Guest post by Chenkai Zhu In a recent talk titled “The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online,” Danah Boyd used ethnographic methods to study the ways American teenagers engage social media websites like MySpace and Facebook. Boyd suggested that when teens choose one social network over the other, they reveal as much about their own self [...]
By Barbara Miller Chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates possess a range of cultural skills that enhance their lives. Depending on the species and location, these learned and shared capabilities include nest building, tool use to access choice food items such as ants and honey, greetings including the “raised hand clasp,” food preparation such as washing [...]
Interview with Jane Goodall Jane Goodall’s contributions to primatology and primate conservation are monumental. In a brief interview with Cathy Areu that was published in the Sept 6 issue of the Washington Post Magazine, Goodall discusses her love of animals as a child, her meeting with Louis Leakey, her first visit to Africa, and her [...]
By Barbara Miller An article in the Economist (“A national shame,” August 27, 2009) points the finger of blame at the Guatemalan government for the current high rates of childhood malnutrition in Guatemala, especially among the indigenous Maya people (August 29, p. 33). With almost half of its children malnourished, Guatemala is the sixth worst-performing [...]
