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When cultures shape technology – Interview with Genevieve Bell

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…

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The Rediff Interview/Nandini Chattopadhyay: Music and Protest

Rediff India

“I was doing my first major anthropology project studying the Baul protest movement and how it used music to talk about injustice, superstitions and hypocrisy. In Brazil too some of its most popular music and dance started in the ghettos as a protest against colonial rule and later against social inequities in general.”

“Anthropology is what I do in my everyday life. In addition to living in India, I have lived in Singapore, Montreal, Canada and San Francisco. I have also traveled extensively across Asia and Europe. Learning different languages, philosophies, belief systems and social codes of conduct are what I have been doing as part of my everyday life. Being an anthropologist is somewhat of a continuation of that” >>continue

Rediff India

"I was doing my first major anthropology project studying the Baul protest movement and how it used music to talk about injustice, superstitions and hypocrisy. In Brazil too some of its most popular music and dance started in the…

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Odyssey of an Anthropologist – new book about Malinowski

Daily Telegraph

Michael Young’s 690-page book is the first of two projected volumes. It takes Malinowski from his birth in Poland in 1884 to his return to England from the Trobriand Islands in 1920 – when his most famous work was yet to be written, and his public career lay ahead of him. Young has made use of a wealth of private papers, especially diaries and love-letters; he has also tracked down archival sources in Poland, England, Australia, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere >>continue

Daily Telegraph

Michael Young's 690-page book is the first of two projected volumes. It takes Malinowski from his birth in Poland in 1884 to his return to England from the Trobriand Islands in 1920 - when his most famous work was…

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Survival of the fittest? Survival of the nicest!

Washington University in St. Louis

Are altruism and morality artificial outgrowths of culture, created by humans to maintain social order? Or is there, instead, a biological foundation to ethical behavior? “We believe that, instead of being genetically predisposed to competition and aggression, humans have a biological foundation for unselfish social interaction,” sazs Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology >>continue (Link updated)

Washington University in St. Louis

Are altruism and morality artificial outgrowths of culture, created by humans to maintain social order? Or is there, instead, a biological foundation to ethical behavior? "We believe that, instead of being genetically predisposed to competition and…

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