Looking in the Mirror (Part 3 of 3)
“How can the country go up, when the head of state is a sonless widow,” the priest declared. I quietly took notes. I recorded what I was…
Tag: Blog post
Vale Ben Finney
I was deeply saddened to hear that Ben R. Finney passed away around noon on 23 May 2017. Ben was a professor in the anthropology department at UH…
Looking in the Mirror (Part 2 of 3)
Recently a friend of mine discovered a picture of her grandfather in one of the ethnographic books about the Sherpas. Underneath the picture, next to his name, it…
Can There Be a Cheat-Proof Exam?
Cheating is not fun for anyone, except perhaps for the student who does not get caught. At my university I have only one class I teach for non-majors,…
Anthropology Under My Skin
This entry is part 20 of 20 in the Decolonizing Anthropology series. By: Lorena Gibson How we can reclaim anthropology in Aotearoa New Zealand and stake out a…
Bronislaw Malinowski: Don’t Let The Cosplay Fool You
If there’s one picture that epitomizes White Guys Doing Research, it’s this one: The canonical author of the canonical book, naked black people, white guy in white clothes being…
Looking in the Mirror (Part 1 of 3)
Savage Minds welcomes guest blogger Pasang Yangjee Sherpa. “You become an anthropologist, when you publish,” we were told in a graduate anthropology seminar. If this is true, I…
Facebook in Papua New Guinea: What Happens When The Net Isn’t Neutral
If you care about open access, you should care about net neutrality. There are obvious reasons why: After all, there’s no point in putting your preprints online if…
Around the Web Digest: April 24
As my internet connection is finally back after a cat-induced Wi-Fi disruption, I come with more readings for the week. By the time this goes live, May Day…
Counting and Being Counted: New AAA Tenure and Promotion Guidelines on Public Scholarship
How do we count and value public scholarship in anthropology? — Do we count and value public scholarship in anthropology? — And, how do we do it at the time…
The biggest threat to open access is a closed Internet
Many open access advocates were disappointed (but not surprised) when the American Anthropological Association decided to renew its contract to publish with Wiley, which means that the AAA…
This Saturday I’m Marching for Science and You Should Too
This Earth Day, 22 April, People across the world will be celebrating the important role that science plays in supporting human freedom and prosperity. This is an event…
#AAA2017 registration sucked. I hope its not a sign of things to come.
Even if you are not attending #AAA2017 in Washington, D.C. you have probably already heard about how much it sucked to try to register for it. The stories…
George Soros: Public Enemy and Human Sacrifice
George Soros is one busy man, particularly for an octogenarian. If the rumors are to be believed, he is single-handedly funding agitators in the United States and Hungary…
Pandora’s Brew: The New Ayahuasca Part 7
Conclusion: It’s all fun and games… As I mentioned in the first post of my series, anthropologists and ethnobiologists have played an outsized role in studying and popularizing…
A Threat to Academic Freedom Everywhere? A CEU Update
An estimated 70,000 people turned out to rally in support of Central European University in Budapest on Sunday. The amendment to the higher education law, given the moniker…
Pandora’s Brew: The New Ayahuasca Part 6
Oklevueha Native American Church In addition to the widespread appropriation of Native North American culture that characterizes neo-shamanic discourse, the current spate of ayahuasca churches in the …
Anthropology is an empty pint carton, and our existential projects are the ice cream
Because I regularly teach the history of anthropology, I have thought a lot about classical texts and the shape of our discipline. I also recently had a chance…
Pandora’s Brew: The New Ayahuasca Part 5
“The New Paradigm” Yesterday marked exactly a year since Ayahuasca Healings submitted to the DEA their petition for exemption from the Controlled Substances Act. The cover letter, dated…
This week in anthropological rebuttals to Charles Murray
Just when you think that The Bell Curve has been thoroughly debunked, it rears its ugly head…again. It’s like a weed that just won’t go away–and that should…
Central European University Under Threat in Populist Hungary
As guest blogger for the month, I’m going to be talking about Hungary, where I’ve been doing field research in since 2004. In doing so, I also have…
Around the Web Digest- March 19
As spring begins to rear its head, I come bearing the fruits of internet. Buenos Aires, anarchism, and pastries. If a similar movement in bakeries happened in the U.S.,…
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…
Pandora’s Brew: The New Ayahuasca Part 3
Part 3: Legality (or lack thereof) (In the last post, I promised to start this one with some explanation of what goes into ayahuasca that makes it the concern…