Tagged: Anthrolopology

This month, award-winning anthropologist Jane Goodall was supposed to be celebrating the release of her fifteenth book “Seeds of Hope”. Instead, publication of the work has been delayed after investigation revealed Goodall borrowed a number of passages without attribution.  While reviewers for the Washington Post and New York Times held back from using the “P” word outright, a vocal minority is very concerned about the amount of copied material in ‘Seeds’ – and the dubious content of the book itself. Michael Moynihan is Cultural News Editor for The Daily Beast. You can read his article about Goodall’s new book here.

Thanks to thousands of sanitation officials working around the clock, millions of New York City residents walk the streets without being overwhelmed by the overpowering stench and volume of the tons of garbage produced by that city each day. Robin Nagle has been the anthropologist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Transportation since 2006; combining traditional field work techniques with hand-on social science. She examines the often-ignored issues behind the city’s elaborate—and under appreciated—system of refuse collection. Robin's new book is called “Picking Up”.

Anthropology translates literally to the “science of humanity." We tend to think of it as a field that seeks to answer the big questions about what makes us human. A number of consultant anthopologists are seeking to answer queries that appear somewhat less profound. For example, consulting firms like ReD Associates use field research and ethnography to figure out (among other things) how people are drinking Absolut vodka at house parties.  Their services offer corporate clients a deeper understanding of consumer behavior through these anthropological methods, which presents a challenge to a traditionally academic arena with its own code of ethics and standards.