Anthropology Now » economics

Clutter and Stress

AssafH — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 09:12:18 +0000

Jeanne Arnold talks to the Boston Globe about cluster, stress and he latest book:

With the 21st century’s constantly evolving technological innovations and the wild success of bulk-shopping stores, our hoarding habits have gotten worse. Some of us feel like we’re drowning every time we take a moment to look around our homes.

A recently published book called Life at Home in the 21st Century indicates that we’re living in more clutter than ever before: our shelves are jammed with dozens of jars of tomato sauce bought on sale at Costco or with outdated electronics that we can’t bear to throw away because they’re too valuable.

Of the 32 middle-class families from Los Angeles who were studied for the book, only one-quarter could use their garage to store their cars since they were so packed with unused junk.

[...]“We were able to identify a troubling health trend,” said Arnold. “The physiological stress that occurs among women who see their homes as cluttered may have some long-term health consequences.”

Feeling overwhelmed by clutter? 7 stress-reducing tips

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

08/09/2012

Capitalism and Intuition

AssafH — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:32:08 +0000

Grant McCracken, an anthropologist, provides some business and management advice at Forbes.com:

For decades, the mandate of successful executives was to set a plan and stick with it. Those days are gone, says Grant McCracken […] “Capitalism used to be so analytical, precise, and rule-oriented,” he says. “The whole job of management was staying away from what was intuitive.” But the reverse is now true, he argues, and the most successful leaders are experts in adapting quickly and listening to their hunches.

The transition to a new business reality isn’t easy. “We’re living in a world so complicated, we want to have access to the full, deepest part of our problem-solving abilities,” says McCracken, “and that means we’re dealing with something messier and harder to manage. The organizations that flourish in a world like this are fast, noisy, and intuitive. It can be really tough for managers.”

Three Ways to Harness the Power of Your Intuition

Dorie Clark, 06/07/2012

An Anthropologist to Head the World Bank?

AssafH — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:18:32 +0000

The White House named Jim Yong Kim as its nominee to head to World Bank. Jim Yong Kim is the president of Dartmouth College, an anthropologist, a physician and a global health expert. This nomination forms a radical break from the traditional profiles of the World Bank leaders. Shall this appointment be approved, this would be one of the most influential positions any anthropologist has ever reached. It remains to be seen how Jim Yong Kim anthropological understanding would translate into global and local policies.

Weather Control

AssafH — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:01:46 +0000

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.

Hiring of Shaman Questioned

The Associated Press

The Banking Sector

AssafH — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:11:23 +0000

BBC Business Daily dedicated its 29^th of December program to “The Banking tribe:”

Anthropologists spend decades studying the culture and rituals of obscure tribes in Africa and the Amazon but Dutch anthropologist Joris Luyendik tells Justin Rowlatt why he’s decided to study bankers instead.

Press here or here to stream to program online, or alternatively press here to download the program in an MP3 format

Trash

AssafH — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:59:36 +0000

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

David Graeber

AssafH — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:14:58 +0000

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

Anthropologists Not Needed in Florida

AssafH — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:25:23 +0000

Speaking at The Mark Bernier Show, Florida Governor Rick Scott expressed an unfavorable opinion of anthropology:

We don’t need a lot more anthropologists in the state. It’s a great degree if people want to get it, but we don’t need them here. I want to spend our dollars giving people science, technology, engineering, and math degrees. That’s what our kids need to focus all their time and attention on, those types of degrees, so when they get out of school, they can get a job.

Checkout the following links for an extensive coverage of the situation:

Daneil Lende at Neuroanthropology
Living Anthropologically: Anthropologists Unite: Florida Edition and The Florida Governor’s Daughter and Undergraduate Anthropology Major
Ryan Anderson at Savage Minds

Anarchy in the UK?

AssafH — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:20:51 +0000

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.

Read the rest at anthropologyworks.com

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.

Click here to read the rest

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.

The Meanings of Debt

AssafH — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:49:03 +0000

David Graeber discusses economics at CNN.com Blogs:

…If the study of history shows us anything, it’s that it all comes down to power. The people on the top know that everything is negotiable. If there’s a real problem, you can always work something out – which is what we saw in 2008, when the financial establishment effectively convinced the both political parties to step in and take care of several trillion dollars of their gambling debts.

The rich have always been capable of extraordinary acts of generosity and forgiveness when dealing with each other. The absolute morality of debt is meant for us lesser mortals – since it’s the best means ever discovered to take a situation of massive inequality and make it seem like the victims are to blame.

…The most remarkable thing I discovered in my historical researches is that virtual money is nothing new. Actually, it’s the original form of money.