Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[Beelzebubalicious]

Apparently, Marshall Sahlins has weighed in on Anthropologists in Iraq in an open letter to the NY Times. This, according to Savage Minds...

To the Editor:
The report (Oct.11) of the killing of two Iraqi women by hired guns of the State Department whose mission was “to improve local government and democratic institutions” bears an interesting relation to the story of a few days earlier about the collaboration of anthropologists in just such imperious interventions in other peoples’ existence in the interest of extending American power around the world. It seems only pathetic that some anthropologists would criticize their colleagues’ participation in such adventures on grounds of their own disciplinary self-interest, complaining that now they will not be able to do fieldwork because the local people will suspect them of being spies. What about the victims of these militarily-backed intrusions, designed to prescribe how others should organize their lives at the constant risk of losing them? What is as incredible as it is reprehensible is that anthropologists should be engaged in such projects of cultural domination, that is, as willing collaborators in the forceful imposition of American values and governmental forms on people who have long known how to maintain and cherish their own ways of life.

Of course, these collaborating anthropologists have the sense that they are doing good and being good. I am reminded of a cartoon I saw years ago, I think it was in the Saturday Review of Literature, which shows two hooded executioners leaning on their long-handled axes, and one says to the other: “The way I see it, if I didn’t do this, some sonovabitch would get the job.”

Marshall Sahlins

http://savageminds.org/2007/10/11/ma...gists-in-iraq/

[SteveMetz]

Apparently, Marshall Sahlins has weighed in on Anthropologists in Iraq in an open letter to the NY Times. This, according to Savage Minds...



http://savageminds.org/2007/10/11/ma...gists-in-iraq/

I don't know whether to retch or laugh.

[SteveMetz]

Apparently, Marshall Sahlins has weighed in on Anthropologists in Iraq in an open letter to the NY Times. This, according to Savage Minds...



http://savageminds.org/2007/10/11/ma...gists-in-iraq/

How dare we impose our values on the Iraqi "way of life" like this:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents in Iraq targeted Shiite Muslims on Sunday -- the second day of the Eid al-Fitr festival -- in separate attacks that left at least 24 dead, Iraqi officials said.

Iraqis check out damaged vehicles Sunday in Baghdad where a blast killed at least six people on a minibus.

The deadliest attack happened in Samarra, north of Baghdad, where a car bomb detonated near a mosque in the city's center. The explosion was followed by clashes between gunmen and Iraqi security forces, according to Samarra police.

At least 18 were killed -- 10 civilians and eight security officers -- and 37 were wounded in the blast and gunfight in Samarra, police said.

At least the Times had enough good sense to not public the pinhead's letter. When it comes to the Iraqi conflict, Sahlins knows a lot about James Cook's death.

[SWJED]

Cox and Forkum - But Cross Out Media - Replace With Concerned Anthropologists

[Ken White]

who parroted the accepted wisdom of the "Middle East experts" who predicted the Sunni - Shia divide in Iraq would drive a new Iraq into the arms of Iran.

My argument was the 'divide' was virtually non-existent in Iraq and while it would be exploited -- since the western experts and media were trumpeting the division and folks in that area are not slow -- it would be in the vein of justifying the pay-back that was always going to occur. The only question being when that pay back occurred. Seems to be wearing itself out for the most part, though there'll always be some tension, I suspect that the major violence will dissipate.

I further posited that as one of the worst insults one could accord a Persian was to call him an Arab -- and the Arabs were very much aware of this and returned the favor -- that any significant rapprochement with Iran by the Iraqis was unlikely and if any did occur it would be for short term benefit only. All there are pragmatic and will put aside -- or actively foster -- differences as the situation seems to demand but a couple of thousand years of history are unlikely to be tossed aside.

Absorbing assorted slings and arrows over this, I was amused to see this Article yesterday. While one article does not a sea change make, I suspect that it is indicative of reality -- to include future reality. I particularly enjoyed the last paragraph...

I think all that means that those who wish to help will. For whatever reason others do not wish to help and they are, IMO, of little or no consequence.

[Shivan]

I was checking out the biographies of "Concerned Anthropologists" and the collective bloggers who run Savage Minds. A few things jump out at me:

(1) Many research esoteric issues like "transformations in anti-witchcraft practices" or "sex and sexuality in American culture." Interesting to some, but IMHO, academic junk written to sate egos and get tenure (which most will not anyway).

(2) Since their research/academic focus may be the U.S. or "exotic" places like Melanesia, field research can hardly be called dangerous (unless, maybe the research is in a NYC gay bar for a study of "sex and sexuality in American culture").

(3) Some biographies indicate a pre-existing bias anyway, i.e., liberal. Cannot expect them to be favorably disposed to the U.S. Many are "bloody furriners" anyway (Helsinki, Oslo, Manchester).

OK. My view of anthropologists in Iraq or Afghanistan is simple.

(A) the anthropologists are not there to show the Army how to kill people, they are there to facilitate, i.e., help understand the cultural environment in which the Army is operating, and minimize the use of kinetic force. The New York Times article of Oct. 5, 2007 that is giving some anthropologists the vapors notes a key point which they have missed: In the area where the anthropologists are deployed, combat ops are down 60%.

(B) The anthropologists with HTS are saving lives, conducting useful and publishable field research that no other anthropologists have access to. They are seeing first hand the changes in Arab and Afghan tribal and Islamic societies as they happen. In the case of Afghanistan, after 30 years of war, much has changed. The anthropologists with the Army are the only ones with access to this treasure trove of ethnographic material.

(C) The "concerned anthropologists" can hold onto their principles, since IMHO, most of their work is boring, and they are in no danger while conducting field research.

(D) Being in the thick of such changes in Iraq/Afghanistan is fun, despite the danger. Beats hanging about a library or interviewing people on the streets of Des Moines.

The "concerned anthropologists" can blather all they like, but no one ever reads their work, and they wind up stuck as assistant or associate faculty in some fifth tier university or community college in the Midwest, making little money and boring the daylights out of stoned u/grads.

Me? I'm off to Afghanistan, and I will write a book about my experiences that will actually be read and contribute the advancement of our knowledge of the people of that land. And I don't care if the liberal faculty hate my guts for it. In fact, so much the better.

Salaam,

SM

[SWJ Blog]

A Newsweek article copied from SWJ Blog:When the Eggheads Went to War

[davidbfpo]

Last month the DoD announced it had quietly closed the Human Terrain System, this SWJBlog thread includes that and a spirited set of comments:http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/arm...cience-program

There is a related SWJournal article that refers to HTS too, on the academic-miltary relationship:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...-the-sof-enter

A quick search using 'terrain' found a number of Blog & Journal articles that may include 'human terrain'.

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for the pointer to a FPRI article by a former HTS member, Ryan Evans; the full title is 'The Seven Deadly Sins of the Human Terrain System: An Insider’s Perspective'. See:http://www.fpri.org/geopoliticus/201...rs-perspective

There is an old RFI that appears to be by the author of this 2013 defence of HTS:http://www.e-ir.info/2013/09/21/the-...-gian-gentile/

Moderator's Note

This thread contains a number of previously stand-alone threads and seven small ones were merged in today. I have left RFI threads on terrain alone. The thread has been re-opened to enable a new post and capturing the announcement recently that the programme was being ended (Ends).

[davidbfpo]

A new book from London-based Hurst: 'Social Science Goes to War: The Human Terrain System in Iraq and Afghanistan', a collection of chapters edited by Montgomery McFate and Janice H. Laurence.

From the publishers description:

This volume goes beyond the anecdotes, snippets and blogs to provide a comprehensive, objective and detailed view of HTS. The contributors put the program in historical context, discuss the obstacles it faced, analyse its successes, and detail the work of the teams downrange. Most importantly, they capture some of the diverse lived experience of HTS scholars and practitioners drawn from an eclectic array of the social sciences.

Link:http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/...e-goes-to-war/

If you register for alerts there is a discount and free worldwide P&P.

[120mm]

Hat tip to WoTR for the pointer to a FPRI article by a former HTS member, Ryan Evans; the full title is 'The Seven Deadly Sins of the Human Terrain System: An Insider’s Perspective'. See:http://www.fpri.org/geopoliticus/201...rs-perspective

There is an old RFI that appears to be by the author of this 2013 defence of HTS:http://www.e-ir.info/2013/09/21/the-...-gian-gentile/

Moderator's Note

This thread contains a number of previously stand-alone threads and seven small ones were merged in today. I have left RFI threads on terrain alone. The thread has been re-opened to enable a new post and capturing the announcement recently that the programme was being ended (Ends).

Evens' critique is the best I've read so far, despite its brevity. Unfortunately, I recognize the few personalities he fails to with pain.

[Beelzebubalicious]

Kathleen Dunn - 10/09D

A new project that embeds university professors with military units in Iraq and Afghanistan has drawn fierce criticism from the academic community. After nine, Kathleen Dunn talks with anthropologists on both sides of the issue.

Guests:
9:00 - Marcus B. Griffin, cultural anthropologist who is working with the U.S. Army as part of the Human Terrain System in Iraq.
9:30 - David Price, Associate Professor of anthropology and sociology, St. Martin's University, Washington. (9:30)

http://www.marcusgriffin.com/blog/
http://www.wpr.org/ideas/programnotes.cfm

[Stan]

I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the naysayers are far fewer than those who feel they can make a difference (and even get paid to do said). I was concerned that our intellectual brothers would leave us hanging coping with death, dying and grief over this friggin code of ethics saving lives and animals <dumb ass grin>.

Our last Anthropology thread was an intriguing eye opener. I certainly hope there's a few more like Marc willing to get involved.

This link sort of gets there without all the negative aspects which come with any operation.

Conducting military operations in a low-intensity conflict without ethnographic and cultural intelligence is like building a house without using your thumbs: it is a wasteful, clumsy, and unnecessarily slow process at best, with a high probability for frustration and failure. But while waste on a building site means merely loss of time and materials, waste on the battlefield means loss of life, both civilian and military, with high potential for failure having grave geopolitical consequences to the loser.

Many of the principal challenges we face in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF and OEF) stem from just such initial institutional
disregard for the necessity to understand the people among whom our forces operate as well as the cultural characteristics and propensities of the enemies we now fight.

More at the link

[marct]

The show is available in RealMedia format here.

[Jedburgh]

Mar-Apr 08 Military Review: Human Terrain Mapping: A Critical First Step to Winning the COIN Fight

....When it deployed to Iraq in mid-2007, TF Dragon inherited a heavily populated (400,000 people) area southeast of Baghdad. The AO was volatile, in part because it straddled a Sunni/Shi’a fault-line. The majority of the Sunnis lived along the Tigris River, the task force’s western boundary. Shi’a tribes resided in the north (close to Baghdad) and along the eastern boundary (the Baghdad-Al Kut highway).

The requirement for new ethnographic information on its AO weighed heavily on the task force. Thus, the entire unit began focusing on systematically collecting and collating ethnographic information. Ultimately, TF Dragon worked the collection through a process the staff labeled “human-terrain mapping,” or HTM.

Developing the HTM process amounted to creating a tool for understanding social conditions. As it collected and cataloged pertinent information, the task-force staff tailored its plan in order to capture a broad range of details. An important aspect of the process involved putting the data in a medium that all Soldiers could monitor and understand. Once the formatting and baseline information requirements were set, TF Dragon employed the shared situational-awareness enhancing capabilities of the Command Post of the Future (CPOF) computer system. Each company was allocated a CPOF to post the results of its mapping on a common database, a matrix that included information about religious boundaries, key economic structures, mosques, and important personalities such as sheiks....

[SWJED]

Human Terrain Team Member Killed in Afghanistan



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

[SWJ Blog]

An Enhanced Plan For Regionally Aligning Brigades Using Human Terrain Systems

Entry Excerpt:



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