At the end of 2009, linguists around the world collected words to characterize the first decade of the new millennium. “Aporkalypse” appeared at the top of their list, describing a swine-inspired end of days ushered in by the threat of bird flu. Though playful, this term points to a growing recognition that animals –and their diseases –have determining …
Top of the heap: Jamie Saris and Elizabeth Wilson
For the latest “Top of the heap” we have lists from A. Jamie Saris of the Department of Anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and Elizabeth A. Wilson of Emory University’s Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
A. Jamie Saris
C. Jason Throop, Suffering and Sentiment: Exploring the Vicissitudes of Experience and Pain in Yap (University …
Early Career Scholar’s Network Events at the Association for Social Sciences and Humanities in HIV (ASSHH) Paris Conference
The Association for Social Sciences and Humanities in HIV conference in Paris presents an ideal opportunity to establish an open assemblage of early career researchers and scholars connected through a shared engagement in HIV/AIDS. By coming together and forming this collective, we hope to institute a space in which to provoke and facilitate dialogue and collaboration amongst early career scholars …
The Afflictions Series: an Interview with Ethnographic Filmmaker Robert Lemelson
When Robert Lemelson, an anthropologist, filmmaker, and research professor at UCLA, recently visited the George Washington University to speak at a conference on how ethnographic films can help us understand torture, I had to request an interview. I confess—I have long been a fan of Lemelson’s films, which I have seen screened at meetings as large as those …
Web Roundup: Abortion Rights and Patent Laws
This month’s Web Roundup is dedicated to the role that legislation and the courts have in promoting or restricting access to medical care. In particular, I will focus briefly on the passage of anti-abortion legislation in the US and a few recent court cases that are testing the limits pharmaceutical patents. While not overtly theoretical in nature, I have found …
April In the Journals… (2/2)
Following up on Melanie’s In the Journals… (1/2), here is a short sampling of other recently published articles.
On “Early View” from Sociology of Health & Illness:
In an article entitled, “Undoing gender? The Case of Complementary and Alternative Medicine,” Joslyn Brenton and Sinikka Elliott show how middle-class Americans who use complementary and alternative medicine reproduce …
April In the Journals… (1/2)
With daylight saving time come new articles this April!
The current issue of Medical Anthropology explores concepts of healing in diverse contexts. James B. Waldram opens the discussion with his investigation into the notion of efficacy within indigenous healing practices in Belize and Canada. He offers two approaches to define efficacy, each focussed on a different outcome: transformation and restoration.…