Anthropology
Category archives for Anthropology
The loudness of coffee shops
Posted by Greg Laden on July 7, 2009 The coffee shop was already loud. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Caribou are all made of sound-bouncy materials. The equipment behind the counter is loud to begin with and is not muffled by any structure. The barista has developed the typical barista habit of banging shit on other shit as loud as he…
Mail Order Brides and Hypergyny
Posted by Greg Laden on July 1, 2009 Seymour had a mail order bride and he was very proud. Seymour was a night watchman that I got to know because I was forever lurking around at night, passing through alarmed doors and making a nuisance of myself and, usually, keeping just one step ahead of Seymour, who’s main objective in life was to…
Marriage: Why and how? And an Update on Jason and Jodi.
Posted by Greg Laden on June 27, 2009 In case you didn’t know, the marriage proposal launched by Jodi (asking Jason) and largely organized by Stephanie, has resulted in an answer. Congratulation Jodi and Jason! Not long before this internet round robin was launched, Jodi made a limited distribution, organized by Stephanie, of some background on their situation, and a version of this…
The Great White Missionary
Posted by Greg Laden on June 25, 2009 It was a rare day that I was at the Ngodingodi research station at all … usually I was off in the forest with the Efe Pygmies, up the road excavating an archaeological site. It was also rare that Grinker, my cultural anthropologist colleague, was at the research station. He was spending most of his…
Forget the Maginot Line, What About the Beer Line?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2009 Near the end of the earth there are lines one might not cross for fear of falling off. OK, you won’t really fall off, but you will become scared and lost.
More Babbling
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2009 Through the filter of time … a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago. Admit it. Once you discovered Alta Vista’s Babel software you did this: You entered a phrase to translate from your native language to some other language, then translated it back again to see what would happen.…
Notes from Up North
Posted by Greg Laden on June 20, 2009 The first time I ever caught a bowfin (Amia calva)I was shocked and amazed at this fish. It was green …. really green like beyond fresh water fish green …. with a fancy spot on the upper part of the back of its dorsal fin. And it had one impressive dorsal fin. It was whopping…
It’s bad enough that all men are rapists. Please don’t be stupid about it as well.
Posted by Greg Laden on June 8, 2009 Last week, a very bad thing happened to me, a life changing experience, the kind of thing many people with blogs would tell everyone about, trolling for sympathy and making everyone feel bad. Well, I am certainly not above doing that, but strategically I’ve decided to tell only a few people what is going on,…
Classic News: The Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2009 One fall afternoon … I was summoned to… a windowless room on an upper floor, where men dressed in crisp white garments instructed me to remove all of my clothes. … four-inch metal pins were affixed… to my vertebrae at regular intervals from my neck down. I was positioned against a wall; a floodlight illuminated…
Is there a rape switch?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 2, 2009 This question is shorthand for a larger and more nuanced set of questions that has emerged over the last 24 hours here and here as people engage in this very interesting and important discussion about rape, especially wartime rape and related post-apocalyptic rape cultures. “The switch” is a term I first heard from a student,…
A rape in progress, Part II
Posted by Greg Laden on June 1, 2009 Expanding on the discussion from here … In the paper Anthropology’s “Fierce” Yanomami: Narratives of Sexual Politics in the Amazon, Sharon Tiffany and Kathleen Adams provide the following opening passage: Imagine a society in which one woman in every three is raped, usually by a man she knows, consider the consequences of living in a…
Oldest Evidence of Leprosy Found in India
Posted by Greg Laden on May 26, 2009 It is funny how people play with history. If we talk about an important “first” that is viewed in a positive light … the origin of beer for instance … the slightest evidence will be used by the people of a given region to claim primacy. Also, since Africa almost always gets the shaft in…
Ida the Fossil Primate
Posted by Greg Laden on May 20, 2009 You probably know that there is a new primate fossil, nicknamed “Ida,” and that there is quite a buzz about it. Darwinius masillae, aka Ida Ida comes from fossil deposits in Germany, and was originally excavated in two different parts by private collectors, and only recently rejoined and recognized for the amazing fossil it is.…
My reaction to Zvan on PhysioProf at Isis
Posted by Greg Laden on May 19, 2009 I loved Stephanie’s post for a number of reasons, including and mainly for it’s clear statement about why rules are more tempting (to create) than is good for us. At the same time, I would say that when I read PhysioProf’s “Tips” (which everyone takes as rules though he never seems to have actually called…
Suburbs, Jesus and Teh Gay: Unliving the American Dream
Posted by Greg Laden on May 18, 2009 Every place is different, and some places are more different than others. … So we’re channel surfing and working at the same time … Amanda is working on her Transitive Phosphorescent Anisotopy or whatever the heck it is she’s working on, and I’m messing around with making networks work, and Super Nanny comes on. They’re…
Knowing More Languages = Good
Posted by Greg Laden on May 13, 2009 American politicians, some parents, and a few others have previously expressed the concern that learning more than one language muddles the mind. This is, of course, absurd, and it is hard to believe why anyone really thought this. In fact, it could be said that having more than one language under your belt makes it…
The Corgi Dog Story
Posted by Greg Laden on May 9, 2009 Under the present circumstances, it is clear that I now have to tell my one Welsh Corgi story. This is about a corgi named Dillon.
How to get your Anthropology Thesis published in two steps
Posted by Greg Laden on May 5, 2009 First, write a reasonably good thesis. Write a brilliant one if you can manage. Then….
From Anonymity to Subjectivity in the Blogosphere: Post Game Analysis by BZ
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2009 The following is a follow up on BZ’s earlier posts regarding Anonymity, Credibility, Behavior Change and other issues. BZ had posted several guest blogs here, and received useful comments from guests and other bloggers. Here, BZ summarizes and responds. I am in the position of grading BZ for this work. His grade will be based…
Ancient Documents On Line
Posted by Greg Laden on April 23, 2009 The World Digital Library has released the first in a new set of ancient documents. I’m very excited that this includes quite a bit of Sumerian material, because that is what I’ve been reading lately.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the city. Three times.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2009 This is a sister post to: The Black Forest Inn: Anarchists 2, Scientists 1 Lizzie had said in her email, “Let’s meet at the Black Forest Inn. I think you told me you’d never been there. It’s a place you might like.” How nice of Lizzie to suggest a new place for me to enjoy.…
When Do Immigrants Learn English? Likely, not when you think.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 13, 2009 A timely repost, given the discussion going on here. The North End, Boston, Massachusetts I’m standing outside Luigi’s restaurant having a smoke, and Luigi’s doorman had joined me. Across the street yellow stingray is parked, as usual, to block the alley. The word is, the fire escape down into that alley leads directly from Baronelli’s…
Music, the kinda universal langauge
Posted by Greg Laden on April 11, 2009 One afternoon I was sitting by the hearth writing notes on the morning’s data collection, and a cassette player was running nearby. The Beatles White Album was on. Happiness is a Warm Gun was playing. Lengotu, an Efe man I had been working with, who had made the claim to be a rain shaman (which…
Four Stone Hearth: The Blog Carnival …
Posted by Greg Laden on April 9, 2009 … is here, at Quiche Moraine. Please go and visit this blog carnival, then visit all the sites pointed to by the blog carnival, read them, submit them all to social networking sites, enter them in blogspheric contests, and so on and so forth. Because that’s how we do things in The Blogosphere . I’ll…
Human Nature Negotiated
Posted by Greg Laden on April 3, 2009 I have observed an irony, possibly a hypocrisy, among some of my fellow humans. On one hand we are being told again and again to act a certain way or else. Or else what? All sorts of things, but mainly some predetermined punishment will be meted out for you. This is a rule system whereby…
Fieldwork And The Child
Posted by Greg Laden on March 17, 2009 The other day Julia and I were driving somewhere (I had the con) and The Sphynx came up. The reason it came up is not important, but as we were talking, it occurred to ask me ask, “…hey, have you been to Egypt?” “No,” she said. And after a moment, “Have you?” I thought for…
Palaeowomaen: Barbara Isaac, Women in The Field, and The Throwing Hypothesis
Posted by Greg Laden on March 12, 2009 
The following post has been slightly revised in response to commentary below and elsewhere. I thank all those who commented for the helpful critique. The question of diversity in science, and more specifically, success for women, is often discussed in relation to bench or lab oriented fields. If you read the blogs that cover this…
The Identification of the Two “Missing” Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis
Posted by Greg Laden on March 10, 2009 I first became acquainted with the Romanovs (as historical figures, not the actual Romanovs) reading in middle school about Russian History. Later, someone turned me on to Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra, which is quite a well known popular historical account of the last Czar of Russia and his family. Everyone knows the story of the…
Evolution of the Lexicon
Posted by Greg Laden on March 7, 2009 I recently posted about the work by Pagel and colleagues regarding ancient lexicons. That work, recently revived in the press for whatever reasons such things happen, is the same project reported a while back in Nature. And, as I recall, I read that paper and promised to blog about it but did not get to…
Dawkins…. On Purpose
Posted by Greg Laden on March 5, 2009 Dawkins gave a talk that could be criticized as not particularly new, in that his main idea is that human brains are too powerful and adaptable to continue to function primarily within an adaptive program serving as a proper adaptive organ. Instead, human brains think up all sorts of other, rather non-Darwinian things to do.…
, which is now available for the 
