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Debos - Living by the Gun - Gun Violence

From Gun Violence to Gun Safety

In July 2012 I took up the issue of the use of the word “culture” in Charles Blow’s New York Times column on Gun Culture. Then in December 2012 with the horrors of Newtown, I returned to the issue of gun violence in a series of posts.

Since then, I have urged US anthropology to tackle these issues. In 2018, there were signs that the events in Florida were reshaping national discourse on these matters. Can anthropology help turn the tide?

The March 2018 issue of Open Anthropology, titled Enough: Anthropologists Take on Gun Violence featured 15 articles in anthropology that were free-to-read through March 2019. And here is a summary of the key blog-posts in the gun control and gun violence series:

  • Anthropology for a Safer World updates the theme for 2018 and provides a brief bibliography on anthropology and guns.
  • The Gun Control Podcast – Bringing Sanity to Gun Violence (December 2015) attempted to summarize this issue as mass shootings continued.
  • Shoddy Anthropology & Gun Control: Human Nature, Culture, History (March 2013) underscored how “shoddy anthropology” contributed to gun control inertia.
  • Anthropology, Gun Reform, American Anthropological Association (January 2013) followed on the December 2012 round-up, thanking the American Anthropological Association for a statement on gun violence.
  • Anthropology and Gun Violence: New Guns or New Gun Control? (December 31, 2012) was an account of how the Newtown massacre caused more gun buying than gun control.
  • Gun Violence Anthropology: AAA and the NRA (December 26, 2012) was a round-up of anthropologists writing on gun control after Newtown. I also pleaded for a gun violence statement from the American Anthropological Association.
  • Semi-Automatic Anthropology: Yes, the guns really do matter (December 19, 2012) revisited the post on Gun Culture, making the case that this was a simple issue for anthropologists to address.
  • Semi-Automatic Weapons Buyback – The Future of Gun Reform (December 18, 2012) attempted to urge a forward-looking policy in what seemed to be a moment of potential political change.
  • Gun Culture and Anthropology on Culture (July 2012) began the series as a form of reflecting on the use of culture beyond anthropology.

Anthropology for a Safer World

March for our Lives #ParklandStudentsSpeak Against Guns

Open Anthropology highlights anthropological research for understanding and teaching about gun violence & the #MarchForOurLives for gun reform

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Categories Anthropologists Tags cultural relativism, culture, gun violence, politics Leave a comment

Bring Sanity to Gun Violence

War, Peace, and Human Nature - Gun Control Podcast

As gun violence continues in the United States, this gun control podcast reflects on how anthropology can bring sanity and contribute to political debate.

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Categories Moral Optimism Tags ambushing anthropology, cultural relativism, culture, gun violence, human nature, political economy, politics, racism Leave a comment

Is the State Relevant?

Anthropology of the State

Globalization was supposed to render the national state irrelevant. Such claims had already been disproved by an anthropology of the state.

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Categories Moral Optimism Tags anthropology branding, capitalism, fieldwork, gun violence, immigration, Jared Diamond, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, occupy, planning, political economy, politics, racism 9 Comments

We Cannot Abandon Humanity

Virtual War and Magical Death - Bill Gates

When Bill Gates recommends Jared Diamond & Steven Pinker, reiterate anthropology’s calling: “the fate of no human group can be irrelevant to humankind” (Trouillot).

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Categories What is Anthropology? Tags ambushing anthropology, anthropology branding, capitalism, cultural relativism, Eric Wolf, gun violence, human nature, immigration, Jared Diamond, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, occupy, political economy, politics 9 Comments

Gun Control & Shoddy Anthropology

Douglas Fry - Beyond War - Gun Control and Shoddy Anthropology

Arguments against gun control are rooted in shoddy anthropology: ideas about human nature, culture & history which anthropology does not support.

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Categories Moral Optimism Tags ambushing anthropology, anthropology branding, culture, gun violence, human nature, Jared Diamond, political economy, politics, Ruth Benedict 23 Comments

War, Peace, & Human Nature

War, Peace, and Human Nature - Gun Control Podcast

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.

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Categories Moral Optimism Tags agriculture, ambushing anthropology, anthropology branding, evolution, gun violence, human nature, Jared Diamond, natural selection, niche construction, primates, primatology, textbooks 25 Comments

Anthropology, Gun Reform, American Anthropological Association

Younge - Another Day in the Death of America - Gun Reform Anthropology

As the US was in limbo about gun reform, the American Anthropological Association issued an important statement on gun violence and need for research.

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#GunReformNow for #AnthroDay

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Saturday Night Special - Anthropology of Gun Violence

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.

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Categories Scathing Anthropology Tags anthropology branding, capitalism, culture, David Brooks, gun violence, human nature, politics 8 Comments

AAA and the NRA

Americas Top Pundits - AAA NRA

What does anthropology reveal about gun violence? Reflections between tweets from the American Anthropological Association and the NRA gun defense.

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Yes, the guns really do matter.

How America Got Its Guns - Semi-Automatic Anthropology

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.

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Categories Scathing Anthropology Tags ambushing anthropology, anthropology branding, capitalism, culture, education, gun violence, human nature, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, political economy, politics, race 18 Comments

The Future of Gun Reform

Gun reform is important, but the U.S. needs to reduce the weaponry, buying back 50 million semi-automatic weapons. Australia did it. We can do it too.

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Gun Culture

Chin - Purchasing Power - Gun Culture

An analysis of “gun culture” provides lessons for talking about culture in anthropology at a time when culture–and guns–are everywhere.

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Categories Cultural Anthropology Tags culture, gun violence, human nature, politics 12 Comments

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© 2011-2023 Jason Antrosio. All Rights Reserved. This blog is a personal project and does not represent the views of any institutions or employers, current or previous. The opinions expressed here are mine alone.