After almost two years of studying anthropology intensively, I've come to a realization: I'm really, really uncomfortable with religion and ritual, to the point of even avoiding lectures about them. I've spent very little time in churches, and of course there are few rituals in American society that happen outside of church. The time I have spent was largely forced, in a primitivist Pentacostal sect of the early 1980s - not really a comfortable environment to become comfortable with the…

One of the things I like about anthropology is that it's so gosh darn interactive. Coming from an economics and social theory background, I'm accustomed to talking about things - talking a lot about things! However, as Marx put it, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." (I am uncertain what of Feuerbach's writings provoked that particular thesis, but IMO it's a good one.) Getting to the point, this summer at Trelleborg I…