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Comment by Martin Hoyem on October 21, 2011 at 7:23pm

New story in American Ethnography Quasimonthly:

 

"Everyone has to go to jail some time in his life."

The Holy Barbarians -- a documentary book about the beatnik scene of Venice West in Los Angeles -- was first published in 1959. Penned by journalist, writer, and beat poet Lawrence Lipton, it put the "hip, cool, frantic generation of new Bohemians" on intriguing display to mainstream USA, and it was a huge commercial success at the time of publication. Although the book contains good chunks of conceited sociology and lengthy theoretical stretches about poetry, it also offers quite a few engaging ethnographic vignettes. As an example we have picked for you a snippet from the chapter where Lipton, in order to clarify the character of the beats, portrays other outcasts who navigate the same social space.

For all you switchblade Daddy-Os -- and for the rest of you, too -- here is Lipton's Juvenile Delinquents.

 

 

Comment by Martin Hoyem on August 2, 2011 at 9:28pm

New story in American Ethnography this week:

"Set in a depraved and desperate Montreal underworld it’s a pitiless and darkly comic exposé of a dope hungry intellectual who educates himself in the art of hustling access to the contents of pharmacy cabinets."

http://www.americanethnography.com/

Comment by Martin Hoyem on April 21, 2011 at 8:55am

We spilled our best premium rum on the ground. And then, with fire in our heart, we played the bongos till our fingers bled. Offerings, you should know, to Papa Legba – the gatekeeper, the facilitator of communication, the one who greases speech and understanding. A lot of rum and drum went down. But this is what we do for our readers! Ah, yes, this is what we do ...

http://www.americanethnography.com/

Comment by Martin Hoyem on January 11, 2011 at 9:00pm

Back in the early 1970’s, sociologist Douglas Harper jumped freight trains, to get to orchards in the Pacific Northwest so he could do harvest work picking apples. He documented his conversations with the tramps he met and photographed the life he saw. In 1982, then again in 2006, his outstanding piece of ethnographic narrative was published as Good Company: A Tramp Life.

Courtesy of Harper, American Ethnography is privileged to present our readers with an excerpt from the book: "Waiting for a Train."

http://www.americanethnography.com/article.php?id=118

Comment by Martin Hoyem on January 1, 2011 at 7:14am

Portraits from a country where “90% of the population is Catholic and 100% of the population is Vodou,” Phyllis Galembo's photos reveal what she herself calls “the hidden vitality of the Haitian Vodou tradition.” We are proud to present to our readers this gallery of pictures from Galembo’s book.

http://ning.it/h45Rb6

Comment by Martin Hoyem on July 9, 2010 at 7:58pm

We have spent some time looking through the Edward S. Curtis Collection at the Library of Congress, and picked out a few photos which are currently our favorites. From these we have selected the ones showing different examples of masks, because – as William Butler Yeats pointed out in 1910 – mask are just so damn cool:
It was the mask engaged your mind,
And after set your heart to beat,
Not what's behind.

These are wonderful, captivating images. Enjoy a stroll through our gallery, and see for yourself.

Comment by Martin Hoyem on June 5, 2010 at 12:05am

Artist and photographer Jack Butler has photographed the hot rod culture of Southern California since 2003 using a Polaroid loaded pinhole camera. This week American Ethnography Quasiweekly features a gallery with selections from this unique documentation project:

http://www.americanethnography.com/

Comment by Martin Hoyem on April 23, 2010 at 8:25pm

We just released another feature with lowrider photos on American Ethnography:

"Back in 2005, while doing fieldwork among lowriders in the southwestern states of USA, American Ethnography’s owner and editor Martin Hoyem photographed the people he met and their cars.

Now, as part of our ongoing research on “Car Customizing and Outlaw Aesthetics” we give you a gallery of photos from that fieldwork."

Comment by Martin Hoyem on April 19, 2010 at 8:17pm

American Ethnography recently released a feature with Jack Parsons' photography of lowriders in New Mexico, taken between 1993 and 1999. Jack Parsons says he has “a soft spot for cultural anthropology” – he is, after all, the grandson of pioneering anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons. The gallery is here: Bajito y Suavecito

Comment by Martin Hoyem on April 9, 2010 at 5:45am

Two weeks, and still just two members interested in the anthropological study of North America! ... Two members, including me who started the group. Perhaps we need a better looking icon? It's all in the icon, I believe.