Readers might notice the change in the title of this weekly installment of the anthropological week in review. The name change reflects the vision of the blog: “Savage Minds is a collective web log devoted to both bringing anthropology to a wider audience as well as providing an online forum for discussing the latest developments in the field.” In “Around the Web,” we try to expand that collective and gather a sample of what other savage minds dispersed on the Internet have said in the past week. And, as always, we welcome links to other stories in the comments section, or sent directly to me at anthrohomo@gmail.com.

And in a shameless act of marketing, we want to brand the product a little. So, with no more ado, here is what other savage minds around the web have written this week.

Marshall Sahlins on Leslie White, heartland intellectuals, ‘rational choice,’ and the symbolic phenomenon of culture, in the New York Times.

The Limits of Creationism: Michael Reiss, director of education of the Royal Institute in the UK tendered his resignation from the institute, apparently because of his views in creationism. News at Nature reports:

Michael Reiss, a professor at London’s Institute of Education and an ordained minister in the Church of England, yesterday stepped down from his post as director of education at Britain’s Royal Society. The move, which appears to have been forced, follows a letter to the president of the Society, Martin Rees, from three Nobel-prize winning fellows “greatly concerned” by remarks Reiss was reported to have made at the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual “Festival of Science” on 11 September.

The Nature article is not explicit as to whether Reiss actually promoted creationism in the course of his job at the Institute. For more on this controversy, see The Times, several responses at the Guardian, including this one which compares the Reiss controversy to actor Matt Damon’s comments about U.S. Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Strapping Bucks: Swiss Zoologists have discovered that male deer with deeper voices are considered more attractive to female doe than males with higher voices. No word yet on whether deep voiced female deer are really good at carpentry. [National Geographic also covered this story].

Transnational U: The Sunday Independent wrote a short piece on the increasing number of faculty from the global North at universities in the global South (and vice-versa), and the revamping of curricula of universities in developing countries.

Sites of Culture: Tad McIlwraith at Fieldnotes linked to this article in the Times Colonist newspaper regarding the pending accord the local Canadian government will make with Vancouver Island First Nation groups. The new accord will protect not only archaeological sites but natural sites of religious importance.

What is a Social Networking Site: danah boyd at apophenia wrote a provocative article on facebook.com’s struggle to determine how users will user their site. At the center of the problem is how one defines a social networking website, as a website to organize one’s existing social network, or a tool to create a social network.

A Department is Born: The Georgetown department of Sociology and Anthropology has just split. The nascent department currently has tenure-track faculty, but will be working on building a full department by hiring new faculty.

What White People Buy: At Cognitive Daily, they are running a survey to determine if there is a correlation between Mac users and Prius drivers. Let your voice be heard. The survey continues until September 25.