Tag Archives: Indigenous Science

Listen to healing

I listened to the medicine men talk about the power of self-persuasion. They agreed that focusing on bad health can sometimes lead to bad health. Your attitude can make a difference and you can set yourself up to indulge in … Continue reading

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Advising the Class of 2013

My advice to the Class of 2013 would go something like this: Be nimble. Life throws you curves and the measure of a person is how she maneuvers the curves. On Sunday I packed my graduation regalia into my bicycle … Continue reading

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May your gander be proper

My propaganda students presented final projects in class yesterday, showing how propaganda can be subtle or overt. And always present. Students sliced through the veneer of million dollar campaigns that convince you to drink milk, vote Republican, quit smoking and … Continue reading

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Media Research: Think Again

We may need to re-think how media affect our attitudes and behavior. The foundation for media theories assumes people use information in predictable ways: we watch television during prime time and search the web to learn how to bake a … Continue reading

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Beauty as Propaganda

As Thursday approaches my excitement grows: I have the honor to teach a course in propaganda alongside my usual menu of theory and research classes. We juicily extract the essences of meaning from campaigns intended to sway your thoughts, part … Continue reading

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Wrapping your Head around Sovereignty

A dinner party conversation turned to Indian sovereignty. The diners knew little about policies, and asked me how tribes can exist as nations within nations. The answer is sovereignty—a pretty hard concept to wrap your head around. A tribe can … Continue reading

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Temper: Tantrum or Tantra?

My sister pitched temper tantrums when she was little. Martha would throw herself on the floor, pound her fists and wail like a banshee. Timing seemed to make no difference: we could be at home, at the beach or out … Continue reading

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Mind Different from Brain?

Consider the mind, rather than the brain. I asked readers in the last blog to think about the mind rather than the brain because Samuel Morton’s skull measurements in the 1860s asserted that American Indians have smaller skulls, hence smaller … Continue reading

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Brain Full of Buckshot

In the Wild West soldiers could earn a dollar for every American Indian skull they collected. Skulls were then shipped back east so scientists could study them. One of the collectors, Samuel G. Morton, used skulls to extrapolate on personality … Continue reading

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Nip and Tuck for Your Brain

You can get a prescription to enhance your libido and lengthen your eyelashes, so why not a pill to help your memory? That’s the discussion around our dinner table: should doctors prescribe drugs that could improve cognitive skills?

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