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News & Announcements
In the 1980s, a research team led by Parisian scientists identified several unique DNA sequences, or haplotypes, linked to sickle cell anemia in African populations. After casual observations of how patients managed this painful blood disorder, the researchers in question postulated that the Senegalese type was less severe. The Enculturated Gene traces how this genetic discourse has blotted from view the roles that Senegalese patients and doctors have played in making sickle cell "mild" in a social setting where public health priorities and economic austerity programs have forced people to improvise informal strategies of care.
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The Wisdom of William James
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William James, an American philosopher who died more than a hundred years ago, still matters. In fact, a keynote speaker (Professor Arthur Kleinman) said, he is just what the doctor ordered.
Read the full story in the Gazette
Watch the Video
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The Future of Archaeology
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Peter Der Manuelian was a fourth-grader in suburban Boston when he became fascinated by an ancient Egyptian artifact. “It was the first time a subject grabbed me,” said Manuelian ’81, who is Harvard’s first Egyptologist since 1942.
Read the full story in the Gazette
Anh-Thu T. Ngo (PhD candidate) has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship to Vietnam in Anthropology.
fulbright.state.gov
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Student Spotlight
Bridget Alex
PhD Candidate,
Archaeology Program
balex [at] fas.harvard.edu
"My research focuses on the chronology of the Middle to Upper
Paleolithic Transition in the Balkans. I am testing models of the nature and timing of Neanderthal-modern human interactions against improved and updated radiocarbon dates. The Balkans is a key, but understudied region for understanding Neanderthal extinctions and modern human dispersals. The closest fossils in time and space of each species are found here. Moreoever, the region appears to have been a continuously temperate gateway from the Near East, while much of Europe experienced extreme glacial climate oscillations. Understanding this biological and cultural transition rests on an accurate chronology of the spread and retreat of human groups based on well understood stratigraphy and carefully selected, archaeological meaningful radiocarbon specimens."
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Events
Archaeology Program Seminar Series
"Archaeological Explanation and the Revolving Door of History and Function" a talk by
James J. Truncer on
Wednesday, January 25th 2012 in the
Putnam Lab, Peabody Museum at
12:00 p.m.
The Department of Anthropology and the Committee of Degrees in Social Studies Lecture Series
"Brokerage as Craft: Mediating Labor and Legality in Migrant Moscow" a talk by
Madeline Reeves on Monday, January 30th 2012 in William James Hall 105 at
4:15 p.m.
Sensory Ethnography
Image/Sound/Culture
Screening of 2011 Student Videos on Thursday February 2, 2012 at 7pm in the Main Lecture Hall, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts. Free Admission.
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Faculty Spotlight
Nicholas Harkness
Assistant Professor, Social Anthropology Program
harkness [at] fas.harvard.edu | website
Nicholas Harkness received his PhD from the University of Chicago,
specializing in the semiotic anthropology of communication. His
dissertation, “The Voices of Seoul: Sound, Body, and Christianity in
South Korea,” was an ethnographic study of singing and the aesthetics
of progress among Korean Evangelical Christians. He also has written
on language and religion, paralinguistics and affect, performance and
ritual, and the role of language structure in social differentiation.
His research on the human voice in culture has led him to a more
general interest in the anthropology of qualitative experience, and he
currently is co-editing a special journal issue on this topic. Future
research topics include intimacy and status in urban South Korea, and
Korean linguistic “sound symbolism” as a semiotic window into social
and material change.
Research Interests
Language and communication; Semiotics; The human voice; Body and embodiment; Qualitative experience;
Performance and ritual; Emotion and expression; Music; Christianity; South Korea.
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