Around the Web: Year in Review 2015
It’s been a big year for Savage Minds, so big that the annual blog review didn’t fit in 2015! (Yes, that’s why it was delayed). This year we…
In the Journals December 2015 – Part II by Melanie Boeckmann
Find the first half of December’s post here. New Genetics and Society Beyond and within public engagement: a broadened approach to engagement in biobanking Jose A. Cañada, Aaro…
In the Journals December 2015 – Catching up by Melanie Boeckmann
Happy New Year to all Somatosphere readers! Hopefully you were able to take a break and came back refreshed and ready to tackle your reading list. Not sure…
Ephemeral Layers: Coffee, Snapchat, and Violence
For decades, ephemeral layers at archaeological sites have been the bane of my existence. The moment I read, hear, or have to confront it at an excavation, my…
In the Journals – December 2015
As both the holidays, and the year, draw to a close, we here at In the Journals wish all our readers the best in their endeavors in the…
Barry Brown and Oskar Juhlin, “Enjoying Machines”
View on Amazon When we consider the television, we think not only about how it’s used, but also it’s impact on culture. The television, tv, telly, or tube,…
Sean McCloud, “American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States”
Sean McCloud View on Amazon Exorcisms and demons. In his new book American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States (Oxford University Press, 2015), Sean McCloud argues that…
What is the difference between a generalisation and a stereotype?
All anthropologists would agree that stereotypes cause harm and should be avoided. Yet anthropology mainly consists of generalisations about groups of people: the Nuer do this, the Trobriand…
Student protests and the crisis of South African democracy
#FeesMustFall protest in Pretoria, 23 October 2015. Photo: Paul Saad Click here for our analysis in the Boston Review of the 2015 student protests in South Africa. We…
Building Research Partnerships with Physicians and Patients
“At the last medical conference I attended, we were all told to find an anthropologist to work with on our research.” These were the opening words of a…
Mario Rutten passed away
By Robert Pool, chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. It is with sadness we wish to inform you of the death of our colleague, Mario Rutten, Professor…
Mayanthi Fernando, “The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism”
Mayanthi Fernando View on Amazon Mayanthi Fernando‘s The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism (Duke University Press, 2014) is an important and provocative book. Drawin……
Carla Freeman, “Entrepreneurial Selves: Neoliberal Respectability and the Making of a Caribbean Middle Class”
Carla Freeman View on Amazon This marvelous ethnography traces one of the surprising outcomes of shifting neoliberal regimes in Barbados. As women find themselves leading entrepreneurial lives, they…
Joe Trapido: Epochs and continents: Potlatch, articulation, and violence in the Congo
This post is part of the Modes of Production feature moderated and edited by Patrick Neveling and Joe Trapido. From the sixteenth century onward, European trading networks grew…
Carla Freeman, “Entrepreneurial Selves: Neoliberal Respectability and the Making of a Caribbean Middle Class” (Duke University Press, 2014)
This marvelous ethnography traces one of the surprising outcomes of shifting neoliberal regimes in Barbados. As women find themselves leading entrepreneurial lives, they also find themselves engaging ……
Moralising misfortune: The morality of life insurance
Personal encounters with financial globalisation Good news. For the research project 'Moralising Misfortune: A Comparative Anthropology of Commercial Insurance to examine the morality of life …
Refugees on the other side
Recently there has been a lot of talk in Europe about refugees, sometimes designated as ”migrants”, always pronounced with a moralising overtone in order to emphasise that the…
The ‘Maya Temples’ of Highland Park
The excellent Telling the Stories of Detroit’s Parks blog recently posted a piece about a Modernist adventure playground in Highland Park, a city within the city of Detroit. It…
Wednesday 1/6/16: Practicing Anthropology in User Experience, Design and Business (Webinar)
This Wednesday, 1/6/16, I am giving a presentation for the American Anthropological Association Webinar Wednesdays Series about doing anthropology in user experience, design and business. The content …
2016 – Writing
So it’s now 2016 and all that, and apparently that means you’ve got to wrap up the previous year and make a change and so on. A…
Traveling within the Case by Atsuro Morita
On a boat sailing through the still waters of the Noi River, a tributary of the Chao Phraya River in Thailand, Miura-san, a senior male engineer from a…
African Youth and Social Innovation
The light peering through the door from the adjacent room was dim. It was hard for me to read the notes I was trying to take. But I…
anthro in the news 1/4/16
Sidney Mintz: Founder of the anthropology of food Cultural anthropologist Sarah Hill, associate professor at Western Michigan University, published an article in the Boston Review detailing the work…