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.
Neuroanthropology 
this is a cool idea. i think it’s definitely time for the anthros to get out there a little more. i also like the idea of making it a yearly thing.
Neat idea!
The inclusive character of this “best of” is quite appropriate. Sounds more like an anthology than like a pseudo-contest.
One possible result is that we may see a broad range of posts, displaying the breadth of our discipline.
Now, the challenge will be to round up as many anthrobloggers as possible.
Let’s get to work!
@Daniel I submitted my posts. Because my main blog isn’t strictly about anthro, it’s a bit complicated.
And what do you think of the following idea? Why don’t we create an “anthropology anthology” blog for the occasion? It would include all the posts in this “best of,” with appropriate links and such. You could serve as the main editor and other anthrobloggers would be authors.
It may sound like it’s more work but, actually, the workload would be evenly distributed. Then, the blog could serve as a showcase for anthroblogging.
Now, of course, it would drive less traffic to Neuroanthro. But it might actually be easier to make that new blog very visible which, in turn, can have positive effects on anthroblogging as a whole.
(One reason I thought about this is that one anthro I contacted has technical issues with her blog.)
I’ve gotten a couple comments by email, so I wanted to put those up here as well to add to the conversation.
First, from Max at Open Anthropology: “My suggestion would be to also put out an announcement in Spanish, Portuguese, and French” in the aim of pushing even further the inclusive element.
Second, from Chris at Savage Minds: “It would be great to produce a kind of ‘pamphlet’ of the best of anthro blogging that we could all feature on our respective sidebars…”
@Daniel A multi-language version would be a good idea. I almost submitted one of my posts in French.
The pamphlet idea seems to go well with the dedicated blog idea. In fact, it could be done easily through WordPress.com (for the blog version) and Lulu (for hard copies).
This is great, it will be interesting to see just all the anthro blogs out there. I would love to submit mine (http://indigenousissuestoday.blogspot.com), but I don’t have a single post that got more traffic then others. Overall, the traffic to my blog has increased all year, so I look at it that way instead.
This is seems lika good idea; submissions are on thier way, I’ve just gotta look into what I’ve been writing this year.
Magnus
I vote for http://enkerli.wordpress.com
Btw
Merry Christmas
Magnus Reuterdahl
Excellent site, keep up the good work