February 2012 – Ethnography.com

When do IEDs quit being IEDs? Why are we still treating insurgent munitions as folk arts?

Posted on February 25, 2012 by mark

I started as a university student, I was studying folklore and material culture, and IED’s certainly qualify as material culture that has the potential to tell you something beyond basic forensics. In this entry I am looking at IEDs using the language of business, innovation and ___________ ? The idea is to see what insights can be gained from thinking about IEDs outside of the military language.

We still read about IED’s in the popular media as if they are a folk art or the equal of some kind of primitive booby-trap.…

Another year, another round of blogging…

Posted on February 13, 2012February 13, 2012 by mark

It is no surprise to anyone that has read this blog in the past that am an applied anthropologist, particularly work that I consider directly applied. By that I mean the use of anthropological theory and method as a tool to move the goals of an organization further. Applied anthropology that focuses on studying the culture of organizations or focuses on assessments I think of as indirectly applied anthropology. The primary difference being that with indirect applied work, the primary goal is to create what could be considered an academic product or publication.…