Ancestral Lines, Second Edition

At the core of the Teaching Culture series of ethnographies is John Barker’s Ancestral Lines: The Maisin of Papua New Guinea and the Fate of the Rainforest. This book has been tremendously successful in college and university classrooms because of its beautiful writing, its clear organization, and because it does not talk down to or bore students. This week, the book is available in a new edition, and we asked John Barker, the author and editor of the Teaching Culture series, to say a few words about its publication and the history behind the book. read more…

  • dateApril 4, 2016
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  • posted byJohn Barker
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Popular Culture Courses for Anthropology

There are some important distinctions to make regarding popular culture and/or imaginative literature as an aspect of a course. First, what is the primary focal point of the course: popular culture or the academic discipline as a whole? There are many courses in media studies, sociology, or anthropology departments that focus on popular culture or media as a subject of inquiry and critical analysis. Here, I highlight courses in which introductory disciplinary understanding is the primary goal and popular culture serves as a lens through which to focus student attention and the development of their disciplinary knowledge. read more…

  • dateMarch 15, 2016
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  • posted byLeah McCurdy
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Public Anthropology

To mark the publication of Public Anthropology: Engaging Social Issues in the Modern World, the author, Edward J. Hedican, provides us with a few thoughts on the impetus behind the book, why students can benefit from learning more about public anthropology, and some highlights of key anthropologists who are featured in the book. read more…

  • dateMarch 4, 2016
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  • posted byEdward J. Hedican
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Making Knowledge Stick: Virtual Badges and Real Life Stickers

“Better than Digital Chocolate”—that’s what drew me in. It was the title of a post that found its way somehow across one of my social media feeds and I was intrigued. I like chocolate! What I had stumbled across was the website for LearnBrite, a company that specializes in e-learning tools. They had already created 100 free virtual badges that were geared towards enterprise and were in the process of creating 100 more for use in a university context. They were looking for suggestions and of course, I leapt in with some ideas for anthropological badges. read more…

  • dateMarch 1, 2016
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  • posted byErin McGuire
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The Making of Lissa: Still Time—An ethnoGRAPHIC Novel

On World Anthropology Day, we are thrilled to highlight an important project that is currently in the works. This guest post is about the making of a graphic ethnography, scheduled to be published by the University of Toronto Press in 2017. Here, the filmmaker, Francesco Dragone, who is documenting the process of transforming scholarship into graphic novel form, outlines a recent trip to Cairo, Egypt organized by the academic authors to help the artists better understand the physical, social, political, and cultural landscape in which the novel is situated. We’ll be offering periodic updates on this project throughout the year, with more from the authors on the challenges and opportunities that graphic novels offer for realizing ethnographic research. read more…

  • dateFebruary 18, 2016
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  • posted byFrancesco Dragone
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