Oh So Anthropological

fotojournalismus: Kenya co. turns old sandals into colorful...

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:23:02 -0700

Kenya co. turns old sandals into colorful objects

This little company from Kenya makes toys from slippers that wash up on the beach.

Pictures by Ben Curtis

The company’s name is Ocean Sole: http://www.ocean-sole.com/

(via dynamicafrica, yannickbrouwer)

humanisticscience: But really, if you’ve ever opened up any...

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:59:02 -0700

humanisticscience:

But really, if you’ve ever opened up any sort of science textbook you’ve no doubt seen this walk of evolution image. The problem is, Man (that is, the depiction of modern homo sapiens) instantly becomes White European Man. Unfortunately, most pictures depicting this “evolutionary walk” instantly evolve homo sapiens into a white male with clear European features, which is problematic for an obvious number of reasons.

Syphilis, sex and fear: How the French disease conquered the world

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:02:45 -0700

Syphilis, sex and fear: How the French disease conquered the world:

dead-men-talking:

Researching the Borgias, Sarah Dunant learnt how syphilis took Europe by storm during the 1490s, and the far reaching effects it’s had ever since

A very interesting look at the cultural impacts of syphilis in history. If anyone was in any doubt why syphilis is one of the most fascinating diseases ever, this will convert you!

myampgoesto11: Mike Pelletier: Lucy Skull “In 2011 I was...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:21:25 -0700

myampgoesto11:

Mike Pelletier: Lucy Skull

“In 2011 I was invited to create a piece for an exhibition called “Ctrl-Z” curated by 3d artist

Eric Van Straaten. This was a group exhibition of artworks created by various 3d printing processes.

The model of the skull was generated from a friend’s dental tomography scan. The form of the object was created by creating an array of copies of the skull, where each successive copy of the skull is scaled, rotated, and moved. The skull starts at life size at the front and ends up rotated 180 degrees and two times larger than life at the back.”

"Calling race a “social construct” does not mean that the biological ancestry — and specifically West..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:20:49 -0700

“Calling race a “social construct” does not mean that the biological ancestry — and specifically West African ancestry — of African Americans is mythical. It also doesn’t mean that my ancestry has no actual implications. (See the map of sickle-cell density above.) And in the future, it may mean even more. Ancestry — where my great-great-great-great grandparents are from — is a fact. What you call people with that particular ancestry is not. It changes depending on where you are in the world, when you are there, and who has power.”

- Ta-Nehisi Coates (via theatlantic)

Children pretend to be nurses in the ruins of a bombed London,...

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:25 -0700

Children pretend to be nurses in the ruins of a bombed London, WWII

fotojournalismus: People reach out to receive free bags of...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:35:34 -0700

fotojournalismus:

People reach out to receive free bags of leftover vegetables handed out by striking street vendors in Athens, Greece on May 15, 2013.

[Credit : Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg]

romkids: To get ready for Early Life Weekend, I took a trip up...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:15:51 -0700

Trilobites stacked on top of each other like a game of pick up sticks.

The core of a petrified tree, polished by time.

Fossilized plants. Also just beautiful art.

A colony (?) of trilobites, dead from a single disaster.

Dave Rudkin, hand model.

Peytoia! One of the first beasts of the ocean.

Sea Scorpions caught in a time stream.

romkids:

To get ready for Early Life Weekend, I took a trip up to the Royal Ontario Museum’s palaeontology department and hung out with Dave Rudkin.

DAVE RUDKIN

Dave Rudkin is the Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the ROM and a truly great guy. Dave’s been busy preparing for the Gallery of Early Life, a permanent gallery opening in 2014, but he still found time to show me around the invertebrate palaeontology collections.

What I like most about Dave is that he always has time to support children’s programming, whether it’s to lend a few objects for a weekend, or just chat about palaeontology. His energy is infectious and he loves trilobites SO MUCH.

VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY

As all y’all know, I LOVE dinosaurs, and have spent a ton of time up in vertebrate palaeontology collection (of which you can see a few photos of here), but I’ve have had merely a glimpse of the workings of the invertebrate side.

This photo set features all sorts of animals from BEFORE the dinosaurs, the time when life first evolved on Earth. The ROM is a world leader in research on first life, specifically from the Burgess Shale site, so we have an absolutely PACKED collections room full of prehistoric treasures.

Click the photos for more info.

Learn more about ROM research on the Burgess Shale HERE.

Check out more behind the scenes photos HERE.

Learn more about Early Life weekend HERE.

biyuti: oneheadtoanother: Last member of 65,000-year-old tribe...

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:32:59 -0700

biyuti:

oneheadtoanother:

Last member of 65,000-year-old tribe dies, taking one of world’s earliest languages to the grave

There is something about her beautiful eyes and her face….

i’m filled with an indescribably mix of sorrow and rage

theoddmentemporium: The Burns Archive is a collection of over...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:18:05 -0700

theoddmentemporium:

The Burns Archive is a collection of over 700,000 vintage photographs noted for iconic, historical images, including medical photography, anatomical oddities, post-mortem photography and graphic detail of the darker side of life—death, disease, disaster, crime, racism, revolution, riots, and war. The Burns Archive also publishes the Sleeping Beauty series of books about memorial photography with post-mortem photographs.

The Burns Archive is made up of copy prints from the Burns Collection, the body of work of Dr. Stanley B. Burns, M.D., an ophthalmologist and its creator, curator, and proprietor. The collection is purportedly the nation’s largest of early medical photography and the most important private historic nineteenth century documentary photography collection in the world and is a unique source of historic visual documentation. This is a unique source generally available as stock photography.

The Burns Archive Official Website and Blog (more photos are available at the blog).

lipstick-feminists: cursethecosmos: stfuconservatives: sulitat...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:16:08 -0700

lipstick-feminists:

cursethecosmos:

stfuconservatives:

sulitati:

I know I made a post about this a while ago, but I’m going to make it again since we’re getting into the hottest time of the year.

If you’re out in the Sonoran Desert in AZ and you see any of these [bottles with insults], please pick them up and throw them away. Vigilante groups are leaving intentionally empty gallon jugs in popular crossing points and that is the last thing that somebody needs to see as they’re trying to cross.

If you can, carry clean and full jugs with you and leave them where you see these. Gatorade or Electrolit are also really good for re-hydration.

Contact Humane Borders if you meet anyone in need of medical attention.

Signal boosting.

The first insult on that jug is infuriating to me. Feeling the need to parenthesize that curse word like that. Like the spanish language is less than, and no, I’m not looking too much into it. The person(s) who did this knew damn well what they were trying to convey.

As a latino, as an American, this is painful. It’s disgusting. It’s disheartening. It’s heartbreaking. It does not matter which Spanish speaking nation you’re from, or if you’re American born or an immigrant, the latino community must band together to push back the cruelty and racism our “great” nation throws at us. Our Mexican brothers and sisters deserve better than this.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

That poem on the Statue Of Liberty, I guess it never meant anything at all.

Perfect commentary

Excerpts from Savage Minds Interview: Sarah Kendzior

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:45:09 -0700

Read the full interview -> here

RA: Earlier you mentioned an adviser who sees anthropology as something that should not be removed from public life–as something that can benefit the public. Do you share a similar vision of the discipline? What’s your take on the role of anthropology in public life?

SK: Anthropology benefits the public. Unfortunately, it is blocked from the public, and anthropologists who engage with the public – people like David Graeber – tend to be shunned by other anthropologists, to the point where they lose their jobs. This makes younger anthropologists afraid of public engagement, even though they have valuable insights to share.

Anthropologists complain about politics and the media, but they rarely engage with either. Then they wonder why their voices are not being heard. The most obvious way anthropologists can increase their influence is by writing online. I don’t mean writing in places like Anthropology News — where you have to pay an exorbitant membership fee to leave a comment – but on real blogs, on Twitter, on mainstream media sites, and in open access journals. Publishing reprints of paywalled articles is also a good idea, and is usually legal after a period of time. I did an interview about the benefits of reprinting journal articles online with Academia.edu, which you can read here.

Anthropologists tend to forget that tenets basic to our discipline – for example, that race is a social construct and not a biological determinant of behavior – come as revelations to a lot of people. Issues of racial and religious discrimination are among the many areas where anthropologists can have a powerful voice.

I recently wrote an article for Al Jazeera, “The Wrong Kind of Caucasian”, that had a complicated premise but a simple conclusion: do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnic background or country of origin. It was read by half a million people and shared on Facebook 57,000 times. I got letters from people saying I had changed their preconceptions and that they were going to keep an open mind about race, ethnicity and immigration. It felt good to make a difference at a politically heated time.

Academics justify the paywall system by saying the public is not interested in academic research. I argue that the public has had no opportunity to decide for themselves, since access to research has always been blocked. But I have faith in the ability of non-academics to understand and appreciate academic work. Given our current political and economic situation, anthropology may be of particular interest. More than any other discipline, it tackles issues of power and corruption, paying attention not only to the powerful, but to the struggling and marginalized.

Except, of course, when it comes to the struggling and marginalized anthropologists. Rarely have I seen a group more oblivious to their own hypocrisy than the “enlightened” anthropologists ignoring the adjunct crisis. You would think such incredible structural inequality would be interesting, at least, to the anthropological mind. I know it is interesting to me.

RA: Above, you highlighted the fact that many anthropologists complain about their voices not being heard, yet ironically they often don’t engage much with politics or the media. To me, this persistent disengagement paves the way for attacks on social science by the likes of Tom Coburn and Florida Governor Rick Scott. We’ve essentially dug our own grave when it comes to public engagement–it’s easy to discount a highly insular, often silent discipline that few people have ever heard anything about. So, in order to wrap up this interview I am going to ask you two simple questions that I hear all the time from non-anthropologists: 1) Anthropology? What the hell is anthropology?; and 2) What are you going to do with that?

SK: You are right that academics’ lack of public engagement opens the door to political attacks. I wrote an article about this for Al Jazeera called Academic funding and the public interest.

I’m not going to answer “What is anthropology?” No one cares about our ontological debates. But here is how I would explain cultural anthropology to a layperson:

All of the social sciences – history, political science, economics, etc – study how people behave, form groups, and build a society. Each social science has its own way of figuring this out. Anthropologists believe the best way to find out what someone is thinking is to ask them. We respect that people in another community understand their own way of life better than outsiders do. We observe a community for a long period of time so that we don’t come away with hasty generalizations. We are careful when we write about others to put their words and their views before our own.

When you study anthropology, you learn about people and places that you might not otherwise. Anthropologists write about everyone – powerful and powerless, rich and poor, all races and nationalities. They explore how political decisions affect ordinary people, and how ordinary people influence politics. They look at how public perception is shaped, how social trends emerge, and how movements are formed. They ask what people expect from life, and what happens when they don’t get it.

Anthropology has a reputation for being exotic. But the point of anthropology is that exoticism fades when you get to know someone. Bigotry and prejudice fade too, which is why anthropologists used to be influential in reshaping ideas about race and ethnicity.

Anthropologists are interested in why people believe lies. For example, a large percent of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya. For an anthropologist, it would not be enough to note that this is factually incorrect. They want to know why so many people believe it is true.

Anthropologists understand that the world often doesn’t run on facts, but on dreams and delusions, hopes and fears, imagination and ambition. They don’t dismiss anything as unimportant.

***

Now onto your second question — what are you going to do with that? First of all, higher education and the economy are both such disasters that you cannot assume any major or degree will guarantee you a good, secure life. STEM, liberal arts, law – no profession is safe. Industries are disappearing or being restructured out of existence. Practical training you get in college will likely be useless ten years from now. There are no safe bets.

So what is the point of an education? The point is to think critically, become an informed citizen, gain some specialized knowledge, gain broader insight into the world, and communicate well. Some people will say they don’t need to go to college to do this. I actually agree with that. But since college is a prerequisite for most jobs, you might as well get a solid education.

The best education is a broad education with an emphasis on primary sources, debate, and writing skills. I recommend that people study anthropology, but they should also study history, literature, religion, art, science, economics, sociology, political science, and other subjects. The constant assertion of disciplinary superiority is self-defeating. If the social sciences want to win the battle against people who want to defund us, we need to band together. We also would benefit intellectually if we read work outside our discipline and showed tolerance for alternate approaches.

I study Central Asia, a region of the world that is so understudied that there is a very small body of anthropological literature. As a result, most anthropologists draw not only from anthropological studies, but from the work of sociologists, historians, geographers and others. We also tend to read and cite non-academic work, since data on Central Asia is so limited. We have a supportive research community and no one’s knowledge is dismissed out of hand because of their background.

I also study the internet, and so I read broadly in communication, sociology, humanities and other fields. Yet when I write an article for an anthropology journal, I am expected to cite only other anthropologists. When I co-wrote a mixed-methods article with a quantitative communications scholar, and we got it published in the top communications journal, I was told by some anthropologists to leave it off my CV, because it showed I was interested in something other than anthropology. This is ridiculous. There is no need for this insecurity masked as insularity.

Anthropology is struggling as a discipline because anthropologists bank on a lofty reputation that they don’t really have while simultaneously shielding their work from the public. The public is not going to believe you have something worthy to say when you refuse to let them in on the conversation. Don’t be so afraid, anthropologists. You of all people should know the world is not what it seems.

Hey guys

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:11:10 -0700

dead-men-talking:

drkrislynn:

So I just wanted to say that yesterday some anon have me crap for being gay. Its okay though because i have some amazing followers who showed me so much love and support. So to hell with that anon. Also, if you are gay, bisexual, it transgender, you are perfect just the way out are! Don’t let crazy anons tell you otherwise!

Anyway, on with the anthropology!

I was disgusted to see the hate you were getting from cowardly anons. Keep your chin up, you are awesome girl!

I am an LGBT ally. If you have a problem with that, I have a problem with you.

Anthropology’s mission is to explore all the fascinating and joyful diversity of the human experience. I recommend finding a new career if you are not universally open-minded.

Kthxbai.

If you follow me you should know that this kind of intolerant, hateful behavior is unacceptable and it is NOT what anthropology is about at all. If you condone the anons words then I urge you to remove yourself from our discipline.

thebigblackwolfe: lickypickystickyme: If grandmothers around...

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:28:12 -0700

thebigblackwolfe:

lickypickystickyme:

If grandmothers around the world had a rallying cry, it would probably sound something like “You need to eat!”

Photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s grandmother said something similar to him before one of his many globetrotting work trips. To ensure he had at least one good meal, she prepared for him a dish of ravioli before he departed on one of his adventures.

“In that occasion I said to my grandma ‘You know, Grandma, there are many other grandmas around the world and most of them are really good cooks,” Galimberti wrote via email. “I’m going to meet them and ask them to cook for me so I can show you that you don’t have to be worried for me and the food that I will eat!’ This is the way my project was born!”

The project, “Delicatessen With Love”, took Galimberti to 58 countries where he photographed grandmothers with both the ingredients and finished signature dishes.

He acted as photographer and stylist during each shoot with the grandmothers, taking a portrait of both the women and the food they made for him.

From top to bottom:

Inara Runtule, 68, Kekava, Latvia. Silke (herring with potatoes and cottage cheese).

Grace Estibero, 82, Mumbai, India. Chicken vindaloo.

Susann Soresen, 81, Homer, Alaska. Moose steak.

Serette Charles, 63, Saint-Jean du Sud, Haiti. Lambi in creole sauce.

The photographer’s grandmother Marisa Batini, 80, Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. Swiss chard and ricotta Ravioli with meat sauce.

Normita Sambu Arap, 65, Oltepessi (Masaai Mara), Kenya. Mboga and orgali (white corn polenta with vegetables and goat).

Julia Enaigua, 71, La Paz, Bolivia. Queso Humacha (vegetables and fresh cheese soup).

Fifi Makhmer, 62, Cairo, Egypt. Kuoshry (pasta, rice and legumes pie).

Isolina Perez De Vargas, 83, Mendoza, Argentina. Asado criollo (mixed meats barbecue).

Bisrat Melake, 60, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Enjera with curry and vegetables.

!!!

MY WEAKNESS

GRANDMOTHERS WITH FOOD

qanafir: Islamic Calligraphy retelling the story of Ali’s (...

Tue, 07 May 2013 03:03:29 -0700

qanafir:

Islamic Calligraphy retelling the story of Ali’s ( r.a.) death~ 15th Century Ottomans

lasiguanaba: Maya Women reversing that White Settler-Colonial...

Sat, 04 May 2013 19:29:51 -0700

lasiguanaba:

Maya Women reversing that White Settler-Colonial Gaze.

exotic white ppl we see u

provocativegymnastic: This Kind Of Poverty - Spencer...

Sat, 04 May 2013 17:29:30 -0700

provocativegymnastic:

This Kind Of Poverty - Spencer Murphy

Award winning Photographer, Spencer Murphy worked with children in the most deprived area of East London. He asked them to write down their thoughts about poverty and what they felt. These were the results.

aggregateconscience: truthrequiresnoapology: youngblackandvegan...

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:17:20 -0700

aggregateconscience:

truthrequiresnoapology:

youngblackandvegan:

peaceofmind-03:

cuntofdoom:

Because this always bears reblogging. Illustrates how cartography—specifically the ways in which cartographers shrink and expand land masses in order to depict a “flat” earth— distorts our perception of the world.

Whoa

i need people to know that the fact that Africa is often portrayed so extremely out of scale is not just because the map is a flat version of the round earth

Bruh.

Again. Call the majority population of POC minorities and pretend Africa is a small, static country. -_- The amount of diversity on that continent is staggering. Oh and all the countries north of the Sahara are also African nations.

Thanks,

Black Studies majors errwhere

Photo

Thu, 02 May 2013 04:23:35 -0700

Your blog is like a dream come true

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:44:33 -0700

Awww, thanks! You’re the sweetest :]