I read: Victoria Bernal, Karen Brodkin, Marisol de la Cadena, Donald Donham, Christine Gailey, David Goldberg, Akhil Gupta, Sandra Hale, Christine Hastorf, Suad Joseph, Saba Mahmoud Purina Mankekar, Stefania Gandolfo, Thomas Patterson, Lisa Rofel, Danilyn Rutherford, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and Anna Tsing: On boycotts of Israeli academic institutions: a reply: “As anthropologists based in the University of … Continue reading »
anthropology
On boycotts of Israeli academic institutions: a reply
As anthropologists based in the University of California system, we object to Professor Robert Birgeneau’s and Professor George Breslauer’s attempt to interfere in the American Anthropological Association’s ongoing deliberation over the boycott of Israeli academic institutions (see their Berkeley Blog post). We find it unacceptable that a former chancellor (Birgeneau) and former executive vice chancellor … Continue reading »
On boycotts of Israeli academic institutions
By George Breslauer and Robert Birgeneau Last month the American Anthropology Association (AAA), at its annual meeting, voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. In coming months, that resolution will be put to a ballot vote of the entire membership of the association, which numbers some 15,000 anthropologists. We urge UC … Continue reading »
Marriage equality as evolution
How quickly things have evolved. Three years ago this month, I was in Campeche, Mexico, participating in an international congress about the archaeology of the ancient Maya. And I was keeping an eye on the Supreme Court, waiting to write an op-ed that I hoped would be a celebration of an extension of the right … Continue reading »
There’s a real archaeological surprise in Honduras…
And if you have been following popular science reporting the last couple of days, you probably think you know what I mean. Well, that’s the surprise: you don’t. For those who haven’t seen the original report or its follow-ups, supposedly a “lost city” unknown to science, the “untouched ruins of a vanished culture”, has been … Continue reading »
My Passage to India
I set off on my first passage to India when I was 12 years old. My father had a Fulbright grant to teach at Madras Christian College, in Tambaram, southern India, and he decided to take our entire family with him for the year. I remember being told about my family’s plans some time in … Continue reading »
The Summer of Rights
I was packed in with three Benedictine monks in the crowd last night at the Castro celebrating the two United States Supreme Court decisions earlier that day — for the record, June 26, 2013. The monks were waving small blue and yellow Human Rights Campaign flags, and like many others I was taking pictures of … Continue reading »
Public protest, media, and economic justice
On September 17, a group of US citizens inspired by the successes of public protest in other countries occupied public space on Wall Street, the location in Manhattan that has come to stand for the excesses of the financial sector. Not only does Wall Street stand for the banks that fueled the ongoing “Little Depression“; … Continue reading »
Anthropology: Engaged social science in a changing world
“The purposes of the Association shall be to advance anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects, through archeological, biological, ethnological, and linguistic research; and to further the professional interests of American anthropologists, including the dissemination of anthropological knowledge and its use to solve human problems.” American Anthropological Association, Statement of Purpose, … Continue reading »
Immigration and the economy: Everything you believe is wrong
I am not an economist. As an anthropologist, I have been trying to write about things like cultural difference and the need for mutual respect across differences in our pluralistic nation. So it fascinates me that comments on my posts repeatedly, and often irrelevantly, argue that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans, or … Continue reading »
On grief, rage, and commemoration
Families of survivors of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York are deeply divided about a proposed building project on the site of the tragedy. Just not the project that most readers would think. As detailed on its official website, the site of the attack is slated to have a completed memorial … Continue reading »
What makes us human?
In some ways, anthropology can be understood as a discipline that takes this question as its focus. Usually, this would be illustrated by anthropological studies of the things like the origin of human language, life in the earliest cities, or how different societies experience and account for changes that come with aging. But there are … Continue reading »
Berkeley’s role in a legal decision with “huge” implications
One of the striking things anyone who routinely lives outside the US discovers is what a narrow slice of the world we are informed about by the US media. I am sure that the explanation by cable news executives and newspaper editors is that US readers just aren’t interested in the rest of the world. … Continue reading »