anthropology in the news | antropologi.info

German expatriate employees, globalisation and social mapping

Published on July 9, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Europe, fieldwork / methods, globalisation, journal articles / papers

Fiona Moore, Anthropology Matters 1 (2004)

Transnational business people are seldom studied by anthropologists. Here, I examine the role that two ‘global cities’ — London and Frankfurt — play in the lives of a group of employees from a German transnational financial corporation. In researching transnational groups, anthropologists need to think less in terms of ‘global’ versus ‘local’, and more in terms of complex relationships between groups of varying degrees and kinds of globalisation.
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Fiona Moore, Anthropology Matters 1 (2004)

Inuit play makes fun of anthropologists

Published on July 9, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Arctic / Northern Regions, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities, inuit, Us and Them

Nunatsiaq News

Erin Brubacher, who, with Odile Nelson, is co-directing and acting in the play in Iqaluit this weekend, says this is a play that “fits with the community”. “The issues involved are universal: interracial marriage, the concept of cultural appropriation, political correctness…,” Taylor says. “Many Native issues are cross-cultural.”

One of the themes in the play involves a group of kids on a reserve who are visited by a group of anthropologists researching traditional legends. None of the elders will talk to the anthropologists, so instead, the kids told them the legends their grandparents had told them, in some cases making them up for 50 cents a legend.

The play not only makes fun of the anthropologists, but also the kids who made up the stories, and “how a trick can come back and trick you,” as Taylor puts it. >>continue

Nunatsiaq News

Erin Brubacher, who, with Odile Nelson, is co-directing and acting in the play in Iqaluit this weekend, says this is a play that "fits with the community". "The issues involved are universal: interracial marriage, the concept of cultural appropriation,…

A personal look at anthropology

Published on July 8, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Arctic / Northern Regions, books, culture traditions, indigenous people / minorities, inuit

Kenai Peninsula Online (Alaska)

Generations of anthropologists have appeared in Alaska Native villages and attempted, with varying degrees of tact, naivete or insight, to explain the villagers’ lives. Margaret B. Blackman who teaches anthropology at the State University of New York College at Brockport parts in “Upside Down: Seasons among the Nunamiut,” from typical scholarly writing to create a book of essays that read more like personal memoir than academic treatise.

” … I tired of academic writing,” she says in her introduction. ” … I became increasingly irritated with the uncanny ability of so many anthropologists to render, in stilted prose, the most interesting cultures hopelessly pedantic and unappealing. I wanted to write differently about Anaktuvuk Pass.” The result is a beautifully written exploration of an anthropologist’s life as well as a portrait of the remote Nunamiut village in the Brooks Range. >>continue

Kenai Peninsula Online (Alaska)

Generations of anthropologists have appeared in Alaska Native villages and attempted, with varying degrees of tact, naivete or insight, to explain the villagers' lives. Margaret B. Blackman who teaches anthropology at the State University of New York…

When cultures shape technology – Interview with Genevieve Bell

Published on July 8, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, corporate & business anthropology, culture traditions, design anthropology, persons and theories

Tom’s Hardware Guide

Tech firms flood consumers which new products every month. In an interview with Tom’s Hardware Guide, Intel’s anthropologist Genevieve Bell explains why cultures will determine the development of new products. Dell initiated at Intel a new way to think about the connection between people and technology, their cultural practices and “daily habits,” she says. Rather than innovating and then trying to make people use products, the idea is to start with people and their needs first and learn what individual cultures care about. >>continue (updated link)

Tom's Hardware Guide

Tech firms flood consumers which new products every month. In an interview with Tom's Hardware Guide, Intel's anthropologist Genevieve Bell explains why cultures will determine the development of new products. Dell initiated at Intel a new way to…

Anthropologist tries to fathom how advertisers can approach today’s youth

Published on July 8, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, technology, youth

Business Week

Timothy Malefyt is now an in-house anthropologist for BBDO New York, the advertising firm. His mission is to study a group of college students at Columbia University and figure out how in the world they process all of the information that comes their way, whether it’s from TV, movies, billboards, video games, cell phones, the Internet — just about everything but the fortunes wrapped inside Chinese cookies.

If a college student receives a targeted ad on her instant messaging (IM) screen, or a text message on her cell phone, is she likely to resent it? Consider it a joke? Would certain types of advertisements be welcomed? The answers depend, from an anthropologist’s perspective, on the communications rituals associated with each of these tools. >>continue / copy

Business Week