Before we can understand an alien civilization, it might be useful to understand our own.

To help in this task, anthropologist Kathryn Denning of York University in Toronto, Canada studies the very human way that scientists, engineers and members of the public think about space exploration and the search for alien life.

From Star Trek to SETI, our modern world is constantly imagining possible futures where we dart around the galaxy engaging with bizarre alien races. Denning points out that when people talk about these futures, they often invoke the past. But they frequently seem to have a poor understanding of history

Read more at Wired Magazine

Q&A: The Anthropology of Searching for Aliens
By Adam Mann April 4, 2012

Nate Greenslit writes for From the Fields, a Wired Science op-ed series:

As an anthropologist of science, I am fascinated with how people create their own meaning from scientific content, which in turn shapes public understanding of science and, ultimately, scientific agendas themselves.

YouTube has become a lively repository for this kind of meaning-making. A great example is advertising for antidepressants: User-generated parody videos have given neuroscientific claims about depression a new cultural life.

So-called “direct-to-consumer” television and print advertising of antidepressants has been a controversial practice since its introduction in 1997, prohibited in all countries except for the U.S. and New Zealand. This sometimes-political lightning rod of the pharmaceutical industry has also been the de facto promulgator of putative neuroscientific theories of depression and anxiety disorders.

Read more here:

Op-Ed: Why YouTube Matters to the Science of Depression
By Nate Greenslit, February 28, 2012
Wired Scienece

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

]]> http://anthronow.com/press-watch/anthropologists-not-needed-in-florida/feed 0 http://anthronow.com/press-watch/is-anthropology-a-science http://anthronow.com/press-watch/is-anthropology-a-science#comments Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:27:43 +0000 Xiao Xiao http://anthronow.com/?p=996 From The Brian Lehrer Show, December 14, 2010, anthropologists Hugh Gusterson (executive boardmember of the American Anthropological Association and professor of Anthropology at George Mason University) and Peter N. Peregrine (president of the...