Neuroanthropology

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Archive for December 19th, 2008

Melhor de blogging antropolgia 2008

Posted by gregdowney on December 19, 2008

In response to Max and Enkerli, I’m putting up a Portuguese language version of our call for a ‘best of anthropology blogging’ anthology for 2008. Apologies to both our English-language and Portuguese-proficient readers for what is about to happen…

Prezado companheiros no mundo virtual. Neuroanthropology.net vai lançar um ‘melhor de 2008′ antologia de blogging sobre antropologia. Nós queremos atingir uma plateia maior fora de antropologia por nosso trabalho na disciplina.

Por favor, manda ao Greg Downey (greg dot downey @ mq dot edu dot au) suas entradas, ambos os artigos mais populares e os seus preferidos (os que você acha melhor). Também, inclua uma pequena explicação de seus artigos (posts), e vou incluir no Carnaval Blogagem 2008!

Por amor de Deus, perdoa-me a decadência do meu portgues. Há anos que eu não escrevia na idioma, e esqueci tudo. E estou fazendo isso ‘livre,’ sem assistência, mas quero muito incluir nossos camaradas escrevendo em outras linguas.

Posted in Links | 11 Comments »

Donald Tuzin and the Breath of a Ghost

Posted by dlende on December 19, 2008

Donald Tuzin

Donald Tuzin

In the Scientific American piece Ghost Stories: Visits from the Deceased, Vaughan Bell describes how the dead stay with us. An embodied sense of them, present yet gone, comes strongly through our memories and our perceptions: “for many people [loved ones] linger in our senses—as sights, sounds, smells, touches or presences.”

Bell issues a call for more research on grief and embodied remembrances, and then notes, “There are hints that the type of grief hallucinations might also differ across cultures. Anthropologists have told us a great deal about how the ceremonies, beliefs and the social rituals of death differ greatly across the world, but we have few clues about how these different approaches affect how people experience the dead after they have gone.”

I wrote previously on Bell’s article and how writers have explored this terrain in Grief, Ghosts and Gone. Still, the anthropologist in me took Vaughan’s point as a challenge. Ethnographic work is not as widely known in the larger scientific literatures, but it is both broad and deep. My search was rewarded!

Donald Tuzin has a striking 1975 article, “The Breath of a Ghost: Dreams and the Fear of the Dead.” In this piece (scribd full text) he describes his research with the Ilahita Arapesh of northeastern Papua New Guinea and the confluence of their beliefs and practices surrounding the dead with everyday experience.

Tuzin pays particular attention to “the functional implications of (1) the different ghost types encountered by the Arapesh dreamer as distinguished by degrees of familiarity in life, and (2) the strikingly different beliefs held about ghosts as against the more temporally remote ancestors (556).”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Cultural theory, Embodiment, Emotion, Psychological anthropology | 2 Comments »

Best of Anthropology Blogging 2008: Call for Submissions

Posted by dlende on December 19, 2008

We’ve decided to host something that has not been done before – the first yearly edition of The Best of Anthropology Blogging. An increasing number of anthropologists are blogging about their work and their ideas, sharing how anthropology in all its forms is relevant to the wider world.

We are going to bring that together into one great “Best of” package. It is time to show off what we do! And then get some press for it!!

Here are our submission guidelines. We have two categories, most popular post and a self-selected best post. For the most popular post, please send in the title and link for your most popular post during 2008, as well as a brief reflection (1-2 lines) on why you think this one turned out to be the most popular.

For the self-selected best post, you get to choose what your best post is. For single-authored blogs, you can send in one entry. For multi-authored blogs, feel free to send in two entries. (More than that, and it might get to a really long “best of” post…). Please send in the title, the author, and the link for your best post.

Update: Nominations by blog readers accepted too! If there is some post you loved at an anthropology blog, please send it to me. Include a brief description of why this post is a great one! So this is now our third category, reader-nominated posts. (Or participant-observation posts, to make a really lame joke.)

All submissions should go to Daniel Lende at the email dlende at nd dot edu

Submissions are due December 29th (though earlier would be much appreciated). The “Best of” post will go up on the 31st.

If you have any suggestions or points on how to make the “Best of Anthropology Blogging” better, please feel free to comment below or email us. We welcome ideas that can help turn this into something which will highlight why anthropology blogging deserves an even wider audience than it presently has.

Posted in general | 23 Comments »

Greenbelt Four Stone

Posted by dlende on December 19, 2008

fourstonecomplete

The Greenbelt is hosting the latest Four Stone Hearth of anthropology blogging. We have hominids, shoe leather, Greece, and more.

A couple favorite include uppity Stone Age Venuses and Remote Central’s take on stone tools during human evolution.

So check out the latest Four Stone.

Posted in Links | Leave a Comment »

 
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