Dancing Skeletons Dettwyler Chapter Summaries

DANCING SKELETONS: LIFE AND DEATH IN WEST AFRICA 1.1 In the first chapter, Katherine A. Dettywyler talks about the beginning of her research in Mali. First time that she came to Magnambougou she was a graduate student doing her research on malnutrition and feeding of infants in the area. As that was the focus of her fieldwork, she was often mistaken for a doctor. The story of a woman that asked her for help with her two-years-old son is presented in the introduction. The researcher marked the son as #104, as she tended to number the children, due not only for easiness of following each, but because all the names were repeated within all children and basically most of them carried the same name. K. Dettywyler came back to Mali as an assistant professor of nutritional anthropology, on a scholarship to further work on her research. She was excited to be back, however found that nothing has really changed. Her daughter came to Mali with her, though son and husband had to stay home, since husband had more of an office job, and Peter - the son, had weak immunisation system due to his Down’s syndrome. The author quickly learnt that all of her American friends from the research of six years ago are long gone and went back to the country. Her first concern was finding proper, safe and affordable housing. She asked for help her local friends, one of which - Moussa Diarra, was also her translator. At first, the woman lived in a guesthouse with her daughter, however they managed to find a good house next to the school which the daughter would attend. K. Dettywyler came back to Mali for a few reasons. Firstly, she wanted to check if the malnourished children made any progress, and if were all alive. Secondly, she wanted to gather measurements of other people that she did not meet during her previous visit. Lastly, she wanted to analyze whether intestinal parasites are really the main cause for malnutrition, which was a belief in Magnambougou. The importance of greetings above all other human interactions within Malians is mentioned in the chapter. The higher the social status, the longer greeting is expected, as it shows respect. When the woman finally arrived to the house of #104, the mother was rather not surprised to see her, as if she was gone for a few weeks, not years, and women chatted for a bit. 1.2 I find the story of Katherine A. Dettywyler really interesting. I think that personal journals that have some subjectivity in them are a better way to understand cultures than purely objective reports. After all, if we learn about humans, we should have some other human’s insight into it, and we can still make our own choices on what to think, whether to agree or disagree with the author. It is inspiring for me how a young graduate student can be so engaged in their studies and carry out their research so well that they receive a scholarship to continue their work. It is a bit of shocking for me, however, that she took her young daughter with her. Not as much in 1989, when Miranda was nine, but especially when she was an infant. After all, Mali is far from safe, clean country which K. Dettywyler admits herself in the first chapter. On the other hand, when it comes to the next visit, I see it as a good opportunity for the young daughter to learn about the world. I believe that alone mother-daughter time can be advantageous for both, especially if they only have each other while being so far from home. Yet, I would still be scared as a mother that she might get some virus and fall into a disease which will not be easy to cure in the developing country. It is hard to me to imagine she had to leave her husband and a very young son for half a year. The chapter was a good introduction to the story, as it not only introduced the topic, but told me a lot about the author, her thoughts and opinions, which I believe are incredibly useful and got me even more into the story. It is also significant to learn from anthropologist ’s perspective especially in early studies of anthropology, when I have hard time shaping my own thoughts on different anthropological matters. 2.1 The second chapter begins with two stories that resulted in death by mosquitos. First story is about a volunteer, Kay who died of malaria on the way to see a doctor. The second death was not directly caused by the mosquitoes. It is about Mickey, engineer in Mali, who had hepatitis. Wrongly diagnosed with malaria and being prescribed wrong medicine, his liver was destroyed and he died in Paris soon after that. The author says that at first her and her husband were supposed to do research in Nuba Mountains is Sudan. However, once they got to Cairo, it was extremely busy due to Ramadan, and they could not travel further with a small child as transportation was overcrowded and took many hours. They got back to Delaware, where their friends who worked and lived in Mali 8 advised them to carry out the research in there and offering their help. Important thing about anthropologists that has to be remembered from the chapter is that they should live like the people that they study. However, the author confronts this belief at the end saying that she simply could not live like a Mali woman, as she would have no time for her priority - the research. There is a bit of geographical background of Mali - it is on a dessert, during summers there is barely any humidity and it is very hot, which can lead to dehydration, Bamako, the capital is mostly composed of mud huts with only a few real buildings. Mali people include many different ethnic groups such as Bambara, Tamasheq or Dogon. The people are typically poor. In Magnambougou, the lived in compounds - houses that were meant mainly for sleeping, as other activities took place outdoors. In the compounds, each women had to have own room. There was no electricity nor water, and only some had kitchen. Polygynous marriages were popular, and men were definitely superior to women, who stayed uneducated their whole lives. Medicines were expensive and hospital was too far to walk for the inhabitants. Most popular diseases included measles, malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and polio. When it comes to malaria, adults and other children were in bigger danger of the disease turning fatal than small children. Malnourished children also had better immunity as their red blood cells were weaker. 2.2 In this chapter, I definitely learned more about the author and her previous visit i the city of Magnambougou. It gave me more insight of how the journey must have been hard for her and her husband. Two young graduate students, traveling to Africa for fieldwork to earn their doctorates, and brining their small daughter with them. I felt especially uneasy about it when K. Dettywyler talked about the conditions they experienced. In Cairo, where it was overcrowded and everyone experience lack of food due to Ramadan. The long flights from Delaware to Africa must have been terrible for little Miranda. I think the conditions in which Mali people live are dreadful, and I cannot believe they were no changes introduced within many years. The mud houses with no water nor electricity, the dirt and the smell. They all seem inhuman to me. What I found as the hardest information to cope with in this chapter was the horrible medical position of the country. The medicines that cannot be afforded by majority of the population, a hospital which is not easily accessible and many deaths, especially of young, innocent children all have a huge impact on me, as I strongly believe health is the most important value in lives and everyone deserves to be treated from any disease with any medicine that could help, free of expense. 3.1 In the third chapter the author talks about a very important practice of the Malians circumcision. Children are usually circumcised at the very young age, when they are about half a year old. Katherine A. Dettywyler does not support it at first and is thrilled once she finds out all girls are circumcised, but finally she accepts it. Female circumcision in Mali culture is quite scary the edges of labia majora in women’s clitoris are cut and stitched to prevent sexual intercourse. Once a woman gets married, the scar tissue is opened to allow her and her husband for the intercourse and therefore the conception of children, which is extremely important in their culture. This practice has its religious explanation according to many ethnicities. However, the inhabitants of Magnambougou do not believe in it. They circumcise children because of tradition - they are used to doing so. Sexual intercourse is viewed as woman’s duty to her husband. When asked, it seems like the women do not understand what sexual pleasure or foreplay are. In their belief, woman doe snot have to enjoy the intercourse, and they have more important things to worry about. That again, shows how men were superior to the women. Katherine A. Dettywyler talks about an older woman, the Fat Lady, as she calls her. She got interest in the author’s research and the two quickly became friends. The Fat Lady could not understand why the author does not have a son the first time she came to the city. For Malians, children should be born after another, and there has to be at least one son - for the husband. Children are nursed only until 2 years old. Longer breastfeeding leads to mental illness, according to Mali belief. Another interesting fact is that the more obese women, the better. Obese women are seen as healthy and sexy, and prove that their husbands supports the family well. The story of Dauda, a young son of the Fat Lady’s servant is described at the end of the chapter. He is a malnourished child. Even though the author tries to help the mother and advises her to feed Dauda a little better, the woman does not change her feeding practices. The author learns that the mother has memory problems and as the Fat Lady says - is stupid. At the very end, it comes out that woman is mentally ill and the author learns 8 to set priorities, and save time and energy by not getting too involved in some people’s lives while doing her research - not everyone can be helped. 3.2 So far, this chapter gave me the most various feelings. Firstly, I was shocked and agitated when reading about the circumcision practices in Mali. It seems horrible to me, especially now that I know how medical care looks like in that country. I just cannot imagine how the little children are circumcised. Probably I am in just as big shock as the woman that talked with Katherine A. Dettywyler and found out girls’ circumcision is rather odd in the America. It still is fascinating for me how a culture can be so different than from what we know in modern days. Women do not have any power, men are superior to them, and they decide about the lives of females. They should be obese, always available for men and work hard. I do not approve it and it is even hard for me to imagine. The way the story of Dauda and his mother is told, I find it a little funny and extremely interesting. It was the most enjoyable part of this chapter for me. The story is told from a subjective point of view, parts of which are humorous and it is light to read, even though the topic is rather serious. I read it and felt as if I was just there, and could see the researcher’s surprised or mad face when she was trying to do something to improve Dauda’s health. There is a lot of personal insight from the author, and that makes the book way easier and more interesting to read. I can tell that K. A. Dettywyler was very involved in her topic and greatly engaged with the inhabitants of Magnambougou, even though it is clear she did not always understand or approve the beliefs in their culture. 4.1 In this chapter, Heather Katz is introduced as Katherine A. Dettywyler’s research assistant. Author talks about the public transportation in Mali - the baches, small pick-up trucks that can fit up to 20 people on their wooden benches, plus babies and resources. A boy that always sits next to the driver collects fares and lets the driver know where to let someone off. It is easy to get robbed there so women do not carry purses with them. The money is knotted to some kind of clothing and therefore paying always takes up some time. Mali is a poor country, with a lot of beggars on the streets. To prevent the crush of beggars, every person chooses their own leper whom they always give money, so other beggars do not bother them. In Malian culture it is important to attain grace; either by giving aim to beggars, blind and mothers of twins, or by showing respect towards the elderly - paying their fares on beaches, bowing heads or even dropping to knees. The main purpose of the recreates was to find out whether intestinal parasites are the main cause of poor children growth. K. Dettywyler comes to Magnambougou with bottles for feces, collects specimen, goes to Bamako to leave them at the Vet Lab and comes back to Magnambougou with more bottles. She collected 64 bottles of specimen, but only 4 showed presence of intestinal parasites. Instead, it was found that Schitso is a disease that almost everyone has. It usually develops in children, who play in the river. It is hard for Malians to tell if someone is sick, as they do not flush toilets or use diapers - they usually just use the pits or bush. 4.2 In this chapter I got more engaged in the story. The examples of Aminata or Mousse’s nephew that were real gave the story more credibility, which made it more interesting. The public transportation in Mali is so unusual and different from what I know. I cannot imagine 20 people plus babies and resources on a pick-up truck. It seems unrealistic for me. I thought it is quite funny how Malians are so relaxed about the bodily functions and very open about them. They are straightforward, and are nor ashamed of things. I think it is strange how people pick their one beggar instead of helping a bit everyone. I think it is horrible how the living conditions in Mali, dirty water and poor healthcare all contribute to so many deaths of children. It is terrifying that it is okay to ask parents whether their child is alive. It makes me upset thinking about so many children who are fatally sick, and how their parents do not pay attention to change it - just because they cannot imagine life without the river. 5.1 In this chapter, we are introduced to women’s daily routines. They seem to be busier then the men, always having plenty of things to do in their families. Women hope to have daughters first, as they are more helpful in the households than boys. As soon as they grow a little, they help their mothers with preparing food and other responsibilities. If a man has few wives, they all take turns and divide works between each other. The author talks about her routine - she would go to the 8 village for the research, come back to Moussa’s house for lunch, and get back to the village to do some more work. As Katherine A. Dettywyler has to gather information on eating practices, she interviews women about the food they prepare. She asks them what would they do if they got more money to spend in the market, however they do nit understand the concept of imaginary money. They believe that the money they get is enough to feed the family. There is no need for them to eat more or healthier, from what they say. The author learns that children are malnourished not because of the poverty. The second part of the chapter is sacrificed for describing the market. Important quality of the Malians is proper negotiations while shopping. Things do not have fixed prices. One rule of shopping are the discounts, which sellers offer to customers in exchange for their future loyalty. Second rule says that wealthy people, and therefore white people - toubabs have to pay more. Another rule says that there should always be a compromise found, and negotiations come with respect towards each other. 5.2 It is very interesting to learn that the Malians eat with fingers. Except only that, I think it is a bit odd that they have to eat using right hand, after all I would not think it matters that much in African cultures whether someone is left or right-handed. The story of a woman that did not understand the concept of imaginary money was sort of funny for me. It seems crazy that they cannot think of things they would spend money for if they got more. What is more shocking is that they do not see their food practices as anything wrong. So much malnutrition and yet they seem to be blind to it. I would expect that the first thing they would do if they had more money is improvement of their diets. However, surprisingly enough they do not see anything that could be improved there - no one is really starving, in their interpretation. 6.1 In the sixth chapter, Katherine A. Dettywyler furthers her research and takes it to a new level. She meets Kathleen and Bakary from AMIPJ, who work together in order to prevent hunger and provide employment in Mali. They ask her for help to understand the malnutrition problem and come up with ways to stop it. The author decides to agree on the extra work. She even makes a decision that she will be doing it for free, if transportation, setting up interviews and measurement in the villages are granted and she will be able to use the collected data in her own project. When the author meet Bakary, she talks about joking relationships which are a significant part of Malians culture - people there love to laugh and insult one another for a good cause. Katherine A. Dettywyler tells her new partners in research that the best way to prevent malnutrition is through education, not immunisations and health programs. People are not educated about diseases, the danger associated with them and the prevention of them. The author leaves her daughter with an English family and goes to real African villages, to carry out the research. The first village she visits is Dogo, where she finds a girl with Kwashiorkor, a rare disease in this part of the continent. Later, she visits two another villages and she learns another, different system for using the toilets. People in the villages expect the author to carry medicines for all diseases with her everywhere and they are surprised when she tells them food is the medicine. Finally, Katherine A. Dettywyler decided to come back to the villages and carry out more research with her daughter, as she was leaving the village. 6.2 I thinks is is very smart of the author to bring medicines with her everywhere in Mali, where medicine is such a problem and people suffer from diseases on daily basis. It is popular that people bring sweets, clothes and food, but I have never heard of medicines. However I think it is extremely intelligent and a good way, but also an easy one, to help Malians. The thing that was most shocking for me is that they actually have TVs. It just seems crazy considering so many better ways to spend their money, especially if they have so little. I really respect Katherine A. Dettywyler as an anthropologist. She learns about the culture, visits the villages and while is very reflective and describes her thoughts about every subject, practice or any event, she seems to stay unbothered. She interviews the people about whatever she needs to find out. Such engagement in one’s job is one of the most respectable characteristic of humans, according to me. 7.1 On the second day of carrying the research with AMIPJ, the truck that the team traveled with had an accident, which belated the project. When they finally arrived at Torokono, the tiny village of only 80 people, they ate and began the measurements. The author describes more about the family’s structure. It comes out that most men actually have 1 or 2 wives, even though Islam allows 8 maximum of 4 wives. However, the most significant rule is that all wives have to be treated equally. Since not all men can afford to keep big families, the amount of wives is relatively smaller compared to other Muslim countries. However, each woman still has a lot of children. Typically about 6/8, while about as many die because of diseases and malnutrition. That is because the more children one has, the more successful they are. Breastfeeding and sleeping with mothers at young age is definitely one of the main practices of the Bambara people. The author expresses her approval of that by the use of medical data on the topic. Everyone, from infants to adults wear amulets that ward off the evil spirits. Additionally, small children wear jewellery, and other than that they are usually naked. Older Malians are found wearing either traditional clothing or shirts with American logos. As people in such a tiny village mostly never encountered with toubabs, they were very curious and children were scared. The author mentions that most malnourished children look the same once they grow up a bit, if they manage to survive. The next village the anthropologist visits in this chapter is Merediela. As the team arrives, the meeting is organised during which the villagers are questioned about the feeding practices. The author is shocked to learn that children who do not grow up, obviously because of the diseases, are believed to be evil spirits. The families lose them purposely in the bush, where the children presumably turn into snakes. 7.2 I do not really agree with the author when she talks about the benefits of breastfeeding a child and sleeping of infants with their parents. I think is is very subjective, especially nowadays with all technology. Sometimes the mothers cannot breastfeed because of many various reasons and I believe that the substitutes in the stores are not harmful, nor any worse than milk directly from the mothers.In modern world, I think that it is also safer for an infant to sleep by itself. The baby should be placed near their parents, but sleeping with them does not sound safe, taking the weights differences between the humans and their little offsprings. The jewellery on little children also seems a little odd for me, however I understand that it is a completely different culture. I agree with the author that it is crazy how sick children are believed to be evil spirits and parents feel like they need to leave them in the bush, where they obviously die. The author is having a hard time dividing her learning between being a human and an anthropologist and I can perfectly understand that. She is both curious and terrified about their practices. I can try to imagine that, however I am more on the side that believes some of their practices are inhuman. 8.1 The measurements in Merediela took place in the village’s schoolhouse. Interesting fact is that education is mostly for adults, and educating children seems like a foreign concept to the people. The author after taking the measurements tries to check the teeth of the people and search for the third morals, which are believed to be only in the mouths of humans with bigger jaws, those who are less developed. However, the author leans that brushing teeth is not a popular practice in this particular village. The odour from the mouths of Malians discourages her to check the jaws any further. In other villages, people paid attention to the teeth and used sticks from certain trees to clean their mouth, however this was not practiced in Merediela. We learn about a boy who damaged his leg b recklessly riding the bike with his father and experienced gangrene poisoning. The parents of the kid do not understand the importance of life and do not see why should the leave to see a doctor, if they cannot really afford it. Finally, the author convinces the father saying that if they do not see one, the results will be fatal for the young boy. The author talks more about the feeding of children. The villagers do not seem to understand that children can die so easily of malnutrition and the varied diet is significant in development during young ages. Malians believe that children should decide themselves when, what and how much they want to eat. They also think that the better, healthier food is only for elderly - there is no need to give it to the children, who do not appreciate it enough. Injections are mostly performed orally, and the damages of them are extremely dangerous to the population. Since the doctors are not educated enough it seem stop be an often problem. Katherine A. Dettywyler finds a child with Down’s syndrome and calls her an angel. The parents do not see what is different about their child from the others. 8.1 The approach of the author towards mouth hygiene problems of the villagers seems a bit ignorant for me. She is engaged greatly in her work and I would think she wants to do everything to help the people and stays focuses on her work. Therefore, her reaction to the smell from the people’s mouth is a bit disappointing for me. As much as I understand that the door could be just 8 too much, it was part of her job. However, I really admire the way in which she talks to the people convincing them about the importance of life, on an example of the boy who damaged his leg on the bicycle. She suggests a solution - seeing a doctor, but is stubborn and if she sees lack of cooperation from the other side - the boy’s father, she becomes straight forward and sharp in her words. It seems to have an immediate effect on the people, who are strongly convinced in their belief that probably things are not as bad as they seem and death is not that scary to them. I have a feeling like the reflection at the end of the chapter is a significant part for the book, but mainly for the author herself. As she meets a child with Down’s syndrome and realizes that the others do not see her as much different from the rest, she gets upset about Peter. While there’s freedom of help and training for children with this disease in developed countries, there is freedom of not being judged and viewed as worse in Mali. 9.1 In this chapter, the author travels to the next village - Famabougou. She stays in the compound of the village chief with her teammates. In the time of measurements, the author learns that almost everyone have one of two surnames. Since the Malians cannot marry a person from their clan, the chance they will end up with the next most popular surname in the village is quite big. Remembering the experienced from Merediela, she does not look at adults’ teeth, but continuos checking the jaws of children. The children look way younger that they actually are, which can only be told by their teeth development or form the birth certificates. It is because they are malnourished. And since most of the children experience poor nutrition, it seems to be a standard. People do not expect the children to be any bigger as that is the size they are used to seeing - the size their child should be, in their perspective. The author gets to measure a hunter, which is giving chills everyone in the room. As author claims, there is something magical and scary at the same time about them. After the measurements, the hosts feed their guests and it is extremely unpolluted to refuse. Feeding the visitors is a tradition and obligation, and refusal is not accepted kindly. The author however does not eat and restricts her daughter from doing so. The food was prepared in the morning and waited for them the whole day, in high temperatures. Curious Miranda asks her mother why do the others eat but they cannot. The author explains that the Malians are so used to bacteria that they will not bother them, while it can have dangerous consequences for Americans. Another interesting fact that is said in the chapter is the visibility of all the stars during the night, when Katherine A. Dettywyler leaves the compound after hearing the drummers. She does not approach them as that could be unkind, but stares at the many stars in the sky. Next village visited is Dogo, bigger than the previous villages. There is a huge iodine deficiency and everyone experiences goiters. The health centre agent does not see the problem when author asks him about what are his ways to fight this. At the end the author talks about few more differences in gender roles - including how only women can cook, but only men can sew. 9.2 A very important part of this chapter is the toughness of anthropologist’s job. They can never be fully prepared for what will come across them. No matter how many books they have read, how many cases they studied and how big part of the world they have seen - there are always so many new things to learn and observe. I think it is ignorant of the author to reject food from the hosts. Since she is aware that it is hosts’ responsibility and pleasure to feed their guests, I think there is another way in which she could solve the problem,even if she was not hungry, by being polite and finding an understanding. She could eat only a little or explain herself the situation. It seems like a slight offence towards the Malian culture, just rejecting the food and sending someone else to talk with the host and refuse the meal. Food is such an important resource in Mali that it was simply a waste, and as nutritional anthropologist, the author should come up with another solution. 10.1 Steven comes to visit Katherine A. Dettywyler and their daughter after 4 months of not seeing each other. Peter has to stay with the grandmother back at hime. To show Steven the real Africa, the author takes him on a few days trip around the villages she has visits before for research. This time, she will visit the same places, but for pleasure. In Dogo, they stayed at Falaye’s compound. The villagers danced for their guests in the night, when it was dark and dusty. The Malians have their own, African style of dancing and dance being an important part of their culture, every village has a dance ground. A lot of people of different age groups were dancing. There were drummers, and the people sang about their traditional practices and the anthropologist job. What the author could not get rid of is the ability of seeing the goiters in everyone. As people started to get tired, 8 they began to sit down, one by one. Miranda slept through the whole show, exhausted after the day. Two men dancing at the end tried to wake her up and get her attention but she was deeply in her sleep. The next day, when her husband and Tom, the roommate left to take a walk, the author educated the animatrices: Falaye and Bakary about malnutrition and the results of her research. Steve loved the adventure and found huge millet fields and tunnels in the ground that interconnected somewhere. The next village they visited was N’tenkoni, where they stayed at animatrice’s , Tiedo Ba’ compound. It was dark and dusty in the night. visited a maternity clinic - all that could be found was a mat, and a birthing kit that did not look safe. Surprisingly, only one mother was lost through all the births given in the village in the last 30 years. Killing the baby to save mother’s life is a foreign concept. During karite time, men worked on fields, while women performed much harder job, according to Katherine A. Dettywyler. They collected the nutmeats, pounded them and did all the other necessary activities to produce the karate butter, which is white vegetable oil used by the Malians. Dettywyler talks about how breasts of African women sag much more then those of women from other cultures, not because of the many children they have, but because of many years of pounding millet and chopping firewood, and not access to bras. The author and her husband collect door locks and they find a new one in N’tenkoni, however Tom finds a prettier, more unique one and he buys it, which upsets the couple, who believe that he will not appreciate it as much as they would. 10.2 I can only imagine how happy the author and her daughter were when they finally got to see their husband and dad after four months or separation. I can feel the excitement of Katherine A. Dettywyler as she took her husband around the villages and he got to see the real Africa thanks to her. I think it is very welcoming of the Malians how they danced for their guests and took effort to make them feel like at home in another culture. Again, I think it is incredible how much job is done by women in that country. They seem to care about everything and I would even go as far as thinking that they are treated like slaves by their culture - they need to give birth, take care of the children, of the house, cook and in the meantime perform various jobs that require lots of energy, such as pounding karite that is described in the chapter. It both amazes me - the strength of the women, but at the same time it is scary. Taking the treatment of women in Africa, it is surprising for me how the author seems to be in power that is accepted from all the men that engage with her. 11.1 In this chapter the author and her husband get back to Bamako, where Garry Cashion awaits them. He is the person that introduced the couple to Mali years ago. After meeting with him, Steven leaves, and she gets back to research in Magnambougou. She takes the measurements at school. Katherine A. Dettywyler and her team measure the children grade by grade. In lower grades, the proportion of boys to girls was about equal, however as the graded went up, there was less and less of girls. The author explains that for Malians it was stupid to invest in girls only for them to become wives and mothers in the future. The girls were needed for help sooner than boys. The average age for starting the school was 8 years, however sometimes children would go to school sooner or later. Official language taught at the school was French. The classes varied in sizes. After measurements were taken, K.A. Dettywyler began working on the report about Dogo. She learns more about Bambara culture later on, when they go around in a car, and about the uniqueness of their sayings which make sense only to the people of this culture and not to the others. The saying says “Don’t say you’re hungry when it’s time to go to bed”, which means to plan ahead. In Mali, if someone wants to eat before bedtime, one has to decide much earlier, since it takes long to cook rice and millet. Later, the author visits a friend in Bamako - Sue Hammerton, a nurse. Before leaving North, she also visits Ami - the only healthy girl within her siblings in Magnambougou, that has a special meaning to Katherine A. Dettywyler. She sees the girl as an anti-depression medicine, since she is so happy and cheerful despite all the diseases in her family. 11.2 I was very surprised to find out that children have to wear school uniforms at school. In Mali, where they all either have traditional clothes or shirts with American logos from donations, it would seem impossible to enforce the uniforms at school, especially if most children still attend it. I was also shocked to learn that there are women who sell food outside of school to the students. Firstly, I can guess that partially the women sellers have their children at school because of high fertility 8 rates. I would not think that parents have enough money to give it to the children so they can get lunch during breaks at school. 12.1 The project for AED continues. This time the anthropologists are on their way to Macina to analyse the vitamin A deficiency. From the very first paragraphs of the chapter we learn that the anthropologist view people differently and see the diseases, nutrition practices or asymmetrical sizes right away. As they are not able to turn it of, sometimes gives them traumas and dramatic experiences. In Macina the CARE program focuses on sanitation and illness prevention. They believe that safe drinking water is the key for health improvement in the area. They also immunise pregnant women and children against most common diseases. Another thing that the organization is taking care of is birth hygiene, sanitation of both villages and household and homemade ORS medicine to treat diarrhoea. CARE is a program that sends a representative; the animatrice to a village who teaches the villagers about the health practices. Each village forms Village Health Committee that continues those efforts after the CARE’s animatrice leaves. Once the village is fully independent, the ceremony takes place and the animatrice does not have to visit the village any longer. Everyone was in festive mood since such a celebration was taking place. However, as the physical anthropology, Katherine A. Dettywyler could not help but see dancing skeletons instead of dancing children. She could clearly see the rib bones and wondered how do they have so much energy for dances. Facing strong emotions at that moment, the author left celebration. She took a walk around the village, but there was barely anyone since most people took part in the festive. The author started thinking about the material things, what people of the village possessed and what could survive years from then and be found by future anthropologists. As the chapter ends, the team is getting back and Katherine A. Dettywyler points out that she doe snot really see improvement and the purpose of the CARE programs since the children are still malnourished, and die out of poor nutrition She believes that the feeding education is most important to improve the lifestyle of Malians. She is thinking inside her mind about al the different cultures Mali has - is there any program that could be invented so it would fit all? 12.2 I think that this chapter is the most important one so far. It explains the title of the book dancing skeletons refers to the energetic children who look so weak it is unimaginable where they get all power from. It is hard for me to believe that the whole country is filled with malnourished children. When I try to portray this, I see a horror - it is scary for me, and I start to think why is the world so unfair. On the other hand, the people do not see anything wrong with being so skinny. But again - it just seems wrong. So many deaths of young children happen because of poor feeding practices and it is only upsetting. However, I feel like the author is being ignorant at the end of their trip, when she says that CARE programs are not helpful and does not seem to see the point behind them. I agree with her view that nutrition education is important as that would not only improve the physical features of the people, but also their immune systems and the number of diseases would drop down a lot. But, I believe that any attempt to improve the living conditions in developing countries counts a lot and helps, even if it is only on small scale. That’s why I find it upsetting how Katahrine A. Dettywyler does not seem to appreciate the efforts of CARE. 13.1 This chapter is the end of Katherine A. Dettywyler’s visit to Mali. Her daughter, Miranda, is sick of malaria and ends up in the hospital. Nothing seems to be helping her and the author eggs God for Miranda’s health. She is reflecting about high mortality rates of children in Mali, how every mother loses her own children and she tries to understand it - she cannot imagine what would happen if she was to lose Miranda. As chloroquine did not help her, the doctor admits he has never seen anything like that which makes the author panic a little more. At first, she was tyyaing home with her daughter, however they had to visit Embassy almost everyday to check up on Miranda, who was getting even weaker. Finally, she was introduced to Quinimax - her last chance. In the meantime, K. A. Dettywyler tells stories about interviews she had with Malian mothers about their children’s deaths. Each had lost so many during birth or in the young age, and they do not even count abortions. In Mali death is a part of life - everyone is exposed to it, and everyone has experience death in their family and within their close friends. The only way to get through this is laugh. If they cannot laugh, they would cry and the whole country would be exposed to depression. Women do not have a choice - they give birth to as many children as their husband wants, and marry the man chose by her parents. Katherine A. Dettywyler wonders if the reason why women 8 seem so unbothered about the deaths of their offspring is because they in fact did not really want the children at first place.On the other hand, in Malian culture it is inappropriate to cry in public, which may also be a reason behind it. Moussa admit that many people cry inside their hearts, and inside their house - alone. The author is also thinking why so many children die - is it about not having enough available food, not enough money or ignorance towards the diseases. She concludes that nutrition education is the key to health improvement. At the end of the chapter, Miranda is feeling better. 13.2 I see this chapter as a comparison of American and African women. Their approaches to life, death, their children, families and duties. As the story of Miranda’s struggle with malaria intersects with the interviews about children deaths with many mothers conducted by the author, the differences are extremely visible. As her own child is in danger and nothing seems to help her, Katherine A. Dettywyler makes largest efforts to make sure she survives the disease and ends up all healthy. She cannot imagine what would happened if her beloved daughter was to die - what would she say to her husband, how could she come back to the USA and how could she live with that. In the meantime, she talks about the many interviews she conducted with the mothers of dead children. She realizes how fragile life is and how the meaning of it changes depending on culture. This chapter made me think a lot about life and death, and the different societies and the expected reactions to a big taboo of modern countries - the death. 14.1 This is the last chapter of the book. Katherine A. Dettywyler and her daughter get back to their home. Peter didn't recognize his mother and the author speculates that he was thinking she just spent half a year on the plane. Miranda fully recovered from malaria and gained weight which she lost during the disease. The author goes back to teaching at Texas A&M, while continuing work with Freedom From Hunger in Dogo arrondissement. Bakary and his staff formed organization that focuses on education activities , and author feels like her lessons to them were worthy. She analyzes and publishes her research from the trip. Her and Steven got a third child and Moussa mails K.A. Dettywyler saying he is all fine. 14.2 To summarize the book, I believe it was a very important case study in the anthropology classes. I hold to my thought from the beginning of the book - the subjectivity in this case made the story much more interesting, gave something to compare to and made the research seem more human. The book made me feel all kinds of things and I feel like my perception of the world, the cultures and the values such as life, death and social conflicts has grown on a large scale. 8