Category Archives: Anthropology

Motherhood and Academia

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

There are a lot of interesting stories and articles that have come out this week that I hope to get to at some point but am too busy at the moment to address. But in honor of the conclusion of … Continue reading →

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The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Current Anthropology has a special supplemental issue available (for free) titled “The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations.” I will not have a chance to go through it in detail till later, but it looks to be a great collection … Continue reading →

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“Graduate School Is a Means to a Job”

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Karen Kelsky has a must-read piece for prospective or current graduate students in the Chronicle: Never forget this primary rule: Graduate school is not your job; graduate school is a means to the job you want. Do not settle in … Continue reading →

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DNAnthropology

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Science News has a story by Robert Service and Elizabeth Pennisi on the latest breakthrough in DNA sequencing technology, nanopore sequencing. The technology is quite amazing: Since then scientists have figured out how to drive DNA through proteins with tiny … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

“Comparing Nariokotome only to humans and only to relative scales, while instructive, involves us in an endless series of “if thens” (e.g., Smith, 1993; S.L. Smith, 2004). Only by adding a comparison to our closest relatives (Table 10.1) do we … Continue reading →

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Academic blogging from a small place

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Kristina Kilgrove’s comments on blogging that I linked to yesterday reminded me of one of the other reasons I have taken up the craft – interactions with colleagues. Biological anthropologists sometime like to refer to themselves as the lone gorilla … Continue reading →

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Paleoanthropology Society Meetings

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

The Paleoanthropology Society has released its finalized schedule of talks for the upcoming annual meetings. My spring conference travel money will be taking me to the AAPA annual meetings in Portland this year rather than the Paleo meetings, but looking … Continue reading →

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Blogging for the public

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

This went over the wires during my writing hiatus of the past two months, but Kristina Kilgrove had a piece at her wonderful blog, Powered by Osteons, on blogging as academic public outreach. Her thoughts are not unlike my own … Continue reading →

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Sexual misconduct in the field

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Kate Clancy, continuing a series on sexual harassment and anthropological fieldwork has an important post up on her Scientific American site. Exploitation of power is very common in grad school settings, where graduate students often have no positive options available … Continue reading →

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The joys of kinship, the complexities of genealogy

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

I have been in radio silence for the past couple of weeks while traveling in Paris with my wife and spending the holiday’s with her family. My wife’s familial relations, while perhaps a bit more complex than most, are not … Continue reading →

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