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Orin Starn, Professor, Cultural Anthropology

Contact Info: 

Office Location:	213 Friedl Building
Office Phone:	(919) 717-7090
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.OrinStarn.com

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• CULANTH 101D.001, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  White Hall 107, Tu 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as ICS 101D.001)

• CULANTH 101D.01D, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  East Duke 204B, Th 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 101D.02D, ICS 101D.01D, ICS 101D.02D)

• CULANTH 101D.02D, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  East Duke 204D, Th 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 101D.01D, ICS 101D.01D, ICS 101D.02D)

• CULANTH 101D.03D, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  East Duke 204A, Th 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as ICS 101D.03D)

• CULANTH 803S.01, RESEARCH METHODS PORTFOLIO SEM Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 118, Th 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

• CULANTH 204S.01, UNION ACTIVISM Synopsis

  Class Bldg 106, MW 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as AAAS 204S.01, ECON 120S.01, HISTORY 207S.01, SOCIOL 204S.01)

• CULANTH 700S.01, SURVEILLANCE AND TECHNOLOGY Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 204, M 03:20 PM-05:50 PM

  (also cross-listed as LIT 700S.01, SOCIOL 700S.01)

Education:

Ph.D.	Stanford University	1989
MA	Stanford University	1985
B.A.	The University of Chicago	1982
General Studies	University of California, Berkeley	1981
General Studies	Haverford College	1979

Specialties:

Culture Theory
Bassett
Globalization
South America
Social Movements
Popular Culture
North America
Identity
Politics of Memory

Research Interests:

I am interested in the themes of culture, history, and power, and specialize in Latin America and Native North America. My new book "Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last 'Wild' Indian"(W.W. Norton and Company, 2004) explores the story of this last survivor of California's Yahi tribe. It's the result of my research over the last few years in Native California, and probes questions about violence and conquest, the history of the West, and the relation between anthropology and indigenous peoples. Earlier, I did much of my work in the Andes of South America, mostly in Peru. My book "Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes" (Duke University Press, 1999) recounts the history of a powerful rural movement that emerged in in the 1980s. Here I took up issues related to political violence and national identity, social movements and modernity, and gender and power as they have played out in the Andes. My love for, and interest in, Peru is reflected in a book I co-edited called "The Peru Reader: History, Culture, and Politics" (Duke University Press, 1995). I have also published or edited three books in Spanish, and co-edited an anthology about cultural politics and social protest, "Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest" (Rutgers University Press, 1997). I am just beginning work on two new projects. One, reflecting my interest in the cultural politics of sports, focuses on the history of golf, in particular the famous Pinehurst resort here in North Carolina. The other new topic I'm exploring revolves around the history and legend of Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas" and one of the world's great tourist meccas. I am also working on a documentary film based on "Ishi's Brain," appear in a recent PBS documentary on Native American repatriation called "Who Owns the Past?," and am editing a forthcoming collection of articles by prominent scholars about the new visibility of indigenous identity and politics worldwide. My general theoretical interests include violence and memory, nationalism and ethnic identity, the history of anthropology, the anthropology of sports, activist anthropology, and cultural studies and postocolonial theory.

Areas of Interest:

Cultural theory
Indigenous politics and identity
Politics of representation and nationalism
transnationalism and globalization
history of anthropology
activist anthropology
Andes and Latin America
Native North America

Keywords:

Cultural theory • Indigenous politics and identity • Politics of representation and nationalism • transnationalism and globalization • history of anthropology • activist anthropology • the Andes • Latin America • Native North America

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Erin Parish  
• Fari Nzinga  
• Lorien Olive  
• Lia Haro  
• Kristina Jacobsen  
• Neta Bar  
• Leigh Campoamor  
• Yektan Turkyilmaz  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Starn, O, The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal (2012), Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-5210-9
2. Starn, O, Here Come The Anthros (Again): The Strange Marriage Of Anthropology And Native America, Cultural Anthropology, vol. 26 no. 2 (May, 2011), pp. 179-204, WILEY, ISSN 0886-7356 [doi]  [abs]
3. Starn, O, Ishi’s Brain: In Search of America’s Last "Wild" Indian (2004), W.W. Norton
4. O. Starn, Missing the Revolution: Anthropologists and the War in Peru, Cultural Anthropology (1991)
5. Starn, O; Cadena, MDL, Indigenous Experience Today, Translated into Spanish as "Indigeneidadas Contemporaneas: Cultura, Politca, y Globalizacion" (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2010) (2006), Berg
6. Rockafellar, N; Starn, O, Ishi's Brain, Current Anthropology, vol. 40 no. 4 (August, 1999), pp. 413-416, University of Chicago Press, ISSN 0011-3204 [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
7. Starn, O, Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes (1999), Duke University Press  [abs]
8. Starn, O; et. al., , The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Revised and Expanded Editon) (2005), Duke University Press
9. Starn, O, To Revolt against the Revolution: War and Resistance in Peru's Andes, Cultural Anthropology, vol. 10 no. 4 (November, 1995), pp. 547-580, Wiley, ISSN 0886-7356 [doi]
10. Starn, O; Fox, R, Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Movements (1997), Rutgers University Press  [abs]
11. Starn, O; Harris, O; Nugent, D; Nugent, S; Orlove, BS; Reyna, SP; Smith, G, Rethinking the Politics of Anthropology: The Case of the Andes [and Comments and Reply], Current Anthropology, vol. 35 no. 1 (February, 1994), pp. 13-38, University of Chicago Press, ISSN 0011-3204 [pdf], [doi]
12. O. Starn, Engineering Internment: Anthropologists and the War Relocation Authority, American Ethnologist (1986)

Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "Wild" Indian 2004 W.W. Norton and Company

Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes 1999 Duke University Press

Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest 1997 Rutgers University Press

The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics 1995 Duke University Press