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 […]

New Articulations of Biological Difference in the 21st Century: A Conversation

This conversation is prompted by continued frustration about how race is discussed and understood by the public and by those researchers who remain determined to draw clean lines around people who share particular physical characteristics. We make the case that knowledge of human evolution and population genetics should be a core aspect of “diversity requirements” […]

Nicolas Langlitz on Hallucinogen Revival and the Second Order Observer

Anthropology Now Podcast Series

This episode of Anthropology Now’s podcast series considers anthropological orientations toward the public and brain research with Nicolas Langlitz, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research. Professor Langlitz has dual degrees in Medical Anthropology and History of Medicine. The interview, conducted by NSSR Anthropology PhD candidate Erick Howard, focuses on Langlitz’s […]

Culture Brokering and Disaster Recovery

An October opinion piece in the Coloradoan by Kate Browne, an anthropologist whose work includes disaster recovery research and a broadcast documentary on the aftermath of Katrina, prompted Anthropology Now to post a call for commentary on the Anthropology and Environment Society listserv. We sought short, opinion page-style essays on whether culture brokers can indeed contribute to a paradigm […]

Circumcision and Human Rights

For both Jews and Muslims, circumcision is a religious and cultural practice. Within the last few weeks, Germany outlawed the practice of male circumcision for any but the strictest medical reasons. An atypical alliance of Jews and Muslims successfully challenged the German court's ruling and Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised to make religious circumcision practices […]

On Anti-Addiction Vaccines

Angela Garcia, Anthropology Now author, wrote an op-ed in LA Times on anti-addiction vaccines: My aunt Marion is in the hospital dying of liver and kidney failure, the result of her 20-year struggle with heroin use. I was told of her imminent death the same day news broke about a vaccine against the drug. "Breakthrough heroin vaccine […]

An Anthropologist to Head the World Bank?

The White House named Jim Yong Kim as its nominee to head to World Bank. Jim Yong Kim is the president of Dartmouth College, an anthropologist, a physician and a global health expert. This nomination forms a radical break from the traditional profiles of the World Bank leaders. Shall this appointment be approved, this would be […]

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 […]

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 […]

Does Height Matter?

The New York Times’ Room for Debate opinion section asks “Do We Want to Be Supersize Humans? If human bodies become taller, bigger and longer-living — is that progress?” Alexandra Brewis, a medical anthropologist, answers: Height conveys all sorts of important meanings about each person’s own development history. A photograph in my office taken two […]