Comments on: More Crystal Skull geekage

By: patrick

patrick — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:05:01 +0000

funny, it seems like Jones usually goes after a Hebrew artifact of some kind…

By: wintermute

wintermute — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:26:11 +0000

Indiana Jones has been denied tenure…

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/10/10bryan.html

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:15:08 +0000

Interestingly, there’s a really interesting-looking anthro-ish magazine in Slovenia called Emzin. I can’t read Slovenian so I don’t know about the quality of the articles, but the articles themselves are quite lengthy and there’s an interesting mix of articles, artwork and glossy ads for handbags and lifestyle objects.

Ah those Eastern Europeans. Not sure it would work in the US/UK, but you never know.

By: joshua

joshua — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:52:39 +0000

Interesting this post should come up; I have been thinking all week about what an anthropology magazine would look like and how it might work- be effective. It was the very same issue of Colors that started spinning my gears. However, I was fortunate enought to have just finished my economic anthropoloy course this year, which gave me a different lens to read it through; great issue, for sure.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:37:39 +0000

Strong, thanks so much for the http://www.wallpaper.com/ URL. Amazing stuff.

By: Strong

Strong — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:11:32 +0000

I was thinking of this: http://www.wallpaper.com/ It’s actually kind of a great magazine. It’s always featuring these big spreads on design or architecture in places like Bogota or Almaty.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:42:44 +0000

If I were launching a magazine about Anthropology, I’d think about starting with Thomas Kelley’s description of the anthropologist in _Ten Faces of Innovation_.

bq. The Anthropologist is rarely stationary. Rather, this is the person who ventures into the field to observe how people interact with products, services, and experiences in order to come up with new innovations. The Anthropologist is extremely good at reframing a problem in a new way, humanizing the scientific method to apply it to daily life. Anthropologists share such distinguishing characteristics as the wisdom to observe with a truly open mind; empathy; intuition; the ability to “see” things that have gone unnoticed; a tendency to keep running lists of innovative concepts worth emulating and problems that need solving; and a way of seeking inspiration in unusual places.

Articles demonstrating the capacities Kelley admires so much could be very appealing to a general audience.

Oh, well, just a thought.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:36:20 +0000

Strong, do you have a URL for Wallpaper? A Google search pops up all sorts of sites, but most have to do with either the material world version that goes on walls or the virtual version that goes on computer screens. Or is one of these what you were talking about?

John

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:12:11 +0000

“featuring pictures of naked natives”

I mistakenly read that as pictures of naked RELATIVES. Kinship porn really would be reprehensibly anthropological.

By: Strong

Strong — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:56:16 +0000

My model for this would be Wallpaper, which is consistently chic, modern, and now, but also super global (in the 5 star sense of the term). And it pays attention to details.

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:08:14 +0000

“you expect a lot from a field that only discovered there were women in its field sites in 1974!”

Tell that to Malinowksi.

By: oneman

oneman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:47:06 +0000

Rex, you expect a lot from a field that only discovered there were women in its field sites in 1974! (At least we’re not economists, though.)

But honestly, who do you think is the general audience for “It’s Great to be an Anthropologist Monthly”?

How about “National Anthropologic”, featuring pictures of naked natives — now *that* would sell! It would be morally reprehensible, of course.

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:44:32 +0000

Meh – Anthronow is about how anthropology is ‘relevant’, and Faces is just about multiculturalism. What we don’t have is a “it’s great to be an anthropologist! Here are the latest discoveries from anthropology! Learn more about how to do anthropology here!”

…I think maybe its that ‘latest discoveries’ thing that is holding us back….

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:16:58 +0000

“Colors”:http://www.colorsmagazine.com/ is pretty glossy (well, matt often actually), and although it is obviously not really what you have in mind, I have always enjoyed its anthro-ish fascination with variation, materiality, networks and so forth. Heavy on images, heavy on message, light on analysis, but for example the current issue is “Money” and includes a piece on the market for blood in Iraq – you look at a few photos, you read a few quotes, and you think not only is there a world of ethnographic possibility, but there’s more there than you will ever get from the HTS teams. (website is Flash laden and PDF generating…how 1998)

By: oneman

oneman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:07:32 +0000

Faces is a glossy "world cultures" magazine for kids 9-14; it's published by the same people who publish Cricket, which is a literary mag for teens that publishes folktales from around the world (among other things). Very high production value (and expensive) -- too bad there's nothing like it for grown-ups. Maybe if we stapled all the anthro stuff from Smithsonian together...