If anyone has paid close attention, which we doubt, to the “masthead” at Ethnography.com, you will have noticed some changes. Our founder and Czar, Mark Dawson, has been kicked upstairs, and is now, “Czar Emeritus. “ So after stints in California, Iraq, Alaska, Afghanistan, and Florida Mark is now reigning from an undisclosed location where he is preparing for this December’s Mayan Apocalypse on behalf of AAA. In particular, he needs codices about Mayan Magic—you can seek him out at AAA in San Francisco this November—maybe your donation will reach him in time that he can prevent the end of the discipline. Sadly though, this great task will take him away from Ethnography.com, and thus his status as Emeritus.
Mysteriously, since I do not hold the magic codes to the masthead page, I have been promoted to the position of Czar at Ethnography.com, a position that did not seem to have much influence or authority when Mark reigned, and may have even less now. At the same time, two “Anthroguys” from Fresno State, Hank Delcore, and James Mullooly have appeared on the masthead, and I have been assured will be blogging regularly here. They have a great track record at their Anthrogeek blog (Jim), and the Anthroguys blog (both Hank and Jim), and we look forward to seeing what they throw up here!
But this does not seem to be enough to keep this blog going, and so we invite you, dear reader, to submit blogs of anywhere from 200-1000 words (or so) which might be appropriate. Email them to me at twaters@csuchico.edu. They should have something to do with ethnography, academia, social science, or the like. Laments about the difficulties on the Anthro job market are fine, but so are successes. Tales about anthropological travel, archaeological shenanigans, learning languages, and other relevant subjects are appropriate. We also like tales about the successes of anthropologists who do not have a Ph.D. degree, whether or not it makes you the big bucks. After all the glory is in the chase–
We are not competing with peer-reviewed journals, so your blog should not be too boring, indeed you might even be humorous! It is also nice if your writing is accessible to the “bright sophomore.” This means to avoid really long sentences, tendentious jargon, and opaque theoretical references. Typos should also be avoided (though somehow they always seem to slip into my writing). If you are faculty, it is o.k. to write about teaching, but please don’t grumble about students. If you are a student, it is o.k. to complain about faculty—they are big enough to fend for themselves.
In other words, your ethnographic imagination is the limit—blog away.
Tony Waters is czar and editor of Ethnography.com. He came to us from the Sociology department at California State University at Chico where he has been a professor since 1996. In 2016 though he suddenly found himself with a new gig at Payap University in northern Thailand where he is on the faculty of the Peace Studies Department. He has also been a guest professor in Germany, and Tanzania. In the past, his main interests have been international development and refugees in Thailand, Tanzania, and California. This reflects a former career in the Peace Corps (Thailand), and refugee camps (Thailand and Tanzania). His books include: Crime and Immigrant Youth (1999), Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan (2001), The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture: Life Beneath of the Marketplace (2007), When Killing is a Crime (2007), and Schooling, Bureaucracy, and Childhood: Bureaucratizing the Child (2012). His hobby is trying to learn strange languages–and the mistakes that that implies. Tony is a prolific academic, you can read more of his work at academia.edu.or purchase one (or more!) of his books from Amazon.com.