Family Life in the USA
Elinor Ochs’ latest research on child-rearing practices among middle class US families receives wide spread media attention: Anthropologist Elinor Ochs and her colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles have studied family life as far away as Samoa and the Peruvian Amazon region, but for the last decade they have focused on a society […]
Catastrophe and its Ghosts
A year after whole neighborhoods were killed by the Japanese tsunami, rumors of ghosts swirl in Ishinomaki as the city struggles to come to terms with the tragedy. One reconstruction project appears stalled because of fears the undead spirits of those who perished last March will bring bad luck. ”I heard people working to repair […]
Parody as Scientific Theory
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 […]
Cyborg Anthropology
Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist. The TED Website explains: Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on “external brains” (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives. But will these machines ultimately connect or conquer us? […]
James Ferguson and NY Fashion Week?
With NY Fashion Week well underway, New York Magazine’s fashion section, The Cut, posted online an article contemplating the mysteries of fashion language – citing anthropologist James Ferguson and sociolinguist Penny Eckert in the process. A sample: “Such abstract language reminded [Eckert] of the work of anthropologist James Ferguson, who studies urban life in the […]
FGM
Speaking to Voice of America, Medical Anthropologist Elise Johansen joins the widespread call to end Female Genital Mutilation: …FGM, a practice which dates back thousands of years, persists despite widespread recognition of its harmful physical and psychological effects on girls and women. Involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, FGM’s immediate health […]
Cultural Anthropology: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Egypt
Cultural Anthropology, the journal for the Society for Cultural Anthropology, has just posted a forum titled: Hot Spots: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Egypt. Check it out for videos and links to discussions and reflections on the first anniversary of the ‘official’ start of the Egyptian Revolution. Some excerpts: Video: The Women of Tahrir from Yasmin […]
Border Crossing
Fox News Latino reports: Shoes, backpacks and other objects discarded in the desert by undocumented immigrants have been collected by a team of anthropologists to document the difficult journey they make to get into the United States. “For me, these objects aren’t trash. They reflect the history of all the great migrations,” Jason de Leon, […]
Margaret Mead: This I Believe
The Hindu newspaper published a piece commemorating the recording of Margaret Mead‘s “This I Believe” essay for Edward R. Murrow‘s radio series: I believe that to understand human beings it is necessary to think of them as part of the whole living world. Our essential humanity depends not only on the complex biological structure which […]
Weather Control
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 […]