Anthropology

Google News: Anthropology
Shumar appointed Culture & Comm. Dept. head - Drexel University The Triangle Online

6 Nov 2009 | 8:17 pm

Shumar appointed Culture & Comm. Dept. headDrexel University The Triangle OnlineShumar, a cultural anthropologist, is specifically interested in anthropology in higher education and online education. Shumar said his focus on higher and
Penn Museum Exhibition Explores Iraqi Cultural Heritage - Philadelphia Bulletin

6 Nov 2009 | 7:43 pm

Penn Museum Exhibition Explores Iraqi Cultural HeritagePhiladelphia BulletinOn Friday, Oct. 23, the Women's Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology presented “The Golden Age of Archaeology:
Nov. 19: Darwin Lecture considers the origins of art - University of Delaware

6 Nov 2009 | 6:10 pm

Nov. 19: Darwin Lecture considers the origins of artUniversity of DelawareHe also has written a children's book on human evolution, served as a consultant for the National Geographic Society, and is the anthropology consultant for
Lévi-Strauss, New Yorker - City Journal

6 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm

Lévi-Strauss, New YorkerCity JournalHis influence has been felt all over the world in the study of culture and anthropology. So many obituaries have been published by now that we don't need ASU doctoral candidate Thompson pays tribute to Levi-StraussArizona State UniversityThe grammar of kinshipGlobe and MailFrance - Death of Claude Lévi-StraussISRIAall 5 news articles »
RIDE-Arc: Bikes + Architecture + Urban Anthropology ... tonight! - Los Angeles Times

6 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm

RIDE-Arc: Bikes + Architecture + Urban Anthropology ... tonight!Los Angeles TimesJoin the arty bike nerd crowd for a group ride around the Westside tonight to accompany Diane Meyer's "Without a Car in the World" art show at the 18th

Topix: Anthropology
...continue reading

7 Nov 2009 | 12:50 am

Books 1951 America's Hour of Decision 1953 Peace with God 1955 The Secret of Happiness 1960 My Answer 1965 World Aflame 1969 The Challenge 1971 The Jesus Generation 1978 The Holy Spirit 1981 Till Armageddon 1983 Approaching Hoofbeats 1986 Unto the Hills 1992 Storm Warning 2002 Hope for Each Day >> More Religious figure.
Goalie Careers Took Two Paths At UConn

7 Nov 2009 | 12:46 am

Matt Sangeloty graduated from Farmington High a semester early to pursue his dream of playing goalie for UConn , and started 19 soccer games for the Huskies as a freshman in 2006.
Five Things this Weekend

7 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

JENNIFER VAN EVRA Published on Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009 12:00AM EST Last updated on Saturday, Nov.
Gruesome work vital to police

6 Nov 2009 | 11:05 pm

MariaTeresa Tersigni-Tarrant donned a harness, clipped it to a rope and made her way down Lookout Mountain to the spot where someone found human skeletal remains last April.
Vintage Shatner Monologue Unearthed for Star Trek Blu-ray

6 Nov 2009 | 9:08 pm

The recently found version of the episode, titled " Where No Man Has Gone Before ," also includes different theme music and closing credits, according to a press release issued Friday.

Yahoo! News: Anthropology
Claude Lévi-Strauss (Guardian Unlimited)

6 Nov 2009 | 10:33 pm

French anthropologist whose analysis of kinship and myth gave rise to structuralism as an intellectual force The fame of Claude Lévi-Strauss, who has died aged 100, extended well beyond his own subject of anthropology. He was without doubt the anthropologist best known to non-specialists. This is mainly because he is usually considered to be the founder of the intellectual movement known as ...
Father of modern anthropology who hated travel (Financial Times)

6 Nov 2009 | 3:41 pm

Travel and travellers are two things I loathe,” wrote Claude Lévi-Strauss, as he lamented the popular travelogues of 1950s Paris, full of “insipid details, incidents of no significance . . . compiled with an eye mainly for effect”.
Anthropology student wants to take knowledge home (Indian Country Today)

5 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pm

GALLUP, N.M. – Daniel Pedro knew when he was a sophomore at Santa Fe Indian School that he wanted to be an anthropologist. He also knew that as a Zuni, he would not be able to touch human remains – a common task for physical anthropologists.
Scholar of native textiles to head anthropology museum (UC Berkeley NewsCenter)

5 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm

Anthropologist Mari Lyn Salvador, a scholar of Panama’s native Kuna people and the textiles that they create and an experienced museum professional, has been named director of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the UC Berkeley. Salvador is scheduled to take the new post in late November.
Lévi-Strauss, father of modern anthropology, dies at 100 (Malta Today)

5 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am

The renowned French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, best known as the father of the Structuralist School of Anthropology, died yesterday at the venerable age of 100.

Anthropology.net
Current Anthropology – New Edition, First 50 Years Issue

Tim Jones

6 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

Current Anthropology, December 2009, Volume 50 number 6 is now out, which as will be apparent from the headline, marks no less than 50 years in the field, and there are a number of essays contained therein which reflect on the past, present and future of this publication. Here’s part of editor Mark Alfenferfer’s introduction to the proceedings: In this issue we celebrate 50 years of Current Anthropology. By no means the most long‐lived anthropology journal (that honor must go to the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, which technically began its run in 1872 but whose…
Long Toes & Short Ankles Help Sprinters Accelerate Faster

Kambiz Kamrani

4 Nov 2009 | 4:23 am

The Journal of Experimental Biology has published an interesting paper about some unique features in sprinters: longer toes and shorter ankle joints. The only one flaw is that their sample size is limited, they only compared 12 collegiate sprinters with 12 non-athletes of the same height. Regardless, from a physical anthropological point of view, this comparative & biophysical analysis informs us what traits help humans sprint faster. The significance of long toes and short ankle joints can be explained from a purely physics perspective. From the start of a sprint, the only way a human…
Four Stone Hearth 79 @ Anthropology.net

Tim Jones

4 Nov 2009 | 2:45 am

As by necessity this edition is being put together quite hurriedly, let’s get straight to the posts – I received a grand total of 3 submissions, and two of those were from one contributor, namely Eric at The Primate Diaries, which is where we’ll begin. In Reexamining Ardipithecus ramidus in Light of Human Origins, Eric examines the way in which the recent Ardipithecus ramidus discoveries have been interpreted, in this case by Owen Lovejoy, the anthropologist who headed up much of the recent investigations. Next from the same author is Male Chauvinist Chimps or the Meat…
Claude Lévi-Strauss Has Died

Kambiz Kamrani

3 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Claude Lévi-Strauss died two days ago. He was 100 years old. I shouldn’t have to write about his impact to the field of anthropology, in summary it was profound. He authored many texts. He set forth structuralism, a mode of thought by which we can compare relationships between social systems. His contributions to studying cultures and anthropology were deep and he will be missed. Posted in Announcement, Blog, Cultural Anthropology Tagged: claude lévi-strauss, Cultural Anthropology, in memoriam, obituary, structuralism
Four Stone Hearth 79 – Call for Submissions

Tim Jones

1 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pm

Despite an ongoing bout of intermittent Interweblessness, I’m hoping to get the next Four Stone Hearth up and running as normal; Martin R seems to be away from his desk at the moment, so if anyone would like to submit anything for this coming Wednesday, please mail me by Tuesday at tim(oneword)jonzi AT gmail DOT com and I’ll do my best to ensure that all suitable submissions are duly included. Thanks. Following on from the most recent post by Kambiz, readers, or in this case listeners might be interested in tuning into BBC Radio 4 tomorrow at 21.00 London time, when the first of a…

Savage Minds
Additional coverage of Lévi-Strauss

Rex

5 Nov 2009 | 4:53 pm

Just a quick update of some highlights of recent coverage on the passing of Lévi-Strauss: In addition to the New York Times, there are fine obituaries in The Telegraph, and The Guardian—I’ll get to the French papers later if I have a chance. There is a fine gaggle of links at The Atlantic. The AAA blog has run a couple of pieces about Lévi-Strauss, including one by Richard Price. There is also an older posting from Marshall Sahlins, which is, obviously, a much better summary of Lévi-Strauss’s thought and relevance than mine. And written by someone who should know, so…
Remembering Claude Lévi-Strauss

Rex

3 Nov 2009 | 9:38 pm

The Internet is now full of the news that Lévi-Strauss has passed away, including an obituary at the New York Times and a collection of links at the AAA blog. Our blog—whose name is inspired by Lévi-Strauss—has discussed him in the past including some thoughts about his legacy on his 100th birthday. Many people have already shared their memories of him but what are we who never met him supposed to remember of his legacy? Perhaps it is time to be overly schematic and pare down the paeans to something more manageable for those who may be reading the news but find much of the…
Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908-2009

jay sosa

3 Nov 2009 | 9:14 am

From: Lydia Robin Mes chers collègues, J’ai la tristesse de vous annoncer la disparition de notre collègue Claude Lévi-Strauss, dans sa 101ème année. Nous aurons prochainement l’occasion de nous retrouver pour lui rendre hommage. Je vous prie de croire, mes chers collègues, en l’assurance de mes sentiments amicaux. François Weil —Lydia Robin Secrétariat de la présidence EHESS
Savage Minds Around the Web

jay sosa

2 Nov 2009 | 10:27 pm

Founder of Pop Culture Studies Dies: The New York Times published the obituary of Ray Browne. Trained as a scholar of American literature, Browne is credited with founding the first popular culture studies department (in the U.S.?) at Bowling Green University. The obituary offers an interesting history on the development of cultural studies in the U.S. A New Method to the Madness: This might cause a minor scandal for those who care. The Times UK that annually ranks the top 200 research universities in the world is turning to Reuters to collect and assess data for its 2010 edition. This just…
AAA Open Thread

Kerim

31 Oct 2009 | 3:05 pm

Attending this year’s AAA conference in Philadelphia? Use this thread to tell us about any papers you are giving, special events you are organizing, or to find a place to stay.

ScienceDaily: Anthropology
Portable 3-D Laser Technology Preserves Texas Dinosaur's Rare Footprint

5 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

Using portable 3-D laser technology, scientists have electronically preserved a rare 110 million-year-old fossilized dinosaur footprint excavated in 1933, and built into the wall of a bandstand at a Texas courthouse. The laser image preserves an original track used to describe a species of dinosaur identified in 1935 as ichnospecies Eubrontes glenrosensis.
Scientists Launch Effort To Sequence The DNA Of 10,000 Vertebrates

5 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

Scientists have an ambitious new strategy for untangling the evolutionary history of humans and their biological relatives: Create a genetic menagerie made of the DNA of more than 10,000 vertebrate species. The plan, proposed by an international consortium of scientists, is to obtain, preserve, and sequence the DNA of approximately one species for each genus of living mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
Snail Fossils Suggest Semiarid Eastern Canary Islands Were Wetter 50,000 Years Ago

2 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

Isotopic measurements performed on fossil land snail shells found in ancient soils on the subtropical eastern Canary Islands resulted in oxygen isotope ratios that suggest the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa has become progressively drier over the past 50,000 years, according to new research.
'Dutch' Batavians More Roman Than Thought

1 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

The Batavians, who lived in the Netherlands at the start of the Christian era were far more Roman than was previously thought. After just a few decades of Roman occupation, the Batavians had become so integrated that they cooked, built and bathed in a Roman manner. A Dutch researcher discovered this during recent archaeological research.
First Inhabitants Of Canary Islands Were Berbers, Genetic Analysis Reveals

26 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

Researchers have carried out molecular genetic analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted only by males) of the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands to determine their origin and the extent to which they have survived in the current population. The results suggest a North African origin for these paternal lineages which, unlike maternal lineages, have declined to the point of being practically replaced today by European lineages.

NYT: Anthropology
Claude Lévi-Strauss, 100, Dies; Altered Western Views of the ‘Primitive’

3 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

Mr. Lévi-Strauss, a towering intellectual, transformed the West’s understanding of what was once called “primitive man.”
Closed Circles

31 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm

In this novel, a loner obsessed with ancient Sparta is drawn to a mysterious clique at an archaeological dig.
At Ur, Ritual Deaths That Were Anything but Serene

26 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm

Archaeologists said human sacrifices in ancient Mesopotamia might have involved sharp instruments rather than poison.
When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns

23 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm

Egypt has requested the return of a bust of Nefertiti and other artifacts from European museums, a move motivated as much by politics as by culture.
Fossil Skeleton Known as Ida Is No Ancestor of Humans

22 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm

Experts say a fossil discovery believed to have clues to human ancestry is not even close to it.

Dienekes Anthropology Blog
German and French newborns cry differently

dienekesp

6 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

Current Biology, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.064Newborns' Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native LanguageBirgit Mampe et al.SummaryHuman fetuses are able to memorize auditory stimuli from the external world by the last trimester of pregnancy, with a particular sensitivity to melody contour in both music and language [1,2,3]. Newborns prefer their mother's voice over other voices [4,5,6,7,8] and perceive the emotional content of messages conveyed via intonation contours in maternal speech (“motherese”) [9]. Their perceptual preference for the surrounding language [10,11,12] and their ability…
Finally, structure in haplogroup R1a (Underhill et al. 2009)

dienekesp

5 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

I have lobbied for more structure in R1a to be discovered since the early days of this blog, and finally the R1a monolith seems to be cracking.(Watch this space for my comments once I read the paper).UPDATE (Nov 05):This paper makes a very important contribution by studying the diversity and distribution of Y-chromosome marker M458 defining the new haplogroup R1a1a7.R-M458 reaches high frequency and diversity in central and eastern Europe. It is virtually absent in northwestern Europe, the Near East, and Asia east of the Urals. The maximum frequency is reached in south (36.4%) and central…
Maternal vs. Paternal grandmother and grandchild survival

dienekesp

2 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

From the paper:Grandsons and granddaughters differ in the proportion of their X-chromosomes shared with MGMs and PGMs (figure 1). According to our proposed X-linked grandmother hypothesis, if grandmothers invest in grandchildren because of their genetic relatedness with them, then their adaptive incentive to invest may vary in a way that mirrors this variation in genetic relatedness. As a consequence, grandmothers’ differential investment in grandchildren could cause differential survivorship of those grandchildren....Therefore, MGMs and grandchildren are likely to share 25 per cent of…
Coevolution of individualism–collectivism and the serotonin transporter gene

dienekesp

29 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm

From the paper:Here, we demonstrate for the first time a robust association between cultural values of individualism–collectivism and allelic frequency of the serotonin transporter gene, controlling for associated economic and disease factors. Geographical regions characterized by cultural collectivism exhibit a greater prevalence of S allele carriers of the serotonin transporter gene, even when cultural regions rather than nations served as the unit of analysis. Additionally, we show that global variability in historical pathogen prevalence predicts global variability in…
Long live the 28th October 1940

dienekesp

28 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

Open Anthropology
Reality Check for the Human Terrain System: Marilyn Dudley-Flores Responds

Maximilian Forte

5 Nov 2009 | 2:46 pm

Introduction On 26 February 2009, a report by John Stanton was published on this blog (Some Breaking News on the Human Terrain System: Death Threats Against Female Colleagues). At the time it caused some uproar, was discussed on several other blogs, and perhaps no other story on this blog received so many comments as that one (200 comments to be exact). The story was followed up with this one: US Army 101st Airborne Investigative Report on Human Terrain System. In the midst of the furious commentary, many allegations were made about the person at the center of the story, Dr. Marilyn…
Claude Lévi-Strauss: à la prochaine fois

Maximilian Forte

3 Nov 2009 | 6:58 pm

Almost one year ago we celebrated the remarkable 100th birthday of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Today we learn that his body has died. In the meantime, we continue to work with what he has left us, as can be seen in the latest posts on this blog concerning his vision of a future anthropology, as seen back from the 1960s. One of the statements he produced at the time continues to be one of the leading mottos behind this project. I look forward to continue grappling with his work. No goodbyes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, rather à la prochaine fois. Claude Lévi-Strauss obituary French anthropologist whose…
Anthropology on Stage, Human Terrain System on Screen

Maximilian Forte

30 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pm

[A momentary "distraction" from my "zero series," and a big thanks to John Stanton for the first set of news below.] Tonight, Friday, 30 October, a free play reading in North Hollywood will start at 8:30pm — the title of the production: ANTHROPOLOGY: Or How To Win Friends and Influence Afghans (see the circular). The play was written by Rick Mitchell, an associate professor in English at California State University, Northridge. The featured story line is, “A satirical examination of the US policy of making the War on Terror more culturally sensitive, ANTHROPOLOGY: Or How To Win…
0.189: Stanley Diamond & Claude Lévi-Strauss on the Nature and Future of Anthropology

Maximilian Forte

30 Oct 2009 | 4:42 am

Two relatively short articles from the 1960s that I found useful, especially in connection with the previous post, provide a number of insights that exceeded the scope of that post. I want to share some of my “notes and quotes” from those two articles, with limited commentary aside from my headings — think of it as an extended footnote to the last post. “A Revolutionary Discipline” By Stanley Diamond Current Anthropology, Vol. 5, No. 5 (Dec., 1964), pp. 432-437 http://www.jstor.org/pss/2740001 Anthropology: “off the mainstream“ Although careerism and…
0.19: Questions about Colonialism and Anthropology: Epistemology, Methodology, and Politics

Maximilian Forte

29 Oct 2009 | 5:53 am

Two Sides of the Same Coin Anthropology might look it came to us with a dual consciousness. On one side, a consciousness influenced by ideals of science and objectivity, driven to developing a commanding knowledge about human others. On the other side, a consciousness of itself as a creature of imperialism, guided by a scientific paradigm that imperialism made possible. Does this mean that anthropology effectively has two personalities? Or is there more in common between the above two “sides” than one might think? Imperialism: Making Scientific Anthropology Thinkable An article that I…

antropologi.info
Anthropologists ignore Open Access Week - a report from Wellington

Lorenz

4 Nov 2009 | 7:10 pm

What’s the point of science if it’s not publicly accessible? Two weeks ago, the first global Open Access Week was organized. Masters’ student in anthropology Karstein Noremark has written a report for antropologi.info about the Open Access Week at Victoria University of Wellington. In his opinion, especially anthropologists should be interested in making research available online. But he did not see any anthropologists at the Open Access Week seminars. There was a general lack of interest among academics. Many of the attendants were library staff. He hopes more students will…
Claude Levi-Strauss is dead (updated)

Lorenz

3 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

A month before his 101st birthday, Claude Levi-Strauss, one of the most influential anthropologists, died at the age of 100. He died over the weekend, according to the office of the president of the School for the Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, in Paris, Bloomberg reports. See also my collection of articles on Levi-Strauss’ 100th birthday UPDATE - Obituaries: / Lots of posts about his death - here a selection Richard Price: My Teacher, Claude Lévi-Strauss (AAA Blog) Kevin Karpiak: Claude Levi-Strauss on police (Anthropoliteia) Scott Atran: A memory of Lévi-Strauss…
Two months free access to AAA journals!

Lorenz

3 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am

From now on until the end of December, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) is offering free access to a large number of its journals. Why not free all the time? asks Kerim Friedman. Good question. The AAA has often been criticized for its restrictive publishing policies. But maybe things are changing. Here is a selection of journals with free access in november and december 2009. I’ve picked a sample article from the most recent issue as well. Very interesting stuff and many catchy titles! For the full list of journals, visit the AAA Blog American Anthropologist Matthew Lauer…
SSOAR - The first Social Science Open Access Repository is online

Lorenz

1 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am

(via media/anthropology and Open Access Anthropology blog) Where can I publish my papers online? A few weeks ago, I wrote about ResearchGATE and other initiatives. Now, SSOAR - the Social Science Open Access Repository is online. It is according to Kerim Friedman from the Open Access Anthropology blog, “the first general Social Science Open Access repository we’ve found". The repository is multilingual with texts in English, Spanish, German, Polish and many other languages. There are already around 5000 papers available, around 84 of them are listed under…
Interview: Meet Dai Cooper from The Anthropology Song!

Lorenz

22 Oct 2009 | 5:46 am

Dai Cooper’s Anthropology Song has fascinated people all over the world. Around 10 000 33 000 people have seen the video on YouTube so far, it was sent around via facebook, twitter, mailing lists, and was already shown in many anthropology classes. Maybe nobody has better explained what anthropology is all about. I got curious and asked her if I may interview her for antropologi.info. I’m glad, Dai Cooper, who is now doing a Masters in Anthropology at University of Toronto in Canada, said yes. So here is the (email-) interview: - What a great song! Sounds like you’re a…

Material World
Manila, Tel Aviv and back

Haidy L Geismar

6 Nov 2009 | 4:20 pm

Claudia Liebelt Research Institute for Law, Politics & Justice, Keele University Living room decoration in the home of a Filipino family, whose grown up daughter left to work in Israel In recent years, consumption and possessions have been recognised as important themes in migration studies. The short history of migration between the Philippines and Israel has indeed produced a rich material culture of its own, with fascinating stories yet to be told. Since Israel started to recruit Filipina care workers in large numbers in 1995, numerous objects have travelled back and forth, while many were…
Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908-2009

Haidy L Geismar

3 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am

Materialworldblog greatly regrets the passing of Claude Lévi-Strauss. For a series of comments, in French, on his life see Le Figaro, and an obituary here. As well as a note from Le Monde. For a series of links to media commentary in English see the AAA blog, here.
Will Matrimonial Websites Transform the Traditional Norms of Indian Marriage?

Haidy L Geismar

2 Nov 2009 | 8:37 pm

Parul Bhandari, PhD student, Dept. of Sociology, (PPSIS), Univ. of Cambridge A typical Indian-wedding envelope given to the bride and groom by the guests, carrying a certain sum of money as a token of their happiness and blessings for the newly weds Indian society has in the past decade witnessed a proliferation of matrimonial websites each of which have 10 to 12 million users registered with them. These websites seemed to be an interesting topic of research as it could help investigate whether the Internet has led to a transformation of marriage practices and processes in India displaying a…
Al-Hima, A Way of Being

Haidy L Geismar

29 Oct 2009 | 7:28 pm

Hala Kilani (MA student UCL) "From society to society people know how to use their bodies," Marcel Mauss (2006:78) Hima is a traditional system of management and conservation of natural resources practiced by tribes in the Arabian Peninsula since more than 1400 years. The term hima literally means in Arabic a protected place or protected area. For rural communities living in the Arab world, the term holds connotations that appeal to their collective memory and hence when evoked, the term is not only readily recognized as familiar but also valued and triggers an air of acceptance and ease…
Heritage 2010

Patrick Laviolette

24 Oct 2009 | 4:50 pm

The Green Lines Institute is organizing the 2nd International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development' which will be held at the City of Evora, Portugal, from 22 to 26 June 2010. We would like to inform all authors interested in joining the event that Submission of Abstracts is now open until 30 November 2009. Papers addressing the following topics are welcome: Heritage and Governance for Development / Heritage and Education Policies / Heritage and Culture / Heritage and Economics / Heritage and Environment / and Heritage and Society. For further detailed information, please visit…

Open Access Anthropology
Social Sciences Open Access Repository

kerim

31 Oct 2009 | 12:44 am

Via John Postill’s Media/Anthropology blog, a post about a new Open Access Repository for all the social sciences. “SSOAR [Social Science Open Access Repository] is geared towards a scholarly audience in the social sciences wishing to search quality-controlled content across disciplinary boundaries and to access documents directly and free of charge.” This is the first general Social Science OA repository we’ve found (hence our previous post on EduPunk alternatives). I hope SSOAR succeeds, and that the other institutions (cough, cough, AAA, cough, cough) follow…
Editorial on Commerical and Not-for-Profit Scholarly Publishing

jbj

15 Oct 2009 | 5:56 pm

Readers of the Open Access Anthropology blog might have an interest in an opinion essay that I (Jason Baird Jackson) wrote recently. In it, I lay out some modest steps that scholars interested in changing the direction of scholarly communications might take. The focus is a plea to withdraw from working with commercial publishers. The essay can be found on my website here: http://wp.me/p6MUY-5r . Thanks!
Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity

jbj

14 Sep 2009 | 7:24 pm

Readers of Open Access Anthropology will want to check out the announcements for (and press coverage of) the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity that was just announced by Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT and Berkeley. I just finished speaking to Inside Higher Education about it for a story that they will run tomorrow. I had not yet read the “OA Compact” statement yet, which added to my nerves about weighing in on it (via a phone interview). I may or may not need to explain myself after the story runs. Having now read the core documents, I can just state at this stage…
The Impact of the Web 2.0 World on Scholarly Societies

jbj

14 Aug 2009 | 7:41 pm

A friend who is very involved in the leadership of the American Folklore Society just shared with me a link to James Lappin’s very effective blog post “The Impact of the Web 2.0 World on the Records Management Society.” While presented as a case study of information science/archives organizations in the UK, its arguments generalize amazingly well and provide valuable food for thought for all scholarly disciplines and societies–including those that the readers of this weblog care (or have given up caring) about. Vis-a-vis the American Anthropological Association,…
UCP(-AAA)+JSTOR=?

jbj

13 Aug 2009 | 7:10 pm

I think that this is the week’s big news in scholarly communications issues. Its not open access, but it is not-for-profit. There is much that could be said. Hopefully there will be some discussion among anthropologists, especially in light of the AAA’s experiences working with the University of California Press Journals program. For myself, I will observe again that the Journal’s staff at California were amazing to work with as an editor. Personal experience aside, it seems that the big question here relates to the meaning of this to ProjectMuse. Read all about it…

Mathilda's Anthropology Blog
Biological influences on criminal behavior

mathilda37

1 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm

Really a set of study links for me to reference. It seems that persistent criminal behaviour is in fact highly hereditary at about 0.8. So, something to ask about if you are adopting a baby would therefore be ‘what are the parents like? In particular ‘what is the mother like?’ As criminality seems to be even more inherited from the mother’s side. Biological influences on criminal behavior Criminal behaviour: a psychological approach to explanation and prevention By Clive R. Hollin Psychopathology and violent crime Genetic influences in criminal convictions: evidence…
Lewontin’s fallacy

mathilda37

1 Nov 2009 | 9:45 am

No, I’m not dead, just recovering from an MS attack that ‘turned off’ my curiosity and messed up my memory for a couple of months. I will look at the comments (all 254 of them) eventually. I was slightly irked at watching channels 4’s shockingly bad and biased series on race, in which it trotted out Lewontin’s fallacy on the programs and on its supporting material on its site. All the criticisms I posted (they had an OOA date of 50k ago, don’t get me started…) have not been allowed through to the site, so I’m going to have a mini rant here.
Tunisian and Moroccan Y Chromosomes

mathilda37

11 Aug 2009 | 2:44 am

Y-chromosome markers distribution in Northern Africa: High-resolution SNP and STR analysis in Tunisia and Morocco populations Valerio Onofria, Federica Alessandrinia, Chiara Turchia, Mauro Pesaresia and Adriano Tagliabracci, a, Abstract At the beginning of 2006 more than 301,000 immigrants resident in Italy resulted to come from Tunisia and Morocco, 66% of which are male subjects; in addition, it is estimated that some other thousand are clandestine. Our data show that there is an increasing involvement of Tunisian and Moroccan individuals in paternity testing and in individual identification…
Guanche Y chromosomes

mathilda37

10 Aug 2009 | 11:59 am

Demographic history of Canary Islands male gene-pool: replacement of native lineages by European Abstract The origin and prevalence of the prehispanic settlers of the Canary Islands has attracted great multidisciplinary interest. However, direct ancient DNA genetic studies on indigenous and historical 17th-18th century remains, using mitochondrial DNA as a female marker, have only recently been possible. In the present work, the analysis of Ychromosome polymorphisms in the same samples, has shed light on the way the European colonization affected male and female Canary Island indigenous…
I’m ill again…

mathilda37

10 Aug 2009 | 7:35 am

Swine flu this time- along with the rest of family. Excuse me not not clearing comments. I’ll get around to it sooner or later.

Museum Anthropology
Staff Curator (Museum Management)

6 Nov 2009 | 1:19 pm

The U.S. Department of the Interior is in search of a candidate to become a Staff Curator (Museum Management) for the Office of Acquisition and Property Management’s Interior Museum Program. If you have comprehensive knowledge of museum and collection management practices and standards, then this could be the job for you!If selected, you will be working for the U.S. Department of the Interior,
Research Fellowship in Museum Anthropology

4 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

The Bard Graduate Center and the American Museum of Natural History announce a Research Fellowship in Museum Anthropology. The fellowship provides support to a postdoctoral investigator to carry out a specific project over a two-year period. The program is designed to advance the training of the participant by having her/him pursue a project in association with a curator in the Division of
Museum Anthropology Re-Design

2 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm

This spring, the Council for Museum Anthropology's Board of Directors voted to approve funding for a complete design overhaul of Museum Anthropology. Below is a sneak peak at the near-completed re-design. Many thanks to the CMA Board and the journal's new Editorial Board for all their input and advice!
Threats to World Heritage Sites

27 Oct 2009 | 3:02 pm

A release of the 2010 World Monuments Fund list of global architectural treasures at risk from urban development, tourism, neglect and bad planning. The latest list comprises 93 sites in 47 countries, including ancient structures but also 15 that were built in the 20th century and are already deemed endangered classics.
The Repatriation Card

24 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

The New York Times' Michael Kimmelman consistently writes against repatriation; he is back at it with "When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns," published today, focusing on recent Egyptian repatriation claims. In particular, he suggests that the claims by Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, are a kind of political payback for election loss of the Egyptian culture minister, Farouk

Long Road
CFP: Museum Anthropology

Kim Christen

5 Nov 2009 | 9:40 pm

I’m on the board for the Council for Museum Anthropology, here is a call for a special issue of Museum Anthropology: Looking Back, Looking Forward: NAGPRA after Two Decades In 1990, the United States Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), thereby forever altering museum collections and exhibits, and the relationship between museums and Native American communities. In this special thematic issue of Museum Anthropology, we are seeking innovative studies of NAGPRA’s impacts, brief reflections and commentaries, and analyses that…
CFP: AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

Kim Christen

5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

AlterNative has a general call for papers to be published in 2010. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples is a multidisciplinary peer-review journal. It aims to present Indigenous worldviews from native Indigenous perspectives. It is dedicated to the analysis and dissemination of native Indigenous knowledge that uniquely belongs to cultural, traditional, tribal and aboriginal peoples as well as first nations, from around the world.
CFP: Museums and Restitution

Kim Christen

3 Nov 2009 | 8:21 pm

Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject. Restitution is one of the most emotive and complex issues facing the museum world in the twenty first century. Its current high profile reflects changing global power relations and the increasingly vocal criticisms of the historical concentration of…
On Openness: thoughts at the end of Open Access Week

Kim Christen

22 Oct 2009 | 8:46 pm

Since it’s open access week I wanted to try and get down some thoughts I’ve had about this troubled term. My own open access-ness–I’m an Assistant Editor for the Museum Anthropology Review, an online, open access journal; I archive all my publications on my blog which is licensed with a creative commons license, I’ve attached SPARC author addendums to many–but not all–of my journal publications, I tried to negotiate full access to my book through my publisher but succeeded in only getting the first chapter available free online. I’ve published…
Google gives Google products to “save Amazon tribe and rainforest”

Kim Christen

20 Oct 2009 | 12:10 pm

According to this article in the SF Gate and this follow up article Google has teamed up with Surui people of Brazil. The project itself sounds like it could be very helpful in bringing information about rain forest destruction out through the people it’s effecting locally. According to the article one of the “chiefs” of the tribe found his way to Google Earth at an Internet cafe and… like most people, began by zooming in for a bird’s-eye view of his own home. He saw a green peninsula dangling into a sea of clear-cutting, a striking juxtaposition that he believed…

Teaching Anthropology
The Linguists: For Free

3 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pm

Well this Honors gig thing is really kicking my ass but I still feel more anthropologist than low-level abused administrator so I am back at my blog. I miss it.I still feel a bit choked up about Levi-Strauss dying. Seems so stark to type that. I suppose we should celebrate the life and all that: 100 years of distinguished living but still its death and one can only spin that so far.Anyway, I was in Washington D.C. this past week at the National Collegiate Honors Council meetings. It was useful for my new responsibilities but the best part (Ha! I am still full-time anthropologist) was the…
The Meaning of Black Hair: Chris Rock, IMF Restructuring and Curly Kits

11 Oct 2009 | 8:51 am

I notice Chris Rock (such a bummer that the You Tube of him on Leno from a previous post was pulled--trust me it was hilarious)is releasing a documentary entitled "Good Hair" exploring the meanings and issues associated with...well..."black hair". I didn't have to go very far to read lots of stories and reviews of it. Salon has three stories, specifically, on the documentary and ancillary links that pull up stories on Michelle Obama's hair and Tyra Banks' weaves. I haven't done a full Google on it but I was playing a little a game with myself betting that if it hasn't happened already, Stuff…
Making Anthropology "relevant": Do we really want to go there?

9 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am

In my Real Life, I have been given a book proposal for a new intro to Cultural Anthropology to review. Its kind of bugging me as I make my way through the proposal because the unknown author seems to feels some compelling need to make Anthropology more "relevant" to students today. I suppose someone somewhere has some deep insight into what is relevant to students today but.....no, sorry. Don't think so. We all run around pretending to know our students and giving them that monolithic designation as if they are all the same. Maybe in some land of artificial, homogeneous people that would…
Ooooo....teachable moment alert...teachable moment alert

8 Oct 2009 | 6:37 pm

Have we all seen the recent discussion of Michelle Obama's ancestry? The New York Times has extended discussion/blog/commentary up with views of noted scholars commenting. Even one by an Anthropologist (yeah team). Its got some nice bits on race. I need to go read the others. I, totally, paused to rush back and tell you. Follow me back over there--here.
Culture, Class, and um...it was "rape-rape"

4 Oct 2009 | 12:31 pm

While the New York Times is busy parsing out all the cultural meanings of the American versus French versus German interpretations of the Roman Polanski arrest (at least according to Americans). And The Guardian reminds us to throw class into the mix (Lovely how both papers are staying true to form in the interpretations of their columnists). I am relieved to find myself embracing my inner petit bourgeosie self (denial of my lumpenproletariat status is a game I play with myself....as do others) and sharing the WTF moment with Chris Rock:And do I need to point your way to the succinct and some…

Somatosphere
Claude Lévi-Strauss est mort

Eugene Raikhel

3 Nov 2009 | 11:53 am

The sad news has just arrived that Claude Lévi-Strauss, who celebrated his 100th birthday less than a year ago, has passed away. See the coverage in the New York Times, Le Monde, Le Figaro, The Atlantic Wire, and an extensive obituary by Maurice Bloch in The Guardian. I think that one of the comments written in response to the NYT article puts it very well: "There are moments when it hits you that the 20th century has ended."
SMA Panel: Production, Distribution and Consumption of Pharmaceuticals--South Asia Focus

Kalman Applbaum

2 Nov 2009 | 8:04 pm

In the final SMA session I will summarize, the work of three of the panelists (Roger Jeffery, Ian Harper and Stefan Ecks) adds to a long-term collective project at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The project is entitled “Tracing Pharmaceuticals in South Asia,” and its aim is to “provide governments and others with a better understanding of the contexts and causes of pharmaceutical use in South Asia… by integrating anthropological, public health, and political economic approaches in an investigation and analysis of the diverse cultural, medical,…
Neurobiology and the literary imagination

Eugene Raikhel

30 Oct 2009 | 12:06 pm

This has been amply covered by the New York Times and Mind Hacks, but it fits so nicely into the interests of many of our contributors and readers, that I couldn't resist mentioning it here: in the latest issue of n+1, Marco Roth has an excellent essay on "The Rise of the Neuronovel." In it he traces how--since the mid-1990s--novelists have increasingly drawn upon neurobiological explanations of human behavior in lieu of older psychological ideas about consciousness and work of the mind. Following the rise of the neuronovel from Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, published in 1997, to…
Turning to animals

Eugene Raikhel

27 Oct 2009 | 8:33 am

The Chronicle Review has a nice series of articles covering the relatively recent turn to "animal studies" among scholars in the humanities and social sciences. An article by Jennifer Howard examines the emergence of animal studies, discussing related movements in literary and cultural studies, philosophy and ethics, history and the social studies of science. "Dismantling that model takes animal-studies scholars in different directions depending on their home disciplines and the mix of theory and advocacy that they bring to their work. For historians and sociologists, it might mean…
Re-tooling subjectivities

Eugene Raikhel

14 Oct 2009 | 10:16 pm

There is a very interesting looking special issue of the journal Subjectivity which has just come out: "Re-tooling Subjectivities: Exploring the Possible with Feminist Science and Technology Studies," guest edited by Wenda Bauchspies and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa. I haven't managed to get access to this particular issue through my institution's library, so I'll only be able to post the TOC at this point. Wenda K Bauchspies and María Puig de la Bellacasa, "Re-tooling subjectivities: Exploring the possible with feminist science and technology studies"Wenda K Bauchspies,…

Photoethnography.com
Jobs: Tenure-track assistant professor in New Media Studies

29 Oct 2009 | 1:09 pm

So maybe there are jobs in visual anthro after all? Assistant Professor New Media Studies Tenure-track assistant professor in New Media Studies. The Syracuse University English Department is continuing to expand its focus in Film and Visual Culture. Ph. D. must be in hand at time of appointment. Send detailed letter, CV, and names of three references to Professor Erin Mackie, Chair, English Department, 401 Hall of Languages, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1170. Applications should be postmarked by 16 November 2009. Syracuse University is an EO/AA employer. An offer will be made…
NYT Editorial on Justice for the Mentally Disabled

27 Oct 2009 | 8:18 pm

NYT has a good editorial on how the new Obama administration is taking action on disability issues: Justice for the Mentally Disabled After eight years of the Bush administration using the power of the Justice Department to undermine civil rights laws, it is good to see the department applying one of those laws, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. It has started a timely new initiative aimed at full enforcement of that law, which forbids unjustified isolation of the mentally disabled and requires that they be integrated into the wider community where appropriate. Read full article
Careers: Programs in Visual Anthropology

27 Oct 2009 | 7:37 pm

Prospective graduate students have been writing me for advice about doctoral and masters programs in visual anthropology. Since my previous entry on this topic is outdated, I've decided to update it to the best of my current knowledge. M.A. Programs USA: San Francisco State University, MA in Visual Anthropology USA: University of Southern California - Masters in Visual Anthropology Ph.D. Granting Institutions with Visual Anthropology Programs/Faculty USA: Harvard University - Sensory Ethnograph Lab and Secondary PhD in Film and Visual Studies USA: New York University - Profs. Faye Ginsburg,…
iPhoneography

24 Sep 2009 | 10:17 pm

My buddy Nate sent me the following link: http://www.iphoneography.com/ You've probably seen this, but just in case! Jarvis has a neat set of iphone photo apps and filters for the iPhone that mimic polaroids, 1974 gelatin, etc. Hadn't seen it. Quite cool. I want an iphone app that manufactures SX70 film (the real stuff, not virtual), though.
When participant-observation goes too far? Or something else?

10 Sep 2009 | 7:41 am

In March 2005, Fairleigh Dickinson University fired Jacques Pluss, a popular and outwardly tolerant professor who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in medieval history. It was reported that Pluss was a neo-Nazi..... read more at HNN (http://hnn.us/articles/36411.html)

Ethblography
Unlocking Digital Cities

3 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

The November issue of Wired Magazine (UK) features "Unlocking the Digital City", a series of articles exploring how new technologies have transformed - and are continually reinventing - urban life and urban landscapes. The entire issue is worth reading. Below are excerpts from three perspectives on the promises and realities of the digital age in urban environments. (This blog post has been cross-posted on the OAC. Discuss it here). 'Sense-able' urban designScholars back in 1995 speculated about the impact of the ongoing digital revolution on the viability of cities. Only 14 years ago, the…
Anthropology Blogs

13 Aug 2009 | 6:30 am

I came across this list of the top 25 anthropology blogs as compiled by Invesp Consulting (an e-commerce conversion optimization company, of course). Their Blog-Rank statistics are based solely on (automated) data extraction from various aspects of online content, such as RSS membership, Yahoo and Google indexed pages and pagerank, visitor and pagehit counts, link-to-page ratios, Alexa and Technorati ranking and social sites popularity (Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Redditt, Propeller and mixx). It's an interesting way to see how the the marketing world's ranking tools apply to mostly…
VoiceThread for collaborative learning and teaching

9 Aug 2009 | 4:56 am

I read this review article today on Educ@conTIC (Spanish only) about a web-based service for creating collaborative, multimedia conversations. VoiceThread is "a powerful new way to talk about and share your images, documents, and videos".With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install.A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or…
Spain still below average, natives still digital

5 Aug 2009 | 6:31 am

The latest from a European Commission report on Internet use throughout Europe has found that Spain should seek to improve and expand upon the use of new technologies in homes and businesses. Less than half of Spaniards make use of the Internet regularly, and those who use it daily represent little more than a third of the population. Therefore, Spain falls at the tail end of Europe, ranking 20th out of 27. Only Romanians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Cypriots make use of the internet less on a daily basis.According to the document, DSL (high-speed internet) coverage in Spain has increased since…
So long and thanks for all the bratwurst

30 Jun 2009 | 10:47 am

Auf Wiedersehen, Bavaria.I'm moving on now to the next stage of my journey and the completion of my PhD thesis. This blog and my other accounts (OAC, Twitter) will go dark over the next week or so as I relocate.More soon.

Ethnography.com
Ok, this is just for amusement, and pretty good at that.

mark

26 Oct 2009 | 9:30 pm

Most people reading this blog will be unaware of my past as a European style clown, street performer, juggler, musician and well… all the odd eclectic things you learn on the road over about a decade of wandering. Without those years I would not have the thought process I have today, one that I like than you kindly. I still love it when I see something new, that I have not seen before. Thanks to another old friend on facebook, I bring you Peruvian mime, Hugo Suarez. I don’t know the Title
The ethnography of a stroke

mark

25 Oct 2009 | 10:07 pm

I first heard of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor during an interview on Fresh Air, it is a great conversation (Listen to the interview, not just the text, it is more in depth than the TED talk you see here). Thanks to my friend Mariflora for bringing the TED link to my attention. How often do we get the emic on such a matter? Well worth watching and forming your own ideas from. Her very interesting TED talk:
The growing work of anthropologists with the military parallels the evolution of design anthropology – 15 years later…

mark

31 Aug 2009 | 3:19 pm

Lord knows I would welcome much stronger examination of the credentials of people that claim to be social scientists / anthropologists that are working in the military. There is the potential for the development of an excellent sub-discipline of anthropologists doing direct applied work for various forms of the federal government and the military (which for all I know already exists, I am new to this arena). I have no doubt there have been anthropologists working in all levels of Government/Military/Intel worlds for many years, but they may have not been/are called anthropologists in most…
Ordinary People Project – Roger from Yukon Territory

mark

21 Aug 2009 | 7:29 am

I met Roger, a master carver, while staying at Nugget City, Yukon. Enjoy!
Go Barney Go!

mark

19 Aug 2009 | 10:52 pm

I am a registered independent, I always have been. I have voted all over the political map because I don’t think I should have to vote for a party but the person. With the health care debates its hard NOT to see the republican party as the greed supporting evil empire. There have been death threats of people attending meetings, republican operations to disrupt meetings. Look, my late father.. a die hard conservative republican family practice doctor… spend some time as the medical director of an HMO. The result? He resigned the position within 6 months and was a staunch supporter…

Constructing Amusement
China rejects rhetoric on internet addiction

5 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

This is an interesting development coming out of China:China's health ministry has turned down the country's rhetoric on internet addiction, and has warned against "boot camp" style approaches for habitual web abusers. The ministry has issued guidelines for "inappropriate use of internet" saying there was no precise definition of internet addiction, state news agency Xinhua reports.There are at
EPIC Podcasts available

29 Sep 2009 | 3:06 pm

From the American Anthropological Association's blog: The Brand Show recently posted three podcasts featuring anthropologists involved in the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. Give them a listen: The Past, Present and Future of Ethnography in Business (feat. Martha Cotton)The Rise of Ethnographic Insight in Enterprise (feat. Ken Anderson)A New Perspective on Consumer Research May Give
New book out: Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific

23 Sep 2009 | 8:28 pm

Just got my copy of a new book from Routledge, "Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific" edited by Larissa Hjorth and Dean Chan. Dal Yong Jin and I wrote the first chapter in Part I titled, "The Politics of Online Gaming," where we explored the geo-political, economic, cultural and social dimensions of Korea's creative industries in the form of online gaming.You will also find contributions
Genome BC Launches New Online Newsletter for Social Scientists and Humanists

21 Sep 2009 | 7:16 pm

Some often mused that while hyper-specialization leads to some very interesting discoveries, the divorcing of ethics, morality, or culture from the study of 'real science' is ultimately not for the greater good. William Leiss' work comes to mind. All the more reason it's nice to see initiatives like this come to fruition. New from Genome BC:This is a resource for social science and humanities
CMS job opening for tenured faculty position

17 Sep 2009 | 12:47 pm

Via Henry Jenkins...Note application deadline of November 1, 2009: MIT's Program in Comparative Media Studies seeks applications for a tenured position beginning in September 2010. A PhD and an extensive record of publication, research activity and leadership are expected. We encourage applicants from a wide array of disciplinary backgrounds. The successful candidate will teach and guide

Visual Anthropology of Japan
Junko's Birthday

4 Nov 2009 | 4:18 am

This semester's members of the KGU Japanese Sign Language Study Group wished Junko a Happy Birthday with a surprise party. Junko was so happy she was moved to tears. The group is large this semester with 20-30 students attending every week. We continue to have deaf guests to help us learn JSL, but of course it is Junko who comes every week. Students admire her super-genki nature. Many thanks to the sempai and all members who helped organize the party. Click here for video clips.
Jazz Guitar Duo

2 Nov 2009 | 3:42 am

On October 29, Hidekazu Sakai (pictured above, right) debuted as a professional jazz guitarist with his teacher Miko Kanazawa at the Sea Press in Neyagawa-shi. The venue was small and intimate; jazz lovers and supporters were numerous and enthusiastic to see/hear the music. The audience was not let down. Teacher and student really started to jam during the second or third song. The last set was brilliant, showcasing Sakai's technique and Kanazawa's playful plucking. Watch for these guys - they are going places. A dark room and back lighting made a challenging setting for photographing the…
"1st grad school for visually, aurally challenged to be launched"

31 Oct 2009 | 12:50 am

From Japan Today, 10/31/09:Japan’s first graduate school for students with visual or aural handicaps will be launched next April at the state-run Tsukuba University of Technology in Ibaraki Prefecture, it said Friday. It will be the world’s first graduate school for visually impaired students and the third for hearing-impaired ones, following such schools as Gallaudet University in the United States, according to the university. Master’s degrees will be offered in two faculties—industrial technology for visually challenged students and health science courses for hearing-impaired…
Don't be a self-centered zombie visual anthropologist

28 Oct 2009 | 4:11 am

Today in Vis Anth class we were discussing Susan Sontag's "On Photography" (1977); in particular we were talking about how the action of taking photographs affects the scene being photographed. Certainly the act of photographing makes the scene even more important, something worth commemorating. What we as visual anthropologists want to do is to reduce our interference and invading of the scene. By coincidence there was an interesting article in Japan Today entitled "Self-centered zombies running rampant through Japanese society" that provided some good examples of…
Lecture on New Visual Research Methodologies

27 Oct 2009 | 7:09 am

Announcement from SSJ:Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture presents Dialogues on the Intersection of Art and Scholarship (II): an introduction to new research methodologies DATE: 12 November 2009TIME: 5:00pm to 7:30pm (Q & A with directors after screening)LOCATION: Room 301, Building 10, Sophia University The program will consist of short films and a discussion of the methodological issues surrounding the intersection of the following terms - auto-ethnography, anthropological films, a/r/tography, ethnodrama, ethnographic poetry, ethno-fiction and art-based research or action…

ICCI Home
Scott Atran: A memory of Lévi-Strauss

4 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am

Margaret Mead, Franz Boas and Claude Lévi-Strauss on a Portuguese stamp In 1974, when I was a graduate student in anthropology at Columbia University, I wanted to organize a discussion of universals with people whose ideas I wished to know more about than I thought I could get from their writings. At the time, I was working for Margaret Mead as one of her assistants at the American Museum of Natural History, so I asked her how I might go about getting my wish. She said “talk to these people and see if they’ll meet.” So I went to see Noam Chomsky in Cambridge, Jean Piaget in Geneva,…
Claude Lévi-Strauss has died

3 Nov 2009 | 11:18 am

Claude Lévi-Strauss, probably the most famous antrhopologist in the history of the field, died last Friday. We celebrated his 100th birthday here almost a year ago and concluded: "If the study of the mind and that of culture become unified in a naturalistic framework, then Lévi-Strauss will stand out as a precursor of this new adventure."
A question about polemics

1 Nov 2009 | 6:11 am

Recently I came across a quotation that expressed, with wonderful clarity, something that I kind of half-knew but had not articulated so well to myself. The historian John P. Meier, in the course of an argument about the historical Jesus of Nazareth, made the following generalization (Meier 1991, IV:279): Despite the theoretical purpose of addressing and confuting one’s adversaries outside, most religious apologetics and polemics are directed inward. Their real function is to give a sense of assurance and reinforcement to the group producing the polemics. Most apologetics and polemics…
Grieving animals?

1 Nov 2009 | 3:29 am

Chimps line up to watch as Dorothy, who died of heart failure, is wheeled away.Picture: Monica Szczupider, in the National Geographic Magazine (Nov. 2009) The National Geographic Magazine reports: "On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, a female chimpanzee in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. A maternal and beloved figure, Dorothy had spent eight years at Cameroon's Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, which houses and rehabilitates chimps victimized by habitat loss and the illegal African bushmeat trade.... Szczupider, who had been a volunteer at the center, told me: 'Her presence,…
Outbreak!

27 Oct 2009 | 4:00 pm

Hilary Evans and Robert Bartholomew have compiled and "Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior". This is quite an impressive endeavour that can be used for scholarly purposes (it is well referenced) and for fun (because people do weird things sometimes). The articles I've read so far have been on the skeptical side (e.g. on the mass hysterias or the Dutch tulip bubble), and so it seems that the this book avoids the dangerous pitfall of using these examples lightly to demonstrate the 'madness of crowds' (or people in general). An illustration of dancing mania (found here). Outbreak! The…

Remote Central
Posthumous Dues - Mac Tonnies, Author and Blogger, Dead at 34

27 Oct 2009 | 7:46 am

UFOMystic: Remembering Mac It was something of a shock to hear the very sad news that author and blogger Mac Tonnies passed away in his sleep last week, aged only 34. We briefly corresponded several years ago, and he was about the first person in the public eye to say they liked what was then a nascent remote central - at the time I recall that being a huge filip, especially because I regarded
From Memory/Take No More/Hospital Records Podcast

6 Oct 2009 | 2:50 pm

Whilst the world waits with bated breath for the release date of 'Take No More' from Utah Jazz, featured on the 96th edition of the only dnb podcast you'll ever need to hear, here's a quick look at Mistabishi's much vaunted Matrix Remix of 'From Memory', also featured as the last track on Podcast 98. ...and although 'Take No More' fades in and out of London Elektricity's show hosting, (30m
Stimulus Respond - 'Icon' Edition - Call for Contributions

29 Aug 2009 | 11:45 am

Following on from the previous 'Numbers' edition, Open publication - Free publishing - More stimulus Stimulus Respond are now seeking content for the next issue, called 'Icon', as we see from this advisory: We are currently soliciting contributions for the next edition of the next issue of Stimulus Respond, called Icon. Contributions might be literally or abstractly related to Icon, and
Jupiter Impact Points Us To Mars

27 Jul 2009 | 12:41 pm

ESA Science & Technology: Hubble views new dark spot on JupiterOver the past few days, spectacular images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope have shown the scene of a vast impact - roughly twice the length of Europe - which has scarred the surface of Jupiter, making this the second time in 15 years that such an event has taken place there. Spotted by Anthony Wesley, a '44-year-old computer
A Blog is Born: NickG Productions: To whom it may concern..

15 Jul 2009 | 10:07 am

NickG Productions: To whom it may concern..A quick heads-up to a new blog written by NickG, who is technically, or at least biologically part of the remote central stable of writers, so this is to wish him all good luck in what I hope will be a long and very successful blogging career.Although I suggested he start his own blog, everything will be written by him with no creative or editorial input

Dnapes
Chimps.Inc

6 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am

A video on the U.S. chimpanzee sanctuary Chimps.Inc Chimps Inc. from Oliver Tatom on Vimeo.
monkey economics: "only the cooperative survive"

4 Nov 2009 | 8:16 am

Monkey business: Jungle economicsBy Kevin Voigt, CNN from CNN.comSTORY HIGHLIGHTS* Primatologists are investigating how economics operate among monkeys* The more time monkeys are groomed, the richer they are within the group* Experiments show exchange rate of 'grooms' vary with supply and demandIn Indonesia, researchers have watched how long-tail macaques trade for sex. In South Africa, vervet monkeys climbed the ladder of their social group by learning a new trade in apples.This line of study examines how economic models explain social behavior in the natural world."Animals neither negotiate…
*updated* drink coke in canada and help get $100,000 to polar bears

4 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am

via the workcabin.ca facebook page Coca-Cola Ltd. today announced details of its ongoing commitment to WWF-Canada's polar bear conservation efforts. In celebration of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Coca-Cola will double last year's $100,000 contribution through its holiday program by contributing $200,000 to WWF-Canada's efforts in 2009."Global climate change is an important issue that impacts all of us," said Bobby Britain, VP Sparkling, Coca-Cola Ltd. "By continuing our partnership with WWF-Canada we are making a commitment to do our part to slow climate change and support the…
Africa walks out of climate talks in Barcelona! Demands action from developed countries.

3 Nov 2009 | 9:53 am

image from africafiles.org From wwf.cavia the wwf canada facebook pageAfrica is right to demand action on climate from developed countries: WWF-CanadaToday at the Barcelona climate negotiations, African countries insisted on clarity of the aggregate emissions reductions of the industrialized nations, and blocked some meetings of subgroups to underline the importance of this point. Today at the Barcelona climate negotiations, African countries insisted on clarity of the aggregate emissions reductions of the industrialized nations, and blocked some meetings of subgroups to underline the…
The Pit-Bull problem

2 Nov 2009 | 8:36 am

image from Bellazgirlfrom newsweek.comAmerica's most-maligned dog wants to be sweet and docile, but well-meaning humans mess it all up.By Joan Raymond | Newsweek Web ExclusiveA 10-acre stretch of land just outside Los Angeles is pit-bull Nirvana. It's called Villalobos Rescue Center and it's run by Tia Maria Torres, an unabashed pit-bull lover. Torres has found homes for thousands of pits since the rescue opened its doors 15 years ago. Some of these animals were abandoned. Some were shelter dogs slated for euthanasia. Others were confiscated in drug busts or fighting rings. And some—like…

Delicious Tag: Anthropology
Home | Cultural Anthropology

manuela.michelloni

7 Nov 2009 | 2:32 am
What sociologist Erving Goffman could tell us about social networking and Internet identity - O'Reilly Radar

webponce

7 Nov 2009 | 1:22 am
The Way We Live Now - What Gay Parenting Teaches Us All - NYTimes.com

al_shopov

7 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am
Babies are found to cry in their mother tongue -- latimes.com

nolancrohn

6 Nov 2009 | 11:45 pm
A Conversation With Pauline Wiessner - Where Gifts and Stories Are Crucial to Survival - Interview - NYTimes.com

wordsmith

6 Nov 2009 | 11:42 pm

Golublog: An Anthropology Blog
The Kindle for the Academic

Alex

3 Nov 2009 | 9:14 am

I have a piece on Inside Higher Ed on the Kindle for Academics which you can read, if you choose to.
One thought

Alex

31 Oct 2009 | 3:55 pm

Bureaucracy is the ice-nine of social organization.
Gmar chatima tova

Alex

28 Sep 2009 | 12:20 pm

What might it mean to undergo violation, to insist upon not resolving grief and staunching vulberability too quickly through a turn to violence, and to practice, as an experiment in living otherwise, nonviolence in an emphatically nonreciprocal response? What might it mean to make an ethic from the region of the uwilled? It might mean that one does not foreclose upon that primary exposure to the Other, that one does not try to transform the unwilled into the willed, but, rather, to take the very unbearability of exposure as a sign, the reminder, of a common vulberability, a common physicality…
Vows

Alex

26 Sep 2009 | 3:40 pm

Joss probably didn’t intend for the name of the Dollhouse season opener to be some oblique reference to the upcoming kol nidre holiday, but regardless episode one had a strong sense of teshuvah to it as the show returned to where we left the season finale, wrapping up plot points and unleashing new ones for the new year. I watched Dollhouse and Flash Forward back to back on teh Tivo and the difference was striking — one a superbly executed but extremely derivative corporate project (start with sudden crash, include random uncannily placed animal — there was even an Oceanic…
Things I learned in Papua New Guinea this time around

Alex

31 Jul 2009 | 8:01 pm

Probably the most important thing I learned from this trip to Papua New Guinea was how to use my cellphone. In 2007, my last trip to PNG, I had an American cellphone that didn’t work in PNG and mobiles (as everyone except Americans call them) weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now. This time, however, it as a different story. My usual MO in life — learned from one too many computer role playing games, I reckon — is to minimax: learn thoroughly and completely the things that I have to know and do my best to completely ignore everything else. This was true of my cellphone as…

julianhopkins.net
Nuffnang Awards - Whistle stop tour

27 Oct 2009 | 2:38 pm

The Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards were held last weekend, and various lucky nominees and bloggers were transported into Singapore from Malaysia, Philippines, and Australia. It was the first of its kind and, for me, the cut-off event for my data collection - from now on, it's time to start reviewing all my field notes, transcribing interviews and aiming to finish 100K word in one year. Here is a rapid tour of how it was for me - we gathered at the Nuffnang offices in KL, and arrived at the Link Hotel at about 3pm. Yee Hou was our efficient shepherd, leading us safely to Singapore and back,…
Do Malaysian bloggers think that blog advertorials need to be disclosed?

22 Oct 2009 | 5:41 pm

The recent plan by the American Federal Trade Commission to "Fine Bloggers up to $11,000 for Not Disclosing Payments" has got people talking about the ethical and legal aspects of paying bloggers for content, and apparently "Singapore's Media Development Authority is considering mirroring the U.S. government's new tough stance". There has been discussion on the NPR program 'On Point with Tom Ashbrook' (podcast here), a blog post by Dave Gilmor - A Dangerous Federal Intervention in Social Media; and in Malaysia it was discussed on the Digital Edge Podcast, a Twtpoll by @blogjunkie, and various…
Xpax, Blackberry, Party, Future

16 Oct 2009 | 5:05 pm

Source Doing research as a blog anthropologist, I get sick of people saying, "But what's happening in 'real life'?"... I mean, what's NOT real about talking, sharing and ranting with friends and acquaintances? Humans have been doing that since the first barbecue outside of a cave in Africa - is it more real because it's happening in a bar, at work or at school; then when it's happening while you're on the move and keeping in contact with friends around town, overseas, or at home? Does anyone ever say letters aren't 'real'?! The point is - you can do BOTH of these! You can have a life online…
Visualising a monetised Twitter network

15 Oct 2009 | 12:19 pm

This is just a little experiment with nodeXL, inspired by this example of using it to visualise a Twitter network. NodeXL is a very nice social network analysis (SNA) and visualisation tool. It works from Microsoft Excel, and is very light and easy to use. The NodeXL Tutorial provides instructions on how to use it. One thing that's particularly nice, for an SNA neophyte like myself, is that nodeXL can both search the net and do the visualisation (you can do this on VOSON too, though). And you can search Twitter too. Many people on the Malaysian twitterverse will have noticed #xpaxblackberry…
Indulge in the Uniquely Singapore experience

8 Oct 2009 | 4:39 pm

I love travelling, and have blogged about hitchhiking to Romania, drinking coffee in Laos, a room with a view in Provence, beers in Belgium, being a tourist in KL, shop signs in Kuching, a sunrise in Kelantan, clouds over Phuket, and a cute devil in Tasmania. Somehow, although I've been to Singapore a number of times, I've never blogged about it Maybe because my trips were normally work-related, or quick day trips? Nuffnang & Uniquely Singapore are offering tickets to the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards ceremony, and an "exclusive Uniquely Singapore experience", which sounds intriguing…

Glossographia
Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908-2009

schrisomalis

3 Nov 2009 | 11:28 am

Word today that the renowned anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss has died this past weekend at the age of 100 (NYT obituary here). I posted last year in honour of his centenary. Read often but rarely well, his influence on the discipline is enormous and it is nearly impossible to conceptualize social anthropology without his work. Posted in Anthropology
Pseudo-disciplines

schrisomalis

1 Nov 2009 | 9:40 am

There is a fascinating short essay ‘Ancient History and Pseudoscholarship‘ over at Livius.org. I don’t share the author’s belief that most laypeople are able to distinguish pseudoscholarship from professional work, nor that there is an absolute decline in pseudoscience over the past few decades. I do absolutely agree that the prevalence of faulty reasoning and uncritical use of evidence by scholars in the historical and social sciences is far more problematic than the more outlandish pseudoscientific beliefs such as the ancient astronaut hypothesis. And it will come as…
News roundup

schrisomalis

31 Oct 2009 | 8:11 pm

Well there certainly has been a lot of action here since my post about the Embuggerance and Feisty fiasco. Alas, no word on any action on the part of the great Googly deity. Greetings to all newcomers arrived from Language Log, Language Hat, The Volokh Conspiracy, and parts a-Twitter. In lieu of thoughtful content, here are some things that have amused me over the past week: Various blogs have noted (with various ranges of dismay) a new pop-sci volume entitled Manthropology by Peter McAllister, which takes the well-known fact that there is a decline in both male and female skeletal…
Mandarin vs. Cantonese in America

schrisomalis

21 Oct 2009 | 7:17 pm

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times today about the increase in the use of Mandarin among Chinese-Americans, to the detriment of the formerly more common Cantonese. When we think of language loss in the US we rightly think of situations where English replaces the languages of more recent immigrants (or of Native Americans), but here we have an interesting case where two languages, each vital in China and sharing a common script, come to be in competition here due to the nature of social ties in American Chinatowns. It’s not just that more Chinese immigrants are…
A feisty embuggerance

schrisomalis

21 Oct 2009 | 6:31 pm

When I grade my students’ paper proposals, I make a point of doing a brief Google Scholar search for each student’s proposal, which a) helps me evaluate how thorough they have been; b) helps me help them find additional material (I then give them the sources I found, but also the keywords I used to find them). One of my students in my introductory linguistic anthropology course this term is doing a paper on linguistic aspects of laughter and humor. During my search, I encountered the following citation (direct from Google Scholar to you): Embuggerance, E., and H. Feisty. 2008. The…

Linguistic Anthropology
The Invention of Saying-things-that-don't-strictly-accord-with-empirical-fact

6 Nov 2009 | 9:56 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
Another political non-lie

14 Aug 2009 | 12:26 pm

I've been hearing an awful lot about health care reform in the US this summer - even from British outlets. It's all a bit disconcerting, especially the riotous town hall meetings and the arguments that seem unmoored from the facts.FactCheck.org has a nice piece debunking seven falsehoods related to this debate, two from proponents of reform and five from opponents.I'm interested, though, in a
Who speaks Shoshone, and when?

21 Jul 2009 | 10:49 am

A comment on last Sunday's Weekend Edition radio program inspired me to think about two questions. A participant in the Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program (SYLAP) commented:Someone will step in. You can even bring in a white man to [run a business]. But there isn't going to be a white man who can speak your language.I wrote about the first of my two questions on Sunday. (What
What is a "white man"?

19 Jul 2009 | 9:47 am

This morning Weekend Edition Sunday featured an interesting story on the Shoshone Youth Language Apprenticeship Program being held at the University of Utah campus this summer. Toward the end of piece one learner, a young Shoshone woman, described why she decided to forget about business school and instead study linguistics.Someone will step in. You can even bring in a white man to [run a
Classifying click consonants

17 Jul 2009 | 4:32 pm

I'm sorry that no new content has been added here in a month. It's not that I've stopped thinking about linguistic anthropology, it's just that I'm getting really close to completing a draft of my dissertation.In lieu of me saying anything interesting, please accept this link to a piece in Science Daily on attempts to use ultrasound to classify click consonants (presumably by making the place of

Media/Anthropology
Latin America media – a bibliography

John Postill

6 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am

A list of bibliographic references on Latin America media kindly provided by Thomas Grisaffi. Boas, T. (2005). ”Television and Neopopulism in Latin America: Media Effects in Brazil and Peru.” Latin American Research Review 20(2): 27-47. Bob, C. (2005). The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media and International Activism. Cambridge and NewYork, Cambridge University Press.
Media geopolitics

John Postill

6 Nov 2009 | 6:02 am

Still thinking aloud about what a geopolitical anthropology of media may look like, most recently in discussion with a colleague via email. To recap an earlier blog post on this subject, I’m starting to think about the relationship between geopolitics and media. One idea would be to look at how the major powers (EU, US, China, etc.) compete and cooperate, if at all, over emerging media technologies, infrastructures, etc, especially in the global South. I’m interested in the nexus between geography, power and media. For instance, I understand China’s recent economic forays…
The future of European social democracy

John Postill

5 Nov 2009 | 7:38 am

Pan-European debate on the future of social democracy Soundings and Social Europe, supported by Compass and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, are hosting an online debate on the future of social democracy in Europe, between now and December. Seventy leading thinkers, politicians and activists from across Europe will publish their views on Building the Good Society, a document written in June 2009 by Labour’s Jon Cruddas and Andrea Nahles of the SPD. Articles will be posted both here and on the Social Europe website, but to make a comment you will need to click on the link for Social Europe.
How to paraphrase

John Postill

3 Nov 2009 | 1:20 am

from Yale College site One of the decisions you need to make when engaging with a source is whether to quote the source’s language directly or to paraphrase it in your own words. [See Local Moves for advice about how to make this decision.] Restating a source’s idea in your own words may not seem too difficult, but offering a paraphrase that distinguishes your voice from the source’s voice and furthers your own argument is actually rather challenging. Below are three examples of an attempt to paraphrase the passage from Dennett’s Consciousness Explained. Read more…
International security and insecurity at the edge of an African landscape

John Postill

2 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm

Original Message Received: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:30:22 PM GMT From: cascanews@anthropologica.ca To: CASCA@YORKU.CA Subject: Distinguished Critical Thinkers in World Politics Seminar Series: Professor Siba Grovogui York University Thursday 05 November 2009 2:30-4:30pm YCISS and SDF: Distinguished Critical Thinkers in World Politics Seminar Series: Your Blues Ain’t My Blues: The Constitution of International Security and Insecurity at the Edge of an African Landscape Professor Siba Grovogui Thursday 05 November 2009 2:30-4:30pm YRT Conference Centre Room 519, 5th Floor York Research Tower…

Google Blog Search: Anthropology
Dienekes' Anthropology Blog: German and French newborns cry ...

dienekesp

6 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

Dienekes' Anthropology blog is dedicated to human population genetics, physical anthropology, archaeology, and history. Feel free to send e-mail to Dienekes Pontikos, or to visit my other two sites: Anthropological Research Page, ...
Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Carnival is Up : The Primate Diaries

Eric Michael Johnson none@example.com

6 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

Eric Michael Johnson has a Bachelors degree in Anthropology and a Masters in Evolutionary Anthropology. He pursued his PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke before joining the University of British Columbia to complete a doctorate in ...
3quarksdaily

Robin Varghese

6 Nov 2009 | 9:32 am

Perhaps the most notorious anthropologist associated with the U.S. military's HTS is Montgomery McFate, who writes primarily for military publications and whose pivotal article “Anthropology and Counterinsurgency” appeared in the April ...
Meet Kamala Visweswaran: Associate Professor of Anthropology and ...

mandytoomey

6 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am

Kamala, an associate professor of anthropology and Asian studies at the University of Texas, received an AAUW American Fellowship in 1989. With the support of the fellowship, Kamala was able to focus on completing her dissertation. ...
Current Anthropology – New Edition, First 50 Years Issue ...

Tim Jones

6 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

Current Anthropology, December 2009, Volume 50 number 6 is now out, which as will be apparent from the headline, marks no less than 50 years in the field, and there are a number of essays contained therein which reflect on the past, ...

UC Santa Cruz Anthropology Blog
Legendary "man-eating" lions of Tsavo likely ate about 35 people--not 135, say scientists

The notorious "man-eating lions of Tsavo" that terrorized a railroad camp in Kenya in 1898 likely consumed about 35 people--far fewer than popular estimates....
Archaeology course unlocks "silent history" of the slave trade in West Africa

Anthropologist J. Cameron Monroe led UCSC's first undergraduate archaeological expedition to Benin this past summer....
Popular Science taps UCSC anthropologist Nathaniel Dominy for "Brilliant 10" issue

Popular Science names Nathaniel J. Dominy one of this year's "Brilliant 10" young scientists and researchers....
UCSC anthropologist Adrienne Zihlman honored for pioneering research on human evolution

Adrienne Zihlman is honored for pioneering research on human evolution....
30 Grads in 30 Days: Sara Stickler

B.A., Anthropology...

American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Book review: The Link: Uncovering our Earliest Ancestors

Alfred L. Rosenberger

30 Oct 2009 | 9:36 am

No abstract.
Blood group O alleles in Native Americans: Implications in the peopling of the Americas

Benito Estrada-Mena, F. Javier Estrada, Raúl Ulloa-Arvizu, Miriam Guido, Rocío Méndez, Ramón Coral, Thelma Canto, Julio Granados, Rodrigo Rubí-Castellanos, Héctor Rangel-Villalobos, Alejandro García-Carrancá

27 Oct 2009 | 4:01 am

All major ABO blood alleles are found in most populations worldwide, whereas the majority of Native Americans are nearly exclusively in the O group. O allele molecular characterization could aid in elucidating the possible causes of group O predominance in Native American populations. In this work, we studied exon 6 and 7 sequence diversity in 180 O blood group individuals from four different Mesoamerican populations. Additionally, a comparative analysis of genetic diversity and population structure including South American populations was performed. Results revealed no significant…
Book review: Human Remains in Archaeology: A Handbook

Brenda J. Baker

27 Oct 2009 | 4:01 am

No abstract.
Isotopic evidence of dietary variations and weaning practices in the Gaya cemetery at Yeanri, Gimhae, South Korea

Kyungcheol Choy, Ok-Ryun Jeon, Benjamin T. Fuller, Micheal P. Richards

27 Oct 2009 | 4:01 am

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses were conducted to investigate dietary variation in human skeletons (n = 109) from the Gaya cemetery at Yeanri located near Gimhae City, South Korea. The cemetery contained three distinct grave types dating to 4th-7th century AD. The main purposes of this research were to reconstruct palaeodiet in the Gaya population and to explore correlations between stable isotope compositions and burial types, inferred age, and sex of these individuals. The isotopic data indicate that the people at Yeanri consumed a predominantly C3-based terrestrial diet…
Finger length ratios (2D:4D) in anthropoids implicate reduced prenatal androgens in social bonding

Emma Nelson, Susanne Shultz

27 Oct 2009 | 4:01 am

The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) has been proposed as a biomarker reflecting prenatal androgen effects (PAE), such that individuals with lower ratios have experienced higher PAE than those with higher ratios. 2D:4D has been correlated with a number of sex-linked traits in humans such as aggression, promiscuity, and competitiveness. In addition, polygynous societies reportedly have lower 2D:4D (higher PAE) than more monogamous populations. This evidence suggests that PAE may be implicated in the development of sexually selected behaviors in humans. To place 2D:4D research into a…

Neuroanthropology
Four Stone 79

dlende

6 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

Four Stone Hearth, the anthropology carnival bringing together all things four-field, is now up in its 79th edition over at Anthropology.net. Thanks, Tim, for putting this one together on short notice! Some really intriguing data and ideas about female choice and sexual strategies among chimps, which are rightly highlighted right at the top. Good stuff on Ardipithecus, Bluestonehenge, and plenty more. Enjoy Four Stone Hearth #79.
Second annual Neuroscience Boot Camp wants you!

gregdowney

5 Nov 2009 | 3:05 pm

Not your grandad's boot camp! Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 Neuroscience Boot Camp at the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, head on over to the Boot Camp website. Kezia Kamentz dropped me an email and shared that last year’s Boot Camp went really well: “great teachers, a small but very diverse group of students, and a varied set of teaching methods.” Kezia said that they would love to have some anthropologists on board, and I know that there’s a few of you out there. Kezia writes: Through a combination of lectures, break-out groups,…
Wednesday Round Up #88

dlende

5 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am

A busy week – but now you can peruse some economics, war, NY Times mind, anthro, and blogging mind. Top of the List Sandra Kiume, Social Neuroscience Channel N gives us a great video with John Cacioppo speaking on “Connected Minds: Loneliness, Social Brains and the Need for Community.” Sometimes Channel N didn’t load right for me, so you can also go straight to the RSA page with the Cacioppo video. Ed Yong, Holy Fellatio, Batman! Fruit Bats Use Oral Sex to Prolong Actual Sex What a title! Just wait until you see the video. David Dobbs, “YouTube! That’s Why I Became A…
The Uncultured Project

dlende

3 Nov 2009 | 4:19 am

The Uncultured Project is about fighting global poverty, about one man’s decision to try and make the world a better place. It’s a story told through a website and promoted on YouTube. Imagine leaving behind your friends, family, possessions, and a full scholarship to a good university – all to go halfway around the world to a third world country just to help the poor. This is exactly what I did. And I’m using YouTube to tell my story. The Uncultured Project basically works by bringing together Shawn’s work, small-time donors, and local communities. Shawn pushes…
Complete this quote: “One of the difficulties in understanding the brain is that…”

Paul Mason

31 Oct 2009 | 6:20 am

How would you complete the following quote: “One of the difficulties in understanding the brain is that…” This week’s quote is inspired by Richard L. Gregory, from his 1966 book, Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, which was translated into 12 different languages I believe. Last week’s quote was inspired by Francis Crick: “There is no scientific study more vital to man than…” Our first Complete this quote was inspired by Dr Seuss: “You have brains in your head, you have…” Thank you to everyone who has been writing in.