The Obligation of Gifts
For those of you with Christmas trees, they probably look a little barren following the unwrapping of presents. What did you get for Christmas? — Read more on…
Category: English
Santa Traditions Around the World
Earlier this week, I shared a link on Twitter to a piece on Brain Pickings on how anthropologist Margaret Mead suggested we talk to children about Santa Claus:…
What Explains the Emergence of Moralizing Religions?
An ambitious article: “Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions”, by Nicolas Baumard, Alexandre Hyafil, Ian Morris, and Pascal Bo…
Applied Anthropology as Limit
Of late I’ve been saying that the constraints that come with applied work are useful for doing good theoretical and empirical work. Just as experimental models bring demands…
Ethnographic films by anthropology students from Heidelberg
Ethnographic film has since long its place in the field of Anthropology. Heidelberg is no exception to this, where every list for a course on ethnographic filmmaking is…
Santa’s Capitalist Alchemy
The anthropology and myth-making of Santa… Now this might upset you. It might even provoke memories of Scrooge himself. But the gold standard of social science research states,…
Coming soon….”Meta-Education: The Movie”
Image source:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-19FCEJmI32o/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAABU/mImc0dQYxp8/photo.jpg
Transformational Storytelling Anthropology
Modified transcript of discussant comments for panel on Anthropology and Storytelling at the 2014 Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association. Many thanks to Coralynn Davis, Carole McG…
As Peru’s Glacier Vanish, Villagers Appeal To The Gods
In October 2011, while I was conducting ethnographic research on water and climate change in southern Peru’s Colca Valley, I was invited to join the villagers of Pinchollo…
The Primary Cesarean Reduction Movement
There is good news to report: Health Care Professionals are paying attention! When we work on our grass roots advocacy we think that our issues are so important,…
The Primary Cesarean Reduction Movement
There is good news to report: Health Care Professionals are paying attention! When we work on our grass roots advocacy we think that our issues are so important,…
The Primary Cesarean Reduction Movement
There is good news to report: Health Care Professionals are paying attention! When we work on our grass roots advocacy we think that our issues are so important,…
The Primary Cesarean Reduction Movement
There is good news to report: Health Care Professionals are paying attention! When we work on our grass roots advocacy we think that our issues are so important,…
Alex Nading, “Mosquito Trails: Ecology, Health and the Politics of Entanglement”
[Cross-posted from New Books in Latin American Studies] Dengue fever is on the rise globally. Since it is transmitted by mosquitoes which reside and reproduce in human environments, eradication…
Alex Nading, “Mosquito Trails: Ecology, Health and the Politics of Entanglement” (University of California Press, 2014)
Dengue fever is on the rise globally. Since it is transmitted by mosquitoes which reside and reproduce in human environments, eradication efforts involve households and the people who…
Cuba and the US: Castro and Obama on Establishing Diplomatic Relations
What follows are transcripts of the two speeches given today by Cuba’s President, Raúl Castro, and US President Barack Obama, on the establishment of diplomatic relations: STATEMENT BY…
BE MORE ‘BIG-MAN’ THAN ‘CHIEF’ TESCO: THE EROSION OF BRAND PURPOSE & VALUE IN SEARCH OF DOMINATION
The Iron Man films are good portraits of a hunger for domination. The villain is depicted as a extremely wealthy individual where he and his organisation seek…
Beginnings
This site is a space for Nolu ʻEhu and Hinemoana of Turtle Island, two different groups of Pacific Islander poets, activists, scholars and storytellers, to speak to each…
Daniel Cloud, “The Domestication of Language: Cultural Evolution and the Uniqueness of the Human Animal”
[Cross-posted from New Books in Big Ideas] One of the most puzzling things about humans is their ability to manipulate symbols and create artifacts. Our nearest relatives in the…
Daniel Cloud, “The Domestication of Language” (Columbia UP, 2014)
One of the most puzzling things about humans is their ability to manipulate symbols and create artifacts. Our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom–apes–have only the rudiments of…
“Een eiland in een zee van ongeloof”: het activistische verzet van moslims in Nederland, België en Duitsland
“Een eiland in een zee van ongeloof”: het activistische verzet van moslims in Nederland, België en Duitsland Auteurs: Martijn de Koning Ineke Roex Carmen Becker Pim Aarns…
„Ebola ist nur eins unserer Probleme“ ‒ Ebola-Bewusstsein, Misstrauen und Entwicklungshoffnungen in Sierra Leone
Anne Menzel „Ebola ist nur eins unserer Probleme“ ‒ in Telefonaten mit sierra-leonischen Freunden und Bekannten höre ich diese Einschätzungen bereits seit Monaten regelmäßig. Gemeint ist damit schon…
Thom Scott-Phillips, “Speaking Our Minds: Why Human Communication is Different, and How Language Evolved to Make it Special”
[Cross-posted from New Books in Language] I hope I’m not being species-centric when I say that the emergence of human language is a big deal. John Maynard Smith and…
Thom Scott-Phillips, “Speaking Our Minds” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
I hope I’m not being species-centric when I say that the emergence of human language is a big deal. John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry rate it as…