Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Embedded

Linda Bhatia gave her son’s Scout badges to his old pack and his 700 books to his alma mater, Brown University, but she will never let go of the things he had in his final days: his compass, the dimes in his pocket, his wallet, the watch he was probably
A casualty of war, and a fierce debate
By ELIZABETH RAU | May 28, 2010

Tyme fer moore lernin’

Much sport has been made of the hilariously misspelled signs created and proudly displayed at rallies by barely literate Tea Partiers.
Tee-Partee Lohjik
By JEFF INGLIS | April 30, 2010

Review: Secrets Of The Tribe

The tribe of the title, as José Padilha’s deft and outrageous documentary makes clear, are not the Stone Age Yanomami people of the Amazon but the anthropologists themselves.
Their secrets are indeed disturbing
By PETER KEOUGH | April 16, 2010

Island ventures

Living on an island can be like living in your parents’ basement.
USM show uncovers Peaks
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | March 26, 2010

Secret Harbor

A home for the criminally insane it might not be, but the real-life Shutter Island is, like the one in the new Martin Scorsese film that hits theaters this week, a spooky and controversial land mass in Boston Harbor that is indeed off-limits to the publi
The real-life version of Scorsese's Shutter Island imports hundreds of homeless from the South End every evening; they’re among the few allowed on Boston Harbor’s isle of mystery.
By CHRISTOPHER KLEIN | February 19, 2010

A wake-up call

Some months back, Judge Richard Posner, a prolific author and longtime leading figure in the laissez-faire-oriented Chicago school of economics published his latest tome, a little bit of conservative heresy titled A Failure of Capitalism .
Ranting about money and media; musical musings; and notes from the road
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 29, 2010

Does Scott Brown’s victory mean doom for RI Democrats?

Republican Scott Brown's stunning victory this week in the race for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts has created something approaching panic in the ranks of Congressional Democrats.
Fallout
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 22, 2010

Chafee and the hazards of a bold politics

By the time a candidate for major office steps up to the microphone to officially declare for the seat, everyone already knows his intentions.
Tax Dept.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 08, 2010

Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968

More than three years in the making, the most recent installment of Rhino's legendary archival garage-rock series offers an amazingly comprehensive excavation of an absurdly fertile scene.
Rhino (2009)
By MIKE MILIARD | December 18, 2009

Interview: Jane Goodall

If only there were more trees to be torn down, we could utilize them . . . to fill newspapers with the endless depressing stories out there about the environment and all its hapless inhabitants.
Creature comforts
By LANCE GOULD | September 25, 2009

Bigfoot coming to Congress Street

Mainer Loren Coleman loves sharing his wealth -- the treasures collected during a 50-year career in the field of cryptozoology, which is the study of mysterious creatures (think Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, and the chupacabra).
Venue Watch
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 25, 2009

The scene is now

As newspapers cede arbiter status to random bloggers with Fios and afternoons off, the function of polls like our humble offering must change out of necessity. What once was a forecast is now more like a diagnostic — it's anthropology versus tastemakery
What we can learn about Boston from the local winners
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | July 31, 2009

Cicilline, the firefighters, and the politics of protest

It is, on some level, hard to pick any winners in the li'l Rhody's latest battle royale.
Citywatch
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 19, 2009

Is the party over for the GOP in RI?

In a state known for its political obsessions, there is remarkably little in the way of rabid protest here.
A disastrous election in '08. A depleted war chest. Dismal approval ratings for the outgoing governor. Yet the faithful see hope for a Republican revival
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 15, 2009

Slideshow: 'Dark Arts' at MassArt

American Memory Project, Coyotel Press, and A Year At the Wheel at Mass Art's Pozen Center
Dark Arts Lecture Series at MassArt's Pozen Center , April 24, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX STAFF | May 01, 2009

Ring master

At its best, Tyson becomes its subject's psychotherapist, allowing him to disgorge with no judgment and little restraint his memories, fantasies, impulses, and fears.
Toback's Tyson tames two egos
By PETER KEOUGH | May 01, 2009

Another damn study

Some people argue that scholarly inquiry about profanity is pointless, and even laughable.
Timothy Jay, PhD, discusses words his colleagues won't
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 10, 2009

George W. Bush

Did you think we were done ripping the Neanderthal who set the country back five decades in just eight years? Well, we kind of are, but we also want to be the first to mock Texans who will soon begin discussing plans to build a library commemorating Amer
Did you think we were done ripping the Neanderthal who set the country back five decades in just eight years? Well, we kind of are, but we also want to be the first to mock Texans who will soon begin discussing plans to build a library commemorating America's first illiterate president.
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 26, 2009

Epochalypse soon

The end times do indeed commence on December 21, 2012. On that date, this fragile blue orb of ours will suddenly cease to be a very fun place to live.
The end is nigh! Or not.
By MIKE MILIARD | March 25, 2009

Culture wars

IN A CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAM, THE US ARMY IS USING ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN TO BRIDGE CULTURAL DIVIDES AND LIMIT AMERICAN CASUALTIES. BUT IS THE DATA THEY COLLECT USED TO TARGET AND KILL FOREIGNERS?
IN A CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAM, THE US ARMY IS USING ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN TO BRIDGE CULTURAL DIVIDES AND LIMIT AMERICAN CASUALTIES. BUT IS THE DATA THEY COLLECT USED TO TARGET AND KILL FOREIGNERS?
By PETER PIATETSKY | March 11, 2009

Art beef

Carlson/Strom at the DeCordova, Jonathan Torgovnik at Brandeis, Kenji Fujita at Samson Projects
Carlson/Strom at the DeCordova, Jonathan Torgovnik at Brandeis, Kenji Fujita at Samson Projects
By EVAN J. GARZA | February 20, 2009

Interview: Ari Folman on Waltz with Bashir

Not long after I spoke with Ari Folman about Waltz with Bashir , a harrowing and black-comic animated memoir of his experience as an IDF soldier in the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Israeli bombs fell on Gaza, in seeming anticipation of a ground offens
Song and dance
By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2009

Understanding the stink factor

What is that smell?
Eat raw
By CHRISTY MCKINNON | December 17, 2008

Drugs and culture

University of Southern Maine professor Wendy Chapkis usually studies, teaches, and writes about gender issues, so her latest non-fiction outing, Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine , might seem like a bit of a departure.
Books
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 03, 2008

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