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.
politics
These blog-posts are about the intersection between anthropology and politics. They are often guided by the wisdom of Michel-Rolph Trouillot in Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World.
Many people believe anthropology should have nothing to do with politics or that anthropology can only analyze political configurations but not contribute to them. Others believe that their academic anthropology job is their politics. Trouillot pushed for a middle ground, an academia that was not explicitly political while insisting that anthropologists should have academic projects outside of academia. As Trouillot once commented in a seminar, an academic anthropology job is not activism: “You can’t have your job and eat it too.”
Here are some classroom resources that might be helpful:
- The 2021 Intro-to-Anthropology class on politics using the textbook Anthropology: What does it mean to be human?
- The 2020 Intro-to-Anthro class on political organization using the textbook Through the Lens of Anthropology.
- The Cultural Anthropology 2020 class on politics and power using the textbook Essentials of Cultural Anthropology.
- This Anthropology 2017 class attempted to ask the question “Why does politics matter?”
Anthropology’s Brief Reign (2015)
With President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, President Barack Obama of the US, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Anthropology is taking over the world.
hope: the first anthropological emotion
“The first anthropological emotion is hope” (Carole McGranahan) and also via Ingold, Trouillot, Lennon & Ono “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
Humans Just Like Us?
Is the time gone for reaffirming that the Bongobongo are “humans just like us”? And does Open Access anthropology spell out the stakes for a wider public?
Margaret Mead & Jared Diamond
What makes Jared Diamond possible? Discussant commentary for the panel “Margaret Mead and Jared Diamond: Past Publics, Current Engagements.”
Is the State Relevant?
Globalization was supposed to render the national state irrelevant. Such claims had already been disproved by an anthropology of the state.
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.
White-Race Problems
Don’t worry White people! White Hispanics and our White Black President will save us! Geraldo Rivera’s Fox News fact-twisting shows race retrenchment.
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.
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.
Indigenous Allies & Politics of Empire
The indigenous allies in Matthew Restall’s Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest point to contingent histories, not the inevitability of guns, germs & steel.
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.
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.
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.
Sidney Mintz, Franz Boas, Anthropology – A Celebration
At the 2012 American Anthropological Association, Sidney Mintz received the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology and papers in honor.
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.