Maps, Figurative Symbols, and Songlines
When I think of symbols, I default to a rather literal sense of them. In my Introduction to Anthropology class, I put up the symbol for radiation, say…
Category: English
Why “We” Isn’t for Everyone
[no-caption] Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images Ask SAPIENS is a series that offers a glimpse into the magazine’s inner workings. On the face of it, there seems to be no…
Lords of Poverty (book review)
Unusual times require unusual readings and I finally found the time to read Graham Hancock’s Lords of Poverty-The power, prestige, and corruption of the international aid business. I…
James C. Scott, “Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States” (Yale UP, 2017)
We are schooled to believe that states formed more or less synchronously with settlement and agriculture. In Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States (Yale…
Kathryn M. De Luna, “Collecting Food, Collecting People: Subsistence and Society in Central Africa” (Yale UP, 2016)
In Collecting Food, Collecting People: Subsistence and Society in Central Africa (Yale University Press, 2016), Kathryn M. De Luna documents the evolving meanings borne in the collection of w… Visit…
Michele Wakin, “Hobo Jungle: A Homeless Community in Paradise” (Lynne Rienner, 2020)
Michele Wakin’s new book Hobo Jungle: A Homeless Community in Paradise (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2020) is an up-close exploration of the evolution that has taken place with unsheltered…
Sam Han, “(Inter)Facing Death: Life in Global Uncertainty” (Routledge, 2020)
In modern times, death is understood to have undergone a transformation not unlike religion. Whereas in the past it was out in the open, it now resides mostly…
Putting down our “lenses”
Nikkormat and 50mm lens. Photo by Ryan Anderson 2020. Years ago I read an article about a photographer. I don’t actually remember who the photographer was, but this…
On the social nature of toilet paper
You would be forgiven for thinking that the first thing bought in a global crisis would be tinned, dried, and frozen foods; clean water; and medicines—things that enable…
Intersectionality
Celebrating Pride Month with a focus on intersectionality. How do we acknowledge our shared history in fighting for civil rights, while recognizing the ongoing systemic racism that disproportionately…
A Game Changer for Graduate Schools and Anthropology
Recent articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Scientist both highlight the fact that graduate students are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Graduate students at…
Is Celebrity Attention Helping or Hurting Amazonian Peoples?
Indigenous peoples in Brazil are dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of the rest of the country’s population. Here, Indigenous nurses accompany an elderly woman for testing…
Pushing boundaries: Homelessness and addiction during Covid-19
“Ben really isn’t keeping up well. He looks fine, but he’s been complaining and he’s constantly out. […] You don’t see a change with everyone, but with him…
#AmplifyBlackVoices: US White Supremacy & Anthropology
In my blog post on the Purpose of Living Anthropologically, I wrote that I wanted to be mindful of critiques of anthropology from people like Discuss White Privilege.…
Government, Church, and the Community of Believers: Managing the Coronavirus in Ethiopia during Easter Time (#WitnessingCorona)
Hide Press Release (2 Less Words) Alice Colombo When the coronavirus enters Ethiopia The first time I heard somebody talking about the coronavirus in Ethiopia was in…
Can an “Invasive Species” Earn the Right to Stay?
Macaques sit near Florida’s Silver River. Rachel Simmons/Flickr Steve Johnson never thought he’d have to worry about death threats, not in his line of work. Johnson is a…
From Quality of Life to Disability Justice: Imagining a Post-Covid Future by Faye Ginsburg
Like a CT-scan of the American body politic, the Covid-19 crisis has revealed deep fault-lines in our medical system, especially the inequities that stratify health care along lines…
Nicholas Day Saves the Umpqua Indians
The following story appeared in the Oregonian in 1900. Nicholas Day was an Indian agent who was hired by Joel Palmer to manage the Umpqua Indians. Day took…
Brian Greene, “Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe” (Random House, 2020)
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings,…
Vietnam v. Covid19 (1-0)
Advanced, Proactive Measures: How Vietnam Kept Its Coronavirus Death Toll at Zero 02-Jun-2020 Intellasia | News18 | 6:02 AM When the world looked to Asia for successful examples…
I Suddenly Thought of Your Face
[Bricoleur is the pen name of an anthropologist and blogger who also goes by the pseudonym, Ma De-wa. A frequent contributor to the anthropology group blog published in…
A coincidence is a strange type of fact
A coincidence is a strange kind of fact At the top of Václavksé náměstí, the central artery of Prague, in a solemnly gray but geometrically dynamic Socialist Realist…
Pandemic Ruminations
Pamela Runestad Allegheny College Now that courses have come to an end, I’ve had time to breathe a little. I have been able to mourn some of the…
JoAnne Yates on her book, Engineering Rules
https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/engineering-rules Interview by Michael Prentice Michael Prentice: Engineering Rules is your third book following Control through Communication and Structuring th…