Surviving the Holidays, Anthropologist Style
As the holidays inch closer, and you’re beginning to dread joining the bag of mixed nuts you call your family, consider approaching them with anthropologists’ eyes this year.…
Tag: cultural anthropology
Frogtopia Revisited, or Anthropology is Art is Frog
[Savage Minds is pleased to publish this essay by guest author Stuart McLean as part of our Writers’ Workshop series. Stuart is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He…
anthro in the news 12/14/2015
On refugee-phobia Pilapa Esara Carroll, associate professor of anthropology at the College at Brockport of the State University of New York, co-authored an op-ed in the Democrat and…
Expatriates: Dilemmas and Misconceptions
Those who have chosen to become permanent expatriates at some time or another experience a very disturbing and confusing dilemma. What makes this dilemma so disturbing is it…
How creating your own ritual can bring surprisingly deep meaning
New Year’s Eve of 2007 was grim. My husband and I hosted a party of battered friends, most of whom were under the age of 35. Within the…
Affirmative action in brazil: is it necessary?
Recently, I came across an article in Lasa Forum Spring 2013 edition in which Edward Telles and Marcelo Paixão assessed the significance of Affirmative Action in Brazil.…
Anthropology and the MidEast Crisis
There’s surely something to offend every political sensibility in this provocative essay just published by Liel Leibovitz in The Tablet. But for that reason, it’s worth reading. Equal-op…
Negotiating comparison in ethnographic fieldwork
Anthropology, a discipline dedicated to understanding the full range of human experience from as many perspectives as possible, has always been comparative. This comparative aspect was one of…
Mandate of the Intellectual
Recently, a PhD educated, cultural researcher for a Canadian magazine contacted me about Perspectives’ focus on “open-access publishing, public accessibility and seeking a broad readership while maint…
Indispensability of medical anthropology
Medical anthropology, although considered a subcategory in anthropology, has been making contributions to medicine and public health since the development of anthropology itself. The fact that anthrop…
anthro in the news 8/31/15
Debating the U.S.-Iran deal The MinnPost (Minneapolis, U.S.) carried an article describing a debate among four scholars about the Iran nuclear deal that was held at the University…
So What Exactly is ANTHROPOLOGY?
I had no idea what anthropology was when I began college, I just knew I loved the course titles. “Language and Culture”. “Gender, Sex, and Sexuality”. “Religion and…
In the Journals – August 2015
Welcome back to In the Journals, a round-up of recent journal publications on security, crime, law enforcement and the state. After a brief hiatus over the summer, we’re…
Donald Trump vs. Blood Magic
Donald Trump has revived old stereotypes in claiming that Fox News commentator/Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly was ruled by her hormones (“bleeding from her wherever”) when she cri…
Black American Men and Brazilian Women
Any attempt to understand black American men and their relationships with Brazilian women must first consider cultural characteristics and the significance of social values. Now, we are…
US – Brazil Relations: the dynamics of consciousness and empowerment
In 2012, Dr. Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law, Harvard University Law School lectured at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American studies on Brazil…
Tristes Tropiques: Revisited
When I first encountered Lévi-Strauss in graduate school, I thought the title of his monumental work sounded strange. At that time, I spoke absolutely no Portuguese but…
Anthro in the news 5/25/15
The non-science (and more) of virginity testing of women Sherria Ayuandini, a doctoral candidate in medical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, published an op-ed in The…
DragNet: April 20 – May 3, 2015
“I think you have to have a shared collective memory of the past to recognize another human being,” writes Lawrence Jackson. His post, On Becoming More Human, examines…
Universality of Truth
Now this is an article that is going to upset a lot of people but at the same time it will cause a lot of people to reflect…
Aligned Anxieties: Rethinking Critiques of the Internet through the Anxieties of Web Professionals
The following is a paper I gave at the 2015 Theorizing the Web Conference on April 18. Below you will find: my presentation with audio, the video of the…
The Cultural Incongruence of Democracy
We live in an epoch when countries throughout the world are struggling to throw off their traditional forms…
(How) Do Anthropologists Celebrate Valentine’s Day?
As an anthropologist, the first thought that comes to mind as we approach an upcoming holiday is typically, How do they celebrate this holiday in X?—X being a…
The “Ow” of Pain
New research claims that saying “Ow” really can ease the pain. Why am I skeptical? Or, rather, why am I skeptical that this works globally? For one thing,…