Anthropology M.A. graduate, writer, archaeologist, preservationist, micro-blogger, music and animal lover. 
11. The Get Up Kids - There are rules
10. Iron & Wine - Kiss each other clean
9. Decemberists - The king is dead
8. Wilco - The whole love
7. My Morning Jacket - Circuital
6. TV On The Radio - Nine types of light
5. Rise Against - Endgame
4. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Tao of the dead
3. Mogwai - Hardcore will never die, but you will
2. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lenses alien
1. Bon Iver - Bon iver
The archaeological world is still reeling from the recent loss of the eminent American archaeologist, Lewis R. Binford. The highly influential anthropologist was born in 1931 and leaves behind a legacy few can match in terms of breadth of work.
The larger-than-life man many consider to be the "Father of Modern Archaeology" began his academic pursuits in his hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. Binford graduated from Maury High School in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk before attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After a stint in the military, he returned to school at the University of North Carolina in 1954 to pursue his new-found interest in anthropology.
Soon after attaining his B.A. at UNC, Binford moved to Ann Arbor to undertake his graduate studies at the University of Michigan. It was here that Lewis Binford found his niche and blossomed as an archaeologist. Under the direction of Leslie White, Binford was free from the shackles of the outdated culture-history view of archaeology he associated with UNC.
Lewis Binford further developed his ideas of what archaeology should and shouldn't be at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor. It was here, in 1962, that Binford published his first major article, Archaeology as Anthropology. The paper argued for the anthropologification of the field of archaeology. He claimed that by connecting artifacts to human behavior we could get a much better understanding of the associated culture than by simply collecting and cataloging. This call to arms for archaeologists set off a ripple effect which gathered momentum quickly. The movement's followers were dubbed the "New Archaeologists" by outsiders.
Binford spent the late 1960's shuffling around Anthropology departments: from Chicago, to UC Santa Barbara, to UCLA, before ending up at the University of New Mexico in 1969. It was during this time that Binford pioneered the methods of ethnoarchaeology. This approach involves the ethnographic study of modern-day hunter-gatherers to form assumptions about prehistoric H-G behaviors which may have shaped material remains. Binford lived among the Nunamiut of Alaska to get an idea of how Middle Paleolithic peoples may have shaped (and were shaped by) their environment.
Much of Binford's body of work was produced in the late 1970's and 1980's. He produced dozens of publications during these decades and cemented his position as the preeminent American archaeologist. Binford took on his opponents and critics with lively debates, most notably the post-processualists.
In 1991 Binford began teaching as a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and continued to serve as the pater familias of American archaeology until his retirement.
Binford was a paradigm shifter; a pioneer in the realms of processual archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. His emphasis on utilizing the scientific method and "striking a balance between theoretical and practical concerns" helped the field of archaeology become what it is today. Lewis Binford leaves behind a pair of shoes too large to fill.
[This article was originally posted on Examiner.com]
Hoping this will be useful for networking. I compiled a list of anthropologists on Twitter based on follower count and a few other parameters:
- Over 500 followers
- Single-person accounts, no group blogs
- Users focus majority of tweets on anthropological matters
- I Focused primarily on English-speaking tweeters
Please let me know if (and I'm sure I did) I have missed someone or you feel you should be included!
[The information on this list was compiled between 2/17/11 - 2/19/11 via Twitter]
Counting the number of followers one has may not be an accurate way of measuring someone's influence on Twitter; however, it was the best place I could think of to start.
Obviously academic cooperative and/or group blogs have a tremendous influence. Leaving such blogs out of this list was in no way an attempt to downplay their significance.
[UPDATED 2/28/11]
Now that the dust has settled a bit from the recent Science “controversy” in anthropology, I join others in the field who think it’s a good idea to learn from this incident. Forget the fact that the story was completely over-hyped in major news coverage. Forget the backpedaling done by the AAA executive board once they realized the can of worms they had opened by taking the word “science” out of their mission statement. What needs to be addressed is the real fragmentary nature of the discipline and why it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is true that the four-field approach to the study of humans is very expansive in the realm of specialization; this is something that no other field can boast. I challenge those who argue that this weakens anthropology as a social science. The biggest thing I took from the whole debacle was this: we need better communication amongst the sub-disciplines.
Why there were such strong reactions from all sides involved in the recent controversy [The violent backlash from the community of anthropologists who felt alienated by the AAA with exclusion of the word; the media’s handling of the debate pegging it as “an epic struggle in the discipline between the true scientists and their foes” (Kuper and Marks, 2011); and the association’s attempts to downplay the divide in the field and the implications of their actions] is definitely worth looking at, but I won’t delve into that here. There have been great articles written recently about these reactions and what they tell us about the current state of American anthropology:
Daniel Lende’s Anthropology, Science, & Public Understanding Neuroanthropology
Dan Berrett’s Anthropology Without Science Inside Higher Ed
Julienne Rutherford’s Revisiting a Controversy of Debated Etiology BANDIT
What I think we should all be focusing on is why there aren’t mechanisms in place to connect researchers and experts in ALL fields of anthropology. The fragmented state of the field allows students of the discipline to choose many different paths to study the human condition. The fact that one department houses scientific laboratory researchers, field workers, cultural theorists, linguists, and ethnographers is not only advantageous to the study of humans, it is also very cool. What we need to work on is a better way to connect all of the branches of anthropology. After all, it is the original academic melting pot; “the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities”.
In Daniel Lende’s A Vision of Anthropology Today –And Tomorrow he talks about the need for anthropologists to unite, find common ground, and integrate research across all fields. I applaud this assessment. He goes on to talk about how the future of collaboration is happening now, online. This is something that we as anthropologists need to embrace. We need to establish anthropology as a leader in online social science collaboration. Not only does online integration of one’s research help the discipline itself, but it also helps to inform and engage the public. As an anthropology micro-blogger, my goal is to disseminate knowledge, raise awareness, encourage debate, and find ways to make the world a smaller place. So, anthropologists, fire up those PCs, Macs, and tablets and get blogging!
Related Links:
What Can Blogging Do for Archaeology? Terry Brock, Dirt
Open Access Archaeology: Two Different Approaches Katy Meyers, MSU Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative
New Project in the Works: Anthropologies Ryan Anderson, Ethnografix
The New York Times has released NASA and NOAA figures claiming that the year 2010 has tied 2005 as the hottest year on record globally. This brought to mind how bitter cold and unusually snowy it has been here in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US recently, as well as a number of articles I have read touting December 2010 as the coldest December on record in numerous US and UK publications:
Athens Banner-Herald (Georgia)
Jacksonville Daily News (North Carolina)
Tallahassee Democrat (Florida)
Belleville News Democrat (Illinois)
Tampa Bay Newspapers (Florida)
How is it possible that during what was to be the warmest year in history, many people experienced the coldest December ever recorded in their locale? Recent weather trends indicate an increasingly volatile planet. What does recent volatility of our planet's climate mean? Are we entirely to blame? Is it possible to lessen or even reverse our stress on the environment?
20. Coheed and Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow
19. Of Montreal - False Priest
18. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
17. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
16. Circa Survive - Blue Sky Noise
15. Best Coast - Crazy For You
14. Caribou - Swim
13. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
12. Jimmy Eat World - Invented
11. The National - High Violet
10. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
9. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
8. Broken Bells - Self Titled
7. Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
6. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
4. Light Pollution - Apparitions
Anthropology M.A. graduate, writer, archaeologist, preservationist, micro-blogger, music and animal lover.
Anthropology M.A. graduate, writer, archaeologist, preservationist, micro-blogger, music and animal lover.
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