Savage Minds not in San Francisco (but, yes, Around the Web)

Wondering what’s going on outside of the bay?

New York City: Reviews of the 33rd annual Margaret Mead ethnographic film festival. Joshua Bell at Material World recounts and reviews several of the entries in the festival. Meanwhile, the Columbia Student Newspaper discussed the festival and reflects on the changing face of Columbia Anthropology since Mead’s time.

London…and around the World: BBC radio is doing a series on contemporary issues in anthropology featuring interviews by Maurice Bloch, Adam Kuper, and others. Go to the website soon, as the interviews are only available for a short time after they broadcast.

Afghanistan: Maximillian Forte formed a comprehensive collection of articles on Don Ayala, the HTS contractor who allegedly shot and killed an Afghan man after that man allegedly set one of Ayala’s HTS teammates on fire.

The Philadelphia Inquirer posted an opinion piece by Orin Starn on the role Tiger Woods played in preparing white America to accept Barack Obama as a “post-racial” black president. Starn continues the analogy (and the continuing lack of infrastructure to produce golfers of color) to remind the public that one symbolic victory doth not revolution make.

Bremen, Germany: John Postill at Media/Anthropology discusses the work of recent PhD Oliver Hinkelbein on the digital divide between immigrants and native-born Germans, focusing on human agents facilitating technology interaction rather than technological objects.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: On Somatosphere, Peter Locke reviews Sarah Wagner’s new book, To Know Where He Lies, an ethnographic account of case managers at the International Committee of Missing Persons and their use of DNA technology to identify the remains of 8000 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to Locke, the book weaves an intricate narrative incorporating theoretical discussions of science studies and historical memory.

Middle (and not-so middle) America: Slate has a brief, smart piece on the repurposing of abandoned giant commercial spaces (like old Walmarts moving into larger Walmarts) into churches, museums, flea markets, and other new spaces. Check out the slide show, it’s interesting.

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