Word of the day: kinesics

The word of the day is kinesics:

1. the study of body movements, gestures, facial expressions, etc., as a means of communication.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kinesics)

"After conducting fieldwork together in New Guinea, Bateson and Mead coproduced ethnographic films and photodocumentation of Balinese kinesics."

- Montgomery McFate, "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship", March - April 2005 Military Review

Word of the day: sisal

The word of the day is sisal:

—noun

1. Also called sisal hemp. a fiber yielded by an agave, Agave sisalana, of Yucatán, used for making rope, rugs, etc.
2. the plant itself.

"While Morley and company found no German submarine bases, he did produce nearly 10,000 pages of intelligence reports documenting everything from navigable shoreline features to the economic impact of sisal production."

- Montgomery McFate, "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship", March - April 2005 Military Review

Word of the day: subaltern

The word of the day is subaltern:

1. lower in rank; subordinate: a subaltern employee.
2. British Military. noting a commissioned officer below the rank of captain.
3. Logic.
   1. denoting the relation of one proposition to another when the first proposition is implied by the second but the second is not implied by the first.
   2. (in Aristotelian logic) denoting the relation of a particular proposition to a universal proposition having the same subject, predicate, and quality.
   3. of or pertaining to a proposition having either of these relations to another.

—noun

4. a person who has a subordinate position.
5. British Military. a commissioned officer below the rank of captain.
6. Logic. a subaltern proposition.

"subordinate," c.1400 (implied in subalternal), from M.Fr. subalterne, from L.L. subalternus, from L. sub "under" + alternus "every other (one), one after the other" (see alternate). The noun meaning "person of inferior rank" is attested from 1605; as the designation of an army officer, from 1690.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/subaltern)

"Rejecting anthropology's status as the handmaiden of colonialism, anthropologists refused to 'collaborate' with the powerful, instead vying to represent the interests of indigenous peoples engaged in neocolonial struggles.  In the words of Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak, anthropologists would now speak for the 'subaltern.'" 

- Montgomery McFate, "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship", March - April 2005 Military Review

Word of the day: epistemology

The word of the day is epistemology:

1. a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.

"theory of knowledge," 1856, coined by Scot. philosopher James F. Ferrier (1808-64) from Gk. episteme "knowledge," from Ionic Gk. epistasthai "know how to do, understand," lit. "overstand," from epi- "over, near" + histasthai "to stand." The scientific (as opposed to philosophical) study of the roots and paths of knowledge is epistemics (1969).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epistemology)

"One of the central epistemological tenets of anthropology is cultural relativism—understanding other societies from within their own framework."

 - Montgomery McFate, "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship", March - April 2005 Military Review