#introduction

Studied linguist and cognitive scientist who transformed into a software engineer.

Interested in #Anthropology, #Nutrition, #Sports, #Cognition and #Psychology, #Japanese, #Literature, #Minimalism or rather #Simplification.

I enjoy making #Music and writing things #writing. It’s the little things that matter.

The aberrant 1950s model of the nuclear family has been set in stone as the 'traditional' form. But the idea that history began in the 1950s is weird: "the work and crucial roles women have played in society over time are being erased from history".

#family #kinship #women #anthropology

https://medium.com/exploring-history/the-1950s-and-the-myth-of-the-traditional-family-80d4032c044d

My favorite non-fiction book is Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind by Donald C. Johanson. I reread it often, but it is wildly out of date

I’d like to find a similar, popular science-y book that will bring me up to speed on what’s happened in the paleoanthropology field recently - any recommendations?

The family group/tribe is built on mutual support, but the modern conservative version is transactional, based on membership and loyalty. Actions that look like kindness are in reality actions to reinforce tribal loyalty. I think this is why so many people in conservative communties, who are trapped in entirely conservative information spaces, have a hard time breaking free. They see examples of community support as affirmations of their community goodness, and this narrative is drummed into them constantly. Conservative leaders have the advantage of labeling any disruptive people or ideas as 'foreign' and a threat, even if from within the community, so that they never even have to engage with new ideas on merit.

Kindness isnt a relevant trait to their tribal functioning, because the ability to be unkind and cruel to people who arent toeing the tribal line is necessary to upholding 'family law'. Kindness in others undermines their attempts to police peoples behavior (this is why its so important that men are in charge). Therefore, not only is kindness devalued, it is actively persecuted as a threat to conservative values. And that is only treatment of your in-group. If you reject kindness internally, imagine how easy it is to subject an out-group to cruel inhumanity. You can literally justify anything. What is horrifying is the degree to which everyday members of conservative communities have become willfully blind to the terrible treatment of others in order to hang on to an image of community goodness. I have witnessed far too much of this in my life.

Its worth stating that the left has its own, different kind of tribalism. They embrace kindness but there is a lot of pressure to prove the right kind of worth. It has a distinctly multicultural, anti-authoritarian tribalism, where the rules of the tribe are under constant negotiation. This makes communicating a platform challenging. Its a lot simpler for conservative platforms whose rules come from demagogues and an old book.

The flaw of designing a system without compassion is that the cruelty eventually becomes impossible to hide from the tribe, and the cruelty comes for everyone. #uspol #politics #disability #sociology #anthropology #kindness #geopol

I really need to keep the random articles and tidbits of info that i find interesting, instead of finding myself 5 years later going "What was the name of the society of people who think baby carriages and babies sleeping in cribs in another room is child abuse, and they breastfeed until like age 5 or something???"

(ps does anyone know?)

FREE community #fediscience, please BOOST!

TONIGHT
Everybody welcome, just turn up!
LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM

Tues Mar 11, 6:30pm (London UTC)
Chris Knight on
'On women and jaguars: why perspectivism got it so wrong'

Across Amazonia, myths hold that in early times it was the jaguars, parrots, tapirs and other animals who first invented bows and arrows, cooking fire, ceremonial buildings, religious ceremonies and other complex cultural accomplishments. Then humans stole these things from the animals, elevating themselves above all other creatures – but at the cost of losing their former ability to engage in easy conversation with the animal world. This mythic view of our origins is the reverse of the Darwinian narrative which our own culture holds up as science.

In this talk, #ChrisKnight will introduce a recent trend in social anthropology – known as ‘perspectivism’ – and discuss whether such radically different ways of perceiving our origins and place in nature can be made to converge.

Chris will be speaking LIVE in the Daryll Forde, 2nd Floor of UCL Anthropology Dept, 14 Taviton St, London WC1H 0BW. Come in good time by 6:30pm before doors close please. You can also join on ZOOM ID 384 186 2174 passcode Wawilak

FREE community #fediscience, please BOOST!

Everybody welcome, just turn up!

THIS EVENING!!
LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM

RAG International Women’s Week special lecture
Tues March 4, 6:30pm (London UTC)
Christine Binnie
'Neonaturist body painting: A red RAG to patriarchy'

Christine will talk about the evolution of her art practice including #bodypainting, #performance #art, #anthropology, experimental #archaeology, #menstrual blood, red #ochre, #protest and pottery.
In 1986 Christine discovered the Radical Anthropology Group. Although she didn’t know it, she was was already part of a female cosmetic coalition, The Neo Naturists, body painted performance artists. This is the illustrated story of her journey, via different disciplines, including the classes, and how they influenced her art and life.

Christine will be LIVE in the Daryll Forde, 2nd Floor of UCL Anthropology Dept. Come in good time by 6:30pm before doors close please. You can also join on ZOOM ID 384 186 2174 passcode Wawilak

#Anthropology shows that societies collapse when leaders undermine social contracts

“Societies with good governance tend to last a bit longer than autocratic govt that keep power concentrated to one person or a small group.

But the flip side is that when a "good" govt collapses, things tend to be harder for the citizens, because they'd come to rely on the infrastructure of that govt in their day-to-day life.”

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-history-societies-collapse-leaders-undermine.html

Had my social informatics students read work @pluralistic did with Consumer Reports about social media federation and user rights. Also considering what we can learn about society, technology, and ethics from science fiction.

If anybody is interested in reusing, here's the text of the module. Comments welcome if you plan to use or have used.

/* ACTIVITY BEGINS

SETUP: Students work with this material in collaborative file space

As a group, read these two connected pieces:

1. “Inside the Clock Tower: An Interoperability Story,” a short story by Cory Doctorow, commissioned by Consumer Reports regarding user experiences on social media and how regulatory legislation might affect those experiences - https://innovation.consumerreports.org/inside-the-clock-tower

2. “An Interview with Tech Activist and Author Cory Doctorow,” about the ACCESS Act by Consumer Reports - https://www.consumerreports.org/digital-rights/an-interview-with-tech-activist-and-author-cory-doctorow-a1943952645

Answer these questions as a group in the space below:

1. How can you use our class science fiction readings to connect Doctorow’s assessment of the real social media landscape with his portrayal of a social media landscape in science fiction?

2. How can you use lessons from Kling, Hanson, and Coleman to explain how Doctorow’s actions here are a kind of folksy social informatics?

3. How can you connect Doctorow’s work in both pieces to your understanding of the Mastodon social network?

ACTIVITY ENDS */

An archaeologist describes the moment he realized repatriation of Indigenous remains is about human rights, not just legal obligations. A well-preserved body changed his perspective. https://theconversation.com/repatriation-247763 @histodons #Histodons #anthropology #archaeology

FREE community #fediscience, please BOOST!

TONIGHT
Everybody welcome, just turn up!

LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM

Tues Feb 25, 6:30pm (London UTC)
Erica Lagalisse
'On Anarchist Anthropology' in conversation with our own activist and radical anthropologist Chris Knight.

Erica is author of 'Occult Features of Anarchism' (PM Press, 2019). And many many popular anthropology zines!

Erica will be LIVE in the Daryll Forde, 2nd Floor of UCL Anthropology Dept. Come in good time by 6:30pm before doors close please. You can also join on ZOOM ID 384 186 2174 passcode Wawilak

#Happiness is often seen as a U-shaped curve: youthful joy, struggles in early adulthood, and a late-life upswing. But this trend doesn’t hold in low-income, nonindustrialized societies. An #anthropology professor explains: https://buff.ly/4aOOq3G