A Flickr site, Great Diagrams in Anthropological Theory, is offering up a whole bunch of illustrations and diagrams taken from anthropological works. They are up to three pages of images, and hopefully people will start adding more! I have included several below that struck my fancy.
The hat-tip goes to John Curran, who started the public archive. Braniac over at the Boston Globe has also featured the diagrams.
Ian Kuijt, my archaeologist friend and colleague here at Notre Dame, pointed out this You Tube clip of the comic Eddie Izzard taking on Stonehenge. Very funny!
For those of you wanting to know more about the actual site, here’s the Wikipedia Stonehenge link. Britannia also has some good short coverage that focuses on the construction of the henge.
Eternal Idol discusses recent claims that Stonehenge was a site of religious healing, while remote central covers the emerging evidence that Stonehenge was used as a burial site. And for some actual digging, see the Stonehenge Riverside Project.
This week I bring a diverse set of anthropology readings, a bunch of policy pieces I’ve found interesting of late, and a long list of psychiatry posts and articles at the end. Enjoy!
Anthropology
Robert Bellah, The Renouncers
The esteemed US sociologist on notions of progress and disaster, or negotiating between Habermas and the ancient Greeks
Mind Hacks, Through a Lab Darkly?
“Cognitive ethology”—getting the psychologists out of the lab and into the field. And I was just lecturing to my qualitative methods students about how ethnographic research can increase the validity of our measures…
Michiko Kakutani, When Fear and Chaos Are Normal, Peace and Safety Become Unimaginable
Review of the new book, Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq, by the Wall Street journalist with anthropological sensibilities Farnaz Fassihi
LL Wynn, HTS and Military Targeting?
Reaction over at Culture Matters to the recent Harpers essay, “Human quicksand for the U.S. Army, a crash course in cultural studies” (subscription needed for full access) by Steve Featherstone
Abby Aguirre, Roaming Freely in a Land of Restraints
Review of the new book by Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape, covering six walks the author took in the West Bank and the encounters and reflections that brought
Hannah Seligson, Girl Power at School, but Not at the Office
The gender gap in the transition from university to work, building off a new book by the journalist author
Benedict Carey, Spot on Popularity Scale Speaks to the Future; Middle Has Its Rewards
Longitudinal study of high school students – mean queens and lording jocks fade, while socially skilled individuals find happiness… Or popularity as seen through social networks.
Natalie Angier, About Death, Just Like Us or Pretty Much Unaware?
Animals coping with the death of a loved one. More like us than we had imagined
Carl Zimmer, Gaming Evolution
The new video game Spore finds a happy home, with some reservations, among hard-core academic biologists
Policy
Alan Blinder, Is History Siding With Obama’s Economic Plan?
Looks like yes. Democrats rule over better economic times, with less inequality, than Republicans since the post WWII era. “Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.”
Based on the book Unequal Democracy by Larry Bartels. And see here for a long NY Times essay on Obama’s economics.
The new Grand Rounds of medical-related blogging is up at A Chronic Dose. This week has an education theme, including sections on language, insider lessons and expert lessons, and then the school of life. Definitely a worthy edition, so check it out!
Jazz and the Art of Medical Presentations and the pimping of students (singling them out for repeated questions until humiliation or something similar is reached) are two very different takes on the art of interaction, that’s for sure!
So I am back teaching. This semester I have an intensive qualitative methods course after teaching medical anthropology in the spring. I am planning to have several assignments revolve around the issue of food, health and eating. So the list below is meant first for my methods students. But I also thought some of you other folks might like a refresher on what got posted last spring. Hopefully the categories will help you find what interests you most…
My Main Pieces
Ethnography and the Everyday: Knapp’s Appetites
Comfort Food and Social Stress
Culture
Culture and Inequality in the Obesity Debate
The Family Dinner Deconstructed
Interactions
On the Causes of Obesity: Common Sense or Interacting Systems
Diet, Weight and Health Round Up
Live Healthy, Turn On Your Genes
“Willpower” and Effort
Tightening Your Belt on Your Mind
Glucose, Self Control and Evolution
General Biology
Human Biology and Models for Obesity
Obesity: Mortality, Activity and More
Obesity and Some Behavioral Biology
Red Meat, Neandertals Were Meant to Eat It
Biological Mechanisms
Encephalon from Africa is out! Ioian Enchantment is hosting this week from South Africa. Plenty of good stuff this time around, including Neurotic Physiology on how culture shapes the way we look at faces, the new Neuronism on athletes predicting the future, and Effortless Incitement on how chimpanzees use self-distraction to deal with impulsivity. Plus more stuff I want to mention, but you’ll just have to go check out the enchantment!
Tangled Bank #112 came out last week with the latest on evolution, natural history and the like over at Science Notes. Interested in why chili peppers are so damn hot? Blame evolution. Plus Ioian Enchantment, our Encephalon Host, covers the recent research on chimpanzees hunting with spears.
Science After Sunclipse is hosting Carnival of the Elitist Bastards this time around, standing up for all things intellectual. It’s worth it just for the effort put into creating a verse poem for a carnival! Having just done some birding while camping, this post – complete with some great photos of sandpipers – was just enjoyable.
Finally there is a new Carnival of Evolution. Yes, #1. Among featured pieces there’s this impressive consideration of evolution’s most important cellular/molecular inventions, going from gene expression to body plans.
Neuroanthropology 