anth383

last week of the semester

2004-12-04T15:53:00.000-06:00

Hi guys! We're at the end, so I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your involvement and say a short farewell.

A few weeks back, some professors in the anthropology department expressed concern that someone outside this class might misunderstand what this is if they surfed by or received my coming out email. Since I'm not sure how long I'll leave this blog up, I want to be sure it's clearly posted that this is a blog, not curriculum. It is intended to be an interactive forum, and not an advertisement in any way. I've been the moderator of this, but I'm not an employee or representative of Rice University. Ok, business taken care of.

Dr. Stephen Kleinberg of sociology is interested in including blogging in his spring 05 Environmental Sociology, so if you liked blogging, you might want to consider it, and if you didn't like it... well, you know. One other exciting new blog project to be born of late at Rice is through Rice's chapter of Engineers without Borders (whose involvement is not limited to engineers, by the way!). The chapter is blogging their preparation for a development project in El Salvador.

Somebody asked me about travel advice for NM, but memory fails me now. Please email me if it's you and you’d still like advice.

It was great to get to know you all. Good luck with your tests and term papers, and I hope you have restoring holiday break.

Blogging in this class

2004-11-19T13:31:00.000-06:00

Annie and everyone else,

I got off to blogging at a very slow start. But I understand the importance and the excitement that surrounds this new mode of communication. Maybe in a different class this might be more effective. If it were larger, we might be able to blog about subjects in the class more, help each other out with assignments and that sort of thing. On the same token, a lot of us don't know each other very well, and just don't feel comfortable publishing or sharing private details with each other and the world... Hopefully I'll be able to pick up on this more, and start my own blog in a more personal setting. Thanks for introducing us to the world of blogs!

Increasingly, Animals Dying from Human Diseases

2004-11-16T22:20:00.000-06:00

Increasingly, Animals Dying from Human Diseases (from NPR's Morning Edition)

"Diseases often jump from animals to humans, such as the West Nile virus or AIDS. But scientists now believe wild animals are increasingly dying from human diseases. Hear NPR's John Nielsen."

Public Anthropology

2004-11-13T14:54:00.000-06:00

Six professors discuss state of public anthropology

"...After a welcome address by University College Dean Robert Hollister, professor Nina Kammerer from Brandeis University began by describing her training as an anthropologist who switched to public health research, drawing scoffs from her peers.

But Kammerer said the two fields of study are not completely unrelated. "I hope I've held true to the statement 'once an anthropologist always an anthropologist,'" she said.

The change did lead Kammerer to question the classification of her studies, however. "Is public anthropology a subfield or an approach to the discipline?" she asked, stating that it is "not simply anthropology outside of the academy."

Roundtable discussants emphasized the role of hands-on community research. Professor Ann Bookman of the Sloan School of Business at MIT commented on the public anthropologist's difficulty in balancing documentation versus social action while in the field.

All of the presenters discussed their opinions on the appropriate level of engagement public anthropologists should have with communities during their research. Tufts professor David Guss described a past project "not as an investigation of community but a creation of community itself."

In her presentation, Wellesley professor Sally Engle Merry pushed for a return of the kind of public intellectual exemplified by Margaret Mead. "Anthropology has been doing much less of that," she said.

Presenters also brought up the related fields of ethnology and public policy. "[When interviewing subjects,] their experiences should lead to public policy and it's our challenge to figure out how," Bookman said. [...]"

Policy Initiative to add to Annie's Post- Is Climate Change a Human Rights Issue?

2004-11-11T19:43:00.000-06:00

The Inuit are being affected by the accelerated thaw of the Artic. The Inuit circumpolar Conference is trying to persuade the U.N to list the artic as a vulnerable area to climate change. They are referring to the 1992 U.N. Framework on Climate Change. This group is also trying to pressure the Inter-American commission on Human Rights to recognize global climate change as a human rights issue. These strategies are intended to put pressure on Washington, the Bush administration, to reconsider their involvement in the Kyoto protocol.

Is climate change a human rights issue? In part II of the class we learned how global climate change will impact the artic zones, high altitude areas, aridlands, and grass lands. Taking that into consideration, what aspects of those impacts can be considered violations of human rights? What are the moral ramifications of pulling out of the Kyoto protocol to protect our own economic interests when we are the world's top polluter?

Here is the link to the article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=1&u=/nm/20041111/sc_nm/environment_arctic_inuit_dc

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

2004-11-10T16:36:00.000-06:00

Bowdoin College Arctic Experts Contribute Findings to Arctic Climate Impact Assessment: "A four-year study documenting accelerated climate changes in the Arctic released this week raised major concerns about global warming and its immediate effect on indigenous populations. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) was compiled by an international group of 250 scientists.

Among them was anthropologist/archaeologist Anne Henshaw, director of Bowdoin College's Coastal Studies Center. Her research in southern Baffin Island corroborated findings of other Arctic scientists that Inhuit hunters and communities already are feeling the effects of climatic changes.

'Traveling on sea ice has become a problem as sea ice becomes thinner and the season becomes shorter, ' said Henshaw. 'It impedes their access to food resources and is a major safety issue. The future of indigneous peoples in the Arctic may literally be on thin ice.'[...]"

the emotional side of blogging

2004-11-08T22:35:00.000-06:00

Sadly, one side of blogging this class project hasn't been able to really dive into is the personal, diary-esque side of blogging. This past week, a big conference called BloggerCon about all things blog took place at Stanford University. One of my friends, Julie Leung, chaired the session on The Emotional Life of Weblogs.

Julie will be posting more on the outputs of her session in the coming days. If you're interested in learning more about this, the most popular and most common application of blogs, click here and watch here.

sexual adaptation movie

2004-11-06T20:20:00.000-06:00

This was a great film for my interests. It was right in line with one of my favorite anthropologists is Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, a socio-anthropologist (from the Houston area, actually) whose primate and early human development research has advanced the field in amazing ways. Her book, Mother Nature, is on my top five favorite books ever list. Among her findings (assertions?) that I love most is that, while primates, especially humans, are born with less instinctive knowledge relative to other animals, we compensate with an instinct to learn. One example is that the "baby bug" we women are socially pressured to suppress from puberty onward is an intense desire to learn how to handle a baby before we actually have one. These desires have been proven to grow stronger when fertility peaks and when birth of a baby nears. Men, too, are drawn to hold a baby. This desire to learn also provides babies with more people yearning to hold them, and for babies, being held is critical to developmental progress primarily via limbic system stimulation (stress hormone reduction, motor skill development, bonding triggeres, etc.). I love that our species makes up for our inequities with our intelligence.

Having said all that, I was pretty disappointed in the depiction of the early hominids. They were strong, dynamic creatures, bridging the divide between what we see in modern-day primates and ourselves. In the video, they seemed more like awkward junior high students experimenting with sexuality. Consider that they dominated their ecological niche! I bet they were amazing. Unfortunately, I guess the producers didn't see it my way.

Election Day

2004-11-04T01:15:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone.
This has nothing to do with Anth 383 but I wanted to blog about it anyways. Any thoughts about the election? I myself am not afraid to say that I am a Kerry supporter all the way, and have now come to realize that our country is divided along philosophical lines... neither side is right or wrong, even though I would like my side to be in power. I hope as a country we are able to reunite. I feel drained after fighting and being angry for so long.

Jump in and we can get a debate going!

Thursday's movie

2004-10-24T14:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I was kind of confused about something in the movie that we watched on Thursday (10.21.2004) - why was that one little boy and girl getting married but all of those older people going through the mate choice ceremony? Why doesn't everybody go through one or the other, or do they? Do different statuses (cultural, economical) determine which type of ritual they go through to choose a mate?
-Maddy

Anyone know a lot about mitochondria?

2004-10-21T22:41:00.000-05:00

I found this article to today that discusses how mitochondria DNA mutations may be underlying factors in hypertension, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and obesity. This was only found in one large family. Although the experts in this article believe this mutation to be very rare, they argue that it could be important for understanding other metabolic disorders and how they cause disease.
So here is my question. Does anyone know how mitochondria dysfunction can cause disease?
What processes are involved in that type of dysfunction? I don't understand how that type of dysfunction could be a factor in that particular cluster of diseases. Thanks.

Here is the link to the article
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=534&e=3&u=/ap/20041022/ap_on_he_me/clustering_illness

height: Dutch, American, Masai

2004-10-19T18:45:00.000-05:00

Today's lecture repeated an issue that continues to capture my curiosity in this class--height as a measure of adaptability. But last year a study came out discussing height as a measure of a country's health. The Dutch, the tallest country, are on average healthiest while the US, among the shortest (and, need I say, widest?) in the developed world, had the most disparity between the haves and have-nots, and therefore a pretty low average health level for the individual citizen. How did height go from being determined by factors of latitude to being determined by factors of social care? Are the two interlinked?

The New Yorker:
"The Netherlands, as any European can tell you, has become a land of giants. In a centurys time, the Dutch have gone from being among the smallest people in Europe to the largest in the world. The men now average six feet oneseven inches taller than in van Goghs dayand the women five feet eight. The national organization of tall people, Klub Lange Mensen, has considerable lobbying power. From Rotterdam to Eindhoven, ceilings have had to be lifted, furniture redesigned, lintels raised to keep foreheads from smacking them. Many hotels now offer twenty-centimetre bed extensions, and ambulances on occasion must keep their back doors open, to allow for patients legs. We will not go through the ceiling, the pediatrician Hans van Wieringen assured me, after summarizing national height surveys that he had coördinated. But it is possible that we will grow another ten centimetres.

Class focuses on ethics of body modification

2004-10-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

Lampert Smith: Class focuses on ethics of body modification

"Hogle, a new hire from Stanford University, is a medical anthropologist who studies the ethics and politics of new technologies such as stem cells, gene therapies and organ transplants. The students in her class are mostly juniors and seniors, about evenly split between those from the social sciences and those from such fields as biochemistry and molecular biology.

They come with their own ideas about technology and the human body, and debates break out frequently.

"I can never get through a whole lecture," Hogle said.

She assigns research topics before each lecture, so students come armed with knowledge. For a class on body art - tattoos, piercing and the like - she had the students from the social science backgrounds research cultural ideas of beauty and the hard science people research the biology of attraction.

A recent class took on the issue of enhancing the body to excel at sports. Hogle talked about steroid use, nutritional supplements and blood doping. Complicating matters is the fact that some performance-enhancing drugs have the potential to help people with muscle wasting disease.

The issue sparks debate, Hogle said, "because it strikes at the very emotional American value of fairness."

a new blog tool

2004-10-17T09:04:00.000-05:00

Since things are a little slow here, let me take a moment to introduce you guys to another blogging tool. Technorati is an aggregator that monitors activity on blogs. For example, at the bottom of this page, you can see if more blogs are discussing Bush or Kerry at the moment.

The Top 100 page will probably be more interesting to you, as it monitors the top 100 most popular blogs at the moment. Remember that in the blogosphere, power is measured by links, and so popularity is determined by the most linked to blogs. Click around a few, you might find one that you enjoy.

Finally, Technorati's newspage is the best way to check for breaking news stories around the country. Dr. Nisbett referred to this phenomenon when he said the weather channel and main news outlets weren't doing a very good job keeping up with current hurricane-related conditions. I've had the same experience with the 9/11 attacks and the Columbia disaster. Blogs are often quicker to respond and have a more real, first person feeling to the reports.

"Atanarjuat", a more recent portrayal of the Inuit culture and Arctic Biome

2004-10-08T13:51:00.000-05:00

If anyone is interested in seeing a more recent portrayl of the Inuit culture and how they live up in the Arctic territory, you might want to rent the movie "Atanarjuat." It was done by an Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk and shows a more cultural aspect of the people. There is dialogue, it is in their language, but there are subtitles. For me this movie has more credibility becuase it is more recent and a lot of what Robert Flaherity did in "Nanook" was false. The whole point of watching "Nanook" was more for observing their adaptations to the environment, but "Atanarjuat" has much of the same too.

i forgot to mention

2004-10-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

I forgot to say that "Atanarjuat" is a movie about Inuit past, much around the same time that Flaherty had in mind for his film.

Nanook of the North

2004-10-08T11:27:00.000-05:00

Aside from the grating music, I actually enjoyed the video yesterday. After hearing its history--made by a holywood film guy rather than an anthropologist--I found myself thinking about modern incantations of that trend. Probably the best example is The Whale Rider, a movie that came out two years ago and received Oscar Nominations, and focuses on the Maori tribe just off the coast of New Zealand. Another movie from the same year, Bend it Like Beckham, also had a great ethnographic focus--the various gender identification issues experienced by a first generation immigrant family from India, now living in London.

You all know about my Margaret Mead obsessions. One aspect of her writing I like best is that she never wrote for an audience of anthropologists, or even academes. She wrote for the teacher, the parent, anyone she thought could benefit from the knowledge she gathered from these various cultures. She always took care of that "so what" factor of her work, that is, she had real world applications that went far beyond her works' (still admirable) contribution to the cannon.

A favorite 20th Century philosopher of mine, Snow, speculated that, since the Enlightenment, the growing gulf in the language professionals used to discuss thier specialties was responsible for separating the fields of science and philosophy to such a degree that they really can't talk to eachother anymore. They just don't speak each other's language.

A similar gulf in languages has developped between the social sciences and the popular public that comprised Margaret Mead's audience. But that gulf is immediately closed when we introduce the different medium of communication, film. Indeed, the film industry's survival depends on their ability to remain fluent in popular languages. In both the Baka video and the Nanook one, I think a person with zero education in the social sciences could have gotten about as much out of the experience as we did. As an emerging professional in this field, one of my biggest goals is to remain fluent in popular language, nomatter the focus of my subject material.

While the Baka roam through the forest, Steaua Bucharest ends up in group of death

2004-10-06T23:16:00.000-05:00

Blog Beta Test 1

Anthro first:
The Baka video sparked my interest in the culture and lifestyle of tribes having minimal contact with "society". I found two books which I will check out: The Forest People and The Mountain People, both by Colin Turnbull. They both describe the author's stay with various tribes. I am looking forward to tomorrow's video.

Non-anthro stuff second:
So here we go, perhaps the most awaited news of the week:
The UEFA Cup has a new format. It has copied the Champions League group format, and the only Romanian team to make it thus far will encounter tough competition. The following teams will battle for the top three qualifying spots in Group B: Standard Liege, AC Parma, Besiktas Istanbul, Athletico Bilbao, and of course the Romanian power house, Steaua Bucharest. Critics have referred to this group as the most equilibrated group, while I believe it should more appropriately be regarded as the group of death.

Here's a great article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1321324,00.html

alright annie i think i got it

2004-10-06T01:43:00.000-05:00

ok lets try this out and see if it works

Lice tell mankind's story

2004-10-05T17:09:00.000-05:00

Lice tell mankind's story: Study of head louse suggests that Homo erectus transmitted parasite to Homo sapiens | By Nick Atkinson

"A new study of the phylogeny of human head and body lice provides evidence that Homo sapiens once made direct physical contact with a more archaic lineage. The findings, published in PLoS Biology this week, show how humans' evolutionary past can be pieced together by understanding what happened to our closely co-adapted parasites, say the authors..."

(read the same study reported from a completely different point of view)

where's the conversation

2004-10-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

While the class still has individual blogs, the real participation seems to be happening over at blogspot, so bookmark the new page and come join us!

first time blogger...

2004-10-01T14:33:00.000-05:00

Hello class anth 383! I am not too sure what to include in this blog, as this is all very foreign to me, but i will do my best. The Baka video was definitely very informative. I also focused on the women's teeth...is this a genetic adaptation or a cultural ritual? We'll have to check with Dr. Nisbett on that i guess! As for videos in general, i think it is an excellent way to present anthropology. So many issues relevant to this field are based on ethnographies of various peoples...and there are few more effective representations than video itself. anyways, happy blogging all!

2004-10-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

just in case you're still looking for test answers, they were posted to the old class blog site earlier this week.

george lucas and web ed

2004-09-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

When I started posting news articles to the anth383 site, I signed up for a google news posting service that notifies you when news articles are published with your selected key words, like anthropology. I've gotten some strange articles in the past few weeks. Today's strange one was a press release for the Star Wars Trilogy, which was released into DVD as a set last week. It came up because of an obscure line in it that mentioned George Lucas was an anthropology major in college up until his junior year, when he discovered the amazing world of film.

Yesterday, I received notice of an article on Bollywood, or the Bombay Film Industry, and Western Academia's interest in its cultural portrayals and implications. Before that, I got an NPR story on a "tongue-in-cheek anthropological study" of annoying corporate cultures.

If you're writing a paper, or collecting research on a topic, the google alerts service might be useful to you. You can subscribe for free, and unsubscribe at any time. The professional journal Nature also has a notifying service for professional papers, but you have to have a subscription to read most of their pages.

God, Gold, and Glory at Such Devastating Costs

2004-09-30T13:09:00.000-05:00

When Europeans arrived in the Americas, they conquered easily due to the smallpox infection that they had greater immunity for than the native peoples. We know Europe played host to such devastating diseases because of large populations cramped in unsanitary cities. However, the devastated Aztecs had a large city. Why did they not have a disease of similar caliber to the European smallpox? Why didn't Cortes and his men suffer the kind of fate that wiped out droves of Aztecs? What do ya'll think? I'm puzzled.
James

Baka Video

2004-09-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hey Guys-

So I thought I would go ahead and try to get this started... I enjoyed the video today. I thought little Ali was very cute. I think I would have really enjoyed seeing something about the Baka's marriage/courting rituals though. It mentioned that Ali's parents had very different ages (father 40ish (was Ali really his first child?), mother 20ish) and I was wondering if that was normal, etc. They seemed happy together though. His mother was always laughing. Perhaps that wasn't really the point of the video, but I would have enjoyed learning about it all the same. Anyways, not that I'm expecting anyone to know, but if for some reason someone does know a whole lot about the Baka and marriage, feel free to comment. =)

more on the Baka

2004-09-30T11:29:00.000-05:00

If you arehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif interested in learning more about the Baka, here is a radio documentary about their musical history. The documentary's website also has a great pictorial review.

It's so great it is to see you guys posting! Just a few housekeeping issues:

-if you're using a Macintosh (Apple) computer, still download Mozilla's browzer, Firefox, so you'll have more interactive features that Safari can't avail, like spell check and linking

-if you want to link to something, highlight the text you want to become a link, and click the cute little button that looks like a globe with a paperclip going through it, then put the URL for the link in the pop-up box

-feel free to create a profile for yourself, or even create your own blogger blog

teeth

2004-09-30T11:07:00.000-05:00

Were any of the men's teeth filed?

teeth

2004-09-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

Did anyone notice the way the women's teeth were filed in the video today? I kept thinking that the movie would at least address it and perhaps explain the Baka's reasoning behind doing it. I know that it isn't a particularly unusual thing to do, but I wondered if anyone knew what some of the cultural explanations were for it in other groups.

welcome to the conversation

2004-09-30T08:57:00.000-05:00

Rather than replacing the old system, this is an addition to it. Because the interface is much simpler, and because we can share our thoughts and conversations on one website here, you may prefer this. However, your individual blogs will continue to exist if you ever want to use them, even after this class concludes.

Give this a try, you might like it better. No pressure. My goal is to get you guys talking online.

You've been emailed an invitation to become a member for this page. That means, when you accept it, you can post entries to this exact page. Your entry will show up right above the previous one. This gives you two ways to join the conversation: 1) by posting a comment, and 2) by posting your own entry.

a message from Dr. Nisbett, including test key

2004-09-27T16:49:00.000-05:00

Dear Anth 383: Here is the key to exam #1. Question #26 was poorly written and everyone should have gotten it correct (I.e., I accepted any answer). Please count up the number you got wrong and make sure your total score is correct.

Again, the range was 72-95, with a mean of 88. Great job!

If you have any questions about your exam, the best thing to do is to schedule an appointment to come visit with me in person. The second best option is to email me. However, I will be out-of-town and offline from 1pm Tuesday until 8am Friday morning this week. Cheers, Ran

click here for the full answer key

Delta 32

2004-09-26T16:55:00.000-05:00

Did anyone else in class pick up on the hedonistic behavior comment in the video? I personally was really enjoying the video, and took it as imparting sound academics up until that dropped. Then, I found myself distracted with thoughts such as, "how can these scientists study genes know thoroughly and know so little about culture that they can consider mainstream, if cutting edge in its accepted social form back then, homosexuality as hedonistic?" I guess I'm saying they blew their credibility with me at that moment, and I was wondering if my experience was unique.

I don't feel like I'm igniting undue controversy here. The blogs are about discussing _everything_, right?

Gene doping

2004-09-26T16:53:00.000-05:00

Priti mentioned this article from Scientific American on her blog, I wanted to add my own link for everyone. If you have any comments, please go to Priti's blog and post them.

"Gene therapy for restoring muscle lost to age or disease is poised to enter the clinic, but elite athletes are eyeing it to enhance performance Can it be long before gene doping changes the nature of sport?"

James' question

2004-09-26T16:51:00.000-05:00

Be sure to visit James' blog to comment on the question he posed regarding the spread of disease and the conquest of the Americas.

great class today!

2004-09-23T16:55:00.000-05:00

I'm so, so sorry we didn't do this earlier. Today's little 20-minute tutorial should have taken place on one of those first class days when Dr. Nisbett turned to me and said, "Would you like to talk to the class about blogging, Annie?" Talking is never so good as showing. But the good news is, thanks to some brave students who told me they were having technical difficulties, I think I really understand you guys better now.

I hope your bravery continues. Be a little adventurous, click around this page or even some of the other blogs I posted. You can't do any damage. Experiment with the form of communication where linked words enhance the message you're trying to communicate.

Some of you have already posted favorite poems or songs. Find a web page where you can hear or even download that song or read other poems by that author and make the line where you cited your quote a link to that other web page. If music or poetry is a passion of yours, make a category for blog posts just on that topic, if you'd like. Pour yourself into these pages. They're your pages!

blogging for change vs. blogging for grades

2004-09-22T16:56:00.000-05:00

Do you remember from class when I said the Iranian bloggers were a perfect example of how instrumental blogging is to global social change? Read today's Guardian (worldwide distributed newspaper out of London) weblog entry for an update on what Iranian bloggers are up to now.

Initially, Iranian bloggers were all about giving individuals a voice that the government couldn't censor. Increasingly, as the bloggers' voices have gained momentum and power (in the link form of power), they're taking up the cause of the less able. Like the Iranian media. Most Iranian bloggers who blog from inside Iran try to stay anonymous because some bloggers are being arrested by the Iranian government and some expat-bloggers' family members are, too.

You in this class are assigned blogging as a gentle introduction to the technologies you'll need to thrive as a professional, but these people are blogging because it's their sliver of freedom from a censoring government. And they're willing to face arrest for their words. What's crazy is that, because we're all members of the blogosphere, these Iranian bloggers are our compatriots, part of our cultural group. We have the option to lift their status (through linking) or ignore them, and effectively stifle their voices. Already, bloggers have lifted the voices (through linking) to the attention of international media, as exhibited by Wired, CNN, the Guardian and BBC. The International government community is taking notice.

Isn't it exciting to be part of social change?

Anthro in the news

2004-09-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

While posts on the main page have only been coming every few days, posts on the antho in the news page have been almost daily. I've found articles from several continents and numerous countries that discuss topics related to our field. Today I was happy to find an article closely related to Dr. Nisbett's lecture, called Fossils show climate influencing evolution: Changes affect genetic course of 2 rodents from SFGate.com, the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle. Scan over the page's articles, and you might find articles relevant to other classes, too. I hope reading these articles can help bridge the gap between academia and real world applications of the subject matters we're discussing.

If you come across articles that you think would be good posts for any part of this site, please send them my way!

Happy Weekend!

2004-09-18T17:07:00.000-05:00

It must feel great to put your first exam behind you. Were there parts that really stumped you? Topics you weren't sure about? The blogs are the place to discuss this, especially before grades are posted.

One area of this blog is called Anthro in the News, and the link to it is along the left sidebar. Here's where I post articles and websites dealing with anthropology, and usually, dealing with class-related issues. This week, I included an article regarding the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. Tonight at 8pm (and replayed tomorrow at 11 pm) the Discovery Channel is playing a special called 500 Nations timed for the opening of this museum. I encourage you to watch the special (at least part of it, it's long) and critique it on your blogs. Consider whether it achieved its goal of educating Americans on the history of Native peoples, and whether it was overly ethnocentric, or even overly compensating for ethnocentrism.

test prep

2004-09-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, we're ramping up to the first test of the semester. I want the blog to be here for you, so talk to me people! What can I do for you? Don't be shy!

a message from the professor

2004-09-15T17:07:00.000-05:00

Dear 383 Class: I have finished writing exam

#1. I think it is de- Nyquilized, and now quite cogent and fair. Given the impressive and gratifying email questions I've received from some of you thus far, I wanted to post this message with some more specific info on the exam. 1. It is really a basic, "introductory" level, exam in that I want you to learn, digest, and regurgitate the information presented in the lectures and videos. This is not really a gratifying sort of exam for those who want to delve into the specifics, dissect the material, or make sense of the inherent contradictions of most data. Just remember that the goal here is to bring a group of students with very diverse backgrounds and different career paths into a common "culture" where all can "speak" the vernacular of human adaptability.

2. There are no specific questions over the videos since I did not hand back the video reviews. However, the "take-home" points and visuals from those presentations are apparent in many questions. Having seen the videos, I think you will have increased your odds of getting many questions correct-- at least that's what I tried to accomplish in writing several of the questions.

3. Make sure you have a complete set of notes and study each set thoroughly. I am told by students at other universities that my exams are "difficult" because they are so comprehensive. I disagree but what do I know. The only exception generally regarding breadth of coverage concerns the last lecture on the "history and theory" of environmental anthropology. Some of this material is, at least to some of us, rather more "dry" and "academic." The main thing is to read over those notes enough times to digest the basics-- but, with regard to the actual points alloted to this lecture material on the exam itself, waht you should really focus on is the people and their theoretical focus/contributions.

4. There are 100 questions--about evenly divided among multiple-choice, T/F, and matching. Each type of questioning (e.g., T/F, matching, etc.) is designed to render as fair an evaluation instrument as is possible. Ie, some of us who have tested as "subjective learners" don't do too well on T/F, other learning types don't handle matching questions so well, etc. So, the exam has almost equal points for each major question style. There is a brief (5 points I think) fill-in-the blank section toward the end. Way easy.

5. The subject matter covered on the exam is not difficult per se. Ie, you don't need to infer, or integrate several different lines of evidence. You need merely to give yourself enough study time to essentially memorize the material and spit it back. Other strategies to test inference or integration abilities will occur on future exams. The point here is to demonstrate a mastery of the vernacular and understanding of the concepts.

6. Finally, if you get stumped on one particular question or a series, move on to the other question types. Ie, there is inevitable redundancy in any exam with 100 questions on it--meaning it is likely that a future question may provide an answer to a previous one, ore vice versa, right? Don't hesitate to email me with questions. I will check again tonight but will go offline by 10pm or so and, depending on whether my PC at work actually boots or not (one never knows!), will not be back online at work until 7.30 am or so tomorrow morning.

Happy Holiday Weekend

2004-09-04T17:31:00.000-05:00

Though I’m anxious to display the professional and educational side of blogging, this media has always been primarily social, done for fun rather than class assignments. Whatever your interests, there’s a blog out there that you’ll find entertaining. Just in time for the holiday weekend, here are some blogs that might offer a view of the lighter side of blogging.

Celebrities-turned-bloggers:
Zach Braff (of Scrubs and Garden State)
Gillian Anderson (X-Files, Princess Mononoke)
Melanie Griffith (Crazy in Alabama, Working Girl) (warning: mushy music)
Al Roker (the Today Show weatherperson)

Musicians-turned-bloggers
Moby (click journal after flash intro)
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan)
Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit)

Students’ blogs:
Harvard Mexican
Too Big for Boots
Careless Whispers
Althouse
Superchik?

Various topical blogs:
Naked Chef Jamie Oliver
Island blogging
Stonyfield Farm Blogs
AfricaBlog
Google Blog
Jon's Mexico Blog

blogs and wikis

2004-09-03T17:38:00.000-05:00

Here's a slide presentation on the difference between blogs and wikis and some applications for both.

South Africa: Traditionalists Call for Virginity Testing in HIV/Aids Campaign

2004-08-31T17:45:00.000-05:00

From allAfrica.com, published on August 30:

"...A local newspaper, The Sunday Tribune, reported that in July about 3,000 young girls had attended a regional testing festival.

But anthropologist Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala of the University of KwaZulu-Natal noted that although virginity testing had its advantages, it was discriminatory, as only women were tested. "What is the responsibility of men in this?" she said. 'They are the other half of the equation. We should also target men if we want to stop AIDS.'"

Striving to solve history's mysteries

2004-08-31T17:44:00.000-05:00

From the Christian Science Monitor, published August 31:

"...Among the objects he chose were the only surviving native American objects that Lewis and Clark had collected on their famous expedition of 1804 to 1806. But more than a century would pass before the world would know which objects they were. It took anthropologist and curator Castle McLaughlin and her 20-plus colleagues seven years to identify the Lewis and Clark objects. How did they do it?

To be a museum curator, you have to be a bit of a detective. Ms. McLaughlin, an associate curator of North American ethnography at the Peabody, already knew something about the Lewis and Clark objects hidden among the six million items owned by the museum. The artifacts had traveled a long and twisting road.

Lewis and Clark had given the items to President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson in turn gave some to Charles Willson Peale's Philadelphia Museum, which in turn gave some to the Boston Museum. From there they went to the Peabody via Willoughby's cart in 1899.

McLaughlin had labels, lists, journals, and correspondence from the 19th century. She also had objects, hundreds of them. But how to put the pieces together to prove which items came from the expedition and which did not?.."

It's the second week of school. Do you know where your blog is?

2004-08-31T17:43:00.000-05:00

Neither do I! Dr. Nisbett and I are scheming to get everyone online ASAP and, while we haven't yet come up with a specific incentive, let me just say you'll definitely give your grade some help if you get with it and blog! The first student to put up a post on his or her blog and the first to comment on this page will especially be smiled upon by the gods of the realm of red pens.

Clifford Geertz

2004-08-31T17:41:00.000-05:00

From Garrison Kiellor's the Writers' Almanac, aired on August 23:

"It's the birthday of anthropologist and writer Clifford Geertz, born in San Francisco (1926), best known for his writings about the interpretation of culture. Geertz described anthropologists as "merchants of astonishment." He is known for breaking away from the 1950s emphasis on scientific inquiry and for introducing a more literary style to the discipline of anthropology. Geertz's fieldwork has taken him to Java, Bali, and Sumatra in Indonesia as well as to Morocco.

He wrote, "You do two or two-and-a-half years in Java in which all you do is live with the people, write down everything, and try to figure out what the hell is going on; then you come back and write-out of the notes, out of your memories, and out of whatever is going on in the field." Geertz is the author of twelve books and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author (1988)."

Houston museum drooling at prospect of exhibiting famous 'Lucy' fossil

2004-08-30T17:56:00.000-05:00

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, by Pam Easton (AP):

"The first-ever public display of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old fossil discovered in Ethiopia, is scheduled for Houston in 2006, to the chagrin of some anthropologists who fear the project will harm the partial skeleton.

Ethiopia, the east African country where Lucy is stored in a museum safe, hopes to encourage tourism and investment by offering the treasure to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

"Nobody is happy about exporting the original Lucy outside of Ethiopia," said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. "People think the export might endanger Lucy."

The fossil makes up about 40 percent of a skeleton of a woman who died sometime between her 25th and 30th birthdays. She is the "most complete, best-preserved skeleton of any erect-walking human ancestor that has ever been found," according to "Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind," a book co-written by Donald Johanson, one of her discoverers..."

Akbar Ahmed joins Anthropology’s Hall of Fame

2004-08-30T17:55:00.000-05:00

From the Pakistan Daily Times:

"...Mr Ahmed discussed his work on Pashtun and Baloch tribes, Muslim societies and the recent initiative in interfaith dialogue. Others interviewed included Prof Clifford Geertz, the best known anthropologist in the United States, Sir Edmund Leach and Sir Raymond Firth.

The British Broadcasting Company has called Mr Ahmed the world’s best-known scholar of contemporary Islam. He has held senior positions in Pakistan, including Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK."

a short guide to this and other blogs

2004-08-30T17:49:00.000-05:00

Generally, blogs post new entries at the top of the page and older entries can be found as one scrolls down the page. Each entry is delineated by the bold heading and each day's entries are delineated by the section break. Bloggers set a number of entries to display on the front page and after that number is exceeded, older entries can be found in the archives along the sidebar.

Under the bold entry heading are three categories that contain information regarding the entry. First is the entry's author (I'm anth383). Second is the category for the entry (confusing, I know, but directly class-related information falls into the category anth383). I'll explain categories in a moment. Finally, and most useful, is the comments button. This button allows you the reader to comment on the entry, thereby initiating that interaction that makes blogs so great. The button also makes the web address in the URL window into a permalink, the URL that directs one to just that entry.

Because blogs change every day, if you want to link to a blogger's entry, it's best to link to it via the entry's permalink so your blog readers will be directed to exactly the entry you refer to in your blog. Some blogs' permalinks are a number sign (#) at the bottom of the post, and some are a time stamp (3:54 p.m.) either under the entry heading or at the bottom of the entry.

This blog has four categories so far: anth383, which is the main page info; anthro in the news, which directs you to a clipping list of news articles on the topic of anthropology, and hopefully specifically on the topic of class lectures; careers in the field, another clipping list from web pages and news sites regarding specific careers that you might be able to enter with this education; and finally, class notes, which should soon contain class notes in advance of classes (so you don't have to use the famed and dreaded reserve!).

Along the sidebar, blogs typically contain a blogroll, which is a list of the blogger's favorite blogs to frequent. The software we're using lets bloggers easily categorize their links in the blogroll. In the web culture, links are a unit of power, so a blogroll as well as the links embedded in entries' text are reserved for sites you want to boost. The main reason links are so powerful lies in the methods Google and other search engines use to rank search results. They send out 'bots, programs that crawl through, or spider, web pages cataloging content, and find which sites are linked to which sites and which words were used in the link. The search rank for the word "jew" is a famous example. Last year an anti-Semitic group googlebombed the word. Because I don't want to give this group any links or references [read, power], I don't want to name them or link to them, but look for yourself at the now-second ranked search result for a google search on the word. The anti-Semitic group organized a bunch of sites to put the word on websites over and over again, and to make each occurence of the word a link to the anti-Semitic site. It worked, and their site became the top search result for the word on google. But bloggers came to the semantic rescue and launched a counter-campaign to instead link the word "jew" to the wikipedia entry for the word on thousands upon thousands of blogs. Ironically, because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written in the public domain via wiki format, the attention helped make the search term one of the longest and most contributed-to entries. In fact, Wikipedia now contains an entry detailing the web event.

syllabus

2004-08-30T17:48:00.000-05:00

INSTRUCTOR: Richard A. “Ran” Nisbett, PhD, MSPH OFFICE HOURS: TR, 3-5pm, OBA
OFFICE: SH 252 EMAIL: ran@rice.edu
PHONE: 348.2584 DEPT’L OFFICE: SH 572

COURSE ORGANIZATION. Human variation and human adaptation are two subfields—each comprised of many subspecialties—within the subdiscipline of biological, or physical, anthropology. Human variation is the study of the phenotypic and genetic diversity among living humans, concerned primarily with human populations at intra-specific levels. Generally, this subfield contains 3 research foci: (1) case studies of biologic variation in human populations (e.g., skin color or high altitude adaptations of a particular population); (2) individual biologic variation vis-à-vis quantitative risk factors for human health; and (3) population genetics & the geography of human genes. Typically, courses in human adaptation survey our species more broadly at the species level, looking at adaptations to environmental stressors and human ecology. Obviously, these subfields overlap.
Taking a biocultural approach, this course is divided into three parts: Part 1—Foundations in Ecological Anthropology (background in anthropology, ecology & the biology of environmental stressors); Part 2—Human Adaptability Studies (genetic/cultural adjustments and acclimation to various environments); and Part 3—Applications (new issues and interpretations in a time of rapid global change). Several instructional formats are employed: PowerPoint lectures, seminar-style discussions, and VHS/DVD presentations.

COURSE PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES. The primary purpose of this course is to empower the student to synthesize the evolutionary, biocultural, and ethical dimensions of human diversity. After completing this course, the student will be able to:

➢ Discuss general principles of human adaptation to environment.
➢ Give explicit examples of human biologic, cultural, and environmental interactions through time and space.
➢ Appreciate the scope and details of human diversity and explain the dual inheritance of genes and culture in humans.
➢ Discuss demography and population dynamics as they apply to humans.
➢ Discuss the demographic landmarks of human evolution and adaptation.
➢ Discuss some salient potential threats to human survival, including emerging infectious diseases and the negative synergy of disease, poverty & malnutrition.

TEXT AND READINGS. The required text is Human Adaptability (hereafter M) by Emilio Moran, Westview Press, 2000, which will be used primarily in Part 2. A packet of readings is also required for the class discussions in Parts 2&3. Lecture notes and readings will be made available either in print or electronic versions. These are indicated below with the symbol “§”.

COURSE MECHANICS. Attendance: Regular attendance is essential. Assignments & Evaluation (due dates noted below with an “*”): Evaluation will be based upon: (1) 3 exams—all of equal value—and cumulatively worth 90% of the final grade; in lieu of a final exam, you may opt for writing a term paper; if you take this option, you must choose a topic in consultation with the instructor by 16 Sept; and (2) a “participation” score worth 10%. The participation component of the course letter grade is based primarily on attendance and video reviews, as well as any take-home or blogging assignments. Late work will be penalized.

TENTATIVE COURSE OUTLINE. The outline below is provisional; changes will be announced in class but it is your responsibility to be proactive in becoming informed of any changes.

Tentative Course Outline

PART 1. FOUNDATIONS: ECOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Week 1 (23-29 Aug). ANTHROPOLOGY & ECOLOGY I
T—Course mechanics
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: None
R—Introductions to anthropology, ecology and environmental stressors
Readings/Discussion: Lecture notes§
Video/Discussion: None

Week 2 (30 Aug-5 Sept). ANTHROPOLOGY & ECOLOGY II
T—Environmental stressors
Readings/Discussion: Lecture notes§
Video/Discussion: “Understanding Viruses”
R—Human ecology & Disease ecology
Readings/Discussion: Lecture notes§
Video/Discussion: None

Week 3 (6-12 Sept). ANTHROPOLOGY & ECOLOGY III; Labor Day, 6 Sept: No class
T—Recap ecological communities
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: “Dangerous Friends & Friendly Enemies”
R—Case Study: Shifting cultivation, malaria & sickle-cell Anemia in West Africa
Readings/Discussion: Lecture notes§
Video/Discussion: Sickle-cell excerpts/CD-ROM malaria interactive?

*Week 4 (13-19 Sept). ANTHROPOLOGY & ECOLOGY IV
T—History & theory of ecological anthropology; Human evolutionary ecology
Readings/Discussion: M Chapters 2&3; Lecture notes§
Video/Discussion: None
*R—Exam #1; for those opting in, term paper topic is due

PART 2. HUMAN ADAPTABILITY STUDIES

Week 5 (20-26 Sept). ADAPTABILITY STUDIES: OVERVIEW
T—Taking an evolutionary perspective; Intro to molecular genetics; return exam #1
Readings/Discussion: “Health and disease in prehistoric populations in
transition” (Armelagos '98§); “Domestication and the evolution of disease”
(Diamond ‘92§); “Human genetics, paleoenvironments, and malaria:
Relationships and implications for the settlement of Oceania” (Clark & Kelly
’93§)
Video/Discussion: None
R—Recap molecular genetics
Readings/Discussion: “Diversity or Death” from Darwin in the Genome
(Caporale '03§)
Video/Discussion: “Mystery of the Black Death”

Week 6 (27 Sept-3 Oct). ADAPTABILITY STUDIES: HOT N’ COLD I
T—Humid Tropics
Readings/Discussion: M Chapter 9
Video/Discussion: None
R—Recap humid tropics
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: “Baka: People of the Forest”

Week 7 (4-10 Oct). ADAPTABILITY STUDIES: HOT N’ COLD II {RAN@CR study site, 6-13 Oct?}
T—Arctic zones
Readings/Discussion: M Chapter 5
Video/Discussion: None
R—Recap Arctic zones
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: “Nanook of the North”
Week 8 (11-17 Oct). ADAPTABILITY STUDIES: HIGH & DRY I {RAN@CR study site, 6-13 Oct?}
T—Mid-Term Recess, 11-12 Oct: No classes
R—High altitudes
Readings/Discussion: M Chapter 6
Video/Discussion: None

Week 9 (18-24 Oct). ADAPTABILITY STUDIES: HIGH & DRY II
T—Aridlands & grasslands
Readings/Discussion: M Chapters 7&8
Video/Discussion: None
R—Recap aridlands & grasslands
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: "Woodabe: Herdsmen of the Sun"

*Week 10 (25-31 Oct). ADAPTABILITY STUDIES
*T—Exam #2: In-class film preview for take-home essay exam
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: “Rabbit-Proof Fence”
*R—Exam #2: Objective-question exam in class

PART 3. APPLICATIONS: NEW DIRECTIONS & INTERPRETATIONS

Week 11 (1-7 Nov). ANTHROPOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY {RAN@Tropical Medicine meetings in Miami, 6-10 Nov}
T—Attracting mates: Reproductive ecology & evolutionary psychology; return exam #2
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: None
R—Recap evolutionary psychology; Cultural psychology
Readings/Discussion: Excerpts from The Geography of Thought (Nisbett '03§)
Video/Discussion: “The Human Connection”

Week 12 (8-14 Nov). DEMOGRAPHY {RAN@Tropical Medicine meetings in Miami, 6-10 Nov}
T—Demography & social change
Readings/Discussion: None
Video/Discussion: “Savanna Homecoming”
R—Demography
Readings/Discussion: Chapter 5 from Environmental Change and Human
Survival (Molnar & Molnar '00§)
Video/Discussion: None

Week 13 (15-21 Nov). GLOBAL HEALTH: NEW DISEASES & SOCIAL CHANGE I
T—Emerging diseases & Evolution medicine
Readings/Discussion: “The influence of historical and global changes upon
patterns of infectious diseases” (McMichael ’98§); “Emerging diseases and
global change: Past, present and possible future” (Epstein '98§)
Video/Discussion: None
R—Case study: Environmental degradation & surveillance of zoonoses
Readings/Discussion: “Viral traffic, transnational companies and logging in Liberia, West Africa” (Nisbett & Monath ’01§)
Video/Discussion: None

Week 14 (22-28 Nov). GLOBAL HEALTH: NEW DISEASES & SOCIAL CHANGE II
T—Global Health and the New War on the Poor; *Ecological footprints take-
home assignment
Readings/Discussion: “Social inequalities and emerging infectious diseases” (Farmer ’98§)
Video/Discussion: None
R—Thanksgiving Recess, 25-26 Nov: No classes

*Week 15 (29 Nov-5 Dec). GLOBAL HEALTH: NEW DISEASES & SOCIAL CHANGE III; Friday, 3 Dec: Last day of classes
T—Recap global health
Readings/Discussion: “Journey Beyond Maps—Paul Farmer’s spiritual pilgrimage among the poor” (Nisbett ‘03§)
Video/Discussion: “NOW w/ Bill & Melinda Gates: Global Health”
*R—Ecologic footprints exercise due; Recap course; Conduct course evaluations

*Week 16 (6-12 Dec). Final exams: Self- and regular schedules 8-15 Dec

Sierra Leoneanism And Cultural Apathy

2004-08-30T17:47:00.000-05:00

From allAfrica.com, published August 30:

"The new US ambassador to Sierra Leone has urged President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's government to preserve Bunce Island where slaves where kept before transported to the Americas.

Should Sierra Leone wait for a foreigner to urge it to preserve its cultural heritages? Most of the structures that symbolize the country's history have been neglected. Take the case of the fence built by the Limbas in Koinadugu District north of the country who are believed to be the first inhabitants of Sierra Leone, to protect themselves against hostile new comers in pre-colonial era. It was a foreigner American-born Anthropologist Joseph Opala who went to visit the site and establish its existence after so many write-ups by our armchair Historians. It seems the country lacks a minister of culture and culturally minded elites. To cultivate cultural awareness requires a dynamic and culturally aware minister. The current minister of culture Chernoh Jalloh who doubles as minister of tourism only concentrates on the latter aspect, which is believed to be personally rewarding..."

Retracing Crimes in the World's Killing Fields

2004-08-29T17:58:00.000-05:00

From NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, aired on August 7, 2004:

"Genocide is a key part of forensic anthropologist Clea Koff's profession. She's investigated mass graves in Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. NPR's Scott Simon asks her about her experiences as outlined in her new book, The Bone Woman."

For more information on Clea Koff, click here to read her biography and text from her interview by Bill Moyers' on NOW.

For more information on forensic anthropology, click here to read an article on the topic by PBS' POV or click here to read a report by PBS' History Detectives.

Archaeology: Not just a job, but also an adventure

2004-08-29T17:57:00.000-05:00

From the Mississippi Sun Herald, by Kate Magandy:

"...His field of study, biological anthropology, is the study of the human biological system and its evolution.

"Skeletal biology can be used to interpret lifestyle and what a skeleton looked like" before becoming a skeleton, he said.

During his last two years of undergraduate work at LSU, he focused on physical anthropology as it is applied to medical and legal contexts, he said. His postgraduate work sent him to Wichita State for his master's and he is working on his doctorate at the University of Arkansas.

Fast-forward to this summer, when Batey had the opportunity to travel to Jordan for seven weeks to a field school jointly run by the University of Arkansas and a university in Jordan under the direction of Dr. Jerome Rose and Dr. Mahmoud el-Najjar.

The site the team worked is in the north part of the country not far from the Israel-Syria border.

"Not once, in the whole time we were there, did I not feel safe," he said. "It was safer there than in many large U.S. cities at night. It really wasn't a thought."

Working as a teaching assistant for Rose, Batey helped excavate late Roman- and Byzantine-period tombs estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 years old..."

Welcome to the Human Adaptability class blog!

2004-08-27T18:02:00.000-05:00

I know you still have a lot of questions. Thanks for showing up. Now here are some answers:

Whats a blog?
Thursday I stood in front of the class and began to explain blogging. I didnt have much time, but it didnt matter. This concept is difficult to explain with any amount of time. I remember saying its like a journal or notes from your days experiences of the web or class. I said its nebulous and intuitive, so you just have to experience it yourself. And then a student raised her hand and asked, so, whats a blog? Take this journey with me and I think youll get it. Click here first.

Blogs were born back in the late 90s. Some of the earliest bloggers have a Houston connection because UHCL's Futures Department assigned their graduate students to all create Clipping Logs. Blogs hit their tipping point sometime in 2002.

Bloggers use a variety of services. You are using an open source service called pLog. And while discussion groups and online forums are nothing new, as far as we know, this is Rice Universitys first class blog. You are now a blogger. Welcome to the Blogosphere!

Blogs come in all shapes and sizes. Demographically speaking, there are more women bloggers than men, and more young bloggers than old. Blog readers are a completely different lot, however. Blogs can be fictional, or they can document a fictional process, they're professional and educational. They can be wholly devoted to the Real World, and they can even be historical.

Why do blogs matter?
While over ten million blogs exist on the web, just over 4 million are active blogs, making the Blogosphere the largest population of people that share a connected culture and yet define themselves with no borders or geographical boundaries and no genealogical history. Blogger David Weinberger has written a couple of books and keeps up a 'zine in his effort to capture the nature of and explain this new culture. Bloggers Rebecca Blood and Andrew Sullivan have also written much on the topic of whether blogs are journalism, and I contend that every one of their arguments are just as valid if you switch the term journalism for anthropology. This is especially true at Rice, where the anthropology department has focused on anthropology in terms of cultural critique.

As a language, blogging is also unique, in that its a multi-dimensional means of communication. I can say [write] a sentence and it means one thing. I can link every word of that sentence and, by following those links, you can understand that I mean something more. You can understand the context by following my links and reading what I just read and am responding to with my sentence, and you can understand the innuendo of my word choices. You, the reader of my blog, can comment on my blog and we can engage in a conversation regarding what I said. Another passer by can see our conversation, which of course you also discussed on your blog with your own links. In a few clicks, the passer by knows as much about our interaction as hours of explaining still couldnt have achieved.

Go Blog It!
Even after reading and, hopefully, following (through links) all this, you'll only learn by doing. You are doing this because your professor believes blogging can enhance the educational dialogue and that blogging encourages critical thinking skills. And because your grade depends on it. I hope this is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship. Your blog is your blog. It need not stay on topic for this class. As your class blog moderator, I'll follow along and highlight the relevant stuff here. Now go blog!

So you have an ID and a password. Now what?

2004-08-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

1) Go to the Blogs@Rice admin page
2) Enter the ID and password you received via email
3) Click on categories and create one, ie: anth 383
4) Click on new post and make one, even if it just says test
5) Be sure the settings at the bottom of the page say publish instead of draft, and click blog this (or update if it's your second time around)

If you have any trouble, you can ask Christopher or check the Blogs@Rice help page (a work in progress).