I found it helpful when Eriksen drew the line in the sand about the fundamental questions that anthropology concerns itself with. Here's his Big Three: 1) What is that makes people do whatever they do? 2) How are societies or cultures integrated? 3)To what extent does thought vary from society to society, and how much is similar across cultures?
Kinship
Ep. #8 Savage Bitcoin, hamster flushing, scholars at work, and New Mandala: this month on TFS
This month, Ian (1:25) digs into Bitcoin, arguing that the cryptocurrency is no different than regular currencies, and can be analyzed along all the same lines: symbolically, materially, institutionally, relationally. “The same material problems of decay that would affect some other kind of material currency like a coin or a bill still applies to Bitcoin.” … Continue reading Ep. #8 Savage Bitcoin, hamster flushing, scholars at work, and New Mandala: this month on TFS
A Christmas Anth(rop)ology
For this week’s blog, we decided to each write some thoughts on Christmas, from varied anthropological perspectives. We come at this from the position of people who were born and raised in societies that celebrated Christmas in both secular and religious incarnations. In our desire to write to a more ‘public’ anthropology, we present our … Continue reading A Christmas Anth(rop)ology
Australian Families: Who’s Counting?
I’m writing a chapter at the moment for The Research Handbook of Global Families (due out in 2019 - stay tuned!), which is, in essence, about how families cope, adapt and sometimes collapse when they find themselves internationally ‘on the move’. As I’ve been writing it, I’ve been quizzing friends and colleagues about how they … Continue reading Australian Families: Who’s Counting?