Upstate Latinx
A course on “Upstate Latinx” as part of the “Discover Your Place” seminar series. Using the book Latina/o Studies by Ronald Mize.
education
Coronavirus & Academia
Academia should be at the forefront of imagining more radical possibilities for going beyond our current coronavirus crisis.
Anthropology in Brazil
Suggestions for the main subjects to include in an anthropology textbook for teaching introduction to anthropology in Brazil.
Nacirema Thinking
Although Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” has been assigned for thousands of anthropology courses, we need to think before using it uncritically.
Anthropology on Immigration
Anthropology has studied immigration and stands with immigrants against mass human rights violations.
Volunteer Tourism
Readings and suggestions on Volunteer Tourism for an undergraduate anthropology student doing qualitative research in Costa Rica.
What is Anthropology?
To the question of “What is Anthropology?”: Anthropology is a generous comparative inquiry into the conditions & potentials of human life.
Anthropology Matters
The October 2017 issue of Open Anthropology promotes material linked to the #AmAnth17 meetings, Anthropology Matters (November 29-December 3).
Anthropology: Unfinished Revolution
What Would Sid Do? Reflections on the Sidney Mintz legacy in anthropology. Teaching Introduction to Anthropology as Global History & Interconnection.
Anthropology Major Jobs
Please help a recent high school graduate who desperately wants to be an anthropology major but worries about the anthropology major jobs after graduation.
Entangling the Biological
An Introduction to Anthropology course for 2014, with emphasis on “entangling the biological” and the relevance of anthropology for important dialogue.
Purchasing Power / Buying & Believing
A double review from 2003 of Elizabeth Chin’s Purchasing Power and Steven Kemper’s Buying and Believing. A review that went poof! from American Ethnologist.
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.
Fieldwork & Kinshipology
Laura Bohannan’s Return to Laughter is a great book to discuss institutionalized fieldwork in anthropology and how kinshipology trumped messier discoveries.
College is a Place
Meshing Tim Ingold’s “Against space” with Andrew Delbanco’s “College”: College is a place, not commodified space, of growth and movement, not retention.
The Concept of Culture
Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture translated Boasian Anthropology and its concept of culture to a mass audience. Plus problematic cultural wholes.
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.
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.
Living with Darwin & Evolution-Creation Controversy
“Teaching Theories: The Evolution-Creation Controversy” (1982) has long been part of the Applying Anthropology reader. Time for a Living with Darwin update?
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?
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.
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.
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.