Sean Carey writes at anthropologyworks.com about the attribution of the UK Riots to “outsiders:”

But how true is the “outsider” hypothesis in accounting for riots? In the UK in the early 1980s, people often thought that “outsiders” were responsible for disorders simply because a large crowd would gather when there was an incident which then developed into a riot. Commentators put two and two together and reasoned that the rioters could not all have been local. But research I was involved in strongly suggested that the people who were present on the streets at the time rarely came from outside the area, especially on the first night of disorder.

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Sean Carey also writes at the newstatesman.com about the relations between the riots and the consumption of goods. He quotes the late British anthropologist Professor Sir Edmund Leach:

Every society must bring the aggressive instincts of its individual members under control. This can never be achieved simply by outright repression or by moral precepts, but only by sublimation, that is by providing legitimate outlets for dangerous feelings.

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Maia Green comments on the recent events at Savage Minds: ”

Perhaps this week’s turmoil in the UK offers some scope for anthropology’s core strengths of empathy and interpretation.

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Two British Anthropologist were arrested for planning an anti-monarchist “Zombie Wedding”  in downtown London. Michael Balter from Science Magazine reports:

Yesterday evening, while Prince William and Kate Middleton (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) were making last minute preparations for their royal wedding, two well-known anthropologists were arrested for helping to plan a “Zombie Wedding” in downtown London. Although the anti-monarchist protest was advertised as street theater, police were apparently not amused by the promised appearance of a working guillotine, and the benediction “May Royal Heads Roll!” They hauled the couple off to jail.

Anthropologists Chris Knight and Camilla Power, who live together in south London, were arrested at their home along with a third activist for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and breach of the peace. The arrest was filmed by a film crew and later posted on YouTube. Scotland Yard confirmed that they were still in custody as of 1 p.m. E.D.T. today.

To go with the wedding, the pair had planned street theater that they called a “Right Royal Orgy,” to begin in London’s Soho Square, proceed to Piccadilly Circus, and end at Westminster Abbey just when William and Kate were to be married.

Power teaches anthropology at the University of East London, where Knight also worked until 2009, when he was fired by the university in connection with organizing a previous political protest. The pair are celebrated for their contributions to the study of the evolution of human culture and symbolism, and are a regular fixture at evolution of language meetings. They are also founders and leaders in the London-based Radical Anthropology Group, and are known for their sometimes provocative political actions.

As Knight’s Web page, which has not been updated since the arrest, puts it: “I do science; I also do political street theatre. I hope you’ll respect the science, but please don’t take my theatrical pronouncements too seriously or literally. A sense of humor is presupposed!”

Anti-Royal Anthropologists Arrested for Planned Protest

The “incident” was also covered by the Times Higher Education:

Anthropologists arrested over ‘mock execution’ plans
29 April 2011

By John Morgan

Two academics said to have been planning an anti-monarchy mock execution at Westminster Abbey were arrested ahead of the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton in London