http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png http://jezebel.com/tag/anthropologists http://jezebel.com/tag/anthropologists Candace Bushnell's interview yesterday for NPR's "On Point With Tom Ashbrook" was kind of cringe-inducing (start at like 30 mins for the worst of it.) Ostensibly, Bushnell was on to discuss her new novel, One Fifth Avenue — from which she reads various excerpts involving people with names like "Lola Fabricant" — but, not unreasonably, the host wanted to talk about how her SATC world will play in the new post-apocalyptic economy. Bushnell got wildly defensive, compared herself to Flaubert, and launched into a bunch of Palin-worthy tangents on McDonald's hamburgers, Gloria Steinem and many, many references to having paid her dues by not having cutlery until she was about 35. There's also a lot of strident interruption and pointed use of the interviewer's first name. "I feel a little bit like you're kind of missing the point of my work," she says sharply at 32 minutes. Gawd - Why can't everyone just accept that she's a serious "social satirist and anthroplogist?" [NPR]

]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5061718&view=rss&microfeed=true Robert M. Baum of the University of Missouri has been conducting research on the Diola people of (what is now) Senegal for nearly 30 years. Despite his many visits and increasing status level within the Diola communities (and his access to male religious leaders and male religious shrines), he continued to be stymied in his efforts to research and understand Diola women's religious traditions — especially when it came to the Ehugna, a fertility shrine accessible only to women who had given birth. Religious leaders refused to be interviewed about it, he was consistently denied access and has finally determined that "...access to women's ritual spaces and esoteric knowledge may be too restricted for male researchers." Yeah, Bob, now you know how women anthropological researchers feel much of the time. Sucks, doesn't it? [Eureka Alert]

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