justice

  • Coyote Chaos in the Anthropocene

    A couple of weeks ago, a coyote climbed the fence into my mother’s backyard and attacked one of her dogs, Cujo. The coyote only stopped its assault when Zoey, the 40+ lbs doberman puppy chased it off. My mother is convinced Zoey was just trying to play. Several weeks ago, her 50lbs collie mix died

    Read more →

  • The Story of a Mass Shooting Survivor and Anthropologist

    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

    Read more →

  • Admissions Fraud and the SAT: Hidden Implications

    As you are likely aware, there is a huge college admissions scandal that has been brought to life. Forbes calls it “The Worst Crime In College Admissions History Exemplifies The Worst Parenting“. Affluent parents are bribing their children’s way into prestigious universities, falsifying records and SAT scores, faking athletic performance, etc. Much of the light

    Read more →

  • Book Review: “How to Think Like an Anthropologist”

    After each semester, I evaluate what did and didn’t work in my classes. I didn’t teach Introduction to Anthropology for Fall 2018, so I had an extra semester to think about what I wanted to do with the course moving forward. I have decided to move on from using a textbook (despite the fact that

    Read more →

  • Revisiting Geno-colonization: Senator Warren and “Native DNA”

    I woke up this morning to the news that Senator Elizabeth Warren has released a DNA test “providing strong evidence” that she has a Native American ancestor 6-10 generations ago (I’ll unpack that later). While I appreciate Senator Warren’s take-down of banking executives and much of her politics, this is a misguided tug-of-war with Trump.

    Read more →

  • Biology, Race, and “Orientalism”

    Edward Said published Orientalism in 1978 and is highly influential in postcolonial studies and social theory. Said argues that through the construction of the ‘Orient’ (the East) and the other, the ‘Occident’ (the West) defines itself. Western representations of the Orient are merely a pseudo-intellectual endeavor of justifying and exalting its own existence instead of a sincere

    Read more →

  • Populations, Race, and The Sorites Paradox

    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

    Read more →

  • A Brief History of Race in the Western Thought

    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

    Read more →

  • The Personhood and Rights of Apes

    I spent the earliest part of my career as an anthropologist studying captive chimpanzees at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, NC. While there, I always made a concerted effort to engage with zoo-goers while performing focal animal sampling (studying juvenile time budgeting and play behavior). If you’ve done any primate behavioral ecology, you will

    Read more →