positivism – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

The “Science” of Global Domination

While it is an odd mix of physics, biology, and geometry that has captured the communications strategy of military planners, the messages themselves are very telling about how such planners go about envisioning US global domination, and the parts to be played by others in assuring that dominance. Some thus speak about the “center of […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Realism or Iconography? The Pentagon’s Implicit Theory of Visual Representation

The following is an extract from my chapter, “A Flickr of Militarization: Photographic Regulation, Symbolic Consecration, and the Strategic Communication of ‘Good Intentions’,” published in Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism (Montreal: Alert Press, 2014), pp. 185-279: US military documents make it quite clear that, for the military, a photograph is a straightforward, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Encounters and conflicts within and between disciplines: Experimental philosophy and ethnography (1.3)

An interesting discussion has been taking place on Savage Minds titled, “Philosophers discover lost tribe in jungles of free will” by Chris Kelty. The discussion and debate that ensues there centres on the development of what some call “experimental philosophy” (with a digest available here). This movement, shortened to X-Phi, involves using quantitative research, especially […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Debating Public Anthropology: American Anthropologist

In connection with the items below, see: “NOT RADICAL ENOUGH”: DISENGAGED ANTHROPOLOGY Newly published articles: American Anthropologist March 2008, Vol. 110, No. 1, pp. 53-60 Posted online on May 8, 2008. (doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2008.00008.x) The Quest for Anthropological Relevance: Borgesian Maps and Epistemological Pitfalls MATTI BUNZL Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL 61801 […]