effects of the agricultural revolution are not just limited to those affecting health though. Because of the ability to own possessions and cultivate individual wealth that settled living provided class and gender divides began to form. Those with more possessions where able to make their way to the top of the social ladder, and take advantage of less wealthy people. They often obtained the healthiest foods without doing any of the work. Women were also seen in a new light as the demand for more offspring rose. They soon became little more than childbearing vessels. These divisions eventually led to violence as people became either greedy for more or outraged by a higher standing person’s behavior. 

What are your feelings on the agricultural revolution? Feel free to comment, criticize, and question.  

Information obtained from "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" by Jared Diamond

What is this all about?

I would like to offer a brief introduction as to what this blog is all about. In search of an outlet for my interest in the field of anthropology I have decided to compose a record of the research I do on the subject, and also my feelings on these subjects. It is my intention to include in this blog subjects that are also not traditionally associated with the field of anthropology (hence my description of the blog as "all things human", not "a blog on anthropology"). Humans have and continue to make amazing discoveries, do incredible things, show un paralleled compassion, and evolve into a species that I am proud to be a part of. I plan to document and discuss these discoveries, achievements, examples of compassion, and instances of evolution (both biologically and socially). Millions of factors influence human life daily, and I also plan to document those factors and their effects on the human race. I hope you enjoy what I have to say, and that anyone viewing this blog feels welcome to join in on the conversation.