The emergence of cooperation in human societies has received ample academic attention from different disciplines, and is usually considered as an adaptive response to competition over scarce resources. In this article, the authors review the specific contribution that social anthropology has made to this field of research. They propose that social anthropology has contributed to this field through the description of systems that have regulated both cooperation and competition in traditional societies: (1) hunter-gatherer societies, where generalized reciprocity dominates; (2) prestige economies, which includes the exchange of valuables in specific spheres, primitive money, agonistic institutions in tribes; and last, (3) ‘moral economies’ in peasant communities, where cooperation and competition coexist but never at the cost of putting at risk the reproduction of the community itself or of some of its members.
By: Catherine Besteman, Elizabeth Cullen Dunn, Tricia Redeker Hepner, Carole McGranahan, Nomi Stone, and Marnie Thomson
The Racist Gift of Immigration and Citizenship Bans, Again
Catherine Besteman
In the summer of 2015, in collaboration with a diverse collective of artists and ecologists known as Chance Ecologies, I was invited to help perform an excavation of a street in Hunters Point, Queens. The peculiar aspect of this excavation was not that its existence was dubious, plenty of archaeological excavations fail to uncover the artifacts they pursue. Rather, the uniqueness of this project was that we knew the artifact we sought did not exist, and this is precisely why it was chosen as the subject of our investigation. The intention was explicitly to destabilize the notion of ‘existence’ – is it bound to material realization, or does simply conceptualizing something activate its existence? (See Nick Land’s portmanteau, hyperstition, at your own risk.)
Anthropology lecture: New Paths to Social Justice and Recovering the Past’ by Dr. Holly Cusack-McVeigh
Tennessee Today
Dr. Holly Cusack-McVeigh is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She holds appointments as a Public Scholar of Collections and Community Curation and Adjunct Assistant ..
Central Washington University
From Anthropology News
Trump’s Formulaic Twitter Insults
Adam Hodges
Every presidential transition also involves a change in the regime of language. This year the juxtaposition between the outgoing and incoming regimes is especially stark, something President Obama’s evening farewell address followed by President-elect Trump’s press conference the next morning vividly depicted. However, underlying their many obvious differences, they both employ the common rhetorical device of repetition—Obama to inspire and affirm shared values, Trump to peddle insults peppered with gratuitous modifiers.
Chimps’ behavior following death disturbing to ISUanthropologist
Iowa State University News Service
Iowa State Anthropologist Jill Pruetz describes the disturbing behavior following the death of a chimpanzee at her research site in Senegal. She and her colleagues captured what happened on video. Interview by Dave Olson. Video courtesy of Jill Pruetz.
After this gruesome murder, you’ll never look at chimps the same way againMashable
Chimps beat up, murder and then cannibalise their former tyrantNew Scientist
The word “Caucasian” is used in the U.S. to describe white people, but it doesn’t indicate anything real. It’s the wrong term to use! My colleague and one of my longtime writing partners, Carol Mukhopadhyay, has written a wonderful article, “Getting Rid of the Word ‘Caucasian,’” that is still relevant today for how it challenges us to critically examine the language that we use. It’s obvious that language shapes how we perceive and see the world. And we know how powerful the concept of race is and how the use of words related to the notion of race has shaped what we call the U.S. racial worldview. So why do we continue using the word “Caucasian”?
In December we published our first installment of our new Reader Letters series. This time around, we’d like to hear what you, our readers, have to say about the new US President, Donald J. Trump. What will Trump’s America mean for the country, and for US anthropology? As anthropologists, how can we approach the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental implications of the Trump era? What does his election, inauguration, and rise to power portend for the coming years? What do you think? Let us know!
Here are my 50 cultural anthropology dissertation selections for 2016. As in past years, my search was based on Dissertation Abstracts International, an electronic database available through my university library which consists of almost 100 percent U.S. dissertations. As always, I rely only on the abstract of each dissertation as the basis for my selection. I have taken the liberty of trimming long abstracts so that all entries are roughly the same length. My apologies to the authors for any possible offenses created by my editing.
Someone tried to burn down the Flaming Torch restaurant last week. The restaurant,
Syrian refugee family thrives in American south
Courtesy of Square, Inc.
by Lesli Davis
A short film produced by Square, Inc. tells the story of a refugee family living in Knoxville, TN.
Yassin Falafel, as some people call him, runs a popular restaurant in downtown Knoxville. After fleeing the war in Syria, he and his family settled in East Tennessee. Initially without a work permit, Yassin began selling his sandwiches at the local mosque. With a little help from an imam at the mosque, Yassin opened his downtown store.
Open Letter: Anthropology department stands with union
The Ithacan
The Department of Anthropology supports part–time and contingent faculty members who are currently involved in an on-going union negotiation with the Ithaca College administration. Negotiations such as these are necessary for our college community in .
Valene L. Smith Museum celebrates anthropology
Chico Enterprise-Record
The Valene L. Smith Museum of Anthropology will be holding “I Heart Anthropology” week, Feb. 11-16. The event celebrates all things anthropological and aims to reach the community and families with free educational events. Feb. 11 will include a family
The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest urban university system in the country and ranks alongside the California and New York State systems for total enrollment. Until 1976, CUNY was entirely tuition-free. While remaining significantly cheaper than other private universities in New York, CUNY has increasingly pursued a neoliberal business model reflective of for-profit institutions. This is hardly surprising. The financialization of CUNY has occurred in tandem with the financialization of New York City itself, and indeed much of the nation and world economy. Today’s confirmation of Betsy DeVos as the new Secretary of Education promises to continue and exacerbate this trend.
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