anthropology

  • QuickiesA bird standing on and looking down on a pizza crust

    Quickies: Can you process an insurrection and still make time for science?

    Welcome to another rushed Friday Quickies! Two virtual conferences at the same time seemed like such a great idea to past-Nicole… present-Nicole is TIRED. I’m still processing last week’s insurrection at the Capitol even as I fear future attacks. One way to do so is to learn about insurrections that we’ve had before in the U.S. at Sam Sanders’s NPR…

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  • Science

    National Anthropology Day

    The American Anthropological Assocation has declared February 19 to be National Anthropology Day. From the AAA’s announcement: The American Anthropological Association is celebrating anthropology and anthropologists across the world through the declaration of National Anthropology Day. Anthropologists are innovators and creative thinkers who contribute to every sector of society. National Anthropology Day is a day for anthropologists to celebrate and…

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  • Meta Stuff

    Skepchick Sundaylies: Climate Change Bummer, the Second Temple, Summer Vacation, and GMOs

    Sunday Funny: Everything at Manfeels Park Teen Skepchick The Physics Philes, lesson 102: Reflections Mindy learns more and more about mechanical waves, like what happens when they bounce off a barrier Mad Art Lab A Web, Not a Road: The Anthropology of Margaret Mead Dale writes, “There is hardly a name in science more encrusted with bad faith generalizations and well-meaning…

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  • Science

    No, That’s Not How Anthropologists Think Of Human Social Organization

    There is recent a video posted on Slate that summarizes a recent study claiming to give support to the anthropological position that “hierarchical organization of human society is deeply nested in human psychology.” As I sat and watched the video, I thought surely this is a problem of science reporting and the research does not make such claims. Alas, the…

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  • Activism

    Why Did Almost All Answers on Quora Make My Head Explode? (Part Last)

    Welcome to the final installment of “WTF is wrong with you, Slate? Why are you posting this crap?” If you haven’t already, you may want to read parts one and two. Let’s get right into the last three paragraphs of Dan’s answer. We (and I’m a passionate gender egalitarian) may want to say it was because of “those prejudiced men…

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  • Feminism

    Why Did Almost All Answers on Quora Make My Head Explode? (Part Two)

    Yesterday, I wrote about an absurd question which was answered on Quora and cross-posted to Slate, increasing the internet’s exposure to faulty, mythical beliefs about human nature by probably at least a bazillion-fold. Today, I’m going to deconstruct the answer to that question provided by one Dan Holliday. Bear with me, because it’s a lot of bullshit to unpack, and…

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  • Feminism

    Why Did Almost All Questions on Quora Make My Head Explode? (Part One)

    Over on Slate, there is an article that was cross-posted from an answer to this question on Quora’s Feminism category: “Why did almost all societies believe that women were inferior to men?” Quora is basically like a glorified Yahoo! Answers, and it is premised on the idea that people can pose questions and random other people “with first-hand experience” will…

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  • Science

    A Primer on Culture

    I talk a lot about culture here on Skepchick. I guess that comes with being a cultural anthropologist! What I realize as I surf the skeptico-atheist blogosphere is that I think we cultural anthropologists have a slightly different understanding of what culture is than most other people. In the interest of clarifying myself and sharing with others how anthropologists (whose…

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