Tag Archives: national anthropology day

Check out the Allegra relaunch

I was utterly stunned by the amount of traction that National Anthropology Day got on social media yesterday. American anthropologists across the country got together to congratulate themselves on their National Anthropology and Chocolate Mint. But for those of you slightly turned off by the Yankee-centric air of the AAA’s latest holiday, never fear. I’m sure Ed Liebow is currently positioning his star destroyer off the bow of the World Council of Anthropological Associations in order to whip up a much more globalized twitter frenzy.

Until that day comes, you can get all non-Americany by heading over to Allegra. That largely-European but not narrowly-European blog has just done a complete overhaul to their website. It looks great, and their newest content is now splashed across their front page in vibrant, colorful photos.

I’ve been amazed to watch Allegra grow, and I’m so impressed at their ability to consistently produce genuine, long (by Internet standards) content day after day after day. Honestly, they put our occasional rantings about goats and Alessandro Volta to shame.

So go check out their new website! Onward Allegra!

Recipes for your National Anthropology Day

National Anthropology Day is on. The response on social media has been overwhelming. After a massive airdrop by the US of copies of The Nuer over Eastern Ukraine, guns have been silenced — although how long can it be before Putin begins distributing copies of Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka to Russian-speaking dissidents? At any rate, since I know many of you are in the middle of preparing for tonight’s festivities, I thought I’d include some helpful anthropological chocolate minty goaty electrical Chinese New Year related recipes.

These recipes come from random people posting them to me on Facebook, so they are totally unrepresentative of anthropology in general and just representative of the people I’m friends with on Facebook. If something sounds unusual or new, give it a shot!

Cocktails for National Anthropology Day

Mint Chocolate Goat Cheese Baijiu Bomb
Dick Powis
Place one small ball of goat cheese in the bottom of a shot glass. Fill shot glass with baijiu. Drop shot glass into a pint of Perennial 17 Mint Chocolate Stout. You’re welcome.

Lychee Mojito
James Crippen
Make a lychee mojito. Add a splash of goat milk and garnished with a Girl Scout thin mint. DISCLAIMER: I haven’t actually tried this, but it sounds harmless enough. Lychee because I can’t think of any other compatible Chinese signifier.

The Goat Fucker
Jonathan Padwe Continue reading →

The missing piece of National Anthropology Day: ELECTRICITY

Goats, chocolate mint, Chinese New Year: National Anthropology Day seemed to have it all. Until, that is, long-time reader Eddie Schmitt pointed out the missing ingredient in National Anthropology Day: electricity. That’s right: National Anthropology Day is also the birthday of Alessandro Volta!

Alessandro Volta, reimagined for National Anthropology Day by Edwin Schmitt. Used by permission.
Alessandro Volta, reimagined for National Anthropology Day by Edwin Schmitt. Used by permission.

“Electricity?” You may ask, “do we need one more thing to celebrate on National Anthropology Day?” Well my friends, as you will see, electricity is key to most of the recipes (forthcoming) for National Anthropology Day.

“Wait a second,” you might also ask, “wasn’t Volta born the day before National Anthropology Day?” To which I would say: “This is yet another example of how Wikipedia is inferior to Official Reference Material. Luckily, there will always be places like Savage Minds which can be relied on to bring you 100% completely accurate information about anthropology.

Happy Anthropology! And happy Alessandro Volta day!

This National Anthropology Day, say 祝你全國人類學節快樂！

We are now only days away from the first annual National Anthropology Day. As I’ve said in past coverage of this story, the American Anthropological Association scheduled National Anthropology Day on 19 February, which is also National Chocolate Mint Day. But chocolate mint is small-fry compared to the major holiday to be celebrated this Thursday: Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year). That’s right, people, this year National Anthropology Day is also YEAR OF THE GOAT. So this year, let’s make National Anthropology Day extra Goaty by wishing each other:

祝你全國人類學節快樂!

My knowledge of the significance of the Year of the Goat derives largely from what the MC said at the parade this year. But, based on that experience, I understand that goats are, like anthropologists, team players who don’t give up on their goals. If this sounds like you, then congratulations — National Anthropology Day is for you!

In preparing for this blog post, I spent a good deal of time working through the specialist literature on the anthropology of goats. This ended up being pretty easy since not much has been written by cultural anthropologists about goats. About goat bones, and the dating thereof, the archaeologists have tremendous amounts to say. But the goat has not yet found its Evans-Pritchard. Perhaps this National Anthropology Day one of you will grasp the nettle in this as-yet-understudied topic in multispeciesality?

When I found out that National Anthropology Day and National Chocolate Mint Day were the same day, it seemed pretty clear to me that this meant that we should eat chocolate mint on National Anthropology Day. But what of goat? Is this a sign that we should make a point of eating goat on National Anthropology day? Or rather, does it indicate that the goat is Our Animal,  and hence ought not be eaten because of its close association to anthropology?

Regardless of the answer to this vexing question, Lunar New Year brings a whole host of fun holiday customs that are ready, willing, and able to diffuse into National Anthropology Day: red envelopes, fire crackers, jiaozi (perhaps with goat meat?), and much more besides.

Any ideas on how best to meld Lunar New Year and National Anthropology day? Find us in the comments or on social media and let us know!

Hellz yes National Anthropology Day is ON

The Internetz were atwitter recently with the announcement that 19th February 2015 is officially going to be National Anthropology Day. And yet some people expressed confusion. What is National Anthropology Day? What does it mean? What are we supposed to do? Some questions were quickly answered: If the holiday is generically labeled ‘National’ that must mean ‘They do it in the US’. But others questions persist — why this day, instead of other days? What, concretely, will occur?

The Official National Anthropology Day website provides  some useful handouts, but no deeper contextualization of what the holiday is supposed to be about. This has led some people to grouse that it is a ‘fake holiday’. For this reason I wanted to write this blog post to help people understand why 19 February 2015 is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Continue reading →