Besides what you expect, I’ve included a selection on health care reform at the end.
Top of the List
Lera Boroditsky, How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think?
Testing how different languages literally shape the way people think. Great essay at Edge.
Adam Kirsh, Vistas of Perfection
A biography of James Agee. I was really struck by the description of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which seems like it could teach a lot to modern-day ethnographers
Peter Stromberg, Why You Can’t Help But Care about Brad and Angelina, Part III
Ah, the desire for fame. A good kick-off to Peter’s Sex, Drugs and Boredom series over at Psychology Today – an anthropologist invades some popular turf!
Jim Schnabel, Media Research: The Black Box
Assessing the effects of television on young children. Cartoons don’t help, but edutainment doesn’t seem to hurt. Vaughan Bell and David Dobbs provide reaction.
Julia Douthwaite, Trompe-l’œil: A Metaphysics of Observing
The Mysterious Urn in Paris and our developed ways of seeing. Revolution in Fiction also has a great student piece, Shards of History
Nature – Killers in Eden
Fascinating documentary on killer whales and whale hunters’ interactions, including long-term cooperative behavior, in Eden, Australia – a “remarkable and mysterious partnership” between orcas and humans
Neuro
Linda Nordling, Africa Calls on World’s Richest to Curb Brain Drain
One third of all African scientists live and work in developed countries
David DiSalvo, Can You Outsmart Your Genes? An Interview with Author Richard Nisbett
Taking on the “genes determine intelligence” argument – an intelligence optimist speaks
Neuroanthropology 