The Superorganic by Alfred Kroeber, edited and with an introduction by Alex Golub

In this occasional paper I present an edited version of “The Superorganic”. The original essay is around 19,000 words. I have cut it down to just under 8,000. The argument has been preserved in its entirety, including Kroeber’s discussion of historical figures such as Gustave Le Bon, because I believe his criticism of their thought is relevant in a world where their intellectual heirs are still active. In a few cases I have altered verbs and nouns for agreement when deleting text caused them to disagree. These are indicated with brackets. The goal has been to respect Kroeber’s argument and stylistic choices while presenting a slimmed-down version which can be taught in a single session in an undergraduate or graduate theory course

Lexical evolution rates by automated stability measure

Phylogenetic trees can be reconstructed from the matrix which contains the distances between all pairs of languages in a family. Recently, we proposed a new method which uses normalized Levenshtein distances among words with same meaning and averages on all the items of a given list. Decisions about the number of items in the input lists for language comparison have been debated since the beginning of glottochronology. The point is that words associated to some of the meanings have a rapid lexical evolution. Therefore, a large vocabulary comparison is only apparently more accurate then a smaller one since many of the words do not carry any useful information. In principle, one should find the optimal length of the input lists studying the stability of the different items. In this paper we tackle the problem with an automated methodology only based on our normalized Levenshtein distance. With this approach, the program of an automated reconstruction of languages relationships is completed

From boundary-work to boundary object: how biology left and re-entered the social sciences

In an archaeological spirit this paper comes back to a founding event in the construction of the twentieth-century episteme, the moment at which the life- and the social sciences parted ways and intense boundary-work was carried out on the biology/society border, with significant benefits for both sides. Galton and Weismann for biology, and Alfred Kroeber for anthropology delimit this founding moment and I argue, expanding on an existing body of historical scholarship, for an implicit convergence of their views. After this excavation, I look at recent developments in the life sciences, which I have named the ‘social turn’ in biology (Meloni, 2014), and in particular at epigenetics with its promise to destabilize the social/biological border. I claim here that today a different account of ‘the biological’ to that established during the Galton–Kroeber period is emerging. Rather than being used to support a form of boundary-work, biology has become a boundary object that crosses previously erected barriers, allowing different research communities to draw from it

Physical Culture

Johnston and Klandermans (p. 3) reflect that “culture is a broad and often imprecise term but, as others have noted, at the same time intuitively apparent”. This combination of conceptual imprecision and lived intuitiveness is partly what gives rise to ambiguity around the very notion of culture—we all know it is there and somehow important, but we also often struggle to articulate precisely what the term means. Such ambiguity is also at least as prevalent when dealing with the idea of physical culture, which is an often-used term to describe a phenomenon of sociological, anthropological, historical, and philosophical interest. Across these diverse bodies of literature, ambiguity is sustained in part because of dual usage of the term physical culture in both academic and popular literature. While both are relevant, they carry important nuances in meaning and indicate a different aspect of focus, depending on the reading of the word culture. In what follows, I expand a little on these nuances

Impact of culture towards disaster risk reduction

Number of natural disasters has risen sharply worldwide making the risk of disasters a global concern. These disasters have created significant losses and damages to humans, economy and society. Despite the losses and damages created by disasters, some individuals and communities do not attached much significance to natural disasters. Risk perception towards a disaster not only depends on the danger it could create but also the behaviour of the communities and individuals that is governed by their culture. Within this context, this study examines the relationship between culture and disaster risk reduction (DRR). A comprehensive literature review is used for the study to evaluate culture, its components and to analyse a series of case studies related to disaster risk. It was evident from the study that in some situations, culture has become a factor for the survival of the communities from disasters where as in some situations culture has acted as a barrier for effective DRR activities. The study suggests community based DRR activities as a mechanism to integrate with culture to effectively manage disaster risk

Kinship Past, Kinship Present: Bio-Essentialism in the Study of Kinship

In this article, I reconsider bio-essentialism in the study of kinship, centering on David Schneider’s influential critique that concluded that kinship was “a non-subject” (1972:51). Schneider’s critique is often taken to have shown the limitations of and problems with past views of kinship based on biology, genealogy, and reproduction, a critique that subsequently led those reworking kinship as relatedness in the new kinship studies to view their enterprise as divorced from such bio-essentialist studies. Beginning with an alternative narrative connecting kinship past and present and concluding by introducing a novel way of thinking about kinship, I have three constituent aims in this research article: (1) to reconceptualize the relationship between kinship past and kinship present; (2) to reevaluate Schneider’s critique of bio-essentialism and what this implies for the contemporary study of kinship; and (3) subsequently to redirect theoretical discussion of what kinship is. This concluding discussion introduces a general view, the homeostatic property cluster (HPC) view of kinds, into anthropology, providing a theoretical framework that facilitates realization of the often-touted desideratum of the integration of biological and social features of kinship. [bio-essentialism, kinship studies, homeostatic property cluster kinds, Schneider, genealogy

Dispositivo midiático de governamentalidade

El carácter desterritorializado de los medios de comunicación impide por momentos detectar –a diferencia de problemáticas relacionadas con la pobreza, la violencia física, la explotación de recursos naturales– su relación directa con injusticias sociales, inequidades, exclusiones y sujeciones. En la fase actual del sistema/mundo/moderno/ colonial los mecanismos de dominación se tornan más “democráticos” y “liberales”, los efectos de verdad, producidos por los medios, anestesian la mirada, y de ahí, el cuerpo y los sentidos. El objetivo del artículo es desvelar el carácter gubernamentalizado de las imágenes mediáticas reflexionando sobre aquella red de poder global que conduce las conductas a través de los medios de comunicación, conceptualizada en el texto como “dispositivo mediático de gubernamentalidad”. Se concluye entonces que el funcionamiento de dicho dispositivo se da a partir de tecnologías de poder noopolíticas y racionalidades capitalistas y coloniales.The deterritorialized nature of media, at times prevents detection –unlike problems related to poverty, physical violence, the exploitation of natural resources– its direct relationship with social injustices, inequities, exclusions and restraints. In the current phase of the system/ world/modern/colonial the mechanisms of domination become more "democratic" and "liberal", the effects of truth, produced by the media, anesthetize the gaze, and hence, the body and the senses. The objective of the article is to reveal the governmentalized character of media images reflecting on that network of global power that guides the conducts through media, conceptualized in the text as "media device of governmentality." It is concluded that the functioning of this device is based on technologies of noopolitical power and capitalist and colonial rationalities.O caráter desterritorializado dos meios de comunicação impede, em momentos, detectar — ao contrário de problemáticas relacionadas com a pobreza, a violência física, a exploração de recursos naturais — sua relação direta com injustiças sociais, inequidades, exclusões e submissões. Na fase atual do sistema mundo moderno-colonial, os mecanismos de dominação se tornam mais “democráticos” e “liberais”, os efeitos de verdade, produzidos pelos meios, anestesiam o olhar e, em consequência, o corpo e os sentidos. O objetivo deste artigo é revelar o caráter governamentalizado das imagens midiáticas refletindo sobre a rede de poder global que conduz os comportamentos pelos meios de comunicação, conceituada no texto como “dispositivo midiático de governamentalidade”. Conclui-se, portanto, que o funcionamento desse dispositivo se dá a partir de tecnologias de poder noopolíticas e racionalidades capitalistas e coloniais.https://revistas.udem.edu.co/index.php/anagramas/article/view/186