~ a group blog on a variety of topics related to anthropology, sociology, and ordinary people ~
First, in an example of the internet’s power to concentrate amorphous outrage into a highly focused beam, the reviews for this book have become the schwerpunkt of anti-circumcision “Inactivists.” : here
Meanwhile, in Thailand, the French cosmetic company Sanofi Aventis has begun advertising a vulva-bleaching product (yes you read that correctly). You can see the television ad here
Finally, a wonderful portrait series featuring people in various provinces around China with their belongings .…
In case you’ve forgotten the sage advice of Cindy van Gilder, here is a reminder
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.
For more than a year now I have been conducting research on DIYBio . In a lucky break, the FBI convened a conference on DIYBio and Security this past summer, which I managed to attend. The conference lasted three days with sessions in the morning and afternoon. Some sessions were reserved for the FBI to discuss safety scenarios and other topics of special concern to them, and others for the invitees to discuss their lab. …
Two things today:
First, in a move of dubious methodological validity (though related to the move embraced by the Culturomics crowd and made profitable by the American comedian Jeff Foxworthy) , the Malaysian government would like you to be on the lookout for men wearing V-neck shirts.
Second, the blog Material World (you should read it!) just posted a great study about flirting on Facebook in Brazil.
Today in Slate, there is a wonderful (and brief) article on the presentation of French women in popular magazines around the turn of the 20th century. At this time, magazine editors were moving from the established image of the bicycle riding “New Woman” to formulating the contemporary femme moderne. A nice snapshot of a category under construction.
I found this on the AAA website last week:
“The AAA has been a democratic organization since its beginning. Although Franz Boas had initially fought to restrict membership to an exclusive group of 40 “professional anthropologists,” the AAA’s first president. W. J. McGee, argued for a more inclusive membership embracing all those who expressed an interest in the discipline. McGee’s vision still guides the Association today. Business affairs, likewise comprehensive with 24 Councillors selected from the membership, and Executive Committee of 9 in 1902, are now conducted by a 38-member Section Assembly representing each of the Association’s constituent Sections, and a 17-member Executive Board.…
The conference took interesting turns. Homage was paid to Goethe, Weber, Marx’ Theses on Feuerbach, and Bourdieu on the habitus of academic silos. Not the sort of thing that would have happened in our GE meetings at Chico State where the Engineers, Soil Scientists, and Business Profs would have shook their heads in bewilderment. Here in Geramny they did not. In CHico, I think that only the Sociologists and Anthropologists likely would be smiling at such references!…
I spent the day sitting in meetings at my new “home campus” in Lueneburg, Germany, listening to lectures about their new innovative General Education program. And Distance Education. I avoid meetings about such subjects when I am home campus at Chico State. How did such subjects follow me here?
I have lots of opinions about both General Education and Distance Education, but remain really quiet. Listening to German like all day is like sticking cotton in my ears, a task my brain copes with poorly. …
Some days the internet is full of cats and cheeseburgers and other days it is full of anthropological nuggets like this collection of American men holding hands. A good reminder to always ask: When is identity?
It has been difficult over the past few weeks to miss Sarah Kendzior’s article in Al Jazeera and the ensuing rounds of reaction and counterreaction in the anthropological blogosphere. In her article, and in other recent writing about adjuncting, there is more than a passing element of nostalgia for a vanishing class escalator. The argument in brief: Meritocracy has fallen victim in the academe to the larger economic trend of offering serial un- and under paid internships in lieu of the middle class security of tenure, thus ensuring that only those who can afford to work without compensation (read children of the elite) may enter the academic ranks.…
Kerim Friedman at Savageminds.org has written an interesting blog about what it means for a foreigner to speak Chinese. The blog is called “Seven Ways to Talk to a White Man.” Most Taiwanese assume foreigner cannot speak Chinese—so how does Kerim convince them that he indeed, is a potential Chinese conversation partner?
The blog itself is a good humorous introduction to the perceived relationships between language and race. A number of the coments which follow the blog add to the discussion. …
The Royal Anthropological Institute is holding their third international photography contest. The theme is The Body Canvas and the contest is open to anybody interested in anthropology, photography and science communication.
…The RAI’s Body Canvas photo competition aims to:
• promote public engagement with the RAI’s Education Outreach Programme
• provide a platform for people to share their work and become actively involved in anthropology
• develop an understanding for the personal, social and political reasons why people undergo permanent body modification
• explore the many ways in which communities around the world develop and express relationships with their bodies
• explore the industry of body modification, the artists, doctors and craftsmen who practise their trade
The submissions we are looking for:
Engaging photographs that explore biological, cross-cultural and social elements of body art and modification in relation to these categories:
1) Tattoos and Scarification
2) Piercings and Body Reshaping
Who can participate?