Comparative Study and the Scholarly Conscience

Open Foru

Translation: The relative native

Translation by Julia Sauma and Martin Holbraad of: Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo (2002) "O Nativo Relativo." Mana, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 113-14

QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe

The possibility of life

In a 2012 critique of John D. Barrow’s The artful universe, I explored the problems inherent in attempting to predict what can andcannothappen—what is and is not possible—in the universe, with special reference to the emergence of life, consciousness, andculture. In the present essay, I revisit my arguments in light of new works that have appeared on this topic. I also argue that such cosmic debates have counterparts in familiar anthropological dilemmas, such as those that developed around the idea of “totemism.

Copernican kinship: an origin myth for the category

In many traditional mythologies, kinship constitutes the privileged idiom of both unity and diversity in the cosmos. In "post-mythological" thought, categories logically conceived attempt to take over the cosmic role of kinship. I compare two accounts of the nature and genesis of categories—those by Durkheim and Mauss on one hand, and by Lakoff and Johnson on the other. Neither account severs ties with mythology or kinship; moreover, the structure of the category, like kinship, offers a mode of projecting the human as the cosmic. To the long-standing anthropological concern with the ways in which humans impose their diverse categories on the world, we should add a concern with the ways category-theorists impose their diverse worlds on the category

Science, bread, and circuses: folkloristic essays on science for the masses

Includes bibliographical references and index.In Science, Bread, and Circuses, Gregory Schrempp brings a folkloristic slant to the topic of popular science, calling attention to the persistence of folkloric form, idiom, and worldview within the increasingly important dimension of popular consciousness defined by the impact of science. Schrempp considers specific examples of texts in which science writers employ folkloric tropes--myths, legends, proverbs, or a variety of gestures from religious tradition--to lend authority or credibility to their message. In each essay he explores an instance of science popularization rooted in the quotidian round: variations of folkloric formulae in monumental measurements, invocations of science-heroes like saints or other inspirational figures, the battle of mythos and logo in parenting and academe how the meme has become embroiled in quasi-religious treatments of the problem of evil, and a range of other tropes of folklore drafted into the service of exposition of scientific topics. Science, Bread, and Circuses places the relationship of science and folklore is at the very center of folkloristic inquiry in an attempt to rephrase and thus domesticate scientific findings and claims in folklorically-imbued popular forms.--Provided by publisher

The Best Popular Science

Strategies of persuasion tapped in popular science writing are discussed under the assumption that effective science education and communication can offer antidotes to the revolt against expertise. It is argued that popular science can weaken the experience of science even while attempting to enhance it. Topics discussed include gimmickry, efforts at science-art fusions, and other contemporary mythologizing moves as well as the relationship between science and the humanities generally. Steven Weinberg’s modern classic The First Three Minutes is explored as an example of successful popular science communication

Fabling Gestures in Expository Science

Ranging from pre-Socratic philosophers to contemporary popular science writers, I analyze seven instances in which fable-like scenarios have been utilized in the exposition and/or promotion of philosophy and/or science. I examine the motives and strategies that propel such novel uses of fabling gestures and also explore the ironies and pitfalls that the genre poses when invoked in scientific discourse. For example, one pervasive assumption of the fable genre is that the animal characters are really humans; might this genre conceit subtly introduce a bias when a fable-like scenario of animal behavior, such as a crow confronting a pitcher, is examined by animal cognition specialists attempting to understand the relationship of human and nonhuman animal intelligence

The Possibility of Life

In a 2012 critique of John D. Barrow’s The artful universe, I explored the problems inherent in attempting to predict what can and cannot happen—what is and is not possible—in the universe, with special reference to the emergence of life, consciousness, and culture. In the present essay, I revisit my arguments in light of new works that have appeared on this topic. I also argue that such cosmic debates have counterparts in familiar anthropological dilemmas, such as those that developed around the idea of “totemism.