Social Lives of Places and Things

31 January 2008

Anth 3520

Welcome back!

Plan for class

Admin

Tiny little quiz on Rathje chapters

Discussion Topics: General Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, and Garbage!

Admin/Announcements

Special feature, next week... Marc Lafleur and Nelson Ferguson!

Readings for next week and after reading week will be finalized this afternoon and posted here on this site.

Major Assignment hand out and discuss

Major Assignment Instruction Handout (pdf)

Avoiding plagiarism/using sources correctly (pdf) 

Discussion

Archaeology of the Contemporary Past

    - sites of all kinds

    - garbage!

Last week I asked you to think about: What happens to stuff when we're done using it?

Do the readings and also...  Think about garbage! Pay attention to what you throw out, where you throw it out, why.... just think generally about garbage disposal habits in our society. Come to class ready to talk!

Reading for Today was: William Rathje and Cullen Murphy. 1992. Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage. New York: Harper Collins. Ch 1-4, pp 3-109:  “Yes, Wonderful Things”; “Garbage and History”; “What We Say, What We Do”,  “Into the Unknown”

Discussion notes

Garbage...

- in archaeology (e.g. midden photos): http://www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/tour/plantation1_midden.html

http://www.chippewanaturecenter.com/Oxbow/midden.htm

http://www.stronsay.co.uk/archaeology/1999/days/day14.htm

- cultural attitudes towards garbage

- historical practices concerning garbage

e.g.s

Ronson ship (mentioned p 30-31 in Rubbish!) - important as a colonial merchant ship but also because of the garbage contents...  http://ina.tamu.edu/waterstreet/waterstreet.htm

Stratigraphy: http://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/stratigraphy/INDEX.HTM , http://web.pdx.edu/~b5cs/virtualmeier/site.html

e.g. Troy stratigraphy: http://www.paircreation.com/projects/troyVIroot/html/stratigraphy.html#, http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/blog/classes/greece2005/images/may04_03.jpg

google images:  "midden"  e.g. http://faculty.smu.edu/trick/images/CI%20Shell%20Midden.jpg , http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Oceania/Australia/photo473599.htm

Fresh Kills landfill: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/fkl/fkl2.shtml

closed in 2001... 9/11 http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020909/landfill/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/10/wnyc10.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/10/ixworld.html

http://www.epa.gov/wtc/pictures/pages/13.htm , http://www.voicesofsept11.org/artman/publish/cat_index_57.php , http://www.interfacility.com/personalpages/landfill/freshkills/freshkills.html

Other current garbage issues: Chris Jordan's photography: http://www.chrisjordan.com/

3) NonWestern garbage practices: the Zebbaleen of Cairo as an example of "ragpickers" or grassroots recyclers

Radio documentary: The Garbage People of Cairo http://www.cbc.ca/dispatches/programhighlights.html

http://www.caj.ca/mediamag/awards2004/cajAwards/theAwards/10_conflict/index.html

This radio documentary chronicles the surprising economic rise of one of Egypt's most downtrodden communities -- Cairo's garbage recyclers -- and the recent wave of modernization that is sweeping the city and threatens to wipe out recyclers.

The story unfolds in the largest of a half dozen "garbage villages," located around Cairo's edge. In this tight-knit community, made up primarily of Orthodox Christians, trash has become the fuel for a network of family-run, micro-industries. Close to 50,000 people live off the city's garbage, from transporters, to sorters, to processors who sell the recycled material back to local factories. The Zebbaleen, as the garbage recyclers are known, have become famous in international development circles for their recycling efficiency and entrepreneurial success.

The story highlights how economic success has lead to social changes, especially for the girls in the community. As their families rise above mere subsistence, the girls have become increasingly educated and financially independent, allowing many to break away from the traditional cycle of early marriage and childbirth.

At this point, the story takes a step back and paints a darker background. For all its economic success, the Zebbaleen still live knee-deep in fly-blown decomposing garbage. This medieval squalor has attracted waves of foreign journalists and TV crews, which, in turn, has raised the ire of local city leaders, shamed by the bad publicity.

This leads to the final revelation. The city governor has decided to launch a city-wide, clean-up plan -- contracting out garbage collection to three multinational companies -- that will deny the Zebbaleen access to the valuable recyclables, conceivably destroying their industrial network. At the time of the report, the companies were poised to begin operations.

In many ways, the modernizing plan makes sense. Cairo is a filthy city that desperately needs trained cleaning crews. But it’s also a city steeped in unemployment and crying out for the very entrepreneurship the Zebbaleen have displayed. The report ends by asking whether the recycling community is a natural victim of progress, or whether local leaders might find a way to incorporate the Zebbeleen recycling know-how in the new deal?

How the Story Came Together

While living in Cairo, I read about the Zebbaleen and the multinational contracts from an article in a local English?language weekly, the Cairo Times. The article was light on details, but the concept peaked my interest.

I tracked down an environmental NGO, which had worked with the recycling community and got a first interview with Laila Iskander, an Egyptian environmental consultant who had spent 20 years involved with Zebbaleen women and children. She agreed to take me to the garbage village to visit her projects.

It was an important first contact. Laila had a deep emotional attachment to the community and gave excellent English-language radio interviews. She set my first scenes in the neighborhood, taking me into a school for working boys and describing the street activity, as we drove through the narrow streets.

I returned to the community some days later with another friend of Laila's who volunteers with a development agency that trains girls in making rugs and quilts from rags, and offers the girls literacy training. It was a relaxed place to talk to neighborhood girls about the changes occurring in their lives.

But the NGO schools and workshops were small islands of hygiene and serenity in the larger raucous neighborhood replete with noise and squalor. I needed to capture the wider neighborhood – and that was when the research became more complicated.

The city governor, hoping to avoid further bad publicity about the Zebbeleen villages, had recently prohibited journalists from taking photographs in the neighborhood. I also had to hide my microphone from view when recording in the streets. The NGO workers were very protective of the community and no amount of pleading would convince any of them to walk with me through the streets and introduce me to local residents. I was even chastised for wanting to go alone. I understood their concerns, and tried to be as respectful as possible, but there were still important gaps in the sound and colour I needed to portray the community life.

Eventually I returned with a fearless Egyptian driver/fixer who talked us inside some local homes and businesses, allowing me to see the dark, garbage-filled workspaces and backyard pig stys that are typically Zebbeleen. We were also able to record several emotion-charged interviews with recyclers, who were happy to voice their grievances, given the chance.

Local politicians can be difficult to track down in Egypt. I was fortunate to catch the city governor after seeing a notice that he would be speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce on his modernization plans. I cornered him in the lobby after the lunch speech.

Working at a distance from Canada, I often miss out on the reaction of my audience to my work. My editors were pleased with the story and forwarded a few e-mails to me by enthused listeners. However, the strongest indication I had that the story had made an impression, was when I learned that it had been nominated for a CAJ award.

From http://www.cbc.ca/dispatches/summer2004.html

Cairo; picture a dusty, teeming, shambling, horn-honking metropolis seven times the size of the biggest Canadian city.

And seven times more trash.

But in Egypt -- where everything is an opportunity for somebody -- the things most people throw out are gladly taken in by a scavenging group of Coptic Christians.

They turn trash into cash. That's changed the course of their lives, and vaulted many from poverty.

In the garbage game, the smell of success is not always sweet, but it is profitable -- as we hear in this story from Dispatches contributor Rhoda Metcalfe.The Garbage People Of Cairo won the award for Conflict Analysis from the Canadian Association of Journalists this spring.

Listen to The Garbage People Of Cairo  (16:37)

Other articles on the Zebbaleen: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0106/p07s02-woaf.html

Other recycling systems: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6238105.stm

Looking to recycle computer equipment here in Toronto? http://www.computation.to/index.html

Cell Phones: Coltan, War, Gorillas

http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/congo-coltan.htm

Toronto's Garbage

http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0504/25/B01-161050.htm

http://list.web.net/archives/sludgewatch-l/2004-September/000680.html