How ICE’s Bogus Science Is Violating Human Rights
Teeth and bones can tell us something about age—but not someone’s birthday. Journal of Forensic Dental Sciences This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been repu…
Tag: Policy
Fear and Loathing in Atlanta
Content warning: racism, violence, mention of miscarriage. I was on my way to the airplane that would take me back home, to Canada. I boarded the train between…
When Gaming the System Is the Only Way to Parenthood
[no-caption] Miguel Gaggiotti Sonsoles* and her partner had set their hearts on adopting a child. They lived in a nice Barcelona neighborhood, and from the start, Sonsoles explained,…
Glacial Melting Isn’t Someone Else’s Problem
High in the Ecuadorian Andes, the peak of Cotacachi was once reliably white. But by the early 2000s, the glacier on top of this dormant volcano, which reaches…
Ep. #4 “Killer Docs, Imaginary Landscapes, Political Lies, and Emotional Risk:” this month on TFS
In this month’s panel discussion, Jodie (1:14) tells us about documents with agency: “Ideas just get up and grow legs, and they run away with themselves.” (Trigger warning:…
Can We “See” Climate Change?
While standing on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C., in February 2015, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma expressed his deep skepticism about climate change. “We keep hearing…
Life and Death After the Steel Mills
Steel mills were the economic backbone of many cities across the Midwest and Northeast until the 1980s. When the industry left, former workers not only took a hit…
How to convince people that drugs need to be legalized: a guide for getting normies on board.
I’ve developed a really nerdy, but kickass, superpower. Give me twenty minutes of one-on-one conversation time with a person, any person, and they will come out of that…
Reconsidering How We Honor Those Lost to War
Cities in the southern U.S. are currently under pressure to take down statues of Confederate leaders, whose publicly sanctioned presence is a constant source of injury to many.…
When buildings burn, from London to Dhaka
by Rebecca Prentice There is for me a sad familiarity in the story of the Grenfell Tower fire. I have spent recent years researching garment factory fires and…
Stakes of Life: Science, states, policies, publics and ‘the first thousand days’ by Fiona C. Ross
Welcome back to the “First Thousand Days of Life” Somatosphere series. Here we continue to explore the ways that a global health initiative driven by new findings in…
Abortion Rights Are Being Eroded
After Tea Party activists won decisive seats in the 2010 midterm elections, controversial abortion legislation has been passed throughout the country. Pressure to rescind abortion rights reached …
What FoodAnthropology Is Reading Now, March 7, 2017
David Beriss A brief digest of food and nutrition-related items that caught our attention recently. Got items you think we should include? Send links and brief descriptions to…
APLA Book Prize Announcement
From our colleagues at the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology, a book prize competition that may be of interest to SAFN members and other readers of this…
United we stand, divided we fall
by Filippo Osella If there is a lesson to be learnt from the long 2016 it is that there is more than one way to disgrace oneself. Calling…
“The Anthropologist” Isn’t Another Climate Change Horror Flick
Kiribati, a Pacific island nation that may become uninhabitable because of climate change, is just one of the threatened landscapes featured in The Anthropologist. Kyodo/Associated Press …
European Brides in the Islamic State
What factors are motivating Dutch women to relocate to Islamic State strongholds at all costs? Three anthropologists set out to find the untold stories behind their emigration. Michelle…
Invisible Government, Conjured Markets
by Bennett Heine Among political and social scientists in recent decades, the phrase ‘give a man a fish…’ has become more a prompt than a platitude, its pregnant ellipses…
The Dangers of Birth in Tanzania
Women in sub-Saharan Africa have a 1 in 36 lifetime chance of dying from pregnancy-related causes. That’s down 45 percent since 1990, due largely to advocacy campaigns and…
Residential Schooling Brings Opportunity to India’s Poorest Indigenous Children
The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), a residential boarding school in India, provides Indigenous students with the “capacity to aspire” and hope for a better life. Christine…
North Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Spark Historic Declaration
Native Americans from many different tribes have unified behind the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest in North Dakota against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The controversial…
Roux and Resilience: Eleven Years After Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina rearranged Katie Williams’ home on its foundation. Katie and her family had the capacity to reclaim their lives, but the disaster recovery system sabotaged their cultural…
For Rio’s Poorest Citizens, Police and Gang Violence Reigns
Protestors in Brazilian favelas—poor neighborhoods in urban areas—have been caught between the police and gangs. Marcos De Paula/Associated Press On the night of June 24, 2013, the street…
Will GMOs Put an End to Hunger? Ask the Hungry
When it comes to food, few topics are as contentious and polarizing as genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Hyperbole is rampant in this debate. GMOs are everything we…