Anthropology
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“Splendid Isolation, the Big Bend…” is how the National Parks Services introduces Big Bend National Park on its website. My partner and I recently took a several day trip to Big Bend and, I have to say, it was truly splendid. Many of the sights and experiences I had were unlike anything I had experienced…
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Western notions of modernity have situated human society apart from nature, which encompasses those spaces and beings that are unmodified and unsullied by human activity. The Western conception of nature/society can be contrasted with that of the Cofán—an Indigenous people of Amazonian Ecuador and Colombia—who identify as tsampini can’jen’sundeccu (dwellers of the forest). The Cofán…
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As time continues to press forward after the April 30 shooting at UNCC, I have continued to reflect, think about my experience, and discuss the experiences with others who were there and beyond. The summer is over, and I am required to be around people more frequently. I am in a new city, meeting new…
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On April 30, my Liberal Studies class, framed as Anthropology and Philosophy of Science (Syllabus), was the site of a horrific event. Two of my students were killed, while four more were injured. I will not share their names as to protect them, although that information is available elsewhere. I will use broad terms or…
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One of my passions is studying multispecies entanglements. As an anthropologist, the ways in which human activities affect the lives of other living organisms are of central interest, but the ontological relationships of other organisms go deep. A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with my partner (who is a gender scholar), and…
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The sorites paradox (also called the paradox of the heap) refers to a particular logical contradiction that arises from the analysis of vague terms (Sainsbury, 2009). Terms like ‘heap’, ‘bald’, and ‘tall’ all fall into this category. We know a tall or bald person when we see one, but what are the necessary and sufficient…
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Race, as a concept, has an important ontology in American society. In order to understand the relationship between race, genetic research, and the American class structure, it is necessary to first understand the historical production of race. The following section does not intend to be a comprehensive history of race but merely highlights trends in…
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Try walking around the mall, on a crowded sidewalk, or through a university campus, and there is one thing that stands out: people are engulfed in their phones. Whether they are moving from point A to B or simply hanging out, many people rarely ever look up from their screens. Parents of teenagers know this…
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Mary Douglas defines ‘dirt’ as “matter out of place.[1] In revisiting her work in the context of my current research and the protests of professional athletes, it made me consider this definition, its implications, and the lengths to which we go as a society to “reorder” the world and cleanse. “Dirt offends against order. Eliminating…
Anthrop 365 