(Part 2) Top products from r/Anthropology

YES. Omg I thought I was the only one.

I grew up LOVING science, but my main talent, from as soon as I could hold a crayon, was art. I loved science, read Carl Sagan in high school, and wanted to learn more, but I couldn't get into the science classes I wanted because I didn't have the math. I figured I couldn't do math and science, that I was "right-brained," so I went into art. I got a huge scholarship to one of the top illustration schools in the country, but I soon dropped out because I knew what it wasn't what I wanted. Once art became work, it wasn't fun anymore. It's been 11 years and I still haven't done art since.

I spent a lot of my 20's trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted, and I stumbled upon anthropology while working at Babies R Us. I had a strong maternal instinct, and a lot of my friends were having kids, and I spent a lot of time observing people's parenting practices and the consumerist culture that surrounds parenthood and infancy. One day I was reading one of the books behind the registry counter, and I saw that an anthropologist was referenced when discussing the controversial issue of cosleeping. I was like wow! I didn't realize you could use anthropology to approach these problems! Before long, I knew that I wanted to be an anthropologist, and that this goal would require that I go back to school.

I've had to learn a lot more science, but since my minor was psych I actually wasn't required to take that much biology, so now that I'm done, I still have a lot of catching up to do before grad school. I did not do that well in chemistry in high school, and IMO my biology class wasn't that great. Plus it was 11 years ago so I don't remember much. So I've been playing a lot of catch-up and will have to continue to do that before I head off to grad school. (Taking a year off.)

I also realize now that I was a victim of societal sexism that holds girls back in the sciences. Now that I have taken anatomy and neuroscience, I understand that there's no such thing as "right brain/left brain," and that I can learn math -- I just have to start at the beginning and be patient with myself, because I've got an entire academic career full of shitty teaching to make up for. I gained a lot of confidence when I took a medical statistics course to fulfill my quantitative reasoning requirement. (By doing this, I actually didn't have to take any algebra for undergrad...one reason I am taking a year off before grad school, because I really should know Algebra.)

One of the greatest things ever, and what helps me not feel regretful that I didn't "try harder" to learn math in my youth, is because now we have Khan Academy, which I cannot recommend enough. The reason it is awesome is because, if you don't get something, you can stop the video and watch that part over and over again until you get it, before you move on to the next part. This is important because math is structural -- it builds on itself. This explains why kids fall behind in math in school. All you have to do to move on to the next level is get a 60% -- A D- right? That leaves 40% of the information from the previous year that you are going into the next class not knowing. Eventually, those holes add up to the point where you have no idea what is going on at all, which is what happened to me.

So I don't know how you get into an anthro grad program with an undergrad degree in the arts, but I am sure it is possible because anything is. I imagine you'll want to start by learning some stuff that you would have learned as an anthro major in undergrad. It sounds like you are interested in bioanth -- right? Luckily, even if you are more of a "hard science" anthropologist (as opposed to a cultural anthropologist), you usually don't have to know a ton of math and science. Not at the undergrad level, anyway. It helps, and there are areas of biological anthropology -- such as epigenetics, endocrinology, nutrition, and taphonomy (how stuff decays) -- that are more technical, and will involve some biochem. My program did require me to take a 5-credit science seminar with a lab component, which most students fulfilled with a field school. But honestly, most of what you're going to be doing is reading journal articles. Once you get used to reading those, you'll just start absorbing stuff that way. They will teach you the more technical science stuff that you need to know for your field in grad school, and most of that is taught by doing readings and discussion. It's not at all like how they teach in biology or medical school.

I also want to tell you that your art background will be more valuable to you in science than you probably realize right now. The BEST scientists are the ones who can think creatively, are curious, and know how to follow a hunch or an idea through to the truth. There is something that artists and scientists very much in common about the way they think about the world, and that is that they are very, very observant. They (or I should say "we") notice things that other people don't. This is INVALUABLE. The next step is to harness that noticing and curiosity and organize it into a methodology that tests hypotheses and solves problems, and to learn a bit of critical thinking skills.

Also, something that I know that many people don't realize about artists, is that they know how to do big projects, and that is a huge part of doing science. One of the things that graduate schools want to see in a potential student is that they can form a testable hypothesis, design a good study, and follow through with the entire project. This was one of the other reasons I didn't succeed in art school. I didn't know how to start a project, break it down into manageable pieces, and persevere at it until it was finished. In art or in science, this part is honestly not about intelligence or talent, but about perseverance. Especially when you hit inevitable roadblocks. (Funding rejections, lost data, field site access problems, etc.)

And of course, your writing skills will help you a lot. So many students in the sciences never really learn how to communicate. Writing for science is definitely different than what you're probably used to, but personally I love it because it is very precise. And frankly I think it is a lot easier to go from creative writing to technical rather than the other way around. But then again, I'm a water color artist who has a hard time with oils, and everyone tells me that water colors are harder for most people lol.

Now, as far as integrating art and anthropology, this is something I've thought about but never done because it doesn't really appeal to me. I honestly just want to do research. However, I do think about ways in which I would incorporate art into my learning if I had the time. I have thought about asking my professors if I could come into the lab during my time off to just sketch the different skulls and skeletons in our collection. Doing this would really help imprint on your memory the differences in morphology that separate the gracile australopithecines from the robust ones, etc. I saw a series of sketchbook entries on tumblr a few months ago that were amazing and made me want to do the same.

You might also consider going into making recreations of the different hominids for museums. My background is in painting/drawing -- I've done pretty much NO 3-D art. But if this is attractive to you, and you get good at it, it could be really fulfilling!

http://scienceyfeels.tumblr.com/post/83483113653/theolduvaigorge-sculpting-science-by-alexa

Also, a great way for you to start learning, since you are a visual person, is to go pick up the Human Evolution Coloring Book and, if you are so inclined, the Anatomy Coloring Book. (There's a physiology one too, if you think you might go into one of the more cellular/chem-oriented subfields.) I know it sounds like a kid thing, but these books are college-level in terms of technical content, and get this -- You know where I first heard about them? I was listening to a lecture from Berkeley. I shit you not! lol! Ivy league kids are sitting in their classrooms, coloring in coloring books. Personally, I make copies of each page so I can do the same page as many times as I like.

Also, if you do the more hardcore bio route, I highly recommend Crash Course Biology and Crash Course Chemistry.

Good luck! I think this is awesome and definitely keep us updated on your journey!

I use a Sony A5000 (which has sexier siblings, like the A6000, but this is the one I have), which I picked up for about $300 (refurb, but new ones are quite affordable too).

The Sony E-mount feels solid and there is a good array of lenses. I got it with a 16-50mm lense.

I've been extremely happy with it. It feels robust, and it is -very- compact and have not had problems with battery life. With a small tripod it will also do alright video for interviews, which I've used for consumer research stuff.

Plus: Portability, affordability, but definitely a strong important on point and shoots in terms of picture quality. Very well reviewed, too.

I carry it in a case like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zenness-Protective-Leather-Camera-16-50mm/dp/B00P0GGJUO/

Hope this helps!

I'm not sure how they compare to other textbooks, but Biological Anthropology: The Natural History of Humankind seems to give a broad and relatively up-to-date overview, and Exploring Biological Anthropology: The Essentials is a somewhat more concise version.

Like other users mentioned, The Fossil Trail has pretty interesting background, and The Complete World of Human Evolution is a solid but truly concise overview if you don't want to go for a full textbook, or would rather spend the difference on a lucky replica tarsier skull. Fossil and genetic research within the last year will make any book a little dated, but is easy enough to catch up on.

The CARTA symposia lectures available on YouTube or its site are a good resource.

For example, this one could be interesting for the emphasis and associations even if you've covered the material in a book, and gives a sense of a prominent researcher in the field (coauthor of 'The Complete World...', and author of Lone Survivors, which might also be worth checking out).

These presentations from a symposium on the origins of violence are another example (20 min. each, 3 per video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRsQDfgwP08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGaQ-oEpNG0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q3N5kainhw

They give a range of viewpoints, and again personalize some of the academics involved.

I did an anthro of art class in undergrad and the prof was a biological anthropologist who was most interested in the evolution of consciousness (which can be seen through art). Our textbook was Calliope's Sisters, which was a good intro, I think, to human consciousness as seen through art. It's a bit old now, but I'd glance at a copy if you can get your hands on one. That may help focus your reading.

As for where to go to grad school, when you find some books or articles that you really like and that are recent, find out where the person who wrote it is teaching and get in touch with them. If they aren't taking students, they may be able to help. Undergrad profs are also a great source of guidance for grad school choices.

Agreed about the syllabi. I saved all of mine from college for later reference.

I find Anthropological "readers" to be a great place to start. They are a quick way to get familiar with the range of topics, styles, theories, etc that Anthropologists cover. Conformity and Conflict is a good one. I personally found this Anthro Theory book to be very useful. It has a lot of foot notes and chapter summaries. If you're interested in the religious side of cultural anth, this one is aight.

Straight up reading full ethnographies is time consuming and doesn't give a good overview imo. Could burn you out. /shrug

Also Anthropology is the fucking shiiiiiiiiiit. Represent. >.>

Like any field, there are a lot of different approaches, traditions and ideological orientations that color its history. People have really strong ideas about what visual anthropology ought to be, while other people can be more flexible. I more or less align with the latter.

Ethnographic film is a very complex subject. I recommend checking out Jay Ruby's book Picturing Cinema for a good, very critical view, on visual anthropology. Also familiarize yourself with Documentary Educational Resources.

For my personal interests, I don't want to be limited by film production as the sole means of visual research in anthropology. Visual images, and our sense of visual communication (from a biological and interpersonal perspective), is a topic that extends to every aspect of humanity. I am a linguistic anthropologist with a firm belief in integrating all fields of anthropology, and find visual topics central to my research.

I personally feel there is a lot of new areas for visual anthropology to explore. The internet, most notably. New technology with livestreaming, video conferencing and a proliferation of ways to document/use visual media is becoming the norm. But it has yet to formally take hold, and so there is a lot for room for creativity.

I've looked into your program before and believe it is a one-year experience, culminating in a film? What are your long-term plans after that? In any event, we should collaborate and try to do something from a distance for next year's Future of Visual Anthropology conference. PM with your email and I can add you to our listserv.

So for my undergrad thesis, I studied the correlates between hemochromatosis and multiple sclerosis from an anthropological lens, and basically spent two semesters writing a 50 page literature review on the topic. I think undergrad theses should stick to a literature review, as if you want to carry that research on into your masters you have a strong base to work with, and if not you have done serious research into a topic, giving you a plethora of skills that can be transferred into any masters, regardless if that masters is thesis or course based.

Also, based on what you're interested in, check this book out. I read it for a class, and I think it would connect really well with what you are looking to do.

Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0199797080/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_uqNAyb0JRT5N4

I may be a bit late to the game here, but radiolab did a podcast on laughter. Actual, they did another one as well. One of the guests wrote a book on it as well.

I would recommend reading Our Kind, by Marvin Harris. It is an entertaining and well-written overview of the history of humanity and explains many of our quirks.

After you've finished it, you can get into more Anthropological theory. Cultural Materialism, also by Marvin Harris, is a great book for that.

Most importantly, Anthropology is a very fluid discipline, encompassing everything from forensics to rolling in ditches with shamans. Every anthropologist has a different worldview, which falls somewhere between humanism and materialism. Just as there is no one, single human culture, there is no one source for learning anthropology, nor one way to do it.

This isn't really what you're looking for, but it is a quick and easy read that would help you understand Chinese culture

I would also recommend Lyn Dupré's BUGS in Writing: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose, which is aimed at someone working on their master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, but is a great resource for anyone writing in a STEM field. (And, really, anyone writing any sort of nonfiction.) Dupré has edited lots of books for Addison-Wesley, including W. Richard Stevens's UNIX Network Programming and the TCP/IP Illustrated books.

One approach would be to search for syllabi for undergraduate anthropology courses and see what texts they require. Then you could work through different "courses" on your own.

For example, an older edition of this book was used in my intro to anthro course when I was an undergrad. Something like it or one of its competitors might be a good place to start. If you live in a metropolitan area, I'm sure your public library has plenty of books to get you started.

Actually these stories are all quite true. Just because you are ignorant about history does not mean that it did not happen.

These stories and many more are from a book called; "The European Discovery of America, The Southern Voyages, 1492-1616", by Samuel Eliot Morison, Oxford University Press, 1974

Available for purchase Here

Study history. It is fascinating. Since this is a 700 page book, I can't give you page numbers for these stories.

Go read any ethnography and some books about ethnographic methods.

Some classic ethnographies/etc are

• The Forest People (I've seen this one free online before)
  
  
• The Dobe Ju/'Hoansi
  
• Facing Mt. Kenya
  
  
• Participant Observation
  
• Paradigm Wars
  
  
• Yanomamo
  
  
• Changes in the Land
  
  I could probably think of some more decent ones but it's not a bad list to start with.

Not specific to reproductive health, but a good starting point to medical anthropology I always thought was Health, Illness, and the Social Body.

http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Dawn-Stray-Modern-Relationships/dp/0061707813/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409603719&sr=1-1&keywords=sex+at+dawn

Not sure why I put so much time into this. Mainly because I studied this subject for a bit and knew of a few good books/reads/watches. Figured I'd be a good guy and donate some time to this topic, hopefully reddit gains from it. Some of the book ratings are rather low, but that is mainly because the people who review this stuff on Amazon have no idea wtf they are talking about. There are movies down at the end, but eh, I recommend the readings beyond the movies, but the movies are fucking great as well:

Homeward Bound: American Families In The Cold War Era, Elaine Tyler May:
http://www.amazon.com/Homeward-Bound-American-Families-Cold/dp/0465030556

A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, Lizabeth Cohen:
http://www.amazon.com/Consumers-Republic-Politics-Consumption-Postwar/dp/0375707379/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324631708&sr=1-1

A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954: Michael J. Hogan:
http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Iron-National-Security-1945-1954/dp/0521795370/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324631733&sr=1-8

Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War, Penny M. Von Eschen:
http://www.amazon.com/Satchmo-Blows-Up-World-Ambassadors/dp/0674015010

Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents, Ellen Schrecker:
http://www.amazon.com/Age-McCarthyism-Brief-History-Documents/dp/0312393199/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324632473&sr=1-1

"Here, There and Everywhere": The Foreign Politics of American Popular Culture, Reinhold Wagnietner:
http://www.amazon.com/Here-There-Everywhere-Politics-American/dp/1584650354

By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, Paul Boyer:
http://www.amazon.com/Bombs-Early-Light-American-Thought/dp/0807844802

God's Country: America in the 50's, Ronald Oakley:
http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Country-Ronald-J-Oakley/dp/0942637240

Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, Brandford Wright:
http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Book-Nation-Transformation-Culture/dp/0801874505

The Liberal Mind in a Conservative Age: American Intellectuals in the 1940s and 1950s, Richard Pells: http://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Mind-Conservative-Age-Intellectuals/dp/0819562254

The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974, Arthur Marwick:
http://www.amazon.com/Sixties-Cultural-Revolution-Britain-c-1958-c-1974/dp/019210022X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324633925&sr=8-1

The Ugly American, Burdick: http://www.amazon.com/Ugly-American-Eugene-Burdick/dp/0393318672

1968: The World Transformed, Carole Fink: http://www.amazon.com/1968-Transformed-Publications-Historical-Institute/dp/0521646375

The Origins of the Cold War, McMahon: http://edu.cengage.co.uk/catalogue/product.aspx?isbn=0395904307

Rebel Without a Cause: Beth Bailey: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22800810/Rebel-Without-a-Cause

The Cultural Revolution of the Long Sixties: Voices of Reaction, Protest, and Permeation
Arthur Marwick: http://www.jstor.org/pss/40109676

Coca-Cola and the Cold War: The French Face Americanization, 1948-1953, Richard F. Kuisel: http://www.jstor.org/stable/286280

The One Dimensional Man: Herbert Marcuse http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/64onedim/odmcontents.html

I've read so many good articles from JSTOR, but as a non-student you'll have to pay for them, just as you'd have to pay for the books above. But yea JSTOR is rich in Cold War studies. I would say first check out the books there.

Unrelated but creates a good mindset for the cold war:

Rise of the Rich, Peter Gran, http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Rich-Modern-World-History/dp/0815631715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324635338&sr=8-1

A few movies besides Atomic Cafe and Stangelove:

The Wild One,
Rebels without a Cause,
One Two Three,
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit (Mad Men fans will love this one),
On the Beach (1959, fuck the remake: ps read the book)

oh...and...
Mad Men

Enjoy