Golublog: An Anthropology Blog

With the holiday season fast approaching, many of you are wondering: “what sorts of presents would Alex like to receive?” And so I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of two things: First, you should feel free to purchase presents for me at any time of the year, not only the end of the year. Do not let the warm glow you get from making me happy fade with 2006 — buy me presents all the time!

Second, I’ve put together a list of representative present-types on a new “Amazon wishlist”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/ref=wlem-si-html_viewall/102-8716047-1531308?id=10E8DCQ63LGPL. This list is special because I’ve made a great effort to include things that aren’t books or video games. As you can see, I was staggeringly unsuccessful, but at least I gave it a shot. What can I say? When you live in a place where it’s 83 degrees everyday, you simply don’t need socks. So at least I’ve indicated what sorts of things I read in my free time, so you can get me a biography of Andrew Jackson even if the Sean Wilentz is not yet available at your own Local Retail Outlet.

At times it seems tempting to ‘personalize’ your presents by coming up with something you think I would like even thought it is not on this list. I urge you not to take any risks when it comes to buying me presents. As Radcliffe-Brown once put it in his short piece on applied anthropology, “The Stakes for Which We Play Are Too High to Allow of Experiment.”