Savage Minds Rewinds…The Best of 2008

As we ring in the new year, let’s take a fond look back at the SM posts that made you laugh, the ones that made you think, and the ones that didn’t do much for you at all but that we really like. Join us, won’t you?

The Issues: While anthropologists and the military and open access were again SM’s favorite causes, other events ‘out there’ made it onto the blog. Kerim wrote about violence in the Indian state of Rajasthan and its relation to denotified tribes. And how could we not talk about those uncontacted folks in Brazil, and the fact that they were not so uncontacted as first reported?

Savage Minds Invades AAAs: Taking San Francisco by storm hasn’t been so much fun since the 1970s. When AAA left Chris heartbroken over the lack of love on collaborating with AAA, he hatched a plan. Even though a glimmer of hope emerged that AAA had (maybe, in a kind of way) seen the light, we knew it was too good to be kinda true. So in November, while Montgomery McFate was busy avoiding her peers, the SM crew announced the winners of teh excellents blog.

Finding Anthropology: In the time honored tradition of anthropologists’ anxiety over their craft, some of the most popular posts this year have been about whether other disciplines do or don’t do ethnography/anthropology (and how well they do or don’t do it). In the spirit of equal opportunity, Rex decided to first piss off cultural studies proponents and then proclaim them the new anthropology. Chris was fascinated by the philosophers who actually talk to people. Other thoughts pondered… whether anthropology is a kind of connoiseurship, and the possible benefits to slow writing,

The Year in Reviews: Kerim’s dog Juno shared some thoughts on Donna Harraway’s When Species Meet. Strong asked whether the Wire is the best ethnograpy of the U.S. of our times? Both Kerim and Rex wrote reviews of Tom Boellstorff’s Coming of Age in Second Life, which prompted Boellstorff to post a response of his own. Speaking of reviewing your own book, Chris announced the birth of his new book, Two Bits. And we couldn’t have been prouder.

New Minds to the Fold: This year, we had some fantastic guest bloggers. Majorie Harness Goodwin wrote a response to a New York Times article on teasing. Jon Marks wrote on E.O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, and other schumcks who speak for Darwinism. Culture Matters blogger Lisa Wynn jumped over to write a series of posts on reproductive health technologies in Egypt (posts 1, 2, 3, 4). Tom Boellstorff discussed his recent ethnographic work in Second Life. And last, but probably not least, yours truly brought you the topical, not so topical, inane and otherwise events around the web.

And, of course, the many other favorite posts that refuse categorization.

Stay tuned for more edge of your seat deep contemplation in 2009!

One thought on “Savage Minds Rewinds…The Best of 2008

  1. Mrs. Montgomery McFate now has her own entry in wikipedia. I hope some of you who have been following her history and know the details of her record will post this on Wikipedia–I would, but I just don’t know the details.

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