Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[SWJED]

“The program has a real chance of reducing both the Afghan and American lives lost, as well as ensuring that the US/NATO/ISAF strategy becomes better attuned to the population’s concerns, views, criticisms, and interests and better supports the Government of Afghanistan.”

--Michael Vinay Bhatia, November 2007

I've placed what links I could find on the SWJ.

From the Human Terrain System,

It is with deep sorrow that we must inform you of the tragic death of Michael Bhatia, our social scientist team member assigned to the Afghanistan Human Terrain Team #1, in support of Task Force Currahee based at FOB SALERNO, Khowst Province.

Michael was killed on May 7 when the Humvee he was riding in was struck by an IED. Michael was traveling in a convoy of four vehicles, which were en route to a remote sector of Khowst province. For many years, this part of Khowst had been plagued by a violent inter-tribal conflict concerning land rights. Michael had identified this tribal dispute as a research priority, and was excited to finally be able to visit this area. This trip was the brigade's initial mission into the area, and it was their intention to initiate a negotiation process between the tribes.

Michael was in the lead vehicle with four other soldiers. Initial forensics indicate that the IED was triggered by a command detonated wire. Michael died immediately in the explosion. Two Army soldiers from Task Force Currahee were also killed in the attack, and two were critically injured.

During the course of his seven-month tour, Michael's work saved the lives of both US soldiers and Afghan civilians. His former brigade commander, COL Marty Schweitzer testified before Congress on 24 April that the Human Terrain Team of which Michael was a member helped the brigade reduce its lethal operations by 60 to 70%, increase the number of districts supporting the Afghan government from 15 to 83, and reduce Afghan civilian deaths from over 70 during the previous brigade's tour to 11 during the 4-82's tour.

A copy of Colonel Schweitzer's comments can be found at the Human Terrain System web page.

We will remember Michael for his personal courage, his willingness to endure danger and hardship, his incisive intelligence, his playful sense of humor, his confidence, his devoted character, and his powerful inner light. While his life has ended, he has not disappeared without a trace. He left a powerful effect behind, which will be felt by his friends and colleagues and by the people of Afghanistan for many years to come.

Steve Fondacaro
Program Manager

Montgomery McFate
Senior Social Science Advisor

Human Terrain System
US Army TRADOC

[marct]

“I've placed what links I could find on the SWJ.

Thanks for doing this. The story hasn't seemed to be up on the Anthropology blogs yet (even if Michael was a political scientist).

[SWJED]

Here's a guy who walked it the way he talked it. It's clear he thought he could make a positive difference by working through the HTS and I think that says a lot.

Well said.

[Mike Innes]

I don't think I can add anything to the discussion on this. I stumbled across early mention of it in two blogs run by people who knew him, and then tried to disseminate the news as quickly and widely as I could. I suspect that was already being done web-wide by more than a few people. A sorry day. Thanks to SJW for posting the HTS news release and all the links to sites mentioning Michael Bhatia's death.

[negotiator6]

PH D is far too "eduational"..They are not going to find personnel with PHD's to bump around in a Humvee around the back roads of Paktia or Khwost Provnces adjacent to the Paki border. The application of cultural awareness, language skills and an outward bound mentality should to the mission well.

And, they better pay alot...

[selil]

PH D is far too "eduational"..They are not going to find personnel with PHD's to bump around in a Humvee around the back roads of Paktia or Khwost Provnces adjacent to the Paki border. The application of cultural awareness, language skills and an outward bound mentality should to the mission well.

And, they better pay alot...

Good PhD's do field work.

As Indiana Jones said, "You have to get out of the library and into the field", I think a lot Phd's realize that. Now training for a year, preparing for being shot at, and in general being in harms way, that might be a problem. That and what I am coming to find as a military culture that is extremely hostile to anybody who has even a wee bitty amount of education.. Where did I put my beer?

[sandbag]

A couple of business/infrastructure types wouldn't hurt, either. Economics drives the human terrain just as much as tribal lines.

[Rex Brynen]

They are not going to find personnel with PHD's to bump around in a Humvee around the back roads of Paktia or Khwost Provnces adjacent to the Paki border.

Actually, I'm not sure that's quite the problem you think it is. Take today, for example: I got an email this morning from one of my PhD students who is off interviewing both Islamists and secret policemen in a Middle Eastern country, had another graduate student drop by 5 minutes ago to discuss her impending fieldwork in a country on the verge of civil war (she's already been evacuated from a war zone one), and later this afternoon have a meeting with a third who was imprisoned for a year for his earlier research and activism in an authoritarian regime.

The bigger problem, actually, is career interruption. For recent PhD students and graduates who hope to eventually land academic jobs, there could a real cost long-term to losing a year or two of thesis-writing, academic publication, and job interviews because one is deployed as part of a HTS.

[marct]

Hi Rex,

The bigger problem, actually, is career interruption. For recent PhD students and graduates who hope to eventually land academic jobs, there could a real cost long-term to losing a year or two of thesis-writing, academic publication, and job interviews because one is deployed as part of a HTS.

That hits the nail on the head! Another factor in the same problem, is the people who stay at home and sit on the hiring committees who may not be able to judge the validity of the HTS fieldwork. This is, IMO, one major problem inside Anthropology.

A couple of business/infrastructure types wouldn't hurt, either. Economics drives the human terrain just as much as tribal lines.

Good point, Sandbag. Personally, I wouldn't recommend most of the business types (although the crowd at UTS in the ICAN group is top-notch as are a few others). The big problem with the "business/infrastructure" crowd is that they confuse their economic practices with economics in the broader sense. BTW, tribal lines are the bedrock of economic activity in many cultures - a point missed by many of the management types .

[Surferbeetle]

Good point, Sandbag. Personally, I wouldn't recommend most of the business types (although the crowd at UTS in the ICAN group is top-notch as are a few others). The big problem with the "business/infrastructure" crowd is that they confuse their economic practices with economics in the broader sense. BTW, tribal lines are the bedrock of economic activity in many cultures - a point missed by many of the management types .

Guten Tag Marc!

Interesting post. What are you recommending for references/examples/reading about the two crowds and their methodologies/successes/failures?

Regards,

Steve

[marct]

Hi Steve,

Interesting post. What are you recommending for references/examples/reading about the two crowds and their methodologies/successes/failures?

Well, if I had to put together a reading list, it wold probably include Fernand Braudel, Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins, Karl Polanyi's The Livelihood of Man, The Fur Trade in Canada by Harold Innis, The Rise of the Network Society by Manuel Castells (if you you get by his Structural Marxist bias, it's pretty good) and Frameworks of Power by Stewart Clegg ( a really tough read but worth it).

What all of these have in common is that they look at economics as a social process: production, consumption and distribution via social means and how all of them interlink. One of the big problems with most of the business / management crowd is that they either focus on a single component of this (production, consumption, etc.) or they are locked into a single social view of what is "right".

[Stan]

Hey Marc !

Personally, I wouldn't recommend most of the business types (although the crowd at UTS in the ICAN group is top-notch as are a few others). The big problem with the "business/infrastructure" crowd is that they confuse their economic practices with economics in the broader sense. BTW, tribal lines are the bedrock of economic activity in many cultures - a point missed by many of the management types .

As always, A Hopeless Romantic You are and Will always BE

Tom could relate story upon story of professional economics officers merely stymied by an African economy gone wild, but yet still stable enough to trade USD in front of the US Embassy in broad daylight (except on Sundays).

While a bit of street smarts is certainly beneficial, I'm not ready to knock our intellectual crowd just this second. The program is barely out of infancy and needs more time to fully appreciate and realize its full potential.

Really enjoyed Dr. McFate's response (even better than the draft). Kinda "get your Sierra bible studies in order" or "take no prisoners" approach

Regards from a balmy Estonia (16 degrees C. today), Stan

[marct]

As always, A Hopeless Romantic You are and Will always BE

Always ! That, and singing Baroque - Renaissance music, keeps me sane.

Tom could relate story upon story of professional economics officers merely stymied by an African economy gone wild, but yet still stable enough to trade USD in front of the US Embassy in broad daylight (except on Sundays).

I've heard that one . Actually, it's a really good case in point - so many "economists" confuse the formality with the reality (the Substantivist-Formalist debate for those with a passing academic interest).

Really enjoyed Dr. McFate's response (even better than the draft). Kinda "get your Sierra bible studies in order" or "take no prisoners" approach

I hope she doesn't come down with a case of PSTSD (Post-Structuralist Traumatic Stress Disorder; similar to PTSD or Shell Shock, PSTSD frequently affects people who have to deal with theologically inclined academics). Actually, I like her style, too. I think she would be a lot of fun to get into a proper, Anthro style, argument with; aka argue about nothing important just for the fun of it with a lot of booze

Regards from a balmy Estonia (16 degrees C. today), Stan

Man, it's warm there! We had a frost warning last night...

[Beelzebubalicious]

Stan, it was 16 C and raining today in Kiev. Russians trying to create an Abkhazia in Crimea. Beat that.

Marc, I did share a beer with Dr. McFate at Leavenworth a few years ago at a IO symposium. She was presenting her case for cultural anthropology in the DOD and showing parts of what later became the HTT. It was interesting and I can attest to the fact that she is a good person to chat and have a beer with.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of my involvement and I was subsequently shipped off to Ukraine and never heard from again, save for my occasional random posts on SWC!

Eric

[Shek]

Guten Tag Marc!

Interesting post. What are you recommending for references/examples/reading about the two crowds and their methodologies/successes/failures?

Regards,

Steve

Steve,

While not readings that will point out methodologies/successes/failures, these are good readings to understand the role that culture and acculturation plays in economics.

This first one looks at how different cultures play the standard "ultimatum" game: http://www.santafe.edu/~bowles/InSea...omicus2001.pdf (a longer version that spells out the cultural linkages to outcomes can be found here: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/fa...esBBSFinal.pdf). There's also a book edited by the same primary author that goes into much greater depth.

This second one is written by James Surowiecki and shows how it took many, many moons for Western society to develop the trust outside of their traditional contacts (family and their immediate community) to make a broad market economy possible.

Lastly, this book, http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philos.../dp/068486214X, spells out how economics as a discipline is relatively a newcomer to the field - Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", published in 1776, is often used as the beginning of modern economics (which really was the study of political economy until just over a century ago when it began to focus much more on the positive science and ignoring/de-emphasizing much of the normative). It's first two chapters talks about how broad market economics is a relatively new phenomenom, with command and family/tribe/community economics being the two existing options prior to the development of the broad market economy.

[Rex Brynen]

This first one looks at how different cultures play the standard "ultimatum" game:

One of my favourite findings from the ultimatum game is that only economists act as economists predict--that is, that economics students are much more self-interested, rational, utility-mazimizers than are non-economics students, and hence make stingier offers in the game.

J.R. CARTER and M. IRONS (1991), Are Economists Different, and If So, Why?, Journal of Economic Perspectives 5/2 (1991), pp. 171 – 177.

Article here if you have JSTOR access.

I have never seen the study done with military personnel (although I haven't really looked)--it would be interesting, actually, to see whether they to deviate in significant ways from the general population in their perceptions of profit, loss, altruism, etc--and if so, in which directions..

[Shek]

One of my favourite findings from the ultimatum game is that only economists act as economists predict--that is, that economics students are much more self-interested, rational, utility-mazimizers than are non-economics students, and hence make stingier offers in the game.

J.R. CARTER and M. IRONS (1991), Are Economists Different, and If So, Why?, Journal of Economic Perspectives 5/2 (1991), pp. 171 – 177.

Article here if you have JSTOR access.

Rex,

Chimpanzees behave rationally as well. Guess that doesn't say much about me

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1005104104.htm

I have never seen the study done with military personnel (although I haven't really looked)--it would be interesting, actually, to see whether they to deviate in significant ways from the general population in their perceptions of profit, loss, altruism, etc--and if so, in which directions..

I'm going to play the ultimatum game on the first day of my comparative economic systems class in the fall to illustrate how culture plays a role in your economic system and will let you know. I suspect that the "cooperate and graduate" mantra will amplify the general result that you see equitable offers in capitalistic societies.

[Rex Brynen]

I'm going to play the ultimatum game on the first day of my comparative economic systems class in the fall to illustrate how culture plays a role in your economic system and will let you know. I suspect that the "cooperate and graduate" mantra will amplify the general result that you see equitable offers in capitalistic societies.

I use it in class every year, in my peacebuilding/post conflict course, to highlight how the behaviour of parties in negotiation is shaped not only by relative power differentials and utility-maximization, but also by perceptions of "fairness" (justice, etc).

[Beelzebubalicious]

Not sure where to post this, but Wired Danger Room came out with a funny blog entry today and the subject is Montgomery McFate...Check it out at
Do Pentagon Studs Make You Want to Bite Your Fist?

[marct]

Not sure where to post this, but Wired Danger Room came out with a funny blog entry today and the subject is Montgomery McFate...Check it out at
Do Pentagon Studs Make You Want to Bite Your Fist?

I started to write a response to the piece, but ended up blogging about it instead.