genetic modification/ genetic editing: word game?
The Washington Post reported on efforts by DuPont Pioneer, the division of DuPont that produces GMOs, to build consumer trust through focus groups, a website, and animated videos. The article includes commentary from Glenn Davis Stone, professor of anthropology and environmental studies at Washington University in St. Louis: …the controversy over GMOs has become so fractious that even independent scientists have “let their role in educating be trampled by their interest in convincing.” Many are so frustrated by the impasse, he added, that they’ll gloss over questions such as regulation, rather than risk giving the other side anti-GMO ammunition.
call for slow anthropology
The Huffington Post published an article by cultural anthropologist Paul Stoller, professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, in which he recommends cultural anthropology during the Trump presidency: “In the Age of Trump a slow and shared approach to human social relations fosters knowledge in a time of ignorance. It creates webs of social and emotional understanding that transcend our social and cultural differences. By way of edifying conversation, a slow and shared approach to human relations goes a long way toward reclaiming a humanity that fast culture threatens to decimate.” He spotlights the work of Lisbet Holtedahl, a Norwegian anthropologist and filmmaker, who embodies a slow and shared approach to her scholarship and her films.
word of the day
The New York Times chose the word “anthropologist” for its June 15 word of the day and quiz. The word anthropologist appeared in 158 articles on nytimes.com in the past year.
take that anthro degree and…
…work as a health educator. Lauren O’Connor is a health educator for pregnant and postpartum women at March of Dimes in White Plains, NewYork. O’Connor has a B.A. in anthropology from Hartwick College in New York State and an M.P.H. with a concentration in maternal and child health from Boston University.
…become a writer. Emily Robbins is a novelist who lives in Jordan where she is working on her second book. Her first book, A Word for Love, is set in Syria and draws on her study abroad experiences living with the family of a leading intellectual. An undergraduate at the time, she was doing research for her thesis. Robbins has a B.A. in anthropology from Swarthmore College and an M.F.A in creative writing/fiction from Washington University in St. Louis.
…become a police officer. Christina Meyer is a patrol officer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and has taken on the extra job of curating and displaying the Police Department’s historical artifacts. Meyer has a B.A. in anthropology from the University of New Hampshire.
…become a health program administrator. Apryle Pickering is director of Population Health and Government Programs at the Community Medical Center in Missoula, Montana. Pickering has a B.A. in anthropology from Union College in New York State and an M.A. in applied anthropology and an M.P.H. from the University of Montana.
white history erases Native Americans
The Columbian (Washington State) reported on a public talk by anthropologist David Lewis about the colonization of Native American history by white American culture. He spoke at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in western Clark County of Washington State. Lewis, who has a doctorate in anthropology and currently teaches at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon, is a member of the Grand Rhonde Tribe. His remarks focused on how Native Americans were erased from the land and its history in part because white historians never really talked to native people: “All these books that have been written in the last 150 years about Oregon history or American history, they may have a paragraph or a small section talking about native peoples…Generally you’re going to get: OK, we wrote treaties, we had a few wars, treaties, reservations, and they disappear. What happened?”
lost city found in Ethiopia
BBC reported on the discovery by archaeologists in Ethiopia of the city of Harlaa in the country’s eastern region. Findings include a 12th century mosque. The article quotes Timothy Insoll, Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter and lead archaeologist on the project: “This discovery revolutionises our understanding of trade in an archaeologically neglected part of Ethiopia. What we have found shows this area was the centre of trade in that region.”
anthropologyworks 