Christina Laun has just posted the Top 100 Anthropology Blogs [edit: link removed at request of Open Universities because of their link seeking practices] over at Open Universities.com. We’re at #11 (arranged by subfield and several other groupings, not according to any particular metric) and our friends at Culture Matters are at #22 (if by ‘friends’ I can mean ‘the other collective anthro blog I belong to’).
What was interesting to me about this list though was the sheer number and variety of things happening out there, the range of anthropology weblogs, and the realization that there were many of these that I have visited but don’t look at regularly enough. There’s a lot of good ideas getting posted and discussed online, and some pockets of creative discussion that would be invisible (to me at least) if it were not for online publishing.
UPDATE:
Around the anthro internets, there’s been some discussion of this list, so I should update. First, there’s some serious oversights. For example, I had to amend this posting when it was brought to my attention that, somehow, Greg Laden’s Blog didn’t make this list (Great Googly-Moogly, man, what were they thinkin’!?). Three others that I’m less familiar with, but shouldn’t have been left off because they’re both quite active are Archaeoastronomy, Abnormal Interests, and Museum 2.0. I’m not going to look it up, but I’m particularly surprised that the first was left off because I seem to recall regular contributions at Four Stone Hearth from Archaeoastronomy.
All of these three blogs are very active, with substantial original material, so I’m not sure how they escaped the net for pulling in the Top 100. I’m not one to judge, but I think they might be more influential and well read than a few on the list. So don’t miss these three if you’re out looking for anthropology online.
h/t: Coturnix and Afarensis at A Blog Around the Clock for the update.
Agreed. I found your site through all of these connections (I think through Savage Minds), which is great. The more all of these conversations and ideas get connected, the better. It’s great to see everything that’s out there.
Congrats! You have a terrific site and deserve the ranking.
-david
Um, this is actually a site which recommends online degree institutions, like University of Phoenix and others. While these are all accredited institutions, they are those expensive, online, associates degree granting; business, medical assistant, and vet tech type schools you see advertised on TV. These lists just serve to legitimize the site and the institutions which use it for their advertising. And, with all due respect, you are helping their efforts by treating it all with some degree of seriousness. I am not sure that is what you intend. In any case, I wouldn’t waste a lot of time pondering their choices, I am sure they didn’t.
But you do have a terrific site.
Thanks, Pam! #4 made me laugh out loud. I felt like I could almost hear your inner conversation, including the part that said ‘oh, maybe I should say something nice…’ That’s great.
Yeah, I wasn’t wasting a lot of time pondering their choices (knowing where they come from), but I was serious in my admiration of some of the folks left off the list. If you detect a note of concern, it’s much more from my concern that Greg Laden would think that I was, in some way, endorsing the act of leaving him off the list. I’m more proud of the whirly pin that we got from Savage Minds than of our place on the list, but I haven’t yet figured out how to put the whirly pin online…
I checked though, and apparently we’re doing more this week to promote the eBay listing of the MRI scan with the image of Mary than we are the advertising site of online degrees. I can sleep a little easier.