AnthroCurrents – September 19, 2014

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

• The New York Times Sunday Review includes this article on how culture influences how we process sensory information. Previous studies on human ability to name smells were based on populations that were predominantly English speaking, so what happens when we run these experiments on a wider variety of subjects?
• If you’re on the fence about whether to buy the Apple Watch, you can add the perspective of two anthropologists to your list of justifications. A short article in The Atlantic will set your mind at ease about the multiple inputs you will have to use to interact with this new gadget. On the other hand, an anthropologist studying behavior change says it’s likely you won’t use your gadget for more than a couple of months.
• The anthropologist who studies the group Anonymous got a lengthy profile on Metronews. Gabriella Coleman talks about carving out an anthropological niche in a non-geographical “somewhere” and issues of trust and danger involved when the group you are researching may be breaking the law.
• In the wake of Ferguson, anthropologist Irma McClaurin writes Stop Killing Out Black Sons for the Houston Forward Times. McClaurin is right that despite programs like citizens academies and racial profiling commissions, there is still a lot of work to do to combat racial disparities in policing.
• Let the eye rolling commence. The Guardian blogs about the Discovery Channel and wonders whether it distorts its material on indigenous peoples in the same way it does sharks?