Anthropology

Latest Articles

Review: Secrets Of The Tribe

Their secrets are indeed disturbing
The tribe of the title, as José Padilha’s deft and outrageous documentary makes clear, are not the Stone Age Yanomami people of the Amazon but the anthropologists themselves.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 15, 2010

Secret Harbor

The real-life version of Scorsese's Shutter Island imports hundreds of homeless from the South End every evening; they’re among the few allowed on Boston Harbor’s isle of mystery.
A home for the criminally insane it might not be, but the real-life Shutter Island is, like the one in the new Martin Scorsese film that hits theaters this week, a spooky and controversial land mass in Boston Harbor that is indeed off-limits to the public.
By CHRISTOPHER KLEIN | February 17, 2010

Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968

Rhino (2009)
More than three years in the making, the most recent installment of Rhino's legendary archival garage-rock series offers an amazingly comprehensive excavation of an absurdly fertile scene.
By MIKE MILIARD | December 16, 2009

Bigfoot coming to Congress Street

Venue Watch
Mainer Loren Coleman loves sharing his wealth -- the treasures collected during a 50-year career in the field of cryptozoology, which is the study of mysterious creatures (think Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, and the chupacabra).
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 23, 2009

Interview: Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall on her new book, North Korea, and Bible-thumping conservatives
If only there were more trees to be torn down, we could utilize them . . . to fill newspapers with the endless depressing stories out there about the environment and all its hapless inhabitants.
By LANCE GOULD | September 23, 2009

The scene is now

What we can learn about Boston from the local winners
As newspapers cede arbiter status to random bloggers with Fios and afternoons off, the function of polls like our humble offering must change out of necessity. What once was a forecast is now more like a diagnostic — it's anthropology versus tastemakery.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | July 30, 2009

Men plus money equals mess

The financial crisis is a man-made problem. And it might not have occurred if we had listened to women.
Since Iceland is something of the epicenter of the global financial crisis — its government being the first to essentially go belly up — it's probably not surprising that the Icelanders have come up with the most novel and interesting theory as to what caused the meltdown. And they may be right.
By STEVEN STARK | May 14, 2009

Slideshow: 'Dark Arts' at MassArt

Dark Arts Lecture Series at MassArt's Pozen Center , April 24, 2009
American Memory Project, Coyotel Press, and A Year At the Wheel at Mass Art's Pozen Center
By BOSTON PHOENIX STAFF | April 30, 2009

91. George W. Bush

BRAIN-DEAD PREZ
What, did you think we were done ripping the Neanderthal who set the country back five decades in just eight years, just because he’s out of office? Well, we want to be the first to mock all of those involved in building a library commemorating America’s first illiterate president. We’d also like to recommend the first book for inclusion in the project: The Pet Goat .
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009

Epochalypse soon

The end is nigh! Or not.
The end times do indeed commence on December 21, 2012. On that date, this fragile blue orb of ours will suddenly cease to be a very fun place to live.
By MIKE MILIARD | March 25, 2009

Culture wars

The Army's controversial anthropology program
American anthropologist Paula Loyd was in Afghanistan, discussing living costs with a local man when suddenly he doused her with fuel from a jug he was carrying and set her on fire.
By PETER PIATETSKY | March 16, 2009

Understanding the stink factor

Eat raw
What is that smell?
By CHRISTY MCKINNON | December 17, 2008

Fly Me to the Moon

Doesn't muster much buzz
First chimps and now bugs get to go into orbit — that’s right, the title of this film refers to the common housefly.
By TOM MEEK | August 13, 2008

“Cryptic Providence” digs deep

Everlasting
It’s one thing to have performances on a stage and art works in a gallery, and another to accomplish what “Cryptic Providence” will do.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | June 11, 2008

Going ape

Animal Planet’s Escape to Chimp Eden
The truth is the truth, and we hacks must face up to it: it is no longer amusing to come up with ideas for hypothetical reality shows.
By JAMES PARKER | May 12, 2008

Animal house

Sara Gruen’s fictional menagerie
Each of Sara Gruen’s first three novels have had animal characters who were crucial to the book, but Water for Elephants has made the biggest splash.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | April 30, 2008

Film on the fringe

Jewishfilm.2008 explores the frontiers
Virtually every major city in this country hosts at least one “Jewish Film Festival” each year (even Baton Rouge and Dayton).
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | March 25, 2008

Permanent

Body modification as art at the Peabody Essex Museum
As Massachusetts’s puritanical Blue Laws started to fade in the late 1990s, the kids on Comm Ave rejoiced.
By SALLY CRAGIN | February 20, 2008

Guest lists 2007

Phoenix and WFNX staffers submit their ten best albums of the year
Phoenix and WFNX staffers submit their ten best albums of the year
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 21, 2007

Whitewash

Can a striking exhibit at Harvard really make us see ancient Greek and Roman sculpture — and the roots of racism — as we never have before?
“Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture in Classical Antiquity” presents striking evidence that the white marbles were once painted in bold Technicolor.
By GREG COOK | December 09, 2007

The landmark Herodotus: The Histories edited by Robert B. Strassler, translated by Andrea L. Purvis

Pantheon | 1024 pages | $45
What do the late Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski and the fictional archeologist Count László de Almásy (played by Ralph Fiennes in the cinematic adaptation of The English Patient ) have in common?
By PETER KADZIS | December 03, 2007

Boston music news: November 2, 2007

Notes on Mieka Pauley, Ron Pownall, and Deborah Henson-Conant
Somerville-based singer-songwriter Mieka Pauley may have a degree in biological anthropology from Harvard, but right now music is her primary focus.
By JIM SULLIVAN | October 30, 2007

Sustainable sounds

Providence label Secret Eye thinks globally, acts locally
For every high-gloss record label driven primarily by commercial concerns, there are any number of smaller-scale labels putting beautiful sounds out into the ether.
By ANDREA FELDMAN | July 10, 2007

The 100 unsexiest men 2007: 90-81

These guys couldn't turn on a radio
These guys couldn't turn on a radio
By | April 12, 2007

Worst in breed: Television

The 100 Unsexiest men of 2007
Who are the unsexiest TV men of 2007?
By PHOENIX STAFF | April 12, 2007

The Mauss that roared

Meet the man who could put Boston’s comedy scene back on the map
A month ago, Boston comedian Shane Mauss could barely get local comedy clubs to return his calls.
By SEAN L. MCCARTHY | March 30, 2007

Mapping the mind

Deborah Aschheim’s deep cartography
Consider the countless processes your body is performing in order for you to read these words.
By IAN PAIGE | February 14, 2007

Having more fun

Lucinda Williams goes West
By the time Car Wheels on a Gravel Road came out, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, and Tom Petty had all recorded Williams’s songs.
By MATT ASHARE | February 13, 2007

Changing concentrations

As the world shrinks, schools expand their majors and programs
Thomas Friedman from the New York Times writes that “the world is flat.” Are you too old for school?: Even at age 30, your brain is different from the average student’s. By Samantha Henig
By SEETHA NARAYAN | January 24, 2007

Lawless runs insurgent campaign against Langevin

Talking politics
Jennifer Lawless’s storefront campaign office in Warwick’s Conimicut section is bedecked with inspirational aphorisms from the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Henry Ford, Casey Stengel, Dr. Seuss, and Margaret Mead.
By IAN DONNIS | July 26, 2006