ethnografix (people + writing) = a blog by ryan anderson: anthropologies

[Note: This is a post that I wrote for the latest edition of anthropologies that tries to review some of the anthropological involvement and reactions to the Occupy Wall Street protests and movement]

On September 17, 2011, largely in response to an Adbusters campaign and growing frustration with the state of affairs in the US economy, people flocked to Zuccotti Park to, tents in hand, to make their voices heard. Similar movements around the US (and beyond) were soon to follow. One thing is pretty clear: there were many different opinions about OWS, and plenty of disagreements. Some people felt it was a necessary step to take to challenge the status quo, while others seemed to see it as a harbinger of disaster for US society.

If nothing else, OWS certainly garnered its fair share of attention, whether in the form of support, solidarity, derision, or outright counter-protest. Searching for meaning in the midst of such a massive (and contentious) social movement is anything but simple. Contemporaneous events are all the more difficult to analyze, understand, and assess. So where to begin? Well, here's the basic OWS summary from Wikipedia (apropos for an issue that deals with Open Access):

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a protest movement that began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district. The protests are against social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. To effect change OWS uses "direct action" instead of petitioning authorities.[5]Their slogan, We are the 99%, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. OWS was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and has led to Occupy protests and movements around the world.

Adbusters poster for OWS.

For people who feel like they already know everything they need to know about OWS, or who have already heard enough, maybe that quick summary is enough. It gets to the point. What I'm wondering, though, is where all the anthropologists (who study these sorts of things) were during all of this. Where were you, for example? I can tell you pretty much exactly where I was on September 17, 2011: sitting in front of this very laptop, working on one or another draft of a grant proposal.

Like many graduate students, I was basically buried in the process of becoming an anthropologist, for better or worse. Considering many of the concerns that OWS protesters voiced, my trapped-behind-the-computer-fate is somewhat a part of the problem. What happens, after all, if everyone is "just too busy" to deal with a social and economic system that has basically run right off the track? I'm not going to try to answer that. Instead, I'll leave that question hanging and see if anyone picks it up.

Anyway, my experience of "OWS" was mediated through things like TV news, twitter, blogs, and Facebook. Does this mean that I was completely disconnected? Does it mean that I was just some passive observer, and no more? Not really (and see Adam Fish's post a little later on). At the same time, I wasn't exactly in the thick of things, even if I tried to follow along, read up, and see what was going on.

One of the issues that I saw with OWS was that it was so polarizing: for some people there was no middle ground. They were either for it, or against it. During the whole time I wondered about the people who found themselves somewhere in between. I also wondered who, among those really active voices, had actually been to an OWS protest and seen how things were actually playing out on the ground (outside of the clips and sound bites on TV). Sometimes "being there" is a good antidote to both unflinching idealism and unending criticism and cynicism. And the idea of "being there" is part of anthropology's stock and trade. So where were all the anthropologists?

Read the rest on anthropologies, here.

Anthropologies #12: Occupy & Open Access

Occupy & Open Access

March 2012

~ Contents ~

Introduction: Anthropologies of Access
Ryan Anderson

The Public versus Publishers: How Scholars and Activists are Occupying the Library
Barbara Fister

Why We Protest
Daniel Lende

Picturing Direct Action
Laurence Cuelenaere

Liberating Cultural Anthropology? A Thought Experiment
Kim Fortun and Mike Fortun

We are the One Percent: Open Access in the Era of Occupy Wall Street
Jason Baird Jackson

The Last Days of Rome: The Rise of Open Access and the Fall of For-Profit Publishers
Doug Rocks-Macqueen

Occupy Austin
Kyle Schmidlin

Anthropology & Occupy
Ryan Anderson

Cover Photo: Ryan Anderson, 2012.

September 2, 2011

anthropologies #6 (the anthro-geography issue)

Anthropology & Geography

September 2011

~ Contents ~

Introduction to this issue
Ryan Anderson

Anthropology and Geography: A materialist synthesis between disciplines
Aaron Kappeler & Patrick Bigger

The anthropologist as adolescent
Kristin Monroe

Political Ecology: an interdisciplinary bridge
Brian Grabbatin

Reflections on the Disciplinary Intersection of Geography and Anthropology
in the American Academy
Tim Brock

Disciplines unbound?:
Some thoughts on the maintenance and transcendence of academic boundaries
Scott Matter

Dashboard Scribbles: Nonacademic Thoughts on Academia, Geography, and Anthropology
Annemarie Galeucia

Settlement Patterns and Cultural Ecology: Geography and Anthropology
Caitlyn Yoshiko McNabb

Fred Kniffen and Lousisiana State University Geography and Anthropology:
Representing the Nexus and (Plural) Cultural Study
Garrett Wolf & Caitlyn Yoshiko McNabb

Franz Boas: Geographer/Anthropologist
Ryan Anderson

Photo: Anza-Borrego Desert, 2006 by Ryan Anderson.

August 2, 2011

anthropologies #5: The physical/bioanth issue

Anthropology Gets Physical (& Biological)

August 2011

Poster child for the synergy between culture and biology: the opposable thumb. Photo: Ryan Anderson, 2011.

~ Contents ~

Introduction: The anthropological clash
Ryan Anderson

Biocultural Bodies and the Anatomy of Controversy
Kristina Killgrove

Biological anthropology: providing the historical context for all your anthropological questions
Kristi Lewton

The Role of a Biological Perspective
Britteny Howell

Blurring the Lines: Ethnoprimatology in Anthropology
Amanda L. Ellwanger

Primatology as Anthropology
Nicholas Ellwanger

Bones of Study: The Bioarchaeology Perspective
Erin Blankenship-Sefczek

Selected References for Further Reading in Biological Anthropology
Britteny Howell

July 4, 2011

Anthropologies #4

Taking Anthropology to Economics

July 2011

Currency, 2009. Photo by Veronica Miranda.

~ Contents ~

Introduction
Ryan Anderson

Economic Anthropology
Jeffrey H. Cohen

The Economy
Toby Austin Locke

Anthropology and the Economists Without History
Jason Antrosio

Model Behaviors
Ryan Anderson

Visual Anthropology: Before the economic crash
Ryan Anderson

May 15, 2011

Anthropologies #3: The Archaeology Issue

Archaeology + Anthropology

May 2011

Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico 2008. Photo by Ryan Anderson.

~ Contents ~

Introduction to this issue
Ryan Anderson

Towards a non-anthropocentric and non-anthropological archaeology
Johan Normark

What does an archaeological perspective bring to anthropology?
Maureen Meyers

Archaeology, Anthropology, and Multi-sited Ethnography
Colleen Morgan

Why Anthropology is too Narrow an Intellectual Context for Archaeology
Michael E. Smith

Archaeology: More than Strata and Sherds
Paul Wren

Archaeological Perspectives and Anthropology
Nicolas Laracuente

Archaeology as part of anthropology
Olaf Jaime-Riveron

Alcohol and Archaeologists
Scott R. Hutson

A Qualitative History of “Cultural Resource” Management
Adam Giacinto

Visual Anthropology: Yucatecan Archaeological Sights
Veronica Miranda

Reader Responses: The Archaeology Issue (Open Thread)

April 15, 2011

Anthropologies #2: The Tourism Issue

Anthropologies of Tourism

April 2011

Tourists at Cobá, Quintana Roo, Mexico 2008 - Photo by Ryan Anderson

~ Contents ~

Introduction to this issue
Ryan Anderson

Tourism: Trinketization and the Manufacture of the Exotic
John Hutnyk

Arrivals, perceived and actual
Sarah Taylor

A San Diego Cultural Narrative
Conor Muirhead

Tourism Research as "Global Ethnography"
Michael A. Di Giovine

Peripatetic Cultures: When Nomads meet Tourists
Tamas Regi

The Social Conceptualization of Tourists
Sergi Yanes

Visual Anthropology: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Conor Muirhead

Open Thread: The Tourism Issue

March 15, 2011

Anthropologies Issue 1: What is anthropology?

So the first issue of the new project I have been working on (with the help of Stacy Gilmore, Keith Hart, David Picard, Alyson O'Daniel, Megan Maurer, and others) is finally posted. Please comment, express your reactions, and post something in the Open Thread. The whole point is to get some conversation going about anthropology. This project is just getting started, and I think there is potential to make something pretty interesting. Here's the contents of this first issue:

What is Anthropology?
March 2011

~ Contents ~

This Issue: Anthropology?

What is Anthropology? - David Picard

Should I Pursue Anthropology? - Stacie Gilmore

Kant, anthropology and the new human universal - Keith Hart

Anthropology as Collaboration - Alyson O'Daniel

Anthropology is not Geography - Megan Maurer

Anthropologies Exist in Everyday Details - Ryan Anderson

Visual Anthropology: At the Zoo (2001-2006) - Ryan Anderson

Open Thread: So what's anthropology all about anyway?

February 14, 2011

New project in the works: anthropologies

Ideas abound. I am completely fascinated with the possibilities of communicating and publishing anthropology in some different ways. In fact, that's pretty much all I have been thinking about for the last few days. What else can we do with anthropology? How can we find new, collaborative ways of not only making connections between anthropologists, but also encouraging debate and dialog with wider audiences (the "general" public, journalists, pundits, and maybe even macroeconomists)?

I have one idea in the works, and it's kind of a blend of some old school ideas (magazines) and newer school technologies (blogs). The plan is to have it be somewhere in between a blog, a magazine, a journal, and a thrashed old notebook. All that, but online. It's actually not all that novel, really, but I am pretty excited about the overall plan, regardless. I am putting together a site called "anthropologies" that will be published regularly (once a month for starters), and will be structured around key themes. Kind of like one of my favorite literary Magazines (The Sun), but from an anthropological perspective.

My plan is to include essays from people at various levels: grad students, new PhDs, established academics, and anthros working outside academia. It all depends on whose willing to take part! Some of the themes that I am thinking of covering: anthropology and economics (especially considering the madness of 2008), the politics of tourism, archaeologies of the past and present, the political economy of grad school...and so on. Again: ideas abound.

The other key focus is on working with the essay format. I am taking some inspiration from one of my favorite science writers of all time: Stephen Jay Gould. The goal is to present issues, provoke discussion, and generally encourage open and diverse communication through the creative and engaged exploration of some open-ended themes. For the first issue, which I want to put together for March 2011, the theme is extremely wide open: "What is Anthropology?" Hopefully that will generate a variety of answers. Now I just have to put this thing together. And I will probably need quite a bit of help. If you're interested and want to know more about this, email me here:

ethnografix at gmail dot com

The site is under construction, but here is how it's looking at present.

Comments? Thoughts? Ideas?

UPDATE: The first edition is POSTED!!!