~ a group blog on a variety of topics related to anthropology, sociology, and ordinary people ~
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. …
I was back on the Chico State campus last week, and the new first year students are here, parents hovering nearby as they prepare to cast them out to wilds of Chico State. The newly minted frosh are of course relishing this—they realize that Chico Rocks, and that they have finally managed to land where they are meant to be, if only they can finally ditch their parents, and seek out what the college president insists are that elusive “Chico Experience.”…
I came across a review “Green Card Stories: A Visual Catalog of Immigrants Trials and Tribulations” of a new book photo book. The review is by a writer for The Atlantic, Maria Popova, and focused on the role that determination, sacrifice, and stamina play in navigating the complicated immigration in the United States. As the book (and reviewer) note, it takes grit and determination to satisfy immigration law, and many end up spending years, and hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on application fees, lawyer fees, and so forth. …
To PhD or not to PhD, that is that a question for you? Well, at Ethnography.com we have years of unsolicited advice to those of wondering if all the uncertainties of grad school are for you or not.
For example those of you have lousy grades for any number of reasons, and question not your own capacity, but that of your chosen profession to give your application a second look, check out “Can Bad Grades and Graduate School Go Together?…
There is a good editorial about that classic anthropological question “What is Culture?” in the New York Times today by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is salient because presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently made assertions about the nature of culture and its relationships to economic activity while he was in Israel recently. His statements, made in the heat of a political campaign, have meant that the Culture Question will at least briefly (and probably ephemerally) push itself again into the national consciousness. …
Another classic question in the age of the internet: How do indigenous peoples feel about anthropology graduate students doing fieldwork? Mark Dawson first reported his research about this subject in a classic post here at Ethnography.com on April 1, 2007.
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.
Who has recently seen Kennewick Man? Kenny was last seen in 2007, as described in an Ethnography.com classic by Cynthia van Gilder KENNEWICK MAN SIGHTED BUYING GROCERIES IN VIRGINIA. Has anyone else seen him more recently? Is he still in Virginia, or has he moved on?
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.
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. …
I am travelling in China, and here found yet another definition of the word “culture.” I thought that this definition might be worth posting on Ethnography.com where Googling Anthro 101 students seeking to write that obligatory “write and discuss the meaning of culture” essay might land! So here is a Chinese definition to add to those from your textbook.
In written Chinese, the word for “culture” is “Wen Hua” (文化) which is made up of two characters, i.e.…
During the last nine years, I squeezed guest teaching gigs in Tanzania, Germany, and China in-between my duties at Chico State. Each time I do this, I am impressed by the vibrancy of growing university systems abroad and the rapid expansion of higher education opportunities. Each country is pushing more of their students into post-secondary institutions. Indeed, there is a Europe-wide goal of having at least 40% of all 30-34 year olds graduating at the level of a US Bachelor’s degree by 2020 (The US and California have been stuck at 25-30% since about 1970).…
In summer 2011, I had the pleasure of co-teaching a Sociology/English class for American students in Thailand. One of the real pleasures was using novels to illustrate sociological principles. It was kind of like profession (sociology) meets hobby (reading novels). I hope that the students liked it—I certainly did, and this blog is about what was my favorite Thai novel of the summer, Behind the Painting. It proved to be ideal for discussing a wide range of subjects stretching across both sociology and literature, particularly the meaning of duty and love in structuring Thai and American society.…
Explaining why people do things, even when it doesn’t seem reasonable to an American undergraduate is what I do for a living. I’ve explained why people don’t agree with their political views, the persistence of “irrational habits,” why most people don’t want to move to America, why poverty persists in a world of abundance, and a whole bunch of things that the many undergraduates do not want to believe. And after I’m done they undergraduates still don’t generally understand how people could have such persistent beliefs and practices which to them are just not logical.…