What it means to be human: Anthropology for the Anthropocene

Language, art, music and culture emerged in Africa over 100,000 years ago, culminating in a symbolic explosion or ‘human revolution’ whose echoes can still be heard in myths and cultural traditions from around the world. These talks are a general introduction to social and biological anthropology, ranging over fields as diverse as hunter-gatherer studies, mythology, primatology, archaeology and archaeoastronomy. Radical Anthropology brings indigenous rights activists, environmentalists, feminists and others striving for a better world together with people of all ages who just want to learn about anthropology.

  • Apr 18 Lunarchy: decolonising time Camilla Power
  • Apr 25 Navigating history in anthropology: modern witches and expanded historicities Helen Cornish
  • May 2 My life as a primate: tracing the turns of anthropology Volker Sommer
  • May 9 Educating for the Anthropocene: schooling and activism in the face of slow violence Peter Sutoris
  • May 16 Reading reindeer shoulder blade: Engaging with environmental uncertainty in NorthEast Siberia Olga Ulturgasheva (ZOOM only)
  • May 23 Mimetic performance, cognitive evolution, and mixed creatures Deon Liebenberg (ZOOM only)
  • May 30 Conceptual tools from anthropology for thinking about early reactions to Covid-19 Mark Jamieson (ZOOM only)
  • Jun 6 Courtyard and coincidence in prehistoric temples in Malta and Gozo John Cox  (ZOOM only)
  • Jun 13 Lunar timekeeping in Upper Paleolithic cave art Bernie Taylor (ZOOM only)

Courtyard and coincidence in prehistoric temples in Malta and Gozo

WE are ZOOM only on Tuesday June 6, 6:30pm BST (London time). Sign in to Eventbrite here for ZOOM ID Prehistoric buildings were constructed in a late neolithic and agrarian island culture in Malta and Gozo up to a sudden abandonment c.2500 BCE. The largest is Ggantija, the giant woman, dating from about 3600 BCE. […]

Conceptual tools from anthropology for thinking about early reactions to Covid-19

On Tuesday May 30, 6:30pm London time, we are ZOOM only, please sign in here for ZOOM ID. Mark Jamieson, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at University of East London, will examine anthropological approaches to the COVID-19 crisis.

Mimetic performance, cognitive evolution, and mixed creatures

NB this talk on May 23, 18:30 BST (London time) is ZOOM only. You will need to register on eventbrite here for the ZOOM ID. Recent developments in research on the possible role of mimetic communication in cognitive evolution – as a necessary precursor to spoken language – are used in conjunction with various other […]

Reading Reindeer Shoulder Blade: Engaging with Environmental Uncertainty in Northeast Siberia 

Please note this talk by Olga Ulturgasheva is ZOOM only on Tues May 16, 6:30pm The latest environmental calamities such as extreme wildfires in Siberia, California and Australia highlighted limitations of and hindrances to human capacity for rescue, survival and adaptation to different scales of exposure to technogenic catastrophes and the effects of climate change. The […]

Educating for the Anthropocene: Schooling and Activism in the Face of Slow Violence

The Radical Anthropology talk on Tues May 9 is LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM with Peter Sutoris of York University. Education has never played as critical a role in determining humanity’s future as it does in the Anthropocene, an era marked by humankind’s unprecedented control over the natural environment. Drawing on a multisited ethnographic project […]

My life as a primate: tracing the turns in anthropology

Volker Sommer will be speaking LIVE @UCLAnthropology and on ZOOM on Tues May 2, 6:30pm (BST) He reflects on his experiences as a naturalist who spent decades in the forests of Asia and Africa exploring the ecology and behaviour of wild monkeys and apes. This journey took him from an upbringing in a rural community in post-war […]

Navigating history in anthropology: modern witches and expanded historicities

The historical turn in the 1980s demonstrated how historical dimensions are integral to anthropological research. However, presenting a viable historical context does not necessarily take into account the varieties of historical experiences. Modern witches in the UK have long been grappling with claims about the past through a range of historical registers – empirical, mythic, […]

Lunarchy: Decolonising time

For Marx, all forms of economics could be reduced to “an economics of time”. To restore a sustainable rhythm to our planet, our lifeways and economy, we need to decolonise time. In the first part of this talk, Camilla Power sketches a history of capitalism as robbery: ever tighter control of time yielding greater economic […]

BITCH: on the female of the species

On Tues Mar 28, 6:30pm, we are back LIVE @UCLAnthropology to welcome Lucy Cooke, author of BITCH: a revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal. This is a hilarious and brilliant expose of the ways patriarchy prevents us being scientific about female strategies in evolution. Lucy will guide us through the sheer diversity […]

An Australian Aboriginal Sacred myth

On Tuesday March 21 we are ZOOM only at 6:30pm. Please sign into eventbrite for ZOOM ID Chris Knight will recount and interpret the intensely dramatic story of The Wawilak Sisters and the Rainbow Snake, told by the Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land, explaining why it is the most widely discussed myth in all […]

@RadicalAnthro@c.im

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