The Power of Humor

Angelique Haugerud, a Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, writes in the Huffington Post about politics, satire and Jon Stewart: Why do dictators fear laughter? Consider Jon Stewart, who returns to his anchor desk on The Daily Show on September 3, after a summer hiatus to direct a documentary film. Toppling governments is not his […]

Labor Day

Krystal D’Costa writes in Scientific American about Labor Day: There’s no question that technology has helped to create a safer workplace. But there’s also no question that technology is changing the workplace—as well as the laborer. In the coming years, we’ll have to redefine what it means to work because there is no question that […]

Why Anthropology Still Matters (Part II): Arlene Torres

Arlene Torres has recently been awarded a grant by the National Park Service to conduct an ethnographic study of community formations in Paterson, New Jersey, where over 50 different ethnic groups reside. The city is also home to the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.  Over the years, Torres’ contributions to the discipline include the […]

Bollywood and Violence

Irfan Ahmad, a political anthropologist, writes in Al-Jazeera about Bollywood and violence in India: On July 31, a shocking incident took place at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), one of South Asia’s top universities. In a dastardly attempted murder, shortly before noon, Akash Kumar, 23, and a student of Korean studies, entered the classroom […]

Why Anthropology Still Matters: Paul Stoller

Upon receiving the Anders Retzius gold medal for his significant scientific contribution to anthropology, Paul Stoller reflects on the meanings of the discipline and ponders over its value in this market economy with anthropologist, Gina Athena Ulysse, in her new interview series, Why Anthropology Still Matters on Huffington Post. Read the entire piece on the […]

Dig Wars!

The American Anthropological Association has written to the Travel Channel objecting to and asking for changes  in the TV show “Dig Wars,” in which contestants are sent to various locations with metal detectors to see if they can locate and dig up antiquities. The material they dig up is called “loot,” and is evaluated for […]

Outreach and Activism in Lebanon: A Dynamic Struggle for Gender Equality in Wake of the Arab Spring

Editor’s Introduction:  From an anthropological perspective, “education” embodies more than just formal schooling. In this post from Lina Abirafeh, a Gender Based Violence specialist working with the United Nations, we are introduced to the kinds of collaborative, culturally responsive campaigns designed to promote gender equality and end violence against women in the Middle East. To […]

The Language of Superman

What does a language sound like when it only exists in written symbols? The producers of this summer’s blockbuster Superman movie, Man of Steel , ran into this problem when it comes to the native language of Krypton, the fictional and faraway planet where Superman was born. So they turned to the Okanagan Valley, where University of […]

Nanotechnology and Religion

Chris Toumey, a cultural anthropologist at the University of South Carolina, studies relations between nanotechnology and faith: Until now, religions have been remarkably silent on nanotechnology, Toumey points out. Nothing compared to the harsh bioethical controversies about in vitro fertilisation in the Catholic world, for example. "Nanotechnology is a heterogeneous body of sciences and technologies: […]

Binge Watching

Grant McCracken discusses binge watching at wired.com Why do we binge watch? One way to answer this question is to say, well, we binge on TV for the same reason we binge on food. For a sense of security, creature comfort, to make the world go away. And these psychological factors are no doubt apt. […]