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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

Your accent is we-ahd

August 21, 2015 by Carie Little Hersh Leave a Comment

Your accent is we-ahd

I grew up a Navy brat, bouncing from coast to coast in the U.S. until the 11th grade, when I hunkered down in the South for more than a decade. Although I had visited family in New England, and my grandmother retained her New Hampshire accent through five decades of living in North Carolina, when I moved north after grad school I was unprepared for the radically unique accent, temperament, and driving style that is Boston. After I made the transition north in 2007, the learning curve was steep. Driving successfully required a transition from extreme patience, a trait required in North Carolina (where drivers will stop at a green light for 30 seconds to allow another driver to enter the road), to extreme efficiency in the Boston area (where drivers feel it is a moral imperative to honk … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Enculturation / Learning Culture, Ethnicity, Language Tagged With: American Regional Difference, Boston Accent, Cultural Bias, Cultural Relativism, Culture, Culture Shock, Emic, Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism, Etic, Language, Linguistics, Marked and Unmarked Ethnicities, Representation, Reverse Culture Shock

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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Disclaimer

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.

 

relevANTH is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

 

Bonus Disclaimer: References to specific products and services on this podcast do not constitute or imply an endorsement and the views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily state or reflect those of either relevANTH or Dr. Hersh.

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