SAR Remembers Ronald N. Dubin
The Dubin Studio under construction in 1997 (left) and after its completion (right). …
Category: English
What a Shipwreck’s Tree Rings Reveal
Tree rings in a cross section of an oak hull plank from the ship Batavia, which sank in 1629, hold clues to the 17th-century timber trade in Europe.…
In the Journals, December 2021, Part 1 by Hayley Ip
Medical Humanities Before compassion: sympathy, tact and the history of the ideal nurse (open access) Sarah Chaney The word ‘compassion’ is ubiquitous in modern healthcare. Yet few writers…
Persistence of Genocide Upon the Chetco People
The Chetco Indians, perhaps more than nearly any other tribe on the Oregon coast, were repeatedly attacked by racist white settlers before their removal. In a previous set…
The Sophie Coe Prize in Food History 2022
See below for a call for applications for the Sophie Coe Prize. While technically a history prize, anthropologists have won (or been commended) by the prize juries over…
9/11 and Beyond: Our World of Toxic Exposure/COVID-19 Syndemics by Merrill Singer
For the last 25 years, in my work as an applied medical anthropologist, I have called attention to and explored syndemics, the biosocial adverse interaction of two or…
Michael Muhammad Knight, “Metaphysical Africa: Truth and Blackness in the Ansaru Allah Community” (Pennsylvania State UP, 2020)
The Ansaru Allah Community, also known as the Nubian Islamic Hebrews (AAC/NIH) and later the Nuwaubians, is a deeply significant and controversial African American Muslim movement. Founded in……
Near Extinction of the Grave Creek Band
The experiences of the Grave Creek Indians of southwestern Oregon mirror those of the other tribes in the region. They however hardly survived the 1850s as most of…
More Cleaver on Students
There is room for more here, but quoting George Caffentzis helps: ‘Once you recognize the piecework character of the work of professors in universities, it is easy to…
The Last Wild Lions of Europe
In this ornament found in Mycenae, Greece, lions leap upon their prey. Nancy Thomas Once upon a time, people near the valley of Nemea in southern Greece lived…
Predator journals target ISSH2021 – be warned.
So, a process warning to those not used to getting chatty friendly emails from parasite journals that will charge you to publish. The ISSH2021 conference gets hit by…
Opium and Political Economy in Bengal
On why I think Marx’s writing style is misrepresented by the all-too-dour and serious commentators on Capital – you know, the famous ones published by big presses or…
For those about to be assessed, Harry Cleaver helps cut throught he must…
To those doing assignments, be it single or collective projects, here’s a reminder to resist the stress and do it for your own reasons. This is another condensed…
Caterina Guenzi, “Words of Destiny: Practicing Astrology in North India” (SUNY Press, 2021)
Astrologers play an important role in Indian society, but there are very few studies on their social identity and professional practices. Based on extensive fieldwork carried out in…
Stan BH Tan-Tangbau and Quyền Văn Minh, “Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam: Quyền Văn Minh and Jazz in Hà Nội” (UP of Mississippi, 2021)
Quyền Văn Minh (b. 1954) is not only a jazz saxophonist and lecturer at the prestigious Vietnam National Academy of Music, but he is also one of the…
Five New Year’s Rituals of Renewal
In Auckland, New Zealand, Māori people celebrate the rising of Mataraki, also known as the Pleiades star cluster, as the start of the new year in July. Hannah…
Shaligram Interpretive Practice (Secondary Markings)
One of the most complicated aspects of Shaligram interpretation, and the one that often takes the longest to learn, is reading the various small markings that indicate the…
Ori Schwarz on his book, Sociological Theory for Digital Society
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Sociological+Theory+for+Digital+Society%3A+The+Codes+that+Bind+Us+Together-p-9781509542963 Interview by: Dan M. Kotliar Dan Kotliar: There is something very conv…
Viktoriya Kim et al. “The Politics of International Marriage in Japan” (Rutgers UP, 2021)
Viktoriya Kim, Nelia Balgoa, and Beverley Anne Yamamoto’s book The Politics of International Marriage in Japan (Rutgers UP, 2021) provides an in-depth exploration and analysis of marriages be… Visit New Books…
Happy new year Yamal style
First of all, happy new year to all our readers, followers, and a big thank you to all those who contribute to making this blog a success. This…
Screen Memory, Social Distancing & Speculative Fiction: The Geek Anthropologist 2021 in Review
2021 wasn’t quite the year we anticipated, nor does the conclusion of the year feel like it does justice to the warped sense of time, distance, and stasis…
Africa 2021: Perplexing, horrendous, dramatic and inspiring by Jehron Muhammad
Africa’s year 2021 was perplexing, horrendous, dramatic but also inspirational. It can be summed in the “two-ness” of the sojourn … More
Who Owns the Holy Land?
As another year draws to a close, it is hard not to think in larger terms of the course of the last century. The world has seen two…
End of the year
It has been 70 years since a life-size Father Christmas doll was burned in Dijon in protest against the “paganization” of Christmas. A year later, Claude Lévi-Strauss published…