Clipmarks | Anthropology Clips

Gay couple happy with tribe's OK to marry

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:01:45 GMT

clipped by: queah

Kitzen and Jeni Branting have been in a committed lesbian relationship since high school and plan to get legally married in Oregon next spring.

True, voters amended the state Constitution in 2004 to allow marriage only between a man and a woman. And Congress outlawed gay marriage more than 10 years ago.

But Kitzen Branting, 25, is a member of the Coquille Indian Tribe on the southern Oregon coast, and as a federally recognized sovereign nation, the tribe is not bound by the state Constitution.

The tribe recently adopted a law that recognizes same-sex marriage and extends to gay and lesbian partners -- at least one of whom must be a Coquille -- all tribal benefits of marriage.

The Coquilles are probably the first tribe in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage, says Brian Gilley, a University of Vermont anthropology professor and the author of the book Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country.

Standford America 10,000 BC

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:59:17 GMT

clipped by: lablondee

Clip Source: www.mnh.si.edu

Clip Source: anthropology.si.edu

Department of Anthropology Staff

Flickr pool: "Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Social Theory"

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:19:04 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A bunch of scanned (I assume) classic diagrams of anthropological and social-scientific concepts.

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, & Social Theory

From runningafterantelo...

Tags: via:twitter, diagram, image, flickr, links, cool, social_science, anthropology

René Girard, theorist of religion and violence: links and resources

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:48:18 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Just discovered this list of links. Very handy. Girard is probably the premier theorist addressing issues of religion and violence.

Clip Source: www.theology.ie

René Girard (1923–)

Colloquium on Violence & Religion (COV&R): "Official website for exploration, criticism, and development of René Girard‘s mimetic theory". A good place to start with many links; Includes link to "Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture"

The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthropology of Religion and Violence: an introduction based on a CBC radio program

Anthropoetics II, no. 1 Special Issue on René Girard: from "Anthropoetics — The Electronic Journal of Generative Anthropology" ; very helpful
Interview with René Girard

René Girard on imitatio Christi: an excerpt from Girard's essay "Violence Renounced: Response by René Girard" as found in the book Violence Renounced

Excerpt from René Girard's Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World

rené girard: a presentation from Philippe Cottet (available in English and French

Religion Vol. 27, No. 3, July 1997: an issue related to many of Girard's themes; abstracts of articles available

Tags: religion, violence, theory, method, academe, research, rels327, links, resources

Religion continues to be part of Olympics

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:10 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: "Since then, religion - for good or ill - has continued to touch the modern Olympics movement. "

Clip Source: www.sltrib.com

Religion has been an integral part of the Olympics since athletes met in a stadium southwest of Athens to honor Zeus.

In ancient Greece, there was no such thing as "secular athletics," said David Romano, senior research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. "Feats of prowess and agility were meant to please Zeus, who picked the most worthy athlete to be the victor."

Eventually, it was competition that put an end to Olympic Games in A.D. 393 after more than 1,000 years: Christianity vs. paganism.

The games were the most "conspicuous and popular aspect at pagan festivals, attracting tens of thousands of people," Romano said this week, "so Holy Roman Emperor Theodosius abolished them."

It took another 15 centuries for the Olympic ideals to resurface.

In 1894, a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin resurrected the Olympic Games, complete with symbolic fire, music, and pageantry that echoed its ancient past.

Tags: olympics, religion, history

question of social conflict

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:55:58 GMT

clipped by: dollface701

Clip Source: blogs.psychologytoday.com

The Question of Social Conflict

What would happen if you took 100,000 people from all over the world of vastly different races, creeds, colors, socio-economic strata, and speaking dozens of different languages - everything from women in complete burqa to openly gay men to dyed-in-the-wool Southern boys to uptight New Englanders and Orthodox Jews - then put them in a rigidly controlled, confined space in 100 degree heat with 100% humidity and made them stand around? Sounds like a recipe for complete chaos, right? Nope - it's Disneyland - well, more specifically, Disney World.

My question is this - how is it that we have so much conflict in the world and, yet, in what should be a crucible for social conflict and anarchy, people are not only pleasant, but kind, generous, helpful, deferential and just plain well-mannered? Talk about a lesson in psycho-social anthropology. Even more, talk about an illustration of ego, and the illusion of politico-social conflict driven by that ego.

Tags: social conflict, psychology

Did Neanderthals Share the "Language Gene" with Homo Sapiens?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:41:33 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Interesting Read.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

In a surprising discovery, scientists believe they have found modern man's language gene in the DNA of the extinct race of Neanderthals, raising the possibility that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Neanderthals may have whiled away the winter with conversation, gossip and debate.

The language gene is shared with only one other species, Homo Sapiens. If true, the Neanderthals may have had their own distinct culture, customs and history.

Professor Svante Paabo, who has been leading the Neanderthal genome project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said the presence of the language gene would change the way people view Neanderthals.

The discovery of the gene, called FOXP2, have provided the strongest evidence yet that these heavily built species were capable of speech, although the researchers are unable to say what extent their linguistic ability would have been.

Tags: evolution, language, neanderthals

SCIENTISTS SHOW HALLUCINOGEN CREATES UNIVERSAL “MYSTICAL” EXPERIENCE

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:33:49 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: in the 1950s, showed signs of therapeutic potential or value in research into the nature of consciousness and sensory perception. “Human consciousness…is a function of the ebb and flow of neural impulses in various regions of the brain-the very substrate that drugs such as psilocybin act upon,” Schuster says. “Understanding what mediates these effects is clearly within the realm of neuroscience and deserves investigation.”

“A vast gap exists between what we know of these drugs-mostly from descriptive anthropology-and what we believe we can understand using modern clinical pharmacology techniques,” says study leader Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor with Hopkins’ departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and Behavioral Biology. “That gap is large because, as a reaction to the excesses of the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen in time these last forty years.”

Clip Source: www.clusterbusters.com

Clip Source: rixonology.wordpress.com

HOPKINS SCIENTISTS SHOW HALLUCINOGEN IN MUSHROOMS CREATES UNIVERSAL “MYSTICAL” EXPERIENCE
Rigorous study hailed as landmark

Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in “sacred mushrooms” can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries.

The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least.

The agent, a plant alkaloid called psilocybin, mimics the effect of serotonin on brain receptors-as do some other hallucinogens-but precisely where in the brain and in what manner are unknown.

Cited as “landmark” in the commentary by former National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) director, Charles Schuster, the research marks a new systematic approach to studying certain hallucinogenic compounds

Tags: neuroscience, hallucinogenic mushrooms, brain, consciousness

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:44:36 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: a very interesting lecture (55m)

More on this & digital etnography here: http://mediatedcultures.net/

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

[Video]

more info: http://mediatedcultures.net

0:00 Introduction, YouTube's Big Numbers

5:53 The Machine is Us/ing Us and the New Mediascape

17:04 5% of vids are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community, Why?

17:30 YouTube in context. The loss of community and "networked individualism" (Wellman)

18:41 Cultural Inversion: individualism and community

19:15 Understanding new forms of community through Participant Observation

26:05 Re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness (McLuhan)

34:02 YouTube Drama: Striving for popularity

39:50 Reflections on Authenticity

41:54 Gaming the system / Exposing the System

Tags: youtube, community, video, anthropology, internet, web, wesch, etnography, digital etnography, society

Archaeologists unearth 1,900-year-old chariot

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 10:52:49 GMT

clipped by: WomanInTheMoon11
clipper's remarks: Archaeologist works around a 1,900-year-old well-preserved chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb near the village of Borisovo, some 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. The archaeologist Daniela Agre said her team found the four-wheel chariot during excavations near the village of Borisovo.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Archaeologists unearth 1,900-year-old chariot

Thu Aug 7, 6:10 PM ET

Prev 1 of 6 Next

Archaeologist works around a 1,900-year-old well-preserved chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb near the village of Borisovo, some 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. The archaeologist Daniela Agre said her team found the four-wheel chariot during excavations near the village of Borisovo.

(AP Photo/Petar Petrov)

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Tags: ap, archaeologists, ancient, chariot

Scientists map Neanderthal maternal DNA

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:46:14 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: 38,000 years wasn't that long ago. They became extinct shortly afterward (as far as we know) after dwindling around Western Europe. It's easy to wonder what may have happened if they were isolated in an area that was free of Homo sapiens sapiens (So smart that we have to repeat it to ourselves to remove any doubt.)

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jennifer Viegas

DNA extracted from a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal bone has enabled scientists to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome for the human-like species, say scientists.

The remarkable feat, which appears in the journal Cell, has led to at least three major discoveries about the extinct stocky European individuals, representing a breakthrough for studies on the evolution of the human family.

"This is the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence from an extinct hominid,"says lead author Dr Richard Green.

Green, a researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany

concluded that the Neanderthal mitochondria falls outside the range of variation found in humans today, offering no evidence that interbreeding occurred

Clearer is the fact that Neanderthals and humans split from a common ancestor around 660,000 years ago.

researchers based this initially upon prior research that determined humans and chimpanzees diverged

six to eight million years ago

Frozen world 14m years old found in Antarctica

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:21:39 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: What a discovery...?!

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica

A lost world has been found in Antarctica, preserved just the way it was when it was frozen in time some 14 million years ago.

Mt Boreas in the western Olympus Range, Dry Valleys (left) and moss mat (right),

the Dry Valleys climate prevented decomposition

The fossils of plants and animals high in the mountains is an extremely rare find in the continent, one that also gives a glimpse of a what could be there in a century or two as the planet warms.

A team working in an ice-free region has discovered the trove of ancient life in what must have been the last traces of tundra on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began to drop relentlessly.

What caused the big freeze is unknown though theories abound and include phenomena as different as the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and tectonic shifts that affected ocean circulation.

Tags: frozen, antarctica, civilization, era, geology, anthropology

The Anthropology of the Social Web

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:32:00 GMT

clipped by: butesch
clipper's remarks: A short but well written blog on knowing your audience before engaging with the brand/corporate thing

Clip Source: blog.heavybagmedia.com

The Anthropology of the Social Web

When looking at the success and failure of brands in integrating themselves into the social web, one thing becomes clear: it’s more about anthropology, and sociology than anything else. I’ve blogged about this topic before from a slightly different angle. People often refer to their “digital lives” and this term is not to be taken lightly. The social web is where people hang out online. There are tribes, cultures, languages, mores and milieus. These digital cultures are as unique and varied as the cultures that exist in the “real world.” Facebook for example has a different set of mores than MySpace. And within MySpace exist many cultures and tribes, all with their own unique set of accepted behavior. Many failed attempts by brands to “crack the social nut” have failed or backfired because they are engineered by people who are foreign to these cultures and who haven’t taken the time to study them properly.

Tags: brand, anthropology, social, web, social web, myspace

Where Is Human Evolution Heading?

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:21:07 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: The race's DNA is changing faster than ever; what it means for our descendants

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

If you judge the progress of humanity by Homer Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Girls Gone Wild videos, you might conclude that our evolution has stalled—or even shifted into reverse. Not so, scientists say. Humans are evolving faster than ever before, picking up new genetic traits and talents that may help us survive a turbulent future.

Much remodeling has gone on since the dawn of agriculture about 10 millenniums ago. "People who lived 10,000 years ago were much more like Neanderthals than we are like those people," says John Hawks, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. "We've changed."

Hawks is among a growing number of scientists who are using whole-genome sequencing and other modern technologies to zero in on just how we've changed. Their research is helping illuminate not only how humans became what we are but also where we might be headed

Humans will continue to change to cope with new diseases, if history is any guide

Tags: dna, mutations, evolution

Living Fossils

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:45:01 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Interesting...

Clip Source: www.popsci.com

Living Fossils

These mysterious creatures exist today more or less unevolved from the forms they had hundreds of millions of years ago

Platypus

the platypus is one of the strangest creatures on Earth. It's technically a mammal because it is covered in fur and produces milk

diverged from reptiles 166 million years ago

Opossum

only marsupial in North America,

Crocodilia

Alligators and crocodiles are perhaps the most obvious candidates for a family tree with short branches leading back to the long-dead.

Tuatara

tuatara may lose the first half of its topical designation and become, simply, a fossil

Okapi

okapi is a solitary animal which exclusively populates the rainforests of the Congo.

Lamprey

today's lampreys are slightly longer than those from hundreds of millions of years ago

Clipmarks | Anthropology Clips

Gay couple happy with tribe's OK to marry

Standford America 10,000 BC

Department of Anthropology Staff

Flickr pool: "Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Social Theory"

Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, & Social Theory

René Girard, theorist of religion and violence: links and resources

Religion continues to be part of Olympics

question of social conflict

The Question of Social Conflict

Did Neanderthals Share the "Language Gene" with Homo Sapiens?

SCIENTISTS SHOW HALLUCINOGEN CREATES UNIVERSAL “MYSTICAL” EXPERIENCE

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

Archaeologists unearth 1,900-year-old chariot

Archaeologists unearth 1,900-year-old chariot

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Scientists map Neanderthal maternal DNA

Frozen world 14m years old found in Antarctica

Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica

The Anthropology of the Social Web

Where Is Human Evolution Heading?

Living Fossils

Living Fossils

Platypus

Opossum

Crocodilia

Tuatara

Okapi

Lamprey

Horseshoe Crab

Coelacanth

Ginkgo

Nautilus

Vampire Squid

Frilled Shark