Savage Minds Around the Web
Julian Steward, rexamined: John Hawkes is writing a series explaining culture diffusionism, which is quite useful for those of us who haven’t received an education in the Boasians. Hawkes started with the Prussian himself (and associates), and his next installment focuses on a 1929 article by Julian Sterward, “Diffusion and independent invention: a critique of logic.” Stay tuned for the next installment of the diffusion series on Leslie White.
To the Anthropocentrists in the Room…Check out the Multispecies Salon II, set to run in conjunction with the AAA’s in San Francisco this month. There will be two associated panels at AAA as well. (thanks to Material World for posting this information).
Sexual Revolutions: Lorenz at antropologi.info pulls together reviews of Pardis Mahdavi’s new book Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution. According to one review, Mahdavi was party to frank discussions of extra- and pre-marital sex and a group sex party. I have got to take a serious look at her methods section.
Obama, Nature’s Choice: In what may be its first endorsement of a candidate for president (according to Cosmic Variance), premier science journal explains its reasons for endorsing Barack Obama for president:
The Oval Office is not a debating chamber, nor is it a faculty club. As anyone in academia will know, a thoughtful and professorial air is not in itself a recommendation for executive power. But a commitment to seeking good advice and taking seriously the findings of disinterested enquiry seems an attractive attribute for a chief executive. It certainly matters more than any specific pledge to fund some particular agency or initiative at a certain level — pledges of a sort now largely rendered moot by the unpredictable flux of the economy.
This journal does not have a vote, and does not claim any particular standing from which to instruct those who do. But if it did, it would cast its vote for Barack Obama.
[Note: Nature is very proprietary over its webcontent, and so there’s no telling how long this link will remain open to those who do not have a subscription to Nature).
The Secret to Cheating? Duh, don’t tell. The New York Times’s reported that women are more likely to tell a computer about marital infidelity than an anonymous researcher. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that, according to an anonymous student poll, 49% of Cambridge undergraduates report having plagiarized.
Review for Smart People about Anthropology for Dummies: Barbara J. King wrote on her monthly blog on Bookslut.com about the possible virtues of Anthropology for Dummies (ok, not really for dummies. It’s just for the uninitiated). While King questions whether this book can make non-anthropologists think critically about issues with which anthropologists concern themselves. But she’s open to persuasion, and (as she told me by email), is looking for others’ opinions on whether such a book could be beneficial (or maybe not) for the discipline. Feel free to comment below.
