Around the Web Digest: Week of June 15

Everyone must be on vacation this week, because it has been crickets. We still have some excellent news and blog articles for your consumption though, so kick up your feet and dig in. If you find or write an article this week that you’d like me to check out for next week’s Digest, shoot it my way at richard.powis@gmail.com or on Twitter at @dtpowis.

Let’s get this show on the road.

Stories by anthropologists.

Isaiah Silver launched a discussion, making a compelling case for the endorsement of BDS by anthropologists. (Savage Minds)

Sienna Craig has written on the terrible lives of migrant workers. (Pacific Standard)

Tap one mana and cast Protection on Alex Golub who, this week, explored how it was that mana made it into the culture of video/card gaming. (The Appendix)

Joshua D. Rubin discussed how consuming the World Cup is to participate in concealing the local conflicts that surround the World Cup. (HuffPo)

Lance Arney and Marilyn Williams wrote on the school-to-prison pipeline in Florida. (Anthropology News)

T. M. Luhrmann has authored an op-ed on the nature of cultural responses to drug-use, in which she suggests that the risks associated with marijuana use may increase. (It’s probably best that you do not read the comments.) (New York Times)

Charis Boke shares the perspective of doing fieldwork at home. (Allegra Lab)

Gregory Hollin investigated autism as a subject of anthropological inquiry. (Somatosphere)

I reviewed Katherine Frank’s new book, “Plays Well in Groups: A Journey through the World of Group Sex.” (Savage Minds)

Stories about anthropology.

In the village of Ambonwari in Papua New Guinea, cell phones are used to communicate with the dead. (New Republic)

Lauren Kascak, a reformed “voluntourist,” provides some perspective on white savior complex and taking selfies while serving underserved populations. (Pacific Standard)

Laurie Taylor has written on what he calls “the endangered art” of ethnography. (Times Higher Education)

Stories for anthropologists.

Chronicle Vitae ran a wonderful four-part series this week on “pregnancy, motherhood, and the academy.” The writers included anthropologist Sarah Kendzior (“Should You Have a Baby in Grad School?”), as well as Rachel Leventhal-Weiner (“The Perfect Academic Baby”), Kelly J. Baker (“Are Children Career Killers?”), and Elizabeth Keenan (“The No-Penalty Baby”). (Chronicle Vitae)

In her new book, “The Tolerance Gap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality,” Suzanna Walters argues that the “born this way” defense of homosexuality actually undermines an accurate understanding of biology and sexuality. (Science of Us)

Patricia J. Williams, a professor of law at Columbia University, excellently reviews Nicholas Wade’s “A Troublesome Inheritance” (even comparing him to Janelle Ambrosia). (The Nation)

The Nigerian philosopher Olúfémi Táíwò urged African intellectuals to embrace “modernity.” Yep – that’s a lot to unpack. (In These Times)

Karl Marx is apparently cool again. (Salon)

Peter Rauch authored a post on how men can participate in meaningful discussion after tragedies such as the Santa Barbara shooting. (Masculinities 101)

Delta Airlines congratulated the US for their World Cup Group Stage win over Ghana with representative photos of the Statue of Liberty and a giraffe – except there are no giraffes in Ghana. (Twitter)

Derica Shields wrote on the British selective memory that seemingly denies Queen Elizabeth I’s complicity with the launch of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. (The New Inquiry)

Women in prison are still coerced into sterilization…in the United States. (In These Times)

The US Patent Office has revoked the patent trademarks for the Washington R******s’ name. (Think Progress)

The threat of gang violence is chasing young Central American men across the border into the US. (The Atlantic)

Virtual doctors could provide better health care, if we’re honest. (Pacific Standard)

This week, Made in a Free World launched a service for business owners that allows them to research their supply chain in search of parts that might be the product of forced labor. (Made in a Free World)

In a rare exception to my rule about rounding up articles from this week, I just have to share this article from January about the transnational nature of two World Cup teams in particular – France and Belgium. (Roads & Kingdoms)

Dick Powis

Dick Powis is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, and is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His research interests include men and childbirth, prenatal screening technologies, and reproductive health in urban settings in Senegal. Read more at dickpowis.com.

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