This is a group created to discuss the state of art in Social and Cultural Anthropology.

• Lucas Melo

  What's the best theory to research on leisure, spaces of sociability in an urban city?

  I'm doing some research on spaces of sociability like sporting clubs. And I chose to investigate the foundation, the peak and the decline of these spaces. But what theory is the more approchable toI'm doing some research on spaces of sociability like sporting clubs. And I chose to investigate the foundation, the peak and the decline of these spaces. But what theory is the more approchable to explain that?

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    Alfredo Feres replied

    Lucas, Understanding that your research will take place in Brazil, and considering the problem to be investigated, I would like to propose the link below, specially the articles of José GuilhermeLucas, Understanding that your research will take place in Brazil, and considering the problem to be investigated, I would like to propose the link below, specially the articles of José Guilherme C. Magnani, from Sao Paulo State University. http://www.n-a-u.org/artigos.html All the best.

    6 days ago
• Subeno Kithan

  How have anthropologists studied 'struggles' (be it social, political or economic) of communities they engage with?

  Anthropological query into the whole matter of 'struggles'of people (be it social, economic or political) is quite different from that of other social sciences disciplines. With approaches like Anthropological query into the whole matter of 'struggles'of people (be it social, economic or political) is quite different from that of other social sciences disciplines. With approaches like ethnography and participant observation, anthropologists seem to understand people and their everyday lives better.

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    Larry Carlson replied

    Perhaps the phrase "might makes right" is ironic, not only because it shows that morality is only defined by those biased few who are in power, but because those in power are so often in the wrong. Perhaps the phrase "might makes right" is ironic, not only because it shows that morality is only defined by those biased few who are in power, but because those in power are so often in the wrong. Though justice is supposed to be blind, it often ends up turning a blind eye on the injustices perpetrated by powerful Sophists and focusing instead upon the pecadillos of a few underlings. Not to be too political, but a quick case in point is the three strikes law here in the U.S. when applied in a world where fraudulent CEO's get off with a slap on the wrist with wet spaghetti: Leandro Andrade, some 30 years later, received two consecutive 25 year sentences in California after stealing 9 videotapes from two different K-Mart stores in a two week period, or the life sentence going to a shoddy repairman in the case of Rummel v. Estelle, cases upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    11 days ago
• Andrew Hagstrom

  What role, if any, did other religions (Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, the cults of Osiris, Dionysius, Adonis) have in the development of Christianity?

  This question bears on the anthropology of religion

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    Larry Carlson replied

    It is difficult to know what is speculative and what might reasonably accepted as fact. Freud claimed Moses was influenced by the monotheism of the Egyptian pharoah Akhenaten, but there isIt is difficult to know what is speculative and what might reasonably accepted as fact. Freud claimed Moses was influenced by the monotheism of the Egyptian pharoah Akhenaten, but there is apparently no archeological evidence that Jews were even in Egypt or moved into Canaan (under the leadership of Joshua). Apparently there is evidence t mhat David existed but not kingdom. There is evidence that Solomon existed, but not that he orchestrated the building of the temple.. Also, he would have worshiped other gods besides Yahweh, so he wasn't even monotheistic. Anyway, the Zoroastrian of the Persians, who overran Babylon and released the Jews, encouraged a more dualistic approach to their religious thinking, as far as I can tell.

    20 days ago
• Eduardo Rumenig

  Could genetic studies promote new theories about cultural evolutionism?

  This article (Cultural diversification promotes rapid phenotypic evolution in Xavánte Indians) argues about the influence of the culture on the phenotype characteristics of Xavante indians. MayThis article (Cultural diversification promotes rapid phenotypic evolution in Xavánte Indians) argues about the influence of the culture on the phenotype characteristics of Xavante indians. May biological areas influence the Anthropology?

  Genetica e xavante.pdf

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    Luis M Rodriguez replied

    I recently read the late Denis Dutton insightful and beautifully written book "The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution"... highly recommended for those interested in this discussion.

    21 days ago
• Nagaraju Jinka

  When did the human mind become religious?

  Understanding self and the phenomena like birth and death need a mental faculty. There must be some connection between the evolution of religious thinking and development of various faculties in theUnderstanding self and the phenomena like birth and death need a mental faculty. There must be some connection between the evolution of religious thinking and development of various faculties in the brain. Can anybody throw some light on the subject?

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    Frans Couwenbergh replied

    @ Jonathan Stadler, Aarch! Again that old philosophic speculation that mortality was something to worry about and therefor a stimulation to think! All mammals think, When a lion cannot think (form@ Jonathan Stadler, Aarch! Again that old philosophic speculation that mortality was something to worry about and therefor a stimulation to think! All mammals think, When a lion cannot think (form scenarios of possible chances, to choose the most probable of them) she cannot hunt. When one tries to imagine what kinds of worrying occupied the minds of Early Humans, one looks to the most primitive actual people: San and Pygmies and so on. Those people don't worry at all. Their thinking is about religious things, about the world and its origins. Today most old people worry about the course of events at death: will it be painful, will it be distressful. Not mortality in se: one feels her/his body is on its end, and it is enough now. Let it be easy and not painful. To speculate when Early Humans began to use lingual communication instead of normal animal communication (some kind of body language) one has to look to the first indisputable specimens of human behavior. That are the Kada Gona stone tools, from 2,6 mya. From this point one has to reason back: what made those people so special in the animal world that they made these tools? It is a proof of distance between the maker(s) and the environment. No other species made or makes such sophisticated tools ( sharpened shards of stones as tools for cutting). The dexterity suggests that this ability may be lead back to some 3 mya. The required feeling of distance between the maker(s) and the environment is provided by the attainment of ‘names for the things’. [I explained this in posts before, so make some effort to find them]. The start of this attainment may be lead back to 4 mya. QED.

    25 days ago
• Jonathan Stadler

  Hi all, I am an anthropologist located in South Africa, working on clinical trials for HIV prevention at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute. My work is largely 'medical' although I amHi all, I am an anthropologist located in South Africa, working on clinical trials for HIV prevention at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute. My work is largely 'medical' although I am trained in social anthropology. I have written quite extensively about a microbicide trial and am currently researching questions of adherence in other HIV prevention clinical trials. I wanted to see if there are other anthropologists who are working on treatment or prevention trials, not only within the field of HIV, but in drug development and biotechnology more generally. I am particularly interested in how trial participants interact with new forms of technology in trial settings.
• Devalina Mookerjee

  I would like to do some research on the societal belief in the supernatural. I am looking for reading that may be useful. thanks.

  Looking for either theoretical work, or fieldwork, or both, in any culture.

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    Jonathan Stadler replied

    A really good ethnography of contemporary beliefs in witchcraft is Adam Ashforth's Witchcraft, Violence and Democracy in South Africa.

    Apr 27, 2012
• Dammar Lohorung

  Social psychology in a contemporary societal context

  Group psychology is something which shapes a society in its progression. So, explanation to its (psychological) phenomena is a must for the future shaping of a society. Therefore, to know theGroup psychology is something which shapes a society in its progression. So, explanation to its (psychological) phenomena is a must for the future shaping of a society. Therefore, to know the societal context and its functioning becomes a must.
• Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

  I'm looking for an African ethnic group in which the men traditionally excelled in basketry and knotting, specifically working with raffia fibers.

  I'm a novelist writing about slave communities in the Americas and one of my characters is a male slave in the Caribbean who does knotting and weaving but I'm finding it difficult to isolate theI'm a novelist writing about slave communities in the Americas and one of my characters is a male slave in the Caribbean who does knotting and weaving but I'm finding it difficult to isolate the ethnic/cultural group that would produce such a character.
• Barrie Chapman

  Any one else study geomythology ?

  Stugy of Mths that relate to natural events

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    Jacob Durieux replied

    I got this Tuareg story of wandering mountain in french. It's a typical nomadic honour story with a moral ending and it states why a mountain is not with the others in a chain but separate, quiteI got this Tuareg story of wandering mountain in french. It's a typical nomadic honour story with a moral ending and it states why a mountain is not with the others in a chain but separate, quite interesting geologically and ethically. "Les monts de Tiwayyen se sont fâchés avec les autres monts de l'Ahaggar et pour manifester leur désaccord, ils ont décidé de descendre vers l'Adagh. Mais le mont d'Iherhi, voulant sauver l'honneur de l'Ahaggar, s'est interposé entre eux et l'Adagh. C'est ainsi que, dit-on, l'endroit d'où il a sauté est aujourd'hui représenté par un cratère au nord de Tiweyyen, dans la vallée d'Amded, et qui est présenté comme son emplacement initial." tradition recueillie par Dida Badi in Dida Badi "L'archéologie du peuplement de Tadmekka...", Cahiers AARS "Ityphaliques, etc... Hommage à Henri Lhote", 2002 About Ice Age Finnish people, we don't know much about their myths, and even about Ice Age because the Finnish countries were under the Ice cap...

    Apr 23, 2012
• Yaniv Messinger

  Looking for destruction myths that can be easily paired with creation myths – both well documented from oral tradition

  My name is Yaniv Messinger and I'm a PhD student in the Jewish and Comparative Folklore Program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I'm writing a dissertation titled "Creation Myths andMy name is Yaniv Messinger and I'm a PhD student in the Jewish and Comparative Folklore Program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I'm writing a dissertation titled "Creation Myths and Destruction Myth – Classification and Possible Connections" and I'm trying to build a corpus of stories to use in the research. By "destruction myths" I mean authoritative stories relating the past destruction of humanity, the world, or a significant part of either. So eschatological stories, for example, don't qualify. The biblical flood story is a good example, but the means of destruction doesn't have to be water. By "creation myths" I mean any story telling about the beginning – not necessarily a story with an active conscious creator, not even necessarily a story in which the world comes into existence from nothing or from a small nucleus. By "easily paired" I ideally mean two stories that were told by the same teller to the same recorder at the same session or sequence of sessions, but I would settle for any two stories that can be shown to have authority in the same community at the same time. If the same story relates both the beginning of the world and its (or humanity's) destruction – that's great, too. That part – the paring – is the trickiest. There are many sources for creation myths and for flood myths, and even a few places one can look for other destruction myths, but finding a creation myth and a destruction myth told by the same teller, or at least belonging to the same community, is more complicated – and that's why I'm looking for your help. By "well documented" I mean that the highest the documentation standard, the better. I wish I could have all the stories recorded and transcripted with both word-for-word and more readable translations, but again – I'll settle for less, if I have to, as long as the source is first-hand and reliable. I'd really appreciate any help! Thanks, Yaniv

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    Raj Ratna Goswami replied

    There is a mythological story too, which refers the incarnation of Vishnu, the great Hindu God, who saved the earth during the great flood as a giant fish, better named as the Matsyaavtaar.All theseThere is a mythological story too, which refers the incarnation of Vishnu, the great Hindu God, who saved the earth during the great flood as a giant fish, better named as the Matsyaavtaar.All these can be read on line. There are sites, by tags of Kalpa, Manvantras, Matsyavatara and Hindu theory of Yougas.

    Apr 21, 2012
• Matthias Tauveron

  Do institutions have an identity ?

  If I look at the aspects of identity of human beings, I find many things about personal identity, constructed through relations to groups (friends, family, ...), social norms within a given cultureIf I look at the aspects of identity of human beings, I find many things about personal identity, constructed through relations to groups (friends, family, ...), social norms within a given culture (or several cultures). But I wonder about these facts can be applied to institutions. Take for example an university. It has to communicate (web site, corporate communication), to exist within an environment (scientific, administrative, politic), and to interact with other actors (others universities, people, etc.). It also has an history, from a birth, to (maybe) a death or a fusion into something larger. All of these parameters allow interpreting that such an institution has in itself an identity (feeling of unity, feeling of being different from another one, feeling of being one entity from birth to end, etc.). But it cannot be the same as the identity of a person. Does anyone has an idea about that ?

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    Charles Macdonald replied

    An institution or group with a collective identity is called a "corporation". it is endowed with a quasi-personal identity. The French have good word for it. In French law this is called a "personneAn institution or group with a collective identity is called a "corporation". it is endowed with a quasi-personal identity. The French have good word for it. In French law this is called a "personne morale" (a moral person) as opposed to a "personne physique" (like an individual person). Defining a collective entity as a person or quasi-person is basic to the creation of what we call a "social" organization. Collective, person-like entities have been discussed by anthropologists under the caption of "corporate groups". See Fortes and Radcliffe-Brown on this.Corporate groups are defined by a certain number of traits, like having a center of authority, a common property, a territory, etc. but, as Henry Sumner Maine wrote long ago, such quasi-persons "never die" and members of such collective entities derive part of their own identities from it. One such corporation could be General Motors or a country, or a political party, a family, a kingdom, a sports team, a congregation, etc. One more point: corporations are (supposed to be) eternal (exist in perpetuity) and live on a higher plane than the simple people (physical persons) who belong to it. However they endow their members with certain traits or qualities that are essential to their individual definition. In other words they possess transcendence. Maybe you don't understand transcendence. Try "alienation". Alienation refers to something or someone "else" or "alien" (Latin alius). Alienation means the self is defined by someone or something other than the self. The whole social fabric in which we all live today is premised on this implicit theory of transcendence of and alienation by the corporate. Transcendence of the corporate principle is a most interesting illusion, probably the biggest con game of human history. The answer to the question "do institutions have an identity" is YES. The answer to the question of "what is this identity made of" is: the human capacity for alienation.

    Apr 17, 2012
• Pulugurta Chandrasekhar

  what is Generation ‘Y’ in New Media plese let me know

  Chandra sekhar

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    Alicia J. M. Colson replied

    You should check out what PEW Research Center researchers have been discovering about this generation called the "Millenials". http://pewresearch.org/millennials/

    Apr 10, 2012
• Jan Tellis

  What are some of the important books in cultural anthropology?

  Doing a research on a tribe which is primitive.

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    John W. Allen replied

    I wanted to add a few of the books on the hjistory of people who lived in the Amazon by Dick Schultes that I may or moght not have already mentioned and some of works of Malene Dobkin de Rio andI wanted to add a few of the books on the hjistory of people who lived in the Amazon by Dick Schultes that I may or moght not have already mentioned and some of works of Malene Dobkin de Rio and Marie Reay. Dobkin de Rios, Marlene. 1968. Suggested Hallucinogenic-Derived Motifs from New World Monumental Earthworks. Unpublished Manuscript. ------. 1974. The influence of psychotropic flora and fauna on Maya religion. Current Anthropology vol. 15(2):147-163. June. ------. 1976. The Wilderness of Mind vol. 5. #90-039. 1. Sacred plants in cross cultural perspectives. 2. The Aztecs of Mexico. Sage Research Papers in Social Sciences. This above book also discusses other aspects of these lives other than mushrooms. ------. 1976. (KUMA). The New Guinea Highlands. The Wilderness of Mind vol. 5. No. 90-039. For related articles see: (Dobkin de Rios, 1976; Heim, 1965b; Heim, 1966a; Heim, 1972; Heim and Wasson, 1964; Heim and Wasson, 1965; Reay, 1960; Singer, 1958e). ------. 1982. (Bk. Rev.). Journal of Psychedelic Drugs vol. 14(3):259-260. July-September. A review of Alvaro Estrada's "Maria Sabina: Her life, her chants." ------. 1984. Hallucinogens: Cross Cultural Perspectives. The Aztecs of Mexico. Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Press. Reay, Marie. 1959. (KUMA). The Kuma: Conformity in the New Guinea Highlands. Melbourne University Press. Melbourne, Australia. For a description of "mushroom madness" as a social phenomena. See pp 188-190. ------. 1960. (Mag.). (KUMA). Mushroom madness in the New Guinea Highlands. Oceana vol. 31(3):137-139. December. For related articles see: (Dobkin de Rios, 1976; Heim, 1965b; Heim, 1966a; Heim, 1972; Heim and Wasson, 1964; Heim and Wasson, 1965; Singer, 1958e). Margret Mead's, "Coming of Age in Samoa." Schultes, Richard Evans, Hofmann, Albert and Christian Rätsch. 2003. Plants of the Gods. Healing Arts Press. Rochester, Vermont. An updated and expanded edition of the original book. One comment is that apparently Dr. Rätsch failed to correct the data originally presented by Dr. Schultes regarding his misidentification of Panaeolus sphinctrinus as the original mushroom being representative of the teonanácatl mushroom of the Aztecs. An epithet not used today by any indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Also by Richard Evans Scultes dealing in the Botanical and cultural aspects of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon are The Healing Forest, Where the Gods Reign and VInes of theSoul. Also, any of the articles and books by psychologist Dr. Stanley Krippner of the Saybrook Institure in San Francisco. He has published over 300 articles on many aspects of culure and anthopology and psychology of the people he studied. A lot of research was on Bali and parts of Indonesia. Gianrocco Tucci noted that to study certain aspects of a people is to live with them and learn just who they are. A problem with cultural anthropology and most disicplined sciences is that when one writes of a particular group of people and their traditions and cultures, one has to remain objective and not pick sides when one is studing a particular group of peoples ancestry and cultures, and to do that, you do have to live with them to know who they are. However, this also presents a kind of 'Catch 22' problem in that once you have live with them and write your what you observed while with these people inyour sudies, you are then presenting to the world, your viewpoint of the people you are studying, and in doing so, you are then presenting to your reading audience, your viewpoint of what you observed and wrote about, so, in your own way, you end up losing the objectivity of who you are studying. That is because you are taking their side of their world in how they became who they are today. I also re recommend reading Lewis Thomas' "Lives of a Cell" and "The Meduda and the Snail," the latter which is a social study told in the format of biological poetty of how we all, as humans, learned from the past how we all became the social beings of who we are today. Watching the natural to learn how we came to be as we are today. All life learned from the pastt and primitive humankind learning social norms and behaviors and actions of others. Mankind took on the lives of the ants, the bees, the termites, the great apes, the latter of which I have always believed that we are not descended from. They are a separate species from humankind. Anyway, There are many more studies than this. Of course, my field is ethnomycology but it includes so many side effects that I had to vary my research and point it towards why? So to understand better the power that the shaman or medicine man held sway over their people, including effects of the powers of the shaman who also controlled the chiefs or tribal leaders, etc., who feared such power because it was used to fashion certain ways of life and that in turned led me to study other fields that I never had an interest in studying and it goes on and on and on, continuous flowing of information and again it all leads to the past and what I learned developed into the field that I became involved with since the 1960s. My next and final journal, "Ethnomycological Journals: Sacred Mushroom Studies" vol. IX (soo pages and close to 200 full-colored photographs will soon be published at maps.org with my last three articles on neurotropic species of fungi. Its feature article is a wrap-up of 23-years follow-up to my mushroom research in South and Southeast Asia (126-pages), a new paper listing all known references that coocument all mushroom species in the world that contain the alkaloids, psilocine and/or psilocybin; a written documentation of such fungi and related tryptamines. And a third paper on an unitnentional error in a paper by Dr. R. Gordon Wasson written in a 1959 issue of the journal, "The Hherbalist" concerning a man who accidentally made a meal of Psilocybe cubensis, and identified it in R. Gordon Wasson's May 13th, 1957 issue of "Life" Magazine. Dr. Wasson notes it is the wa-rai-take (laughing mushroom} of Japan, a species in Japan that is noted as being one of two possible species (Panaeolus and/or Gymnopilus). However, the person who ate the mushroom did Identify it from an actual water-colored painting by French mycologist Roger Heim, who drew a very accurate painting for "Life" magazine of the species the man had accidentally eaten. After reading the article, the gentleman wrote to R. Gordon Wasson, one of hundreds of letters sent to "Life" magazines, "Letters to the Editor." So Wasson wrote in his paper that the man had eaten the wa-rai-take of the Japanese. An epithet used to describe the effects of shrooms eaten in Japan, a country where Stropharia cubensis (syn.=Psilocybe cubensis) does not grow. After that I have a paper to write on the cultivation of 50 kilograms of commerical tobacco on Koh Samui Island, a pictorial with text, a book on the history of ergotism, and a paper on Thai and Cambodian edible shrooms, and a 100-copy only of my 1978 book on the cultivation of the opium poppy, a seed which. unlike Cannabis, is legal all over the world, a multibillion dollar a year business, all legal. So a few books above may help some, but remember, when one lives with a tribe off primitive peoples, that the author always writes from the viewpoint of the people he is learn from and about. have a nice day, john w. allen

    Mar 18, 2012
• Irina Pechonkina

  Value dominants of the concept "friendship' in social communities

  My student and I research the problem to prove that the concept 'friendship' (and 'friend') is a universal value, but at the same time this concept has its own peculiarity in every nation.It's veryMy student and I research the problem to prove that the concept 'friendship' (and 'friend') is a universal value, but at the same time this concept has its own peculiarity in every nation.It's very interesting to analyze the value dominants of this phenomenon in every culture(the definition by Roget) from the point of view of etymology and its usage in the proverbs, maxims etc. Has a concept 'friendship' undergone changes throughout the ages?Thus, there are a lot of changes in Russian and English- from a real, honest, generous friend, almost brother to a person of commerce, entertainment, profit. For instance," we can't buy our friends advantageously, but we can sell them advantageously" or "If you have nothing to offer, offer at least a friendship"etc.

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    Irina Pechonkina replied

    Sorry, I'd like to say "clap"

    Mar 17, 2012