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Seeing the relevance of Anthropology in Everyday Life

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The Irresponsible Neanderthal

January 30, 2019 by Carie Little Hersh Leave a Comment

The Irresponsible Neanderthal

An article grabbed my attention last year but it took a while for me to realize why. The title, “Neanderthals Self-Medicated for Pain” examined research findings analyzing Neanderthal remains: "You know, we've got a guy self-medicating either because he's got a dental abscess, which was bad, or a nasty gastrointestinal parasite, which was also bad, either way he wasn't a happy guy. And, here he is eating aspirin and we're finding penicillin mould in him" – Dr. Alan Cooper Three things strike me about the way this finding was discussed and made into headlines across major media outlets around the world. To start, this project is inexcusably cool (so long as you’re okay with scientists poking and prodding at your dead ancestors–that is not a universally accepted … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Biological Anthropology, Human Evolution, Medicine Tagged With: alternative therapies, ancient hominids, Anthropology, antibiotics, bioarchaeologists, biomedicine, complementary medicine, Culture, geneticists, George Lakoff, journalists, Language, medicinal herbs, medicine, Neanderthal, scientists, self-medicating, shamans

Wizards, Vampires, Klingons, and Other Alternative Cultures

August 16, 2018 by Carie Little Hersh 1 Comment

Wizards, Vampires, Klingons, and Other Alternative Cultures

On the last day of my introduction to anthropology class, we watch scenes from the documentary Trekkies. Students grin at the sincere folks dressed as Starfleet officers and Borg members, raise their eyebrows at Klingon language camp, and outright laugh at the backyard celebration of Captain Kirk’s birthday, in which a member brags that “this year a girl came”. But they always sober up when people begin discussing why Star Trek is so important to them. One group of women talks about how different they are in their lives and politics, yet they feel most at home and accepted when they are spending time together at the Star Trek conventions. Others talk about how Star Trek inspired careers in astrophysics or medicine. Most powerfully, perhaps, one woman describes how her father was raised … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Fiction Tagged With: All Souls Trilogy, Anthropology, art, Culture, Deb Harkness, diversity, ethics, fiction, Gail Carriger, gender, Harry Potter, Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling, Klingons, Language, legal anthropology, LGBTQ, mudbloods, muggles, nature, Outlander, Parasol Protectorate, power, race, racism, sex, Star Trek, Steampunk, Trekkies, Vampires, Wizards

An Anthropologist’s Obsession with Outlander

May 3, 2018 by Carie Little Hersh 139 Comments

An Anthropologist’s Obsession with Outlander

I have been on hiatus from blogging for some time, mainly due to two factors. First, I launched a public anthropology podcast, Anthropologist on the Street (huzzah!), which has been a fabulous excuse to spend hours talking to brilliant, and often funny, anthropologists and to force them to explain in plain English why their work is important. It’s like free college, but with fewer exams and hangovers. The second reason is because I recently discovered the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Eight books and 7500 pages later, I popped my head up to observe that my children had outgrown all their clothes and had resorted to eating grass, as mommy hadn’t bought groceries because MOMMY WAS READING. After feeding the darlings and reenrolling them in school, I dragged my husband into watching … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fiction, Gender, Sex, & Sexuality, Identity, Social Systems Tagged With: #MeToo, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bones, Anthropology, Caitriona Balfe, Claire Fraser, Cultural Anthropology, Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber, Drums of Autumn, gender, humanism, Jamie Fraser, Outlander, Sam Heughan, Starz, The Fiery Cross, Voyager, Written in My Own Heart's Blood

Turning Heterosexual Pride Day into Gratitude Day

June 30, 2017 by Carie Little Hersh Leave a Comment

Turning Heterosexual Pride Day into Gratitude Day

Are you a heterosexual? Feeling discriminated against by a persecuted minority? Perhaps we should take a moment to be grateful for the ways being heterosexual makes life easier, even when we don't recognize it. In honor of the recent call for #HeterosexualPrideDay, I’ve compiled a list of ten benefits you, too, can enjoy from being heterosexual: Your relationships are depicted in complex, varied, and approving ways in all mainstream RomComs. Actually, pretty much all mainstream movies ever made. The government sanctions your relationships with easy to use marriage forms and rewarding tax breaks. Your ability to adopt is not hindered by your sexuality. There is a 0% threat that you will be violently targeted for being heterosexual. Magazines, comic books, and the vast, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gender, Sex, & Sexuality, Identity Tagged With: #HeterosexualPrideDay, gay, heterosexual, LGBTQ, oppression, power, Pride Parade, privilege, relationships, sexuality

For the Love of Us All, No More Deplorables, Snowflakes, or Nasty Women

June 8, 2017 by Carie Little Hersh Leave a Comment

For the Love of Us All, No More Deplorables, Snowflakes, or Nasty Women

8 Labels I Never Want to Hear Again There are several words that have gained in popularity over the last few years that I don’t ever want to hear again: Deplorables, snowflakes, libtards, nasty women, fly-over states, urban elite, hillbilly, and liberal bubble, to name a few. These are not words we use to describe ourselves, they are words we stab at others like weapons. These are not words that explain our differences, they are words that reduce us to our differences. It is not difference that divides us, it is our contempt for difference. We can be connected to one another, despite (or because of) our differences, but the minute you start curling your lip at who someone is, the connection is over. Words like snowflakes and deplorables are labels that signal that we aren’t … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Cross-cultural Interaction, Culture, Identity, Language Tagged With: access, communication, contempt for difference, Culture, decolonizing, Deplorables, evangelical Christian, fly-over states, hillbilly, labels, liberal bubble, libtards, linguistic anthropology, nasty women, New Age, power, Representation, snowflakes, social problems, sociolinguistics, subculture, urban elite, voice, Waldorf School

Racial Purity Doesn’t Exist, and Here’s Why

May 4, 2017 by Carie Little Hersh 2 Comments

Racial Purity Doesn’t Exist, and Here’s Why

With the recent increase in folks’ throwing shade and swastikas on other people’s ethnicities, I thought I’d take a moment to remind us all that racial purity is as fictional as Draco Malfoy. Here are four reasons why race categories don’t mean what you think they do. There are No Clear Racial Divides: Like water, human genetics flow around the world, sometimes pooling up in isolated places but never really disconnected from everyone else. American genetics are no different. If there are pools of particularly briny water, or mosquito-laden water, or salt-free water, it’s because that water has been temporarily isolated from the free flow of water around the world. It is never completely disconnected, and it is never completely pure. Even the clearest flowing natural spring water has … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Biological Anthropology, Race Tagged With: biological anthropology, Ethnicity, gene flow, genotype, phenotype, race, racial purity, racism, skin color anthropology

Postmodernism Comes to America

December 5, 2016 by Carie Little Hersh 2 Comments

Postmodernism Comes to America

Fake News and the End of Facts I recently had the pleasure (?) of engaging in a fruitless debate on social media with a friend of a friend. One of the innumerable fake news stories circulating this year accused a presidential candidate of some ungodly behavior. While I do not usually spend my time defending politicians, this particular claim was so unfounded and clearly refuted that I had to put in an oar with some supporting credible sources. The response to my response? “Well, anyone can find any facts to support any opinion.” The concern over fake news has been a source of nonstop discussion for the last several months, whether focusing on its influence over the election, its success thanks to social media algorithms, or its connection to foreign sources, foreign governments, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Law and Politics, Religion Tagged With: alternative facts, Christian, creationism, deconversion, Donald Trump, Donna Haraway, evolution, facts, fake news, inauguration, Jacques Derrida, James Bielo, James Peacock, Kate Fox, Kellyann Conway, Kellyanne Conway, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, New Age, Paul Rabinow, postmodernism, press secretary, public anthropology, public science, science, Scottie Nell Hughes, Sean Spicer, social media, White House

Casual Racism and the Problem of White Identity

November 29, 2016 by Carie Little Hersh Leave a Comment

Casual Racism and the Problem of White Identity

My family is super white. We love brunch at IKEA, we have varying relationships with rhythm, and we feel slightly guilty about everything. Aside from our penchant for recording artists like Taylor Swift and John Mayer, however, our whiteness is hard to define. It is the great unmarked ethnicity, looming large but vague over more discernible ethnic identities. It is the lurking nature of white identity that makes it so oblivious to the oppressions and discriminations faced by other races. It’s what makes it so easy for us to inadvertently perpetuate them. And it’s what often pushes us in dangerous directions when we seek to define and celebrate whiteness. Indeed, the greatest sign of our whiteness is perhaps the fact that we are perpetually surprised by racism, even when it’s our … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Cross-cultural Interaction, Culture, Ethnicity, Identity, Race Tagged With: casual racism, colonialism, discrimination, institutional racism, marked and unmarked categories, microaggression, overt racism, race, Rachel Dolezal, racism, Richard Spencer, Robin DiAngelo, segregation, Standing Rock, white identity, White Shamans Plastic Medicine Men

On the Backs of Other Mothers

November 3, 2016 by Carie Little Hersh 1 Comment

On the Backs of Other Mothers

I had no idea I was singing the saddest song about motherhood of all time. It all started when I became curious about a lullaby my grandmother used to sing to me. It turns out that “Go to Sleepy Little Baby”, which I now sing to my babies, was from a radio show in the 1940s – The Judy Canova Show. Canova ended each episode with the lullaby, which she remembered hearing from her own mother. But the original song is much more disturbing. Although some connect Canova’s version to a Swedish lullaby, the most likely source is an African-American song, All the Pretty Little Horses, which dates to the time of slavery. Hidden in the sweet lyrics about cake and promises of horses and carriages is an often-omitted verse that is shockingly grim. As the enslaved nanny sings to the white baby … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Children, Cross-cultural Interaction, Culture, Family, Globalization, Kinship, Parenting, Social Class, Social Systems Tagged With: “All the Pretty Little Horses”, “Miss Housekeeping”, allomothers, babysitter, domestic labor, fathers, feminism, globalization, housekeeper, international domestic worker, Judy Canova Show, lullaby, migrant labor, mothers, nanny, neocolonialism, parenting, slavery

Of Fantasy and Daughters

October 31, 2016 by Carie Little Hersh

Of Fantasy and Daughters

I recently had the excellent fortune to guest blog on The Horn Book's new venture: Family Reading about my love of reading fantasy, and sharing the books with my young daughter. Fantasy (not, I'm slightly ashamed to admit, ethnography) remains my favorite genre, largely because of the way it allows us to work through complex concepts with fresh eyes. Fantasy takes cultural elements, values, and dialogues we are familiar with, and detaches them from their embedded cultural context. In other words, it lets us talk about tricky subjects - race, gender, power, religion - without all the baggage that normally accompanies the concept. As a mom, it is especially important to me that I give my kids thoughtful ways to tackle these tough subjects, while also giving them a space outside of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Children, Family, Kinship, Literature Tagged With: children, daughters, Diana Wynne Jones, empowering, fantasy, gender, girls, Harry Potter, Howl's Moving Castle, J.K. Rowling, literature, mother-daughter reading, Terry Pratchett, The Horn Book, Wee Free Men

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Dr. Carie Little Hersh

Dr. Carie Little Hersh is an American cultural anthropologist, former attorney, and teaching professor in Anthropology at Northeastern University. This is her personal blog about anthropology and its relevance to everyday life.

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As someone who was an attorney for between 3-7 minutes, I feel compelled to state that the views on this blog are mine and don’t reflect those of my employer.

 

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