Anthropology Now

Spitting Image

*This is a special feature from the third, Darwin themed print issue of Anthropology Now.* spitting image, spit’n’ image. Informal. exact likeness; … bef. 950; (v.) ME spitten, OE spittan; c. G (dial.) spitzen to spit; akin to OE spætan to...

the hardness of life and the laziness of some thinkers

Still ranting about our naivete in the face of Haitian poverty. One of my good friends was telling me about a story she'd heard where a woman was being treated on the USS Comfort for two legs and an arm all of which needed to be amputated. Now...

Part 3: Eating Watermelon, Parsing Chaos

Research takes perseverance and grit, but there is no denying that it comes with certain pleasures, too. In Palestinian society, research feeds both mind and body. Once, I was interviewing two young men who were in a hurry to go on an afternoon...

orphans???

Where do I even begin to explain what I'm thinking and feeling about how children are appearing in the coverage, being responded to on the ground, and what's actually happening to kids in Haiti? When I'm feeling sour (like right now) I think,...

Up close and personal, or maybe not

At the moment I' m being a little dumbfounded at what strikes me as a generalized lack of interest in actual Haitians, and a huge interest in imaginary Haitians. The objectification thing. There are a ton of events going on here in Los Angeles,...

And remember the beauty

Even now, I'm sure, so much of Haiti is breathtakingly beautiful. There is something of an upside to the country not having had enough money or cachet to get utterly overdeveloped and paved over. The mountains up above Miragoane, for instance,...

Whose crisis is it anyway?

At my daughter's ballet class the other day, I got talking with one of the moms about Haiti. She was telling me about some people at her church, people who go often out of the country and do volunteering and stuff, and what she said, basically,...

Mother, o Mother, where are you?

===In response to the terrible devastation in Haiti, Anthropology Now is offering special coverage of events in Haiti. For the next few weeks, Press Watch will be a dedicated Haiti Watch. Elizabeth Chin, a professor of anthropology at Occidental...

Volume 1 Number 3

Anthropology Now Issue 3 After Darwin Features •Darwin's Ventriloquists by Jonathan Marks •Spitting Image by Gisli Palsson •Race Drugs by Jonathan Kahn •Soccer, Sex, and Scandal in Brazil by Don Kulick •Rights and...

3 Haitian Women’s Rights Leaders Dead

Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan, founders of three of Haiti's most important women and girl's advocacy groups, are confirmed dead in the aftermath of the recent Haiti earthquake. Myriam Merlet was until recently chief...