AnthroCurrents – November 14, 2014

A biweekly look at recent stories on anthropology and practicing anthropologists in the popular media

Food

• Anthropologist Elizabeth Bennett started Fruitcycle after visiting an orchard and seeing all the fruit left to rot on the ground. Her company takes fruit that would otherwise be wasted and turns it into apple chips.
• Rhode Island Public Radio covered the Southern Seed Legacy Project and talked to its director, anthropologist James Veteto (and one of my former professors). The project supports and encourages seed saving to protect the diversity of heritage crops.

Medicine

• Ebola has left Africa for North America, and we can turn the anthropological lens upon ourselves. The Columbia Spectator talked to a number of social scientists to ask questions about how American attitudes toward combatting Ebola have changed now that the disease is a bit closer to home.
• The Lancet issued a press release about a new University College of London-Lancet Commission on Culture and Health. The Commission is led by anthropologist David Napier, who said, “Clinical students and staff need to spend less time reporting to superiors and more time engaging with the ill and understanding their needs.”

Books

• The Boston Globe reported on a new book by anthropologist Frances Larson, who is an expert on beheadings. Her new book “Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found” will be available on November 17.
• Phys.org recently posted this round-up of books on the anthropology of mining.

Last Words

• Forbes posted the opinion piece Stop Talking About Culture. Alastair Dryburgh explains that to most people, “culture” seems like something too big to change. That perception might surprise anthropologists, who are accustomed to seeing change everywhere they look.