Guest blog post by AAA member, Steven Caton (Harvard U).
I have not been a fan of boycotts in the past, so why did I change my mind?
The Gaza war in June and the continuing settlement finally made me reconsider. All the hand wringing over the Palestinians and pronouncements critical of Israel and its policies were doing absolutely no good. I spoke to a number of colleagues and friends, two of them Israeli, and two of them not (no Palestinians I regret to say) about the pros and cons of the proposed boycott, and after contemplating what they said for several weeks, I finally decided to sign. In other words, I did not take this action lightly. I have thought longer and harder than ever about questions of academic freedom that boycotts raise, and whether it’s impossible to distinguish between boycotting institutions and individual scholars, as it is claimed by boycott opponents.
Welcome to the Anthropocene: Anthropology and the Political Moment
Huffington Post
We live in very troubled times — welcome to the Anthropocene, a new epoch during which human activity (industrial production and consumption) has provided us unparalleled wealth but also an unmistakable path toward potential ecological devastation.
Anthropologists Release Recommendations, Better Practices to Contain Ebola
PR Web (press release)
The report, “Strengthening West African Health Care Systems to Stop Ebola: Anthropologists Offer Insights,” will be made public during a press conference held by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Fri., Dec. 5, 11 a.m., at the AAA Press .
An interesting new study on Y chromosome and languages in the Caucasus. The distribution of haplogroups is on the left. The authors make some associations of haplogroups with language families:
Understanding Ebola: Launch of the Ebola Response AnthropologyPlatform
Institute of Development Studies
Dr Melissa Parker, Reader in Medical Anthropology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:”This funding has enabled us to establish a platform which draws together an international network ofanthropologists with expertise in West .
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