Religious Ritual at the Credit Card Machine
Ritual Shrine Offerings Among the Exotic Nacirema Tribe While it may seem that anthropologists have documented the most exotic rituals across the globe, the strangest rituals are still…
Tag: American Culture
Thailand’s Most Famous Writer Finally Published in English
Thailand’s most famous and beloved writer– Rong Wongsawan’s work has been translated, edited and published in English for the first time. For admirers of Thailand and its culture,…
What Happens if Chinese Smartphones Teach English Lessons in Tanzania?
English is the dominant global language of the world, it is the language of power, and control. But it is not the only language, and different people have…
America Needs Some Perspective
I used to think that Americans like me who had a strong point of view on topics related to positive social change all had some sort of elevated…
For the Love of Us All, No More Deplorables, Snowflakes, or Nasty Women
8 Labels I Never Want to Hear Again There are several words that have gained in popularity over the last few years that I don’t ever want to…
Ken Burns, an anthropological portrait of an artist and the edge
[This essay first appeared in Medium. It has been lightly edited for presentation here.] In the world of documentary filmmaking, it feels like there’s the era “Before Ken…
Racial Purity is a Lie and Here’s Why
With the recent increase in folks’ throwing shade and swastikas on other people’s ethnicities, I thought I’d take a moment to remind us all that racial purity is…
We’re Not Mourning The 80’s. We’re Returning To Them.
I know what everyone has been thinking as we look gleefully forward to the end of 2016, with a desire to put the social and political turmoil behind us…
Postmodernism Comes to America
Fake News and the End of Facts I recently had the pleasure (?) of engaging in a fruitless debate on social media with a friend of a friend.…
Casual Racism and the Problem of White Identity
A Family Portrait My family is super white. We love brunch at IKEA, we have varying relationships with rhythm, and we feel slightly guilty about everything. Aside from…
On the Backs of Other Mothers
I had no idea I was singing the saddest song about motherhood of all time. It all started when I became curious about a lullaby my grandmother used…
The relevANTH Guide to Choosing a Culturally Sensitive Halloween Costume
Just… no. It’s that time of year again, when millions of Americans hit the streets dressed as terrifying celebrities, food items, and ethically questionable depictions of others’ cul…
There was “no racism before Obama”. Wait, what now?
Welcome to the (sur)reality that is the American election of 2016. The latest in a series of Perplexing Statements that People Believe Despite Immeasurable Evidence to the Contrary…
comics on culture on Charlie Rose
Yesterday, the Charlie Rose Show repeated interviews with comics Billy Eichner, Amy Pohler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, and Seth Meyers. A couple of comments jumped out.…
When Nature Has to Conform to Culture: Highly Sensitive People in a Nonsensitive Culture
Elaine Aron’s book The Highly Sensitive Person was like my own personal Da Vinci Code—riveting, compelling, and totally solved a mystery about myself I didn’t know existed. My…
I Don’t Care What Your Beliefs about Racism Are
In the wake of several brutal and unwarranted police shootings of black men and women, and the subsequent retaliation against innocent police officers, politicians across the country have…
5 Homophobic Myths Destroyed by Anthropology
After the horrific mass murder in June focusing on the LGBTQ community at an Orlando club, the only thing worse than the massacre has been the thread of…
How Karl Marx Ruined My Dinner Party
At dinner one night, I made two fatal social errors in rapid succession. First, during casual conversation with two good friends, I began talking about American culture. Not…
Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and the Election Hunger Games
With Donald Trump defending the size of his hands, Ted Cruz dropping out of the race the week after recruiting former opponent Fiorina as a running mate, Hillary…
Make Ethnography Better
Ethnography has grown in the last couple of decades from a moody, friendless method in the social sciences to the bell of the business ball. But clearly it has…