AnthroCurrents – August 6, 2015

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

• How quickly can the world trash Cuba? Anthropologist Sarah Hill offers her opinion on what an open Cuba might look like at the website Atlas Obscura. It’s easy to forget, when reading all of this exciting news, that Cuba has been open to a lot of the world the whole time it has been off limits to Americans.
• GQ magazine mines the anthropology stacks to show its readers some wildly different marital situations across times and cultures. Their point is supposedly: Different Strokes for Different Folks, although the title is Why Every Man Should Be Monogamous.
• I like that Huffington Post enables a variety of anthropologists to have a voice in world affairs, and Mark Schuller contributes with a two-piece article on the occupation of Haiti.
• The Irish Times reports on “the most humane prison in the world,” located in Norway. Anthropologist and prison employee Ragnar Kristoffersen has some interesting perspectives on how we should treat the incarcerated. “If you treat people badly,” he says, “it’s a reflection on yourself.”
• “Richface:” an aesthetic where the results of plastic surgery are noticeable—on purpose. I had never heard of this before (although I’ve certainly seen it). The Globe and Mail tapped anthropologist Alexander Edmonds for his thoughts on the phenomenon. I like the term, but if it isn’t in Urban Dictionary, is it really a word?