Interview: John Postill on his new book The Rise of the Nerds anthro{dendum} by Adam Fish I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. John Postill about his new book, The Rise of Nerd Politics (Pluto Press). This new book, The Rise of Nerd Politics (Pluto Press), is analytically rich and wrestles with the problem of … Read more
Confronting the Specter of Cultural Appropriation SAPIENS by George Nicholas [no-caption] kokouu/Getty Images Humans celebrate many things—from rites of passage to religious events to groundhogs. One of the most intriguing, anthropologically speaking, is Halloween. Unlike other celebrations, this one features hordes of kids (and sometimes adults) dressed in costumes that some will find offensive. These include Native American princesses, … Read more
Wikipedia Leads Effort to Create a Digital Archive of 20 Million Artifacts Lost in the Brazilian Museum Fire Open Culture by Josh Jones The staggering loss of a possible 20 million artifacts in the fire that consumed Brazil’s Museu Nacional in Rio boggles the mind—dinosaur fossils, the oldest human remains found in the country, and, as Emily Dreyfuss reports … Read more
Firefighters battle massive blaze at 200-year-old Rio museum KRMG Firefighters battle massive blaze at 200-year-old Rio museum KRMG Huge Fire Devastates Brazil National Museum (PHOTOS, VIDEOS) Sputnik International Is Robot Empathy a Trap? SAPIENS by Daniel Salas [no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS Can robots care? And why should we care if they do? SAPIENS host Jen Shannon meets Pepper the robot, and host … Read more
Ancient Denisovan/Neanderthal human-hybrid discovered 15 kottke.org by Jason Kottke Wow! Genetic analysis of a human bone fragment found in Siberia reveals that her parents belonged to two different groups of humans: her father was Denisovan and her mother Neanderthal. A female who died around 90,000 years ago was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, according to genome analysis of a bone discovered in a … Read more
Can Cryptocurrency Revolutionize the Rituals of Money? SAPIENS by Sara Ceraldi Objects—pieces of paper, coins, lumps of precious metal—may serve as currency and represent specific monetary values, but what underpins the exchange of money is trust. We trust that our money will retain its value, that others will be willing to trade for it, and that it … Read more
UNESCO inscribed Turkey’s Göbeklitepe on world heritage list News here. **** The Age of Cultured Machines SAPIENS by Matthew Gwynfryn Thomas and Djuke Veldhuis Two robots traverse the desert floor. Explosions from a decades-old conflict have left a pockmarked and unstable territory, though many more improvised bombs lie concealed in its vast reaches. Sunlight splays off the … Read more
Archaeology’s Search for History Hidden in Ice SAPIENS by Craig M. Lee When Ötzi the Iceman, the most complete Neolithic mummy ever found, melted out of the Tyrolean Alps in 1991, the field of “ice patch archaeology” was born. In little more than a decade, archaeological sites were identified in alpine settings around the world, from the United … Read more
Anthropologists and Espionage, chapter 4,378 anthro{dendum} by Rex Is there anything new to say in the never-ending discussion of anthropology and espionage? Most anthropologists think it is unethical to gather intelligence on behalf of the government when they do their fieldwork — but not all of them. Some spies pose as anthropologists. Sometimes people start out as … Read more
Anger over ‘concretization’ of 12,000-year-old site Göbeklitepe in Turkey Hurriyet Daily News Experts are warning about careless works around the ancient site of Göbeklitepe, considered the world’s oldest temple area, amid reports that the site is being irreparably damaged by “concrete” and “heavy equipment.” Humanity’s Story Has No End of Surprising Twists SAPIENS by … Read more
Humanity’s Surprising Variety of Approaches to Toilet Training SAPIENS by Alma Gottlieb [no-caption] David D/Flickr This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Are 2-year-olds too young to start toilet training? Sun Ra > Black Panther anthro{dendum} The Black Panther movie has been out for a little bit now, and posts both pro and … Read more
How Ursula Le Guin’s Writing Was Shaped by Anthropology SAPIENS by Philip W. Scher In creating other worlds, Ursula Le Guin showed the power inherent in constructions of culture and new realities.Marian Wood Kolisch/Flickr This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Ursula K. Le Guin, Interplanetary Anthropologist anthro{dendum} by Guest Contributor By Anand … Read more
A Digital Bermuda Triangle: The Perils of Doing Ethnography on Darknet Drug Markets anthro{dendum} by Crystal Abidin anthro{dendum} welcomes guest blogger Alexia Maddox, contributing the first post in the Private Messages from the Field series edited by Crystal Abidin and Gabriele de Seta. * A Digital Bermuda Triangle: The Perils of Doing Ethnography on Darknet Drug Markets by Alexia … Read more
Anthropology’s Top Findings of 2017 SAPIENS by Aaron Brooks “Fossil scout” Pedro Boshoff inside the Rising Star cave system in South Africa, where Homo naledi fossils were found. Wits University This year’s anthropological findings brought us fascinating insights from across the globe, upending long-held assumptions about the evolutionary timeline, human dispersal, and more. There were almost too many great … Read more
Bonobos, Nicest Primates on the Planet, Make Humans Look Like Monsters Inverse mong the countless shitty things humans have done in the past year, we’ve revived Nazism, attempted to cover up egregious sexual abuse, and resurrected the threat of nuclear war — hardly behavior befitting of the Most Highly Evolved Species on the planet. That title, scientists recently … Read more