Last week, Mike responded to one of my postings about the difference between the quality of education at Chico and Berkeley with a two word response: “sour grapes.” Presumably, this is because he does not agree with me that Chico has higher quality undergraduate programs than Chico State. Maybe, it is because he went to Berkeley, I don’t know. Anyway, I would hope to have a good discussion on-line or by email about why he disagreed with me.…
Month: March 2008
Of illness and Myth
Sweet mother in heaven. I have been sick as a dog for days with a cold that has been going around laying people up for one and two weeks. You know the one, you think you are getting better one day and are feeling your brains turn to mush the next.
When you have been sick for a while and stuck in bed flipping through History Channel, Discovery, TLC and National Geography channel you really start to appreciate the cottage industry of “The da Vinci Code.”…
Would a President Obama Bring an Anthropological Perspective to the White House?
I was impressed with Barack Obama’s statement on race in America. It showed an awareness of empathy, race, and culture that I am more accustomed to hearing about in university seminars in say, anthropology, than political addresses in the middle of a campaign. I hope that Obama is correct in assuming that the American people are ready for such an approach.
Obama himself of course has had unusual exposure to anthropological thinking. …
Culture and Car Bombs
Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb by Mike Davis is about culture albeit in a very macabre fashion. It is about how the car bomb (actually a horse-drawn cart), “invented” by a Mario Buda who bombed Wall Street in September 1920 is became a tool of create urban terror. Buda’s wagon killed 38-40, and injured 200 passers-by. The response by the US government of course was quick and harsh–and Buda was never caught. …
I forgot to mention my thanks to the Network of Concerned Anthropologists.
Had it not been for the great controversy over the Human Terrain System spearheaded by the vocal minority at the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, I might have never known about this great opportunity. When I heard about the HTS program through an article mentioning the NCA, my first reaction was “How can I participate?” Using anthropology to reduce death and injury. Sounds like a good idea to me.
So my heartfelt thanks to the Network of Concerned Anthropologists for showing me this new and exciting career path in applied anthropology that I had been unaware of before.…
Changing Careers, Changing Locations
I recently moved on from a wonderful long career in design anthropology to my latest adventure. I joined the Army’s Human Terrain System program and for the next few months I’ll be living near the Ft. Leavenworth area. How much I’ll be writing about my HTS training and work is unknown at this point. Over the years I have tended not to write about any of my professional work directly, but who knows.…