I cannot think of a better place to write out my farewell to this community. Writing for anthro{dendum}/Savage Minds has been one of the highlights of my writing career – mostly because it always felt like it was a place I could come, sit, visit, and wonder about the world together with everyone. I started writing for Savage Minds in 2014, and continued with some regularity for quite a bit – until I was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, and then right on its heels, the world shut down as the pandemic took over in 2020. It was not just my world that was unwell, the whole world has not been well, and it has been difficult to wonder about the world together when so much was going wrong. So much more than usual. As I type this, I know that Gaza continues to be bombed: a genocide happening right in front of our eyes.

I sit to have tea with some elders from the village just southwest of MohenjoDaro, we can see some of their homes from the Stupa mound. They tell me about the news, about how many children are dying in Gaza, and they say they have never seen the world so sick and so consumed with money and power to allow children to die at such a scale. I agree with them. They don’t stop talking about it, and I don’t really want them to because it is important to witness the enormity of the atrocities happening in Gaza. The oldest gentleman sitting next to me turns to me and says, when we are asked if we knew, we must say, yes, we all knew. His tears make my throat constrict, and I am unsure of how to respond, except with tears and a nod.

And so we witness, hold, recount, cry, and promise to remember.

Over the past few years, our collective had been talking about whether or not to let go of this space: what feels to me like a comfortable, privileged space of articulation. This blog has created multiple communities, and many of us have been able to engage across our subdisciplines through this mode of writing, certainly in more ways than any academic journal might engender. I had been holding on to this space because I always knew there was a place for me to speak comfortably, where I had a community of writers and readers who understood an anthropological framing. However, a month ago, when the question of sunsetting the blog came up again, I felt like it was important to think more about why it might be the time to do just that. I think about our community of writers, and I think of what the world needs now … and I suspect it isn’t about writing in comfortable anthropological spaces, but rather, it is time for us to move into spaces that make us deeply uncomfortable, where it is difficult, but where it is very necessary for our voices to be heard, for justice to be centered, and where we might elicit change through our words. I’m not sure where that space is, or how I am going to transition into such difficult spaces; wherever it is though, I hope to see some of you there.

Uzma Z. Rizvi

Uzma Z. Rizvi is an associate professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY, and a Visiting Scholar at Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Pakistan. Her current work focuses on Ancient Pakistan and UAE, during the third millennium BCE. She utilizes poetics as a mode through which to push the limits of archaeological theory. Additionally, her research focuses on ancient subjectivity, intimate architecture; memory, war, and trauma in relationship to the urban fabric, critical heritage studies at the intersections of contemporary art and history, and finally, epistemological critiques of the discipline in the service of decolonization.
Previous posts can be accessed via https://savageminds.org/author/uzma/

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It’s fitting that I’m writing my last post for this site in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, where I’d did all my doctoral fieldwork. That was back between 2009-2012.

I joined the previous incarnation of this site, Savage Minds, after a guest blogging stint in 2011. That was right when I was finishing up grad coursework and getting ready for fieldwork. So fieldwork and blogging were all enmeshed with one another. It was a stressful but productive time, and I found it both freeing and comforting to be connected to a wider community of anthropologists as I worked my way through it all.

I’m writing this post on my cell phone and an iPad here in Pulmo. Back when I first started my fieldwork here, there was no cell service and just a few folks were getting (somewhat) reliable internet service. I used to have to drive out of town to this hill to get cell reception to make calls, check in, try to see if/when my grant funding would be coming through, etc.

Despite the slow and sometimes spotty internet, I kept up with blogging at Savage Minds.  I was also editing and organizing posts for the anthropologies project, which I’d help start with friends and colleagues in early 2011. We all find our ways to take breaks from everything that comes with fieldwork—for me blogging was one of those things.

As some of us remember, the online anthro community was pretty diverse and vibrant in those days. It had its problems, but could be, at its best, a good network for support and sharing. What I found the most valuable, especially as a grad student, was that I could be in touch with other anthropologists all around the world—and actually communicate with them. Blogging and the internet helped cut through some of the divisions and barriers in academia. I mean, you could actually talk to people across those barriers. It was amazing.

I remember one post I wrote at Savage Minds about the trials and tribulations of grant writing. I got some great responses and advice from professors and others who had already been through the process. Pretty cool.

Granted, much of that old anthro community we once had is gone. Anthrodendum closing down is one more link that’s going to be lost. There’s been a lot of change with the rise of new forms of social media and the habits and patterns that come with them. Thinking through all this change and loss can be disheartening.

But I had this thought as I was driving into Cabo Pulmo a couple of days ago…and I think it applies here. Bear with me here for a minute. So, I wrote a paper about the roads to and from Cabo Pulmo. Long story short, the argument is about looking into the histories, politics, and varied consequences of infrastructure—in this case roads and especially ‘bad’ roads. In Cabo Pulmo, the roads aren’t paved. The closest paved road ends about 10 km north of town. Or you can take the long, dusty, unpaved East Cape road that heads south out of town until you reach the edge of Los Cabos about two hours later.

The dirt roads have pros and cons. They work to keep some things the same here in Cabo Pulmo, since the vast majority of tourists are deterred by the mere sight of dirt roads. For some community members, those bad roads help keep a certain sense of community, peace, and quality of life. At the same time, they beat the living hell out of everyone’s vehicles and make life hard in many other ways. At some times of the year, the roads can be downright dangerous.

Cabo Pulmo has grown a lot in recent years. More tourists are coming here again (especially since we’re on this side of the pandemic). Local dive operations are growing. There’s internet and cell service. There’s lot of change all around. New people coming here, long-time residents are gone, many of the rentals are now on sites like AirBnB, etc. Internet and cell service help make a lot of these changes possible; they bring in new possibilities for communication, business, making connections. Still, as powerful as they are, they still come and go and they can be fickle. With one big storm—boom—these things can be out of commission.

But the roads heading into town are still there. That’s what really struck me when I was driving. For all the talk about change, it’s kind of amazing that the roads coming in and out of town have stayed largely the same for the past couple of decades or so. Of course there are changes, new things along the journey, but the overall shape of the road here to Pulmo remains remarkably similar to how it was years ago.

Just like any infrastructure, these roads can be cut off and disrupted, of course. But the roads are sort of the basic level of infrastructure that keeps life going here in Cabo Pulmo. If they get blown out by a big rain storm, people find ways to make things work in the mean time, and then get them back up and running as soon as possible. Roads can also be neglected, forgotten. Sometimes you have to check back on them, make some repairs, remember the possibilities that come with them. And sometimes you just need to make some new ones.

I think those roads—that basic form of infrastructure—are akin to the old internet and the various communities it has sustained over time. It’s all still out there. Many of those ‘roads,’ even if we haven’t used them for a while, are in fact still working. Sure, that old internet infrastructure, like old roads, has bumps and rocks and may be out of commission here and there. There are dead-ends and dead zones to be sure. But there’s still a lot of life and possibility.

Anthrodendum has hit the end of its road. Now it’s time to check on the old ‘roads’ we have and make some repairs. We could also use some new ones. The more we have, the better (as we’ve seen with the mass migration to Twitter, consolidation is not our friend). I have ideas, but I’d like to hear what others out there are thinking. Let’s keep in touch. You can find me here in the meantime. Onward.

Ryan

Ryan Anderson is a cultural and environmental anthropologist.

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Wow. It has been several months since I last posted something here in AD. It’s kinda weird trying to survive a pandemic amid a coup d’état attempt here in Brazil. For that and for my lack of productivity, I apologize. But I have to say that I feel no guilt for trying to find a new way to cope with academic life since the 2020 pandemic. For me, that represented less stress around writing stuff I did not want to write, and less stress on making myself participate in events/obligations I thought were not a priority at that moment.

As the year of 2023 closes, I find myself trying to balance things out and see that a lot happened in my personal and professional life. For starters, a marriage of 10 years that goes to waste. It’s too soon to think this properly, but it’s a huge change. From this on, this year I also quit a job teaching at a small College, got fired from a High School and continue in my main occupation as an Adjunct Professor in History at Unisinos. Otherwise, I did finish this year my PhD thesis. I’ts been twelve years since my first professional contact with Social Anthropology and a lot of it was permeated through the extinct Savage Minds, and the now soon finished Anthrodendum.

As an academic that inhabits the intersection between Anthropology and History, I find myself pending each time more for the latter. But, above all, I find myself more and more preoccupied  with the environment changes that I see in my native Rio Grande do Sul. It’s weird to be a historian that is mostly concerned with the future, right? At the same time, it’s Anthropology’s fault that I engaged with the field of Environmental Humanities.

The impression that I have is that I had given a lot of time and effort in all of these, and I feel a hollow inside. The space of all that was took from me. In a way, I have given all my energy freely, but in another way, now, I feel it was taken. Failed or finished projects can do this to us: left us with this feeling of nothingness.

What is funny is that I’m quite contempt with everything. For starter’s, I was hurting myself for too long to stay “married”. It opened a new perspective for me on what I think are my main concerns in life and how much I have deviated from them. On the other hand, I was captive of a structure of work that was hurting my body a lot (I have chronic back pain). New affections are coming and new job opportunities too. Next year I’ll be back to Instituto Humanitas Unisinos with new challenges ahead.

My hope, in the end, endures, and so do I. All that is on my head is that, this year, I was assassinated. But, next year, I will be not.

In way of a goodbye to this blog and it’s readers, I would like to let you a poem by the Brazilian poet Mario Quintana (1906-1994) badly translated by me:

The first time they murdered me,
I lost a way of smiling that I had.
Then, every time they killed me,
They were taking anything of mine.
Da vez primeira em que me assassinaram,
Perdi um jeito de sorrir que eu tinha.
Depois, a cada vez que me mataram,
Foram levando qualquer coisa minha.

Today, from my corpses I am
The most naked, the one with nothing left.
A stub of a yellowish candle burns,
As the only asset that remained to me.
Hoje, dos meu cadáveres eu sou
O mais desnudo, o que não tem mais nada.
Arde um toco de Vela amarelada,
Como único bem que me ficou.

Come! Crows, jackals, highwaymen!
For from this greedily hooked hand
They will not take away the sacred light!
Vinde! Corvos, chacais, ladrões de estrada!
Pois dessa mão avaramente adunca
Não haverão de arracar a luz sagrada!

Birds of the night! Wings of horror! Fly!
May the light tremble and sad as a woe,
A dead man’s light never goes out!
Aves da noite! Asas do horror! Voejai!
Que a luz trêmula e triste como um ai,
A luz de um morto não se apaga nunca!
(Poem of Mario Quintana, in the book Rua dos Cataventos, 1940).

From the darker corners of my heart, I wish you Good Night and Good Luck. Love XO Caio

Caio Flores-Coelho

Caio Flores-Coelho is an anthropologist and historian interested in visual anthropology and history of the landscape. He is an Adjunct Professor of History at Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and currently lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil. You can find him on twitter @caogris.

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As promised, here’s a list of the anthropology and archaeology blogs that are still active from Jason Antrosio’s archive from 2017. I found one site that’s actually not active, so that brings us down to 76 blogs that are still running. But Lorena Gibson just posted a new piece on Anthropod, so that brings us right back up to our total of 77! Yay! In the first section of this post I’ll list all the sites from Jason’s list that are still active. Then at the bottom I’ll add some new sites, other sites, and places where people are writing/posting now. If you have or know about other sites/blogs that are not on here please post them in the comments below.

Before going forward, there are a couple things I noticed. The first, brought up by Lorenz in a recent comment on another post, is that many of us out there are definitely seeing and feeling the impacts of the loss of community that has come with the whole Twitter juggernaut and other issues such as the rise of paywalls (as Sarah Kendzior put it: Paywalls are a threat esp when disinformation is free). But again, a lot of folks are still out there writing. And this brings me to the second point: On his site, David Davies wrote something that really resonated and stood out to me: “Very few of the hundreds of hits on this site ever leave comments. Blogging is enjoyable, but feedback makes it even more interesting. I’d love to hear more from folks and perhaps even get a few conversations going.”

Blogging and writing are more fun when we get feedback and comments. This work also matters, in a broader sense, especially in our increasingly polarized and pay-walled world. We need spaces where we can share ideas (and not lose everything when some CEO decides to trash certain platforms), and we also need platforms where we can share, distribute, and archive perspectives coming from anthropology. Especially with all the paywalls out there. Rather than all that scrolling on those platforms that monetize our every click and ultimately control the content we post, maybe now is a good time to get back to blogging, posting, linking, and sharing our ideas…like things used to work in the earlier days of this internet thing. All the better if we shift back (or forward) to platforms that allow us to have greater control of the content we produce and the platforms we use.

Ok, here we go:

SITES FROM THE 2017 LIST THAT ARE STILL ACTIVE (77/188):

Aidnography. From the About page: “My name is Tobias Denskus and I am an Associate Professor in Development Studies in the School of Arts and Communication at Malmö University in Sweden. I am co-coordinating our MA in Communication for Development, an online blended learning program that for more than 20 years has brought together hundreds of students from all over the world in our Glocal Classroom.”

All Tomorrow’s Cultures. A site run by Samuel G. Collins: “I’m a professor of anthropology at a mid-sized, state university in Maryland, USA. You can see my homepage here.”

Allegra Lab. From the About page: “Allegra began in 2013 as a small group of renegade anthropologists creating a voice for themselves in the margins of the neoliberal academy. Today, it has become a  veritable movement emboldening a large number of anthropologists and other academics to enliven the “dead space” between standard academic publication and fast moving public debates. Allegra maintains that this space is where intellectual innovation happens at its best. No great thinkers ever emerged from the quarantined space of academic disciplines where the polished aesthetic of writing for one’s colleagues (and national frameworks to evaluate excellency) takes priority over the viscerality of the issue at hand. Instead, from Rigoberta Menchù to Marx, bell hooks to Arendt, Fanon to Foucault and many others, intellectuals targeted their thinking directly at the conflicts and injustices they saw around them.”

Alma Gottlieb. From the bio page: “I’m a cultural anthropologist, researcher, author, and teacher impassioned by understanding all things human. As a scholar, I aim to use my research to promote tolerance and reduce injustice by analyzing relations among systems of power, thought, and experience in my publications; as a teacher, I aim to use scholarly research to promote tolerance and reduce injustice by training students to be both skilled seekers and critical analysts of information. I specialize in migration/diaspora; religion/ritual; the family/child-rearing; gender/sexuality; and issues of representation/ethnographic writing. My major research has taken me to West Africa and the contemporary African diaspora in Europe and the U.S.”

Animal Archaeology. From the about page: “Hi, my name is Dr. Alex Fitzpatrick. I’m a zooarchaeologist and interdisciplinary researcher in heritage & museum studies. I received my BA in Classical Archaeology, Anthropology, and Special Honours from CUNY Hunter College in 2015. In 2016, I received my MSc in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bradford. My dissertation was titled Fishing, Diet, and Environment in the Iron Age of the Northern Isles. I remained at the University of Bradford until 2021, where I received my PhD in Archaeology. My dissertation was titled Ritual and Funerary Rites in Later Prehistoric Scotland: An Analysis of Faunal Assemblages from the Covesea Caves.”

Anthrodendum. You’re looking at it. But not for long. Insert sad face here.

Anthropod. From the about page: “Welcome! anthropod is a blog written by Lorena Gibson, an anthropologist and musician based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research interests include education, culture and development, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), social justice, gender relations, music, and hope. Lorena is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Cultural Anthropology Programme at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington.”

Anthropolitan. About page: “Welcome to Anthropolitan – UCL Anthropology’s student-run blog. We publish blog posts, articles, stories, poems, reviews and interviews relating to anthropology in all its diversity.”

Anthropology of Everyday Life. From the About page: “Meredith holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of California, Davis. She is trained as a primatologist and has spent much time in the field observing and documenting the behavior of our closest non-human relatives. Her research is cross-disciplinary and makes use of historical, anthropological, and biological methodologies to answer some of the biggest questions facing society today.”

Anthropology.net. From the About page: “Anthropology.net’s mission is to promote and facilitate discussion, review research, extend stewardship of resources, and disseminate knowledge. To serve the public interest, we seek the widest possible engagement with all segments of society, including professionals, students, and anyone who is interested in advancing knowledge and enhancing awareness of anthropology.”

Anthropo.scene. From the About page: “Jeremy Schmidt is Associate Professor of Geography at Durham University. In 2015, he received the SSHRC Impact Award for his work on water governance, ethics, and policy. He was previously a post-doctoral fellow in social anthropology at Dalhousie University and Harvard University. His PhD (Geography) was conferred by Western University, where he held a Trudeau Scholarship.”

Antropología Industrial. From the About page: “Este sitio trata de la utilización del análisis antropológico y etnográfico como técnica de conocimiento y gestión empresarial, asociada a una concepción estratégica, complementaria y simbiótica con el marketing.” [This site deals with the use of anthropological and ethnographic analysis as a knowledge and business management technique, associated with a strategic, complementary and symbiotic conception with marketing].

Antropologia: Una perspective multiple. Gabriela Vargas-Cetina’s site: “La antropología es una disciplina académica, a la mitad entre la ciencia y el arte, que se ocupa de todo lo relacionado con los grupos de personas, con nuestras formas de vivir y de ver el mundo, así como con nuestras formas de organizarnos, comunicarnos, concebirnos a nosotros mismos y concebir al universo y nuestro lugar en él.” [Anthropology is an academic discipline, halfway between science and art, that deals with everything related to groups of people, our ways of living and seeing the world, as well as our ways of organizing ourselves, communicating, conceive ourselves, and conceive the universe and our place in it].

El Antropólogo Perplejo. J.A. Mansilla’s site: “Interesado en las interrelaciones entre clases y movimientos sociales, en la construcción institucional y mediática de retóricas y discursos legitimadores de procesos de reforma urbana, en la influencia de las prácticas turísticas en el tejido social de las ciudades y en la recuperación de la cultura popular como forma de reivindicación de las formas culturales propias de las clases subalternas.” [Interested in the interrelationships between classes and social movements, in the institutional and media construction of rhetoric and discourses that legitimize urban reform processes, in the influence of tourist practices on the social fabric of cities and in the recovery of popular culture as form of vindication of the cultural forms of the subaltern classes].

Archaeology Review. About page: “Carl Feagans is a professional archaeologist that earned a master’s degree in anthropology with a focus on archaeology at the University of Texas at Arlington. Among his academic interests are the religious and cult beliefs of prehistoric peoples, particularly in the Near East around the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. His current interests historic archaeology, particularly related to clandestine distilleries (moonshine stills!). He currently works for the United States Forest Service and records 19th and 20th century home sites that have a rural, agrarian focus.”

ArchaeoThoughts. Andre Costopoulos from the University of Alberta. I don’t see an about page, so here’s an excerpt from the most recent post: “The two hour opener of Season 11 heavily features the discovery of coins, both Roman and Medieval, on Lot 5, near and around the circular depression. As always, we can ask ourselves how surprising and how significant these finds are, and what they might mean. Do the coins indicate treasure?.”

Arctic Anthropology. About page: “Several Arctic anthropologists, mostly based in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland, have decided that now is the right time to create a platform that allows us to communicate our ideas beyond some office table or informal chats. We have a shared enthusiasm for our discipline and an interest in the North as a space for living and doing research among its inhabitants. Our research and theoretical interests are diverse, but united by the conviction that we can contribute to general debates in our discipline ‘from the North’, i.e. by combining evidence from our fieldwork with theoretical interests. We hope that numerous comments and contributions on our topics here enrich all of our work, and in an ideal world maybe we can create new interest networks and contacts among colleagues to work jointly on promoting the study of Arctic residents in the discipline of social anthropology, and also in its relevance for improving the lives of those living in the North.”

Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa (ASSA). Association site with regular updates and posts. From the about page: “ASAA/NZ is a vibrant community of anthropologists who are from, work in, or are interested in issues related to Aotearoa/New Zealand and the wider Asia-Pacific region. The photos on this site, which have been taken by or of our members (see below), illustrate the diversity of regions in which we do fieldwork.”

Patrick Clarkin. About: “I am a biological anthropologist and associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. My research integrates the impact of social and evolutionary forces on growth, nutrition, and health. In particular, I have focused on the long-term impact of war,  refugee experiences, and poverty on growth and health of Southeast Asians (Hmong, Lao, Khmer).”

Brave New Words. About page: “Dr Piers Kelly is a linguistic anthropologist at The University of England, Armidale, affiliated with the Centre for Australian Studies at the University of Cologne.” Also from the about page: “Communication is a foundational process underpinning all human activity. I am interested in one intriguing aspect of this bigger story: how the scope ordinary language is creatively extended through strategic interventions. This is why my research is concerned with topics such as graphic codes, language engineering and crosscultural literacy, and why I find the holism of linguistic anthropology to be an especially useful tool of enquiry.”

CaMP Anthropology. About: “Welcome to the CaMP Anthropology blog! This blog will feature posts, discussions, and links at the intersections of communication, media, and performance. Based in Rice University’s Anthropology Department, we welcome submissions exploring recently published books and dissertations in these emerging fields.”

Citizen Sociolinguistics. About: “I am Betsy Rymes, Professor of Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, where I teach about language and society and how they relate to educational projects, including schools and classrooms. My hopes and dreams for this blog:  That it becomes a place for sharing everyday encounters with language and engaging in dialog about different ways of speaking and attitudes about them–that is, a place for Citizen Sociolinguistics.”

Colleen Morgan. Colleen’s site used to be called ‘Middle Savagery,’ now it’s under her name. About: “Dr. Colleen Morgan (ORCID 0000-0001-6907-5535) is the Senior Lecturer in Digital Archaeology and Heritage in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York. She is the Director of the Digital Archaeology and Heritage Lab, the MSc in Digital Archaeology and the MSc in Digital Heritage. She received her PhD from UC Berkeley, was Marie Curie Experienced Researcher for the EUROTAST project from 2013-2015 and a postdoctoral fellow for the Centre for Digital Heritage from 2015-2017. She has an established international reputation as a leading scholar in critical digital archaeology and heritage. Her research contributions fall in three main areas: 1) bringing digital archaeology into conversation with current theory drawn from feminist, queer, posthuman, and anarchist approaches 2) multisensorial interventions and digital embodiment, with a focus on avatars of past people created from bioarchaeological data 3) issues surrounding craft, enskillment and pedagogy in analog and digital methods in field archaeology, including photography, videography, and drawing.”

Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. Journal website that features regular posts with interviews. About: “Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry is an international, interdisciplinary forum publishing work at the intersections of medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities with a specific focus on human experiences of mind, mental distress, and mental health. Founded in 1977, the journal promotes more inclusive understandings of mental distress and illness, particularly by focusing on the role of culture and social context while also illuminating the lived experiences of clinicians, as well as users of mental health care and their families. For this journal, mental health “care” includes biomedical as well as alternative approaches, including (but not limited to): traditional healing, alternative medicine, mutual support, psychedelic treatment, and more.”

CultureBy.  Grant McCracken’s site. About: “Trained as an anthropologist (Ph.D. University of Chicago), Grant has studied American culture for 25 years. He has worked for many organizations including Timberland, New York Historical Society, IKEA, Google, Ford Foundation, Kanye West, Netflix, Sony, Coca Cola, Sam Adams, Boston Book Festival, Delta, Oprah, Reddit, PBS, State Farm, NBC, Diageo, IBM, Nike, and the Obama White House. He was the founder and Director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum, where he did the first museum exhibit on youth cultures. He has taught at the University of Cambridge, MIT, and the Harvard Business School.”

Decolonize All The Things (DATT). About: “Dr. Shay-Akil McLean, MA, MA, Ph.D. (Twitter & IG: @Hood_Biologist) is a Queer Trans man racialized as Black, on stolen Indigenous land, an educator, organizer, writer & public intellectual. Dr. Shay-Akil McLean is a Du Boisian & Darwinian Eco-Evolutionary Geneticist & Comparative Historical Sociologist, who develops leading expert commentary on biology, race/ism, health, science, technology & society. He is also the founder of the free political education website decolonizeallthethings.com & the free scientific ethics website decolonizeallthescience.com.”

Donna Lanclos. About: “I am an anthropologist and a folklorist and have been unapologetic about those two things for quite a while, now.  I found myself working in academic libraries starting in 2009, and since then have been thinking, writing, and talking a lot about the nature of information, digital and physical places, and higher education generally.  I see my work as relevant not just to libraries or universities, but to conversations about how we as a society make sure that people have opportunities to learn how to think critically, to practice those skills, and to find their voices.”

Engagement Blog. About: “Engagement is the official blog of the Anthropology and Environment Society (AES), a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). It features first-hand accounts by anthropologists and other social scientists who bring an anthropological approach to understanding the pressing environmental issues of our time. The blog takes an expansive view of “engagement,” advancing discourse on topics including theory, ethnographic writing, activism, and collaboration. Engaging diverse publics, it aims to bring the latest scholarly research to audiences that might not otherwise read or access scholarly literature, including undergraduates, applied professionals, advocates, policy-makers, or others. Engagement seeks to create a space where scholars can publish provocative, serious, and experimental work without being burdened by jargon, conventional form and genre, or the excessive citation requirements of scientific journals.”

EPIC. About: “EPIC People are researchers, creators, innovators, and leaders doing ethnography for impact in business and organizations. EPIC is a nonprofit membership organization, global community, and annual conference that supports the professional development, learning, and leadership of people who practice and promote ethnography.”

Ethnographer/Ecographer. About: “A Practicing Anthropologist. My consulting and project work is motivated by socialist feminism and the strong belief that anthropology provides equitable methods for real world problems, that scholars’ interests and skills should benefit our research partners, and that anthropology is a community-oriented service that can make a difference.”

Everyday Anthropology. Formerly ‘Pedal-Powered Anthropology.’ Run by Joe LyonWurm and Angela Achorn. About Joe: “Joe is the founder of Everyday Anthropology. With a background in four fields anthropology, their primary focus was in biological anthropology and they have done field work in Kenya as well as morphological studies of modern primates as a model to understand variation in the human fossil record. Since then, cultural and linguistic anthropology has taken more of the center stage. Joe has filmed numerous documentaries, most notably Pedal for Pongo, and most recently completed a book on 19th century cast iron cookware.” About Angela: “Angie graduated from Rhode Island College in 2016 with a BA in Anthropology and a minor in Environmental Studies. She earned her MA in Anthropology from Texas A&M University in 2018, and her PhD in 2022. For her dissertation, she examined the function of meat sharing within a population of savanna-dwelling chimpanzees in Senegal.”

The Familiar Strange (TFS). About: “We want to familiarise you with the strange, after estranging you with the familiar. This is an anthropology social engagement project. Anthropology need not be so weird and difficult to comprehend. We pursue uncommon knowledge about what it means to be humans enmeshed in culture. At present, anthropological thinking mainly occurs within ‘field sites’ and the ivory tower, and there are plenty of misconceptions about what anthropologists even do. We wish to engage anthropologists (and other social and interdisciplinary scientists) in edgier, relevant and more accessible forms of communication. Whether this is considered public, engaged, popular or activist anthropology, The Familiar Strange project just wants to open up your thinking.”

Cultural Anthropology Fieldsites and Theorizing the Contemporary. About: “The Society for Cultural Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association, constitutes a continuing effort to think expansively about the anthropological endeavor. Founded in the 1980s to highlight a concern for culture and to foster interdisciplinary connections, the Society is dedicated to interrogating and challenging the boundaries of the discipline. We welcome new points of view and approaches to a world forever in a state of becoming.”

Gillian Tett on Financial Times. About: “Gillian Tett is a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column on Friday, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. She also serves as Provost of King’s College, Cambridge. Previously, she chaired the FT editorial board, ran Moral Money, the FT’s sustainability newsletter which she co-founded, and wrote two columns a week. Gillian’s earlier roles included US managing editor for the FT; assistant editor; capital markets editor; deputy editor of the Lex column; Tokyo bureau chief; reporter in Russia and Brussels.”

Focaal Blog. About: “The Blog seeks to serve as an intellectually vibrant, socially astute, and genuinely cosmopolitan platform for the discussion of anthropological research. In particular it seeks to strengthen a historical, relational, and world-anthropology of the big issues that confront humanity—in all of its situated differences and amid all of the interconnected inequalities and unevenness. FocaalBlog is now on Facebook! Follow the new page here.”

Food Anthropology. About: “The Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN), formerly known as the Council on Nutritional Anthropology (CNA), was organized in 1974 in response to the increased interest in the interface between social sciences and human nutrition.”

The Geek Anthropologist.  About: “The Geek Anthropologist is a blog where geek culture and all things geek are analysed through the perspective of socio-cultural anthropology. We write about the intersections between social science, cultural analysis and practice of anthropology with geek culture, whether they be embodied, literary, cinematic or cybernetic.  In short, we’re interested in any culturally informed analysis of geek culture or things that geeks love.” Who are these Geeks? Check here.

Anthropogenesis. About: “At the time when both the old Out-of-Africa paradigm in human origins research and the Clovis-I paradigm in the study of the origin of American Indians (Native Americans, Amerindians) have failed to account for the rapidly growing body of data, this blog provides a unique and previously unrecognized solution to the puzzle of human origins and dispersals. Drawing on linguistics, kinship studies, ethnology, genetics, paleobiology and archaeology, it brings American Indian populations into the focus on modern human origins research, documents back-migrations of American Indians to the Old World and explores the possibility of modern human origins not in Africa but in America.”

Glossographia. About: “Welcome to Glossographia, a blog dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of language from a social scientific perspective. I am Stephen Chrisomalis, a linguistic anthropologist and cognitive anthropologist working at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.  The opinions and thoughts on this blog are mine alone, and should not be taken as representative of those of my employer. I write about the intersection of linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, cognitive science, and evolution, with particular foci on epigraphy, literacy studies, writing systems, numeration, and the history of science and mathematics, among other things.  From time to time I also post about social issues in academia, particularly those relating to graduate education.  While my focus will be academic, I’m aiming to present material that will be accessible and interesting to non-specialists and specialists alike.”

Greg Laden’s Blog. About: “I am trained as an anthropologist, with a combined degree in archaeology and biological anthropology from a small east coast school. In the US, I’ve done fieldwork or consulting in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Oversees, I did work in Zaire and South Africa. I lived with the Efe Pygmies and Lese Horticulturalists of Zaire (now Congo), worked in the Semliki Valley (near the Rwenzori), and did extensive survey some excavation (including at Kroomdrai) and other work in South Africa, for a total of about four or five years. My main contributions that you would have come across anywhere have to do with the split between humans and chimps (as a result of a shift in diet) and the origin of the genus Homo (related to the invention of cooking). These days, I teach now and then, I write a lot, and I occasionally advise candidates on policy.”

Guava Anthropology. About: “GUAVA anthropology covers things that are Grotesque, Unabashed, Apostate, Virid, and Auspicious about anthropology! GUAVA anthropology was founded in November 2009. It is a collective blog featuring Taiwan’s young anthropologists. More than 50 writers of the writers have taught at universities and academic institutions. They explore daily life and cultural conditions from an anthropological perspective.”

HawgBlawg. About: “Professor of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. Author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936-39 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. Co-editor of Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Popular Culture and of Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity.”

The Human Evolution Blog. About: “Dr. Nathan H. Lents is a Professor of Molecular Biology at John Jay College of The City University of New York and author of “Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals,” available in May 2016.”

ISS Archaeology. About: “Our project, initiated in 2015, is the first archaeological study of a space habitat — in this case, the International Space Station (ISS). We seek to understand evolving cultural, social, and material structures in the ISS’s unique context. Continuously occupied since 2 November 2000, this site is extraordinarily significant for the development of technology and science. It also serves as evidence for human adaptation to a completely new environment. The ISS project has involved five space agencies, 25 nations, countless private contractors, and at least 270 visitors from 19 countries (among them scientists, military officers, and even a few tourists). It is arguably the most complex and expensive building project ever undertaken by humans.”

John Hawks Weblog. One of the originals and still going strong! About: “I study human evolution and genetics. I’ve done research examining almost every part of our evolutionary story, from the very origin of the human lineage more than six million years ago up to the present day. My work on recent evolutionary changes has strong connections to global health, especially adaptations to agricultural and sedentary lifestyles and new diseases. For the past decade, I have been engaged with paleontological fieldwork in South Africa. I’ve been honored to work with the great team of researchers at the Rising Star cave system, where we discovered Homo naledi in 2013.”

Keywords. This site is run by fellow dendrite Kerim Friedman. Check out his last post here on Anthrodendum, which mentions Keywords and also has an archive of some of his favorite posts over the years. About: “P. Kerim Friedman (傅可恩) is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) in Taiwan. His research explores language revitalization efforts among Indigenous Taiwanese, looking at the relationship between language ideology, indigeneity, and political economy.”

Language Log. About: “Language Log was started in the summer of 2003 by Mark Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum. For nearly five years, it ran on the same elderly linux box, with the same 2003-era blogging software, sitting in a dusty corner of a group office at the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania.”

Lawn Chair Anthropology. Zachary Cofran’s site. About: “I’m a biological anthropologist studying human evolution, growth, and development.  I received my PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, and am now an associate professor in the Anthropology Department at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own*, and in no way associated with my current department or institution.”

Leiden Anthropology Blog. About: “The Leiden Anthropology Blog is written by scholars at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University. They blog about their research, and teaching in the Bachelor and Master program, and share anthropological perspectives on a wide range of social issues.”

Society for Linguistic Anthropology. Blog for the SLA. About: “The Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA) is a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). To join the SLA, please register via the AAA website. Membership entitles you to a complementary subscription to the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. In addition to this website and blog, we also maintain several e-mail lists, organize academic meetings and awards for outstanding work in the discipline. See here for a list of officers and the by-laws of the SLA. If you’d like to contact the SLA, please use our contact form.”

Medizineethnologie. About: “Dieses Blog soll eine stärkere Sichtbarkeit für aktuelle Debatten und Forschungen in der Medizinethnologie schaffen – sowohl für Studierende und WissenschaftlerInnen aus dem akademischen Bereich, als auch für medizinethnologisch Interessierte aus der weiteren Öffentlichkeit (Medizin, Psychiatrie, Medien, Gesundheitsarbeit).” [This blog is run by the Work Group Medical Anthropology in the German Anthropological Association. It publishes texts (both in English and German) on the anthropology of transnational health interventions; migration, mobility and health; and the encounters between different medical and health-related ideas and practices in an interconnected world. More information about the text categories on this blog and the guidelines for submission can be found here: author guidelines. Specific guidelines in regard to the #WitnessingCorona series can be found here.]

Most Holy Death. From the ‘Who is La Santa Muerte?” page: “Read about who Santa Muerte is below, about her devotees, their traditions, stories and beliefs through the articles on this website, thanks to the fieldwork, research and writing of Oxford University trained anthropologist of religion Dr. Kate Kingsbury, Research Associate at University of British Columbia, the research and writing of historian Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Bishop Walter Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of this book on Santa Muerte, in collaboration with David Metcalfe, as we present a multi-faceted exploration of the sanctification of death in the popular faith traditions of the Americas.”

MSU Campus Archaeology Program. Blog run by the campus archaeology program. About: “MSU Campus Archaeology is a program that works to mitigate and protect the archaeological resources on Michigan State University’s beautiful and historic campus. The premier Land-Grant College, Michigan State University (MSU) has a cultural heritage that exists not only in our rich traditions and academic values, but also underneath our feet, below the ground that we walk on every day.”

Museum Fatigue. David Davies’s site. From the about page: “Somewhere outside professionally published work and research and teaching I wanted a place to write and share some of my observations and interpretations of things that I observe in the world around me—a place to collect, comment and store things. Also a place to sometimes ‘get things out’ in an informal way. Just in case someone else finds something of interest or has an idea to share, I thought it would be fun to also make it public. I have been considering a blog for years, but never seemed to get around to setting one up. This spring, just before setting off on my annual trip to China, I decided to give it a go. When it came to naming a blog, I reflected on the curious feeling of excitement, awe, and frustration that I feel when I encounter new things. Social life entices me, but it is aggravating when when meaningful interpretation is elusive. Then, the memory of the trip to the video store came to mind. I’m hoping this blog might be part of the cure for museum fatigue.”

The Naked Anthropologist. Laura Agustín’s site. About: “Laura writes as a lifelong migrant and identifies with no nationality. Visiting Professor in Gender and Migration in Switzerland in 2010, she has danced with hustlers in Miami and strippers in San Francisco, learned safe-sex techniques from brothel workers in the Dominican Republic, roomed with an escort and her family in Melbourne and visited bar girls and jailed migrants in Bangkok.”

Notes from the Ethnoground. About: “As an ethnobotanist and photographer who has worked for over thirty years in the Amazon, I often travel in what Wade Davis calls “the ethnosphere.” I use this log for reflecting on journeys and explorations both outward and inward, recent and past.”

Pedes in Terra. About: “Pedro Maya Álvarez es antropólogo, empresario y consultor especializado en la gestión de proyectos de educación digital. Actualmente es Socio Fundador y Director Técnico de Divulgación Dinámica S. L. Ha desarrollado numerosos trabajos de colaboración empresas e instituciones en el marco de los programas e iniciativas europeas.” [Pedro Maya Álvarez is an anthropologist, businessman and consultant specialized in managing digital education projects. He is currently Founding Partner and Technical Director of Divulgación Dinámica S. L. He has developed numerous collaborative projects with companies and institutions within the framework of European programs and initiatives.]

Peregrination. Holly Waters’s site. About: “This blog is comprised of my thoughts and commentary regarding the interpretive traditions and ritual practices of the sacred ammonite fossils called Shaligram. Since 2012, I have been working with and learning from the wonderful Hindu, Buddhist, and Bonpo Shaligram practitioners of India, Nepal, and among the South Asian Diaspora in the US and the UK. While I continue my ethnographic fieldwork on the topic of Shaligrams, I invite any and all interested in the subject of Shaligrams to read, discuss, and participate here. I certainly do not claim to know everything but I am happy to share what I have learned so far!”

Perspectives in Anthropology. About: “Perspectives in Anthropology, is an online publication that launched in 2014. The series specializes in articles on Social, Cultural, Medical, Urban and Visual Anthropology which are available online as open-access and free-to-read. Some of the publications in the series are evaluated by an open-source, peer-review process.”

Philbu’s Blog. About: “This is Philipp Budka, a sociocultural anthropologist from Vienna, blogging about infrastructures, technologies & media, and his fieldwork and teaching experiences.”

Powered by Osteons. Kristina Killgrove’s site. From the About page: “I am trained as a classical bioarchaeologist, and therefore am one of the few scholars who has started to answer questions about the ancient Romans using their skeletons. My research has focused primarily on immigration to Rome, urban collapse at Gabii during the Imperial period (1st-4th centuries AD), and the lives of people killed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. This work blends anthropological theory, biochemical analysis, and classical archaeology to find out more about people rarely represented in the historical record of the Roman world: immigrants, women, children, and slaves.”

Practicing Anthropology. Site for the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA). About: “The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA) was founded as a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in 1983 to represent practicing anthropology. Many NAPA members are established or are planning careers as practicing professionals linked into government, business, and other networks outside of the academy. Many in NAPA leadership work outside of academic settings.”

Raving Anthropology. Hilary Agro’s site. About: “Hi, I’m Hilary. I live in Toronto and I’m an anthropology PhD student at the University of British Columbia. My Master’s research, which was the inception for this blog, was on the subject of drug use, harm reduction and electronic dance music culture in Toronto. My PhD research is on drug policy, activism and the harms of drug prohibition, so I’ll be writing about that as well as rave and festival culture now. I have a lot of strong feelings about stuff and like to swear a lot when I write, and this is where I’m free to do that. Take that, performative academic professionalism.”

Sapiens. From the About page: “SAPIENS is a digital magazine about everything human, told through the stories of anthropologists. In January 2016, we launched SAPIENS with the aim of bringing together the voices of scholars who are eager to share the findings, ideas, and perspectives of anthropology with a broad global readership. As people who study other people, anthropologists look to the past, present, and future to assemble vital observations on what it means to be human. This work matters. Yet all too often their research remains inaccessible to public audiences. Our purpose is to amplify anthropological insights to make a difference in how people see themselves and those around them. We hope to make people more curious about—and empathetic toward—their fellow humans.”

The Archaeological Eye. Sara Perry’s site. About: “I am Senior Research Fellow at MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology), and formerly its Director of Research & Engagement overseeing MOLA’s 100+ post-excavation specialists, engagement practitioners and research associates (2019-2023). Alongside MOLA, I work as an international consultant with clients and partners seeking to develop their public and research practice in archaeology and heritage to achieve transformative outcomes for people and planet. I am also Honorary Professor at the University of York, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and I sit on the Research Committees of both the Egypt Exploration Society and the Museum of London.”

Shreds and Patches. Jason Baird Jackson’s site. About: “Curious about the “Shreds and Patches” name? This post explains it. I am an ethnographer and ethnologist whose work is centered in the fields of folklore studies and cultural anthropology. I have collaborated with Native American communities in Oklahoma since 1993, when I began a lifelong personal and research relationship with the Euchee/Yuchi people. My experiences in the company of Euchee people in turn brought me into relationship with other Native communities in central and eastern Oklahoma. My studies concern, most centrally, the nature of customary arts, practices and beliefs and the role that these play in social life. In addition to the ethnography and ethnology of Eastern North America, I also pursue projects exploring emerging issues (often quite contested) in the areas of intellectual property, cultural property, and heritage policy. Lastly, most of my career has been spent working as a curator in museum contexts and I remain deeply engaged with research in, and teaching about, museums, especially museums of art and ethnography.”

Society for Visual Anthropology. News and updates from the SVA. About: “The Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) is a section of the American Anthropological Association. We promote the study of visual representation and media. Both research methods and teaching strategies fall within the scope of the society. SVA members are involved in all aspects of production, dissemination, and analysis of visual forms. Works in film, video, photography, and computer-based multimedia explore signification, perception, and communication-in-context, as well as a multitude of other anthropological and ethnographic themes.”

Somatosphere. About: “Somatosphere is a collaborative website covering the intersections of medical anthropology, medical sociology, history of science and medicine, science and technology studies, and cultural psychiatry. Founded in 2008 by a small group of medical anthropologists, Somatosphere has grown to become a key online forum for debate and discussion in medical anthropology, as well as in the humanities and the social sciences of health and medicine more broadly. With well over 1,000 posts, an editorial board of rising and established scholars, over 500 total contributors, an average of between 20,000 and 30,000 unique site visits per month, and a robust social media presence, Somatosphere has a wide reach among social scientists and various non-specialist publics.”

Standplaats Wereld. About: “Standplaats Wereld is the weblog of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU Amsterdam. The authors write in their personal capacity. Standplaats Wereld is a platform for informative, stimulating, and surprising reflections with an anthropological touch. Anthropologists are interested in people living in a contemporary global society. They try to understand this from the viewpoint of the people themselves, but also from the comparative perspective that is part of the anthropological lens. Anthropological curiosity is nowadays focused on how people in the Global South and North are dealing with modernization and globalization. Anthropologists combine the unique with the universal; the viewpoint of the individual human being with a global perspective. This weblog is an invitation to enter the anthropological home base: Standplaats Wereld.”

Teaching Anthropology. About: “Teaching Anthropology (TA) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to the teaching of anthropology. It is a journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and promotes dialogue and reflection on anthropological pedagogies in schools, colleges, universities and beyond. We welcome content from cognate disciplines that explore the teaching of culture and difference, as well as ethnographic and alternative research methods. Collecting together a diverse range of submissions, TA provide an archaeological repository of how teaching has evolved in anthropology. It is intended to be a practical resource to inspire and stimulate current pedagogical practice. Teaching sharpens our research questions and pushes forward disciplinary knowledge, opening possibilities for personal and professional transformation.”

This Anthro Life. About: “Life is complicated, but we love simple answers. AI and robotics are changing the nature of work. Emojis change the way we write. Fossil Fuels were once the engine of progress, now we’re in a race to change how we power the planet. We’re constantly trying to save ourselves…from ourselves. This Anthro Life brings you smart conversations with humanity’s top makers and minds to make sense of it all. We dig into truth and hope in our creative potential through design, culture, and technology. Change your perspective. Crafted + Hosted by Dr. Adam Gamwell. From Missing Link Studios in Boston, MA.”

Trinketization. About: “John Hutnyk writes on culture, cities, diaspora, history, film, prisons, colonialism, education, Marxism. For 30 years he has worked in the area of Asian cultural studies, Asian history, diaspora and media, and is currently Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam.”

Una Anthropológa en la Luna. About: “Noemí. Educadora social y antropóloga social y cultural” [Social educator and social and cultural anthropologist.].

Visual Anthropology of Japan. About the author: “Steven C. Fedorowicz is a cultural anthropologist, visual anthropologist, Associate Professor of Anthropology and reluctant blogger.” About the blog: “This blog is for educational purposes only; as such it is a capitalist-free zone. The views, images and opinions expressed here are those of the author only, unless otherwise noted. The author does not necessarily share or endorse any of the views or contents of linked sites. All responsibility for “Visual Anthropology of Japan” lies with the author and not any institution he may be affiliated with. Peace.”

Wenner Gren. News and updates from the WG. About: “The Wenner-Gren Foundation is a private operating foundation dedicated to providing leadership in support of anthropology and anthropologists worldwide.”

Wide Urban World. Michael E. Smith’s site. About the site: “Wide Urban World is a blog about cities as viewed from a broad historical and comparative perspective. As Winston Churchill said, ‘The farther back we look, the farther ahead we can see.’ About M.E. Smith: ” am an archaeologist who works on Aztec sites and Teotihuacan.I do comparative and transdisciplinary research on cities, and also households, empires, and city-states. I view my discipline, archaeology, as a Comparative Historical Social Science.”

Zachary Blair. About: “Zachary Blair is an anthropologist, researcher, writer,  community organizer, academic, and mass violence victims advocate. He received his PhD in anthropology with a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago in December 2018. He has worked as a researcher, curriculum developer, university administrator, editor, visiting professor, and public health specialist. He also co-founded the nonprofit VictimsFirst, which helps victims directly and guides communities in their response to mass violence, including mass shootings.”

NEW SITES, OTHER SITES, and WHERE PEOPLE ARE WRITING/POSTING NOW:*

Carwil without Borders. About: “Carwil Bjork-James is an assistant professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University. His research, both ethnographic and historical, concerns disruptive protest, grassroots autonomy, state violence, and indigenous collective rights in Latin America, with a focus on Bolivia’s urban and indigenous movements. His 2020 book on Bolivian space-claiming protest, power, and race, The Sovereign Street: Making Revolution in Urban Bolivia, is currently available from University of Arizona Press.”

The Exchange. New site via the Society for Economic Anthropology. From the opening post: “Welcome to The Exchange, the short-form, Open Access subsidiary of the SEA’s journal, Economic Anthropology. Short-form means less than about 2000 words. Open Access means you don’t have to leap over paywalls to read what we post here. Subsidiary technically refers to being supplementary to and supposedly less important than something (in this case THE JOURNAL), but we will be disputing the ‘less important’ part in the strongest possible terms at our next shareholder’s meeting.”

Keith Hart, who created the site ‘The Memory Bank’ and founded projects such as the Open Anthropology Cooperative, is now on substack here. Here’s a recent series of posts about Keith’s journey as an anthropologist and ‘trying to make a meaningful connection.’

Sara Kendzior is now on substack here. About: “I am the bestselling author of THE VIEW FROM FLYOVER COUNTRY (2018), HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020), and THEY KNEW (2022). My next book, THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, will come out in 2025. From 2018 until 2013, I was the co-host of Gaslit Nation, a weekly podcast which covers corruption in the United States and the rise of authoritarianism around the world. I live in St. Louis, Missouri.”

Grant Jun Otsuki. About: “My name is Grant Jun Otsuki. Since 2017, I have been at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where I am a senior lecturer in cultural anthropology. From 2015 to 2017, I was an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. I received my Ph.D. in social-cultural anthropology from the University of Toronto in 2015. I also have an M.S. in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2007), and a B.Sc. Hons. in Science, Technology, and Society with a minor in physics from the University of Calgary.”

Platypus. Blog for CASTAC. About: “Platypus, the newly renamed CASTAC Blog, is a web log for discussion and exchange on anthropological studies of science and technology as social phenomena. It was originally launched in 2012 by Jenny Cool, Patricia G. Lange, and Jordan Kraemer, who are members of the Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing. Platypus aims to promote dialogue on theories, tools, and social interactions that explore questions at the intersection of anthropology and science and technology studies. We seek to build a thriving discourse among a community of scholars concerned about the implications of techno-science, technologized products, and worldviews for human beings and other forms of life. Our approach is interdisciplinary and inclusive. We encourage both regular and occasional contributions from students, faculty, and researchers within and beyond academia.”

Ryan Anderson: I am blogging at my personal site for now, but have some ideas about creating a new general anthro blog to help fill in the void. One idea would be to revive the ‘anthropologies’ name and project, perhaps as anthropologies2.o or something along those lines. Or I might just create a new site altogether. More on that soon…

UPDATE: ADDING ANTHRO RSS FEEDS

A few of you have mentioned RSS feeds in the comments on this post and post #2 in this series. Thanks Lorenz and Lorena for these resources! I have added them below in this new section on RSS feeds. If you have more anthro RSS feeds, send them my way. Also, check out Grant Otsuki’s great post on ‘Reconstructing the Anthro Blogosphere with RSS.”

The Anthropology Newspaper via Lorenz at antropologi.info

Grant Jun Otsuki has created an OPML file that you can use (via NetNewsWire) to subscribe to more than 90 anthro blogs. Check out the instructions at the end of Grant’s post.

*I’ll try to keep updating this part until the lights on this site (so to speak) are finally shut off. Please use the comments below to share sites and tell us where and what YOU are writing.

Ryan

Ryan Anderson is a cultural and environmental anthropologist.

Source

The blog may be shutting down, but I’m not! I started blogging in 2001 and my personal blog, Keywords, is still going strong. Check out this recent post about the movie Killers of the Flower Moon.

I’ve also started a newsletter, Triptych. I wanted to recreate the joy and excitement I used to feel in the early days of the internet. The content is a smorgasbord, including everything from youtube clips, to long form journalism, to weird websites that are fun to explore. The newsletter is based on the philosophy that “less is more”: there are just three posts a month, and each post only contains three links. Hence the name, Triptych.

And you can always find me on whatever social media platforms I’m using at the moment. Right now that is mostly Mastodon, and Bluesky.

Finally, I also wanted to use the occasion of this final post to create a kind of personal archive with some of my favorite posts from over the past 18 years. (Just so I can easily remember what I’ve written!) I’ve enlisted the power of ChatGPT to provide summaries of each of these posts. It seemed fitting, somehow, that my final post on the blog should be written by a chatbot.

2022

• The parallax effect of middle age — The article reflects on aging’s subjective experience, particularly during middle age. It explores how time perception changes, the impact of personal and professional circumstances, and the importance of adapting to aging, with a focus on academic careers. The author advocates for open discussions about aging.

2021

• Tips for Better Online Teaching — The article offers tips for better online teaching, including conducting student surveys, setting up effective chat rooms, using shared documents for notes, using breakout rooms for interaction, one-on-one student meetings, encouraging online journals, staying available post-class, and starting classes with music videos.

2019

• Inventing the Way of Tea in Taiwan — The article discusses the modern invention of “the way of tea” in Taiwan, a practice influenced by Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese nation-building processes. It highlights how Taiwanese tea merchants in the 1970s, seeking to attract middle-class consumers, borrowed from Japanese tea ceremonies to create a new cultural practice.

2018

• Start an Anthropology Career in 2018 — The article advises aspiring anthropologists to learn new languages, study a broad range of subjects, and engage deeply with diverse communities. These steps are crucial for a successful career in anthropology and provide valuable skills for various professional paths.
• Free Your Mind, the Text Will Follow (Working With Text 1) — First in a series of posts that provides a comprehensive guide for anthropologists and social scientists on managing and manipulating text for research and presentation purposes. This first post advocates for ownership over text files. It emphasizes overcoming barriers in text manipulation and adopting a mindset of text as malleable, not fixed. Techniques like transcription and OCR are suggested for overcoming text selection restrictions in digital documents.
• RegEx 101 (Working With Text 2) — This section teaches the use of RegEx for advanced text editing tasks like reversing name orders or extracting specific data. The post explains RegEx syntax and application, highlighting its efficiency for large-scale text manipulation.
• Text-laundering (Working With Text 3) — Addressing the issue of formatting errors when copying text, this part introduces methods to clean up text formatting using Regular Expressions. It suggests tools like WordService for macOS users, offering functionalities like reformatting line breaks and capitalization correction. [Note: a lot of this can now be done with AI chatbots.]
• Lazy PowerPoint (Working With Text 4) — This post introduces Markdown, a text-to-HTML conversion tool, for creating PowerPoint presentations. It describes Markdown’s ease of use and flexibility in transforming text across various formats, including presentations, documents, and web pages.
• Roll Your Own QDA (Working With Text 5) — Focusing on qualitative data analysis, this part demonstrates how to use tools like Dynalist or Workflowy for coding field notes and interview data. It highlights the ability of these apps to add tags to individual paragraphs, enhancing the organization and analysis of qualitative data.
• Hobbes the Science Fiction Writer (Part I) — The two-part series on Thomas Hobbes primarily focuses on his political theory as a form of science fiction, rather than his scientific contributions, including his study of optics. The first part discusses Hobbes’ use of myth and fear to promote authoritarian rule, suggesting that Hobbes crafted his political theories with a storytelling approach akin to science fiction.
• Hobbes the Science Fiction Writer (Part II) — The second part examines how these Hobbesian ideas are echoed in contemporary media like “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Black Panther,” critiquing their portrayal of sovereignty and tribalism, and the implication that strong leaders are necessary to prevent chaos.
• We suck at (academic) politics — This post argues that academics, including anthropologists, often struggle with political maneuvering within academic institutions. Key mistakes include failing to campaign for policy changes, neglecting unintended consequences, treating every issue as a crisis, assuming moral high ground is enough, and expecting others to implement changes without personal involvement. The author emphasizes the need for strategic campaigning, considering wider impacts, avoiding constant crisis mode, skillfully navigating politics, and being willing to personally ensure the success of proposed changes.

2017

• The Cyborg Anthropologist (Tools We Use) — This post discusses the author’s experience with learning and using Chinese in an academic setting, highlighting the challenges of reading and writing in the language. The author emphasizes the crucial role of technology, particularly translation and dictionary apps, in overcoming these language barriers. The post also reflects on the broader implications of technology dependence in academia and the importance of openly discussing and addressing such dependencies.
• Do we even need to define ethnographic film? — In this series of posts (which was later turned into a book chapter in the The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnographic Film and Video), the author explores the complex task of defining ethnographic film. The first post deals with the challenge of categorizing such films for a film festival, emphasizing the difficulty of applying rigid definitions. The author proposes using Umberto Eco’s “family of resemblances” model, allowing for a more flexible, inclusive approach.
• The Four Dimensions of Ethnographic Films — The second post introduces four dimensions to categorize ethnographic films: Discipline, Norms, Subject, and Genre. Each dimension represents a different aspect contributing to a film’s classification as ethnographic.
• Ethnographic Films: A Family of Resemblances — The third post elaborates on these dimensions, breaking them down further. For instance, in the Genre dimension, films are categorized by their stylistic choices, such as observational, reflexive, or sensory styles. Films that comment on or subvert the genre are also considered ethnographic. This multi-dimensional framework aims to accommodate the evolving nature of ethnography and film, ensuring a broad yet meaningful understanding of ethnographic films
• The Politics of Explaining Taiwan — The post discusses the challenges of explaining Taiwan’s complex history and political status in academic work. The author reflects on the repetitive nature of this explanation due to widespread misunderstanding or misinformation about Taiwan. They argue that frequently recounting Taiwan’s history in academic publications can limit the originality of scholarship and suggests considering whether constant explanation is necessary. The post also touches on the politics of information and the influence of China’s stance on Taiwan’s international perception.

2016

• Why I’m Voting for the Boycott Part 1: David vs. Goliath — The post examines the author’s decision to support a boycott against Israeli academic institutions, reflecting on their personal journey from being raised with Zionist beliefs to questioning and critically assessing these views. The author’s upbringing in New York City as a Reform Jew heavily emphasized a narrative of Jewish victimhood and Israeli triumph, which they later began to question through education and dialogue. The post also discusses the role of deeply ingrained nationalistic reflexes in shaping perspectives and argues for the importance of creating public spaces to question these assumptions. The author believes that supporting the boycott can facilitate such critical discussions.
• Why I’m Voting for the Boycott Part 2: SQUIRREL! — The blog post discusses the author’s support for the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It critiques opponents who distract from the Palestine issue by citing other global conflicts, arguing that progressive action isn’t limited to a single cause. The post emphasizes the boycott’s legitimacy, citing its endorsement by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations and comparing it to the effective boycott of South Africa. It also questions the alternatives to boycotts, suggesting BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) as a non-violent tactic embraced by Palestinians after decades of varied strategies.
• Why I’m Voting for the Boycott Part 3: It’s in the Resolution — The blog post discusses the specifics of the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It clarifies that the boycott targets institutions, not individuals, allowing Israeli scholars to participate in AAA activities. The AAA itself would, however, exclude Israeli institutions from certain programs and resources. The boycott is symbolic, akin to nonviolent protest, meant to expose discrepancies between the principle of academic freedom and the reality faced by Palestinian academics. It aims to challenge Israel’s image as a democratic state and be part of a larger international movement supporting Palestinian rights​.
• Seeing Culture Like a State — The blog post discusses the complexities of state cultural policies and their impact on culture itself. It highlights Taiwan’s cultural policy evolution and the challenges in making culture visible to the state. The post argues that documenting culture can rigidify its dynamic aspects, as seen in British India’s caste system documentation. Taiwan’s language policies, from suppression to promotion of local languages, illustrate the state’s influence on culture. The author suggests that allowing communities greater autonomy in managing their cultural policies could be a more effective approach, emphasizing the need for a nuanced relationship between the state and cultural practices​.
• Freddy’s Hair — The post discusses the symbolic significance of long hair in Taiwanese politics, exemplified by Freddy Lim’s candidacy. During Taiwan’s martial law era, short hair for men symbolized authoritarian control and Confucian patriarchy, with long hair seen as a threat to these values. Post-1987, Taiwan’s shift towards a multicultural democracy altered these perceptions. Lim, as the lead singer of Chthonic and a New Power Party co-founder, represented generational and cultural shifts. His candidacy faced criticism for his long hair and alleged radical views, underscoring ongoing cultural and political tensions in Taiwan​.

2015

• The Four Types of Comments — The blog post discusses four types of comments encountered in online discussions: 1) The Wise Comment, where knowledge is shared without malice; 2) The Wicked Comment, which includes trolling and off-topic, lengthy responses; 3) The Ignorant Comment, categorized into self-aware, ignorant, and willful ignorance, each requiring different handling; and 4) The One Who Didn’t Read, where individuals comment without fully engaging with the content. The author emphasizes the importance of thoughtful responses tailored to each type of comment to facilitate constructive online discourse​.
• Belief is a Practice — The article argues that belief should be understood as a set of social practices rather than an internally coherent ideological system. It challenges simplistic views of Islam in relation to terrorism, emphasizing the diversity within Islam and the varied interpretations of its teachings. The author asserts that anthropologists view culture and beliefs as forms of social action, where individuals interpret and transform ideology through their actions and speech, rather than merely following a set code. This perspective recognizes the importance of understanding the socio-political context and individual agency in interpreting and acting upon beliefs​.
• Race is a Technology (and so is Gender) — The article discusses the concept of race and gender as “technologies of power” used to marginalize certain groups, contrasting it with a moralistic view of racism and sexism. It highlights the importance of acknowledging and discussing these invisible power structures, rather than focusing on moral blame. The author criticizes those who dismiss these discussions as reductionist or as distractions from economic issues, arguing that addressing race and gender as power systems is essential for meaningful dialogue and change.
• The Limits of the Virtuoso — The article discusses the societal limits on performing gender and ethnicity, using Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal’s stories. It argues that ethnicity and gender are socially constructed performances, but are limited by societal norms and biological determinism. The author suggests the true virtuosos are those who expose these power structures, such as artists and comedians, who challenge the status quo and highlight the ambiguities in gender and ethnicity performances.
• Embracing Impostor Syndrome — The article discusses how academics, particularly successful ones, often experience impostor syndrome, characterized by a fear of being exposed as a fraud. This self-doubt is seen as a byproduct of realizing the vast amount of knowledge one has yet to learn, despite their expertise. The author argues that at the start of academic careers, feeling like an impostor is natural due to the rapid transition from student to expert. The article also challenges the narrative of being destined for a specific career path, emphasizing the value of exploring new fields and appreciating diverse approaches in academia.

2014

• Doing Anthropology in Public — The article argues that anthropology is rich in public intellectuals, yet their work often goes unnoticed in mainstream public discourse. This invisibility is attributed to the ethnographic method shaping anthropological expertise, resulting in interventions grounded in specific, local encounters rather than general theories. Consequently, the public may not recognize the anthropological concepts behind these interventions. Furthermore, anthropological insights, being often specific and local, don’t align with the broader public discourse shaped by national media. The piece also suggests that anthropological perspectives might challenge prevailing political and economic paradigms, leading to their marginalization in mainstream debates.
• Strategy of Condescension — The article discusses the reaction to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaking Chinese, using it as a basis to explore Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the “strategy of condescension.” This concept refers to the symbolic negation of power relationships between languages, where excessive praise for speaking a non-dominant language reinforces language hierarchies. The author contrasts the enthusiastic response Zuckerberg received with the hypothetical embarrassment a Chinese CEO might face for speaking English at a similar level. The article also considers factors influencing the perception of Chinese language ability, including China’s self-image, the status of English education, and racial perspectives on language proficiency
• The Semiotics of Bubble Tea — The article explores the semiotics of bubble tea in Taiwan, linking it to the country’s cultural and modern identity. Originally a Taiwanese invention from the 1980s, bubble tea has become a global phenomenon. The author highlights its role in symbolizing a unique Taiwanese modernity, contrasting its individualistic, on-the-go nature with traditional Chinese tea rituals. The drink’s evolution reflects broader cultural trends, including a shift towards retraditionalization, as seen in newer versions using oolong tea and traditional decor in tea shops. This reflects an ongoing dialogue between modernity and tradition in Taiwanese society.
• The Ethnographic “Shooting Ratio” — The article draws parallels between documentary filmmaking and ethnographic research, particularly in terms of the ‘shooting ratio’, which is the ratio of footage shot to what is used in the final film. In ethnography, this concept translates to the volume of data collected versus what is ultimately utilized. It emphasizes the need for extensive data collection to capture the essential elements of the subject. The author suggests continuously writing and reviewing field notes to focus research efforts. The concept of ‘coverage’ is also highlighted, suggesting researchers should gather diverse perspectives and materials to enrich their ethnographic work. The approach aims to ensure the final ethnography is comprehensive and vividly detailed.
• Economy Such Complex, Culture Much Simple — The article critiques how economic issues are often portrayed as complex, requiring simplification by economists like Paul Krugman, while cultural aspects are oversimplified and treated as self-evident. It highlights the contrast in public perception, where economic challenges are seen as intricate and culture as straightforward. The author discusses the need for anthropologists to illuminate the complexities of culture, often intertwined with political-economic factors, challenging the common assumption of their expertise being confined to ‘culture’ only. This contrasts with the approach of some public figures who bypass cultural intricacies in their analyses.

2013

• Become an Expert in Less Than an Hour — The article discusses the challenge faced by anthropology professors in guiding graduate students on topics outside their direct expertise. It emphasizes the importance of quickly understanding a subfield to provide effective guidance in various academic scenarios like book reviews and conference discussions. The author suggests that while true expertise requires years, identifying key works and ideas in a subfield can be done swiftly with the right approach and resources, likening it to using a travel guide and Google Maps for navigating a city.
• What is this thing you call “nerd”? — The article examines the concept of “nerd” from a cross-cultural perspective, contrasting Western and Chinese views on academic achievement and intelligence. It notes the absence of a direct equivalent for “nerd” in Chinese, with young people in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan often using the English word. The piece highlights how cultural interpretations of academic stereotypes, like nerds and geeks, are influenced by broader socio-political histories, such as the differing trajectories of Confucianism in China and Taiwan. The author suggests that terms like “nerd” cannot be translated straightforwardly across cultures due to these underlying historical and cultural nuances.
• Star Trek and the Unfinished Project — The article reflects on the portrayal of modernity in Star Trek, comparing it to other science fiction narratives. The author, influenced by anthropological studies, questions the show’s uncritical representation of modernity. Star Trek depicts the Federation as a benign force overseeing social development, contrasting Star Wars’ representation of modernity as oppressive. The piece suggests that while Star Trek’s vision of modernity is appealing, it might be outdated, and contemporary science fiction often presents dystopian views. The author proposes considering new narratives about modernity, moving beyond the nostalgia and idealized visions of the past.
• Dove Ideology — The article critiques Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” advertising campaign, highlighting its ideological implications. It argues that the campaign, while appearing to demystify beauty standards, still reinforces the importance of beauty and fails to address the deeper societal structures influencing self-perception. The campaign is likened to a “bent-stick theory of ideology,” where distorted self-images are seen as a result of misrecognition rather than false consciousness. This perspective suggests that societal pressures and market forces shape our understanding of beauty, and the campaign ultimately depoliticizes and psychologizes the critique of beauty standards.
• Snapshots of AAAs Past — The post is a personal reflection on the author’s experiences at different American Anthropological Association (AAA) conferences over the years. It details the overwhelming initial encounter, progress through grad school, organizing panels, departmental politics, and personal milestones such as getting a job and winning a film prize. The author discusses the evolution of their academic and professional journey, culminating in twenty years of attending AAAs, mastering session selection, and aspirations for future publishing opportunities.

2012

• How fast to an Anthropology Ph.D.? — The blog post discusses the feasibility of reducing the time to complete a Ph.D. in anthropology, currently averaging around nine years. It examines proposals to shorten this duration, like better utilizing summers and offering full funding to avoid part-time work. However, challenges include extensive course requirements, the need for broad training in anthropology, language studies, and fieldwork. The author argues that reducing the time to below seven years would be difficult without compromising the depth and quality of research, especially considering the current funding challenges in academia.
• 3 Unproductive Idiots — The post critiques the global higher education system, arguing that it fails to produce the type of workers demanded in today’s economy, such as those with creative thinking and professionalism. It questions whether educational institutions are genuinely unable to meet these demands or deliberately choose not to. The post reflects on Bourdieu and Passeron’s view that education perpetuates existing power relations and cultural norms, rather than fostering the required elite skills. It also discusses the popularity of the film “3 Idiots”, which resonates with this educational critique, and suggests that anthropology degrees might align more closely with the desired employee skills than traditional engineering or management education.

2011

• Racial Differences In Skin-Colour as Recorded By The Colour Top — The post discusses the use of color tops, a tool created by Milton Bradley for teaching color blending, which was adapted for recording skin color in anthropological studies. Initially used by Davenport in 1913 for studying skin color heredity in Jamaican interracial populations, the color top involved spinning discs of various colors to match human skin tones. The effectiveness of this method relied on the speed of the spinning top, as any variation could lead to unreliable results. The post references an interview with Michael Keevak, author of a book on racial thinking, highlighting the historical context and implications of such tools in anthropology.
• Mining vs. Harvesting in Academic Writing — The blog post contrasts “mining” vs. “harvesting” in academic writing. Junior scholars often “harvest” by heavily citing sources to support their theoretical points, while established scholars “mine” an idea, reiterating and exploring it in various forms with less reliance on external citations. The author suggests that repetition and exploration of a single theme can clarify and strengthen an argument, noting that established scholars may use this method to delve deeply into a concept rather than just supporting it with citations.
• Buffalaxing in Reverse in Taiwan — The blog post discusses “buffalaxing,” a practice of creating humorous, often nonsensical English subtitles for foreign language songs. The post highlights the popularity of this meme in Taiwan, using the Telugu song “Golimar” as an example, where its lyrics are given misheard Chinese translations. The post also mentions the Taiwanese response to a music video that intentionally uses nonsensical lyrics and Google Translate-like Hindi subtitles, reflecting a reverse form of buffalaxing. The author notes that, unlike other countries, Taiwanese exposure to Bollywood is primarily through such buffalaxed videos, except for the film “3 Idiots,” which resonated strongly in East Asia due to its critique of the education system.
• Hume and the “Western” Notion of “Self” — The post examines anthropologists’ construction of a “Hegemonic Western Tradition” and contrasts it with David Hume’s views on self-identity. Hume saw the idea of a continuous self as unrealistic, aligning more with an atomistic theory of matter and reducing mental contents to elementary sensations. The author suggests that many academics project a simplified, monolithic cultural past, which serves as a basis for critiquing Western concepts and practices. The post highlights the need to acknowledge the diversity and complexity within Western notions of “self,” suggesting a reexamination of institutional traditions of critique in anthropology.
• What I Like About Science — The blog post reflects on challenges within the scientific method, such as the misinterpretation of statistical tests and the replication crisis in scientific research. It discusses issues like the publication of research in questionable journals and biases against publishing negative results. Despite these challenges, the author appreciates science’s willingness to ask tough questions and its potential for improvement. The post suggests that for science to address its inherent issues, collaboration with other fields, including anthropology, is necessary to tackle the underlying political, social, and institutional problems.
• Picking a Graduate School | Savage Minds — The post offers guidance on choosing a graduate program in anthropology. It emphasizes the need to assess personal goals, cautioning that academic positions in anthropology are highly competitive. The author suggests exploring applied anthropology careers, which offer more opportunities. For those aiming at top anthropology programs, attending a high-ranking university can be beneficial. International students are advised to apply for Ph.D. programs in the U.S. for better funding. The author recommends thorough research on professors and programs, not just university rankings, and suggests networking at academic conferences. A flexible mindset and having backup plans are also advised given the uncertain academic job market.

2010

• The Semiotics of Islamophobia — The post delves into the complexities of Islamophobia, highlighting the lack of understanding in Western societies about the diversity within Islam. It references the misuse of terms like ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ as monolithic entities, ignoring the vast differences among Islamic cultures and beliefs. The author argues for the importance of recognizing these nuances and challenges the simplistic, often negative, portrayal of Muslims in the media and public discourse. The discussion emphasizes the need for more informed and nuanced perspectives to combat Islamophobic tendencies.
• David Brooks: Worse than Pat Robertson? — The post criticizes David Brooks’ views on Haiti’s poverty, contrasting them with Pat Robertson’s controversial remarks. Brooks attributes Haiti’s struggles to a “complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences,” downplaying historical factors like oppression, slavery, and colonialism. The post argues against this perspective, highlighting the unique historical circumstances of Haiti, including its significant debt burden and international racism towards its freed slaves. The author challenges Brooks’ civilizational view of culture, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced understanding of Haiti’s poverty and its distinct historical context.
• Teaching Anthropology “In The Field” — The post reflects on the experience of teaching anthropology near a previous fieldwork site in Taiwan. It discusses the challenges and realities of academic life there, such as heavy teaching loads, language barriers, and the author’s involvement in a documentary project in India. Despite limited visits to the old field site, the author finds value in the teaching experience and in learning from interactions with students, many of whom are Indigenous Taiwanese. The post underscores the evolving nature of anthropological fieldwork and teaching, highlighting how academic and research priorities can shift over time.
• Theory Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning — The post discusses the significance and complexities of theory in anthropology, particularly in the context of mid-range theory. It argues against the notion that theory is merely a tool, emphasizing the need for anthropologists to be conversant with multiple theories. The author highlights the challenge of navigating diverse theories and calls for a deeper understanding of the role of theory in the social sciences, akin to the approaches of Habermas and Foucault. The discussion emphasizes the importance of theory in producing knowledge and facilitating intellectual growth.
• Anthro Classics Online: The Impact of Money — The post discusses Paul Bohannan’s work on the impact of money on traditional economies, focusing on the Tiv in Africa. Bohannan argued that the Tiv economy was organized into three distinct exchange spheres, each with its own type of goods. The introduction of modern money disrupted this system, allowing individuals to bypass traditional social structures. The article critiques this view, suggesting it oversimplifies the complex economic and social changes brought by colonialism and underestimates indigenous societies’ ability to adapt to modern money. It challenges the notion that traditional cultures are inherently resistant to economic change, highlighting the nuanced relationship between money, class, and social structure.

2009

• Avatar — The post analyzes the movie “Avatar,” focusing on its portrayal of race, the Na’vi language, virtual worlds, and its representation of anthropology. The film is criticized for its clichéd depiction of the Na’vi and its simplistic storyline. The post highlights the missed opportunities in exploring the complexities of virtual worlds and the unique role of avatars. It also discusses the anthropological aspects, particularly through Sigourney Weaver’s character, and the protagonist’s conflicting loyalties, which mirror real-world anthropological challenges in fieldwork. Despite these themes, the film is primarily praised for its impressive visual effects.
• Rorschach Test — The post discusses various interpretations of the Henry Louis Gates Jr. affair, comparing it to a Rorschach test due to the diverse perspectives it generates. It examines the incident from angles of race, class, gender, civil liberties, professionalism, and reverse-racism. The blog highlights how people’s reactions to the incident reflect their personal biases and societal issues, rather than objective facts about the event. The diverse viewpoints on the incident underscore the complex interplay of social identities and power dynamics in society.

2008

• Gujjars: OBC, ST, SC or DNT? — The post discusses the conflict in Rajasthan, India, involving the Gujjar community’s demand to change their official status from “Other Backward Classes” (OBC) to “Scheduled Tribe” (ST). This demand arose in response to the Jat community’s successful inclusion in the OBC category, which Gujjars felt would limit their access to reservation benefits. The Gujjars’ move led to tensions with the Meenas, another community classified as ST. The post highlights the complexities and inconsistencies in categorizing Denotified Tribes (DNTs) across Indian states, impacting the unity and political movements of DNT communities.
• When Species Meet — The post humorously presents a dog’s perspective on reviewing Donna Haraway’s book “When Species Meet.” The dog, Juno, comments on Haraway’s engaging yet challenging writing style and her exploration of the relationship between humans and animals. Haraway’s work focuses on ethical obligations and the social processes of interaction between species. The post notes Haraway’s criticism of bioethics and her use of storytelling to convey her points, while also highlighting the complexity of human-animal relationships and the ethical issues in scientific research involving animals.
• The Myth of Cultural Miscommunication — The post critiques the perceived reliance on anthropology to address cultural misunderstandings in military contexts. It argues that miscommunication, as exemplified by a failed translation between coalition forces and a Pashtun elder, is often due to power imbalances rather than cultural differences. The post suggests that attributing communication issues solely to cultural miscommunication obscures underlying problems of unequal power relations, and questions the military’s capacity to genuinely incorporate and respect local cultural knowledge.

2007

• My Thoughts on Anthropologists in the Military — The post delves into the ethical and practical issues surrounding the involvement of anthropologists in military operations. It discusses concerns about the potential misuse of anthropological knowledge, the difficulty of adhering to ethical guidelines in a military context, and the risk of anthropologists being perceived as complicit in military agendas. The author argues that anthropologists’ role should not be reduced to a public relations function for the military, and emphasizes the need for transparency and adherence to ethical standards in these situations.
• Capturing the Moment vs. Glamour in Wedding Photography — The post contrasts the increasingly popular trend of “photojournalistic realism” in American wedding photography, capturing spontaneous, unposed moments, with the elaborate, glamour-focused style of Taiwanese bridal photography. The latter is likened to a fashion shoot, featuring expensive lighting, multiple costume changes, and magazine-like aesthetics, which starkly differs from the candid, moment-capturing approach seen in American wedding proposals and photography.
• Colonial Ethnography — The article critiques the lasting effects of colonial ethnography on India’s Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, emphasizing the perpetuation of stigma and difficulties rooted in colonial criminality labels, and calls for a reevaluation of colonial literature’s absurdities and its ongoing influence in modern India.

2006

• 30 Days of Cinétrance — The article examines the concept of ‘cinétrance’ in relation to reality TV, exploring how these shows manipulate reality and draw on social science methodologies. It discusses the ethical dilemmas and the constructed nature of reality TV, using Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days” as a case study, and underscores the need for a critically educated audience to understand the truth claims of visual texts.
• Book Review: The Politics of the Governed, Part 1 — The review explores Partha Chatterjee’s book “The Politics of the Governed,” which redefines the concept of civil society, introducing “political society” as a framework for understanding marginalized groups’ politics. Challenging traditional views, it emphasizes the distinction between “citizens” and “populations,” particularly in postcolonial contexts, and discusses the relationship between marginalized communities and state policies in India, highlighting the differences in welfare states between the developed and post-colonial worlds.
• Book Review: The Politics of the Governed, Part 2 — The second part of the book review on “The Politics of the Governed” focuses on the fragmentary nature of the text and its exploration of “political society.” It discusses the book’s avoidance of India’s communal violence and the use of the concept in developed countries. The review critically examines whether existing terms like Gramsci’s “civil society” are sufficient for analyzing political phenomena, and it highlights the need for a broader application of the concept of political society in different contexts.

2005

• Culture Talk — The post discusses Mahmood Mamdani’s critique of “Culture Talk,” a framing of terrorism that simplifies cultural and religious narratives. It explores how this perspective, influenced by Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington, dichotomizes Islamic culture and overlooks historical and political contexts. Mamdani argues against reducing terrorism to a purely religious phenomenon, emphasizing the role of political conditions and history, particularly during the Cold War, in shaping contemporary terrorism. He challenges simplistic views of Islam and terrorism, advocating for a more nuanced understanding.

Kerim

P. Kerim Friedman is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan. His research explores language revitalization efforts among indigenous Taiwanese, looking at the relationship between language ideology, indigeneity, and political economy. An ethnographic filmmaker, he co-produced the Jean Rouch award-winning documentary, ‘Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir!’ about a street theater troupe from one of India’s Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs).

kerim.oxus.net/

Source

Well, by now most of you have heard the news that this blog is closing down. That whole conversation was happening in the last couple of months, but really something that we’d been talking about for the past few years. Back in 2021 we all agreed to try to revive this blog, but things just didn’t take off. There was just so much going on at the time. This site, like many others, was a casualty of the mass exodus to Twitter, the decline of blogging, people moving on to other things in their careers, others getting slammed with kids and careers (that was me), and the global pandemic…among other things. So, we’re closing things down.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been back around here a bit more lately, right at the end. For the past year or so I’ve been thinking a lot about the kinds of spaces we once had, and what we have lost. Here’s what I wrote in December 2022:

About 10 years ago, the online anthropology community looked pretty different. I’m not saying it was some utopia—it wasn’t—but there were some aspects that I do miss. Back then there seemed to be a more connected and coherent online community. In some ways, it was great.

There were tons and tons of blogs, which included the former iteration of this site (SM), and others like Neuroanthropology (Daniel Lende and Greg Downey), Somatosphere, John Hawks’ Weblog, Powered by Osteons (Kristina Killgrove), Context and Variation (Kate Clancy), From the Annals of Anthroman (John L. Jackson), and of course Jason Antrosio’s Living Anthropologically, among many others. 

And this is how I closed out that post:

All this has me thinking, once again, about the need for not just making new spaces, but also holding and using the spaces we already have. That includes this site, which has been somewhat…underutilized for the last few years (IMO). As Sarah Kendzior said recently: “Do not cede territory in an information war.” I’ll leave it there for now.

I still agree with Kendzior on that point. My initial plan was to try to revive this site so we didn’t cede this particular ground. But I think the larger point here is less about one particular site than it is about how we write, where we write, and what kinds of platforms we put our time and energy into. It’s also about how we share and interact with one another, and finding ways to keep those networks and connections intact.

So…I’ve been thinking a lot about blogs as things that still work, that are still reliable, and still around. I’m not the only one who has been thinking along these lines. And when Twitter just kept taking repeated turns for the worse, lots of people were talking about all the loss, yes, but also other options and possibilities. I think many folks were wondering, too, why we had gone all in on a private platform that could be dismantled so easily. I was, at least. 

This past July, Colleen Morgan, my pal from the old anthro-blogging days, posted this on Twitter and Mastodon:

Band together. Help each other out. Salvage what is good. In the spirit of her words, I posted ‘Salvaging what is good’ here on Anthrodendum. Colleen followed up on her site, in a bit of old-school one-blog-linking-to-another kind of back and forth. While you might think that ‘Salvaging’ post was just a bunch of sentimental ‘things used to be good and now they suck’ kind of lamentation, my aim was more pragmatic. I asked people to leave some breadcrumbs, so to speak:

Let’s use this space to share what we’re all thinking and were we’re going for some rest, repair, and reconciliation. I think many of us have already lost a lot of those little connections we once had on these platforms. Let’s see what we can save and maybe leave some breadcrumbs for where we’re all going. What are you thinking and where are you going next? Mastodon? Bluesky? Post? Staying offline and just going surfing, hiking, or walking more? Something else? Let me know in the comments below. 

A few people commented, and that’s a lot more than we’ve seen around here in a while. So it’s a start. As you can see, I have been on this retrospective kick–in the interests of thinking about what’s next–for a while now. That brings us to the anthro blog survey project, which is a continuation of all these conversations. I had assumed that the so-called anthroblogosphere was dead, but it turns out that’s not entirely the case. Rumors of its demise have been, well, somewhat exaggerated.

I went through all 188 blogs that Jason Antrosio listed in his roundup of 2017 anthro blogs. I modified my methods slightly and decided to count blogs that had a post as of June 2023 as ‘active.’ Of all 188 sites, 111 (59%) are no longer around, and 77 (41%) are still active. Now, granted, 59% gone is a big loss. But there’s actually quite a lot more still active than I’d expected. See what happens when you actually do the work, and look around, instead of just assuming?

A few thoughts. First, people are still out there writing and sharing ideas. But I’m not seeing a ton of comments on sites. Some more than others. What seems to be missing are all the links between these sites/projects.

Sure, this is partially a problem of the decline of platforms and all the changes that have happened. So it’s a tech/infrastructure issue in part. But I think it’s also partially about how people have changed their use of the internet and social media in more recent years. It’s an increasing reliance on feeds and algorithms, in which we scroll and tend to take what we get served…rather than having to actively go out and look for certain sites, people, conversations.

Maybe I’m off base here. But this is something I like about Mastodon so far. You have to dive in and search for subjects, conversations, etc. They aren’t just handed to you. Search hashtags and all that. It takes time.

Back in the day with blogs, people tended to link to other blogs and then check in on various sites fairly regularly. We’re missing that these days. And a lot of what’s happening–what folks are writing and thinking about–get skipped over or just lost in the shuffle. But it’s still out there. 

We can change this, you know. Using some old things, and by making some new ones. Hint, hint.

In the interest of salvaging what is good from the old anthroblogosphere, in the next post I am going to link to all the (77) blogs that are still active. It will be an old-fashioned blogroll of sorts, all in the name of preservation and possibilities. In the meantime, leave some comments, breadcrumbs, and thoughts of your own below. And thanks for stopping by.

Ryan

Ryan Anderson is a cultural and environmental anthropologist.

Source

Dear readers,

We are sorry to say that after eighteen years, we are going to be shutting down this blog at the end of the year. We will write a longer farewell post later on, but we wanted to announce that we are closing this site and project down at the end of this year. A huge thanks to all our loyal readers who have stuck with us all these years, as well as new ones who may have only discovered the site recently. Our plan is to give all our bloggers a chance to post their farewells (or any other draft posts that they’ve been working on) over the course of December, with our final farewell post coming sometime after the New Year. Here’s to endings…and new beginnings!

-The Anthrodendum Crew

Kerim

P. Kerim Friedman is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan. His research explores language revitalization efforts among indigenous Taiwanese, looking at the relationship between language ideology, indigeneity, and political economy. An ethnographic filmmaker, he co-produced the Jean Rouch award-winning documentary, ‘Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir!’ about a street theater troupe from one of India’s Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs).

kerim.oxus.net/

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So what does the anthro blog landscape look like these days? What’s left? Who is still around? Is it all totally gone?! Lately I have been assuming that it’s all gone, but that’s not really very scientific of me, is it? What’s the best way to find out? To get out there and look around, so to speak. It’s time for a little (digital) archaeology of our recent past.

Now, when it comes to doing survey work, it’s really nice if you have a baseline to work with. We do, thanks in part to Jason Antrosio’s list of anthro blogs from 2017 (which is also linked on the sidebar of our site). Let’s get to it.

I counted a total of 188 sites that Jason listed in his 2017 overview (although I need to double check that number). I went through the first 40 (about 21% of the total) to get things started seeing which sites are active and which are not. I set a pretty low bar for labeling a site ‘active’: All they needed was one post in 2023. Again, that’s a pretty low bar, but it gives us at least some insight into what sites are still around.

Of the 40 that I have looked at so far, 15 of them are still active, which is about 37%. So this means 63% are dormant, have moved, or are just plain dead. More to come as I finish looking through all the sites.

In the meantime, here’s a sampling of the anthropology sites that are still around, despite that great fragmentation:

Allegra Lab is still going strong. Here’s an excerpt from Lindsay Bell’s recent essay “Authorship in the Post Academic, Post-Human Age”:

As someone with a longstanding interest in publishing and conceptions of authorship, it strikes me that the question of how ideas travel and who, if anyone, owns them, usefully highlights areas of tension between academic, trade and media publishing that require further unpacking in the post-human era of authorship in which we suddenly find ourselves. In what follows, I want to raise a larger set of issues about the somewhat uneasy relationship between academic writing and journalism, based on the different kinds of credit economies in which they operate, and what this means in the context of their increasingly symbiotic relationship and the rise of AI-powered language-processing models such as ChatGPT.

Over on Anthropologia: una perspective multiple, Gabriela Vargas-Cetina writes about the things she learned while teaching her classes in 2023:

Cada año aprendo cosas nuevas durante mis clases, a veces porque usamos libros y artículos recientemente publicados, a veces porque las y los invitados a la clase nos cuentan nuevas cosas, a veces porque las y los estudiantes llegan con preocupaciones que no se me habían ocurrido al diseñar los temarios, y otras veces en realidad por casualidad [Translation: Every year I learn new things during my classes, sometimes because we use recently published books and articles, sometimes because the guests in the class tell us new things, sometimes because the students come with concerns that I had not thought of when designing the syllabi, and other times just by chance].

Finally, at All Tomorrow’s Cultures, Samuel Collins has a recent post about SETI:

In May, the SETI Institute Artist-in-Residence initiated a piece of collaborative performance–the decoding of an “alien” message, transmitted from the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). “A Sign in Space” is a simulation that enlists ordinary people in the work of “decoding” an alien message–one that you can download yourself. Along the way, SETI has hosted a series of workshops (including one from anthropologist Willi Lempert) designed to help participants through the decoding process–including hints on avoiding ethnocentric (and anthropocentric) assumptions about what this communication could be and what the intentions of extraterrestrial intelligence might entail.

I am a very enthusiastic SETI advocate, but I wonder if “decoding” is really the best we can do here. I’m not entirely alone–the very lively Discord discussion around this project has included many, philosophical tangents that have questioned what exactly “interpretation” might mean in this context. On the one hand, semiotics (in that broader, Peircean sense) is something that all of us living creatures do. As Kohn writes, “All living beings sign. We humans are therefore at home with the multitude of semiotic life” (Kohn 2013: 42). All life as we know it is in communication with its environment–many of us living creatures along multiple semiotic levels. So it is certainly reasonable to assume that other life will also be involved in sign-making.

As it turns out, there are definitely signs of life in the old anthro blogosphere–we just have to look. So there you have a sample of three of the fifteen active sites I’ve surveyed so far. It will be interesting to see the overall live/dormant ratio once I get through all 188. To be continued…

Ryan

Ryan Anderson is a cultural and environmental anthropologist.

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When I first heard about chatGPT, the main thing I was concerned about, like many others, was that students would use it instead of writing their own work.

I tried to take an open approach with it all to try to head off any potential problems. Rather than trying to ban GPT, I talked about it with my class pretty extensively. I adopted a modified version of Kerim’s statement about using chatGPT and other LLMs in the classroom, which I think helped a lot (especially the part about clearly documenting use of such tools). Overall, while there were some issues, things went fairly well.

But there was one thing, one way of using GPT, that I had not expected. Again, I was on the lookout for entire posts or essays that were written with GPT. That didn’t really happen. What I did see, however, was students using GPT in ways that completely overwrote and (essentially) obliterated their voices in their writing. 

I noticed something odd in a few different assignments. They had the signature GPT structure along with a lot of the usual words and phrases that it tends to put into text. The ‘voice’ in these pieces didn’t sound like the students at all. At first I thought I’d run into exactly what I thought I would get: whole texts being generated by chatGPT and passed off as original work.

But when I looked at the GPT chat histories, I saw something else entirely. Students were inputting perfectly good text and then asking chatGPT to ‘clean it up and make it look more professional.’ They were giving GPT several variations of that command. GPT then went to work, spitting out a new version of text that may have been more professional…but it was also lacking in life, details, and individuality.

I wanted to get the point across to my students that I want to hear what they have to say, not what chatGPT has to say. We had another class discussion about the challenges of using GPT for editing while not erasing our individual humanity. I used Jack Kerouac as an example. I read the end of “On the Road” to the class:

So in America, when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars will be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.

I then asked chatGPT (3.5) to ‘optimize’ Kerouac’s text and ‘make it sound more professional and smooth,’ and here’s what it spit back out:

As the sun sets in America, I find myself seated upon the weathered, yet evocative river pier, overlooking the expansive skies that stretch endlessly over New Jersey. I am struck by the vast expanse of untamed terrain, unfurling in an astonishing panorama that spans from coast to coast. The thoroughfares teem with ceaseless activity, as a multitude of individuals harbor dreams within the boundless expanse.

In Iowa, I am aware that in this very moment, children may be shedding tears in a land where sorrow is permitted to be voiced. Tonight, the celestial canopy will be adorned with stars, and one can’t help but consider the notion of a divine presence, akin to the benevolent Pooh Bear. The evening star, perhaps wearied, will gradually relinquish its luminance, casting a more subdued radiance upon the prairie.

This twilight interlude heralds the imminent arrival of nightfall, bestowing its benediction upon the earth. It enshrouds rivers in obscurity, cradles mountain peaks, and gently enfolds the ultimate shoreline. Amidst this enigmatic tapestry, veiled in uncertainty, the destinies of all souls remain veiled, much like the tattered vestiges of time-worn existence.

In these contemplative moments, my thoughts invariably turn to Dean Moriarty. I find myself ruminating not only on the vivacious Dean of yore but also on the enigmatic figure of the father we never encountered. Thus, my musings dwell upon Dean Moriarty, an emblematic figure who traverses the corridors of my consciousness.

Yikes. We talked about GPT did to Kerouac’s text. Admittedly, he’s not the cleanest writer in the technical sense–but that’s part of the point here. All the rough edges, quirks, and hard-to-explain phrasings make Jack Kerouac who he was as a writer (despite his detractors). GPT took that iconic and eccentric last paragraph of On the Road and turned it into a neat, orderly text with four different paragraphs and proper punctuation. It AI-ed the life and poetry right out of it. Now, the output is fine, I guess, but it’s certainly not Jack Kerouac (we can debate about what GPT did to the actual meaning and imagery of the passage another time).

My students got it. I encouraged them to write in their voices, rough edges and all. We also talked about how it actually takes some extra work with chatGPT (again I’m using 3.5 here) to keep it from completely hammering texts. It can get very Hal 9000 on you with these kinds of things, repeatedly butchering texts at times. If you give GPT a broad prompt to ‘clean up’ text, it will just go to town. It needs very specific prompts so that it just makes light editorial changes and doesn’t turn your don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear?’s into little more than, well, typing. Take that, Truman Capote. And you too, Hal.

***

Check out Part 1 of this little series here, and Part 2 here.

Ryan

Ryan Anderson is a cultural and environmental anthropologist.

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The American Association of Biological Anthropologists, the American Association of Anthropological Genetics, the Dental Anthropology Association, the Paleopathology Association, The PaleoAnthropology Society, the Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association, and the Human Biology Association stand together against the escalating legislation and governance in the United States and across the globe that attacks the existence of transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse peoples. We affirm the power of all persons to make the ultimate decisions over what happens to our/their own bodies. We oppose legislation that is rooted in and maintains rigid binary conceptions of sex and gender which impact reproductive justice and access to care for everyone.

You can find the entire statement here.

Ryan

Ryan Anderson is a cultural and environmental anthropologist.

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