• Ethnography Gains a Toehold in Political Science
An article entitled “Political Scientists Get Their Hands Dirty” in the Chronicle for Higher Education describes how some US political scientists are doing “political ethnography,” or fieldwork-based research involving long-term participant observation, the hallmark research method invented by cultural anthropologists. Edward Schatz is one of the “new” political ethnographers. He is the editor of a new book from the University of Chicago Press called Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power. The book includes contributions from 16 scholars who argue that political scientists should take a serious lesson from cultural anthropology. That’s the good news. The bad news is this: Given the dominance in US political science of formal modeling and quantitative analysis, a political scientist who opts for an ethnographic approach and qualitative data is likely to be seen as far from the leading edge of the discipline and maybe even unworthy of full tribal membership when it comes to searches for tenure-line positions in academia. Perhaps, however, political ethnographers will be welcome in anthropology departments? Or will the anthropologists view them as less than anomalous and not unworthy of being full members of their tribe?
• Gold Hoard a Treasure for Archaeologists in England
Related to the topic of disrespected methods: vindication for hobbyist “metal detectorists” came from an announcement of a major discovery in a field in Staffordshire, England, of 1,500 military- related pieces of gold and silver, some encrusted with gems. No longer the subject of mockery for his hobby, Terry Herbert, who discovered the hoard, will receive half its monetary value. Archaeologists are already involved in analyzing the find and its context. Tentative dating places it in the 7th century, a time of war between vying kings, plunder and fine metalwork devoted to the creation of beautiful objects for warriors.
• David Vine on Engaging the Military
Inside Higher Ed carried an op-ed by cultural anthropologist David Vine, assistant professor at American University. Vine summarizes key aspects of the debate within US anthropology concerning anthropological collaboration with counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He reports on the highlights of a recent two-day meeting at Brown University’s Watson Institute of International Studies convened by the newly founded Eisenhower Research Project for the Critical Study of Armed Forces and Militarization. Participants included anthropologists, historians, and others. They discussed US military spending, military checkpoints in Iraq, the increasing use of remote-controlled robots and other advanced technologies in war, the military’s role in the war on drugs, the militarization of the US border, “military wives” and “military families,” and how Hollywood and popular culture glorifies war. Vine concludes by stating his view that no military solution to the Taliban exists and that US foreign policy must move more firmly toward international cooperation rather than invasion as a strategy. He sees a crucial role for anthropologists and other social scientists working with the military and engaged citizens in advancing policy in this direction. Anthropologists and other social scientists, however, have typically distanced themselves from policy debates in international relations. So Vine urges them (us) to proceed in a new direction as well.
• Evolutionary Anthropologists Link Sleep with Resistance to Infections across Species
An article in the New York Times on the relationship between the amount of sleep and the risk of catching a cold (yes, they are connected) mentioned related research by a team of evolutionary anthropologists (B.T. Preston, I. Capellini, P. McNamara, R. A. Barton, and C.L. Nunn) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Their comparative study of sleep patterns in many animal species demonstrates that the more members of a species sleep, the more resistance to infections they have. There’s a definite take-home message here.
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