PopAnth | Hot Buttered Humanity | Popular Anthropology

Popular anthropology for everyone. Exploring the familiar and the strange, demystifying and myth busting human culture, biology and behaviour in all times and places. Myths, music, art, archaeology, language, food, festivals, fun.

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- Urban Porto, Portugal - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Silence in Port au Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Relief text in La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Marx and Lenin in Saigon - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Market in Port au Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Market in Pedernales, Dominican Republic - Copyright © Gawain Lynch
- Love potions in Marche en Fer, Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Graffiti in Portugal - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Fuck the System in Portugal - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Election campaign in Pedernales, Dominican Republic - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Drying Fish in Anse-à-Pitres, Haiti - Copyright © Gawain Lynch
- Camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Beach in Pedernales, Dominican Republic - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Street art in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Xochimilco, Mexico - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Tsavo, Kenya - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Rodeo in Chinchilla, Queensland - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Real de Catorce, Mexico - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Mexico City Distrito Federal, Mexico - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Masai Mara, Kenya - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Ibra Souq, Oman - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Hmong children in the mountains of North Vietnam - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Clyde Park, Montana, USA - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Bullfight in Oman - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Bac Ha Market, Vietnam - Copyright © Lance Richardson

One ring to rule them all? By 1791Rings (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

An anthropologist’s guide to choosing an engagement ring

by Erin B Taylor

You might be surprised to realise how much your engagement ring actually conveys: it’s far more than a signal of love and a promise to get married sometime down the track.

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James Bond playing James Bond? Skyfall reflects upon its own past.

An archaeology of Skyfall

by Dawid Kobialka

The ancient world left us mummies and pottery. Are James Bond films part of the cultural legacy we leave for future generations?

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Debt: The First 5,000 Years, by David Graeber

by Erin B Taylor

Do we really have a moral obligation to pay our debts? According to anthropologist David Graeber, the answer to this question is a resounding ‘no.’

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Thinking in radioactive time

by Luke Bennett

A problem with designing nuclear waste repositories is that they are meant to last for up to 100,000 years – far longer than we can imagine. Do our efforts to conceptualize “deep time” find us out of our depths?

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Kimigayo, the national anthem of Japan. By Sakurambo, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

The curious history of Western martial music in Japan

by John McCreery

Japan is known for its distinctive culture, but its national anthem and many other popular songs have roots in Europe. How did music make its way to Japan – and stick?

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“Oota aitha?” Eating culture in South India

by Gillian Bowan

Had your lunch? Why eating is such a serious matter in Bangalore – and how you can learn to navigate India through food.

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Graffiti Art at Dinorwig Slate Quarry by Jack Murray (Used with kind permission)

No rock art here!

by Luke Bennett

Rock paintings: high art or 30,000-year-old graffiti? In a defunct rock quarry, climbers vie with spraycan-wielding artists for the right to public expression.

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But are your soles Vibram? Consumerism among backpackers in South America

by David Thompson

Consumerism among anti-consumerist backpackers in South America.

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Sampling Mongolia’s Soviet past

by Lauren Knapp

As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, and youth throughout the Soviet states were demanding to join their Western counterparts, Mongolians picked up their own hand-made guitars and used rock music to call for a free society.

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Supersigns

by Susan D Blum

I have been thinking a lot lately about money and grades. Not for the reasons you may think: that I want more and better of both (or to “give” tough grades). But because they share interesting qualities.

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Too much rope? Photo by Flickr user Traveller_40

Pulling for the neighbourhood

by John McCreery

When isn’t cooperating a cultural option? Tugs-of-war in Japan.

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Shopping for the human connection?

by Ioulia Fenton

On a short morning walk, I was indulging in the experience of what makes us human: contact and relationships with other human beings. Consumption, often viewed as impersonal, builds relationships by bringing people together.

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