Scientific Imperialism
“A fundamental law of Netwonian physics applies also to military maneuver: one can achieve overwhelming force by substituting velocity for mass”. (Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, 2003) “Are…
Summer Roundup: Bioculturalism by Deanna Day
We continue our set of summer roundups by focusing our attention on a series of interviews conducted by Jeffrey G. Snodgrass. Snodgrass spoke with William Dressler, Emily Mendenhall,…
Food, Culture, and Social Justice in Oregon and Ecuador
Joan Gross Oregon State University 2016 Intercultural Learning Community with Oregon State University The goal of this learning community is to gather a multicultural group of people (undergraduate…
Haiti Photography Project: a quick seven day experiment
Technology for development projects (T4D) typically import expensive and unsustainable equipment when trying to improve a situation. The one laptop per child project is an example of a…
Damsels & Demons: Women in Horror Part I
By Emma Louise Backe Each culture suffers from its own hauntings. We perform ceremonies to guide the ghosts back to their graves and lay out offerings of food…
Seminar: Media & visual technologies as material culture – students’ research ideas
Clustering of individual ideas to create joint research projects in the seminar “Media and Visual Technologies as Material Culture” at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of…
Digital Islamic Humanities Project
The Digital Islamic Humanities Project at Brown University is pleased to announce its third annual conference, titled “Distant Reading and the Islamic Archive,” which will be held on…
#Review: After the Revolution. Youth, Democracy, and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia
What is the relationship between democracy, development, disappointment, and failure? Is it possible to learn something about ‘democracy proper’ from an Eastern European context, fraught with problems…
News Round Up In-Brief
US News New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to introduce a multimillion-dollar initiative called Direct Access that has been aimed to create a type of…
News Round Up In-Brief
US News New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to introduce a multimillion-dollar initiative called Direct Access that has been aimed to create a type of…
Instrumental Partners: An Imperial Science of Agency
For an empire whose imperialism is still denied by many, a striking number of terms and concepts have been generated by US leaders that nonetheless are premised on…
My Mother was a Rock-Ogress-Yeti-Monster: True Tales of Dharma, Demons, and Darwin
Recently, while browsing in a bookstore in McLeod Ganj, India, I came across a small Tibetan-language comic book. The store I was in was also small – more…
Hold the Soda: The Case for Ordering a Beer During the Work Week Lunch
Many thanks to the team at Letsgraba.beer for their continued support of the Narcissistic Anthropologist and allowing me to contribute to their tumblr page from a “beer behaviorist” persp…
Mobile Home Community Closures Preferred Despite Worsening Housing Crisis
Manufactured housing in the United States has developed into a secondary housing market designed for lower-income families hoping to achieve the American dream of owning a home on a…
Social Anthropology in the Classroom
Very interesting and productive class this morning in ANTH 2523, Social Anthropology. The class worked in three groups to analyze exchanges and kinship relations as described by Annette…
Forgotten landscapes of the Great War
Accordingly, the only visible remains of the camp at Czersk is a prisoner of war cemetery hidden in the forest near the town. The sight of cemetery—a forest…
#Review: Children of Afghanistan: The Path to Peace
In 1978, psychologist Jack Flasher defined the term ‘adultism’ as a way of perceiving children “not only as unconditionally subordinate until they attain legal adulthood but also, as…
Eight Questions and Seven Theses about Force Multipliers
“Force multipliers: Machines which allow a small effort to move a larger load are called force multipliers. Some examples of force multipliers include: a crowbar, wheelbarrow, nutcracker, and…
24. Freedom technologists: a short reading list
Freedom Technologists: Digital Activism and Political Change in the 21st Century (working title), Chapter 2, Freedom Technologists This is the twenty-fourth post in the freedom technologists series. …
Eating in the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity
Review of: Warner, Mark S. 2015. Eating in the Side Room: Food, Archaeology, and African American Identity. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Ashanté Reese Spelman College Mark S. Warner’s…
Vale Anthony Wallace and Raymond Smith
I couldn’t let this week slip by without mentioning the passing of two great anthropologist: Raymond T. Smith and Anthony F.C. Wallace. Raymond T. Smith was a social…
Time for tobacco-state politicians to make ‘adult choice’ on Pacific trade agreement
By Gerry Everding If Republican senators from tobacco-growing southern states believe in social responsibility, they would fully explore the TransPacific (TPP) trade agreement’s potential impact on co…