2015-05-31

photo story, Death and Dying; remembering those now dead

This set of images from book 3 in the Memento Mori project shows how it can be surprising to see customs that connect people with their departed; surprising from a distance, but maybe less so when involved in that time and that place and in those relationships.

In the online introduction to the book, the author reflects on possible reasons why death has come to be segregated or estranged from most people's daily life; for example, the establishment of germ theory and association of corpse with contagion in some situations. There is also the marketing pressure for what is new, what is current, what is coming next rather than what has come before, with history and on a personal scale, with death.

2015-05-28

shaping skulls by infant wrappings

Illustrated article of the practices in various times and places of shaping skulls into oblong proportions, http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/head-space-artificial-cranial-deformation

2015-05-17

language localism in USA

from the weekly digest of "most emailed stories" at National Public Radio, npr.org

Look for the sample words given for each state, below, to see if you recognize any of them still alive today. 

2015-05-14

writing for public, general audiences

Anthropology can be bracing stuff, but too often it is read or viewed only be its own denizens.
This blog essay on the methods of New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell points the way to balancing data and drama; (excerpt)

when I use Gladwell with my students, it's as a reminder of the relationship between narrative and argument. Err too much on the side of narrative and you'll weave a captivating tale that might not hold together at the end. However, if you just pile on evidence
without providing a narrative through line, your reader can miss the bigger, brilliant point you are trying to make.

2015-05-03

visual culture of Type Font

Among the digest of "most emailed stories" at National Public Radio during the final week of April 2015,