Is the future of retail human-less?
Asks this article: https://www.raconteur.net/business/is-the-future-of-retail-humanless The answer is: ‘it depends’. Human-less customer interaction might never fly in cultures where personal contact i…
Links & Contents I Liked 249
Hi all, If you happen to be in Tallinn, Estonia early next week, I’d love to catch up at and around the DigitalisingDevelopment event which I will be…
Dirty Bees Are Good for Flowering Plants
Bees may not be as orderly as their image suggests, and that’s a good thing for flowering plants — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Fake News: Questions and Resources for Back to Class and All Year Round
Ah, fake news. As a phenomenon, its truthiness is both fascinating (from an epistemological perspective, at least) and highly troubling (from the perspective of anyone who cares about…
Artificial Intelligence: Making AI in our Images
Savage Minds welcomes guest blogger Sally Applin Hello! I’m Sally Applin. I am a technology anthropologist who examines automation, algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of…
Combatting Stereotypes About Appalachian Dialects
The small city of Hazard, Kentucky, rests in the heart of Appalachia. David Stephenson/Associated Press This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished …
An Anthropologist Looks for Justice in Guantanamo Bay
I arrived in Guantanamo Bay in late August, nearly sixteen years after the murders of my partner and brother-in-law, to attend the pre-trial hearings of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed…
„Islam in der Krise“: Interview mit Buchautor Dr. Michael Blume
Schon früher hatte Dr. Michael Blume öffentlichkeitswirksam aufgezeigt, dass die Idee einer “Islamisierung des Abendlands” ein Mythos ist. Den Kern bildeten damals Argumente aus seinen Forschungen zu…
Wie entsteht die Neugierde? / Anthropologe Karl-Heinz Kohl in der ZEIT
„Wie entsteht die Neugierde?“, fragt die ZEIT in ihrer neuesten Ausgabe. „Ohne Neugier wäre die Besiedlung der Erde durch den Menschen nicht möglich gewesen“, sagt der Anthropo…
Deutschlandfunk / Sinologe Iwo Amelung zu Chinas Sozialkredit-System
Der Sinologe Prof. Iwo Amelung von der Goethe-Universität in Deutschlandradio über ein Projekt orwell´schen Ausmaßes in China: Dort plant die regierende kommunistische Partei eine Zusammenführung alle…
New Books in Anthropology Podcast
A few weeks ago, Nivedita Kar interviewed me for the New Books in Anthropology Podcast. The episode just went online yesterday. In our conversation, we discussed some of…
Smithsonian Food History Weekend
If you expect to be in the Washington DC area between October 26 and 28 you may want to consider attending the Third Annual Smithsonian Food History Weekend.…
A Final Farewell to the 2017 Interns
The AAA Internship Program is funded through generous contributions from our members. To make a donation and support the future of this program visit our website. Palmyra Jackson So…
Web Roundup: Opioids as a National Emergency by Katherine Warren
After several years in the headlines, the U.S. opioid crisis has been in the news this summer as the federal government debates its status as a national emergency.…
The Rise of the Recliner as a Male Social Space
The gendering of spaces changed the way people could relax in their homes — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Nicholas C. Kawa, “Amazonia in the Anthropocene: People, Soils, Plants, and Forests” (U. Texas Press, 2016)
Widespread human alteration of the planet has led many scholars to claim that we have entered a new epoch in geological time: the Anthropocene, an age dominated by…
Wrestling with “The Donald”
Nothing better epitomizes the content-free showmanship of President Trump’s governing style than the White House Rose Garden ceremony he held in May after the House passed their version…
The Art of Money
Re-posted from “Considering Money Stuff” on Socializing Finance. Money is the most commonly circulating art form. At the same time, payment objects are unstable and excessive, frequently t…
Joe Trapido: Breaking Rocks: Music, Ideology and Economic Collapse, from Paris to Kinshasa
Breaking Rocks is a volume of the Dislocations series published by Berghahn Books, a series closely associated with Focaal and FocaalBlog. The immense dislocations and suffering caused by…
The secret about human evolution found in spit
Genetic detectives discover surprising findings about our evolution by studying saliva What does a protein in our spit called MUC7 that all of us have – but most…
Margaret’s Mead: C&A’s First Zine
Last week, we printed off the first zine produced by the Culture & Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). It’s a collaborative effort with essays, art, and…
Were We Ever Paleo Perfect?
Many people find urban centers to be both enchanting and repulsive—but for better or worse, cities have left their mark on us. Jeff Turner/Flickr The amount of time…
Wo ist Santiago Maldonado?
Am 1. August 2017 verschwand in Argentinien ein Mann. Santiago Maldonado nahm an einer Demonstration der Mapuche-Gemeinschaft im Süden des Landes teil, die von der Gendarmerie gewaltsam unterdrückt…