On the Search for the Origins of COVID-19: A Forum by Andrew Lakoff
More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus causing the disease remains uncertain. The predominant theory is that its emergence in human populations…
Category: English
Social Distancing in a Sumatra Rainforest
An Orang Rimba man named Nyeruduk stands in front of a tent on a rubber plantation in Sumatra. Dedi Supriansyah On an otherwise silent night in March 2020,…
Wednesday Round Up #39
Evolution: A Brief History of Us Anthropologist Herman Pontzer covers human evolution in 12 minutes. Bird-Watching Goes Both Ways Before he began studying how and where L.A.’s raptors…
C. L. Estes and N. B. DiCarlo, “Aging A-Z: Concepts Toward Emancipatory Gerontology” (Routledge, 2019)
It’s often said that the time in our lives can often pass without us noticing. Old age can come before we realize it, and it brings with it…
The Ugliness of Multispecies Intersubjectivity: Pandemic Racism and the Love of Animals in the U.K.
Content and Trigger Warning: This post contains profanity and strong references to violence against Black Lives Matter protesters, but more specifically, protesters who are Black, Indigenous, and peop…
Alan Klima, “Ethnography #9” (Duke UP, 2019)
Alan Klima’s Ethnography #9 (Duke University Press, 2019) was co-written by a ghost. And that’s just the start of what’s going on in this eerie, singular book. It’s a discussion…
Timothy Keller and John Inazu, “Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference” (Thomas Nelson, 2020)
Bestselling author Timothy Keller and legal scholar John Inazu bring together a thrilling range of artists, thinkers, and leaders to provide a guide to faithful living in a…
Unintended consequences – graduate student funding at UBC-V
There is a lot of variation in how graduate students at UBC-V are funded. One of the biggest differences is found in how research Master’s and research Doctoral…
Bruce Kapferer and Roland Kapferer: The Trump Saga and America’s Uncivil War: New Totalitarian Authoritarian Possibilities
Times are a Changing. The Trump phenomenon as a whole, his election, his presidency, the events of the Capitol, Joe Biden’s accession and Donald Trump’s impeachment are moments…
How to Pitch: A Guide for Anthropologists
Writing a pitch involves untangling your ideas into a clear message. mikroman6/Getty Images So, you think you have the seeds of a great essay or opinion piece. Maybe…
Manure and Animal rights
We humans, the compassionate predator, entered into a contract with a large number of species in the course of the past twenty thousand years (some think longer), and…
Anthropology Day Photo Contest Winners!
David Beriss We are ready to reveal the big winners for the first ever SAFN Anthropology Day Photo contest. Before I make the big announcement, I want to…
Data Swarms Revisited – New Modes of Being
Editor’s Note: The new Platypus Thematic Series entitled “Data Swarms Revisited” will feature posts form computer science, philosophy and anthropology and connect to the Thematic Series Anthropos Tomo…
Human as the Ultimate Authority in Control
Illustration of algorithmically simulated flocking behavior (2021, created by Anna Lukina) With the growing size of historical data available to researchers and industrial practitioners, developing al…
6 Steps to Everyday Anthropological Research
Many Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are allocating funds toward research to inform decisions on strategy. Studies often seek to understand the motivations, behaviors, interests, and …
6 Steps to Everyday Anthropological Research
Many Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are allocating funds toward research to inform decisions on strategy. Studies often seek to understand the motivations, behaviors, interests, and …
Call for Pitches: Graphic Ethnography
Image description: A comic book style explosion with the words “graphic ethnography” at the center of it bursts from a back ground of radiating orange stripes. Stars and…
Good Tidings for Saudi Women?
Absher, which means “good tidings”, is a smartphone app that was released by the Saudi Ministry of Interior in 2015, available both in the Apple App Store and…
How to Improve Consumer DNA Tests
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests offer tantalizing yet speculative promises to connect us with our distant past and live a healthier life. Consequently, by February 2019, an estimated 26…
Ten Things Archaeology Tells Us about Neanderthals
Rebecca Wragg Sykes is an archaeologist and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. An honorary fellow at the University of Liverpool,…
The Racial Thinking behind ALS Diagnosis
Beliefs about which bodies can and cannot develop certain diseases risk rebiologizing race in genomic research and care. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that typical…
Of Maps, Ancestors, and Genes
How the conceptual heritage of the new and old world pervades today’s racial economy of genetics. On a former occasion I wrote to you at some length…
The Next Piece of Our Big Genetic Puzzle
Around 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals contributed their DNA to modern humans. But the genes also flowed the other way, hundreds of thousands of years before. In 1856, in…
Bovine Bloodlines
Selective breeding for milk and muscle has corroded cattle health and genetic diversity. Heritage breed farmers are pushing back. That old cow out there, she’s 18, and she’s…