Once upon a time, Sophia Balakian was a doctoral student at the University of Illinois. Once upon a time, I was (with Ellen Moodie) her co-advisor. We have…
There’s been a lot of commentary written about the tragic Brown and MIT shootings the past two weeks. As we struggle to process the traumas, the anthropologist in…
It’s so easy to see our enemies as — well, enemies. What does it take to re-see them as human? Late in life, Erika Jacoby and Ursula Martens…
Source here I get why social justice-oriented college students are furious with Israel. (I am, too.) I get why they are protesting to support Palestinians’ right to an…
That the deaths of civilians killed by the IDF targeting Hamas leaders, command centers, and weapons caches are tragedies. That the continuing occupation of the West Bank and…
Ours was not an ordinary friendship. Race, class, religion, citizenship, educational background, and (for fourteen years) parental status divided us. Language brought us together. Curiosity and inte…
Just when you think you know what day it is, along comes this research on the ancient Mayan calendar. By fifth grade, most schoolchildren know that a week…
Many non-Western epistemologies and healing systems have long posited close ties between mind, body, and emotion. Or, rather, these outlooks have categorized as a single feedback loop what…
YES to far more sensible gun-purchase background checks and restrictions. YES to more comprehensive mental health treatment options. Credit: pikisuperstar via www.freepik.c…
It turns out, the first complete sentence ever written by a human, at least as of what we know now, concerned hair. New archaeological evidence — discovered in…
The notion of a “theory” comes from science. As such, the term conveys all the legitimacy upon which the scientific method relies. It should not be tossed around…
The last time I heard anyone utter the name, Przemysl, I must have been ten or eleven years old. In his thickly Yiddishized English, my maternal grandfather must…
I began interviewing authors of fabulous new anthropology books for this space back in 2016. While completing 11 interviews, I also amassed a backlog of more terrific books…
“Tails” side of the new U.S. quarter featuring Maya Angelou The new Maya Angelou quarter is a symbol, yes. But not “just” a symbol. Because, symbols matter. If…
Source here. Educators are wringing their hands these days about how much students have “fallen behind” the past year. News story after news story laments a year of…
What if a country had a great public health system? What if that country had a veritable army of public health nurses? What if those public health nurses…
This past month, the swans have taken up residence in our local cove, for the first time in the six summers we’ve lived here. What could be a…
We needed to find a new plumber. I called around. The first business that seemed willing to clean our boiler and replace a problematic hose spigot had availability…
Weeding is an exercise in anthropology. How do we know what’s a weed? The great French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, organized his 80-year career around one foundational principle: R…
What can anthropology contribute to the critical conversation about race in America, following the welcome jury decision in the Derek Chauvin trial? After they amassed and presented a…
They should have asked an anthropologist. The political and military professionals ignored the warnings presaging last week’s Capitol invasion. But many who conduct research in rural Africa,…
1. The moment that any transfer of power occurs from one individual or regime to another is fraught—ritually, sociologically, emotionally. Why? This is a liminal period–“betwix…