Is anthropology more important than ever?
New books in 2021 plug Anthro-Vision. But is anthropology more important than ever? After decades of teaching, we need to ask: What happened?
Sidney Mintz
Teaching Latin America 2019
Resources for teaching Latin America and Caribbean 2019 themes anthropologically in a one-month intensive undergraduate-level class.
Anthropology: Unfinished Revolution
What Would Sid Do? Reflections on the Sidney Mintz legacy in anthropology. Teaching Introduction to Anthropology as Global History & Interconnection.
Latin America 2016
A 2016 book list for teaching Latin America & Caribbean Anthropology attempting to understand common themes in processes occurring across the Americas
How Did Anthropology Begin?
Early episodes of European colonialism, plantation slavery in the Caribbean, and Darwin in Tierra del Fuego are crucial to “How Did Anthropology Begin?”
Margaret Mead & Jared Diamond
What makes Jared Diamond possible? Discussant commentary for the panel “Margaret Mead and Jared Diamond: Past Publics, Current Engagements.”
Globalization Stories
Contemporary stories of globalization erase centuries of contact and encounter: Exploring the North Atlantic fiction of modernity as a seductive universal.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Valuing & Devaluing Anthropology
How might sharing anthropology change anthropological research and presentation? An anthropology of value and the value of anthropology during devaluation.
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.
Teaching: Latin America & Caribbean 2012
Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean is less about “peoples and cultures” and more about processes at work across the Americas.
Capitalism, Denisovans, Anthropology in Media
Free PowerPoint for “Anthropology and Moral Optimism”; Denisovan admixture update; AAA news and the 2011 Anthropology in Media Award.
Four Field Manifesto
Anthropology’s Moral Optimism: Four Field Manifesto & alternative visions of humanity. Capitalism is not the most beautiful or respectful of shared planet.
Admixture All the Way Down
Despite Nicholas Wade’s emphasis on splits among human groups, the research is clear that it’s admixture all the way down. Plus some Malinowski!
Government Planning & Anthropology
Anthropology should stand against the ideologues insisting government planning is inherently flawed.
Do anthropologists study everything?
Anthropologists don’t study everything. Anthropology studies important issues, in context, and gets real data. Anthropology is necessary.
Culture Doesn’t Matter
Does culture matter? Anthropology promoted culture, but the book “Culture Matters”–and David Brooks–reveal a perverted idea of culture.
Loving Anthropology
Loving anthropology for the questions it asks, the way anthropologists search for answers, and the importance of the answers to our world.
Anthropology Textbooks: Doubling down on culture?
Kottak and Gezon’s Culture uses a magazine-style textbook to double down on culture in anthropology. That’s problematic–culture is already everywhere.