Image borrowed from "Japan's Children Population Clock." Story from Japan Today, 5/12/12: Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation’s people could theoretically become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates. Academics in Sendai said that Japan’s population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds. Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium. “If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children’s Day…
Anthropology
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Most Topular Stories
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"Japan faces 'extinction' in 1,000 years, researchers say"
Visual Anthropology of Japan - 日本映像人類学14 May 2012 | 1:34 am -
Regional traditions of ethnographic writing
media/anthropology14 May 2012 | 5:50 amThere’s a lively anthropology debate on over at the collective blog Savage Minds. Do check it out! Here’s my tuppence worth (as posted in the comments section): I’d like to accept Kerim’s invitation to go with the quasi-orality of blogging and think aloud for a moment, not as hastily as in a real-time interaction, but certainly not as sluggishly as in a peer-reviewed publication. I agree with the need to draw more theoretical inspiration from our ethnographic encounters, and would add to this an often forgotten component of anthropological work, namely regional traditions of… -
How fast to an Anthropology Ph.D.?
Savage Minds16 May 2012 | 9:43 amIt seems universities everywhere are looking to cut down the amount of time it takes to earn a graduate degree. A story in Inside Higher Ed reports on the latest effort: [Russell Berman] and five other professors at the university have produced a paper that calls for a major rethinking at Stanford — a reduction in the time taken to graduate by Ph.D. candidates in the humanities, and preparing them for careers within and beyond the academy. The professors at Stanford aren’t just talking about shaving a year or so off doctoral education, but cutting it down to four or five years… -
Anthropologists discover earliest form of wall art
ScienceDaily: Anthropology News14 May 2012 | 2:29 pmAnthropologists working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research shows the piece to be approximately 37,000 years old and offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. -
Blog has moved to http://linguisticanthropology.org/
Linguistic Anthropology10 May 2012 | 4:29 pmHi, this blog is basically defunct these days. We have all moved over to the official website of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology at http://linguisticanthropology.org/. If you are interested in being part of the larger conversation on language and culture, just drop a note in the "Feedback" box at the bottom left of the page. all best, Leila Monaghan Co-Editor, Language & Culture
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anthropology - Yahoo! News Search Results
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400 Canadian and American archaeologists in Montreal
15 May 2012 | 4:22 pm( University of Montreal ) From May 16 to 20, 2012, more than 400 archeologists from across Canada and the United States are expected to be at Montreals Hôtel Gouverneur, where more than 300 conferences in English or French will be given about historical and pre-historical archeology. -
Anthropology
15 May 2012 | 8:29 amThe study of the human species, its culture, social relations, systems of knowledge and history - may cover language, physiology, art, ritual and belief What will I learn? Anthropology is academia's gift to those who enjoy people-watching and thinking about the things we all share in common as well as the differences between us. Remember, it's not being nosy; it's taking an interest in other ... -
Summer to be spent high in Andes
15 May 2012 | 1:10 amLAS CRUCES - Anthropology major Ashley Remy will spend her summer high in the Peruvian Andes, ... -
Can Democracy Be Re-imagined Through The Occupy Movement?
10 May 2012 | 8:34 amRead this ground-breaking scholarly work, in the field of anthropology, on the Occupy Movement in the May issue of American Ethnologist.Arlington, VA (PRWEB) May 09, 2012 The May issue of American Ethnologist features the first published scholarly works on the Occupy movements in the field of anthropology. These articles include: Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere: Social media, public space, and ... -
SUNY Oswego’s Metzgar, Pippin honored for student advisement
9 May 2012 | 4:28 pmSUNY Oswego faculty members Richard Metzgar in art and Douglas Pippin in anthropology will receive the 2012 President's Award for Excellence in Academic Advisement, which recognizes commitment to empowering and encouraging students from first year to senior, and sometimes beyond. Continue reading →
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Anthropology.net
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Nina Jablonski at AMNH’s SciCafe & Independent Evolution of Blond Hair
3 May 2012 | 6:06 pmYesterday evening I attended the American Museum of Natural History’s SciCafe with guest speaker Nina Jablonski. She gave a talk about the evolution of skin. If you are a follower of this blog, you would know the genetics of skin color is one of my favorite topics. It has been a while since I have kept up with the research, but I do remember most of the major alleles. Suffice to say, it was a pleasure to be back in the midst of it all. The talk was engaging. Many people got a chance to ask questions. This was an outstanding feature of this format in this sort of venue. Most lectures… -
The Iranian Genome Project
7 Feb 2012 | 4:17 pmYesterday, my father emailed me a link to the Iranian Genome Project that caught my eye. Ironically, Razib over at Gene Expression also highlighted this project in a recent post. Much like the intentions Harappa & Dodecad ancestry projects, of which I’ve participated in by submitting my 23andme data, the Iranian Genome Project aims to enlighten Iranian heritage and health. As an Iranian American who follows population genetics regularly, I am very keen on intersection of these two topics. I’ll be following the project, but honestly I don’t have high hopes. I would… -
Complete Denisova Genome Released
7 Feb 2012 | 2:22 pmWe’ve covered the mitochondrial genome of the Denisova individual 2 years ago, back in March 2010. For those not familiar with the Denisova hominin, this specimen represents an archaic human species present at least 41,000 years ago – coexisting with Neandertals and modern humans in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. The species is represented by a tooth and phalange. A draft of the genome was released shortly afterwards in December, 2010. Today, after 30-fold coverage of the genome using Illumina GAIIx sequencing platform, the complete genome was released. It is free to… -
Applying to Grad School in Anthropology- Where will we go?
9 Jan 2012 | 12:20 pmMy graduate applications–probably like many of yours– are almost completely submitted by now. I spent the fall traveling around the east coast and filling out the same information on similar looking websites for hours on end. I poured over my personal statement line by line until I could recite it by heart and my girlfriend almost stabbed me. I met with professors, teasing myself with ideas of where I might end up next year. I’m approaching my last semester as an undergraduate at Binghamton University, and if you haven’t guessed it by the context of this blog already, my… -
Are YOU a Neandertal?
2 Jan 2012 | 10:50 pmIn 2010 the draft genome for Neandertals was released by Svante Pääbo and colleagues. It was reported that European and Asian populations are between 1-4% Neandertal—but what percentage Neandertal are you? The company known as 23andMe recently released an analysis that claims to answer precisely this question. While personal genome sequencing has not yet hit the mainstream market, 23andMe looks at SNPs, or variations in single nucleotide pairs. Through a comparison between your SNPs and those found in the Neandertal genome draft, for a couple hundred dollars you will be given a…
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Savage Minds
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How fast to an Anthropology Ph.D.?
16 May 2012 | 9:43 amIt seems universities everywhere are looking to cut down the amount of time it takes to earn a graduate degree. A story in Inside Higher Ed reports on the latest effort: [Russell Berman] and five other professors at the university have produced a paper that calls for a major rethinking at Stanford — a reduction in the time taken to graduate by Ph.D. candidates in the humanities, and preparing them for careers within and beyond the academy. The professors at Stanford aren’t just talking about shaving a year or so off doctoral education, but cutting it down to four or five years… -
Special Circumstances vs. The Dorthraki
14 May 2012 | 11:18 pmRex’s last post reminds me that I’ve been meaning to write about one of the most fascinating science fiction worlds I’ve come across in a long time. I’m talking about The Culture novels of Iain M. Banks, which I want to compare with George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones [the TV show - I've not read the books]. I want to talk about the role of ethnic difference in narrative, but since Rex brought up the issue of bodies, let me first note that one of the interesting things about The Culture is that unlike the many other “highly advanced alien species”… -
Highly Advanced Alien Species
14 May 2012 | 6:39 pmI was watching Star Trek the other day (Enterprise season 4) when the crew of the Enterprise met yet another highly advanced alien species. Not just ‘faster warp drives’ or ‘bigger weapons’ but a really, truly, highly advanced alien species. So advanced that, like others that have appeared on the show, they didn’t have bodies. Take a second to think about it: why do we assume that the more advanced you get, the less body you will have? Star Trek is a product of its time featuring all the teleological unilinear evolution you could shake a stick at — more… -
Anthropology’s Suicide?
13 May 2012 | 7:09 pmAnthropology is “determined to commit suicide” said David Graeber. To salvage the discipline Graeber encourages you to abandon building theory from Western philosophy. He provokes you to draw theory from your ethnographic experience. He writes: Where once we drew our theoretical terms – “totem,” “taboo,” “mana,” “potlatch” – from ethnography, causing Continental thinkers from Ludwig Wittgenstein to Sigmund Freud and Jean-Paul Sartre to feel the need to weigh in on the resulting debates, we have now reduced ourselves to the scholastic… -
Matrilineal Patterns in the Book of Genesis
13 May 2012 | 1:51 pmIn honor of Mother’s Day this year I’m sharing notes from a lecture I give in my Introduction to Anthropology course. Kinship, I tell them, is the kernel of the discipline. Families are at the center of our lives, they make us who we are. So its interesting to note that in different cultures people have different ideas about who counts as family, what their roles ought to be within the collective, and what sorts of rights and obligations they ought to have over one another. We spend some time doing kinship diagrams. I show them my family and lead them through exercises where they…
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ScienceDaily: Anthropology News
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Ancient tree-ring records from southwest U.S. suggest today's megafires are truly unusual
16 May 2012 | 11:03 amToday's mega forest fires of the southwestern U.S. are truly unusual and exceptional in the long-term record, suggests an unprecedented study that examined 1,500 years of ancient tree ring and fire data from two distinct climate periods. Researchers constructed and analyzed a statistical model and found that today's dry, hot climate combined with the past century of human fire suppression is causing megafires. -
Anthropologists discover earliest form of wall art
14 May 2012 | 2:29 pmAnthropologists working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research shows the piece to be approximately 37,000 years old and offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. -
Archaeologists discover lost language
10 May 2012 | 11:40 amEvidence for a forgotten ancient language which dates back more than 2,500 years, to the time of the Assyrian Empire, has been found by archaeologists working in Turkey. Researchers working at Ziyaret Tepe, the probable site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tušhan, believe that the language may have been spoken by deportees originally from the Zagros Mountains, on the border of modern-day Iran and Iraq. -
Whale population size, dynamics determined based on ancient DNA
9 May 2012 | 5:00 pmResearchers compare ancient, modern whale DNA to investigate discrepancies between genetic data and historical estimates. -
New light on enigmatic burial rituals in Cambodian mountains
9 May 2012 | 8:28 amResearchers working in remote Cambodian mountains are shedding new light on the lost history of an unidentified people by studying their enigmatic burial rituals.
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NYT > Archaeology and Anthropology
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‘Tutankhamen,’ by Joyce Tyldesley
5 May 2012 | 11:00 pmAn Egyptologist illuminates the life, reign and death of King Tut. -
Underground Fossil Forest in Illinois Offers Clues on Climate Change
30 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pmA vast expanse of fossilized trees more than 300 million years old — called a “botanical Pompeii” — could extend as much as 100 miles underneath southern Illinois. -
‘The Dawn of Egyptian Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum
12 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pmThe sublime Metropolitan Museum exhibition “The Dawn of Egyptian Art” shows the foundations of the centuries of instantly recognizable Pharaonic art to follow. -
Museum and Gallery Listings for March 30-April 5
29 Mar 2012 | 11:00 pmA selected guide to the visual arts in New York and the area. -
African Fossil Foot Indicates Another Hominin Species Lived With Lucy
28 Mar 2012 | 11:00 pm3.4-million-year-old bones appear to settle the question of whether Australopithecus afarensis was the only line of hominins, or prehumans, living then.
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Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog
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Major new paper on Y chromosome haplogroup G (Rootsi et al. 2012)
16 May 2012 | 12:35 pmHaplogroup G is of substantial interest to prehistorians, because it has been sampled on multiple Neolithic locations from across Europe. A new paper updates the phylogeny of this important haplogroup (left), and studies its distribution. You can find information about the frequency of different haplogroup G subclades in the freely available supplementary material (Table 1). From the paper: First, we calculated haplogroup diversity using data in Supplementary Table S1 for the 52 instances when total population sample size exceeded 50 individuals and Z5 hg G chromosomes were observed. Then we… -
ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World
15 May 2012 | 10:41 amA very useful new tool. Screenshot: Example output: The fastest journey from Roma to Constantinopolis in January takes 20.7 days, covering 2951 kilometers. Prices in denarii, based on the use of a faster sail ship and a civilian river boat (where applicable), and on these road options: * Per kilogram of wheat (by donkey): 4.37 * Per kilogram of wheat (by wagon): 4.99 * Per passenger in a carriage: 580.42 -
Y chromosome diversity in Native Mexicans (Sandoval et al. 2012)
14 May 2012 | 1:43 pmFrom the paper: The first dimension of the CoA (60.53%) separates Q-M3 from the rest, and the second dimension (39.47%) C-M130 from the rest. In agreement ith the known distribution of haplogroup C, we observed that the two northernmost populations of this panel (Chippewa and Sioux) cluster next to C-M130 and the rest of populations show varying proportions of Q-M242 and Q-M3. It is noteworthy that Native Mexicans are the only regional group with populations represented next to both the Q-M242 cluster and the Q-M3 cluster. In contrast, all Central and South American samples were grouped… -
Y chromosomes in Haiti and Jamaica (Simms et al. 2012)
13 May 2012 | 2:41 amThe paper investigates the different signals of patrilineal ancestry in two Caribbean islands, finding the expect signals of European and African ancestry, as well as minor other signals from the New World, East Asia, and even South Asia. I will just point out the presence of a DE* chromosome in Jamaica. Such chromosomes have occasionally turned up in both Asia and Africa, and they ought to be an object of further study, preferrably with full Y-chromosome sequencing technology, since a better resolution of the DE-YAP haplogroup's structure will go a long way towards solving many puzzles about… -
4,000 year old rock art from Mongolia
12 May 2012 | 5:22 am4000-year-old rock art discovered in Mongolia Eighteen rock art sites dating back over 4,000 years have been discovered by archaeologists in northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The prehistoric art was discovered in the Yinshan Mountains in Urad Middle Banner (an administration division of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region), said Liu Binjie, head of the Cultural Relics Bureau of Urad Middle Banner. ... Liu said that carvings of faces found on Yinshan Mountains cliffs are similar to those in the Helan Mountains, located on the boundary between Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. They…
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Material World Blog
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Objects of Affection - Programme Details
3 May 2012 | 3:40 pmMAY 4-6, 2O12 219 AARON BURR HALL Princeton University OBJECTS OF AFFECTION: TOWARDS A MATERIOLOGY OF EMOTIONS Interdisciplinary Conference http://objectsofaffection.wordpress.com/ Keynote on May 5: The New Aesthetic: Objects that Matter PATRICIA TICINETO CLOUGH (The Graduate Center and CUNY's Queens College) Program Committee: Serguei Oushakine, Anna Katsnelson, David Leheny, Anson Rabinbach, Gayle Salamon MAY 4, 2012 1.30pm – 3.15pm PANEL 1: AFFECTIVE POLITICS Chair: Anson Rabinbach (Princeton University) Sabine Kriebel (University College Cork) Left Wing Laughter: John Heartfield’s… -
Georgia O'Keeffe handles some jade
3 May 2012 | 1:47 pmA nice reminder that one of the 20th Century's most celebrated modernists anchored her approach to abstraction in a deep engagement with the material world: I handled pieces of Jade—They told me it was Jade—I would not have thought what it might be—I only knew that the surfaces were fine and smooth and cold…the pleasure in the thing its self is some what dulled when you begin to wonder how that particular shape can symbolize the earth and that idea seems to take away from the pleasure one feels—just in the thing its self—So—looking up—a row of round shapes catches ones… -
Exhibition - Sir Hans Sloane
2 May 2012 | 1:41 pmTHE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY announces the opening of a new exhibition which uses the history of Hans Sloane’s voyage to Jamaica in 1687 to 1689 to raise new questions about the intersection of science and slavery in the early modern Atlantic world. The exhibition is guest-curated by former JCB Fellow, James Delbourgo. The display of books, book illustrations, prints, and maps will be on view in the MacMillan Reading Room at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, Providence, RI, from May 1 through August 31, 2012, and can be seen in its entirety online at:… -
CFP: Feast and Famine: Exploring Relationships with Food in the Pacific
1 May 2012 | 10:42 am7 September 2012 University College London Conference organisers: Sarah Byrne (Institute of Archaeology, UCL) and Kaori O'Connor (Anthropology, UCL) Please submit a paper title and 200 word abstract by 14 May 2012 to Sarah Byrne (s.byrne@ucl.ac.uk) This one day conference is organised by the newly established UCL Pacific Islands Research Network responds to the widening interest in the political, economic, cultural and health dimensions of feasting, food production and famine in the Pacific. The conference aims to provide a platform for more engaged dialogue between archaeology, anthropology,… -
Review: Harnessing Fortune
30 Apr 2012 | 9:25 amEmpson, Rebecca, 2011. Harnessing Fortune: Personhood, Memory and Place in Mongolia. Oxford University Press. Daniel Miller, UCL One of the issues in teaching material culture studies under the auspices of an anthropology department is explaining what is, at least in my case, a very conservative attitude to ethnography. I have always insisted that my PhD students understand and undertake what could be called classic ethnographic research as the basis for their PhD. The research must be based on working with a specified group of people for at least a year, being as much engaged with their…
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Museum Anthropology
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The 95 Percent Solution
13 May 2012 | 5:03 pmA fascinating article in The American Scientist, with clear implications for museum anthropology:School is not where most Americans learn most of their scienceThe scientific research and education communities have long had a goal of advancing the public’s understanding of science. The vast majority of the rhetoric and research on this issue revolves around the failure of school-aged children in -
Repatriation Battle Continues
11 May 2012 | 5:01 pmThe fate of the nearly 10,000-year-old remains unearthed in 1976 during renovation work at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) chancellor’s house in La Jolla, California are still undecided.A federal court judge in San Francisco granted a temporary restraining order March 30 that prevents UCSD from giving the remains to the Kumeyaay. Last week three University of California -
Lords of Time
9 May 2012 | 3:02 pmFor those worried about an apocalypse supposedly predicted by the Maya calendar and coming at the end of the year 2012, there's very good news at a spectacular exhibition that opens in the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology this weekend. That notion of the world's end is firmly debunked in "Maya 2012: Lords of Time." So those stressed about what might happen come late December can exhale -
Opening: Curator of Global Indigenous Art
7 May 2012 | 3:01 pmThe Spencer Museum of Art seeks an innovative, team-oriented, and highly motivated Curator of Global Indigenous Art. The Spencer Museum of Art (SMA) forms a vital part of academic life at the University of Kansas (KU). The Museum supports research and promotes education across the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences through the growth and preservation of its collections, the development -
New Director of Penn Museum
4 May 2012 | 3:00 pmPresident Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Julian Siggers as Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, effective July 1, 2012. Dr. Siggers is currently vice president for programs, education, and content communication at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada’s largest research museum. He
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Somatosphere
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Workshop on “The Rise of Child Science and Psy-Expertise,” May 29-30, London by Dominique Behague
15 May 2012 | 10:42 amBrunel University’s Centre for Research in International Medical Anthropology and the Royal Anthropological Institute will be holding a workshop on ‘The rise of child science and psy-expertise’ on May 29 and 30 in London. You can find out more information here and register for the workshop here. CRIMA RAI Workshop Flyer -
Transcriptions – Broadsheets – May 2012 by Abigail Baim-Lance
13 May 2012 | 2:09 pmBroadsheets Summaries – April 15-May 11 2012 Welcome to Broadsheets! Here you will find “cut and clip” summaries of the HIV/AIDS-related news moving quickly through the web-o-sphere. The first posts will track the news making its way through virtual reportage space. Later, we will contribute critical commentary about the news-making process and how it shapes the framing of, and responses to key issues. Tracking methods are under development, but at the outset we’re doing the following: step 1: peruse headlines captured by Google Alerts using the keywords “HIV/AIDS” and… -
Ian Hacking – “The New Me: What Biotechnology may do to Personal Identity” by Eugene Raikhel
12 May 2012 | 3:10 pmI recently came across a video of a relatively recent lecture which Ian Hacking gave at Huron University College, entitled, “The New Me: What Biotechnology may do to Personal Identity.” The short (15 min) talk — embedded below — reprises many of the issues Hacking has been dealing with for the past several years (e.g.”Ian Hacking on commercial genome-reading,” “Genetics, biosocial groups & the future of identity,”). Of course, in a broader way, these are the same issues he has been dealing with for the past several decades, an… -
DSM-5: Plus ça change … by Constance Cummings
12 May 2012 | 10:42 amCross-posted from The FPR Blog. John Gever of MedPage Today, has done a terrific summary of the proposed changes to the DSM (“DSM-5: What’s In, What’s Out“). The umpteenth person just described the DSM-5 process to me as a major rehaul. Is it? Aside from the changes in how we want to sort the world of persons living with psychiatric disorder (and everyone would agree it’s still a flawed taxonomy as long as we don’t understand cause), there are two interesting developments that presage better things to come for the next next edition. The first is the inclusion of cross-cutting… -
In the journals – May 2012 by Lara Braff
8 May 2012 | 4:16 pmArticles in this month’s issue of Cultural Anthropology concern the body, humanitarianism, and/or sovereignty (variously conceived) in the context of either religion or medicine. Brahinsky examines Pentecostal “body logics” and how “religiously inflected sensory aptitudes, or perhaps even mind-body relationships, emerge through a process of careful cultivation and nurturance” (217). Bernstein explores how Buddhist “body politics” among Buryats of Siberia help maintain their mobility, and express both cultural sovereignty and an “ideal sovereign body.” Focusing on Thakur…
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Photoethnography.com Blog
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Mac Pro Early 2008 - SATA DVD Drive Install
15 May 2012 | 1:36 pmMy main machine is an early 2008 Mac Pro. It's hard to believe it's four years old already... In any case, the DVD drives fail about once a year due to dust build-up. I replaced the original one with a PATA drive from a donor, but the new drives are all SATA. Here's how to install a SATA DVD drive in the 2008: Useful info. -
Deep brain stimulation using implanted electrodes to control depression
15 Apr 2012 | 9:58 pm"Her depression controlled her life for the next 40 years -- until she decided to volunteer for an experimental treatment. A neurosurgeon would drill two holes in Guyton's skull and implant a pair of battery-powered electrodes deep inside her brain. The procedure -- called deep brain stimulation, or DBS -- targets a small brain structure known as Area 25, the "ringleader" for the brain circuits that control our moods, according to neurologist Dr. Helen Mayberg. Mayberg's groundbreaking research on this part of the brain showed that Area 25 is relatively overactive in depressed patients. So,… -
Karen's talk at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City
11 Apr 2012 | 4:15 pmJust a quick note that I'm giving a talk tomorrow afternoon at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Just landed here and it's truly like another planet. Having my own Jane Carter moment…. DISABILITY OF THE SOUL | Thursday, April 12, 2012 2:00 PM BEH S Room 114 [read more] Event Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 2:00 PM MDT A DISABILITY OF THE SOUL: MENTAL ILNESS AND PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN By Karen Nakamura Associate Professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies, Yale University For the past several years, Prof. Nakamura has been conducting research within an… -
Digital audio recorders for interviews
9 Apr 2012 | 8:45 amOne of my coworkers wanted a simple audio data recorder to do some interviews. Here was my response to her: Sorry to take a few days to get back to you on the audio recorders. I think you said you wanted a digital audio recorder that you could use to transfer files back to your computer, that eliminates several of the sub-$50 models and so the cheapest ones are all in the $50-100 range and above. There are a couple of Sony models in this price range, but I find that Sony usually has complicated user interfaces and really bad software, so unless you're a huge Sony fan, I'd generally avoid:… -
Karen's talk at Wake Forest tomorrow night
21 Mar 2012 | 12:38 pmI'll be giving a talk at the Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology tomorrow night (Thur March 22; 7pm) with the title: Crooked Nails Standing Tall: Images and Stories of Disability and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan. If you're in the Winston-Salem area, stop in! http://www.wfu.edu/calendar/?m=3&y=2012&d=20&w=0&v=w&id=14000
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Analog/Digital
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[Infographic] This Digital Life
24 Apr 2012 | 8:46 am"This Digital Life' surveyed the opinions of 7,213 people in 19 markets and discovered that 55% of respondents believe technology is robbing us of our privacy, while more than half of millennials worry that a family member or friend will post inappropriate personal information about them online."Our probe into technology use revealed a number of emerging concerns," says Tom Morton, chief strategy officer, Euro RSCG New York and co-chief strategy officer Euro RSCG North America. "First is the fear that social media and online data collection are chiseling away at our right to privacy. A… -
[Video] The Divided Brain
18 Apr 2012 | 3:29 pmRenowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how the 'divided brain' has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.I was directed to this excellent video via David Marsden in a thoughtful discussion over at the OAC: Anthropology, society and the unconscious mind.I am especially a fan of how the animation condenses McGilchrist's brilliant lecture into a 10-minute educational cartoon. Check out the RSA Animates on YouTube for more of this creative and innovative series. -
[Book Review] Netnography: doing ethnographic research online
16 Apr 2012 | 10:09 amMy review of Robert Kozinets' Netnography: doing ethnographic research online (Sage 2010) is now available in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online. View full screen versionRead the entire issue of JASO (Volume IV, no. 1 [2012]) here. -
NYC Photography: Tiny's and the Bar Upstairs, TriBeCa, Manhattan
12 Apr 2012 | 12:51 pmMy photo of Tiny's and the Bar Upstairs (135 W. Broadway, TriBeCa) can be seen in the "city tour" feature of the March 2012 issue of Wish Casa, a Brazilian architecture and design magazine. TriBeCa in Lower Manhattan is a beautiful part of NYC that really lends itself to photography. The neighborhood takes its name from its geographic boundaries (Triangle Below Canal, referring to the area south of Canal Street, between Broadway and West Street, south to Chambers Street). It was once the center of Manhattan's textile/cotton trade and today is popular with artists and celebrities, as well as… -
[Video] Secrets of the Tribe
9 Apr 2012 | 10:36 amThe fact that the Yanomamö live in a chronic state of warfare is reflected in their mythology, ceremonies, settlement pattern, political behavior, and marriage practices.- Napoleon Chagnon (Yanomamö: The Fierce People, 1968:3)Is this what has come of us? Can't we do better than that? People talking and talking, and citing and citing, and publishing and publishing ... We need to be asking: are we answering questions, or are we just peacocks parading about in all of our show?- Robert Borofsky, 1:23:35Other resources:Comprehensive coverage of the Yanomamo scandal and its impact on anthropology…
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Ethnography.com
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Higher Education Expands Worldwide, but Contracts in California?
30 Apr 2012 | 12:50 amDuring the last nine years, I squeezed guest teaching gigs in Tanzania, Germany, and China in-between my duties at Chico State. Each time I do this, I am impressed by the vibrancy of growing university systems abroad and the rapid expansion of higher education opportunities. Each country is pushing more of their students into post-secondary institutions. Indeed, there is a Europe-wide goal of having at least 40% of all 30-34 year olds graduating at the level of a US Bachelor’s degree by 2020 (The US and California have been stuck at 25-30% since about 1970). Each place I’ve visited also… -
Why I chose not to get a PhD
17 Apr 2012 | 6:24 pmI got to spend some time with a friend recently that decided some time ago to restart her PhD work. She is already ABD, but is starting the dissertation over from scratch. My question was “Why?” She is a well-respected professional, and within the her field a PhD will likely be of limited benefit professionally compared to the mountain of work ahead of her, not to mention the expense involved. In the course of the conversation I was reflecting on my own choice to not get a PhD and thinking that it might provide food for thought for a larger audience. Not to mention the pitfalls of… -
American Anthropological Association Reassures Worried Nation faced with Mayan Apocalypse
31 Mar 2012 | 11:30 pm1 APRIL 2012 (Ethnography.com Newswire) Washington, DC – American Anthropological Association Reassures Worried Nation faced with Mayan Apocalypse In light of the coming end of the world, The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has announced its official Continuity Plan to insure the nations vital resource of cultural anthropologists remains intact during the cannibalistic orgy of violence immediately following the end of days on December 21, 2012. According to AAA President Charles Gusmallian “Cultural Anthropology is uniquely positioned to explain the coming Apocalypse. We have… -
Applying Rolling Cohort Analysis to Unstable countries
3 Mar 2012 | 5:59 pmA few year ago, I was working at Kodak and friend and I were talking about the idea of Rolling Segmentation. More recently, we have been talking about how it relates to how that thinking can be applied to issues of instability and insurgency. I have not given the idea much thought for the last few years, and on rethinking about rolling segmentations/cohorts now, I have more questions than answers. Not the least of which is how is it all that different from any other longitudinal study? There are a number of them out there about how people’s political attitudes shift as they age, but… -
Undergrad Seminar: Time Management
27 Feb 2012 | 8:27 pmHere we are in the 2nd half of the academic year. If the 1st half got off to a rocky start, maybe this is a good time to talk about time management. Not the “The 7 habits of that smugly overambitious go-getter” variety. This is aimed more at the “How can I squeeze school into my hectic schedule of procrastination and binge drinking” style. In other words, for the rest of us. This is not to ignore what I think is the real value of the university experience: the freedom to explore, to question, to learn what you never expected. If you go though school without some kind…
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Conversations with Dina
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All the World’s a Stage – even if our (social media) Audiences are often Invisible
1 May 2012 | 11:28 pmCame across this blog post - Klout, Big Data and Opting Out by Fred McClimans via @gautamghosh and liked this quote, among other things: “There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on.” Rod Serling. I tweeted it, and @rajeshlalwani responds: Rajesh’s quote immediately made me think of Shakespeare and his monologue from As You Like It. How true it is centuries later, for Social Media, and in the context of the raging discussions around privacy and big data! All seven acts and seven ages, as described by Shakespeare collide at such a fast pace on… -
The Future of Insights Talk
19 Apr 2012 | 9:59 pmI’ve tweeted it and facebooked it … but this is still my space, my main lifestream and my first love … and although I haven’t been blogging much, I thought I’d share my talk on the Future of Insights which I made at the India Social Summit 2012. Here’s the deck on Slideshare – in fully downloadable format, along with the talk script: Future of insights. dina mehta. april 3, 2012 india social summit View more PowerPoint from Dina Mehta And here’s is a video of my rather rushed presentation at the India Social Summit 2012. -
Reading Bytes for Apr 19
19 Apr 2012 | 10:30 amUpdates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina Ethnographers vs. Moderators: Know What You Are Buying | anthrostrategist – Ethnographers vs. Moderators: Know What You Are Buying The other day I was speaking with someone about ethnography and was informed by the person in question that she too was a “moderator.” She, of course, practiced ethnography, such as it is, and informed me she had been “moderating ethnographies” for years. Yes, it made my skin crawl. Not because someone was… -
Reading Bytes for Feb 24
24 Feb 2012 | 9:30 amUpdates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina Social Means Freedom, for Better or for Worse – Nilofer Merchant – HBR @nilofer (via @armano) – From a series of posts on how the Social Era will reward fast, fluid, flexible organizations. QUOTE: "This post is part of a series on the Social Era and answers the question: If you were going to design an organization from scratch today, what would you design for? And the answer is: nimbleness." …….. "What will it look like to lead an… -
Reading Bytes for Feb 23
23 Feb 2012 | 9:30 amUpdates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina India’s elite is blinded by a cultish belief in progress | Siddhartha Deb | Comment is free | The Guardian – QUOTE: The Hazare movement has since petered out, but its central idea, of the unique meritoriousness of the middle and upper classes of India, remains. It is an illusion, and it reminds me of the illusion among the middle and upper classes of another society, and that is the US. I live and teach in New York, where I've seen among my students (mostly white,…
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Constructing Amusement
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The Netherlands? How did I end up back here?
22 Apr 2012 | 5:02 pmGreetings from Delft, Netherlands! Since my PhD defense, life has been so non-stop that I haven't had the chance to really sit down to do a blog. Those of you who have been following via twit-book and the like know that a couple of days after defending, I immediately took off for a month-long stay in the Netherlands. Now a week in, you remind me that some are curious as to why. I have been -
PhD
14 Apr 2012 | 11:44 amI am pleased to report that the defense went well. Lopping letters off of my name (namely, the word "Candidate") has never felt so good.Above, I am with my examination committee after the announcement.From left to right: S. Poyntz (Chair), R. Onufrijchuk, Me, A. Travers (Internal), R.Smith (Senior), A. Feenberg, A. Holbrook, and B. Nardi (External, joining in via teleconference)Thank you, -
PhD Defence Announcement
19 Mar 2012 | 1:57 pmPhD Defence::School of Communication::Simon Fraser UniversityFlorence Chee Date: Thursday, 12 April 2012Time: 1:30 PMLocation: Harbour Centre, Vancouver Room HC 2270Online games as a medium of cultural communication: An ethnographic study of sociotechnical transformationCommitteeSenior Supervisor: Richard Smith (School of Communication, SFU)Supervisor: Andrew Feenberg (School of Communication, -
Online game protests in China - A public lecture
25 Jan 2012 | 12:16 pmThe SFU School of Communication Presents:"Beyond the “Great Firewall”: Negotiating Online In-Game Protests in China"A public talk by Prof. Dean Chan - University of Wollongong, AustraliaSFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings St., Vancouver)Thursday February 2, 20127-9pm, Room HC 1520 *previously 2270This event is free, and open to the public – all welcome !ABSTRACT:Online in-game protests are part -
Dissertation preview
9 Jan 2012 | 1:05 pmWhat better way to begin the New Year, than with a dissertation teaser? Here it is.Title: Online games as a medium of cultural communication: An ethnographic study of sociotechnical transformationIntroductionMethodology and RationaleThe Rise of Korean GamingGaming: from Subculture to Mainstream Conclusion and Moving ForwardAbstract: <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family
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Visual Anthropology of Japan - 日本映像人類学
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"Welcome signs for hearing impaired"
15 May 2012 | 10:31 pmCaption: A whiteboard at the Sign with Me cafe in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, is full of messages from customers. It is also used to communicate with cafe staff. My friend recently came back from Tokyo and told me about a "deaf cafe" he went to. And then on Saturday The Daily Yomiuri had a photo story about the place. Check it out. Story, captions and photos borrowed from The Daily Yomiuri Online, 5/14/12: By Koki Kataoka / Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer When you go to a cafe or restaurant, you usually hear, "Hello, may I help you?" or "May I take your order?" However, such greetings are not… -
"Japan faces 'extinction' in 1,000 years, researchers say"
14 May 2012 | 1:34 amImage borrowed from "Japan's Children Population Clock." Story from Japan Today, 5/12/12: Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation’s people could theoretically become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates. Academics in Sendai said that Japan’s population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds. Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium. “If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children’s Day… -
Oh no! Osaka garbage collectors with tattoos!
14 May 2012 | 1:26 amHere's an update on the tattoo situation in Hashimoto's Osaka. Story from The Daily Yomiuri Online, 5/14/12: 50 Osaka City Bureau Officials Sport Tattoos Despite Ethics Code About 50 employees in the Osaka city government's Environment Bureau said in a survey they have tattoos, despite an ethics code that frowns on such body decorations, according to sources. The city bureau enacted an internal ethics code in May 2010 stipulating its officials should not have tattoos or similar body decorations. Last year, however, some Osaka residents reported to the city government that they had seen… -
Giving Maneki Neko a Run for Its Money...
13 May 2012 | 8:54 pmImage borrowed from Maneki Neko Luck Cat. The cat in the story and video below is apparently doing Russian Sign Language. It might look a bit familiar to cat people in Japan... Anyway, seems like a good way to start out the last week of classes here. Story from MSN.com: Watch a genius kitty ask for food in sign language Here's something great: A cat telling its owner in sign language that it would like to eat. This video is from February, but it's still picking up fans just because of its delightful protagonist. Link: http://now.msn.com/living/0513-genius-cat.aspx -
"Osaka city gov't surveys employees over tattoos"
3 May 2012 | 12:45 amImage and story from The Mainichi, 5/2/12. The city government here has begun surveying all its employees over whether they have tattoos and, if so, which parts of their bodies have been inked, city officials said. Starting this month, the Osaka Municipal Government is conducting the survey covering some 38,000 employees. The move was prompted by an incident in February, in which a city employee showed their tattoo to children at a welfare facility. Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto ordered the survey be conducted following the incident. If city officials have tattoos on their arms and legs, the…
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International Cognition and Culture Institute
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the Journal of Cognition and Culture: a new issue
7 May 2012 | 1:16 pmThe new issue (vol 12, 1-2) of the Journal of Cognition and Culture is out. For the table of content and abstracts: -
2 postdocs at UBC in evolution, cognition and culture
3 May 2012 | 9:02 amJoe Henrich informs us: The Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture (HECC) at the University of British Columbia will be hiring 5 post-doctoral researchers as part of a large, international, collaboration among psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, historians, and biologists on the evolution of religion. Below is a call for applications for two of these positions. The first is for a historian to spearhead a systematic and comparative study of religion and prosociality (from the historical record). This person will work with Prof. Ted Slingerland. The second is… -
Lectureship in Cognition and Culture at Belfast
24 Apr 2012 | 5:43 amA position of Lecturer is open in the School of History and Anthropology at Queen's University, Belfast, to "teach and supervise at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, to participate in the research activities of the Institute of Cognition and Culture, to undertake research in line with the School’s research strategy, and to contribute to the School’s administration and outreach activities." Deadline: May 21, 2012. Details here. -
The social motivation theory of autism
21 Apr 2012 | 9:19 amJust out in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, "The social motivation theory of autism," an article (available here) by Coralie Chevallier, Gregor Kohls, Vanessa Troiani, Edward S Brodkin, and Robert T Schultz that challenges the dominant explanation of autism in terms of a Theory-of-Mind deficit. Given the role that the case of autism plays in our understanding of human sociality, this is of high cognition-and-culture relevance. The first paragraph of the article: "Over the past three decades, a number of theories have been put forward to… -
Do infants understand social dominance relations?
19 Apr 2012 | 2:47 amForthcoming in PNAS, a groundbreaking article by Olivier Mascaro and Gergely Csibra investigating the "Representation of stable social dominance relations by human infants" (available here). Abstract: What are the origins of humans’ capacity to represent social relations? We approached this question by studying human infants’ understanding of social dominance as a stable relation. We presented infants with interactions between animated agents in conflict situations. Studies 1 and 2 targeted expectations of stability of social dominance. They revealed that 15-mo-olds (and, to a lesser…
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DNApes
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"Chimpanzee" Movie
23 Apr 2012 | 4:56 amDisney's Chimpanzee has come out in theaters! The movie was primarily filmed in Ivory Coast with the habituated chimps from the Tai Chimpanzee Project and partially with the chimpanzees from the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project and the story is about the orphan adoption by an unrelated male in Tai's East Group :)I am so proud of so many of my colleagues from the MPI (Tai Chimpanzee and Ngogo Chimpanzee Projects) that helped make the movie 'Chimpanzee' possible. (& thanks to Carly O for the screen snap from the movie :) )Also, I LOVE Jane Goodall and here is an interview she did about the movie… -
Close a Deadly Loophole, Protect Chimpanzees
16 Mar 2012 | 4:27 amThanks to Jim F for the linkgo HERE to sign the petitionTarget: Division of Policy and Directives - U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServicesSponsored by: Center for Biological DiversityPlease speak up to protect chimpanzees who can't defend themselves. The worldwide population of wild chimpanzees has fallen by nearly 70 percent in the past 30 years -- take action now to save these animals. Wild chimpanzees have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1976, but a special rule exempts captive chimpanzees from protection. This loophole in the Act is preventing the recovery of the species in… -
quote of the day
16 Mar 2012 | 4:25 amFrom I Am in Science's facebook pageOne way of dealing with errors is to have friends who are willing to spend the time necessary to carry out a critical examination of the experimental design beforehand and the results after the experiments have been completed. An even better way is to have an enemy. An enemy is willing to devote a vast amount of time and brain power to ferreting out errors both large and small, and this without any compensation. The trouble is that really capable enemies are scarce; most of them are only ordinary. Another trouble with enemies is that they sometimes develop… -
Snoring Doormouse
16 Mar 2012 | 4:23 amcuteness alert from Caro D -
The Power of Social media - Kenyan Orphanage attack leads to over 50,000 dollars being raised by redditors
16 Mar 2012 | 4:12 amThanks to Jesse D for the link!Read this amazing Reddit thread of how one man's tragic attack at a Kenyan orphange lead to major funds being raised for the children under his care.it all started with this plea:Meet Omari. Two days ago he returned from the hospital after being hacked in the face by a machete defending an orphanage of 35 children by himself. Think we could raise the $2,000 needed for the remainder of the cement/barbed wire wall to keep both him and the children safe?http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/oye34/meet_omari_two_days_ago_he_returned_from_the/This is the best part:As…
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Delicious/tag/anthropology
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ERIAL Project
16 May 2012 | 12:26 pm -
www.culturalcognition.net - home
16 May 2012 | 11:36 am -
Easter island heads have bodies!?? | Thinkbox
16 May 2012 | 10:46 am -
A space to explore, share and shape the issues facing social scientists
16 May 2012 | 10:14 am -
Becoming Human
16 May 2012 | 10:14 am
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Anthropological Notebook
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Bersih 3.0 in Penang
12 May 2012 | 8:02 pmI was at the Penang Bersih 3.0 Rally, held at the Esplanade on 28th April 2012 (click here for further reading and onward links). Here are some photos from the event... with apologies to the unknown singers and composers of the soundtrack... -
Climbing trees
12 Jan 2012 | 2:39 pmBatek children at Taman Negara, Malaysia, 1/1/12. Climbing trees is fun, beloved of children everywhere, and these children develop their skills early. Later, there will be many a discouraging shout from the adults when they try to climb trees that are too big for them. -
Fieldwork with the Batek, 1995-96 (video)
11 Jan 2012 | 11:54 pmBefore my Google Earth Pro trial version expires, I've made a video of the old Batek campsites from 1995-96. The narrative is chronological. It's good to see that many of the areas remain under forest cover of some sort. Batek fieldwork 1995-96: maps and movements from tp Lye on Vimeo. -
Learning to walk in the forest
8 Jan 2012 | 6:06 amHis mother (na'Cangap) is supporting him with just one finger. She could have lifted him, grabbed him, or heaved him over the log, of course, but then he wouldn't have had the adventure of trying to climb over by himself, or the experience of learning to do so. He used his toy digging stick for support and tried about three or four times before he made it. He's about 2-3 years old. Taman Negara, Malaysia, 1/1/12. -
Batek portraits: Then and now (II)
7 Jan 2012 | 6:29 pmOnce were children.... Continuing my photo series of Batek friends as they were "then" (left), and as they are today (right). All the "now" photos were shot in Taman Negara national park, Pahang, Malaysia, between 31/12/11 and 5/1/12. I told a couple of amusing stories about their childhood antics to people; they seemed delighted to hear them and asked for repeated viewings of the old photos "when we were naughty children." na'Jamol in 1999 at Tabung camp (left) and in 2012 with her son in Taman Negara (right). I never knew her as a child. Her family are from Atok and I almost never went…
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Linguistic Anthropology
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Blog has moved to http://linguisticanthropology.org/
10 May 2012 | 4:29 pmHi, this blog is basically defunct these days. We have all moved over to the official website of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology at http://linguisticanthropology.org/. If you are interested in being part of the larger conversation on language and culture, just drop a note in the "Feedback" box at the bottom left of the page. all best, Leila Monaghan Co-Editor, Language & Culture -
'Top' not-for-profit linguistic anthropology journals
7 Sep 2011 | 1:01 amThere has been a recent flurry of discussion of for-profit versus non-profit publishing in anthropology, occasioned by a 29 August piece in The Guardian by George Monbiot. Blog postings at antropologi.info and Savage Minds (e.g. here, here, and here), among other places, are providing people in the field a chance to discuss issues related to publishing including open-access versus paid access, -
SLA Blog
8 Dec 2009 | 9:14 amNew blog posts relating to linguistic anthropology are available at SLA Blog, the official blog of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology. Also check out the official homepage of Society for Linguistic Anthropology. -
American Anthropological Association 2009 Annual Meeting
17 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pmThe American Anthropological Association will hold its annual meeting December 2nd through the 6th at the Philadelphia Mariott Downtown hotel in Philadelphia, PA. The theme for the 2009 meeting is "The End/s of Anthropology". Below is my annual partial list of panels and meetings of interest to linguistic anthropologists, including those sponsored by the Society for Linguistic Anthropology. -
The Invention of Saying-things-that-don't-strictly-accord-with-empirical-fact
6 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am(Sorry for the long delay between posts. I'm writing up my dissertation research, which I will defend in a couple of weeks.)I recently enjoyed seeing the film The Invention of Lying. The film's premise is that in an world where all human speech must accord strictly with empirical fact (or as the film's tag line puts it, "a world where everyone can only tell the truth"), Ricky Gervais inexplicably
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media/anthropology
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Regional traditions of ethnographic writing
14 May 2012 | 5:50 amThere’s a lively anthropology debate on over at the collective blog Savage Minds. Do check it out! Here’s my tuppence worth (as posted in the comments section): I’d like to accept Kerim’s invitation to go with the quasi-orality of blogging and think aloud for a moment, not as hastily as in a real-time interaction, but certainly not as sluggishly as in a peer-reviewed publication. I agree with the need to draw more theoretical inspiration from our ethnographic encounters, and would add to this an often forgotten component of anthropological work, namely regional traditions of… -
Interview with hacker and @acampadasol pioneer Dani Vázquez
28 Apr 2012 | 4:02 pmInterviewed by stephane@15M.cc (in Spanish) on 4 January 2012, via 15M.cc Notes below by John Postill Video 1 02:10 #15M crystallised years of hard work to create open, aggregated political networks 03:10 «La madrugada del 16M se convirtió en un nuevo factor político y social. Una red de enjambres conectados con capacidad para juntarse en una acción común» 06:30 «forma de estallar muy pacífica, con un modelo de desobediencia civil muy relajado» 07:35 (contra Soto) Leaving squares to go back to internet was actually good move, made us less vulnerable [J. Postill adds: this contrasts… -
Fernández-Savater: indignados should act as if Republic of 99% were a reality
26 Apr 2012 | 4:42 amNot long ago I posted about an image shared via Facebook by Spain’s #NoLesVotes (#Don’tVoteforThem) platform, a forerunner to the #15M or indignados movement. The image shows a hand holding an iPhone and is accompanied by these lines: OUR ONLY WEAPON IS REALITY THERE IS NO DEFENCE AGAINST IT RECORD IT PHOTOGRAPH IT SPREAD IT The Spanish author and indignado Amador Fernández-Savater (Madrid, 1974) has now produced quite a different take on reality. In a short essay (see also English version) published in Diagonal, he calls for fellow indignants to create a new reality and finds… -
Internet freedom and the new protest movements
17 Apr 2012 | 6:40 amInternet freedom and the new protest movements: hacking democracy in Reykjavik, Madrid, New York and elsewhere John Postill Presentation to Communication and Computing Research Centre (CCRC) Sheffield Hallam University 16 April 2012 Last updated: 14 May 2012 (Conversaciones 15M.cc – Carolina García) Abstract In this talk I examine the links between ongoing struggles over Internet freedom/censorship and the emergence of new protest movements in Iceland, Spain, the USA and elsewhere. Although it is undeniable that the Arab Spring has been a great inspiration to indignados and occupiers… -
“Our only weapon is reality”
29 Mar 2012 | 5:28 amSince we’re on the subject of viral reality and new protest movements, here is an apt example of the current zeitgeist: an image just shared via Facebook by Spain’s No Les Votes (Don’t Vote for Them) platform which calls for an end to the country’s two-party system and its replacement with a truly democratic alternative. The poster reads: OUR ONLY WEAPON IS REALITY THERE IS NO DEFENCE AGAINST IT RECORD IT PHOTOGRAPH IT SPREAD IT Someone has just responded in the Facebook comments thread along the lines of (in loose translation): “Yeah right, we’re all broke…
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American Journal of Physical Anthropology
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Fe and Cu stable isotopes in archeological human bones and their relationship to sex
11 May 2012 | 2:34 amAbstractAccurate sex assignment of ancient human remains usually relies on the availability of coxal bones or well-preserved DNA. Iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) stable isotope compositions (56Fe/54Fe and 65Cu/63Cu, respectively) were recently measured in modern human blood, and an unexpected result was the discovery of a 56Fe-depletion and a 65Cu-enrichment in men's blood compared to women's blood. Bones, being pervasively irrigated by blood, are expected to retain the 56Fe/54Fe and 65Cu/63Cu signature of blood, which in turn is useful for determining the sex of ancient bones. Here, we report the… -
Prolactin, fatherhood, and reproductive behavior in human males
11 May 2012 | 2:34 amAbstractAlthough humans are considered unusual among mammals for the intensity of care that fathers often provide offspring, little is known about the hormonal architecture regulating human paternal investment. Prolactin has important reproductive functions in both female and male mammals and other taxa, making it a candidate regulator of human paternal behavior. Notably, prolactin is higher during periods of offspring care in some species, but it is unknown if this pattern occurs in human fathers. We draw on a sample of men (n = 289; age 21–23 at baseline) from Metropolitan Cebu City,… -
Refining the genetic portrait of Portuguese Roma through X-chromosomal markers
11 May 2012 | 2:34 amAbstractDue to differences in transmission between X-chromosomal and autosomal DNA, the comparison of data derived from both markers allows deeper insight into the forces that shape the patterns of genetic diversity in populations. In this study, we applied this comparative approach to a sample of Portuguese Roma (Gypsies) by analyzing 43 X-chromosomal markers and 53 autosomal markers. Portuguese individuals of non-Gypsy ancestry were also studied. Compared with the host population, reduced levels of diversity on the X chromosome and autosomes were detected in Gypsies; this result was in line… -
Y-chromosome diversity in Native Mexicans reveals continental transition of genetic structure in the Americas
11 May 2012 | 2:33 amAbstractThe genetic characterization of Native Mexicans is important to understand multiethnic based features influencing the medical genetics of present Mexican populations, as well as to the reconstruct the peopling of the Americas. We describe the Y-chromosome genetic diversity of 197 Native Mexicans from 11 populations and 1,044 individuals from 44 Native American populations after combining with publicly available data. We found extensive heterogeneity among Native Mexican populations and ample segregation of Q-M242* (46%) and Q-M3 (54%) haplogroups within Mexico. The northernmost… -
Molecular diversity of entodiniomorphid ciliate Troglodytella abrassarti and its coevolution with chimpanzees
11 May 2012 | 2:33 amAbstractThe entodiniomorphid ciliate Troglodytella abrassarti is a colonic mutualist of great apes. Its host specificity makes it a suitable model for studies of primate evolution. We explored molecular diversity of T. abrassarti with regard to large geographical distribution and taxonomic diversity of its most common host, the chimpanzee. We found a very low diversification of T. abrassarti in chimpanzees across Africa. Distribution of two types of T. abrassarti supports evolutionary separation of the Western chimpanzee, P. t. verus, from populations in Central and East Africa. Type I T.
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Into the Wild
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Around the World in 80 Strange Place Names
16 May 2012 | 10:29 amToday Into the Wild is taking you on a journey!! Following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg and the great Michael Palin we’re going around the world - but rather than going around in 80 days we thought we’d go round in 80 strange place names. Check these out... -
Future Volunteer Interview: Sarah Stockdale - Tanzania Orphanage Project.
15 May 2012 | 10:23 amToday we speak to future volunteer Sarah Stockdale who later this year will be heading off to Frontier’s Tanzania Orphanage Project. We asked Sarah a few questions about her upcoming trip, finding out what she’s excited about, what she’s going to pack and a few other bits and pieces. -
Top Five: Cultural Festivals
14 May 2012 | 11:23 amToday Into the Wild is bringing you our top five cultural festivals from around the world. From arts and comedy to a celebration of the dead these festivals have it all... -
Photo of the Week
14 May 2012 | 3:59 amWelcome to another week on Into the Wild. Here's another beautiful Photo of the Week to help you get off to a happy start. This week's amazing image comes courtesy of David Thompson (D Breezy), taken at Badwater Salt Flats in Death Valley, California. -
Project of the Week: Senegal Adventure &Teaching
11 May 2012 | 10:06 amThis week’s project of the week is our Senegal Adventure & Teaching and to celebrate this we’ve decided to do a special offer on the project giving you guys a great discount. So let’s take a look at this fascinating country to bring you all the best things to do, see and eat...
