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…
anthro in the news 9/4/17
The port of Houston, 2000. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard, PA2 James Dillard/Wikimedia Commons foregrounding climate justice The Huffington Post published a piece, prompted by Hurricane Harvey and calling…
What Do Companies Mean by Culture?
Supportive. Curious. Unafraid. These are some of the words that advertising agencies use to describe their company culture. But do any of these words actually connect them with…
Size Matters: How Semiotics is Making History in the World of Wine
Kerri Lesh University of Nevada, Reno A “historic milestone” for the Spanish wine-making region of Rioja has been making headlines in the wine world. A new labeling strategy…
Statues – 1970 Kolkata.
Mrinal Sen’s great film Interview begins with a few shots of the removal of colonial statues from the Maidan in Calcutta, shipped off to a closed space in…
Four points why hairdressing is a great research topic
How did I happen to study hairdressing and what is it that interests me about the hairdressing salon? Let me answer the first part of the question very…
Isuma TV – Indigenous Media collective
We recently came across Isuma TV, “a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organizations. Each user can design their own space, or channel, to reflect their…
CFP: Muddied Waters: Decomposing the Anthropocene
For its seventh issue, Pivot is calling for papers that not only critically address the Anthropocene as our current geological epoch but, in doing so, attend to pertinent questions concerning…
The Cyborg Anthropologist (Tools We Use)
For those who don’t know, I live, work, teach, and do research in a predominantly Chinese speaking environment. Although you are probably aware that learning Chinese is hard,…
Labor Day: It’s About Time
The first Monday in September is a federal holiday in the United States. It marks Labor Day—a tribute to contributions made by American workers to the growth and…
Cholera, Cluster Bombs and Summer Vacation
This post can be read at MENA Tidningen.
In the Journals – August 2017 by Livia Garofalo
Here is the article round-up for August, put together in collaboration with Ann Marie Thornburg. There is a special issue section of Social Science and Medicine out this month…