Gift Giving Guide 12: Finding the Best Present for Your Favorite Anthropologists

Twice a year every year I dedicate a blog post to something a little different and fun: gifts for the anthropologist.  I attempt to highlight handmade and/or fair trade items as these most closely mirror the values of anthropology in cultural understanding and preservation.  If you happen to know an anthropologist, someone with interests in anthropology, an anthropology major or graduate, or someone who shares these same values feel free to look into one of these amazing gifts, particularly as today is "Small Business Saturday":

A gift idea for the Cultural Anthropologist

As cultural anthropologists study living groups (or recently living groups, if they study ethnohistory) this mug may be the best gift for someone with such interests.  Cultural anthropologists ask deep questions about how, what, where, and why cultural traditions, values, beliefs, customs, etc. exist, and this mug exemplifies that with its caption about why jokes are funny.  There is an additional mug option that says, "It's not creeping.  It's ethnographic reasearch," which may be another viable option.  It is available through RealPeopleGoods.

A gift idea for the Archaeologist

Archaeologists of all types need to wear clothing, so this shirt by KNUXXShop is the perfect fit! This seller has a series of shirt that may be of interest to the archaeologist in your life, including "Sift happens" and "I dig archaeology".  There are several others, meaning you are bound to find something great!

A gift idea for the Linguistic Anthropologist  

esStreetSigns has a variety of signage for any and all occasions, including this sign specifically made for the linguist that you know.  You can customize this piece to meet the desires of the giftee, and the variety of selection allows you to select something else if this does not work.

A gift idea for the Biological Anthropologist

While biological anthropology is the most diverse of the four subfields this piece, a scarf depicting the Laetoli Footprints, might just do the trick.  VerdantViolet creates this piece using ecofriendly production techniques.  If this piece does not work this shop offers this same design in a dish towel, along with a series of children's books to satisfy various interests in evolutionary biology and other scientific disciplines.