December 2017 ~ Table of Contents
Volume 9 | Number 3 | December 2017 Features Features Special Section: The Political Aesthetics of Border Walls Edited by Abou Farman, Artist: Richard A. Lou Introduction by Abou Farman Rasquache Aesthetics and the Unmonumental Border by Miguel Diaz-Barriga and Margaret Dorsey, interviewed by Abou Farman The Speaking Fence by Annastiina Kallius Images Unwalled by […]
The Speaking Fence
It speaks constantly. In five languages. “Attention, attention. I’m warning you that you’re at the Hungarian border, at the border crossing, which is the property of the Hungarian government. If you damage the fence, cross illegally or attempt to cross, it’s counted as a crime in Hungary. I’m warning you to hold back from committing […]
Yellow Water: Rupture and Return One Year after the Gold King Mine Spill
Beginnings Forged by glacial flows millions of years ago, the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado remain a mystical landscape to many visitors. The lure of their sky-bound rocky spires, regionally called “fourteeners,” a colloquial title that references their higher-than-14,000-foot elevation, draws thousands of tourists annually to explore nostalgic remnants of the “wild west” in […]
Lissa and the Graphic Novel Form: An Appreciation
Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution tells a tale in graphic novel form of two (fictional) girls, one American and one Egyptian, who each faces different medical dilemmas. Set largely during the Egyptian Revolution, it reveals through the personal stories of the two characters — composites invented by the authors and drawn […]
Kill the Animals, Save the Animals: Watch a Gamer Subculture Define Its Values at Games Done Quick
Editor’s note: We hope you enjoyed Robert Myer’s recent piece, “The Great American Cultural Eclipse,” and the many themes made available through its hyperlinks. Here, in a similar format, is our first post of 2018. Happy New Year! – Maria D. Vesperi, Executive Coordinating Editor, Anthropology Now Projects ~~~ Lots of children become enthralled with […]
The Great American Cultural Eclipse
Robert Myers with David Toot Total solar eclipses are magnificent, dramatic visual collisions of moon and sun. They are also cosmic provocateurs that provide life-long memories. The eclipse on Monday, August 21, 2017 did not disappoint. Beyond its heavenly mechanics, the Big Event served as a cultural and personal projective test of national dimensions. The […]
September 2017 ~ Table of Contents
Volume 9 | Number 2 | September 2017 Features Anthropology Now and Then in the American Museum of Natural History: An Alternative Museum by Emily Martin and Susan Harding Shifting Perspectives on The Africa Hall at the American Museum of Natural History by Enid Schildkrout and Jacklyn Grace Lacey Primates of Vietnam: Conservation in a […]
Anthropology Now and Then in the American Museum of Natural History: An Alternative Museum
You know how they say in certain museums, history comes alive? Yeah. In this museum … it actually does. What are you talking about? Everything in this museum comes to life at night. – Night at the Museum, 2006 The American Museum of Natural History’s Cultural Halls are in serious need of deep rethinking […]
Shifting Perspectives: The Man in Africa Hall at the American Museum of Natural History at 50
The “Man in Africa Hall” at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) opened on June 8, 1968, after seven years of preparation. Colin Turnbull, hired in 1959 as the Museum’s first curator of African Ethnology, was tasked with curating the third iteration of an anthropology exhibit focused on Africa. By the time the Hall […]
On the Matter of Film
As film making and viewing increasingly become identified with digital media — storage in bits and invisible streams that manifest as cinematic experiences in our classrooms, theaters and living rooms — it is easy to lose track of the concrete materials, processes and spaces that make these viewing experiences possible. Easy, that is, unless your […]