4) Women in science: Archeology, anthropology & the string revolution
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Visiting Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in South Africa
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
6) U.S., Europe drain Africa of its nurses
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
7) Immigrant struggle brings May Day home
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: maanantai 30. huhtikuu 2001 06:48
Subject: [WW] Women in science: Archeology, anthropology & the string
revolution
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WOMEN IN SCIENCE, PART 2:
ARCHEOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY & THE STRING REVOLUTION
By Joyce Chediac
What was human society like in the Stone Age? Were men
really brutally dominant, and women cowering and submissive?
Did cavemen really kill giant mastodons, then drag them back
to camp in order to feed helpless women and children?
Fred Flintsone move over. New research in archeology and
anthropology suggests that Stone Age women brought home most
of the bacon and the vegetables to go with it, and may have
contributed 70 percent of the calories consumed by Stone Age
peoples. Stone Age society was communal. Women were not
passive, and men not aggressive and dominant. Everyone's
labor was needed and appreciated.
THE OLD VIEW
Dolni Vestonice is an Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) site
in the Czech Republic. For five decades archeologists sifted
through a huge pit of charred and butchered mastodon bones
and broken stone tools there to come up with a view of Stone
Age life.
They concluded that camps like Dolni Vestonice "were once
the domain of hardworking male hunters and secluded,
pampered women who spent their days in idleness like the
harem slaves so popular in 19th century [Western] art,"
explains Heather Pringle in "New Women of the Ice Age"
(Discover, April 1998). Men provided the main source of
food, according to this view. Using clubs and short-range
spears, they killed huge tusked mastodons, then dragged the
meat back home to feed their dependent families.
But this view didn't seem right to Dr. Olga Stoffer, now one
of the world's leading authorities on Ice Age hunters and
gatherers.
Stoffer and her team went to Dolni Vestonice and nearby
Pavlov, another Old Stone Age site. Based upon previously
overlooked evidence, they reconstructed something very
different. They saw a society depending largely on women,
plants and a technique of hunting previously invisible in
the archeological evidence--net hunting. Stoffer explains,
"Net hunting is communal, and it involves the labor of
children and women."
Stoffer and her team did their work after the women's
movement of the 1970s. This movement laid bare much of the
prevailing patriarchal, capitalist and class prejudices
concerning women, and created a new social receptivity to
women's issues. At the same time, this mass movement pried
open the door so that more women could become scientists and
bring their experience and questions to research.
Stoffer's findings exposed the "caveman" interpretation as
an embarrassing projection that says much more about the
gender bias of the researchers than the subject being
studied.
Previous investigators merely assumed that women were
immobile and dependent because they had to take care of
infants. They never looked into what Stone Age women
actually did. "When they talked about primitive man, it was
always 'he,'" says Stoffer. "The 'she' was missing." Stoffer
and her colleagues, Drs. James M. Adovasio and David C.
Hyland, made an active search into women's work.
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
"The data do speak for themselves," Stoffer explains. "They
answer the questions we have. But if we don't envision the
questions, we're not going to see the data."
"Scholars had been looking at these things for years, but
their minds had been elsewhere," explained Adovasio.
Elsewhere, indeed. Take the hundreds of small statues of
full-figured naked women discovered throughout Europe and
dating back 20,000 years and more. With their large breasts
and hips and often well-defined vulvas, these "Venus"
statues were seen as men's prehistoric erotica. In the 1980s
paleontologist Dale Guthrie wrote a scholarly article
comparing the statues to Playboy centerfolds.
When Elizabeth Wayland Barber looked at these same statues,
she did not dwell on the size of the body parts. She was
struck that the women were clothed, if very scantily, in
hats, bands, string skirts and other forms of woven
decoration carved on the statues in great detail. When she
asked for more information on prehistoric weaving, male
archeologists told her "nobody could have known how to weave
such complicated textiles so early."
But Barber, who had learned to sew and weave from her mom,
recognized the stitching. Since so little research was done
on this subject, she did it herself and wrote "Women's Work,
the First 20,000 Years," detailing women's long relationship
to textiles and weaving.
In the chapter "The String Revolution," Dr. Barber explains
that people who made the skirts on the Venus statues knew
how to twist string. This "opened the door to an enormous
array of new ways to save labor and improve the odds of
survival, much as the harnessing of steam did for the
Industrial Revolution."
>From string came "snares, fish lines, tethers and leashes,
carrying nets, handles, and packages, not to mention a way
of binding more complex tools." With string early humans
could weave baskets, make slings to carry babies, thereby
making women mobile, and make nets to catch game and fish, a
highly successful and low-risk hunting method.
String, says Barber, is "the unseen weapon that allowed the
human race to conquer the earth, that enabled us to move out
into every econiche on the globe during the Upper
Paleolithic. We could call it the String Revolution."
Since it is not disputed that women first domesticated
plants and were the first weavers, it is likely that women
discovered string and made the first nets, although they
were used by the entire population. But how important were
nets, and how widely were they used?
SEARCHING FOR STRING
Taking into account Barber's findings, Stoffer, Adovasio and
Hyland sifted through hundreds of tiny clay fragments
excavated from a site at Pavlov, a short walk from Dolni
Vestonice. They found imprints of textiles and basketry
going back to at least 29,000 B.C., the oldest ever found.
They found casts of nets strong enough to capture large Ice
Age rabbits, birds and foxes. They saw that bones of rabbits
and foxes littered the camp floors at Pavlov and Dolni
Vestonice. They determined that 46 percent of the individual
animals found at Pavlov were small game, and thought they
were likely caught in nets.
Exploring further, they found that Ice Age camps throughout
Europe were littered with small game bones, suggesting that
nets were widely used. Right there on the camp floors were
bone fragments that looked like the awls and net spacers
used by traditional hunting societies of the last century.
All this had been missed in the previous five decades of
excavation.
To test their findings, Stoffer and her team turned to
anthropologists who observed women in the few remaining
hunter-gatherer societies and studied written descriptions
of recent hunting peoples. Pringle explains that, "Women and
children have set snares, laid spring traps, sighted game
and participated in animal drives and surrounds--forms of
hunting that endangered neither young mothers nor their
offspring. They dug starchy roots and collected other plant
carbohydrates essential to survival. They even hunted, on
occasion, with the projectile points traditionally deemed
men's weapons.... Anthropologists have come to realize how
critical the female half of the population has always been
to survival."
Nets are one of the most efficient hunting systems, and are
far more valued in present-day hunting societies than bows
and arrows, according to Adovasio. Researchers living among
the net-hunting Mbuti in the forests of the Congo report
that they capture game every time they set their nets, and
catch half the animals they encounter.
Net hunting is communal. For example, Native peoples in the
U.S. placed nets on poles across a valley floor, "Then the
entire camp joined forces. Everybody and their mother could
participate," says Stoffer. "Some people were beating,
others were screaming or holding the net. And once you got
the net on these animals, they were immobilized. You didn't
need brute force. You could club them, hit them any old
way."
MAMMOTHS DIED AT WATERING HOLES
If most of the meat was caught in nets, then what was the
significance of those charred and whittled piles of mammoth
bones found in Russia and Eastern Europe and so long studied
by previous archeologists? Stoffer found that the bone piles
contained 220-pound skulls, which hunters would have no
reason to bring back to camp. The bones showed a wide range
of weathering, and the sex and age distribution of the
animal remains was similar to the death pattern of animals
found at African watering holes.
It seemed improbable that these were the remains of meat
dragged home by brave male hunters, and much more likely
that Ice Age humans pitched camps near water holes, and
scavenged the remains of the exhausted animals that died
there.
Studying traditional societies in Asia and Africa, Stoffer
learned that no tribal hunters made their living from
killing elephants, the modern equivalent of the mastodons,
until the advent of metal weapons. "If one of these Upper
Paleolithic guys killed a mammoth, and occasionally they
did," says Soffer, "they probably didn't stop talking about
it for ten years."
How could the previous archeologists have been so mistaken?
"Very few archeologists are hunters," said Stoffer, "so it
never occurred to most of them to look into the mechanics of
hunting dangerous tusked animals. They just accepted the
ideas they'd inherited from past work."
MYTH OF THE ALL-MEAT DIET
Besides, humans could not have survived on a diet of 90
percent meat, as the old school maintains. According to
recent nutritional studies, humans who get more than half
their calories as lean meat will die from protein poisoning.
Carbohydrates are needed to promote human life.
Linda Owens, who specialized in the microscopic analysis of
tools, took a closer look at those Upper Paleolithic tool
piles and found among the spear heads and clubs large
quantities of pounding stones and other tools used to gather
and process plants. Researchers agree that women harvested
and prepared plants. At question is how much this
contributed to the diet.
Archeobiologist Sarah Mason sampled remains from a 26,000-
year-old hearth at Dolni Vestonice. She found fragments
indicating that women had dug roots and cooked them.
Owens estimates that if Ice Age females collected plants,
bird eggs, shellfish and edible insects, and if they hunted
or trapped small game and participated in the hunting of
large game (as Inuit women did in the last hundred years),
they probably brought in 70 percent of the consumed
calories.
And those Venus statues? They were hardly male pornography.
The new view is that the statues were probably made by women
to use in rituals recognizing the huge contribution made by
women's work.
"Those terribly stilted interpretations with men hunting big
animals all the time, and the poor females waiting at home
for these guys to bring home the bacon--what crap," Adovasio
exclaims. (New York Times, Dec. 14, 1999) "To this day in
Paleolithic studies we hear about Man the Hunter doing such
boldly wonderful things as thrusting spears into wooly
mammoths, or battling it out with other men. We've
emphasized the activities of a small segment of the
population--healthy young men--at the total absence of
females, old people of either sex and children. We've
glorified one aspect of Paleolithic life ways at the expense
of all the other things that made that life way successful."
It took a women's movement and women researchers to expose
the blatant gender bias of archeology and anthropology. What
more will we learn about true human history when class
relations are overturned and national oppression ended? When
all oppressed people can come to science as equals,
contributing their community's history, insights and
perspective?
- END -
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From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: maanantai 30. huhtikuu 2001 06:49
Subject: [WW] Visiting Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in South Africa
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
REPORT FROM SOUTH AFRICA:
VISITING CHRIS HANI BARAGWANATH HOSPITAL
By Quo Judkins
Soweto, South Africa
[The writer was part of a Peoples Video Network delegation--
which also included Johnnie Stevens, Andre Powell and Sue
Harris--that went to South Africa in April to work on a
video about the life and contribution of the late South
African Communist Party leader Chris Hani.]
On April 12 our delegation had the honor and privilege to
visit the world's largest hospital. It is the Chris Hani
Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa. Vusi Mbasela,
an African National Congress employee, drove us from ANC
headquarters to the CHBH.
We met with the CHBH Head Nurse Peggy Motlhamme. Delegation
member Andre Powell presented the head nurse with a
resolution by the City Council of Baltimore supporting the
right of the South African government to obtain enough
medication to treat the AIDS pandemic at a price the people
can afford.
Motlhamme provided us with an extensive history of the
hospital and its current role in South Africa's health-care
system, which is especially challenged by the AIDS pandemic.
Though there are many HIV/AIDS patients treated at the
hospital, there is no system of segregation, no ward just
for AIDS patients. Motlamme was quick to point out the
malignant psychological effects of employing a system of
segregation. "This would be harmful to their psyche and
wrong, and we must treat everyone as human beings," she
said.
Members of the PVN delegation noticed that the patients,
even those who were sick, seemed to be in better spirits
than would be expected.
SNAPSHOT OF HISTORY
The hospital was originally a barracks during World War II.
The name Baragwanath comes from the barracks' name.
Injured soldiers were brought to the barracks, and soon
after it became a hospital. Over time it also evolved into a
teaching hospital.
In the post-apartheid era, this hospital has emerged as the
largest in the world, with over 2,000 beds and six wards.
These include maternity, pediatric, and surgical, as well as
St. Johns, a specialized ophthalmology ward with its own
surgical unit.
There are 39 operating theaters or rooms, 5,000 employees
and 500 doctors.
Motlamme directed us to the head of the Casualty Department,
Lucy Shabalala, who gave us a grand tour of the hospital. We
began the tour in the Casualty reception area where the
patients undergo triage--where the decision is made as to
who needs immediate surgery or resuscitation.
We then proceeded to the various wards where we met the
nursing staff and some doctors.
ISSUES FACING THE HOSPITAL
Shabalala said there is a shortage of staff. That is partly
due to the stress of the long hours needed to provide
adequate coverage and lack of medical resources to treat the
patients.
She paid special emphasis to those workers who have chosen
to stay on despite the difficulties, referring to them as
the most dedicated. They often work through lunch breaks and
long past their shifts to continue follow-up with patients
in critical condition.
Most of the health-care staff is African, although there
were a few white and Indian-origin care-givers.
Shabalala also cited the upcoming renovation project to
expand specific wards such as the Casualty Department, to
move it closer to the main entrance, and a general upgrade
of the hospital.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
U.S., EUROPE DRAIN AFRICA OF ITS NURSES
By DonAfrica
Hospitals in the United States face a severe shortage of
registered nurses. Heavier workloads aimed at cutting costs
have driven people away from the profession and few new
replacements are attracted.
Instead of increasing salaries and improving working
conditions, however, U.S. hospital managers have looked to a
solution they've used in the past. They've made an effort to
lure new immigrant nurses from poorer countries where even
modest U.S. salaries are attractive.
In doing so, they have increased the already great suffering
of the Third World, and especially, in this case, Africa.
At a time when the HIV/AIDS crisis is ravaging Africa, when
the continent most needs its nurses, recruiting centers from
the industrialized countries in Europe and North America are
taking them away.
It's well known that African hospitals are already
understaffed and in desperate need in this period. In
Burundi, for example, a reporter saw people sleeping
overnight on the floor in front of a clinic in order to be
the first seen by a nurse the next day. Then they must wait
again to be seen by a doctor.
Yet this desperate situation has not slowed down the global
flow of talent from poor to rich lands. Recruiting offices
promise a salary 20 times what can be made in Africa.
They attract people even though the nurses who apply often
have to travel for more than six hours--and then pay a $150
fee for their application.
THE MARKETPLACE IN HUMANS
When most people hear the term "market," the first thing
that pops up in their mind is some sort of material goods or
commodities. But now you can't leave out human beings as
part of that market.
Water, food, technicians, doctors, labor-saving equipment--
all are in short supply in Africa. The only thing remaining
is nurses. Now it's possible to steal these nursing services
from Africa. Here is how it is done:
If hospitals need nurses, they contact the nurse recruiter
in Africa. In order to avoid negative publicity about a
"brain drain" from Africa to the United States, the
recruiters follow a complicated route.
There are already nurses from Nigeria and South Africa in
Britain. There are nurses in the Netherlands from Ghana,
Nigeria and other West African countries. To send a nurse to
the United States, a recruiter will make a request to the
Netherlands or Britain to find experienced nurses for the
United States.
British and Dutch recruiting agencies, which operate within
Africa, will offer high pay to Africans to bring them to
Britain or the Netherlands.
Before, nurses from South Africa had been sent directly to
Britain. After the South African government complained to
the British government, the agencies simply changed the
target hospitals and sent these nurses directly to the
Unites States.
GHANA: 300 GRADUATE, 600 MIGRATE
The U.S. and Western European hospital industry wanted
Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa to play the same role that
some Asian countries like the Philippines did a few decades
ago: supply a great many nurses. The difference this time is
that there was not even an agreement between the African
governments and the big powers, as there was with the Asian
governments.
Almost 600 nurses were lured from Ghana in 2000-- nearly
triple the number of departures in 1999, and more than twice
the number of nursing graduates in Ghana in 2000.
It should be clear that the kind of fair exchange of medical
information and skills--as is practiced between socialist
Cuba and some of the African countries or Jamaica--has
nothing to do with the theft of skilled people by the rich
nations. Under these fair conditions both countries gain
from the aid they give each other.
Africa has survived the slave trade, one of the harshest
systems known to humanity, only to have to face colonial
rule. During that colonial period the rule from abroad
produced hardly any trained nurses and doctors. Almost all
were trained after the countries of Africa won political
independence.
Now the industrialized countries, the former colonial
rulers, have opened up a new trade in human beings that
drains the African continent of its skilled health-care
workers.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
IMMIGRANT STRUGGLE BRINGS MAY DAY HOME
By Gery Armsby
New York
On May 1, immigrant workers of many, many nationalities will
bring a worldwide tradition to this city--the May Day
workers' celebration, or International Workers' Day. It's
fitting because New York is well known as a U.S. city
boasting a huge immigrant population. People from all over
the world come here to live and work--and to demonstrate for
their rights.
A bright red poster advertises this year's May Day events
here in 21 different languages. Organizers of the May Day
Mobilization for Workers Rights have raised their demands on
the poster, the first of which is "Amnesty for all
immigrants, present and future." A rally in Union Square in
Manhattan will be followed by a march from the garment
district to the International Monetary Fund.
According to May Day Mobilization literature, the march will
also demand the rights of immigrants "to live with dignity
and without fear, to jobs with fair pay and decent
conditions, to decent housing, education and health care and
the right to organize."
Around the world, May Day is celebrated with strikes and
demonstrations, demanding justice not only from individual
bosses but also from the whole boss class. That's why the
New York march will confront the IMF.
The IMF is responsible for privatization and economic
austerity programs in many developing countries, forcing
workers to leave their homelands and seek jobs in the U.S.
because of layoffs, displacement and deepening poverty.
May Day was born from the struggle in the U.S. for the eight-
hour day. Masses of workers, Black and white, took to the
streets in cities across the country in 1886 with the
demand, "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight
hours for what we will."
After that first May Day, a wave of fierce repression ensued
from the bosses resulting in the execution of five labor
leaders in Chicago, known as the Haymarket Martyrs. Chicago
was the center of the struggle for the eight-hour day and a
center also for the then mostly European-immigrant working
class.
Despite the sacrifice of those Haymarket Martyrs, the
message of working class struggle spread around the world
and soon May Day was celebrated on every continent,
encouraged and supported by the international socialist and
communist movements.
As the workers' struggle day grew in popularity, the demands
issued by workers also expanded to include the call for a
minimum wage, an end to racism and national chauvinism and
an end to imperialist wars.
During the height of the Cold War against the Soviet Union,
the bosses here whipped up a propaganda campaign against May
Day. Now, while May Day had its origins in the U.S., it is
celebrated far less here than in other parts of the world.
But the new influx of immigrants is bringing the world
movement back to New York and back to the United States, and
with it is coming a new appreciation of May Day as a
workers' holiday.
Readers interested in attending the demonstration and march
can learn more by calling (212)254-2591 or visiting the Web
site www.itapnet.org/chris.
