Savage Minds Around the Web

AAA and Embedded Anthropology in the News: The New York Times filed this news brief on the AAA on anthropologists and the military. Unfortunately, the article is vague as to what the panel who released the report actually said, and related that most people interviewed requested anonymity. Too bad, the only people who are quoted are Robert Gates and Stanley McChrystal. Time Magazine also published a longer review of the report, and the broader context of anthropology’s history with state projects and colonialism. Christian Science Monitor also reported on anthropologists in the military.

Don’t Hold Your Breath: Waiting for the NRC ratings of your department? As Insidehighered.com reports in brief, you can keep on waiting.

Three Words You Didn’t Expect to hear in one sentence. ‘ Mr Bason said anthropology had become “hip” in the Government service in Denmark’ (my italics).  In this short business article, New Zealand business managers get advice from Denmark, where civil servants have found their ‘inner anthropologist.’

Mythbusters, Rai Edition: Ted Swedenberg is preparing a manuscript on Rai music, and, in preparation, he has posted on hawgblawg a great piece on correcting journalistic and scholarly myths on rai music. It’s a great read, even if you haven’t heard of Rai or its mythologies before.

150 Candles: In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Origins of Species. Scientific American is (oh so) generously opening up a 2005 article on the legacy of Darwin, as well as a partial reading of the article on their podcast.

In Memoriam: Maximillian Forte posted a fitting tribute to the recently murdered anthropologist Richard Antoun.

Got something that could save us from another slow news week?  Email me for inclusion in the next SM around the web.

2 thoughts on “Savage Minds Around the Web

  1. All of the articles I read about HTS talk generally about anthropologists embedded in Afghanistan (for instance, in the headlines), but I’ve seen only 2-3 clear references to anthropologists working in the program, including McFate. After the headlines, the discourse is of generic “social scientists.” Does anyone know what the actual breakdown of types of “social scientists” working in HTS is?

  2. Hi,

    Accoring to the official Humanterrain-website, the requirements of the “field social scientists” working for HTS are a “PhD in anthropology or related field such as international relations, sociology, political science, history, economics, public policy, social psychology, or area studies. An MA with extensive applied experience is also acceptable.” The same goes for staff members working at the Research Reachback Center.

    The AAA’s CEAUSSIG report ( http://www.aaanet.org/cmtes/commissions/CEAUSSIC/upload/CEAUSSIC_HTS_Final_Report.pdf ) tells us that in April 2009, of the 417 people working under HTS, six were anthropologists holding a PhD (of 49 PhD’s altogether), another 5 had a Master’s-level degree in anthropology. See Chapter 4/page13 of the CEAUSSIG -report (“Brief Description of the Human Terrain System”) for more information.
    Its quite probable that the number of employed anthropologists has risen since then. The above-quoted Time-article speaks of roughly 500 employees at the moment, meaning an increase of roughly 25 % of employees since April. This correlates with the blog of one HTS-employee, who speaks of around a dozen anthropologists stationed/living in Fort Leavenworth in September 2009, not counting those deployed in the field.

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