anthropology – On the Human http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human a project of the National Humanities Center Thu, 14 Sep 2017 16:39:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 One Man’s Meat: Further Thoughts on the Evolution of Animal Food Taboos http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2011/11/one-mans-meat/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2011/11/one-mans-meat/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:42:12 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=2965 Although meat is said to be the most highly prized category of food in the majority of human cultures, it is also, according to a recent ethnographic survey, “vastly more likely to be the target of food taboos,” than any other type of edible substance.[1] People throughout the world display strong aversions to killing and

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2011/11/one-mans-meat/feed/ 20 The Nature and Culture of Birds http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2011/03/nature-and-culture-of-birds/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2011/03/nature-and-culture-of-birds/#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:10:03 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=2081 Continue reading The Nature and Culture of Birds

]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2011/03/nature-and-culture-of-birds/feed/ 9 Animalia: the Natural World, Art, and Theory http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/02/animalia-the-natural-world-art-and-theory/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/02/animalia-the-natural-world-art-and-theory/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:57:33 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=808 Egbé eja leja ?wè tò, egbé eye leye ?wò lé Fish swim in a school of their own kind; Birds fly in a flock of their own kind. Yoruba Proverb

We mention nature and forget ourselves in it. Friedrich Nietzsche

So engrained is the trope of the animal in the West that animal

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/02/animalia-the-natural-world-art-and-theory/feed/ 15 Does Culture Prevent or Drive Human Evolution? http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/12/does-culture-prevent-or-drive-human-evolution/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/12/does-culture-prevent-or-drive-human-evolution/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:25:38 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=705 As a molecular anthropologist, my research involves using genetic data to address questions of anthropological interest about the origins, history, migration, structure, and relationships of human populations. I frequently am asked to give lectures to nonspecialist audiences on insights from genetics into human evolution, and invariably during the ensuing discussion period the viewpoint will be

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/12/does-culture-prevent-or-drive-human-evolution/feed/ 15 Wild Animals and a Different Human Face http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/12/wild-animals-and-a-different-human-face/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/12/wild-animals-and-a-different-human-face/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:42:36 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=667 “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Tennessee Williams

To understand portions of one’s own culture demands a lifetime; to become familiar with another’s depends upon a host of enthusiastic interpreters, attentive listening, experiencing a multitude of unfamiliar activities, a receptive heart, and good fortune. Throughout my life, a major

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/12/wild-animals-and-a-different-human-face/feed/ 18 How Humans Became Such Other-Regarding Apes http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/08/how-humans-became-such-other-regarding-apes/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/08/how-humans-became-such-other-regarding-apes/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:28:23 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/humannature/?p=310 I am an anthropologist and primate sociobiologist who seeks to understand, step by Darwinian step, how apes could have evolved to imagine and care about what the lives of others might be like. I believe that such questing for inter-subjective engagement laid the foundations for significant later developments such as language and cumulative culture. My

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/08/how-humans-became-such-other-regarding-apes/feed/ 25 Biopower, Dignity, Synthetic Anthropos http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/06/biopower-dignity-synthetic-anthropos/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/06/biopower-dignity-synthetic-anthropos/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:19:32 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/humannature/?p=267 Whatever the terms “biopower” and “biopolitics” might mean, and they are being used in a growing number of simplistic ways, most of which bear scant relation to how Michel Foucault deployed them. Foucault’s genealogical elaboration of these terms had been conceptual, historical and non-totalizing. Above all, Foucault deployed concepts like “biopower” or “governmentality” in a

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