Illustrated story about lives now gone but not forgotten:
(https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/san-francisco-mission-city-cemetery-forgotten-oldest-graves-buried)
The past sleeps but sometimes tosses and turns.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Language play in 7 spaces - banned vanity license plates in Michigan
Under a FOIA (Freedom of Information request) by the Detroit Free Press, the currently banned combinations of letters, numbers, and spaces that have been requested on personal (vanity) license plates is appended to their news article, "Michigan has banned more than 26,000 vehicle license plates" and this discussion shows the many ways language can be played with to evade the 25 reviewers watching for disrespect and other verbal abuses on public motorways. Such things are the natural field of study by linguistic anthropologists.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
children. summer documentary (FREE) viewing
Presented by D.E.R. (Documentary Education Resource.org)
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DER's Watch from Home returns this summer with an exciting new program: Children's Stories: Kids at Work & Play Around the World.
We invite you to explore a series of short films and clips that celebrate the diversity of children's experiences. The program features captivating stories about children from around the world as well as several enchanting short films which are sure to delight and inform young audiences, and evoke the child within all of us. In this collection, you can listen to a lullaby from the South Pacific, meet a yo-yo master, encounter unlikely friends in Argentina, and more. You'll be enthralled by the heartfelt stories and enchanting perspectives of children from different corners of the world.
All films are available until September 1st. Join us on this unique cinematic journey!
Get Your Tickets to Watch for Free:
Register to Watch<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/watch-from-home-childrens-stories-kids-at-work-play-around-the-world-tickets-950013705567>
We invite you to explore a series of short films and clips that celebrate the diversity of children's experiences. The program features captivating stories about children from around the world as well as several enchanting short films which are sure to delight and inform young audiences, and evoke the child within all of us. In this collection, you can listen to a lullaby from the South Pacific, meet a yo-yo master, encounter unlikely friends in Argentina, and more. You'll be enthralled by the heartfelt stories and enchanting perspectives of children from different corners of the world.
All films are available until September 1st. Join us on this unique cinematic journey!
Get Your Tickets to Watch for Free:
Register to Watch<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/watch-from-home-childrens-stories-kids-at-work-play-around-the-world-tickets-950013705567>
Monday, August 5, 2024
putting Ojibwe into Star Wars, thanks to LucasFilms
Overview article of the project of translating and then dubbing,
trailer to the film with voice actors, too, https://lucasfilm.app.box.com/s/rbx6bxcvs410151rwmkrizap2yhl42f0/file/1572088274236
Monday, July 29, 2024
Hillforts of British Isles - huge building projects of many centuries
It is sobering to look up to high locations on the islands and spot traces of hillforts. How different the land and people then versus now, and yet, also, many similarities, too.
This announcement on Twitter invites online visitors to sift and sort the many locations and dates, according to questions in the person's mind.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
words+image 2024 in the poetry camera
Clearly the playground and sandbox phase of Artificial Intelligence is still very active:
ou snap a photo & A.I. pairs some words to it?!
--Quoting boingboing.net on Thursday afternoon.
====================
Here's a little more on the project from TechCrunch:
The story of the Poetry Camera began as a personal passion project ...
"The project's origin is when I got access to GPT-3. My first instinct was to play Dungeons & Dragons with it because I'm a nerd. I figured 'if this thing could play Dungeons & Dragons, that would be impressive.' And yeah, it did work for that. This was back when you had to do prompt engineering. So it took some elbow grease to get it to work. But I also had this idea of maybe making some camera as a project," says Mather. "What if you took a camera, but it was a reaction to Instagram culture? What if text comes out instead of a photo? … Everyone prefers the book version over the movie, so it's like that for capturing moments."
As they refined their prototype, Zhang and Mather began to share their creation with friends and family at social gatherings. The reactions they received were nothing short of astonishing. People were fascinated by the concept of a camera that could generate poetry based on what it saw. The device quickly became the center of attention, sparking lively discussions and igniting the imagination of all who encountered it.
...the thing I like about Poetry Camera is that it's not making lofty claims about replacing creative labor so that a bunch of lazy bastards can some money off of NFTs or whatever. It's purely novel, and genuinely kind of delightful. And that's all it needs to be.
This camera trades pictures for AI poetry [Haje Jan Kamps / TechCrunch]
Monday, March 25, 2024
Linguistics going "open access"
Viewable online with no subscription required:
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| ||||
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Engaging the public by archaeology excavations at Must Farm
Volume 1 of the excavation report at Must Farm, a bronze age site compared to the Pompeii of Britain, is now free to read in PDF (full image sizes or as reduced image version for smaller download time) at https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/400b29d5-2e22-4321-878c-cb122d291660
This screenshot comes from the sidebar about the intent, reflections of the efforts, and the reverberating results of inviting the public to be part of the discovering and interpretation process along the way. In other words, communicating the excavation and its resulting puzzles pieces coming together to form a picture was by design and integral to the whole undertaking, rather than an afterthought or secondary shadow of the work.
More and more science and its funding are designing the public-facing side to be part of the whole plan, rather than to be relegated to a few choice morsels casually thrown to the crowd. What the lasting effect on cultivating public interest and involvement has yet to be seen in the generations growing up now, and in the efforts of colleagues at other excavations.
See the full passage from which this screenshot comes on page 48 of the "reduced size PDF" at the link above.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
junior anthropologist award
New opportunity from the American Anthropological Association, https://forms.americananthro.org/junior-anthropologist-award
Intended for young people in elementary, middle and high school.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Captivating and Curious Careers of Anthropology
See YouTube channel for the American Anthropological Association
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
languages - English word order
Compare fixed meaning of word order in English versus the languages with word-endings to give grammatical meaning (case endings: Latin or Russian, say).
Saturday, February 17, 2024
documenting Consumerism in decline
This illustrated account of a derelict shopping mall in Owings, Maryland is representative of many more around the USA and probably other highly consumer-oriented societies, too.
The story makes a nice complement to the concepts connected to Affluenza (affluence+influenza: illness from having too much stuff).
On the subject of human evolution from mobile groups of few possessions to modern consumers with too much stuff and boundless appetite for more, see book by Chip Colwell, So Much Stuff (publisher page; see also the author interview).
 |
| screenshot from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-life-and-death-of-the-suburban-american-mall |
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Native language and lives then and now
Quoting from the annual festival of languages, https://mothertongue.si.edu/
Where and how do we find balance? To create balance is to connect the many branches of our existence, and to connect is to reach an enduring harmony. In 2024, the Mother Tongue Film Festival will showcase films that record personal journeys and explore the drive to find balance and harmony within our world, communities, families, and selves.
All events are free and open to the public, although some require advance registration.
About 20 or so trailers are embedded in the above website.
Monday, January 22, 2024
Learning Blackfeet language in public schools
Radio story about actor beginning award acceptance speech recently in Blackfeet language (fostering Native American languages in an ocean of English):
 | When Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to win a best actress Golden Globe, she said some words in Blackfeet. Her mother was behind efforts to get the language taught in classes. www.npr.org |
Thursday, January 4, 2024
annual Anthropology Day in 2024 is February 15
crosspost from AAA newsletter email at start of 2024:
Anthropology Day 2024 |
|
Monday, December 18, 2023
every year, "World Anthropology Day" & precollege visits
For the February 15, 2024 event (annually the 3rd Thursday), https://americananthro.org/events/anthropology-day/
-as seen on Twitter-
 | When is Anthropology Day? Help us celebrate what anthropology is and what it can achieve by hosting an event in your community, on your campus, or in your workplace. Anthropology […] americananthro.org |
Monday, November 20, 2023
librarian (Austin, TX) tailors the rooms based on observing the students
This pre-recorded presentation was made for the international conference in Toronto for anthropology (15-19 Nov. 2023).
Jain Orr, the author of this recording, credits her college anthropology classes with tuning her eye to observed and unobserved behavior.
Now she modifies the school library lighting, furniture, collections and so on.
Very refreshing approach and suitable for sharing far and wide among those who run or care about libraries.
---with Jain's permission, here is the link
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Shhh! I'm a School Librarian Using My BA in Anthropology to Radically Transform the Library
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
World Council of Anthropological Associations, WCAA - video list
Thanks (?) to Covid more and more conversations among researchers take place online, thus reducing the carbon footprint and making it practical for a much, much wider audience to participate. As well, when conversations are recorded for public playback, then future audiences can also search and discover the ideas found there.
The WCAA, together with the WAU (World Anthropologies Union), has hosted many of these scholarly online get-togethers, including October 2022 (Human Rights 1) and December 2022 (Human Rights 2, livestream on Dec. 14; upload to follow). The events are meant to bring anthropologists to engage is current issues, emerging problems, and perennial questions about understanding and communicating insights of human life on planet Earth.
WAU/WCAA website: www.waunet.org/wcaa/videos
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Language lore - click languages in SE corner of Africa
- quoting boingboing.net for July 6, 2022 (about 3.5 minutes)
Sakhile Dube of "Safari and Surf" in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province explains the click sounds heard in the Zulu language (aka IsiZulu), a Bantu language spoken by more than ten million people in the region.
 | Many of the South African Tribes use click sounds in their language, this is a great Zulu click lesson with Sakhile from Safari and Surf - Wilderness Adventu... youtu.be |
Friday, May 20, 2022
collecting ethnographic writing WITH teaching resources
=-= crossposting May 19, 2022.
[seeking suggestions] a list of ethnographic books (monographs, edited volumes, and other non-textbooks) that come with instructor materials that could be used in anthropology classes ...
The instructor materials could take a variety of formats such as listings in the book itself, accompanying instructor manuals, or hyperlinks to publicly available pdfs or websites, etc. Some examples of possible teaching materials include but are not limited to discussion questions, videos, teaching activities, or assignments that accompany the book.
The goal of the project is to identify monographs or edited volumes that are not explicitly textbooks but have accompanying teaching materials that instructors could use to adopt the scholarly work into their classes.
If you have authored a book with such materials or know of such books with accompanying teaching materials, please email Audrey Ricke at: a c r i c k eAT iu.edu with
- the name of the book or series and the name of the author or press
- the link to the website that features the book (optional but very helpful)
- general topics covered in the book (optional but very helpful)
Here is a short list ...[to] share the list on the Teaching Anthropology Interest Group website, which contains links to other teaching materials.... docs.google.com/document/d/...
Respectfully,
Audrey Ricke -- Chair, Teaching Anthropology Interest Group, General Anthropology Division - American Anthro. Assoc.
Monday, March 7, 2022
Film Festival-7, indigenous languages today and tomorrow
=-= crossposting March 7, 2022 film festival organizer's email message
This year, our festival showcased 45 languages through 35 exceptional films that span over 16 regions around the world. Your support contributes to our continued success and the quality of the festival.
If you enjoyed this year's festival and would like to revisit some of the programming, you can explore open access films on our website and watch roundtable sessions on our YouTube channel. You can also stay up-to-date with the festival by subscribing to our mailing list for occasional newsletters about our films, events, and related programming.
Gracias, tekk, mahalo, merci, and thank you!
—The Mother Tongue Film Festival Team
7th Annual Mother Tongue Film Festival
February 17 – March 4, 2022
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Reconsidering our Neanderthal ancestry 160 to 45,000 years ago
Weekly radio show, On The Media (OTM), https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media
January 28, 2022 - Humans, Being
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Exhibit "Race: are we so different?" now online thanks to Google-Arts/culture initiative
Little by little the google form of spreading access to collections and displays grows each year.
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Halloween goes global - chronicle with insights from anthropology
https://www.sapiens.org/culture/halloween-history-global/ was published in 2018, but still pinpoints the meanings and motives today for this many-sided, globalizing event: "How Halloween Has Traveled the Globe. Whether trick-or-treating in the United States or costume play celebrations in Japan, Allhallows Eve has taken many forms as its traditions travel the world." By Amber Dance.
Friday, September 10, 2021
outreach & archaeology topics
crossposting from D. Stapp on September 9, 2021
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The Journal of Northwest Anthropology has today released an edited collection of 24 essays focused on reaching out to the public and others. We are making an e-copy available to those who are interested on our website for no cost. The essays are focused on projects, writings, curricula, and recommendations. You can get your e-copy of How Do We Reach More? Sharing Cultural and Archaeological Research with Others at the following address:
www.northwestanthropology.com/
While many of us do a lot of outreach, I think it is safe to say we need to do more to make this world a better place. I'd be interested in my colleagues thoughts on strategies they have used to reach more.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Why designating a language "endangered" may lead to problems
Paper presented 2/2021 via online platform and then the source text shared on LinkedIn:
Rethinking the Language of Language Endangerment
Gerald Roche (Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University)Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Human language wonders
- JRR Tolkien's many languages (constructed languages) for Middle Earth (about 14 minutes), https://youtu.be/VFlyQk_uVAI
- European reporter in USA [taken from his early January 2021 Tweet]: From Dalton, Georgia to Washington, D.C., here's my coverage for @AP_GMS of last week's events in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Luxembourgish, in that order.https://twitter.com/i/status/1349025211518246912
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
innovative ethnography by manga, Southeast Asia.
This 20 page ethnography example will interest those who like to think about ethnographic forms.
We have heard that "the medium is the message" (Marshall McLuhan). I think he was talking about TV: no matter what content is presented the *medium* tells the viewers something about the structure of information, authority, reality and worldview.
So manga-ethnography is an interesting idea!
Here is the abstract from the linked page, below
Abstract
This is an excerpt from The King of Bangkok. Originally appearing in Chapter 3, the section we present is a flashback that follows the book's protagonist, Nok, on his journey to the island of Koh Pha-Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand. Nok has secured work on a construction site there during the height of the country's economic boom. The section demonstrates how opportunity and precarity, excitement and devastation are fundamental forces animating and shaping the experiences of migrant workers like Nok.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: Rels-TLC <rels-tlc-bounces@groups.sas.upenn.ed
Subject: Rels-TLC Digest, Vol 138, Issue 33
Subject: Rels-TLC Digest, Vol 138, Issue 33
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:27:40 +0100 From: Claudio Sopranzetti <sopranz83@ >gmail
Subject: [tlc] Preview and Interview on the forthcoming graphic novel in English, The King of Bangkok
Subject: [tlc] Preview and Interview on the forthcoming graphic novel in English, The King of Bangkok
COMMONING ETHNOGRAPHY VOLUME 3 contains a 20-pages preview of the next
graphic novel in the UTP EthnoGRAPHIC Series, The King of Bangkok, and an
interview with Claudio Sopranzetti, Sara Fabbri and Chiara Natalucci on the
possibilities of graphic ethnography.
For those interested:
https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/ce/index?fbclid=IwAR2D4d4NMLI8jmgGx0oRsQ8eIAFHK3YQm5K5A3XlunUP4hixouhPhmOZb50
graphic novel in the UTP EthnoGRAPHIC Series, The King of Bangkok, and an
interview with Claudio Sopranzetti, Sara Fabbri and Chiara Natalucci on the
possibilities of graphic ethnography.
For those interested:
https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/ce/
Saturday, December 5, 2020
Curated online listening/watching, bi-weekly
(example) From the email to American Anthropological Association members on Saturday, December 5, 2020 and issued for the past month or so as a convenience and way to promote wider participation in these arenas.
- Caste, Speaking of Race
- Moments of Resilience Amid a Pandemic, Sapiens
- Episode 117 - Fish People, The Dirt
- 85: How Food "Authenticity" Commodifies Identities With Jenny Dorsey, AnthroDish
- The Familiar Strange
- Ep# 68"Landing on the Earth": Ashley Carruthers on Organic Farming and Cycling in Vietnam, The Familiar Strange
- More than a Game: Sports, Race, and Masculinity in Diaspora w/ Vyjayanthi Vadrevu and Stanley Thangaraj, This Anthro Life
- Meet Islam's Da Vinci: Al-Biruni, father of geodesy, anthropology, and master of pharmacy, ZMEScience
- Seven Essential Listens From the Indigenous Podcasting Boom, Vanity Fair
- Why We Can't Stop Talking about 'Hipster' Pastors, Christianity Today
- Color Struck!, Zora's Daughter
- The Black Liberal Agenda, Zora's Daughter
- In Search of Light in Dark Times, The SCAS Talks Podcast
- Moments of Resilience Amid a Pandemic, Sapiens Podcast
- Full Moon over Chiapas, RadioAmbulante
- Allusionist 121. No Title
- The Invention of Race, NPR
- Episode 17 - COVID-19 and Fisheries Research, Social FISHtancing
- A breakdown of the hit crime television show Bones - what's real and what's fiction!, That Anthro Podcast
- Channel Islands Archaeology with Dr. Torben Rick, That Anthro Podcast
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Dogs sniffing our (human) bones from centuries ago
Excerpt from "Archaeology Dogs Can Help Scholars Sniff Out the Past"
A dog's nose performs at least 10,000 times better than ours. Specifically, dogs pick up on low-molecular-weight compounds that easily evaporate at room temperature and often carry an odor—what scientists call volatile organic compounds. Canines can detect one such part in every trillion.
As a result, dogs have demonstrated uncanny olfactory abilities. They have sniffed out melanoma skin cancer in humans and detected pregnancy in cows just by picking up scents in their bodily fluids.
So, what exactly are canines detecting at archaeological digs? "Our dogs are not actually searching for bones," Glavaš emphasizes. "They are searching for the molecules of human decomposition."
As a result, dogs have demonstrated uncanny olfactory abilities. They have sniffed out melanoma skin cancer in humans and detected pregnancy in cows just by picking up scents in their bodily fluids.
So, what exactly are canines detecting at archaeological digs? "Our dogs are not actually searching for bones," Glavaš emphasizes. "They are searching for the molecules of human decomposition."
Sunday, June 14, 2020
excerpt, Indigenous + Scholarly lens on local life
extracted from "Indigenous Sociology for Social Impact" by Zuleyka Zevallos [The Sociological Review]
...While sociology largely ignores Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, Associate Professor Butler shows that the way in which we teach, research and discuss Indigenous experiences are framed through a White Western perspective that undervalues the complex cultures, spiritualities and social realities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Non-Aboriginal sociologists focus on written texts that exclude Indigenous people, ignoring oral traditions and seeking to mediate Indigenous experiences through White authority.
=-=-= comment:
Although the subject and context is different, there seems to a parallel impasse between campus-based scholars and their colleagues of the same training but working on applied/practicing project: academic thinkers seek grant support for wide engagement while applied thinkers seek client support for matters defined by contract - the former uses cases studies to get at larger questions, while the latter uses larger questions to frame specific instances to grapple with. Likewise of indigenous knowledge keepers versus outsider scholars there is an impasse as well as intersection. While both may engage in the same subject, the standpoints and purposes differ. Academics see the fieldwork subject as an illustration of wider things, while local experts see the subject as inseparable from the names, places, and lives touched by that subject.
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Britain's "Pompeii" time capsule, the Bronze Age site at Must Farm
Awarded the 2020 Antiquities prize for newly published and open access article, "The Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement."
The article provides a site overview and the current interpretations of the archaeology alongside discussing the material found during the 2015-16 excavations.
See https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.38
or look at Facebook for updates to the project, https://www.facebook.com/MustFarmArchaeology/
Thursday, May 14, 2020
reading - archaeology pages at Smithsonian Magazine
The section devoted to archaeology stories is at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/archaeology/
Some of the titles include the following. -- [fall 2019 to spring 2020]
Treasure Trove of Artifacts Illustrates Life in a Lost Viking Mountain Pass
In Groundbreaking Find, Three Kinds of Early Humans Unearthed Living Together in South Africa
A Mysterious 25,000-Year-Old Structure Built of the Bones of 60 Mammoths
Divers Recover More Than 350 Artifacts From the HMS 'Erebus' Shipwreck
Angkor Wat May Owe Its Existence to an Engineering Catastrophe
The Best Board Games of the Ancient World
To Craft Cutting Tools, Neanderthals Dove for Clam Shells on the Ocean Floor
Twelve Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2019
Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Stories of the Past Faster Than Ever Before
Oldest Known Seawall Discovered Along Submerged Mediterranean Villages
In Groundbreaking Find, Three Kinds of Early Humans Unearthed Living Together in South Africa
A Mysterious 25,000-Year-Old Structure Built of the Bones of 60 Mammoths
Divers Recover More Than 350 Artifacts From the HMS 'Erebus' Shipwreck
Angkor Wat May Owe Its Existence to an Engineering Catastrophe
The Best Board Games of the Ancient World
To Craft Cutting Tools, Neanderthals Dove for Clam Shells on the Ocean Floor
Twelve Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2019
Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Stories of the Past Faster Than Ever Before
Oldest Known Seawall Discovered Along Submerged Mediterranean Villages
Monday, April 27, 2020
online Anthropology encyclopedia
A recent (c.2018) resource to browse, https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/articles-a-to-z
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Hey, be careful where you point thing [camera lens]
Article told from the point of view of people being recorded on camera or video camcorder: many considerations for the person waving the equipment around!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Seven insights for photojournalists from those on the other side of the lens
---subheadings
Actions over aesthetics
Expectations grow with experience
Representativeness over impact
Be more than just a fly on the wall
Privacy was more of a concern for older adults compared to younger ones.
Safety in numbers
There's no right to privacy in public — but people don't always understand that
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Native American; paying attention to something besides capitalism
as an organizing principle for social life and livelihoods,
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
archaeology all around you
1) bombing rubble from Liverpool that makes up the Crosby beach, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/liverpool-beach-war-archaeology
2) recent book about "mudlarks" of London's low-tide river Thames who are registered with the bureau for overseeing cultural properties; bits of the past that wash up or erode into plain view become the treasure that trained eyes pick up,
author interview, https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/777336935/londons-mudlark-pulls-treasure-from-the-thames
ebook link, https://www.amazon.com/Mudlark-Search-Londons-Along-Thames-ebook/dp/B07DP6R4Q1/ref=sr_1_1
and 3) Nazca, Peru is the location of 1000 year old burials that have mummified from the climate's low-humidity, but were desecrated by robbers in the 1920s. This 1.9 minute video introduces the cultural site that has been prepared to allow visitors to view a few examples of the bodies at rest.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
forensic anthro - 1 of 6 programs in USA
Story about the field of forensic anthropology from Michigan State University weekly newsletter,
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Such pyramids of solid waste - or Ziggurat?
Exemplar from India's capital city, probably composed of the "11 per centers" who are Middle Class and above and who are accustomed to buy, consume, and discard; repeat at will.
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