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Overall, responses to our blog’s new name have been positive — and often enthusiastic. That said, we’ve had our fair share of objections: some people miss the old name (that’s sweet of you guys but it’s time to move on), while others are glad the old name is gone, but don’t like the new one. Along the way, Social Media has generated a good-sized list of ‘anthrodendum’ parody names, ranging from Latinate-racy (anthropudendum) to botanical (anthrodendron, invoking either coral or rhododendrons), or Trump-worthy (anthrodumdum). The one that seems to keep coming up the most, however, is the one I am most willing to own: anthroduodenum.

It’s sad that people think it is funny to lampoon our blog by calling it ‘anthroduodenum’. This stigmatizes the duodenum and disavows the hard work that the duodenum — including your very own duodenum, which is inside you right now at this very moment — does on a daily basis. The duodenum is an essential organ in your body. It absorbs more nutrients than your stomach. It turns the food you eat into the energy you need to live.

True, the duodenum lacks the glamor that a lot of contemporary anthropology craves. Many anthropologists see themselves as crusading moralists. They want to be our discipline’s heart, reminding us of right and wrong. Others walk around believing that everything that comes from their lips is the most philosophically important thing ever written. They want to be anthropology’s brain. The self-important impresarios who run our journals and funding agencies imagine themselves to be the bones and tendons of our scholarly body, holding it together.

No one ever imagines themselves to be the lymph nodes of anthropology, which help our discipline fight infection, or the pancreas, which regulates anthropology’s blood sugar levels. These less glamorous organs never make it into our analogies, despite the yeoman’s work they perform every day.

But I’m happy to own the name ‘anthroduodenum’. We do our work, every day. We raise issues of importance, like open access and net neutrality (my issues) to colonialism and racism (which I hope to hear more about from our new member Zoe Todd). It’s regular, unglamorous work. It’s not a good feeling to sit in front of a keyboard and say: “ok, I have to have something to say this week.” And these days, you know that pressing ‘publish’ will immediately result in criticism, since someone on social media will dislike (often intensely) what you have to say.  Instantly. Often without reading past the headline! That’s the acid and bile we neutralize on the site. Over the years, we’ve also had our fair share of ulcers, readers and commenters who seem to enjoy trying to puncture us. But we soldier on.

But we all still do this work, focusing on issues that deserve focus, recruiting guest bloggers who deserve exposure to a wide audience. It’s all part of the regular, often grinding act of digestion that we perform on the discipline.

To be fair, we’re an award winning blog and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, so I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I enjoy writing for the blog, and really appreciate the fact that visitors enjoy reading it. I’m just saying that when it comes to being called a duodenum, I wear that name as a badge of pride. Yes, that is what I am.

This weekend, when you are enjoying a nice meal with someone you care about, stop for a moment and thank your duodenum. It’s working hard, even if you don’t notice it. And, like Anthrodendum, it’s keeping track of all the important stuff in your (anthropology) diet so you don’t have to do it yourself. So keep taking fat bites off that thick, juicy Internet. We will keep breaking it down for you and keeping it real. ANTHRODUODENUM 4 EVAR!!!!!!!

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A new name has been a long time coming. On December 3, 2016, we announced that we would be re-naming this blog. Our primary reason was that we had come to understand that the name “Savage Minds” was harmful or offensive. Two Indigenous scholars were key to this prompt: guest blogger Zoe S. Todd – now a member of our core blogging team – was the first one to publicly state on the blog that a new name was needed; and Savannah Martin, an invaluable provocateur and wordsmith, generously gave us our new name: Anthrodendum. In a discipline with a history of entanglement with empire, and with longstanding commitments to meaning and context, we unanimously decided “Savage Minds” was no longer an acceptable name for us or for our readers. The word “savage” has historically been used to dehumanize non-White peoples and no pun or irony can obscure that reality.

Getting the name right mattered to us, and took much longer than some of us anticipated. Our deliberations were long and somewhat slow, traversing all sorts of terrain for a rethought name—some names endorsed by some, but vetoed by others; other names fell flat on their face the first time out of the gate; some generated initial excitement, then did not work for a range of reasons. The lists we had were long, very long. We now have a name we each feel represents the blog, our goals, and a sense of anthropology, both its histories and its possibilities.

As the name change committee now hands things over the design committee, the next several months will involve transitions in the website, including archiving our old website, and culminating with a name change party at the AAAs this December. We invite you to join us in DC to celebrate the next stage of this blog (which was founded in 2005). What might the next twelve years bring? We have no idea, but are glad to be on the journey with you. Thanks, all, for your ideas, your commitment, your critical feedback, and your encouragement. And, thank you, Zoe and Savannah!

Yours truly,

The Writers of Anthrodendum (formerly Savage Minds)

In alphabetical order: Ryan Anderson, Edward Chong, Caio Fernando Flores Coelho, Adam Fish, Kerim Friedman, Alex Golub, Maia Green, Chris Kelty, Carole McGranahan, Rebecca Nelson, Dick Powis, Uzma Rizvi, Matthew Thompson, Zoe Todd, and Zoë Wool.