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 […]
Breaking Up in a Digital Age
Illana Gershon of Indiana University appeared at WBEZ91.5 and discussed some the finding presented at her book, The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media: When anthropologist Illana Gershon interviewed her Indiana University students as part of her research on social media and relationships, she posed this question to one of her classes: If you and your […]
The Banking Sector
BBC Business Daily dedicated its 29th of December program to “The Banking tribe:” Anthropologists spend decades studying the culture and rituals of obscure tribes in Africa and the Amazon but Dutch anthropologist Joris Luyendik tells Justin Rowlatt why he’s decided to study bankers instead. Press here or here to stream to program online, or alternatively press here to […]
More Anthropology Blogs
Anthropology Report provides an extensive collection of anthropological blogs: Anthropology boasts rich and varied blogs. Veteran anthropology blogs feature deep content and now have a history of stimulating commentary. Sophisticated newcomers have joined the field, demonstrating the importance of the online form. There are blogs from each of anthropology’s four fields and at the intersections […]
New Guinea
Hugh Brody, a British Anthropologist and a filmmaker writes at Open Democracy about New Guinea, one of the most culturally and ecologically diverse regions in the planet. Tragically, industrial and international politics have devastated life there. Thursday, December 1, 2011, is the fiftieth anniversary of West Papua’s independence. On this day in 1961 West Papuans were […]
Anthropologists Write on Afghanistan
The New York Times Sunday Book Review discusses the books of Noah Coburn and Thomas Barfield, two Boston University anthropologists who conducted fieldwork at Afghanistan: Ten years after the Taliban’s leaders fled their country in apparent defeat, the war in Afghanistan has become what one observer calls “a perpetually escalating stalemate.” As in Iraq, the […]
Trash
The Seattle Times introduces the work of David Giles, an anthropology graduate student whose research interests revolve around trash: For his doctoral thesis, the University of Washington student is examining how cultural assumptions of what is appetizing lead to the disposal of surplus, edible food. He’s become a pro at vaulting into Dumpsters, picking through […]
Debunking Doomsday
John W. Hoopes, an anthropologist at the University of Kansas, teaches a course on “Archaeological Myths and Realities” in which he tackles the 2012 myth among other doomsday premonitions: The United States has always embraced religious freedom. Peculiar religious sects, including occult beliefs, have always been part of America,” Hoopes said. “End-of-the-world and transformative beliefs […]
David Graeber
David Graeber is the subject of the cover story in the latest issue of the Bloomberg Businessweek magazine where he is is profiled as one of the founding activist of the Occupy Wall Street movement: David Graeber likes to say that he had three goals for the year: promote his book, learn to drive, and […]