Archaeologists Respond to the Black Lives Matter Movement
Students work with archaeologist Alexandra Jones (center) on an excavation at the Estate Little Princess plantation in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Archaeology in the Community Amid th…
Tag: power
Who Gets to Study Whom?
[no-caption] recep-bg/Getty Images About a decade ago, Chisomo Kalinga was in a bind. The medical humanities scholar, then a graduate student at King’s College London, was looking for…
Combating Anti-Black Racism in Brazil and Beyond
Protests against police violence in Brazil, like this march commemorating the life of a Black youth killed in his home, help speak to the transnational nature of anti-Blackness…
What Ancient Gender Fluidity Taught Me About Modern Patriarchy
Some figurines, like this one from the La Tolita-Tumaco culture, seem to blend gender characteristics from breasts to loincloths into a possible transgender or nonbinary figure. Museo Naciona…
Why the Whiteness of Archaeology Is a Problem
Most archaeological projects in the U.K. and U.S. are largely conducted by people of European descent. Wessex Archaeology/Flickr One hot, sunny day in the Sonoran Desert, I (William)…
Hush-Hush, a Pale-Horse Cometh: Mirabilis Manducat
[no-caption] PhotoTalk/Getty Images “O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum …” —Saint Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century I did not know well my Uncle-Cousin Ron. He was my mother’s cousin. He…
Can Protestors Humanize the Police?
Watch this video. In it, a group of young Black Lives Matter protestors in Charleston, South Carolina, take a knee, facing a line of police in riot gear.…
Police Violence and the Pandemic
[no-caption] Angus Greig SAPIENS host Jen Shannon interviews Laurence Ralph, a professor of anthropology at Princeton University. Ralph is also a co-director of Princeton’s Center on Tran…
Why “We” Isn’t for Everyone
[no-caption] Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images Ask SAPIENS is a series that offers a glimpse into the magazine’s inner workings. On the face of it, there seems to be no…
The Symbolic Power of Virus Testing
Protests against stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have occurred across the country, as shown here in front of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.…
Power in the Face of Indian Surrogacy by Emma Abell-Selby
Introduction Power is in the air we breathe, and no matter where we are there are always individuals with more power over others. In “An anthropology of structural…
Dos veces víctimas: mujeres negras agredidas no se les reconoce como víctimas
Mujeres activistas, incluida la autora (derecha), marchan en contra de la violencia de género y feminicidios en Lima, Perú, en noviembre de 2016. Fotoholica Press/Getty Images Clara* colg…
Waste is not “matter out of place”
Douglas’ theory of matter out of place is about power. Something in the wrong spot, something poisonous, is not matter out of place. Unless it threatens power.
Religion and politics in the US: How the Christian Right moves away from Jesus
Along with an anthropology degree, I also completed a degree in philosophy with a focus on philosophy of religion. My primary interests in that are theodicies (excuses for…
The Story of a Mass Shooting Survivor and Anthropologist
On April 30, my Liberal Studies class, framed as Anthropology and Philosophy of Science (Syllabus), was the site of a horrific event. Two of my students were…
Upsetting the Canon
Teaching anthropology offers a site for critical intervention. So what should we be reading with our students? A critical and reflexive anthropology requires, beyond the self-indulgent condemnation of…
Admissions Fraud and the SAT: Hidden Implications
As you are well aware, there is a huge college admissions scandal that has been brought to life. Forbes calls it “The Worst Crime In College Admissions History…
Silicon Satire
How memes articulate tech trouble and signal “all the things.” History repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second as farce”—especially in Silicon Valley. In April 2018,…
Book Review: “How to Think Like an Anthropologist”
After each semester I evaluate what did and didn’t work in my classes. I didn’t teach Introduction to Anthropology for Fall 2018 so I had an extra semester…
Spring 2019 Introduction to Anthropology Syllabus
Intro to Anthropology (ANTH 1101-001) UNC Charlotte, Spring 2019 Mon/Wed/Fri (10:10-11:00am) in Rowe 161 Instructor: Adam Johnson Office Hours: M/W 12:30-1:30pm ajohn344@uncc.edu by appointment i…
Migrant Caravan in Tijuana: Report from a volunteer lawyer
Tijuana is a city in the north of the state of Baja California in Mexico, close to the San Isidro Land Port of Entry, where wikipedia says 20,000…
Disrupting Silicon Valley’s Stories
In a climate of pervasive narratives of wealth creation and success, how can anthropology hold corporate and tech sectors to account? In March 2014, Business Insider published the…
Waste colonialism
Waste colonialism refers to how waste and pollution are part of the domination of one group in their homeland by another group. The concept has been gaining traction…