Unlikely Allies on Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

by J. J. Tolochko on November 24, 2009

On November 14, the New York Times reported on efforts in Afghanistan by NGO Marie Stopes International to raise awareness about birth control techniques.  Afghanistan has the highest fertility rate in Asia, at 6 children per woman, yet also has an extremely low per capita GDP.  Matthew Yglesias noted on his Think Progress blog that [...]

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What is a Tribe?

by admin on November 19, 2009

S2 presents the second in a series of posts that will introduce anthropological concepts. The first concept we will define is a tribe. S2 defines a tribe as “any group of people united by their recognition of organizational hierarchy within their group, who share a cultural identity and make up a unique speech community.” To make [...]

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Female Jihadists Part II: Family Matters

by Dhafra Al-Azzawi on November 18, 2009

The Influence of Family In The Emergence Of Female Suicide Bombers In Iraq
Strategic Social would like to offer a point of clarification for our readers before we present the body of this analysis. This post refers to the practice known as “honor killing,” where members of a family, usually male, will kill a female family [...]

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For the Fallen

by admin on November 11, 2009

Robert Laurence Binyon (1869 -1943) was an English poet, dramatist, and art scholar. His most famous work, “For the Fallen” is well known for being used in Veteran’s Day and Remembrance Day services. The seven-verse poem honored the World War I British war dead of that time and in particular the British Expeditionary Force, which [...]

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Analysis of AQIM Propaganda

by admin on November 10, 2009

“…we believe that the battle of the pen is no less important than the battle of the swords…”[1]
Al-Aqaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) is a Salafist-jihadist insurgent group based in North Africa that has been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department.  The group was originally known as the [...]

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S2 Takes an Anthropological Approach to Social Media

by C. E. Alexander on November 8, 2009

In the upcoming months, Strategic Social will be conducting an exciting new study on how the Web 2.0 phenomenon, particularly its social media component, is everything but “modern”.
The global popularity and proliferation of social networks found on platforms such as Tribe.net, Facebook.com and MySpace.com represents how many developing countries have bypassed the adoption of Web [...]

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Strategic Social Recognizes Claude Levi-Strauss

by admin on November 3, 2009

Influential anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss passed away today at 100 years old. Strategic Social’s analysis and programs lean heavily on anthropological principles.  For our specialized work, one important insight we rely on is Levi-Strauss’  study of mythology.
Given the fact that culture varies so greatly across the globe, it stands to reason that their myths are equally [...]

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