relevance – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Scanning the Hard Drives of the Softest “Science”? Why are the irrelevant so relevant…and interesting?

(If you can think of a better title that joins together the two bits of news below, then please let me know.) Some anthropology news for today: ••••••• No totalitarianism here, as anthropologists get their laptops scanned at airports in the U.S. Perhaps the idea is to have the benefits of the Minerva program — […]

Attack Iran, Elect McCain, Wait for the Punch(line)

Imagine that there has been a steady beat of war drums supporting the notion of attacking Iran, sooner rather than later. This in the midst of a fuel price crisis that “suddenly” reveals the Persian Gulf to be the holder of the world’s most essential commodity. This is in the midst of two wars that […]

Dominica, Caribs, and a German U-boat? The problem of why “we always get people like you.”

It is September of 1998. I am visiting with a former Chief of the Dominica Carib Territory, in the presence of another who in subsequent years would also be elected Chief of the Carib Council. We are sitting alone, the three of us, in the back pew of the Roman Catholic Church in Salybia. The […]