Anthropology Honors Society

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• George Roth
  George Roth died on December 11, 2023, from a rare disease, CIPD, which is similar to ALS.   George, who had one older brother, was born in 1940 in the Bronx. In 1947, the family moved to Tucson, AZ. Tucson was a very small town at the time, but he enjoyed living in the desert. After […]
• A Reliable Narrator
  “You are too old to be a refugee.” “You can’t stay in this country unless you serve four years in the military. And then when your kid is old enough, he has to serve four years too.” “If you don’t have a police report that confirms what you’re telling me, you’re going to be deported. […]
• Is There Something Fishy about the Polygraph?
  August 9, 2016, was a good day for Phil Heasley, the CEO of a financial services company in Florida. Fishing with his crew of three off the coast of Maryland from his 68-foot luxury yacht, Kallianassa, he caught a white marlin that was six feet long and weighed 76.5 pounds. Heasley was competing in Ocean […]
• Airlock: Deception and the Circulation of Beer in Urban Zimbabwe
  Airlock1: When air enters a diesel fuel system, preventing proper combustion. Usually caused by an empty tank. Airlock2 [Zimbabwean slang]: When “gas” (alcohol) stops flowing, preventing a proper level of inebriation. Usually caused by empty pockets. Most people have heard the lie, “I don’t have money.” Indeed, some of us have told it. It is […]
• Transitory Facades: Architectures of the Middle-Somewhere
  Facades of buildings, like faces, can wear masks. They can masquerade as something they are not. Hotel: The Palace, situated on India’s National Highway-65, between the big city of Hyderabad and the small town of Sangareddy, is both and neither of its named components. In the local parlance, a “hotel” is a place to eat, […]
• Familiar Danger: Human-Animal Conflict and the Expectation of Deception in Wayanad, Kerala
  In Wayanad, a densely forested district in the state of Kerala, in South India, human-animal conflict is on the rise, with frequent reports of tigers preying on cattle, bears causing havoc, and elephants damaging property. Public sentiment is increasingly hostile toward the Forest Department, accusing them of prioritizing animal protection over human welfare due to […]
• Based on the Incredible True Story: Colonial Minds, Late Capitalist Hearts, and Deception in Hollywood 
  “Based on the Incredible True Story.” So begins the trailer for the film Arthur the King, starring Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, Nathalie Immanuel, and Ali Suliman: a heartwarming story about a stray, scruffy dog and an endurance athlete who find each other during an epic adventure race across the Dominican Republic. The tale—told in three different […]
• A Conspiracy of Democratic Repair
  As India gears up for national elections in summer 2024, the atmosphere across the country is uncharacteristically flat. There isn’t much of the usual suspense or festivity that marks the occasion, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are set to return to power in what observers declare is “almost […]
• Deception as Investment: How to Make Digital Ponzi Schemes in China
  In the dim light of a Monday morning in August 2018, Meng, a 33-year-old woman living near Beijing, began her day with a sense of urgency. Rising at 5:40 a.m., she navigated her morning routine with haste, quietly brushing her teeth, washing her face, and skillfully applying makeup, careful not to disturb her still-sleeping family. […]
• Vazaha Always Want to Know, But We Talk Like Dreams
  Based on a combination of stories, lived experiences, and lies from my research on not-knowing in Belo, this fictive ethnographic narrative recounts a night spent in fear of an attack by dahalo (local bandits). Over the course of the night, the narrator moves between waking and sleep as they try to make sense of the bandits’ attack […]