The Anthropology blogosphere (including Ethnography.com, SavageMinds.org, anthropologyreport.com and even National Public Radio) has recently lit up with critiques of Jared Diamond’s new book The World Until Yesterday. Jared Diamonditis seems to be a regular affliction of anthropology, re-emerging every time that the esteemed Professor of Geography (and Physiology) publishes a new tome of big picture history. The manner that Diamond does this is something that anthros really don’t seem to like. …
Month: January 2013
This Week in Ethnography: Does Jared Diamond do Ethnography?
This week in Ethnography, I realized that “DIY anthropologist” Jared Diamond is now moving into the area of anthropology I hold most dear – ethnography. In earlier publications and movies, Diamond has dabbled in other areas of anthropology (e.g., archeology and physical) but his latest work cuts too close for my comfort. Barbara J. King posted a review of Diamond’s latest book entitled, “The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies?”…
Why The DIYBio Lab Is The New Darkroom
This is the second in a series of posts about my work on DIYBio. The initial post has some background and can be found here.
A popular (and sexy) comparison for DIYBio is with the Homebrew Computer Club. One often reads that DIYBio is at the same point in its development as the HCC was just prior to the IBM PC i.e. it is 1978 in the lab and a bright new industry is developing among hobbyists.…
Writing Against Identity Politics: An Essay on Gender, Race, and Bureaucratic Pain,” in the latest issue of American Ethnologist
Smadar Lavie’s essay, “Writing Against Identity Politics: An Essay on Gender, Race, and Bureaucratic Pain,” appears in the latest issue of American Ethnologist (Volume 39, Issue 4). The essay focuses on Israel’s single mothers on welfare who are Mizrahi—Jews with origins in the Muslim World. Here is its abstract: Equating bureaucratic entanglements with pain—or what, arguably, can be seen as torture—might seem strange. But for single Mizrahi welfare mothers in Israel, somatization of bureaucratic logic as physical pain precludes the agency of identity politics.…
This Week in Ethnography: Blog, “LivingEthnography”
This Week in Ethnography I found an interesting blog entitled,
LIVING ETHNOGRAPHY: Research and Conversations on Ethnography, Writing and Folklore
As personal blogs go, it’s more productive than most and the content is appealing. The About page is interesting in that it provides a few hints at the authors identity but no name:
I am a Folklorist, writer and ethnographer; I study immigration, communities and change. My current academic book project, Diversity Dependence: Suburban Identity and the Quest for a Multicultural Ideal examines three locations where immigrants and newcomers fundamentally influence political dynamics and identity.
THIS WEEK IN ETHNOGRAPHY: Teaching Anthropology ‘Way Off Campus
This week in Ethnography, Heather E. Young-Leslie, Ph.D. describes how best to teach ethnography in the post entitled Sand in My Syllabus; Teaching Anthropology ‘Way Off Campus.
The anthropologist professor is not replaceable, not redundant. But the style of teaching anthropology that we have had since WWII… well, that is replaceable.
I start with the above quotation from the conclusion to give you a taste of the power of this piece. …