If there were a Hall of Fame for the Most Cruel Colonizers of the World, Australia would have a prominent place. Early British settlers (”unsettlers” or displacers, more accurately) hunted the Tasmanians to near-extinction. None of the indigenous groups have been left unscathed. And today the cruelty continues in new, more “civilized” guises such as [...]
• Ethnography Gains a Toehold in Political Science
An article entitled “Political Scientists Get Their Hands Dirty” in the Chronicle for Higher Education describes how some US political scientists are doing “political ethnography,” or fieldwork-based research involving long-term participant observation, the hallmark research method invented by cultural anthropologists. Edward Schatz is one of the “new” [...]
Request for Submission of Review Materials
AAA is pleased to announce the launch of “Public Anthropology Reviews,” a new review section in American Anthropologist.
Public Anthropology Reviews will highlight anthropological work principally aimed at non-academic audiences, including websites, blogs, white papers, journalistic articles, briefing reports, online videos, and multimedia presentations. The editors will also consider [...]
by Barbara Miller
Cheetahs are major draws for the international tourist industry in southern African countries. In Namibia, home of one-fourth of the world’s population of cheetahs, tourists pay big money for the chance of a close-up look at these large cats. The cheetah population has been declining in recent decades, however, mainly due to being [...]
Guest Post by Nick Bluhm
Students of anthropology face a renewed debate about the role of anthropology in the military, one that has recently drawn the attention of the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association (PDF) and the ire of many professional anthropologists. The American military, intent on surmounting the Taliban in Afghanistan, has sought [...]
· An episode of NOW on PBS discusses a Partners in Health project and includes an interview with Paul Farmer.
· On C-SPAN’s feature, “Top Non-Fiction Authors and Books,” Professor David Vine talks about the U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and the 2000 residents of the island who [...]
by Barbara Miller
In three C-SPAN airings this weekend, David Vine discusses his research on the presence of a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. In his book, Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia, Vine describes how [...]
To all our readers in the D.C. area, Dr. Omar McDoom, lecturer of political science at the London School of Economics (and a GW Elliott School alum), will give a presentation as part of our Culture in Global Affairs Research and Policy program. Details below. Hope to see some of you there.
“Why They Killed: [...]
by Barbara Miller
A feature of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization is called “Lessons from the Field.” This month’s features a report by Sabine Gabrysch and colleagues on a successful case of “cultural adaptation of birthing services” in rural Ayacucho, Peru. The project took two years and included detailed formative research, design of [...]
• A guest editorial by Nancy Scheper-Hughes in the August issue of the journal Anthropology Today on public/engaged anthropology was picked up by the British publication Times Higher Education on September 3. Scheper-Hughes argues that anthropologists should be publicly engaged but that universities do not reward public roles and contributions. UK academics, according to [...]
