Part Three of Three: New York City
[audio:https://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/244088/1/BBC_OLIYH_NYC_17Dec2012.mp3] New York has long been a city of immigrants, and as a result of waves of immigration, language experts describe it as the most linguistically dense city on earth. Mark Turin travels to the Big Apple to track the many languages of New York. He travels the 7 train, designated a US Heritage Trail, […]
Language Politics in South Africa
Anthropologist and linguist Dr Mark Turin travels to South Africa to get to grips with the country’s complex language politics and policies. Until the mid 1990s, there were just two official languages, English and Afrikaans, while other indigenous African languages were sidelined. Today the situation is different, with eleven official languages recognized by the Constitution […]
A KONY 2012 Post-Mortem?
Viral Time What was your reaction to KONY 2012? Do you remember it? Did you have a reaction? Did it serve as fodder for an anthropologically grounded treatise in one of your classes or a conversation in the spring of 2012 during it’s viral time? Did it launch you into instant empathy and social action […]
Vodou and Religious Freedom in Haiti
Gina Athena Ulysse, a Prof. of Anthropology & African American Studies at Wesleyan University, writes at the huffingtonpost about the oppression of Vodouists in Haiti: While perception of Haiti as synonymous with Vodou reigns in public imagination, especially abroad, within the republic the religion is under attack again. Vodouists and supporters from all over Haiti and […]
Findings : Queer Critters
Anthropology courses often teach us to recognize the humanity in others. Introductory textbooks reveal the logic behind social practices of native peoples, inviting the reader to identify with foreign cultures. At the same time, the desire to preserve the sanctity of such common humanity motivates communities to demonize individuals who commit “acts against nature.” […]
Findings : A Culture Interdependent with Salmon
The Nimiipuu people of the Pacific Northwest (more commonly known as the Nez Perce Indians) have a close, interdependent relationship with salmon. This fish has long been central to their diet, rituals, stories, and understanding of the environment, the cultural consequence of their physical interdependence with the salmon. At the time of their first contact […]
Findings : Debilitating Marginal? Queer Living in a Class-Divided Society
On September 22, 2010, Tyler Clementi, a gay freshman at Rutgers University, committed suicide. Many held his roommate responsible for the tragedy: Dharun Ravi had spied on Clementi’s rendezvous with a male friend and tweeted about what he saw (Ravi was later convicted on charges of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and tampering with […]
Findings : Why Do Guy Fawkes Masks Seem to be Everywhere These Days?
The Internet receives a remarkable amount of credit for contemporary political developments. This is true of both revolutionary and mainstream movements, from the Arab Spring to Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. At the same time, widespread commentary on the Internet’s mobilizing capacity has generated numerous and ranging assertions about the effects of online organizing. Does […]
Tailgate Parties
Think football, and odds are you think tailgate party. And with good reason — the tailgate party is among the most time-honored and revered American sporting traditions, what with the festivities, the food and the fans. And the beer. Don’t forget the beer. To the untrained eye, these game-day rituals appear to be little […]
Breastfeeding in the Classroom
Adrienne Pine was in a jam. The assistant anthropology professor at American University was about to begin teaching “Sex, Gender & Culture,” but her baby daughter woke up in the morning with a fever. The single mother worried that she had no good child-care options. So Pine brought her sick baby to class. The […]