Here’s a short synopsis of the week in anthropology.

The Business of Anthropology: Mark Dawson’s post at ethnography.com points out the conspicuous nature of anthropology’s business.

For me, people engaged in the business of anthropology are those that teach the art and science of the discipline, publish scholarly articles and books, are active in scholarly organizations and are usually found in colleges and universities (but thats hardly criteria). 

Public Anthropologists: L.L. Winn at Culture Matters reponds to Matti Bunzl’s article in American Anthropologists on the lack of anthropologists in the public sphere.

A Whole World of Anthropology: Lorenz at antropologi.info wrote a review of Paul Nchoji Nkwi’s article on Anthropology in Africa. The article is a chapter in a book called World Anthropologies, which is available online, via the World Anthropologies Network. Interesting reads.

Would a Country by any Other Name? Language Log posted a piece complicating the postcolonial question Burma or Myanmar:

In both Myanmar and Burma the English spellings assume a non-rhotic variety of English, in which the letter r before a consonant or finally serves merely to indicate a long vowel: [ˈmjænmɑː, ˈbɜːmə]. So any American who says the last syllable of Myanmar as [mɑːr] or pronounces Burma as [bɝːmə] is using a spelling pronunciation based on British, non-rhotic, spelling conventions. 

Yoruba in the City: Julie Botticello on Material World wrote on her fieldwork on the social, spiritual and physical bodies in Yoruba migrant communities of London. The end of the post calls for comments on the project, for those who are inclined to advise.