78 posts · 53,170 views
The study of human life can happen anywhere. You don't need to travel to remote villages—there are opportunities for anthropological observation available all around us, all the time. My goal is to apply ethnography and anthropological theory to daily events, and to demonstrate that we are as exotic as any Other.
Krystal D'Costa
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- January 29, 2012
- 10:34 PM
- 66 views
There’s More to That Red Plastic Cup Than You Thought
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Who here has not enjoyed a cold, refreshing drink from a red plastic cup? Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages alike find themselves comfortably enclosed within the confines of the bright red vessel that has become a ubiquitous American staple at barbecues, picnics, parties, in dugouts and at minor league games, in food cars and at lunch [...]
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Bunimovitz, S., & Greenberg, R. (2004) Revealed in Their Cups: Syrian Drinking Customs in Intermediate Bronze Age Canaan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 19. DOI: 10.2307/4150104
Donner, W. (1994) Alcohol, Community, and Modernity: The Social Organization of Toddy Drinking in a Polynesian Society. Ethnology, 33(3), 245. DOI: 10.2307/3774009
Magennis, H. (1985) The Cup as Symbol and Metaphor in Old English Literature. Speculum, 60(3), 517. DOI: 10.2307/2848173
McAllister, P. (2003) Culture, Practice, and the Semantics of Xhosa Beer-Drinking. Ethnology, 42(3), 187. DOI: 10.2307/3773800
- January 27, 2012
- 09:19 AM
- 24 views
Mourning Digitally
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed Note: Another flashback from the archives of AiP this Friday, though a sombre one at that. It’s rainy and dreary here in New York City, and my thoughts are a bit dark today. How are social technologies changing the experience of death for those charged with remembering? Death has been referred to as the [...]
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Aggarwal, R. (2001) At the Margins of Death: Ritual Space and the Politics of Location in an Indo-Himalayan Border Village. American Ethnologist, 28(3), 549-573. DOI: 10.1525/ae.2001.28.3.549
Dernbach, Katherine Boris. (2005) Spirits of the Hereafter: Death, Funerary Possession, and the Afterlife in Chuuk, Micronesia. Ethnology, 44(2), 99-123. info:/
- January 20, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 113 views
The Animal Connection: Why Do We Keep Pets?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed. Note: Another favorite this Friday about those furry members of our family—no, not your Grandpa Ed, but your pet. This post was selected as an Editor’s Selection on ResearchBlogging.org. It has been slightly modified from it’s original posting. I’ll never forget the day S brought home a live chicken. When we lived in Queens, [...]
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Shipman, P. (2010) The Animal Connection and Human Evolution. Current Anthropology, 51(4), 519-538. DOI: 10.1086/653816
- January 16, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 61 views
What Are the Costs of Lending a Helping Hand?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
I boarded my commuter train with all of five minutes to spare, so I knew my prospects for getting a seat were slim. That didn’t bother me too much since the vestibule was mostly empty—there was a man standing at the other door silently rocking out to whatever was playing on his headphones, so I [...]
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Bartal, I., Decety, J., & Mason, P. (2011) Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats. Science, 334(6061), 1427-1430. DOI: 10.1126/science.1210789
de Waal, F. (2007) With a Little Help from a Friend. PLoS Biology, 5(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050190
Shapiro, E. (1980) Is Seeking Help from a Friend Like Seeking Help from a Stranger?. Social Psychology Quarterly, 43(2), 259. DOI: 10.2307/3033629
Schwartz, S., & David, A. (1976) Responsibility and Helping in an Emergency: Effects of Blame, Ability and Denial of Responsibility. Sociometry, 39(4), 406. DOI: 10.2307/3033505
Stevens, J. (2004) The selfish nature of generosity: harassment and food sharing in primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271(1538), 451-456. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2625
Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2003) The nature of human altruism. Nature, 425(6960), 785-791. DOI: 10.1038/nature02043
Horner, V., Carter, J., Suchak, M., & de Waal, F. (2011) Spontaneous prosocial choice by chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(33), 13847-13851. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1111088108
- January 13, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 65 views
From the Archives: Power, Confidence, and High Heels
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed. Note: During 2012, I thought I would use Fridays to share some of my favorite AiP posts from the archives—and this one definitely tops the list. It was selected as a Research Blogging Editor’s Selection. And I hope you’ll enjoy it too. Cinderella got the prince and Dorothy was envied. Why? They well shod. [...]
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E.O. Smith. (1999) High Heels and Evolution: Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, and High Heels. Psychology, Evolution, and Gender, 1(3), 245-277. info:/
- January 6, 2012
- 08:00 AM
- 143 views
Questioning Permanence: Would You Get a QR Code Tattoo?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Are you inked? I’m not, though I’ve thought about it seriously and have a pretty good idea of what I would get and where I would put it—if I could work up the nerve to get in the chair. I’ll tell you one thing: It most certainly is not a QR code like Fred Bosch, who [...]
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Caplan, J. (1997) 'Speaking Scars': The Tattoo in Popular Practice and Medico-Legal Debate in Nineteenth-Century Europe. History Workshop Journal: HWJ, 107-42. PMID: 11619699
Dye, I. (1989) The tattoos of Early American Seafarers, 1796-1818. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 133(4), 520-554. info:/
Irwin, K. (2001) Legitimating the First Tattoo: Moral Passage through Informal Interaction. Symbolic Interaction, 24(1), 49-73. DOI: 10.1525/si.2001.24.1.49
Schildkrout, E. (2004) Inscribing the Body. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33(1), 319-344. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143947
- January 3, 2012
- 12:43 PM
- 139 views
The Barry White Syndome: Why Are Deep Voices Attractive?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Darth Vader had one thing going for him: a deep voice. The ranks of George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood, Don LaFontaine, and Barry White includes a common factor: A lower pitched voice—considered a positive masculine feature associated with with older, heavier, taller, hairier, and more attractive men (1). Studies have demonstrated a female preference [...]
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Collins SA. (2000) Men's voices and women's choices. Animal Behaviour, 60(6), 773-780. PMID: 11124875
Feinberg, D., Jones, B., Little, A., Burt, D., & Perrett, D. (2005) Manipulations of fundamental and formant frequencies influence the attractiveness of human male voices. Animal Behaviour, 69(3), 561-568. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.06.012
Simmons, Leigh, Peters, Marianne, & Rhodes, Gillian. (2011) Low Pitched Voices are Perceived as Masculine and Attractive but Do They Predict Semen Quality in Men?. PLoS One, 6(12), 1-6. info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0029271
- December 21, 2011
- 11:04 PM
- 222 views
Why Do We Say “I’m Not Sick” When We’re Really Sick?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
It’s everyone’s favorite time of year: cold and flu season! I dutifully got my flu shot in October, so when my throat started to tickle a few weeks ago, I dismissed it as a passing bug. Bad idea: It turned into an epic cold that nearly shut me down. (I may have also shared this [...]
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Segall, A. (1976) The Sick Role Concept: Understanding Illness Behavior. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 17(2), 162. DOI: 10.2307/2136342
Vuckovic N. (1999) Fast relief: buying time with medications. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 13(1), 51-68. PMID: 10322601
Wolinsky, F., & Wolinsky, S. (1981) Expecting Sick-Role Legitimation and Getting It. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22(3), 229. DOI: 10.2307/2136518
- December 19, 2011
- 10:22 AM
- 156 views
Marbles Lost, Marbles Found: Children’s Games and Consequences
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
I used to be a crack shot at pitch (marbles) as a kid. I learned from my dad. We’d draw a circle with a piece of chalk, and “pitch” our taws at each other’s pieces, which is how the game gets its name in Trinidad. Our goal was to knock each other’s pieces out of [...]
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Randall, Mark. (1971) Early Marbles. Historical Archaeology, 102-105. info:/
- November 28, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 226 views
Oracles Past and Present: Our Means of Managing Information
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Our ability to find and share information today is potentially limitless. But how did we get here? From cave paintings to the iPad—how does human innovation bring us here? Go Ask the Oracle We live in an amazing time: We never have to wait to know. At this very moment you could be on a [...]
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Arbib MA, Liebal K, & Pika S. (2008) Primate vocalization, gesture, and the evolution of human language. Current anthropology, 49(6), 1053. PMID: 19391445
Hargittai, E. (2002) Second-level digital divide: Differences in people’s online skills'. First Monday, Peer-Reviewed Journal of the Internet., 7(4). info:/
Jung, J. (2008) Internet Connectedness and its Social Origins: An Ecological Approach to Postaccess Digital Divides. Communication Studies, 59(4), 322-339. DOI: 10.1080/10510970802467387
MacLarnon, A., & Hewitt, G. (1999) The evolution of human speech: The role of enhanced breathing control. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 109(3), 341-363. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199907)109:33.0.CO;2-2
- November 7, 2011
- 07:00 AM
- 144 views
Can Smart Phones Help Create Smarter Science?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Can smart phones change the way we do research? Cognitive scientists believe that they may provide a vital means of widening the participant pool, as discussed in a recent September PLoS paper that explores the intersection of technology and behavioral experiments. The potential application of Internet-based research to extend laboratory exercises to wider audiences has [...]
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Dufau S, Duñabeitia JA, Moret-Tatay C, McGonigal A, Peeters D, Alario FX, Balota DA, Brysbaert M, Carreiras M, Ferrand L.... (2011) Smart phone, smart science: how the use of smartphones can revolutionize research in cognitive science. PloS one, 6(9). PMID: 21980370
- October 31, 2011
- 10:58 PM
- 355 views
Why Are We Afraid of Clowns?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed. Note: What better way to round out Halloween than by considering why it is that clowns can strike fear into our hearts when they’re supposed to be harmless? Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns. And I’ll admit that they make me nervous. I’m not totally crazy about hanging out with folks who think wearing [...]
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Alford, F., & Alford, R. (1981) A Holo-Cultural Study of Humor. Ethos, 9(2), 149-164. DOI: 10.1525/eth.1981.9.2.02a00030
Honigmann, J. (1977) The Masked Face. Ethos, 5(3), 263-280. DOI: 10.1525/eth.1977.5.3.02a00020
Levi-Strauss, Claude. (1961) The Many Faces of Man. World Theatre, 3-61. info:/
- October 27, 2011
- 05:53 PM
- 263 views
Anatomy of a Superstition: When Your Eye “Jumps”
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed Note: Our foray into the spooky and superstitious continues with this look at a popular West Indian belief. This post originally appeared on AiP on October 25, 2010—and it was selected as a ResearchBlogging Editor’s Selection! Trinidadians have a rich collection of superstitions, many of which found their way to the island via colonialism. These [...]
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Kowal L, Davies R, & Kiely PM. (1998) Facial muscle spasms: an Australian study. Australian and New Zealand journal of ophthalmology, 26(2), 123-8. PMID: 9630292
- October 26, 2011
- 03:00 PM
- 190 views
The American Fascination With Zombies
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed note: As Halloween rapidly approaches in the US, AiP will be exploring superstitions, beliefs, and the things that go bump in the night. This post originally appeared on AiP on May 17th, 2011, in response to Zombie Awareness Month—oh, it’s real all right. It’s been slightly modified for this posting. I think I must [...]
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Ackermann, H., & Gauthier, J. (1991) The Ways and Nature of the Zombi. The Journal of American Folklore, 104(414), 466. DOI: 10.2307/541551
Bishop, K. (2006) Raising the Dead. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 33(4), 196-205. DOI: 10.3200/JPFT.33.4.196-205
Bishop, K. (2008) The Sub-Subaltern Monster: Imperialist Hegemony and the Cinematic Voodoo Zombie. The Journal of American Culture, 31(2), 141-152. DOI: 10.1111/j.1542-734X.2008.00668.x
Shaviro, S. (2002) Capitalist Monsters. Historical Materialism, 10(4), 281-290. DOI: 10.1163/15692060260474486
- October 26, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 258 views
What Makes a Rabbit’s Foot Lucky?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Ed note: As Halloween rapidly approaches in the US, AiP will be exploring superstitions, beliefs, and the things that go bump in the night. [Evil laugh.] At some point, most of us have likely had a token that we believed would protect us or bring us luck. It could have been a baseball cap, a [...]
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Bill Ellis. (2002) Why Is a Lucky Rabbit's Foot Lucky? Body Parts as Fetishes. Journal of Folklore Research, 39(1), 51-84. info:/
- October 10, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 235 views
Cooperation Is Child’s Play
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Cooperation confounds us: Humans are the only members of the animal kingdom to display this tendency to the extent that we do, and it’s an expensive endeavor with no guarantee of reciprocal rewards. While we continue to look for answers about how and why cooperation may have emerged in human social and cultural evolution, we [...]
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Schmidt, M., & Sommerville, J. (2011) Fairness Expectations and Altruistic Sharing in 15-Month-Old Human Infants. PLoS ONE, 6(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023223
- October 3, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 332 views
Tracing the Trickle-down in Roman Recycling
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Citizens of the Ancient World seem to have made a solid go at “going green.” Ongoing research by Harriet Foster and Caroline Jackson (2010) revealed hints of color deriving from previously blown glass in colorless glass, indicating that Romans often reused glass, adding batches of broken vessels into the raw material from which they fashioned [...]
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Foster, Harriet and Caroline Jackson. (2010) The Composition of Late Romano-British Colourless Vessel Glass: Glass Production and Consumption. Journal of Archaeological Science, 3068-3080. info:/10.1016/j.j.as.2010.07.007
Stern, E. (1999) Roman Glassblowing in a Cultural Context. American Journal of Archaeology, 103(3), 441. DOI: 10.2307/506970
- September 27, 2011
- 03:34 PM
- 227 views
The Ways We Talk About Pain
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Excerpts from the Personal Journal of Krystal D’Costa [i] Tuesday: I fell. Again. This time it was while getting out of the car. I’m not sure how I managed it. I got my foot caught on the door jamb and tumbled forward. I hit my shin—hard—against the door jamb and I think I tweaked my [...]
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Brown JE,, Chatterjee N,, Younger J,, & Mackey S. (2011) Towards a physiology-based measure of pain: patterns of human brain activity distinguish painful from non-painful thermal stimulation. PLoS one, 6(9). PMID: 21931652
Pia Haudrup Christensen. (1999) "It Hurts": Children's Cultural Learning About Everyday Illness. Stichting Ethnofoor, 12(1), 39-52. info:/
- September 7, 2011
- 12:13 PM
- 426 views
Whose Name Is It Anyway?
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would [...]
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Goldin, C., & Shim, M. (2004) Making a Name: Women's Surnames at Marriage and Beyond. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(2), 143-160. DOI: 10.1257/0895330041371268
Noordewier, M., Horen, F., Ruys, K., & Stapel, D. (2010) What's in a Name? 361.708 Euros: The Effects of Marital Name Change. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 32(1), 17-25. DOI: 10.1080/01973530903539812
- August 15, 2011
- 12:13 AM
- 353 views
Scent of a Woman
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
At seventeen I discovered the perfume that would become my signature scent. It’s a warm, rich, inviting fragrance[i] that reminds me (and hopefully others) of a rose garden in full bloom. Despite this fullness, it’s light enough to wear all day and it’s been in the background of many of my life experiences. It announces [...]
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Brun, J. (2000) The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum. American Journal of Archaeology, 104(2), 277. DOI: 10.2307/507452
Fortineau, A. (2004) Chemistry Perfumes Your Daily Life. Journal of Chemical Education, 81(1), 45. DOI: 10.1021/ed081p45
Holland, R., Hendriks, M., & Aarts, H. (2005) Smells Like Clean Spirit: Nonconscious Effects of Scent on Cognition and Behavior. Psychological Science, 16(9), 689-693. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01597.x
Stott, A. (1992) Floral Femininity: A Pictorial Definition. American Art, 6(2), 60. DOI: 10.1086/424151
Warrenburg, S. (2005) Effects of Fragrance on Emotions: Moods and Physiology. Chemical Senses, 30(Supplement 1). DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjh208
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