Monthly Archives: August 2021

A Tale of Two [Unvaxed] Women

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We needed to find a new plumber. I called around. The first business that seemed willing to clean our boiler and replace a problematic hose spigot had availability soon. Before settling on a date, I remembered to ask the woman answering the company’s phone–let’s call her, Mary–a non-plumbing question: Will

Covid-19, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural values, Culture, Current Issues, Diversity, Intercultural communication, Knowledge systems, Medical anthropology, Medical issues, Vaccination campaigns Read more

Weed or Not Weed?

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Weeding is an exercise in anthropology. How do we know what’s a weed? The great French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, organized his nearly-80-year-long career around a single, foundational principle: “culture” basically comes down to classification. If something is “this” (whatever “this” is), then it’s not “that.” Reciprocally, if something is “that,” then

Classification, Cultural Anthropology, Culture, Gardening Read more