anthro in the news 3/27/17
Source: Heatlhextent.com TB is winning In a piece in The New York Times, medical anthropologist and professor at Harvard University, doctor, and health care advocate Paul Farmer writes:…
Welcome to the Authoritarian Kleptocracy, part VII
Articles and interviews from the last week: Globe and Mail: At long last, a forum where Trump cannot escape the truth (3/21/17) World Policy Journal: From Andijon to Bowling Green:…
Six Ways Anthropologists Can Challenge White Supremacy
Recently, white supremacists attempted to defame Boasian Anthropology and its historic role in challenging scientific racism. This article proposes some concrete steps by which to challenge whiteness …
Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Norway and the transformation of the EU
This post is part of a feature on anthropologists on the EU at 60, moderated and edited by Don Kalb (Central European University and University of Bergen). In…
What’s in a Word? The Importance of Recognizing the Etymology of Words
There have been a number of interesting posts lately about the ‘unsavory’ history of some everyday words and phrases in a growing discourse which argues that the use…
What’s in a Word? The Importance of Recognizing the Etymology of Words
There have been a number of interesting posts lately about the ‘unsavory’ history of some everyday words and phrases in a growing discourse which argues that the use…
‘Before Boas’ by Han F. Vermeulen
Han F. Vermeulen. Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment. 746pp., illus., notes, refs. cited, index. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press,…
at hell’s gate
Ten minutes of classic “Quake Live” Free for All deathmatch madness on the map “Hell’s Gate” (formerly Q3TOURNEY3). Featuring a nice comeback with some quite fun…
Electronics Reuse and Recycling in Peru: A Photographic exploration
A walk down this little street in Peru’s capital provides a glimpse into an understated network that quietly plays a critical role in reducing the environmental impacts of…
Andrew Causey, “Drawn to See: Drawing as Ethnographic Method” (U. Toronto Press, 2016)
In his new book Drawn to See: Drawing as an Ethnographic Method (University of Toronto Press, 2016) Andrew Causey argues that social science practitioners can cultivate new ways…
Yuval Harari, “Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah” (Wayne State UP, 2017)
Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah (Wayne State University Press, 2017) opens new vistas not only on the history of the practice of magic throughout Jewish history,…
Tales of becoming a public anthropologist
Thoughtful piece on becoming a public anthropologist in Aotearoa New Zealand by my colleague Catherine Trundle vicanthropology Academics are increasingly called upon to apply their skills and knowled…
Kendzior: In Defense of Complaining
This was meant to be a book review. Instead, it’s an essay about the power—and importance—of complaining.[1] The book under consideration here is Sarah Kendzior’s The View from…
Pandora’s Brew: The New Ayahuasca Part 4
Ayahuasca Healings Last week (March 18, 2017), I received an email that read, in toto: Just like I promised: Get the free eBook here (right click, “Save Link…
Cocina, música y comunicación: Tecnologías y estética en el Yucatán contemporáneo. Presentación por Marina Alonso Bolaños
Cocina, música y comunicación: Tecnologías y estética en el Yucatán contemporáneo, de Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz, Gabriela Vargas Cetina y Francisco Javier Fernández Repetto (UADY / CONACYT 2017) Mar…
Psychoactive Drugs: A Change in End of Life Practices
Humans seem to have both a strong anxiety and fascination with death, having a profound awareness of our own mortality from a young age. We seem…
Squatting and Concepts of Property Ownership in the Netherlands
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in Rotterdam with a friend, local, and part-time Detroiter, and I learned a lot about housing policy and the long, complex history of…
The Importance of Grave Robbery during the 19th and 20th Centuries
Statues from Freedman’s Cemetery Memorial in Dallas, Texas. This cemetery is one of the African American cemeteries that was often robbed. Image courtesy of Maribel Rubio Grave robbing…
Jazz Funerals
New Orleans is well known for its spectacle and pageantry of civic ritual, represented in festivals like Mardi Gras. The spectacle display is also seen in their funeral…
Melissa Chakars, “The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia: Transformation in Buryatia” (Central European UP, 2014)
In The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia: Transformation in Buryatia (Central European University Press, 2014), Melissa Chakars reveals not only how Soviet policies disrupted traditional Buryat ways…
Michaela DeSoucey, “Contested Tastes: Foie Gras and the Politics of Food” (Princeton UP, 2016)
A heritage food in France, and a high-priced obscurity in the United States. But in both countries, foie gras, the specially fattened liver of a duck or goose,…
Bourdieu on UC Santa Cruz
I just came across Pierre Bourdieu’s curious comment on American universities and their set-apartness from society: American universities, especially the most prestigious and the most exclusive,…