Reading Marx with David Harvey
If you’ve ever wanted to do a close, guided reading of Marx’ work, you probably couldn’t ask for a better teacher than Distinguished Professor of Anthropology & Geography…
Tag: history
The Fifth Beginning
Global cooperative networks such as the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, shown here responding to the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa, distinguish the “fifth beginning” from prior…
The Self-Construction of Black Women Physicists
image: slide with text: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, University of Washington DECOLONIZING SCIENCE BY RECONSTRUCTING OBSERVERS, with embedded image of racist phenotype comparisons of “Irish Iberian,” “An…
Lessons From a Forgotten Amazonian Slaughter
For decades, conservationists have viewed subsistence hunting by Indigenous peoples in the Amazon as a contributing factor to “empty forests”—forests where trees remain but wildlife is all but…
Anthropology Timeline
The Anthropology Timeline is a massive undertaking to chart the history of the discipline of anthropology. The timeline is an interactive site that charts anthropology’s history along two…
Book Forum — Nayanika Mookherjee’s The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 by Todd Meyers
Andrew Brandel has organized an extraordinary and diverse set of commentaries on Nayanika Mookherjee’s The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 (Duk…
Neanderthals, racism, science
This New York Times article offers an interesting discussion about how Western European scientific racism also played a significant role in how we classified and described Neanderthals. “Neanderthals…
Why Do We Keep Using the Word “Caucasian”?
The word “Caucasian” is used in the U.S. to describe white people, but it doesn’t indicate anything real. It’s the wrong term to use! My colleague and one…
Who Started the First Fire?
Neanderthals were able to manipulate fire well before they came into contact with Homo sapiens. Starting fire, however, was an entirely different matter. David Williams In the 1981…
What’s Your Beef
How eating brisket shapes the future in the present. A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds all included) just as he digests his…
Rice Reveals African Slaves’ Agricultural Heritage
Clues about the history—and survival—of African slaves in the Americas can be found in certain plants, such as rice. David Williams When Tinde van Andel purchased a small…
Book Forum –– Nancy Rose Hunt’s A Nervous State: Violence, Remedies, and Reverie in Colonial Congo by Todd Meyers
When Nancy Rose Hunt suggests that her book “joins the ferment” of colonial aggressions and uncertainties “while taking up harm and pleasure in a shrunken colonial milieu and…
The Good Old Days
Every summer, festivalgoers gather throughout the American West to relax in the sunshine, smoke a little pot, and dance to the sweet, nostalgic sounds of bluegrass music. Bluegrass…
Bibliography for Critical Ecology
Since ecological metaphors, systems, and thinking are implicit to much of discard studies, we’re happy to share this crowdsourced bibliography on critical perspectives of ecology.
The Silk Ribbon of Highways
A thousand years ago, the Silk Road was in its heyday. Caravans hauling tons of commodities and luxury goods crisscrossed Asia and the Middle East from Xi’an, China,…
Mapping the world?
At anthro everywhere! we’ve already written a couple of posts about how maps powerfully represent certain social realities. Today’s post adds a couple of new resources for teaching…
Mapping the world?
At anthro everywhere! we’ve already written a couple of posts about how maps powerfully represent certain social realities. Today’s post adds a couple of new resources for teaching…
Web Roundup: Something Rotten – Scent, Morality, Good and Evil by Sara M Bergstresser
A well-known quote from Hamlet is “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” This, of course, refers to the illegitimate and immoral reign of the fictional King…
How Tourism Reinvented Jesus’ Baptism Site
The Yardenit Baptismal Site is a pilgrimage place that many visitors say allows them to connect to events outlined in the Bible, including the baptism and ministry of…
The Long Count
Time. Astronomers, philosophers, physicists, anthropologists, politicians, geographers, and theologians have all pondered the nature and meaning of time. Is it linear or cyclical? Is it reversible? (P…
Black Lives Matter and Reflections from a Civil War
The Black Lives Matter movement is seeking to put an end to the inequities faced by blacks in the United States. In Sri Lanka, the failure to redress…
Papers on French philosophy, precarity and protest
It’s been a fun year for me (leaving aside here, you know, many disturbing political events, trends, pomps and circumstances, because this isn’t that kind of blog) because some…
Trump and the Echo of Amache
The barracks that once stood at the site of Amache were home to more than 7,000 Japanese-American internees during World War II. Esteban M. Gómez In the southeastern…
American Confederates and the Origins of Archaeology in the Amazon Basin
When Confederate immigrants began growing crops in the Brazilian Amazon, they found fertile soils that offered a window into pre-contact Amerindian peoples and their way of life. Nicholas…