The Tango

© Ministerio de Cultura, Buenos Aires

The Argentinian and Uruguayan tradition of the Tango, now familiar around the world, was developed by the urban lower classes in Buenos Aires and Montevideo in the Rio de la Plata basin. Among this mix of European immigrants to the region, descendents of African slaves and the natives of the region known as criollos, a wide range of customs, beliefs and rituals were merged and transformed into a distinctive cultural identity. As one of the most recognizable embodiments of that identity, the music, dance and poetry of tango both embodies and encourages diversity and cultural dialogue. It is practised in the traditional dance halls of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, spreading the spirit of its community across the globe even as it adapts to new environments and changing times. That community today includes musicians, professional and amateur dancers, choreographers, composers, songwriters, teachers of the art and the national living treasures who embody the culture of tango. Tango is also incorporated into celebrations of national heritage in Argentina and Uruguay, reflecting the widespread embrace of this popular urban music.
Inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
© Text: UNESCO

Royal Spanish Botanic Expedition

EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition: Royal Spanish Botanic Expedition 
Dates: from 25th april 2010

Place: Museu Etnològic, Barcelona, Spain

Admission: 3,50 € (free every Sunday afternoon)

Webpage: www.museuetnologic.bcn.es

Comments:

Barcelona’s Ethnologic Museum in its line of Latin American collections, presents an exhibition dedicated to Spanish botanist José Celestino Mutis.

José Celestino Mutis was an illustrated scientist and one of the firsts to study and divulge Columbian Flora. He worked as well for the Independency of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada or Gran Colombia, which comprised nowadays Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

He was the leader of the Royal Botanic Expedition to Nueva Granada (1783-1816). Most of he’s work is stored at the Real Jardín Botánico of Madrid. During his apprenticeship in this institution as botanist, he met renowned catalan naturalists like Josep Quer, Joan Minuart and Miquel Barnades. Later, once established in America, he even maintained correspondence with Carl Linné, and Linné’s son, also a botanist, dedicated him a Columbian plant (Mutisia clematis).

More about José Celestino Mutis:

José Celestino Mutis (Cádiz, Spain, April 6, 1732—Bogotá (now in Colombia), September 11, 1808) was a Spanish botanist and mathematician.

He began his medical studies at the College of Surgery in Cádiz, where he also studied physics, chemistry and botany. He graduated in medicine from the University of Seville on May 2, 1755.

On July 5, 1757 he received his doctorate in medicine. From 1757 to 1760 he was interim professor of anatomy in Madrid. During those same years he continued to study botany at the Migas Calientes Botanical Gardens (now the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid), and also astronomy and mathematics.

After three years he decided to leave for America, as the private physician of the new viceroy of New Granada, Pedro Messía de la Cerda. He sailed on September 7, 1760, arriving at Santa Fe de Bogotá on February 24, 1761. During the long transatlantic passage he began writing his Diario de Observaciones, which he continued until 1791.

From his arrival in the Viceroyalty, Mutis concentrated on his botanical studies, beginning work on an herbal and investigating for chinchona, which was considered a panacea for the treatment of all kinds of diseases. He wrote El Arcano de la Quina.

Beginning in 1763, Mutis proposed to the king that he sponsor an expedition to study the flora and fauna of the region. He had to wait 20 years for the authorization, but in 1783 the king authorized his expedition (one of three royal botanical expeditions to the New World at about that time). In the interim, Mutis concentrated on commercial and mineralogical projects, not neglecting medicine. He also studied the social and economic conditions of the viceroyalty, and continued to expand his collection of flora and fauna. On December 19, 1772 he was ordained a priest. He was in regular correspondence with scientists in Spain and elsewhere in Europe, particularly Carl Linné.

Mutis led the Royal Botanical Expedition, established in 1783, for 25 years. It explored some 8,000 km² in a range of climates, using the Río Magdalena for access to the interior. He developed a meticulous methodology that included the harvesting of the samples in the field together with detailed descriptions, including data on the surroundings of each species and its utility. Hundreds of plants were discovered and described. More than 8,000 plates, plus maps, correspondence, notes and manuscripts were sent to Spain. His museum consisted of 24,000 dried plants, 5,000 drawings of plants by his pupils, and a collection of woods, shells, resins, minerals and skins. These treasures arrived safely at Madrid in 105 boxes, and the plants, manuscripts, and drawings were sent to the botanical gardens, where they were relegated to a tool-house.

However much of the work was wasted because the results remained unedited and unanalyzed. Also, the collation between the notes and the plates was lost during the transfer to Spain. His work on the species and varieties of chinchona had lasting influence.

He determined the longitude of Bogotá by the observation of an eclipse of a satellite of Jupiter and was a major influence on the construction of the National Astronomical Observatory.

In March 1762, at the inauguration of the chair of mathematics at the Colegio del Rosario, he expounded the principles of the Copernican system and of the experimental method of science, leading to a confrontation with the church. In 1774 he had to defend the teaching of the principles of Copernicus, as well as natural philosophy and modern, Newtonian physics and mathematics, before the Inquisition.

In 1784, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Alexander von Humboldt visited Mutis in 1801, during his expedition to America. Humboldt stayed with Mutis for two months, and greatly admired his botanical collection.

Mutis died in Bogotá on September 11, 1808 at 76 years of age, a victim of apoplexy. Because much of his botanical work was lost or unpublished, he is known to history not as a great scientist, but as a great promoter of science and knowledge.

His image was used in the old banknotes of 2000 pesetas.

El mar que no coneixem

El passat 30 de maig, voluntaris de l'oganització Submón fotografiaven davant de Barcelona un cetaci. No és infreqüent. Dofins i altres petites balenes són sovint avistats fins i tot pels turistes que naveguen en les Golondrines del port. Fins i tot de tant en tant s'ha vist algun catxalot i fins i tot alguna orca. Però aquest cop, el que van fotografiar els tripulants de l'Onas va ser el llom i l'aleta caudal d'una espècie que no pertany al mediterrani. Es tractava d'una balena grisa (Eschrichtius robustus). Gràcies a la identificació de les fotografies es va descobrir que la mateixa balena havia estat albirada tres setmanes abans davant la costa de Tel Aviv a Israel. El periple de la balena està causant consternació entre la comunitat científica, sobretot pel fet que és una balena que es creia que només vivia a l'Oceà Pacífic. Des de fa tres cents anys, l'antiga població que havia habitat en aigües de l'Atlàntic es creia extingida, de manera que si aquest exemplar provingués de la població atlàntica, estaríem davant d'un descobriment similar al del celacant. Seria com si de cop i volta aparegués un dodo a les faldes del Montseny. I si es tractés d'un exemplar de la població del Pacífic, encara seria un descobriment més sonat, ja que s'hauria d'explicar què l'ha portat fins al mediterrani. Sigui com sigui, un grup de científics internacionals s'està posant d'acord per a poder prendre dades de l'animal i resoldre l'enigma.
L'aparició de la balena ve a confirmar el que també ha posat de manifest la ineficàcia de British Petroleum per a tapar la fuita de petroli del Golf de Mèxic: no coneixem prou bé els oceans. L'home ha arribat a la Lluna i ha aconseguit enviar sondes fins més enllà del Sistema Solar, però encara no coneix prou bé tot el món que s'extén sota la capa d'aigua que coneixem com a oceans i que ocupen la majoria de la superfície del nostre planeta blau.
Els mitjans de comunicació americans reien fa uns dies del fet que entre els experts que la Casa Blanca havia cridat per a mirar de resoldre el desastre del Golf de Mèxic, hi figurés també al director de cinema James Cameron. El que no explicaven els diaris era que el director, per tal de poder filmar pel·lícules com Abyss o Titanic, s'havia rodejat d'un grup d'experts en grans profunditats que l'havien assessorat i que el coneixement conjunt d'aquest grup de Hollywood era superior al d'altres institucions científiques. Que la indústria cinematogràfica pugui tenir més coneixement del fons marí que els propis oceanògrafs ens hauria de replantejar seriosament el destí final de la ciència dels mars.
El proper 8 de Juny se celebra el Dia Mundial dels Oceans, un dia per a conscienciar a la població de la utilitat del coneixement dels mars. No és hora ja que comencem a estudiar-lo seriosament? Iniciatives com l'Ictineu 3 permetran en el futur estudiar i conèixer el fons dels mars per a aprendre de nosaltres mateixos. Qui sap quins misteris amaga encara el fons marí?
Es fa difícil de dir, però tal com vaticinava la sèrie de televisió SEAQUEST: Sota la superfície hi ha el futur.

The Gods Must be Crazy

Title: The Gods Must be Crazy

Director: Jamie Uys

Writer: Jamie Uys

Year: 1980

Running time: 109 minutes

Country: South-Africa

Plot summary:

The film is a collision of three separate stories—the journey of a Ju/'hoansi bushman to the end of the earth to get rid of a Coca-Cola bottle, the romance between a bumbling scientist and a schoolteacher, and a band of guerrillas on the run.

Xi and his band of San/Bushmen relatives are living well off the land in the Kalahari Desert. They are happy because the gods have provided plenty of everything, and no one in the tribe has unfulfilled wants. One day, a glass Coke bottle is thrown out of an aeroplane and falls to earth unbroken. Initially, this strange artifact seems to be another boon from the gods—-Xi's people find many uses for it. But unlike anything that they have had before, there is only one bottle to go around. This exposes the tribe to a hitherto unknown phenomenon, property, and they soon find themselves experiencing things they never had before: jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, even violence.

Since it has caused the band unhappiness on two occasions, Xi decides that the bottle is an evil thing and must be thrown off of the edge of the world. He sets out alone on his quest and encounters Western civilization for the first time. The film presents an interesting interpretation of civilization as viewed through Xi's perceptions.

There are also plot lines about shy biologist Andrew Steyn (Marius Weyers) who is studying the local animals (which, because of his nervousness around women, he once described as "manure-collecting"); the newly hired village school teacher, a former newspaper reporter named Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo); and some guerrillas led by Sam Boga (Louw Verwey), who are being pursued by government troops after an unsuccessful attempt to massacre the Cabinet of the fictional African country of Burani. Also taking a share of the limelight is Steyn's Land Rover, dubbed the Antichrist (also "son of a mlakka") by his assistant and mechanic, M'pudi (Michael Thys), for its unreliability and constant need of repair. Also part of the chaos is a fresh safari tour guide named Jack Hind (Nic de Jager), who has designs on Thompson and would often steal Steyn's thunder.

Xi happens upon a farm and, being hungry as well as oblivious to the concept of ownership, shoots a goat with a tranquilizer arrow. For this he is arrested and jailed for stealing livestock. M'pudi, who lived with the bushmen for a long time, realizes that Xi will die in the alien environment of a prison cell. He and Steyn manage to hire Xi as a tracker for the 11 weeks of his prison sentence, with the help of M'pudi, who speaks Xi's language. Meanwhile, the guerrillas invade the school where Kate teaches and use her and her pupils as human shields for their escape by foot to the neighboring country. Steyn and Xi manage to immobilize the guerrillas as they are passing by and save Kate and the children. Steyn allows Xi to leave to continue his quest to the edge of the world.

Xi eventually finds himself at the top of a cliff with a solid layer of low-lying clouds obscuring the landscape below. This convinces Xi that he has reached the edge of the world, and he throws the bottle off the cliff. This scene was filmed at a place called God's Window in the then Eastern Transvaal, South Africa (now Mpumalanga). This is at the edge of the escarpment between the Highveld and Lowveld of South Africa. Xi then returns to his band and receives a warm welcome.

© Text and image: Wikipedia

Les Gan du Burkina Faso

Activity: Book presentation

Title: Les Gan du Burkina Faso

Author: Daniela Bagnolo

Place: Fischbacher Art Books, 33 rue de Seine, Paris

Webpage: www.librairiefischbacher.fr

Pages: 176

Price: 35 €

Publisher: Fondation Culturelle Musée Barbier-Mueller

Comments:

In March 2010 was presented the Barbier-Mueller Museum Cultural Foundation with the support of Vacheron Constantin to an audience of special guests and journalists gathered at the Primitive Art Museum on Quai Branly in Paris. The purpose of this foundation is to bear testimony to the forgotten peoples and little-known cultures, and to provide international support for anthropological observatory missions, publications and conferences.

This partnership has given rise to the noteworthy collection of “Métiers d’Art – Les Masques” watches, and expresses the brand’s attachment to the colourful tapestry of the human race, however diverse and remote. This project has already taken the form of sponsoring two studies.

The first one is already published and will be presented next saturday 9th of October at the Fischbacher library in Paris by its author, the italian anthropologist Daniela Bognolo a specialist on Burkina Faso, and deals with a “little-known ethic group”, the Gan.

The second, carried out by Alain-Michel Boyer among the Wan, Mona and Koyaga peoples of central Ivory Coast, should be released by the end of the year.