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.
anthropology branding
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.
Links to the Highly Improbable
An anthropologist caught between “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” and “Marginal Revolution: Small Steps Toward a Much Better World.”
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.
Childcare, Culture & Power
Meredith Small, “Our Babies, Ourselves” introduces many ways to raise babies, the biocultural of neurologically unfinished infants. But does this elide power?
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.
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.
Anthropology, Gun Reform, American Anthropological Association
As the US was in limbo about gun reform, the American Anthropological Association issued an important statement on gun violence and need for research.
#GunReformNow for #AnthroDay
Can gun violence ever lead to new gun control resolve or just to new guns? Anthropology can push for sanity on gun violence and gun control.
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.
Valuing & Devaluing Anthropology
How might sharing anthropology change anthropological research and presentation? An anthropology of value and the value of anthropology during devaluation.
Busting Myths
“Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You” launched Agustin Fuentes into a public defense of anthropology’s relevance.
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.
2013 Introduction to Anthropology – Four Fields
Introduction to Anthropology with “What Does it Mean to be Human?”; “Labor and Legality”; and “Applying Anthropology.” Biological, Archaeology, Culture.
(on Race/IQ)
In 2012. Ron Unz put my reading of Race/IQ in “The American Conservative,” asking if it is “Game Over” for Race IQ. It should have been–but it never is.
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.
Darwin in Mind–The End
“Darwin in Mind: New Opportunities for Evolutionary Psychology” (2011) marked the end of evolutionary psychology as foil for anthropology.
Teaching Race
Updated sources for teaching race anthropologically. Race is a social construction, but we need to understand that racism is what makes race salient.