Orin Starn
Encyclopedia
Orin Starn is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology
and History and Chair of the Cultural Anthropology Department at Duke University
.
Starn is the author of Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last Wild Indian; his other books include Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes and he is co-editor of The Peru Reader, Between Resistance and Revolution, and Indigenous Experience Today. His newest book, The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal, explores the famous golfer’s place in American culture and society.
He has appeared on many radio and television programs, and writes for newspapers including the Los Angeles Times
and Chronicle of Higher Education. Starn teaches courses about Latin America, Native American culture and politics, human rights, and sports and society, among other issues. Starn won Duke University’s Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and was awarded the Sally Dalton Robinson Distinguished Professorship effective July 1, 2005. Starn has directed the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and been the faculty director of the Duke Human Rights Center.
, the last Yahi Indian.
This search was reported in the New York Times and NPR, and Starn's book Ishi's Brain gives an account of it as well as the story of Ishi's life. Ishi's Brain was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004.
He has also written extensively about the war and society in Peru, including both Nightwatch and The Peru Reader as well as several books in Spanish. A book Starn co-edited with Marisol de la Cadena, Indigenous Experience Today, explores the global rise of indigenous politics and activism.
and
The News & Observer
.
During the case, Starn took issue with some of Duke Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski's actions. In a June 21, 2006 article in The News & Observer, Starn was quoted as stating, "Whether Coach Krzyzewski likes it or not, these are serious issues and issues being raised at colleges around the country." He also accused bloggers of inaccurately portraying the involvement of Duke faculty in the lacrosse case in a January 2007 op-ed in the Durham Herald-Sun.
Starn has cited the incident in his criticism of Duke's participation in Division I athletics. In another News & Observer article, Starn was quoted as stating, "It's ridiculous to talk about a balance between athletics and academics... Athletics should be a subset underneath a university's main mission... The idea that athletics should have near-equal weight with academics is just wrong."
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
and History and Chair of the Cultural Anthropology Department at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
.
Starn is the author of Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last Wild Indian; his other books include Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes and he is co-editor of The Peru Reader, Between Resistance and Revolution, and Indigenous Experience Today. His newest book, The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal, explores the famous golfer’s place in American culture and society.
He has appeared on many radio and television programs, and writes for newspapers including the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and Chronicle of Higher Education. Starn teaches courses about Latin America, Native American culture and politics, human rights, and sports and society, among other issues. Starn won Duke University’s Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and was awarded the Sally Dalton Robinson Distinguished Professorship effective July 1, 2005. Starn has directed the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and been the faculty director of the Duke Human Rights Center.
Ishi, the Andes, and Indigenous Rights
Starn was involved in the repatriation to California of the remains of IshiIshi
Ishi was the last member of the Yahi, the last surviving group of the Yana people of the U.S. state of California. Ishi is believed to have been the last Native American in Northern California to have lived most of his life completely outside the European American culture...
, the last Yahi Indian.
This search was reported in the New York Times and NPR, and Starn's book Ishi's Brain gives an account of it as well as the story of Ishi's life. Ishi's Brain was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004.
He has also written extensively about the war and society in Peru, including both Nightwatch and The Peru Reader as well as several books in Spanish. A book Starn co-edited with Marisol de la Cadena, Indigenous Experience Today, explores the global rise of indigenous politics and activism.
Sports and Society
Starn has done research on sports and society, and appeared on ESPN and various sports talk shows. He maintains a blog called Golf Politics. Starn is currently writing a book about the history and politics of golf in America, and maintains a related blog at Golf Politics. In March 2007, he hosted a conference called Tiger Woods ©: American Empire, Global Golf and the Making of a MegacelebrityDuke Athletics and the Lacrosse Case
Starn wrote op-eds in North Carolina newspapers about the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case (among them, Let's talk sports) and was quoted in other outlets, including The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
and
The News & Observer
The News & Observer
The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of the U.S. State of North Carolina. The N&O, as it is popularly called, is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill. The paper also has substantial readership in most of the state east of...
.
During the case, Starn took issue with some of Duke Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski's actions. In a June 21, 2006 article in The News & Observer, Starn was quoted as stating, "Whether Coach Krzyzewski likes it or not, these are serious issues and issues being raised at colleges around the country." He also accused bloggers of inaccurately portraying the involvement of Duke faculty in the lacrosse case in a January 2007 op-ed in the Durham Herald-Sun.
Starn has cited the incident in his criticism of Duke's participation in Division I athletics. In another News & Observer article, Starn was quoted as stating, "It's ridiculous to talk about a balance between athletics and academics... Athletics should be a subset underneath a university's main mission... The idea that athletics should have near-equal weight with academics is just wrong."
Writings
- The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal. Durham: Duke University Press (2011)
- Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last 'Wild' Indian. New York: Norton, 2004.
- Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1999.
- "Maoism in the Andes: The Communist Party in Peru -- Shining Path and the Refusal of History." In Critical Perspectives on Mao Zedong's Thought. Edited by Arif Dirlik, Paul Healy, and Nick Knight. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997. 267-288.
- Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest Co-editor with Richard G. Fox.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1997.
- The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Co-editor with Carlos Ivan Degregori and Robin Kirk. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1995.
- Indigenous Experience Today (co-editor)