Tag: anthropology
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While the Hong Kong Style Withers…
Someone on the Stunt People Discord recently posted this: I noted that I think it’s easier to import the Japanese style of movement (“Japanese Punch”) into American action cinema than it is to import “Hong Kong Punch.” It all has to do with the historical development of warfare and theater, side by side. Japan perfected…
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Kin and Caliber Part 1: A Kinship Primer
This is the first part of a series of kinship essays that will turn into a book called Kin & Caliber. Table of Contents Why Kinship? What Is Kinship? Blood from a Stone: The First Kinship Local Totemism Matrilineal Descent Matrilocal Marriage Patrilineal Descent Patrilocal Marriage and the City Big Man Theory of Origin Warfare…
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San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Announcement
I’ll be presenting on the Anthropology of Kung Fu Cinema at San Diego Comic-Con 2025. You can view the schedule page here: https://sched.co/26x1A Saturday July 26, 2025 2:00pm – 3:00pm PDT Grand 6, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina Eric Jacobus (stuntman from the God of War and Mortal Kombat series, founder of the independent action…
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Is a Knife a Weapon? Or a Sacrificial Implement?
Of the 332 bronze artifacts with working edges excavated from Yin hsü, 317 are weapons and only fifteen are classifiable as tools; the latter were all wood-working not farming implements. On the other hand, huge quantities of slate knives were unearthed, and these – the so-called Hsiao-t’un stone knives – were reasonably regarded as harvesting…
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Buddhism as Empire Consolidation Plug-in
In general, I’m finding that Buddhist legends in Japan and China are very low quality. They are too praiseworthy of their saints, and the resolutions to story crises are too hand-waivy. In the story below, the monk reveals that a human is actually a were-fox. There’s nothing particularly wise in the story, other than a…
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The Messianic Message of Planet of the Apes
The film series Planet of the Apes predicts a day when one chimpanzee (“Caesar”) finally evolves to have human-like intelligence. The reason given in the original film series is the domestication of the chimp as a pet when dogs and cats go extinct. The modern film series seem to part from this, removing humans from…
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Grave Sites as the First Chinese Cities
Fortified cities, and the entire social structure, in China might have begun with burial mounds. Whereas there are many mentions in the Li Ji and other documents that concubines, wives, and slaves were killed at the funerals of dignitaries and emperors, the Han Dynasty mostly abolished this. Instead, paper or straw figurines were buried in…
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The Anthropology and Mythology of Sleeping with 100 Men
Reportedly, an adult star named Lily Phillips slept with 100 men and, surprise, is pregnant! This was once called “temple prostitution.” A woman would sell herself (or be sold) to a temple & “serve the god” as his seed bank. Anon. men would come and pay, sometimes dress up as the god, do their thing…
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Cut Stones as Ancient Medium of Exchange
I’ve written previously about how ancient handaxes might have originally been modified stones for the purpose of exchange, not for utility. If reciprocal, object-based aggression (ROBA) is the base system of human combat, then every stone is a potential weapon, every person a potential combatant, and the entire world a potential graveyard. The original act…
