1995 Margaret Mead Award winner! This personal account by a biocultural anthropologist illuminates important, not-soon-forgotten messages involving the more sobering aspects of conducting fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa. With nutritional anthropology at its core, Dancing Skeletons presents informal, engaging and oftentimes dramatic stories from the field that relate the author's experiences conducting research on infant feeding and health in Mali. Through fascinating vignettes and honest, vivid descriptions, Dettwyler explores such diverse topics as ethnocentrism, culture shock, population control, breastfeeding, child care, the meaning of disability and child death in different cultures, female circumcision, women's roles in patrilineal societies, the dangers of fieldwork, and the realities involved in researching emotionally draining topics. Readers will alternately laugh and cry as they meet the author's friends and informants, follow her through a series of encounters with both peri-urban and rural Bambara culture, and struggle with her as she attempts to reconcile her very different roles as objective ethnographer, subjective friend, and mother in the field.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Required Read for Class:
I had to read this ethnography for my anthropology class at Ball State. We had already read other ethnographies, and, since I am not an anthropology major, I found them difficult to get through. They were quite dry. What a nice change this book provided! I could hardly put it down! I think that the author accomplished something great with this study. By writing it in this way, she makes it accessible to those who aren't necessarily anthropologists or students majoring in the discipline. I believe that books... more info
Cultural Anthropology:
I read this book for a cultural anthopology class. It was a very easy read which I enjoyed. As far as cultural anthropology, I found this book very interesting. It is amazing hoe different the culture and the health of the people are. She did talk about herse;f a lot but it would be difficult just to focus on your subjects when you are so far from home.
Depressing view of the future:
The other reviews give you the flavor of this book so I will bring up a few items they and the author ignore. First, it is a vivid illustration of the more general problem in the world of what constitutes "help". If what one does causes more misery in the long run then it is clearly not helpful and this is what nearly all of the "aid" to the third world does. Anything that prolongs lifespans, increases child survival or increases standard of living is eventually disastrous as prosperity is ultimately bought... more info
A Drop of Water in the Wide Ocean:
This is a good insight into the malnutritional anthropology study of the women and children in Mali. At the very end, her work left me with the feeling that her work is just a drop of water in the wide ocean of the malnutrition dilemma worldwide. So much is needed to be done, yet the man power and the funding for this cause are very much lacking. I read this book for my Human Diet class at UCB, and it took me a day to finish it. It is an easy read. The author however went overboard about her feelings... more info
