February 2013 – Ethnography.com

Mla Bri Genetics and Anthropology in Northern Thailand

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Tony Waters

Many anthropologists are concerned with the tendency of biologists to reduce social life in general, and culture in particular to the genes people carry. As a sociologist, I share that concern. I think that such reductionist approaches give a false sense of precision to the concept of culture which while very real, is often messy at the edges in very human ways.

I came up against this tendency to “reduce” everything to genetics recently in an article about the Mla Bri of Thailand, a small group (200-300 people) speaking a Khmuic language in northern Thailand. …

Hey Look, Social Scientists Can Sell Stuff Too

Posted on February 21, 2013November 4, 2014 by Tony Waters

Now in 2013, The Atlantic, no less, has discovered that marketing firms can take advantage of social science skills, including participant observation, too, and published a nice story about it here.

But perhaps they are a little late to the revelation. I suspect that they could have walked across the hall to where advertising is sold for their magazine, and made the very same discovery, as indeed, cigarette manufacturers did decades ago! …

More on Tooling

Posted on February 18, 2013November 4, 2014 by Michael Scroggins

A few months back I wrote a post about tooling up for research That post lives here. A few months on I have discovered a few more tools to share.

I should note here, that Kerim at Savage Minds has recently written about his use of Markdown. Further, Savage Minds has a wonderful collection of how-to posts on various matters related to tooling, broadly speaking. But, onto the new tools.…

Conferences as Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on February 16, 2013October 29, 2014 by Tony Waters

Adam Fish at SavageMinds.org has written about the problem conferences and conference fees. He asks whether they are really worth it for graduate students in particular—many grad students are told by their major professors that conferences are necessary for networking. I share Adam’s doubts, though. Hiring for tenure track academic jobs is done by hiring committees with the approval of deans and provosts who are not at the conference. Few if any decisions are made at the conference “job fairs.” …

Ethnography and Russian Israelis in Tel Aviv: Getting Reluctant People to Speak

Posted on February 9, 2013January 21, 2015 by Tony Waters

by Daiva Repeckaite

Guest blogger Daiva Repeckaite is a PhD candidate at the Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology, VU University Amsterdam. Her thesis research is
on networking practices and ideas about citizenship of Russian-speaking
Israelis, particularly those living in poorer areas in Tel Aviv. Daiva
has carried out her first fieldwork in Israel for eight months in
2009-2010, and is currently in Tel Aviv to do additional interviews and
participant observations.…

Here’s Why Jared Diamond is Irrelevant to Anthropology

Posted on February 6, 2013October 29, 2014 by Tony Waters

As I discussed in a previous post, the blogosphere is atwitter (pun intended) about Jared Diamond’s new book The World before Yesterday. It seems his press agent got him some good publicity on NPR and National Geographic, both outlets which Anthropology PhDs apparently pay attention to. And guess what: Anthropologists don’t like The World Before Yesterday; check out the comment streams at SavageMinds.Org, anthropologyreport.com, or any number of other anthropology blogs. …

Did Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) Seven Practices of Good Undergraduate Education Dumb Down American Education? A View from Germany

Posted on February 2, 2013February 4, 2013 by Tony Waters

I just finished my semester teaching as a Guest Professor at Leuphana University in Germany, and am beginning to figure out an answer to a question I get asked frequently: “What is the difference between American and German universities?” Actually, the German students who have been exchange students in the United States have helped me along. They say:

In American universities, there’s lots of assignments, busy work really, and the students are not expected to take responsibility for their own learning.

…