Anthropology roundup: “Game of Thrones and Anthropology….

Game of Thrones and Anthropology

Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology

Sometimes people worry that anthropology’s central preoccupations won’t resonate with the wider public. But just one look at Game of Thrones proves that’s not true.

Prominent Anthropologist Welcomes Football Team Name Trademark Cancellation

American Anthropological Association

In a move that was hailed by the anthropological community, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced on Wednesday morning that it had canceled six federal trademark registrations for the name “Washington Redskins” citing testimony and evidence that the Washington, DC- based football team’s name is “disparaging to Native Americans” and thus in violation of federal trademark laws banning offensive terms and language

Anthropologists Should Embrace BDS

Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology by Isaiah Silver

Savage Minds welcomes guest blogger Isaiah Silver, a pseudonym for two AAA members and Ph.D. candidates in anthropology.

In the 30 April edition of Anthropology News, the leadership of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) invited its members to “help the association decide on appropriate courses of action,” amid ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. The call came after continuing requests that the AAA join the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement, that seeks to pressure Israel to end its discriminatory policies.

Biggest Ever Baby Boom Took Place Between 500 – 1300 A.D.

ValueWalk

The biggest ever baby boom in ancient civilization began around 500 A.D. and lasted for about 800 years. That’s what the Washington State University anthropology professor Tim Kohler and his student Kelsey Reese have discovered. They reconstructed a …

Ancient Southwest Baby Boom Offers Lesson in Overpopulation

Ancient Baby Boom Reveals Dangers Of Population Growth

Baby Boom Amongst Ancient Native Americans Sheds Light on Dangers of …

Travel/Writing

Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology

I’d like to think that most anthropologists now accept that you don’t have to travel to do ethnographic research. Ethnographic sensibilities are in the mind as well as the body, and just as John Urry concluded that tourism is a way of seeing the world, we could argue that ethnography is a way of experiencing and making sense, wherever you are. One of the pleasures of Arctic Encounters has been an opportunity to do joint fieldwork, a mode that increasing numbers of my colleagues are favouring these days, and to engage with the work of colleagues across the ‘circumpolar north’.

The Emerging Science of Computational Anthropology

MIT Technology Review

Location-based social networks are allowing scientists to study the way human patterns of behavior change in time and space, a technique that should eventually lead to deeper insights into the nature of society.

Sensory Anthropology Meets Neuroanthropology

Neuroanthropology

By Alexis Winter

“Rub them only when the movie flashes the respective number.” A scratch-and-sniff card from the German theatrical release of John Waters’ 1981 film Polyester. Source: Wikimedia.

Greg Downey, in his recent post on language and smell, opened a carton of expiring milk and poured himself into an exploration of cross-cultural variation in sensory experience.

Donut Anthropologist Answers All of Your Burning Donut Questions

TIME

In honor of this holiday for donut lovers, we talked about the history of the pastry and the state of the donut with Paul R. Mullins, Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, and author of Glazed …