The Culture of Corruption
Many of us know that political corruption is not new to the world. It is an unsavory, human practice with a history that extends far back into ancient…
Author: Neil Turner
Teaching Anthropology in 2018
Recently, a colleague contacted me with a very interesting and specific question. At the time, I was on the road and too busy to address his inquiry. I…
There’s Something in the Water
A recent death in the family necessitated a return to the United States after living abroad for the past ten years. A family member in Miami has a…
The Struggle for Power by Keith Hart
Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change in the Post-Crisis World by Ruchir Sharma, London: Allen Lane, 2016; pp 464, £25. Ruchir…
Anthropology and the New Human Universal
World society today resembles nothing so much as the eighteenth century ancient régime that Kant had every reason to believe had been abolished by revolution. Now a rich,…
Gun Violence in American Schools
There is something terribly wrong going on in American schools today. A silent epidemic is spreading throughout the country like a cancer. What does it say about a…
The Bitcoin Controversy
Most people have already heard of Bitcoin. However, very few know what it is or how it originated. Many people know that it is some form of “cryptocurrency”…
Brazil’s Dichotomous Treatment of Corruption – PT 3
Brazil had an opportunity to be a leading, democratic, Latin American country but it lost its sense of direction. The political system designed to assist emerging countries grow…
Brazil’s Dichotomous Treatment of Corruption – PT 2
After the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship, the Liberal Front Party (LFP), Democratic Social Party (PMDB) and Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) dominated the government of Brazil.…
BRAZIL’S DICHOTOMOUS TREATMENT OF CORRUPTION – PT 1
PART ONE✓ Brazil is a country saturated with corruption. From the small, family-owned mom and pop neighborhood grocery store to the hallowed halls of the Senate and Congress,…
THE OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY COOPERATIVE: Towards an Online Public Anthropology
We attempt here to explore the relationship between anthropology, social media and public engagement through a web-based network that we helped to found and manage. We argue…
Preface to the Coming World Crisis
Trump’s election has accelerated talk on the left of the end of (neo-) liberalism and the rise of fascism in the West. The prospects for world war seem…
What Anthropologists Really Do
The Summary The new anthropologist is a self-appointed people’s representative in the double sense of writing them up and acting as their advocate. And anthropology is a sort…
Mess in the Middle East
Many people throughout the Western world do not understand what is happening in the Middle East. Much of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the complicated relations…
The Second American Revolution
Well, it only took about two-hundred and forty years but the greatest fear of the writers of the Constitution of the United States has taken place. A rich,…
Religion and Economy – Part Two
We need to understand better how we build the infrastructures of collective existence, money among them. How do meanings come to be shared and memory to transcend the…
Religion and Economy – Part One
Religion belongs to a set of terms that also includes art and science. Science began as a form of knowledge opposed to religious mysticism, but is now often…
Capitalism, revolution and racism in the US and the world
In the aftermath of Trump’s victory, we would do well to recall Hegel’s maxim that difference-in-sameness moves history. Max Weber used a similar argument to moderate the polarised…
Brexit: Where once was an empire
Separation from Europe has opened up the real possibility that the United Kingdom will break up. Scotland is already bent on secession and the two Irelands may resolve…
Measures of Quality Education
When I first came to Brazil, I quickly became aware of the problem in the educational system here. So, I began to collect statistics and study why the…
Why do Leaders Fail?
This is an opinion piece that some might say loosely fits within the realm of anthropology. And yet, if one could say that anthropology is the genealogy and…
In Line Quotation-Dec-2017
“The meanings of human actions are obscured by ritual, custom, idea or other forms of underlying background influence.” – Neil Turner
Perennial Narratives in Anthropology
Since the 1960s, there has not been any new, innovative or groundbreaking advances in the field of anthropology. Although some good work has been done, most of it…
World’s Most Vital Resource
It is not necessary to explain the process by which algae through millions of years of geological time and chemical reactions become fossil fuels such as oil,…