Comments on: Savage Minds Around the Web

By: crystal

crystal — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:24:54 +0000

i used the term mancestor on an intro to cultural anthropology syllabus to refer to “old, white, male anthropologists” (as in: Please read closely, even if your first instinct is to dismiss the authors we are reading as a bunch of mancestors with nothing to offer us today). it recently gained currency across disciplines when a friend deployed it in a speech welcoming the new cohort of english doctoral students. also, at my university we have a hall with portraits of famous anthropologists who have graduated from our department. we fondly call it “the hall of mancestors.”

By: anoniner

anoniner — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:02:05 +0000

I don’t get it. What I get from the reuters’ article is that the main argument of Mc Allister’ book is that if you do not exercise, you won’t be a great athlete. Is that the great discovery ?

Or is the argument that the lack of exercise is putting an evolutive pressure towards physical weakness ? It looks like lamarckism, doesn’t it ?

We are told that before the industrial revolution, people had better bones. Should I really believe that this is because of a genetical evolution process ?

And where exactly in the theory do the Tutsi young men fit ?

What I get from the reuters’ review is a very, very bad feeling about this book.

By: MTBradley

MTBradley — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:07:01 +0000

Professor McAllister actually seems to be a bit of a misanthropologist.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:49:19 +0000

That neologism is terrible. While you write that you have a lot of manthropology jokes, I’ve got nothing. ruysbroek’s joke was pretty good. though.

By: ruysbroek

ruysbroek — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:28:57 +0000

manthropology jokes are funny only for bitter anthropologynists.