Talk:Danakil Depression

Photo of Afar nomad

Kudos to the people who have greatly improved this article! However, the photo of the Afar nomad troubles me, because I have the sense that we're exoticizing him from a standpoint of being culturally dissimilar to him — in other words, I feel like it's rather ethnocentric and possibly racist to seem to stare and point at him. Would we include a photograph of a "typical American" in the United States of America guide? If not, why should we include a photo of an Afar man in this article, even if it's a good photo and he's a good-looking man? Ikan Kekek (talk) 07:55, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

I tend to agree with you, plus even if we were going to put a picture of a local, there is no good reason for it to be a black-and-white picture from the 50s. Texugo (talk) 10:14, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Texugo. If no-one pipes up to defend the image, I plan on removing it within a day or two. Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:53, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

An Afar nomad of the 1950s

I thought there was a policy of not using images of identifiable living people (maybe I'm confused and read it on Wikipedia instead)? The image that was removed is of a man in middle age who, if still alive, would look very different now at age 100+, so it may not be easy to find a replacement colour picture dating back before 1949. --118.93.67.66 10:11, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

OK, I've found it now: wv:selfie --118.93.67.66 10:22, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

The shortcut, wv:selfie, was prematurely deleted 22:39, 17 November 2013 (UTC). The relevant policy was Wikivoyage:Image_policy#People_in_photos --118.93nzp (talk) 06:32, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

[Edit conflict]I don't see any important reason to have any replacement image. We don't have images of "an American suburbanite" in the guide to the US, nor of "a Parisian man" in the guide to France. Why would we treat the Afar region differently? In terms of policy relating to people in images on this site, you can refer to discussion at Talk:Africa#Photo of witchdoctor. I didn't object to that photo because it is showing a person in a particular role rather that objectifying someone because of ethnicity. Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:26, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Bartering with locals

That's mentioned as possible. But what goods would they want in the transaction? A suggestion of bartering without specifics seems odd. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:47, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

I assume bargaining was meant and changed the phrasing accordingly. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:57, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

The Russian Wikivoyage article which I translated the text from says "Spontaneous trade in all sorts of things in street markets is widespread." when Google translating and " Natural trade of all sorts of things in street markets is widespread." when using the translating feature in the Safari browser.

As the villages/settlements seem to be very small (on satellite images in Google maps there are just a few houses if even that), I think there aren't any organized marketplaces that one would find in a town with perhaps a few hundred or a few thousand people. Then it's also a remote part of a developing country, so I could imagine it's common to exchange, say a pair of sunglasses for a jar that will make an unique souvenir if your tour visits a village. --Ypsilon (talk) 12:08, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

OK, no problem to change it back to "bartering," but with some remarks about what kinds of goods might be desired. Ikan Kekek (talk) 14:19, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Unfortunately the original article didn't give any details. It could actually be a whole range of things; "cool western stuff" like clothing with different sports brands' logos, toys, tools, kitchen utensils, some canned food that you can buy in the capital, maybe also tobacco and alcohol... --Ypsilon (talk) 15:21, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

We could clarify the meaning by adding the phrasing "bartering any goods they may find interesting." I'll try my hand at it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:32, 12 March 2023 (UTC)