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A detailed understanding of female reproductive functioning is important to many disciplines including anthropology, evolutionary theory, demography, psychology, and biomedicine. In this article, I describe strategies and methods that have been used successfully in community-based studies of human reproduction, many in remote locales, to produce high quality biomarker data. These techniques are applicable to a wide range of research questions and populations, and to persons from adolescence through senescence. I give particular attention to the inherent challenges imposed by the cyclical and somewhat unpredictable nature of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis including the necessity and difficulty of ascertaining the timing and occurrence of ovulation, the limits of different sampling regimes for capturing fluctuations in reproductive hormones, and the critical importance of recognizing and, when possible, reducing selection bias. I discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of collecting saliva, urine, and dried blood spots, and describe some of the subtleties involved in collecting contamination-free samples. Once samples are collected, they must be stored in a manner that minimizes degradation; I describe techniques to keep samples cold even without access to electricity or dry ice. I also discuss various issues that should be considered during initial discussions with a laboratory and when samples are assayed by the laboratory. I include examples of techniques that have worked well in actual field studies, and examples of flawed analytical approaches that should be avoided. With these and other tools, even under technology-sparse conditions, researchers can investigate variability in human physiology across the breadth of human habitats., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objectives: In this article, we discuss research from the science of teaching and learning and from progressive pedagogy, with the aim of discussing how these fields can help us all become better teachers., Methods: Our methods were based on assessment of the literature and our in-class practices., Results: We find that the practices of critical progressive pedagogy are rooted in good research practices and are based both on new research and on fundamental aspects of teaching and learning., Conclusions: While some of the ideas mentioned in this piece might be seen as radical, we argue that everyone can benefit from a discussion of these concepts and ideas. Teaching is something that we all do in various ways. Progressive pedagogy allows us to create classrooms as a space to welcome all learners and also pushes educators toward creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable classroom., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objectives: This review explores the dualism in evolutionary anthropology that both acknowledges a broad range of familial caretaking strategies, while also remaining tethered to theories scaffolded around notions of selfish genes that constrain our understanding of who provides adequate kin care. I examine the process of norm creation in the sciences by investigating how theory may limit which data are collected and how those data are interpreted., Methods: This paper serves as a literature review and critique of prominent biological, evolutionary, and psychological conceptualizations of parental investment and caretaking in humans, and how these studies shape what is considered normal behavior in scientific literature., Results: Quantification, assessment, and theory building in evolutionary anthropology, and an oversampling of WEIRD communities in other disciplines, have limited our understanding of what constitutes both evolutionarily adaptive behaviors, and culturally specific human behaviors., Conclusions: A synthetic theoretical model of behavioral norms in childrearing must account for an exchange of psycho-social and cultural resources and skills, the transfer of energetic reserves via gestation and lactation, and the indirect benefits of genetic inheritance. The emphasis on tailoring data collection to fit evolutionary theories of the family has limited our ability to understand the diverse proximate mechanisms that humans employ in taking care of kin as biocultural reproducers., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

This article documents the beginning of the intellectual companionship between the founder of ethnomethodology, Harold Garfinkel, and Edward Rose, who is most often associated with his program of "ethno‐inquiries." I present results from archival research focusing on the contacts and collaborations between Rose and Garfinkel in the years 1955–1965. First, I describe the review process for Rose and Felton's paper, submitted to the American Sociological Review in 1955, which Garfinkel reviewed and after Rose's rebuttal recommended for publication. The paper induced Garfinkel to write an extensive commentary that has remained unpublished. Second, I discuss the 1958 New Mexico conference sponsored by the Air Force, which was an opportunity for Rose and Garfinkel to work together on topics related to common‐sense knowledge and scientific knowledge. Third, I give an overview of the ethnomethodological conferences in 1962 and 1963, supported by an Air Force grant written collaboratively by Rose and Garfinkel. Here I focus primarily on Rose's research on "small languages," which stimulated many discussions among the early ethnomethodologists. Rose's work and exchanges with Garfinkel demonstrate the former's affinity for miniaturization as a research approach and search for ways to empiricize topics of sociological theory in locally observable settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike business, health, or engineering courses, undergraduate liberal arts programs do not point majors directly to a professional application, so students often need to creatively explore and identify professional roles and workplaces in which to use their education. Anthropology presents particular challenges: while students may enroll in economics if their institution has no undergraduate business program, or biochemistry may function as premed, there is no clear sense of what comes after an anthropology degree. In 2018, the American Anthropological Association announced a new approach to understanding this issue through its Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Currently enrolled anthropology majors worked together with faculty mentors, collaboratively across universities, to do anthropological research on the question, "how do anthropology majors approach the question of what comes after college?" The research provided practical insights and recommendations to departments, faculty members, career counseling centers, and the students themselves. This special section comprises six papers: an introduction to the project and the field sites; four analytic papers in which student researchers and faculty mentors explore the topics, "how students come to major in anthropology," "how students are changed by studying anthropology," "what anthropology majors think about their professional future," and "what resources are available to support students' college‐to‐career transition"; and a reflective essay that considers the fellowship not as a research program but as a high‐impact pedagogical intervention. We show that, by participating in ethnographic research, student researchers become full members of the anthropology community who can give valuable recommendations for the future of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC) can only be understood within the cultural context of its heritage. This paper is an historical narrative tracing the intellectual lineage of the SAC. The immediate causes were a series of symposia in 1974, including several on the challenge to anthropology represented by Carlos Castaneda, who attacked the way a critical part of anthropology was conducted. The argument in his own narrative was that one could not understand the shamanic world view without becoming a shaman. No informant could ever convey this, because so much of it was experiential. It could not be properly known unless one entered with sincerity into the experience, as a participant not just an observer. Two insights central to this thesis are particularly relevant to SAC: an aspect of human consciousness exists independent of time and space susceptible to volitional control; and, there is an interconnection between all life forms, which must be understood if the universal impulse humans feel toward the spiritual component of their lives is to properly mature. The SAC can be seen in pure Kuhnian terms as one response to the reassessment that Castaneda forced on anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracing the story of beaver restoration across California, this paper investigates the emerging discourse of 'working with nature' through the lens of animal work and labour, exploring possibilities for, multispecies collaboration. At the intersection of animal geographies, environmental anthropology, and geographies of conservation, this paper finds three concurrent modes of working with beaver: beaver as labourer, beaver as coworker, and beaver as community. Beaver as labourer emerges as a mode where beavers go from material resource to low‐wage labourer, their liveliness predicated on their ability to be working for humans. Beaver as coworker transitions beavers from labourers to workers, respected for their skills as ecosystem engineers to be working with. Beaver as community emerges as a mode in which beavers and humans live with each other as kin, amidst wider multispecies assemblages. This mode sets the foundation to theorise the concept of multispecies collaboration, a term often used in the literature without definition. This paper explores the concept through theories of animal work and labour, challenging the premise of work altogether, while situating multispecies collaboration as an in‐between, a both/and space of working and living with 'nature'. This paper serves as an reflection on the ways in which humans 'work with nature', in a time where various nonhumans are being made to be 'workers'. It presents and analyses these relations, ruminates on implications for governance of these multispecies spaces, and develops the concept of multispecies collaboration as a critical consideration for Nature‐based Solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design has transitioned from its traditional object‐focus to an orientation toward human‐centered design. With this shift, the complexity of design processes, products, deliverables, and artifacts has advanced to acknowledge and honor their impact on human activities and systems across the planet. As design practice has evolved, designers have searched beyond their field for tools, theoretical frameworks, and approaches developed by practitioners from other disciplines that allow for a deeper understanding of the environments and networks in which human and non‐human actors engage. Many designers, including design managers, have adopted anthropology's long‐standing tradition of balancing systems‐level, holistic research with place‐based and deeply contextual inquiry. Over time numerous. sub‐fields within design have emerged to address changing conditions, such as the increasingly strategic role of design within organizations. Design Management (DM) "encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively‐designed products, services, communications, environments, and brands that enhance our quality of life and provide organizational success" (Design Management Institute, 2022). Over time DM has embraced transdisciplinarity. It is a prime example and leader in this trend. This paper examines the confluence of theory and methods across the disciplines, specifically Design and Anthropology. Both fields are continuously adapting to accelerating and unpredictable conditions in systems that span industry sectors, economies, socio‐cultural groups, and physical and virtual geographies. It is not surprising there is an increasing confluence and, at the same time, tension and defensiveness in an effort to remain "pure". However, individuals from both fields have found ways of mixing, integrating, experimenting, and evolving theory and new forms of practice. We will draw on specific, an original transdisciplinary project from practice that will elucidate this tension as well as emerging opportunities. We will argue the weaving of the two fields offers an opportunity to more intentionally put this knowledge into practice and uphold the shared ethical imperative to "do some good" while creating environments that sustain good work. The confluence of design and anthropology perspectives and methodologies and the emphasis on praxis, the practical application of theory in practice, enables practitioners to keep the social and ecological value of design at the center of their work. It is our hope and intention that this paper will inspire designers, educators, practitioners, and theorists to continue creative experimental collaboration in their own evolving practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Kant's most sustained discussion of obscure representations can be found in the first book of his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. What is puzzling is that in the middle of the section devoted to the topic, Kant asserts that “because this field can only be perceived in his passive side as a play of sensations, the theory of obscure representations belongs only to physiological anthropology, and so it is properly disregarded here.” So, do obscure representations belong to pragmatic anthropology or not? Kant's official position is that they do not, yet the textual evidence—we find discussions of obscure representations in 20 years of his work on pragmatic anthropology—suggests that they do, in fact, belong here. Most of the literature on obscure representations focuses on their contribution to cognition and none has clarified what it would mean to assume a “pragmatic point of view” on obscure representations, and to study them in the context of pragmatic anthropology. My aim in this paper is to provide such clarification, focusing on Kant's discussion of our propensity to “play with” obscure representations and what he calls our “art of obscuring.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the anthropological conception of the first modern Italian anthropologist, Paolo Mantegazza (1831–1910). We will begin by contextualizing the status of anthropology in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. Subsequently, we will delve into some of the inspirations that led the Italians to have such a multifaceted conception of the discipline. Next, we will outline the content of this approach and clarify the meaning of "omnicomprehensive science." From there, we will come to understand the reason for the variety of interests of the anthropologist, who aimed to study the human being in all aspects of life. We will then mention the moral objective present in his professional journey: through an understanding of the complexity of human life, the anthropologist wanted to contribute to the progress and well‐being of society; in other words, to "living well." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Disasters is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understanding the musculoskeletal anatomy of soft tissues of the head and neck is important for surgical applications, biomechanical modelling and management of injuries, such as whiplash. Additionally, analysing sex and population differences in cervical anatomy can inform how biological sex and population variation may impact these anatomical applications. Although some muscles of the head and neck are well‐studied, there is limited architectural information that also analyses sex and population variation, for many small cervical soft tissues (muscles and ligaments) and associated entheses (soft tissue attachment sites). Therefore, the aim of this study was to present architectural data (e.g., proximal and distal attachment sites, muscle physiological cross‐sectional area, ligament mass, enthesis area) and analyse sex and population differences in soft tissues and entheses associated with sexually dimorphic landmarks on the cranium (nuchal crest and mastoid process) and clavicle (rhomboid fossa). Through the dissection and three‐dimensional analysis of 20 donated cadavers from New Zealand (five males, five females; mean age 83 ± 8 years; range 67–93 years) and Thailand (five males, five females; 69 ± 13 years; range 44–87 years), the following soft tissues and their associated entheses were analysed: upper trapezius, semispinalis capitis and the nuchal ligament (nuchal crest); sternocleidomastoid, splenius capitis and longissimus capitis (mastoid process); the clavicular head of pectoralis major, subclavius, sternohyoid and the costoclavicular (rhomboid) ligament (rhomboid fossa). Findings indicate that although muscle, ligament and enthesis sizes were generally similar to previously published data, muscle size was smaller for six of the eight muscles in this study, with only the upper trapezius and subclavius demonstrating similar values to previous studies. Proximal and distal attachment sites were largely consistent with the current research. However, some individuals (six of 20) had proximal upper trapezius attachments on the cranium, with most attaching solely to the nuchal ligament, contrasting with existing literature, which often describes attachment to the occipital bone. With respect to sexual dimorphism, the Thai sample exhibited more sex differences in muscle size than the New Zealand sample, but for enthesis size (area), both samples had the same amount of statistically significant sex differences (5 of 10). Additionally, some significant population differences were found when comparing muscle and enthesis size data between the New Zealand and Thai samples. Despite these findings, no sex or population differences were found for ligament size (mass) in either group. This paper presents new architectural data for several understudied areas of the head and neck, as well as providing analyses on sex and population differences, two areas that have limited representation in anatomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Anthropologist is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In response, Wittgenstein's naturalism, as McGinn understands it, encourages us to bracket the sceptical arguments for a moment, and to approach this certainty as a natural phenomenon, in order to see how it actually comes about. This book brings together 11 papers by Marie McGinn - written between 1998 and 2014 - all of which concern Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Wittgenstein's naturalism, McGinn claims, prompts us to look no further than to what lies open to view: our ways of operating with words, and how these are grounded in our natural responses. [Extracted from the article]

What is new in the literature of the social sciences and humanities has been the proliferation of the word "network" to describe contemporary society. Society nowadays is being referred to as a network of relations. Although these descriptions, especially in anthropology, try to reconfigure the modernist distinction between subjects and objects, most of them share the postmodernist aversion to granting any grand narrative or ideal to the network society. The aim of this paper is to give an anthropological perspective on contemporary network theories and to add a new quality of verticality in the architecture of network societies. The paper argues that any worldview that tries to define the contours of society and individuals living in it must provide for a higher ideal or a grand narrative to enable its inhabitants their gradual evolution and progression. The sustainability of any ideology or worldview, this paper argues, comes from this fact of ensuring a continuous and gradual movement to higher dimensions of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of vulnerability are most often seen in the anthropology of disaster studies, where socio‐economic and political inequalities produce environmental vulnerabilities, and the people situated in these locations are positioned as vulnerable and dependent 'Others'. Rather than reproduce vulnerability as a concept denoting weakness, this paper seeks to examine the generative capacities of vulnerability practised in parallel in ethnographic and community spaces. As a form of witnessing and participating in and out of differing social worlds, anthropology engages in different vulnerabilities with and between multiple actors. This paper examines how a community program working with families identified as 'disadvantaged' in South Australia strategically uses vulnerability as a productive resource and a practice of care. In theorising vulnerability through parallel practices in both ethnographic approaches and this community program, we argue that vulnerability can be leveraged away from negative welfare discourses towards alternative politics of radical care and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

County Durham in the UK has witnessed dramatic social and environmental shifts over the past 50 years, yet Durham Cathedral has stood at the heart of the region, seemingly solid, unchanging and eternal. It is frequently narrated as a prestigious jewel (a national treasure) that is surrounded by a countryside (and people) that clearly bear the time‐marked scars of the processes of industrialisation and deindustrialisation. In this paper, I explore a recent moment in time when a partnership between the Cathedral and the local secular authorities aimed to rapidly transform our understanding of this space by connecting Cathedral and county through the newly laid Northern Saints' Trails. These Trails were designed as both a response to rapid changes in the local ecology and a catalyst for further transformation. The processes of this formation were ultimately delayed by the outbreak of COVID‐19, yet this external force allowed the Pilgrimage project to find new life as a powerful healing practice for those who dwell in Durham. Attention to this process of purposeful, regular pilgrimage directs our attention towards the entangled nature of the home anthropologist and their role in the co‐construction of space, leading to a call for a new articulation of both core methods in the anthropology of religion and a return to a form of prophetic anthropology (Miles‐Watson, 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: While Boethius's definition of the person, 'an individual substance of a rational nature', plays a significant role in Christian theology and anthropology, its reception is by no means uncritical. In the last hundred years, virtually every element in it has been critiqued by theologians and secular scholars. Nevertheless, its context suggests that his understanding of the person is potentially far richer than supposed. This paper places Boethius's definition of the person in its historical framework and in the context of his own thought, especially Contra Eutyches and Consolation of Philosophy, in order to demonstrate that despite shortcomings, it represents a dynamic and holistic characterisation of the person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, the literature in museum anthropology has advocated efforts to be more transparent about its colonial origins, address the historical injustices of imperial collecting, and rethink display narratives in collaboration with source communities. In this paper, however, we question the extent to which the epistemic and political predicaments underlying ethnographic representations are being fundamentally and systematically confronted. As we highlight with the example of ancient Egyptian material, it is apparent that significant parts of museum holdings remain freighted by unquestioned colonial and Eurocentric discourses. We employ a case study of the Egyptian material redisplayed in the "World Cultures" gallery of the Horniman Museum, London, to demonstrate how the ethnographic museum continues to unwittingly produce "silences" around collections. To redress the lacunae we provide examples of the way in which this body of material could be more meaningfully integrated within museological discourses that have informed the rethinking of other aspects of world culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues concerning naturalism have increasingly become the subject of philosophical reflections involving ontological, epistemological, and even ethics affairs. The most popular topic for contemporary philosophy has been the relationship between ontological results of Darwinism and epistemology. Despite the varied circumstances of its establishment, naturalism almost always produces recommendations that reflect a worldview much "weaker" (as in the case of Habermas) than the strong one more common among scientism. There are good structural reasons for this difference. The aim of this paper is to elucidate some of distinctive social features of Habermas's conception of the human being and its implications in the Theory of Communicative Action (1982). Therefore, it is shown that his anthropology takes a naturalistic and Darwinist perspective in the weak naturalism perspective. In the first part, Darwin ́s legacy is analysed as a research program, and Habermas ́s studies on biological anthropology are compared with the latest research in genetics and palaeontology. In the second part, we will show Habermas's proposal to confront an epistemological dualism through a weak non‐reductionist naturalism as a critique of modern metaphysics, which structures a new pragmatic realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training in anthropology and evolutionary science ideally prepares scholars to recognize and challenge culturally grounded views of human variation. But upon inspection we find that idealized, and thus perhaps biased, conceptualizations of what is "normal" continue to permeate evaluations of human biology and behaviors. Each of the 13 contributions in this special issue on biological normalcy tackles these concerns as they pertain to some universal, but also variable, human biological or behavioral phenotype. These papers consider the ways in which the term "normal" is used in everyday life, in biomedicine, and in scientific studies to characterize some portion of the variability in a human phenotype. The contributors to this special issue, some of whom present original research findings, discuss the ongoing debates and challenges in the study of human biology and behavior, and critically examine how "normal" is used in their specific research area, thereby exposing and countering biases in the discourse on human phenotypic variation., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In Syracuse, New York more than 10% of children are lead poisoned each year, a toxic exposure that lowers the children's ability to learn and increases risky behaviors in adolescence. African American children are affected at nearly twice the rate of White children. We describe a community‐university collaboration to reduce childhood lead poisoning in Syracuse, and the effects these efforts have had on public policy to date. This paper documents the effectiveness of the Community Action, Research, and Education model to deliver community‐based prevention strategies on child lead poisoning in Syracuse, New York. The community‐based strategies were successful for promoting legal and policy change, increasing the public awareness of this tragic problem, holding elected and appointed officials to their commitments in addressing this toxic injustice, and obtaining needed intervention and disability accommodations for lead‐poisoned children in the community and educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the use of naming and portraiture together in the Black artivism–such as that protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor–this paper reflects on the use of portrait drawing as a practice of genealogy. While working on a project to raise the visibility of scholars and their works in the African Diaspora, specifically Francophone women anthropologists, I felt compelled to draw their portraits. Drawing African Diasporic women into dialogue from the archive attends to temporality, vision, and listening, elements centered within anthropological practice, but also implicated in the attachment of the discipline to colonial logics, particularly of allochronism, objectification and silencing. The multisensory, embodied and slow practice of drawing alongside reading scholars' works allows for diasporic time‐travel, shifting the gaze, and constructing a decolonizing "listening genre". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the overall improvement of China's rural settlements, the spatial form of villages has undergone dramatic changes. The Dong villages in the mountainous regions of southwest China are closely tied to rivers and have always maintained remarkable water adaptability even under the intense development and construction disturbances of the past 30 years, providing a direct model for the sustainable development of modern communities. This paper takes the Gaojin‐Bazhai valley, Guizhou Province, and the eight Dong villages in it as a case study, using multisource data such as high‐resolution historical satellite imagery, participatory spatial mapping, interviews with key figures, and ethnography, and integrates the research methods of spatial analysis and anthropological field surveys to trace village spatial development at three levels: valley, village, and building groups. The study reveals the interaction between the Dong villages and the water environment over a long time period, and reveals a coupled artificial–natural interaction mechanism with water adaptation as the core, which is specifically interpreted as restriction, induced, adjustment, and synergy effects. With the aim of promoting a more effective succession of this mechanism, we also propose policy recommendations for the development of the water environment in the river basin as a response to the challenges arising from the ecological and ethnological conflict brought by modernization and tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously unpublished, "From the Body Politic to the National Interest" was presented at the Mellon Symposium in Historical Anthropology at California Institute of Technology in May 1987. We are publishing it in the Journal of Historical Sociology for the first time to honor Philip Corrigan's memory. The essay was an attempt to expand upon arguments in Philip Corrigan and Derek Sayer, The Great Arch: English State Formation as Cultural Revolution (1985) under two main rubrics: (1) "routines and rituals of rule" and (2) "regulated representations and the making of 'the' public." In both cases we went beyond our treatment of these topics in The Great Arch, to which this paper should be seen as a supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child undernutrition is responsible for 45% of all under‐five deaths in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) and numerous morbidities. Although progress has been made, high levels of child undernutrition persist in Zambia. Existing studies have explored primary caretakers' (PCs) explanatory models of child undernutrition in LMICs, without comparison with those of health care providers (HCPs). This paper examines and compares the perceived causes of child undernutrition among PCs and HCPs in Zambia. We conducted a qualitative study, using semistructured one‐to‐one and group interviews, with 38 PCs and 10 HCPs to explore their perceptions of child undernutrition and its perceived causes in Lusaka district, Zambia. Interview data were analysed with thematic analysis. Our findings indicate that PCs and HCPs in Lusaka district have divergent explanatory models of child undernutrition and perceive parental agency differently. In divergently framing how they conceptualise undernutrition and who is able to prevent it, these models underpin different attributions of causality and different opportunities for intervention. PCs highlighted factors such as child food preferences, child health, and household finances. Contrarily, HCPs stressed factors such as 'improper feeding', only highlighting factors such as wider economic conditions when these impacted specifically on health care services. One factor, identified by both groups, was 'inadequate mothering'. To accelerate the reduction of child undernutrition, interventions must address divergences between PCs and HCPs' explanatory models. Additionally, attention needs to be paid to how wider socio‐economic and cultural contexts not only impact childhood undernutrition but shape attributions of causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we perform the first multidisciplinary study of perinatal burials at a pre‐Hispanic domestic site in Gran Canaria. For that, we carried out bioanthropological analyses, the genetic determination of the molecular sex of the individuals, and the contextualization of their chronological and cultural affiliations. To date, these remains had been associated to a local re‐interpretation of a Phoenician‐Punic tophet or as evidence of female infanticide within the mechanisms of demographic control of the ancient Canarians. However, these proposals did not take into account the recurrence of this type of human remains outside the normative cemeteries of the indigenous population or considered the demographic profile of coetaneous necropolises. In the light of the age of death and the molecular sex of the individuals, and the results obtained from the taphonomic and chronological analyses, we propose an alternative historical scenario, directly linked to high perinatal mortality rates and the development of specific burial practices for those individuals that died around the time of birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absorbing insights from secular discourses on personhood, theology can provide added perspectives on human identity. (1) An attributive view of personal dignity based on divine and social recognition encompasses both capacity‐oriented and relation‐centred views of personhood. (2) Gregory of Nyssa shows Patristic resources for multifaceted ecological self in some contrast to the inner‐Trinitarian idea of ecclesial persons in John D. Zizioulas. (3) An economic Trinitarian model of personhood is proposed, in which the indwelling of Christ is balanced by a pneumatological anthropology. (4) Entering contemporary discussions, the paper proposes a "sonar" or "re‐sonant" understanding of the human per‐sona, hereby accommodating and responding to particularistic challenges to the idea of a shared human personhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: To understand the use of psychoactive substances, one must consider the context and the social circumstances in which the substance use occurs. This paper discusses alcohol use from a socio‐cultural perspective, based on the use of alcoholic beverages among the Portuguese servicemen who fought in the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–74). Method: In‐depth interviews were carried out with 17 former Portuguese soldiers. Simultaneously, extensive bibliographic and documentary research was carried out based on a broad set of biographical and autobiographical texts by former military personnel. Finally, an on‐line survey (n = 210) was conducted among ex‐combatants of the Portuguese Colonial War. Results: Alcohol drinking among Portuguese servicemen was high during the Portuguese Colonial War. Socio‐cultural factors (such as regarding alcohol consumption as therapeutic and affirming masculinity) explain why alcohol drinking was so intense and frequent, and why repeated drunken behaviour was tolerated and undervalued by the military authorities, who considered it normal and not a health problem or disorder. Conclusion: The use of alcohol in the Portuguese Colonial War is an empirical example of how what is considered 'acceptable', 'normal' or 'pathological' may depend more on socio‐cultural norms than on objective and measurable criteria, including clinical criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, four relational heuristic responses for exploring new modes of engagement, or patterns of activity, that could enliven humanity's efforts in fostering systemic thinking and action to inform sustainability transitions are offered. Their purpose is to realise more resilient and just Anthropocene futures. These relational heuristics are (1) re‐patterning our theories of change‐making, (2) cultivating a shared future consciousness, (3) creating transformative spaces and (4) engaging in processes of co‐exploration. We argue that these heuristics are better aligned for studying and responding to the systemic and interdependent nature of the real‐world challenges we are currently facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 1939, Melville Herskovits arrived in Trinidad. Already committed to his eponymous thesis of African cultural survivals, he identified the rural municipality of Toco as a site to observe "African ways of life ... in greatest purity." The oil field strikes that gripped the island just two years earlier received only a passing mention in his monograph, Trinidad Village. This essay meditates on Herskovits's field notes to consider how a Boasian cultural paradigm compelled Herskovits to exclude the oil field labor from his study. Still, he is aggravated throughout by oil troubles of his own. Vexed by a faulty gasoline generator, Herskovits used his field diary to document his frustrated efforts to record audio of Shango songs in Toco. Engaging in a counterfactual thought experiment in which Herskovits pursued the aftermath of the oil field strikes as his object of study, this essay considers how Herskovits could have charted a distinct ontological ground for discipline of anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, it has been increasingly recognized that some areas of science, such as anthropology, have been plagued by racist, Western‐centric, and/or sexist biases. Unfortunately, an acculturation process to racism and sexism has been occurring for generations leading to systemic inequities that will take a long time to disappear. Here, we highlight the existence of current examples of racism, Western‐centrism and sexism within: (1) the most popular anatomical atlases used in biological, anthropological and medical education; (2) prominent natural history museums and World Heritage Sites; (3) biological and anthropological scientific research publications; and (4) popular culture and influential children's books and educational materials concerning human biology and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Man the Hunter: The first intensive survey of a single, crucial stage of human development—Man's once universal hunting way of life" is a foundational text in the field of anthropology. Published in 1968, it had a significant impact on the study of hunter-gatherer societies and influenced subsequent research in all subfields of anthropology. The book was the result of a conference held in 1966, attended by 75 researchers from various nations. It contains 28 papers and transcripts of discussions on topics such as ecology, social organization, marriage, and the role of hunting in human evolution. While the book has been criticized for its androcentric interpretations, it marked a turning point in the inclusion of women's perspectives and the broadening of the scope of hunter-gatherer research. Overall, "Man the Hunter" is considered a seminal work in anthropology and provides valuable insights into the development of the field. [Extracted from the article]

Please note, there is discussion of the display of human remains and mass violence in this issue. Across thirteen authors, there are six peer-reviewed articles, along with a special "Collection Report" (Ellen and Muthana) and an excellent Exhibit Review Essay (Kisin). Two additional essays are included in this issue: a Collection Report on eoliths in museum collections and an Exhibition Review Essay on the exhibit I Climate in Crisis i at the Brooklyn Museum. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents the discussion on reflective and critical stance on literacy practices restructuring the social relationships such as significant uncertainty, isolation, and loss. Topics include addressing long-standing problems of intersectional marginalisation and providing examples of anti-racist or decolonizing approaches; and containing sociology, anthropology, psychology, the arts, literacy, and literary studies.

This guest editorial takes as its starting point the 2021 guest editorial in ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY on the anthropology of blockchain written by Kosmarski and Gordiychuk, in which they discussed the possibilities of blockchain in terms of a 'frail hope of novel, weird, grassroots, decentralized forms of social life'. They also argued that blockchain brought us to 'new frontiers' in politics, economics, capital, votes and subjective feelings. Two years later, in this 2023 guest editorial, the authors take stock of where blockchain technology stands concerning these 'frail hopes' and 'new frontiers'. They distinguish between three articulations of blockchain imaginaries: blockchain‐as‐discourse, blockchain‐as‐sociotechnical assemblage and blockchain‐as‐spectacle. Then, they explore what blockchain means for capital, and whether we are headed towards mass adoption of blockchain technology, concluding that, for now, they see primarily institutional adoption. The authors also discern parallel institutional structures, with traditional finance on one side and blockchain‐enabled crypto finance on the other, and they examine the regulated future of crypto assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the anthropology of Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), there is an effort underway to decolonize the field. This process is taking shape in academic writing, in academic institutions, in field practices, and among broader publics. It must arise from priorities in the region; it also builds on wider scholarship on race, indigeneity, and militarism. It requires an expansion of the bounds of politics, consideration of who can participate, and reconsideration of what the goals of political action are. It entails working toward liberations that are always plural. Decolonizing SWANA anthropology faces distinct challenges in the field, the university, and publication processes because scholars produce critiques that expose contemporary colonialisms, including those related to the long war on terror, Israeli settler colonialism, and other colonialisms in the region. Thus, scholars equip themselves with tools to confront and transform academic institutions. Collaborative research designed to produce change can be an important part of decolonizing anthropology, but such research is not possible across all settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Czechs consider their involvement in the global colonial system, they usually imagine themselves as the victims of Soviet imperial power. This is the case among those Czech anthropologists whose research under state socialism was tightly circumscribed. But focusing on this history alone enables Czech scholars to obscure their nation's participation in "colonialism without colonies" and to maintain presumptions of "colonial innocence." In fact, Czechs themselves imposed internal colonialism on the Roma and on people living in the country's sub‐Carpathian region. Some Czech scholars are increasingly reflecting on Czech colonialism, but others still perceive the decoloniality debate as a Western import in the postsocialist era. Nonetheless, anthropology's decolonizing projects may offer ways forward, helping us understand how Cold War imaginaries persist in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India‐based anthropologists must contend with the legacies of colonial epistemologies and postcolonial imperatives in an increasingly neoliberal academy and Hindu‐supremacist nation‐state. For these scholars, anthropology's values of critical humanism are more vital than ever. The challenge is to uphold them in ways that both include and reach beyond the academy. Over the decades, Indian anthropologists' position has shifted with regard to their discipline, to academic institutions, the nation, and the wider world since Independence. Today, they face challenges to the vision of democratizing anthropology in terms of institutional autonomy and public accountability. The Indian experience may provide insights to colleagues in the North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "decolonizing generation" is a critical new movement that has captured the imaginations of many younger scholars. While the author would like to consider herself an older member of this generation, she questions whether this moment needs periodization. Is today's moment really so different from the past, when we saw the rise of world anthropologies, postmodernism, the crisis in representation, neo‐Marxism, and anti‐racist movements? And what is meant by "decolonizing anthropology" when experiences with colonialism and decolonization differ around the world? While acknowledging the value of reforming the discipline, the author encourages her colleagues to separate the very important critique of anthropologists' gatekeeping practices from idealized renderings of what anthropology should be. Rather than decolonization, the discipline ought to focus on establishing a continual decentering of hegemonic knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To open new disciplinary imaginings, we must reinvigorate the relationship between utopian and anthropological thought. This is already underway in efforts to decolonize knowledge. Though such efforts have different emphases, they are located within a field of ideological and utopian struggles that must be understood in the context of imperialism‐colonialism, of subalternized subject positions, and of the armed and cognitive struggles that imperialism‐colonialism has entailed. Based on my Latin American positionality, I analyze the decolonization of anthropological knowledge as part of this wider field and of the discipline's history of reexamining itself. In a critical dialogue with postcolonial and decolonial thought, I propose postimperialism as a framework that aims to deimperialize the world, overcoming the hierarchical positions between hegemonic and nonhegemonic anthropologies. Moreover, a postimperial research program would entail studying how global elites' power affects those who struggle to end an unfair regime that is destroying the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imperial underpinning of the early anthropology of Pakistan constituted "the other" as a subject of comprehension, categorization, and containment. Later, with the post‐9/11 geopolitical backdrop, anthropologists focused on selected themes such as religious and ethnic disparity and political nationalism, eliding some topics or groups. What would it mean for the anthropology of Pakistan to consider alienated themes and groups while emphasizing the infinity of the Other? How would conceiving the Other beyond a political or religious other, or even beyond a human subject, create a possibility of decolonizing the anthropology of Pakistan while exploring multiple futures—emergent, imagined, and expected? Such an approach critically moots a reexamination of theoretical, methodological, and epistemological tenets and urges the discipline to engage with diverse lifeworlds. It brings the face of the Other face‐to‐face with anthropology beyond humanity to consider all beings, intersubjective and collaborative experiences, and shared values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neoliberal turn has had significant impacts across Australian universities and First Nations communities, especially since the emergence of the global pandemic. These developments have highlighted the inherent flaws of the consultation process in developing programs and policies. Here, the weaknesses of the consultation process are analyzed using an anti‐politics framework together with two comparative case studies. The first case study concerns the consultation process that Australian universities conducted after the global pandemic, and the second case study pertains to consultation processes commonly experienced by First Nation communities with mining companies and museums. The weaknesses of these processes have been understood by First Nations communities for generations, but they are only recently coming to light in mainstream thinking. It is time to recognize consultation as a failed system and to start calling for collaboration and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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SUMMARY: This introduction orients the reader to the experiments with thinking inter‐disciplinarily in this special section of Anthropology and Humanism. A long history of shared conversation between science fiction and anthropology has both been shadowed by colonialism and offered promising resources for remaking the world. We invited anthropologists, film critics, and literary theorists into conversation without assuming in advance to know what constitutes a genre like science fiction. Instead, we focus on how science fiction emerges in diverse contexts. Science fiction gives us pleasure; it has insurgent qualities which are not yet captured. Our appreciation of it grows from its engagement with the ordinary and the quotidian. It may engage time in ways other than the past‐present‐future, making us realize the impossibilities we have internalized and naturalized in our account of things. Ultimately, the collective realization of the authors in this section is that science fictionality is a fugitive element in the world. We need it for fabulation, to generate new ways of telling stories to forge new impossibilities. [science fiction; anthropology of time; anthropology and literature; the ordinary; fabulation] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]