What strikes me the most is the notion of individualistic construction of an online personna. We try to build a consistent mask of the self in the age of internet. This process is too much self-involved, and it doesn’t pay much attention to our surroundings. It’s the kind of attention that usually reads “just the tip” of articles, texts and posts, or, worst, just the title. But does not goes to the subtle meaning of the text, doesn’t care about what the author really wants to say. Does not let one be affected by words. That’s the root problem.

We are trying to rethink our name and proposition here in SM, and this plead for new names generated more interest and interaction than most of our other posts. A new name, simple. But it’s just not a new name, it’s a response for an immense problem that emerges from our political conjuncture.

This week, Rex posted his History of Anthropology timeline, a huge effort of 5 years, and he said in its presentation that this timeline encompasses all anthro authors from USA, UK and France.  One comment on facebook replied: “And what about other points of view? I mean the point isn’t it to diversify perspectives of our understanding of the world and the others… What can we learn from the unknown, when the unknown is only one, the non-western??” I got really tired when I saw this one. Internet should be about collective constructions (as is SM). Not about saying what somebody else should do, even if the critique is pertinent.

My first thought when I saw Rex timeline was that I should try to contribute by expanding it with Latin American anthropologists (I’m from Brazil, by the way). Not that he should expand it, he’s not obliged to it. He did put this timeline as an open access teaching resource, and for that I’m thankful and will try to contribute in a near future.

Discussions on the internet tend to be manichaeist. Curiosity is still a private interest, not much suitable for the universe of discussions on the web. Don’t know, maybe I lost something in translation…

Last week I started an internship here at Savage Minds for managing SM’s social media accounts. This post is just a self-introduction and a little blurb about what I’ll do here. So, ‘hi, my pleasure!’ My name is Caio Coelho (yes, my last name means ‘bunny’), I’m a visual anthropologist from Brazil (Porto Alegre). Before starting to work on Savage Minds’ social media, I had already been working for the social media team of HAU: Journal of ethnographic theory (I still work there, by the way), I also work as lecturer at UNISINOS.

My work for Savage Minds will be to manage and curate what we post on Facebook and Twitter, posting anthropology-related news and blog articles, as well as revisiting older posts of SM through the #MindsArchive hashtag. I also intend to make an effort to draw attention to SM’s special series and guest bloggers. But, most importantly, I plan to turn the account into more than just a bunch of links. I want to engage with our audience, having anthropological discussions over social media.

So, please, feel free to @-us or tag us with what you’re reading and propose new topics for us to discuss. See you around the web! xo