The Hindu newspaper published a piece commemorating the recording of Margaret Mead’s “This I Believe” essay for Edward R. Murrow’s radio series:

I believe that to understand human beings it is necessary to think of them as part of the whole living world. Our essential humanity depends not only on the complex biological structure which has been developed through the ages from very simple beginnings, but also upon the great social inventions which have been made by human beings, perpetuated by human beings, and in turn give human beings their stature as builders, thinkers, statesmen, artists, seers and prophets

Click here to read the article or here to listen to Mead’s recording

Telling Voices: Understanding the other
SUDHAMAHI REGUNATHAN

This interesting anthropology-related news bite appeared at ESPN:

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s top prosecutor is questioning why a shaman, or medicine man, was paid $2,000 to keep rain away from the closing ceremony of the Under-20 World Cup.

The attorney general’s office opened the investigation Tuesday after the comptroller’s office in Bogota questioned cost overruns of more than $1 million — the shaman’s charges included. The official cost of the August ceremony was $2.5 million.

Anthropologist Ana Marta de Pizarro helped organize the ceremony and says the shaman was justified.

She said: “Had it rained, the event would not have taken place. It didn’t rain on the ceremony, it was successful and I would use him again if I needed to.”

Pizarro said the shaman had been used at other outdoor events in the country.

The Under-20 World Cup was held for three weeks last year across Colombia, with Brazil winning the final.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

Hiring of Shaman Questioned

The Associated Press

Illana Gershon of Indiana University appeared at WBEZ91.5 and discussed some the finding presented at her book, book, The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media:

When anthropologist Illana Gershon interviewed her Indiana University students as part of her research on social media and relationships, she posed this question to one of her classes: If you and your sweetie are “Facebook official,” what happens when the relationship ends? Whose job is it to change the relationship status: the person who got dumped or the person who did the dumping?

An attractive blonde replied with great confidence, “I know the answer to this one! My entire sorority knows the answer to this one!”

“It’s always the one who’s dumped,” she explained.

She then paused for a moment, “But not everyone on campus knows this.”

Read/listen to the rest here, at WBEZ91.5 website

Anthropology Report provides an extensive collection of anthropological blogs:

Anthropology boasts rich and varied blogs. Veteran anthropology blogs feature deep content and now have a history of stimulating commentary. Sophisticated newcomers have joined the field, demonstrating the importance of the online form. There are blogs from each of anthropology’s four fields and at the intersections of biology, culture, archaeology, and language, as well as blogs concentrating on applied anthropology. Reading what anthropologists do is one answer to What is Anthropology?

Read the rest here

Hugh Brody, a British Anthropologist and a filmmaker writes at Open Democracy about New Guinea, one of the most culturally and ecologically diverse regions in the planet. Tragically, industrial and international politics have devastated life there.

Thursday, December 1, 2011, is the fiftieth anniversary of West Papua’s independence. On this day in 1961 West Papuans were granted their freedom by the Dutch – they raised a new national flag and sang a new national anthem. A year later Indonesia launched a colonial invasion, and managed to annex the fledgling nation. Since then tens of thousands of civilians – almost all of them indigenous tribal people – have been killed.

Press here to read the rest

December 1, 1961: Fly the flag of independence – West Papua and the Indonesian Empire

The New York Times Sunday Book Review discusses the books of Noah Coburn and Thomas Barfield,  two Boston University anthropologists who conducted fieldwork at Afghanistan:

Ten years after the Taliban’s leaders fled their country in apparent defeat, the war in Afghanistan has become what one observer calls “a perpetually escalating stalemate.” As in Iraq, the United States military has responded to bad news with counterinsurgency: eliminate troublemakers in the dark of night, with the most lethal arts, and befriend tribal elders by day, with cultural sensitivity and expertise. The Army has gone so far as to embed credentialed social scientists with front-line troops in “Human Terrain Teams” that engage in “rapid ethnographic assessment” — conducting interviews and administering surveys, learning about land disputes, social networks and how to “operationalize” the Pashtun tribal code. The military, in short, demands local knowledge.

Read the rest here:

Afghanistan: What the Anthropologists Say
By ALEXANDER STAR
Published: November 18, 2011

The Seattle Times introduces the work of David Giles, an anthropology graduate student whose research interests revolve around trash:

For his doctoral thesis, the University of Washington student is examining how cultural assumptions of what is appetizing lead to the disposal of surplus, edible food. He’s become a pro at vaulting into Dumpsters, picking through their contents and befriending people who make a meal of other people’s leftovers.

In short: Giles is a Dumpster-diver.

“The first thing that hits you in the face is how good the stuff in the Dumpster is,” Giles said. “It’s thrown away because it’s not profitable.”

Read the rest here:

UW student researching Seattle’s trash bins
Katherine Long

John W. Hoopes, an anthropologist at the University of Kansas, teaches a course on “Archaeological Myths and Realities” in which he tackles the 2012 myth among other doomsday premonitions:

The United States has always embraced religious freedom. Peculiar religious sects, including occult beliefs, have always been part of America,” Hoopes said. “End-of-the-world and transformative beliefs are found in many ancient cultures but have been a fundamental part of modern times since 1499,” Hoopes said. “They are also fundamentally American.”

In an attempt to distinguish myth from science, Hoopes uses the 2012 myth and other prophecies to teach students to think critically and learn to distinguish between science and myth. He explained that wishful or magical thinking often helps perpetuate myths and beliefs that have no basis in science.

Read more at International Business Times:

Critical Thinkers Demystify Doomsday Prophecies

By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

David Graeber is the subject of the cover story in the latest issue of the Bloomberg Businessweek magazine where he is is profiled as one of the founding activist of the Occupy Wall Street movement:

David Graeber likes to say that he had three goals for the year: promote his book, learn to drive, and launch a worldwide revolution. The first is going well, the second has proven challenging, and the third is looking up.

Graeber is a 50-year-old anthropologist—among the brightest, some argue, of his generation—who made his name with innovative theories on exchange and value, exploring phenomena such as Iroquois wampum and the Kwakiutl potlatch. An American, he teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London. He’s also an anarchist and radical organizer, a veteran of many of the major left-wing demonstrations of the past decade: Quebec City and Genoa, the Republican National Convention protests in Philadelphia and New York, the World Economic Forum in New York in 2002, the London tuition protests earlier this year. This summer, Graeber was a key member of a small band of activists who quietly planned, then noisily carried out, the occupation of Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, providing the focal point for what has grown into an amorphous global movement known as Occupy Wall Street.

Click here to read the rest:

David Graeber, the Anti-Leader of Occupy Wall Street

Meet the anthropologist, activist, and anarchist who helped transform a hapless rally into a global protest movement

By Drake Bennett

In addition, Graeber is discussed in other media outlets:

AlJazeera - America’s growing anti-intellectualism

MainStreet – Meet the Man Behind Occupy Wall Street

The Chronicle of Higher Education - Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe

The Globe and Mail - A key to unlock the door of debtor’s prison

The Guardian - Occupy: the intellectual high ground

David Gareber’s image is licensed to David Graeber under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike