Nuclear Lessons
Barbara Rose Johnston and Hugh Gusterson ponder nuclear realities at the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences Barbara Rose Johnston: Radiation is invisible, how do you know when you are in danger? How long will this danger persist? How can you reduce the hazard to yourself and family? What level of exposure is safe? How do […]
The War in Libya
“The Libyan Revolution is Dead” declares Maximilian Forte in his Zero Anthropology Blog. …this is an autopsy, identifying the weapons used, and the criminals responsible for killing the Libyan revolution. This is no longer a Libyan story–that chapter is now closed. My autopsy is divided into several broad categories of actors: the humanitarians, the rebels, […]
Nuclear Power, Fears and the Limits of Democracy
Keibo Oiwa, a Japanese cultural anthropologist and environmentalist, speaks to Democracy Now about the current nuclear crisis: And I’m really realizing again that, you know, democracy is so hollow now. I mean, we don’t have power. This is not democracy. We are controlled—we have been controlled by the government and the Tokyo Electric Company, you […]
On Japanese Suffering
“In Japanese culture, there’s a sort of nobility in suffering with a stiff upper lip, in mustering the spiritual, psychological resources internally,” said John Nelson, a cultural anthropologist and chairman of the department of theology and religion at the University of San Francisco. “There’s even a word for quietly enduring difficult situations: Gaman.” Read the […]
On Anthropology, Human Terrain System and University Funding
“A new phalanx of anthropologist-warriors are being recruited, carrying ‘cultural scripts’ to battle” Mark LeVine, a professor of history at UC Irvine writes for Al Jazeera: …Originally conceived in the mid-2000s as the Iraqi insurgency gained strength and the US was making little headway in Afghanistan, the “Human Terrain Systems” program brought anthropologists and other scholars […]
On Libya’s Tribal Dynamics
Philip Carl Salzman, a McGill University professor of anthropology tells CNN, “Libyans have a strong loyalty to tribe…A tribe provides welfare in times of need…they have a collective responsibility.” However, Khalil Ali Al-Musmari, a retired professor of anthropology and sociology in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, says “the foreign media have often crudely misrepresented the […]
William Beeman on Libya
A PressTV interview with Professor William Beeman, Chairman of Anthropology department of University of Minnesota “The US led the regularization of relations with Colonel Gaddafi, after he had given up his nuclear program, which in my opinion was non-existent anyway. But the US issued a declaration saying this is a new era of friendship, legitimizing […]
American Treasures: Two Archaeologists Host a Discovery Channel Series
Kirk French from Pen State department of Anthropology and Jason De Leon, from the university of Michigan star in a Discovery Channel 10-episode series. In a interview to centerdaily.com we learn that “’Artifact or Fiction’ was the original name of the show, but just weeks before the show’s air date, The Discovery Channel changed it […]
Anthropologists Write on Arab Uprisings and US Foreign Policy
Paul Stoller in BigGovernment.com: “If my many years living as a field anthropologist in sub-Saharan Africa are applicable, most senior diplomats appear to be far removed from the realities of the street…. With some exceptions, I would suggest, most of our senior diplomats and political officials do not know the street.” Saba Mahmood in The Nation: The […]
An Anthropologist’s Diary of the Egyptian Uprising
Another anthropologist reporting from Egypt.