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New discoveries on the first Anthropology Blog Carnival

On the day of the one-year anniversary of Anthropology.net Kambiz Kamrani has launched the First Round of the Four Stone Hearth – The Anthropology Blog Carnival – a great initiative to promote anthropological blogging:

A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, or a round-up, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule.

A blog carnival is a great opportunity to discover new blogs and good blog posts. Especially interesting Paul Wren’s blog Wannabe Anthropologist about medical anthropology.

He points to the new issue of PLoS Medicine on “Social Medicine in the 21st Century”. It features research articles and essays which examine the importance of considering the cultural and social effects on health and health care, he writes and adds “The Research Articles are going to keep me busy for a long time”. That’s correct. Much interesting to read, among others about the impact to Tuberculosis care in the aftermath of armed conflict, the connections between health and socioeconomic status in India, anthropology in the Clinic, an Ethnographic Study of the Social Context of Migrant Health in the United States etcetc.

Interesting also the Carl Feagans’ review of Katherine A. Dettwyler’s ethnography “Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa.”:

Too often, statistics and headlines dominate Western knowledge of the plights of the developing world, but Dettwyler is able to objectify the problems and present them with a perspective that allows her readers to understand some of the associated cultural problems.

And finally there is AlphaPsy, a daily review of cognitive anthropology that is written in English by a team of French cognitive scientists and anthropologists. They share with us a critique of the new Paris Musée du Quai Branly – a museum of exotic art, as the author of this blog post calls it. He adds:

I know I am not supposed to call it that; I know that it is all about anthropological science and respectful curiosity. But whatever the brochures might say, the spiritual father of the Musée du Quai Branly is not Claude Lévi-Strauss; it would rather be Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet who launched the “Art Nègre” fad in early twentieth-century Paris.
(…)
the concept of Otherness (…) is currently enjoying, among the French intelligentsia, a favour which, in my view, can only be explained by its utter lack of content.

>> visit the First Round of the Four Stone Hearth – The Anthropology Blog Carnival (with a lot more to explore!)

On the day of the one-year anniversary of Anthropology.net Kambiz Kamrani has launched the First Round of the Four Stone Hearth - The Anthropology Blog Carnival - a great initiative to promote anthropological blogging:

A blog carnival is a type…

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Academic presentations: “The cure is a strong chairman and a system of lights”

“For those of us whose prime focus is advancing human knowledge, megaconferences are a waste of time and money.” Don Moody agrees, but also criticizes my article in Anthropology Today august 2006 about weak presentations at the conference “Anthropology and Cosmopolitanism” at Keele University (UK).

The published article is a heavily edited version of my blog entry What’s the point of anthropology conferences? and draws also on How To Present A Paper – – or Can Anthropologists Talk?.

Moody writes:

Your piece in AT is rightly harsh about some speakers at the ASA conference, but quite wrong in targeting Brits and anthropology in particular. I have been to conferences on subjects as diverse as anthropology, chemistry, printing and safety in the UK, Europe and further afield. The utterly boring droning reader can be found at all of them. It only happens when there is a weak chairman.

The cure is a strong chairman and a system of lights. One minute before the presentation is due to end a yellow light is switched on by the chairman. On the dot a red light comes on and all projectors and microphone are switched off. Then the chairman announces there is X minutes for discussion and asks for the first question. As the questioner stands up he is handed a roving mike if the auditorium is large and that and the platform mike are then switched on.

Some self-important twit will attempt to override the system, The chairman simply switches off all media and declares the session at an end. Will everyone please vacate the stage. The twit disappears never to be seen again at a conference. Yes it is rough and yes it can destroy reputations. So what? The boring reader who over-runs is self-confessedly incompetent at his trade, impolite, inconsiderate of the value of the time of others, and doesn’t give a damn what organisation of a complex conference is screwed up. Does one want such a person to appear again, however important he thinks he is? The short answer is NO!

So what you described was actually weak chairmanship and lack of organisational preparation. If those two doors are left open, the droners will walk through. Any subject. Any time. Any where.

But nevertheless, I asked him, reading one’s paper seems to be a tradition in Britain – it’s something that you’re expected to do?

He replied that this a modern development and is related to specialisation and economisation: Earlier, when our compartmentalised subject divisions did not exist, one individual put forward a thesis, and all present debated it and – if they could – tore it to shreds. Gradually this got supplanted by the multiple papers rushed through with insufficient time for deep discussion and analysis. According to Don Moody, there were two drivers:

On was money. People do not get funded to go to conferences unless they are ‘reading a paper’ or at least and more recently, taking part in ‘a poster session’. So there is enormous demand on conference organisers to produce more and more slots for people to qualify for funding.

The second driver is a combination of idleness and a lack of time because so much time is taken up with committees and admin in general. Belting through a boring script without deviation is the least possible effort. It also gives the funders (and their lawyers) opportunity to put favourable slants in the paper and avoid any possible legal contention.

He then compares a conference where “we were there for the sheer love and excitement of it” (no pre-written presentations!) to the ASA conference:

Now compare that to what you saw and heard at the ASA. As person after person droned through their script with insufficient time to take ideas to pieces in discussion, did any sparks fly? I doubt it. Did a gestalt form and take the subject one great leap forward? No. The megaconference at which dozens or hundreds of papers are read may have some other useful functions but does not contribute to major advance in its subject. For those of us whose prime focus is advancing human knowledge, megaconferences are a waste of time and money.

>> my article in Anthropology Today: Cosmopolitanism and Anthropology

How To Present A Paper – or Can Anthropologists Talk?

What’s the point of anthropology conferences?

SEE ALSO:

Alexandre Enkerli on “Academic Presentations: Be Brief, Be Witty, Be Seated”

"For those of us whose prime focus is advancing human knowledge, megaconferences are a waste of time and money." Don Moody agrees, but also criticizes my article in Anthropology Today august 2006 about weak presentations at the conference "Anthropology…

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Media: High school sports more popular than academics

A local news story that might say something more general about why anthropology isn’t more present in the news? The results of University research between April 1 and June 30 show high school athletes often get 4 to 8 times the media coverage of an academic all-star, Minnesota Daily reports.

“We’re not ignoring good stories; we’re not being told good stories,” Maureen McCarthy, Star Tribune education leader, said. “It’s unrealistic to expect two reporters to know what is going on in all area high schools.”

>> read the whole story in the Minnesota Daily

SEE ALSO:

“Discuss politics!” – How anthropologists in Indonesia engage with the public

More and more anthropologists, but they’re absent from public debates – “Engaging Anthropology” by Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1)

Why anthropology fails to arouse interest among the public – Engaging Anthropology (2)

A local news story that might say something more general about why anthropology isn't more present in the news? The results of University research between April 1 and June 30 show high school athletes often get 4 to 8 times…

Read more

This is conference blogging!

Why haven’t there been such blog posts about the recent EASA-conference (European Association of Social Anthropologists)? Anthropologist Grant McCracken has presented a paper at the EPIC-conference (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference) and written three blog posts, among others about his presentation (and the usefulness of ethnography):

In my presentation on Monday at EPIC 2006, I proposed that we might want to take advantage of the “extra data” effect. Ethnography is often most useful when we don’t know what we need to know. The method is good at casting the net wide. We ask lots of questions. Collect lots of data. Apply lots of theory and interpretation. Eventually, we begin to see what it is we need to see. At the end of this process we find ourselves in possession of a lot of data we cannot use. This “extra data” is an opportunity.

>> read his whole post

Read also part II and part III

SEE ALSO:

Anthropology and the World: What has happened at the EASA conference?

Conference blogging at EPIC 2005

Why haven't there been such blog posts about the recent EASA-conference (European Association of Social Anthropologists)? Anthropologist Grant McCracken has presented a paper at the EPIC-conference (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference) and written three blog posts, among others about …

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Anthropology and the World: What has happened at the EASA conference?

Last week, the bi-annual conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) has taken place in Bristol. The theme sounds extremely interesting:

The theme [Europe and the World ]encourages us to consider the global dimensions of particular ethnographic encounters. The wider interconnections, the spread of ideas, the dynamic relationships and processes which shape the everyday activity of social life; these lie increasingly at the centre of our methodological and theoretical preoccupations as anthropologists. Mediated by individual, institutional, national developments of enormous complexity, this link between global interchange and local creativity deserves our systematic attention and analysis.

Around 1000 anthropologists from many countries in Europe (and other continents?) might have been there. I’ve searched the news and blogs but haven’t find any information on what has gone on there.

I only found EASA-related posts on two blogs – on Erkan’ Field diary (on lost luggage on his way home) and on Savage Minds (notes by Maia who is going to present a paper there). No newspaper has mentioned the largest European Anthropology conference about a topic that is in the news every day…

UPDATE: I’ve found this blog entry:

Things I learned at an anthropology conference in Bristol:
1) Apparently it is not important to say anything in conferences as long as you are talking.
2) There is nothing more depressing than a passionless tango. Especially when it is done to honor someone who has passed away. If I die, please do not ask to anorexic British anthropologists to dance the tango in honor of me. Or maybe do. It would be my last laugh as you would have to endure it and I wouldn’t/
3) The surest way to not keep my attention for an hour long presentation is to begin with a paragraph overflowing with alliterations. You will think you are clever. I will not.

UPDATE 3:

Now online: EASA-conference papers on media anthropology

UPDATE 2:

A few more words by Erkan Saka:

Workshop based organization and network meetings in the evenings seem to be productive. However, I could not escape from thinking that compare to AAA, EASA has a really long way to go. I wasnt’t thrilled with any theoretical development. AAA seems to be heading what is the newest in the field. EASA is yet working on the organization and deciding for near future research strategy.

SEE ALSO:

AAA Annual Meeting: Are blogs a better news source than corporate media?

What’s the point of anthropology conferences?

More and more anthropologists, but they’re absent from public debates – “Engaging Anthropology” (1)

Last week, the bi-annual conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) has taken place in Bristol. The theme sounds extremely interesting:

The theme [Europe and the World ]encourages us to consider the global dimensions of particular ethnographic encounters. The…

Read more