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…
Tag: social anthropology
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…
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 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,…
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…
On the Heartbreak of Leaving the Field: Falling in love and going home again
My heart was broken not by leaving individual people, but by leaving something much bigger. It takes us too long in anthropology to learn that the communities we…
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…
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…
Gender and Mental health: The need for a wider lens
As the Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby powerfully put it, it would help if we didn’t start by seeing females and males as being from different planets. Experiences of…
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…
Living Fossils
One of the most popular jokes among anthropologists is how often our work is mistaken for palaeontology. Almost every one of my colleagues and even a few of…
Anthropology and the New Human Universal
World society today resembles nothing so much as the eighteenth century ancient régime that Kant had every reason to believe had been abolished by revolution. Now a rich,…
Expats, Tourists and “Matter out of Place”
Using Mary Douglas’s notion of matter out of place, I posit that when the government changed the law and increased their negative rhetoric about foreign workers, people like…
Gun Violence in American Schools
There is something terribly wrong going on in American schools today. A silent epidemic is spreading throughout the country like a cancer. What does it say about a…
The Bitcoin Controversy
Most people have already heard of Bitcoin. However, very few know what it is or how it originated. Many people know that it is some form of “cryptocurrency”…
Brazil’s Dichotomous Treatment of Corruption – PT 3
Brazil had an opportunity to be a leading, democratic, Latin American country but it lost its sense of direction. The political system designed to assist emerging countries grow…
Anthropological Reflections on a Family Death
Comparing my own experiences of death to those of the Tiwi culture that I learned of in my anthropology studies, the void that I felt in the months…
#WhyWeAnth: Answers on World Anthropology Day 2018
Are you keen to understand more about what anthropologists do and why they do it? This post compiles the reasons of anthros from around the world in honour…
The Price of Eggs: Iran’s protests beyond democracy and capitalism
As the dust settles on Iran’s recent bout of protests, the surge of commentary, punditry, and analysis is likely to continue, no longer working to explain these apparently…
Annual Health Check?
“That will be next year’s project”, say many of us. “By then, I’ll be ready for it”, we might add. These kinds of statements also featured in several conversations…
A Christmas Anth(rop)ology
For this week’s blog, we decided to each write some thoughts on Christmas, from varied anthropological perspectives. We come at this from the position of people who were…
Are You Living in Haste?
Can you engage in the present moment and let go of your other concerns while not engaged in a) an activity that demands all your attention (e.g. rock…