CIA & Anthropology
Sponsored by the Hardy Chair Lecture Series, a public lecture by Dr. David H. Price: “Tracing Funding, Tracing Impacts: The CIA and Anthropology.”
ambushing anthropology
Anthropology Boycott
The BDS Movement merits support, but an anthropology boycott of Israeli academic institutions by the AAA is a too easy “take a stand” moment from academe.
Bring Sanity to Gun Violence
As gun violence continues in the United States, this gun control podcast reflects on how anthropology can bring sanity and contribute to political debate.
The Other Side of Participant Observation
Resources and thoughts on Teaching Cultural Anthropology for fall 2014: “Teaching is the other side of participant observation” (Tim Ingold, Making 2013:13)
Margaret Mead & Jared Diamond
What makes Jared Diamond possible? Discussant commentary for the panel “Margaret Mead and Jared Diamond: Past Publics, Current Engagements.”
Fetishizing Fieldwork on the Road to Essentialism
Fieldwork and the ethnographic monograph invited closure around cultural wholes. Anthropology can defend the concept of culture while jettisoning the word.
How do we get out from culture?
Are there ways to counter the notion of “gang culture” without promoting myths of individualism? Can we usefully bring anthropology to the courtroom?
Anthropology Is Your Ally
An impassioned plea to lower the arrogance decibels. In the wake of Steven Pinker’s “Science Is Not Your Enemy” assessing humanities & science together.
We Cannot Abandon Humanity
When Bill Gates recommends Jared Diamond & Steven Pinker, reiterate anthropology’s calling: “the fate of no human group can be irrelevant to humankind” (Trouillot).
Epigenetics & Human Nature
Could epigenetics finally re-write the script about human nature? Maybe, but first we have to go over The Edge’s promotional tribute to Napoleon Chagnon.
Power & the Culture of Greed
Brooks uses culture to bypass power, inequality, economics, politics, and history. That’s the real cultural problem–and a problem anthropology must tackle.
Party Like It’s 1999… with Napoleon Chagnon!
If “anthropology’s future depends largely on its ability to contest the Savage slot” (Trouillot) then what about Napoleon Chagnon?
Gun Control & Shoddy Anthropology
Arguments against gun control are rooted in shoddy anthropology: ideas about human nature, culture & history which anthropology does not support.
War, Peace, & Human Nature
Wonderful recent volume shows how views of human nature as inherently warlike stem not from the facts but from cultural views embedded in Western thinking.
Jared Diamond, Science, Violence & the Facts
The Ax Fight shows how Yanomami used steel axes long before anthropologists arrive. The Jared Diamond violence calculations must consider interconnection.
Angry Papuan leaders demand Jared Diamond apologizes – Survival Intl
Papuan leaders jump into the discussion, as Stephen Corry and Survival International challenge two very public figures–Jared Diamond and Steven Pinker.
Geography, States, Empires
Eric Wolf’s Europe and the People Without History attempts to answer Yali’s Question – Why Europe? It’s time to rediscover the history of Eric Wolf.
Patterns of Culture (1934) wins Jared Diamond (2012)
Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture wins Jared Diamond for conceptual clarity, writing style, ethnographic example, and impact. Pretty good for 1934.
The World Until Yesterday
Jared Diamond’s 2012 book, The World Until Yesterday encloses people in traditional cultures rather than dynamic Interconnection.
Great Year for Anthropology!
nn Gibbons in Science asked if 2012 was “An Annus Horribilis for Anthropology?” But beyond the headlines: Great year for anthropology!
Yes, the guns really do matter.
In our urge to understand complexity, anthropologists can make things more complicated than necessary. The guns matter. The U.S. needs a semi-automatic ban.
Anthropology & Politics in 2012 Elections
Anthropology should be front and center–the 2012 Obama Romney election concerns race, culture, history, and power, key issues for political anthropology.
Conservative Goldmine
The “social construction of race” is a goldmine for conservative politics, offering endless denunciation, delusions of anti-white bias, & political venom.
Anthropology: Best Major to Change Your Life
Check out an Anthropology Major! It’s the worst college major for instant pay, but best major to change your life. And Anthropology can change the world.
Jared Diamond won’t beat Mitt Romney
The really scary part of the Diamond Romney dustup is how Romney recaps Diamond: European imperialism is accidental but societies choose to fail.