Week One (of something different) the beginning of our blog

I want to thank you all for being so patient with me. I know how difficult it can be to have to begin with a new professor in mid semester, especially one that is not a Borneo expert! Unfortunately, life is never predictable, and so we must cope with changing circumstances and continue on with what is in front of us. While I cannot give you the hands on in-depth Borneo experience that you had with Dr, Fidler, I will do my best to guide you through the readings and help you to understand the material within a broader anthropological context.
I have been reading your papers. They are very interesting and informative,and most of you appear to have a good understanding of the interworkings of Malay, Chinese and Iban cultures, what a fascinating place Borneo is!
I am trying to get my hands on some visuals, but as I mentioned in class, there simply is not much out there! I met with the reference librarian and we conducted a very broad search, so far no luck, but I am still trying!
HOWEVER- there are quite a few internet sites of interest, some with videos.
I will see about our using the library classrooms, I do not know the policy there. If we cannot go there I will order a laptop projector for this coming Thurs.
Someone in class mentioned a site where the National Geographic series "Taboo" could be downloaded. Please send me the link!
And for those of you who missed class, here is what we did and what you will need to do to catch up:

I asked everyone in class to spend about thirty minutes writing out what you have learned so far this semester, and what each of you found most interesting or compelling. I did not give any specifics for how to do this but I did suggest that one way could be to begin with the land (geography, climate, orientation, neighbors, etc) and peoples (various etnicities, in particular Iban, Chinese and Malay) adaptation to the land and relations to one another. VERY BROAD! If you were not in class to complete this assignment, please bring it to me on Tues.

Readings: Dr. Fidler's article, "Changes in Chinese Kinship" is on electronic reserve, as is "The Patriarch". The others, Ryan's "Malay", "Chinese" and Beavitt's "Ngayap" are available from me in hard copy form. If you choose to take the older marked uped copies you can keep the articles, otherwise I would like the copies returned at semeater's end.

For Tues: be sure to have read Sutlive, 37-60 and 171-190, the Beavitt article, and Fidler. Begin Ryan's "Malay" article.

We will continue with kinship and family life on Tues. You were asked to make a kinship diagram of your own family and to be prepared to discuss it on Tues.