Author: Matt Thompson

Dear dendrites: Quarantine ethnography

Dear dendrites: Quarantine ethnography

Here at Anthro{dendum}, we receive a light stream of correspondence by way of our contact form. Usually they are pitches for guest posts or questions following up on one of our older pieces. But recently we were humbled by a new development, when a student reader turned to us as a place for advice. Here is our attempt at an anthropology advice column, append your own advice in the comments section below. Would anyone care to pose a question to {+}

Illustrated Man #12 — Charles Addams and joking about “the primitive”

Illustrated Man #12 — Charles Addams and joking about “the primitive”

Ask any Boomer or some of the older Gen X-ers to hum the theme to The Addams Family and you will quickly be rewarded by “Da-nuh nuh-NUH,” followed by an iconic pair of snaps. “They’re creepy and they’re kooky/ Mysterious and spooky…” Or maybe I’m overselling this generation thing? After all, Daniel Mallory Ortberg did memorialize the kinky chemistry percolating through the early 90s incarnation of Gomez and Morticia Addams, portrayed by Raul Julia and Angelica Huston, in his cheeky {+}

Sequential art for your shopping cart

Sequential art for your shopping cart

In the past two years I’ve had the opportunity to read some really fantastic graphic novels, including a few that will be of interest to anthropologists. As we enter the gift giving season I thought I might share with you the cream of the crop. Who doesn’t love giving books? Its like they don’t even count against your gift budget! Go ahead get a couple for yourself, I won’t tell. If you’d like to know more about a title feel {+}

Turning the page

Turning the page

This summer I started a new job. My former position, in museums and special collections, was grant funded. We worked that contract until the money was gone. And though I like to think they wished they could keep me, budgets at non-profits are extraordinarily tight. I was back on the job market. Out of ten job apps sent to a wide variety of different institutions I got one interview at a public library, that blossomed into an offer and the {+}

Designs for the Pluriverse — [book review]

Designs for the Pluriverse — [book review]

In Designs for the Pluriverse : Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds, theorist and distinguished critic of development Arturo Escobar joins a chorus of works that seek to articulate the recent ontological turn with our shared global, ecological crisis. As I made my way through this challenging and well written work, I came to feel as if theoretical discourses on ontology, something I am curious about but which lies outside my area of expertise, sharpened into focus. Escobar {+}

Anthropology Bite Club

Anthropology Bite Club

  The first rule of Bite Club is that we’re going to talk about cookbooks. The second rule of Bite Club is I need some of ya’ll to help me out talking about cookbooks. … Do you read cookbooks and think they are, in fact, practical ethnography?? When you look at a recipe do you see history and memory? Evolution and ecology? Technology? Gift exchange? Social roles? Current events? Is there a favorite cookbook that would be of interest to {+}

Illustrated Man #11 – (H)afrocentric

Illustrated Man #11 – (H)afrocentric

Re-spawn. Its been on since dawn. Illustrated Man check your king with a pawn. Don’t know where but I send ’em Make my posts now on Anthrodendum Hey, ya’ll its been a minute but now I’m back with another installment of Illustrated Man, my semi-irregular series where I discuss comic books and illustration from an anthropologist’s point of view. I had ten posts at our old place Savage Minds, now here’s my first in our new home. We’re starting things {+}

Make Green OA your New Year’s resolution

Make Green OA your New Year’s resolution

Why should you care about Green Open Access? Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access or simply Green OA , is a way for authors to allow at least partial access to their toll-gated work. You might care about this for political or practical reasons, or a combination of the two. As an added kink, depending on your institution or funding agency, you might need to conform to some kind of mandate about participating in Green OA. Open access allows {+}