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anthropology

The Extraordinary 1569 Journey of David Ingram

February 27, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Extraordinary Journey of David IngramThe new book The Extraordinary Journey of David Ingram: An Elizabethan Sailor in Native North America (Oxford University Press, 2023) by Dean Snow rights the record on a shipwrecked sailor who traversed the length of the North American continent only to be maligned as deceitful storyteller. [Read more…] about The Extraordinary 1569 Journey of David Ingram

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: anthropology, Indigenous History, Maritime History, New France

The Blackfeet: A History Podcast

September 8, 2021 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldTo understand the early American history of North America, we need to investigate and understand North America as an Indigenous space. A place where Native American populations, politics, religion, and trade networks prevailed for centuries before and after the arrival of Europeans and enslaved Africans. [Read more…] about The Blackfeet: A History Podcast

Filed Under: History Tagged With: anthropology, Cultural History, Indigenous History, Native American History, Podcasts, Political History

Adirondack Gentrification: Resortification & Urbanization (Part 6)

August 5, 2021 by Eliza Jane Darling Leave a Comment

Anti-gentrification graffiti in rural WalesRural gentrification has appeared in almost every region, from Big Sky territory to the Rockies to Prairie Country to New England to the American South. Outside the United States, it has been documented in Spain, Turkey, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, and especially Britain.

While the details vary from place to place, most gentrifying rural communities suffer the same consequences: the displacement of the rural working class, the decline of available space for social reproduction, and the aging of the vestigial population. Yet if rural America is united in its symptoms, it is divided by its disease. [Read more…] about Adirondack Gentrification: Resortification & Urbanization (Part 6)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Gentrification, Adirondacks, anthropology, covid, Cultural History, development, Economic Development, Economic History, Social History, womens history

Adirondack Gentrification: Seasonal Development & The Rent Sink (Part 5)

August 4, 2021 by Eliza Jane Darling Leave a Comment

The Point Lake PlacidIn the spring of 1989, the Adirondack working class received an alarming wake-up call in the unlikely form of Robin Leach. The Adirondacks, according to the garrulous host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, were a hidden jewel just waiting to be discovered by travelers with a taste for wilderness and the purchasing power to claim a slice of nature-at-its-moneyed-best for their very own. The show had even gone so far as to list the remote and rugged mountains as an “upcoming hot spot for jet-setters” in its “Guide to the World’s Best Places.”

Leach’s prediction had been well borne out by the mid-1990s. “Rough It Like A Rockefeller,” proclaimed one strapline in the travel section of the Wall Street Journal, while an article in Vanity Fair encouraged readers to go “camp hopping in the haute Adirondacks” and Travel and Leisure billed it as a place where “the notion of escape endures.” Such articles, liberally sprinkled with posh photographic layouts depicting the rich at play in tastefully rustic lodges nestled on the shores of gleaming silver lakes, recommended such accommodations as The Point in Lake Placid, where guests could take in the clean mountain air for a mere $1300 a night.

Beemers had been traded for sport utility vehicles, and the Adirondacks, it appeared, had become an exclusive retreat for well-heeled consumers seeking respite from their taxing cosmopolitan lives in the newly fashionable wilderness. [Read more…] about Adirondack Gentrification: Seasonal Development & The Rent Sink (Part 5)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Gentrification, Adirondacks, anthropology, Cultural History, development, Economic Development, Economic History, Environmental History, Housing, poverty, Social History

The Devil’s Due: Adirondack Gentrification & Environmental Justice (Part 1: Displacement)

August 1, 2021 by Eliza Jane Darling 11 Comments

Raquette Lake Rockets 1972“Just close the fucking thing.”

These words of quiet despair were uttered twenty years ago in the aftermath of a meeting at the Raquette Lake School, whose imminent demise was increasingly apparent to the people of the village. The atmosphere at the Tap Room, the unofficial community center where attendees had decamped to face the inevitable over a beer, was raw.

The man who issued the fatal prognosis relished it neither as a parent nor an alumnus. But the writing was on the wall. Pupils had dwindled to single digits, too few for a play or a baseball team, never mind the district budget for utilities, maintenance, transportation and salaries. With no babies on the horizon, the current crop of children would age out, and there would soon be none left to educate. [Read more…] about The Devil’s Due: Adirondack Gentrification & Environmental Justice (Part 1: Displacement)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Gentrification, Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, anthropology, APA, Cultural History, development, Economic Development, Economic History, Education, Environmental History, Hamilton County, Housing, Labor History, Mario Cuomo, Political History, poverty, Raquette Lake, Social History, Tourism

When Europeans Settled Down (Podcast)

October 30, 2020 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week’s guest on The Historians Podcast is Rob Swigart, author of the historical novel Mixed Harvest: Stories of the Human Past. Swigart describes how a prehistoric nomadic population in Europe transitioned to more permanent settlements. [Read more…] about When Europeans Settled Down (Podcast)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural History, Podcasts

Humans In Zoos: A Long History of ‘Exotic’ People Exhibitions

September 13, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

Philippine Head-Hunters on display at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St LouisSocial Darwinism is an ideology that misapplied Charles Darwin’s ideas to the socio-political sphere. The theory proved fruitful to those who advocated the economic principle of laissez faire, and added an element of racial inequality as peoples were classified along an evolutionary scale.

The doctrine can be paraphrased in terms similar to these: “We (white men) belong to a superior race and civilization, be it in economic, military, or moral understanding. This primacy demands from us to direct and civilize the rest of humanity.” [Read more…] about Humans In Zoos: A Long History of ‘Exotic’ People Exhibitions

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: anthropology, Bronx Zoo, Cultural History, Imperialism, Science History

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