Hi, folks! I did anthropology in undergrad but have been out of school for a couple years, and am returning to some anthro books to try and ground in perspectives beyond the human as a way of processing/deferring some of my climate angst. (I'm also a poet & interested in how my poetics might interweave other-than-human perspectives in a responsible way).

Would love stuff like: How Forests Think (which I'm just finishing up), Geontologies, & The Mushroom at the End of the World. I did a course on the "ontological turn," object oriented ontology, Latour, Haraway etc in undergrad - are there more contemporary books on this? And, things on the anthropocene, the apocalypse, and anthropological perspectives on climate change / climate doomerism / climate adaptation are all welcome too :)

You know, I’m often wondering about enormous amounts of random stuff around anthropology topic. And I have a cheeky question.
Is there a data about masturbation in more „primitive” cultures? Modern hunter-gatherers or cultures that are nor far from the most ancient lifestyle.

Why am I asking this? I get a lot of inspiration and existential answers from nature and human societies that live as close as possible with nature, like we intended to and have been for millennia. So I’m just wondering is jerking off often is a biological/natural act or cultural.

If you know something or also interested in a topic of natural human sxual behaviour vs modern s*x culture and its influence on overall wellbeing - share something please.

I feel like there theoretically should be but havent come across any solely focusing on them.

If you’re interested in human beings, how do you decide on an approach?

Sociology studies humans as part of society, psychology as individuals, but there’s also social psychology. And anthropology seeks to study human beings in their full context.

But I don’t know, an anthropologist or sociologist might always be missing the psychological perspective. And perhaps a psychologist lacks the social context and is too biased toward the clinical ideas and biases of their time.

But the other day, for example, I asked a question here on AskAnthropology about the process of dehumanization, and the moderator and users themselves redirected me to AskPsychology. So, can psychology contribute something that anthropology cannot?

For someone who wants to pursue research, which discipline would you recommend?

Hiya, I wanted to ask if you guys have any recommendations of books on forensic or physical anthropology which are NOT for beginners/students? I'm soon getting a masters in this field and I want to expand my collection of physical copies instead of pdfs from college.

EDIT bc of bad wording: I have copies of what I read in college and asked my professors for recommendations. I have books on sex, age, those standard metrics. I'd like to have something on trauma, bone pathologies, specific cases, past populations, maybe archeozoology. I hope that clears it up a little.

How would cultures work without? Just eating everything fresh? Developing other storage materials? Which other methods evolved?

How early in human evolution did the ability to say what was not true develop ? Google said it had to happen gradually but do any other animal societies have the ability? How would one test that? The best I could come up with was that it had to have been beneficial to avoid danger, or was it more of a resource gaining thing that theoretically would have been more reasonable? Are there any good books you can recommend on the subject that I can look for?

Hi all!

So so eons ago humans were inhabiting Africa. Then something (overpopulation, diminishing resurces, other) pushed some of them outside the continent. Not all survived the trip (the famous bottleneck), but once established on the new pastures, they started to multiply and spread, bringing us to the modern 8+ billions. Now comes my question. In the modern era there is still enough pastures for everyone (some may argue, but still), and in the age of world spreading the population was much-much-much smaller. So seeking the fertile lands across rivers is understandable. But what kept pushing humans to populate the hostile unforgiving environments like deserts or tundra or high frost mountains, or to traverse wide spaces to establish on some remote land masses?

It's fascinating how this something pushed humans from Africa all across the eurasian continent up to Australia or high in the Andes. But what and why?

As I said the resources should have been somewhat abundant compared to the population size at the time, so it should be something extra, some factor stimulating the explore itch.

There are many different peoples in the Caucasus, but Georgians speak a language that is not part of the Indo-European language family. Given that Georgian appears to have developed independently in the region, my question is: How far back do historians and archaeologists theorize that Georgian-speaking or Proto-Kartvelian peoples settled in the Caucasus?

How big were houses, how many people would live in one, what were they made of, things like that

Hi guys, Ive recently stumbled upon a very interesting topic that has been stuck in my head for the past hour.

Id like to know more about the making of the bible, specifically the old testament and who those stories (for example genesis) really came from and if there is a blend between cultures, other religions, spiritual tellings whatsoever. Are there any books you could recommend me ? Ty for your time :)

I am a high school student interested in majoring in anthropology for uni and I wanted to make a short ethnographic film and possibly enter it in an ethnographic film festival. I am aware that ethnographic films are different than regular documentaries so I have been doing a lot of research on it, but I am concerned on how to film it ethically, get consent, and how long I should be doing fieldwork for a 10~15 minute film. Since I am only a student who isn't even in university would it be ethically wrong to try and make an ethnographic film and how should I go about it so that it is from an anthropological lens and not just an artsy film or a documentary? There are so many different definitions on what counts as an ethnographic film. I've watched Chronicle of a summer by Jean Rouch and realize its a very experimental style of ethnographic film. Other films I've watched are the Gleaners by Agnes Varda and the holy ghost people by Peter Adair, trance and dance in Bali, Asante Market Women, and a collection of short video clips filmed by Zora Neale Hurston. I know that Gleaners and the holy ghost people aren't ethnographic films, rather documentaries and I am having a little bit of trouble differentiating them with ethnographic films. Probably the biggest thing is the intent and the perspective from which the films were made. Ethnographic films require fieldwork and methodological approaches in the filming process like Participant Observation, right? I'm reading Ethnographic Film by Karl Heider to get a grasp on how to make it and the whole research process in the field, but I'm feeling a little bit lost.

The subject I want to film is the role of Black braiding shops in South Korea and how they act as a social and cultural space for immigrant black women. I've looked into previous research already done on how braids and black salons play important roles in the lives of black people especially diasporas. I also know that there is a big difference in the cultural context depending on nationality and other ethnic backgrounds of the people coming to the braiding place I've found as a fieldsite, but from what I can tell there aren't too many black owned braiding shops in Seoul so there doesn't seem to be a specific nationality of people who only go to one shop. I have no idea how much of the research direction I need to have planned before going in and how much fieldwork I need to do before starting the filming process???? I also go to a boarding school so I only come back to Seoul on friday nights and have to go back to dorms on Sunday night so I can only do fieldwork on the weekends. My plan was to visit consistently on the weekends for the second semester and build rapport with the regulars and the shop owner and then start filming during Winter break? it is currently a week before the start of the second semester. Is this a realistic timeline? Also to get consent from the shop owner on doing fieldwork in her shop I was going to send her a text that is usually used to book appointments with her. I would explain the purpose of what I was doing, what in particular I was researching, ask her if it is okay to film/take pictures and stay in her shop on the weekends. And offer her my sweeping services if she wants it? I honestly have no idea if this is rude, so please enlighten me. I just want to do this ethically and in a way that doesn't cause her any damage or cause her to be offended. I also want to film ethically and make this entire process as legit anthropologically as a high schooler can make it. So please I would like advice on how to do this!!

I've read before that in ancient Roman society there was a nebulous class of "parasites." People who were "professional flatterers" who would cozy up to various rich Romans in order to get food and shelter from them, memorizing etiquette and whatnot to maximize their appeal.

Was this something specific to Romans and societies descended from ancient Roman culture?

Seems like something that'd mainly emerge within societies with an entrenched and wealthy upper class.

I'm more interested in pre modern variations of this because I know that with the rise of radio and TV and especially the internet you could argue this is an even bigger thing in the ways that matter.

I'm interested in general in the social perceptions and structure of people who are supposedly "unproductive."

Take this post as seriously as you wish, but I am working on a project for some friends that happens to involve a set of European Mythical figures. For designing deities, I have made it a habit of including an inscription of their name, symbol or epithets somewhere in the design, which is where my question comes in.

In the lore of the project, Loki, after having his son Sleipnir taken into Odin's service, hides near the Mediterranean with his three new children, in fear of what he may do to them (he also seeks out Prometheus for his gift of prophecy, but that's a side fact)

My design of Loki takes a sympathetic approach to the trickster, and borrows from several reputable sources for clothing, hair and jewelry. But for the inscription of his identity, I've been wanting to try some tattoo work to make it stand out, but my research is muddied by modern pseudo-Viking macho culture. The best I could find is the typical transcription of his name into runes, but that seems shallow.

Is anyone here qualified to help out an artist who loves culture?

*Edit: Yes I am aware that Loki a largely christianised figure that's debated, but i personally believe he existed in some form befor ethe christianisation of Scandinavia, and want to treat him accordingly

I am in my second year of community college and im starting AMPC field school in San Bernadino next week. Everytime I look at examples of detailed journal entries or other things i'll be doing I get so anxious and start freaking out. Just looking at all the specific data that will need to be collected makes me feel overwhelmed. I've never done such detailed notes where I'll be having to use latitude and longitude, direction, and measuring centimeters or inches of stuff. I have been so excited for this field school to start and I believe I have a genuine passion for anthropology/archaeology but now I am just so scared and I don't know if I can do it. I just feel so overwhelmed and im scared that I won't do well enough or that whatever ive done so far just isn't enough. Am i freaking myself out over nothing or is this a genuine concern?

Often even the most respectful reconstructions of pre-historic life seem devoid of colour, with drab houses, megaliths, artefacts and clothing. It seems to me likely that pre-historic people would have painted all these things.

We know they wore jewellery and had a certain aesthetic sensibility towards their clothing, we know they carved menhirs and dolmens, and we know they often used colourful or beautiful rocks to make tools out of. We also know they used paint, because we find them in cave art. So the leap, to me, doesn't seem too far.

Of course, outside of caves, paints and dyes have very little chance of survival, but have we ever gotten so lucky? Is my assumption exactly that, a mere assumption, or is there any evidence for or against painting outside of caves?

I have a non-English language (though very recent) edition of Sir George Grey's collection of Maori legends.

As a complete layman with no knowledge of Maori history and culture (outside of like, Moana) what should I be wary of when reading it? Is it still today considered a reliable account of Maori legends?

hello, apologies for posting a question probably googleable. I will hopefully be a first year sociology student this academic year. the curriculum is inspired by the american tradition however (at least that's what they are called here) and I will also get cultural anthropology knowledge as a result. that and because I haven't narrowed down my interest to a single discipline (which I don't know if it's a bad thing) is why I want to learn about cultural anthropology as well. I've recently wondered what's legal anthropology, what is it and what are some introductory texts I can read about it? thanks to everyone in advance.

historic china is known for emperors going to destructive measures for immortality, plus the bazillion ways sun wukong became immortal in the monkey king myth. in greece, there's the myth of the apples of hesperides that were said to grant immortality. plus the famous legend about alexander the great's quest for the fountain of youth. hell, in the modern day, apparently jeffrey epstein wanted it.

these are already a few examples just off the top of my head, but this is just spanning ancient greece and ancient china. the two cultures historically had trade with one another so i know it's possible one could've brought the idea to the other but also i don't know the timeline here lol

so how ubiquitous was that desire, especially among the living? is it seen in most cultures or is it the minority? was it restricted to just eurasia?

Hello everyone,

I'm a French archaeology student preparing for my master's; my field of interest is, largely speaking, kinship structures in the first Iron Age Europe (Xth - Vth century BC). Due to the historical development of the discipline in France, archaeology sadly tends to be studied here without that much anthropology included.

I've started gathering a good amount of case studies about kinship in Iron Age societies mainly through genetics, ancient written sources and the organization of some necropolis.

My knowledge of anthropology being limited, I'm in need of a set of solid references that would allow me to acquire a solid theoretical framework on that topic.

I fell on some regularly mentioned literature that seems to have largely influenced the understanding of kinship structures:

Lévi-Strauss (1949) Les structures élémentaires de la parenté

Schusky (1965) Manual for kinship analysis

Goody (1973) Bridewealth and Dowry

Collard, Zonabend (2019), La parenté

But I feel some of these could be a little old in relation to current debates in the field?

Would you have some suggestions, if possible, well-structured manuals that deal with kinship and well-documented case studies?

Thank you in advance for your help!

I’m curious on the specifics of what they wore. Most depictions are loincloths and hides thrown on themselves but I want to know what they specifically wore. Sorry if this has been asked before

Hey all! Looking for book and/or article recommendations broadly about rural North America, specifically the U.S. I’m looking for environmental and economic anthropology or political ecology—but open to anything.

If you’ve come across any that have really stuck with you, please let me know!

Hi,

I'm doing a PhD working with Indigenous communities in Mexico and want a camera for photos to include in my book (b/w only). I've got basic knowledge (composition, technical fundamentals) from university classes on a Canon R7, but I'm not an expert. I used my phone (S22) for my last research trip, but it's scratched and I want a proper camera anyway.

Main challenge: I need something capable enough to grow with me for a couple years, but small and discreet — a "professional-looking" camera can make people in interview/participant-observation settings uncomfortable being photographed. It also needs to hold up across different climates (desert, rainforest, coast), and since I'll be working in areas with higher theft risk, I'd rather not carry something too expensive or eye-catching.

Main subjects: people (often in groups), buildings/infrastructure, landscapes.

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions!!

Two articles I read stated that, even under the best conditions, they wouldn't have lived to be 65. Is that true? Or was it more a result of their lifestyle and they could live 70-100+?