#biocultural systematics

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Engaging Activism in Anthropology of Disability

Engaging Activism in Anthropology of Disability

Mirjam Holleman (author, left) presenting on the topic of (dis)ability and social inclusion to a small audience at a festival (Slot Art Festival) in Poland, summer 2016. The anthropologist is frequently construed as an ideally detached observer who doesn’t let his or her own ideals or visions for society interfere with or steer her research. But sometimes it’s hard not to care. As Sally Merry has…

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Talking about Race with “White Person Bias”

Talking about Race with “White Person Bias”

Author Jo Weaver juggling fieldwork and family in Brazil. Photo courtesy David Meek Fieldwork. We all do it, yet it seems to be something that’s particularly hard to teach and talk about, especially when so much of the success of fieldwork in any anthropological sub-discipline hinges on a researcher’s ability to form genuine social relationships. I’ve heard people say, “You just can’t teach that”…

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Cheap Thrills and Elementary Anthropology

Cheap Thrills and Elementary Anthropology

Author, Christopher Lynn (Photo courtesy author) In “Fieldwork in Common Places,” Mary Louise Pratt (1986) critiqued anthropological writing, saying, “For the lay person, such as myself, the main evidence of a problem is the simple fact that ethnographic writing tends to be surprisingly boring. How, one asks constantly, could such interesting people doing such interesting things produce such dull…

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What’s Biological about Biocultural Research? (Part 2)

What’s Biological about Biocultural Research? (Part 2)

Jason DeCaro In an earlier post, I discussed the role of biology in biocultural research by debunking common misconceptions. Here, I turn to the messier question of what biocultural research needs from biology. We inhabit an academic universe of disciplines, sub-disciplines, and sub-sub-disciplines guarding their borders. Holism is not dead, but we struggle with what it means. If biocultural…

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