winner: Frances Norwood, assistant research professor in the GW Department of Anthropology
2011 Margaret Mead Award announced
from anthropologyworks by admin
Congratulations to Frances Norwood, assistant research professor in the GW Department of Anthropology, for being selected to receive the 2011 Margaret Mead Award for her book, The Maintenance of Life: Preventing Social Death through Euthanasia Talk and End-of-Life Care ? Lessons from The Netherlands,? (2009).
Ethnocharette: The Post-It Note as technology
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by ckelty
US Army Anthropometric Survey (ANSUR II)
Armed with Science
Dr. Claire C. Gordon, Senior Research Scientist in Biological Anthropology at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) in Natick, MA. This is a guest post from Dr. Claire C. Gordon, Senior Research Scientist in
Anthropology As Stand In And Interpreter
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Rex
At one point in in Kelty?s series of posts entitled ?Is An Anthropology of Freedom Possible? (or something like that?) Matt made the remark that it might be more interesting to frame the question of ?Anthropology of?? in new terms, of ?Anthropology as?? This ingenious idea allows us to imagine our discipline?s potential and values by comparison to? well, pretty much anything. My post on ?Anthropology as Velociraptor? will be coming next week but first I want to blog about the idea of anthropology as stand-in and interpreter.
Remembering Fernando Coronil
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by jay sosa
We here at Savage Minds were saddened by the passing of Fernando Coronil last month, but heartened to see all the tributes to his life and work on the blogosphere.
Anthros & Econs: Crossing the chasm
from ethnografix by Ryan Anderson
The more I read about political economy and economic anthropology, the more I have wondered about the discipline of economics. What, exactly, are those economists up to, how do they approach their field of study, and why? I have read a good amount about modern economics, and how it differs from anthropology, but I haven’t really read all that much from economists themselves (especially about method and theory). Sure, I read Krugman’s blog, and I follow sites like Calculated Risk, Economist’s View (Mark Thoma), and Economics and Ethics. One of my favorite econ blogs was written by the late Alison Snow Jones (aka “Maxine Udall”). She had a real talent for writing about and exploring the implications of economics in a very personal and fascinating way.* Still, I wonder why there isn’t more of a conversation between anthropologists and economists. Especially considering our overlapping interests. So why is there such a chasm between the two disciplines? Is it because our ways of thinking about and analyzing human nature are soooooo different that there is no room for dialog, or what?
Anthros & Econs: Crossing the chasm
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Ryan
The more I read about political economy and economic anthropology, the more I have wondered about the discipline of economics. What, exactly, are those economists up to, how do they approach their field of study, and why? I have read a good amount about modern economics, and how it differs from anthropology, but I haven?t really read all that much from economists themselves (especially about method and theory). Sure, I read Krugman?s blog, and I follow sites like Calculated Risk, Economist?s View (Mark Thoma), and Economics and Ethics. One of my favorite econ blogs was written by the late Alison Snow Jones (aka ?Maxine Udall?). She had a real talent for writing about and exploring the implications of economics in a very personal and fascinating way.* Still, I wonder why there isn?t more of a conversation between anthropologists and economists. Especially considering our overlapping interests. So why is there such a chasm between the two disciplines? Is it because our ways of thinking about and analyzing human nature are soooooo different that there is no room for dialog, or what?
The Anthropology of Freedom, Pt. 5
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by ckelty
(Freedoms, all of them)
I?ll stop with this one, I promise. But it is in some ways where I should begin. That freedom is an interesting problematic obviously has little to do with whether or not anthropologists can wield it as a concept (that?s just me deferring to the putative audience here). Rather it is a simple empirical fact that freedom?both as slogan and as a thing?is relentlessly present in global society?and especially in the domains of high tech science and engineering. The ideological use of the slogan to brand just about anything is (should be) fair game for many different scholars of contemporary discourse (see e.g. Wendy Chun?s work). But as a starting point, consider only the image to the right, which collects 9 pages of logos that use ?freedom? to sell something.
The Anthropology of Freedom, Part 2
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by ckelty
She is Freedom
For philosophers, sociologists and historians, freedom is a concept exquisitely defined and heroically distinguished. There are the familiar distinctions like positive and negative liberty (Isaiah Berlin), there is the long tradition of thinking freedom togther with sovereignty, government and arbitrary power (sp. the newly reinvigorated ?civic republican? tradition from Machiavelli to Quentin Skinner and Philip Pettit); there is the question of free will and determinism (a core Kantian Antimony that generates both moral philosophy and philosophy of science debates seemingly without end); there is the question of freedom and the mind (the problem of the ?contented slave? or the problem Boas raised in arguing that freedom is only subjective); the question of coersion, of autonomy, of equality and of the relationship to liberalism and economic organization. Within each of these domains one can find more and less refined discussions (amongst philosophers and political theorists primarily) oriented towards the refinement of both descriptive and normative presentations of freedom as a concept and as a political ideal. And then there is Sartre.
An Ethnography of Water Birth and its Representations on YouTube
Student Pulse
This report introduces the concept of water birth as an alternative birth practice and discusses the contributions of anthropologists to the anthropology of birth. Anthropologists such as Mead, Sargent, Davis-Floyd, and Jordan call for the narratives
Deadly migration: The ignored health crisis on the US-Mexican border
from antropologi.info – anthropology in the news blog by Lorenz
A multi-dimensional public health crisis is unfolding on the U.S.-Mexico border that few seem ready to acknowledge, anthropologists Rachel Stonecipher & Sarah Willen write on the Access Denied blog.
The complexity of this crisis came to light during a recent study tour to Tucson, Arizona, in which Rachel Stonecipher took part.
The anthropology of garbage…
from Material World by Haidy L Geismar
The University of Washington has an anthropology/archaeology of garbage project run by Prof. Jason De Leon. They analyse garbage in an ethnographic study of undocumented migration on the US/Mexico border – the refuse on the border narrates the complex social, political and economic systems that revolve around the undocumented migration movement.
Anthropology and Nutrition
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Lua
Savage Minds is happy to welcome Lua Wilkinson as a guest blogger.
Despite advances in agriculture and medicine over the last century, millions die each year as a direct result from hunger and malnutrition. While malnutrition clearly warrants the attention of the medical community, chronic hunger remains a social illness.
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The Anthropology of Debt Boston Globe And yet anthropology, Graeber points out, shows that the opposite is true: All societies, even those without currency, run on debt (and not, as is often assumed, on barter). “If you want your neighbor’s cow,” Graeber says, “you’d say, ‘wow, |
Archaeologists discover 2000-year-old Mayan palace in Mexico – Fox News
The misconceptions of slum life
from antropologi.info – anthropology in the news blog by Lorenz
Open access anthropology needs a civil service
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Rex
Open access anthropology needs a civil service, a staff, a personnel. For Big Content, it?s easy: hire and pay staff with the money you?ve received for charging professors to read the work they themselves have written. For open access anthropology, finding a staff to proselytize and educate open access is difficult ? finding people to actually edit and produce publications is even more difficult. The two key factors involved are time and money, and so far anthropology?s usual solutions to these problems have not been working out.
New Open Access Journal: Nordic Journal of Migration Research
from antropologi.info – anthropology in the news blog by Lorenz
While George Monbiot is right when he is attacking the academic publishing industry, it is important not to forget the positive developments.
The Individual, the Collective, and the New Motherhood in China
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Lua
The responsible thing to say about breastfeeding is that breast is best. And of course, breastfeeding is best, depending on how you define best I guess. Studies show that hundreds of thousands of babies could be saved each year if breastfeeding practices were initiated at birth. According to all credible international health organizations, breastfed babies do better nutritionally, emotionally, psychologically, and developmentally. When doing graduate research work in Papua New Guinea, I witnessed first-hand the havoc that can be caused when breastfeeding is abandoned for the modern convenience of bottle feeding. The sad truth is, in the face of unsanitary conditions and poverty, babies who don?t breastfeed fare much worse.
Who Are the Anatolian Turks? A Reappraisal of the Anthropological Genetic Evidence (Yardumian & Schurr 2011)
from Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog by Dienekes
This is a rather comprehensive overview of the issue of Turkish origins from an archaeological/anthropological/historical and genetic perspective. It should serve as a nice overview of the literature on the subject for anyone interested in the topic. The authors don’t estimate a % estimate of the impact of incoming Turkic speakers vs. pre-Turkic Anatolians, but marshall enough evidence to show that massive migration into Anatolia from the east was not responsible for the linguistic Turkicization of the peninsula.
Early divergence of Khoesan ancestors (Veeramah et al. 2011)
from Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog by Dienekes
The age estimate is based on microsatellites and a 6 million/25 year generation human-chimpanzee divergence. In general I carry a small basket when it comes to age estimates. Li & Durbin for example, recently estimated that divergence between African farmers and Eurasians began ~100-120ky, a date similar to the date in this paper for the San/non-San split, and even that may be older, depending on whether one uses the genealogical mutation rate from 1000Genomes or a chimp calibration.
East Eurasian mtDNA in Ukrainian Neolithic and Bronze Age
from Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog by Dienekes
Archaic admixture in Africa confirmed
from Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog by Dodecad Project
I have been somewhat of a broken record in arguing for archaic admixture in Africa over the last few years. My reasons for doing so have been stated many times, but here they are, once again:
Anthropology & Academic Publishing: Update
from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Ryan
Well, if there?s one thing that George Monbiot?s piece about academic publishing has accomplished, it has certainly created some discussion around the internets. First of all, Lorenz over at anthropology.info has a great post that provides a good summary of some of the debates, reactions, and discussions about this whole issue. Lorenz also provides an excellent selection of related links at the bottom of this post.
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