The Tragedy of Not Knowing History

In a recent article in The Economist, published one day after we in America celebrated our independence from foreign rule, the “tragedy of the Arabs” is summarized as a “civilisation that used to... 

Exploring Ethnographic Film Archiving Today

Last spring, a group of 20 notable archivists, anthropologists, filmmakers and others concerned with the future of ethnographic media met at Harvard’s Peabody Museum for the Roundtable on Ethnographic... 

Latin America and Social Solidarity Economy Legislation

I had already anticipated that anthropology contributes to an important debate on otra economía & sociedad by making visible what and how are things accomplished, day-to-day, and what may these practices... 

Creating One’s Own Postdoc Position

An NSF-funded Investigation of Cultural Change in Amazonia I work at an ethnic boundary. “When they [the Matsigenka] first come, they have many problems, and they are used to not working. That is one... 

Climate Change and Social Murder

Agreeing to Kill the People of the Maldives Earlier this year researchers described huge collapses on the Western Antarctic ice sheet. A NASA study involving an assessment of 40 years of ground, air, and... 

The Raw and the Reviewed

My Experiences with the NSF One of the most significant moments in my early career was being awarded a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (NSF DDRIG). Another... 

To the Field!

What do anthropologists do? For many of us, it seems that we spend an inordinate amount of time teaching college classes, grading student papers, writing grant proposals, and making research presentations. ... 

A Defense of NSF Funding from the Field

Every day since arriving in Tokyo this past April to do anthropological fieldwork, I have been thinking about earthquakes. That is to say, I catch myself imagining the very real possibility that the earth...