Perspective: The Many Ways of Shaligram Darshan
Shaligram shrines are each as unique as the households that look after them. As I move into the planning stage for my second manuscript on Shaligram interpretive traditions,…
Tag: cultural anthropology
The Horror of War – Part 2
It was Christmas Eve and it just so happened that I pulled guard duty. The post I was assigned to was a 30-foot tower that stood…
The Horror of War – Part 1
With all the violence in the world and the ever growing movement of mankind toward more violence, it appears there is always a war somewhere…
The Virus of Violence
In the study of epidemiology, one has an opportunity to learn about communicable and non-communicable diseases. This curriculum is usually pursued on the graduate level and…
Reading Shaligrams
The book is nearly complete! It’s been a long road but I will be turning in the revised and completed manuscript to my publisher in just a few…
Birth as Ritual/Ritual as Birth
Cultural anthropologist, Robbie Davis-Floyd, is considered by many as the Queen of Childbirth Studies. A Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of…
An Anthropologist in the World Revolution – Pt. 2 by Keith Hart
As we approached the millennium, with the dotcom boom roaring away, I wanted to write a book that would sum up 30 years of teaching and…
When Women’s Laughter Keeps Men in Line
Among the Mbendjele gathering-hunting people who live in the Republic of Congo, “women’s laughter manages to keep men in line.” Drawing from ethnographic research by Jerome Lewis, anthropo…
An Anthropologist in the World Revolution – Pt. 1 by Keith Hart
Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, well-known for his inspiring YouTube lectures and documentary shorts, has received over a hundred application…
The Real Race Problem – Part 2
On the eve of the one-hundred and eighth anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois’ newspaper The Crisis, we are presenting, in its entirety, a lecture from the distinguished anthropologist,…
The Real Race Problem – Part 1
On the eve of the one-hundred and eighth anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois’ newspaper The Crisis, we are presenting, in its entirety, a lecture from the distinguished anthropologist,…
Modalities of Culture Change: A Query
A hybrid flower photographed by makamuki0 and circulated under a CC0 license. Hybridization as a mode of cultural change was discussed prominently in Theorizing the Hybrid, a 1999…
The Culture of Corruption
Many of us know that political corruption is not new to the world. It is an unsavory, human practice with a history that extends far back into ancient…
The University of Tartu, Appreciated
I recently spent an extended time in Tartu, Estonia. I had the wonderful opportunity to be a Fulbright Specialist visiting the Departments of: (1) Estonian and Comparative Folklore,…
Social Stratification
Stratification. 1 Approaches: 1 Functionalist perspectives: 2 Talcott Parsons. 2 Kinsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore. 2 Marxist perspective: 2 Weberian perspective: 3 Stratification in contemporary usage. 3…
Social Fact
Social Fact In Durkheim’s sociology, a social fact is a social phenomenon that has a coercive effect upon the individual. Thus, although, social facts may originally be…
Teaching Anthropology in 2018
Recently, a colleague contacted me with a very interesting and specific question. At the time, I was on the road and too busy to address his inquiry. I…
There’s Something in the Water
A recent death in the family necessitated a return to the United States after living abroad for the past ten years. A family member in Miami has a…
The Struggle for Power by Keith Hart
Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change in the Post-Crisis World by Ruchir Sharma, London: Allen Lane, 2016; pp 464, £25. Ruchir…