~ a group blog on a variety of topics related to anthropology, sociology, and ordinary people ~
I keep turning over in my head some of the issues that are troubling the AAA these days, in particular the Human Terrain Systems project, and the question of AAA’s (and the anthropologists within the organization’s) stance on it. (and there is more in the current Anthropology News)
I get, I really do, the suspicion with which Roberto Gonzales and others view the government, the military, and their projects (especially the war) in Iraq.…
Someone asked Mark whether getting “bad grades” means for becoming an anthropologist. Every graduate anthropology program is different, of course, and there are no blanket statements possible. But, good grades are always a fantastic idea if you are trying to get into graduate school, in anthropology or any other subject. After all, the professors evaluating your applications mostly had good grades. And since the graduate school admissions process is in large part considered to be about identifying who will be a professor in the future (even if your goal is to be a practitioner), the admissions committee is typically looking for someone who will end up being something like them.…
Jennifer Jones of California State University, Fresno is the first student to be awarded a travel grant to attend next years EPIC conference in Denmark. This year the grant was non-competitive and awarded by recommendation of a Fresno faculty member. It is hoped that this grant will be an annual event and be awarded on a competitive basis next year. She will also be contributing to the blog Ethnography.com, so look for a fresh new voice!…
Over at the Anthrodesign list they have been talking about anthro’s in the military quite a bit. If you have any interest in applied anthropology, this is a very active discussion forum http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/anthrodesign/.
It has me thinking, so here is an e-mail I sent the list today.
Cheers,
Mark
Most people that know me know that I want to see anthropologists working in the widest possible breadth of areas: non-profit, academics, industry, military.…
Anyone that has spent time reading my entries in this blog already knows that I am an advocate of anthropologists working in all levels of government, military and intelligence communities. The latest entry into the conversation is from this New York Times piece entitled “Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones”.
By all accounts in the press, which I readily acknowledge from personal experience can be a dubious source, the presence of anthropologists has been effective in actually reducing the violence in some areas.…
When understanding culture is your abiding interest and passion, everyday is a good day to be an anthropologist, however yesterday supplied us with some particularly exciting media happenings.
First of all, news broke that during his appearance at Columbia University, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had let it be known that there are no gay people in Iran. This is an exciting development for anthropologists wishing to study one of those ever elusive “purely heterosexual” societies.…
Monica Udvardy from the University of Kentucky is involved with the repatriation of stolen vigango statues from US museums, to their owners in Kenya. Vigango are funerary statues which are typically removed (with or without the permission of the owners) from hillsides in Kenya, into a thriving local art market, and on to North American museums. Her story involves field ethnography, teaching, activism, and the ethics of both anthropology and business.…
The post about the Human Terrain System showed up in this thread on the Small Wars Journal. So here is what is interesting to me. On their search box, look up anthropology or anthropologists (make sure you click the button to just search the journal and not the web) and you will see a lively discussion about the role of anthropologists in war and the abuses in the past. This is not anthropologists talking about it, but military and military interested folks talk about OUR contribution (or lack thereof) in that field.…
This is not a trick question, just my very unscientific survey of passive brand persistence:
Please put your answers in the comments
No Googling! Lets just see what comes up as a top of mind response
If you want to add the information, age and gender could be interesting.…
So, anyone else see this on Slate?
A quote:
“This trade is almost inevitable. In a poor country, such as Mali or Cambodia, foreigners are likely to be willing to pay more for artifacts than the locals would. The logic of the market would pull the choicest objects into foreign collections and foreign museums. Many see this as undesirable, and so most countries maintain some form of ban on trading antiquities.…
It started pretty simple. I was driving to Palo Alto to work with another agency on a project, and when got off hwy 84 on to El Camino Real things got… odd.
I don’t why she was nude. I don’t know why she seemed to be running errands on El Camino Real at 9:15am. I most certainly do not know why she was compelled to combine nude with running errands, but apparently that seemed to be the rule of the day.…
The U.S. Army is moving forward with a program called the Human Terrain System. This program attaches anthropologists to operational units in Iraq to both learn about and help the military navigate the complex cultural issues they are encountering.
One anthropologist that is a member of the HTS project is Marcus Griffin, on a year long leave from his job teaching anthropology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.…