The Joys–and Uses–of Teaching Anthropology
Yes, I’ve retired from full-time teaching. Yes, I sometimes miss it, and may well return to the classroom from time to time. For now, I was tickled to…
Author: Alma Gottlieb
An Anthropologist at the Women’s March on Washington, Part 1: Finding Communitas, Feminist Style
(photo by Alma Gottlieb) The doors of our metro car opened and closed, opened and closed with increasingly alarming dysfunction. On any other day, the many more dozens…
And Our Winners Are . . .
Many thanks to the 1,152 people who entered our publisher’s Amazon Giveaway to receive free copies of A World of Babies, and to Cambridge University Press for sponsoring…
Enter to Win a Free Copy of “A World of Babies”–Deadline, Jan. 12, 2017!
Win a free copy of “A World of Babies”! To celebrate the official publication of the book, which is January 2017, our publisher is sponsoring an Amazon Giveaway.…
The Story behind “A World of Babies”
Interested in learning some behind-the-scenes stories about how “A World of Babies” came into existence? Check out a new interview with my co-editor, Judy DeLoache, and me in…
An Open Letter to My Grandchildren
Dear Dean and Mona, At four years old and ten months old, you are both too young to understand why the grown-ups around you keep talking about…
An Open Letter to My Children
Dear Nathaniel and Hannah, I am sorry that my generation has failed you. We have bequeathed you a world that has too many problems, too much fear, and too much…
Anthropologist Interviews
Today, I began a new series on my blog: interviews with anthropologists about their new books! We anthropologists often write wonderful books . . . that find too…
Writing Ethnographies that Everyone Can Read
Kristen Ghodsee’s new book, From Notes to Narrative: Writing Ethnographies that Everyone Can Read, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press (in 2016). The discipline of…
It’s Never “Just a Symbol”
Symbolic anthropologists, take note. What’s in a symbol? Everything, when it comes to politics. Especially, election-year politics. And especially when a major political candidate claims ign…
Rethinking BDS
A shorter version of this post will soon appear online as a podcast, in coordination with the motion put to a vote among the membership of the American…
The Power of Menstrual Politics
The latest in the abortion wars: “One Indiana woman recently created the Facebook page Periods for Pence where she encourages others to call the governor’s office to report their periods,…
Thinking about Our Shared Common Ancestry–Pausing to Reflect Back on My Career as an Africanist
Honored to have an interview I recently did with Dallas Tatman (an MA student in African Studies at the U of Illinois) unexpectedly show up, to my surprise,…
Science and the National Interest
Who should judge what counts as “worthy science”? Who should judge what counts as “in the national interest”? New legislation just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives…
How BDS Risks Going over to the Dark Side; or, Why I am Ashamed of My Association
I get the logic of boycotts. In high school, I stopped buying grapes to support Cesar Chavez’ protest of the slave-like working conditions of Mexican farm workers in grape vineyards.…
A New National Anthem?
Whatever the political and economic rationales existing beneath the surface, the modern nation of the US was created by European refugees fleeing religious prejudice who embraced the ideological…
We Are All Africans
An impressively interdisciplinary team of geneticists, biological anthropologists, archaeologists, and geologists has just published an article detailing the genetic makeup of a man who lived in Ethio…
Anthropology and the MidEast Crisis
There’s surely something to offend every political sensibility in this provocative essay just published by Liel Leibovitz in The Tablet. But for that reason, it’s worth reading. Equal-op…
As Usual, The Devil’s in the Details; or, Why Ethnography Matters for Everything
A new study reports that pre-kindergarten programs in Tennessee fail to achieve any long-term gains. Republican lawmakers are already seizing on the news as evidence that pre-K programs…
Digital Deities?
A new study by economist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz tells us that Internet searches for “God” are way down. He notes that this is true even in cases of catastrophe:…
Donald Trump vs. Blood Magic
Donald Trump has revived old stereotypes in claiming that Fox News commentator/Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly was ruled by her hormones (“bleeding from her wherever”) when she cri…
Fabulous Art from Abandoned Flip-flops
Cleaning up beach waste in the form of abandoned rubber flip-flops . . . recycling landfill-able castoffs . . . training low-income men and women in job skills and…
A Tale of Two Chins
Cell phones . . . couches . . . gyms and community centers . . . archaeologists of the future will unearth countless artifacts and buildings that will testify…
Social Change: One Petition at a Time?
As a high school student, I remember the excitement of going door-to-door to solicit signatures on petitions of various sorts. Adding one’s name to a list of other…