‘Bones’

In both of my Introduction to Cultural Anthropology classes last week, talk of biological anthropology as a subfield of the discipline led to brief mention of a new Fox TV show called ‘Bones.’ The show is CSI-like and is about the work of a forensic anthropologist.

I watched the pilot episode last night and enjoyed the escapist entertainment. It did not leave me hopeful, however, that it would help others understand anything about anthropology … forensics, perhaps … but not anthropology more generally. I came away from it knowing that anthropology was a ‘hard science’ that was something like archaeology because digging and bones were involved. I suppose that cultural anthros like myself must continue to look to the Bruce Parrys of the TV world (or here) for our qualitative research and participant-observation superheroes! (And yes, my tongue is in my cheek …)

See John Hawks’ Weblog for a lengthy assessment of the first episode of Bones by a biological anthropologist.

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